Summary: Once you see him, you belong to him. [Horror / Supernatural]
Warnings: Horror/Supernatural, mental illness, character death.
Rating: T for themes
Pairings: Established SasuNaru.
So this is a new genre for me. I am still actually working on my other stories. Specifically Craving, I just am reworking it so I have the first three chapters reworked and needed a break.
This has not been edited. Too lazy and tired to do it now but I wanted to post it before I become even lazier. PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS.
All errors are mine.
Please note this story is actually inspired from a commercial I hear often. I don't know the name of the movie, but it always starts with "Once you see him you belong to him" and it's horror based. I hate horror movies and such, but that commercial always made me laugh because the implication can be mean something entirely else. But I got lost on this train of thought and boom. This was born.
Once You See Him
It's terrifying that the mind will absorb the most minuscule, unimportant details when the world starts to splinter apart. Details like, the gentleman who offered you an awkward shy smile when you made unfortunate eye contact, or the your boss's cousins royal purple blouse that didn't fit her chest quite right. The major news events will always mean more, because they happened the day the world became dull.
It was an ordinary Thursday when the terrors started. They had gone to sleep, because Friday was still ultimately considered a workday for both of them (even if one had the luxury of sleeping in). But Naruto couldn't stay asleep. He had woken up in a cold sweat, breath gone with trembling hands. His abrupt rise out of the soft memory foam bed had alerted his lover, who sleepily watched him with worried eyes. No words were spoken, Naruto used to suffer from night terrors as a child, so when he collected himself and lay back down in bed, Sasuke let his boyfriend hold him as some sort of security blanket.
But the terrors didn't stop. They progressed further to the point that Naruto had to physically leave the bed to collect himself and walk off the feelings. Sasuke was getting worried, especially since any contact at night now seemed sinful. Naruto wouldn't turn to him for silent comfort when he woke up gasping for air, he would just rise out of bed and shake himself off before leaving the bedroom. Usually Sasuke found him the next morning out on the balcony with bags under his eyes and obviously not his first coffee of the day.
Sasuke was never one to baby his lover. When Naruto needed help, he would do so. Until then, he silently watched this happen, like a hawk, waiting for a moment when the time was right to interfere. Until then, he waited.
That day rudely came when he was called at work from a frantic Naruto. The word 'car accident' haunted him to this very day.
Thankfully it was only a broken wrist, and he had overturned the car trying to avoid something (or someone) on the road and gone into a ditch. When he had gotten to the hospital to talk to his boyfriend about the accident what greeted him was someone he did not recognize.
Faded blue eyes, dulled sunshine hair with deep bags and jittery hands.
When he finally forced his boyfriend to explain what was tormenting him at night, it was something he could never begin to imagine.
"He calls himself Kyuubi," Naruto rattled out, tired and defeated. "He has this fiery red hair and eyes. He didn't do anything at first, just stood in the background smirking. But then one day he whispered I was his." Fingers laced together, "I woke up terrified, but I kept telling myself it was a dream. Soon I saw him while I was awake."
Sasuke froze, wondering if his boyfriend was being stalked.
"He wouldn't do anything, I tried to confront him. Asking him what he was doing where I was, but he wouldn't reply. Everyone thought I was crazy. I was with Ino last time, and she told me there was nobody there."
His heart plummeted.
"I don't know anymore," Naruto whispered. "He is there, I can see him. He is real, I just...nobody sees him. Or hears him." Slightly dazed clouded eyes stared at him, "why can nobody hear him?"
Sasuke didn't have an answer. But the psychiatrist at the hospital did.
Schizophrenia.
Naruto had the signs linking to schizophrenia. Sasuke thought it was absurd, Naruto wasn't crazy and he wasn't violent. But the psychiatrist told him those are mis-conceptions about schizophrenia and that his boyfriend showed clear signs.
Although Sasuke found Naruto to be fine, considering he was still a high functioning member of society (who on occasion zoned out because of Kyuubi lurking in the back - so Naruto said). But the therapy seemed to help, and the medication was allowing him to get a good night sleep.
Naruto soon developed a strategy to ignore the red-head with a personality issue. From what Sasuke gathered, "Kyuubi" was a large scale asshole.
This peace lasted two months before Naruto had a large shift in behaviour. Soon he didn't want to sleep, opting to get more work done in the dead of night. He would wait for Sasuke to fall asleep and then work. Sasuke on occasion has heard the front door to their condo open and close in the middle of the night, to discover that his lover had left the apartment.
