For: atanih88
Title: Mirror, Mirror
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke switch bodies. Hilarity ensues.
Warnings: Language, boysex
A/N: 1)Takes place an unspecified time after Pain's attack. Consistent with canon in everything, except that Tsunade is still Hokage. Because…I like writing her better than Danzou. J 2) Thanks to Hina for an awesome prompt, and for everyone who listened to me whine about this fic for the last month. 3) Most of all, thanks to X for being such a fantastic, talented, enthusiastic beta. I seriously don't think this would have gotten finished without her encouragement.



The problem with being knocked unconscious wasn't the impact, Naruto thought. It was the aftermath. He'd taken all sorts of injuries over the years - cracked ribs, broken limbs, burnt skin - but nothing quite matched up to the disorientation of a head injury. Even a minor concussion could set him back for days, movements sluggish and head scrambled.

Of course, last time he'd complained, Tsunade had remarked that his head couldn't get much more scrambled than it already was, for which Naruto had had no comeback but righteous indignation.

Really, though. Waking up sucked.

“Sasuke-kun. Sasuke-kun.” Sakura's voice cut into Naruto's consciousness. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, shaking him.

He felt…weird. Nothing hurt, but his skin felt oddly stiff, stretched tightly over the planes of his face. He tried to speak, but his mouth was bone dry.

“Sasuke-kun, wake up.” The gentle voice came again, and Naruto jerked upright, ignoring the pain shooting through his temples.

“Where?” he said sharply. “Did I get him?” His voice sounded…off. Too deep and not nearly frantic enough for the turmoil spinning through him at the moment.

Sakura blinked at him. “Get who?”

“Sasuke,” he bit out. “Did he get away again?”

Sakura's face was growing more and more concerned. “I think you might have hit your head. Let me,” she leaned forward, and Naruto caught her wrist.

“I'm fine,” he said impatiently. “What happened to - ” He froze when the side of a kunai pressed into his neck.

“It might be best if you kept your hands to yourself, for now,” Kakashi said mildly.

Naruto stared. “What the hell?” he breathed.

Sakura reacted first. “It's okay,” she said, but she sounded shaken.

“Sakura-chan,” he said, and her eyes went wide.

“What did you just call me?” she whispered.

Beyond the bright globe of her hair, he could see Shizune helping someone else into a sitting position. Naruto watched as a blonde head came into view, Konoha hitai-ate askew. The face turned slightly, and he saw tanned skin, light eyes and…whisker marks.

The other ninja turned to look fully at him, and Naruto's world lurched. He was looking at a mirror image of himself.

He tried a release technique, but the illusion didn't dissipate. He pinched himself, hard. Nothing. Then he looked down at himself. His arms were not his arms. They were long and bare, pale and exposed in the midday sunshine. He could feel hair against his cheek, dark and fine in the corner of his eye.

He was wearing purple pants.

He looked up again. His duplicate was still looking back, rage gathering slowly in the blue eyes.

Sakura was staring at him expectantly.

“Oh fuck,” he blurted.

*

“Let me get this straight,” Tsunade said. “You - ” Then she had to stop to snicker. Naruto supposed it was better than when Kakashi had tried to explain it the first time. They'd all had to wait in respectful silence for five minutes while the Hokage laughed herself silly.

“You attempted to use the Yamanaka family jutsu - ”

“With permission,” Naruto piped up, and Ino brought a heavy fist down on his head.

“Stupid,” she hissed from behind his chair. “I didn't give you permission to screw it up.”

Tsunade was laughing again. Kakashi was pretending to read, but he was doing a terrible job of hiding his smile. Or maybe he just wasn't trying.

“Come on, granny,” Naruto whined. “I didn't do it on purpose. Can you unchain me now?”

His wrists-that-were-not-his were chained behind his back, and there were seals binding his ankles to the chair. He would be resentful, except that Sasuke-who-was-not-Sasuke had received the same treatment. It was a little unsettling to see himself restrained so thoroughly in the middle of all his friends. It was even more unsettling to see his own face wiped of expression like that. Sasuke sat perfectly still, and hadn't uttered a word since they'd taken him in.

Tsunade was still laughing. “Tsunade-sama,” Shizune reprimanded, low and disapproving.

She wiped tears from her eyes. “If Jiraiya were here,” she said fondly.

As much as he had mourned his master, Naruto was undeniably grateful that Jiraiya was not witness to this particular screw-up. He wasn't quite sure how he would have been punished, but he was fairly certain it would have involved unpleasant training and a good deal of mocking.

Not that he'd been spared the mocking.

“I can't believe this,” Ino was ranting. “I teach you my best jutsu - my family's prize jutsu - so you can capture Sasuke, and you still screw it up. Idiot! Do you know how much time I wasted shoving that into your thick head?”

“I'm sorry!” Naruto cried, harassed. He couldn't get used to the sound of his own voice. Sasuke's voice was lower and felt heavy, somehow. It took effort to inject inflection into the tone. Lack of practice, he assumed. “I don't know what happened. I guess I just…concentrated too hard.”

“Overthinking,” Ino said scornfully. “Yeah. Because that's your problem.”

Sasuke sighed and looked bored, like he got his body stolen every day. Maybe he had, at Orochimaru's camp. Naruto shuddered.

“Are we sure?” Sakura asked, white-faced against the wall. “Are we sure that's what happened? I mean, what if they're both Akatsuki and they're just impersonating Naruto and Sasuke, and both of them are really gone. I mean, it's possible, isn't it? What if…” Her voice was picking up hysteria as it rolled along.

Naruto gaped at her. If they thought it was a trick, they might lock him up, or torture him. Worse, they might torture Sasuke, and it was Naruto's body that would take the brunt of the damage.

The room had gone silent.

“I'm me,” he insisted. Tsunade tilted her head in consideration.

“I am. Come on. Can't you tell? Sakura-chan,” he implored. She was having trouble looking both him and Sasuke in the face.

“I'm…” He thought hard. “Remember that time I found you and Ino here doing research after hours, and you were drinking Tsunade's sake? How could I know that if I weren't me?”

Tsunade's eyebrows snapped together.

“I-I don't know what you're talking about,” Sakura stammered.

“Not a clue,” Ino agreed, strangely high-pitched.

“Yes you do,” Naruto said impatiently. “And you were both tipsy, and Ino spilled wine all over Shizune's paperwork, and then Sakura-chan said Kakashi-sensei had a really nice a- ”

He found himself being unceremoniously muffled by Sakura's gloved hands. He'd never seen Sakura move quite that fast. “Okay I believe you,” she said in a choked voice.

“See?” he said, mushed through the cloth.

Kakashi's face buried itself even further in his book.

Tsunade looked less amused now. She folded her hands on her desk and lowered her head. Naruto snuck a peak at Sasuke. He took in his own features, still set in flat boredom. If he'd had a hand free, he would have pinched Sasuke, just to make sure he was still alive.

Sakura's hands had fallen from his mouth, but there was still a little furrow between her eyebrows. “It's okay,” he said. “Sasuke's home, so it will be fine now.” He tried to make his voice encouraging, but it was difficult. He wondered if there was something biologically wrong with the Uchiha vocal cords.

She bit her lip, and he gave her what he assumed was a reassuring smile. The whole room turned to look when she shrieked and jumped backward.

Naruto blinked. She had a hand pressed to her mouth. “I'm sorry,” she squeaked. “Sasuke-kun making that expression…It's just…too weird…I can't…”

Naruto tipped his head back to look at Ino, but Ino looked shaken as well. “Yeah,” she breathed. “It's weird.”

Sakura was inching backward. “Naruto…Tsunade-sama…I'm sorry…it's just. I can't. I have to…” She backed out the door and was gone.

Naruto looked at Sasuke. “Nice going,” he said. “Your face scared her away.”

Tsunade kept her head lowered for a long time. When she finally looked up again, her lips were curved in a way that made Naruto shiver.

“Congratulations,” she said evenly. Naruto looked back at her warily. “You've brought home the missing-nin Sasuke Uchiha. You've done a service to your village.”

She looked at Sasuke. Sasuke's expression didn't change. If his face froze like that, Naruto was going to be pissed.

“Sasuke Uchiha,” she said. “As a deserter of the Leaf Village, you'll be given a trial and sentenced based on the outcome. By law, you're to be held under supervision until the process has been completed.”

Naruto jerked. “Wait,” he said. “What? How does that work?”

Tsunade smiled thinly. “That is the problem, isn't it? I can't very well lock up Naruto Uzumaki and leave Sasuke Uchiha on the loose, now can I? There'd be mass confusion. And unless you want the entire village to know about your…new jutsu…this will have to stay relatively guarded.”

She stood up and crossed her arms. “On the other hand, Sasuke was captured in the middle of invading his home village for purposes still unknown. The remainder of his team still hasn't been apprehended. Unless he'd like to confess and repent…”

Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

“Ah,” Tsunade said gently. “I didn't think so.”

“So what does that mean?” Naruto asked, hearing the dread in his own voice.

“It means, brat, that you'll both be kept here until we figure out how you managed to do what you did.”

“And reverse it, right?” Naruto said. “You've got to reverse it.”

Tsunade didn't flinch. “And if possible, reverse it.”

*

Shizune escorted them to an upper wing of the tower that Naruto had never seen before. It was the wing where minor guests were housed - attendants of dignitaries and clan heads, and visiting ninja from other villages. The apartments were small and impersonal, as well as easily guarded. There were chakra suppressors in every wall.

It was a comfortable prison, but a prison all the same.

“What if he escapes with my body?” Naruto fretted. “I'll be stuck like this forever.”

Sasuke was silently letting the guards pat him down for weapons.

“Why would he do that?” Shizune said reasonably. “Then he'd be stuck, too.”

“Yeah, but my body is awesome.”

Sasuke's jaw ticked. Naruto pretended not to see.

“Or he might try to kidnap me,” Naruto said. “I mean, I wouldn't let him, of course, but…”

“Of course,” Shizune said absently, checking the official order that Tsunade had handed her.

“God, this sucks,” Naruto muttered. “I finally get him back here, and it's like this. I can't even kick his ass, because I'd be kicking my ass.”

Shizune made a sympathetic clucking noise.

“He makes everything difficult, you know?” Naruto said moodily.

“Dead last,” Sasuke said, and Naruto jumped. It was the first time Sasuke had addressed him directly, and it was accompanied by an icy blue stare. “This is your fault. The least you could do is shut up.”

It was his own voice, coming from his own mouth, but the scorn was all Sasuke's.

He should have been angry; he should have wanted to punch that arrogant scowl inside out. Instead, his heart gave a little skip. Home, home, home, it beat. Sasuke was home.

“All right,” Shizune said. “Weapons.”

