three time's the charm


Summary of the chapter:

"...can I touch you?"

"Hey, take me out to dinner first, then we can get to the 'touching' bit."

. . .


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4 years back

.

"Hey, c'mon! Wait for me!"

A twelve year old Naruto is trudging behind his teacher and his other two teammates with a scowl plastered across his face (that is truthfully more of a pout). The rational complaints (annoyed whines) on the tip of his tongue are interrupted here and there by the occasional yawn.

He's tired. No, actually, scratch that, it's an understatement. He is exhausted, so much that he has trouble keeping his eyes open. His usually endless reserve of liveliness and energy is replaced by a wave of lethargic drowsiness that takes over him step after step, making him feel somewhat of a zombie.

Team 7 spent the last three days on a D-rank mission that was supposed to be a walk in the park—they had to return a cat to a nearby village. That was it. Naruto had even whined about the unchallenging mission—'I'm gonna die of boredom like this!'—which was answered with, - 'No one has ever died of boredom before,'- to which Naruto had countered with— But Kakashi-senseeeei! I'm gonna be the exception here!'

But of course the mission did not go as planned, with their team this was quickly becoming a routine of sorts, so it was almost unsurprising that after a day and a half they were ambushed in the middle of the trek.

Naruto had not recognized where the enemies were from, Kakashi had definitely mentioned it but he would be the first to admit he wasn't paying much attention to begin with. As much as he loved the thrill of fighting against skilled ninjas, this quickly turned into more of a challenge than he could have initially anticipated.

Which is how, after finding himself outnumbered and backed into a corner with the bad guys having the upper hand, he...didn't really remember much about what happened next.

Well, except for the chakra filling up his body all at once, it seized the energy inside of him and released it in a burst so powerful he thought for a moment he had been thrown out of his body. When he had come to, they had apparently managed to fight off the ninjas, and Sakura was looking at him with a sort of wonder mixed with concern, Sasuke with questioning eyes, and Kakashi, for a change, was way too serious. But, just like the mission they completed, this too is a bit of a blur.

What is crystal clear, however, is the exhaustion now hanging over him like a heavy cloud. He feels as if someone took a straw and sucked the last tendrils of his stamina, draining him. Given that they are still getting used to the workload and carrying out missions as a team, Naruto wonders if this sense of fatigue is common after such a fight and if it is something every other ninja experiences.

"Kakashi-sensei! Sakura-chan!" The boy calls again, completely aware it's a useless attempt at getting their attention since Kakashi is already way ahead, having said he wanted to drop off the mission's report to the Hokage as soon as possible, and Sakura is right behind their teacher since she wanted to head home sooner because of some errands she had to take care of.

And that would be fine, really...if Sasuke wasn't the one he has been left with.

They have practically arrived now, with Sasuke waiting near the gates of Konoha and looking positively bored (if boredom was a person it would totally have Sasuke's face, Naruto is certain of that). It's as if waiting for him is somehow a favor that Naruto owes him, the bastard.

"Teme! What are you looking at?!" He yells at him from a few feet away, already unnerved even if his teammate hasn't quite done anything to spite him—yet.

Sasuke barely scoffs in reply. "Hn."

Naruto grits his teeth, doing his best to hold back from picking a fight ('throwing a tantrum' is what Kakashi would call it).

Sasuke gets on his nerves. This is undoubtedly an unmistakable truth. What with that brooding attitude he possesses. And his arrogance, thinking that by merely existing he is already better than anyone else. The idiosyncrasies that make him up should be classified as an unending record, with each and every one of them pushing at Naruto's buttons in predictable yet unexpected ways. There are many, many ways in which Sasuke can be infuriating. But the apparently insignificant and undetectable details, those stick to him like glue.

A few examples include: how Sasuke never wants to be with others, he would rather choose to sulk in his own company than bask in everyone else's. He is always training on his own, Naruto has caught him once or twice doing so well into the night, and he acts as if that is reason enough to be held to a greater standard than the rest of them. He has this way of talking, always curt and too blunt, disrespectful and straight to the point, he is never interested in troubling himself with putting careful thought behind what spews out of his mouth. Whenever he makes the effort to acknowledge that other people exist beside him, it is simply as a way for him to criticise and deprecate anyone who is not on his level (Naruto has been on this end more often than he wants to admit). And except for reaching his goals he doesn't seem to care about much of anything, absolutely nothing.

