Hollow's Eve

Disclaimer: Naruto and all of his little friends do not belong to me, but a Japanese mangaka by the name Masashi Kishimoto. So…there!

AN: Here's the full one-shot I started last weekend.

Enjoy.

"Ack, Naruto! Hold still. It's almost finished."

Naruto winced again as the manic pink-haired girl buzzed around and practically poked his eyeball out with a red eyeliner pencil. He tried to focus on her green eyes, which were boring intently into the space just above his right eyelid. He managed to keep this up for a whole 30 seconds, his facial features tensed in a mad attempt to remain absolutely expressionless, but he failed miserably the moment Sakura's pencil jabbed painfully along his inner eyelid.

"Itai!" Naruto howled pitifully, unknowingly rocking back in his chair and whacking the flustered girl in the stomach with his foot.

"Naruto, you idiot!" Sakura shrieked almost on reflex, glaring back at the blond boy who was now rubbing ruthlessly at his eye. "Don't do that. You're going to ruin the makeup!"

"But Sakura...chan," Naruto remembered to add the endearing suffix, although he was quite inclined to call her something else at the moment. Gods, his eye felt like it was on fire! "Do I have to do this? People say I hardly even need makeup for this costume."

Sakura sighed and placed a hand on her hip, wiping her forehead with the other. She flopped down on Naruto's bed bonelessly and stared up at the pasty ceiling. Her voice barely left her lips when she spoke. "That's not true, Naruto. You're only convincing when you fight."

Naruto smiled a bit at the whispered words, although he knew they weren't true. Sakura was good at many things, but lying wasn't one of them. He knew as well as anyone how 'feral' he looked in his relaxed state now. It wasn't hard to miss, even at a passing glance. It had gotten to the point where he couldn't pass a mirror without doing a double take these days. The changes were slow, but pronounced. Maybe it was the deepening of the scars on his cheeks that gave it away, or was it the noticeably elongated canines, jutting out just over his bottom lips when he smiled? It could be the way his pupils had become sharp and long, or even the way his eyelashes had become permanently pointed at the corner of each eye; as though someone like Sakura had personally darkened them with mascara and liner each day. No, he looked very convincing.

"Either way, I'm not gonna do this any more." Naruto got up and hopped over to a small mirror set up by his bed and began to rub the remaining makeup off, much to Sakura's chagrin. "I know it's 'no pain, no gain' and whatever, but I'd rather not lose an eye."

Even while his back was turned to her, Naruto could feel Sakura practically deflate in a parody of defeat.

"Fine, fine, have it your way," Sakura mumbled and scooted off the bed. "But now you're not going to look nearly as pretty."

"People say I don't need makeup for that either." Naruto grinned back at her through the mirror, before finally turning around, his face clear of the oily colored pastes. He began to frown, however, when Sakura sent him a quizzical look. It was just enough to make him realize the unintended meaning of his words. He coughed roughly into his hand and placed it behind his head nervously. "Not that I would want to be pretty..."

"Of course not," Sakura smirked, her eyes twinkling knowingly. "That would be Sasuke."

The moment the words were in the air, Sakura had regretted them. At her inadvertent mention of their old teammate, the room became eerily stifling. Naruto's nervous grin unconsciously slid off of his face and Sakura looked down at the floor awkwardly. The subject of their 'loss' was still fresh and painful for both of them.

"Yeah, well..." Naruto began, looking for a way to divert the uncomfortable situation and noticing that he was failing miserably.

"Fine then," Sakura interrupted, she waved her hand with an air of finality and turned toward the door to his small, disheveled apartment. "Just get dressed and meet us at the festival in an hour. I've got to go get ready myself."

"Oh, yeah," Naruto forced one of his trademark grins, light from the falling sun pouring in through a window behind him. "I'll be there."

"Ja." Sakura replied with a small smile and pulled open the door.

Naruto was just about to turn around, when a thought occurred to him. "Hey, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura poked her head back through the crack in the door. "Yeah, what?"

"What are you going to dress up as?"

Sakura grinned and rolled her eyes. "You'll see."

