Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ When Darkness Falls ❯ Chapter 2: Golden Advice ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto or the movie “Darkness Falls”

Summary: This is what happens when you look at the tooth fairy …

Pairing: SasuNaru -x-X-x- <*~.o.O.o.~*> When Darkness Falls <*~.o.O.o.~*> -x-X-x-  

Chapter Two: Golden Advice

If the boy had been two seconds later in his actions, he’d have been dead, he was sure of it. As it was, the blonde had suddenly rolled off of his bed with a sharp ‘thud’ and taken off almost as soon as his body hit the floor, socked feet slipping on the unforgiving hardwood underneath his feet and almost upending him as he sprinted for the door, flashlight waving madly as he went. The disgruntled, confused voices of the other boys in the room, alerted by Naruto’s scream, waking them up and causing the seven of them to sit up slowly, looking around, disoriented.

If the blonde had had presence of mind (though at the moment, he had no conscious thought) he’d have said to run, close your eyes … something. But he didn’t. All he did was run, dragging the door open and bolting down the hallway, having no idea where he was going, but just knowing he had to get there and never look back, because whatever it was was just behind him, he was sure of it, and in the second it took for him to turn around and see it, his life would end.

Chest burning as he made it down the hallway, he practically dove into a room, hand flying towards the light switch and turning it on, more to see what room he’d gone into than anything, slamming said door behind him. The sharp fluorescent lighting refracted off of the slightly dingy white and green tiling that covered the room - it was the bathroom that all the boys on the west side of the orphanage shared. Panting sharply as he fell to the ground, having tripped as he moved in, he crawled over to the nearest thing - a large island in the center of the room that was double backed with sinks - crouching underneath it and pulling his knees to his heaving chest, blue eyes clenched shut as he rocked slowly.

Naruto was completely terrified - it was only then that he heard the startled cries and screams coming from down the hall. Coming from the room that he’d run so quickly from. And then, it registered to him what that meant … Everyone in that room … They must have woken up when I screamed … and that means … but, he didn’t move to get up from where he was, blue eyes snapping open and wide at the sudden realization … No …and suddenly, the sounds all stopped. Blinking a few times after he noticed this, he risked a glance to the door - and immediately wished he had not. For there, in the window that sat on it, was a face - a flawless, porcelain mask, and two old, yellow eyes that resembled a cat’s, staring directly at him, just before the door slammed open, rebounding off of the wall and smashing the tiles behind it where it came into contact with them.

Screaming from surprise and the realization that if he didn’t do something, he was going to die, the blue eyed boy pressed his face to the tops of his knees, trembling where he sat, not knowing what to do or where to go, and knowing that because of it, he was dead. But, a few seconds later, he blinked - why was he still breathing? Looking up slowly, he glanced around the room, and, hearing a sharp, angry hiss, glanced at the open door out of complete instinct, just because that was where the sound had come from. Why aren’t I …? Wait. he stopped for a moment. That was it. Naruto looked upwards at the stark white fluorescent lighting that burned at his bright blue eyes. She cursed the town as she died, and she could never go into the light again …

The police had arrived in less than half an hour, and before that, someone had turned on the hall lights, coming down to see what was the matter. When they found Naruto, he was still curled up, rocking as he hugged his knees, though he was out in the middle of the room, directly under the nearest fluorescent light bulb that hung from the ceiling. And, he would not be coaxed out from under it by anyone until seven o’clock the next morning - when the sun was bright, and lit up every room in the orphanage, three hours later. By that time, nine bodies had been carried off - the seven other boys from the room, Kiba’s pet, Akamaru, and their keeper, Tsunade. All dead, with similar markings on their bodies that simply could not have been coincidence; it had to have been done by the same person. Or thing, Naruto thought bitterly to himself as he walked down the hallway to where there were a few police standing, in front of the room he had called his own for the past seventeen and a half years; his eighteenth birthday was in five months.