But even if Naruto finds him this unlikable and unapproachable, and even if Sasuke simply talking to him the wrong way is enough to instigate him, he can't help but...wanting to befriend him (only occasionally though).

With the passing of time, however, he has started thinking that Sasuke might just end up being...unreachable.

Day by day, he can see him getting stronger. Truthfully, they all are. It's an undeniable fact. And Naruto won't certainly let himself be surpassed so easily, he knows that. But when he gets in over his head, when it sinks in and he has enough time to think about it, he sometimes fears that the slight gap between them since the academy days will sooner or later threaten to become an abyss...and one day he might be left behind.

One day, when he'll raise his head to look forward, he won't find Sasuke in front of him anymore, just out of his reach. He will be left seeing his fading shadow, because Sasuke has moved too fast and too far ahead for him to follow.

He doesn't want to admit this and tries his hardest to convince himself of the opposite, but it might just be one of his biggest fears. And even so...

...Sasuke is now waiting for him at the entrance of the village.

Naruto stops a dozen feet away from him, almost unconsciously, keeping his distance.

"You're slowing us down." Sasuke utters, although without any bite to his words.

They both know this is not true since their teacher and teammate are long gone by now, but neither comments on it. Instead Sasuke's eyes are fixed on him, as if looking for a reaction.

Naruto doesn't move.

Sasuke doesn't either.

He stands where he is, as if he has all the time in the world. As if he has nowhere to be once they go their separate ways. As if he would just keep waiting, if only Naruto asked him to.

Which is not true because Sasuke never does what Naruto tells him to, unsurprisingly.

But he also never turns out to be the way Naruto imagines him to be, surprisingly.

Sasuke is...unexpected, to say the least.

And that is infuriating in its own regard, because he can't seem to decipher him. He can't tell what goes on through his mind. He can't predict what his next move will be. He can't anticipate when Sasuke will end up being a huge pain in the neck or the rare, rare occasion when he...won't.

No matter how much he tries, and he tries so hard, it seems like Naruto can never get to know who Sasuke is. And that grates on his nerves all the more.

Sasuke is just so guarded, constantly rising his defenses all at once as if he doesn't even know how to be open, always wearing this 'perfect' mask that Naruto can't seem to break. Sometimes it almost feels like Sasuke is standing on the other side of a locked door that Naruto can't seem to find the key to.

But at the same time he thinks Sasuke is perfectly aware of it, almost as if he wants to hide away.

The fact that he can't seem to figure him out makes Naruto want to scream in frustration, sometimes, and it also makes him want to punch him in his perpetually scowling face, if only to get the answers he so desperately wants to know.

But, there is no way he will give up! Oh no, he has never been one to leave once the game gets tough and he definitely doesn't plan on starting anytime soon.

Ultimately, Naruto has sworn to himself that he will find out just who the real Sasuke is. No matter what.

...and maybe this is one of the reasons why he ended up getting so attached to Sasuke in the end.

Considering what happened in the aftermath, he really shouldn't have.

.

.

present day

.

Naruto's eyes fly open and he gasps for air.

He sits upright from the shock. Hunching over, head pounding against his palms and nails digging in his flesh to remind himself he's awake now. He tries to slow down, to deepen his breaths, chest caving in and expanding with the oxygen filling up his lungs, but the mixture of leftover dream and memory is making everything so much worse.

When he thinks he finally has some semblance of control over himself, gradually, he lets his body fall slack underneath the weight oppressing his mind's walls, exhaling audibly into the emptiness of his room.

"Bad dream?"

The voice barely registers at first, in his fuddled and sleep-rendered brain, and when it does, he ends up answering with a half-hearted nod. "...uh, yeah. Something like that, I guess–"

Naruto's mouth snaps abruptly shut when he remembers he actually lives alone, which means his apartment should be empty and there should be no voice greeting him awake. And certainly not this in particular, one that sounds far too familiar to his ears. He moves his hands away from his eyes, almost frightfully so, peering up through his fingertips at the owner of the aforementioned voice—

And finding himself face to face with him.

"What the fu–woah!"

The surprise is enough for him to instantaneously lean back, only to find nothing but air keeping him upright. Of course he tumbles down, falling off the bed and on his face.

Naruto groans pitifully from his newfound position, and takes a few seconds to silently debate with himself whether or not to stay on the floor and simply pretend nothing's out of sorts, because he's honestly way too tired to be having this kind of shock first thing in the morning.

