Chapter 4

Yay for another chapter! I hardly have time to write so I'm pretty impressed with myself :D Hooray for spring break!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It sucks I know but it'd probably be screwed up if I did own it.

Gaara's POV

I stare at my reflection through the semi-foggy mirror, if anyone saw the way I look now they'd scramble away in disgust and maybe even in fear. The way my pale skin is begging for sunlight, the black rings around my eyes creating a huge contrast, my blood-red hair framing my face and dripping water on to my bare shoulders. Just giving off a murderous look.

I quickly dry my hair with a towel and throw on a t-shirt with a skull on the front and black loose-fitting jeans. Not even bothering with my eyes, I step out from the steamy bathroom and into my bedroom.

The soft snores coming from my bed tell me that Naruto is still asleep. For lack of anything better to do, I make my way to my door. The thought of molesting my blonde in his sleep came to my mind a few times, but I don't think he'd like that. In that case, out my room I go. Walking really quickly through the hallway and down the stairs, all the mean while looking from side to side and just about all around me. As much as I hate getting sneaked up on, it's ten times worse when it's a ghost..or not human.. either way it pisses me off.

As I walk around the corner, into the chocolate colored kitchen, I see Shikamaru already awake and drinking a cup of coffe...my favorite cup. I really don't see why he couldn't just use Kankuro's cup. Sure it's purple and has puppets on it, but it'd beat Temari's anyday.

"Mornin" He says as he lifts my crimson cup to his contaminated mouth.

"Morning" I grunt out in response and make my way to the red kettle. Oh great Kankuro's cup is in the sink and there is no way i'm going to wash it. Lord knows what he fills it with and where his mouth has been. My brother can be a pig at times. So that leaves me with Temari's pink cup with purple stars. Yay.

"So. Any plans for today?" Shikamaru asks slumping back in his chair. My cup still in his hand.

"Besides visiting Temari, nope" I don't really plan things. Stuff just happens and BANG! I call it a day.

"On second thought, I wanna ask around about the house." Yeah now that I think of it, I definetly want to learn about this house. The only thing I know is that is was built in the 1960's. But i'm clueless to just about everything else. And maybe learning the history of this house will make some sense about whats going on here...but if it doesn't then were screwed. We'll have to sell the house, but who in the right mind would buy this house...well my father did.. but he wasn't all that sane to begin with.

"Well, we could go asking right now. 9:00 isn't too early." Y'know, Shikamaru really surprises me sometimes. Normally he wouldn't wake up till noon and now he's saying '9:00 isn't too early' and not only that but he actually wants to do something..Ugh it's all too much to take, I'm just gonna pretend everythings fine.

"Yea let's go"

"Hey let's ask over here." I say as we aproach the house on the right side of our yard. The house is a pale yellow with a soft blue door and floorboards. Colorfull flowers and kelly green grass decorate the front yard, so in all it looks like a friendly place..totally the opposite of our medieval looking house.

"Hopefully these people can give us some info." Shika says as we wait for someone to answer the door. So far we've been to two houses and they all know nothing. I'm starting to get pretty frustrated.

Finally the door opens revealing a lady who looks in her late 60's. She has on a bright smile...almost as bright as Naruto's if that's even possible.

"How may I help you young fellas" The lady asks politely never dropping her smile.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but do you happen to know anything about the house next door" Shikamaru asks making a gesture to my house. The lady looks almost uncomfortable as she looks from the house to us.

"...Well, it depends...who's asking?"

"Pardon me for my rudeness. I'm Gaara Sabaku and this is Shikamrau Nara." I say motioning to my lazy friend. "I'm the owner of the house and we've been experiencing some odd things. Such as strange noises, objects moving out of their places and some not so welcoming vibes." The lady gives us a knowing look and nods her head in understanding.

"Come in, please." She says raising another smile. We follow her inside and instantly I feel at home, the inside of the house is as friendly and welcoming as the outside.

"Have a seat" She says gesturing to the faded pink couch. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"No, thank you." Shika and I say at the same time and glance at each other oddly as we take a seat. The old lady sits on the opposite side of us on a pale lime green love seat.

"My name is Chie Eiko, and i've lived in the neighborhood since I was twelve along with my sister and mother. My sister, Hiromi Eiko, was twelve years older than I and blessed with beauty." I don't really know why she's telling us about her sister. I honestly couldn't care less. "She married young and lived next door (my house) with her son and husband. Horrible man, he had the looks but lacked a heart. He was abusive to his family, there was many times when Hiromi and her son, Shou, would hide in our home covered in bruises." Damn, thats tough...and I thought I had it bad. Sure my father was verbally abusive but he never dared to lay a finger on me. I take a glance at Shikamaru and he has a look of sympathy on his face..something I don't see very often.

