Chapter 10.
Sssssasuke
The next day is Saturday and Naruto and Sasuke work more on the apartment. Moving furniture, painting, and Sasuke repairs the part of the wall he damaged. They eat takeout, and Naruto shares his favorite ramen recipe but even though Sasuke has heard it before he listens to him. They work on some more simple exercises together still keeping training light, and before he knows it Hinata Hyuga is knocking on the door. Sasuke discreetly leaves them to their own devices. It is late enough in the evening that Sasuke gets the feeling the girl means to spend the night.
"Little pervert." Sasuke grumbles to himself as he tries to get comfortable in Sakura's bed.
What could Sasuke say on the matter? He to is using Sakura's apartment. What say does he have on Naruto doing what he pleases here. Especially when Naruto had been the better friend to Sakura all these years. If Naruto wants to screw Hinata Hyuga in Sakura's apartment that was something that doesn't concern Sasuke. So long as they keep it quiet, and away from Sakura's bed he doesn't care.
For the most part they are quiet, which as Sasuke finds out to be the worst thing they could do. Sasuke is struggling like most nights to fall asleep. Sasuke has a brief lapse in judgement, it is so quiet he thinks there's no way they could still be awake. He shoves the sheets back and heads to the kitchen to grab a snack or maybe a glass of water.
Sasuke doesn't get far because when he opens the door, and steps out into the hall he is paralyzed. From Sakura's room to the living room it is a straight view ahead. As such Sasuke has full view of the green couches. The sound of flesh slapping flesh is easy to make out. Sasuke is no more than a rabbit caught in a snare. He is afraid to move again, afraid they will see him standing in the hallway watching them. Naruto is in the middle of the couch, and his arms are thrown back on either side of it. His head lolling back in ecstasy. Hinata is straddling his lap, bouncing up and down to Sasuke's great horror. Sasuke retreats slowly, as quietly as possible but his hand just barely rolls the doorknob and it rattles. Naruto's eyes blink open and meet his, a lazy grin spreads across the idiot's face. Hinata hasn't noticed anything, she's to busy. As she keeps going Naruto motions Sasuke away with one hand like one would 'shoo' away a child.
When Sasuke shuts the door behind him, he feels his cheeks bursting into flames. Sasuke begins to think he is spending far to much time with Naruto lately. He resolves to ask one of the other shinobi their age to spar with him, and the sooner the better. Nara is an ass but he is smart, it would be a worthwhile fight. It's healthy to have more than 1 friend.
Sasuke thinks about jumping out the window and leaving but that would surely alert the Hyuga girl. He is stuck. Sasuke is grossed out, and embarrassed. A small part of Sasuke though is glad for Naruto, that there is a girl willing to offer him some kind of solace in the wake of losing his dear teammate.
Sasuke forces himself to think of all the shinobi he knows in Konoha. He goes over their strengths and weaknesses, their preferred jutsu and fighting styles. He hopes it will lull him to sleep, and it eventually does.
When Sasuke wakes it is later, the shadows around the room have moved. He isn't sure what time it is exactly, but he sits up when he remembers that Naruto and Hinata are on the couch. Something had woken him up, but Sasuke isn't sure what. He rubs the sleep from his tired eyes.
Then quieter, and lower than he thought a voice could go he hears it. Was it his name? No, no way. He is listening with rapt attention, because the first time he hears it he doesn't trust it.
"Sssssasuke..." it is unmistakable. A chill runs through him.
Sasuke curses his lazy ass teammate. Sasuke uses his Sharingan because this time he wants to ensure they are sleeping out there. He confirms and sees both Naruto and Hinata are indeed asleep. Leave it to Naruto to half ass the 1 thing he asked him to do. Just turn off the tape recorder, that was it. But no now Sasuke gets to go look for the stupid box at some ungodly hour of night when he was actually getting decent sleep.
Sasuke shoves the satin sheets to the floor and uncaringly makes sure he is extra loud as he looks around the apartment. He hopes it will wake that asshole up.
'I kissed Hinata Hyuga' Sasuke mutters to himself mimicking his friend angrily. Yeah kissed, right. It is beyond Sasuke why he allows himself to be put in these positions by Naruto in the first place. Then the more he dwells on it, he realizes he might actually be afraid to not be around Naruto. That if he had accepted Naruto's offer of his apartment, that there was a chance he would drop dead in Sasuke's absence. He was afraid to be apart from Naruto. It is funny to Sasuke how quickly he has managed to fall back into old habits. How easy it has been for him to start relying on Naruto again. More than ever this time.
Sasuke follows the gentle voice on the tape recorder, it pulls him closer and closer.
When he wrenches back the hall closet he is relieved to see the box is there. The closet has no light and so most of it is pitch dark, and Sasuke can't be bothered to mess with his sharingan again for something so trivial.
"Sssssasukee." He hears it again much closer than before. It is unsettling, and he swears he thought Naruto had said the tape had something to do with Sakura's hospital work. Clear as day though Sakura is saying his name, over and over dragging out the sound of the S like a snake.
Sasuke rifles around the box, digging in the dark and then he has it, he pulls it out, and steps back from the closet to where the moonlight is just peeking in from a window. He flips it over in his hands, the batteries are gone. Just to test it Sasuke flicks the power button a couple times, but nothing lights on.
There it is again, "Ssssssss..." it hits Sasuke as he spins back around. The sound isn't coming from the tape recorder. It's coming from inside the closet.
