MOON SAYS: Hey guys! Sorry...I had sent this to my beta two weeks ago (I think) and now I edited it! In the end of this chapter, I didn't want something to happen. I wanted her to not know what was going on (but know at the same time). What I mean, is that I wanted Naruto have to explain to her. But in the end that will happen anyway.
Words: 5, 501
Pages: 12
ENJOY!
Skeleton Fall
Chapter 3
"How's it coming?" I asked as I did a circle walk around my friend and his creation.
"Troublesome," he responded as he stopped working to watch me.
I didn't look into his eyes; I didn't want to give anything away. The moment I looked into them would be the moment my secret was given away.
They knew something was going on and I wasn't telling them about it. One week had passed since I started seeing Naruto. Not date seeing, but just seeing him at my tree. All we did was talk…I wanted to laugh as I realized something. I never told him my name and he never asked for it. Now, it seemed weird that it never came up as we were talking, but while we talked, it wasn't weird at all.
I had a sinking suspension that we somehow knew each other. That was what it felt like when we talked. I mean, it was just like talking with Sasuke, Gaara or Shika. We never needed each other's names and we knew each other perfectly.
But this Naruto was different…he always seemed different. Something was nagging me at the back of my mind; but I never could figure out what it was.
Sigh.
"So…do you want to come over tonight?" Shika asked and interrupted my thoughts. "Also, mom has threatened me to tell you that she wants to help you get ready for the Masquerade that you are going to."
I chuckled softy. "Temari and the other girls have told me the same thing. Tell your mom that they all have to decide on who is giving me that make over. As of now, Temari is the only one who is willing to dress me up like I want to."
Shika groaned. "My mom just doesn't think that you should be all dark."
"Instead she dresses me as bright as can be; and as girly." I shuddered at the last part.
"Aniki actually wants you to come over that night," Sasuke said as he came up behind me. I forgot I had a notebook in my hands until he grabbed it.
Honestly, at that moment I forgot what I had written in there. It wasn't until I saw Sasuke's face darkened that I remembered and snatched it back.
"Mine," I said simply as he gave me a questioning look.
"How…why," he started off then changed into a different questioning direction. "Where did you hear those?"
I looked down at my notebook. How could I tell him that Naruto told them to me? If I told him that I felt like I was betraying my new friend of two weeks. And that was something I never did; I never betrayed friends no matter how long I had them.
So what was I supposed to tell him?
"Did you have another dream?" he asked quietly. "Is that what's being going on this past week that you won't tell us about?"
It was then I noticed that Gaara had snuck up on me while Sasuke was reading my notebook.
That notebook had all the stories that Naruto had told me. They were so good that I wanted to make a story out of them and publish it.
One of my passions was writing and reading.
But I couldn't tell my guys where I got them. They would get all over protective on me and forbid me from going and seeing Naruto again. That I couldn't have. Not now, not after everything that had happened. I finally had him back and I wasn't giving him up.
I blinked owlishly inside my mind. My thoughts weren't making sense. I knew I had never met Naruto before that night I almost died…so why did I just act like I had lost him for a couple thousand years and now just found him? It didn't make sense…but it did in a way that I couldn't describe. It was just like before when I said that I knew him so well, just like my guys. But two weeks wasn't enough to know someone completely like I felt I did.
I shook my head and cleared it. There was no way that I would tell them about Naruto. But if they believed it was the dreams, they would get off my case about those two weeks that I disappeared every night. They knew I had a secret place just like ours, except mine worked without them. They never pressed to know it and had left it alone.
So with those thoughts in mind I quickly came up with a plan. I would lie and tell the truth at the same time!
Perfect.
"You remember my secret place?" they nodded, "Well, I have been spending more time there and end up falling asleep and dreaming." I shuddered to make my story seem more believable. And it worked.
I felt ashamed. This was the first time I had lied to them, and it felt horrible. We always had a deal between us: no lies. We could keep something to ourselves and not share it, but we couldn't tell lies about it.
