A Halloween fic for, uh, Halloween. It takes place after the events of Naruto, because I can't think of a decent idea for during Naruto. 2 Hyuuga girls are the main characters. I worked pretty hard to not turn them into Mary Sues (who I hate) and I hope they aren't. Whatever, if they are, tell me and I'll redo the fic. Oh, and if they don't celebrate Halloween in Konoha, well, they do in this fic. Small SasuNaru at the end, nothing serious, and reviews would be awesome.

Uchiha hauntings

The wind is cold, as wind usually is and leaves were skirting down the street, making rushing noises and making babies in strollers cry. Trees were swaying perilously in the wind and the skinniest, leafless ones were in danger of falling. Black clouds, a dark, murky, unclear black gathered ominously in the clear blue Fumiya preferred and rain was going to fall any second now, Masa was complaining.

Pumpkins and decorations of bats, witches, and vampires were spread out across the town, little pots of candy to be given out tonight were being bought and children were making costumes and plans. All the decorations, Fumiya thought, the wind would blow away.

She was inside the Hyuuga house, sheltering from the cold and wind outside and making her costume with her 2nd cousin. Masa was standing in front of her, at the window, complaining about the horrible weather for Halloween. Her costume of a bird, a great animal in Masa's mind, was half-unfinished, one wing only vaguely recognizable. Her short, shiny dark hair made a dark spot against the clear panes of the window.

Fumiya glanced up at her cousin, letting her hands stop with gluing and stapling for a moment. Her own purple hair was falling into her eyes and hanging in front of her face, just the way Fumiya liked it. She was convinced it made her look mysterious and Hyuuga-ish. Fumiya activated her Byakugan, just for the fun of it. She'd only learned how to do it recently. Looking though her with these eyes, she could see Masa's own Byakugan was in use and staring attentive at something.

"What is it?" Fumiya asked. She stood up and crosses to the window, to impatient to wait for the answer.

"I'm trying to find out where mom and dad are, using the Byakugan." she replied without moving her head.

"Well, you aren't gonna find them. Your Byakugan's not that advanced yet, too search the whole Konoha, " Fumiya reminds her, if a bit scornfully. Masa had gotten the Byakugan before Fumiya; she should be above this level. Fumiya leans her pale elbows on the window. "And shouldn't you be finishing your costume?"

Masa shakes her head. "I'll do it later."

Fumiya rolled her eyes and walked back the messy, sticky part of the bedroom. "Well, that just means my vampire costume is going to be so much better."

This gets a reaction out of Masa. She jumps around and points one still finger at her. "Well, of course it is! Your dad's an Inuzuka, and you've got his teeth! You're practically a vampire already!"

Fumiya grins and bares her long, white fangs, tilting her head to one side.

Masa was not affected, having seen the fangs almost every day, and huffed back to the window. "Well, I'll probably find dad. His chakra is pretty distinctive. He's a genius, you know. ANBU. He knows how to use techniques specifically only for the Main House." Masa loved to brag about this, and while Fumiya liked Uncle Neji, she thought this was overkill.

Fumiya scowled at her. "Anyone can use those jutsus now. That rule was eliminated years ago when mom became the head."

Masa tossed her head. "Well, he figured it out when there was still that rule." She went back to staring out the window, her feet almost jumping.

Fumiya sighed and returned to her cape, gluing on the little bats she's made. Later, when she's almost done with it, Masa stomps back and stares unhappily at the mass of feathers she'd spent days gathering. "I can't find them." she sulks. One quick hand that promised her mother's precision with weapons grabbed a tube of glue and she begins again.

Fumiya smiles proudly. "I'm done." She's proud of herself; she took 1 break in making the costume, unlike Masa who's already been working on hers since the morning and still hasn't finished. The costume isn't very fancy. All she has to do is were black clothes (she has plenty of those), find red contacts that Aunt Tenten had promised to get her (to make her eyes look more scary), her face was white enough but it would be good to face paint a little, win that red lipstick from a dare with that Nara girl and she was done. All that was left was the cape, which she had spent the day gluing bats, pumpkins and ghosts on. There were also a few stitches here and there, but after her mother had taught her how to fix them, they were easy.

