#gardens.

Sasuke soon learns that everyone has ghosts--Most people don’t have half a clan’s worth the way that he does, but some definitely have more than others.

Nearly every ninja has at least one, sometimes he can recognize them as Konoha-nin by their headbands, but other times they are distinctly not Konoha-nin. The ones with more foreign nin are usually older jounin, ones with bingo book pages he remembers from class. He pointedly does not make eye contact with those particular ghosts, it’s better they don’t realize what he can see.

His own ghosts know, the members of the clan who linger in his glorified graveyard of a clan district. It’s a hodgepodge of who’s left, with seemingly no rhyme or reason to who stayed and who moved on. Sasuke’s parents moved on, according to Uzume-ba, and Sasuke hates it but maybe he understands a little bit. If he could leave a world where Itachi-nii could do something so awful, maybe he would too.

Moving on is supposed to be nice, or at least some of the ghosts think so, Uzume says it’s overrated and that the ones fishing for it just can’t handle the reality they’ve been saddled with. She doesn’t say it in a mean way, but in the stern way that she sometimes talked in when Sasuke asked her for help with training. Uzume didn’t spend all of her time around Sasuke, she mostly just showed up at night to check on him before he went to sleep. Sasuke didn’t pry, that she came at all was a small blessing he wasn’t going to risk losing.

Mami-ba is the one with him most often, even if she splits her time between him and some of the younger ghosts--she didn’t really let him spend much time around them yet. Tenjin didn’t actually understand he was dead, just that father was gone and so were the majority of the children from his parent’s orphanage.

Mami-ba was trying to acclimate him slowly, but once he was calmer she assured Sasuke he could come and visit. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted to, he’d seen Youko-nee once, wandering around the district and screaming for Noa-nee and Kukuri-nee until she’d broken down crying. Sasuke had trudged over and set a hand on her shoulder, he knew what that grief felt like.

He could touch the ghosts but it didn’t feel like touching a person, it felt almost like pushing against a balloon. Not quite solid but still there, kind of like how he felt most of the time.

Lots of other children at the academy have a ghost, including those in his class, and learning that makes him sit a little easier. Even if no one else can see their’s everyone in Konoha is haunted, it helps him believe they’re actually real. Because maybe he could make up the Uchiha but making up ghosts for his classmates? He doesn’t think he’s creative enough for that.

Naruto’s ghost is especially lively, they have the same face in a way that Sasuke is inclined to believe the ghost much be a family member. Even glowing softly in the ethereal way that all ghosts seem to do, she’s somehow vibrant instead of desaturated like so many Uchiha ghosts. Sasuke wonders if she died on her own terms, to be so content to follow after a scampering brat like Naruto with such a smile on her face.

Ino’s ghost is a surprise, especially because Sasuke has met Ino’s mom before but the way this woman watches Ino, gently brushes hair out of her face during tests and gently nudges her towards greener patches of flowers during recess she must be a mother. They look similar enough, in the clan way, but he can’t be certain beyond his gut feeling.

Hinata’s ghost is absolutely her mother, and Sasuke knows this because he went to her funeral, along with the rest of the Uchiha head family. She looks just as fragile in unlife as she did in death, but the sickly pallor that had taken to her skin was evened out in the ethereal light. She rarely touched Hinata, perhaps a holdover from life when he had heard of the Hyuuga Matriarch was kept in quarantine and only saw her children from a distance. Still, she dropped flowers on Hinata’s desk when no one was looking, and returned toys lost during recess to other children’s cubbies.

So many ghosts are mothers, there are fathers too, and a smaller number of older children he guesses must be siblings. He tries very hard not to think about those things. His parents are resting, it’s better for them to have moved to wherever ghosts go when they’ve finished in the mortal realm. His brother certainly haunts him, but not in the way these children have and that’s for the best, it has to be.

