A/N: AHAH! I FINISHED A CHAPTER! BEFORE CALIFORNIA! Beware, updates shall be spontaneous, but I've got an idea of where I want this story to go. This chapter is dedicated to you, Roman, who can always find something screwy in my story writing. Kudos to being picky!
Also, there will be no formula to a chapter. I may have both Sasuke and Naruto in there, I may not. Sometimes I'll have a chapter that focuses on one or the other, Kyuubi, or two randomly. Maybe I'll even just do chapters focusing on smut so people can skip those. IDK.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything, if I did; there'd be no anime because it would all be censored due to the mansmexings and needless SM in fights.
WARNINGS: yaoi, slash, shonen-ai, violence, the works. Don't like, don't read, don't flame.
NO I'M NOT
INSERTING OCs, SO DON'T ASK ABOUT THAT! F*ck, I don't even HAVE
any OCs anymore... I mean, I do, but for original stories... –random
tangent-
Also, if you read author's notes, type 'kiwi mango' in a review. Do YOU read A/Ns?
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Naruto lay on his bed in the dim apartment, eyes glazed over. His houseplants had all but disintegrated. Truth be told, the blonde felt bad about that; Hinata would have wanted them to live, but he just didn't care right now. He was more concerned with his own survival at this point. How do you live without the love of your life?
He grunted and rolled over, unintentionally falling off the bed and bringing his alarm clock tumbling down with him. Fuck this crap. Bleary eyes blinked as his voice message alert blinked red again, the twelfth time this week. This time, Naruto picked it up. "Naruto, what is it?" He hated how hoarse his voice sounded, like he'd been crying. He probably had, not that he'd remember.
"Naruto? It's Yamanaka Ino. From school?" Ah, Ino. Ino, Ino, Ino... right. She was friends with Shikamaru, Chouji and Sakura when he was back in college. Ino was the only other blonde in their graduation class, also the only person officially in the popular crowd who was decent to everybody. He couldn't remember right now, but he was pretty sure they'd dated once... who knows. "Are you okay?"
"Ah... actually, I think I'm experiencing a hangover currently. Thanks for your concern." Naruto couldn't help being bitter. His girlfriend had been murdered not two weeks ago, her funeral last Tuesday. Unluckily for him, Hyuuga funerals are family-only.
Unluckily for the Hyuugas, their family had a tradition of open-casket services.
Ino's babbling in his ear brought Naruto out of a liquor-induced haze. "...huh? Repeat that?" The girl paused and sighed almost inaudibly.
"My fiancé Sai and I are going to come and visit you, help you get back on your feet, alright?" Sai? Hm... Sai... Tanaka Sai? Yeah... stereotypical good looks, at least by Japanese standards. He didn't really have any friends back in college because he was so rude and antisocial. He did paint a lot though.
"Uh, sure..." Naruto swore he could hear the girl dancing over the phone. "Great! We'll be by your house in about three and a half hours, so get ready!" Ino hung up. Naruto stared blankly at the phone.
What just happened?!
So finally having a purpose, Naruto got off the ground and realized how bad he smelled.
Shit, this place is a sty... I'd better clean up.
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About three hours later, Naruto was satisfied with his apartment. It was still messy, but at least it didn't look like he'd been drowning his sorrows with alcohol for the past week and a half. And his hangover was starting to go away.
He opened the shades in his bedroom and living room, shielding his eyes from the sun. Was it already two in the afternoon?
Abrupt knocking on his front door caused Naruto to fall over in surprise from his chair; weren't they supposed to be here in another half hour?! He stood up and brushed himself off, making his way to the door anyway and plastering a huge smile on his face.
"Hey Ino, hey Sai! What's up?" Ino smiled with him and gave him a hug while Sai walked in with a bag of groceries. That's right, he hadn't gone shopping in a while...
"So, how've you been, Naruto?"
"Well, I've been better. It sucks not to have Hinata here with me. She would have loved to see you two." Naruto blew out a sigh. "She was so fun to be around, so it's tough to live alone again like this so suddenly..." Ino squeezed his hand and led him over to the couch. He wondered briefly if he was going to be forced to share his 'feelings', like some stupid Oprah special.
"Well, we're gonna help you get back into shape, Uzumaki." Ino winked and held up an index finger in his face. "By the time we're done with you, you're gonna be the happy-go-lucky bachelor you were back in high school! Only older and sexier." Sai coughed a warning and Ino rolled her eyes. "Oh, hush, you."
Naruto's thoughts drifted a little bit. Sai and Ino, huh? The prom queen and the social outcast. How queer. "Hey, Sai, do you want me to lend you a hand with those groceries?" The ebony-haired man smiled at him.
"Well, you're the one who knows where things go. Come on." Naruto blinked. No insults? No innuendo? Who was this guy?
Ino grinned. "Sai actually turned out to have ASPD, generally an antisocial personality disorder. Not that it was hard to figure out..." Sai stuck his tongue out at his fiancé here, and she returned the gesture. "Anyway, after a year and a half of therapy, he's better with people. And he's not a dick anymore, which is always an upside. We've been going out since... I don't know, the end of his first year of therapy, and he asked me to marry him three weeks ago."
Sai grinned and turned to put the milk away. "Sorry about her, she likes to babble about all things romantic." Naruto smiled weakly and leaned on the counter.
"It must be nice, pre-marital bliss..."
Ino and Sai frowned. "Sorry, Naruto, I wasn't thinking... so what have you been doing with your life?" Naruto smiled a little at the question.
