Before we go on, I need to ask you guys for an opinion...I was thinking through the Title of this story, should I change it? I thought at first it fits a lot to this story, however I am not very certain it ended up G-rated. And speaking of rating, should I make this M-rated for all the spookiness, because in my opinion it's not really that horrid. It can however make a few feel a little nauseous.
Anyway, I'm going to try to make the chapters longer than my last few dozen I've written on this site. Hope on making not too many updates.
Chapter 2
The church was awfully quiet, while Haruno Sakura angrily strode of together with her parents. The only sound made came from his parents talking rapidly with this newcomer, whom no one knew came from. However, at the moment Sasuke couldn't care more or less about it, he had other things in mind. Like for example, how on earth he would get his dignity back. Silent as always he decided a walk might be able to clear his head, and help him remember those stupid, yet important lines he rather wish were never invented.
While Sasuke strode of, he did not notice the pair of evil eyes gazing hungrily at him while Mrs Uchiha happily clapped her hands together.
"Then, it is official... If the Harunos' back out from this proposition we will happily give our son's hans in marriage." Mr Uchiha said. "Thank you, Mr..."
"Sannin, Sannin Orochimaru..."
"Sannin, as in Sannin Tsunade, or Sannin Jiraya?" Mrs Uchiha said amazed.
"The very same. Jiraya is my cousin from my mother's side. Tsunade is my second cousin's oldest daughter."
Mrs Uchiha looked more than pleased, as the three of them walked out from the church. How much better did not this occur, than to marry their son into such a famous family. You see, Sannin was the name of a large company specialised in medicine. The current Head of the whole Company was Sannin Tsunade, one of the best doctors in the country. As well was Sannin Jiraya a famous name, currently a famous author for romantic literature. Little did the Uchihas' know there was one name among the Sannin that was covered in the deepest black ink... Sannin Orochimaru.
Little was known about this Sannin, except for the fact that he was a widowed man from an unfortunate short marriage around 20 years previously. However, his marriage had turned out as a wealthy such, which gave him loads of money to live for. The young unfortunate man he had married lay buried in the Town's Graveyard, said under a oak which was his favourite tree. His family had since long left, tales said neither his poor mother or father had wished for the marriage to even take place.
'Do not look so down' Orochimaru silently thought as he watched Sasuke disappear. 'You will only have to live with this marriage until death do us apart.'
And with a smug smile, he disappeared again into the shadows. Fixing his white gloves as he went. He had a few things he needed to do, to ensure that his own plans would engage, and hurried of in the direction of the Haruno's house.
The sun set early it felt, it was already darkening. Somewhere a wolf howled and above the bats were waking ans flying out from their many hideouts. Sasuke passed the bridge, and walked the winding road to the graveyard, which was probably the only quiet place in the whole town.
"How hard can it be, really..." Sasuke said passing trees and gravestones, he liked to walk through the graveyard. "It's just a couple of God damn stupid lines. With this hand, I will cut... no, that's not right. Your cup will never empty, for I shall drink... God dammit!"
Running his pale hand through his raven locks he stared at a particular white stone placed under a twisted oak. He truly did envy the dead, they had no worries, no sorrows and could happily sleep not knowing anything of the troubles of this cruel world. He could not see anything more or less than horror into his own future.
"All right, let's try again." he said taking a handshaped branch in his own hand.
"With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine."
He snapped a branch, and pretended to light it. "With this candle, I will light your way in darkness."
Then, he took out the ring from his pocket.
"With this ring, I ask you to be mine." he said, placing it on a another hand shaped branch, only this time to his astonishment and fear, the 'hand' moved. His eyes widened, though he could not make himself to scream when the earth tilted and a figure rose from the earth. At first he thought it was a woman, but then realised as the figure (whom by the way was dressed in a weddingdress, hence his mistake) unveiled itself, he saw it was a man.
"I do." the figure said with a smile. Sasuke panicked, hoisted himself up and started to run. The figure followed slowly after, the long dress tilted earth as it passed stone after stone, bright blue eyes smiled warmly. Bright blond hair shone beneath the bridal veil, it seemed to be alive after such a long time in the earth.
Young Uzumaki Naruto, finally he was free from the earth and even better, the first thing he got to see was this gorgeous man who was simply to die for, not to mention the man he met was alive. Naruto continued to chase him, near a fit state of giggle seemed to be erupting from him, he could swear there had to be about a hundred butterflies in his stomach at the moment. He knew he already been visited by a few cockroaches only this morning.
