Title: Secrets in darkness

Rating: M

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.

~oOo~

Chapter 1

The corridor of Konoha junior college was crowded with nervous and tensed second year –eighteen year old– students who were getting ready to enter the examination room to take their end-of-the-year exams. It was the last exam of the day for one Uzumaki Naruto and his group of very close friends. They couldn't wait for it to be over so they could start their two months holiday.

Naruto's sky blue eyes were trained studiously on his notes he was holding and he was tugging on his bright blond hair while muttering formulas under his breath to memorise them better. Around him, his friends and other students were doing the same hoping to cram important last minute notes into their already stressed up minds. As he looked up to take a short break from memorising, his eyes landed on a lone figure shrouded in shadows near the front entrance to the examination room. He squinted to try and get a better look at the face of the person but he was too far. His body structure was not one he recognised with a lean but muscular figure.

"Hey guys? Who's that?" Naruto jutted his chin in the direction of the mysterious figure and looked at his friends for answers. The high tension in the room was broken as all of them looked in the direction he pointed at and then gave him different looks.

The girls were thrilled to see someone so handsome and immediately gave fan girl squeals of delight, well at least two of them did. The blond had to cover his ears to prevent himself from becoming deaf.

Haruno Sakura, with dyed pink shoulder length hair and jade green eyes was very pretty and Naruto admitted that he had once had a crush on her. Her pale skin was flawless but one should not be deceived by her small and feminine figure. Her punch was a lot more painful compared to some of the other guys and he speaks from firsthand experience.

Her best friend, Yamanaka Ino was equally pretty with pale blonde hair and ice blue eyes. She was sometimes mistaken for Naruto's twin sister. However flattering for someone as gorgeous as her to be called his twin he was secretly glad she was not anything more than a close friend. She was too bitchy to handle sometimes especially when she got new gossip to tell.

Last but not least was Hyuuga Hinata. She was the quietest in the group but Naruto thought she was the sweetest girl out of the three. He might have gone out with her if she was not so shy and if she was not prone to fainting at the mere sight of him.

"Oh my god I can't believe he's here! Ino quick! How do I look?" Sakura was straightening out her black plaited skirt and hot pink bat-wing top then her hair frantically.

"You look fine, how about me?" likewise, Ino was fretting just as much as her best friend.

"Um I –I think both of you look beautiful," stuttering her compliment, Hinata's face became red as two pairs of eager eyes looked to her with thanks.

The boys in the group, except one, were confused. They didn't understand what brought on their sudden change in behaviour.

"A little explanation please," Inuzuka Kiba, Naruto's best friend, was scratching the back of his neck, his notes forgotten as he gave his full attention to the girls' weird behaviour.

"I think they just saw the legendary top student Uchiha Sasuke," everyone looked down at the sound of a monotone voice to where a pineapple headed boy with an emotionless face was seated on the floor while leaning heavily on the wall.

Nara Shikamaru was the only guy who was not concerned by the girls' weirdness. He gave a huge yawn as he closed his eyes after having opened them to see who Naruto was referring to. After he saw the dark raven-head, he knew immediately who had caught the blond's attention. Shikamaru may not look like it, but he was the smartest in their group of friends and one of the top five in school. He was just extremely lazy most of the time to stand out.

"He's like the hottest and most wanted guy in school! He never comes to school unless there's anything major or if he feels like it," Sakura was now looking dreamily in the direction of the raven head.

"Sigh...what I would give to be able to walk up to him right now and talk to him," Ino was also looking dreamily into space as she fantasised about her and the Uchiha.

Sakura gave a disbelieving snort and said, "Get real Ino-pig. He wouldn't want to waste time with someone like you."

Ino gave an indignant scoff and flicked her long ponytail over her shoulder as she glared at the pinkette. She fired back her own insult, something along the lines of 'no one wants a girlfriend with a big forehead' or something like that. As the girls traded insults at each other, the others in the group went back to studying or in Shikamaru's case, sleeping.

Naruto found it difficult to fully concentrate on his notes as his thoughts and eyes kept drifting back to the tall, pale, raven headed boy at the front. He could sense something off about him and it made him uneasy. His friends were not acting any differently so he passed it off as his imagination and exam stress.

The door to the examination room creaked open and that marked the start of the exam. The corridor became deathly silent as everyone shuffled lifelessly into the room. "Well, I'll just worry about the guy later."

~oOo~

He could feel the stares of everyone in the corridor. He felt the heat of their gaze burning on his skin. But no one's glance affected him as much as the blond at the end of the corridor. Uzumaki Naruto. He knew the blond but not at a personal level. He was in his class after all. He knew the blond was watching him closely, silently and mentally judging him. He could tell by his insistent stare that he knew or at least suspected him. He ignored everyone though, especially the blond. He knew that his presence was making everyone wary and even more tensed or in some cases excited. He rarely came to school because of personal reasons. While the school board may know about him, the students do not and he planned to keep himself as distant from everyone else as possible, just like he had been doing for the past six years when he first started. His cold and aloof character drove everyone away.

He was a second year like everyone else around him; an eighteen year old college student. No one knew how he managed to promote with horrendous attendance and no one mustered the courage to ask him. He was simply not approachable.

