Chapter Text
“Mhmm. Yep. Yeah.” Naruto nods confidently as he leans as far back in his chair as he can manage without teetering over. “Got it.”
He pauses momentarily, hands resting knowingly in his lap, briefly closing his eyes to fully appreciate the information provided to him.
When he opens them again, he blinks calmly back at Kakashi, giving a final, resolute nod.
“You’re gonna have to say the whole thing again,” he admits.
On the other side of the Hokage’s desk, Kakashi sighs wearily, chin sinking onto his steepled hands. “Naruto.”
“Oh come on!” Sakura interjects from beside Naruto, her backhand strike to his shoulder (the good one, fortunately) nearly toppling him over. “How were you not listening even a little bit that whole time?” A flurry of pink whips around her face as she turns to glower at him.
“Hey! Hey! I was listening!” Naruto defends, throwing his hands up as he slams the chair legs down, grounding himself. “I was definitely listening! I just want to be sure of all the details first, that’s all!” he insists. His eyes shift guiltily as he clears his throat. “Ya know, because… because this mission is so important. Yeah!”
Sakura regards him with disdain, her nose wrinkling. She shakes her head, letting her chin also sink into her palms. “It’s a wonder your head doesn’t ache when you move, with your small brain rattling around in there like a pinball…” she grumbles under her breath.
“What the hell!” Naruto returns, wounded. “My brain is totally normal sized! Kurama’s in there, he would know!”
Sakura scoffs. “There is no way that’s how that works–”
“Guys,” Kakashi finally interrupts, sounding very much like he is two seconds away from finally allowing the sweet abyss to swallow him up, and not two months into assuming his position as the sixth Hokage. Or perhaps those things are not so different.
“Please,” he stresses.
Before Naruto relents, he gives a disgruntled huff and sticks his tongue out at Sakura, which she patently ignores. Pride ruffled, he attempts to resume his casual attitude, leaning back again and folding his arms behind his head.
As he does so, he glances to his other side, where Sasuke sits, thus far ostensibly unperturbed as he stares out the windows behind Kakashi. It’s been raining all day for the last few days now, and the view outside is an obfuscated foggy-white, the panes of glass dappled fervidly with water droplets. There’s not much to see out there. Not from in here, anyway.
Naruto’s gaze settles on Sasuke unthinkingly, habitually. His jet-black hair is much longer now, Naruto notices. And although Naruto sees him regularly – a fact that does something inexplicable to his ribs every time he re-realizes it, like his chest won’t be able to hold them in – it seems like Sasuke hasn’t cut it since they’ve all been back together. A few rogue split-ends graze the tops of his shoulders as he lightly tilts his head.
It’s not like him to let it grow unkempt, Naruto considers off-handedly. Maybe Sasuke doesn’t know where in Konoha he could go to get it trimmed. It has been a long time since he’s truly lived here, Naruto reasons, even though that thought makes him tense up with discomfort. And maybe Sasuke just doesn’t know how to cut it himself? But even Naruto knows how to cut his own hair, and if he does, then Sasuke definitely does…
Kakashi’s voice breaks Naruto’s rumination. “Okay then, Naruto,” he concedes, taking a steadying, instructorly exhale. “Which part was the most confusing?”
Naruto blinks a few times and scratches the side of his head, trying to get his thoughts in order. He manages to pull his attention away from Sasuke to respond. “Uh, well… I guess…” he starts.
Truthfully, even the answer to Kakashi’s simple question is difficult to articulate. They had covered a lot of ground in the initial explanation of the mission briefing. In short, though, the issue seemed to be related to the Infinite Tsukuyomi that was cast at the end of the war.
Naruto really hasn’t spent that much time thinking of it since then, honestly. Why would he need to? He and Sasuke had dispelled it with their combined hand seal, and everyone had immediately been released from its influence. Pondering something like that, which had effectively been resolved almost as soon as it became a problem, ranked pretty low on Naruto’s list of priorities these days.
