Title: Of Illusion and Reality
Author: DnKS-giRLs
Rating: PG
Pairing: you can take this as hints of SasuNaru, but in our personal opinion, there's no pairing…
Disclaimers: bweh... teh usual not ours 'n no profit... clear? Good...
Warning: OOC... pointless... rambling... stupid... hmmm any other bad word you can come up with? Oh… forgot one thing… this is a death-fic!
The sound of the door creaking open made the girl who was fussing over the dishes look up and face the source of the sound. It was just the very beginning of summer, the air was humid and, above all, hot, even though the sun had just risen a few hours ago. But she had no surprise seeing her guest in his full clothes. She casually regarded the new coming visitor and smiled.
"He's out, you know," she said as soon as she saw the man standing on the doorstep, ignoring the fact that he had not even uttered a word about the reason why he came. But, as usual, there was always some sort of understanding between them, she could not expect otherwise, though, with the fact that she had been his student for… how long was it? Five… maybe six years?
"Aa… I see…" the man sighed. "Training?"
"He said so…" she said. Without her commanding them, her fingers had found their way back to the dishes. She washed them again without putting much of her mind in it. Strange, maybe her unconscious mind just did not let the dishes lay unforgotten while she was talking with her guest. She hated dishes, and it seemed her fingers too for they reluctantly did the job as if they wanted to get rid of those dirty plates as soon as possible.
"With Sasuke?" the man asked again, with a tinge of bitterness in his voice.
Her fingers stopped at the name, but soon, she came back to her senses again. There she went, washing the dishes again. At least that could make her busy enough so that she wouldn't cry over the spoken name.
"He said so…" she answered.
"I see…" the man sighed again. "He hasn't come out from that yet, hasn't he?"
She didn't answered, there were still so many dishes to do, she reasoned, so she could not waste her time to answer such rhetorical question like that.
"You know, Sakura, actually you don't need to do this," the man said.
"What? Washing the dishes?" she asked. She almost laughed at the dry joke she tried to pull.
"You know what I mean," the man softly said.
She dipped her hands lower to the sink. Searching for some forks or anything to be washed, but found none. Her fingers had done a terrific job, the dishes were done. So she sighed, for the dishes or the question, she did not know.
"Then what should I do?" she asked. "At least as his friend, this is all I can do; to look after him, cook for him, and wash his clothes and dishes… I can't do much… not after he…"
She let the rest of her words unspoken, but the two of them knew what was there to fill up the space.
Not after he died…
"Naruto… seems still not able to accept the fact, doesn't he?" her guest said.
She laughed, "Oh, yes… every morning I see him walking to the training ground. He's always smiling, saying that he should hurry up because he does not like to wait."
"Maybe it's hard for him… because…"
Again, the sentence was unfinished, but in her mind, she finished it herself.
Because he was the one who killed him.
"I shall look for him," his guest said. She saw him walking away from the corner of her eyes, and then suddenly she called.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
The man stopped, though he did not turn his face.
"Are you going to say it to him… the fact that he is dead?" she said carefully.
"Even if I say it, do you think he'll believe that?" the man said.
She laughed. "Yes, it's Naruto we're talking about, he won't believe such things," she said. "But I prefer him being in his dream forever… the dream in which he is alive..."
"Why?" the man asked. And for once, she felt really sure of her answer.
"Because he's happy." She said. "In his dream, they are happy, can't you see it?"
The man said nothing. She too kept silent. A moment passed and she found herself alone again in the kitchen. A sigh escaped her lips and automatically she searched for something to be done, but too bad, there was none.
The dishes were all clean. Damn her fingers for finishing their job so quickly.
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He walked alone to the place he knew by his heart. The training ground, for how many years had he trained in that place? Yet that time he went there not with any intention of training, rather he was searching for someone. Just one person, no matter what had been said to him; there was always only one person there. Naruto, his student, his stupid sad student.
The sound of someone knocking the ground was audible in that sunny day. He smiled as he saw the bright orange blur of movement, until suddenly, at one point, the thing that at first looked like an orange bouncing ball stopped. He was awarded with a wide grin and a happy childish voice screaming.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
He approached his student silently, smiling.
"Yo!" he said casually. "Training?"
"Yep, I was with Sasuke earlier but he has gone off, I wonder where…" his student, Naruto, said that without any trace of sadness. It was rare that time to find people who could speak up Sasuke's name without a hint of anger, sadness, or disappointment accompanying it.
But again, was he not the one who believed that Naruto was living in his own reality? In his reality, Sasuke was alive, safe and sound. In his reality, he was still friend with the said person. In his reality, he was happy. But in everyone else's reality, Sasuke was dead, killed by his best friend that he had betrayed years ago whose name is Uzumaki Naruto, his student, his stupid sad student.
He sighed inwardly in his heart. What a great thing it would be if he could just create his own reality like what Naruto had done. Yet he could do no such thing. He did not know if he should feel sorry or grateful on seeing his student like that.
"You are still training with Sasuke?" he said, careful not to show his bitterness to the person in front of him.
"Of course! I still need to beat that bastard until he admits my superiority!" Naruto said with enthusiasm. He could not help but smile at that.
"By saying that you indirectly state that you haven't managed to win over him," he said.
