Title: Lost Hatred
Fandom: Naruto
Author: Snow Tigra
Pairings: SasuNaru (yes, there really is SasuNaru this time)
Warnings: Horror, as usual and Alternate Universe. The rest is up to my muses
Chapter 1
A dream job starts like this, Naruto was sure of it. Naruto stood in the doorway to one of those types of houses that most kids could only dream of having. A house that had all the normal rooms scattered about, but was also rich enough to have rooms like an annex, a parlor, a work out room and a spa. Doors upon doors, three stories tall with an attic and a basement and winding staircases with stained glass Victorian windows, making this entire place look more like an early American castle then anything that you would see on a normal street block. The lake and indoor hot tub only seemed par for the course and Naruto was actually surprised there wasn't a golf course hiding in the garage.
All of this was all Naruto's for the next month. He got to stay in the house, live in the rooms and explore to his heart's content. And even better? He was getting paid for it. Paid to live in a house, pick up mail and keep it clean. What job could be better then that?
"Whoa."
Naruto glanced back at the boy standing behind him, barely resisting the smile. Oh yeah, that was the other thing that made this job even more perfect, Sasuke.
The boy standing behind him with the jagged dark hair and equally disinterested dark eyes had been his steady boyfriend for nearly a year now. They'd met in the college equivalent of detention at the counseling center where Naruto's part time job had him sweeping floors and Sasuke was his normal disinterested self listening to some professor preach to him about how he was ruining his life by failing his classes because he had so much potential. A year later Sasuke was still barely passing his classes and Naruto had been promoted to rearranging books in the library… and their make-out sessions had moved from broom closets to abandoned sound proof study rooms.
"This kicks ass!" Naruto grinned as his voice echoed around the main room of the house. It had an entry way. An actual entry way with a large staircase that curled up on one side to meet the second floor and he already loved how his voice echoed. Lifting up his stuffed to the seams backpack he walked in and followed the directions he'd been given to get to the main guest bedroom, the grin never leaving.
"I think they used this place in the filming for Resident Evil," Sasuke muttered as he followed with his lazy rolling suitcase. He was lazy and he hated school, but Sasuke was picky, anal Naruto would say, about many other things which was probably why inside his bag all his clothes were neatly folded and rolled, wrinkle and trouble free. He left his shoes at the door and followed down the hallway, glancing at the pictures that filled the walls and the polished wooden doors that remained closed all around. Finally the two of them reached the guest bedroom.
If it could be called that.
Guests were apparently important in this house, because the room held a large queen sized bed, covered with thick blankets and a hodge podge of pillows that all barely matched. Lighthouses lined the walls and a couple pieces of hand picked driftwood decorated the top of the dresser, while a mobile of seagull looking birds in glass hung near the window, reflecting rainbows on the walls. Someone liked light houses and the sea, probably the same person who used the dock out in the back yard.
"Nice room," Sasuke's voice was dry, a pitch below his normal boredom.
Naruto just shrugged. "We have the entire house to ourselves for a month. Who cares what the room looks like. I want to see the rest of the house!"
"Hope they drew you a map."
(break)
An hour or two of exploring later and Naruto knew the general layout of the house like the back of his hand. He'd discovered somewhere around seven bedrooms and two separate staircases on either side of the house, making three total that were easily accessible. An art studio took up most of the top floor with a little porch that had become a greenhouse, and the exercise room was filled with more then equipment then the local community center. Sasuke had gotten bored about ten minutes in and had retreated to the kitchen to explore a safer area – the wine cellar.
After his explorations, Naruto joined him in the kitchen and frowned a bit at the bottle of wine sitting on the counter, unopened. "Put it back Sasuke, they'd notice."
"Killjoy." Sasuke lifted the bottle and slipped it back into its place, closing the door. "So, find any zombies?"
"Naw, I found something better. They have a home theater system… with hookups on the front of the projector system."
A smirk crossed Sasuke's lips and he nodded. "I'll grab the games."
A hour later and the two were settled down on the floor, in front of the large leather couches in a dark room that easily put the guest bedroom to shame for space. They'd managed to hook up the game system Naruto had brought with and to their delight the surround sound didn't need any adjusting. Add a call to the local pizza delivery service and soon the two found themselves in a pitch black room playing the latest fight game on a nearly life size screen.
And Sasuke was getting his ass kicked.
Sasuke frowned at the screen and resisted the urge to move with his controller in some vain attempt to make his character move that much faster. In the dim light he could see the grin on Naruto's face and he wasn't about to have him win! Naruto always won these games, just like Sasuke was always the best at the shooting and hunting games where zombies and psycho villagers were his favorite target.
This time would be different, he was sure of it. He'd win... or rather, he'd make Naruto lose.
Sasuke set his plan into motion after his character got his ass royally handed to him on a silver platter. Making a show of it he grumbled and sighed and leaned back against the edge of the couch, just a little behind Naruto and out of his sight range. Then he set the focused on the game and kept play, while leaning forward and breathing softly against Naruto's neck. As predicted, he was able to land a shot as Naruto shivered and momentarily lost focus.
"Cheat." Naruto muttered, moving a little farther forward.
"You own this game, you have an unfair advantage."
"Not my fault if I like to buy my games, rather then beat them in a single rental period," he retorted back, landing a nearly fatal hit on Sasuke's character. Sasuke growled lowly and proceeded to try and hit him back...
