Chapter One - One Stormy Night
A flash of lightning illuminates a lady clad in white, shuffling along a dimly lit hallway with a large garbage bag in hand. Sounds of thunder and lashes of rain can be heard in the background. She began to sort the garbage in the bin near the stairwell.
Her features cannot be seen due to the long tresses of unkempt dark indigo hair covering her face. She's wearing a flowing white dress with long sleeves covering her body.
A shout from the stairwell startles her.
"Hinata-san!", a heavy-set woman descends the stairs accompanied by ominous booming of thunder.
Hinata looks up slowly at the sound of her landlady's voice. Wide lavender tinted eyes can be seen peeking meekly at the source of the noise.
"Yes?", Hinata's soft voice was carried by the sudden lull in the raging storm outside to be heard by Yuri-san, the landlady.
"There you are Hinata-san. Will you go to Room 404 and clean it up? Aiko-san left this afternoon." Aside from being a tenant to the rooftop of the building, Hinata does some janitorial work.
"R-room 404?" Hinata's voice trembles at the mention of the room number. The garbage bag in her left hand went down with a loud plop. Her hands were shaking.
"Hai. I don't know why that room can't go for long without being vacated. Is the chest of drawers unlucky? Will you take that out too?" Yuri-san asked with confusion and irritation.
"H-h-hai!" she answered reluctantly.
She picks up the garbage bag and went upstairs. Her steps barely making a sound as she ascends the stairs slowly. Her heartbeat though was a different matter. To her it sounds louder than the thunder outside.
"Why does it have to be Room 404?"her voice had a pleading quality to it.
She finally made it to Room 404. Her shaking hand clutches the knob of the door ready to open it. A loud boom of thunder made her jump out of her skin.
She laughs a little, telling herself she's being ridiculous. Finally turning the knob she peeks inside the room. It was dark inside, a shaft of light from a glass window her only source of light. She feels cold wind brush along her arm.
There was a sound coming from her left. The closet doors creaking slowly open. She looks on unable to move, until a flash of lightning make her look to the far corner of the room. It was as if she saw a figure in white huddled on top of the chest of drawers the landlady mentioned. She let out a squeal and hurriedly switched the lights on. She looked back on the chest of drawers, but no one was there.
She went in and seeing all the empty food wrappers littering the floor she went to start cleaning the room. She had barely put an empty paper cup into the garbage bag when the lights started to spark and completely engulf the room in darkness again. Along with the loud slamming of the door. She screams, stumbling with fright, her back hitting the chest of drawers. She feels her whole body grow cold as she slowly turns around looks up to see a ghoulish face staring only inches from her creepily.
She screams, darting towards the door and runs out of the room. The ghost flies after her. As she runs the length of the corridor, the lights short out as she runs by, the darkness behind following her. She took the stairs two at a time, panting heavily as she tries to reach the safety of her rooftop apartment. She reaches her door with adorned with crosses and garlic. Shutting the door with a snap and leaning on it heavily, she takes in air hungrily, her hands clutching her chest to steady her heartbeat.
The door suddenly begins to rattle. She grabs hold of her doorknob, pushing it close.
"P-please go away! L-leave m-me alone! PLEASE GO AWAY!" She shouts to the Thing., half- crying, half-pleading.
The door stops rattling. There was no noise except that of the storm. She lets out a heavy relieved sigh. She sits down on the floor. It was dark inside her room. She still feels uneasy, as if it's not over yet. She doesn't know that behind her, a figure in white mimics her movement. Looking up, looking to the left, looking to the right. Looking behind her, she came face to face with the creature with a ghoulish face. They both let out a scream. Hinata's hands came to cover her face. Whimpering, she peeps out of her fingers only to see the ghoulish face morph into that of an old woman wearing a white kimono, a little smile on her face.
A lone figure is illuminated by a single lamppost. Rain drenched the raincoat of the figure. She looks to her left, an old woman with pasty white skin nods in encouragement.
Hinata sighed. If she does the ghost old woman's request immediately, the quicker she'll be able to come home and sleep.
She trudged along the mud filled road. She crossed the street to the house hosting a funeral wake of the old woman. Guests were sitting, talking quietly, some were drinking.
She went to the room with three people sitting wearing black. One man and two women. They turned to look at her approach and let out gasps as if they've seen a ghost. They probably thought so, since Hinata was still wearing her long white dress with long sleeves, transparent raincoat drenching with rainwater, her hair behind the hood of the coat unruly.
She took a step forward. "Ano, ex-excuse me?"
The man wearing a black suit step towards her.
"A grandmother told me to give you th-this." Hinata said while extending her hand clutching a bankbook with a plastic cover.
"Our mother?"
"H-hai."
The man in black opened it hurriedly. The two women, his sisters, came beside each of his side to look over his shoulders. All three of them gasped as they read the balance, "Ten million yen!"
"Obaa-san told me to tell you to use the m-money for funeral expenses and to use the r-rest to p-pay off your debts." Hinata said softly.
"Okaa-san." The man said with a shocked voice.
"She also t-told m-me to tell y-you s-something."
"Please tell me." The man replied.
Hinata suddenly grabbed hold of the lapel of his suit, and with a strong loud voice devoid of stuttering said, "You bastard! If you ever gamble again, I'll come back and cut off your hand, you bastard! Don't gamble ever again!" After delivering the message she pushed the man away, stumbling into his sisters' outstretched hands. His face chalk white.
Hinata's hands covered her mouth. "Th-that was what sh-she wanted to s-say." She told them meekly.