Then he suddenly recalls who the prime mover of such inconvenient shock is.

He tries getting up, keyword tries, but after failing to do so, he settles for the next best thing, aka pushing himself on the cold pavement and forcing his weight away, scrambling until his back meets the sturdy coolness of the wall.

"Who the hell are you!?" He exclaims, bone-deep in the source of distress, and with vestiges of exasperation, leaving him to wonder how this is his life right now.

"I thought it might have been the shock yesterday, but...hey, not to be rude or anything, but you don't happen to suffer from short-term memory loss or something, do you?"

Naruto's eyes widen comically at the words and, swift like whiplash, distinct events resurface to the forefront of his mind.

Events that took place yesterday.

And the day before.

This voice, the face (although the attitude is questionable), they belong to the teammate he was just having fragments of a dream/nightmare/memory about.

And Naruto realizes he has another issue.

This particular issue is sporting jet black hair, a friendly grin slanted across his cheeks, and wide curious eyes currently taking him in.

And the issue's name is Sasuke Uchiha.

And, well...shit.


Naruto and—he's yet to decide who this individual actually is and what exactly is he supposed to call him in the meantime: Imposter Sasuke? Fake Sasuke? Sasuke 2?—are now locked in a staring contest after a brief conversation in which Sasuke— again, not real Sasuke—repeated most of what he'd stated previously.

Naruto is now sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed, with his back plastered to the wall. For some reason, a pillow managed to sneak in there, which he's now protectively holding in his arms, all the while he's trying to maintain a certain distance and keep himself alert for any imminent attack, because he does not trust...this guy.

Sasuke—or whatever one wishes to call him—has instead taken the other end of the bed, with one knee folded in, elbow resting in the crook of it, and chin in hand, appearing as normal as one could possibly in...such circumstances.

"...So." Naruto begins with no shortage of hesitation, trying to summarize this whole ordeal, and maybe even give it somewhat of a sense—because if he reruns it enough times inside his head this will start making sense...right?

"So." Sasuke echoes, a slight, amused ghost of a grin tilting his expression. "We're doing a rerun? Cool, let's take it from the top."

Naruto's nose crinkles a bit, his face scrunches up a little, in that unconscious way it usually does when he's treating an issue with scepticism. "You say you are...Sasuke."

Sasuke nods as if that is the truest and only possible answer. "I am."

"For some strange reason you...don't have chakra?"

"Yep."

"And you're not here to..." Naruto almost winces, trying to find the right words. But mostly coming up blank. "...stir any...uhh...trouble?"

A slow grin lifts up one corner of Sasuke's mouth. "No."

Naruto's eyes squint distrustfully, right away, and rightfully so in his modest opinion. "Riiight. Also... you don't actually know why you're here?"

"Nope."

"And you don't know how long you're gonna be here either..."

"Not a clue."

Naruto's brows slowly pinch together in apprehension, he's frowning at the next question out of his mouth. "...but you think it's got something to do with me...somehow?"

Sasuke practically snorts at this one, leaning back on his hands and thus creating another sliver of distance between them, that swiftly gets erased when his fixed stare pins him into place. Self-assured certainty pours out of his every pore with every word he utters. "Oh, I most definitely think it has everything to do with you."

If possible Naruto's brows furrow even more whilst the cogs in his brain whir and turn, and he's pretty sure there's an impending headache waiting for him right around the corner with all this unwanted thinking. He nods. "Okay." Then pauses, shaking his head. "Well, this is impossible."

"Why?" Sasuke asks. As if it's a legitimate question in the current situation.

"Because...you're not really him?" It's meant to be an exclamation, but it also comes off as more of a question.

"You think I'm not?"

"I–" Naruto stutters, flabbergasted. "...don't know! You tell me!" The more he tries to figure out whatever the hell is going on, the more he gets lost. Yesterday's encounter brings on a strange wave of déjà-vu.

"Well, it's me." Sasuke shrugs as if the answer in itself holds little relevance. "Your old teammate." But the way he frames it makes it come across as the complete opposite, his words sound too genuine to be put-on.

"Ex-teammate." Naruto corrects in a bout of absent-mindedness. Only realizing seconds later the sudden harshness that's seeped into his tone. He almost grimaces at it.

