Through A Drawer

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Warning: Sasunaru pairing. Erotic situations. Drug references/use.

Author's Note: This is an AU and therefore non-canon compliant. You could probably consider this a high school AU but their age/school is not the main focus in this fanfic therefore I do not consider it so. Please expect characters to be "Out of Character" and for this story to have a mixture of cultures not native to the original story. This is my first solid attempt at a multi-chapter fic. The majority of the story line has already been fleshed out but I do not know exactly how long or short the story will end up being. Please read and review!

The heat in the attic was suffocating. Naruto reached for the cord hanging from the ceiling only to find there was no bulb in the socket. He pulled out his phone, turning on the flashlight, and looked around the crawl space. It was dark, smelt kinda funky, and only had a narrow section with wood laid down for storage. It was completely empty except for an old desk a few paces in front of him.

"How does it look son?" Minato shouted from below.

"I don't see any critters, just an old desk." He hollered over his shoulder. Feeling a curious pull to the piece of furniture he crouched down and shuffled over to the desk. It was rather plain looking with only a few drawers, covered in dust and cobwebs, but it looked solid and showed minimum signs of damage.

Naruto jumped a little when he felt a hand clasp his shoulder. "Hey this thing is in pretty good shape. Didn't you want to get desk? What do you think about this one?" Minato asked.

Naruto gave the desk a once over and shrugged in response. "Sure."

Some awkward handling down the flimsy attic stairs and a few stubbed toes later, Minato and Naruto had the desk situated under the window in Naruto's room.

"Whew!" Minato exclaimed, wiping his brow with his forearm. "We can go buy a chair later, I'm going to help your mother unpack the kitchen. If I call in pizza do you want the usual?"

Naruto shrugged again and shifted his eyes towards the ground, feelingly slightly detached from the activity of unpacking. "Yeah."

Minato placed his hand back on Naruto's shoulder and softly squeezed until he looked up. "Cheer up buddy, they said I'll be stationed here for at least 4 years so this should be the last move before you leave before college. Which means the next time you pack up you'll be going where you want to right?" Minato smiled his mega-watt grin and gave his son a nookie which earned him a disgruntled 'dadddd!' and his hand being swatted away.

"Now get this room unpacked! I expect you to help me get the holiday decorations in the attic by the end of the day."

"Yeah, yeah…" Naruto agreed with a pout on his face.

It took him a few hours, but Naruto managed to get all his clothes either folded into his dresser or hung into the closet, he moved his bookcase to be closer to his new desk and organized his books and nick nacks along the shelves. He was making his bed when his mother popped into his doorway.

"Look it here! You're almost done. It always get to me how long it takes to pack and how quickly unpacking goes, am I right?" She chuckled and moved forward to brush a few creases out of the comforter. Naruto looks up and smiles at Kushina, then went back to nervously straightening up his pillows. She walked over to the desk and ran her fingers over the rolled up posters that Naruto had placed on the surface.

"We could still look into that magnet school—"

"Mom, I can't go to an art school." Naruto interrupted, clearly tired of repeating this conversation.

Kushina's eyebrows furrowed together. "You watch your tone with me." She warned. "I just think it will be easier on you to be around more like-minded teenagers."

Naruto's only response was to huff loudly and cross his arms over his chest. The last thing he wanted was to be treated different. Especially when he knew just how different he was.

Lately it's getting really hard to smile and act like I'm not screaming internally. I love mom and dad and I know they love me but I think that if we have to move again I will officially break. It used to not bother me so much when I was younger but it's steadily getting harder to make friends. I can't seem to stay in touch with anyone after we move again and writing out my feelings only gets me so far.

Konoha is nice, dad is happy to be back in his hometown but he has yet to show me any of the places he used to hang out as a kid and no one has acted like they know him when we go out to the store. I know he hasn't been back in over 16 years but you would think he would still know someone that lives here since he talked this town up so much before we got here. He is such a weird man, it's like having no friends or family isn't an issue to him. He says 'I have you and your mother' whenever I ask him about it. And yeah, I get it, we are a pretty cool family, but isn't there more to this? Why do I feel so empty if I have everything a kid could ask for from his parents?