Naruto pouted at the non-answer, before the door finally clicked closed behind her.

"The suspense," Naruto sighed and smiled good-naturedly, pulling off his shirt and revealing the noticeably leaner torso beneath.

He stumbled back into his room and eyed the calendar which marked this day as October 31st, his 20th Halloween. He tried not to think about the fact that it was on a Halloween day four years ago that he had last seen his best friend. Since then, on this day especially, he would always be on Naruto's mind. It was the same for Sakura.

Naruto sighed and smiled plastically at the crumpled costume sitting on his bed. It was no use thinking about him anymore. He was gone. All Naruto could do now was get on with his life...no matter how much it hurt.

Everyone else was waiting for him anyway.

A brisk fall breeze slid through Sasuke's hair, making it glimmer ethereally in the hazy moonlight as he watched the bustling street below his high perch. He licked his dry lips unconsciously, his dark eyes scanning the milling crowd for familiar faces. For anyone else this would be somewhat of a lost cause as most of the people down on the street were enjoying the festival in their various disguises, but not for him. He continued to search, knowing that when he saw the one he was looking for he would recognize him immediately. After all, he had been doing this exact same thing on this exact same night for four years now - and he had never failed.

Down the street, the sound of taiko drums began and more and more people began to join in on the festivities. An unpalatable mixture of ramen and dango scent began to waft in the air, signaling the beginning of the celebrations. Sasuke slowly slid his mask over his face and felt the back of his head to make sure his unruly locks were flattened. He inched over the edge of the roof in order to peer more closely at the villagers dotting it and the many stands set-up for Halloween.

For obvious reasons, this was the only time he could even think of being near the village. The necessary conditions for stealth were all in place on this one night. The streets were crowded, the villagers were distracted, and they were all disguised as someone or something else. This night was ideal, and he convinced himself that this one night once a year would have to be enough.

Just then, the breeze picked up and carried with it a familiar voice, followed by a very familiar name.

"Naruto!"

Sasuke's head swiveled toward the voice and his gaze fell upon a group of villagers around his age. The girl, who had cried out just moments before, her conspicuously pink hair catching in the wake of her own movements, was now running toward someone in an equally conspicuous fox costume. Sasuke smirked, but his lips turned down into a frown and his heart involuntarily sped up as the two embraced. His black eyes bled slowly into red and his gaze burned into the girl's back, noting her particularly skimpy outfit with a progressively darkening mood.

It felt like an eternity before they broke apart, but by the time they had the rest of the group had caught up with them, and they all greeted each other easily. Sasuke moved closer along a neighboring rooftop and dropped down upon an outcropped balcony banister in order to hear his voice.

"Sakura-chan, what're you wearing?"

"More like, what isn't she wearing?" Shikamaru mumbled, followed by a swift kick to his foot, courtesy of Ino.

Sakura frowned a bit and crossed her arms, which made sense given that it was a cold night and she had barely a stitch on. Needless to say, Lee could barely contain himself. "It's my costume, baka. I'm supposed to be a genie."

"Uh huh…" Naruto mumbled but his eyes remained locked on her bare midriff and then trailed up to her bare shoulders. Sasuke's frown grew exponentially.

"I thought I smelled you, fox-face." Kiba's gruff voice carried easily upon the wind, as he walked up to the group in his trademark surly fashion. "Very original costume."

"Hey!" Naruto retorted in the typical childish way which hadn't left him since his youth. His body tensed as though getting ready to punch Kiba in the face, but Sakura interrupted them both by delivering a retort of her own.

"Stop it, idiots!" She screeched and punched Naruto on the head as a warning. Naruto rubbed his furry head with a pout, as though he was a complete victim and couldn't have just dodged the punch like everyone knew he could. Sakura, along with everyone else, summarily ignored his dramatics. "Besides, I think he looks cute in it, ne Hinata-chan?"

Hinata, who was dressed in what looked to be a strange parody of a koala suit, blushed heatedly at Sakura's goading and everyone else's knowing gazes, but managed to stutter out a reply. "h..ha..hai...um...he d...does."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the timid girl, and Naruto, not having noticed the recent discussion, walked up to Hinata and placed his hand on her reddening forehead. "Hinata-chan, are you all right? You look a little sick."