But to his continued surpise, Sasuke appears more amused than anything. "Ooh, we're dishing out epithets now? My bad, should I have called you 'feather-head' or 'scatterbrained blondie' instead, since it's been two days already but you clearly keep forgetting about me?"

"Hey!" Naruto falters mid-retort for a moment. "...That's not my fault!"

Sasuke raises a pointed brow. "Isn't it?"

"Oh, well, excuse my reaction, must be somethin' in the water or, I don't know, the actual shock." Naruto remarks, vexed and sarcastic. After letting out a weighty, world-weary sigh, he's dragging a palm across his face, accentuating his distress with a low grumble. "Fine. Let's just...drop that for now."

Following the other's example, he decides to lean back too, in the process strangling his pillow after the immediate and sharp realization he has nothing better to do to keep his hands occupied lest he starts fidgeting. With the way he's staring straight at him, he might as well be trying to crack the trickiest puzzle that's magically manifested itself in front of his eyes, but all throughout, while Sasuke keeps his cool about him, Naruto is trying to keep the panic inside his mind from taking over his body in a frenzy.

Breaking the sudden lull in conversation, he huffs, almost indignated. "What are you?"

Sasuke lets out an audible sigh, dragging his eyes to the ceiling in what seems to be a moment of exasperation. "When are you gonna drop the objectification?"

Naruto's eyes narrow pointedly as he retorts. "When are you gonna drop the sham?"

"This is the truth!" Sasuke exclaims, a bout of laughter trickling into his voice. "Why do you keep refusing it?"

"Because this–" He proceeds to make a vague gesture with his hand that's meant to indicate Sasuke. "–can't be happening! And you know that as well as I do! The real Uchiha Sasuke is somewhere else right now, maybe hiding away in one of those secret alcoves villains use to–"

He gets talked over by the mocking sound of, "'Villains?' O–kay, how many superhero films did you exactly splurge on?"

"–and there's really no way in hell you could be him!"

Sasuke hums after the little outburst, leaning more weight on his hands behind him, seeming thoughtful. "Well. S'probably true anyway."

"Ah–ha!" Naruto practically howls in triumph. "I told you–" As the seconds tick by however, he stops, his face pinching in evident confusion. "Uhh...what's true?"

At his dumbfounded expression, Sasuke's small grin stretches a bit at the corner. "That he's hidden somewhere in a top secret hush-hush hideout, or whatever."

Crossing his arms, Naruto nods resolutely to himself. "Yea. Told you so." Then the words, they sink in, deep enough for him to register them. "What?! So you're not him!"

"I am him!" Sasuke interjects with as much fervor, before shaking his head. "Wait, hold up, let's cut this out. Talking about yourself in third person in practically any context is downright weird...definitely not as 'cutesy' as some think it to be, yikes." The way he actually cringes on beat to his words is sort of comical.

But Naruto has a more pressing matter calling his attention. "But–But you said...you–?" He doesn't manage to suppress a groan amid his stuttering bewilderment, gripping at his own hair in frustration because this is so not making any sense whatsoever and it's driving him crazy. "Just what is happening right now?!"

Sasuke glances to the side with a mumble, seemingly downhearted with his own answer. "I don't know any more than you do."

Naruto rubs his face in an attempt at keeping it together, busies himself with drawing in a deep breath, his lungs caving with it. "So, you're telling me, there's, what, two of you right now?" The wavering words tumble out of his mouth before he can even crop up another imposter presumption.

Sasuke hums again, pondering over the question...before he bluntly replies with. "I think so?"

It takes Naruto a great deal of willpower to stop himself from face-palming, and maybe face-palm Sasuke in the process while he's at it, because what is supposed to be a revealing piece of information sounds anything but. Honestly, it would be more accurate to say he's being mocked. It also sounds like this guy does not have the slightest clue about what's even coming out of his mouth.

"You..." A slow scowl spreads as he rehashes. "...You 'think so'."

"I think so." Sasuke reaffirmes with a nod, somewhat looking like a child who has no idea what's going on but pretends to anyway.

At this point Naruto goes straight up to drawing his own conclusions. Again.

"That's it..." He states in a low voice, letting the crushed pillow fall from his arms when he raises them above his head, as if addressing a superior force. "I'm fucked up. That's it, isn't it?"

Sasuke chuckles, actually diverted, as he shakes his head at him. "No, you're not fucked up."

