A/N: This story was inspired by one of my biggest fears, the fear of uncovered windows. I always feel like someone is going to break one and come in, or that someone is watching me. My house was broken into once (actually three times, but I was only home when it happened once), and as I ran up the stairs to call the police after scaring him off, I saw him (the robber, presumably) looking in my downstairs living room window. I'll never go downstairs at night again, and sleep with a baseball bat and telephone at arm's reach from my bed.
This fic is highly likely to be short, three, four, or maybe five chapters long. I hope you guys like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or "Monster." Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and "Monster" belongs to the Meg and Dia Band.
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Chapter 1: Surprise
"Monster, how should I feel? Creatures lie here, looking through the windows…"
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"Dad, is that you?" I yelled as I washed the dishes. Hearing no answer, I wiped my hands on my blue apron, and went to peer down the hall towards the front door. I crept quietly, tentatively sticking my head into the hall.
And screamed.
"Hitomi, it's just me," my dad laughed, taking off his ANBU mask. My hand went to my heart, as if willing it to slow down. My father steered me into the kitchen, and he sat down at the table to the plate I had served him. I pouted as he continued laughing at me lightly. Soon, though, my father's smile faded. We ate for a few minutes in silence before I decided to see why my father was down.
"How was your mission?" I asked lamely, wishing I had the guts to ask my real question. He shrugged, as if to blow it off as fine and not elaborate. I wasn't letting him off so easily, though.
"So, your mission was okay. What kind of job was it?" I inquired lightly, not bothering to conceal my nosiness. My dad was never bothered by trivial things, after all, so whatever had him down must have been a whopper.
"Fine. It was a border patrol mission. Don't think I don't see what you're doing, Hitomi," he grumbled, setting his spoon down and running a hand through his hair, something he did when he really didn't like what he was talking about.
"Hey guys," my cousin Emiko said as she and her brother Kaoru sat at the other two place settings. Emiko looked at my father, and frowned in that contemplative way only she could pass off while looking cute. Kaoru, the extremely receptive one of the bunch, instantly settled into waiting for my dad to speak. Emiko, however, didn't.
"What's wrong, Uncle Sano?" Emiko asked, cocking her head to the side slightly. He shifted uncomfortably, as if unwilling to answer her. I didn't blame him, as Emiko wasn't the best person to go to for understanding.
"You three don't need to hear it, you're all too young," my father said as he repeatedly ran his hand through his hair. Kaoru scowled, miffed that he was considered too young to hear something. Kaoru had always been more grown up than us girls, and wanted to be treated like an adult.
"We are hardly too young, uncle Sanosuke. I won't take that as a valid excuse," Kaoru countered. I admired the way he could argue with my father without being overly rude. That was one trait of his that I always tried to emulate.
"Really, you three do not need to discuss such a…. depressing topic with an old man like me," my dad returned, sounding a lot less sure of himself. I knew it would take just one more push before he'd spill his guts.
"Please," I asked, Emiko and me looking at him imploringly. I could imagine that we grew cat ears and a tail to complete our kitty-pout act. My dad stared at us for a few moments before sighing and looking down at his lap. All the while, his hand ran a nervous part in his hair. I wondered if his habit of hair rubbing would cause baldness.
"You three know about the rumors spreading throughout the villages surrounding Amegakure, right?" we all shook our heads, since none of us had left the inn to get supplies in a week or two. He sighed, shifting to sit semi-sideways in his spot.
"Well, rumor has it that terrorists have been hired by God to root out traitors in the countryside that might be planning to oust him from his power over this country," he said quietly, and Emiko gasped while Kaoru and I shook our heads. All of us knew that God was too powerful to be removed.
"Also, they say that God's Angel has sent out her own spies, ones that report directly to her," My eyes widened, surprised that the Angel was taking action. The plotters must be pretty extensive and dangerous to invoke such a reaction.
"I heard from my commander that God might withhold the rain from our fields if this isn't over soon, forcing our towns to turn in the plotters," He said, looking out the window over the sink at our small forest and backyard. A cold feeling of mild fear settled into my heart, dark and stifling.
