A promising encounter with a cute high school boy turns into a nightmare for party-lover Sasuke when he learns he's the son of the demon who killed that boy's parents.
SasukeXNaruto story
- Alternate universe, out of character-ness
- Rated M for: dug use, partying, language
Demon and the Fox
Chapter 1
"There is no hell, and all the devils are here."
The sky was black instead of blue. He saw monsters where normal people stood and walked in the street. Blood instead of skin. Fire instead of eyes. Black smoke in the wind. Carrying the scent of ashes.
"Are you okay?" Sasuke heard someone say from behind.
He blinked and turned around but there was no one there. People walked past him on the sidewalk. Cars drove by noisily. Sasuke looked up. The sky was back to normal. The nice dark blue shade of twilight.
This had been a rough week.
Sasuke had no idea what the visions meant. But he had a bad feeling. Anxiety eating away at him like a poison in his veins. And he always felt cold.
He got home to his apartment, hoping his roommate would distract him. His apartment was in Hell's Kitchen, New York. His roommate's name was Suigetsu.
Tonight Suigetsu wanted to watch the movie Wolf of Wall Street.
Once Sasuke had thrown his jacket, keys and wallet in his bedroom he went to sit on the living room couch with Suigetsu. They didn't own a TV. They just watched movies and series on Suigetsu's seventeen inches laptop. So Suigetsu brought said laptop closer on the coffee table, and then he grabbed the table's legs to slide it closer to the couch. The rattling sound made Sasuke wince, and he massaged his temples. His head hurt so much lately.
"How was work? You look tired." Suigetsu sat in the couch and paused the video right at the start. He lifted his feet and swung them up on the couch, the floor creaking underneath as he made himself comfortable.
"It was fine. And I'm fine."
"Right." Suigetsu arched an eyebrow. He wasn't really buying it, clearly. "Are you sure you don't want to get some sleep?"
"No. I mean yes." Sasuke settled back in the couch and grabbed a pillow, holding it against his chest. Suigetsu was still sending him doubtful glances. "I'm fine, I just want to watch the movie with you."
Magic words.
Suigetsu's eyes lit up and he nodded, reaching toward his keyboard to click something and start the video.
And Sasuke really tried to watch it. He tried really hard to keep his eyes open. Of course, Suigetsu watched religiously. He was all cozy, covered up with his silly purple leopard blanket. Suigetsu always watched movies as seriously as if he were a professional movie critique.
Sasuke had trouble keeping his eyes open because he hadn't slept in a while. Suigetsu was absolutely right, of course. He was incredibly tired, and worn out. He actually had two jobs. At his first job today he had almost forgotten to make a customer pay. At his second job he almost forgot to lock up behind him, which would've been really bad obviously. In the subway he struggled to keep his eyes open, too.
He just kept dreaming about really weird stuff. Actually, it was terrifying, so much that he was afraid of falling asleep again.
But it sounded so silly. Afraid of falling asleep. Frightened by some stupid nightmares. He wasn't a child. Well, to be fair, he wasn't exactly an adult yet, either. But standing at six feet tall, people were often mistaking him for one. He couldn't exactly start telling people that his dreams scared him.
So Sasuke had dark circles under his eyes and he looked like some sleep deprived idiot. Great.
And now, the worst thing was that he was starting to see freaky stuff even when he was awake. Black smoke, black clouds, people covered in blood.
Earlier, walking back home from the subway station, he had seen someone standing in a first floor window. It was just some building similar to where he lived with Suigetsu, just a few blocks away. Regular apartment building with boring brick walls and everything.
The person looking out the window had been burning. They were staring straight at Sasuke with freakishly blank eyes, with a sort of black smoky aura around them, and the smell of burnt flesh had filled his nostrils. But then he blinked, and the vision disappeared.
It was like something out of a horror movie—the good ones, that are actually scary. And he wanted to scream, but no sound came out. Like he was in a dream.
And sometimes there was a voice in his head. Dark and mischievous. Something like a whisper, but strong-willed at the same time. "Will you take back what's yours?"
What was that supposed to mean?
And the visions disappeared whenever he heard that voice.
Sasuke shivered, even in the warmth of the living room. Well, it wasn't exactly warm. They were keeping the heat pretty low to save money. But still. Suigetsu wasn't shivering. So it probably wasn't that cold. Yet Sasuke couldn't stop trembling.
