Chapter 12.

Constellations

There's a knock at Sakura's bedroom door.

Sasuke rolls over to check the time. 2:35 AM. He hadn't been asleep the manilla folder was to fresh in his mind, he was just lying comfortably in the sheets.

"Hey are you awake still?" It's Naruto. "Wanna see something cool?"

"What, loser?" Sasuke grumbles, getting himself out of bed and opening the door.

"Okay, i've kind of been saving this to show you, and it's just really cool." Naruto pushes passed him into the room, and belly flops on the bed. A child. His best friend is an actual child.

Naruto is on his back with his legs facing the wall behind the headboard. His feet are up against the wall.

Sasuke stands at the open door, gaping at him. "Flip the lights off." Naruto commands.

Sasuke begrudgingly does as requested. The sooner he placates Naruto the sooner he can have peace again.

"You have to lay on the bed with me, Sasuke." Sasuke hears the sound of the sheets being patted, suggestively. Sasuke's cheeks flame.

"Hell, no."

Sasuke is about to walk off, but Naruto knows how to press his buttons.

"Sakura-chan made something, and lying back on the bed like this gives the best view. Geez. Can you pull that stick out of your ass already?"

Knowing he will regret it, later Sasuke carefully sits the bed with Naruto. He activates his sharingan to ensure he is an acceptable distance away from him though. He lays back like Naruto and his legs dangle off the bed, and into the floor.

Sasuke had already gathered that Sakura was creative, and artsy. He had found some little projects of hers around the apartment as they cleaned. His favorite being her coffee mug.

"Let's have it then."

"1.2. And Magic-" Naruto takes a foot and taps it on the wall. Sasuke is a bit stunned at first. "Cool right?" Naruto asks.

"It's, wow." Sasuke can't find any other words.

The ceiling above them that was dark and empty is now lit up. Glowing dots are painted in patterns that glow with chakra. It's the stars, the constellation's just like the night sky. And it's all been recreated above Sakura's bed. It's breathtaking.

"How are you doing this?"

"I'm passing chakra through my foot." Naruto pulls his foot off for a moment and they plunge back into the darkness. Then the stars blaze again when Naruto's foot touches the wall again.

"Sakura made this." Sasuke is reverent.

"Yeah, she was always making stuff, alot of pottery. Sai gave her some pointers on this, she was newer to painting."

Sai. The replacement in team 7. Sasuke knew he had been on a mission during Sakura's funeral, and he briefly wondered how Sai had taken the news. People had said Sai was even less emotional than Sasuke. Had Sai been effected at all? He had to be Sasuke rationalized. If Sai had taken the time to help Sakura with something like a chakra activated painting, Sasuke found it hard to believe he wasn't at least in some degree upset. Perhaps he might even want to join them when they met Sasori in battle. Sasuke tucked that thought away for later.

"When Sakura showed me this the first time, i felt like a little kid again. Like we were still those little genin, out on a mission, somewhere. The 3 of us used to sleep under the stars all the time, do you remember?"

"Yes." They were some of Sasuke's favorite memories.

Seeing the painting above him settles it for Sasuke. He had toyed around with the idea of buying Sakura's apartment for himself. He hadn't wanted to before because he felt like owning property in Konoha would just be another tie to the village, and he already had more than enough of those. Now that Naruto had shown him this hidden treasure, he didn't have it in him to let someone else have it.

Naruto could sense Sasuke's shifting mood.

"What are you thinking?"

"Shut up."

"We really have to work on your poor socialization skills, you know."

Naruto is still pumping the chakra, to keep the sky above them lit up. Now he had turned on his stomach with his elbows propping him up.

"My, poor what?" Sasuke asked already rising to take offense.

"Your poor socialization skills," Naruto says helpfully. "that means-"

"I know what it means, loser." The day Sasuke takes a lesson from Naruto Uzumaki on socializing, it will be a cold day in hell.

Then Sasuke remembers the ring from Sakura's autopsy photos.

"I looked at the folder earlier. Sakura had a ring on. Did she always have that ring?" Sasuke can only think that he missed it, he never paid enough attention as a kid, and somehow his subconscious must have pulled it back up to make his nightmare more real. That was plausible right?

"Oh, actually i think i gave that to her as a birthday present the year after you left the village." Naruto's face scrunches up in thought.

Oh. Then that meant-wait.

"You gave Sakura a ring?" Sasuke had wondered if there hadn't been something more between Naruto and Sakura at some time. Kakashi's words ring in his head. Sakura and Naruto were 'close'. He hadn't really wanted to know, but now the subject had been brought up and Sasuke already asked.