Nara Shikako has the most bizarre ghost Sasuke has ever seen, and he’s seen practically half a village-worth. It’s a young woman who stands in her shadow, who is her shadow the way she mirrors all of Shikako’s movements. She doesn’t even look that much like Shikako, but all her mannerisms and expressions are identical. It’s a little unnerving but it seems like every day Shikako and her shadow are a little closer, the shadow’s appearance taking on a little more of Shikako’s.

Not Quite Bat & Not Quite Bear

“It is very nice to meet you, Nara-san. Ibiki-senpai has asked me to speak with you, I am better than him at speaking with young people.”

There’s something conspiratorial in her tone that doesn’t quite reach her eyes, and Shikako can admit that she’s not entirely surprised to see Chiyome Shimura, even if in most worlds she’s met the woman as Bear instead. She’s never seen her smile so freely before, and she’s seen her smile at her root children with some degree of frequency when she lands in worlds that force them to engage with each other.

“What did Ibiki-senpai tell you about me?”

“That you were found with my uncle, that you used some sort of unknown shadow jutsu on him, and that you cooperated when you were caught.”

Shikako nods, because those are all true statements, and doesn’t attempt to interrupt Chiyome as she continues, because there’s nothing for her to say. Instead, she settles in, these chairs are more comfortable than the last Konoha’s and there’s even a small cot in the corner with a fuzzy blanket of all things. Chiyome surveys her motions with a small head tilt and slightly pursed lips,

“Uncle is in the hospital now, a coma of some sort with no visible brain activity. Even Tsunade-sama is unlikely to be able to save him. A true shame,” The older woman says in a light tone and the slightest quirk of her lips in spite of the way she forces her eyebrows to knit and her eyes to crinkle in a facsimile of mourning. A ruse, Shikako notes, because it is expected of Danzo’s niece that she mourns his loss and Shimura Chiyome is always one to rise up and above expectations in every world that Shikako has found her.

“We would appreciate it very much if you could tell us why you hurt him, Nara-san. If you need time, that is fine as well I can have dinner brought in and we can talk after you’ve eaten? They could only find ration bars in your packs and while I know those might be filling nutritionally, someone your age needs more than the bare minimal amount of nutrition to grow properly.”

It’s almost jarring how kind this interrogation is compared to others she’s endured before and a distant part of her head that’s very busy compartmentalizing all the information about this new world notes that Chiyome seems so genuinely content. There’s not a single world she’s found Chiyome in that Danzo hasn’t directly had a hand in shattering the woman’s life–His new brain-dead status is probably a great boon that the Shimura woman hadn’t even needed to ask for.

Once Chiyome actually calls in dinner, a proper dinner for the first time in ages, Shikako decides that this might be the most satisfying Danzo kill in a while because she’s getting Akimichi BBQ takeout as a thank you for it. She’s still stuck in T&I for the foreseeable future until her chakra levels are back up to a reasonable enough level to attempt escape. However, if this is Chiyome’s primary means of interrogation–good food and polite conversation–Shikako feels up to trading a few classified forbidden secrets for some dessert.

“You know about Root, Shimura-san?”

Finally there is a small stiffening to Chiyome’s posture, a pause as she settles her chopsticks across her bowl, suddenly looking weary for a split second before her face settles again. The genial expression is back and Shikako almost winces, maybe she could have been a little more subtle.

“I know of it, Nara-san.”

“I think we know about it for the same reasons,” It’s a lie and isn’t, and honestly it’s a stretch of truth that could get her in trouble but it’s also one that they can’t necessarily confirm or deny and she’s watching Chiyome intently, gauging her reaction to see if it’s the right play, “I think you know why I hurt him.”

“I–Yes, Nara-san. I do think I understand.” She stands quickly, her face unreadable and so utterly flat that Shikako’s momentarily afraid she’s made the wrong call. However, before she walks away Chiyome reaches out and ghosts a hand over top of Shikako’s. She takes the moment of vulnerability to really look at the Shimura.

