i looked for your name on the ouija board (i don't believe a word you're saying but i can't stop listening)
"...So."
"So." Sasuke echoes, the slight tilt of a grin shading his expression. "We're doin' 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 always does when he's treating an issue with skepticism.
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 its way in there, which he is now protectively holding (crushing) in his arms, all the while trying to maintain a certain distance and keep himself alert for any imminent attack, because he does not trust this...this guy, whoever this is.
Sasuke—Imposter Sasuke? Fake Sasuke? Sasuke 2?—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 possibly could in such circumstances.
Actively attempting to study him like this, to try and find plot holes in his story, is giving Naruto the opportunity to take notice of things he hadn't before. For instance, the lack of weapons on his person, at least nothing visible; the absence of his imposing katana is unmissable.
He's wearing a different attire from the outfit Naruto had last seen him in too (when was that even? a year ago, two?), now clothed in plainclothes, navy pants, a dark short-sleeved and unbuttoned cyan plaid with the collar brushing up the base of his neck, and a lighter sleeveless shirt underneath. His hair too, a little shorter than Naruto can remember, downy-looking, and pushed a bit to the sides, except for the fringe falling messy over his eyes and replacing the bangs parted in the middle. Naruto thinks if they were to see Sasuke now, half the people in the village would be swooning over him. Coupled with that playful smirk that seems to be glued to his every facial expression, everything about Sasuke's appearance screams casual.
These, however, seem futile details compared to what comes to attention next, and how it should have probably been the initial focal point.
His chakra...or lack thereof.
No matter how much he's straining himself to, Naruto can't sense any type of chakra coming from Sasuke, as if it's inexistent.
"Let me get this straight." Naruto begins, with no shortage of hesitation, struggling to summarize this whole crazy ordeal—because if he reruns it enough times inside his head this will start making sense. Right?
Sasuke feigns a cough to cover up his snort. "...peculiar word choice. But sure, go on."
Naruto elects to ignore that and launches into the thick of it, like items he has to cross off his list.
"You claim to be...him."
"Yeah. 'Cause I am him."
"For some strange reason you...don't have chakra?"
"Yep."
"And you aren't suppressing it either?" Naruto narrows his eyes in wariness, even if the flicker of curiosity bursts into a flame. He just wants to find out what the hell is actually going on.
"No." Sasuke shrugs, looking natural, composed, sincere of all things.
"And you're not here to–" Naruto almost winces, trying to find the right words. But mostly coming up blank. "Cause any...trouble?"
A slow grin lifts up one corner of Sasuke's mouth. "No."
"...Right." Naruto mumbles, eyes squinting in distrust. "Also...you don't actually know why you're here?"
"Nope." Sasuke answers, popping the 'p'.
"And you don't know how long you're gonna be here either..."
"Not a clue, bud."
Naruto's brows slowly pinch together in apprehension, he's frowning at the next sentence out of his mouth. "...but you think this has got something to do with me...somehow."
Sasuke practically snorts at his non-question, 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 this has everything to do with you."
If possible Naruto's brows furrow even more while 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.
Naruto nods slowly. "O-kay." Then pauses, shaking his head. "Well, this is impossible."
"Why?" Sasuke asks, as if it's a legitimate question.
"Because...you're not really him?" It's meant to be an exclamation, but unfortunately it 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, hi, 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 after the sudden harshness that has seeped into his tone and almost grimacing at it.
But to his continued surprise, 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 wobbles mid-retort for a second. "...That's not my fault!"
Sasuke raises a pointed brow his way.
"Oh, well, excuse my reaction." Naruto remarks sarcastically. "Must be something in the water or, I don't know, the actual shock." After letting out a weighty sigh, he's dragging a cold 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 sharp realization hits that he has nothing better to do to keep his hands occupied lest he starts fidgeting. With the way he's staring straight at him, Naruto might as well be trying to crack the trickiest puzzle that has magically manifested itself in front of his eyes. But all throughout, while Sasuke keeps his cool about him, Naruto is striving to keep the panic inside his mind from taking over his body in a frenzy.
Breaking the sudden lull in conversation, Naruto huffs, almost indignant. "...what are you?"
"'What'? Mommy never taught you it's rude to objectify people?"
There it is again, that undertone of playfulness, and Naruto still has to wrap his mind around the fact that apparently someone with Sasuke's face is capable of producing smirks that look friendly rather than menacing. But Sasuke is also giving him this doubtful look, like he's as bewildered by the question as Naruto feels by his appearance.