He was delightfully surprised to find that his growling had an effect on Naruto and he was actually able to knock him out of the ring. Sasuke couldn't help but grin as he heard Naruto's girl's scream echo across the screen with the now suddenly satisfactory words of 'Final Death'.
"I hate you," Naruto muttered, reaching for the start button to start again. But Sasuke decided he wouldn't have any of that. Instead he caught Naruto's wrist and used it to turn him around quickly enough that Naruto stumbled into Sasuke's lap, and Sasuke now had him exactly where he wanted him.
"Sasuke! What are you doing? It's best two out of three..."
"Not tonight." He didn't give Naruto time to protest, instead he leaned in and immediately began teasing his tongue against Naruto's neck, causing the blond boy to moan softly and forget completely about the game. Behind them the TV screen flashed and began to play one intro movie or another with low voices in Japanese threatening painful death by sword and sushi.
Neither cared.
(The rest of the lemon has been deleted due to FFN rules. To read the rest, please visit
www(dot)narutofic(dot)net(slash)viewuser(dot)php(question)uid(equals)30)
Somewhere in the darkness both of them decided that the best thing about house sitting was that they could fall asleep exactly where they were, halfway naked, and no one would care.
(break)
A dream starts like this.
Your mind catches the creaking in the house, a water pipe with condensation dripping to the floor, or a branch that decides to brush against the house with a soft breeze. One sound and your mind switches, starting a creation of images melded from random thoughts and things your eyes have seen. Reality and time are not a given in these images and everything is subject to new rules, rules your mind can create and change at will. Normally it's best to just enjoy the ride and follow it out, because you know you'll wake up at the end in reasonably the same shape as before, though you may be on the floor or find yourself about to eat your pillow.
So when Naruto heard something faintly resembling footsteps past the door, he didn't think anything of it. After all he was in a large house meant to be filled with a rich family and probably a servant or two. Two teenage boys couldn't possibly fill the place with enough noise to mute out the house's natural sounds, it just wasn't possible.
The sound repeated itself though and this time Naruto couldn't help but open his eyes and crane his head, trying to get a view of the hallway from the door which was partially open. Sasuke groaned softly in protest from where he was sleeping, his arm draped possessively over Naruto's body. Naruto stopped for a moment, then slowly slid out from his hold, crab walking across the floor until he was farther away and not disturbing Sasuke. Then he stood up, pulled on his jeans and shirt, and wandered out of the room.
Moonlight combined with pristine white walls gave the hallway an eerie glow. He could see the doors outlined from their dark wood and random picture frames dotted the walls, echoing family memories that held far too much money and too many fake smiles for Naruto's comfort. He suddenly felt like he was staying in some weird and freaky museum.
And the sound of small, quick footsteps echoed again farther down the hall.
Naruto glanced back in the theater room, then abandoned the thought of turning on the lights this close. He didn't want to wake Sasuke and he could see well enough to not kill himself, so instead he opted to turn on the lights when he reached whatever room was at the end of the hall. Yawning a bit he followed the sound, idly trying to remember if the family had mentioned a pet.
The hallway turned slightly, revealing more rooms and more family pictures before it finally reached a back room. Every so often Naruto heard the steps repeat themselves and he was pretty confident he was heading in the correct direction, but he kept his own pace silent and slow, not wanting to frighten whatever it was he was hearing so he could get a chance to see it. He soon found himself in a large room, lined mostly with what looked like bricks on the walls and a large stone stove. It looked more like an industrial kitchen of some sort, meant for heavy cooking for large parties, or for cooking things like dragons teeth and wizard's brew.
The steps echoed again, right in front of him. Naruto froze, his eyes scanning the darkness, then he slid his hand over the wall and flipped on the light.
Light filled the room along with silence and Naruto immediately shut his eyes from the sudden change, muttering a soft curse. He rubbed his eyes for a few moments before they finally adjusted, then he looked around the room.
"Well of course it's empty, you moron, you were probably following a mouse." Naruto softly growled at himself as the light illuminated a room that probably hadn't been used in years, with only one window at the back end obviously made for ventilation purposes. The room was empty of all obvious exits, save for the way Naruto entered, so the only possible thing that could have been in the room was a small animal. He couldn't have been following a person, that was for sure.
"You're in a big house and you're freaking yourself out. Get over it." He took a final glance around the room before heading for the door to head back to sleep.
It was only when he reached the light switch that he heard another soft sound in the room. Naruto turned back, glancing around again, but the room still revealed nothing out of the ordinary. He frowned and stepped over toward the back window, checking the lock just for peace of mind.
Wedged in the small space between the window and the window sill was an old, torn photo.
Naruto reached over and undid the latch, just enough for the window to open and let him pull out the photo without it ripping, then he closed the window back up and turned the smooth paper over to look at the picture.
Staring back at him was a blurry and unfocused picture. The picture was smeared with motion and all that Naruto could make out was what appeared to be a large glass eye painted in various shades of brown, surrounded by dark brown… fur?
"A stuffed animal?"
A couple more looks at the photo and that's what Naruto decided it was. He pocketed the photo and shut off the lights, heading back to his room.
Perhaps if he'd turned back to the window, he might have seen the eyes watching him leave.
Or maybe not.