WHAT AM I DOING.
Starting another multi-chapter, like a moron. Ah well, I'm sure you'll all live.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I don't own the concept of Dreamcatchers either, though I'm not entirely sure who does. See the end of the chapter for details.
Naruto glanced at the piece of paper in his hand, and then tugged his hood further down over his bright blond hair before starting down the street. It wasn't quite entirely dark – the faintest of highlights painted the horizon still – but night had arrived. It was half past seven and dinners had been eaten, silence had fallen and the edges of Naruto's mind were noting the abnormally thick shadows beginning to slither across neatly manicured lawns.
The children had been put to bed.
He was attracting a great deal of attention from the few people still out and about, walking dogs or returning home from just a little too much overtime at work. As always Naruto attributed the stares to his unusual attire, the most striking feature of which was an ankle-length cloak of an orange so dark it bordered on red. He had owned it for a long time – when it came to Dreamcatching, wearing it was not optional. Cloaks provided the base from which a Dreamcatcher's Guardian manifested, so neglecting to wear one resulted in a situation wherein the offender was really up shit creek without a paddle. So to speak.
Naruto smiled as a faint tinkle of bells from further down the street tickled his senses, and then brought himself to a halt in front of the garden gate of one of the houses. Blinking in surprise, he took in all the details of the house before him – brick walls, well-kept garden and white picket fence. It was an utterly average sort of home – one could almost imagine the Labrador – and if Naruto was completely honest with himself, "average" well and truly failed to describe the majority of homes he was called to. Double-checking his slip of paper once more against the letterbox, he gave a shrug and pushed open the gate.
The path was paved and short, flanked by aesthetically pleasing shrubberies. There was even a garden gnome, fishing for – presumably – worms in the dirt. He climbed the steps to the porch and, raising an eyebrow at the 'Welcome' mat, rang the doorbell.
There was a short pause before the door opened and Naruto was face-to-face with an elderly man in a dressing gown. They gazed at each other for a moment, before Naruto silently tugged up the sleeve of his right arm and displayed his palm. The Dreamcatcher spiral was black against his skin, tattooed into the center and already beginning to thrum with energy.
The other man – Sarutobi, Naruto recalled – nodded and gave a small smile, the relief evident in his expression. He moved back and held open the door, allowing Naruto to step inside.
"Good evening," the older man greeted. "I appreciate that you came."
"Good morning," Naruto responded with a grin. "And I'm glad I could help."
Sarutobi nodded again, and then gestured towards a staircase at the end of the hall. "Please, come this way. He should be brushing his teeth…can I get you anything?"
Naruto shook his head as Sarutobi led the way up the stairs. "I'm fine."
The other man glanced back towards him. "Well, so long as you're certain. My apologies, I'm not sure of the procedure involved here. But I do hope it works," he went on, returning his gaze forward. "I feel as if I've tried everything."
"Don't let it worry you," Naruto replied. "I'll take care of it." His brow furrowed as his took in the man before him. He had to admit the man definitely wasn't the sort of half-cracked occultists he was usually hired by, which made Naruto wonder how the guy found him. Although, it wasn't particularly difficult to get a hold of information if you knew what you were looking for. Once upon a time, people came to know of Dreamcatchers by the whispers of fortune tellers, the ballads of blind poets and the songs of gypsies.
Nowadays, they used the internet.
But still, the old man didn't seem the type. Was he that desperate? Naruto frowned, and then tossed aside the musings in favour of more important matters. "How long has this been occurring?"
"Around four months," Sarutobi responded, coming to a halt in front of a closed door. A childishly scrawled 'KEEP OUT' sign decorated it, complete with angry faces. "I just don't know what to do anymore."
"If I may ask, was there any particular trigger?"
Sarutobi closed his eyes briefly. "His…parents. They passed away quite suddenly – a car accident." The man was rubbing the doorframe with a worried hand, his expression full of grief.
Naruto bit his lip. He sure as hell knew how that felt. "I'm…sorry."
Sarutobi gave him a sad smile, and then pushed open the door.
Naruto was greeted by a room that screamed 'young boy' at the top of its messy lungs, from the dark blue colour scheme, to the numerous figurines lining the shelves and the piles of junk on the floor. Which, he noticed, also boasted an inflated air mattress. He found himself touched by the gesture – most customers neglected that little detail.
His gaze was then drawn to a small pajama-clad figure sitting cross-legged on the bed and glaring for all he was worth.
"This is stupid, Pop!" came the immediate greeting. "I don't need his stupid help!"
The older man opened his mouth, but Naruto beat him to it. "Well, you ain't got a choice, brat. You're not getting rid of me, so hurry up and get to sleep already."
Both Sarutobi and the kid looked a little taken aback. Inwardly Naruto grinned, before turning to the other man and passing a secret wink before switching smoothly into explanatory mode. "If there are no problems, it should only take me a few hours," he'd said this little speech a thousand times before. "Afterwards I'll be completely out for around a half hour or so…but you should be able to kick me out your door by midnight."
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay the night?" Sarutobi asked.
Naruto shook his head. "Thanks, but nah. We tend to be fairly nocturnal by nature."
He turned back towards the boy on the bed, who had been wearing an expression of reluctant interest that he quickly schooled into a scowl. Naruto gave a mental snicker at the attitude.
Picking his way through the mess on the floor, Naruto took his place at the end of the bed and placed his bag at his feet. He then nodded at Sarutobi who, with one last worried glance and a quiet 'goodnight', closed the door.
