Skeletons in the Closet

Skeletons in the Closet

Chapter Three

By; Lazuli

PG-13-ish

Disclaimer—I obviously don't own Naruto, since I'm an American female and not Masashi Kishimoto.

It almost became easier living with Naruto after they made the join decision to get to know each other. Naruto still kept on his mask of cheerfulness—which annoyed Sasuke, because he thought the blond was trying to 'hide' still, and Sasuke kept on poking around the apartments, trying to find clues to the past that Naruto wouldn't talk about.

But Naruto did talk about his childhood some—how the village never accepted him, and earning his way toward becoming a respectable shinobi. "I guess you already learned some stuff about me from the Hokage and such.. but.." His brows drew in, voice uncertain as if he were debating with telling Sasuke anything really important about himself. "Most of what you might have assumed is crap." He finally said bluntly. "Honored Rokudaime business aside, I fought to earn that place—my entire life I fought." His gaze was fierce.

Sasuke just gave him a mild look at that, taking a bite out of the rice ball he was eating. "I didn't assume anything." He said blandly. "Except that there had to be more than "your life had to be perfect because of your destiny' bullshit." He raised an eyebrow and gestured with his meal. "Care to elaborate?"

Naruto tensed and looked away for a moment. "It doesn't really matter any more.. does it?" He asked softly, more to himself than to Sasuke. "I wasn't well liked at all, growing up. Sasuke was my only real friend—and even that was a little weird." He grinned at that, hands resting behind his head as he continued. "It wasn't until he almost died saving my life when we were twelve that I realized that he meant a lot to me—and it would've sucked to lose someone that I actually cared about."

Sasuke was silent, processing that. He always had friends growing up—real friends and superficial ones, ones that understood his family life and ones that flocked around him because of his name. He couldn't imagine not having any… but there had to be more to it than just Naruto being friendless. "What else?" He asked calmly, eyes meeting Naruto's without flinching. "There had to be something else…"

Naruto blinked in surprise that Sasuke was pursuing that line of thought, then shrugged. "That and pretty much everyone in the village loathed my existence." He said it easily, as if it was normal for those type of feelings to be directed at someone. "They blamed me for an event that happened when I was born, and so they acted as if I didn't exist." His smile didn't show any of the pain that had to be there from relating something so… so personal. "So I decided to make myself known, for people to see me. That's when I decided I was going to become Hokage, so people would acknowledge me." He paused a moment, eyes far away. "I didn't care about anyone but myself at that point, because no one cared for me."

Sasuke stared at him, stunned. It didn't seem right that this person could have that sort of attitude—it didn't fit him. And how exactly had he become Hokage if he only cared for himself? Naruto had told him that the important part of becoming Hokage—and the reason why he became Hokage—was so that he could protect people. That was why he stuck around and watched over people—and this place. "Naruto…" He couldn't get his brain to process anything more intelligent than that.

Naruto shrugged at that, the easy smile back on his face. "Well, a few things changed that—but the important thing was that life wasn't easy for me, and no one should think that everything was perfect and went smoothly the day I became Hokage. There was still a lot of resentment over a demon becoming the strongest ninja, so much talk and hatred aimed toward me still. If it wasn't for the ingrained sense of duty that the villagers had, I probably would have been killed in my bed. As it was, they needed a strong leader at that point, and I was the best candidate."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at that. "People are stupid." He said succinctly. "I think it'd be better if the kids in that academy of yours knew more about you and how you earned your way to the top, then just hearing about how great you did once you got there." His eyes gleamed slightly in amusement. "What else do you want me to pass along?"

Naruto looked shocked for a moment, mouth opening but no words coming out. After a moment, his eyes started to brighten as he grinned. "Tell you what… start off with telling them about my favorite food…."

~

So that Sasuke could understand things better, such as how things worked in Konoha, Naruto explained some of the levels of missions—how new graduates hardly ever got anything really exciting.