And I just broke that important rule. It hurt like hell, but I quickly buried it deep inside of me; so deep that I knew they would never find it; even if they somehow got into my mind.
They took my story, believed it and dropped it. My guys knew that the only way to help me with my dreams was to wait and have me come to them. This time I wouldn't, because it wasn't dreams, but they didn't know that.
"So since this has been settled between us; I am going to tell Sakura and them about my deal with your mom," I looked at Shika. "And Itachi's friend Konan." I looked at Sasuke.
Sasuke's eyes widened. "You mean Itachi's boss' wife? Why would she want to dress you up? Doesn't she have kids?"
I sighed. "She has a son that she named after her and Pein's old friend. But no, she has no daughters."
I quickly left my guys before something else happened and I might have given something I didn't want to give away, away.
"Sakura, how is my idea coming?"
The pink headed girl nodded and then went into details while I listened intensively and asked the right questions in all the right places and she shot the answers right back at me.
After my questions I then told Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten about the deal I told Shika, before I secretly left the preparations. Somehow I had been bribed into helping out; even I don't know how that happened. I think it ended up where I don't have to deal with my foster mom anymore.
I had faith in my friends, even without my help they would finish before the dance came to life in two weeks. The tickets—and my idea attached to it—would go on sell a week before the dance.
--
At midnight I met Naruto again a week later. We had decided not to meet until a week before Halloween. I had been wanting to wait a while to tell him and give him his ticket to the dance…and a week before Halloween was the perfect time. Especially since I didn't plan on seeing him until the dance; girl had to get her costume ready.
"Are you doing anything on Halloween?" I asked as I stared at the tree debating if I should climb it. Shrugging, I climbed the tree anyway.
Because I didn't look at him I didn't see his eyes widen at my question. Maybe I would have seen more than that. Maybe some of my questions would have been answered then; but since I didn't look, I didn't see them.
"No, not really, do you have something in mind?" he asked curiously as I quickly and successfully climbed my tree.
I looked down at him as I settled myself on the tree's lowest branch and on the opposite side as the Skeleton.
Now I watched his face as I thought up an answer. "Actually I do. Do you want to come?"
He raised an eyebrow. "That statement can be taken many ways. Come where? To a party, my funeral, house, my death? Many answers, of course," he showed me a perverted smirk, "unless you're talking about a different come; but I think that one is spelled a little differently."
I scowled and fought off my blush. "You must be hanging out with perverts when I'm not around."
He chuckled darkly. "You have no idea. One of my teachers was a self proclaimed super pervert. Another read the super pervert's perverted books. Even my father was influenced by the super pervert."
I sighed as I twisted and laid down on the tree branch. "You need new teachers."
"I had one," his voice turned distance. "She was different than any other teacher I had seen. My teacher taught her students everything they needed to survive; a teaching style I called tough love. She cared for her students and did anything and everything to protect them. She even died for them."
I turned my head and watched his face. I could see the pain etched onto it. A wound I knew instinctively that time couldn't heal. Only one person could, how I wished I was that person. But I knew I wasn't, it was that teacher of his.
As I saw the pain and I saw something else in his eyes. Love. He loved his teacher with everything he had. I wondered what kind of love it was. I could tell when he was talking about the perverts that he cared for them deeply. Even the super pervert…I knew he loved him the most.
"So you coming or not?" I asked, knowing it could be taking both ways.
That snapped him out of the thoughts of his pain and sorrow. Something I knew would happen and was glad for it; even if he went all perverted on me.
"Depends on the coming, if you're talking about what I think you're talking about something, has to happen first before I can 'come'."
I laughed despite myself. "The 'coming' I am talking about is to a Masquerade my group is making happen."
The blonde in front of me snickered as I shook my head at him.
"Baka," I teased him but as soon as I said it that déjà vu came back up.
"I'm not a baka!" he protested greatly. "I am way smarted than you!"
I raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh really? Then if you're so smart you would come and challenge me at this dance."
He gave me a soft glare and agreed. "So what is the challenge?"