"Konohamaru, right?" Naruto asked without turning around. "It's okay, kid," he continued gently. "Go to sleep, I'm here."
There was silence behind him, then the shuffling sounds of blankets being pulled back and limbs being arranged for comfort.
There was another pause. "…goodnight."
Naruto shot a grin over his shoulder. "Sweet dreams."
And, pulling an empty orb from his bag, he settled in to wait.
It didn't take long.
Not ten minutes later, his watchful gaze caught the shadows that had begun to condense and swirl in the corner of the room closest to the window. Immediately he was alert, pricking his left thumb on one of his necklaces before pressing it into the swirl of his right palm.
He felt the tug of his robes a moment later as they lifted, defying gravity to float around his shoulders. He dragged his thumb down the inside of his wrist and through the stylized fox tattooed to the inside of his forearm, leaving behind an unbroken smear of his blood. Instantly he heard a low growl from above him as his Guardian took form – the sudden warmth and reddish light made it easy to imagine without looking the snarling fox above him, nine tails fanned out behind. Kyuubi.
With a wary glance into the corner Naruto picked up the empty orb from his lap and cupped his hands around it. It is clear still, the glassy surface winking up at him. With a final nervous swallow – it was difficult for a Dreamcatcher to get used to the sights they saw in this state, no matter how many years they have experienced it for – he closed his eyes and slipped.
His consciousness in part fell away from him as he entered the familiar state of mind between sleep and awake – where thoughts are hazy and very little makes sense, or needs to. He then opened his eyes, sluggishly, to the Dreamscape.
The view was utterly different from a moment ago and something that only a Dreamcatcher could ever imagine, let alone see. Everything was exaggerated – the nightlight glowed blindingly bright, the bookcase seemed to loom enormous and threatening while the clutter appeared nearly alive, each piece nearly indistinguishable from the next. But most significantly, the thick shadow that signaled a nightmare through a Dreamcatcher's normal vision was no longer merely an ambiguous, vaguely menacing blob.
It was still relatively small and contained to a single corner of the room, but it was growing at an alarming rate as the child behind Naruto slipped into a deeper sleep. It was impossible, Naruto found as he stared through half-lidded eyes, to determine a single feature or characteristic. It shifted under his gaze, all green and slime – a face here, teeth there, spindly legs that a moment later becomes the scales of a snake. It doesn't need a shape, not yet. It is fear.
Naruto knows from experience that, should he choose to give the nightmare a few moments to itself, it would soon take a more solid form – namely, whichever image Konohamaru chooses to give it in his slumber. Because, he reminds himself, what he sees before him is the simple manifestation of the child's darkest imagination, still in an incoherent form. Naruto also knows from experience that, should he provide this chance, the nightmare will prove a great deal more difficult to defeat.
Like hell.
His head sways gently. Go.
With a snarl Kyuubi leaps forth, claws dragging and teeth sinking into the grotesque shape. Naruto winces, it must taste foul.
Kyuubi snaps his jaw once, twice; then rips with his claws. Again.
The Guardian is growling as it tears into the nightmare, narrowly avoiding a number of counterattacks from the threat before them. A set of teeth dig into the fox's orange flank, and it hardly notices. Naruto sure as hell did, however, and the pain flares from his side. There'll be a bruise in the morning. Now.
The nine tails unfurl in all directions, stretching and filling every corner of the room with dark reddish light. Naruto gives a sleepy smirk, and then the tails fly forward. When each has twisted around a part of the nightmare, Naruto lets his head loll backwards, mouth slightly open.
The swirl on the palm of his hand glows a soft, gentle blue.
Then the tails, the teeth, the claws all yank and the nightmare comes apart.
The orb between his hands lifts to hover in midair, and begins to spin. A murmur falls, continual and monotonous, from Naruto's lips. It is not of any distinguishable language.
Kyuubi has settled down, through there is still a soft rumbling growl in the air. Slowly it begins to pull pieces of the nightmare towards the orb, one at a time. He drops the piece in his mouth first, like a dog playing fetch with his master.
A stream of bright blue light flowing from the palm of Naruto's right palm, reaches up to twist around the offered piece of nightmare. It tightens, and then pulls the green substance into the orb.
The fight is over.
And, Naruto thinks fuzzily as falls headfirst onto the air mattress over an hour later, it could have been worse.
Confused? Good. XD That was just settin' stuff up. Although, I really really need a freaking beta. I did something uncomfortable with the tenses again. ;-;
The Dreamcatchers – this story is completely inspired by an absolutely freaking beautiful piece of artwork I saw on Deviantart. I'll do my best with a link, because it is well and truly worth seeing and I really feel the need to credit it:
www(dot)deviantart(dot)com(forwardslash)deviation(forwardslash)39532506
I think it's pretty self explanatory what to do with that.
There's a quote you'll find there that describes the concept of Dreamcatchers – I won't repost it here in an attempt to make you go view the art (seriously, go. And look through the rest of the work while you're there). My problem is that I don't actually know where the information comes from. It may even be the artist's own idea in which case I'll feel mighty stupid and may stop writing the fic. Because really, writing fanfiction about someone's random concept feels a little weird, even if it is awesome.
Why do all the dreams come in through the windows? Stuffed if I know. Figure it makes sense though, since those woven Dreamcatchers you can buy are supposed to be hung there. shrugs
Let me know what you think.