“What?” Naruto said, instantly dismayed. “I can't sleep unarmed. Ninjas don't sleep unarmed.”

“That's what the ANBU are for,” Shizune said impatiently. “Weapons.”

“Yeah but,” Naruto cast around for another reason. “What if one of the ANBU guards with a grudge against him tries to assassinate me by mistake?”

“They've all been briefed. Stop stalling.”

“I don't get it,” Naruto complained, emptying the prissy weapons pouch Sasuke carried. “He's the deserter here. Why am I being treated like a prisoner?”

There was a hint of sympathy in Shizune's eyes. “Naruto-kun,” she said gently. “It's just temporary. Now give me that kunai you just hid in your sleeve.”

“Ahg,” Naruto said, and handed it over. He watched Sasuke's - his - back disappearing into one of the unmarked rooms. Clothes, height, hair color - all his. Arrogant stance - Sasuke's for sure.

“Hey,” he yelled down the hall. Sasuke stopped between his two guards.

“You better not do anything weird with my body,” he said sourly. “I'll know.”

Sasuke made a faintly choked noise and then kept walking.

*

The first thing Naruto did was make a beeline for the mirror.

He stared at himself, Sasuke's dark eyes looking back. The curse seal was gone - that was the first thing he noticed. Sasuke was so damn pale. It was like he'd never seen the sun, even though Naruto could attest to the contrary. He felt his jaw. He wondered if he'd even have to shave in the morning. Sasuke's skin didn't feel like a razor had ever touched it.

He pulled down one shoulder of his nightshirt, then the other. He turned around, craning his neck to see his own back. Sasuke had faint scars all over, crossing pale and silvery around his back and shoulders. Naruto had no idea what Sasuke had been doing for the last four years, but he clearly hadn't been sitting around wasting time. He wondered how many of the scars were from before he left, and how many were from after. How many from Orochimaru. How many from Itachi. Naruto liked to think he'd put a few there himself, although his one clear memory of fighting Sasuke involved Sasuke's hand through his chest, not the other way around.

Naruto shook away those memories.

He rolled up the pant cuffs, looking for more scars. Sasuke's legs were equally marked. Naruto wished he knew what kind of monstrous training the snake Sannin had put Sasuke through to leave him so scarred. He felt his fist clenching, and he forced it to relax. Sasuke's choice, he reminded himself.

He straightened up, looking again. He grinned at himself, then dropped the expression in horror. He could see why Sakura had fled. Sasuke grinning was…terrifying.

He stretched, testing out his flexibility, getting used to the longer limbs. He felt less sturdy in this body, weaker. He felt like his bones might snap more easily. Maybe it was just the lack of the Kyuubi's healing power, making him nervous. Because despite the numerous insults he'd hurled as a boy, Sasuke had certainly never seemed weak.

His head was pounding by the time he crawled into bed. He may not have hit it when he fell, but he figured switching brains with someone else had to have side effects. He'd been feeling Sasuke's chakra slowly replenishing itself as the evening wore on. It was fairly crackling now, unsettling and foreign, but every bit as strong as his own. He'd have trouble controlling it.

He drifted into an uneasy sleep, trying to forget the eerie sensation of his own blue eyes staring back at him.

*

“Sasuke. Hey.”

“Shh. You know he's cranky when he wakes up.”

“And I don't care. He's just being lazy now.”

“Like you're one to talk.”

“Do you have to be such a bitch all the time?”

Naruto tried to block out the voices. Whoever they were, they didn't seem to be going away.

A hand shook his shoulder roughly. “Hey, did they drug you or something? Wake up.”

“Are you suicidal?” the second voice hissed. The sounds of a minor scuffle ensued.

A third, deeper voice loomed closer. “Sasuke-kun, please wake up. We don't have much time.”

Naruto's eyes finally flew open. “For the last time, I'm not - Oh.”

Three strangers were looking back at him. A redheaded girl had a skinny, pale boy by a fistful of hair, and one of his feet was buried in her stomach. Their gigantic companion was staring down at Naruto, his mask of respect not entirely hiding his annoyance.

“Sasuke-kun!” the girl said in relief. “You're okay.”

“Who the hell are you?” Naruto asked.

The boy next to her started to laugh, and she punched him. He was still laughing when he hit the floor.

“He doesn't remember you,” he gasped. “Priceless.”

Naruto's hand crept under his pillow toward the lone kunai he'd managed to smuggle past the ANBU. A hint of a memory was starting to form in his brain. These weren't strangers at all. They were the ones Sasuke had been traveling with that time. His new team.

And they thought he was Sasuke.

“No,” he said. “No, of course I remember. I was just…joking.” The three of them froze in unison.

“Joking,” the skinny one repeated flatly. “Since when do you joke?”

Crap. “Since never,” Naruto said, trying to imitate Sasuke at his coolest. “That was a test. You, uh, passed. Good job.”

The boy's eyes only narrowed. He looked to his side. “Karin, this is really him, isn't it?”

Her shoulders were tense with concentration, and her eyes were worried. “I-I think so. It's his chakra.”

“Maybe they brainwashed him.”

“Don't be stupid, Suigestsu. He probably just hit his head.” Karin approached cautiously. “Sasuke-kun, did you get knocked out when you were fighting that Konoha kid?”

“You saw that?” Naruto blurted out. “You were there and you let him fight all by himself?”

Suigetsu was looking at him like he was crazy. “Him? You told us to stay back. You said, 'I can handle the jinchuuriki myself.' So we stayed back.”

Naruto sat up, fuming. “Oh, I said that, huh? Well I was obviously wrong. Obviously the jinchuuriki was more than a match for me. In fact, I think he's the strongest opponent I've ever faced.”

“Really?” Suigetsu said doubtfully. “Because it looked like you both just sort of…passed out. It was pretty lame, actually.”

Karin was eyeing his torso like it was her next meal, and Naruto realized he was naked from the waist up. He grabbed his shirt off the bedpost and shoved it over his head.

“And I'm not going with you,” he said, struggling to find the neck hole through layers of rumpled cloth. “So you can forget it.”

“Suigetsu,” the giant said calmly. “I think you're right. They may have already brainwashed him.”

“I am not - ” he finally managed to pop his head through the right hole, “brainwashed. I just realized that I made a mistake when I ran away from Konoha all those years ago, and that I really belong here. That's all. So the three of you can just go back to where you came from.”

“Juugo,” Suigetsu said. “Help me hold him while Karin gets the tranquilizer.”

Naruto kicked off the covers and stood up. “I'm not brainwashed, I'm not drugged, and I'm not going with you. You just have to accept that Sasuke is back where he belongs. And that's here. Not with you.”

“Why do you keep talking about yourself in the third person?” Suigestsu asked, exasperated.

“Like you know anything about grammar,” Karin sniffed quietly.

Juugo was inching closer on his left side.

Naruto drew his kunai. “One more step,” he said coolly, “and I'll alert the guards. If you don't want to be arrested, then you should leave.”

Juugo stopped moving. “We disabled the guards,” he said, unalarmed.

“You disabled some of the guards,” Naruto said scornfully. “He's - I've been a missing-nin for years. You think there's only one set of guards? Of course there are more guards. What are you, stupid?”

Naruto prayed that there were actually more than one set of guards.

Suigetsu scratched his head and looked at Karin. “I don't know,” he said. “That sounded an awful lot like him.”

Karin was biting her lip. “You really want us to go?” she asked in Naruto's direction.

Naruto almost told them then. Something in her face reminded him of the lost expression Sakura had worn for weeks after Sasuke's departure from Konoha. But then he remembered that these were Orochimaru's toys, that they'd worn Akatsuki cloaks and attacked Konoha citizens and killed god-knew-how-many people.

“Yes,” he said.

“But - ”

“Just leave,” he said. “I don't want to have to turn you in.”

They wouldn't stop looking at him as they slipped out of the room, as quietly as they had come. In the end, he couldn't help himself.

“Hey guys,” he said. “Er…team. Ex-team.”

Karin stopped, turning hopefully.

“Go back and tell your leader that Uzumaki Naruto is going to be the greatest Hokage the ninja world has ever seen.”

“Brainwashed,” he heard Suigestu say fervently. “Got to be brainwashed.”

*

Sasuke was already seated in front of Tsunade's desk when Naruto was escorted through the door the next morning.

He tried to keep his face turned away as he seated himself in the second chair, but his eyes had a will of their own. It was too strange, to see his own features on someone else, to look at himself and know that it wasn't him.

The door creaked open, and then Sakura stepped inside, smoothing her hair. “I'm sorry I'm late,” she said.

Without thinking, Naruto smiled and waved. “Sakura-chan!”

She froze for a full five seconds. Then she backed out of the room. “Too soon,” he heard her mutter, before the door slammed shut.

Tsunade was fighting a losing battle with a smirk. “Yamanaka-san believes he's figured out what went wrong,” she said.

Ino's father - a man Naruto had only seen once or twice before - stepped away from his position at the wall. He cleared his throat. Some humor in his face reminded Naruto of Ino. There was mischief there, but kindness too.

His voice, however, was all business.

“Naruto-kun may have…overdone it,” he said. “The jutsu is designed to temporarily take control of an opponent's body, so that his or her teammates can gain the advantage. When Naruto attempted to use the jutsu on Sasuke, he somehow managed to take control of both consciousnesses. Due to lack of precision and an excess of chakra, I'm guessing, the boys ended up switched.”

Tsunade's eyes were glazed. Shizune was blinking rapidly.

“Think of two soccer balls,” he tried. “If you kick one into the other, very gently, they can exist side by side. If, however, you use any amount of force, the first will displace the second into the nearest open space. Naruto-kun, in his inexperience, may have used too much force. And in this case the open space was, well, Naruto-kun's body.”

“Did you hear that?” Naruto nudged Sasuke. “I was too forceful for you.”

Sasuke looked at him. “If you're bragging about this, I'm going to kill you.”

“Yamanaka-san,” Shizune said anxiously. “Is there a way to reverse it?”

Ino's father sighed. “Maybe?” he said helplessly. “I hope? This is unprecedented.”

“We'll work on it,” Tsunade said. “Until then…” She beckoned to a strangely familiar ANBU member standing against the back wall. Sai pushed his mask up and knelt respectfully.

Sasuke stiffened perceptibly.

“I'd like to let you have free reign, but it's not possible,” she said. “I don't have time to babysit you myself, so I've assigned you guards.”

“Sai?” Naruto said in disbelief.

“In addition to your evening watch, there will be face-to-face supervision by a Konoha shinobi that's familiar to you.”

Sai smiled. “Hello.”

Sasuke's jaw was working again. “Don't you think,” he said, very controlled, “that it would be wiser to put me with a guard I haven't already defeated once?”

