Authors Note: This is just a random story that I never actually planned on writing. In all honesty the idea came up because of a nightmare I had. Not that the story was my nightmare, it's just that I had to keep busy to forget about it. I had to call my friend and make her talk to me just so I could walk down the hallway in my house! Wanna hear the worst part about that? She was about six states away. Heehee, well on with the story.
Disclaimer: If I can't own my mental stability, what makes you think I could own Naruto?
I don't believe in Ghosts
They say my house is haunted, but I don't believe that. Even when I was just a little kid I was never afraid of all that mass-produced Halloween crap. Goblins, Witches, Ghouls, and Ghosts, they were all just figments of over active imaginations and un-healthy sugar highs.
But that never stopped my mother. She spent her time running around the house trying to cast 'spells' that she got out of thrift store books, promising to send the spirits back to their peaceful slumber. I just sat in my doorway and watched her run up and down the stairs, day after day. Month after month. Year after year. I guess its too much to ask for today to be different.
I put my ear to my door, the thin wood transferring all of the noise of the house into my ear canal. I could hear my older brothers fighting over the last cup of juice, either my mother or father reading the news paper, and the other loading dishes into the dishwasher. I sighed as I realized that I had once again slept through breakfast.
Grabbing my orange shoulder bag I opened the door to go visit with my family before school. But when I reached the bottom of the stairs only my mother sat at the dinning room table, the news paper covering everything but the small tuft of grey hair on the top of her head. It seemed that my Father had decided to drop my older brothers off at school on his way to work. But I guess that's what they get for being in collage and going to a school on the same side of town that dad worked in. I was the black sheep of the family. The youngest: so normally ignored, attending a high school on the other side of town which no-one had need to drive too, and way to energetic for my own good.
"Hi Mom!" I yelled, bounding through the doorway, trying to scare her. But my Mother was a pro with dealing with me. All she did was 'Hm' (mom speak for "good morning my best and most favorite son, what kind of pancakes would you like this morning?" And somehow it meant a super large and loving smile as well) and turn the page on her newspaper.
"Fine," I pouted. "I'll make my own pancakes!" But that declaration only lasted as long as it took me to look up at the clock placed above the stove. I didn't even have time for toast, let alone pancakes!
"Bye mom, love 'ya!" I said as I rushed out the door and down to the corner of the street, preying to Elmo that I hadn't missed the bus.
But I made it in time. Time, of course meaning that I had to chase after the bus screaming as it pulled away from my stop, and follow it (still screaming) all the way to the next stop. Panting loudly I dragged my self up the stairs of the bus, tripping as the kid behind me tried to get on too quickly. I was still panting by the time I made it to the back of the bus, to the seat that Kiba and I shared every morning and afternoon.
Kiba gave me one calculating look before scooting out of our seat and giving me the window side. It was bus etiquette to give the most suffering one the window. For a number of different reasons: The sun was calming, you couldn't hear the noise on the bus as much, and if you had to puke you didn't have to climb over your friend to do so.
"Naruto," Kiba said after we had both settled down into the seat.
"Yeah?" I asked turning to face him. I had been looking out the window, but Kiba had grabbed my attention.
Kiba was looking forward, as if he were watching through the windshield of the bus. A thoughtful look on his face. "You look like crap." He said, turning to face me with a large grin.
"What do you expect?!" I screeched. "I had to chase the bus for like two blocks while you sat here just laughing you butt off. Don't think I couldn't see you in the back window!"
"Heh-Heh, yeah…" Kiba trailed off as if he were reminiscing good memories. I punched him in the arm.
"There, now you feel as bad as I look." I huffed, leaning my head against the cool window pane.
"Not Eve-- We're here!" Kiba announced as he grabbed my shirt sleeve and pulled me off the bus.
I just sighed and allowed myself to be dragged through the packed doorways of our high school, and then through the packed hallways, all the way into our packed homeroom class. If you couldn't already tell, there were way too many kids in our school. So many in fact that Kiba and I, among others, had too stand in homeroom because all the desks were already full, and school still had 10 minutes 'til the class warning bell. Maybe that's why our school let so many kids in, because of seat shortages we had the best tardy records in the state.
