Slowly Naruto brought his hand to rest on the cold glass of the mirror staring down his reflection.
The reflection wasn't him though, he was more so a different person completely.
The raven hair jutted out from behind his head, red eyes stared directly into his own.
It did follow his actions, he was exactly like him, but it wasn't him.
He was someone else, he looked different.
But he acted like him.
His face was brought down in a frown and the elegant movements were different than his sharp energetic ones but they were the same.
Different…but the same? Or the same…but different?
Did it matter?
Maybe it did, but maybe it didn't.
Suddenly as he fell back he wasn't in his bathroom anymore but he fell back on a bed, it wasn't his but it did seem familiar, maybe it was his…maybe it wasn't.
"Oi Naruto"
The voice spoke through his line of thought jabbing in, he ignored it at first but suddenly his thoughts weren't his.
Or were they?
"Five more minutes Sasuke…I'm tired." He felt himself speak; they were his words, his voice, though slightly higher pitched, but his.
Suddenly he knew that the covers of the bed were wrapped around him as they were thrown off, he cuddled up in a ball.
"We have a job, Kakashi expects us early today."
He felt his eyebrow raise, of his own accord, they were his actions, but he wasn't the one instigating them, he felt as if his body was taken control of by someone else, but the person was still him.
"It's not as if the lazy butt's going to be there anyway, he'll be there when we're supposed to meet normally probably." As light filtered in his vision he knew he squinted his eyes and suddenly a face came into view.
"Just because he's in the wrong, doesn't mean we should be."
Raven hair jutted out from the male's head and two bangs came around to frame it, two black eyes, or maybe grey? Silver?
He saw that it was the same teen he had seen in the mirror.
"I'm fine with being in the wrong if it means I can get more sleep." He felt himself get up slightly fumbling around for a blanket before 2 pale arms wrapped around his chest and pulled him off the bed, he was too tired to fight back. Or, at least the person he saw this through was.
"Sasu…I want sleep." He could feel himself mumble sleepily as lights filtered in his vision.
The room he was in was blurred as he was pulled off the bed, but he could still see the arms razor clear, wrapped around his chest. He looked back at the person and saw one last look of the black eyes before the eyes molded and shifted as the black turned into sharpened pupils and yellow seeped into the sides.
He felt something constrict around his chest, he could feel the pain, it was him there, or himself in himself.
He could feel more confusion as it doubles when seemingly he, or the other him, was confused as well wildly shifting his head from side to side.
He heard the hissing travel around and the shaped around him, moved, not the, he was moving, but more so like the room was moving itself, as if the walls were crawling. As something detatched suddenly from the floor he knew why it was moving.
Just suddenly it popped in front of him, protruding from the huge slithering mass, it's white fangs shining like pearls and yellow eyes poised on him, he knew that the snake was simply a huge slithering mass of snakes.
He didn't move to run or anything however, he could feel himself, weak and in pain try to, but he couldn't.
It slithered to him slow and lankily it came up around him in the same matter, coming up around his feet, his legs, he could feel his ankles being crushed, but he did nothing, he couldn't do anything. It constricted around his torso and so did the pair of arms.
They weren't the same arms from earlier, they were longer and visibly paler and he could see the bone sticking out if the elbow.
It wasn't the same person.
But he still didn't fight, he still couldn't fight.
The snake came up around his arms making sure to make both of them limp and useless in its slithering scales.
Its eyes were lifeless, as its cold scales ran across his skin.
It wasn't alive.
And the cold, malnourished body behind him, it wasn't alive either.
He felt the white fangs brush against his collarbone, drawing blood from the force applied.
They brushed his neck.
He felt the sting that spread, in an instant.
A burning sensation traveling through his nerves, frying them.
He heard himself scream, or the other him, but it was really both of them.
He could feel just as much pain.
It spread up his spinal cord and blossomed over his whole body.
But then he noticed something.
Was it the person behind him or the snake that had bit him?
Both?
The shifted around him and he felt himself struggle, he felt himself finally lash out, but against his will as his body jerked around.
The voice hissed.
"Do you think he'll survive?"
"I'm not sure."
But, was the one who spoke the man or the snake?
No.
Both
He snapped his eyes open and he felt the fleeting memories slowly slip.
He fumbled for his pills, frantically, as the sweat dripped from his pores and his heart raced.
It was a different dream
-Line break-
What happened when your teacher is a lazy jerk and decides you can't do anything even when his lesson plan didn't take the whole day? You became bored.
Very, very bored
He hung his head back and behind his chair slowly watching the minutes tick away slowly before he became interested in kicking the seat half back and pulling back forward, he only stopped when he had a near collision with the floor and then he slumped onto his desk, his head lolling around on his crossed arms lazily. His next amusement was blowing his spiky bangs from his eyes, again, and again, and again.