Sai's smile tightened the slightest bit. Naruto rolled his eyes, and he saw Tsunade's mouth quirk.

“Excellent point,” she said. “That's why Sai will be accompanied by another teammate. One who is, as usual, running late.”

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. His shoulders didn't relax.

Just like old times, Naruto thought, as Kakashi blew in the door.

*

“So,” Kakashi said. “You've switched places. Not exactly a fate worse than death, but I can see how it might be inconvenient.”

“Thanks,” Naruto said.

“Still. That's no reason to let your training go. You never know when you may have to fight, no matter whose skin you're wearing.”

Naruto brightened. “Really? I still get to train?”

Kakashi shrugged. “I don't see why not.”

“And I suppose someone will be observing and taking notes,” Sasuke said coolly.

Kakashi's face was unreadable. “And there's that, of course.”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “I didn't expect to be treated like an academy student when I arrived back in Konoha.” His voice was mocking.

Kakashi smiled. “Well, I'd hate to be too predictable, Sasuke-kun.” Naruto wondered if he was the only one who noticed Sasuke's flinch.

“So what?” Naruto said eagerly, dogging Kakashi's heels as they walked. “Are we learning jutsu? Completing a mission? Is Sakura-chan coming?”

Kakashi halted in front of one of the indoor training rooms, and Naruto smacked into him.

“It's been three years,” Kakashi remarked, pushing the door open. “I think a spar is in order first to work off some…tension. Friendly, of course.”

Naruto's heart soared.

“I assume we'll be stopped before we kill each other,” Sasuke's said dryly.

“Well,” Kakashi scratched his head. “You both want to get back into your own bodies I presume.”

They nodded.

“And you'd each like your body back unharmed, correct?”

Naruto's heart tripped over itself and took a faceplant.

“Then,” Kakashi said, visible eye gleaming, “I'd keep that in mind if I were you.”

The room Kakashi chose for them was a padded white space with unmarked walls and no obstacles. It was a room clearly intended for taijutsu, although there were no chakra suppressors that Naruto could detect.

Sasuke's chakra was like an itch, simmering under his skin. It felt sharper than his own, and wilder too. It felt the way Sasuke had looked at the Valley of the End, desperate and ragged and very dark. Naruto wasn't sure he wanted to access it, but he supposed he had no choice if he wanted to keep up with Sasuke.

Kakashi passed by Naruto's side on his way out of the room. His posture was relaxed, but his face was devoid of its previous levity.

“Be careful,” he said quietly, and kept going.

Careful. He could do careful. What was so hard about careful?

Of course, this was Sasuke he was fighting, no matter how he looked. Sasuke had almost killed him on numerous occasions, even though Naruto was pretty sure he'd never really meant it.

But Sasuke was Sasuke, and Naruto had seldom respected someone more, irritating as it was to admit. Sasuke was strong. Sasuke was smart. If he didn't pay attention, Sasuke might win.

Focus, Naruto told himself. You can do this. You're fighting your own body, for god's sake.

Except it was pretty disconcerting trying to watch his own face for signs of attack. He wondered if he was always that deadpan in battle, or if that was a Sasuke specialty. That wouldn't do.

“So I had some visitors last night,” Naruto said. He congratulated himself; it came out nice and Sasuke-like. Offhand and barely interested.

“Like I give a shit.”

Okay, maybe not as disinterested as Sasuke.

“You should,” Naruto said. “They were looking for you.”

Sasuke didn't move. Nothing changed in his face, or his posture, but Naruto's pulse kicked up a notch anyway.

“Is that right?” Sasuke said. “And what did you tell them?”

“I told them to take a hike. I might have forgotten to tell them I wasn't you.”

Sasuke's eyes - Naruto's eyes - were icy. Naruto was pretty sure he'd never managed to look that menacing.

“That was a mistake,” Sasuke said.

“They seemed to take it just fine,” Naruto lied.

“You know what?” Sasuke said. “You're even more annoying than I remember.” And then he attacked.

At least he was fast, Naruto thought. An Uchiha body really was different. It was like gravity didn't fight him. He lunged away and realized his feet had traveled three times as far as he thought he'd go. He was across the room in an instant, and he even managed to draw blood.

“Nice,” Naruto said, backing off. “This actually isn't bad.”

Sasuke touched the cut on his arm, scowling. “Easy for you to say,” he muttered. “You traded up.”

“Hey,” Naruto said indignantly. “My body is awesome. My body beats yours any day. Most people only dream of getting to try out my body.”

Sasuke looked at him like he was crazy, and Naruto realized what had just come out of his mouth. “Shut up,” he said, flushing.

“You're an idiot,” Sasuke said, raising his hands in the beginning of a seal. Naruto tensed, waiting, but all Sasuke did was form five clones, facing him down.

Wow, Naruto thought. He could see what Kakashi had meant that one time about his clothes. There was orange everywhere.

All five clones attacked at once, and then Naruto had his hands full. It wasn't too bad, though. His body - Sasuke's body - seemed to move on its own, so fluid and well trained that he'd barely broken a sweat when the last clone disappeared.

The brief puff of smoke cleared, and Naruto raised his head to see…an empty room. Sasuke had disappeared.

“What the - ” He took a step, then froze as he felt a kunai slip around his throat.

“You see,” Sasuke said in his ear. “If you were actually me, that trick would never have worked. Any Uchiha would have been able to easily separate the real body from the clones. Just because you look like me, doesn't mean you're any match.”

He gave a hard shove, and Naruto stumbled forward a few steps. He managed to save himself the further humiliation of falling. He touched his neck, and his fingers came away shiny with blood.

He turned around to see Sasuke watching him, eyes mocking.

“The truth is,” Sasuke said, raising his hands again, “Your body has enough chakra to do this for hours. You'll get exhausted long before I do. Without the Sharingan, you might as well give up now.”

Five more clones appeared. Naruto did his best to keep expression level, but he was pretty sure Sasuke could see the anger simmering under the surface. Naruto had almost forgotten why'd wanted to beat Sasuke so badly when they were younger. After Sasuke had defected, their rivalry had run a distant, petty second to getting the asshole back where he belonged.

But now. Now Naruto could remember. There was nothing distant about this fury, about this choking frustration. He was done being humiliated. He was not inferior to Sasuke; he would not be beaten again.

He breathed. He forced his shoulders to relax. The shadow clones were coming again, but Naruto smoothly avoided them, looking instead for the real body. Sasuke had already learned to use Naruto's chakra. Naruto would just have to learn to properly use Sasuke's chakra, Sharingan and all.

He defeated the last shadow clone, then swiftly leapt out of the way just in time to avoid the slice of Sasuke's kunai.

He lunged for the real body, then froze when that disappeared as well. He spun to see that Sasuke was all the way across the room, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

“I guess you were too busy babbling about being Hokage to learn how to defend against your own technique,” Sasuke said, hands flowing through the familiar seals. “I wonder what you've been doing all these years.”

Naruto was having trouble catching his breath. He wished he had the chakra control to make his own shadow clones to counter Sasuke's. At least then he could catch a break. But the Naruto-clones were rushing at him again, and he had no time to prepare.

The clones came at him again and again, Sasuke himself always staying just out of reach. They attacked until Naruto was sweating, his vision going blurry, his knees shaking. He thought he could see something - something fuzzy and insubstantial surrounding Sasuke, but it could be his own exhaustion. Now, he thought, when the tip of Sasuke's kunai burned across his shoulder. Now was when the Kyuubi should kick in, lending him power, energy, chakra. But he didn't have the Kyuubi anymore. He didn't have his own endless energy.

He stared at Sasuke across the room. Sasuke had the barest smile on his face, and he was starting to go through the seals again.

“Damnit,” Naruto said under his breath. “Come on, you stupid Sharingan. Do something.”

“Same old Naruto,” Sasuke said. “All talk.”

Naruto's head snapped up. “I'll make you take that back,” he promised, knocking a clone out of the way.

“Well, come on, then,” Sasuke said. “I'm getting bored.” He attacked again.

The blurs around Sasuke and his clones were taking on more substance. There were distinct colors, different patterns, different levels of clarity. He was doing it, he realized. He could see.

But not enough.

“Are you trying to use the Sharingan?” Sasuke said, suddenly very close to him. Naruto flipped back and away.

Sasuke's voice was amused, and his face matched. “Even if you do manage to activate it, you won't be able to control it.”

Naruto grit his teeth.

“It takes someone with real power,” Sasuke said. “More than you have.”

“Quit saying stuff like that,” Naruto said in warning.

“Or what?” Sasuke taunted. Naruto's hand tightened on his kunai.

“Face it,” Sasuke said. “Without the fox inside of you, you're nothing.”

Something snapped in Naruto as instinct took over. “Sharingan,” he roared, and his world turned red. He could see everything. For a split second, he could see his own monstrous chakra signature, and the weak imitations of the clones Sasuke had created. He was dizzy with power and possibilities. He could control time and space, he could destroy his opponent with a snap of his fingers, he could light the world on fire if he chose.

He could make Kyuubi dance for him, snuff him out so very easily.

He managed to take one step toward Sasuke before the pain brought him to his knees.

Naruto thought he heard himself screaming, but all his senses dimmed before the pulsing agony in his eyes. He felt himself hit the ground, felt his fingers clawing at his face. He curled in on himself, holding his head.

If his demon were trying to crawl its way out through his eyes, he thought dully, it would feel like this. His eyes were jammed shut, but everything was still bloody and red, the color of fire to match the feeling. The pain spiked over and over again, temple to temple, all around his skull. He gagged, trying not to vomit.

“Breathe,” he heard a low voice say. A hand landed on the back of his neck, one cool point amid all the agony. “Naruto, you have to keep breathing.”

Naruto wasn't sure he could have properly given his name at that moment, but he tried to do what the voice said, sucking in oxygen through his clenched throat. There was a hand on his cheek now, holding his face.

“Keep breathing.” The voice was remote and not in the least sympathetic, but Naruto clung to it. He could hear other people around him now, speaking in words he didn't understand, clinical and concerned. The hand supporting the back of his neck curled into his hair. He thought the pain might be receding a little, or maybe he was losing consciousness.

“Idiot,” the voice muttered. “How could you fall for something like that?”

It was Sasuke, Naruto realized. Sasuke was still there.

“If you throw up on me, I'll kill you,” Sasuke said. His voice sounded very far away, and strangely soothing.

Naruto opened his mouth to tell him to fuck off, but everything was fading underneath the ringing in his ears and the throbbing mask of his eyes and temples.

Naruto drifted into unconsciousness with comforting visions of puking all over the front of Sasuke's shirt.