"People get confused as to what shinobi do." He explained, giving the impression of leaning against the wall in the kitchen while Sasuke ate his lunch. "Half the time, we were rescuing a mangy cat or fishing or painting walls." He snorted. "A lot of the reason why we were hired for that was because of our stamina—why hire somebody who'd wear themselves out in the middle of the job? We were cheap labor and easy to find and trust." His smile was soft, though. "But it built up our stamina and our trust in each other—teamwork was very important and dealing with all types of people. Everyone was important, not just the high lords that could afford us for the dangerous missions. There wasn't always a war going on or people in danger. Knowing what made up all aspects of the people in our country was the real reason behind the lower level missions."

"So that's how you knew about fixing things up." Sasuke said dryly. Looking around the apartments outside, he made a face. "Maybe we could hire one of the gennin teams?" He suggested tentatively. He knew that Naruto liked being around people, but didn't have many visitors for a reason he hadn't specified yet. And he could tell that Naruto missed seeing the people of his village. "It'll give them good practice." He said logically, but looking slightly discomforted. He was quickly becoming fond of Konohagakure, even with the few visits he'd paid it so far. He almost felt like he could become a part of it—even if he was separated from it.

Naruto blinked in surprise for a moment, before his lips curved into a smile. "That's a very good idea." He drawled. "What took you so long to catch on to the idea?" Gritting his teeth against the mocking tone, Sasuke simply stared at him. That set off Naruto again, his eyes bright with laughter. "Oh, come on—you already said that your family hired shinobi before for little tasks. Who did you think I meant when I suggested there are others who can fix up this place?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the laughing ghost. "You also said that this was your friends estate and that I didn't have a say in what to do with." He pointed out, teeth gritted in the effort to hold back his temper. "I assumed that meant in fixing it up and people going where they aren't supposed to go." His tone softened slightly. "You said that you wanted things left alone."

"Not that hasn't stopped you from poking around." Naruto interjected. "And you or I can move stuff around, hide it or various other things so that they don't come across something they shouldn’t." He shrugged. "Most of the stuff that belonged to Sasuke or me is in the main house." He paused for a moment. "Which you seemed to have fun thoroughly exploring."

"It’s my house too, you know." He muttered, meeting Naruto's gaze. "Why can't I explore the place I live? Or are you just looking forward to the day where you're going to kick me out?" There was more than a touch of bitterness attached to that statement. After all, his parents kicked him out when they wanted to, when he wasn’t living up to their high standards of what he did all his life. "Naruto?"

The ghost rolled his eyes at Sasuke's tone. "Don't get your hair all in a twist." He snorted. "Yeah, it's your place now—but would you go through a shrine simply because you were tasked with taking care of it? You wouldn't, so think of this in the same way. You have your own space-which I'm not going to kick you out of—and that which came before is my stuff, which I don't want you to touch."

"Why do you go through your friends stuff, then?" Sasuke shot back, irked at the double standard all of a sudden. "He died before you did and yet you have a hold of his personal things!" He noticed the growing anger on Naruto's face and paused in his tirade.

"I don't go through his stuff, moron." Naruto bit out. "I watch over it, I keep separate. I go through my stuff all the time. Those weapons are mine—the hitai-ate is mine because Sasuke dropped it by my head before he ran off to Orochimaru." He snapped. "You don't see what I do every second of the day and your assumptions suck. If you notice, there isn't much of his stuff around. He lost a great deal of it when he ran away. He didn't accumulate a lot after that."

Sasuke fell silent, stunned a little at that. There was the peak of Naruto's real emotions again—just barely. The blond ghost got angry a lot—and defensive when it came to the mention of his friend. He stared at the floor for a moment before mumbling out an apology.

Naruto just shook his head. "Look—he was really my only friend." He said softly. "I didn't really … have any friends growing up… and Sasuke and I were a lot alike. I would never do that to him—he…he had been betrayed too many times in his life to have the one person he trusted betray him after death." His eyes were fierce when he met Sasuke's. "I told you—I need him to forgive me…I want him to smile and say that it's okay when we see each other again." He stared down at his hands, as if he could see something there that wasn't visible to Sasuke. "Do you know why I'm stuck here, Sasuke?" He asked softly. "Instead of going on to wherever the dead go?"