He stepped into the room slowly, looking around, as the officers were distracted at the moment, and didn’t notice him walk by. Naruto didn’t notice that he was shaking slightly as he looked around, seeing chalk outlines on the floor drawn over the hardwood and bloodstains, the sheets mussed and unmade as they were when each person who laid in them woke in confusion … Blue eyes closed and his fists clenched tight, teeth grit so hard you would think any more stress would make them crack. It’s all my fault … he thought miserably to himself as he moved towards his bed, the one on the left, all the way at the end. There was no bloodstain near this bed; no chalk outline where there should have been one. If I had … If I had only stayed where I was a second longer … then … he moved to look away, but something caught his attention in the early morning light. Something glinting brightly on his nightstand. Blinking, the blonde moved towards the small, slightly unstable table, and looked at the object that was there, breath catching in his throat. It was a gold coin. Slowly reaching out, he picked it up; the metal was cool, heavy to his fingers, which had never touched something such as this before. It was twice as thick as a quarter, and a little bit bigger around as well, etched with some strange carving that he couldn’t make out as he looked down at it.

“Hey you! You can’t be in there; this is a crime scene!” one of the officers had evidently noticed Naruto was there, and he jumped at the sudden yell, clenching the coin in his hand loosely to hide it before moving his hand to his pocket to hide it there …

The blonde was taken to the police station to be formally questioned, but there were already protesters in the street when they got there; he couldn’t be held legally, because he was a minor; Konoha respected the justice system, but a lot of the time, the townspeople stepped in when they didn’t like something that was going on. It took a good minute, minute and a half, to get through the crowd with police flanking him on either side, and the boy went willingly as well, dressed now in a black t-shirt that had a gold spiral with a point on either end that represented the village on the back, ‘Konoha’ written in green on the front where a pocket would have gone. There was a pair of slightly loose blue jeans on him as well, the construction boots he’d taken from the closet of another orphan staying there as well as the rest of the clothes he had donned because everything in his room had to stay where it was, being potential ‘evidence’.

When they stepped through the doors, Naruto was looking down, and so, he didn’t notice at first. It took a moment for him to look up, and when he did, his eyes landed on the brunette that was new to their school - Uchiha Sasuke. The boy was standing with his back to Naruto in the office section of the place, on the other side of the glass, leaning on the wall that had the glass in it, gaze down. He was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and a pair of black pants, sandals equally dark in color on his feet, though Naruto couldn’t see those. There was however, a bandage, wrapped around the hand that the blonde could see, as Sasuke’s arms were crossed over his chest, disappeared under the sleeve, which was a new addition to the boy’s attire, or so it seemed.

It was another moment, and Naruto was walking down the hallway; and, just as he moved to pass Sasuke, the other’s voice rang out sharply in the stillness of the room, rivaled only by the sound of the footsteps being taken as they moved in front of the door that Sasuke stood next to, which was open.

“Kakashi says that he’s to come with me, because it’s illegal to hold him here.” was all the boy said as he pushed off the wall he leaned against and walked two steps to stand in the doorway, looking darkly at the two officers, who looked as if they wanted to argue, but then, thought better of it, nodding and moving away from the blonde who stood between them.

“Come on.” was all he said as he moved past Naruto towards the back of the station, and the blonde noticed for the first time that he was carrying the book bag he’d had the day previous, it slung over one shoulder absently as he moved. Only doing as he was told because it seemed like it was better than the consequences if he didn’t, Naruto followed, jogging slightly to catch up to Sasuke, who was already halfway down the rest of the hall.

“Ne, ne, ne … Sasuke - where are we going?” he asked as he fell into stride with the brunette, matching the Uchiha’s pace. The brunette didn’t say anything as he pushed on the door in front of him, blinking his coal tinted eyes at the sharp light that suddenly hit them both before he said,

“Do you really need to know, Usurukontachi?” Naruto blinked bright blue eyes at Sasuke a few times before he realized what he’d been called, jogging to catch up to the brunette again, as the Uchiha had continued to walk while the blonde stood there gaping at him.

