Chapter Text
Sasuke was hurting. Each day was difficult. His muscles constantly ached through the agony he put them through, and his mind screamed at him to get help - any sort of help at all. He denied and denied and denied anyone that tried to do anything for him, and he pushed them all away no matter how much pain it caused him.
And then the sun entered his life.
It was a boy about his age, blonde and with a brighter smile he’d ever seen on anyone , and he seemed to have made it his mission to catch Sasuke’s attention.
Every day since he was put on his genin team - which only consisted of three people instead of the usual four due to some sort of complications he couldn’t care less about - the boy had been visiting the training grounds he frequented - his training ground - and would not stop babbling.
At first, Sasuke wanted nothing more to punch the blonde in the face.
He’d reply to each of his cheerful questions with a noncommittal grunt, but instead of running off or getting annoyed with him like everyone else, the boy simply laughed and continued talking.
And, once a few weeks had passed, Sasuke stopped bothering to try to get him to shut up. He would give his own input every now and then, but Naruto would fill up most of the silence.
It wasn’t annoying, though. Not even once.
When Naruto spoke to him, it felt like the rays of the sun shone through the cracks in Sasuke’s heart. He knew that, when the boy filled up the silence, none of his dreams, none of his nightmares could creep into his mind. Just when their claws would start sinking in, just when his heart would begin to harden, he’d be there. The sun would appear, and he’d make his day brighter once again.
Sasuke knew that Naruto couldn’t be seen by anyone else. He’d never come to the village with him, and he’d always leave right before Sasuke went back home. It hurt, sometimes, but he understood.
It was weird, at first. He wondered if he was insane - if something in his mind had snapped to see the sun’s incarnate every day. But, eventually, he found that he didn’t really care at all.
It wasn’t as if Naruto was hurting him - in fact, he helped him. Whenever Sasuke just wanted someone to block out that dreadful silence, the blonde would be right there to speak about the most inconsequential things imaginable. About how he’d seen a family of squirrels around, about how he loved the smell of the food in the market - especially ramen - and how his favorite place in the whole world was on the top of the Hokage monument where he could see all of Konoha.
That’s how he knew he was real. He might be nothing more than a ghost, but Naruto was real because he was there and he was helping him more than anyone else had ever done in his entire life.
Sasuke, with Naruto’s help, had even managed to feel more at peace with others. He was still a bit standoffish - he’d always be - sure, but he could get along with Sakura and Kakashi, and he could help them out, and he was proud to call them his teammates no matter what odd quirks they had.
And when they asked what changed, why he was so much happier, he told them the truth.
“The sun came into my life.”