Pulling my sleeve away from Kiba I sent a wave to the rest of our friends leaning against the back wall. "Hey guys, and Hinata." I said, giving another wave and a smile. I got a variety of responses as I got closer.
"Hey." From Neji.
"H-hello…" From Neji's cousin Hinata.
"…" A nod from Gaara.
I looked down the small row of my friends. "Where's Shino?" I asked not seeing him in the line, or even sitting on the floor.
"Shino managed to get a desk today." Neji answered while the others just glared at the boy seated comfortably in the school desk, his head resting on the wooden surface and snoring softly.
"Wow, that means he had to get here at like 5:30..." I gave an impressive whistle.
Shino's head snapped up and he turned to face me, glaring. I flashed him an embarrassed smile and waved my hand, trying to silently urge him back to his nap. He deserved it after coming in so early just for a desk. But instead Shino just gave a low sigh and dragged his backpack over to the pile of ours that was stashed over by the fake ficus tree.
"Shino go back!" We all screeched as a random student blew through the doors, looking violently intent on the now empty seat. Shino spun around quickly to take back his seat, but it was too late. The other boy was already in it, books spread out and his feet on the bottom of the chair in front of him. Shino just sighed once more and threw himself to the ground by our feet, choosing to sleep there instead of fighting for his seat. But that's our Shino, the Pacifist.
"Hey! Before I forget….again….we're getting a new kid today…I think" Kiba rambled as the warning bell rang for class.
"You think?" Gaara asked in a quiet tone.
"Well yeah, I overheard the lady talking in the office on the phone something about an Uchiha something-or-other. So I'm guessing that's the new kid." Kiba smiled, as if he were proud of himself.
"Awesome!" I threw a fist up into the air. "Maybe they'll be nicer then the people here."
"That's too much to hope for Naruto." Neji sighed as he swept his gaze across the oblivious classroom. We were the outcasts, the friendless (besides each other of course), the ignored.
The tardy bell rang and the teacher walked up to the front of the room. She was about to start her class when the door opened slowly. The students swiveled around to see who was coming, and those of us against the wall moved a couple of feet forward to get a clear look.
"Ah, there you are." The teacher said in her haughty voice. "Introduce yourself and then find a seat."
Black eyes scanned the room and a cold smile lit upon pale lips. "I'm Itachi Uchiha."
The class jumped slightly, his voice was pure evil! Every generic story book villain has that voice and a face that closed and frozen.
I gulped and waited for the boy next to him to talk. He must have been Itachi's twin brother or something, perhaps a cousin, the looked very much alike only their hair and heights different. But the boy didn't speak, he kept his glare straight ahead and pursed his lips.
The class started to mutter, the introductions were taking far to long for their taste.
"Well, go find a seat!" The teacher barked out.
Itachi gave a very dramatic look about the room again and said quietly to the teacher, "Where do you suppose I should sit, Miss? At your desk in the back perhaps?"
Our teacher gasped and looked around the room for an empty seat, a blush of anger colored her cheeks as she failed to find one.
"Well--" A knock at the door interrupted her.
"What?!" She snapped, not liking the fact the she was being interrupted every few minutes.
"umm…I'm sorry to intrude but could we get Sakura Haruno? Her mother is here to pick her up…" The office runner replied not daring to come into the classroom and instead staying in the hallway.
"Sakura go, Itachi sit." The teacher said rubbing her wrinkled forehead. She didn't even look at the other boy, but gave a random flit of her hand that he must have taken as a command to stand in the back with us, because he was making his way over to our back wall.
"Hi I'm Naruto!" I smiled brightly and thrust out a hand.
The kid just kind of looked at it hanging there in the air and leaned up against the wall, his arms crossed, and his focus on the ranting teacher in front of us.
My eyes narrowed. He wouldn't get to share our wall if he was going to be a jerk. I waved the same hand in front of his face, "Hey! Answer me jerk!"