But according to Kakashi, this alleged resolution had not been so definitive. Naruto remembers what he had learned about this genjutsu during that fight – it had basically trapped the whole world in a dream. Or a bunch of individual dreams, to be more exact. At the time, he hadn’t needed to know more in order to help. To Naruto, it was simple: people didn’t deserve to live a lie, even if the dreams were good ones. And he had said as much then, too.
Now, though, the situation was more complicated. There had been reports – more than just a few, a lot more than just a few, in fact – of people across villages that had been experiencing… visions, of a sort. Disruptive ones. Images that flashed before people’s eyes for no rhyme or reason. During the day, at night, at any time. No obvious triggers, no apparent pattern. At best, these visions temporarily interrupted people’s conversations or daily tasks, almost like a sense of déjà vu. Manageable, albeit annoying. But at worst, the images were completely dissociative and disorienting – people would forget when and where they were, sometimes even who they were. The visions appeared to have an almost hallucinatory effect, and so far, there was only one known connection between all these reports: these visions were the same, or similar to, the dreams people saw when the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast.
Of course, none of the people currently sitting in the Hokage’s office had been affected by this genjutsu during the fight, thanks to Sasuke’s quick-thinking and protective barrier. So the four of them had neither experienced an initial dream nor any subsequent ones. Naruto finds that this fact makes the whole thing a bit difficult for him to grapple with.
“I guess I don’t…” Naruto continues. He sighs in frustration, shoulders drooping. His eyes don’t meet the others’. “I don’t really understand why it’s Sakura and I that are assigned to this mission,” he finally admits.
Naruto can almost feel the indignation boil out of Sakura. She leans toward him menacingly. “What are you trying to say?”
Naruto’s hands ball into fists and he grinds them into his temples. “I’m– I don’t–” He grunts defeatedly. “Fine! I don’t know why I’m assigned to this mission! Alright? Are you happy now?”
He eventually looks up from the floor, eyes narrowed at Sakura. But he’s surprised to find that she looks surprised at the admission.
Taken aback, he begins to ramble as he tries to present a justification. “Wait, I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m excited! It’s my first mission in so long! I was getting antsy. Like, actually antsy,” he repeats, genuine, turning toward Kakashi and nodding to emphasize his point. “So I wanna go! I definitely wanna go. I wanna help.” He then motions emphatically to the side. “But don’t you think that Sas–”
Kakashi cuts him off abruptly. “Let me clarify, then.”
Naruto falters mid-question, frowning, confused at how quickly Kakashi interjected. In his peripherals, even Sasuke has shifted his attention back to the group.
“From all the reports we’ve received so far,” Kakashi continues, “this condition doesn’t seem like it could be treated by typical medical ninjutsu. But if it can, and especially if it can’t …” he explains, gesturing towards Sakura. “... Sakura should be the one to make the calls on how to handle it.”
A silence follows. Sakura bites her lower lip. “But–”
“And this would still be my position on the matter,” Kakashi emphasizes, “even if Tsunade-sama weren’t…”
He groans suddenly, as if he’d just been kneed in the stomach. Then, after a long moment, he raises his gaze imploringly to the ceiling. “... Retired,” he finishes.
Sakura and Naruto share a disturbed look. She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, and Naruto accidentally lets a grimacing “yikes” slip out of him. Sasuke just rolls his eyes.
Kakashi soon abandons his bargaining attempts with a higher power, and Sakura straightens. She chews the inside of her cheek in contemplation.
“I do think Kakashi-sensei’s assumption is right, though,” Sakura states. “The acute aftereffects of genjutsu are largely unresponsive to normal medical treatment…” she trails off, before her wide eyes quickly sweep around the room. “As this group already knows, of course…” she amends. Naruto watches Sasuke out of the corner of his eye. He doesn’t react.
Sakura’s gaze floats upward, like she’s trying to piece something together in her mind. “But this does seem to diverge, at least somewhat, from what we’d expect those aftereffects to be…” she continues. “I mean, it’s been…” She breaks to count. “...Almost six months? That’s a long time to still be seeing this kind of… hallucinatory reaction.”
