I don't own Naruto, nor do I make any money from writing this fic. This was (very loosely) inspired/influenced by the movie A Beautiful Mind, the short story The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton, and the Naruto Shippuuden closing where Sasuke and Naruto meet in the woods as samurai. I don't own those either.

Dedicated to Yuuko Uchiha. Thanks for the beautiful themes!!

Real

He was back.

Sasuke gripped the windowsill for support as he stared transfixed out the window. There was little light outside at one am in the morning, but it always seemed like Naruto shimmered even in pitch black darkness. Maybe that should have been Sasuke's first clue.

Woods surrounded Sasuke's house, and Naruto stood by the tree line off to the left. He was the only distinguishable figure in the small clearing. The moon usually shone brightly, lighting up the yard, but the moon wasn't up at the moment. Naruto should have been difficult to see, blending in with the trees that he stood between.

Yet it wasn't hard to see him.

It should be hard. In fact, it should be impossible because Uzumaki Naruto didn't exist.

The medication had been working for a couple months. Sasuke hadn't been plagued with nightly visits from the man who wasn't real. So why now? Why was he suddenly seeing the apparition again?

Maybe it was because Sasuke was by himself. Ever since his family had come for their unannounced visit and had unexpectedly discovered he had actually been having hallucinations, maybe their utter appall more so than their concern had prevented him from looking out his window. The incident he'd had at the mental institution was also a sure deterrent in scaring him from acting out on his unrealistic visions. Someone could get hurt – again.

His mother had left only last week, having stayed with him to make sure that her youngest was fully "healed" before leaving him on his own. Or rather leaving him on his own as in not staying with him, since his over protective brother had moved close enough to check in almost every day. Which he did. Constantly.

What else could have set it off?

Even if he had shirked one or two therapy sessions (which he felt did nothing to help him anyway) Sasuke had been so good about taking his medication, so good about not looking out the window...

But he hadn't been able to resist tonight.

There was no light. He wouldn't be able to see anything anyway, he had reasoned. He missed looking out his windows, something that he had only started doing since he had started to see Naruto, but something he still missed nonetheless. Sasuke had argued with himself, saying he wouldn't see Naruto. It was fine to look out the window. He didn't have to worry that Naruto would be waiting for him because Naruto was not real. Besides, Sasuke was medicated. Everything was fine.

He had nothing to worry about. Sasuke had told himself that in so many different ways he had finally begun to believe it.

Yet there he stood: Naruto. The man who shouldn't exist, waiting for him.

Sasuke's breath hitched as he watched Naruto's shoulders haunch, looking frustrated and angry.

What if Naruto was angry that Sasuke had forgotten about him? Would Naruto be mad at him? Would he be mad about what had happened in the hospital? Maybe Naruto was just taunting him? If he didn't hurry, Naruto would disappear because Sasuke had made him wait so long.

Sasuke had all but run down his steps and started for the door, impulsively going outside to go after Naruto and reassure the other man that everything was fine. He had acted on pure instinct before he realized what he was doing.

Naruto didn't exist. He wasn't real. Sasuke couldn't comfort someone who wasn't there...at least, someone who shouldn't be there. Sasuke clutched his hair in his hands.

Ever since his family had made him realize that Naruto was nothing more than his own imagination, Sasuke had felt more doubt in his life than ever before. To find out that he had been seeing someone for the past three years who didn't exist made his whole life seem unrealistic.

And he was helplessly heartbroken

Sasuke had been – had thought he'd been – lovers with Naruto.

To have fallen in love with a figment of his own imagination was poetically painful and painfully pathetic. And yet Sasuke couldn't stop himself from looking out the window again. Naruto stood by the tree line, his eyes staring back at Sasuke's. His very presence made Sasuke's body ache to go to him. Those eyes promised Sasuke pleasure and passion...Sasuke closed his eyes briefly before opening them again.

Naruto still stood there, waiting. He seemed impatient, yet he waited.

He waited there as he had been the few times that Sasuke had peeked...the many times Sasuke had peeked out the window. When his mother's eyes weren't watching him, he would look. Sometimes Naruto had been there. Sometimes he hadn't. But it had only been a shadow. A glance. Not Naruto standing and waiting – waiting because Sasuke was not going out to him.

"You're not real," Sasuke murmured, his voice soft, but unconvincing. He had known better than to look out his window. Deep down in his heart, he had known what he would see.

He had craved seeing Naruto so badly.

