Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ When Darkness Falls ❯ Chapter 4: The First Night ( Chapter 5 )

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

Summary: Some interesting things learned about Sasuke now …

Pairing: SasuNaru

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.o.O.o.

When Darkness Falls

.o.O.o.

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Chapter 4: The First Night

 

And as soon as it did, a sharp blue light suddenly hit Naruto, the boy able to see it from behind his closed eye lids. Blinking and looking up, he was suddenly dragged to his feet, a voice saying,

 

“Hurry up, or I'll start calling you `Dobe'.” The tone was urgent, almost frightened as Naruto was pulled along quickly, a bright light waving around his head and whoever was tugging at him, making him run towards the apartment complex. And then, he was allowed to completely collapse under the lighting of the roof for a moment, the other person doubling over for moment and breathing before he said,

 

“Come on … we're not out of the woods yet …” Looking up, Naruto was more than obviously surprised to see Sasuke standing there, holding what looked like a large searchlight, which he shone out into the darkness every few seconds, back and forth, to keep the thing at bay. Struggling to his feet, Naruto pulled open the door, flashlight in hand, saying,

 

“Go.” and holding it for Sasuke, who backed in before he followed suit, keeping the light outside at all times because the lobby to their backs was lit. Moving towards the elevators, the brunette pulled on his arm and said,

 

“No - the stairs,” motioning towards the door for them. Following Sasuke, the brunette kept his light facing upwards, and Naruto had his facing downwards and through the grating - together, they were completely covered. Both of them jumped every time a shadow passed by - Naruto didn't know if it was her or not, but he didn't want to chance anything, and he hit everything that moved with his light, constantly keeping it moving to keep them covered, the brunette with his back to the orphan's doing the same thing. They made it to the third floor after what seemed like an eternity.

 

Kicking open the door, they continued walking back to back, one covering the other, and halfway down the hall, Sasuke switched lights with Naruto since the larger searchlight covered more, and they stopped at 3C, the brunette unlocking the door because it automatically did so when it closed before opening it and pulling Naruto inside, pushing a button on the remote control he kept on his person at all times and lighting every single light that was in that apartment, kicking the door shut in the process.

 

And then, for the most part, they just laid where they were, just panting. Sasuke was completely spread-eagled on the floor, and Naruto was on top of him, pretty much pinning him down, his flashlight still on, a few inches from the brunette's left hand, and the larger searchlight about 10 inches from Naruto's left hand.

 

“Jesus … Ch-Christ, Dobe - what were you doing?” Sasuke asked, breath still panting slightly, more from anxiety than anything, as was the same for Naruto. The blonde didn't say anything, blue eyes closed as he started to shake again slightly, the magnitude of how close he had just come to dying hitting him full force all of a sudden …

 

Naruto didn't say anything, blue eyes closed as he just focused on breathing for a moment, biting his lip. And then, he opened his mouth to answer Sasuke's question when something slammed into the door, making the blonde jump. Said orphan rolled slightly as the resident brunette sat up, quickly locking the dead bolt as well as the chain before he turned and slid down the door wearily, body vibrating with the force of the thuds as they came. The blonde sat across from Sasuke, back against the counter that held the rows and rows of flashlights.

 

“What does it want? What did I do?” he half moaned out, fists clenching as he tried to control his breathing - he was going to hyperventilate if he didn't. The brunette didn't say anything until after the pounding stopped for a good five minutes. When his voice did come, it was slightly shaken, and very, very tired …

 

“She wants to kill you, Dobe. And you saw her face.” it was a simple enough answer, and Naruto supposed that he had known it as well, but …His fists clenched again, tighter this time, cutting small crescents into his palms with his blunt nails, shaking slightly from how tense his muscles were. Looking up at the other, he stared at Sasuke for a long time, before he finally attempted the question he'd asked previously and had been unable to get an answer for.

 

“That means that you had to have seen her face as well, right?” the blonde opened his fists slowly, crossing his legs and setting one hand on each knee. To that question, he got a nod in response. Well, at least it hadn't been some stupid, confusion rhyme…

 

“When? Was it when you lost your last - oh wait; of course it was, you have a coin …” he answered his own question at that point. Sasuke didn't say anything, black eyes cast to the floor, arms loosely set on top of his knees, which were bent upwards and towards his chest.