Masa ignored her and kept on gluing feathers. Fumiya scowled at her and paraded toward the window. Konoha was spread out before her and she let the Byakugan activate, trying to do what Masa couldn't, that is, find either her parents or Masa's. Her gaze wandered on the Hokage tower and she giggled quietly to herself, watching the scatterbrained blonde Hokage argue over a pile of papers with Aunt Sakura. A good friend of her mother's, though not as good as Tenten.

That was to the north; to the west was the usual cluster of houses of lower ninja's and non-ninjas. Fumiya looked there with much doubt and saw that sweet, green idiot who was always around Uncle Neji racing up the streets. Eager and surprised, she swept the houses, but no uncle Neji or Aunt Tenten, who was friends with him too. If Fumiya remembered correctly, they had all been on the same team, thought this guy was still a Chuunin.

The south was, well, opposite from the window and Fumiya turned around grumpily. She could see through walls, but after that her vision didn't extend so far. All that she could see was the next room, which was her parent's bedroom.

To the west, was the old ruin, the haunted house, the cursed Uchiha Compound.

Fumiya scared herself just thinking of it. She knew the stories; the massacre carried out by Itachi, his brother Sasuke killing Itachi for it, Sasuke joining that criminal organization Akatsuki ANBU, her Uncle Neji, was trying so hard to hunt down, Sasuke killing the 2 Konoha elders and part of the criminals in Akatsuki, all sorts of bad stuff he'd done. The Hokage spent all his time tracking (trying to track, actually) him. To Masa and Fumiya these had all been stories until her mother had took her them gently one day and explained how it was very, very, real. She said, with her eyes overcast, how Sasuke should try and have an heir, but he couldn't find anyone to have an heir with, especially since he was on the run.

The Uchiha name was doomed and their former house was haunted by the spirits of the massacre, people said. Kids, teenagers, adults and old people, no one went near the place, except the Hokage. Masa had seen him one day, when she was testing out the Byakugan. Kids at school hadn't believed it, but Fumiya knew enough to know that Masa would not lie about something as big as this.

Her eyes stayed fixated on the ruin and her hands twirled together, a thing she'd do whenever she was nervous. Her father had teased her about it, saying she was just like her mother.

Masa's voice echoed off the walls: "Fumiya, did you find them?" Masa knew her well and she knew exactly what Fumiya was trying to do. In seconds, there's a head level with her own and dark locks are brushing against Fumiya's face.

"No." Fumiya answered. "I'm looking at the Uchiha ruin."

Masa frowned next to her. "I don't know why people call it that," she complained. "It's not a ruin at all. It's still standing and it's not broken anywhere or anything. I get the haunted part, I mean, I am pretty sure it's haunted, but it's not a ruin." Disgust is obviously evident in her strong voice.

"I dunno." Fumiya replied absently. "I wonder what's in it."

Masa's eyes were shining, sunlight reflecting off clear irises. "Let's find out."

Fumiya's eyes stayed fixed on the haunted house, her fingers kept on spinning with each other, her hair kept on brushing against her face and over her eyes, but her mouth turns upward into a smile, the sort of smile Shino Aburame would recognize immediately in his best friend. It's an adventurous, we-shouldn't-be-doing-this-but-who-cares sort of smile, a smile that left him in the hospital numerous times.

Masa, however, is not Shino Aburame and she definetly does not recognize this smile. Instead, she starts goes back to the bird costume, her hands automatically doing the gluing and her mind drawing up time tables, maps and plans. Fumiya sits down next to her and thinks about meeting ghosts.

***********

Its nightfall and the sky is pitch black, not the murky black of clouds, but a clear, sharp defined black, so cool you could taste it on your tongue. Masa's costume is finally finished and there's wings strapped to her back and a big yellow beak tied around her mouth. Fumiya thinks she looks ridiculous, but Aunt Tenten complimented her. Then again, Aunt Tenten was her mother.