Her brows furrow. “Maybe… well, I suppose if you take into account the massive scale and wide-ranging scope of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, maybe there could still be some influence…” She shakes her head. “But the casters aren’t here. Right? And besides.” She looks over at Naruto and Sasuke now. “I watched you two dispel it.”
She taps her palm on her thigh instinctively, hoping to coax out the explanation from the tangle of secondhand observations. “It has to be something different,” she settles on. “Something else is going on.”
Kakashi nods. “I agree. We’ve come to the same conclusion.”
Naruto feels like he hasn’t come to any conclusion, and it’s starting to piss him off. All of this seems so abstract, but he also doesn’t want to seem completely clueless in front of the rest of the group.
“So… you want us to talk to these people, then? The people who are still seeing the dreams? And just… ask them what’s happening?” he tries. He’s not even sure what else they could do. Talking it out and fighting were the only tactics Naruto ever really used, and it’s not like you could fight something that wasn’t real.
Kakashi shrugs. “Well, as I’m sure Sakura would tell you from working with her patients, asking someone about any of their problems will only get you so far.”
Naruto’s face scrunches up in confusion. Now he’s totally lost.
“So I don’t think you should ask,” Kakashi clarifies.
Naruto’s eyes narrow. “Well, how am I gonna find out what’s happening with them if I don’t ask?”
“Mind reading,” Sasuke offers blankly.
Naruto twists around to look at him, eyes blown wide. “Wait, what?”
Sasuke doesn’t provide any other comment. His attention is elsewhere now, and Naruto can’t see his expression.
“But–” Naruto starts, whipping his gaze back to the rest of the group. “That’s so– that’s so invasive! I’m not–”
Kakashi cuts Naruto off again. “Welcome to the conversation, Sasuke,” he says, leveling his gaze at him with a tone that is not particularly welcoming. “You’re close,” he concedes. “But that’s not exactly what I’m suggesting.”
Sakura stiffens, her voice quieter than before. “What… what are you suggesting, then?” she asks. Naruto at least feels a little bit better that he’s not the only one in over his head with this discussion now. But he doesn’t fully relax, wary of where Kakashi is going with this.
“I’m suggesting that Naruto – and the nine-tails–"
“Kurama,” Naruto corrects.
A now well-known energy within Naruto stirs, similar to that of a pet stretching out in your lap after a long nap. But Naruto wouldn’t use that description out loud. He also tries not to think it too loudly, just in case.
Kakashi blinks back at Naruto. “Yes. Kurama, ” he revises. “Together, you possess two qualities that are particularly well-suited for this investigation.”
Inside of him, Kurama peeks open an eye, regarding Naruto sidelong.
I’m already sure that I don’t want to be a part of this, Kurama grumbles dismissively, but his eye is sharp, calculating.
Naruto doesn’t blame him. This mission is taking a much, much weirder turn than he had anticipated from Kakashi’s first description of it.
But he meets Kakashi’s gaze now. It’s patient. Trusting. And they’ve already come this far in the conversation. He should at least find out how it ends.
Let’s just… hear him out first, Naruto responds internally. He nods outwardly for Kakashi to continue.
“The first quality is Kurama’s ability to sense emotions,” Kakashi explains. “I know that in the past, this primarily targeted negative emotions–”
Naruto perks up at that. This is familiar to him. “Oh, yeah! Like how we were able to pick apart the White Zetsu clones from real people…” he recalls, nodding. “I guess that was really useful then…”
“Exactly,” Kakashi agrees. “But now that the two halves of Kurama have been…” he pauses for a second, thinking. “Reunited, for lack of better phrasing… I’d guess that this sensing ability would apply more broadly. With more than just negative emotions, essentially.” He tilts his head slightly at Naruto, speculative. “Is my assumption correct?”
Naruto raises a finger to answer, opening and closing his mouth a few times.
… Uh, IS his assumption correct? he checks with Kurama.
Why are you asking me? Kurama retorts. You know as much as I do, brat.