Sasuke shook his head slowly, bewildered. He never asked for why Naruto was here, really—he didn't feel that it was really important and he put it in the back of his head after he got to know Naruto a little bit better. He decided to change the subject completely. "You don't have to tell me now." He offered softly. "I'm sure that when the time is right… I'll find out." He smirked slightly, some of his old attitude back. "Until then, Naruto… why don't we pay tribute to your friend and start to get this place fixed up." He paused as the thought occurred to him. "How much does it cost to hire a gennin team, anyways?"

~

Sasuke rubbed his head, feeling the impending headache. Naruto had given him instructions on what they needed the gennin team for, how to go about hiring them, and how much money they needed. He then removed the jutsu surrounding the Uchiha estate and shoved Sasuke through without any further explanation. Sasuke had a sneaking suspicion that Naruto was going to do some rearranging while he was gone and didn't want Sasuke to see where things were hidden or how he did a lot of things. "Stupid, sneaky bastard." He muttered to himself.

"Hey, you're back!" An excited voice chirped by his ear. He blinked in surprised to see Inara. "Naruto kick you out?" She teased, grabbing his arm and dragging him down the street. Now that she wasn't 'on duty' she seemed much more like a kid. "Or are you here for a specific reason?"

He tried to keep up with her, her words and her movements were almost a blur to his senses. "I'm here to hire gennin for fixing up the Uchiha estate." He managed to get out around her babbling. She stopped dead in her tracks at that, staring at him as if he'd lost his senses. Her next words confirmed it.

"Are you serious?" Her eyes were wide with disbelief. "Naruto-sama is going to let you fix up the Uchiha estate?" She shook her head, the braids her hair was in today flying around her face. "I can't imagine that Naruto-sama would let anyone near his place but you, Sasuke."

Shrugging, he resumed his walk down the street to his original destination. "He is the one that suggested hiring a gennin team to take care of it." He said simply, not waiting to see if she was following him. "Or agreed to my suggestion. He said that it was a common practice around here."

"Well… it is…" She fumbled with her words. "But.. no one has really been on the Uchiha estate… and… well.." She ran after him, trying to make sense of what he was telling her. His face was too serious for it to be a joke but it couldn't be real…

"You are the one that said he should have more people around him." He raised an eyebrow at her. "And he misses seeing people." He looked straight ahead again, both of them almost at the 'hiring' center for shinobi. "Don’t you think he wishes that he could be back in Konoha, seeing the type of people's he's grown up with and trained with? The ones that were a part of his life?"

Inara didn't have an answer for that as she followed him inside. He went straight toward the table, eyes taking in the sparse room and it's lack of furnishing, save for the tables in the back, the sign "Do a Good Job" hanging overhead. It felt weird being here, a sort of déjà vu that he couldn’t readily shake off. He ignored the impulse to go to that table, and moved instead to the one in the corner, a lone ninja manning it and looking incredibly bored. Even as Sasuke came up to the table, he was stifling a yawn behind his hand, and nearly choked on it when Sasuke paused in front of the table.

"Can I help you?" His eyes flicked from Inara to Sasuke, his brow furrowing as if he was trying to place Sasuke, or confused that he was at this table as opposed to the one for the shinobi.

Sasuke's brows rose at that and he glanced over at Inara. "Is this what happen to everyone who wants to hire someone?" He questioned, not really aiming it at her or the man behind the counter. He was confused and a little irked at the mindless staring.

"Oh! I'm sorry… you just look… like someone I've seen before." The man's eyes were narrowed in speculation, then he waved it off. "Eh, probably because we get so many people in here every day. I'm sorry about that." He smiled brightly at Sasuke. "You said that you needed to hire a gennin team?"

Sasuke nodded, arms crossed over his chest. "At least, I was told that I should hire a gennin team for this, since it's not that difficult of an…assignment." He pulled out the paper that had the instructions on it. "I need my place repaired. It will take a lot of strength, hours and dedication." He wanted to make the assignment sound like it was demanding (because it was) and to make whatever gennin got the assignment to feel like they received a good one, instead of basic 'crap' work, as Naruto had put it.