By contrast, Fumiya is certain she looks dark and impressive in very pale face paint, red contacts Tenten had presented her with that itched a little (she could take it, though), blood-red lips, white fangs sparkling in the moonlight and a long cape, decorated with bats and ghosts. Dad thumped her on the back, complimenting her fangs; mom smiled, fixed her lipstick and adjusted her cloak in the careful way her mother did everything.

Masa jumps up and down, begging for a glance from her father, who is talking to that green, sweet idiot with bushy eyebrows. Uncle Neji eventually sees her and raises an eyebrow in surprise at all the feathers she picked. It's enough for Masa, though, and her skinny face flushes with pride.

"Sweetie, aren't you and Masa-chan supposed to be going with Ino-chan's and Shikamaru-kun's girl?" her mother asks, worry lines etched around the eyes.

"No, mom, she decided to go with someone else at the last minute. I think it's a boy she likes." That would do for an explanation. Masa and Fumiya had thought about going with Gina Nara, and had told their parents so, but had never actually gone about asking the girl. Fumiya thought she had a grudge for losing the lipstick to her and hadn't wanted to spend much more time with her. She didn't know who she was going with now, but Gina was always around boys. Masa agreed blue eyes were good for making a boy like you, but she would never give up her Byakugan.

Masa waved her goodbyes to her parents, Fumiya waved hers and they started walking down the street that would take them to the haunted house, but could also take them through the usual trick-or-treating spots. When they turned the corner, Masa's big, feathery wing poked Fumiya in the stomach.

"Hey! Watch it!"

"Sorry, I'm excited and I forgot I don't have a hand!"

"Well, why do you need to grab my hand anyway?!"

"Because it's Halloween! And we're going into a haunted house!"

"So? And we're not even near the haunted house yet!"

Masa huffs with dissatisfaction. "I just thought you'd want to."

Fumiya rolls her eyes. Masa is scared and too stubborn to admit it, she thinks. Masa was really like Uncle Neji in that prospect.

They walk a few blocks like that, too excited and scared to be talking. Normally soft steps seemed to fall down on the ground with much greater force, and Fumiya could hear her heart bating symmetrically with them. Masa seemed even more thin and pale than usual.

Fumiya's eyes traced the horizon the sky made with houses, looking for the Uchiha haunted house, knowing she'd spot it a mile off, but just to occupy her time. She wondered exactly how she and Masa had decided to go on this expedition, and though it had only been this afternoon, her memory was filled with clouds. Soft, measured breathing blew in and out from both girls.

After 10 minutes, Masa poked her again with her wing. "There it is, Fumi.", using the old nickname when Masa couldn't speak enough to pronounce Fumiya's full name. She was right. The Uchiha ruin, so close to the ANBU base, was right above their heads. Right above their tiny, insignificant heads.

Fumiya swallowed thickly. She was her mother's daughter, and her fingers were soon pressed together anxiously. Next to her, Masa is her father's daughter and she stands up straighter than before, Byakugan activating. Suffocating darkness, extremely different form the light sky when they were with their families, is spread above them, all over the haunted house and all over the girls.

"Do you see that?" Masa chokes out. Her Byakugan veins are standing out more than usual and the white eyes suddenly appear much too bright, much too visible out here.

"See what?" Fumiya whispers back.

"Turn on the Byakugan." Masa commands shakily. "It's so weird."

Fumiya complies and her vision is increased tenfold. She can sense the bright blue chakra pathways from other people, but from the Uchiha house, it's something she's never seen or heard of before. There is a sort of chakra inside, but it's, it's almost transparent. It's barely visible. It was more of a glimmer. It was just a glimmer of wavy blue sparkles.

And…and there's no body around it.

Usually, Masa and Fumiya can see the body in which the chakra is in. It's faint, though not as faint as this cluster of sparks. There should have been a body.