"You can stop hiding, I am coming for you." the dead man called with a smile. What a wonderfully delicious night.
The trees turned into blurs as Sasuke sped up, he could hear that voice calling for him. Even though he did not know the dead man was thinking to do him harm, to Sasuke's ears it sounded as if he was about to kill him. When he came to the end of the graveyard he was certain he had lost him, but under the moonlit sky he could see that ghostly white thing still following him. He sped up again, feeling his lungs burn and his muscles protest but panic had gotten the better of him, wide-eyed he fled, he could not believe the voice was still calling him.
Sasuke continued running, until he reached the bridge halfway home. He was absolutely certain he had escaped when he felt cold fingers touch him.
He turned, and this time he was close to scream.
"You may kiss the bride." the dead man said closing in. The last thing the young man could remember before he blackened out was those cold lips touching his.
Meanwhile, back in town there lay an eerie silence above them. The only silence that was yet alive, came from Shikamaru's bell as he read out the midnight reports.
"Troublesome" the young man said, and regretted having ever sworn to his dead father to continue his business as News shouter. "UCHIHA SASUKE MISSING! HARUNO-UCHIHA WEDDING CANCELLED! THE HARUNOS' WERE FOUND DEAD THIS EVENING. MASSMURDERER WITHIN TOWN!"
Indeed, at 10pm this evening Yamanaka Ino, together with another maid, Hyuuga Hinata had discovered, to their horror, the three bodies of Haruno Sakura and her parents. All three had evidentially been murdered, which showed as there lay blood around them. The police had been there all night so far investigating but no clues yet. The only person seen near the crime scene had been old Mrs Utatane, trotting her way across the street, but no one could think that old woman had anything to do with it.
Orochimaru looked very pleased with himself, throwing his bloodied clothes into the bin. The pale skin was spotted with blood, who knew it would be so messy to stab someone through the heart. It was so much cleaner strangling, but he couldn't strangle three people at once.
His hand touched a photo standing in the hallway table. It was a photo of a young man, taken in his youth. How easily the young were fooled, and these Uchihas had to be the biggest fools he had ever encountered, to believe in a stranger whom they had just met.
'Their ignorance is going to cost them their fortune...' Orochimaru thought evilly. 'Don't look at me like that' he continued now looking at the picture he had stolen of Sasuke, who glared at him through the glass. 'I've already said this, this will just have to keep up until death do us apart.'
And with that he strolled to the kitchen to get himself a glass of wine, and some peace and quiet before the storm would appear. However, he only had the time to find his bottle, before he could hear the news spreading through the streets like wildfire, and he sighed.
The first thing Sasuke was aware of was someone shaking him. Opening his eyes, first he thought he was gazing at a skull, however it turned out to be several people looking down at him. Slowly he shook his head, trying to get rid of the lights that still dangled in his sight, as well as the feeling of that something was just not normal about these people. Slowly his mind realised that one of them, to his horror, was the guy that kissed him. The other, was a skeleton.
"A new arrival..." the skeleton said between his clattering teeth. White turfs of hair shone upon the white skull, and eyeless holes gazed upon him.
"He must have fainted, are you OK?" the blond corpse asked. Sasuke glared at them, while other faces tried to get near him. He felt a bony finger poke his chest, and looked down to see a skeleton-kid gazing at him.
"He's still soft..." he said childishly. "Boss, what kind of junk did you feed this one? I want some too."
"Later, Konohamaru." the blond said.
"New face? A young girl, who still seemed to be quite whole, said, though it was evident she was also dead due to the knife in her back. "Haven't seen a new face here since you popped down Lee, few weeks back."
"Right at ya, Tenten. Even death cannot defeat this green beast."
"Coming through, coming through." a more beefed young man said wearing an apron. "My name is Chouji, Mr. Akimichi Chouji."
Sasuke was overwhelmed by all these faces, some he could not distinguish because well.. how do you make out the differences between one skeleton and another. His eyes widened yet again, when a head on a plate suddenly hurried towards him, carried by none other than a bunch of cockroaches.
"Excuse me, excuse me, bartender here." a red head said. (A/N: And I know several of you will probably leave the fic after these few lines) If Sasuke had not noticed the love-character tattooed on his forehead, he would have mistaken it for a small furry round animal.