Hinata's face turned impossibly redder and everyone else in the group - including Ino, Chouji, Shino, Neji, TenTen, Lee, and Shikamaru - face-faulted at Naruto's blatant stupidity. Sasuke, however, had to work to keep his blood from boiling at the pair's seemingly intimate contact.

"Tch...dobe."

Suddenly, Naruto's head swirled around and his wide blue eyes locked on Sasuke's position within the shadows. Shit! Sasuke went rigid and closed his mouth so that no breath escaped. He remained this way for many long seconds as Naruto's eyes roved over him and through him. At one point, those eyes locked with his, and Sasuke had to keep himself from taking in a quick breath. He couldn't tell if the boy could actually see him within the pitch blackness of the building's shadow, but he remained still just in case.

"Naruto-kun, what is it?"

Naruto's searching gaze finally slid away as he turned toward Hinata, who was looking at him in a way that made Sasuke want to punch something.

"Huh? Oh, nothing, Hinata-chan." Naruto smiled, but he still looked confused. "Nothing..."

Sasuke let out a sigh of relief, before berating himself for being so careless. He of all people should have known how acute Naruto's hearing had become. Especially given that all of the fox-boy's senses were unnaturally sharp due to his...condition. Sasuke supposed it had, in part, to do with the state of his body as well, but he couldn't really change that. He would just have to compensate for his slower reflexes by staying farther away from the group.

Thus, once Naruto had turned completely away from him, Sasuke jumped back up onto the roof just as a precaution, and contented himself with following the now moving group from afar.

…

Down on the ground, Naruto still felt more than a little shaken. He could have sworn he had heard a voice carrying words unique to just one person. Dobe. That one careless utterance had been enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and his mouth to go dry. On pure instinct alone, he had turned around to face the source, but he could see nothing. He couldn't even sense the familiar chakra emissions. It was an absolute blank – almost abnormally so.

Yet he still couldn't shake the basic feeling in the small of his back that he was being watched. Strangely, instead of causing him distress, the sensation spread an indescribable warmth across his skin. He suddenly felt heady with it, and he didn't know why.

"N…naruto, are y…you sure you're alright?"

Naruto's attention snapped toward the small girl still walking beside him within the group. Her pale eyes were wide and her eyebrows were arched in concern as she looked up at him.

He immediately pasted a smile to his face and placed a hand behind his head as he laughed. "Of course I'm alright, Hinata-chaaaan!" He stated her name in a sing-song voice developed especially to give everyone the impression that he was just a loveable oaf, instead of the thoughtful, brooding man he had actually become. Before she could press on, he decided to change the subject. "So what're you supposed to be, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata blushed prettily, before answering softly. "I'm a cat."

"Ah…I see, I see." Naruto scrunched up his face as he looked at her. Funny, she struck him more as a fluffy koala. It was probably because she didn't have a tail. Well, at least it wasn't as revealing as Sakura's outfit. She could very well be walking around in her underwear. At one point in his life he probably would have been excited about that, but now it just made him feel protective of her – like an older brother who didn't like his sister showing so much flesh to the neighborhood boys.

"Oi, Naruto!" Kiba called him to a booth where the rest were already waiting in line.

Naruto ran up to it and realized that it was a dart game of sorts except with kunai. Two villagers were already throwing the sharp weapons at targets of different sizes. Naruto smiled, it looked easy!

"I challenge you, Naruto!" Kiba exclaimed, showing off his canines as he smirked. "I'll beat you, hands down."

"You wish, dog breath," Naruto retorted easily with a smile, getting in line next to him. "You're on!"

Once Naruto and Kiba got to the front, they were given three kunai each and told which targets would get them the biggest prizes. Then they took aim as everyone else watched and cheered them on. They ended up hitting the exact same targets until Kiba missed the last one and Naruto made the grand prize. The booth keeper smiled and handed a large plush black cat with red, gleaming eyes to Naruto. The stuffed animal reminded Naruto of someone, but he couldn't quite place his finger on whom.