"Well, actually, I've been a Kindergarten teacher at Konoha elementary for a while, now. Even when I graduated, I just couldn't leave this city behind..." Naruto sighed happily. "I have a three-week leave, so I'm going back next Monday."
"Really? Actually, Sai is a police artist. You know, the kind that sketches the criminal's face so the good guys can nab the culprit?" Ino's buoyant attitude significantly boosted Naruto's own. "He was reassigned here for about a month, and I decided to take my month off for vacation, so I came with. How many children can you deal with at once?" Ino asked, 'subtly' changing the subject and causing Sai's cheeks to light up as though he'd had this talk before. Naruto laughed and began describing Konohamaru, the principal's grandson.
Thus began their two-hour chat.
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"Remember, we're here for the month, so come visit, okay Naruto? The police station around the corner during the day, the inn across the street at night." The other blonde laughed.
"Sure, Ino. Tomorrow, then? I'll meet you two at Ichiraku's, right next door to the station at noon."
As Naruto was waving goodbye to his friends, Sai's eyes widened with a muttered "Shit", and he ran down to the black Prius. Naruto chuckled in amusement. Ino's petit, girly nature mixed with Sai's love of black would obviously result in a black Prius. How Sai managed to drive in that thing without getting ridiculed was beyond the blonde.
Ino looked over and realized what was happening. "Oh yeah, Sai. I forgot about that." The painter smiled and handed the pot over to Naruto. A single sunflower blooming in a large, navy blue pot with a white ribbon. Ino hugged Naruto, pulling a grudging Sai into it as well.
"It's okay to move on, but don't forget her, okay?"
With that, they were gone, and yet again, Naruto was alone.
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I ran through the city street silently, the shots from my last kill still ringing in my ears.
It's been 6 days... I need a new target by tomorrow...
As I slowed into a walk and rounded the corner, I noticed a couple walking together into the wine store two doors down from Ichiraku's café. I inconspicuously glanced into the window as the two chatted and laughed, recognizing both faces easily. Sai and Ino.
Why didn't I think of it before? It was right in front of me the whole time!
I walked back to my flat across from the train station and pulled out the yearbook, newly dusted in my recent serial killing spree. I didn't want to accidentally kill someone who wasn't in our graduation year. There was a meticulously drawn, straight black line through the name of everybody I'd killed so far, and black 'X's with four 90 degree angles through their school photographs.
Zaku, Chouji, Tenten, Shino, Hinata, and Sakura six days ago...
My calculating, cool eyes inspected each picture as though an art critic; looking for just a little smudge or imperfection in the black ink.
I had the perfect chance at Sasuke last week, but that would have broken the chain...
I grinned maniacally and took out a ruler, protractor and a .5 mm black artist's pen and began working on Sai's name and photo.
Tomorrow, he was history.
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Onyx eyes fluttered open and the smell of antiseptic burned his nostrils like acid. Sasuke slowly woke up in a bleach-white hospital room, a small machine beeping beside him. He saw a red-haired girl get up and quickly walk out the door. "Tsunade-sama, Sasuke woke up!"
"Karin, that's great; go take a break." A busty blonde woman opened the door and sat down beside the young Uchiha.
"Where am I...?" Tsunade sighed and pulled out a clipboard.
"Sasuke, you're in room 7 at the Konoha Hospital." Sasuke looked at her in confusion.
"How did I get here?" Tsunade took a deep breath; this was the hard part.
"You've been in a light coma here for six days. You were pistol-whipped in the back of the head during the serial murder of your girlfriend, Haruno Sakura." Sasuke's eyes widened.
"Sakura was..." Tsunade nodded softly.
"You should have a little bit of amnesia, but that'll probably be good, considering what you'll forget... maybe a bit of last week will be gone. You'll probably be here for a while afterwards coping with psychological trauma after the CAT scans..."
Sasuke frowned and pulled his blanket over his head. Today was not looking up.
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* Open casket funerals are funerals where the wake or pre-service has the deceased in the room with mourners in the casket with the top half of their body showing. Normally, this would be an opportunity to have a meaningful last goodbye with your loved one, but in Hinata's case, it would probably cause trauma in the family with a bloody head like that.
** Hinata means 'Sunflower' in Japanese. Since Ino is a botanist (works with flowers) and this came to mind, the idea is that having the sunflower to take care of will remind Naruto to take care of Hinata's memory. There is a navy blue pot for her hair, a white ribbon for her eyes.
*** A Prius is a tiny, girly car that is basically the gay version of a normal-sized, straight car.
**** Zaku is NOT an OC, he is one of the Konoha dropouts from the series who subjected himself to Orochimaru's rule. He's the kid with the wind-filled arms who got pwned by Shino in the Chuunin Exams. Weird hair guy, Shino blew up his arms with bugs, end of story.
So... another cruddy chapter. I just wanted to get something in before I left for California tomorrow. I took some advice from a very good story-writing friend of mine, so expect the unexpected!
Also, now your
votes are only guesses, because I've got the plot lined up.
Who's gonna be
after Sai?
1 – Hyuuga Neji
2 – Nara Shikamaru
3 – Sabaku Gaara (stfu)
4 – Yamanaka Ino
5 – Inuzuka Kiba
6 – Rock Lee
NOTE: The new
additions aren't supposed to give you ideas. I just forgot about
the people in the detective force the first time and picked randomly.
These are all of the main characters who can still die. Think of it
as that school game, Mafia. There's the Mafia person and the
Guardian Angel, they each pick a person to save and kill each turn,
then the town picks which one they think the Mafia is...
P.S. I just had the pleasure of adding the word 'pwned' to my Word dictionary. Hoo yeah, baby. :3
REVIEWS INSPIRE.