"I am to tell the Elders by way of scroll tomorrow that God has written a 'No-Tolerance' decree that all traitors need to be turned in," he added, stopping to eat a few bites of his almost-cold soup. We three looked at each other nervously, digesting what my father had just told us.
21-year-old Emiko tugged on her long blonde braid, as she was wont to do when she was nervous, and clung to her brother's arm. My other cousin, 23-year-old Kaoru, simply allowed her to cuddle with his arm and pursed his lips in thought. I fiddled with my pretty blue apron's lace trim, and stared at the table. I felt my long brown hair fall in front of my eyes, and looked up sharply when Kaoru threw in his two cents on the matter.
"Well, if there is to be this routing, we should be careful who we associate with, not that we go to town much. The fact remains, however, that as a Bed and Breakfast, we cannot keep proper tabs on our guests." He concluded, raising his hand to stroke the dirty-blonde scruff of his chin. I nodded my agreement, even though the opinion of the youngest, a mere 19-year-old, hardly mattered in situations like this.
"Very right, Kaoru-kun. You run this business well, and I'm thankful," My father said, smiling gratefully at my cousin. I silently concurred, and waited for my father to speak again.
"Tomorrow, I want Hitomi to deliver this important order to the elders, because I'm going to report for mandatory training in Ame," Father decreed smiling at me encouragingly. I nodded, returning his smile. Doing such and important task made it seem as if its importance would rub off on me.
"Of course, Otou-san. I'm honored," I assured him softly, blushing at the proud smile that glowed on the faces of my hodge-podge family. My family, no matter how odd, was perfect. A little crazy, perhaps, but we worked together well.
"Alright, I 'm going to hit the sack, goodnight," My father said as he rose from the table, kissing the top of my head as he passed me to set his bowl and spoon in the sink. My cousins followed suit, thanking me for the food and telling me I should start a restaurant someday. I pouted as Kaoru ruffled my hair. I then walked to the sink to wash the dishes once they had gone their separate ways.
As I washed the dishes, I pondered the implications of God's frustration, and slowly began to think about what the Angel looked like. Was she pretty? How old was she? Does she have wings? What king of jutsus does she use? And…. A niggling bit of fear burrowed into my heart as I wondered, should I be afraid of her?
I thoughtfully weighed my family for any crime against our government. The only points against us were littering or discussing rumors as far as I could see. I concluded my happy, if dysfunctional, family would remain safe from God's punishment so far. After all, who would doubt our integrity? We, in general, were considered upstanding citizens.
Emiko was a beautiful but naïve blonde, who worked as a schoolteacher in the winters when there was no farming to be done, and who also helped me take care of the inn and cleaning. She was a tad shallow, but she had her perceptive and sensitive moments when it counted. She had a gentle demeanor that charmed the children she worked with into behaving, and that enamored the town's boys into following her around like lost puppies.
My cousin Kaoru was the groundskeeper and manager of the inn, and also a wonderful friend. That is, if you could get up the courage to talk to him. Overall, he was considered very intimidating. He was incredibly handsome, so I always wondered why he hadn't gotten married or at least had a girlfriend yet. He had short, dirty-blonde hair and sky blue eyes that could melt a girl into swooning faster than you could say "he's so cute!" The best part about him was the fact that he didn't let his good looks go to his head, which seemed to be filled with interesting bits of knowledge and a mastery of mathematic concepts and figures.
My father was a large man, and a special jounin for the village hidden in the rain. He had a dirty-blonde colored mop of unruly hair, similar to Kaoru's but a shade darker with age, seasoned with salty, coarse strands of gray-white. He was a large man, standing six and a half feet tall. He was also very burly and muscular. Not to mention, he was extremely healthy for a 40-something year-old man. I assumed that was because he worked out a lot every day as a part of his shinobi training regimen.
Compared to my cousins and father, I wasn't all that amazing. I was smart, but so where they. I had the family's sky blue eyes, but had my dead mother's light brown hair and slight build. I worked solely at the family inn, and kept the house clean and meals cooked. The old ladies in town always told me I was a wonderful girl, and said I was the sweetest little shy cutie, but I didn't fully believe them. In my own opinion, I wasn't all that amazing, and felt small next to my outstanding family. What I really wanted to do was become a chakra-medic like my mother was, but after she was killed doing her job my father would have none of it. So, I was an unremarkable nice girl with no specialized skills.
