Author's note: Did the plot twist the way you thought it would? What's a sleepy, beachy read without a ghost? Thanks for reading!

Year 17 part 1

Sasuke had spent his school year after summer 16 in a spiral of depression and confusion. When he got back to Gran's after finding Sakura's house empty he pumped her for more information.

"I thought you realized." She told him. "I thought when i told you to stop going out to the fields you figured it out, i'm sorry boy, i thought that's why you started to listen and stay away from there. I can see i should have been more plain with you."

"So what is she?"

"Who can really say?" Gran frowned at him.

"She died." Sasuke said with the proof laid in his lap. Gran had saved the clippings from the paper when Sakura's obit had run years back. "She's a ghost or-"

"I wouldn't say ghost." Gran said and he glared at her.

"Well then what would you call the girl i've been holding hands with for 5 summers!" He demanded tossing the clippings away from him.

"Ghosts want to be here, allthough they've accepted their death. She isn't that. A poltergeist is an angry creature that can't accept their death, and seeks to do harm. She isn't that either." Gran pulled her shawl around her shoulders a little tighter. "If i had to say i would call her a spirit."

"A spirit?"

Gran nodded. "They come and go when and where they please. A spirit is a gentle thing. They know they've died but they're still searching for something and they can't rest until they've found it. They don't want to be here anymore but something keeps pulling them back to our plain of existence." She shrugged.

"It seems like you know quite a bit about this stuff."

"I've dabbled." she said dismissively.

Sasuke scoffed.

Gran set her dark eyes on him seriously. "Our family- we have a gift i think."

"A what?!"

"Oh settle down. We're touched or whatever you want to call it but sometimes we see the dead for some reason."

Sasuke's mouth stood agape. She had to be insane. He had to be insane right along with her.

"I saw your dad for awhile after he passed." She finally admitted.

And that was what ended summer 16 right there. Sasuke called Itachi the next day demanding to be picked up immediately. He threw the concert tickets in the trash, and left his copy of Romeo and Juliet on the couch at Gran's.

Itachi didn't ask alot of questions on their ride back home he could tell Sasuke wasn't in the talking mood.

Summer 16 had started out to be an incredible summer. It ended with the girl he was in love with having been dead for years without his realizing.

Sasuke was thankful Sakura hadn't appeared to him when he tried to find her in the field, he wouldn't have been able to face her in the state of shock he'd been in. He probably would have just screamed when he saw her.

His year at school he felt like he had been absent more times than he had been present. When he thought back to it he thought of himself as one of those guys from that cheesy paranormal show about 2 brothers who hunted down monsters and ghosts. 'Supernatural.' He thought it was called.

Sasuke spent his Fridays spelunking through old news articles, and dusty library books instead of at the pep rally's or football games. Once he spent a whole weekend on accident at the university library where Itachi taught. Sasuke had been so caught up on his research and his desperate need to understand what had happened he just lost track of time. If it hadn't been for Itachi popping up that Sunday evening Sasuke guessed he probably would have missed yet another day of school in addition to all the other days he cut out of.

Itachi knew there was something going on with him, but luckily for Sasuke he wasn't the type to press, and now that Sasuke was 17 he was giving Sasuke alot more freedom. He even agreed to let Sasuke drive himself down to their Gran's for the upcoming summer.

Sasuke had thought hard about it at first. Did he want to go back? What would happen? Then he decided yes of course he wanted to go back. What exactly was he afraid of? What more could even go wrong? Sakura was already dead. The worst had happened. He wasn't going to spend summer 17 like a coward hiding in his bed. He was going to face it like a man.

Sasuke tore into Kure beach in his shiny red jeep with the conviction of a man ready for battle. He greeted Gran, and then headed down to where the wildflowers always grew only this year they were all gone. Like someone had mowed them all down just days before. Sasuke glared back the way Gran's house was wondering if she had a hand in it.

Sasuke sat on the sidewalk for hours until it was to dark to make out anything outside of the street lights. But Sakura never showed. Had she moved on he wondered? Had she been gone since last summer when he found her house in it's actual state of abandonment? No. He couldn't shake the feeling. She was around he just knew it. He could feel her. Was she avoiding him?

