Summary:

Naruto and Itachi are not very helpful.

It was only a couple of minutes later when Sasuke heard someone insert a key into the apartment door and the sound of a chair scraping back.

"Bastard you better be DEAD to justify leaving me alone with our client today! If you're not, I'll fucking kill you myse—" Naruto's voice rang through the small apartment.

He stopped when he stepped into the kitchen seeing Sato there. His face dropped. "Is… is he really dead?"

"No! I just found him on the roof, he hasn't spoken since."

Sasuke took that as his cue to open the door to his bedroom. Naruto was standing there looking concerned. "Bro, what the hell?" He looked him over. "Did something happen? Did you…?" He couldn't finish his sentence, a look of sheer panic passed through him.

Sasuke still said nothing. Just like in the picture, there was something wrong with this Naruto. The first thing he noticed was the hand. It was intact. The face was too young, too thin, and above else this Naruto was weak. This Naruto was nothing like the one he knew.

He furrowed his brows and chose to remain silent. Whatever the hell this was. He wanted nothing to do with it. He chose to give these people as little information as possible.

Naruto was still looking at him with worry, but he cleared his throat and turned to look at Sato with a forced smile. "You know what Sato?" He pointed at Sasuke with one hand, and leaned down to whisper to the man, covering his mouth as if to stop Sasuke from reading his lips. "I bet he went up to the roof during one of his little dramatic scenes and got locked up there."

Sasuke felt anger rising within him, well maybe this Naruto was like the one he knew.

"And now he's too embarrassed to admit it." Naruto finished speaking and put his hand down. He looked at Sato with a shrug and said, "Sounds just like him, no?"

Sato didn't answer, he looked over to a seething Sasuke and merely let out a chuckle. "Well I hope he's feeling well. I called his brother too so he should arrive shortly. I'm going to get back to work!"

Naruto walked him out and thanked him as politely as possible. Sasuke stared and said nothing.

Once the man was gone Naruto turned to look at him. It seemed that there was something he wanted to say to him, but he furrowed his brow and pretended to smile again. "Why the fuck would you go to the roof without your phone?" He groaned, making his way to Sasuke's kitchen, still in sight of Sasuke because of how small the apartment was. "Like, if you're going to be dramatic the least you could do is take your phone with you." He looked at Sasuke. "Or sunscreen." He opened a cabinet and took out a can of something and laughed. "Or at least a shirt."

Sasuke still said nothing. He stood defiantly at the door to the bedroom and looked at Naruto over the small counter with the sink where he was standing and opening a can. Naruto had proceeded to ignore him as he started making himself dinner. He was just about finished preparing tuna when a polite knock came to the door.

"The man of the hour!" Naruto rushed over and opened the door to Itachi standing there, a concerned look over his face.

"Where is he?" He looked past Naruto, straight into the bedroom door where Sasuke was standing, and he rushed in and wrapped his arms around him. Sasuke was too stunned to move, his arms laying limply at his sides. "I was worried sick." He sighed. "What happened? Is he sober?"

Sasuke looked at Itachi, and just like Naruto, he was thin and weak. His hair was short with a single streak of gray hair. He looked different. His face seemed older and more delicate, but his eyes…

Sasuke shuddered and looked away. They were the eyes he had given him.

Itachi looked at him. "There's something different about you." He was looking into his eyes. He frowned. "What happened?" He repeated, his voice on the edge of pleading.

He had decided not to grace him with a reply either. He turned around and went back into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He could hear Naruto loudly whispering his theory about him being locked out on the roof and he rolled his eyes. Something was wrong here. He looked around the room for the first time. He needed a clue. He needed something, anything, to let him know what was going on.

He quickly scanned the room, noticing that this too was devoid of decorations. There was a bookshelf in his bedroom too, and he seemed to own a lot of leather-bound books, he had a small chest at the foot of his bed, and there were only a couple of picture frames hung up. His eyes then landed on a particular framed picture. It was his parents, Itachi, him, and other people he didn't recognize. He felt his stomach drop. His parents looked wrong too. They were too old. Much older than they had been allowed to live. The other people he didn't even recognize, he didn't even want to try and guess who they were. He had enough of whatever this was. He needed to get out. Quickly.

He opened the door, Itachi had helped himself to food in Sasuke's kitchen as well and Naruto had apparently finished eating whatever monstrosity he had cooked up and he was comfortably sitting by the couch.

Sasuke didn't bother looking at them, he walked right past Naruto, who was sitting next to the balcony door and opened the screen. He rushed out and stood over the railing. He could hear the two men behind him enter into a panic, but he didn't listen as he readied himself to jump. Just as his feet left the rail, Naruto lunged himself at him, narrowly missing him as he fell through his grasp.

Naruto looked at his empty hands in horror, and Sasuke heard Itachi give a gut-wrenching scream.

Without realizing he had done it, Sasuke had stopped himself from falling by using his chakra at his feet to scale the building. He casually walked back up and stared at Naruto as he wept over the railing and trembled.

"Who's dramatic now?" Sasuke's voice made Naruto jump up, and Itachi, who was covered in snot and tears opened the screen door to find his brother, standing on the edge of the building, on just his feet alone.

Sasuke saw as Itachi's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he fell backwards onto the carpet of this apartment.

Naruto shuddered. "Sasuke was right. There's ghost. They exist."

He landed on the balcony with a thump. "No, you idio—"

But before he could finish talking Naruto lunged himself at him once more, crying, and hugging him. Sasuke couldn't stop himself from falling and landing on his butt, but luckily his hands steadied his fall. Naruto was babbling incoherently, crying, and Sasuke's skin burned from the contact. He felt snot land on his bare shoulder and he repressed the urge to puke. He turned his head back into the apartment where Itachi, also covered in snot, had passed out on the floor.

I knew talking was going to be a bad idea. He thought glumly, watching as the two men he thought he could rely on acted like total idiots.