That Damned Raven Haired Boy (SasuNaru)

Part 4

Naruto, get the hell out here.'

The blonde teen swallowed hard, trying to keep his mind from becoming completely engulfed in panic, and took a step forward, toward the woman who seemed to be staring straight past him. Her face was tinted a soft red as she glared accusingly at the empty space that seemed to be directly behind his head.

"I'm right here, hag," he told her in an alarmed tone.

'Damnit, why does he always have to play these stupid little games?' Tsunade took a step forward, nearly crushing Naruto, and peered into the home. Her sandals slapped against the heels of her feet as she walked, the sound echoing through the empty house while she spun around, presumably to say something to Jiraiya. As for what she was saying, Naruto had no idea. He could only hear a cluttered mess of disjointed words ringing through the home, all of which had an almost...tinny quality to them.

They seemed to have the consistency of thoughts, connected by barely a thread of correlation. One fragment led to another, the odd word triggering a new onslaught of phrases that made as little sense as their predecessors.

Naruto's teeth tugged at his bottom lip and he tried to pretend that there was no way he could be hearing Tsunade and Jiraiya's thoughts because that would make whatever it was that was happening real.

Then, without warning, the busty woman walked into the house, crushing Naruto's toe in the process, and proceeded to make her way to the kitchen. The boy let out a pained yelp and jumped backwards, bending over to clutch his throbbing toe.

"That hurt you fat old hag," he growled.

Tsunade didn't seem to acknowledge what she had done, Naruto realized a moment later. She couldn't have because she stood in the center of his kitchen with her hands placed firmly on her hips and a severe frown on her face. There wasn't a hint of recognition visible on her features.

Oh shit...

"Tsunade?" he said, moving forward hesitantly as he finally began to comprehend what was going on.

This could not be happening.

He stared at her red-tinted face, trying to pretend this wasn't happening. There was no way his life could decide to throw this at him too, not with everything else that was going on. In all honesty, Naruto doubted his sanity could handle another crisis of this magnitude.

Jiraiya shrugged, saying something to Tsunade and made his way past Naruto and down the hall as if he couldn't see Naruto. There was only one reason both the Hokage and the hermit would look directly past him and act completely oblivious to his presence.

They couldn't see him...or hear him for that matter.

And he couldn't hear them when they spoke. There was no way he logically could; nothing he heard ever matched the movements of their mouths.

But that didn't explain why he kept hearing the fragments of sentences that almost resembled thoughts. Naruto blinked and suddenly everything clicked into place and he tried very hard to stay calm, but he couldn't because this was not good and it could not be true.

But it was.

When his mind finally stopped its rampant denial and analyzed the truth objectively, there was no way Naruto could discredit his theory. Nor could he stop the way his heart suddenly decided to race, or the way his palms began to sweat, or the way his eyes couldn't help but flit around his house, betrayed; or the way-

He was the polar opposite of calm. He was panicking.

Naruto stared at his home, trying to imagine how it must look without him and wiped his damp palms on his pant leg. He needed to try to get Tsunade and Jiraiya's attention; he just didn't know how.