Naruto throws him a jagged look.

Stifling the remaining chuckles, Sasuke's face creases with a hint of seriousness, and if it had been anyone else Naruto might have mistaken the shift in expression to be concern. "If you want my opinion, I think that, in your own way, you're...just trying to work through things. That doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong, per se."

He makes a face at that. "Oh, so sitting across the...hallucination of someone who might just be on the other side of the world right now is 'working through things'. Yep, right, that is completely fucking normal, why didn't you say so sooner." He opines sardonically, even if his wide and frantic eyes ruin the level-headedness effect he likes to think he possesses, painting him into the more freaked out teenage version of himself that he actually is.

His 'guest' lifts his shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. "Listen, there's like, what, thousands of people in this world, alright–"

"More like billions, actually." Naruto interrupts this time with an incredulous little snort.

"–and we have no idea what happens to each and every single one of them. For all we know, there is at least someone else out there who's going through what you are right now." And he does sound like he's at least given this some thought and is actually trying to reason with him.

"...right." But he's still met with a blank stare. "I highly doubt that."

Sasuke's expression crosses in what appears to be a mixture of frustrated and delighted. "Hey now, you don't know that for sure, how are you so quick to whip out the wary approach?"

Naruto is more than ready to argue some more, but out of the blue a thought strikes him like thunderbolt splitting the daylight. And now that he thinks about it, it's something that he can't just seem to shake off...and furthermore, it connects with the theory of...ghosts.

Because if this person standing before him is really, truly, seriously a...ghost, then, could he, maybe, well, is that even possible at all or—

"Can I–" Naruto blurts out in the middle of his jumbled thought process before he can even attempt to stop himself...then ends up stopping anyway.

Sasuke—Ghost Sasuke(?)—is eyeing him curiously. "Can you, what?"

"Uh, well, if you–" Naruto scratches at the back of his head and breaks the brief and one-way uncomfortable eye contact, unsure if he could even ask otherwise. Never in his life has he ever thought he'd have to ask such a question before, to Sasuke nonetheless...or whoever, or whatever, looks like him. "...if you're, y'know, a, umm, hallucination, or, yeah..." A ghost, but he really, really doesn't want to say it out loud.

Sasuke seems to be patiently waiting for him to end with his fumbling, and Naruto doesn't even know how to tiptoe around this issue.

He truly doesn't have the slightest clue about how ghosts even work, except for the fact that ghosts are supposed to be scary, and this one is really not. And ghosts are also supposed to happen when people...are not here anymore, right? And with the utmost certainty, he feels it deep down in his core, he's absolutely, a hundred percent sure that this isn't the case. And the more he thinks about it, the less it makes sense, and yes, he's definitely going crazy now.

"...can I touch you?" Naruto finally spills, feeling very uneasy—let's make this crystal clear—but the exponentially increasing curiosity isn't letting him keep the intrusive thought to himself.

Because ghosts, or hallucinations, are not supposed to be...corporeal, or whatever. And if this is the case, if he can touch him, then it would absolutely make the guy in front of him an imposter who has borrowed the body and face of Sasuke...somehow. (...and the imposter apparently doesn't use an ounce of chakra? but Naruto will try to go about this an incredulous odreal at a time.)

However, if he truly can't touch him, then...well, then Naruto should probably check himself into the nearest mental hospital asap.

Sasuke sees his turmoil as clear as the day and lets it play out, and Naruto itches to wipe that fastidious smirk off his face in a way or another.

But, in all answer, Sasuke's smirk only grows, as does the mischievousness showing across his face. "Hey, take me out to dinner first, then we can get to the 'touching' bit."

Naruto ends up choking on his own spit.

A moment of silence passes...

And Sasuke is cracking up. "Oh God, you should see the look on your face right now, haha you're so freaked out!"

Naruto all but bristles with fierce irritation (and just a tiny little hint of mortified embarrassment). "T–That's not funny you idiot!"

But Sasuke is too busy cackling to listen to him, and in any other situation Naruto would be standing shock-still at such a display...

...oh, who is he kidding? Of course he is in absolute shock at this Sasuke, who is holding his stomach and laughing whole-heartedly. Naruto remembers only very few and in-between occasions where Sasuke had even emitted a sound that remotely resembled a laugh, and it had been years ago. This display in front of him now feels so...abnormal, to say the least.

