Title: Haunted
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The characters from Naruto don't belong to me, and I'm certainly not making any money from this.
Word Count: 194
Sakura had asked him once why he didn't live in the Uchiha district, and he'd replied that it was because of the ghosts. She'd left the subject well alone after that, assuming he'd meant "memories", but she was wrong. Sasuke really did avoid the district because of the ghosts. Transparent specters he could see -- better with his Sharingan activated -- walking the streets, talking together, laughing, not knowing they were dead. They didn't see him when he flinched away from them, trying to avoid walking in their paths.
He never visited that place without a damn good reason.
The exception of course was the ancestral shrine, which was (thankfully) located away from the main district, as a sign of respect. He went there regularly, keeping the incense fresh and the candles lit, as well as the altar clean. He owed it to the people that that he saw even now and that he'd known once, when they were-
alive
-happy. He still owed them the dead body of their cold-hearted killer, but he was still working on that. "I'll avenge you," he told them, and tried to keep their carefree smiles out of his dreams.