______________________________________________________________________

It was too quiet when Naruto came back to himself. He couldn't sense birds or voices or chakra, which meant he had to be in the middle of the only building in Konoha large enough to block out the outside world.

Sure enough, he opened his eyes to the white walls of the infirmary.

Kakashi sat in the corner, exposed eye trailing back and forth across the page of his book. “Welcome back,” he said without looking up.

“Why do you have to be the first one I see?” Naruto asked sourly. His voice sounded raspy to his own ears, and the inside of his mouth tasted like bile. His head was still pounding, but it was a mild ache this time around - uncomfortable, but not unbearable.

“Sakura sends her regrets, but says she's still too weirded out to look at your face.”

Kakashi's eye crinkled cheerfully. “I can feed you instead if you want.”

Naruto grunted. He pulled himself into a sitting position, wincing. The rest of his body felt intact, although his left hand was covered in bandages. He vaguely remembered hearing one of his knuckles crack during the fight. He didn't have the Kyuubi's power anymore; it would take longer to heal.

“He planned that,” Naruto said, staring down at the blanket.

“Yes.”

“He knew what would happen?”

Kakashi hesitated. “Yes.”

“Shit.” Naruto laid a hand over his eyes. They were throbbing faintly. Then he chuckled. “Bastard,” he said. “I should have figured that out. He beat me without doing a single bit of damage to his own body.”

“He was called a prodigy for a reason,” Kakashi said gently.

“Right,” Naruto said, managing to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Mostly. “I remember.”

“The Sharingan takes proper training,” Kakashi said. “Even Sasuke would have needed to readjust each time his eyes developed further. You invoked a fully-formed Sharingan on your first try. I would have been shocked if you hadn't passed out.”

“Great,” Naruto muttered. “So I have a weapon I can't use.” His first spar with Sasuke in four years and he'd basically defeated himself.

“Yet,” Kakashi said, and Naruto looked up. “You can't use it yet.”

*

“I think we've already proved that this is pointless,” Sasuke said. He stood across from Naruto, twirling a kunai.

Naruto was slowly remembering what it felt like to be around Sasuke on a daily basis: one part admiration, one part competitiveness, and a whole lot of wanting to punch him in the face.

“Hokage-sama would like to study the Sharingan and how it operates,” Kakashi said. “Mine is transplanted, so it doesn't count. Observing its development in a native user would prove invaluable.”

“I have no desire to contribute to Konoha's records,” Sasuke said. “I decline.”

“What?” Naruto said. “You think I can't do it? I can definitely do it.”

The look Sasuke shot him was so rife with scorn that Kakashi had to grab his arm to keep him from marching forward.

“It will be a trade, of course. Jutsu for jutsu. You'd like to take some of Konoha's signature jutsu away from this, wouldn't you Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke glowered at them. “It will never work.”

“If it does, then the next time you attack Konoha, you'll be even stronger,” Kakashi said pleasantly. “Isn't that what you want?”

And that was how Sasuke ended up giving him Sharingan lessons.

*

“If you want to learn how to use the Sharingan, the first thing you need to do is stop being stupid.”

Naruto lunged for him, and Sasuke knocked him down easily. “You're better than you used to be, but you're still reckless,” he said. “The Sharingan has to be used judiciously, in specific situations, and it takes strategy.”

“Someone likes to hear himself talk,” Naruto muttered.

Sasuke drove a sword straight through his belly.

Naruto inhaled sharply as the metal slid through him, icy cold against his organs. He gripped at the blade, but his hands came away useless and bloody. Sasuke loomed above him, hand firm on the hilt, staring down coldly.

Idiot, he thought faintly. This would take weeks to heal even without the Kyuubi, and that was assuming he didn't die, and why would that asshole want to do that to his own body?

Sasuke gave the sword a twist, and Naruto sat up, gasping.

He clutched at his stomach. There was no sword, and no blood, and only the memory of pain lingered, fading with every second. He gaped up.

“That was genjutsu,” Sasuke said. “If you learn to use the Sharingan you'll never be fooled by anything like that again.”

By the end of the first day, Naruto could ward off most of Sasuke's sensory genjutsu without breaking a sweat. By the end of the third day, he felt like someone had taken a hot poker to his eyes. By the end of the week, however, he managed to trap Sasuke in a paralysis genjutsu for a full fifteen seconds.

He didn't think Sasuke appreciated his victory dance.

In return, he got to observe Sasuke struggling through basic wind training. It was sort of amusing to realize Sasuke couldn't even slice the leaf in half. It was also really, really boring to watch him try.

“I'm taking a nap,” Naruto yawned. “Wake me up when you get it.”

Sasuke woke him up half an hour later by slicing his shirt to shreds.

“Showoff,” he grumbled.

He liked having Sasuke home. Really. It felt almost comfortable, except that he was wearing Sasuke's face, and Sasuke was wearing his, and they were both, at the moment, technically prisoners. Sakura had even settled down enough to eat lunch with them occasionally. A few sessions, and she'd resumed insulting Naruto and being scrupulously polite to Sasuke, and sometimes Sasuke even sat still for her to heal the minor injuries from their sparring sessions.

It was so comfortable, in fact, that Naruto couldn't really be blamed for what happened.

He'd been careful about catching his own reflection in random surfaces. Really. It would never not be disconcerting to look at himself and see someone else looking back. After he shattered the third window in Tsunade's office in panicked reaction, he figured he'd better come up with a method if he wanted to live long enough to get back in his own body.

So it was a shock when he turned around in the bathroom, toweling himself off after a shower, and caught his reflection.

His full reflection.

Naruto swallowed. Sasuke had been home for weeks, but he hadn't really seen Sasuke. He'd seen himself, and known it was Sasuke on the inside. But this, in front of him, was Sasuke.

He hadn't examined himself since the first night, and he hadn't been naked at the time. He couldn't help it; he looked.

Sasuke looked…normal. Bit of a disappointment, really.

He touched himself curiously. He'd never really looked at someone else's…thing before. Sasuke's was as pale as the rest of him, perfectly harmless looking. Naruto wished he'd taken the time to measure his own, now that he had a chance to compare.

He ran his finger over the tip, surprised at the way sensation skittered through him.

Stupid, he told himself. Of course his works the same as yours.

Naruto had never had a particularly good instinct for personal boundaries, but he was pretty sure this was crossing a massive one. You didn't jerk off in someone else's body. You especially didn't jerk off in your best rival's body, even if your best rival was exceptionally pretty.

And he was, too. He watched himself in the mirror - watched Sasuke touching himself, cheeks flushed and eyes half-closed. Everything felt extra-sensitive, and he wondered if Sasuke was always that way, or if he was too uptight to even allow himself to jerk off at night.

Or maybe it was the fact that he was Naruto, not Sasuke at all. If he stared straight ahead, it was almost like Sasuke was touching him instead of him touching himself, running sure fingers over his erection, teasing the skin….

He leaned against the mirror, fogging it with his breath as he stroked. His hips were moving now, and he tried not to think of what it meant that he was imagining Sasuke doing this to him, that Sasuke's body was the one turning him on.

He could feel himself growing harder, sweat beginning to form at the back of his neck. The room was suffocating and hot, and Sasuke's dark eyes watched in the mirror, heavy with lust.

He came with a muffled cry, shuddering as semen splattered the glass.

“Shit,” he whispered. “Shit shit shit.” His knees folded.

He couldn't be blamed. Not at all. But still. He didn't think it was a good sign.

*

He had trouble looking Sasuke in the eye the next day.

“What's wrong with you?” Sasuke asked as they circled each other.

Naruto had the beginnings of Chidori crackling at his fingertips, but his eyes had long since worn themselves down. Everything was slightly blurry, and Naruto couldn't figure out how Sasuke could manage to keep the Sharingan going for hours, days.

“Nothing,” Naruto lied.

As if to prove a point, a shuriken whistled by his head inches from his ear.

Naruto stopped and dropped his arms. “Why are you doing this?” he asked. Sasuke froze.

Naruto waited as several seconds ticked by, and then Sasuke straightened and looked away. “Don't ask stupid questions,” he said.

“No,” Naruto said. “I really want to know. Are you just bored, or is this some sort of guilt thing” - Sasuke's eyes flashed at that - “or do you just really like hearing yourself talk all day?”

“I'm a prisoner,” Sasuke reminded him.

“Well, yeah, but they can't make you. I mean, you could have chosen to sit on your ass in a jail cell all day if you really wanted. The way you act, it's like you actually care whether I learn this. It's like…” Naruto felt his own eyes widen as something clicked into place.

“Oh my god,” Naruto said. “You're trying to help me.”

“What?” Sasuke said, scandalized.

“No, no, I'm totally right. You're worried that I might not be able to fight if we never get switched back, so you're teaching me to protect myself.”

“Shut up,” Sasuke hissed.

“You're worried,” Naruto crowed. “You don't want to kill me at all. You like me.”

That was the day Sasuke finally mastered the Rasengan.

*

Three weeks into their odd training regime, Naruto arrived at the regular ground to see that Sasuke wasn't alone. Hinata Hyuuga was in conversation with him, standing underneath a gathering of trees on the far side of the field.

Since she'd confessed to him - risked her life and pride to save his - he'd been avoiding her with an expertise gained only through years of cutting Iruka-sensei's transformation lessons. He had no idea what to say to her - no idea, really what he even wanted to convey. Sakura had been dropping hints continuously since the village reconstruction began - fierce scowls and head twitches in Hinata's direction so obvious that even Naruto couldn't fail to interpret them.

Still, he avoided. No one had ever said they loved him before. What did one say to that?

It looked like he'd waited too long. He'd procrastinated so thoroughly that the shyest girl in the village had apparently gotten tired of waiting and taken it upon herself to talk to him.

Only it wasn't him. It was Sasuke, whose idea of being gentle involved not running someone through with his sword. Naruto couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could see Sasuke's mouth moving, pinched and quick. Hinata's face was ashen, and Sasuke's eyes were like ice.

Before he quite realized what he was doing, he'd launched himself at Sasuke, tackling him to the dirt. He heard Hinata's gasp and Sasuke's “What the - ” He vaguely realized he'd screamed out, “Noooooooo!” like a victim in a horror movie, but that embarrassment was swallowed up by a sharp pain in his chest and his vision going blurry.

Hinata's face swam in front of his eyes, Byakugan activated, palms gracefully poised in her clan's signature fighting style. Naruto hit the dirt in a tangled mass of panic and pain, and then the world faded out.

When he came to, he was lying on his back on the ground, being treated to the bizarre sight of his own face staring down at him.

“Loser,” Sasuke said. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” he could hear Hinata saying. “I didn't know.”

“Of course you didn't,” Kakashi's voice answered soothingly. “This isn't your fault.”