Blue eyes, so deep and blue, the same shade as the sky on a clear day, stared back at him. They were kind, caring, promising him forgiveness for making him wait, promising him pleasure – everything Sasuke wanted. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

Of course Naruto's eyes promised him everything Sasuke wanted. Naruto wasn't real. It only made sense that Sasuke's psyche had made the perfect embodiment of everything that he wanted in this moment. Naruto didn't usually look so forgiving. He usually looked cocky, wanting, challenging to everything Sasuke needed to be challenged on.

He closed the curtain and turned back to pace the length of his bedroom. It didn't help that he needed release badly. He had been refusing to masturbate because every time he did so, he remembered Naruto's body beneath his. He couldn't stand knowing all those memories weren't real. Trying to keep himself sane was driving him to the brink of insanity. It would have been kinder if he'd never known the difference.

For hours, Sasuke couldn't sleep. He kept trying different things, willing his restless mind and body to quiet down. Every time he shut his eyes he could see the smiling light in the deep blue eyes, he could feel the smooth skin, the warm body, the hard muscles. He could feel the strength moving behind Naruto.

The stupid jokes that he hadn't wanted to admit made him laugh – the talks that Naruto had forced him to have, the idiot...

Sasuke grimaced. Of course Naruto had been understanding and had been outgoing to compliment his stoic personality. That's what Sasuke had wanted. That's what he'd needed.

He tossed the covers off and walked to the window.

Naruto stared back at him from the same spot by the woods.

Sasuke's face went stony. He stormed over to the drawer by his bedside table where he kept his medication. He opened the cap and poured a handful of pills into his cupped palm before tossing them back. They stuck in his throat as he swallowed dry. The bottle got slammed into the drawer, the warning label saying 'take no more than two a day' (even though he'd already had four) went ignored.

Almost immediately his body reacted – but not in the way he wanted it to. His stomach dry heaved once before he stumbled to the bathroom. His head bent over the toilet he retched out the pills. His stomach rebelled as another dry heave racked through him.

After he'd rinsed his mouth out, he walked back into his room and over to the bottle of pills. His eyes widened as realized he'd emptied the bottle.

Tomorrow he would have to go to the drug store to get more.

It pained Sasuke that he couldn't remember the first time he had seen Naruto. All he could remember was that it had been an accident. That was all he remembered. He'd thought he'd seen something out on his lawn. He'd followed the fleeting shadow and found Naruto. They'd spoken. Sasuke knew he'd made a retort about owning the land and to fuck off and Naruto had said something annoying like the woods weren't Sasuke's. Naruto would return as often as he liked.

Sasuke had seen Naruto three times without going to see him after their first 'argument.' The fourth time he'd gone out to speak with Naruto, intent on telling him off again, but instead, they'd end up talking. It was like he was drawn to the other man. Naruto's presence had been annoying at first, someone who dared to defy that Sasuke owned the woods. Of course he owned them.

Yet Naruto's annoying jokes were able to pull smiles from Sasuke. He was able to listen (when he took the time to keep his mouth shut).

But Sasuke couldn't remember when that had happened exactly. He couldn't remember when Naruto had just become a part of his daily life. When seeing Naruto had become the highlight of his day – and when Naruto had become the highlight of his life.

Their first time they'd had sex together had been slow, awkward, but somehow amazing all in one. They'd been down by the stream. Who kissed who first – Sasuke couldn't remember that either. It seemed like a blur. A thick haze clouded what he remembered – what he thought he remembered.

But Sasuke clearly remembered when he had found out Naruto didn't exist.

His family had come to visit him. Sasuke had played the dutiful, if albeit reluctant, host to his parents and older brother Itachi. They had appeared, unannounced, on his door one day when his mother had gotten angry that Sasuke hadn't come to visit them. They stayed in his guest rooms. He made sure to spend an adequate enough time with them. But at night – the night was his and Naruto's to share.

It hadn't really crossed his mind to have his family meet Naruto. His parents had always frowned upon what they called his "unnatural" interest in men. To introduce them to Naruto, especially as they had met like some backwards couple at a chance meeting by the woods, it just wasn't worth their irritation: especially since no matter what they said to him it wouldn't make him change his mind about being with Naruto.

At least, that was what he thought.

His heart clutched painfully as he remembered.

He and Naruto had had a late night the fifth night his family had stayed with him. Sasuke had been more enthusiastic with Naruto than usual. He'd been so exhausted after their lovemaking that he hadn't returned home that night. It wasn't an unusual occurrence, but one that he usually didn't have to worry about. He had forgotten about his family, relishing in spending time with his lover.

