Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything other than this plot. If I owned Naruto, a lot of the people who died would be alive, and a few (cough, HINATA, cough) would have died in place of a certain Uchiha…

Attention: In this story, it is A/U, Horror/Supernatural, AND YAOI, Also a major point to make, some character deaths. Some that troubled me in having to write, others that I had no problem with killing them off, I know, I know, how could I be so cruel? Masashi-sensei did it to Itachi and Jiraiya. Other than that, I will have lots of gore in some spots, a little smut in others, at the start of each chapter I will warn you. So I hope you enjoy a look into my twisted imaginings…

"In this world,
There is real evil,
In the darkest shadows,
In the most ordinary place."

"Between the world we see,
And the things we fear,
There are doors,
When they are opened,
Nightmares become reality."

Credit to A Haunting, on Discovery Chanel

Prologue: Le Bord du Fleuve

Lightning illuminated the moonless night sky, the storm was just beginning outside, within the large log and stone home however the storm had already reached the crescendo, it was now time for the after affects from it. The only sounds within were at the top of the stairs, and from within the basement. Standing sentry at the foot of the stairs was a portrait of a loving family, the husband standing behind his beautiful wife who was seated on a chair, three girls who looked identical, seated on the floor looking out on the entry to the house.

Absently the once elegant lady wiped the sweat from her brow. She had been scrubbing the oak floor for over an hour, when a stray lock of platinum blond hair fell into her eyes, that's when the tears freely flowed from emerald eyes that had been sparkling just this morning. Her slender shoulders shook from the pent up emotions that had burst, her hands shaking, she clawed at the floor, causing splinters to go into her softened manicured nails.

When a hand touched her shoulder, comfortingly, she jumped and turned. The man who before tonight had been a loving father and her husband, stood there. Dirt was smudged on his name brand attire, a bead of sweat creased his brow, and in his other hand he was gripping a shovel as if his life depended on it, which he slowly loosened his grip and let it drop at the top of the stairs to fall noisily in the now deathly still house.

"Is it ready?" Her voice sounded strained, as if she were in a tunnel listening to someone at the opposite end.

He closed his warm brown eyes and only nodded his head at her question, unable or unwilling to give the deed truth. As if him not saying anything would make everything better. Getting down on his knees he gently took her hands in his, they were now blotchy and red from the lye soap that she had used on the floors.

"I can't…" Her voice came in sobs, her tears streaming from her face to land on his now sweaty shirt. "I don't think I can do more…"

"Hush." His rich baritone soothed her like no God ever could. "Let me help."

Her gaze met his and she felt the strength he was forcing himself to have, he knew that if she were not here, he would pick up the gun that was laying on the floor and use it on himself.

With his help, they cleaned up the floor, a pained moan parted her lips though when she looked over at the wall by the first bedroom at the top of the wide stairs, with shaking fingers, her hand, only a mothers hand, reached out and touched the now dry blood feeling the ache from deep within her soul.

Chapter One: A New Start.

"What do you mean he died?" Naruto asked the Dean to his college. "I talked to him just last night on the phone."

"Well," the elderly man pushed his wire rim glasses up his nose with one long boney finger, reminding Naruto of someone that was contemplating on ways to torture a person, "He was leaving a bar and had a little too much to drink. The accident was caused due to the fog in the area though I do believe."

"Hmm…" Naruto mulled over the man's words and stood up, "Then I guess I will leave now."

The Dean stayed seated behind his maple desk, Naruto glared at him and suppressed the childish urge to snub his nose up at the overly large portrait of the Pope that hung behind the desk. On his way out though, he did deliberately bump the end table sending the priceless Ming vase crashing to the floor. He vowed he would never return to this place. It was too damn stuffy.

Once he slammed the large door, Naruto sighed at his best friend since kindergarten, "I know you are going to think it's troublesome," they were heading out towards the parking lot where Shikamaru's old truck was parked. "Can you take me to the airport? Jiraiya died last night or early this morning, I gotta go home." The news hadn't sunk in yet. It felt as if the old man would yell at him if he went home now, leaving the college he had bribed, for Naruto to get into.

Shikamaru paused in his steps, "What are you talking about?"

"That is what I asked the old geezer when he told me too." Naruto put his index finger on his chin imitating someone deep in thought, "He just told me some mumbo jumbo shit about Jiraiya drinking at a bar. Implying that he was a drunk." Naruto snorted in distaste, "So ya know what I did for him dissin' the old guy?"