Naruto bristles. Hey! What did I say about the name-calling?
Looking away, Kurama nestles his chin into his crossed forearms as he lays. Brat is an… He grunts, like he doesn’t even want to finish the sentence.
It’s meant to be an amicable term, he finally says. Brat.
Naruto can’t help his smug smile. Alright, whatever, we’ll talk about that later. But I mean… CAN we do that? he asks again. Can we sense more than just negative emotions? Like Kakashi-sensei says?
Kurama ponders this silently for a moment. I have never paid much attention to neutral or positive emotions, he admits. But… the theory is reasonable. We should confirm it somehow.
“Kurama says… ‘probably,’” Naruto finally answers aloud. “We’d have to test it out.”
Kakashi gives a small shrug. “Fair enough.”
“But…” Naruto starts, piecing the puzzle together himself, now. “I still don’t see how that really helps us. Even if we can pick up on all kinds of emotions more easily, I don’t get how we’ll know that much more about these aftereffects through any sensing technique. Or more than we would know from just asking, anyway.
“And besides,” he continues, “the Infinite Tsukuyomi was supposed to give people happy dreams! Right?” He looks around the room. “I mean, it didn’t affect us, obviously, so I don’t know for sure. But why would someone not want to tell us about happy stuff? Even if seeing the dreams again is sorta causing people problems?”
A noncommittal hum is Kakashi’s first response. “Are you generally comfortable telling your deepest desires to someone you don’t know well?” he then asks.
“Uh, yeah! Duh,” Naruto immediately counters, rolling his eyes. “Literally everyone knows I want to be Hokage.” He grins. “That’s a pretty stupid question, sensei.”
Kakashi sighs in acquiescence. “Well, you are a special case, and that’s part of the point I’m trying to make... but, I will say…” he pauses, letting his gaze settle over each member of their group individually. He meets Naruto’s eyes again after a moment.
“You’d be surprised by what people really want,” he offers. “Not everyone’s wishes are as… easy to articulate and tangible as yours, Naruto.”
Naruto purses his lips. He knows that what Kakashi says must be true. But the notion of not being candid about your goals and dreams is quite the foreign concept for him, personally.
“My other point, though,” Kakashi continues, “is that in conjunction with the emotion sensing, I think it’s your ability to mold Kurama’s chakra, and your own, to other people’s chakra signatures that will really be the key, here.”
Naruto pauses for a moment, musing. Well, I… I think he might be right about the molding part, he confesses internally.
Kurama turns to look at him straight on, his gaze severe. I know he’s right about that. When you transferred my chakra to all the other shinobi on the battlefield… you matched their signatures so easily. He seems incredulous even as he is describing it now. Maybe even disturbingly so. You’re even better at it than your dad was, he claims. And if the emotion sensing is combined with signature-matching of this precision…
He pauses. It would not be a technique to be taken lightly.
“Sheeeeesh, okay, okay, I get it…” Naruto replies.
The others in the room raise their eyebrows at him.
“Oh, sorry, uh.” His face reddens a little as he realizes that he’s replied out loud. “Internal discussions, ya know.”
He takes a moment to consider the situation, what his role in it would be.
“Okay. So. Let me get this straight,” he eventually announces, having now added up everything in his head. He steeples his hands in front of his face. “You basically want Sakura, Kurama, and I to go around and… snoop through everyone’s emotions and find their biggest hopes and dreams, or whatever… to figure out why and how all this is even happening in the first place?”
Kakashi makes a so-so gesture. “It’s not necessarily snooping,” he counters easily. “You don’t have to avoid anyone. But your basic premise is correct.”
Naruto lets out a massive sigh. He actually wouldn’t have minded being wrong about the strategy, just this one time. “This sounds hard,” he admits.
Kakashi nods knowingly back at him. “It is. It is hard.” He looks at Sakura, too. “That’s why I want you both to do it.”