Where he went, Sasuke was unsure.
But what concerned him was the cuts and bruises that would sometimes form on Naruto's arms and hands. As though he had been fighting. Sasuke cornered him one night, and Naruto just shrugged it off and said Kyuubi was in a bad mood.
How a figment of his imagination could cause such physical signs was mind boggling. Sasuke chalked it up to Naruto lying. Why he was lying unnerved Sasuke, usually his lover was an open book with his emotions stamped across his forehead.
A part of him wondered if Naruto was cheating on him. He chalked it up to paranoia and left it alone.
Two weeks of the door waking him up before he decided to figure out what was going on. He had sleepily gotten out of bed, got into his car and followed Naruto. They drove out of the city, to a small farming town. The orange car (that Naruto insisted had to come home with him) pulled into a small abandoned looking gas station off the side of a dirt road. The convince store adjacent to the gas station was also completely boarded up. Eerily so.
Sasuke watched as Naruto nervously got out of the car, glancing around the dark area where no lights were shinning. He scuttled across to the boarded windows, placing his hands on the dusty panes before turning to look around again. He easily spotted Sasuke's car, there being no other car in the area.
He didn't pretend, instead got out of the car and gave a tight nod to his boyfriend. Watching as those eyes showed relief and sanity.
"I guess I woke you?" he mumbled, turning away and pressing his hands against the boards again.
"Hn." He stood beside Naruto, not asking questions. He had also spoken to a therapist, and it was always best to let Naruto take the lead. To not shut him down right away, to keep him talking and open about what was happening in his mind. It was also impressive to reassure him that he was safe.
Sasuke was never good at consoling, but thankfully letting Naruto explore and take the lead was surprisingly easy.
"He told me to come here," the man finally admitted with annoyance. "I have been exploring the town the past couple of weeks, and each one has something there."
Sasuke queried an eyebrow, but didn't reply. Watching his lover in his baggy lounge pants and oversize t-shirt with a light coat staring at the boarded gas station in impatience.
"The first one, I didn't go to." He proudly proclaimed with a smile, "I know Kyuubi isn't real, but he seems so real. It's hard."
Again stoney supportive silence.
"I finally went on the third day, I researched what he told me. The things he told me really happened," Naruto murmured, "if's he a figment of my imagination how did he know those things?"
"Naruto..." he began in warning but was cut off.
"I know!" He hotly and frustratedly told, "I know he's not real. But he was, he did exist. Just like all his victims."
Sasuke blinked, frowned and shook his head. That wasn't possible. Naruto was spouting like he was seeing a ghost, rather than creating an person and personality out of a disease that was corrupting his mind.
"I know it sounds crazy," he mumbled, and hastily reached into his pocket almost dropping his wallet and passing a piece of paper to Sasuke. "But this girl, Tenten was seventeen when she was murdered." He told, eyes gazing back at the building ignoring the way Sasuke stared at the crumpled messy paper with information about a girl he never knew. A girl that died over thirty years ago.
Tenten, seventeen, murdered by the man known as Kurama. Sasuke's eyes froze with that name.
Kurama was a serial murdered who only confessed to his crimes on his death bed. Apparently he died with a smirk on his face and a smug last words of 'they never caught me'. The police only recovered seven of his victims, but he had apparently admitted to killing thirty-eight people.
"How do you know this?" Sasuke glanced at the missing person report from a news channel, and wondering why he was in an abandoned building.
"He told me!" Naruto frantically shouted, eyes wide with the realization of how loud he was being. "Kyuubi is Kurama."
Sasuke froze, "so you're seeing a ghost?"
Naruto shook his head, "no he's real!"
"Naruto, he's not." He began with a soothing voice, "he's not here. I am, I am real." He pointed to himself, taking a cautious step into his boyfriends space. "Kyuubi is a sickness."
Naruto shook his head, "I know. I know you can't see him," he began with agitation, "but how else does he know these things? Real things!"
Sasuke shook his head, "he's clever, he's using knowledge you already know to make it seem new."
He shook his head frantically, blond locks swaying in the night breeze, "no. You're wrong."
"You haven't been sleeping have you?"
He froze for a minute and gave a quick shake of his head in the negative. "No."
"Then let's go to bed. Leave your car here, we'll come back for it tomorrow."
Naruto bit his lip, eyes turning to regard Sasuke but instead they were staring behind Sasuke. He was obviously looking at someone who wasn't there. Sasuke moved back to block his view, causing Naruto to frown.