“This field is usually empty,” she went on. “I come here to train by myself sometimes, but when I saw Naru - Sasuke-kun, I realized I should have reserved it, and - ”

“Hinata?” Naruto cut in muzzily. “Did you just attack me?”

“I'm sorry!” she cried. She sounded near tears. “I thought you were attacking Naruto - Sasuke - I mean, I thought you were Sasuke-kun, and I just…”

“Wow,” Naruto said, sitting up slowly. His head was still throbbing from where it hit the ground. “You're kind of scary sometimes.”

Her eyes were wide and distressed, and she had two hands pressed to burning cheeks. Kakashi was rubbing soothing circles on her back. Sasuke had taken to slouching against a nearby tree, mouth twisted into a sneer.

“Naruto still lacks judgment at times,” Kakashi said. “You'll have to forgive him, Hinata-chan.”

“Uh, yeah,” Naruto said. “Sorry.”

She swallowed and nodded. “I-I hope I didn't h-hurt you,” she stammered. She seemed to be having trouble meeting his eyes, and Naruto couldn't blame her.

“Not at all,” Naruto lied, dropping his hand from the emerging lump on his skull. He attempted a smile, but it hurt his temples. “I have a hard head.”

She nodded again.

“You're perfectly within your rights to be here,” Kakashi assured her. “But the Hokage would appreciate it if you didn't tell too many people about Naruto's and Sasuke's…situation quite yet. Is that all right?”

“O-of course,” she said.

Sasuke harrumphed.

“Really,” Naruto said, finally getting some of his equilibrium back. “Thanks anyway for trying to defend me. I mean…that was…thanks.”

Hinata started to smile; then her lips trembled and she dropped her gaze. “Of course,” she repeated, voice small. He watched her shoulders slump as she turned away.

Naruto waited until she was gone, then turned to Sasuke. “What the hell did you say to her?”

*

By the time Sakura came to bring them their lunches, Sasuke had two black eyes and a split lip, and Naruto could barely use the wrist that Sasuke had wrenched behind his back.

“I thought you were supposed to be teaching each other jutsu,” Sakura said in a perturbed tone. “Not beating the shit out of each other.”

Sasuke lifted a shoulder. Naruto stayed silent, still too angry to trust his own voice.

“Okay...” Sakura said, half-bewildered, half-irritated.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, although Naruto could see Sakura's green eyes peeking at him every once in a while.

“Are you…are you eating vegetables?” she finally asked.

Naruto looked down at his lunchbox. He was, in fact. He'd packed himself a mixture of steamed vegetables without even thinking - tomatoes, cabbage, sliced carrots, and crispy peas. It was delicious.

“What?” he said defensively. “Vegetables are good for you. You're always telling me to eat more.”

She turned to Sasuke. Sasuke had vegetables as well, but he was picking at them, moving them around his plate with a scowl on his face.

“Sasuke-kun,” she asked, in a very careful tone of voice. “Are you craving ramen?”

Sasuke lifted his head, features arrested in horror. “Oh god,” he said.

*

“And then he told her that her feelings were unwelcome and inappropriatee,” Naruto complained, “and he didn't even tell her that he wasn't me. And now Hinata probably thinks I hate her, which I don't, I don't at all. She's nice and she's pretty and she saved my life and what are you staring at?”

Sakura jumped. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I just can't get used to it. You're so hot now.”

“Hey!” he said indignantly.

“Look,” Sakura sighed. “If you had talked to Hinata right away, this never would have happened.”

“I've been busy,” he said.

“Busy learning techniques you'll never be able to use again once Tsunade figures out how to change you back,” Sakura said sternly. “Go talk to her today.”

Naruto became preoccupied with the ground by Sakura's left foot. “I'm training today.”

“Take the morning off,” Sakura said. “What are you waiting for?”

“I just - ” Naruto shook his head. “This is about that bastard, not me. I need revenge. I need…”

Sakura raised expectant eyebrows.

“Hey,” Naruto said. “Where can I get a tattoo in Konoha?”

*

A month went by, and there was no word from Tsunade or the Yamanaka clan. Sasuke learned all of Naruto's wind jutsu annoyingly fast, but Naruto took pride in the fact that he could scorch half the training ground with the katon technique he'd learned. He was growing used to his new self; he almost felt ready to fight for real, and if he spent his nights jerking off to his own reflection, then no one had to know.

“What's wrong?” Naruto asked, parrying Sasuke's attack with his own kunai.

“Nothing,” Sasuke said, winded.

“Yeah?” Naruto swiped Sasuke's feet out from under him, and Sasuke hit the ground with a wheeze.

“You're sluggish,” Naruto said. “You're never sluggish.”

Naruto found his own feet swiped for that remark. He stared up at the sky, trying to catch his breath.

“I can't sleep,” Sasuke said in a low voice, and Naruto turned his head. “Your demon won't shut up.”

“Oh.” He closed his eyes. “Is that it?”

“What do you mean, 'is that it'?” Sasuke said. “How do you live with this thing?”

“You just have to ignore it,” Naruto said encouragingly. “You know. Like you always ignore me.”

Sasuke said something under his breath. It sounded a lot like, “That never worked either.”

“I can try to Sharingan him,” Naruto offered cheerfully. “Like you did to me that one time?”

Sasuke grimaced. “Like I'd let you inside my brain, loser.” He managed to roll away before Naruto's heel came down on his stomach.

Naruto picked himself off, dusting off his clothes. “It's only for a little while longer,” he said. “When they figure out a way to change us back - ”

“They're not going to change us back,” Sasuke bit out, and Naruto looked at him.

“What?”

“You naïve little idiot,” Sasuke sneered. “This is exactly what they want. I'm back in Konoha, they've got complete power over both of us, and they can study the Sharingan like a lab experiment. Assholes.”

“Hey,” Naruto said. “Those are my friends you're talking about. And yours too! Tsunade wouldn't do that.”

“You have no idea what Konoha would do,” Sasuke said bitterly.

“What the hell?” Naruto said bewildered. “Where's this coming from?”

He took a step toward Sasuke, and Sasuke slapped his hand away. “Isn't this what you wanted, too?” Sasuke said darkly. “You've been whining about it for years.”

“Excuse me for trying to save you from becoming Orochimaru's new body,” Naruto huffed. “Not to mention a criminal. And who said I wanted this? This sucks for me, too.”

“Moron,” Sasuke said. “You don't understand anything.”

Naruto shoved him. “Shut up.”

Sasuke shoved him right back. “Loser.”

Naruto tackled him and they went rolling. He wasn't sure if he was pissed at Sasuke for being stubborn, or for not being able to admit he belonged in Konoha, or for just being a dick in general.

Sasuke slammed him up against the trunk of a nearby tree, and Naruto pushed at him, trying to ease the pressure on his ribcage.

“Stop being so fucking crazy,” Naruto shouted. “We're not your enemies.” He could hear Sai's footsteps, running toward them. Sasuke's head whipped around, and then Sai went flying backward, skidding with the force of Sasuke's Rasengan.

“You are,” Sasuke gritted, very close to his face. “You're not my friend, and you're not my brother, and you're not my teammate. Do you understand?”

Sasuke's jaw was locked, and his teeth were clenched, but he was shaking. Naruto gripped his wrist.

“Sasuke,” Naruto said. “You've been saying that for four years, and you haven't convinced me yet.”

Naruto could feel the bark digging into his back. His wrist was bent weirdly, and he thought he might have sprained it. Sasuke's chest was plastered against his, nudging him with every breath. Sasuke shifted, and Naruto felt it. Hard and obvious, Sasuke's erection pressed against his thigh.

Naruto looked up at him in shock, and then Kakashi peeled them apart.

*

“He attacked you,” Tsunade said.

“He was provoked,” Naruto answered. It was sort of true.

“No,” said Sasuke coldly from the chair next to him. “I wasn't provoked. I just don't like him.”

“He doesn't know what he's saying,” Naruto argued weakly.

“Do you want be thrown in prison?” Tsunade asked Sasuke sternly. “I've been lenient in deference to Naruto's and Sakura's connection to you, but I can arrange to have you imprisoned until the jutsu is reversed.”

“I don't care,” Sasuke said moodily. “I don't give a shit about any of this.”

Naruto was pretty sure Sasuke was mid-tantrum. He was also having trouble keeping his eyes off of Sasuke's crotch.

Tsunade sighed. “No more training. And double the ANBU guard around Sasuke's room. You're both dismissed for now.” She continued mumbling under her breath, but the only words Naruto could pick up were “brats,” “troublesome,” and “sake.”

Sasuke didn't look at him as they were being escorted back to their rooms. The dried blood from the cuts on Naruto's back was bonding to his shirt, and the feel of Sasuke's erection against his thigh was branded into his brain.

It wasn't him. It couldn't be him, right? There was no way Sasuke could have been turned on by him. Naruto. In Sasuke's body. So it had to be something else.

He took a deep breath and leaned into Sasuke. “Look, I know this is stressful. And you're the most uptight person I know anyway, so…”

Sasuke looked at him blankly.

“I know what I said before, but...if you need to…you know…tonight, then you can. I mean, you have my permission.”

Sasuke looked at him blankly.

“You know,” Naruto said. “If you need to...” he lowered his voice, “finish.”

“I have no idea what you're babbling about,” Sasuke said.

“Come on,” Naruto said, frustrated. “Even you have to…sometimes. I'm just saying, if you need to…”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Sasuke repeated tightly, “and we never had this conversation.”

“Fine, fine,” Naruto grumbled. “Prude.”

Sasuke stopped abruptly, and the guards jerked to a halt behind him. His eyes were abnormally wide. “You didn't do that in my body, did you?”

Naruto was pretty sure his face was the color of Sakura's hair. Stupid Sasuke and his stupid pale skin.

“Obviously not,” he said, opting for bravado. “Why would I do that?”

Sasuke's eyes closed briefly. “I'm really going to kill you,” he said.

*

He wasn't allowed to train with Sasuke after that. Kakashi took on the duty of helping him hone the Sharingan as much as possible, and Sasuke stayed in his room, guarded and away from Konoha citizens.

“He's not going to hurt anyone,” Naruto told Kakashi. “You don't have to lock him up.”

“It's the Hokage's decision,” Kakashi answered. “And he's a missing-nin. He's lucky that's all that's happened to him.”

Naruto looked down. “He said that…that they're keeping us like this on purpose, to control the Sharingan. Tsunade wouldn't do that, would she?”

Kakashi sighed and rubbed at his forehead. “Sasuke has yet to prove that he's not a threat to Konoha.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the current situation is awfully convenient for the council,” Kakashi answered, and he wouldn't say anything else about the topic, no matter how hard Naruto pushed.

