All That Glitters ||NaruSasu|| ✔️

The Aftermath

"Visiting," he murmurs.

"Who?" I pry, not digging the secretiveness.

"Kakashi," he says, staring out the window and rubbing his tired eyes.

"You've been really tired lately. Have you been sleeping okay these past few days?" I ask, not bothering to ask why we're going to visit that guy. I'll question him about it later.

"Yeah," he says.

"Are you sure?"

He only nods. I can't help but notice how distant he's been. I don't know why. I think back to what he said earlier – he's still worried he'll scare me off. I don't think that's possible. He should know that. "What is it, then?" I continue to question him. "Something has been on your mind. It's obvious."

He lets out a sigh and his breath fogs up the window before disappearing. A second later, he turns to me. "You scared me, you know," he admits quietly.

"What?" I ask, taken mildly aback at the confession. I didn't expect him to say a thing like that.

He closes his eyes for a moment, squeezing them shut. When he opens them, they're glassy. "Never mind."

"Sasuke..." I say his name, but he just shakes his head.

Soon, he pulls the cord and the bus pulls to a stop. We get off and walk to a nearby apartment building. We enter the twin doors and Sasuke pushes a button. A moment later, we're buzzed in.

"Do you come here a lot?" I ask.

"Yeah," he says. "Kakashi is quiet and comfortable... and I like that."

We walk up a flight of stairs before turning down a hallway. I follow Sasuke as he rounds the corner and eventually we come to a stop. He doesn't bother knocking on the door. Instead, he walks right in.

"Hello?" Sasuke calls, slipping out of his shoes. I do the same and a moment later, Kakashi comes to greet us.

He smiles at Sasuke, who smiles in return, and then he says, "Naruto, right? It's nice to see you again."

"You as well," I say politely.

The three of us walk into a small, modest looking living room. There is a shelf in the corner of the room with a series of photographs. One is of a woman in a hospital bed holding a child. I'm assuming this was his wife. Part of me wants to ask how she died, but I won't. It's not my business. I stare at the other photographs – pictures of Kakashi with people I've never seen around here before... but then there's one of him and Sasuke. In it, they're both smiling. It isn't one of Sasuke's fake smiles, either. He looks happy. I feel a sudden rush of gratitude towards Kakashi for being able to make him feel so at ease. I want to be able to make him feel that way, too... I think I have, at times, but I think I fucked it up with the black out my anger caused. Like he said - I scared him.

A moment later, Kakashi stands next to me and says, "Most of these people are gone."

"Oh," I say quietly, glancing over at him. He's smiling still, but there's no longer anything happy about it. "I was wondering why none of them looked familiar." Konoha is a small town. Chances are, you're going to recognize the faces of the people you see... but I guess these are people who were gone a long time ago.

Sasuke sits down on the sofa and crosses one leg over the other. "Naruto..." he murmurs my name, probably trying to warn me against saying anything stupid.

"Anyway," Kakashi pats my shoulder. "Have a seat. Can I get anyone anything?"

"I'm fine," I say with a smile, sitting down next to Sasuke.