The Woods
It all started on a night like any other, the night that changed everything for a group of seniors at Konoha High.
Rrrringgg... Rrringgggg..
A mop of blonde hair poked out of the bed covers, turning over in their sleep at the incessant ringing.
Rringggg..
"Ughhhh", having had enough, a blue eyed blonde threw back his covers and reached for his phone. Squinting his eyes at the harsh light of his phone, he read the texts coming in at a rapid rate.
'Dude, where are you?'
'I'm in the woods right now, and I'm freaking out...'
'I think... Naruto I think he's back..'
'C'mon man, answer your phone!'
Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Naruto hurriedly sat up in his bed, his fingers quickly flying over the keyboard typing up a response.
'Kiba? Wtf r u doin back in the woods?'
'And wht do u mean he's back...?'
Wringing his hands slightly, Naruto couldn't quite help the uneasiness he felt at Kiba's text. Surely he wasn't talking about.. him.
Not too long after sending his text, his phone blared to life again with another text from his friend.
'U know who I mean, the one who got Itachi!'
With a jolt, Naruto froze up at the text. His phone continued to go off in his hand, but it was ignored as Naruto stared ahead into the darkness.
Smack!
Startled, Naruto dropped his phone and scrambled out of his bed whirling around to where the sound came from.
Smack!
At the sound, Naruto's heart rate sped up as he cautiously made his way towards the window.
Jumping again as the sound reverberated throughout his body, Naruto finally reached the window and with a shaky sigh, he heaved it open.
"Bout time!"
"Gah!", flailing about, Naruto backpedaled away from the window clutching his chest where his heart was trying to escape. "Kiba?! The hell man!".
Scowling, Kiba climbed in through the window and glared at the blonde taking deep breaths across the room "What took you so long? I was freezing my ass off out there".
"You freakin' nearly gave me a damn heart attack you asshole", Naruto cried out. "What are you even doing here, I was just texting you.. furthermore.." Here Naruto looked his friend up and down who seemed perfectly fine. "Are you okay? You sounded kinda freaked..".
At his words, the scowl completely dropped from Kiba's face, instead he appeared more troubled now. "I-I.. Naruto, you have to come with me.. back into the woods. I need to show everyone something"
"Everyone..?".
"Hinata, Sasuke, Gaara, Sakura, Tenten, and Shikamaru", Kiba listed off without fail, it was almost automatic, "Everyone".
Naruto ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "Kiba buddy, we haven't spoken in years. There's no way all of us are going back into the woods.. Not after what happened".
Kiba balled his fists and growled angrily, "They need to be there".
At his tone, Naruto stepped back nervously, "Kiba? You okay?".
"I'm fine. You just need to get everyone to the woods".
Shaking his head, Naruto replied, "I can't do th-", Naruto paused as if suddenly remembering something, "Kiba?".
"What?", Kiba answered back roughly, now at arms length to Naruto, "What is it?".
A brisk cold wind suddenly blew through the window, making the curtains flare about and cast ominous shadows across the moonlit floor.
"How.. did you get in here? We're two stories high".
"I climbed".
Shaking off his uneasiness, Naruto brushed past Kiba only pausing slightly at the cold chill he got, "Geez, you could of shut the window, it's freezing in here".
Going to shut the window, Naruto suddenly got distracted by the ringing sound of his phone. Making his way over, he moved about his covers until he finally found it.
Pulling it up to his face, the screen lit up once again with a new text that made his blood run cold, and his breath hitch.
'Naruto? Where r u?! Y won't u ans me...'
Slowly looking over his shoulder, he spotted Kiba just a few steps away from, with his face stretched in an impossibly wide grin, "You're coming with me Naruto, back to the woods", a voice that sounded like Kiba's own but distorted said, "Back to where it all began".
Suddenly, as if out of a horror movie, Kiba's face started to melt off until all that was left were these pulsing black orbs for eyes and dirt and stone making up the rest of the things face.
Naruto covered his mouth to stifle the scream that nearly tore apart his throat and stepped back in fright. Whatever the thing was, it reeked of dirt and blood and it was enough to make Naruto's eye water.
Lunging forward, the thing wrapped it's cold hands around Naruto's throat with an iron grip. Pulling and scratching at the things arms, Naruto fruitlessly tried to break the things grip, even tried to kick it off but nothing made it budge or loosen it's grip. All too soon his vision started to blacken, and his struggles started to lack motivation, it felt like he was dying.