 

“No - she didn't give me a coin for my last tooth.” he said after a moment before pulling himself into a standing position, black eyes looking straight ahead as he walked around Naruto and towards the back of the room. Standing, Naruto started to ask,

 

“But then, how did you -.” Sasuke was moving towards the door that hadn't been open last time Naruto had been there - now it stood, outwardly swinging, ajar, and the brunette reached in and closed it before the blonde had enough time to look inside. As he did this, he cut the blue eyed boy off with,

 

“It doesn't matter.” The sharp `click' of the door shutting almost as if it were closing off the conversation as well as the room that lay behind it. There was a `bump' at the window, and both of them jumped, turning to look at the glass before Sasuke let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like a sigh to Naruto, though he seemed the type that if questioned about it, would deny it being as such. “Just a bat …” he murmured as he turned away from the glass - though, the blonde could have sworn he saw something white against the window; he didn't argue, however, because he didn't want it to be true anyway.

 

“You can sleep - I'll wake you up.” the brunette said quietly as he sat down on the floor black eyes cast downwards as he sat one hand on the side of his face, crosslegged, the book from earlier on his lap. It was apparent that the Uchiha didn't intend on sleeping any time soon, that was for sure. The blonde was still shaking - maybe some sleep would do him some good. But then, what if something happened and …

 

“The lights won't go out; I promise. If something happens, I'll wake you up.” Sasuke said, not looking up from his book at all - and, for the first time, Naruto noticed there was a large fluorescent light underneath the bed as well, so that was illuminated - any space that had shadow was completely lit up in that apartment - every single light strategically placed to light and doubly light every inch. Nodding slowly, the blonde decided he could trust the Uchiha; Sasuke had just saved his life a few minutes ago, didn't he?

 

“Thanks … Sasuke-teme.” he murmured quietly as he slid his boots off along with his jeans, assuming that the brunette didn't care that he slept in his boxers and t-shirt. Crawling between the white sheets, blue eyes staring at the opposite wall for a long time, and he knew that he wasn't going to sleep any time soon … …

 

Eventually, the blonde did nod off, or so it seemed, because he suddenly found himself blinking awake and looking around. The first thing that Naruto saw was the white Christmas lights that always seemed to be on in the apartment on the opposite wall. Yawning slightly and moving to turn over, he absently noted a white alarm clock on the nightstand with glaring red numbers that read, “9:03”. After sunrise. That was the first thing that registered to Naruto; he was safe for nine hours. Sliding out of bed quietly and pulling his baggy jeans back on, he noticed that the door next to the bathroom door was ajar again, the white Christmas lights extending inside it. Bare feet padded quietly towards it, and he thought to look inside the room. Though, it didn't seem that Sasuke had wanted him to do so the day before. That only made him want to look more … Curiosity killed the cat, the blonde thought as he moved another step, putting a hand on the doorframe. But satisfaction brought him back …blue eyes smirked at the addition to the rhyme before he turned to look inside, and just blinked.

 

The Christmas lights stopped at the doorway, and did not enter, though they appeared to. Instead, there were five dome lights hanging from the ceiling that cast enough of a glow that there was no danger there, though at the same time … The yellow luminescence that was cast over the room just gave it an .. Erie look. There were rows and rows of canvas that were stacked against the walls, which were painted with huge murals in only five shades - tan, black, white, gold, and red. There was a table against the far wall that held sculptures made of what looked to be porcelain, unglazed, their natural white color.

 

And every work of art was of Matilda Dickson; the tooth fairy. The murals on the walls were of a huge white mask with yellow eyes staring out, blood seeming to fall from the ceiling, which was spiraled with black and red in an almost hypnotic twist; Naruto had to drag his eyes away. Every canvas was black with a white mask, some pictures with eyes, others without, and that was just the first painting in each of the 5 rows of canvas - the blonde was sure they all held her likeness. The statues made of porcelain were of figures with billowing robes and smoothe faces; there was a coin sitting on the table, as well as a mask that was almost exactly the same as the one that he had seen her wearing, tools thrown almost carelessly on the tabletop along with the works, smudged with white clay.

 

In the center of the room was a large easel, and sitting in front of said furniture on a stool with a pallet in his left hand and a brush in his right, was Sasuke, four huge strobe lights sitting around him, lit and pointing upwards, illuminating the brunette starkly. He didn't seem to have noticed the blue eyed teenager as of yet, still adding brushstrokes to the canvas that was sitting in front of him. Approaching, the light from a window that was painted over barely touched the blonde's skin, easily illuminated by the lights that hung above. He looked over Sasuke's shoulder, and this one as well had a large black mass that was to the center left of the painting - it was her, facing in the other direction, the white of the mask turning and just visible, as if looking at the viewer. She was partially in front of something - it was as of yet unfinished; Sasuke was still painting her glowing golden eyes.