"What?" Shikamaru unlocked the truck, as he got in he looked over at Naruto and saw a single tear slide down from those sapphire orbs.

"I bumped that table that he has in the office, you know the one by that shitty green chair? That so called priceless vase on it fell and hopefully crashed into a million and one pieces."

Shikamaru laughed softly, starting the truck as Naruto got in, he asked, "You want me to go too?"

Naruto looked over at his best friend, they had been best friends since forever, and even when Shikamaru had found out that Naruto had an imaginary friend named Kyūbi, he never once ridiculed him. Relief flooded through Naruto at the prospect of having a friend in the midst of all the chaos that would soon arise. "If you want, I know it would be nice if you went along."

Shikamaru nodded his head, "Lets not say anything to my mom though, it would be too troublesome to have her asking all her stupid questions about school."

Chuckling slightly, Naruto asked, "How long have we been considered freshmen?"

"Only three years," Shikamaru grinned, "It's too troublesome to change classes every year."

"Yeah," Naruto snickered, "especially when you are smarter than the professors." He put his thumb to his nose and added, "If only I could say the same thing for me."

At the dorm, they packed a few things in a duffle bag, and left for the airport. The flight was uneventful, Shikamaru fell asleep halfway to Seattle. When they landed, it was rainy and overcast. "Great weather to be home in." Shikamaru commented in the cab that took them to the house that Naruto had grown up in.

Great day for a funeral, Naruto thought as he watched the familiar landmarks pass by, in the three years he had been away from here nothing much had changed. A few new businesses, and a few old ones that shut down. As if saying yes the economy is good, four new businesses were added, what they never said was how many had shut down.

Naruto was in a daze for most of the proceeding days, even when he viewed the body of his famous novelist Grandfather, he seemed emotionless. When he found out that he would not be able to give the eulogy that he had prepared, Shikamaru thought for sure that he would be upset, yet all Naruto did was nod his blond head with pursed lips.

On the day that Jiraiya was laid to rest, it was drizzling rain, not the full rain where it was predictable on the steady pace, yet that damn rain that was like a fine mist. The umbrellas that everyone used seemed useless, the white coffin that held the world renown novelist got wet, and that is when Naruto's world seemed to collapse.

Tears flowed down from his eyes, unseeingly as his gaze was transfixed on the old coot's new and final bed that would be covered with soil as it sank in the ground, and all the twenty one year old could think of was the coffin was getting wet, and when the soil was covering it, it would get muddy and dirty. He didn't want his Grandpa, the man who raised him after his own parent's untimely death's, to be in a dirty bed for eternity.

Shikamaru placed his arm on Naruto's shoulder and pulled him close, he thought nothing of comforting his best friend that was being snubbed by all the rich and elite of Seattle society. Damn, he thought, it's Naruto's grandfather that they were here to burry, you would think that they would be more sympathetic. He should have known though, all of Naruto's life seemed to be like that.

Everyone started to walk away, Naruto and Shikamaru stayed seated and watched the coffin slowly go down into the ground. Once it had stopped, Naruto walked over to the empty hole and looked down on the shiny white box, on top were the lily's that Jiraiya had favored, along with a single red rose. Both of which Naruto had bought so that he could have them with him. He was glad that the people at the funeral home had listened to what he wanted.

It was evening by the time Naruto and Shikamaru got back to the house. They ate in comfortable silence, and then watched the home movies Jiraiya had made through the years. Neither one talking as they paid homage to the man that only they fully understood. It was sunrise by the time they tiredly went up to bed.

Most of that day was spent sleeping or lounging indoors due to the weather. Naruto was slowly bouncing back. What helped him the most was this old stuffed fox that he had gotten as a kid, he didn't know what it was yet it always made him smile and think about Pompeii. In school he had learned that in Pompeii many, many, many years ago, a massive volcano had erupted, destroying the beautiful Italian city. One day he would go there, he was fascinated with it, yet he hated history with a passion. One picture in particular stuck with him, it was of some people that had been plastered or whatever and it was of two Roman's pointing at each other, as if they had been saying everything was the others fault. If only Mount Vesuvius had never blown up…

Nearly a week had passed when Naruto and Shikamaru were "summoned" to Jiraiya's lawyer's office. Kakashi had been the lawyer who had "handled" the transaction of making sure that Naruto had gotten into the best Liberal Art school in Southern California. One thing he and Shikamaru were grateful for was that not once since they flew in from Oakland, had they gone to Mass. As one of the lessons he had learned from Mass was that miracles did indeed happen in the worse of times.