*

The Sharingan was a handy tool; it could erase memories, immobilize enemies, or put guards gently to sleep. His ANBU guards were lax around him anyway - it only took seconds to render them unconscious. They wouldn't remember a thing when they woke up.

Sasuke didn't stir when he pushed the door to the bedroom open, and Naruto held his breath, trying not to startle the sleeping ninja into an attack.

“You know you'll be in trouble if they catch you, don't you?”

Naruto stumbled at the unexpected sound of Sasuke's voice.

“Stealthy,” Sasuke said dryly. He sat up, hair mussed and oddly, incongruently blond.

“We need to talk,” Naruto said, trying to sound imperious.

“While I'm sleeping?”

“In private,” Naruto said.

“Okay,” Sasuke said warily.

“I,” Naruto bit his lip. “I think you're right. Kakashi says the council doesn't trust you. Even if they do figure out how to reverse it, they might not tell us.”

“And?” Sasuke said coolly. Naruto wasn't fooled; he could see the snap of anger in Sasuke's eyes.

“And you have to fix it,” Naruto said desperately. “If you want us to get changed back, you have to make them trust you.”

“I don't care if they trust me.”

“Then fake it,” Naruto said in exasperation. “You want your body back, don't you?”

Sasuke looked away, but Naruto saw his jaw working.

“Apologize,” Naruto suggested. “Or - tell Tsunade what you were doing near Konoha in the first place.”

The scorn on Sasuke's face was enough of an answer.

“Fine,” Naruto said in frustration. “Then stay like that forever and hang out with Kyuubi every day and spend the rest of your life in this room.”

“Lower your voice,” Sasuke said icily.

“Make me,” Naruto said. “What are you going to do? Threaten my life? Because if this body dies, that's it. No more Sharingan. No more Uchiha. What the hell will you fixate on then?”

“Naruto,” Sasuke said warningly. “Be. Quiet.”

Naruto could feel the fury swirling up in him, pulling chakra through his system, making his heart speed up. Of all the people in the whole world to choose as a best friend, he had to choose the one who was not only stubborn, but batshit insane besides.

“You be quiet,” he almost shouted, and then Sasuke was on him, hand clamped over his mouth, body pushed face first into the mattress.

“Dumbass,” Sasuke hissed. “Are you trying to make it worse?”

They stayed there for a moment, listening. Naruto could feel Sasuke's heartbeat thundering against his back, an echo of his own anger and adrenaline. Sasuke had twisted one wrist up behind him, and Naruto grunted in pain.

After a few minutes of silence, Sasuke eased the pressure on his wrist. He didn't move the hand over Naruto's mouth though. Naruto squirmed.

“Are you going to be quiet?” Sasuke asked. His voice was perfectly controlled, but Naruto was barely paying attention. Against the small of his back, he felt it. Sasuke was hard again. He hadn't imagined it the first time.

He shoved, and Sasuke let him go. “What the fuck?” he said.

Sasuke's cheeks were stained red, and he wouldn't look Naruto in the eye. “What?” he said.

“You're hard! Again!”

“It's not my fault your body is perverted,” Sasuke snapped.

“No. Uh uh. This is not my fault. This is…what the hell did you do to me?”

“Quiet,” Sasuke said again. Then, “Nothing. Now go away.”

Naruto took a step forward instead, and Sasuke watched him warily. It was still his own face, Naruto thought. It didn't look like Sasuke, but it was. It was. And he didn't think the problem was stress.

Naruto closed his eyes, pictured the face he'd seen in the mirror every night for the last two months, and put his mouth against Sasuke's.

Sasuke went stiff as a board, and Naruto only kept him from sliding away by grabbing his shoulders. It was weird to be so close to Sasuke and realize anew that he was currently the taller one, but it wasn't bad.

Sasuke wasn't kissing him back, but Naruto could still feel him, hard against his thigh.

“It is me,” he murmured.

“What?” Sasuke sounded dazed.

Naruto opened his eyes and met…his own face. He jerked back involuntarily, and Sasuke immediately punched him in the stomach.

Naruto doubled over, gasping. “What?” he managed. “You liked it.”

“Moron,” Sasuke said. “Get out of my room.”

“Ugh, fine,” Naruto said, hobbling toward the door. “I just thought you'd want to know. You don't have to be such a prick.”

He wasn't sure, but he thought he caught a half-smile on Sasuke's face before he closed the door.

______________________________________________________________________

He was so distracted by Sasuke that he nearly forgot about Akatsuki. Pain was gone, but the organization was still there, along with the masked leader his father had talked about.

When they came, they came in the middle of the night, and they gave no warning.

Sai pulled him from his bed, sword already in hand. “They're here,” he said. “Hokage-sama needs you to fight.”

He tossed a weapons pouch at Naruto, and Naruto caught it, already wide awake.

“Sasuke?” he asked.

“Gone,” Sai said grimly. “He's suspected of letting them in.”

Naruto's whole body went cold. “No,” he said. “He's been watched the whole time. How could he possibly…”

“We have orders to kill,” Sai said. “That's all I know.”

“What?” Naruto burst out. “He's still in my body.”

Sai shrugged. “That's all they told us. We have to go.”

The fighting was concentrated below the Hokage's tower. Naruto didn't know how many there were, but it felt like a thousand. The night sky was lit with fire and blood, illuminating the debris exploding in the air. There were already bodies on the ground, and all of them had Konoha headbands.

Sasuke didn't do this, Naruto told himself. He repeated it, over and over again, like a mantra as he fought. He missed his Rasengan; he missed the easy movements of his own body. But he had the tools that Sasuke had given him.

He cut down three Akatsuki clones and a summons beast before the pulse of chakra led him to Sasuke. It wasn't Sasuke's chakra, and it wasn't his own. It was the Kyuubi's, powerful and raging. Naruto had felt it in the back of his throat too many times not to recognize it.

Sasuke was on his hands and knees when he got there, clawed hands digging into the dirt. Naruto stopped at the sight of his own face, red-eyed and twisted with the Kyuubi's rage. He'd heard of course, but he'd never looked into a mirror, never seen it himself…

The masked Akatsuki was standing over Sasuke's hunched figure, staring down at his bowed shoulders. His mouth moved, and Sasuke pressed two hands against his temples and screamed.

The man didn't even turn his head. “Sasuke-kun,” he said to Naruto. “You're late. The jinchuuriki is…”

Naruto decapitated him with Sasuke's sword.

Or at least, he tried. The sword met nothing but thin air. The figure was there one second, gone the next. Naruto whirled to see that the man had materialized behind him.

Even without a face, Naruto could sense the rage radiating from him. “I told you how I deal with betrayal,” he said softly.

“I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, and I don't care,” Naruto said. He took a step forward, and then Kakashi was in front of him, splattered in blood and crouched in combat stance.

“See to Sasuke,” he said, and then he was attacking.

Sasuke made a noise, and Naruto looked at him. He was still on all fours, and he was quivering. The Kyuubi's chakra simmered like a live thing around him, one tail curling in the air.

Naruto sank down in front of him, squinting against the heat of the chakra. His control over the Sharingan was passable at best. He doubted he'd be much use against a thousand-year-old demon, but he had to do something.

He met Sasuke's red eyes. Working on instinct alone, he fought his way into Sasuke's mind.

The Kyuubi's prison in Sasuke's brain looked nothing like Naruto's. There was no sewer, no dripping water, no dank prison. There was only a black space and the fox, enormous and glowing against the darkness.

Sasuke was paralyzed, staring up at the monster. “Sasuke,” he said. He put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, and Sasuke didn't move.

“…yours,” the Kyuubi whispered. “Konoha, the world, everything.”

Sasuke's eyes were burning.

“Hey,” Naruto said. “Look at me.”

There was no response.

“I could give you the power,” Kyuubi continued, low and mesmerizing. “All the revenge you desire in the blink of an eye.”

“Shut up,” Naruto said to the fox. He turned to Sasuke. “Don't listen to him. He lies, even more than you.”

He saw Sasuke swallow.

Outside the illusion, a second chakra tail flicked into existence.

“We could destroy the Leaf Village together,” the Kyuubi said, yellow eyes gleaming. “If you only let me out.”

“Sasuke doesn't want to destroy anything,” Naruto shouted. “So quit it. No one wants to hear you talk.”

“Brat,” the fox said. “I have no more business with you or your cursed father.”

Sasuke's hands fisted, and Naruto gritted his teeth as the Kyuubi's chakra grew even stronger. Another tail materialized. Naruto could feel his eyes starting to ache.

“I can shut him up,” Naruto said, strained, “but you have to tell me how. How did you do it, that time?”

“What will happen,” Sasuke asked the Kyuubi, “if I do?”

The fox's grin stretched his face.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shoulders, and Sasuke finally looked at him. “It won't work,” Naruto said, shaken. “He'll rip you apart. Whatever you're after, you won't get it from him.”

Sasuke closed his eyes. “Stupid Naruto. You've never understood.”

“Maybe not,” Naruto said, determined. “But I know that deals with the Kyuubi are worthless. I don't know what you want, but this isn't the way to do it.”

“This could be my chance,” Sasuke whispered.

“Idiot!” Naruto bit out. “You'll have a million chances to be psychotic later. If you don't snap out of it now, though, we'll both end up dead. Do you really like living in my body so much that you never want to see your own again?”

Sasuke shuddered. “Stupid Naruto,” he said again. “Put him to sleep. I don't want to hear him.”

The Kyuubi growled, and Sasuke turned away.

“What?”

“Sleep.” Sasuke's voice was faint, and Naruto realized he must be in pain. He wasn't used to fighting the Kyuubi's chakra; even the slightest bit would be a strain. “Like I taught you. Use the Sharingan and put him to sleep.”

“Oh.” The Kyuubi snapped his teeth when Naruto looked at him, hateful and seething.

“When I get out, you'll be the first to die,” the fox promised.

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto said. Liquid seared his cheeks, and he knew it was blood. He blinked it back.

“Do it now,” Sasuke said.

Naruto performed the genjutsu, and the Kyuubi's eyes drooped shut. The tails stilled, and Sasuke's inner space collapsed.

Outside, Sasuke fell forward, unconscious.

*

“He didn't do it,” Naruto said.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. “I haven't accused him of anything yet.”

“You gave ANBU permission to kill,” Naruto said tightly.

Tsunade's face hardened subtly, and Naruto suddenly remembered why she was Hokage. “We were under attack by an organization that he has a known connection with,” she said in a level voice. “The order has since been rescinded.”

“Still,” Naruto said sulkily.

Sakura stepped into the room and closed the door gently behind her. “I gave him a sedative and healed most of the damage from the Kyuubi's chakra,” she said. There were dark circles under her eyes, and Naruto could see blood stains where her surgical gloves had ended. In the hours since the attack, she'd barely stopped moving.