His silent musings were interrupted by the creaking of the door.

The exam was beginning.

He walked calmly and uncaring of the wary glances thrown his way as he approached the door of the exam room. The students parted like the red sea and he walked like a king on a red carpet. He was the first to enter the room and take his seat. Everyone else filed in after, too afraid of him. "They're all idiots. They fear for all the wrong things." Then his dark eyes connected with the sky blues of one particular student that may be more intelligent than his other classmates. "Or more suspicious." The other broke eye contact as he took his designated seat behind him silently.

The test papers were passed down and after he took one and passed the rest behind him he heard a curse. He must have hit the blond on the head with them. "What a complete dobe."

"What are you trying to do, give me a migraine before the exam starts?" the blond behind him muttered under his breath as quietly as he could manage. Sasuke still heard him though.

"Pay attention to the front then dobe," he couldn't see it, but his voice stunned the other with its deep and slightly husky quality. It would be a voice Naruto would forever remember for its uniqueness.

However after what he said registered, he glared fiercely at the back of the raven's head that resembled a duck's butt and hissed softly, "Teme –"

He would have continued with his comeback but then the invigilator announced the start of the exam and he quieted. "I'll get you later." He never got his chance because after the exam the Uchiha left the room swiftly without even a backward glance at him.

~oOo~

It was a week after the last day of exams and Naruto was enjoying his holidays. He was on the way home after a night of partying at Kiba's house. He was slightly drunk with pink tinted cheeks and his head was light but he wasn't incapable of walking home by himself. With arms behind his head he looked up at the crescent moon as he whistled a happy tune, although off key. It was partly covered by dark clouds and he tried to hurry his footsteps fearing it will start to pour on him. He turned a corner into a dark and deserted passageway he always used as a shortcut. He never worried when he walked home this way during the day but now that it was night he knew he shouldn't. Plus there was the additional ghost factor. "Ah what's the worst that could happen? No one comes here anyway." He knew it was the alcohol's influence but he was tired and he just wanted to go home as soon as possible so he ignored all the warning bells in the back of his mind continued walking.

Halfway through, he heard distant crashing and shrill screaming and he froze. Nothing was coming after him and it was quiet now. He walked faster after that; he never was too comfortable with the paranormal things. As he neared a fork in the passageway he instinctively turned left to go home but a loud crash and shout made him jump and he quickly hid behind a nearby rubbish bin, trying his best to control his erratic heartbeat and loud breathing as he ignored the foul smell. He listened through the silence again.

"BANG! BANG! BANG!" consequent gunshots broke the silence of the dark passageway. Naruto flinched again but remained squatted behind the smelly rubbish bin. The shrill noises were louder now and it sounded tortured. He was shaking slightly from fear but remained in hiding. He didn't want to risk being seen.

"Fuck this thing just won't die!" what he heard through the insistent shrills made the blond's breath stop. He knew that voice even if he had only heard it once before he recognised it. It was a voice so difficult to forget; a voice that had been plaguing his mind since the last day of exams. Naruto peeped around the bin and squinted in the dark, trying to make out the other end of the passageway to the right. Now that he knew that it was not a ghost, he was not that frightened.

But then the words he heard were finally processed properly.

"Wait bastard, don't kill anybody!" ignoring the loud warning bells in the back of his mind, he jumped out from behind his hiding place and immediately ran to the back of the passageway to the right.

What he saw had him frozen on the spot and all the words he wanted to spout died on his lips. His knees started shaking and he was close to collapsing on the ground. They couldn't hold his weight much longer.

When Sasuke heard the shout of his name he had immediately stopped shooting and abruptly turned around. Who he saw had is blood curdling in trepidation. He was caught red handed, literally too. He didn't have time to dwell on why his classmate was there though because a hard shove to the back made him fly and crash to the ground a few distance away from his standing spot. He managed to regain his bearings and holstered his small gun. Thinking fast, he quickly stood up to charge at the monster shrouded in darkness in the corner of the passageway. The ugly thing raised its long tentacles to block the oncoming attack but Sasuke feinted and jumped up high. Reaching to his back, he drew his long katana and stabbed the thing right at the top of its head. The squid-like thing gave a chilling shrill cry as it cried out in agony and flailed its many tentacles. After a few agonising and torturous moments, it gave a long wail and simply collapsed on the ground, immobile.

A thud had the Uchiha looking in the direction he last saw the blond.

Naruto had finally collapsed and he was lying on the ground unconscious. The raven haired youth sighed impatiently as he simply glanced impassively at the body, debating if he should bring along. As he looked at the surroundings he realised he didn't have much of a choice. A dark passageway was no place to spend the night. He quickly disposed of the dead monster, sticking a silver wrapper-like thing on the body and shooting it. The monster immediately went up in flames and after a while it turned to ash which scattered with the chilling night wind. When he confirmed that there was no trace of the body, he then turned to the still unconscious blond.

He let out a long sigh.

~oOo~

AN: Well it's a new story! *nervous laugh* Yea I know I haven't updated my other stories in a really long time and I apologise. This story is too interesting to not post=') Enjoy!