Itachi had found him the following morning. Itachi had scolded him and asked what the hell he had been doing out in the middle of the woods by himself. Even as Itachi told him how irresponsible he had been, Sasuke looked around, wondering where Naruto had gotten to. He hoped that Itachi hadn't scared him off. When Sasuke asked if Itachi had been rude to his friend, Itachi had merely asked, "What friend?"

Sasuke said he hadn't been alone, but Itachi didn't believe him. Annoyed at explaining his secret lover to his brother, Sasuke said he and his friend had met at the end of the trees last night and had gone into the woods together.

"Sasuke, your footprints were the only ones from the house all the way to where I found you," Itachi said, both exasperated and slightly worried.

"No. Naruto's have to be here."

"Yours were the only pair I found."

It angered Sasuke so much that he looked around the entire area, making them later getting back. Itachi had merely frowned at him and told him he must have dreamed his friend coming to visit him.

Sasuke hadn't believed him. Naruto had met him at the edge of the woods as always. They always met there before going off together. But on the way back, Itachi showed him the trail that he had followed. Sasuke frowned, only seeing his footprints as Itachi had claimed.

His heart refused to believe what his head was screaming at him. Naruto's footprints hadn't been there.

Sasuke had to deal with his parents berating him for going out and sleeping in the woods in the middle of the night and responding to comments like, "It's not normal." "Disrespectful to your guests." Etc.

Itachi, on the other hand, kept looking at Sasuke strangely. Finally Itachi told his parents that Sasuke had been sleep walking – that he had dreamt he and a friend had gone out together. His parents dropped the subject, but Sasuke was angry that Itachi had referred to Naruto as a dream.

That night, Sasuke waited impatiently for nightfall. His parents went to bed later than usual, and Itachi kept giving him worried glances. Finally, after they went to bed, Sasuke looked out his window to see Naruto waiting there, ready for him.

He glowered at Itachi's closed door as he quietly exited his house.

Naruto grinned at him as he approached. As they walked, Sasuke looked down at Naruto's feet, watching as they made their footprints next to each other. His heart fluttered, his mind relieved.

That night they had the roughest sex session Sasuke could remember. Sasuke bit and clawed at Naruto. Naruto, not one to be outdone, bit and clawed back at him.

"What's with you tonight?" Naruto growled. His teeth bit down harshly into Sasuke's neck. Sasuke moaned at the pain, loving the way Naruto's teeth kneaded the pressure point.

His fingers dug into Naruto's lower back, massaging and gripping him possessively. Naruto moaned as Sasuke thrust into him harder.

"You're not complaining," Sasuke noted, thrusting deeper. He'd never felt such an urge to mark Naruto's body, or for Naruto to mark him. His shoulder throbbed from where Naruto's teeth had been working at it. A hickey had already started forming, dark enough that Sasuke could even see it in the limited moonlight through the trees.

Sasuke's hips were moving so harshly that their bodies slid against the foliage of the forest floor. Even though they were going at it like hormonal teenagers, they still couldn't get enough. Sasuke pulled out of Naruto and forcibly lifted him off the ground.

"Fuck," Naruto grunted. Sasuke threw him up against a tree and forced Naruto to wrap his legs around his waist so he could pound Naruto harder against the unyielding tree. Grunting louder, Naruto dug his fingers into Sasuke's hair, pulling and tugging so hard he yanked some of his hair out.

"That hurt," Sasuke snarled. Naruto merely grinned.

"I thought you were going for some pain," Naruto smirked. He pushed Sasuke away from him before wrestling Sasuke to the ground. He smirked wolfishly down at him as he climbed Sasuke's body and began to ride him.

"Oh god," Sasuke moaned watching his cock sliding in and out of Naruto's body. Lean, tan stomach muscles contracted as Naruto lifted his hips up and down as he continued to fuck himself on Sasuke's cock. They yelled each other's names as they came together, Sasuke's body writhing as Naruto's ass continued to slam down on him.

Naruto's cum slid down his stomach, but he didn't bother wiping it off.

Feeling smug and satisfied, Sasuke helped Naruto roll off of his body before they curled up together, both sated and exhausted.

Sasuke woke alone the next morning. Usually he woke up groggy, but Naruto was always with him, making him wake up slower. But Naruto's absence was enough to jolt him fully awake. He looked around him. Cum had dried on his stomach, but the angle of it almost seemed like it was all Sasuke's cum as though from a wet dream. The thought made his heart stutter.

His eyes searched around him finding their footprints from the night before.

Except his were the only set he found.

"No," Sasuke whispered. Last night he had seen Naruto's footprints too. They had been right next to his. Or at least, they had been when they started out last night. Quickly making himself decent, he followed his trail back to the edge of the clearing. His eyes kept darting about, looking for where Naruto's footprints might have gotten away from his.