I smiled. "Got you," he looked startled as I twisted and jumped off the branch and landed in a crouch. I straightened my body up. "You fell into my trap. Now you have to go to some boring dance!"
He groaned as he listened to my words. My blonde idiot fell for it, hook line, and sinker.
"What is it?" he asked in defeat, as he leaned up against the tree.
"Each person going is given a ticket, and the ticket has an identity on it. Everyone will be partnered and will enter together. Your character will be announced as you go in."
"So your challenge is to not only go with you, but to play my part?"
"And dance," she told him, "not much if I do say so myself. I hate dancing."
Naruto only took a few moments to think it over before he agreed. He had a feeling deep down that he was going to regret this. I saw it in his eyes; it seemed the more he was around me the more he dropped his guard.
As soon as I thought that, I knew I was in the same boat. I needed to get out of here before something happened that I would regret. I couldn't drop my guard completely. It just couldn't happen, I know I would break. Even my guys haven't seen me completely without my guard. That was something I wasn't sure was actually going to happen.
"Here," I said as I gave him the ticket with an envelope that held his new identity. The card says your color and name. It's up to you to how you dress."
I started to leave and go toward the road to my car…something he never seemed to have.
"You're leaving already?" he called to me as I was halfway to my car.
I turned around and told him. "I won't see you till that night. Make sure you meet me at the entrance, but don't let anyone see you! Be a ninja!"
His laugh was loud enough for me to hear it at the road, which was forty foot away from the tree.
I smiled and laughed with him. I didn't know I had slapped him in the face with irony.
--
The next day at school I told my guys that I would give them their cards and told them about my idea with the identity and such. They loved it and wanted their cards then. But I laughed at them and shook my head.
"Why?" Gaara asked as his eyes had a tint of curiosity in them.
"I will give you your colors now, but only at the end of the day will I give the card to you! I don't want to know what you got and you aren't going to know what I got either! I'm so glad its Friday."
Sasuke did his 'hn-ing' while Shika said his favorite word; Gaara was silent as he always was.
"Gaara your color is a bit difficult to place. It's like brown but super light, tanish maybe." I paused as I went to the computer and got on Google. After typing in tan and looking at images I waved Gaara over. "Do you see this light color; it's the picture of this building? I didn't know it was called desert tan…hmm….well this is your color."
Gaara nodded and had a faraway look in his eyes as I turned to Sasuke. "You're black, if you want to get creative with it, and be totally original, go with dark bluish black."
"Since you're lazy I'm going to just type something into the computer and get a color. Yes, this is random and will be on your card."
"But you said you didn't know what we were." Sasuke accused with a smirk on his face. He thought he caught me did he?
Wrong.
"I don't know what your character is, but I know your colors. I just looked at the color part."
Quickly I turned the screen around and started looking up a certain animal. When Google showed me pictures I almost screamed.
"What the hell? This can't be right," I muttered and look at a picture up close. Nooo, this couldn't be the right animal.
"What?" Shika asked as he raised an eyebrow.
"I don't want to scar you for life so you might not want to look." Sasuke though, wouldn't listen so he came to stand behind me.
"What the fuck is that?" he whispered. "It looks high…do you see his smile?"
"It probably is…well this is Shika's animal," I paused as I thought that the wording didn't sound right. "Well, what he would be if he was an animal."
"He's a sloth? These are ugly." Gaara said as he looked over my shoulder as well.
Quickly I go to the top and type in baby sloths. And quickly 'awws' came out of my mouth. "This would be why I want a Sloth: as long as it stayed a baby."
I stopped and switched back to the sloth as I looked at it again. "It looks like a turtle, badger and something else all mixed into one. Monkey maybe?"
Shika sighed and shut off the computer. "What is my color?"
I sighed. "Take away from my fun. It's brown."
Then the bell rang and took away their reply.
--
School went by fast today and at the end I handed them their ticket with an envelope and left school. I had to work on my dress for the dance. God knew I hated dresses, but hey, it had to be done. Unless I could buy one, but I don't think a dress shop would make one just how I wanted it.