"Cheater," Kiba mumbled, but he was smiling.

"Oooh, Shikamaru-kun!" Ino exclaimed, starry eyed at the sight of the huge stuffed animal. "You should go too!"

"I don't want to." Shikamaru replied monotonously, his eyes already looking glazed and bored.

"Then I suppose I don't feel like doing anything tonight," Ino replied airily, knowing exactly how to push Shikamaru's buttons.

Shikamaru's gaze turned serious as he contemplated this unwanted turn of events, before his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Tch….troublesome woman."

"I will go as well!" Rock Lee proclaimed ecstatically. "I must win this contest for Sakura-chan during the springtime of my youth!"

Most of the group just rolled their eyes as Lee practically dragged an unwilling Shikamaru to the front of the line.

"Hey Naruto," Sakura whispered into his ear once they walked away from the booth. "You should give that to Hinata. I know she'll like it."

Naruto looked at Sakura's strangely conniving expression suspiciously, but then he shrugged and agreed. "Uh, okay. Here ya go, Hinata-chan." He handed it over to Hinata casually, but once again her face was perplexingly red and she seemed at a loss for words. Naruto found him self once again worried for her health and decided he would never understand the painfully shy girl as long as he lived.

After that, the group split off until eventually Naruto was left with only Hinata for company as they perused the many booths with food, candy, and games. Hinata remained exceedingly quiet and flushed, and Naruto was really beginning to worry about her. He was doubly agitated by the unending sensation since the night began that he was being watched. This feeling intensified to an uncomfortable level when he offered his spare coat to Hinata because she looked cold. So, he suggested that they try out another one of the game booths to distract him.

They settled on gold fish catching, which Naruto was notoriously bad at, but he was always willing to give it another try. There was only one person he knew who could catch the fish without breaking the paper scoops and that was Sasuke. In fact, the only time he had ever competed in gold fish catching before was with Sasuke, because he couldn't very well refuse the challenge with his arch rival and best friend. Naruto shook the thoughts away when the familiar hollowness filled his gut, and he flashed a smile at a worried looking Hinata in encouragement.

Hinata tried first as Naruto watched over her shoulder, but her hands shook so much that she couldn't even get her scoop close to the fish. "Ah…gomen," she whispered when her scoop finally broke under the weight of the water. The woman behind the fish bins just smiled at her kindly and stated that it was a very hard thing to do for most people.

Naruto decided he'd give it a try and actually managed to get a fish on top of his scoop before the paper inevitably broke through. Embarrassed, he tried again with the same result. He ended up trying three more times, before he finally gave up.

The woman smiled kindly yet again and commented, "See? It's even hard for your boyfriend."

"Erm…boyfriend? Oh, I'm not…" Naruto trailed off confusedly and he glanced over at Hinata in slight worry.

Hinata let out an unnatural gasp and her mouth opened and closed but no words were coming out. Her face, if possible, looked redder than ever. It didn't take long for her breaths to come out in little shallow gasps. Naruto immediately placed his hand on her shoulder and asked, "Hinata-chan, are you sure you're alright?"

That seemed to be enough for Hinata, because the next moment her knees gave out and Naruto was forced to support her weight in order to prevent her from falling to the ground.

"Hinata? Hinata-chan?" It took Naruto a little bit to realize Hinata had fainted. He immediately felt guilty for making her walk around so much when she was so obviously in such ill health.

"Oh dear, boy." The kindly woman exclaimed as Naruto tried to gently slap Hinata awake with no success. "You'd better take her home. She looks like she needs rest."

Naruto nodded, feeling more anxious than ever for the pale girl, and picked Hinata up. He was surprised to find that she was almost weightless in his arms. He could feel the eyes on his back more intensely as he ran with her in his arms toward the end of the street, but he did his best to ignore it. He cut through the crowd as it became thicker and it began to slow him down. He was just about to jump up onto a rooftop when he bumped into Sakura and Lee in front of a dango stand.

"Ah, Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, before her eyes locked and widened on Hinata in his arms. "What happened to Hinata?"

"I think she fainted," Naruto replied, looking as worried as he felt. "She's been lookin' bad all night."

