Uzumaki

Glass

Konoha was quiet. The streets were empty, bar the market men fixing their stands and salesmen clucking their throats for a day of advertisement. In the corners of the street were huddles of women.

Naruto walked.

"Did you hear? He-"

"...that poor girl..."

"The heiress, too..."

His hand stung. He kept his eyes trained on the cobbles beneath his feet until the streets narrowed into alleys, the chatter simmering into fizz.

He looked up; the cemetery gates were ajar, and Naruto passed through, coming to stand at Mizuki's grave.

There was a sprout at its base. It wavered in a breeze, but remained grounded. With that, Naruto knelt, withdrawing two sticks of incense and sparking a lighter at their ends. He stood them up and closed his eyes.

The silence was uncanny. Naruto stuttered.

"An apple tree is growing. Did you like apples, Mizuki-sensei?"

Silence. Naruto adjusted his crossed legs, and sighed, laughing at the edges of the sound.

"To be honest, when I grow them myself, they're always sour," Naruto said, becoming quieter. "So it wouldn't be so bad if it died, right?"

It was a cloudy day, and the plant, a miserable gray, said nothing.

"And it's not due to bear apples for years, either," he said. "Kinda useless, huh?"

The air was chilling him slowly, crawling up his fibia and nesting in his tendons. Shivering, Naruto bent a blade of grass beneath his thumb, and bit his lip.

"It's the same thing, right?" he said, looking away. "So why can't I be with you again?"

Hugging his knees to his chest then, an hour passed. Naruto made to stand.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

He froze, joints stuck.

"There is a protectiveness over the bodies of those whom you love. I can't kick them or punch them. And yet people bury the bodies deep underground."

Naruto was still. He could hear the sand shape-shifting like the gossip of ill spirits.

Gaara came closer.

"I know you're wondering. I can smell it." His breath was like a cold stroke on his cheek. "So I'll tell you."

Naruto's teeth chattered. Gaara spoke softer.

"Tin, it was like," he said. "Copper, and warmer than you'd expect."

Gaara was whispering now.

"It's alright to accept what you see, Uzumaki Naruto." A smile. "Those people with those looks. You know. You do know. I know you know, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Leave, Gaara."

The boy behind him faltered, and then Naruto spoke louder.

"Leave!"

Gaara seemed to seethe for a small moment, hesitating, before he snickered.

"That's right," he said. "Pretending it's not real is the first step, right? Deluding yourself."

The quirk in his tone twisted into a bitterness. "But the truth is that none of this is worth anything at all. The only thing that is worth anything is you. Me. Us. We are two of a kind. I had never seen those eyes on anyone else before."