--
The night of the dance I had Temari do my makeup and help me get dressed. She had, thankfully, kicked out Gaara and made him go to Sasuke's house. Konan was there as well. Kankuro wanted to help, but Temari refused his offer, so he was sent to help Gaara.
I had a black dress on. The top part was a corset designed by me. The bottom part had the sign on my car all over it, in a random weird design that I can't explain. The skirt part was tight, close to my body just like the top, except at the end. Toward the bottom it waved out.
The top corset part was the difficulties to make. I had put belt onto it where it tightened it more. There was a lace up on the back, and the lace was dark bluish.
"So what are we going to do about eye shadow and lips?" Konan asked as she circled me.
"You know how the Egyptian's did eyes?" I asked and they nodded. "That is what I want."
So they made the ends of my eyes curve with black and they outlined my eyes as well. After it was done, I knew I had a little of Gaara with me tonight.
My lips ended up red as blood. I knew with all the dark colors I was going to look really pale and that was how it was supposed to be. My hair was blood red and ran down my back in waves.
My nails were black with red tips. Since my dress was so long I was able to wear boots.
My mask was the best part: it was wings. The color was the same color I gave to Gaara a few days ago; the last time I went to school.
Konan and Temari laughed when they saw me completely ready.
"If it was anyone else, they would have never pulled this off. But somehow you do," Temari told me seriously as she quit laughing. Konan agreed with her.
"Konan," I started and she tilted her head. "Since I let you help and I will allow you to take pictures, Itachi won't get into trouble, for not going into work correct? You know, for the seven times I have made him stay out, over the course of past three weeks?"
Konan gave me a smile. "The things you do for him; he should be quite lucky that you're watching out for him."
I grabbed my cell phone and dialed his number.
"Yes?"
"You're cleared," I told him.
He chuckled. "So am I going to see the dress? You did make me miss work four times so I could go and buy you things for it."
"One of those I saved your life. Everyone died at that meeting, which you would have been at if I didn't stop you and died as well. You skipped two on your own." I reminded him.
"Sasuke made me go with him for those two. We had to get his costume." He confessed and I laughed.
"Konan is taking pictures and will show everyone tomorrow." I told him and he sighed and then it became entirely too quiet.
"So, are we meeting up before the dance or are we meeting there?" Sasuke's voice came on.
I laughed. "Who said I was going with you?"
"What? Why not? Gaara and Shika already have a date, and I don't."
I shook my head at him even though he didn't see it. "I have you a date. She should be dropped off at your house with Gaara's date."
Silence ensured both ways in our phone call. "Who are you going with?" he finally asked.
"You'll see, bye Sasu!" I said before I hung up. I turned to Temari and grinned evilly.
"Your turn," I told her.
"Why?" she asked as confusion ran through her voice.
Konan turned on her and stood by me. "You're going to the dance too."
"Why?"
"Because Shika has to have a date to even get into Masquerade. Now, we only have two hours. Hop too it! Your outfit is in your room."
--
As I walked toward the entrance I felt an arm wrapped around my waist. I knew who it was because this felt so familiar.
"So you're here," I said, "have you been waiting long?"
"Nope, I just got here." My partner whispered in my ear and I shivered, not from the cold. "When do we go in?"
"Actually, were going through a secret entrance and are the last to arrive. I want to see everyone get there first; or at least hear their names. I'm not entirely sure that my secret entrance will include visuals."
We moved silently and quickly to the secret entrance as if we were born to be sneaky and as if we had done it so much that it was second nature to us.
"Here stop!" I whispered to him as we came to the door; we entered and walked without sound to the area I told him about.
"Shh," I whispered, they've started."
"Entering: The Green Beast and The Pink Medic."
I felt him freeze beside me; our arms were touching. "Who was that?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
"My friend Sakura and her boyfriend Lee," I told him and he stiffened even more.
"Entering: The Strong Eater and The Mind Possessor."