"Oh no…" Sakura whispered, looking oddly guilty. "Well, I'm sure she'll be fine. You want me to look after her? I have a feeling she will be better if you're not around when she wakes up."

"Oh…okay," Naruto answered confusedly, setting Hinata down on a nearby bench where Sakura sat down as well. He felt bad and it was his natural inclination to blame all of this on the fox, no matter how absurd that was. He just tended to have that kind of affect on people. He always hurt the ones he cared for, and that could usually be traced back to his unwelcome houseguest. Plus, Sakura's explanation didn't help, as she practically blamed his presence for Hinata's misfortune.

"Oh hello, Naruto." Lee walked over to them from the dango stand, and was a bit slow to take in the scene. "Would you like some dango?"

"Huh?" Naruto replied, still lost in his own thoughts as he watched the unconscious Hinata. "Oh, no thanks, Lee. I better go."

Before Lee could say anything, Naruto took off back down the street and into the crowd.

Eventually, Naruto stopped running in the middle of the festival where he was surrounded by a throng of villagers. He was suddenly bombarded by the smells of tasty foods and the sounds of people laughing as everyone took part in the games. The street was tinted orange by the lanterns dangling from lines over the street, giving the festival a deceptively warm atmosphere.

Naruto walked through all of this detachedly, feeling as though he was worlds away from what was taking place all around him. Yet again he was hit with the very direct sensation that he didn't belong in this place. Two children ran across his path and he was forced to stop so that a scolding mother could follow them to the cotton candy booth. These were people who were happy, these were people with families – and these were people who never had to grow up alone and be hated for something they didn't do. Yet again, he felt separate – he felt alone. And yet again, he had messed things up with one of his friends.

Naruto pulled off the hood of his fox costume and immediately felt the cold breeze play with his hair and cool his ears. It wasn't often that he felt so particularly down. More accurately, it wasn't often that he allowed himself to feel this way. But he didn't really have a reason to feel so depressed before his arch rival left. At least back then, he felt like he had a purpose. All he had to do was beat the bastard and everything would be okay. Now, he had friends of course, but he often got the distinct impression that none of them really understood him. At least, not on a basic level. Not like the bastard had anyway. It was painful to remember those times, but it seemed like this night always managed to bring those memories back – just like that strange feeling of being watched.

Sighing, Naruto sat down on a bench located on the side of the road, beneath a tree. The space between his shoulder blades tingled forebodingly, but when he looked up into the tree he saw nothing. Suddenly, the feeling that had been plaguing him all night dissipated, and a girl in a black cat suit with what looked to be an anbu mask came up to the bench and sat down beside him.

They both remained silent, but every once and a while Naruto would steal glances at her from the corner of his eye. He just wasn't used to villagers sitting next to him so casually in public, especially if they were strangers. At least he thought she was a stranger. It was hard to recognize anyone in such an all-encompassing costume – although it looked to be skin tight. Yet, he couldn't help the familiar tingle emanating from her low chakra signature. He eyed her again and actually found himself blushing when she caught his eyes with her deep obsidian ones.

"Like what you see?" She asked in a strangely husky voice for a girl, and Naruto could practically feel the smirk on her lips beneath the mask.

For some reason, instead of feeling embarrassed, that unseen smirk annoyed him. He managed to paste a smile on his face however and asked her, "Have we met before?"

"Oh, you don't know me," she replied and looked away toward a booth opposite them where a little boy was getting a huge cone of ice cream care of his mother.

Naruto studied her without really realizing it, noting the way her eyes looked a bit sad and her pose not quite relaxed upon the bench. Something about her stance and the color of her eyes was so overwhelmingly familiar, but Naruto couldn't pinpoint where he'd ever met her before. In any case, she didn't seem to want to share the information, so he decided to play along. It was nice to talk to someone and even though she vaguely annoyed him for no particular reason, he felt oddly comfortable around her.

"So, did you have trouble with your girlfriend?"

Naruto started a bit at the odd and slightly intrusive question, but the girl seemed honestly interested in his answer, because she was now regarding him intently.