When he reached the edge of the clearing where he knew he had seen Naruto's footprints the night before, he only saw his.

"No," Sasuke murmured again, panic forming. This couldn't be right. This couldn't be happening. He tilted his head to look at his neck. He couldn't see the hickey from the night before. It had been there. His mind rationalized that perhaps he just couldn't look at it from the right angle.

Naruto was real. Naruto had to be real.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke whirled around. Itachi stood behind him. His dark eyes looked worried.

"What were you doing last night? I saw you sneak out here alone again last night."

"No. I met Naruto again. Naruto was waiting for me here last night," Sasuke insisted, his eyes wide. Itachi shook his head.

"I watched you. You were alone. You went into the woods by yourself"

"No. No." Sasuke shook his head back and forth, not believing Itachi. Itachi hesitated, looking at Sasuke worriedly.

"Sasuke, calm down," Itachi soothed. But as he reached for Sasuke, Sasuke lashed out at him and ran back into the woods, yelling for Naruto. Yelling for Naruto to come back to him.

"Has there been any change?" Itachi asked the doctor. Dr. Tsunade looked at Itachi and frowned. Her white lab coat hung loosely around her as she put her hands into her pockets. She and Itachi looked out into the patient room of the mental hospital. Sasuke sat in a chair, his eyes unfocused, a tilt to his head. He heard his brother and the doctor speaking about him, but he couldn't find the energy to even get angry about it.

His entire being had been drained after he had been forced to leave the woods. Running around screaming for Naruto hadn't been the smartest idea. Refusing to leave until Naruto came back had scared his parents so much that they had decided to get him help.

"None since your parents were last here. He seems more vacant than usual. The only time he ever seems to respond to anything anymore is when he and his roommate are alone together." Dr. Tsunade nodded her head over in the direction of a curtained off section of the room. Two male voices were trying to get the patient to talk to them, but he didn't seem to notice them.

"How long before he gets better?" Itachi asked anxiously. Dr. Tsunade shrugged.

"It's hard to tell. I will inform you if there is any change. The fact that he is trying to interact with someone else is a good sign."

Itachi stayed for a while, trying to get his brother to speak with him, but Sasuke didn't respond to his presence. It was like Itachi was no longer on Sasuke's radar. There was an ache in Sasuke's heart. He ignored his brother, his eyes staring at the curtain separating him from the other patient. If he talked to his brother, or pretended to be fine, they would make him leave the hospital.

At first, Sasuke hadn't wanted to stay at the hospital. Now, he didn't want to leave. All he wanted was for Sasuke to leave him alone.

Itachi left after a while, leaving Sasuke to stare blankly at the curtain dividing the room. Sasuke half heard the other two men exiting. After they left, Sasuke deftly pulled his own curtain around his bed, pulling it slightly so that people from the hall wouldn't be able to peak in his open door and see his bed – or even the other patient if he decided to pull back his curtains.

With Sasuke's curtain hiding them from view, the other patient pulled back his curtain.

Sasuke's dark eyes met with bright blue eyes.

Naruto...Naruto was here with him. In his dreams, in his memories, and even in this place.

"Naruto," Sasuke mouthed from across the room. Naruto's eyes softened, a flicker of hope and sadness passing through them as he mouthed back, "Sasuke."

None of this was likely real.

And Sasuke didn't give a damn.

"This isn't real, is it?" Naruto asked sadly, the same as he had every day. Sasuke shook his head.

"I don't think so. I don't care. I've stopped taking the meds," Sasuke said. It didn't matter. Instead, he led Naruto out of his side of the room and onto his bed.

"So have I," Naruto confessed.

They curled together, both poised, listening for the doctor to come down the hallway. Each time the doctors passed, Sasuke gripped Naruto's body closer to his. They had done this for several days, Naruto fearing getting caught, and Sasuke hoping for it. Sasuke wanted to tell everyone that they had only been imagining each other at first, but they had found out that they were both really real. Naruto insisted that made no sense. He made sure to leave Sasuke's side of the room before anyone could find out that they were together.

"We'll get into trouble if they find us. They'll take you away from me again," Naruto said as Sasuke gripped him tightly.

"If they find us together, it means you're real. They can't separate us then," Sasuke murmured, his heart beating quickly. He buried his face into Naruto's hair. The warmth of them touching made him feel calm, calmer than the heavy medications that they had tried pumping through his system.

"I'm not real? I thought you weren't real."

The footsteps got louder and Naruto tensed.