Kakashi's office still looked the same as it had three years ago, littered with clutter.

Iruka, Kakashi's legal aide, was typing some documents on the ancient computer that probably didn't even have Windows. It was when Naruto heard a grinding noise that it startled him, he looked over and noticed the printer moaning in protest as it tried to print two words a minute.

"Sorry to interrupt you," Naruto couldn't help the chuckle from escaping his mouth, "I think you need to upgrade the office equipment."

Iruka rolled his eyes and said, "I don't think that will happen this decade."

"No it wont." Kakashi said from the open office door, "Not as long as this stuff works."

"Have you ever heard of mercy killing?" Naruto mumbled.

"Watch your mouth." Was the reply from inside the other room.

"Well if you are not busy," Naruto sighed, "I did think you wanted to see me."

"What time is your appointment for?" Kakashi called out.

"One thirty." Naruto was tempted to go on in the office.

"Is it one thirty yet?"

Glancing at the clock, Naruto groaned. It was barely one twenty five. "Damn…"

Shikamaru sighed, he was getting settled in to nap while Naruto had his meeting. "Wake me up when it's over."

Nodding, Naruto glanced around at the different framed pictures that littered the walls. Kakashi knew a lot of famous people. Unless he just superimposed his picture onto them, Naruto wouldn't put it past him. To have high tech computers at home and the crappy ones here, so he could take the picture of someone famous home and Photoshop it till it showed a likeable impression of him next to said famous person.

The office kinda smelled too, like old musty papers, and strong coffee, with a hint of mildew.

Iruka was still waiting for the pages to print on the printer when Kakashi finally said, "Come on in Naruto." Standing up in relief, Naruto went into the office. It was even worse in here, he thought to himself. "Close the door please."

Closing the door behind him, Naruto gingerly sat down on the heavily stained chair. It was the lesser of two evils, the other chair had something on it that looked like it needed watering, and a ton of papers in stacks. The desk alone was like a forest of evil, one trip into and something just might bite your head off, chew it and spit it out, to merge with the clutter.

The white haired young man, God only knew why he liked to dye his hair, (long story and Naruto was not thinking of this) made a show of his hands before he motioned to the file on the top of the desk, "As you know, I inherited this law firm from my late father five years ago."

Snorting at the term law firm, Naruto nodded, indicating that the man continue his spiel.

"Well, your Grandfather never updated his will prior to your fathers death some seventeen years ago. As it stands, your father gets everything. Alas your father doesn't need it where he is, so it all goes to you."

Kakashi started to list all the different assets, the house in Seattle, different bank accounts, different savings accounts, rights to the many novels that he had published, and a property in the mountains.

The last part shocked him. Never once had his Grandpa mentioned anything about property elsewhere. Ah well, Naruto tried to absorb all the details, it was odd, he was under no circumstances allowed to ever sell it, in fact it had been in the family for generations. It piqued his curiosity.

It took another hour before Naruto was leaving the office, having signed the papers to make Kakashi his lawyer now, along with the person to handle all of his finances. Getting the keys to the property, along with an address in some small town, Pine Valley, it sounded like a air freshener, he was finally allowed to leave the inner office for the outer one. Iruka was now seated at his desk stapling papers together, Shikamaru had fallen asleep long ago, his long legs stretched out in front of him.

"Oi, get up." Naruto kicked at the long leg that was in front of him.

Shikamaru opened his eyes and raised one dark eyebrow lazily, "About time." Standing up, he stretched his arms above his head. His finger tips grazing the low ceiling.

Naruto knew that his friend was curious about what was discussed in the office, he didn't ask any questions though, which Naruto was extremely grateful for. Outside in the fresh air, Shikamaru started to grumble about the weather. Naruto didn't comment on anything till they got back to the house. He had told Kakashi to sell it along with everything left in it after the weekend. So he had four days to go through everything and keep all the mementos that he wanted. He would also let Shikamaru keep anything that he might want.

"Shikamaru," Naruto began as they were sitting down to eat the final meal in the house before leaving back for California the following day. "What should I do about the property that I got from Jiraiya?"

"What do you mean?" He was munching on the taco that they had gotten from Taco Bell.

"I think I want to see it." Naruto wadded up his wrapper and tossed it at the trash can. "It's in the mountains though, and school started up again a couple weeks ago."