“Look,” Naruto said impatiently. “The one with the mask, he called me Sasuke. If he and Sasuke had planned this together, don't you think he would have known?”

“He's also the only one who escaped,” Tsunade said. “He somehow vanished from the perimeter under the eyes of a dozen Konoha shinobi.”

Naruto threw up his hands. “How could that be Sasuke's fault? I was with him the whole time. I had to de-Kyuubi him.”

“I'm inclined to agree with Naruto,” Kakashi said quietly. “Sasuke wouldn't have had an opportunity.”

“You're biased,” Tsunade snapped, and Kakashi's eyes dropped to the floor.

“I wish he'd just talk to us,” Sakura said, voice ragged. “If we knew why he was headed for Konoha in the first place…”

In his head, the Kyuubi's voice whispered. Yours…Konoha, the world, everything.

“He had a chance to move against Konoha,” Naruto heard himself say. “And he didn't take it.”

Tsunade went rigid. “What?”

“I saw…” Naruto said haltingly. “The Kyuubi…offered him power…and the chance to destroy Konoha. He didn't take it.”

“The fox is hardly a reliable ally.”

“Sasuke didn't know that,” Naruto protested. “Besides he…he asked for my help. He didn't take the bargain.”

Tsunade was quiet for a long moment. Then she said, “Are you sure what you heard?”

“Yes,” Naruto said hastily.

“Despite any previous connection you might have to Sasuke Uchiha, I'll remind you that as a shinobi of the Leaf Village you're bound to act in its best interest,” Tsunade said, voice like iron.

…my chance, Sasuke had said.

“I remember,” Naruto said.

“If he betrays Konoha, you'll have to bear the consequences.”

“I understand.”

“Good,” Tsunade said. “Then I don't mind telling you. The Yamanaka clan has found a solution to your problem.”

*

“They're changing us back in the morning,” Naruto said.

“I heard from Sakura,” Sasuke said. They stared at each other. Sasuke was very pale, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He didn't look like Sasuke anymore, but somehow he didn't look like Naruto either. He was some strange combination of both of them.

The guards surrounding their rooms had all been disabled, and the village was silent, still ragged from the previous night's attack. Naruto felt like he could hear everything, from the insects crawling in the grass outside to Sasuke's even pulse - his own heart beating for someone else's life.

“Is the fox talking again?” Naruto asked.

“Not yet,” Sasuke said.

“Good.” He looked Sasuke directly in the eye. “Did you let Akatsuki into the village?”

“I could have,” Sasuke said. “I wouldn't have thought twice about doing it.”

“That's not what I asked.”

The corner of Sasuke's mouth tipped up. It wasn't a nice smile. “And what if I did?”

Naruto took a deep breath. “Then I won't let Tsunade switch us back tomorrow.”

The smirk fell from Sasuke's face.

“If that's what I have to do to keep you here and Konoha safe, then I'll do it,” he continued.

Sasuke's eyes were flinty. “If that's the case, then I might as well kill you now.”

Naruto held a kunai to his own neck, and Sasuke went rigid. “Not if I do it first,” Naruto said levelly.

“What the hell are you trying to prove?” Sasuke asked through gritted teeth.

“I don't think you could kill me,” Naruto said. “And I don't think you want to hurt Konoha. Not really.”

“You're wrong.”

“You had the chance and you didn't take it,” Naruto insisted. “That says something.”

“It says I didn't want to be in debt to a gigantic fox.”

“Sasuke,” Naruto sighed, lowering the knife.

Sasuke was there in an instant. He knocked the kunai from Naruto's hand, breathing hard. “You…idiot,” he said furiously, right before he shoved his lips against Naruto's.

Naruto stumbled back a step, trying to keep his balance against the bruising kiss.

Sasuke pressed him against the wall, nipping at his lips, digging his nails into the skin of Naruto's arm. Naruto moaned when he felt Sasuke's mouth slide down to his neck.

“Why do you have to be so annoying?” Sasuke said between kisses.

“You're annoying,” Naruto said, for lack of a better comeback. It was sort of ruined by the breathy tone.

“Original,” Sasuke said.

“Bastard,” Naruto tried to say, but it was muffled by Sasuke's tongue. He made the mistake of opening his eyes for a peek, and met his own whiskered face. He jerked back so quickly his head hit the wall.

“What?” Sasuke said in an ominous voice.

“Ugh,” he said, wiping his mouth. “What the hell. You still look like me.”

“What did you think would happen?”

“Hey,” Naruto said indignantly. “We're not all conceited enough to want to make out with ourselves. Besides, you kissed me.”

“This time, you mean.”

“That's not - ”

Sasuke cut him off by shoving him onto the bed.

“Stop it,” Naruto said, pushing up on his elbows. “I'm not doing this with you if you're just going to run tomorrow.”

“I'm not interested in making bargains,” Sasuke said.

“Fine,” Naruto said. “Fine. Then we'll stay like this until you stop being such a stupid ass.”

He started to struggle up, and Sasuke pushed him back down, hands around his wrists. “Stay still,” Sasuke gritted.

“Why should I?” Naruto shot back, even though his body was screaming at him to do just that. His blood was pumping, an undeniable mixture of anger and arousal that only Sasuke managed to tease out of him.

“I'm not - ” Sasuke shut his mouth, opened it again. Naruto watched his face, flushed and annoyed.

“I'm not going anywhere, all right?” Sasuke snapped. “If I wanted to take Konoha down, I would have done it in the attack.”

Naruto blinked at him. “What?”

“I said I'm not planning to run,” Sasuke repeated stiffly. “There'd be no point, anyway. You sent my team away weeks ago, and Akatsuki is all but destroyed. Where would I go?”

“That doesn't sound like you're staying by choice,” Naruto said cautiously.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. “There's no one who forces me to do anything I don't want to do.”

Naruto sat up, and Sasuke let him, rolling to the side. “Do you mean that?” His heart was beating faster now, a dangerous elation beginning to gallop through him.

“There's no point in lying,” Sasuke said, not meeting his eyes. “Not to you.”

Naruto's heart leapt up into his throat. Without thinking, he leaned forward and kissed Sasuke. Sasuke kissed him back, one hand rising to cup Naruto's jaw. Naruto kept his eyes squeezed shut this time, not wanting to ruin it again. He didn't resist when Sasuke rolled him onto his stomach. He was pretty sure he'd let Sasuke do anything at the moment.

“Don't turn around,” Sasuke said in a shuddering voice. He put a hand against the back of Naruto's neck and held him. “And don't…don't move.” He leaned down, and then Naruto felt a tongue against the back of his neck, making gentle swirls. Then teeth, hard and sharp. His own fingers dug into the mattress.

Naruto felt two hands at the waist band of his pants, and he lifted his hips to facilitate. Sasuke slid one arm under his body and touched him. Naruto jerked, forehead pressed to the mattress. His breath was coming faster now, and he could hear the rustle of Sasuke's clothes behind him.

Then all motion stopped. Naruto tensed for the explosion.

“What. The hell. Is that.” Sasuke said flatly.

“A present?” Naruto tried.

“You got me a tattoo,” Sasuke said in disbelief. “You got me an obscene tattoo.”

“It's a good tattoo!”

“It says 'Uzumaki's Bitch' on my ass.”

“I thought you might need a reminder every once in a wh - ow! Are you trying to kill me for real?”

“I still haven't decided,” Sasuke said, but he eased up on the pressure.

In retrospect, it probably would have been better to unveil the tattoo before Sasuke was poised to take his virginity.

“I'm only letting you do this because you're in my body,” Naruto babbled, hoping it would hide his nervousness. “When we get switched back, that's the end of it. I wasn't made to be on the bottom.”

“For god's sake, stop talking,” Sasuke said in exasperation. Naruto heard him spit into his palm, and then he was sliding one finger in, tight and foreign.

It hurt. It hurt even more when Sasuke added another finger, and then another, but Naruto figured if he could survive Sasuke putting a fist through his chest then he could survive something that adults seemed to enjoy on a regular basis.

It was almost worth it, when Sasuke finally slid into him, and Naruto heard him moan.

Sasuke kept up a litany of insults at his back, from the foul to the endearing and everything in between, and Naruto closed his eyes and took it. He knew Sasuke well enough to know when Sasuke was being truly insulting and when Sasuke was throwing up defenses, and these were defenses.

Naruto could relate. He'd been chasing Sasuke for years, but the intimacy of being pressed against him, the newness of his physical presence, was almost too much to handle. He kept quiet and breathed, and tried to keep from crying out when he came.

After it was over, Naruto curled up on his side and closed his eyes, exhausted.

“What are you doing? You can't stay here.”

“Just dozing,” Naruto mumbled. “Move later.”

“I can't sleep with someone else in my bed.”

“Then don't sleep,” Naruto advised.

Sasuke fell silent, although Naruto could feel the tension radiating across the mattress.

“It's almost over,” Naruto assured him sleepily. “Tomorrow they'll switch us back, and then things will start getting back to normal.”

“Do you really think that?” Sasuke asked quietly.

“Yes,” Naruto said firmly. “Of course, some villagers might not trust you for a while, but me and Sakura-chan will take care of those people. And I'm sure they'll want to ask you questions, and maybe they'll guard you for a while, but they'll understand eventually. And you know, Sasuke? We're really strong now. We're going to do amazing things for Konoha - you, me, and Sakura-chan. And then they'll have to accept you. We'll be like the new Sannin…”

He fell asleep sometime in the middle of describing the acceptance speech he'd give when they elected him Hokage.

*

They were each marched to the Hokage's office between two guards the next morning. Naruto could feel his heart pounding. It was stupid to be nervous at the thought of getting his own body back, but he'd been living in Sasuke's for so long that he almost forgot what normal felt like. What if they switched back and Naruto had forgotten how to do everything? Or what if something went wrong and they both ended up deformed?

“Hey.” Naruto leaned over. “Do you think it will work?”

Sasuke ignored him.

Mr. Yamanaka was already there, along with Ino and Sakura. Tsunade was standing in front of her desk, arms crossed, and ANBU guards littered the room. Tsunade nodded her head, and one masked guard made a move toward Sasuke with seal-enforced restraints.

Mr. Yamanaka stayed him with a hand on his arm. “No restraints,” he said. “Not until it's complete. The jutsu has a physical impact. If the body is restrained, it could cause injury.”

Tsunade didn't look pleased, but she nodded her assent.

“Face each other,” Mr. Yamanaka said. “Try to concentrate the way you did when the switch first happened.”

Naruto faced Sasuke, watching for a flicker of expression in the blue eyes. There was nothing.