"He's not here."
Naruto closed his eyes, obviously willing the image away before whispering "take me home."
He didn't need to be told twice. Naruto slept on the ride home, and he didn't have the heart to wake up his finally sleeping lover. So instead he drove around the city with a heavy heart and fear in the pit of his stomach.
Why did Naruto assume the missing girl was killed by Kurama. There was no news saying she was, just a missing report. He pulled up to a stop light and fished out his phone, quickly googling her name and only coming up with the fact she was reported missing and never found. No tales of a bloody murder, like Kurama's style.
He glanced to Naruto.
He looked so peaceful, eyes shut and lips slightly parted to let out a small soft snore. He was perfect, and Sasuke couldn't have wanted a better partner. His mind tumbled at the thought that this was something he could't protect Naruto from.
He kept driving until the morning and he had to drop Naruto off to go to work. He said a quick farewell and asked Naruto to move his doctors appointment up to as early as possible. Obviously he meds weren't working. He agreed and Sasuke went to work.
The doctors appointment was the following week. Thankfully she understood the rush need to be seen and didn't make a fuss about moving her schedule around to fit the couple in.
She listened to Naruto, as he continuously talked about Kyuubi. The nightmares - the terrors- that he had that had led to the car accident and the trigger to figuring out that he was sick, were the murders. He was seeing Kyuubi murder people. Brutally and sometimes Naruto said he felt the emotions of the man - the excitement and hot blood on his hands.
Sasuke vividly remembered the countless showers his boyfriend would have after such a dream.
He began to say he was doubting whether or not he was sick. Kyuubi was real, he existed. He killed people, and Naruto knew who.
That interested Tsunade greatly, she touched her chin and listened to him talk about what he had been doing during his two weeks of exploring at night. The places he went, where each murder happened. He described some of the victims, some of the acts that were committed and the locations they were done in. He always said Kyuubi would smirk and state that the body disposal part was his favourite. But he never said where the bodies were.
Tsunade nodded but quickly explained that Kyuubi wasn't real. She tried to bring him back to the thought of this being his mind. That schizophrenia was clever into tricking you into believing something that's not true.
They had a long session but Sasuke was pleased with the outcome. Naruto was given new strategies to cope with the vision of Kyuubi and was also given a new type of medication that will actually cause severe drowsiness and Sasuke was secretly thankful for that. His boyfriend definitely needed more sleep.
He had been fired not too long ago from sleeping on the job.
Tsunade asked him to hang back from a few minutes to talk without Naruto present. Naruto was obviously displeased with that but allowed Sasuke the freedom to talk to the doctor. He would have rather been present but he also understood.
She had asked him to monitor his computer time. Obviously the voice was telling him to search for things and he was learning things online and using it to make the illness seem less like he was sick and more real. Like he wasn't actually 'crazy'. Sasuke frowned at her term, Naruto wasn't crazy. He was sick.
Sasuke slouched in his seat, feeling older than he was before he sucked it up and told her the truth.
Naruto's didn't delete his browsing history (mostly because he was terrible at maintaining a computer) so Sasuke had been regularly checking what he was doing on the computer when he was at work. He discovered no sights asking about Kyuubi - he spent some time on Facebook, on some games, but not a lot of time.
She nodded with a passive wave, explained he could be instructed to delete that information from Kyuubi. It was possible, Sasuke had to admit, but he didn't buy it.
All the information that was on the computer about Kyuubi was when he was using it - and he had been deleting his information to keep from Naruto. He didn't want the man to think he was suddenly joining the train to say that this man was actually real.
He let her advice wash over him and he nodded. He left the office not feeling any better but thankful for the new medication.
Everything crashed down two months later.
Naruto had stopped gallivanting all over town at night, and he had stopped talking about murders and Kurama/Kyuubi. He had developed a normal habit and was even talking about getting back to work, because he was finally starting to feel like himself again. He never missed an appointment with Tsunade and her reports were inspiring.
Sasuke was finally feeling like he was back in a relationship with his lover and even was able to kiss and hold him for more than a few seconds without Naruto turning away to look at someone that wasn't there.
It happened suddenly.
Sasuke came home from work, he had even stopped and gotten some Italian food for dinner when he noticed his entire apartment in a state of distress. Their coffee table was overturned, papers scattered on the floor. The cupboards in the kitchen all opened, and glass broken on the floor and in the sink. The balcony door was wide open and his heart hammered in his chest when he saw Naruto standing outside with his body leaning halfway over the balcony.