Was he imagining things again, or was there a dark red stain on the opposite wall? The walls were a dull grayish white color. The paint was all cracked, but for some reason the landlord wouldn't allow them to paint over it. Sasuke had never seen that red stain before, though. It was right there, in between the desk with the turntable Suigetsu had bought but never used, and the shelves lined with a bunch of books Sasuke had already read and would probably never touch again.
He couldn't stop staring at that stain. It seemed to be moving. Wiggling like a worm.
The rest of the room disappeared for a moment. There was only red, as the stain seemed to get bigger, and bigger.
"Sasuke? Sasuke?" Suigetsu was poking him, bringing him back to reality.
Shit. How far in the movie were they? He looked at the laptop, seeing Leonardo Dicaprio's face getting frozen mid-monologue as Suigetsu paused the video. More than thirty minutes in. He looked up.
The stain was gone. His heartbeat slowed down. He hadn't realized it had gone up. The room seemed really silent, like there had been a buzzing in his ears before, and now it was gone.
"The pizza's here." Suigetsu had already brought the carton to the couch, and he was sitting next to Sasuke again. "I ordered pizza." As though it wasn't obvious already. "I didn't want to wake you, but I really think you should eat something. You look… pale. Like, more than usual, I mean."
"I wasn't sleeping." His voice sounded weak and groggy, even he could tell. He cleared his throat. "At least I don't think I was."
Suigetsu shrugged. "Yeah, you were. Well, in and out, I think. You don't like the movie?"
"That's not it." Sasuke imitated Suigetsu and grabbed a slice of pizza. But he realized he had no appetite. In fact, the smell of it made him feel a bit sick. Weird; he usually liked pizza. Who doesn't? "Looks like a pretty good movie."
"Do you want to start from the beginning again?" Suigetsu offered.
"No, I—I think I can catch up."
"Okay."
They started watching again. Well, Suigetsu did. He ate his pizza with appetite, too. Sasuke wished he could do the same. But he dropped his slice in the box. Watching the computer screen made him really sleepy. It wasn't the movie itself. It just strained his eyes. At some point the image became all blurry.
He shook his head clear, and glanced at Suigetsu instead. Suigetsu was the kind of guy that always got so absorbed in a movie that he wouldn't notice if the world was ending—let alone if someone stared at him.
Suigetsu's t-shirt was white with little black lightning bolts all over it. His pale hair was dyed silver. Around his wrist was a black rubber bracelet that said 'Friendship is magic' in colorful letters.
Sasuke was starting to hear that buzzing noise again. And dark spots filled his vision. Panic gripped at his heart like an ice cold fist. He wanted to get up from the couch—do something, anything—but he couldn't. It was like someone was pinning him there, someone stronger, a lot stronger.
Blood trickled down the walls all around the room. He knew it wasn't real, but his chest constricted in fear anyway. He tried to look to the side, but his head wouldn't move. He couldn't even twitch a muscle. Although, even without looking, he could tell Suigetsu wasn't there anymore. In fact, the room was empty and black. Only that red stain remained. But now it had spread to a vast circle, and it was shimmering. The world seemed to tilt upside down, and Sasuke's stomach did an unpleasant lurch as he fell face down, next to the red circle. He still couldn't move. And that red circle was getting wider. Soon it would touch him. It was blood. He knew it was blood. He could smell it. Could almost feel it. Metallic and thick.
From the corner of his eye he saw someone standing on the other side of the circle.
He was tall and wore all black, with a hood covering half his face. His waist was thin but his shoulders were squared so Sasuke assumed he was male. He brought his hands up to his hood like he wanted to take it off and reveal himself, but he seemed unsure. He wore fingerless gloves and black nail polish.
Sasuke remembered having a similar dream before. This wasn't the first time. By now, he knew they were just dreams. Yet he was still afraid, and it annoyed him more than anything.
He couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't wake up, no matter how much he wanted to. He had researched sleep paralysis a couple of days ago, and concluded that this was similar. But there was no treatment for that. It certainly wasn't supposed to happen so frequently.