The man nodded, taking the paper Sasuke handed him, skimming over the contents. The color drained from his face when he saw where it was, and he gave Sasuke a sharper look than before. "The Uchiha estate?" He asked, voice almost choked sounding. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Is everyone going to react this way?" He snapped. "Yes, the Uchiha estate." He said slowly. "It's in a horrible state of disrepair and since I am the sole owner of it, I decided that it's rather disrespectful to those that once lived there to let it crumble like that." His dark eyes met the man's as he glared. "Or do I have to go somewhere else that won't treat the estates with the level of respect I know a shinobi from here will?"

Several heads turned towards him, including the team of gennin that just came in. "Fine, fine…" He muttered. "Since you asked for a gennin team…" He made a face. "I'll turn this over to the Hokage with the rest of the assignments for today and you will have your answer tomorrow. A team will be at your place tomorrow either way." He nodded to the person standing behind Sasuke. "Next!"

~

"So they said someone would be here eventually." Sasuke related to Naruto. "That guy was giving me the strangest look when I told him where it was, though." And gave me strange looks beforehand, but I don't think that Naruto really has to know that.

Naruto shrugged, flipping kunai in the air, aiming them towards a well-beaten target in the back yard of the house. It wasn't weird anymore to see Naruto 'practicing' like this. He said that even if he was a ghost and things couldn't harm him, it was no reason to let the lessons he was taught when he was alive go to waste. And that Sasuke could learn something by observing Naruto. It had quickly become an impromptu set of lessons.

Sasuke held his own kunai, eyeing the target. He sucked at this—he really did—but Naruto insisted that if he was going to live around and visit Konoha, he had to have some sort of basic skills. "Most people learn at least knife throwing." He insisted. "I can't teach you anything really useful—'cause you don't have the charka to use it and that's pretty much all that I am at the moment—so flinging weapons is pretty much the only way unless you can convince someone to teach you."

He let his mind wander, not really thinking about what happened that day or what he was going to say to the kids when they showed up here, especially if they saw Naruto. If they'd freak just as bad as everyone else seemed to at the idea of being at the Uchiha estate. He didn't realize it let the knife go, and only Naruto's astonished yelp brought him back to the present. "What happened?" He demanded. Naruto's wry look and gesture made him look at the target. The kunai had hit the dummy, exactly where the heart would be.

He stared at it with wide eyes, wondering how the hell he had done it when he never even got close to it before. "You didn't help it along?" He asked suspiciously, eyes narrowed on the ghost. He could manipulate things easily…

"What would be the point of that?" Naruto looked offended at the very suggestion. "You wouldn't have learned anything from that, and it would be degrading. You hit it on your own." In truth, Naruto was unnerved by the look that had entered Sasuke's eyes as he threw the kunai. He'd obviously been distracted before he let it go, but instead of it falling flat, he had held it with an ease that spoke of everyday use, the casual movement that showed instinct before the weapon struck. It was like…like before. He grimaced at that. That type of thinking wouldn't help him or Sasuke. Sometimes it was best to accept the past was the past, and even ghosts weren't exempt.

He shook his head free of that thought before it could go any further. "Very good." He said instead, tossing another knife at Sasuke. He wanted to see if it was a fluke. "Care to try again?" Sasuke looked rather dazed as he stared at the target, but didn't make a mark the rest of the day.

~

It was barely dawn the next morning when the knocking came on the door. Sasuke groaned and held his pillow over his head, trying to block out the sound. Who on earth would be at his place this early in the morning?

"Sasu-ke…" Naruto's voice was annoyingly close to him and he grabbed his pillow, smacking out with it to where Naruto would normally be. There was no connection and he frowned, sitting up. He's not there…He sleepy brain tried to wake up. When his eyes refocused, he saw the grinning blond opposite of the place he hit.

"You're slow this morning." He taunted. "Anyways, your gennin for hire are here." Sasuke wondered vaguely why a gennin team would be at his place, when all the gears suddenly clicked into place. Rebuilding, hired gennin team to help rebuild estate…

Shooing the laughing ghost away from the room, he hurriedly dressed and went out to meet his shinobi-for-hire. They were younger than he expected—gennin were normally young and inexperienced (which was why they got the lowest 'missions') but these looked to be fresh academy graduates.