He dropped his food and rushed over to the balcony and stepped outside. His heart was pounding in his chest and he repeated over and over that Naruto wasn't trying to jump off. His boyfriend was too strong to do something like this.
Naruto turned to look at him, his eyes wild and fearful. He glanced past Sasuke, a sneer marring his face and Sasuke just knew Kyuubi was there.
Sasuke whirled around, anger and fear coursing through him. He saw nothing in his living room but he decided to take a shot anyway.
"Leave him alone!" He shouted to nothing, hoping and praying his desperation for some deity would help him out. He couldn't lose Naruto, not like this. Not when his boyfriend was so full of life and brought happiness to everyone around him and there was nothing he could do. He couldn't stop it, and he couldn't save him. He was absolutely powerless and he hated.
Naruto gave him so much power and he had nothing to give in return.
When he turned back around he saw surprised blue eyes still staring in his direction but they were actually focused on him. Not on some invisible person lurking in the back.
"He's gone," Naruto whispered in relief and stepped forward before embracing Sasuke and whispering thank you's and I love you's that became garbled and clumped together.
It was the first time they had a real night together, they cleaned the mess up and Naruto embarrassedly told him about the things that Kyuubi was saying and showing him. They played around a bit and it felt normal. They even were able to sleep together with a sense of want verses need.
It was a great beautiful night. Something Sasuke would never forget. Not only because the overwhelming sense of peace that fell between the two and wholeness but because that was also the last night they spent together.
The next day he was once again at work when he got a call. This time it wasn't a frantic Naruto, instead it was a distressed nurse telling him to get down to Konoha General as soon as possible.
When he finally made it through the traffic and pulled into the parking lot (depositing money in the little box) and hurrying inside it was too late. Naruto had died on the operating table.
Sasuke was numb as the doctor explained there was a terrible accident, Naruto had collided with another vehicle. They weren't sure how the accident happened, considering Naruto had no drugs or alcohol in his system (except the drugs he was prescribed but they said that wasn't the factor), so they don't understand how he crossed over the centre line and went into oncoming traffic.
The driver of the other car was killed, and the child in the backseat was injured but doing well. The father was on the way to the hospital as they were speaking.
Sasuke didn't care, as terrible as that was, didn't care because this was not real. Everything felt dull, his heart surely wasn't beating and the doctor gave an awkward rehearsed "I'm sorry" before departing.
He was left standing in the overpacked hospital listening as people sobbed and others thanked the doctors. He was there for hours before he got up and started pacing. This wasn't happening.
He knew Naruto's only living relative, Jiriaya had probably been told but he wasn't in the country. It would be a while before he was told. He paced more and picked up his phone. Punching his brother's number and relaying the news. His brother was coming down to the hospital.
They were going to release Naruto's body to them once they do an autospoy to see what was actually happening.
But Sasuke knew.
He turned angry eyes to the corner. He saw the snarky redhead with slanted red eyes smirking at him. His hair was long in the back but short at the front, and it reminded Sasuke of dried blood. He hurriedly walked up to the man, hurt and rage surging through him before he quickly tried to punch the man but instead he felt his fist go through the plaster in the hospital wall.
A nurse shouted at him and a few of the patients turned fearfully to him.
His eyes widened.
He just saw Kyuubi. That was the description Naruto always gave him of Kyuubi. Red hair and red eyes, with a cocky smirk.
The man in question was standing behind him, Sasuke could feel him and hear his breathing.
He was real.
Naruto didn't lie.
"He's mine now," the dark demonic voice whispered with a tint of amusement. He could feel a hand touch his neck, as though wanting to choke him but it wasn't a real hand. Almost like the lasting heat from a hand that had been on his neck. He touched the spot in horror.
What was happening to him?
"Don't you know?" Humour laced his voice, "Whoever sees me belongs to me."
Sasuke froze, his mind fizzing out and coming to a standstill. 'What?'
A dark chuckle, "you're next, Sa-su-ke."
Yes this is the end of the story, and yes it is complete. MIGHT make it from Naruto's perspective, but nothing will change. The plot will still be the same, just with Naruto's side.
I also would like to point out, I don't know much about Schizophrenia, so I apologize if I'm complete inaccurate. I did minimal research so I really don't know about it.
Review! I would love to know your opinions.