The puddle of blood had never been so close to reaching Sasuke before. A few more inches and it would touch his hand, which lay right next to his face. The person on the other side stepped closer. He wore heavy black boots but they made no sound. There was only a suffocating silence. The smell of blood in the air. And the smell of ashes.
A voice in his head again.
"Your brother never used it. Will you?"
That same fierce, blood curdling whisper. Sasuke felt the sudden urge to scream. But he couldn't. He couldn't. He looked at the other person. But he was gone. There was no one else.
And the blood reached him.
But then everything seemed to just… fade away.
There was only Suigetsu, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him awake.
"You're missing the movie," he whined.
"S-Sorry…" It was weird to see Suigetsu, to come back to reality. Everything was so normal. His purple blanket, the worn dark blue couch, the half-white, half-blue curtains. Suigetsu hadn't found two identical ones at the second-hand store, so he'd decided they would have bi-colored curtains in the living room.
They were ruffled softly by the wind right now. The nightmare was fading, but Sasuke was still feeling horribly cold and frightened. He shivered violently.
"I'll just close the window," said Suigetsu. He looked a little worried now. He was unfolding his legs, but Sasuke stopped him.
"No, don't, I'm fine."
"Oh, come on. I know you like the fresh air, but I won't let you freeze."
"I'm not freezing."
Suigetsu frowned, and poked his arm again. "Yeah, you are. Look, I'll just open the one in your bedroom instead."
"No… the plants don't like the cold air…"
"You and your stupid plants." Suigetsu rolled his eyes. Then sighed. "Why is it so cold anyway? It's supposed to be spring in like, what, a week? Global warming my ass."
"Yeah. Sorry about the movie. I'll watch it with you another time." He got up, and felt dizzy. But he tried to hide it and cleared his throat.
"I'll just take a shower."
"You should really go to sleep early tonight. None of that going out with your friends when you're working the next morning crap!" Suigetsu called, but Sasuke ignored him. Who was he, his mom?
Sleeping was the last thing he wanted to do right now.
Going out with his friends, on the other hand, sounded pretty great.
…
His favorite place to go out was just eight minutes walk away from his apartment. Sasuke loved this about the city; you could find a pretty decent bar or club pretty much anywhere.
He zipped up his jacket and shoved his hands in his pockets. It really was cold, the wind was harsh. As he looked up, he saw that it was a full moon tonight—or almost full, anyway. He couldn't see any stars, because of the city lights. But the moon shone brightly. He picked up the pace, walking down 9th Avenue. He walked as fast as he could, eyes looking straight ahead. He tried to convince himself that nothing weird would happen. And if he did see something odd, he would just ignore it. Easy.
But then Sasuke got the feeling that he was being followed. He couldn't really walk any faster without people giving him a weird look. This was ridiculous. There were other people in the street. Maybe there was just someone walking behind him, matching his pace. He hated when that happened. But it wasn't the end of the world, was it?
He sort of looked behind his shoulder briefly, trying to be subtle about it, and pretending to be interested in the shops lining the street. There was no one there. His stupid brain imagining things again, surely.
When he crossed the street in between two cabs, he thought he saw an animal—a dog, or a really big cat—crossing the street right after him, and then hiding between two buildings. Weird. Well, if it was just a dog, then it wasn't a big deal. Maybe the dog liked his smell, or something. Maybe it reminded the dog of its previous owner, who was now dead, and the dog had been abandoned in the streets, and—
Stop thinking.
He just kept walking, hands in his pockets, head held high, jaw set, showing anyone who was thinking of randomly bleeding and producing black shadows that he wouldn't care. Well, it worked, because no one did.
The bar was called Laid-Back. It was an open-minded place—in other words the clientele was mostly gay. The door was painted fire truck red, and it looked small and modest from the outside, but once you got inside it was actually pretty great. There were black painted stairs, and the second floor featured a long bar counter, some lounge areas and a large enough dance floor.
They had hired a new door guy, apparently. Damn it.
"ID."
Well of course he wanted to see Sasuke's ID. He might look older than his age, but he didn't look that old. And the truth was, he was only eighteen. And he had no fake ID. He just knew someone.
"Just a second," he said.
He called Orochimaru. He was a bartender here, and also a good friend of Sasuke's colleague. Sasuke had been to Laid-Back a couple of times now. They were all friends by now. There shouldn't be a problem. He couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. He raked his fingers through his hair as he waited for Orochimaru to pick up the phone.