Masa is shivering beside her. "There's no body." Fumiya nods and says, voice as shaky as her mother whenever she used to talk to the Hokage: "There's almost no chakra." She knows if she voices her ghost fears out-loud, they'll both loose their nerve.

Fumiya takes one step forward and shudders, unable to go much farther. She keeps the Byakugan vigilant and whispers quietly to Masa: "I can't go back now. I'd just spend my entire life wondering what this chakra is." Masa agrees in a terrified voice: "I guess so."

Despite their words, they stay huddled together like that for a few minutes, until Masa gets her courage up and walks determinedly toward the main, almost destroyed gate. Fumiya watches her messy wings and feet get farther and farther away, until she ran up to her, cloak flapping ominously in the wind. Fumiya gasped and shrieked once when she saw its shadow. The Byakugan showed how the little sparks weren't getting any clearer.

Fumiya caught up to Masa. "Why'd you leave me back there?" She's hurt, confused and angry at once.

Masa trembled and said shakily to her cousin: "I don't know. I just got so sick of waiting there, doing nothing and just looking at that thing."

Fumiya nods fearfully, understanding and grasps Masa's wing. Masa didn't pull away.

Once they enter the house, it's the main hall first. A large room, with the white and red Uchiha crest painted on the walls. Fumiya and Masa see old couches, tables and everything that they would find in any financially stable home, except these pieces of furniture were seriously old and dusty.

Masa looks around. "There's something on that table.", she says, pointing. Fumiya is astounded at how steady her hand is. Not wanting to be outdone, and her old rivalry rising, she walks toward the table boldly, dragging Masa behind her because of the unspoken pact not to let go of each other.

"It's pictures." Fumiya said. It was normal pictures in normal picture frames.

"Pictures of what?" Masa demands and peers over Fumiya's shoulder.

"Of…" Fumiya squints her eyes and her Byakugan makes out 4 people on one of them and 4 people on the other. She immediately recognizes 2 people on the picture to the left. "One of them has the Hokage and Aunt Sakura on it."

Masa squats down, and not daring to touch the image, leans her face as close as possible. "It's so hard to make stuff out with all this dirt and dust.", she said grumpily, "but I think Sharingan Kakashi is in here too. You know him, don't you, Fumiya. He's the Hokage's bodyguard, remember?"

Fumiya remembers well enough. "The one with the Sharingan even though he's not an Uchiha and always keeps that eye covered."

"He wears a mask, too." Masa elaborates.

"I remember. Who's the fourth person in the picture?"

Masa purses her lips thoughtfully and stares. "I don't think we know him."

Fumiya thinks hard and a new bit of information comes to her. "You know how Hokage-sama, Aunt Sakura and Sharingan Kakashi were all on the same team? You remember Aunt Sakura telling us about that?" Without waiting for an answer she plows on. "Well, teams are always in groups of 4. I bet this is the other team member she never talks about."

Masa is quiet for a moment. "That makes sense." , she finally gives in, unhappy at not solving the mystery. "But why is this picture in the Uchiha house?"

"Maybe the Hokage left it here by accident when he visited." Fumiya guesses.

"That's not it." Masa shakes her head. "He wasn't holding anything, and he was wearing civilian clothes when I saw him, not those long robes or the ninja vests with so many pockets. He didn't have anywhere to put it."

"Well, the Hokage and Aunt Sakura aren't Uchihas, we'd know if they were. I mean, you've seen the pictures of Uchiha. They all have black hair, sometimes brown, but mostly black hair with black eyes. Aunt Sakura's and the Hokage's hair are yellow and pink. Plus, if they had the Sharingan, why would they hide it? The Sharingan's really cool, remember Iruka-sensei's lessons." Fumiya quickly summarizes.

"Not cooler than the Byakugan." Masa huffs indignantly. "Either Sharingan Kakashi really is an Uchiha and he's just fooling everyone, or the member we don't know about is an Uchiha."

Fumiya thinks about the Kakashi theory and shakes her head. "Only one eye can use the Sharingan. That's not possible. The last member of the team is an Uchiha."