We stopped by the high school today, picked up my schedule, and met the swim coach. My schedule looks pretty good, I got into the AP classes I wanted, and the coach said I could come to the next practice to try out for the team. The school says I'm already ahead in credits needed to graduate but I'm going to keep my schedule full. If we stay here as long as dad says we are I can dual enroll at the community college next year. Anything to keep me moving forward.

I haven't told my parents yet, but the dreams started happening again. They are different this time but I know they are connected. Last time I told them they made me go back to the shrink who put me on that awful medicine so I'm going to try to bare with it this time. Luckily they aren't as violent anymore. I can tell I'm still in limbo, but instead of being surrounded by fire it's pitch black and I can hear a steady beeping and whirling noise. Sometimes it's feel like there are hands on my body but I can't see or hear anyone. Consciously I can tell I am not in my own room during these dreams. The sheets don't feel like mine and there is the distinctive smell of disinfectant. I think I can handle this version of the dream, the fire was horrible, and the time before that with the whip was just as bad. I wonder if it will ever go back to the way it started with those weird phantom touches to my forehead. I didn't mind limbo during those times. I just hope I can hide the mark on my palm when it finally surfaces again.

"My name is Naruto Namikaze, it's nice to meet you." Naruto introduced himself, smiling hard the way his father does, for the 3rd time today. Just one more class and he would be done with the first day torture. He looked around the room and noticed that a few of the faces seemed familiar. At least some of the kids were in more than one of his classes, he hoped this meant he could try to make friends with them. It was hard coming to the high school in the middle of his sophomore year.

"Naruto moved here from Kiri. Make sure to welcome him kindly. Naruto, you can take the empty seat over there." The teacher waved in the direction of an empty desk towards the back left of the class, far away from the door but close to the window. As Naruto moved towards the desk he picked up the mumbled sentences of his classmates.

"No way, that's—"

"Sh! Don't talk about him."

"New kid is kinda cute."

"I can't believe teach would assign him to that seat."

"Do you see those blue eyes? So gorgeous!"

"He has been in the coma for almost 8 months, even if he does come back it's not going to be this school year."

"I heard he is joining the swim team."

"Wow so he really is like a replacement. I wonder how intentional that was."

Naruto sighed loudly as he plopped down into the seat, ignoring the chatter while simultaneously wishing that it was him in the coma. He felt an odd since of jealousy to the mystery kid. The teacher called attention to the class and started the lesson for the day. Naruto had to force himself to pay attention and write notes although he had already studied the topic at his old high school.

'Anything to move forward.' He reminded himself.

A few days later Naruto is approached for the first time while studying in the library during his lunch break.

"You're Namikaze, right?"

Naruto looked up from his book to the brown hair boy standing in front of him. "Yeah. What's up?"

The brown haired boy sighs and looks around like he is already bored with the conversation. "Are you related to Minato Namikaze?"

Confused, Naruto hesitated before answering in the affirmative. "He is my dad."

The boy nods a few time while still looking around the room. Only when he settles his eyes back on Naruto does the thought occur that he was looking out for something. "My name is Shikamaru Nara. We have AP Global History together. Supposedly our dads know each other or something. There aren't a lot of sophomores in the AP program so…" Shikamaru shrugged and let his sentence trail off.

Naruto forced his big grin on his face, the one he knows people see as warm and inviting, and responsed, "Ah! I see, I was starting to think my dad was lying about growing up here since no one has come around to welcome him back."

Something sparks in Shikamaru's eyes that Naruto wanted to identify as understanding although he wasn't sure. The gleam continued as Shikamaru pulled out the seat across from Naruto and sunk into it. "Say, you don't happen to play Go do you?"

Konoha High is alright so far. My classes are going to be easy, it seems like Kiri really did have the better school system because I already know everything that is being taught. I made it onto the swim teach, once again my backstroke and butterfly is the fastest on the team. Feels good to be back in my comfort zone.

I've never seen so many Crests of the Six Paths in one town before, most people do not pray to The Great Mother but it seems she still has a solid presence in this town.

Speaking of The Great Mother, a kid with a pony tail named Shikamaru invited me to play on the Go team. I told him I wasn't good at it but he seemed really eager to play against me. Supposedly our dads used to be friends back in the day but I haven't seen dad lately to ask him in he remembers anyone with the last name Nara. I wonder if Shikamaru knows of the Nara Clan in Ninshu? He probably wouldn't be interested anyway so I haven't asked, the only time Shikamaru looks interested is when he is talking about Go, we have History together and after he introduced himself I realized that he looks like he sleeps through the whole class. The guy is a serious whiz kid though, whenever the teacher tries to trip him up he always knows the answer.