"Yeah Sasuke what's up?"
"The new guy won't let me in."
"Got it. Come through the back."
There. No problem. He felt the door guy's eyes on his back, but he ignored him. He walked around the building and shivered as the wind got particularly intense. The concrete was all cracked back there. One of his boots almost got stuck in a particularly large crack in the ground, and he stifled a curse. A worn down chain link fence ran around the small, mostly unused parking lot behind the building and the wind was making it rattle against the pavement. Sasuke spun on his heel as he thought he heard something moving, like the discreet sound of a dog paws… That stupid stalker dog again? But he didn't see anything.
Whatever. It didn't matter. He turned around again, and saw that Orochimaru was opening the back door for him. They always kept that one locked. Sasuke hurried inside, eager to get away from the cold. Orochimaru had dark hair, wore skin tight clothes with silver chains around his neck and shiny designer shoes.
"Two nights in a row, you're on fire this weekend!" Orochimaru smiled, and touched his shoulder briefly to greet him. Then he locked the door again.
Sasuke shrugged. "Yeah, well. Couldn't stay home, you know? It's… boring."
Well, that wasn't exactly true. It wasn't boring, just… the walls kept turning to blood. But he couldn't really tell him that.
Orochimaru guided him upstairs. They went through the 'employees only' section, passing a row of lockers.
"Is Yahiko coming tonight?" Orochimaru asked.
"Yeah, he texted me earlier. He got a new piercing this morning."
"Awesome. Where?"
"Nose."
"I thought he already had one there."
"Now he has two. Two small rings, on the same side. He can pull it off."
"He always does!" Orochimaru pushed a door open and they entered the club. They had to raise their voices to be heard over the music. "Did you do his piercing?" Orochimaru asked. Sasuke smiled.
"I did, actually. He said I did a good job, too."
"Awesome! It's cool that he's letting you learn. Can't have you answering the phone and cleaning the place forever."
Sasuke sat at the bar; a long, slick black bar counter, with bright red stools. The napkins were red, too. That was pretty much the theme of the place. Red and black velvet couches sat in the corners, with glossy black tables. The walls were brick imitation, in a dark, almost black color. The DJ played electronic music, which put Sasuke in a better mood right away, and the lights were flashing already; strobe lights and multicolored spotlights going all over the place. It wasn't that crowded yet.
"The usual?" Orochimaru asked.
"Yeah that would be great."
Orochimaru's cocktails were awesome. Sasuke's favorite was the passion fruit mojito, with extra rum of course. He really needed it right now.
He gave some cash to Orochimaru, and then he let him take care of some other customers. Sasuke spun on his bar stool and looked at the dance floor. Some people were dancing already. They were being shy about it, laughing with their friends. It was still early. They wouldn't be shy about it later. The guys would probably take off their shirts, too. Gay guys liked to do that. Not that anyone was complaining.
Sasuke let out a deep breath. He took off his jacket, and threw it across the counter. Jay nodded at him, grabbed it and put it safely behind the counter. Sasuke smiled and took a couple more sips of the delicious drink. It would be okay. He was safe here. Whatever was happening to him wouldn't follow him here. It couldn't. This place was full of people. And they were nice, open-minded people. He drank some more, and he relaxed some more. He would just have fun, like always. The music was so great, too. Entrancing, fast-paced, loud bass—the kind that makes your heart beat faster. It made him feel like dancing.
Later.
When Yahiko showed up, Sasuke ordered two more drinks; one for him, one for his colleague and friend. Yahiko always made a couple of heads turn. He had fire truck red dyed hair and of course loads of piercings and tattoos. He wore skinny jeans and a white tie, and nothing else. At twenty five, Yahiko already owned his own tattoo and piercing parlor. Sasuke had been working there for a year now, at first part-time, and now pretty much full time since he was done with school.
He had lied about his age at first, to get the job. But then when Yahiko found out, he was already attached to Sasuke, and he didn't mind. He didn't fire him. Eighteen was a little young to be a piercer, but why the hell not? He had the talent for it.
Yahiko always had so much energy.
"Let's go dancing!"
"There's barely anyone—"
"Doesn't matter! Come on! Orochimaru, you should come dancing with us."