Rubbing the heels of his palms into his eyes, Naruto groans. It’s not that he wasn’t excited to go on another mission. It would be good to brush off some of the dust from being dormant in Konoha for so long. And he wouldn’t say it publicly, because she’d probably convince herself it was necessary to slap him and call him a perv, but he really likes working with Sakura. They make a great two-man cell.
But that’s just it – they’d been a two -man cell more than enough times over the past few years. And he knows Sakura would feel the same.
Naruto shakes off his qualms and straightens from the slouch he found himself in. There is a more important matter at hand.
“Okay, well, I guess I mostly get why you want me to go now,” he agrees. “Even though I feel like I have to practice this stuff first…” he trails off, briefly imagining how that would even work and almost distracting himself.
He turns to where Sasuke sits. There’s a subtle twitch of his fingers when Naruto’s gaze is on him.
“But it still doesn’t make sense why Sasuke can’t go, too,” Naruto argues. “I mean, shouldn’t someone who’s actually good at genjutsu help with a genjutsu-related thing?
Sasuke now stares back at him, his mouth a thin line.
“And more importantly,” Naruto continues, “I didn’t make the Infinite Tsukuyomi go away by myself. Sasuke and I did it together. It only worked because we did it together,” he emphasizes.
Naruto thinks about that day a lot. Probably more than anyone would want to hear about. Much more than anyone would want to hear about. The moment their hands joined to make the seal is seared into his memories. And maybe that partially explains why not everyone would want to talk about these reported visions, even if they were happy. Because Naruto was happy that day. Probably happier than he’d ever been in his whole life. But despite how this emotion felt like it could burst from him then, and perhaps even now just from thinking about it, he’s not sure how he would even begin to describe it with words.
He does know one thing for certain, though. It wouldn’t have felt like that if Sasuke hadn’t been there.
Naruto turns and looks expectantly at Kakashi.
Kakashi is monotonous when he replies. “I’m afraid Sasuke can’t leave Konoha quite yet,” he says.
The curl of Naruto’s fist, the clench of his jaw, is immediate. Anger rises to rest just under the surface of his skin.
“That excuse again? Really?” he snarls, working hard to remain sitting. He’s acutely aware of Sakura’s worried glances at him. Sasuke hasn’t said anything.
“How much longer are you going to keep him here?” Naruto demands, pressing his fists into his thighs.
Kakashi regards him calmly. “I seem to remember at one point you wanted him in Konoha.”
It’s lighthearted. It’s supposed to be a joke.
Naruto is not laughing. “You know what I mean,” he grits out, teeth sharp.
Kakashi appears to take a moment to weigh his response options as Naruto’s breathing grows heavier.
“I do,” he finally allows. “I do know what you mean. But these things take time. They don’t happen overnight.” His eyes are kind, reassuring, again. “You know that, Naruto,” he maintains.
Jaw still clenched, Naruto exhales long and deep. His hands are vibrating with how much he doesn’t want to agree with Kakashi's truth.
Sasuke was a huge part of the reason why everyone was safe and at peace now. Why wasn’t that enough? Naruto had forgiven so many people, had forgiven so much in this lifetime. Of course, it hadn’t been easy, but he had done it. So why couldn’t others forgive Sasuke? It wasn’t right for him to be detained here. He shouldn’t have to prove anything to anyone. But Naruto also knows that no one else, except maybe Sakura, has the same opinion on this as him. Which is ridiculous. He can’t believe people willfully choose to stay so ignorant.
Naruto has convinced plenty of people to change their opinions on plenty of things over the years, though. Not to pat himself on the back, but he is good at it. So he can do it. He can change everyone’s mind about Sasuke. He can make them see the truth.
However, he unfortunately knows Kakashi is right in saying it doesn’t happen overnight. Naruto’s impatient, though. He wishes it would have taken less than six months, that this topic could just be put to rest already.
“And, to be very blunt,” Kakashi adds. “ Your face may still be a more welcome one for others to see at this point, Naruto. Especially if you are ‘snooping.’”