"Erm…no," Naruto replied back, strangely embarrassed about his forthcoming admission. "I don't really have a girlfriend."

She looked up at him as though she didn't believe him in the least, which confused him to no end. Why would she even ask, if she thought she knew the answer? Besides, why would she care whether or not he had a girlfriend in the first place? It was all very strange.

"Why are you alone then?" The girl asked this with a suspicious tone to her voice, further convincing Naruto that his previous reading of her was correct.

"Well, it's kinda been a bad night." Naruto scratched the back of his head, a nervous tick he'd had since childhood, and he wondered at how loose-lipped he'd become around this stranger.

"Hn…"

Naruto's head jerked at the utterance and his heart beat involuntarily sped up. He never knew anyone to make that sound except…

"What?"

Naruto suddenly realized that he was staring, so he hastily turned his head away. "Oh…erm…nothing. Sorry." He realized it was stupid to even consider that this girl had any relation to his old friend – let alone that she was the boy himself. Don't go crazy now, Uzumaki. It did absolutely no good to continue hoping for the impossible. "You just reminded me of someone."

She sat still for a moment, just watching him in an exceedingly focused way, before she stood up with all the grace of a cat. Naruto had an errant thought that she was most likely trained as a shinobi, possibly from another village. He resigned to the fact that she was probably going to leave him when…

"Hurry up, idiot." She was looking down at him through her mask, her arms already crossed in impatience. "I haven't got all night."

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, completely taken off guard by the insult, but it wasn't long before his sudden irritation was replaced by complete befuddlement. "Wait…what?"

"Tch." The girl rolled her eyes. "You're not going to sit there all night are you? Depression definitely isn't you."

"What the hell?" Naruto asked, although he was the only one who heard it, because the strange girl was already walking away. Irritated, Naruto jumped off the bench and caught up to her. "Where are you going? And what makes you think you know who I am?"

The girl just sent him an obnoxiously knowing look, and he suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu harkening back to all the times Sasuke used to look at him the same way whenever he had said something particularly stupid. Naruto shook his head at the unwanted memories. For her part, the girl remained silent as she walked confidently through the crowds.

"Fine, be a bastard." Naruto pouted. He didn't usually call girls bastards, but something about this one brought out the worst in him. The nickname just seemed conveniently fitting.

Eventually, she stopped in front of the very same booth Naruto had been to earlier that night with Kiba. Naruto just raised an eyebrow in puzzlement as she made it to the front of the line and took her three kunai.

Eventually she turned around and asked with an arrogant air, "Well, are you going to let me beat you, or not?"

"Are you kidding?" Naruto answered gruffly, as he walked up to take his own kunai. He couldn't believe this girl. Sure she looked like she was trained as a ninja, but beat him, a jounin of Konoha? That was crazy.

Naruto could easily sense the smirk on her face. "You first."

Naruto frowned at her in suspicion, but he complied, taking up his kunai one at a time and hitting two of the lower targets and one of the middle. He didn't want to go too hard on her.

Now that it was her turn, the girl surprised Naruto by turning her back to the targets and throwing all three kunai at once over her shoulders. Naruto's mouth dropped at the result. All three kunai hit the same target in the very center. Once more it was the target for the top prize.

Naruto remained in a complete stupor as the gamekeeper pulled a stuffed red fox from the very top of the prizes and handed it to her. She stared at it with a strangely nostalgic gaze, before she casually pushed it into Naruto's hands. Before he could open his mouth to question it, she was already walking away.

"Just hold that for me…loser."

"What!" Naruto hadn't ever felt so incensed in his life, and it was more than enough to bring out his competitive nature. "I was just going easy on you! I'll definitely beat you next time!"

And just like that, the odd pair competed at every game booth in the fair. And Naruto only became increasingly frustrated. He had only beat the unknown girl in one booth and that was the hammer pole, which had everything to do with raw strength and nothing to do with skill and finesse (as the girl so kindly pointed out). By the end, they only had one more booth to go.

"Just wait! I'll definitely beat you at this!" Naruto exclaimed, laughing exaggeratedly, but he was completely lying through his teeth and the girl seemed to know it. The last challenge just happened to be gold fish catching.