So far I don't think anyone has figured out my secret. Mom was so concerned about me being around 'likeminded' people, but just because I feel different doesn't mean I am different. I'm perfectly capable of acting just like any other teenage boy. One day I'll prove to mom that I can be out and still be able to live among 'normal' people. She is still worried I'll get beat up or something. I'm not scared. Compared to limbo, this is child's play.

The dreams are happening every night now. It feels like someone is yelling at me but I can't hear what they are saying. It almost sounds like they are yelling at me under water. It's really messing with my sleep because although I know I am asleep I don't wake up rested. I wake up feeling like I've been awake the whole time and all I'm doing is stepping from one doorway to the another. If I don't start getting better sleep soon mom is going to start noticing and I really don't want to have to start taking the meds again. The center of my palm is already getting darker. If everything stays true to form the black ring will appear in another two weeks. I told myself I wouldn't try to find some smoke here but it's the only thing that I know will delay the ring from forming and help me sleep. I really just want to continue going to class, enjoy the swim team, and graduate. I can't do that if I'm constantly being pulled out and fed heavy drugs until my mind rights itself again. I can handle this without my parents freaking out. If I don't learn to handle this now then how am I going to survive college?

Naruto watched as his mother went through the familiar ritual with poised reverence. She lit the nine candles which had been clustered together on the low table that the family had used as their alter for as long as Naruto could remember. They had waited for the night of the first full moon in their new home before performing the Rite of Offering.

The family sat with their legs tucked under them, palms together, facing true North. The window that the altar sat below had the curtains pulled back and the moon sat high in the sky, casting it's glow in conjunction with the candles that his mother lit while reciting the prayer. The matriarch sat a thatchet of fresh rosemary leaves that had been cut from the same plant that had been given to his mother on the day of her wedding into the ceremonial dish and lit the nine candles. Every movement was made with measured deliberation.

"Oh Great Mother, we present our whole- body and soul- so that we may give thanks to the many teachings of Ninshu. We offer the flame of the sun, the harvest of the earth, and the shadow of the moon. May our mortal eyes guide us in the present so that we may live in truth and harmony with all living things. By way of the Namikaze, children of the Uzumaki, we honor the Six Paths. Pando."

Kushina ended the prayer by slicing the tip of her pointer finger and drawing the Uzumaki crest in blood upon the window. As she finished Naruto grabbed the thatchet of rosemary and held it over the flames of each nine candles before laying it back into the ceramic offering dish. His father waited until this is done then blew them all out.

They sat in silence for a moment while the smoke of the rosemary dispelled in the room. The Rite of Offering is not finished until the matriarch releases the family. Minato watched as his wife stared into the distance, her eyes vacant, looking past her family's crest drawn in her blood on the window. He knew what was going on in her head. It had been the plague in his thoughts too.

Without warning Kushina spoke up. "Naruto, it's bed time."

Sasuke awoke with a violent start, his arms and legs thrashed in the sheets and his heart hammered in his chest. He didn't haven't to look around the room to know he wasn't in his own. His whole life he had been experiencing waking in someone else's room... in someone else's mind. Each time he had brushed it off as the wild imagination of his ill mind. Today was no different.

He checked his palm to see which mark had manifested on his skin. Another confirmation that he was not in his own body. Not that he needed the confirmation. He just knew. He didn't need to look in a mirror to be able to describe the face that would be looking back at him. A face so much different than his own that he had vomited the first time he had seen it's reflection. The shock had been unbearable.

He couldn't tell you how. He was sixteen years old, and from his earliest memory the experience of these vivid dreams always seemed so real. The boy he 'woke' up as was always the same but the place that he was in was always different. He truly didn't know how, but right now he knew for the first time ever that he had waken up as this other boy in Sasuke's home town.

He was in Konoha. His body was in Konoha. He was going to put an end to this waking dreams once and for all.

...

TBC

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A/N: I would love to know your thoughts! Tell me, what do you think about The Great Mother and Ninshu? What are up with the dreams that Naruto is having? What the hell does Shikamaru know? How will Sasuke get back to his "real" body?