"After a while of seeing my nephew and sister bathed in cuts and bruises, I decided to call the police. Hiromi never did want me to, she would tell me that he didn't mean to hurt them. But I wouldn't listen to any of that nonsense. When the police got there..it was too late. Shou was found dead at the bottom of the staircase ..with a broken spine and broken neck...Hiromi was found under her son with a split head..Her arms were wrapped protectively around Shou's body..."

"How old was he?" I ask seeing that she was having trouble continuing.

"Shou was five..he wanted to be a puppeteer, it was his favorite toy to play with afterall..though it gives me peace knowing my sister died protecting her son. The husband/father was found in the atic...he hung himself."

"...Well that sucks-OW" Shikamaru just slapped me on the backside of my head! What's his problem.

"I'm sorry to hear that .. I must ask though, do you maybe have a picture you can show us?"

"Oh of course. I'll be right back." The old lady says and dissapears into some other room.

"Why do you want to see a picture?" I really don't get Shikamaru sometimes, he hits me and now he wants to see a picture...

"It might just help us out." Help us out? How ca-

"Here you go. This picture was taken at a family reunion, right here is Hiromi" She points to a lady with long black hair held up in a pony tail and a rather pale face. "this is her husband" A guy with slick shoulder-length black hair, his face held a friendly feature..who would have guessed this guy was an abuser. " and here is Shou." A boy with black helmet-hair, really thick eye brows and a toothy smile adoring his face...wait a minute..

"Shikamaru..doesn't Shou look alot like-"

"Lee? Yeah big time." He says studying the picture closly.

"Who's Lee?" The lady, I seriously can't remember her name, asks.

"He's a close friend... he looks a bit like Shou.." whoa whoa whoa!

"A bit!? Dude, they can be fucking twins!" I yell because I still can't believe they look alike...I mean sure you see stuff like this in movies and all but when it's like happening right in front of your face, shit gets real.

"Where were you guys!" Naruto yells as Shikamaru and I enter my house. I see he's wearing my clothing: a black long sleeve shirt, which slippe off his shoulders a bit, and grey skinny jeans with black chains...in short, he looks hot.

"Gaining some knowledge" Shikamaru says flopping himself on the couch.

"...I don't get it" My blonde says looking dumbfounded.

"I don't get it either." My stupid brother walks out of the kitchen with his cup in hand...I bet he didn't wash it.

"We just found out the story about this house. This lady next door, her sister used to live here." I say leaning against the wall opposite of the couch.

"Really?! So do you understand what's going on now, do you know how to get rid of it?" Naruto asks with hopefull eyes. I look at Shikamaru trying to find an answer as he just stares back at me. I open my mouth to answer but he beats me to it.

"We understand whats making the noises and what spirits are here.. though, we don't know how to get rid of them."

"Don't spirits have to be put to rest or some shit?" Kankuro asks coming to sit on the couch.

"Yeah! Oh Itachi knows how to do that! Can't we ask him?" Naruto's right, we could get Itachi to put them at rest. And he'd probably do it for free too.

"I suppose we can."

"Yea I suppose."

"Yeah."

"..." "Gaara?" I tun to look at Naruto.

"Why aren't you wearing eyeliner."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"The doctor said not to speak damn it" I say as Temari attempts to talk for the third time. She was relesed from the hospital this afternoon but since she was too scared to come back to our house, Shikamaru offered his place for her to stay in. So now me and Kankuro sit in lazy boy's living room trying to find out what Temari saw on the stairs.

"Here use this" Shika hands her a marker and board.

"How is she gonna write, her rights arm's broken.. and I thought you were smart." Stupid brother.

"Temari's left handed." I say in a monotone voice.

"...oh." Kankuro says and laughs sheepishly as Temari starts to write. It's not that much of a surprise that Kankuro didn't know such a simple fact. When we were younger, he often used to forget my name and call me Gare...what kind of fucked up name is that?

"Alright let's see" Shikamaru says as the board gets passed to him. His brows crease as he reads to himself every now and then mumbling a few words.

"She was attcked by a tall lady-like figure with long black hair. Her clothes looked like of something from the early 70's.. And you said it didn't have a face?" He turns to Temari and she nods eagerly. "I wonder why is that."

"Shikamaru..you think it could be..." I stop. Thinking about the way my sister described the spirit.

"Yeah. I'll bet it is Hiromi."

But I thought she wasn't supposed to be bad.

Whooo! End of chapter 4! And my chapters aren't getting any bigger...ugh. maybe later on they will :) Sooo how'd I do? I noticed that Gaara is still very OOC and for those of you that don't mind GREAT! but for those of you who do..i'm tryin here. it's my first story so of course i'll need some improvements.

Oh and about Temari being left handed...it's just in my story. I really have no idea if she's a righty or lefty :P

Please review! :D