"They'll find us," Naruto whispered. His voice hitched. "Let me go. They'll take you away."

"No. You can't leave me," Sasuke whispered back. He clung to Naruto, curled around him even as he heard the nurse calling him, telling him he needed his medicines.

"Mr. Uchiha, you need to wake up and take your medicine."

The sound of the curtain pulling back rang loud in the room. The nurse gave a muffled sound of surprise as Sasuke curled himself protectively around Naruto. Naruto began to struggle against Sasuke, panicking at being found due to the fear that they would be separated.

"Get off of him, Mr. Uchiha!" the nurse cried. "Get off of Mr. Namikaze!"

"No! No! He's Mr. Uzumaki, not Mr. Namikaze! He's mine!" Sasuke said, his voice muffled as he wrapped his arms tightly around Naruto. His Naruto. The nurse shouted for help.

"You're hurting me, asshole," Naruto gasped as Sasuke's arms had wrapped too tightly around him. But Sasuke reasoned if Naruto could still talk, he could still breathe, refusing to let up.

Sasuke nuzzled his face into the back of Naruto's neck. Naruto began struggling, yelling at him to get off, warning him that they were going to take him away. Sasuke just held tighter, not listening.

He yelled out as three sets of hands pulled him forcibly from Naruto. He cried out as two people held him by the arms, and another gripped one of his legs as he fought furiously, trying to get back to Naruto.

"No!" Sasuke cried out, terrified at what was happening.

"Don't hurt him!" Naruto yelled back, jumping up and punching one of the large male nurses that was restraining Sasuke. Two security guards streamed into the room, alerted due to the screaming. One roughly tackled Naruto for hitting the nurse.

The first nurse that had come in to see them quickly sedated Naruto. Sasuke yelled out, cursing at her before he too had a needle injected in his neck, his body going limp before everything went black.

Sasuke woke up, doing his best to quell the horrible memories of discovering Naruto didn't exist and the memory of the rest of his time at the mental hospital. The few days after realizing that he had only imagined Naruto into his life were a blur that he was grateful he didn't remember.

However, while at the hospital he had slowly stopped taking his pills. It had caused him to mistake his roommate for Naruto which had caused him an extended stay in the heavily sedated psyche ward at the mental hospital. He went from being just another crazy to a potentially psychopathic one. He hadn't seen or mistaken anyone for Naruto again. The doctors made sure he took all of his medication, secluding him to his own room. He even tried looking for his roommate again, but he never saw the man. He had never really seen him properly to begin with, imagining his Naruto.

The only thing that got him through were the dreams, dreams of conversations with Naruto sitting by his bed telling him to get better, telling him to get better and get out.

After two months, he was released.

Sasuke took a deep breath, doing as he did every day, and suppressed the memories. He looked over at the empty pill bottle by his night stand. Taking a deep breath, he got out of bed, trying to get on with his life one day at a time. His fingers curled around the orange prescription bottle. He glared at it angrily. Clearly the damned things weren't working anyway. Why bother refilling it?

And besides, he wanted to see Naruto. Naruto was his lover. Even if Naruto was created purely due to his own imagination, Naruto was his – especially since Sasuke's mind had created him. He lied back down on his bed, wondering if he would ever feel like there was a reason for him to get out of bed ever again.

The sound of his phone ringing irritated him. He reached over and answered it on the third ring.

"What?" Sasuke growled.

"Always such a polite morning person," Itachi chided from the other end. Sasuke sighed.

"What?" Sasuke repeated. Itachi paused, and Sasuke could imagine the look on his face as he debated on pestering his younger brother or to actually explain why he had called.

"The doctor called. He said you skipped your therapy meeting yesterday."

"Really?" Sasuke snapped. Apparently there was no doctor-patient confidentiality when you were crazy. "I remember going. Everything was fine. You see, my mind is perfectly capable of making things go just the way I want them."

"That's not funny," Itachi said.

"What if I really did remember going? What then? What if everything I've ever imagined hasn't really ever happened?" Sasuke asked angrily. The panic and hysteria that had come with realizing Naruto didn't exist had faded to a mild anger. He was lonely. He hurt. His mind made things up that didn't exist.

It was just easier to be angry than to deal with reality – whatever that might be.

"I don't know Sasuke," Itachi admitted. "But I'm coming to take you out of that house. I think that place is getting to you."

"If you insist," Sasuke said. He hung up the phone. He didn't really care if Itachi had been done talking to him or not. He was sure that even if he had said no, Itachi would show up anyway.