"Evening, my name is Gaara, I'm the owner of this place. Anything I can poison your throat with?"
Sasuke stepped back, trying to get away from these freaks, starting to think this was all a big horrible nightmare. This could just not be real, it was too absurd, after all how could dead people stand there in front of him, they were dead, weren't they? He pinched his arm to see if he was really dreaming, but he could feel it. It all was real, he tried pinching his cheeks, that felt too. The blond gave him an odd look?
"I know it's nice to look friendly on your wedding night, but honestly, you don't have to pretend to get rosy cheeks. You look quite good as you do."
"What the fuck did you do to me?" Sasuke asked. "Am I dead? Where is this place, and who are you guys?" He snatched the knife that was embedded into Tenten's back. "What is going on here?"
The blond bridal corpse shook his head and said sternly. "Sit down, give the knife back to Tenten and try to calm down." he said. "It will all be explained, it's just a very long story."
"A really good one as well." said another skeleton, who wore a face mask to his his jaws, standing by a cracked old piano (with tones missing). "It's a tragic tale, of romance, passion and a murder most foul."
"You better listen" Tenten said. "This is going to be good."
Music seemed to play from the piano, a skeleton wearing dark sunglasses was playing jazz music and his fellow skeleton companion (who was speaking) took the cue to tell them indeed.
"Many years ago, you have to be told a tragic tale you will behold.
A beauty of many he was in his days, glorious, dazzling but so,
a stranger came one day, asked for his hand.
Though forces against it, our friend here fell in love, 'cause he was charming, no?
Indeed they promised, to stand together in church, but what did daddy say?
'NO'
But it did not stop them, their promise stayed strong,
they would meet and run away.
They arranged to meet by the graveyard, bring all your gold
the stranger said, and with farewell they parted.
Our young friend went straight back home,
stole the key to the vault and emptied it.
Stole his mothers dress, which she would not need.
He hurried back to meet his love.
...but what happened there?"
"DEATH" everyone shouted, which made Sasuke cringe.
The skeleton went to Naruto and put his bony fingers around his neck. Naruto pretended to be strangled until he lay motionless on the floor.
"And the stranger ran away, his empty promise. So our friend here swore an oath to wait for one day, the vows of love would be spoken back to him. And today that day has come, when this young man, said the words right out."
Naruto was brought back to his feet and pushed into Sasuke's embrace. The young teen surprised himself by actually catching him, while the remaining corpses pressed themselves at them.
"And that my friends, is the story of our famous Corpse Bride."
"Congratulations" Lee yelled over the loud crowd whom were excitingly shaking his hands. However Sasuke didn't feel like he wanted to be congratulated. He was married, something he had been dreading all his life, and to a corpse none the less. It just felt so... wrong. And the corpse within his arms pressed himself closer to him, listening to that fain heartbeat that seemed to be like a miracle. The corpse could not believe how fortunate he was, after all... it had been so long since he died, he started to think his oath would never come true.
Gradually, the parted died down and many corpses left. Naruto, who by now had presented himself by name, was still clinging to him, like those girls did back home. And he hated it. Not only was this corpse as annoying as those girls, he was a he after all. Sasuke was not gay, was he?
Come to think of it, he had never really thought over his sexuality, but this was a taboo wasn't it? Being gay. But now as it was, he was married, not by choice, but by some stupid mistake. With a mistake, could this get any worse? He had no idea."
Apparently this Naruto-guy was quite well known down the dead world, and such he (Sasuke) found himself dragged along with some other corpses, three kids, which one of them was that kid who kept on poking him, named Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon.. The girl with the knife in her back was also there, apparently she had died being killed by a mass murderer. Lee had died some time later, drowned in the local well. The guy had been so caught up during his morning practises that he made a too enthusiastic jump and fell in. And he could not swim.
Apparently when you die and had been buried, your bodies ended up here below the living world, into an afterlife. It did not last forever, only as long as your bones hadn't completely withered away. And you could have very long lives, which was proved by some elder creature who had lived down here for as long as anyone could remember.
Another pair of obvious friends had joined in as well, Kiba and Kankuro. Kiba was part skeleton, yet still seemed to attain some flesh. He had died getting attacked by his own guarddog, who know trotted obediently beside him. Kankuro had died during a plague 300 years ago, longer than anyone of them here.