"And this?" he asked again.
"Choji and his girlfriend Ino," I replied.
"Entering: The Dirty Dog and The Confident Heiress."
Before he could ask I told him. "That was Kiba and Hinata."
"Entering: The Lord and Lady Bug User."
"Shino and the girlfriend that his parents picked out for him. I don't really know her."
"Entering: The Master of Fate and The Mistress of Weapons."
"Neji and Tenten," I whispered.
"Entering: The Lazy Sloth and The Fan Mistress."
"Shika and Temari; Shika's one of my guys." I told him as to set him at east. He was tensing way too much.
"Entering: The Lord Shukaku and The Quiet Lady."
"That's another one of my guys: Gaara. The girl is a random one I found. See with the cards that tell you who you are they also say who your partner is."
Naruto unstiffened and looked at me curiously. "Mine didn't say I had a partner."
"Neither did mine," I grinned, but I had one of those sudden intake of breath moments when I realized I only had one guy left. "We have to go to the entrance after this one! Soon the other guests will be arriving. We are last on the list to go on because I didn't feel like standing around and clapping for people."
"Why are the others first then?" he asked as we walked away.
"Because they created the Masquerade and are in charge. Those people will always be the first in charge. Shh, the last one is coming."
"Entering: The Emo Raven and The Gothic Owl."
"Who was that?" he asked as they got up and went back the way they came.
"Sasuke and a random girl." I told him and then we walked in silence. I could feel the tension in his body and I didn't like it. Before we got to the entrance I stopped and turned on him.
"What's going on? Why are you so bloody tense? We are not going in there until you get rid of that tension."
He stared at me for a few seconds before he laughed. "You are so like her, it's not funny anymore. I'm fine now, I promise."
I shook my head at him and continued on. I was now happy that he was so tense anymore; but I was very confused. Who was I like?
We got to the entrance and I made sure our masks were in place and stepped up to the guy that was announcing the group ahead of us. We waited until he was finished with the last one group before us before I gave him our cards.
"Entering: The Honorable Grandson and The Optimistic Girl and The Number Divider."
After he finished I gave him our cards.
"Entering: The Lord Kyuubi and The Queen Akki."
As we walked down all those stairs I felt the tension that my guys were throwing out. I felt the anger and the fear. Not to mention the shock. Somehow as I looked at them, I knew it wasn't because I was going with someone else.
It was something about Naruto that shocked them and brought out those other emotions. Did they know him? That would be the only way they would express those kinds of emotions like fear and shock.
How could they tell who he was? He had a fox mask on that covered his face. The mask made him have red eyes with slits in them. His outfit reminded me of a character in a video game I played: Dante from Devil May Cry 3; only Naruto with red hair instead of the silver that Dante had. But his clothes looked like Dante's did in Devil May Cry 4. He looked just like Dante, with his red duster open, but he had a red shirt and red pants. And on his shirt he had a face of a fox.
One that looked oddly familiar. But I pushed it to the back of my mind; I couldn't think about that now. The dance had just begun and I wasn't going to ruin it.
The guests were in a half circle on the sides of the stairs and my friends were in front of me on the dance floor.
I spun around when I got to them and Naruto did as well. He seemed to read my movements well.
"Welcome!" I greeted the guest of the Masquerade. "Thank you all for coming! There is no sense in me prolonging this evening any longer with words that you will never remember nor will you pay attention to."
My words made them laugh. I smiled.
"Have fun being someone you're not for a change instead of yourself every single boring day." My smile now was genuine. "Let the Masquerade begin!"
As soon as the words came out of my mouth the music began. I turned around and headed straight for Sakura.
Even though I smiled, she saw the anger behind them. "Do not ever make me do that again!" I told her in a harsh whisper.
I turned away from her and walked back to Naruto. He smirked. "So, it seems you were forced to do something. I had thought that was impossible."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Shut up, I made you come after all."
He chuckled. "That's manipulating someone, not getting manipulated yourself. There is a difference."