Masa whistles. "Wow. Who would have thought. I wonder which one? Imagine if it was that Itachi or Sasuke dude?!" Masa and Fumiya are both too excited to consider the age difference between the Hokage and Itachi, too excited to realize for sure that it has to be Sasuke.

"What about the other picture?" Fumiya demands and Masa leans forward.

"The Uchiha team member is in this picture, too!" Masa whispers, voice high and shrill with excitement. "Except he's a little younger."

Fumiya's eyes strain as they fight to get past the dirt and grime on the picture. "We don't know anyone else here. There's a man, a woman, and a little older boy."

Masa looks at the picture solemnly. "I bet they're his family."

Fumiya nods. "Yeah. I guess so."

Masa breathes out a long, heavy breath and says quietly. "We'll have to ask Aunt Sakura about this later."

Fumiya agrees, stretching up and getting out of the crouch: "We'll get into huge trouble when we tell them this, but it's worth it for the information."

Masa's eyes rake around the walls. "There's three doorways. Which way should we go?"

"I don't know." Fumiya shrugs.

"I have a good feeling about the door on the left," Masa announces confidently and so they tiptoe that way.

Peering through the doorway, they see it's a kitchen and Fumiya sighs. "It's a dead end and it looks like there's nothing interesting. From now on, let's listen to my good feelings."

Masa turns her head and glares at Fumiya irritably. "We haven't even searched the place yet! Let's look around!"

They do just that and find absolutely nothing useful. Old pots, pans, cook books, utensils, plates, chairs and chopsticks. Everything a usual house would have, except these were old and rusty.

"Let's go back." Fumiya says eventually and since they've searched the place Masa can't argue. She grumbles and complains about being so sure of this room, but Fumiya drowns her out with: "Let's go up the stairs, into the middle doorway."

Masa stares up worriedly. "What if that chakra is in there? Fumi, I don't know where it went. It was so clear outside, but our Byakugan isn't that good and we can't see through walls that well, especially since we've been using the Byakugan so long to see through his darkness. What if it's up there? Right now?" Masa really does sound scared.

"We'll never know if we don't get up there." Fumiya tries to console her. "And if it is, well, you saw that weird chakra. There was so little of it I bet it can't really do much. We'll just scream really, really loud and if no one comes, we can probably fight it off. There's sp little chakra, it can't do much." She doesn't realize she's repeating herself.

Masa whimpers a little, but walks up the stairs with her. Both girls wince whenever they step down, because although the Hyuuga house had many staircases that creaked, it was a much more threatening sound when it was Halloween, pitch-dark and in a haunted house. Masa and Fumiya entered the room at the same time, Fumiya's hand still holding onto Masa's wing.

And it was right there.

Right there.

Right there in front of them.

Masa screamed first, but Fumiya followed a nanosecond later. The deafening screams shrieked with each other in unison and all Fumiya could think of was analyzing the thing in front of her. She never understood why people thought other, more comforting things like family when in danger. Wouldn't it be better to think about the danger and about getting out of it?

The thing in front of them is pale, see-through and Fumiya can see the chakra at it's clearest. So, so faint, but it's at its clearest. It's almost human-looking and Fumiya can see no defined body outline, only faints smudges and blurs that surround the chakra. Pale, deathly pale smudges and blurs, except for one shoulder where 3 little dots are, and literally cursed chakra is seeping out. Most of all, though, she sees 2 burning hot crimson ash-flecked eyes.

The Sharingan she thinks. And there's 2 eyes, so it's not Sharingan Kakashi.

It's a ghost. An Uchiha ghost.

Once this thought digs and worms itself into her train of thought, she starts screaming all the more loudly and steps back, taking Masa's wing with her. She's thinking about nothing know, absolutely nothing. All her brain is concentrated on screaming.

And then, completely unsuspected, the ghost rams by her, whatever it has in place of legs blurring past her and leaving the air next to her unbelievably hot.