"Oh, come on, it was a harmless little joke." The other boy relents with a wave of the hand once he's apparently done, leveling him with a friendly grin.

Naruto tries to reign himself in, too, even though this whole situation still feels too surreal. Way too ridiculous to be true. He scowls, pointedly ignoring the pinprick of warmth gathering at his cheeks, muttering under his breath. "Since when do you even know how to crack a 'joke'..."

Sasuke tilts his head to the side. Something shifts in the air between them, and the way he's looking at him now has something sort of intense wandering into his eyes. "You know, people do change."

Naruto's eyes lock with his and the words tumbling out of his mouth are immediate. "But you don't." Once again sounding more accusing than he intended for them to be and, in another moment of weakness, he almost takes them back.

Sasuke doesn't seem affected by this either, with the way his lips slowly shape up in the curve of a smirk. "Funny you're the one saying that...when you look at me like you don't even recognize me."

Naruto opens his mouth, ready to rebuke...but falters.

The silence stretches for maybe too long. Something else crosses Sasuke's features, something else he can't quite explain in words, but the sight alone is enough to make something else akin to hurt carve out an infinitesimal sliver of space inside his chest. Naruto ignores it.

In between passing moments, Sasuke's face is back to normal. Or the normal of the past two days. "Alright, to answer your question...well...hmmmm...let's see..." Once again he crosses his arms, momentarily closes his eyes for more of a dramatic effect, and it all looks a little bit too exaggerated for it to be true, like he's putting on a show as a distraction. "Not really?"

Naruto has to make a valiant effort, again, to remember what they were talking about before the change in subject. "...what does that mean?"

"It means you can try, if you want? But you won't feel anything." Sasuke says resolutely. But then he pauses, as if doubting himself. "Well, no, you might feel something. Like...an aura, maybe?" His brows knit in apparent concentration. "Isn't that connected to ghosts? Like flickering energy or something?"

Naruto gasps. "...so you are a ghost!?"

Sasuke shrugs. "Dunno. You said I was."

Naruto's mouth falls open and slams closed, not unlike a fish. "W–Well I don't know! You should know what you are!"

Sasuke gapes, affronted. "Excuse me?! I know what I am, thank you very much! Do you know what you are?!"

"What?!" Naruto grips at his hair and all but screams. "IYou–Shut up! You're confusing me!"

"Well, the sentiment's mutual buddy, 'cause you're confusing me too!" Sasuke yells back.

After a few more moments of screaming back and forth their frustration at each other, and Naruto getting even more bewildered by the second, they leap back into a silent stare down while trying to catch their breaths.

"...That...energy, or whatever you wanna call it...is that what's...supposed to happen?" Naruto is the one to break the spell first, he can't help himself because with each passing minute he is gradually starting to... believe in this crazed theory that little bit more, and that just makes him feel generally worse. "I mean...to, you know, since, you say–you're..." He ends up trailing off, almost unsure of what he himself is trying to say.

But Sasuke seems to understand anyway, even if his answer is still—"I don't know?"

Naruto lets his head tip forward and groans into his pillowcase. "...Isn't this supposed to be your area of expertise here?"

"Hey, hey, hey, it's not like I'm making house calls showing up and out of people's lives now!" Sasuke exclaims defensively, then, a moment later, rubs at the back of his neck as he looks to the side, a spark of uncertainty flickering into his voice, expression. "This just, sort of...happened?"

Naruto is about to ask him what the hell is 'this' exactly, but when he lifts his eyes from the worn out softness of his pillow, he sees Sasuke...at a loss. Which he finds to be a truly rare sight. The Sasuke he'd once been used to was always one for having strings of control wrapped around his fingers, for better or for worse...or for much worse. And now, for him to be unaware of the aura of mystery wrapped around his own circumstances...it's almost shocking on a whole other level witnessing him like this.

If anything, this should further the proof to back up his theory that this is not Sasuke. Everything that's led up to this point should be. But, for some reason, some really strange and unexpleinable reason, the opposite seems to be taking place. The more seconds that tick past, the more Naruto thinks, the more he looks at Sasuke...and there is just something about him that is so...so familiar. That reminds him of who he once considered to be his best friend and...is it...is this...

Is this really Sasuke?

Out of the blue Naruto slaps his palms against his cheeks so hard the sound echoes in the room.