“Now,” Mr. Yamanaka said. “This may feel a bit strange.” He went through a lightning-fast series of hand seals, then placed a palm on each of their heads.

At first there was nothing. Then the pain hit, like a too-bright light at the back of his skull, and his feet went out from under him. His back struck the wall, and he slumped, trying to focus his eyes. He could hear people buzzing around him, but his ears were ringing too loudly to make anything out. Someone touched his shoulder, and he blinked up into Kakashi's face.

Kakashi was searching his expression with one gray eye, tense and uncertain.

“Did it work?” Naruto asked weakly. His voice was nothing but a rasp.

Kakashi looked across the room to where Sasuke was rolling into a sitting position, rubbing at his face. His hair fell dark against his face, and his skin was very pale. Sasuke was Sasuke, which meant….

Naruto looked down at his own hands: tanned, sturdy, familiar. Sasuke looked up at him, eyes dark and round.

They stared at each other for a moment. Then Naruto couldn't help himself; the grin just bubbled over. He stretched his arms over his head, pulled at his own unruly hair, and laughed. “Thank god,” he said. He made a move toward Sasuke's wide-eyed figure. “Sas- ”

Sasuke skittered back a step, knocking over a chair. Naruto frowned.

“Sasuke, what - ”

“Kuchiyose no jutsu,” Sasuke said in a frozen voice. He bit his thumb and slammed it to the floor. The room went instantly dark, and then Naruto heard the whistling sound of a transportation jutsu. He blinked, and Sasuke was gone.

“Whaaa…” was the most coherent thing he could force past his lips. There was a world of commotion going on behind him, but he couldn't stop staring at the spot where Sasuke had just been.

There was nothing but blackness beyond the window panes, and Naruto could hear Tsunade swearing steadily. Chairs were clattering to the ground.

“Did he block out the sun?” Ino said in awe.

Tsunade shoved the window open so hard that it shattered and reached her hand out. Her fingers landed flat against something dark and solid. “It's a snake,” she said in disbelief. “There's a motherfucking snake wrapped around my motherfucking office.”

Naruto felt the wind start to spin in his palm, almost without permission. His heart was pounding in a panicked rhythm, every thump informing him that Sasuke was gone, gone, gone.

Kakashi caught his wrist before he let the Rasengan smash through the barrier, snake and all.

“Don't,” he said quietly.

“He'll get away,” Naruto said, breathing hard. “If I don't do it now, I won't catch him. I have to - ”

“He's gone already,” Kakashi interrupted. “There's nothing you can do but stay here and help.”

*

“I'm sorry,” he told Sakura glumly. “I lost him again.”

Sakura picked her head up from the text she was studying. Her voice was very careful when she spoke. “I think it's worse for you than me,” she said. “And you can stop apologizing, Naruto. You've kept your promise already.”

“Not yet,” Naruto said, staring at the ground. “Not yet.”

She sighed. “As much as I want Sasuke home, I'm glad you're back in your own body.”

“You were supposed to have both,” Naruto said, frustrated. “Next time…”

Sakura touched his back. “Hey,” she said. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but…I like you the way you are. I'd rather you not try anything weird again.”

He looked at her. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Now go away. I have to concentrate.”

It wasn't hard to disappear in a ninja village. People vanished for years at a time on missions. So he doubted many people had noticed his absence over the last few months. Still, there were people who had become his friends, people he'd missed while he'd been confined. He visited them all, and pretended he wasn't thinking about Sasuke.

Hinata was his last stop. Naruto still didn't know what to say to her, but he had to say something. At least, if he wanted to avoid getting punched through a wall by Sakura.

I'm sorry, he started to say, except what came out was, “I'm in love with my best friend.”

Hinata looked down at her hands. “Sakura,” she said, like she'd been expecting it.

“Er, no,” Naruto said. “The other one.”

“….Oh.” Her eyes widened. “Oh!”

“Yeah.” He tried for a smile, but he was pretty sure it fell short. “I'm sorry.”

“Oh,” she said again. “Th-that's okay.”

It wasn't, if her dazed tone and the tremble in her fingers was any indication, but it was the best Naruto could do.

“I'll make it up to you,” he promised fervently. “I'll find you someone way better than me. I'm really not even that great. Everyone tells me I talk too much and I get fixated on stupid things and sometimes I forget to do my laundry for a month, so…”

“I never minded,” she said quietly, and Naruto felt sick.

*

“Are you coming or going?” Naruto asked.

He opened his eyes. Sasuke was straddling his window ledge, pale and still in the moonlight. His face was in shadow.

“I…don't know.”

“Great,” Naruto said, rolling over. “Wake me when you do.”

He heard Sasuke slide the rest of the way in, feet touching the wood floor.

“Are you sulking?” Sasuke asked finally.

“No,” Naruto huffed. Then, “Maybe.”

Sasuke was quiet for a long time, and Naruto could feel his indecision, hanging uncomfortably in the air.

“They're still watching me,” Naruto said quietly. “They think some of your traitor-genes might have rubbed off.”

“No one saw me.”

“Right.”

Silence again. Naruto had never been very good at that.

“You should turn yourself in,” Naruto said, still facing the wall. “Tsunade says if you come back willingly, then she won't - ”

“I'm not turning myself in,” Sasuke interrupted, and Naruto lifted his head. Sasuke's face was remote in the shadowed room, eerily perfect. He'd been seeing the same face in the mirror for months, but it felt like forever since he'd really seen Sasuke. It hadn't been Sasuke's eyes looking at him until now.

“Oh.” Naruto said. “Are we still pretending you want me dead?”

Sasuke rubbed a hand over his face. Naruto could see the grimace underneath. “How can one person be so damn annoying, so much of the time?”

Naruto kicked off the covers, scowling. “Stupid bastard. I'm not ann - ”

Sasuke leaned down and kissed him, one hand lightly cradling his neck. Naruto didn't even pretend to resist. He wanted to kiss Sasuke. He wanted to kiss Sasuke as Sasuke, not as some sort of fucked-up mirror world imposter.

He wrapped an arm around Sasuke's neck and kissed him back. Sasuke's weight came to settle on him, new and strange and easy and natural, all at the same time. He rested his forehead against Naruto's collarbone and pressed five fingers against his stomach, warm through the layers of cloth.

“Do you really want to do this?” Naruto asked, one hand in Sasuke's hair. “Or is this another lie?”

“I told you,” Sasuke said. “No one makes me do anything I don't want to do.”

His voice was cold, but it was hard to hold a grudge when his fingers were dipping smoothly beneath the waist band of Naruto's pajama pants.

It felt good. Too good, really. Naruto was on sensory overload. It was almost like Sasuke could see inside his mind, like he knew exactly how Naruto liked to be touched…oh.

“Pervert,” Naruto said, nose pressed against Sasuke's skin. “You did jerk off in my body.”

Sasuke's cheeks were pink. “I blame your hormones,” he muttered.

They only had a brief struggle when it came time to decide who would be on top, and Naruto had the feeling Sasuke was mainly fighting out of pride.

“I told you,” he said triumphantly, once he had pinned Sasuke. “I'm not meant to be on the bottom. Besides, you're already broken in.”

“Just shut up and do it,” Sasuke groaned.

Naruto eased into him, and god, he was never bottoming again. This way felt so much better. Sasuke's shoulders tightened with every thrust, but he didn't resist when Naruto leaned down to kiss him again. He used his thumb to trace the letters of the tattoo he'd put there, stark and sprawling against Sasuke's skin.

“It's still there,” Naruto said. “I thought you were getting it removed.”

“I've been busy,” Sasuke said stiffly, and Naruto chuckled.

“Liar,” he said. “You really do lie about everything, you know?”

“And you talk too much,” Sasuke retorted.

It was strange, the way every insult made him harder. Naruto tried not to think about it too much. Luckily, Sasuke was enough of a distraction. His face was like stone, but his cheeks were flushed and his lips were parted, and when Naruto started to near his climax, Sasuke dragged his mouth down for a kiss so desperate that Naruto was half-convinced he was imagining it.

Afterward, Sasuke rolled out of bed and immediately start pulling his clothes on.

“Of course,” Naruto said, and rolled onto his back. Sasuke didn't answer.

“Why even come back,” he asked the ceiling, “if you were just going to leave again?”

Sasuke stopped. “I never came back by choice,” he said in a low voice, back still turned.

Naruto propped himself up on an elbow. “But it wasn't so bad, was it? I mean, it was nice being together again as a team. If you stayed, we could…”

“It can't be the same,” Sasuke interrupted. “I have another team now. And I still have things I need to do.”

Naruto made a face at the mention of Sasuke's team. “Sakura and I can help you. Whatever it is - ”

“You can't,” Sasuke said flatly. “Not with this.”

Naruto's fists bunched, and Sasuke looked at him coolly. “I didn't come here to fight,” he said.

Naruto took a breath and forced himself to relax. “You're never coming back, are you?” he asked.

Sasuke's expression didn't change, and Naruto's heart sank. Sasuke's next words weren't what he expected, though.

“We never got to fight,” Sasuke said. “Not as ourselves.”

Naruto glanced at him. “Looking to put another fist through my chest?”

Sasuke didn't even blink. “We both know it's not about that.”

Naruto spoke very carefully. “Does it have to be about fighting at all?”

Sasuke's mouth turned up at the corners. It was almost a smile. “There are things I need to do,” he said again. “Things I've found out…about my brother and my family. You can't help me with them.”

Naruto looked down.

“After I'm finished,” Sasuke said. “Come find me. And we'll see.”

He was halfway out the window before Naruto had recovered his bearings enough to call, “What? How will I know?”

“You'll know.”

Sasuke started to climb out the window, and Naruto bunched the quilt in his hands, trying to calm his pulse. He was proud of how even his voice sounded when he said, “I don't like you giving all the orders here. What if I don't want to wait?”

Sasuke turned to smirk at him. “Then you can keep doing what you've been doing. Chasing me, and failing.”

Naruto raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I'll catch you next time.”

Sasuke turned away. “You're welcome to try,” Naruto heard him say, before he vanished.

Naruto thought about alerting the guards, even though he knew it would be useless. He thought about waking Sakura, or maybe telling Tsunade. He did none of those things.

Instead, he replayed everything he'd learned from Sasuke, over and over again in his head, pitting each jutsu against the counterattack he'd devised. Then he replayed everything else - Sasuke's hands and voice, the sweet-bitter taste of him, and the oddly pliant way he'd rolled to his stomach.

Next time, he told himself, Sasuke wouldn't have any defenses left. Next time…

He ran through every memory, until he was hard and aching again, until he could barely stand it. Next time would be the time, for sure. Until then…

He slid his hand down and wrapped it around himself. At least he wouldn't need the mirror to jerk off anymore.


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