Naruto’s eyebrows shoot up, appalled. That is a different subject entirely. What, so Sasuke’s not even allowed to look at people now? Everybody should be forced to look at him, Naruto thinks, to be face-to-face with what it takes to overcome the village’s negligence. And he’s about to say as much, hackles raised again, when Kakashi holds up a quelling hand.
“Besides,” he says, his eyes now those familiar contented semi-circles. “I think Sasuke may be able to help us right here and now.”
Naruto and Sasuke instinctively steal a glance at each other. “What do you mean?” they say simultaneously. There’s a low undercurrent of wariness to how Sasuke asks the question.
“Well, how many others are there that I could entrust with these mission details who have also been exposed to a powerful tsukuyomi?” Kakashi returns.
Naruto lags behind, but Sasuke clearly understands the intent behind Kakashi’s comment instantly, his teeth grinding.
“Yourself, for one–” Sasuke seethes.
“Repeatedly,” Kakashi adds.
Naruto’s gaze flits rapidly between the two of them. The muscles in Sasuke’s forearm look like they’re pulled taut enough to snap.
Kakashi’s complacent expression has evaporated completely. “And who likely still experience similar aftereffects.”
Oh. Naruto understands now. His mouth opens with a defense that doesn’t come fast enough.
“It would be advantageous for you to be of help while you are here, Sasuke,” Kakashi concludes. He levels a hard stare at him.
Sasuke stands, his fingers peeling off the armrest he’d been gripping. He leans over the desk, ever so slowly, until his face is only inches away from Kakashi’s, and he glares at him.
“Go fuck yourself,” he hisses.
Sasuke is out the door, the slam of it ringing in everyone’s ears, before Kakashi can begin to form a response. But Naruto’s only one step behind him, flying down the stairs to catch up.
“Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto hears Sakura lament in disbelief as he runs. “That was way too far.”
Too far is a colossal understatement. Naruto doesn’t even know how he’s going to manage to talk to Kakashi about the mission after this. Outrage swells inside him, hot and turbulent, as he races out the front door.
“Wait! Wait!” he calls out, grasping Sasuke’s bad shoulder before he can think about what he’s doing, only that he’s caught him in time, this time. “Sasuke, I–”
It’s pouring outside, rain thundering onto an overhang above the two of them. Sasuke lashes around to face him, wincing almost imperceptibly at the movement, but doesn’t move to push Naruto off of him. “What,” he demands.
The noise of the overhang clangs in Naruto’s head. He hadn’t thought far enough ahead to figure out what he wanted to say.
“I– well, I– I mean–” he stutters.
Sasuke allows him maybe two seconds of wracking his brain before snarling and turning away again, the toes of his shoes already out in the rain.
“Wait!” Naruto repeats. Shit. He’ll just have to settle with the first thing that comes to mind.
“Uh, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this but… uh, you…” He coughs uncomfortably. “Well… you feel it too, don’t you?” he ventures, unsure.
Sasuke stiffens underneath Naruto’s hand, and he pauses mid-step, still facing away. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment.
“Feel what.” It barely sounds like a question. His voice is strained, like he’s holding something back.
Naruto should really get better at planning ahead. “I mean, I don’t know how to actually describe it…” he fumbles.
Sasuke slowly faces him again. The movement is tense, brittle. The tip of his nose is the barest red.
“Well, you better start trying to.” He meets Naruto’s gaze head-on. “Or let go.”
Naruto isn’t going to let go. So he starts talking.
“Okayokayokay. Um. Well. You know those, like…” He gestures wildly with the hand that’s not on Sasuke. “…Dimensions we were in? While we were fighting Kaguya?
Sasuke’s eyes narrow to slits. “Yes…”
“And how all of us were able to get back together because you and I… sorta… knew where the other person was?”
Sasuke slowly nods once.
Naruto returns the nod. “Well. Yeah. It’s like… that. Do you feel that?”
Sasuke looks at Naruto, unspeaking. The rain fills the silence between them.
“Are you asking… if I know where you are?” Sasuke finally says.