Chiyome’s eyes are so unfathomably sad, in that moment and Shikako feels a brief pang of regret before it’s smothered by the knowledge that this was absolutely the right play. Before either of them can say anything a small bell rings and Chiyome turns quickly, walking over to the door that only opens when she applies her own chakra to the seal. From her current position, it’s hard for Shikako to see past Chiyome and out the door but she recognizes the soft baritone of Ibiki as he whispers something to his subordinate.

She watches Chiyome nod, eyes steeling slightly before she turns back and returns to the table, a small paper box in hand–A box that Shikako recognizes, a familiar scent wafting through the air that she’s missed so much. No matter what world, Hironobu makes the best pastries. 

“Here,” She pushes the box slowly across the table, like it’s a delicate thing that could collapse at too hard of a touch, “Have dessert, Nara-san.”

“Don’t I have to finish my dinner first? Growing girl and all.”

garden; basically dos canon is the same, but sometimes Sasuke can see ghosts.

Ghostly Garden - Part 1

Sasuke doesn’t have a family anymore--Not in the traditional sense.

Not everyone lingered, most of the clan had moved on, in the quiet months after the massacre when Sasuke could barely get out of bed for the grief in his heart and the unwanted memories in his head they had slowly manifested. A gentle hair ruffle as he trudged towards the kitchen, eyes never lingering on the floor for fear of finding bloodstains. A squeeze of his hand throughout every meeting as homes, good, and belongings were allocated to next of kin--from all his kin because there was no one else left. A breathy barely whisper of words whenever he cried himself to sleep, ‘It’s alright Sasuke-kun.’

At first, he thought it was a lingering effect of Itachi’s genjutsu, one last knife in the gut to drive him crazy. He was too weak to kill directly, and maybe weak enough to die from the mental strain of such a powerful genjutsu. It had him searching through clan genjutsu scrolls--ones that he shouldn’t have been able to read except now he was the only Uchiha and no one was there to stop him.

When he first sees someone walking through the Uchiha district, it fills him with a such a great firey rage that it takes all of his power not to run out in his nightclothes and shriek at the intruder. To throw the tantrum a child his age should throw in the face of this level of emotional distress. Instead, he takes a kunai and walks outside silently, rage churning in his belly as his hand grips ghost white against his weapon.

He doesn’t actually know what he wants to do, which is a problem for the Sasuke he will be in five minutes. Which is a tactic he’s been doing to get anything done in the wake of Itachi’s swath of destruction. If he can force himself out of bed then what he does that morning is afternoon Sasuke’s problem. If he can force himself to go to school then what happens at school is evening Sasuke’s problem. Everything is a careful balancing act of denial and forcing his body to go through the motions.

Soon he’s going to crack, but that’s future Sasuke’s problem.

Current Sasuke’s problem is the fact that since he’d just come from his well-lit home his night vision is completely shot, he can’t sleep with the lights off right now but there’s no one to tell him to sleep at all so it’s fine. It just makes squinting forward at the stranger off in the distance frustrating. They’re standing before one of his relatives' empty houses, it’s one of the ones that hasn’t been cleared out yet save for the bodies.

The idea that someone could be looting from his family only further stokes the growing rage that makes his jaw ache and his stomach drop. There are no more attempts at stealth as he breaks into a sprint, “Hey,” He hates that his voice cracks but he can’t dwell on it as the stranger continues to stand there, “Get away from there! No one’s allowed in there!”

He’s panting, he was so stupid and weak--He hadn’t paced himself because he’d been so angry and he hasn’t slept in what feels like days so his body can’t keep up with what he wants it to do. He practically drops to his knees behind the intruder, it’s a woman--Maybe his mom’s age or older? It’s hard to tell from behind but she huffs out a quizzical noise that’s so familiar Sasuke’s heart aches.

“So I’m not allowed in my own house now, huh?”

It’s like the world freezes around him, because it can’t be her--He saw her body.

hmu…