Chapter 2

A lean figure stretched comfortably under its cover an early morning, the rays of sunlight sneaking through the curtains, tenderly stroking whisker-like marks. A small, content yawn sounded as Naruto let himself relax again.He wasn't one for sitting still much, but as he'd grown these past years, even he had become patient enough to enjoy some relaxation every now and then.

Now eighteen years old and one of the village jounin, he often had tough missions. But, since the last one had injured him quite a bit before it ended, he'd been given a few weeks off to recuperate, even though he'd tried his best to convince Tsunade he didn't need it. With kyuubi, both he and she knew very well that he needed only a fraction of time compared to normal people to heal. But she stood her ground and he was now stuck with no missions for the coming weeks until she wanted him back on the job. Fine, it had been a relatively peaceful period now, but even if he had grown to appreciate relaxation more, weeks would be too much.

But for right now, this was kinda nice. He could get some training done, and talk to people. He'd been away for quite some time on that last mission, and hadn't spoken to any of his friends for a good deal of time now. It would be nice to see them again.

But there, his thoughts halted, lingering on something not as pleasant.

Where was Sasuke? Fine, he was only three days late compared to when they predicted he'd be home, but…

'Well, he should be home right now!' the blonde thought frustrated.

Sighing worriedly, Naruto thought hopefully that he'd have to go see Tsunade again today, and check if Sasuke'd come in the morning or night while he'd been sleeping.

Naruto really wanted to see him… Sasuke was his best friend. But, not only that. Naruto had about a year prior realised he had some kind of other feelings for him too, even though he knew he could never act on them. At first he'd just thought little of it, but as he'd spent time with his friend, he came reluctantly to realise that he might have a small crush. But, he figured it was just 'cause it was his best friend, and the person most important to him. His heart was just mixing the friendly love with the lover love.

But… well, he did think Sasuke was really good looking. Sooo… That meant he was a bit attracted to him too? So therefore, there had to be more than just a mix up and confusion…

At any rate, he could never do anything about it anyway. And that was okay, as long as Sasuke was okay. But the thing right now, was that he didn't know if he was okay at all.
But Naruto wasn't one to give up! Sasuke was okay, after all, he had the Sharingan, he was a jounin, and he was really strong, and very clever. He'd come home soon, maybe he was already here!

Grinning in new determination and hope, the blonde got up from his bed and walked toward his bedroom door.

Though half way there, he stopped dead in his tracks.

'What was that?' he thought suspiciously to himself. He could have sworn…

His gaze travelled around the bright room once more. Nothing there…
Shaking it off, he continued walking, headed for the bathroom.

But then again, something happened. He could have sworn he saw something. Just like in the bedroom. He turned around to look, but the only thing that had been where he imagined to see something were some framed pictures on the walls, and the empty hallway.

'Hm,' he thought to himself, his tanned forehead creasing in concentration. He couldn't feel any presence, nor see it. Why was he being so paranoid?

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"Ugh," a voice unheard sounded.

'My head… God, what the hell happened…?' Thoughts and memories were rapidly being processed.

That woman…

"Ah, goddamnit, I'm gonna kick her scrawny ass for this," a very pissed off young man spoke to himself. His eyes travelled to his surroundings, his attention momentarily leaving the frustrating memories.

'What place is this? All white… And what are those openings?' Trying to focus his gaze, the man stared at the coloured shapes in front of him. Was that the outside? It looked like some room was there… So he was inside a big building then? Everything looked so big through there.
But suddenly, one of the shapes disappeared, as did more. But before he could even question this, more appeared; Some small and hard to see through, while others big and clearer. One was particularly good, he could see what was outside much better than in the rest. Still foggy though. There was a person there, but he couldn't see good enough yet. But why were the rooms on the outside moving? Or was it he who was moving, and not the outside?

He took a look around the white room he was in.

