I don't own Naruto…or much else for that matter. I could go and look up an obscure place on my map, but I would have to get out of bed, which I refuse to do. (Apparently my Author Insert writes pamphlets. That was me...)
There was another day of long driving. Actually, only to Shasta. Isaribi, in all her wicked timing, had called them and asked them if they were in the area. No one actually believed she hadn't somehow known. No one is that lucky.
"We're here," Gaara announced dully. "Everyone out."
Isaribi ran to greet them. "Hey man!" she cried, waving to Gaara. She glanced at Sasuke, her eyes narrowing. Then her gaze flittered to Neji. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Hyuuga Neji."
"Gaara's boyfriend, right?" she asked, smiling.
"What makes you say that?" Neji asked, blushing.
"You have your arm around his waist. And he's not so discreetly eyeing your crotch," Isaribi informed the white-eyed boy.
Neji twitched.
"Wow you're twitchy," Isaribi remarked. "You kind of act like a pregnant rat."
"WHAT IS IT WITH THE PREGNANT RAT COMMENTS?!" Neji creamed at the top of his lungs.
The entire street went quiet.
"I think we should go inside," Temari suggested, and with that she and Isaribi herded everyone into Isaribi's house. It was strangely large, bright green, and reminded Naruto of being underwater. Sasuke had the same thoughts, but water always made him uncomfortable.
"Well, glad you guys are here. You have to be starving. Did you want any food? I can order food from Lai Lai…"
"I'm in!" Naruto said brightly. "That's Chinese, right?"
Isaribi cocked an eyebrow. "Um…yeah," she said slowly. "Chinese. What did all of you want?" The instant she said it, she wished she hadn't. The bombardment of orders nearly hit her in the face full force. Finally, Gaara clapped his hands, making everyone silent, and ordered what they always ordered. Anyone who wanted to change could. No one did.
"Alright, are we good?" Gaara asked, looking over his friends in annoyance. They nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Isaribi for your hospitality." He gave everyone a harsh look.
"Thank you."
"Thanks."
"Thank you very much."
"Arigato!"
"Hn."
"Troublesome. My most sincerest thanks."
"Okay, food time." Isaribi bounced out the door. She turned back suddenly. "Hey Sasuke, come with me?" she asked. Sasuke shrugged and walked after Isaribi.
"So what's up?" the dark haired girl asked as they walked down the street. "You're different. Fill me in on what happened these past four or so months. You don't look like you used to. Tell me what has happened."
"I fell in love."
"That's good."
"And then I went back and I realized I could never be happy."
Isaribi stopped. "Why not? Why couldn't you be happy?"
Sasuke sighed, his shoulders sagging. "I'm tainted, weak, afraid. Voices keep showing up in my head, I'm consistently losing track of time, and I feel like I'm constantly dreaming. I can never be happy like this." He lowered his gaze. "I won't even let them guy I love touch me anymore. I did last night, I let him hug me, only for a second. I was so damn scared the entire time. I don't know why."
"Maybe if you watched TV together or just remained in light contact with each other, then you wouldn't be so afraid to be touched. It's worth a shot, you know?" She smiled and Sasuke realized they were standing in front of Lai Lai. He wondered how he managed to miss the entire walk.
Isaribi placed her order before turning back to Sasuke. "So," she said. "You going to make it all better?" she raised one graceful eyebrow. Sasuke gave her a blank look. Their food arrived ('How does she do that?' Sasuke wondered) and Isaribi started down the street. "Just don't act stupid. That won't solve the problem."
"Stupid?" Sasuke asked. Isaribi's other eyebrow rose to meet its mate.
"Yeah," she said. "Stupid. You know, like jumping out of my second story window if he leaves you to take a shower. That's stupid."
"I would never do that!" Sasuke insisted. Isaribi shrugged.
"There are other stupid proceedings you could take. I just gave you one example. So no stupid," she said, her lilting voice almost laughing.
"Hn."
"Don't 'hn' me, Uchiha Sasuke," Isaribi scolded. "It doesn't fly with me. You can stop gaping like a fish, we're here." She rolled her eyes and stalked into the house. Sasuke made a mental note that there had to be a rift in the Space-Time Continuum because no one can get food that fast. He'd tried. Naruto had demanded.
"Sasuke, why are you just staring at the door like that?" Temari asked, poking her head out of the house. "Come in and get some food." Sasuke shook his head and glided inside. He paced down the hall and into Isaribi's kitchen. Half of him expected it all to be gone, but it wasn't.
"Sit down and eat already," Isaribi scolded. "I don't eat at Lai Lai's very often you know."
Sasuke sat down heavily in one of Isaribi's wicker chairs. He picked up his food and ate it cautiously. He hadn't eaten much in the past couple of weeks. He hadn't eaten with anyone around in at least two months. Somehow Isaribi's kitchen made him feel at home and safe.
"What are all of you going to do now?" Isaribi asked. "I have a huge stock of movies."
"I'm going to take a walk," Temari said. "Who's with me?"
"Me!" Kiba said.
"I have a novel to read," Shikamaru said, eyeing Kiba. "Make sure she doesn't get lost."
"Cemetery," Gaara said. Everyone but Temari looked a little disconcerted.
"What?" Neji asked, one eyebrow arched. Gaara shrugged.
"Cemetery. There's one outside of town. Isaribi was telling me about it. She said a lot of the stones looked the same, but it had a decent awesome mausoleum and some history so I'm heading out there. I've loved cemeteries since I was a little kid. One of my friends got me hooked. At least I don't talk to the gravestones. More than I can say for her."
"What about you Sasuke?" Isaribi asked, fixing her attention on the raven.
"Raiding your movie stash?" More a question than an answer.
"Naruto?"