"Hmm." Shikamaru looked at his best friend and shrugged his shoulders, "If you want to go see it, we can. No big deal."

"Get this though, it has a name."

"What does?"

"The house. It's called Le Bord du Fleuve."

"Sounds Greek to me."

Looking confused, Naruto said, "Kakashi said that it's French. Something about the edge of a river or something."

Shikamaru snorted, "A house that has a name kinda sounds like it's not for us."

Naruto's own face lit up with anticipation, "I do want to see it, why not live in it? I mean it's not suppose to leave the family, that was a stipulation in the will. I wonder why… Hmm, any way, if it is too fancy then we can always go back to California."

Shikamaru nodded his head, "Okay. I will go with you then."

Getting excited, the blond jumped up from the bar stool. "Yosh…Great."

The following day, they drove Jiraiya's serial killer van, it was loaded with all the things from the house that they wanted to keep, back to Oakland. Doing a little sight seeing on the way back. When they got to the airport a week later, they looked everywhere to find Shikamaru's truck. After the third time of driving in circles in the part of the parking lot that Shikamaru vowed he had parked, and not finding it, they went to the office and inquired within, to only find out it had been towed away.

They had to pay an exuberant fee to get Shikamaru's small Toyota truck, which they proceeded to tow on the large van, Naruto paid for it due to feeling like it was his fault. However he couldn't help laughing over it all.

They were able to make good timing by taking turns driving so two days later it was in the late afternoon sun they got there first view of the little mountain town, about two hours south west of Denver. Even though the towns name made Naruto think of air freshener, it was a charming place. Nestled within the mountains as it was and near a river.

The excitement over the first view of the house was tampered when it was dusk as they finally found the dirt road that led the mile to the house. They passed a modest home and then as they rounded a curve the road abruptly ended at the base of a large log and stone home.

In the late day light it looked as if it were a tomb for some forgotten era. Both Naruto and Shikamaru breathlessly stared at the home. For some unknown reason, a chill went through Naruto. Turning the key in the ignition to the off position, he caught his breath. Large pine trees surrounded the home along with a few Aspen.

Once they got out of the van, Naruto could hear the flow of water near by. So it really might be near the waters edge. "Did they hook up the power?"

Naruto looked at his friend, "What do you mean?"

"Did you even tell them to connect the electricity?"

"Hmm," Naruto grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head, "I was planning to call them tomorrow." He convincingly lied.

"We better hurry then and find some candles or a flash light." Shikamaru was not surprised at his forgetfulness.

Jumping up the four steps that led to the large wrap around porch, Naruto pulled out the key to the front door. His hand paused in mid air to unlock the large oak doors that led to the inside, once more a nagging feeling coming over him that was telling him to leave and never return. That some things were left better alone, namely this house. In the past, he had always listened to the nagging instincts that told him to not do something or to do it, this time however he blatantly ignored it, passing it off as nerves.

Once Shikamaru joined him, Naruto unlocked the door, and as he slowly swung it open, he asked, "Shall we?"

"After you, my dear." Shikamaru grinned at Naruto. "After all you are the master of this abode."

Laughing, Naruto said, "I guess I am."

Stepping into the house was like taking a step back in time. They were in the large entry, a grand staircase up ahead of them, to one side was a opening into what Naruto would refer to a living room, and to the opposite side was a set of double doors that were closed leading to a room that was not viewed. Next to the closed doors was a ancient portrait of a family. They surveyed the room as if Naruto and Shikamaru were unwelcome in this place.

Approaching the painting, Naruto shivered visibly, the man and woman seemed to be in their own little world, the three girls though in the painting just creeped Naruto out. Hearing a noise behind him, Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin. It was just Shikamaru who stood slightly behind and to the side of Naruto, his brown gaze upon the same portrait that Naruto had been gazing at.

"In this lighting, that painting just plain creeps me out." His voice conveyed the absolute lack of interest that the dark haired man was feeling.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "I think I want to get rid of it as soon as possible."

"Come on, we need to look for some candles before it gets too late." Effectively, he had changed the subject.

A/N: Okay, first off, I am sorry that I have not updated my other stories, This week I swear they will be updated. This one is a story that I had floating in my head for a while now (Well ever sense watching that Haunting show on Discovery channel). Let me know what you think of this please, if no one likes it I will trash... I want honest feedback. B.T.W. in this I do plan on at least 3 character death's.