the ghosts that we knew (will flicker from view)
Sumigakure Halloween Event 2017: Prompt 14
Arrowsbane
...
Contrary to popular belief, Sasuke isn't born with the dead screaming in his ears or lingering in the corner of his eyes. He's born completely normal, a hundred percent human with a rather simple destiny. Live, love, fight, and die.
But then the massacre happens.
Then Itachi burns his mind with black fire, and something inside his soul… fractures.
Two weeks later, and he's waking up in a too-white room in a hospital; being told the irrefutable truth – that his family is dead, and his brother is a murderer.
And then he goes home, to an empty compound that seems so cold it's a wonder it's not covered in frost and snow. But the thing is, it's not so empty. In fact, it's just as full as always.
Because now Sasuke can see the dead, and this changes everything.
…
It doesn't take long for his family to realise that he can see them just as easily as he can see the living, and they surround him with love and support.
Whether it's helping him with his homework, or teaching how to cook, listing 1001 non-ninja uses for a kunai, or even just Great Aunt Miwa waffling on about how to tend to onion plants and how important the roots are – and Sasuke is pretty sure there's something she's not telling him here, but he's six and living in the twilight zone, so meh – it doesn't matter.
What does matter is that it's important to note that Sasuke is never alone.
It's also important to understand that this is not necessarily a good thing.
Sasuke is six years old (seven in the summer), and now he lives and breathes death in a way that makes aged veterans look like unbloodied children.
His waking hours are filled with the ghosts of his family, and he finds himself 'playing ninja' with the echoes of children so young that they don't actually know they're dead, who don't know they can never grow up, never fulfil their dreams.
And then he closes his eyes, and dreams of blood and screams and why Itachi?
He can never be free of this curse.
…
Summer passes in a blurry haze, fading into autumn, which freezes as winter creeps in, and then melts into spring. The cycle passes at least once more before Sasuke talks to a ghost who wasn't an Uchiha in life.
It's a warm, balmy evening, and Sasuke finds himself hiding from the evening heat by relaxing on the roof of one of his cousins' houses, in the shade provided by the trees. It's nice up there – the breeze is cooling him off after a long day of training, and best of all, no relatives.
Sasuke closes his eyes and tilts his head back, humming softly in contentment. Two feet up at his three 'o clock, a roof tile clinks as weight presses down on it.
"Go away Shisui," Sasuke grumbles, not bothering to open his eyes. Is five minutes of peace and quiet too much to ask for?
Shisui doesn't answer, which is suspicious, so Sasuke cracks open an eye.
It's not his cousin after all, the place is occupied by a strange blonde dressed in a black kosade and hakama, over a white shikagi. The blonde's outline flickers ever-so-slightly, and Sasuke sighs.
Fucking ghosts.
He's a medium, but that doesn't mean he's bound by law or anything to put up with their shit.
"Get off my roof loser," He snaps. The ghost ignores him.
"Hey," Sasuke hisses, eyes narrowing, "I'm talking to you, you stupid undead fucker."
It's probably a good thing Mikoto is back at home looking over his homework, because if she'd been there to hear the words Shisui and Cousin Arashi had taught him, she'd have washed his mouth out with soap – or at the very least scolded him until he'd apologized, being incorporeal and all.
The blonde shuffles, sweeping his bored gaze from left to right, still completely ignoring Sasuke – who finally loses his patience and tosses a rock (he likes to keep four or five pebbles in his pockets just in case,) through the man, who finally deigns to look his way.
"Get. Off. My. Roof." He growls, completely fed up with the interloper.
The ghost blinks, shocked.
"You can see me?" He yelps.
And then the fucker trips over thin air, and falls off the roof.
It's a good thing he's already dead, because he's too stunned to land on his feet.
…
As it turns out, the blonde airhead is actually the ghost of the Fourth Hokage – and isn't that a mindfuck and a half, because how on earth did somebody this ridiculous wind up the military dictator of a shinobi village?
"And you're bound here because…?" Sasuke prods, eyeing up the dead man.
"That's… complicated," Namikaze admits, reaching up to scratch the back of his head in a rather familiar mannerism that Sasuke is so sure he's seen somewhere before.
"So uncomplicated it," Sasuke drawls, and the proceeds to drag the truth from the ex-Hokage piece by painful piece until all the cards are laid out.
To the average nine year old, the concept of sealing a mass of sentient chakra into an infant might be a bit much to deal with – but Sasuke passed the point of 'ordinary', and slid right into the category of 'rather unusual and altogether most likely unique' a long time ago.
It's the beginning of a rather interesting partnership, and as it turns out that between Sasuke's ability to interact with the dead and Minato's ability of helping said spirits to cross into the Pure Lands, they make a very good team.
…
In one life, Sasuke would have tread the path of revenge, but in this life… Sasuke just does his best to live. He's got a thousand voices whispering into his ears – some for peace, some demand revenge, some whisper of a coup that-never-was. But most of all, they encourage him to enjoy what time he has left.
He's ten, and alone-but-not-alone, and constantly handled with kid gloves by the living.
There's not really much he can enjoy.
He says as much to his companion one night, when they're leaning against a slanted rooftop and watching the stars fade into the dawn.
"But have you considered Seals?" Minato says, eyes glinting mischievously.
People always assume that Naruto's penchant for pranking comes from his mother. They never stop to consider that like attracts like, and that Minato was known for his trapping abilities and his love of surprises – the combination of which, was known to be devastating on the battlefield.
"I'm listening," Sasuke replies, ever curious.
…
Years later, when they're stuck on the same Genin team, and grumpily bitching over how late their perverted sensei is, Naruto sucks in a deep breath, turns to his teammates, and blurts out:
"So, I'm a Jinchuriki." He looks nervous, twitchy, like he's ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Sakura frowns, not understanding the importance of the word, because Jinchuriki isn't exactly the kind of thing they covered in the Academy.
"Okay," Sasuke says, not missing a beat, "tell me something I don't know."
"How did you know?" Naruto looks baffled, "Until last week, I didn't know!"
Sasuke shrugs, and goes back to sharpening his kunai, Shisui snickering in the branches above. Beside him, Minato beams. A smile curls at the corners of Sasuke's mouth, and he shrugs.
"...I see dead people."
Notes: This was mainly inspired by the fact that I was dying to have Sasuke tell Naruto "...I see dead people." and be 1000% serious. I got my wish.