Naruto - Replacement 2 Series: Naruto Characters: Sasuke, Naruto, some Jiraiya Pairing: Implied Sasuke+Naruto Type: angst Warnings: none Spoilers: Sasuke Retrieval Arc Word Count: 200 Etc: It's missing something necessary to make it not suck, but here it is anyway. Not connected to the other fic with this title in any way but theme. Since I might do more, it gets a tag.
Sometimes, when Jiraiya is off indulging in women and rice wine, Naruto talks to Sasuke.
Not the real one, the one he’s training so hard to get back. He uses a shadow clone to transform into how he supposes Sasuke must look now, taller (but shorter than Naruto, of course) and without the soft lines of pre-pubescence. Naruto-as-Sasuke is a good actor, brooding and silent and acerbic just like the real one, but without the obsession of revenge, without the betrayal, without the reality.
He does the same for Sakura-chan, but not as often. If she knew, she’d surely beat his face in for being a pervert. Besides, he knows he’ll see her again. Hopefully training under the crazy old bat won’t make her too scary.
Jiraiya always invites him to come into the bars and whorehouses, but Naruto prefers his own illusions. So he sits and talks with Sasuke of old times: the Wave Country mission, the Chuunin exam (but never what happened at the end,) their old genin classmates, Iruka-sensei, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei. All the people he’s missing.
When he finally sees Sasuke again, his first thought is, I didn’t get the eyes right. I made them too warm.