"Are you Sensu Sasuke?" The older man heading the time gave him an appraising look, somewhat surprised—the same look he had gotten from most of the adults in the village. He wondered vaguely, in some small corner of his mind, if Naruto had gone through this same ritual growing up. He didn't voice any of his thoughts or let it show on his face, except to nod and gesture the team in.

They were a solemn bunch, except the one girl fidgeting and looking rather annoyed, arms crossed over her chest as she glanced around. He gaze her and her companions an appraising stare, wondering if Naruto was going to pop out of the walls at any second. All of them looked way too overconfident, but it wouldn’t do to scare off his workers right from the beginning.

"Would you like to introduce yourselves?" He asked calmly. "Since you will be working here for quite some time, it would be nice to know at least your names." Casually leaning against he wall, he waited.

The teacher spoke first stepping forward and laying a hand on one of the boys heads. "My name is Nara Shiba, jounin rank shinobi, and this is Team 4." He said calmly. "Introduce yourselves." He ordered his team.

The girl looked at him sullenly, arms crossed over her chest still. "Nakayama Kia." She mumbled. "Gennin rank." Her eyes dared him to make fun of the fact she was the only girl on the team, before flicking over to her teammates. Her dark hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and her outfit looked almost … ironed. Sasuke winced inwardly. This was a girl that seemed to take every mission seriously, and obviously resented being regulated to this one.

One of the boys on her other side grinned widely at Sasuke. "I'm Shourai Mika." He said, blue eyes bright as he introduced himself. "You obviously already know my rank, since Kia and I are on the same team, and we got ol' Shiba to tag along with us."

The last boy was as calm and serious as the other boy was exuberant, and showed no signs of resentment like Kia did, and he realized he had the same blank-eyed stare as the teacher did. "Hyuuga Aki." His voice was controlled, careful and had not a hint of disrespect in it. "I hope that our work will please you."

Sasuke nodded, a little unnerved. He gave out the list of assignments, warning the children to be careful of the broken floors inside many of the houses along the avenue. Shiba just smiled. "It will be good training for them." He said easily. "There's a few things we can cover while moving around in there." He gave Sasuke one last, penetrating stare before following his students outside.

Sasuke groaned and slumped into a chair. He wasn't sure why he agreed to it, he just knew that it would be a long day. He pondered vaguely watching his 'workers', but decided against it as Shiba hinted at 'training.' Gathering the kunai that Naruto had set aside for him, he went into the back for target practice.

Naruto still hadn't shown up yet, and that was starting to worry him. Not that he missed the ghost or anything, or was concerned that he could get hurt—but … it was weird without him around and only the team of gennin nearby. He blinked and nearly smacked his head at the loss of thought there. The gennin team. He muttered crossly to himself. He's probably spying on them.

Reassured, he set to practicing his knife throwing once more, never noticing the eyes watching him the entire time, Shiba observing Sasuke carefully as he aimed the kunai at the target. He wanted to know more about this Sasuke—he wasn't dumb and he could see things that too many people were keeping silent. There were such things as coincidences, but more likely than not there was a specific purpose involved.

His grandfather had known the Rokudaime before he came into that position, but never had much to say about him. Not that Shiba ever really listened much—Shikamaru was old and his mind wandered most of the time, not being able to really focus on his grandson whenever he came to visit. He did say that Naruto was a good person, though—and deserved the position of leader more than anybody in the village. He wondered what Grandfather would have said if he'd known of Naruto supposedly sticking around the Uchiha estate. Or what he would say to this Sasuke that moved in here and became the owner.

He continued to watch, unnerved at the lack of skill that stuck out all over, but there was something underneath that almost struggled to do the moves properly. As if half the reason why the kunai fell so flat was because there were two different forces trying to control it. What a ridiculous thought. He muttered to himself. But he couldn't entirely discount it.

Stepping forward, he was ready to confront Sasuke, when a hand stopped him. He spun around to see the image of the Rokudaime, and his mouth dropped open in shock. He, like most other people, thought the whole ghost business was just a legend. "You're dead." He said blankly, mind completely thrown off for the first time in a long time.

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, I am—it's not really a big deal to me anymore. I've rather gotten used to it." His eyes flicked over to where Sasuke was training, having noticed Shiba's earlier scrutiny. "Even if you notice something." He murmured softly. "Don't say anything to him. If someone is reborn, they aren't meant to repeat their past."