A huge grin spreads across Naruto’s face. He knew Sasuke would know what he meant. “Yeah! Yeah!” he replies excitedly. “That’s part of–”
“Of course I know where you are,” Sasuke interrupts, contemptful. “You’re standing in front of me, asshole.”
Naruto’s mouth hangs open for a second before he processes the response.
“No! No, that’s not– shit!” He does let go of Sasuke now, because he needs both hands to run his palms over his face. “No,” he assures again, pointing an authoritative finger at Sasuke, who regards him with annoyance. “I mean even when we’re not next to each other, dumbass.”
Sasuke purses his lips, looking around him like there’s still a way out of this conversation. He rubs the spot on his shoulder where Naruto’s hand was.
He clears his throat after a while, letting his hand fall to his side again. “Potentially,” he responds, guarded.
Naruto wags his finger now. “Do not give me that crap. If I was able to notice it, you definitely could’ve.” He presses the finger into Sasuke’s chest. “So can you feel it or not?”
Sasuke glances down in between them and then back up. It almost seems like his gaze glitches on Naruto’s mouth.
His voice is quieter than usual when they meet each other’s gaze. “I can,” he concedes. “I can feel it. But it’s–”
“Different,” Naruto supplies.
Sasuke nods. “Yeah.”
“Yeah. It is… different,” Naruto repeats. He still doesn’t know the right word for it. “It’s–”
Sasuke’s eyes float over Naruto again as he speaks. Naruto wonders if it’s something about dōjutsu, or maybe an Uchiha thing. Because he never feels like this when anyone else looks at him, like his pulse races on top of his skin instead of underneath it, like he’s laid bare, every inch of him brazenly exposed.
Well. If it’s only Sasuke, it must just be a Sasuke thing then, he mentally corrects.
“...More than just presence or location,” Sasuke finishes for him, but he says it almost to himself, gaze boring a hole into Naruto’s bandaged right hand.
“Mhmm. That’s what it feels like for me, too,” Naruto agrees.
During the fight against Kaguya, the original sensation had been more like the pull of a current, an insistent tug towards north on a compass. Naruto could still feel that tug, emanating from his palm where the mark that looked like the sun had been. But now, it’s almost like that current is a hundred times stronger, practically dragging him in Sasuke’s direction.
And there is another feeling too, one that seems to linger in his core. If Naruto imagines a pool of chakra in his gut, it almost feels like drops of Sasuke’s chakra send ripples across the surface, sinking down to unfurl within him.
That was definitely new. Naruto couldn’t make sense of that part at all.
“But… we shouldn’t be able to feel whatever this is, right?” Naruto asks, hoping for confirmation. “I mean, the only reason we could do it before was because of the powers that Six Paths man gave us. But he kinda took those back.”
Sasuke shakes his head, musing. “No,” he agrees. “We shouldn’t.”
In his contemplation, Naruto didn’t realize that his finger had been on Sasuke’s chest this whole time. He pulls it back quickly, using it to awkwardly scratch his head.
“Ugh. This is all so weird,” Naruto groans. “My brain is working so hard today,” he complains mindlessly. And it must be mindless, because it’s not until several seconds later that he remembers why his brain had been working so hard, and why they ended up underneath this overhang having this discussion in the first place.
He inhales sharply through his teeth, berating himself. “But, hey, at least this part is okay!” Naruto offers genuinely. “It’s no big deal! We’ll figure it out together.” He gives Sasuke a soft, reassuring smile before becoming more somber. “I’m sorry, though, about Kakashi–”
Sasuke’s tone is cutting. “He’s not sorry.”
Naruto starts to say one thing, but thinks better of it. “Er, probably not,” he admits, distraught. “But, still–”
He wants to explain that Kakashi didn’t really mean it, but that wouldn’t be the truth. Kakashi definitely meant it. And Naruto wants to say that it’s not that important of a mission, but honestly, it sounds like it is, if the problem is this widespread and there’s no foreseeable solution. And then he wants to offer some consolation, to assure Sasuke that even if he really can’t come along, that the rest of them won’t be gone that long, but Naruto doesn’t actually know how long they’ll be gone, and besides, would Sasuke even care about that?