 

“Oi …” that one small, whispered word was enough to make the brunette drop the paintbrush with a loud clatter against the floor as he turned around to face the blonde, flashlight suddenly in his hand and aimed straight at Naruto's face. However, as soon as he realized that it was the blonde and no other threat besides him, the sharp beam of light was clicked off, and the light was set in the brunette's lap, Sasuke raising an eyebrow questioningly at the other, obviously wanting to know what Naruto wanted.

 

“Did you … do all this …?” he murmured after a second, looking around the room, heart jumping into his throat every time he saw the stark white of a mask against the black and tan. Sasuke nodded mutely before he bent down, switching off the lights around his feet that seemed to be bolted to the floor so that they couldn't be knocked over.

 

“All of them.” he murmured in agreement, watching the blonde as he slowly moved over to the table that was full of clay figures - some looked like thy had been smashed - there were large ones, small ones, different shapes. But, all the same color - a stark, sharp, unfeeling white, just like everything else in the apartment was except this room. Looking next to the table, he noticed for the first time a large crate of what appeared to be sketchpads, some spiraled, some bound, spines all facing upwards. And it looked like they were all well used. He didn't need to look to see what was in them; he already knew. Moving to the row of canvases that lined the back wall, he noticed two portfolios tail to tip against the wall, as full as they could possibly get, behind the racks. There were five rows of racks, with seven slots for canvases in each rack, though each one was double, some even triple stuffed. Canvasses lined between the racks and on the ends - there must have been over two hundred altogether. They were stacked everywhere. But, in the back of the rows … the last three pictures in each row looked … different. Naruto's brow furrowed slightly as he moved to pull up one of the ones in the back row, but Sasuke's voice made him freeze.

 

“Don't touch those.” The command was sharp and harsh, and the blonde turned to look at the brunette as it was given, looking at Sasuke for a moment before complete rounding to face the boy, saying,

 

“Where do you get all this stuff from?” It didn't make too much sense to him - it didn't seem that the boy had any parents, and, he hadn't mentioned having a part time job, which is the only thing the Uchiha could have had, since he went to school. Speaking of which, didn't they have scho - oh. No; wait - it was some holiday or something. Naruto remembered that he and Choji, Kiba, Neji and Shikamaru were going t- the thought stopped dead as he realized he'd never be able to do anything with those four again.

 

“Kakashi gives me a weekly allowance.” the brunette said quietly, adding a stroke to the painting in front of him, seemingly not paying attention to Naruto, though his black eyes did flick to the other's form on occasion.

 

“He's your father? I never would have guessed; you two don't look anything alike …” the blonde said, blinking at the other; that was wild - the two looked about as similar as day and night …

 

“I didn't say he was, Dobe.” the brunette murmured as he gathered up some more paint of a different color after rinsing his brush in a cup that was on a small stool about three inches from the one he was sitting on.

 

“Then why …?” Naruto turned to face the brunette, raising an eyebrow at Sasuke; why would Kakashi give the boy an `allowance' if he wasn't the brunette's father? Unless … “He is a guy under that mask, right …?” A paintbrush whacked Naruto in the side of the head.

 

“Yes Kakashi is a man - he's my foster parent.” Sasuke said with a slightly annoyed glare as he put the pallet he was holding on the stool next to the glass of water and stood where he was, moving towards the door, leaving the lights on as he entered the main room.

 

“Foster parent? Why do you have one?” Naruto assumed the other probably knew that he was from an orphanage, and so, he didn't need to explain himself to the boy or anything; but, he knew next to nothing about Sasuke, and this was news to the blonde.

 

“Because when I was a baby, my entire family was killed.” the brunette said simply as if commenting on the weather, stopping where he stood in the middle of the kitchen, back facing Naruto.

 

TBC …

 

Glossary:

Dobe - dead last ... ^^;;

 

 

AoS: Ok - be honest with me; was that a completely stupid save …? I've been waiting to write that since I started this fic, because I needed a reason for Sasuke to call Naruto `dobe' XD

 

Rebel: Actually, I do have this posted at ff.net, and as of this moment, I don't have half as many reviews as I do here … -.-`' And, thank you for all of the praise ::hugs:: //^_^// ::blushes::

 

Choi-sama - there's always a way out for the main character ^_^

 

Binuyasha - //^_^// ::blushes:: Thank you