He lied in bed for a moment, contemplating on staying like that just to irritate his brother. After his eyes began to droop, he finally decided to get up out of bed before he fell asleep and Itachi woke him. Sasuke stepped in the shower, wondering if his life would ever go back to normal.

The water poured down on him, soothing his body. It was better therapy than whatever his doctors had done for him. In the shower his head cleared mildly.

If Naruto had been real, Sasuke would have invited him into his house. He would have wanted to have Naruto move in with him. They could have had sex everywhere. Shower sex with Naruto would be perfect. But that was part of it, wasn't it? Naruto couldn't move in with him because his mind wouldn't have been able to supply him with reasons why Naruto wasn't around when others were.

Sasuke put his fingers to his eyes, pinching them. God how he missed Naruto.

No sooner had he gotten out of the shower and dressed, Itachi knocked on his door. His brother frowned disapprovingly at him when it took him a while to answer the front door, but Sasuke didn't acknowledge him as he walked past his brother to his brother's car. Part of Sasuke was grateful that his brother gave a damn. The other part wished Itachi didn't have a reason to care.

Itachi drove over an hour to get to the nearest city. It was a place that Sasuke didn't frequent often, preferring to localize the smaller, nearby towns instead. However, Itachi seemed to be hell bent on getting Sasuke away from anything familiar. Amusingly enough for Sasuke, Itachi seemed to be just as adverse to the fast paced city life. They spent some time walking aimlessly around the city, visiting a small museum, but both became bored after a while. Sasuke appreciated it, but he appreciated watching Itachi's growing irritation with the people around him even more.

A light rain had started, making both of them decide it was time to go home.

The ride back to Sasuke's was done in silence. The day hadn't been a waste, but coming home from so far away was even harder for Sasuke, knowing he was going back home to a place where Naruto did not visit him. Perhaps Itachi was right. He needed to move away from the place that made him think of Naruto.

Of course, that was also the exact reason Sasuke didn't want to leave.

As they pulled into Sasuke's driveway, both brothers frowned at two unfamiliar cars parked in his driveway.

"Were you expecting company?" Itachi asked.

"No." Sasuke got out of Itachi's car, looking at the two cars parked next to his. He walked quickly up to his house, finding it still locked. Even the back was locked. He went in and did a quick sweep, noticing everything was still in its place. At least they didn't appear to be robbers. He locked his house back up, feeling unsettled. Itachi stood by the two cars, but his eyes were on the wet grass by the driveway.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked, looking at Itachi.

"It looks like they went off into the woods," Itachi noted. Sasuke looked at Itachi and down at the three sets of footprints from the two cars and idly wondered when he and Itachi had become interested in tracking.

A sudden wave of anger gripped Sasuke. These three strangers were in his woods – his and Naruto's woods. He growled and strode along the wet grass, Itachi following behind him.

He followed the three sets of footprints into the woods, feeling only slightly mollified that he could sue them for trespassing.

After only a few minutes following the trail of footprints, Sasuke heard the three people in the woods. The sound of two vaguely unfamiliar voices had his blood boiling.

But the third, very familiar, voice had him stopping in his tracks. He looked to his left, following the sound of the three people arguing. His jaw went slack. He didn't hear their words, so much as listening to the sound of the familiar voice. That was Naruto's voice.

"Sasuke?" Itachi asked from behind him.

Sasuke wasn't paying attention to him. Instead, he found his feet moving closer to the three people in the woods – running toward Naruto.

He stopped before getting too close, noting how none of them had realized he was there yet.

"Naruto?" Sasuke said. Naruto's head whipped toward him. His face mirrored the shock Sasuke felt.

"Sasuke?" Naruto breathed back. Itachi stood behind him again. The two people with Naruto looked almost as perplexed as Naruto did.

"You're real?" one of them asked. Itachi let out a derisive snort.

"Is this your Naruto, Sasuke?" Itachi asked.

"Yes," Sasuke murmured.

"You've been real this whole time after all?" Naruto asked.

"Of course I'm real. You're the one who isn't. Wasn't," Sasuke murmured, dazed.

"This is a bit strange. Why don't we go back to Sasuke's house? It sounds like we have some interesting stories to tell," Itachi noted.

"You own the house by these woods? You really live here?" Naruto asked. He rattled off Sasuke's address. Sasuke merely nodded, dumb founded.

"You're Naruto?" Sasuke confirmed. Naruto nodded, asking him if he was Sasuke. Sasuke confirmed that he was. "And you are?" Sasuke asked the two with Naruto.