"Go away." He said quietly, and slightly threateningly. But his voice wasn't evil like his brother/cousin's, it just sounded bored and tired. Kinda like Gaara's, but without the telltale sigh of insomnia.
"I can't." I said smiling, hoping my plan would work.
"And why is that?" He asked, eyes flashing towards me and then back to the teacher. My plan worked, he answered me!
"I'm not leaving your side until you: 1 act nice, 2 stop ignoring me and tell me your name, or 3, be my friend." I said, proud to have come up with a good plan.
"Sasuke. So that means you'll go away now right?" He asked, this time facing me completely.
"No…weren't you listening?" I asked puzzled.
"Yeah, and I fulfilled option two. I stopped ignoring you, and told you my name" He gave a slight smirk.
Darn. Darn. Dar- Wait!. "Void!"
"What?" A dark eyebrow raised.
"Option two is void because you weren't ignoring me when I told you the options." I grinned, happy to most, evil to the newbie.
"Hn." he said in a calculating manner. "I like you hair?"
"Aw thank you. Good job being nice!" I congratulated him.
"Now go away." He glared again.
"Can't."
"Why not!" The kid all but yelled.
"You didn't read the fine print." I said. Idea's off the top of my head were always crueler then the ones I spent weeks brewing up.
I could hear my friends laughing behind us, they knew that I was bluffing through out the whole conversation. And none of them wanted to jump in and save him, but who could blame them, he was being a total jerk.
"How do you get fine print with a verbal contract?" He looked slightly confused and even more irritated.
"You just do. And the fine print is that you have to follow the rules for the rest of the year." I laughed and bounded back over to my friends.
"Harsh." Kiba laughed and slapped me on the back. Hard.
I just laughed and looked up at the front of the room, only to realize that class only had another three minutes and the teacher had stopped talking at least ten minutes ago.
I sighed. "Pack up!" I called to my friends. They gathered their bags up and got ready to leave. Gaara nudged Shino awake with his foot…making him fall over and curse softly.
"Be nice." I snapped at Gaara. That Sasu kid had made me mad, was it so hard just too be my friend?
"Make me." Gaara said softly, raising to his full height and uncrossing his arms.
I laughed and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. "Come on Gaara, time for math!"
I could see his eyes widened in surprise and he watched me drag my growling friend out of the classroom and down the far from empty hallway as the second period bell rang.
Most of the school day went the same, I joked with my friends, hassled the new kids when they were in my classes, didn't get a seat, and forgot to pay attention. At the end of the day I walked with Kiba to the buses and waited in the line to get on, laughing with him I failed to notice that the new kids were only a few people behind us in the line. Actually, I didn't notice until we were all on the bus and a few blocks away from school.
"Hey! New kid!" I yelled, trying to stand as the bus kept barreling down the street. I saw him stiffen, fighting with himself whether to turn or not. And in the end he did end up turning, but only to send me a glare and a violently hissed "I like your hair."
I smiled and located the other new kid, a few seats in front of his brother/cousin.
"Hey! Other new kid…umm…yeah!" I yelled, scaring who tried to wave my mouth shut. But he didn't need to worry, the other boy had a pair of head phones in, and was either falling asleep or nodding his head to the beat of his music.
I frowned and turned to talk to Kiba for the rest of the way to my stop, mine happened to come before Kiba or the Uchiha's stops. And when my stop finally did come I practically jumped off the bus before the others could wander their way off.
I walked to my house, making sure my clothes weren't rumbled or anything, knowing that my father hated things that weren't in perfect order. I called out a hello as I opened the door, hoping that someone was close enough to hear and answer me. But I could hear my mother and father arguing in the dinning room, and my brothers were still at school for the week.
I put my bag down by the door and slowly crab walked my way over to the swinging door that led to the kitchen and dinning room to listen in.
"Naruto left the fridge door open again, and the front door!" I could hear my mother crying hysterically. She always cries when she gets mad, and I didn't want to go in there and risk her scary mother anger.