"It wasn't like that at all." Naruto is quick to answer. "The ring was my mom's but Sakura was only ever my friend. My sister really. I gave her that ring with a promise, but it wasn't marriage."

"What did you promise?"

"We were both depressed when you left, i thought i could cheer her up some on her birthday. I promised Sakura i would bring you home. I told her when you came home, she could give the ring back to me."

"She never got to give it back to you." Sasuke's throat feels dry.

"No."

They are quiet for a time. Naruto scratches the back of his head. Neither of them are sure of what to say now.

Sasuke knows he will need to digest the information he's just been given. Naruto had given Sakura a ring. She had been buried with the ring. The same ring Sasuke had seen on the hand in the closet. Now that he knew Sakura had gotten the ring after he had already left the village, he couldn't shake a feeling in the pit of his stomach. Sasuke couldn't have hallucinated a ring he never knew existed, and if Sakura had been buried with that ring...

Sasuke can't stay on his current line of thought when Naruto asks. "What do you think happens, after?"

"After?"

"Like after we die, like Sakura, where do we all go?" Naruto tries to keep some lightness in his voice like he had asked some flippant meaningless question, and not let on that he was having an existential crisis in his head.

The afterlife, what is it exactly Sasuke wonders for himself.

"Maybe it's nothing. Like we just stop existing." Sasuke wants to believe the words he says, but he doesn't. He's hoping to convince himself much more than Naruto that nothing awaits them after death.

"So our souls, you think they just disappear?"

"Our bodies disappear eventually, it's not hard to imagine that maybe souls do to."

"I- come on man let's go train or something." Naruto wants to drop the subject, now. His concentration on the painting above breaks. Naruto flips the light switch on and Sasuke's eyes sting as they readjust to the light.

Sasuke doesn't really like the act of conversation, but this conversation he thinks they should push through.

"Naruto." They exchange a look. They need this. They should share their thoughts on what they thought had happened to their dead teammate, even if they only talk about it this once. "Please."

Naruto sighs. He sits back on the bed with Sasuke gently. Both of them are sitting up with legs off the sides.

"I don't really know that i believe in a heaven. Like floating clouds and that stuff. But i also don't think i believe it's just nothing after. I can't believe that everything she was, is gone. Sakura's body, her soul, all of it gone. I think there's more to death than nothing."

"So you think they might stay with us in some kind of way?" Sasuke doesn't want to use the word 'ghost', but he is thinking it. The closet. The hand. The ring. Could he have seen Sakura's ghost?

"Yeah of course they do. But they only stay in our memories. In our hearts." Naruto seems to realize exactly where Sasuke's head is. On the incident from the other night. "They stay in our dreams, nightmares to sometimes."

"It was so real Naruto. She was so real. She said my name. If i had just reached out, i swear i could have touched her." Sasuke can hear the fragility in his own voice. He stares at his hands in his lap. He feels so vulnerable telling these things to Naruto.

Naruto scoots closer, he wraps an arm around Sasuke's shoulders, and Sasuke does not push him away.

"I know. I know. I understand i really do. But all we get is memories, when they die they can't come back physically at least." Sasuke is glad Naruto doesn't use the word 'ghost' either. He feels his shoulder as it is squeezed. "but it was only a nightmare, okay?"

Naruto has to be worrying about his sanity, by this point.

Even though he doesn't mean it Sasuke replies. "Yeah. You're right, Naruto."

The heaviness between them lifts when Naruto says. "Allright, well talking about this stuff wasn't so bad." Naruto chuckles. "I think that was the longest conversation we've ever had without wanting to kill each other."

Sasuke takes in how close they are, still very much hugging on the bed, how he can feel Naruto's breath on his face. Sasuke pushes him into the floor.

"I'm about 5 seconds away from putting you under a genjutsu."

Sasuke straightens his bed sheets avoiding making any further eye contact.

"If you ever tell anyone we laid in this bed together, i'll return the broken nose you gave me." Sasuke's tone is low.

"That's fair." Naruto replies embarrassed.

Author's note/ Nothing like some teammate bonding time. I think my favorite things to write are the Naruto and Sasuke scenes. Also a little warning for the next chapter. If anyone in any way is triggered by cemetery's or graves, maybe this isn't your cup of tea. Our next chapter is going to be...interesting. I don't want to say to much but i also want you guys who are reading to realize that this story allthough it has some light hearted moments is very dark. It's going to be another twist in our story, and poor Sasuke doesn't know what's in store for him. Let me know your theories. I love reading your comments, and encouragement. Also wohoo we hit 20k with this chapter! Bastille- the weight of living was my song of choice.