With that ever present smirk, the girl took a paper scoop and deftly caught three gold fish at once. A feat Naruto never thought possible. Her movements were so swift it was difficult to see her hands at some points, but the real shock came when he looked at her eyes which were very focused and very red. Suddenly, a large lump grew in Naruto's throat and his mouth went dry for the third time that night. He had to swallow a gasp when the clarifying black commas of an unmistakable sharingan surfaced within the pools of her pupils. Naruto's eyes went wide in disbelief and hope, but he found himself paralyzed with all the emotions that were now coursing through his body. After all these years…

After catching her fifth gold fish, the girl's eyes bled back into black, and she looked back up at him, ready with her victorious smirk. It never came, however, and she seemed to be caught by the way Naruto was still staring at her.

"What?" She questioned, but her voice no longer sounded nearly so monotonous, and her stance had noticeably stiffened.

Naruto knew 'she' could see the recognition in his eyes, but he didn't stop staring. After a long moment like this, he muttered, "It's nothing…I…" He turned away and asked the kindly lady for another scoop. Then he looked back at the girl, not even realizing that there were tears pouring down his face as he spoke. "I will beat you."

The girl stayed where she was, much to Naruto's relief, and he concentrated his chakra in to his hands. He had never felt so focused in his life. It was strange. As though this was a life or death struggle – a way for him to keep what he had lost – a way for him to prove himself to his most important person. In an instant, almost faster than he himself could comprehend, he had caught seven gold fish before the scoop finally gave out.

"Oh! Very good, young man!" The kindly old lady cut in, not seeming to have recognized him from before. "That's the most caught all night! Here is your prize."

She handed Naruto a bundle of roses, and then she whispered conspiratorially, "For your girlfriend!"

"She's not my…" Naruto began, but he never finished. He smiled sadly down at the roses before finally turning back to the girl who was no longer such a mystery to him. She continued to stand there rigidly, as though she didn't know quite what to do. He didn't really know why, but he wanted to give them to her…to him.

He stepped closer to her and she wavered, as though she were about to step back. He pulled out her impossibly pale hand and placed the bundle of flowers within her fist. His voice was shaky when he whispered, "Hold this for me."

"Dobe," her unfamiliar, yet familiar voice replied, shaking unnaturally.

Naruto smiled in order to contain all the emotions swirling inside of him. He had so many questions for his rival, for the friend who had abandoned him and the village. He didn't even know where to start or to end. It had been so long. He offhandedly imagined what Sakura's reaction would be to all of this. Sasuke back in the village and disguising himself as a girl; accepting flowers. She was right. Sasuke was the pretty one.

Naruto moved his hands to pull off Sasuke's mask and he was vaguely surprised that he let him. However, Sasuke seemed paralyzed as though he were overtaken by the strangeness of the moment as well. Once the mask was off, Naruto could see every detail of the familiar face beneath. Sasuke looked almost the same as a girl. He had the same delicate features and the same pale unmarred skin. Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes, which held a flurry of emotions ranging from fear to something else indescribable.

"Sasuke…"

Almost immediately, Sasuke's head snapped back as though he was rudely awoken from a dream. He leapt back ten feet before Naruto could grab him, and just as swiftly jumped up into one of the trees lining the street.

"Wait! Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, his roiling emotions replaced by frustration and anger at the entire situation. He watched Sasuke leap from tree to tree until he was barely out of sight. "Damnit!" Naruto's chakra flared as his old feelings of abandonment and belligerence resurfaced. He would be damned if he let Sasuke get away with this again.

Fuelled by his anger and the fox's reaction to it, it didn't take much time for Naruto to catch up to Sasuke in a part of the forest where the lights of konoha did not reach. Sasuke noticed his proximity one moment to late as Naruto fiercely leapt on him, sending both of them crashing through tree branches before they hit the ground.