"I'm Shikamaru, and this is Chouji," the taller, thinner one introduced. Sasuke gave him a quick look, noting he had long, brown hair pulled up into a pony-tail, while the other one had lighter brown hair sticking up jagged. They looked vaguely familiar.

"Itachi," Itachi offered when Sasuke didn't bother to introduce him.

"Your brother?" Naruto asked. Itachi raised his eyebrows while something warm settled in Sasuke's stomach. He had to be dreaming this again, but he didn't care. That's what he got for not taking his medicine. Shikamaru and Chouji looked at him strangely as they slowly walked by him. Naruto, like him, didn't move.

Naruto stared at him. He looked like he was trying to say something, his mouth moving, but unable to form the words he wanted to say.

"Sasuke," Naruto murmured out finally.

"Naruto."

"Are you two just going to stand there and say each others' names all day?" Itachi called back to them. Sasuke turned, glowering at his brother, before turning back to Naruto. Naruto gave a half smile and walked forward to Sasuke. Sasuke gripped onto Naruto's wrists once he was close enough. He looked startled, but didn't try and break away from Sasuke's grip.

"Is this real?" Sasuke asked. Naruto's eyes flickered.

"I think so, but apparently I'm not the only one who's been having hallucinations." He grinned with relief.

Sasuke loosened his grip from Naruto's wrist, letting his fingers slide into Naruto's, half-pulling half-dragging Naruto with him. Instead of getting angry, Naruto smirked at the possessive treatment.

"Bastard."

Chouji and Shikamaru looked worriedly back at Sasuke and Naruto. Itachi just kept walking. They arrived at Sasuke's front door where Itachi looked at him expectantly to unlock his door. Sasuke did so, but was loathe letting Naruto's warm hand leave his for even that long.

Itachi, upon seeing Sasuke unwilling to let go of Naruto, entered his brother's kitchen and began making a warm pot of tea as he knew his brother was lacking his normal manners. Standing in his kitchen, Sasuke stared intently into Naruto's deep blue eyes. He'd never seen them so bright before.

"What exactly brings you three here?" Itachi asked. Shikamaru and Chouji looked over awkwardly at Naruto who seemed perfectly content to stare back into Sasuke's eyes. Shikamaru looked at Chouji uncomfortably before he began to speak.

"It's a very strange story," Shikamaru said. "Naruto, well…first I must apologize for us running around in your woods. Naruto has only been out of the hospital for a few short days. We thought, actually, that we might have to go back with how he's been acting. Now, well, if Sasuke's real…"

Sasuke's eyes darted to Naruto. Naruto grinned brightly at him.

"You were at the hospital, weren't you? You were really my roommate?" Sasuke breathed.

"Wait, what? Were you the roommate who attacked Naruto?" Chouji asked, concerned. With a jolt, he realized the reason Chouji and Shikamaru looked familiar was because they were the men he had seen visit his roommate at the hospital.

"He didn't attack me," Naruto said, rolling his eyes.

"Whatever happened, it caused you to attack that guard. They kept you even longer because of that and because you kept sleep walking," Chouji deadpanned.

"Naruto kept sleep walking-"

"I wasn't sleep walking at the hospital. I was going to visit Sasuke. I found your room and talked to you while you were sleeping. They wouldn't let me see you any other time," Naruto said, interrupting Shikamaru. Shikamaru gave him a strange look that clearly stated he thought those actions helped warrant his stay in the hospital.

"-Well, he was originally placed in the hospital for sleep walking into the middle of the woods near his house. He said he was meeting someone who was waiting for him. But the person he insisted he was meeting was never there: Sasuke."

"The woods by you?" Itachi asked. "Interesting. Sasuke has said he's been meeting with Naruto out by these woods."

"The weird thing is, the woods here don't look anything like ours, but Naruto seemed to know them," Chouji said, truly intrigued. "But the weirdest thing was that after Naruto started to make an improvement in the hospital, he bounced back to perfectly normal as though he'd been trying to stay there. He said he was waiting till Sasuke left before he would leave. We thought it meant that Sasuke had finally disappeared from his hallucinations. But on the way out of the hospital, he kept rattling off an address of a fellow patient he said he'd made friends with who had already left. Well, we didn't want him to go right away. We made him wait, but the next thing we know, Naruto had driven off this morning. We only knew where he was going because he kept saying the same address over and over again."

"Sasuke has been seeing visions of Naruto for years," Itachi supplied, a little awkwardly. "But Naruto's never been in the house. And we've never met him. The first time they must have met was in the hospital."