Naruto frowns to himself. "...I don't have a mom." He states with, frankly, a strange amount of emotionlessness.
For the briefest moment, there's a fierce sting beating behind his eyes and his stomach churns unpleasantly, but he chalks that up to the general unpleasantness of the statement.
"Oh, hey, me neither!" Sasuke exclaims with a rubbery grin. "Aw, look at us, bonding already."
Naruto sends him one of his Top 5 What-The-Fuck Looks that he only reserves for really controversial stuff, like politics, near-death-experiences and the Chili Piquin and Shrimp flavored ramen.
He wants to take a firm grip of the situation, take back the gears of his thoughts at least, but they're all scattered at his feet, his brain working overtime to try to help him cope.
"You...you're not really here." Naruto concludes, because he knows this can't be real...can it? No, this can't be Sasuke.
He can't.
Even inside his own head, he sounds desperate to believe so.
Sasuke says nothing for a second, simply staring at him as if trying to prove a point, and all that does is feed his uneasiness. His body wants to draw in on itself, protect his skin from the storm of needles waiting for a freefall in the distance. The building tension has cold sweat gathering at his nape in anticipation of something—anything that might happen next.
"You don't believe me." Sasuke's statement comes off quieter, this time, more serious, as if he's worried Naruto might really doubt him.
Naruto almost scowls at the thought, because why should he believe him? Actually, why should he believe anything at all this guy is saying? For all he knows this could be anyone, and he could be here for any number of reasons, most of them involving Naruto as a possible target. He has to defend himself, he has to do something, to fight him, maybe...but—his body just won't move.
He's stuck in place, as if his limbs ceased taking signals from his overcharged brain, as if his body chose to give up after Sasuke's sudden (re)appearance. But there is a part of him—a small, almost insignificant part inside of him—that doesn't think the reaction is completely shock-driven. There is something in Sasuke's eyes he can't quite decipher, all he knows is that it reminds him of the Sasuke he knew—and Naruto thinks, for a moment, that no one would ever be able to fake that, it feels too real to be simple play-pretend.
"You're not him..." He whispers, but it's uncertain, like he's trying to convince himself more than anything.
Sasuke keeps looking at him with those eyes. "Who else could I be?"
Naruto doesn't know.
"...who are you?" He asks back, the lightest waver a trickle in his voice.
Naruto doesn't even leave him the time to answer, because it seems his mouth is working overtime, too, trying for some semblance of control. And completely missing the mark.
"...are you a ghost?" Naruto blurts out in the heat of the moment.
And, alright, it is ridiculous, he knows it is, but everything going on about these four walls is kind of ridiculous anyway, so why not reach for the craziest possibility yet?
Sasuke huffs. "You make me sound so ominous."
That's because you are, Naruto thinks, but doesn't want to admit to it out loud.
"...that's it." He says 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, shaking his head at him. "No, I don't think you're fucked up."
Naruto throws him a jagged look.
Suppressing the remaining mirth, Sasuke's face creases with a hint of seriousness, and if it was anyone else Naruto might have mistaken the shift in expression for concern. "If you want my opinion, I think that, in your own way, you are just...trying to work through things? That doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong, per se."
Of course. If the hypervivid hallucination that's wearing your ex-teammate's face is telling you you're not fucked up, then you should definitely believe him, right?
"I'm working through things like what, exactly...seeing ghosts?" Naruto inquires in complete and utter disbelief.
Sasuke averts his eyes for a couple of seconds, voice lowering to a whisper. "...among other things."
A painful pang strikes his chest, something familiar in nature, but Naruto ignores it.
"I've finally gone crazy." Naruto laments into his palms. With the crazy stuff he's been through, it was honestly only a matter of time, wasn't it?
"Awh, don't say that." His 'guest' breathes out a half-hearted sigh. "Listen, there's like, what, thousands of people in this world, alright–"
"More like thousands of millions, actually." Naruto interrupts 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 Sasuke 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 into 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 really thinks about it, it's something that he just 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 just—
"Can I–" Naruto blurts out in the middle of his jumbled thought process before he can even attempt to stop himself...only to end 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-street uncomfortable eye contact, unsure if he could even ask otherwise. Never in his life did he ever think he'd have to ask such a question one day, to Sasuke nonetheless—or whoever, or whatever, looks like him. "...if you're, y'know, a, um, hallucination, or, uh..." A ghost, but he really, really doesn't want to repeat it out loud.