'This is strange… Why aren't there any seams? If there's walls and floors and roofs, I should be able to see where the wall stops and the floor begins… But it's all white, not a single shade even,'

He tried to move, to look for some clues as to where he was, but;

'My body,' he thought worriedly, 'Why won't it move? Or rather, why won't it move how I want it to? It almost feels like it's moving on its own, though I'm standing still… What the hells happening?'

Getting annoyed, he thought angrily to himself of how logic dictates that one cannot move and not move at the same time in the fashion he could feel himself do now. And why was his body so numb? He couldn't feel his muscles move at all, no matter how much he mentally tried forcing them to. Yet somehow, his body was moving.

Was someone controlling him? For what purpose?

"What the hell kind of jutsu was that?" he pondered worriedly, analyzing all the information he now had. He could find no conclusion, he needed more. He had to know more. For now he'd have to simply wait and see what would happen next.

He wouldn't have to wait long.

"…Naruto? What the hell…?!"

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"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!!" a panic stricken scream sounded from inside a Konoha apartment. In his bathroom, Naruto stood screaming in front of his mirror, nauscious from the shock of what he was seeing in front of him. As small sweat beads slowly rolled off his forehead, he rubbed his eyes carefully before opening them again.

"Oh MY GOD," he nearly yelled, "What the hell's happening?!"

Grabbing the frame of the mirror, he leaned forward to study his vision.
Staring back, with the same graceless expression as he, mimicking his movement to the fullest, was Sasukes image.

"Oh no…" he said sadly, "I'm going insane,"

Panic still pumping adrenalin into his system, he slowly made his way out to the hallway again. He had a mirror in his living room, he had to see in that one too. This just wasn't possible.
On his way he could feel the panic rise as he felt the image of Sasuke follow him in the picture frames' glass.

'What's happening?'

In the living room, he ran toward the big mirror on the wall and immediately felt his feet go numb. Falling to the floor on his knees with a soft thump sound, he touched the mirror.

"Sasuke…" he whispered, "Why do I see Sasuke instead of me in my reflection?"

On the other side of the cold wall of transparency, Sasuke found his own body was sitting in the exact same position as the now pale Naruto in front of him, resting his palms on his own.

'I'm in his reflection…? Is that what these openings are? The places where Narutos reflection is seen from this side… So that's why some are so blurry and the size varies. It depends on the surface he's being reflected on… So that's what that yellow thing in some of these openings is, his hair…'

…

'How the hell am I supposed to get out of here then?'

While Sasuke pondered on this dilemma, Naruto was of course oblivious as to what was happening. Why would he see Sasuke in his reflection? It made no sense!
He needed to see Tsunade now. Either he was the only one who could see it and was mentally ill and thus needed to be cured, or she could try and see if she could see it too.
Standing up, Naruto quickly pulled on some clothes in his bedroom before running out the door.

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A flash of yellow and orange ran past the guards of Tsunade's office, and nearly beat down the door to get in.

"Ah, Naruto-kun," the guards said, not at all too surprised by this. He was pretty energetic, they knew that already.

Inside her office, Tsunade looked questioningly at Naruto with his panic-stricken expression.

"What's wrong, brat? You know you have to knock on the door before coming in, what's the rush?" she said, pointing him to sit at the chair in front of her desk.

Walking over nervously, his blue eyes filled with worry.

"Hey, Tsunade," he started, "Has Sasuke come home yet?"

"Is that what this is about?" she asked, sighing, "No, not yet. If he stays out much longer, I'll have to send some people to look for him,"

"Oh…" the blonde quietly said in disappointment, "Could I go then? To look for him, I mean?"

"…" Tsunade looked the young man up and down. There was something wrong. He was never this depressed, or this quiet.

"Mmmmmno," she finally said, "I want to know what's wrong first,"

"W-wrong?"

"Yes,"

"Well, um, nothings wrong,"

"Stop lying. Spill it,"

"But, nothi-"

"Naruto!"

"Ah, fine fine fine," he said quickly at the booming sound of his name.
He didn't want to tell her in case she'd refuse him to go look for Sasuke because of his condition, but Tsunade was a scary woman, she could snap him like a twig if she wanted to, and he wasn't sure she wouldn't either.