Masa collapse to the floor and Fumiya sinks down willingly with her. They stay huddled together with each other for too many minutes that neither girl feels like counting, sobs and cries exploding from the mouths and leaving tremors all over their bodies.

In the end, Masa gives one last groan and looks at Fumiya desperately. "We have to get out of here."

Fumiya nods without registering Masa's suggestion and they stay put for another 10 minutes.

Finally, she trembles to her feet. Masa follows her uncertainly and stares around the room. "This is a bedroom." she whispers.

Fumiya at this point doesn't really care if it's a bedroom or not and she drags Masa toward the door, the older girl still in a trance. "Come on." Fumiya orders.

"No. Fumi, stop!" Masa shouts wildly and Fumiya spins around fearfully, looking for the ghost.

"Look." her cousin points.

Fumiya looks reluctantly, and spies one last picture. This one, however, is in wonderful condition, pristinely clean. With the Byakugan, it's obvious to make out the picture.

"It's the Hokage with his teammate." Fumiya whispers. There's a nameplate underneath and she forces herself to look at it. "It says Naruto and…and Sasuke."

Masa takes one unsteady step forward before thinking better of it and takes a step back. "They're friends. They were actually friends before Sasuke left." It's impossible to believe and Fumiya stumbles closer. Masa gasps and stretches out her other hand toward Fumiya, but the heiress whispers to Masa: "There's a note next to the picture."

Masa understands and they shuffle toward the letter. Fumiya pick it up gingerly and they are messy and nigh ineligible words written on it. Fumiya, however, has spent years passing notes with Masa during class and she's used to horrible handwriting. "It says…" she starts to say and then stops to read it to herself in her head.

After reading it, she hands it to Masa because no serious words like that should be said out-loud, she thinks.

Masa reads it and hands it back to Fumiya, who puts it on the desk. They look at it one last time, read it quickly one last time before racing out the door and running as far away as the can.

Dear bastard,

Happy Halloween. I miss you and I wish you'd let me tell Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei about this. They don't understand why I send out fake ninjas to make the people believe I'm trying to catch you, and they don't understand why I won't tear your home down. It's Halloween and I know you'll be at the Uchiha graveyard with all your freaky ghost family, or in the house being all nostalgic. But I put his letter here before Halloween so you should see it. What I need to tell you is important, and since you don't have a mouth or hands or anything really except that goddamned curse mark I'm putting it in a letter and you can do what you want afterwards.

I'm coming on the day after Halloween. I always come on the day after Halloween to talk to you, because that's the only time I can come. Everyone's too drunk to notice the Hokage slipping out into a haunted house. I always do this, but this visit is extra-super-duper- important. I'll tell you the details after Halloween, but for now, it's enough for you to know that it's impossible to get rid of the curse mark and its stupid forced-to-live-even-after you're-dead side-effect and stay alive. So, after Halloween I'm going to kill you. Think about it, bastard, do you wanna stay like this or would you rather die and go to Heaven or whatever comes after life? I'd just wanna get it over with and die already. After Halloween, I'll come to the house and you'll tell me. If you want to die, bring a chainsaw and I'll get the message and start the ritual. If you'd rather keep living this crappy life, and honestly, Sasuke, I think you're way too smart to do that, then just don't show up.

I love you, bastard.

From you-know-who

END

Uh, yeah, so. Sasuke's dead and he's a ghost, because of the curse mark. It's for Halloween, which, by the way, is so fricking hard to celebrate in Croatia, but anyway, I couldn't think of a decent during Naruto story so I did this after-the-events-of-Naruto story. I choose the 2 Hyuugas because of the Byakugan and its chakra seeing abilities. Originally, though, I wanted to do Sakura's son finding the letter and telling Sakura about Sasuke's ghost-state. But then, because I hate Sakura unless she's with Lee, I had to have Lee as the father of the son. And while I was conjuring up Lee2's appearance I thought of Lee with pink hair. Can you imagine that? A Lee clone except with pink hair? It's a great idea for a crackfic, but I couldn't stop laughing and decided it was way too funny for this serious angsty thing.

Reviews please!