Dedicated to the fantabulous Nozomi-sama.

(This may also be known as the fic wherein I try to get back on the angst road.)

"Oi! Teme!"

Sasuke looks outside the window. It's sunny, he notes. It's just like how Naruto's hair looked like, he reminisces. It's just how radiant Naruto's smile was, he thinks.

"I'll show you that I'm better than you!"

The pain of loosing a friend isn't as suicide-worthy as books make it out to be. Though it isn't dull either. It's just there, making its presence more than felt.

"I'll protect you and Sakura-chan and everyone else!"

Sasuke just doesn't know how to feel. Naruto isn't family nor has he suffered the same fate as those who died in the Uchiha Massacre – hasn't been betrayed by his kin, his own blood.

"Leave the rest to me. I won't fail you."

Perhaps Naruto, then, is actually lucky that he has been killed by a stranger.

"I'm your opponent!"

But Sasuke sometimes gets this idea that maybe he's feeling more than what he's letting on. He easily brushes this off, of course. Because Naruto isn't a matter of importance anymore because he's dead. And the dead don't provide power for the living. Can't.

"I could've loved you. Heh. Maybe I even do right now."

Naruto is a mistake. Is dead.

"Shocking, ain't it? I was shocked, too. But that's life for you. Fucks your head even more."

Naruto may have been the future.

"You don't believe it. You don't even care."

But just isn't. Not enough time.

"I wish..."

Sasuke feels a soft breeze. He brushes that off just as easily as he brushes off the matter of Naruto, death, and things that may have happened if the idiot just stayed.

(Which isn't at all easy.)

"Shut up."

Taps, punches, kicks, and just plain touches are given to that man looking at the world outside his window. But he feels nothing. Because those touches pass through him.

"The only problem is that you're not so there's nothing to show."

Naruto is vexed.

"Whatever."

Being a ghost positively sucked.

"The day that happens is when I'm going to the grave. We're a team – you said so yourself – so let's act like one. Even just this once."

It is hard. Hardly anyone really feels. Hardly anyone truly hears. Hardly anyone absolutely sees.

"We're all your opponents. Not just him."

Seeing everyone go on with their lives as happily as they can. Seeing everyone feel depressed because he up and went in an instant. Seeing Sasuke being confused because he has said something that he ought not to have told Sasuke the moment he is to die.

"What are you babbling about now? Just shut up and wait for Sakura to arrive here."

That partial confession isn't something Naruto has expected to come out of his mouth just like that. He is blunt, sure. But not blunt to that extent.

"Shut up already!"

Though, as selfish as it sounds, Naruto does feel a bit happy. Sasuke is – despite the fact that Sasuke himself says that it isn't the case – confused, is most definitely feeling something.

"And what makes you think that I don't care? We're talking over this after Sakura gets here and heals you!"

Naruto wishes that it's the type of love that he's been yearning to get. The type of love he's trying to find in Sakura.

"I won't grant you that wish. You'll have to be alive."

Naruto wonders if he had stayed, would something have happened between him and Sasuke?

(That is, after all, the reason why he continues to stay here.)

I hope that you like it.

Ah, yes! Thank you for reading! Comments would be much appreciated as it has been a long time since I've tried to do something that's even the least bit related to angst.