"You can't blame him for everything that goes wrong!" My father thundered, his foot steps clomping closer to the door. I panicked and rushed up the stairs to my room, closing the door softly and throwing myself onto the blue themed bed that took up a great percentage of my room.
I sighed and looked at my ceiling, waiting too see if my mother would come up the stairs to yell at me. But the stairs weren't squeking so I guessed I was safe. And that I would be missing dinner. There was no way that I could handle sitting down at the table in the unkind and totally unnerving forced silence.
I sighed slowly as I remembered that I had left my backpack by the door, that meant no homework tonight. Pulling myself into a somewhat slouched but upright position I peeked out the window to see if the weather was nice enough for me to sneak out. But I was distracted as I noticed the two new kids from earlier walking down the street.
A quick listen to my parents downstairs proved that they were still deep into their argument and wouldn't hear my window squeak open. The hinges were rusted, painted over, and at least 50 years old, so of course they were going to make the loudest most dramatic 'so-getting-caught-and-grounded' noise they could. I wasn't disappointed in the least.
With a quick wince and another listen downstairs, I swung my legs over the windowsill and slowly lowered myself down onto the roof ledge of the first story. Another quick hop down and I landed unceremoniously in my mothers flower bed, the blooms bending down below me.
I peeked around, making sure that none of our neighbors had seen my escape. But the coast was clear as far as I could tell, besides the slowly reseeding backs of the Uchiha's. With another quick glance around I jumped up and out of the flower bush and wondered my way over to the side walk. The two dark haired boys were starting to turn down a different street, and I had to sprint to catch up with them.
"New kids!" I yelled, slightly out of breath.
The younger of the two turned around, Sake-something-or-other, his eyes widened in surprise.
It seemed that older cousin/brother, Hitachi-something, once again had his head phones in. He must have had a really good play list, or maybe he was just listening to audio porn. You never know with the emo kids.
The younger one turned to check on his counter-part, but the other was oblivious.
"What do you want?" He asked, turning to face me again.
"What's your name again?" I asked, I guess I couldn't really be friends with the raven haired boy if I didn't know how to actually pronounce his name right.
"….Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha." He replied slowly, as if un-sure if he could trust me or not.
"And him?" I pointed to the other boy, now a block away.
"Itachi. My brother."
"Neat. I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" I thrust out my hand.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. And I love your hair." Sasuke's hand moved to meet mine, his sleeves sliding up as he did so.
We started walking again as I laughed. "Actually, I like you hair too!"
"Umm, thanks? I have to go, this is my house." He said pointing at the giant thing looming in front of us.
"No problem, it reminds me of a duck with bed head!" I screamed as I turned to run.
"What did you say, Dobe?!" Sasuke's face was thunderous.
"See you at school tomorrow!"
* * *
The trip back up the side of the house was decidedly harder. The leaf filters refused to stay quiet and the siding chose not to stay connected to the house as I shimmied my way up.
But soon enough I was up in my room, panting for breath. And planning new ways to get Sasuke to have to be forced to willingly talk to me.
But I had forgotten what tomorrow was.
* * *
Another boring day at school. Or at least that's what we had been planning for. But fate just seems to love stabbing us in the back, maybe its Neji's fault. He kinda was the start of the whole thing. It was his award ceremony.
"Please allow a respective minute of silence as we remember our lost peers." The loud speaker crackled above the door. Our teacher gave a sigh and looked over the class room.
"I understand that some of you were good friends with those poor children, and I understand that you miss them. But do not let that get in the way of your education. I will not allow sadness to create stupid children!" She ranted. Even on the school's saddest day she still felt the need to lecture her students.
"Can we just skip?" Shino asked, grabbing his back-pack as if he were really ready to walk out the door.
"No Shino," I sighed. "At least, in their own way, the school is acknowledging what happened."
"Yeah, I guess…."