The closet is entirely dark apart from 2 very large, glowing green, disturbingly familiar eyes staring back at him. Sasuke drops the tape recorder, his heart slams against his chest, and he feels blood rushing in his ears. A sickly pale hand starts to manifest, and reach out to him from the closet. The hand is marred with scratches, and cuts. There is a ring on one of the fingers.
Sasuke is so terror stricken he moves to run away, but he trips on the discarded tape recorder. He tumbles forward with out any of the grace he learned as a shinobi. In this moment he is a piteous, simpering child, fleeing. Just like the night Itachi wiped out their clan. Sasuke crashes hard onto the ground, and his head cracks against the floor. His vision is going dark, but before he passes out the hand and glowing eyes in the closet recede.
Sasuke is being shaken, and shoved. He bats away the hands holding him, annoyed.
"What the hell are you doing, Naruto?" He grumbles at his teammate.
"What the hell are you doing, actually?" Naruto looks somewhere between concerned and scared. "Were you having a nightmare or like sleepwalking or-"
Someone has turned a lamp on, and there is a small amount of light. Which leads Sasuke to start wondering why Naruto is standing over him shirtless, then he sees Hinata at his shoulder. She's wearing Naruto's shirt.
"What, are, you, talking, about?" Sasuke pauses at each word giving Naruto the full effect of his annoyance.
"All i know," he starts and crosses his arms defensively. "Is we were sleeping peacefully, until you start yelling like you're dying, and then i find you passed out in the floor. My conclusion is you had a nightmare."
Oh. Then the grogginess of hitting his head starts to disappear, he remembers what he saw. Sasuke flings himself back on his feet.
"Did you see her, to?!"
"See who?"
"Sakura. She was right here in the closet, well she was like crawling out of the closet. Her eyes. They were glowing, and her hand it-"
A worried look passes between Naruto and Hinata.
Sasuke flips more lights on, and the closet is illuminated now. Nothing. Just he box from earlier, and some trash bags. No ghostly hand, and certainly no glowing green eyes. The tape recorder is on the floor, and Sasuke checks it again. Still no batteries.
Naruto wraps a hand around his shoulder.
"Sasuke, look it's okay. I get nightmares from time to time, i know it's scary and it messes with your head, but-"
"No. It was not a nightmare." Sasuke swipes his arm away. "I saw her." He wills Naruto to believe him, to see the honesty on his face. "She called my name."
He can see in the set of Naruto's jaw he still thinks it was a nightmare.
Then it occurs to Sasuke, hadn't he been conjuring up his own visions of Sakura. Letting himself imagine the smell of the coffee she drank and hallucinating that she was Ino at the hospital. He was putting visions of Sakura into fruition, willing them to be more and more realistic with each one he created. He had smelled the coffee, thought he was holding onto her clothing, and now he was seeing her crawl out of her own closet. Was he doing this to himself? Was he trying to punish himself in some way?
"Just go back to bed, loser."
"Sasuke, you're bleeding, you hit your head." Hinata tries.
"I'm fine." Sasuke glowers, and winces when he touches the sensitive spot on his head. Sure enough there is a bit of blood.
Maybe that was it, Sasuke tries to invent another possibility. Maybe he hit his head and just made up everything he saw. He knew he for sure passed out. Very well it could just be his lack of sleep, he rationalizes. But this time felt different than the other times somehow.
Naruto throws his hands up in defeat, and covers his yawn with his hand as Sasuke watches him and his girlfriend crawl back onto their dead teammates couch.
The green couches, Sasuke no longer thinks of as cozy. Now he describes them more with the word menacing. The green reminds him of the piercing eyes in the dark of the closet. It's all Sasuke can think of long after he lays back into Sakura's satin sheets. He doesn't sleep the rest of the night.
Had it really been her?
Later that day Sasuke decides that if Naruto can manage time with Hinata, he can manage a light spar with him. When they are both bloody, and exhausted. They limp off the training grounds, in opposite directions, both of them still mildly in the frame of mind to punch one another. Sasuke bets Naruto is headed to be healed by Hinata, and his pride won't allow him to follow after.
Sasuke didn't mean to end up at the hospital, he still hates the place. He was going to grin and bear his injuries, let them heal naturally. But then he remembers Ino. Before he knows it he's there, and he's giving her name to the receptionist, asking if she's working. Sasuke sits at a bench as they call Ino down, she was assisting with some non emergency procedure they told him.
When she comes down the last step, and into his line of sight, Sasuke sees her take in his appearance just briefly. His lip feels busted, and Naruto took a cheap shot at his ribs so his hand is pressing against his side nursing them. Ino waves him over, leads him to a private room, and starts to work on him. She doesn't ask him any questions. She just helps him. Sasuke can see why Sakura liked her. She isn't the devil in kitten heels. She's a kind girl whose best friend died. Ino is a girl who decides to help the teammates her friend left behind, with no benefit to herself.
Ino flips her long blonde ponytail, and Sasuke can smell her shampoo. It smells like flowers. She smiles at him.
Author's note/ My lovelies, my darlings i'm sorry. Sasuke still has quite a bit to go through before our story closes. I would like some feedback on something though. I have 1 chapter in Sakura's POV would you rather have it sooner or later, because to be honest it really doesn't matter when i give it to you. I'm thinking this story will come in somewhere around 30-40 k. Cocaine jesus by rainbow kitten surprise was my song of choice while writing this chapter. Enjoy!