"I'm working."
"Ask someone to replace you, or something."
"Just…" Orochimaru waved with a hand. "Take him to the dance floor, Sasuke. You guys enjoy your drinks, all right?"
"Come on." Sasuke took Yahiko's arm, feeling his micro dermal piercings, and led him to the back of the dance floor, right next to the DJ booth and one of the giant speakers. They had turned on the artificial fog, or whatever they called it.
"Shit, look at those lights. That's crazy." Yahiko took a sip of his drink, but excruciatingly slowly.
"What did you take?"
Yahiko gave a helpless shrug. "MDMA. Don't judge me."
"You know I don't judge. In fact," Sasuke took a deep breath, "can I have some?"
It wouldn't hurt to feel good, for once.
Yahiko tilted his head. "Have you ever had any?"
"Yeah last party. You don't remember?"
"Oh yeah. But you didn't like it."
"Of course I liked it. That was Konan." Their colleague. She was the tattoo artist. And she hadn't liked the MDMA because she had mixed up too much alcohol and other stuff with it. She hadn't been reasonable. Sasuke was definitely reasonable.
He took the pill Yahiko slipped him, and swallowed it with a sip of that mojito. Completely reasonable. Just one little pill, and two drinks.
"Oh, I remember that party now! You did like it! You made out with that really hot guy." Yahiko's eyes were huge, with his pupils dilated. "That was a good night."
Sasuke smiled as he remembered. "We didn't just make out."
"Nice!" Yahiko smiled back and started dancing.
Sasuke needed a little more time to get in the mood. But he did like the music, and the atmosphere. He was starting to forget about all the crazy stuff. He didn't even want to think about it anymore. He just wanted to have fun. To enjoy this moment.
He eventually finished his drink, saw that Yahiko had finished his too, and he went to put the empty glasses on one of those black tables. As he made his way back to where Yahiko was dancing, he spotted a pair of eyes looking at him across the dance floor. They were nice eyes too.
"Do you want some?"
Sasuke looked down, and saw that Yahiko had taken out a pack of gum. Sasuke nodded and took one.
He tried to find that guy in the crowd again. And he did. He wasn't hard to find, actually. He looked pretty good; tall and slim with tight clothes, handsome in a boyish way, dark blonde hair, tousled and wild as it almost fell on his shoulders, like a halo around his face. And he was making his way through the crowd, closer to Sasuke. He looked a bit shy, though, like he felt out of place.
Sasuke liked the guy's hair. In fact, he always told Yahiko he should wear his red hair just like that, instead of plastering it down with tons of styling products.
For now, Sasuke just exchanged knowing glances with the stranger as he danced next to Yahiko. He wasn't feeling his high just yet, but he already felt more confident—placebo effect, perhaps. Didn't matter. He wanted to dance with this guy. Maybe more than dance.
"I won't be far, okay?" he told Yahiko.
Yahiko smiled and nodded, making weird, sort of sensual movements with his arms as he danced. He was completely high right now. Sasuke shrugged and pushed his way through the crowd to get closer to the boy with the inquiring eyes. As he got closer he saw that they were a deep blue color. So if this guy had been staring at Sasuke, surely he wouldn't mind getting to know each other a bit?
"Are you having fun?" Sasuke asked him.
"It's my first time here," he replied. His voice was kind of raspy, like he'd been smoking or something. But that wasn't a bad thing.
"Really? Do you like it so far?"
"Yeah I think so."
"What's your name?"
"Naruto. What's yours?" There was something odd about his tone, something forced, or faked.
But he told himself he was just being paranoid.
"Sasuke. It's nice to meet you."
He took a moment just to admire him. He could tell Naruto was athletic, and he was almost as tall as Sasuke; something like 5'11. His ridiculously tight clothes looked like something his bartender friend Orochimaru would wear, actually. His t-shirt said 'I want to be tamed.'
"I like your shirt."
Naruto looked a bit flustered at that. He looked away, pretending to pay attention to some of the other dancers.
"Um, yeah, thanks… I like what you're wearing, too," he eventually said.
"It's my gayest outfit," Sasuke replied. Well, it was true; shiny black skinny jeans with a thin—almost transparent—wide neck shirt. "I look silly and proud of it."
