A/N: Oh my gosh, I am so sorry for the delayed update. I just couldn't write anything that sounded remotely good. So I rewrote this chapter FIVE TIMES. In different point-of-views, different content completely, etc. I just couldn't write anything! And it SUCKED. And I'm also sorry about the short-ish chapter.
I hope you'll forgive me.
Anyway, updates will probably be delayed for period of time. My honor classes are hard, and they are full of projects and homework, so please keep that in mind when you review, telling me to update soon.
I'll try my hardest.
The next morning, Naruto found him sitting in the corner of the apartment, with a kunai in his hand and a paranoid look in his eyes. Sighing, he gently removed the kunai from the Uchiha's hand and sat next to him.
"Where'd ya get it?" he asked, twirling the object on his finger. Sasuke looked from the spot on the wall he had been staring at, his Sharingan now activated.
"I found it."
"Ah." Naruto leaned back on the couch and watched Sasuke watch him.
They stayed like that for several minutes before Sasuke deactivated the Sharingan and blinked several times, trying to get the woman's voice out of his head. He'd heard it twice, and after going over the sound, he had determined that, in fact, it was a woman.
Sasuke sighed, frustrated. "Take me somewhere."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You know you can't go anywhere." Then, seeing the intensity of the Uchiha's glare, he sighed. "Fine. I guess the old lady won't mind if I go with you. Where do you want to go?"
There was a pause.
"Don't tell me you don't know where you want to go!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke looked down at his folded hands.
"Anywhere."
Naruto brightened and grinned hugely. "Anywhere?"
He watched Sasuke glare at the flaps of the ramen stand, still grinning. The glaring seventeen year old looked at his friend and sighed, frustrated. Naruto lifted a flap and walked into the stand. Then he ordered his usual; Sasuke didn't order anything. The sullen boy sat leaning forward, his chin resting on his folded hands. It was very similar to the way he sat the day Team 7 started, when Kakashi asked them to talk about themselves.
Naruto looked at Sasuke every few seconds, wondering what he was thinking.
"What are you thinking?" he asked. Naruto was one to cut straight to the point.
Sasuke looked at him out of the corner of his eye and sighed. "It's nothing. I'm just tired."
Naruto squinted at him and rubbed the back of his neck. "Tired? What have you been doing?"
The stoic seventeen year old rolled his eyes. "Not physically tired, dobe.Mentally tired."
"Did Shikamaru come over and play Go with you?"
(Sigh.) "I haven't seen anyone but you, the old lady, Kakashi, that other perverted Sannin, and the old lady's apprentice," Sasuke stated. He leaned back a little in his seat and rubbed his temples. What was that voice? Did it really happen? He hadn't heard it since that second time. After going over the voice once, he opened his eyes and watched Naruto stare at him.
Naruto visibly winced at something over Sasuke's shoulder.
"Hey, Dickless," said a man behind him. He turned around to see a pale ninja around his age, sporting a manufactured smile on his face.
"Stop calling me that!" Naruto growled, his cheeks turning slightly red. Then, turning to look at Sasuke, he said, "This is Sai."
Sasuke nodded at him.
"You mean this is the Worthless Bastard?" Sai asked. He was still smiling.
"Sai," Naruto hissed. "Don't."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What did you just call me?"
"Worthless Bastard."
The Uchiha stood up, glaring at Sai, who just smiled emotionlessly.
"And you are…?"
"Sai." He stuck out his hand, but Sasuke just looked at it like there was a fungus growing on it. "Okay. Never mind. I'm the guy who took your spot."
Sasuke scoffed. "You took my spot?"
Sai tilted his head, still smiling. "Yep."
Both ninjas were gradually stepping closer to each other, and when they were just two feet away, Naruto stepped in. Literally.
"Dobe, that's my foot. It's not a step-ladder," Sasuke hissed angrily.
"Hey, Dickless, watch where you walk."
Blushing bright red, Naruto glared at them. "Gomen," he said sarcastically. Then, to Sai, he said, "Come on, just stop bothering him. He's on probation, remember? Believe it."
Sasuke glared at Sai until he stepped back. Sai then bowed his head in Sasuke's direction, said, "It was a pleasure meeting you, Uchiha," and then disappeared.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Sorry about that Sasuke. He's always like that. Even Sak—"
"Forget it," Sasuke cut in. "I'll handle the apartment on my own."
He disappeared in a puff of dark smoke. Naruto blinked. "Sakura's apartment?"
Sasuke was just getting to sleep when he heard the voice again.
"I THOUGHT I MADE IT CLEAR TO YOU THAT I WANT YOU OUT OF MY APARTMENT!"
His eyes flashed red and he was standing on top of the futon in a brief instant. No one was standing in the room, but he thought he caught a flash of red in the doorway. He jumped off the bed, took the kunai he had stowed in the room earlier and slowly made his way to the door.
"Show yourself," he commanded. "If you don't, I will find you and I will kill you."
"Pssh, like you can kill me," the voice answered. "You can't even see me! I'm right in front of you."
His eyes flashed and the Sharingan swirled. Right in front of him? Did this woman have an invisibility jutsu or something?
"Why are you here?" he asked.
The voice was silent. "I…I don't know."
He gritted his teeth. "Okay, then who are you?"
"…I…I don't know."
"Did you know Haruno Sakura?"
"Sakura? That name sounds familiar."
He dropped the hand holding the kunai and stepped forward. "Were you a patient of hers? I heard she was a medic-nin."
"No, I don't think that's it," the woman answered. "Something more important than that."
Sasuke thought for a moment about how annoying this woman was being. She couldn't even remember her own name! How stupid could a person get?
Then suddenly, a person started appearing in the doorway. He took several steps back as he saw black shinobi boots, a light cream skirt, and a red shirt. The last thing that appeared was the woman's head with her bright green eyes and her sakura-pink hair.
"You're Sakura," Sasuke deadpanned. "That's why you're here."
Sakura tilted her head and watched him pace in front of where she was sitting. "You know me?"
Sasuke sat down on the couch in the living area and ran his finger through his hair.
"You mean, you don't remember who I am?" he asked incredulously. The girl had been in love with him since they were in the academy! And now she doesn't remember who he is? Something terrible must have happened.
"Well, I'm sure I would, but that's not important right now. What's important is that I figure out why I'm not in my physical body right now. Do you know of people that, well, know me?" She narrowed her eyes in concentration.
"There's Naruto, the old lady, Kakashi—"
"None of those names sound familiar," Sakura said, frustrated. Sasuke was beginning to feel frustrated himself. He did not want to be dealing with this. At. All. "And 'old lady'? How am I supposed to know her if you don't give me a name?"
He rolled his eyes. "Her name is Tsunade and she is the Hokage of the village."
"Hokage," she said, drawing out the syllables like it was a foreign word she was just getting used to. "What is a Hokage?"
"The leader of the village. He—or she—is usually the best ninja."
"Wow, I know someone like that?!" she exclaimed. "That is so cool!"
"Sure it is," he muttered under his breath. Then, so she could hear him, "I'm going to bed."
"But isn't this my apartment?" Sakura grinned devilishly. "Therefore, I get the bed. You sleep on the couch."
"But you're not even real, Sakura. You're a spirit, or something like that, and you're being annoying, okay? Leave me alone."
Something flashed in Sakura's eyes, but disappeared before Sasuke could catch it. When he left the room, she started fading away, until it was as if she had never been there.