He repeated his mundane hair blowing until suddenly the door at the front of the room slammed open violently. He jolted back into a sitting position, clumsily, as the door thundered and shook when it collided with the wall. He brought his attention to the front of the room, slightly pissed at the newcomer for almost making his face friends with the floor.
"Am I late?"
He, surprised, looked over at the clock, he wasn't mistaken-15 minutes before the school day ended and he asked if he were late? He laughed not loudly enough for the newcomer to hear, until the person next to him, previously sleeping, elbowed him in his side and shot him a dirty look before letting his head fall back into his crossed arms.
The teacher himself seemed speechless and checked the clock himself before he cleared his throat. "Who are you exactly?" It occurred to him that he had never seen the fellow teenager, not in any of his classes or in the school at all. He felt his anger slip away to be replaced with curiosity and with nothing else to do he turned his attention to the exchange between the two.
"Oh sir, I'm Kiba Inuzuka I'm new here." The teen, or Kiba handed some papers over to the teacher who gave a quick look over them. "Oh, ok let's see where there's an empty seat..." The teacher's eyes scanned the room before they landed on him, and he grabbed his backpack out of the seat next to him,
It was a rare occurrence that one could have an empty seat next to them, and now it was simply unattainable.
"Why don't you go and sit next to Naruto. " The teacher pointed up to him. "Why don't you raise your hand?" He could've sworn that as his name was spoken the brown haired teen had looked shocked but he brushed it off and raised his hand lazily up in the air. As the teen sprung up the steps, he could almost hear the eyebrows rise and scoffs made under breath, well he did hear the latter, but only faintly. As the brown haired teen sat down he dropped loudly down on his chair and made a big show of flinging his backpack to the ground as well as shuffling out his pencils and papers.
He looked the kid over, a brown mess of spikes, tan skin, red cheek tattoos, cinnamon eyes, and a large toothy grin that seemed perpetually spread across his face.
"Hey, he doesn't let us do anything but read these last few minutes, just a fair warning. I mean, not to say you'll get caught"
The kid slightly turned his head, and he saw his nose twitch slightly.
"Do I smell or something…"
And as the kid looked down at him he comically backed up frantically, at least 3 feet. "Uh…"
"Is there something on my face?"
Ok, now he was actually worried there was something wrong with him or the new kid.
"Uh, no, you just sort of look like this old friend I used to have…, like, alarmingly so… "
"Used to-?"
The teen interrupted "He died a while ago…"
"Oh, sorry."
He once again amused himself in mundane activities as he watched the clock tick away.
As the bell rang he felt a rush of relief spread through him as he grabbed his bag and split for the door.
-Line Break-
"Hey guys, you won't believe this kid at the school you have me stationed at."
As Kiba came in he flung his backpack on the bed of their hotel room before flopping on said bed with a large sigh. Another teen with brown hair came from the bathroom, but he had paler skin and much longer hair. He unlike the other teen, had an air of elegance.
"Oh, really, why would it be so?"
The teen stopped from answering as a large dog bounded into the room and with a large leap bounded onto him and the bed and immediately started licking him frantically after a good minute he pushed the dog off playfully, regaining his breath, he did answer. By then their other roommates walked in, one had a large hoodie on and dark round glasses that perched on his nose, the other had a head of raven hair.
"Hey Akamaru, calm down…" He nodded to the others in recognition of them.
"This kid, he just…I mean it's hard to explain, well not really." He paused a moment before continuing. "I mean he just looked a-lot like Naruto, but older….I mean he smelled like him too." He propped himself against his pillows.
"Just…I mean this kid, he…"
By this time the male with large glasses had already disappeared into the shadows slightly, and the raven haired male had sat down at a table situated parallel from his bed, the long haired one sat down across from him and perched his hands under his chin, both were listening intently.
"I mean, Neiji, Sasuke you guys just wouldn't believe, like he was slightly different just I mean he had the cheek things…and like, it's just-." Another interrupted "Kiba, we believe you, it's probably a coincidence I mean, right Sasuke?" The long haired male looked over to the other across from him. "Well then, it's 2 coincidences in a row…" He could see his roommate's eyebrows rise. "I saw another look-alike on my scouting yesterday, might've been the same person."
Everyone quieted down.
"Right it's all coincidence."
The silence didn't lift.
A couple of hours passed and they went in and out of the room doing their various tasks, they hadn't got their exact job yet, so they least they could do was make sure that everything was ok in the city around them.
Kiba flipped through his magazine, Akamaru cuddled up next to him and he could see the others in the room getting ready for bed in his peripheral vision. "I'll watch tonight, you guys should sleep. "It was Sasuke who had said it, his one visible eye obviously showing that it was a command that couldn't be flexed, even if they did complain, not that they would anyway, they all knew that Sasuke didn't need much sleep
As he flung the magazine across the room Akamaru raised his head in surprise but lowered it quickly. He then heard a slight pit-patter of footsteps heading down the hallway and the door was flung open as he caught a whiff of rain, he jumped out of bed.