Maybe he could make a joke that Sasuke won’t miss them that much. But for some reason, Naruto can’t bring himself to say it.
The sentence trails off into an uneasy silence. The rain still hasn’t let up around them, and a strong gust of wind redirects the downpour. Instinctively, they both crowd up side-by-side against the building wall for shelter, shoulders brushing.
Naruto is almost too busy figuring out what to say next to hear Sasuke speaking, his voice nearly drowned out by the crash of the rain above their heads.
“Mine would be too… different from others,” Sasuke says quietly, gaze distant.
Naruto must look puzzled when he turns toward him, because Sasuke clarifies: “The tsukuyomi aftereffects I mean.”
Naruto’s mouth parts in a small circle. He hadn’t considered that Sasuke already had an answer to Kakashi’s question. Much less that he would actually be willing to talk about it.
“Because the ones that I–” Sasuke stops himself. He shuts his eyes, but then hastily opens them again, like what he sees in his mind’s eye is worse. “Those images were never intended to be… ‘happy.’” He swallows thickly. “And with the sharingan I remember them too well.”
Naruto remembers how awful he personally had felt after being under Itachi’s genjutsu, how the images he’d seen had remained in his consciousness, trying to take root in his psyche, even after the spell had been broken. And that wasn’t even the real Itachi he had faced at that time, it was just a body double. The hurt cuts through Naruto like a knife, even thinking about the extent of what was inflicted on Sasuke, and how excruciating it must be for him to relive all of it, especially knowing what they know about Itachi now.
Sasuke stares out into the fog around them for a long while. Eventually, he takes a steadying breath.
“Plus, the caster’s always been in my sightline, obviously, and the attacks were… targeted. Personalized.” His tone seems more confident and analytical now. “The Infinite Tsukuyomi necessarily had to have been more generic, regardless of how powerful it was, because it affected everyone.
“But in my case, when I see the images now,” he continues, “and since I’ve seen them so many times, they’re… it’s like they’re seamless with reality.” His expression scrunches up in thought. “I think, for other people, it might be more…” He faces Naruto now, with a slight tilt of his chin as he searches for the right descriptor. “Jagged. Like the edges between the dream and reality aren’t so smooth.” He draws an angular pattern in the air with his finger to try and visualize it.
Naruto’s chest is tight by the time the explanation is finished, and a lump sticks in his throat.
Sasuke must have thought about all of this for so, so long if he is able to articulate it so clearly. So much longer than the time they’ve been standing outside. And for him to be able to so easily and succinctly describe the potential differentiator between his own visions and the reported ones, given how vague the reports were, was an even greater testament to how deeply he had thought about this.
It’s overwhelming how vulnerable Sasuke had been just now with him. With only him.
Naruto’s voice cracks as he struggles to clamber out of speechlessness. “That makes… that makes total sense,” he says, and he means it. “That’s really, really helpful. Thank you.”
He gently places his hand on Sasuke’s shoulder and works hard to keep the tremble out of his lower lip. “Thank you, Sasuke,” he says again.
At the touch, Sasuke now widened eyes flit to where Naruto’s hand is, as if he’s only just realized everything he’d said. He swallows visibly.
“I’ve got somewhere to be,” Sasuke states, turning abruptly, and walks with a deliberate stride straight into the downpour.
The sudden absence of Sasuke against his palm makes it feel strikingly empty. “Wait, do you? Where?” Naruto asks, raising his voice to compete with the rain as Sasuke moves away.
Sasuke doesn’t give a final look behind him. “Places,” he replies curtly.
Something heavy settles in Naruto’s chest as he stares at Sasuke’s back, but he tries not to dwell on it. “Well, I’ll see you later though, right?” Naruto asks, yelling now.
There’s a long pause. Sasuke stops walking. The roar of the storm crashes in Naruto’s ears.
When Sasuke replies, it’s almost a whisper. “Right,” he says.
Somehow, Naruto can still hear him.