"Okay, so, um, do you have a mirror or something?" Naruto asked, his big blue eyes searching the room.

"Mirror?" Tsunade asked while opening her drawer, "What do you need a mirror for?"

Reaching him a small handheld one, she looked questioningly at him.

"Well, you see, I have to find out something before I tell you," he said, while turning away from Tsunade. When he was sitting with his back toward her, he held up the mirror, and aligned it so that he could see her face.

"Look into the mirror," he said in anticipation.

"The mirror? Why do I need to-?"

But there she stopped. She turned to look behind herself quickly, but no one was there. Looking into the mirror again, her fair face showed her confusion well.

"Can you see it too? Or am I going insane?" Naruto asked fearfully.

"…We need a bigger mirror,"

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Ten minutes later, Tsunade and Naruto were standing in front of the huge mirror wall in Kakashi's house. Naruto really didn't want to hear why he had a mirror like this, but it was good that he could hear and see this too. He wanted to know what was going on, and Tsunade and Kakashi were thankfully very clever people. If he ever needed advise, he knew he could rely on them.

"Oh my…" Kakashi said in awe.

"Wow," Tsunade sighed, "Let me see this,"

Pulling Narutos arm, she saw her reflection do the same, only to Sasuke. Waving it crazily, she saw Sasuke being rattled like Naruto was.

"Well, though I'm happy to hear I haven't gone insane, what are we going to do? Why did this happen in the first place?"

"I think the most important think is figuring out exactly what it is, and then find a way to deal with it," Kakashi said, poking Narutos cheek, and watching Sasuke crease his brows in annoyance like Naruto did.

Tsunade nodded, "I'll go back to the office and look through the files, and see if I find something resembling this somewhere,"

"What should I do for now then?" Naruto asked with a tired sigh.
His hair fell into his face and while brushing it away, he glanced at his reflection.

A small blush appeared on his cheeks.

"Just take some time off. You won't be getting any new missions for the time being. Not until I find out how to fix you, or at least if it's serious, so no going off to search for him either," Tsunade said while pointing at Narutos reflection, "Besides, you have the next weeks off anyway,"

"But-!" Naruto pleaded, he wanted to look for Sasuke too.

"No buts! This could be dangerous for all we know! You're not leaving the village for a while,"

Reluctantly realising defeat, Naruto let his gaze fall to the floor. Nodding, he walked out.

On the other side, Sasuke cursed to himself. He'd tried so hard to gain control of his body, he needed to tell them all that it was a jutsu, a very long and complicated jutsu which stopped at the letters 'mi'. That could have narrowed their search considerably, Tsunade didn't even know it was a jutsu that trapped Sasuke, they just thought it was Naruto who had the condition.
Sighing, he hoped dearly that they would figure it all out quickly. This really wasn't how he wanted to spend his days. Fine, Naruto was a nice guy, and kinda cute at times, but no one wanted to be cooped up, forced to stare at one person for days.

Wait… cute?

…

Stupid jutsu, making him think stupid things. Naruto wasn't ugly or anything, but cute? That's absurd, Sasuke wouldn't ever think of him that way. He just thought he was kind of… cute?

"Agh," he moaned in frustration, unheard by the blonde on the other side. Fine. Fine, fine, fine. So he was a bit cute. They were best friends, nothing wrong with thinking that.
Not that Sasuke would often admit to his blonde bud that he was his best friend, but he was. He really was.

…

"Hmph," Sasuke huffed to himself. He wanted to get out of here. Watching the blue eyed boy out there only made him think of unimportant things.

Things that… had no meaning in real life.

…

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A/N : Hi everyone :D

So! The second chapter is here, with some explanations at least :) Hope you liked it, I love writing this story :D (is proud of her idea)

Anyway, thanks to all of you who reviewed, I really appreciate it :D

Third chapter is already started, so with some luck, it'll be done in not too long :)

Okay, that's all for now I think... :)

Lots of love form P.Peachy :D