Leaves fell around them, glinting in the harvest moonlight, as both boys wrestled frantically upon the forest floor. Sasuke had already transformed back into his male body, giving him back the strength and agility he had temporarily lost. Yet Naruto was angry and determined, which made his powerful flux of strength difficult to match. It wasn't long before Naruto pinned the struggling Sasuke down securely, his thighs locking around Sasuke's legs and one clawed hand holding both of Sasuke's wrists above his black, matted hair.

"What do you want, Uzumaki?" Sasuke growled, still obviously struggling to break free.

"I want some answers." Naruto replied in a deceptively calm tone. Yet his feral image was enough to tell Sasuke of the barely contained rage beneath the surface.

Sasuke looked into those burgundy eyes, before he ceased struggling, allowing his head to lull slightly to one side and his gaze to turn away.

Naruto remembered Sasuke like this from many of his nightmares of the Valley of the End, and it sent a painful stab straight through his heart. He hated that the past was almost mockingly repeating itself. Naruto allowed his body to relax and his chakra died down, his eyes bleeding back into their normal blue. He placed a palm along Sasuke's jaw, causing the boy to start a bit, before he nudged him to meet his gaze once again.

"Why did you come back?"

Sasuke looked away. "I didn't. Not really."

"You're not answering the question." Naruto pressed, frustrated with Sasuke's lack of response.

Sasuke only stared at him. His emotions once again carefully tucked away. So different from just moments ago in the village.

Naruto frowned. "Well, now you're going to have to stay."

"Tch." Sasuke looked back up at him with scorn. "Like you could keep me here."

"Bastard!" Naruto shouted, letting years of anger run through him now that the target was right in his sights. "I can keep you here as long as I want!"

"Why?" Sasuke's voice sounded oddly tired, as though belittling Naruto's words, but his eyes looked vaguely interested.

"Because I made a promise!" Naruto growled.

"Oh yeah, right, it's your way of the ninja." Sasuke sounded as though he could care less, but he looked pained.

"That's right," Naruto said, becoming confused at Sasuke's strange responses. "I made a promise to Sakura-chan that I would bring you back. I failed the first time, but…"

"For Sakura-chan?" Sasuke interrupted, his pale face emotionless. "That's your reason?"

"Yeah, of course." Naruto replied, not really understanding this sudden line of questioning. "She misses you a lot. She probably misses you the most out of everyone in the village. You need to stay. For her."

Sasuke remained silent for a long time, his eyes far away as though brooding.

"So, anyway, you have to come back with me." Naruto spoke, weary of Sasuke's silence.

"What about you, Naruto?"

"What do you mean?"

Sasuke pinned him with his dark stare, barely contained emotions awakening below the surface. "Do you miss me?"

Naruto felt a strange pang in his chest at the unexpected question, as Sasuke gazed up at him with that infuriatingly unreadable expression. The strong sadness that he always kept at bay began to flow into him as he remembered the many nights he couldn't sleep because he knew Sasuke was gone. The months after the Valley of the End were painful and all he could do was train to distract himself from the hurt and betrayal – from his failure.

Naruto lowered his head. "Of course I miss you," he whispered. "You were my best friend."

Sasuke's lips tugged up into a small smile then. Something Naruto had barely ever seen before. But soon, the expression was gone, as Sasuke's frown grew.

"I can't stay Naruto." Sasuke sounded as sad to say the words, as Naruto felt at hearing them.

"Why not?" Naruto whispered helplessly, knowing in the end that he couldn't keep Sasuke there if he didn't want to be there. He'd ultimately find a way to escape. After all he was an Uchiha genius.

Sasuke raised his hand and cupped Naruto's cheek. Naruto unconsciously nuzzled, vulpine-like, into the touch.

"Because you make me weak, Naruto."

Before Naruto could question what he meant, Sasuke leaned up and placed his lips gently against Naruto's. When Naruto eventually opened his eyes, Sasuke was gone. Naruto was left sitting in the middle of the forest floor, touching a hand to his tingling lips and holding the mask that Sasuke had left. Naruto didn't know what to feel except shock and something else that he could barely explain.

The wind whistled through the trees and Naruto's ears perked up at the familiar voice carried upon it.

"See you next Halloween, Naruto-kun."

Naruto's mouth involuntarily moved up into a smile.

…

Owari