Shiba stared at him, eyes wide. "Gh…ghosts of previous Hokage shouldn’t stick around either." He managed. "Both are a little unreal." He stared first at Naruto, then at Sasuke. "And the two of you together." He moaned. "Grandpa didn't talk a lot, but jeez… when he did…" His expression turned from stunned to irritated. "Most of my family knows what happened to Uchiha Sasuke…"

He was abruptly muffled as Naruto glared at him, hands still the position of the seal he just formed. "I repeat—he doesn't know." He said firmly. "No one does, although I would bet a hell of a lot people suspect. His looks are rather distinctive." He rolled his eyes. "It's why everyone freaks out when they see me." He pointed to the whisker marks, annoyance clearly on his face. "There's a reason why I don't show up a great deal."

Shiba snickered at that, much more relaxed now. He could almost ignore the fact that he was talking to the ghost of a long-dead, really famous Hokage. "Well, I guess that you would know something of what to do." He conceded. With one last look at Sasuke—and the spectacular way he missed the large target—he started moving back towards the apartments where his team was. "I better go check on the kids. Care to come with me and scare some respect into them?"

Naruto smirked, eyes brightening with the though of being able to create mischief, even as a ghost. "I'd be honored."

~

Kia looked up from where she was gathering scraps of wood, her feet planted firmly on the side of the wall. She didn't recognize the jounin that came in with her teacher. He looked vaguely familiar, but not in a way that was really important to her. Shrugging it off, she walked carefully over the wall and set the wood down in the ever growing pile. It wasn’t until the stranger poked his head through the wall next to her, did she let out a gasp and lost her footing. A line of energy practically flung her to a safe part of the room and she glared at the grinning jounin.

"That wasn't very nice of you." She muttered, dusting off her hands. "I could have been seriously hurt." She said primly. Her eyes swept over him, taking in the scruffy blonde hair and rumpled uniform, dismissing him as unimportant, despite his higher ranking. "You should know better." She lectured.

Shiba stifled a snicker at that, shaking his head. "You're not using very good observation skills." He raised an eyebrow at her, "But I can dismiss the bad lighting in here for not noticing." He looked over at Naruto. "Do you want to explain it to her or let her figure it our for herself?"

The man just smiled and shrugged, looking amused still. "Eh, she looks like a smart girl and she'll figure it out eventually." He winked at her and vanished, minus the smoke. She stared at the place he left, eyes narrowed in speculation.

~

Sasuke watched the team interact, a strange expression on his face—a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Mika was currently dancing around Kia, avoiding her fists as he mocked her. "He was a ghost, Kia…" He drawled. "How you not noticed when he vanished and popped out of the wall right next to you?"

Her face darkened and she crossed her arms over her chest. "The lighting was poor, you idiot." She bit out. "Aki didn't notice anything and he's part of the Hyuuga line." Her nose stuck up in the air and the look she gave Aki was clearly worshipping. He just ignored the look.

"Mika was able to observe the common. Not everything has to be hidden." He said calmly. "There was an overwhelming charka, which indicated that there was no container for it. Don't blame yourself for not seeing it.. Your strengths lie elsewhere."

She looked mollified, and completely ignoring Mika she smiled brightly at Aki. "You're right…"

Sasuke rubbed his eyes—for a second the dark haired girl seemed to have a pink tint to her hair, and Mika almost seemed like a younger Naruto. There was a gut wrenching disorientation, as if he was in two places at once, then it passed, leaving him only with that feeling of disconnection and a tinge of sadness. He glared fiercely at the target in front of him, eyes smarting with tears. It's only because I wish I shared that. He thought fiercely, putting any other weird feelings out of his head.

When he looked at the group again, they resumed their normal appearances, and while the name Sakura lingered in the back of his mind he couldn't place it or why he even thought of it. Shrugging it off, he picked up the stray kunai and set out to find Naruto, before the idiot did something else. It was also break time and he had promised the team he would feed him. Calling them inside the main house, he ignored the strange looks given to him by all four of those he hired.

He was getting used to it, after all.