They showed him around most of the day, showed him where they lived, the shops and where you could get the best earwax bubblegum. Sasuke had to say no to that, starting to believe he would probably join them for real not too soon. Everything down here seemed to be either rotten, molten or ashed. He remembered at his welcoming party, that guy Gaara had served some sort of toxic beer. He was surprised if he would last a week down here. He was tired, hungry and wished for a good meal and some rest. These corpses seemed to have an endless amount of energy. After a few more hours of walking he had stopped paying attention to where he went, it did not take him too long to collapse.
Several hours passed, he did not have a clue when he woke up but the thing that woke him up was the smell of curry and vegetables. He slowly opened his eyes, believing he was dreaming. He was lying on a sofa, and on the table before him was a table with food. Greedily he grabbed it and scooped it all in, barely chewing. A cold hand was placed on his shoulder, and a soft familiar voice spoke.
"You shouldn't hurry. Take your time, there is still more left if you want some."
Sasuke blinked and saw Naruto disappear into another room. Which by the way, he realised now he was no longer out on the streets. He was sitting in what he believed to be, the living room of an old house that creaked an awfully lot. The furniture was sort of spare, simply this sofa, a table, a pair of armchairs and a fireplace, which contained a very odd purple flame. There were two doors, one which Naruto had disappeared into, the other was closed. Out of curiosity he got up and decided to find out for himself.
The door creaked when he opened it, and he looked back to see if Naruto had heard him, but had obviously not. At first he saw nothing, but after a few minutes, when his eyes were slowly getting adjusted to the dim light, he saw what looked like another person. After a few minutes he realised it wasn't a person, it was a painting of someone. Someone that looked familiar, which was hard to tell as he realised it had been sliced into pieces at some parts, particularly where the heart should have been.
He had not time to investigate this further, hearing Naruto return and for some reason he had a feeling this was not something for his eyes to see.
He hurried silently to close the door and run back to the sofa. He barely had time to sit down, before Naruto entered again, this time carrying a basket of vegetables. Fresh vegetables to his astonishment.
"Where did you get these?" Sasuke asked, not believing there was actually fresh food down here.
"Nicked it. I knew you would not appreciate rotten food due to your disgust with Kiba's appetite earlier today, so I figured you might want something fresh. Vegetables grows in earth, it wasn't hard to drag them down through the earth."
"How come everything down here is rotten?" Sasuke asked.
"It's kind of hard to get your hands on fresh food, besides most people have lost their taste long ago. Most of us eat because we were so used to it, not because we really need it."
"Is it that harsh dying?"
"Nah, but it can be a bit messy if you ask me, I mean look at Tenten still stuck with that knife. In my case I still have got the marks from when that guy strangled me, and I know a lot of dead people who misses bodyparts due to their deaths. But most die old, or our of deceases. They come down here as if nothing ever happened."
"Was it hard, dying for you?" Sasuke asked, surprising himself. After all, it had gone several minutes now and he had not been thinking about escaping the blond. More like, he felt comfortable in his company, this dead-sort-of-thing was finally getting to his head, obviously.
"You heard what Kakashi- yeah, that singing skeleton's name is Kakashi- said. I didn't particularly want to die. I was a stupid good-for-nothing brat to trust someone like that, who was obviously after my dad's wealth. He nicked everything from us, and killed me. Buried me silently under that oak, which is probably the nicest thing he ever did. When I was alive I spent my entire childhood climbing great oaks.
"When was that?"
"I think it should be 15-25 years ago, lost count of the years since long."
Sasuke chuckled. He was married to an old gaga, just figures. But he seemed to be sort of a nice old gaga, now he had calmed down a little and sat talking with him like two separate beings getting to know each other.
"Anyway, I have something for you." Naruto suddenly said, fixing a wrapped box for him. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, as the blond whispered. "It's a wedding present."
It just had to figure the blond had not forgotten about it.
Sasuke sighed, moving his hands to open the box, when it started to shake dangerously.
TBC
3 things to say before we close for the day...
1, No, I do not hate Sakura. This is the very first time I have written about a bitchy Sakura, which is not very easy to do.
2, I know a lot of you guys probably wants to behead me for beheading Gaara. Please don't do, I know I am sadistic sometimes, and I sadly enough had already placed Chouji in another role. Gaara's character is based on a character from the film, that's my defence.
3, The lines Kakashi was given describing Naruto's tragic death are NOT Bonejangles' lyrics. The reason I used original lines is because I have a very hard time imagining Kakashi sing like that. BTW, Bonejangles ROCK!