One of the women came out of her stupor. She snatched the bankbook out of her brother's hand. Checked the bankbook again. "It really is mother's. Ten million yen. How did she came to have that much money?"
The man came out of his dazed state and snatched back the bankbook. "Give it to me. She left it to me." He exclaimed.
"That's not all yours, half of it is mine!"
"Why would you have half of it, mother told her to give it to me. So it's mine!", said the man his voice rising.
"What?! After you've lost everything, you'll lose it too.? No! Half of it is mine."
"Yours?! What did you ever do for mother?"
Hinata looked on at the arguing siblings. She turned around to see the old woman looking at her nodding once, as if saying thank you, she looked on at her children sadly before fading away into the air.
Two men sat opposite each other. One was old with specks of white hair peppering his hair; he is wearing an old yukata, a slight frown can be seen on his face as he faces the man opposite him. The man he was frowning upon is wearing a dark blue suit, complementing his dark hair and eyes. He was frowning too, in slight annoyance. Another man stands two paces behind him.
"You are saying that there is a dead spirit right now here with us?" Uchiha Sasuke said in a cold voice, frowning at what he was hearing. He came here to discuss business, not ghost stories.
"Yes. I know that the spirit of my wife is still here." He sighed and continued, "I've thought about your offer, but I believe that my wife wouldn't have wanted it."
"You're saying that you won't sell this house. I'm building my golf course here."
He turned to the side, seeing a framed photograph of a smiling couple.
He looked back at Mori-san. A slight smirk lighting his lips, "Fine then, let's negotiate. If she's really here let's negotiate, together. What does she say?"
"You will know if you look at the flower. My wife treasured that flower.", Mori-san said inclining his head to a potted white rose beside the photograph of him and his wife. "When I decided to sell this house, that flower dried up and wilted. But when I decided not to sell the house, the flower bloomed beautifully again."
Sasuke turned to look back at the flower intently. "So you're saying that you're wife communicated through that flower?"
"That's right."
"Then I believe I have to negotiate with the flower." Sasuke said rising from his seated position, his face expressionless.
His secretary, Sarutobi-san, looked on in with interest. He is on his early fifties and has been Sasuke's right hand man, his secretary since he inherited the Kingdom Group of Companies.
Sasuke move towards the flower, speaking to it with a business like tone. "Flower Wife-san listen to me carefully and respond. Your husband declined from selling this house because it is your wish. But I must really have this house. I'm building a golf course and I cannot have this house standing in the middle of it."
He picked up a pair of clippers and tested it snapping it repeatedly. "If you would not agree in selling this house, nod you flower head. If not, I'll cut your flower head off."
"What are you planning?" Mori-san exclaimed.
"Can't you see I'm negotiating?" Sasuke replied, turning slightly to look at the man. Fixing his gaze back to the flower he waited. When nothing happened, he said, "Last chance, I'll give you three seconds to decide."
He positioned the clipper on the flower head and began counting, "One…" He looked at the smiling face of the woman in the photograph. Her eyes crinkled with laughter.
"Two…" Still nothing happened.
"Three."
Snip.
As he said this, the eyes of the wife on the photograph took on a sharp look it was no longer smiling. It had widened slightly, seeming to look directly at him.
Sasuke blinked slowly. The flower head dropped to the floor. As Mori-san rose too, a loud exclamation escaping his lips. "Are you crazy?!"
Sarutobi's left eyebrow rose slightly.
"The crazy one is you. Dragging the dead spirit of your wife between our negotiation, isn't that crazy?"
He turned to his secretary, getting the contract outstretched to him. "Why don't you agree with the wishes of your living children and sign this contract as we have agreed, before all this madness about dead spirits."
"You bastard! I know that my wife is still here no matter what you say." Yelled Mori-san, to the retreating backs of Sasuke and Sarutobi. Sarutobi holding a wide black umbrella over their heads. Thunder booms in the background.
"No, she isn't. Come to your senses." Sasuke replied coldly.
"Just because other people believe in things others don't see doesn't mean it isn't real. May lightning strike you!" Mori-san angrily said. His chest heaving.
"I'll continue living smartly and believe only in the things that I see. If what I say is wrong, I'll gladly take that lightning strike." He steps out of the umbrella and closes his eyes and looks up in the night. Rain soaks his suit as he stretches his arms wide as if embracing the said lightning that will strike him. Lightning flashes overhead. Moments passed and nothing happened to him.
He opens his eyes and sneers at Mori-san. "The lightning didn't strike me."
Again they turned their backs on Mori-san, who was seething in anger, he silently vowed, "If ghosts are real, they'll surely come after someone like you."
Inside the car, Sarutobi glanced at his employer.
"Are you really not afraid of ghosts, young master?"
Sasuke inclined his head toward him saying, "Why would I be afraid of the dead when the living is scarier." That was the end of that topic.
"I have to review the details of the contract. Give me the recording."
"Hai. I read the whole document it is on file number 4." Sarutobi said while handing over a black recorder.
Sasuke puts on the earphones and starts the recording. He has the contract on his hand, Sarutobi's clear voice can be heard through the recording, "Kingdom Group of Companies…". He looks at the contract but the words dance from his eyes. He looks intently, but still the letters evade him.
Sarutobi's eyes are focused on the road. It's the middle of the night and still raining. Theirs is the only car in the road. He spots something on the bend ahead. Or was it a someone. It was something white.
Author's Note: This story is a retelling of The Master's Sun, a Korean drama series only with the characters of Naruto with the main pairing as SasuHina.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own The Master's Sun.