The speaker buzzed back to life. "Thank you very much. This is the one year anniversary of the gymnasium fire, and the school board understands that this is a sad and stressful time. Our counselors have agreed to volunteer extra time for student sessions. And your teachers are willing to send you to them if you decide to talk. With that said I would like one more moment as we remember those students, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Neji and Hinata Hyuga, And Gaara Subaku. Thank you, and please try to enjoy your day."
"Huh." Sasuke gave a thoughtful noise.
"What's wrong duck-butt, confused about something?" Gaara growled out. He was always unhappy(er) when this topic came up.
"Kind of," He replied. "Why wasn't your name on there Naruto?" Sasuke asked as he turned to me.
"Umm. They changed the time of the ceremony to an earlier time. And I, like most of the other students, didn't know about that. They," I gestured to my friends standing up against the wall, "were all at Neji's house. With out me." I pouted. "So of course Neji knew about the new time, and they all went together with Neji's uncle."
"I see." Sasuke said, a frown forming. "So then why aren't you with the rest of the class?"
"Umm…" I clasped my hands behind my back, and narrowed my eyes. "The same reason you can't join them, Sasuke."
Sasuke's frown deepened. "I don't know what you mean."
I laughed as the bell rang for our next class. "Your sleeves aren't nearly long enough." Giving Sasuke a cheesy smile, I fled out the door and into the hallway.
I avoided Sasuke for the rest of the day. Hiding out in the bathrooms when he was out prowling the hallways. And skipping the classes we had together. I thought I was doing good, that was until it was time to get on the buses.
"Dobe."
Darn-it, he found me. I sighed and turned around. "What do you want Sasuke?"
"Well," He looked down. "I was wondering if, perhaps, I might be able to come over. I kinda wanted to talk to you."
I furrowed my eye-brows. "You want to go to my house?" But his house was so big!
"Yeah, I know that sounds weird." The sentence was kind of rushed out. "But Itachi is having friends over, and we would just be ignored. And it is kind of harsh to be ignored when there's fun going on…" He trailed off.
"I understand. I bet you didn't have a lot of friends like I do in your old school, right?"
"Only one, and he was scary weird."
"As bad as my friends and I?" I asked, jokingly.
"Hmm, not that bad." Sasuke smirked. And I gave him a quick punch to the shoulder.
"Get on the bus before it leaves your butt here!" I yelled, grabbing his hand and pulling him up the stairs just before the automatic doors closed.
We talked about many meaningless things as we rode the bus. Nothing important, nothing serious. I learned that he used to have a pet, and that he hated most ice creams. I told him about the goldfish farm I use to have, and the fact that I was on a ramen only diet. We were still talking about Canadian Geese, in fact, when the bus pulled up at my stop.
"That may be true, but we need to migrate off this bus and then South-West to my humble nest. So onward!" I yelled while running off the bus.
* * *
"I'm home!" I shouted into the empty foyer. I flung my shoes off, and Sasuke placed his carefully next to mine on the rug.
But my mother was busy burning incense and candles.
"Heh. My mom's into the same thing too." Sasuke chuckled to himself.
"Really?! That sucks, just ignore her. We can go up to my room."
We made it up the stairs in record time. And I took a second to pause in the door way and watch her run back and forth in front of the stair well. I was use to it, but I couldn't help wishing that she would stop for just today, while Sasuke was over. I sighed, shook my head at her actions, and closed the door firmly between us.
They say my house is haunted.
I don't believe that.
But what does it matter, I'm already dead.
Ending Note: I think I might make a sequel, or Sasuke's version. It just doesn't seem done to me….But This is almost exactly how I wanted it. (it seems kinda rushed, but I don't know what to do to fix that….) So I don't know. Review if you want.
P.s.: I will have the last three chapters of co-workers up soon! Some….stuff….happened before. But everything is good to go now! And I should be getting internet soon, for now I'm happy using the library! And my friend. (She takes my stories on a flash drive and up loads them for me, that's also the friend I sometimes co-write with.) ENJOY LIFE! And appreciate the Hobo's that live in your alleyways! And continue to read my dumb stories!