"Narutoooooo..."
And just like that, Naruto succumbed to unconsciousness.
Springing awake, Naruto looked around his room trying to find the thing that attacked him, but only finding an empty room instead. He then realized it was the middle of the morning, and night had already passed.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto took a seat on his bed, "Must have been a dream..", he said rubbing his neck only to wince and pull away his hand, "What the hell..?", he said confused.
Making his way to his full length mirror beside his wardrobe, Naruto stared at the bruised skin on his neck in shock and fear. Slowly he came to the realization that maybe the events of last night, wasn't such a dream after all. Shaking away these thoughts, he quickly took a shower and got ready for his first day back to school.
Locking the door behind him, Naruto made his way down the walk path but paused suddenly at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Hey there brat. You're up pretty early".
Looking over his shoulder, Naruto spotted his old perverted neighbor making his way over.
"Hey Ero-sennin, I haven't seen you in a while. Still peeping into bath houses?", asked a snickering Naruto.
"You little brat!", Jiraiya flared his nostrils, his cheeks tinting pink, "C'mon out here Gamabunta!", just then the bushes started to rustle and out came a shaggy brown dog with fur almost the color of red.
"Bunta!", reaching down, Naruto began playing with the dog excitedly, "You've gotten so big!".
Jiraiya smiled at the scene, but suddenly got distracted from the light glinting off of an odd looking stone, "Heck is this?", questioned Jiraiya as he crouched down to collect the strange looking object, "Oi, brat. Do you know what this is?"
"Huh?", looking up from Bunta Naruto peered at the strange stone in his neighbors' hand, "Let me see".
Standing upright, Jiraiya placed the stone in Naruto's outstretched hand.
'It's kinda heavy', thought Naruto as he turned the stone around to examine it further, "This kind of smells like dirt and bl-", he cut himself off and clenched the stone in his hand tightly, as the memory of last night replayed in his head again.
"Smells like what brat?", asked Jiraiya as he watched Naruto in concern, "You alright?".
Snapping out of it, Naruto hurriedly shook his head, "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine", stuffing the rock in his pocket Naruto continued on his way. "I don't wanna be late on my first day back, we'll catch up another time pervert", waving his arm in goodbye, Naruto left his yard and began his long walk to school.
Pulling out his phone, he noticed it was dead from last night. He had no idea what happened to the real Kiba last night, or what that thing that attacked wanted. But one text above all never left Naruto's mind from the events of last night
'I think he's back'
"Holy fuck...", Naruto breathed.
As if to take his mind off these troubling thoughts a sleek back Audi came cruising down his way, slowing slightly as the driver rolled down his window to peer at Naruto.
Curiously Naruto peered back at the driver who had pale lavender eyes, lengthy chestnut brown hair and fair skin. The guy looked like a model.
"Do I know you?", asked the model looking guy peering at Naruto.
"Uh, I don't think so..", answered Naruto, a little awkwardly, "But you do look kind of familiar though"
The guy nodded along, seemingly agreeing with the statement, "What's your name?".
"Ah, it's Naruto", he answered scratching the back of his head.
"Nice name. I guess I'll be seeing you around then".
"Wait-", before he could finish his sentence, the guy was already disappearing down the road in his Audi, "I never got your name...", shrugging off the oddness of it all, he continued on his path.
At The School
Making his way to his locker, Naruto spotted a familiar figure beside his locker, "Tenten? Did your locker get relocated again?", asked Naruto as he came to a stop beside the figure now known as Tenten.
"Yeah, seems I did. Some student must of gotten scared shit again by my occult stuff", she smirked and rolled her eyes, "Bunch of pussies".
Naruto could only shake his head, and put away his stuff, "I see you haven't changed over the years".
"Where's the fun in that?".
"H-hey Naruto, Tenten..", a meek voice called out behind them, "It's nice to see you guys".
Turning around, Naruto smiled at the newcomer, "Hey Sakura, I haven't seen you all summer. How are you?", asked Naruto after offering the girl a hug.
Smiling slightly, Sakura tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "I was away at a camp for self defense".
"That sounds important", a voiced said.
"Oh God", sighed Tenten.
"Hello to you too freak", Ino smiled as she tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder, "How nice to see all of you losers again", she smiled.
Behind her, her lackey Kin piped up, "It's really not, would of been better if you had gotten transferred or something. Especially stalker Sakura".
"I-I'm not a stalker Kin..", Sakura stammered out.