Sasuke seems to be patiently waiting for him to end 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 isn't really? 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 yeah, he's definitely going crazy now.
"Can I touch you?"
Naruto finally spills, feeling extremely uneasy—let's make that crystal clear—but his exponentially increasing curiosity isn't letting him keep the intrusive thought to himself.
Because ghosts, or hallucinations, or whatnot, aren't supposed to be...corporeal, or whatever. And if this is the case, if he can touch him, then it would absolutely mean the guy in front of him is an impostor who has stolen Sasuke's identity...somehow (and the impostor apparently doesn't use an ounce of chakra, so, how? but Naruto's trying to go about this an incredulous ordeal at a time, so).
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 one way or another.
"Hey." But in all answer Sasuke's smirk only grows, as does the mischievousness showing across his face. "Take me out to dinner first, then we can get to the 'touching' bit."
Naruto ends up choking on his own spit.
A stifling moment of silence crawls by...
Which is shattered by Sasuke cracking up. "Oh god, you should totally see the look on your face right now, haha, you're so freaked out!"
Naruto all but bristles with fierce irritation (and just a minuscule tiny little bit of mortified embarrassment). "Th–That's not funny you moron!"
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 here, who is holding his abdomen 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, c'mon, 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 so surreal. Way too senseless to be true. He scowls, pointedly ignoring the pinprick of warmth gathering at his cheeks and muttering under his breath, "Since when do you even know how to crack a 'joke'..."
Something shifts in the air between them. Sasuke tilts his head to the side. "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.
A sheen washes over Sasuke's gaze, gleaming intensely, lips slowly shaping up in the curve of a humorless smile.
"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 ultimately falters.
The silence stretches on for maybe too long. Something else crosses Sasuke's features, something he can't quite explain in words, but the sight alone is enough to make something else carve out an infinitesimal sliver of space inside his chest, something akin to hurt. Naruto stubbornly ignores it.
In between passing moments, Sasuke's expression is back to normal—or the normal of the past two days at least. "Okay, so, to actually answer your question...well...hmmmm...let's see..." Sasuke crosses his arms, momentarily closes his eyes for more of a dramatic effect, and it all looks a little 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 to remember what they were talking about before the shift in topic. "...what does that mean?"
"It means." Sasuke says resolutely. "You can try, if you want. But I'm not sure you'll feel anything."
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 and stuff, like flickering energy or something?"
Naruto gasps. "...so you are a ghost!?"
"I–look, does that actually matter!?" Sasuke snaps, giving voice to his exasperation. "Debate with yourself all you want, it won't change the fact that I'm here."
(...and that's the actual issue, isn't it?)
"Why are you so opposed to the idea of me being here, anyway?" Sasuke asks. "Is this really so preposterous for you to believe?"
"Yes?" Naruto asks back rhetorically.
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-I don't even...are you even..."
"'Real'?" Sasuke fills the gap 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. "This is 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 on your bed, and for some reason strangling that poor pillow which has done nothing to you–" He pauses to snicker at this. "–and this is actually happening."
Naruto's tightly hunched shoulders fall.
Mixed emotions swirl inside him in a tandem and he...is at a loss. Doesn't know where to even begin, what feelings is he 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 when he shrugs both shoulders and theatrically sighs, with an amused, softer grin aimed his way.
"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 pillow below as he hugs 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." More like nightmar-ing, Naruto mutters, adamantly defending himself, the heaviness bleeding out of him a little, thanks to, well...thanks to Sasuke, huh.
Sasuke hums at that. "Mmh-mmh, you did pass out quickly, both yesterday and the day before."
In truth, Naruto doesn't exactly remember much, if at all. 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 heavy exhales (or desperate screams) into, he grabs 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 smile.
"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 and 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, huh?"
Naruto thinks he's rarely ever 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...so then, what is 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's letting on. Unconsciously, his features twist with the all-consuming thoughts of why the...apparition (can he even call it that?) 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 own 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 in a whisper, 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 could get worse before it gets better...you might just want to give that some thought."
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.
"Wait, what do you mea–"
Three abrupt knocks startle him silent, leaving snapped threads of the unended conversation hanging 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, then pretends he doesn't hear Sasuke's muffled snickering 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 greeting him with smiles. 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 had wanted just yesterday. He just...he can't let them know—this actually 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 of a smile, or at least something close to that.
"...yeah. Just about."
On the way to the hospital, Naruto has to pretend Sasuke's absence isn't as haunting as his presence.