That was when I hit him on his arm; he winced and rubbed his arm. "That kind of hurt you know." I read the surprise in his words and eyes. Did he think I couldn't hit hard? No, that wasn't it; there was something I didn't know about him. Something that was really important. Something that made him surprised I had hurt him.
I had a bad feeling that I would find out what it was at the end of this night. I had another feeling that something was going to hurt me first.
I felt my guys approach. I knew they wanted to tell me something, but not with Naruto there. I felt Naruto stiffen again; maybe this wasn't a coincidence. Maybe he was reacting to my friends. Did he know them? Or did he know people similar to them?
I knew that it was the latter of the choice; there was no way he met my friends. He had told me himself that he just moved here a few years again and didn't go far from the area of the tree. There was a subdivision not far from the cemetery and I knew for a fact that those students didn't go to our school. There was a school that only those who lived in the subdivision could go to and all of the kids went there.
The first thing Sasuke said to me when he came forward was that the names sucked. I laughed. "Of course you don't like your name. But I bet that Gaara and Shika like theirs."
"Troublesome, don't drag me into this woman." Shika told me as he sent a small glare my way; but it didn't hurt because there wasn't really any force behind it.
Gaara shrugged as if he didn't care and I knew he didn't. Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes at me. This was how all I arguments went. And every time I won all because he was waiting for back up that wasn't coming.
"So, troublesome girl, who is he?" Shika asked as he looked at Naruto. There was something in his eye that should have told me what was happening, but I missed it. No, more like I ignored it, I didn't want to know.
My perfect world didn't need to be turned upside down. But that was exactly what I got.
"Tonight his name is Kyuubi," I told them.
"Shika means his real name, idiot." Sasuke clarified for me.
"Should it matter tonight?" I asked tiredly. They were being overprotective fools again.
"It's alright. My name is Naruto." My Fox Dante said.
I knew I should have fought harder to keep his name a secret; because something was going on with them. I didn't know what, but everything kept on going back to that time I blacked out in the classroom a few weeks ago.
To keep the memories back I shoved them behind the door that held the things I couldn't understand. I grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled him out on the dance floor.
"You're dancing with me. Now," I told me firmly as I dragged him away. I said those words more for my friends, than for him. I rolled my eyes at them before I turned by back and began to get in a dancing position.
He didn't say anything as we started to dance. Our steps were together; it was as if we had been doing this for years. We were balanced, and it seemed as if our dance flowed with the music. We were in perfect sync.
It was something I had felt with all of my guys. Did this mean Naruto was one of my guys? How could I have missed that one?
"What are you thinking about?" he whispered in my ear before he twirled me. When I came back I whispered in his, "How much of a baka you are."
He laughed softly and shook his head. "If anyone is a baka, it's you. It's because you're an idiot that makes us love you so much."
"Right back at you," I smirked.
The words felt so familiar as if we had said them before. As soon as I threw them behind that door, the door burst opened and everything fitted together.
It was then it hit me. Baka. Naruto. Fox. Kyuubi. Shukaku. Sasuke Uchiha. Itachi Uchiha. Shikamaru Nara. Gaara of the Desert.
Everything from the moment I had that first dream to now, had been memories. Memories of a time long ago where we were all happy together, even during war we were happy.
I had flashes of every dream I had that involved someone I cared for so much, but I couldn't remember him. I had never seen what he looked like in those dreams; but now the picture came in perfectly clear.
He had three whisker marks on his face, up unto the very end. He had spiky sun kissed blonde hair and the bluest eyes I had ever seen in my entirely long life.
He was the one that had run to me as I finished healing the last of my friends: Gaara. He was the one who screamed my name begging me to stay, he tried to grab me and pull me back to him. Instead I fell further away from him.
I was the one who had destroyed the world.
I finally knew who he was. I finally saw who he was. The missing link was finally complete.
His name was Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze.
I looked up in my partner's face and my eyes grew wide and tears started to enter them.
He was the one I had condemned so long ago; and here he was right in front of me.
To be continued...