He paused in front of the picket fences in front of their houses. The flower crowns were there. He clutched her pendant around his neck. These little reminders were all he needed not to give up. Sakura had come to him all those times during the summers for a reason it wasn't random. Why would she have wasted all that time on Sasuke if it hadn't meant something? Didn't spirits have better things to do? Hadn't Gran said spirits were here searching for something? Sasuke wanted to help her with whatever it was she was looking for.

Sasuke slept on the moldy pudding couch and his feet dangled off the end of it now. He had long since outgrown it. He wondered about Sakura all night long, he wasn't even sure if he had gotten any sleep. The second he heard the birds chirping he threw his covers off and made to leave.

"Sasuke." Gran called out to him before he got a chance to leave. "Come here for a moment."

Sasuke suppressed the sigh that he had building up, and went to her room to see what she needed.

"You've got plans today. Clearly." She looked up and down at him and his fresh pair of jeans. "But i would appreciate it if you could go through the shed for me before that? I'm not getting around so good as i used to and-"

"Gran of course." It was honestly the least he could do. He had been eating her out of house and home for 6 summers now.

She nodded appreciatively. "There's some old stuff of your dad's in there i think, you can keep whatever you'd like and do save something for Itachi. Throw out any garbage behind the house in the red bin."

Gran hadn't shared to many more details on what is what like to see his dad after he died, and Sasuke hadn't asked. All she really said was she guessed there had to be a connection between them and the dead person. It wasn't chance encounters they were having with the dead. They could only see people who held some kind of importance in their life. She guessed also it was up to the deceased person who they appeared to. As far as Sasuke knew Itachi never had any such encounters with their dad or mother or anyone else dead. So it stood to reason no one had yet to try and contact Itachi, but the ability was there.

Sasuke got to work and it wasn't a huge shed so it only took an hour or two. There were 2 heavy cardboard boxes mostly full of junk. So he scooted those to the trash pile. Then Sasuke grimaced when he made the call to trash his dads old bike. It was rusted so badly now there were holes in the metal of the handlebars. It had been a good bike but there was no saving it. Sasuke found a shoe box with his dad's name on it and he found some old photos, coins from Japan, and a walkman Sasuke guessed had to of been his around the same age Sasuke was now. It still had the ear phones in it. Sasuke clicked it on but of course nothing happened. He went inside to ask Gran for some batteries still expecting it not to work. He was pleasantly surprised when the music clicked on.

Sasuke smiled when he heard the song. It was Fugaku's favorite. An old Kim Carnes song. Bette davis eyes. Sasuke had heard the song a million times growing up, and he always thought of his dad when he heard it.

Sasuke finished up his work in the shed and headed back out for his spot on the sidewalk. He intended to sit there as long as it took. The walkman he put in his pocket and he had to be careful as he walked or the tape would freeze up. He sat on the sidewalk and made himself comfortable. Then after a few replays of the song Sasuke scooted into the field and laid with his back on the ground and his face looking up into the sky. The clouds were rolling by slow, it wasn't windy. Sasuke went over everything in his head that he could remember for the last 6 summers. Everything Sakura ever said. He just couldn't understand how a girl like her. One who was so beautiful and charming could have killed herself.

That's why he came back or part of it at least. He needed answers and only Sakura could give them to him. This wasn't natural Sasuke knew that. When someone died you were supposed to grieve them and move on. But this. There was no moving on from this. It was like walking around with a gaping wound that wouldn't stop bleeding.

He needed to hear what Sakura had to say. He needed to know what it was that happened. How could she have slipped away from him without him ever having realized it?

Sasuke must have drifted off waiting around, because the next thing he knew there were 2 bright green eyes above him. The walkman was still playing in his ears. 'She's got Bette davis eyes.' Sakura.

He sat up so fast he nearly head-butted her, and he hated the way he kicked back away from her out of instinct. She winced at his reaction, but she had a brave smile put on for him. Sasuke ripped the walkman out of his ears.

"You're dead." He scrambled to find words. He sounded stupid. He had planned on what to say but upon seeing her it all flew right out the window. "You died."

"Yes." She confirmed with a voice laden with misery and regret. "I died, Sasuke."

He put both palms of his hand over his face, willing himself to calm down...