"Oh, you totes are Forehead. It's really gross, so can you like stop stalking me now?", said Ino as she giggled along with Kin.
"Why don't you just leave the girl alone Ino?", stepping between the two, Naruto glared Ino dead in her eyes. This only seemed to piss Ino off.
"Well, well", Ino's third lackey, Zaku, finally shows his face, "Look who's grown some pretty hefty balls".
"Ah, and the third one makes his appearance. The Three Stooges just weren't quite complete with just two bitches", Tenten said from her spot leaned up against the lockers.
"Who asked you, weirdo?", piped up Kin, huffing angrily.
"Okay, that was a little kindergarten level. This is obviously a waste of time", rolling his eyes, Naruto grabbed Sakura's hand and pulled her along as the three made their way to the auditorium.
"You three better watch your back!", cried Zaku.
"If y'all ever feel a burning sensation behind your eyes, just know it's from your good friend Tenten", laughing, she waved her hands back at them and continued on.
Entering the auditorium, Sakura thanked both of them before she left to find a seat before they were all taken up.
"Hey, can I talk to you about something?", asked Naruto.
"Yeah, whatever".
Taking a seat, they both got comfortable or at least tried to as Naruto kept fidgeting and picking at his seat nervously.
"Alright, out with it. This must be big if you're coming to me after all these years", voiced Tenten rolling her eyes.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto told her about everything that happened last night about the texts from Kiba, and the creature that attacked him in his room.
"Wow. Sounds like a really vivid dream".
"But it wasn't, I swear", here he pulled down his shirt collar to show her the bruises on his neck, "A dream can't do this".
"Actually, they can", said Tenten as she poked at the bruises making Naruto recoil in pain, "It could have been a dream curse, or something like that. But from the way you described the thing it sounds like a golem".
"A golem? I've heard of those..", he said looking at his shoes, "Why didn't it kill me?".
"Don't know. All I know about golems are from a lot of Wikipedia searches and some guy in this forum called MagicHunk01", she shrugged, "It probably couldn't kill you since whatever sent it ran out of power or something. Guess you're pretty lucky".
"I.. guess so".
"Now scram, If people see us hanging around they'll get the impression I'm approachable. I can't have that shit", said Tenten practically giving Naruto the boot.
Smiling, Naruto got up and walked away, "Hey", turning around, Naruto looked at Tenten as she rolled her eyes, "You're not such a blowhard like the rest of this school".
Laughing, Naruto nodded and continued on, he knew that was as close a compliment he'll ever get from her.
Searching for a seat, Naruto saw one of his old friends, Hinata, sitting with the cheerleaders. He waved at her, and she smiled at him before turning away as Ino glared at her.
It seemed like the entire school had gathered and most seats were all filled, all except one.
"Oh...", looking around, Naruto tried desperately to find somewhere else to sit.
"Oi, dumbass, take a seat already you're blocking the view!", shouted Zaku.
Sighing, Naruto looked back to who he'd be sitting between, and they only stared back at him in return.
"Hey... Sasuke.. Gaara", taking a seat, Naruto stared ahead waiting for this assembly to start already.
"Hey", came the dry responses.
Nothing else was said between them as their Class President, Shikamaru came out and everyone began cheering.
"Whoa, when did Shika get so popular?", asked Naruto as he stared in surprise.
Sasuke snorted, "Where have you been?".
"Every since Shikamaru became Class President, his 'popularity' seemed to rise overnight", voiced Gaara, who was wearing a basketball jersey, after becoming one of the teams' newest recruits.
As Shikamaru got ready to give his speech, a sudden ghost blew the doors open and the lights flickered off. The whole auditorium was thrown into darkness, and with that the whole student body was thrown into panic.
"Everyone just stay calm, don't panic!", that was Shika's voice, trying to calm the students down, but from the sounds of it, it seemed he was failing.
"Oh God...", Sakura breathed
As the wind howled, it seemed as though it carried an eerie sound with it, something that had the whole group shaking at the memories it brought up.
"No way", Hinata looked around in pure fright.
"Jesus..", whispered Shikamaru.
"This is..", Sasuke spoke up.
"Him", finished Gaara.
"Holy fuck", Tenten cursed.
"Not again...", Naruto shivered in fear.
"We... only... play... together"
To be Continued...
What do y'all think? Do you like it? Would you like to see more? Leave a review and tell me all about, and no I haven't forgotten about Mheetu's story, that will updated soon.
Xoxo; Deemy