“Oi - bastard! Yes I want to know!” he yelled as he followed, glaring sharply at the brunette, though it didn’t seem to be doing too much, as Sasuke wasn’t paying too much attention to the other anyway. Black locks swayed slightly as the boy shook his head slightly, saying,

“I didn’t ask if you ‘wanted’ to know - I asked if you needed to.” He continued to walk, not changing his pace as he moved to the sidewalk, not needing to dodge around people as it was still relatively early out, and so, there was really no one out.

“Well, excuse me,” the blonde muttered in uber-annoyance as he crossed his arms, following the brunette and trailing a few steps behind as he glared at the boy, almost looking as if he were pouting in some way, shape, or form. Eventually, the brunette lead him to the park that laid just on the edge of the town, where he used to go and play on the playground when Tsunade would bring the boys outside for a bit of fresh air. Don’t think about them … he warned himself, blue eyes closed for just a moment before he moved to catch up with Sasuke, walking in stride with the other, hands in his pockets, the same as the brunette’s were. And then, he sat down on a swing, watching the empty grounds as if there was nothing better to do with his time - which, Naruto supposed, was more likely than not true, since it was a Sunday, and they had no school or anything. Following suit, he sat in the swing next to the brunette’s, feet dragging on the ground as he moved back and forth slowly, just a few inches each way.

“I didn’t kill anyone,” he blurted out suddenly, about fifteen minutes later. He didn’t know why he said it - it had just come out of his mouth. Looking down at the sand that was underneath the swing set, his shadow caught his attention for a moment, and he suddenly saw that figure again, arms outstretched towards him, demanding, hating yellow eyes glaring straight into his head … Shivering suddenly as he jumped out of the ‘daydream’, a small gasp left his lips as he looked upwards, blue eyes staring across the vacant field that stood behind the playground. Sasuke didn’t answer for a long, long time - Naruto thought he wasn’t going to at all, and so, when his voice came, the blonde jolted slightly.

“She won’t come into the light.” The sentence was simple, and the blonde fought the urge to swallow thickly, turning to face the brunette who he was with. Blinking few times, he asked,

“Who?” the brunette said nothing for another long moment, before his black eyes flicked upwards to the other’s blue ones, staring intently at the blonde next to him before he said,

“You know who.” Voice still barely above a whisper, but Naruto could pick it out as if Sasuke had been screaming at him …

“No … I don’t know who.” Naruto eventually said; he still didn’t want to believe what had happened - perhaps if he didn’t admit it out loud to anyone, then it wouldn’t be true … But, it appeared that Sasuke would have none of that.

“Yes you do - you’ve seen her too.” he said, still quiet, not raising his voice any - but the heavy, stark truth was imprinted in those words; it was a truth that the blonde couldn’t ignore, and he couldn’t ague with, because it was the truth. And that only made him feel trapped - and when Naruto felt trapped, there were three things he did. One, he made a joke about it, two, he changed the subject, or three, he got angry about what was being said.

“Why would you say something like that?” the orphan snapped at the brunette that swung next to him, glaring sharply at Sasuke, who was swinging back and forth slowly on his swing, backpack still on one shoulder carelessly, eyes cast downwards and unmoving, hair swaying in the soft breeze that cooled the otherwise very warm morning.

“Because it’s the truth.” was the simple answer that Naruto got before he moved for the first time since sitting down. He pulled his book bag in front of him and opened the zipper on one side about eight inches, retracting something from it and standing as he did so. Re-closing the bag, he shouldered it again and dropped something in Naruto’s lap, which the boy scrambled to catch, barely hearing Sasuke as he said,

“Keep it with you always - it will save your life more than once.” Before he simply walked away from the blonde. Blue eyes blinked a few times at the retreating back before he looked down at what he had in his hands; it was a large, heavy black flashlight …

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