Sasuke draws back a little, startled. "O–Oi, buddy, you okay–"

"Ghosts don't exist!" He announces loudly. Contradicting himself.

Sasuke blinks once, twice. Then gapes, pointing at him with an indignated finger. "But you're the one who just said I was one!"

Naruto slams his hands on his crossed knees and huffs. "Well, I...I don't know! I don't know what the fuck is going on, okay!?"

It looks like Sasuke is on the verge of a rebuttal, but he refrains at the last moment.

Naruto exhales through his nose and puts his head in his hands, talking to himself. "This is not real. It can't be...I'm imagining this. I'm just imagining it." The more the option that this Sasuke might be Sasuke rings true, the more he just wants to up and leave and forget everything. Why is his mind playing tricks on him? Why is he believing something that should so clearly be a lie? "You're not real. This is all a figment of my imagination, right, it's just..."

It feels like a second and an eternity crawl past as he attempts to reassure himself with desperate mumbles, before motion catches his eye. When he lifts his head, he sees Sasuke scoot a bit closer, his focus is zeroed in on him, but Naruto doesn't try to keep his distance this time.

"Alright, then." Sasuke nods once to himself, a determinate look sets his features. "Pinch yourself really hard to wake up from this dream."

Naruto almost slaps himself, again, because how, oh, how did he not think about this option before now!? In a haste he scrambles to do just that and tugs on the sleeve of his unzipped jumpsuit—it takes longer than a second for him to realize that he didn't change out of his clothes yesterday when he fell asleep, but quickly dismisses the information altogether—and takes a handful of pale skin between his thumb and forefinger.

And then he pinches himself, hard.

"..."

"..."

"Ow!"

Except, he yelps when it starts very physically hurting. And the discomfort feels way too real. And he feels way too awake. And, apparently...this doesn't feel like a dream at all.

He doesn't even have the time to complain that Sasuke is cracking up, again. "You idiot, I can't believe you seriously went along with it."

Oh, Naruto is this close to punching him.

"You bastard!" He exclaims in outrage. "And you're making fun of me!"

Sasuke nods unashamedly, still cackling, and Naruto feels justified in the sudden desire he has to smother him with his pillow...except he's too scared of what would happen if the pillow actually went through Sasuke. He decides to wait for him to stop choking on his laughter like the world's funniest gag happened just in front of his eyes, while he discreetly rubs at the now tender skin of his wrist.

When Sasuke finally gets a hold of himself, he returns to his presently-standard, easy-going-type-of-grin of these past couple of days. "Why are you so opposed to the idea of me being here anyway? Is it really so preposterous for you to believe?"

"Yes?" Naruto rhetorically asks.

Sasuke silently raises both brows at him, a little dubiously and a little bit ambiguously all at once.

Naruto cuts the silence with a sigh, a heaviness that drifts from deep within his chest. "...can you blame me?" He breathes under his breath, then coughs quietly into his hand to camouflage the intention, hoping Sasuke didn't hear the first question. "...I don't even...are you even..."

"...Real?" Sasuke finishes for him.

Naruto blinks in surprise, probably more so at the fact that he was going to ask just that.

Sasuke's smirk is still slanted in place as he continues. "I'm right here, in front of you." He points to himself. "It's as real as it gets." And raises his shoulders. "I mean, I don't know how else you want me to garnish it to finally get the point across, but you're awake, sitting in your bed, strangling that poor pillow which has done nothing to you for some reason–" He halts to chuckle at this. "–and this is actually happening right now."

Naruto's tightly hunched shoulders fall.

Mixed emotions swirl inside him in a tandem and he...is at a loss, too. Doesn't know what he might be supposed to be feeling in this kind of situation and the impending and unwelcome headache is not helping one bit in letting him think.

Sasuke takes him by surprise yet again with an amused, softer grin aimed his way. Shrugs both shoulders, theatrically sighs.

"Oh ye of so little faith."

The uncomfortable tension brewing in the air crackles, and suddenly fizzles out.

Naruto huffs out a quiet snort. "...Oh shut up." And on a whim throws the pillow he wrestled the life out of right at him, before he can regret it.

Fortunately for Naruto's threading sanity, Sasuke catches it readily in his open arms and hugs the lumpy pillow to his chest, laughing.

The accordant sound swells over Naruto's room, filling it wall to wall. And Naruto sags a little further into the bedpost behind him, feeling an unanticipated wave of trepidant relaxation wash him over.