"Kakashi, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, hey guys… the said man walked in silver hair kicked up in the back and a large scarf wrapped aroud his neck that covered the lower half of his face.
"I just got some more intel on the job, came from Tsunade herself, I haven't even read over it myself, just gave a packet to Sakura and Ino." As Kakashi strutted in he could see the papers nestled in the crux of his arm and elbow. The man dropped the papers on the desk.
"They have some easier targets than you so I think they'll be fine on their own, just in case, Shino, you'll be their call-to for backup. The said man seemed to materialize with his large trench coat covering him completely. "Now I know it's almosht beddy-bye time Neiji-weiji, but don't cry you can get to shleep shoon kay'" Neiji narrowed his eyes, but other than that showed no signs of noting his comment.
"Ok, this is our target he pulled out a couple papers from the pile." They all nodded. "He doesn't look like much but he's one of the main 9 in the Akatsuki, don't ask me why he's here or how we found him, the first they haven't found out and the second it was probably Ibiki's unit figured it out." They all understood that they probably didn't want to know what Ibiki and the interrogation unit had done to get such precious information.
"He specializes in bombs, he uses a strange technique where he molds clay with these weird…hand-mouths…" He pulled out another picture, a fairly blurry one but it was clear enough to show the mans hands, with mouths on each one. "I think the main point to fighting him would be to immobilize those…but he can also mold the clay into other shapes as well." He shifted one of the pictures out from another. "Like birds and such, which he uses to distance himself from enemies while he attacks them. We don't have Sai here to make birds of out own, and Sasuke still has yet to sign the raven contract so that's another thing we'll have to work out."
He continued.
"But he's very arrogant and flamboyant, he gets angry easily, which we can use against him, Kiba you could work that angle, make him clumsy in movements." He gave a slight nod, it was simple knowledge that when someone got angry their moves would become more clumsy and less planned, unless there was the rare occasion that it made them better when guided by a range. They all understood that it was a gamble, if anything.
"Right, so I was thinking there are several ways that you could attack him, Sasuke could try a chidori shock through the ground, but Neiji would be…"
-Line Break-
He stood in front of the small office and gulped. Should he even go in? No it was a dumb idea. Or was it? Maybe he really should go in. but maybe it really was dumb. But seriously it's not as if I'm insane, just amnesiac. I mean it's normal for people to always have nightmares…right. Well, no it isn't-but- No, I should go in, I made an appointment. Well, even so.
He gulped loudly, his Adam's apple bobbing up as he decided to in the end go into the doctor's small office. He shakily raised his sweaty hand and pushed open the frosted glass door that led into the office.
He proceeded over to the check in desk. Ignoring the stares that were shot his way, he looked different than the people after all, he seemed like a normal teenager that had walked into the wrong joint. The people ranged and varied, but they all seemed to have a glimmer to their eyes, a couple of kids, teens, one middle aged man eyed him seemingly interested.
Except for the couple of old-timers probably here for Asperger's and such…
He gave the guy eyeing him a glare and the man looked away like a child caught stealing from a cookie jar.
"I'm Naruto. I'm here for an appointment with doctor Sai…"
The nurse looked up, lips drawn in a thin line and hair pulled in a right bun, she eyed him from top to bottom, her slit eyes trailing and lingering. She smacked a piece of bubblegum in her mouth.
"Naruto?"
He nodded as she smacked a couple more times, louder.
"Sign in. he's downstairs down the hall, second to last on the right I'll give him a call that you're here."
He quickly jotted his name and arrival time down, eager to leave the room as he saw her wheel away and pick up the phone.
"Wait, you have a downstairs?"
She smacked her gum.
"Well, yeah, how else could we fit so many patients, all of them have appointments…well most"
He didn't linger on the subject and quickly hurried down the hall and through the stair, to which he went down another hall. He wondered how big the office really was. "Um, hello, he knocked on the door but as he did so, it pushed open and he went ahead and came in."
"Naruto, yes?"
He jumped up slightly from the voice behind him.
"You're Sai, I'd have to presume?"
"Who else would I be?"
The man slid behind the desk and he was surprised to find he didn't look much older than himself.
"So, nightmares was it?"
-Shrugs- I could've done better…I will go back in and fix this chapter up. Fun fact: I didn't even have that dream in there in the first version but it was still longer. I had an idea where Kiba and Naruto would become friends but I scrapped it and skipped over to the doctor Sai, he will turn into a pretty major character but for the first while he'll be pretty minor besides prescribing Naruto with…well I won't spoil it.
-my sister took a video of me saying this-…" Why can't I write more, hands work, I see book in head, Uggghhhh, I had more words in the last one and that had less mat- you know what I'll rewrite it."-she's a jerk-