Well, at least this made Naruto laugh. He still seemed really shy and uncomfortable though. That was understandable, Sasuke supposed, if it was his first time here and if he had come alone.
"You want a drink?"
He had decided earlier to be reasonable, with the MDMA. But he couldn't let Naruto drink alone, could he? That wouldn't be very considerate.
Naruto was eyeing the bar counter warily, for some reason.
"I'll… okay, but I'll just wait here…"
"They don't bite, you know?"
Naruto just blinked.
"The bartenders," Sasuke said. "One of them's actually my friend. He won't card you if that's what you're worried about." Naruto did look underage. Not that Sasuke was judging.
Still no answer. Sasuke figured maybe this guy had no cash to buy drinks and was embarrassed about it.
So Sasuke pointed towards Yahiko.
"You can go with my friend if you want. The one with the red hair. I'll meet you there."
"Okay, cool."
Sasuke got another mojito, and he got a strawberry-coconut daiquiri for his new friend. It was another one of Orochimaru's specialties. It was much sweeter. He had a feeling Naruto would like it. He didn't really know why.
As he made his way back there, he let himself enjoy the music. It was so good, so intense… And damn, those multicolored flashing lights really were amazing.
Crap. He was starting to feel his high. That was bad timing. Naruto would think he was some weirdo. Which he wasn't, of course. He was a completely normal person. At least he wanted to be one tonight. Good news was, at least he wasn't having any freaky visions. He felt strangely safe here. Best decision ever.
So he just needed to focus on acting normal. Act normal. Act normal.
Naruto thanked him for the drink and tried it. And then his eyes brightened up a bit, which made Sasuke feel really, really happy—but that could be the drug, too.
"This is really good!"
"I'm so glad you like it."
Oh, God, the music was so great. Sasuke started moving, he couldn't help it. And he took a sip of his mojito. A very slow, careful sip. It tasted pretty good. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying it. Then he opened them again, and realized Naruto was staring at him.
Right. He was probably acting weird. But this felt so great, like everything was in slow motion. There were so many people around, and they all looked great, and Sasuke suddenly felt the urge to go talk to every single one of them, and ask them if they were having fun.
"What's wrong with your eyes?" Naruto asked.
"Nothing." Sasuke cleared his throat, and looked away.
Sasuke went to dance closer to Yahiko. "How are you feeling?"
"So great, man. You?"
"I'm starting to feel it. Do I look normal?"
"Perfectly normal. Don't worry about it."
"Okay."
He nodded slowly, and saw that Naruto was staring at them. Oh well, whatever. Yahiko said he looked normal, so it was probably fine.
"You look really hot," he told Naruto before he could stop himself.
His face flushed a bit at that, and he just started drinking his cocktail really quickly. Sasuke smiled and moved a little closer.
"Come on, do you want to dance?"
He slowly curled his arm around Naruto's waist. And they started dancing, but Naruto was really tense. He looked away, and swallowed. Sasuke could see his Adam's apple moving. He wanted to kiss his neck. Naruto's skin was a nice pale gold shade.
"Um, Sasuke, I want to ask you something…" He sounded so nervous.
"Relax. What is it?"
"I, um… Wait, never mind." He took a couple more sips of his berry red drink. Some of it lingered on his lips before he licked them. God… Sasuke felt kind of horny.
He really wanted to kiss him.
But then he stopped. He stopped moving completely. Something was off. He suddenly… stopped feeling good. But… that wasn't right. This stupid drug was supposed to last three hours.
'Drugs won't help you, stop trying to escape…'
What was that? That voice in his head again. That dark whisper. No… not now. It was going so great. They were having so much fun.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Naruto hesitantly took his arm. His skin was warm. No, Sasuke realized, it was his own skin that was becoming cold. He always got cold when the visions happened.
When he breathed, it came out as white smoke. He started shivering really badly. This was ridiculous. It was really warm inside the club.
Several people on the dance floor had their faces covered in blood. It was trickling down their bodies. He knew it wasn't real. He closed his eyes. But when he opened them, everyone was covered in blood. Even Naruto.
"Shit, I… I'm sorry. I have to go outside."
Author's Note: Do you like it so far?
-Let me know what you think of the summary. I just changed it and would love feedback :-)