"Hey," Sasuke looks at him with a small smile, chin dropping on the cozy pillow below as he holds it closer. "To be frank with you, I expected this whole shebang to happen two days ago. I guess three time's really the charm, huh." There's a teasing lilt to Sasuke's voice that seems to be there on purpose.

"I thought I was dreaming!" He adamantly defends himself, the heaviness bleeding out of him a little more, thanks to, well...thanks to Sasuke.

Sasuke hums at that. "Mmh, you did pass out quickly, both yesterday and the day before."

In truth, Naruto doesn't exactly remember much. Maybe he was in too deep of a shock and his brain short-circuited, ending up with the last two days...being erased? Feeling even more disoriented, and lacking a pillow in which he can muffle the heavy exhale into, he grips at his sheets. The notion of this only being a fantasy is becoming far too distant for him to now safely fall back into...

"...if you are really telling the truth, then..."

"Then?" Sasuke prompts, his teasing smirk exchanged for a small and approachable grin.

"Then... we should..." Naruto bites the inside of his cheek in hesitation, he squints at the boy in front of him as if taking a closer look could somehow provide him with a clear explanation to his every wavering last doubt. "...shouldn't we figure out why you're here in the first place?"

Sasuke's eyes soften at his uncertainty, and his reply comes in a toneless whisper. "...Yeah, we should."

Naruto thinks he's rarely heard Sasuke sound...like this. He is at least 97.99% positive he has never actually seen him this way, all grins and smirks and teasing remarks and no clean-cut edge to his words...then what is it about this dreadful sense of familiarity surrounding him?

But this is not the only issue at hand, what's eating away at him and renting up free space in his brain is the feeling that somehow Sasuke—Real Sasuke? Fake Sasuke? Ghost Sasuke?—knows far more than he lets on. Unconsciously, his features twist with the all-consuming thoughts of why the...apparition—(can he even call it this?)—of someone still alive is currently in front of him.

"Naruto."

His attention snaps back to him in the blink of an eye when he hears his name, caught completely unaware by it. When was the last time Sasuke said his name so...un-threateningly? Has that ever happened before?

"...what is it?" He can only ask, stunned.

But surprise is quickly set aside, because the sweetly placid atmosphere goes souring and Sasuke's expression quickly morphs with it. The change is so abrupt it's almost alien, if compared to the last forty-eight hours, his somber tone feels suddenly and inexplicably unfamiliar. "It might get worse...before it gets better."

Naruto's stomach drops, his mood plummeting with it, with the weight of the words that keep pulling him down, and he distantly feels like he might be suffocating.

"What do you mea–"

Three abrupt knocks startle him shut. Leaving snapped threads of the unended conversation hang in the air between them like phantoms.

Both boys chance a glance toward the door, before slowly looking back at each other.

A bit uneasy, and more than a little indecisively, Naruto gets up, tries not to fall over the tangle of sheets or trip over his own feet, pretends he doesn't hear Sasuke's muffled chuckling when he does anyway, and manages to reach the door without any—almost—accidents on the way.

On the other side of the door he finds Sakura and Sai, smiling at him. Well, Sakura is smiling, Sai is showing the same expressionless face he always is.

"Oh..." It's almost unexpected to see the two of them here together, but he somehow feels relieved at their turn-up, and returns the smile with a small, feeble one of his own. "Hi?"

"Hi." Sakura greets warmly while Sai gives him a minuscule nod. "Ready to go visit Kakashi-sensei?"

...Right. They made plans for today, agreeing to meet in the late morning to visit their teacher at the hospital. He tenses almost imperceptibly when he glances back at Sasuke, who hasn't moved an inch, and sizzling panic overwhelms him into his bones for a split-second.

It takes just as long to remember that they can't see him.

In the back of his mind the stifling thought of hiding Sasuke away from their gaze is overbearing, contradictory to what he wanted just yesterday. He just...he can't let them know—to tell the truth this only pertains to Sakura, he wouldn't confide with Sai about such a crucial matter—that Sasuke, or someone, or something, resembling him, is...well, here.

It's almost funny, in a way, this searing urge he has to pretend that everything is so perfectly normal.

He turns back to face his current teammates and gives them half a smile, or at least something close to it. "...yeah. Just about."


On the way to the hospital, Naruto pretends Sasuke's absence is not as haunting as his presence.