Losing Kyuubi felt like being relieved of a life-long pain. The constant ache of it was gone; the hampering of actions caused by the malfunction evaporated. The worry of its worsening eradicated. A sense of new freedom reigned in the senses and thoughts.

Yet the body still moves, out of habit, in consequence of that pain. It avoids the area it affected; leaning on one leg, favouring one arm. Out of its own accord the body functions as if the pain is still resident in it, part of the way it should live its life.

And so Naruto still reached in sometimes, trying to grasp the stolen power that used to exist inside him. He finds himself in front of an empty cage, looking in to where his monster used to live. Where he chewed at Naruto, eating slowly from the inside out.

Feeling empty. Feeling happy. Feeling lost.

And that phantom pain lives in others also. In their cultivated pity or rage. In the looks that see nothing more than the ghost of a filled, bursting, screeching prison inside his mind, or the empty shell left behind.

So he sits beside Gaara and for once is quiet in the hushed night. Sand ripples around them, uncontrolled. Naruto doesn't say I miss him because he doesn't miss the things he hates. But he doesn't sigh a thank God he's gone because they both feel the hollowness of sitting in one's mind and feeling so alone they have to fight the panic back. He just rests beside the only person that can understand how giving up the worst part of you still hurts.

The Sand Village he looks upon is dark and dirty and dangerous. He's far from home but doesn't feel any different from being anywhere else. He thinks of Sasuke and Sakura and then, by relation, of Kakashi, who gave up his life in a life-transferring jutsu to bring Naruto back and feels, through the numbness, that old pain of losing someone. Of failing, again.

"It gets better, right?" Naruto asks at last, when the sun is already surfacing in the distance, adding more shades of yellow to the village. Gaara doesn't turn from the horizon, even when Naruto lifts a hand to grab the red cloth on his arm.

"Yes," he says simply. Naruto continues to stare at the other boy, the title of Juunchiriki a mere scar on their name. He is unwilling to turn to the brightness of the dawn just yet and lets his forehead fall on the Kazekage's shoulder.

He was so glad the Kyuubi was gone he could barely understand the mix of feelings. And yet he was happy the pain of the demon's absence was there, a reminder of the sacrifices made, of the past that was over. Half a punishment, half an echo of that old, old pain.

Light sneaked through Naruto's eyelashes, cast over the cloth directly in front of his face by the slant of the sun. He looked up and saw Gaara's closed eyes, black racoon mementos on a pale face. The blood-red marking on his forehead, which had lost all its cruelty, peeked beneath his hair and Naruto smiled and squeezed the other man's arm as if it were him that needed the reassurance.

"Of course it will, Datebayo," he grinned, showing all his teeth like an animal in reverse. He put a hand to his stomach and turned to the sun and closed his eyes and breathed.

When he leaned on Gaara, Gaara leaned back.

Every time he lost something, Naruto knew, he would gain something in return.

Just a shard of rather random writing about a possible ending to Naruto if he suffers but survives the extraction of Kyuubi. No update of Thunderstruck so I give you a drabble instead :3.

Inspired by Fruit Basket I guess. Oo

I added the Kakashi-dying bit because he's probably the only one who can replicate Chiyo's jutsu. Poor Kakashi, disposed of like that! Gah.

Until next time then!

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