Sasuke was only half listening. He hadn't taken his medication that morning, and here he was standing with Naruto in his kitchen. His mind was more likely than not creating this bizarre situation, coming up with a completely and utterly illogical situation to make up for how he was able to see Naruto for years. But Itachi, Chouji, and Shikamaru were all here too. And Naruto was inside his house for once.

"No, Sasuke had to have known me from before. In the hospital, they had my surname down as Namikaze. Sasuke said it was Uzumaki. No one at the hospital knew about that."

"He called you Uzumaki?" Chouji asked, confused.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"It's on my original birth certificate as Uzumaki due to a mistake. The person who was writing down the information accidentally put in my mother's maiden name for my surname instead of Namikaze. They got it fixed, but I've always liked Uzumaki better than Namikaze ever since my parents died. The only person I told that I was Uzumaki was to you," Naruto said, beaming.

"That doesn't prove anything," Itachi said. Sasuke glared at his brother. Itachi shrugged his shoulders. "But it is strange. His imaginary friend is Naruto, and you are named Naruto. When I said the hospital was the first time you had met, I meant it. How or why you knew about each other before hand, I'm not sure. But whatever it is, I am sure you two would like some alone time to catch up. I will be leaving now, but I'll make sure to check up on you both tomorrow." Sasuke was grateful at Itachi's tact. He apparently had figured out that Naruto would be staying the night. "You two need to leave and let them have some time on their own," Itachi added to Chouji and Shikamaru.

"We're not leaving without Naruto! This is all way too bizarre -" Chouji began. Itachi whirled around and glared darkly at Chouji. He stepped forward and spoke softly, his voice quiet and calm but laced with a venomous threat.

"That was not a suggestion."

"Go, I'll be fine here," Naruto added, looking at Itachi a little warily before nodding to his two friends. When all three of them had left, Naruto turned to look at Sasuke. Before Naruto had a chance to speak, Sasuke had grabbed Naruto and pressed their lips together. Naruto entangled his hands in his hair and kissed him back passionately.

After they finally pulled apart, Sasuke spoke in a low whisper.

"I'll show you around my house. We can start with my bedroom."

Sasuke awoke, startled.

"I thought you'd be up by now."

He glanced over to his left where Naruto had been sleeping only to see that he wasn't there. His heart clenched as he realized it had all been a dream. Yet again.

Itachi stood over him, looking expectant. Sasuke couldn't help but take deep breaths, realizing he must have fallen asleep after Itachi had called.

It had only been a dream. A wonderful, amazing dream. But still not real.

He wasn't sure if he could live like this anymore. If the heartache of repeatedly losing Naruto didn't kill him, the insanity would.

"I can't live like this anymore," Sasuke murmured, staring up at the ceiling.

"Why don't you ask Naruto to move in with you? You won't be alone. He seems to be getting quite familiar with the kitchen," Itachi said dryly. He held out a plate of eggs and rice and what he thought was a bowl of miso soup but turned out to be miso ramen.

"Naruto's – here?" Sasuke asked, sitting up. When he did so, he realized that the sheets slid easier across his body as he had worn nothing to bed. Perhaps…perhaps this was real after all? The memories of the night before came back to him. His body flushed in remembrance. If it wasn't real, then his mind was getting even more sexually inventive.

"I came over to make sure you were okay, and got treated to breakfast. He's cooking up a storm," Itachi said, looking Sasuke over suspiciously, before looking down at his breakfast just as skeptically. Sasuke gripped the sheets in his hands partially to relieve the tension he had felt when he'd thought it had all been a dream, and partially to keep the covers from sliding all the way off his naked body.

"Hn. I'll be down in a minute," Sasuke said. Itachi nodded and left the room. Sasuke quickly got dressed and took a deep breath. As he descended his stairs he felt his heart clench again. The sounds from the kitchen and the chatter that he expected to hear weren't there.

He clutched at the railing of the banister, taking a deep breath. Was he hallucinating? What was going on? He walked across his living room floor, pausing before he entered the silent kitchen, hoping and praying that if all of this weren't real he would survive the let down – again.

Setting his shoulders and taking a deep breath, he walked into the kitchen where the answer to his reality awaited.

The End…?

Did Sasuke's mind just twist itself to incorporate Naruto into his life again, explaining away the mistake at the hospital, yet still unable to explain where there were no sounds from a silent kitchen? He wasn't taking his meds again. Or was Naruto really there? Were they somehow connected through mutual hallucinations? Yet Sasuke had been able to see Naruto in the woods when he didn't have his meds – but that night he hadn't really been there. But his mind couldn't have fit in and filled in that many details, could it? And Itachi had interacted with Naruto too. What do you think? ~ Jelp