I saw absolutely no reason for God's punishment to fall upon our family, and hoped that keeping track of strange visitors would pay off somehow. I looked outside, remembering what my father had said about God withholding rain. I was worried, and glanced at Kaoru's thriving and beautiful garden in our backyard. It was hard to imagine so much color turning to yellow-brown crisps.
A flash of movement caught my eye, and I saw a pair of reflective yellowish eyes near the edge of the forest through the kitchen window. They were quiet a distance away, about as far as I could throw a rock. I stared back, figuring that it was a fox, badger, small wildcat or something, I sighed as the eyes disappeared, hoping that our neighbor, farmer Nakano, had fenced in his chicken coop to keep out animals that night.
"Ow," I emitted a quiet grunt as I sliced my finger when I wasn't paying attention to the knife I was washing. I looked at the wound, saw that it was small, and shrugged. It wasn't that big, I'd clean it up when I finished the dishes. I was almost done anyway.
Seeing the blood remind me of other household chores that needed to be done, like rinsing some blood out of sheets and blankets. The other day a wounded woman had stayed here on her family's journey to the clinic in town. They left a huge mess on the futons, too.
I grimaced, realizing that tomorrow I would have to beat the dust out of all the mattresses. I could feel imaginary pain coursing through my joints, and dreaded having to beat big, heavy mattresses as they hung on our clothesline. I hoped it wouldn't rain tomorrow as well, and wondered if we had a dry spot to set the futons outside if it did rain.
I raised my head to peer into the backyard and search for a dry place, but instead my eyes met something I didn't expect. Blue eyes met with yellow as I saw the profile of what I assumed was a man's bulky head and shoulders, two luminescent eyes looking down at me from outside. I panicked as I realized how close he was, and that the window was open. The only thing between us was a flimsy wire fly screen. Anybody could punch through it if they but a little muscle into it.
I backed up slowly, my eyes locked with the man. I heard him make a sound, quiet and nearly unnoticeable, and thought it sounded like he was inhaling something, smelling something. I turned and ran into the hallway, screaming as I tripped and fell to the hardwood floor.
My family rushed into the main hallway, my dad arriving first. He picked me up, asking me urgently what the matter was. For a few moments my throat was choked up, and I tried to gesture towards the kitchen. Kaoru put his hand on my shoulder, and my heart began to slow down.
"What's wrong?" Kaoru asked urgently, and I pointed to the kitchen as I tried to bypass a sob and explain.
"There was a man, with yellow eyes! He… he was right at the window, staring," I cried, trying to hold in the mounting terror I felt. My dad went ot go look for the man, leaving me with my cousins. Emiko crooned to me comfortingly, telling me that my dad was going to take care of us. I tried to relax, still crying a bit. My body shivered with energy, the remnants of adrenaline forcing its way out of my system.
"Shhh…. It's alright Hitomi-chan; Uncle Sanosuke has everything under control. You're safe here; we won't let anybody hurt you!" Emiko whispered as she bundled me into her arms. She hugged me close, and Kaoru handed her a kunai as he went to go look in the kitchen to see if he could find anything.
As Emiko and I waited, I replayed the scene over and over in my head. That had been the scariest moment in my life since a horror movie Kaoru tricked me into watching when we were little. I frowned as I realized how that stupid ghost movie didn't hold a candle to having someone pop up in front of your window.
Soon enough, both men reappeared in the hallway, and Emiko looked at them imploringly. I had cried myself out a while ago, and was terribly tired after my body had used all that adrenaline. My throat ached, and in my mind, all I could see was those eyes on the other side of the window screen, looking right at me. There was something in those eyes, I decided. They concealed some unknown emotion, and I was certain of it, but I didn't want to sound like a loser, so I didn't mention it.
"I- No, we didn't find anything. I'm sorry," My father said, glancing at Kaoru sadly. My father stepped forward, taking me from Emiko and hoisting me into his arms like a little kid. He hugged me like that for a long time, and after a while, Emiko and Kaoru went to bed. A little while later, my father took me up to my room, laying me down and tucking me in, just as if I was a toddler who had had a bad dream.