"Same."
"Wicked. Well…just be back here for dinner at six. Have fun with the town. I have some shopping to do, so Temari, Kiba, you guys can come since I'm walking. Movies are in the living room, second shelf next to the stereo." She leapt away. Shikamaru migrated upstairs to read in the hallway, Neji and Gaara went off to fulfill Gaara's cemetery walking desires, and Kiba and Temari walked out into the sunshine to follow Isaribi.
"What are you going to watch?" Naruto asked, perching on Isaribi's blue vinyl couch. He vaguely noted that it was a nice vinyl couch, for a vinyl couch. Sasuke shifted uncomfortably.
"Whatever you're watching," Sasuke said absentmindedly. Naruto sighed and located Isaribi's collection of movies. Okay, more like a massive library of cinema. "Hey, I have to use the bathroom, I'll be right back."
Naruto shrugged and took a DVD out of the shelf and slipped it into the DVD player. 'Audition' said the cover. He settled himself on the blue vinyl couch and hit the 'play' button on the remote. The movie started and Naruto snuggled into the blankets on the couch. Sasuke ended up wanting to take a shower, and proceeded to do so.
"Mrph," Naruto muttered from under the blankets. There was the sound of creaking stairs from behind them and Naruto jumped into the air with a squeal. "She's going to get me!"
"Next time I'll use the upstairs bathroom," Shikamaru said dully from the stairs, turning to go back up. Sasuke snickered.
"No, Shika would think 'getting you' would be too troublesome," Sasuke called from the hallway.
"Oh, shut it bastard."
"Is Naruto scared?" Sasuke teased, poking his head around the doorway.
Naruto peeked over the blanket he his behind. "Still scary."
Just as Sasuke was going to return, the phone rang. Naruto managed to somehow defy gravity and end up behind the vinyl couch. Sasuke rolled his eyes. He reached over and picked up the phone, giving Naruto a strange look before answering the caller.
"Hello?"
"Who is this?" a high pitched voice demanded. "I have this number on speed dial and I call it every day, I know this is Isaribi's house. So who the hell is this?"
"This is Uchiha Sasuke. I'm staying with Isaribi--"
"Oh good!" the shrill voice cried. "Does that mean that silly girl had finally decided to walk the straight and narrow? Wonderful!"
"Who is this?"
"Her aunt, darling!" the voice continued. Sasuke winced.
"Isaribi isn't here, a few of my friends and I met her in February and we needed a place to crash, I doubt she's walking the 'straight and narrow', and if you will excuse me my boyfriend is having horror movie induced trauma. Good day." He slammed the phone down. He didn't know quite why that woman infuriated him so much. Maybe it was being so excited at the prospect of her niece having a boyfriend. Sasuke chortled darkly at the thought.
"Who was that?" Naruto asked, his face mortified.
"Her," Sasuke said, pointing at the girl on the screen. He couldn't recognize who it was, but he was pretty sure that aura meant 'evil'.
Naruto squeaked. "She's going to get me," he wailed. Sasuke rolled his eyes and sat beside his blond-haired friend.
"She is the product of a group of Japanese movie makers creating art with the intent to terrify. It was Isaribi's aunt."
"You hung up pretty fast. What did she have to say?"
"She thought I was Isaribi's boyfriend. I set her straight and hung up." Sasuke smiled. "I told her my boyfriend was having horror movie induced trauma."
Naruto was already spacing out. The people on the screen looked more than a little frantic. "Uwah…scary…" he squeaked. Sasuke rolled his black eyes and sat next to the blond haired boy.
"What are you watching?" he asked, staring at the screen blankly.
"Audition."
He had seen Audition once. Orochimaru used to let him watch his collection of horror movies sometimes if the snake man didn't have any other intentions for him that day. Sasuke had a sick feeling why his former guardian had them. It was horrific remembering.
No doubt Orochimaru had seen every one of those movies. One girl, no more than sixteen years old, had once come home with Orochimaru. Sasuke remembered curling up in his room, listening to her screaming. Eventually he heard the front door slam as the girl (he hoped) escaped. When Orochimaru had left for work the next day, the dark haired boy had snuck upstairs. Audition would have been proud. Orochimaru's bedroom had been completely covered in red, red blood. In one corner there lay abandoned needles and a roll of wire. Next to that had been a human foot, dainty and stained crimson. There Sasuke had fainted and when he woke up, he was lying in bed, bruised and bloody himself. When he could finally get up the next day, Orochimaru's door was open and the room was completely clean.
Sasuke snapped back to reality when Naruto shuddered and Sasuke felt suddenly inclined to grab the younger boy's arm to keep him from shaking. 'Note to self,' the Uchiha thought, 'Naruto is afraid of Japanese horror movies.'
"Mrah…" Naruto squeaked. He looked hesitantly to Sasuke, who looked hesitantly back. "Are you okay?"
"Hn," Sasuke mumbled.
Naruto shifted, his head blocking Sasuke's view of the television. "You're not, are you? What's wrong?"
"I've seen this movie before."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Orochimaru would let me watch his collection of horror movies if he was out fucking a whore." Sasuke smiled bitterly and sat cross-legged on the couch. "Rob Zombie supposedly had issues watching this. You?"
"Scary," Naruto said. "I think my eyes burned out."
"I figured. Turn it off?"
"But Asami is so pretty!" Naruto protested. Sasuke looked mildly hurt. "She's a psychopath! You can say psychopaths are pretty and get away with it!"
"Sure you can Loser. I think she's actually a sociopath…"
"Oh, shut it bastard."
And slowly but surely, I lose my mind. Audition is wicked. It's so unflinching and graphic. J-Horror ish t3h smex.
Review and tell me how I'm doing, k? I love hearing from you!