"Damn! I know that I'm bad at words!" his student grumbled childishly. The scene could always make him laugh, but the word always did not appeal that time for he could not laugh at all. Instead of amusement, he could only feel a bitter sensation in his heart.
For once, he was glad he always had his mask on.
"You're not given the title dead last for nothing, you know," he said.
"Well duh, do I look dead to you!" he heard his student's fuming words. "But it's surely rare to see you around lately, Kakashi-sensei, what's up?"
"Err… umm, let's see… the sky?" he said comically. He saw Naruto rolled his eyes in being purely annoyed.
"And they said I was an idiot!" Naruto said. "If that's the case, you should be an imbecile, you know that!"
"I even never guessed that you know such word," he smiled. "Maybe finally you start to grow up, eh?"
"No shit," Naruto grinned. He saw the boy dropped his body to the ground and sat there amongst the soft green grass. He followed suit. The grass felt so soft under him it almost felt like merely an illusion. The sky too looked so blue; he had never seen the sky being bluer in colour than that. The sunlight that hit his face too felt warmer than usual. The whole things seemed so unreal, him talking with Naruto about his deceased student, about his dead friend. It was so unreal, and when at one moment his eyes caught the blur image of a person standing on the shadowy area beneath the trees, he could not accept that as reality.
The image was getting clearer, revealing a shade of dark blue and a flash of smirk. He felt his breath being caught in his throat as he observed the image with growing interest, for once held no attention to what Naruto was saying. He found two deep orbs staring back at him and the face of his deceased student came into his view.
That day, without him knowing how, not that he really wanted to know anyway, he found Uchiha Sasuke was back to life.
In disbelief he continued staring at the image which became clearer and clearer as time went by. The lines of his feature got sharpened. The visage of his beautiful face became more apparent. The smirk on his face ever present, it disturbed him to no end. It was as if the boy knew something that he did not and was making fun of him from it. He could just continue to stare at the sight if Naruto did not suddenly speak to him.
"Ne, Kakashi-sensei…"
He found his face turning to face the source of the sound and the sight of smiling Naruto greeted him. That smile was strange, he mused, it was as if he knew something that he did not and was making fun of him from it. That smile was the very same smile like what he saw in Sasuke's face just now.
"Yes?" he asked, for once he felt his mouth so dry.
"Do you believe in ghost?" Naruto asked.
His vision spun. He could see Sasuke's image moved ever so slightly from his standing spot in the shadow. He could see him walking freely between the trees. He could see that as time passed, he became so real that all the things that were real became more surreal.
He could not distinguish again between illusions and reality.
"Why did you ask?" he asked back.
"Just want to know," Naruto said and after a short thought he added. "Sasuke also wants to know. Do you believe in ghost, Kakashi-sensei?"
The image became clearer. It was… he was walking to them now. His steps were so light that he believed those feet had never touched the ground as he walked.
"I do…" he said, could not avert his gaze from the walking figure. "I do believe in ghost."
The image smiled.
Naruto smiled.
And he too smiled.
Soft wind blew between them. Some fragile blades of the grass were uplifted and danced before their eyes. He blinked his eyes once and when he opened them again, the image was gone and Naruto was whining beside him about the boring mission he had just got. All those things, their conversation, him seeing Sasuke, seemed never to happen. But he knew that they were real, he knew that those things really happened.
"You two…" he said suddenly, not caring that he cut Naruto's ranting about what a pain in the ass his next mission would be. "You two will be just fine, right?"
At first he was greeted with silence, but a smile formed on Naruto's lips when he finally answered.
"Yes… we will be just fine…"
That was the answer he just hoped for. Satisfied with that, he stood up and stretched his limbs a little. He could see that he was no longer wanted there. His students were fine, and that only was enough.
"I think I'll go now," he said, nodded to Naruto who followed his act and now stood beside him. "Give my greeting to Sasuke, will you?"
"I will," Naruto said with the most sincerity he could find in the boy. Without further word, he took his leave, never once he glanced back. Not even when he felt a soft wind passing through him, not even when he saw a blur of blue on the corner of his eyes. He just walked away.
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He saw his teacher walking away from him without even stopped or glanced back. A sad smile was plastered on his face. Maybe people were always calling him stupid, but he was not stupid enough not to realize the reality.
He knew that Sasuke was dead. He knew that he had killed him. He knew that they were all thinking of him as crazy. He knew they pitied him. He knew all those things. He knew that those were reality, but it was his choice to live in his own reality, in which he could always be together with Sasuke, than to live in the real reality. He just could not bear it to live without the said boy. He had lost Sasuke for the first time when he went in his search for power. He had lost him for the second time when he killed him. Now he was with Sasuke again and he just could not afford to lose him for the third time. He could no longer endure the pain of loss that would surely come.
It was fine for him to remain like this forever, he thought, because for him…
A soft touch on his shoulder startled him. Turning his head back, he was rewarded with a sight that made him grin in happiness.
"Sasuke!"
It was fine for him to remain like this forever, he thought, because for him, that was reality.
-the end -
(A/N: just shoot us to death, please, if you hate this fic. Sending poison or flames or whatever things you used to send will only harm others and the environment. Our neighbours have complained about the trash and rotten vegs that always came after we uploaded a fic, so please… just shoot us to death. But if you love this fic, please leave a review. We love reviews. Oh yeah… we need a great doze of great reviews… meh… love you all and see you in our next fic…)