Nearly done with this and happy with the pace. :)
I recently remembered something from the past that I thought was pretty ironic. On the last day of third grade before summer, for our writing period, we were given a free twenty minutes or so to write anything we wanted - and I'd decided to bring to life "The Haunted Mansion" in a short time in the important facts without being too scary or inappropriate. What a memory!
Chapter Seven
Let the Truth Be Known
Ramsley murdered Harumi and forged the suicide note, left his own master and charge, Toneri, to die by his own hand in an attempt to be with her. But look at them now: trapped on Earth.
Naruto had never been so livid. He couldn't think right other than glare with murderous intent and the need to murder bitches when the traitorous old man eyed Zabuza and Haku as if they were the traitors. "I will deal with you two later." They were gone in wisps of blue smoke. Tsunade remained silent in her crystal ball; the reason was because she faded into nothing for the time being, so the ball was clear and empty.
"Why did you kill her?" Naruto demanded heatedly, tucking the letter and envelope into his back pocket. He was going to give this to Toneri if that was the last thing.
"Because the master would not listen to reason," Ramsley answered, monotoned. "He had everything in the world. I served his family first in England and then traveled all the way here to ensure his father's life would be better, and when he himself was born, I wished the same thing for him...and yet in the end, when he met her -" He spat. "- the foreign minx, he was willing to forsake his stand in society and throw it all away for love. I did tell him it would end badly."
The image rose in Naruto's mind on what may have happened if Ramsley had to have gotten close enough to Harumi the night she died: he must have poured them both wine, but placed a slip of poison into one and handed it to her, with the proclamation of a false toast to the future Lady Oosutsuki and the future...only for her to fall dead after maybe a single sip. The concoction must have been powerful enough to act fast. Just before or maybe after he left the note for his master to find. "You're a real cold dude," he sneered.
"No, Mr. Uzumaki. I am a rational man. It was my responsibility to this house - my duty to see to it that the boy did not make a foolish error in judgment. Running away with that girl would have destroyed this house. I could not idly stand by and watch it all fall to ruin."
"Punch his face in, Dad," Boruto said through his teeth. Himawari said nothing but icily and hatefully watched the butler who remained unaffected by a mere little girl.
Naruto wanted so much to do just that, but first - "First, I am gonna tell his master what really happened -"
Ramsley was right before him in a flash. "The master must never know," he stated in a tone that said he would do whatever he could to make sure. "Toneri and his love will be reunited before the clock strikes midnight...and this curse will be broken." Now a slight smile showed, but it was too late for any form of admiration. The lies were going to end - and Hinata had unwittingly been pulled into this. She's not Harumi. Tsunade said that not everything was as it appeared, and she was right. The letter in my pocket proves it.
"But it's not her; that's my wife!"
"And what she sees in you, I'll never know," the man sneered. "But that is of little importance now. All that matters is that the master's pain must end, and it will end tonight." He walked to stand beside the ancient but beautiful wedding dress. "The curse will be broken, and we can finally move on."
Naruto growled, fed up with this. "Where is she?"
"Getting ready for her wedding, of course," Ramsley stated matter-of-factly.
WEDDING?! "He can't marry her!" Naruto said. "He's dead, she's not."
"True...but that can easily be corrected. Life, I'm afraid, is such a delicate state." You son of a bitch, you intend to do to Hinata what you did to Harumi. You're so gonna pay now.
His fist clenched as he delivered a blow for the head. "Man, if you put one finger on my wife, I swear I'll kill you!" But he found himself on the other side of the man, passing right through him, and hitting some storage items. Damn it, why did I forget he's dead, too?!
Ramsley looked down at him mockingly. "How wonderful...you're going to kill a ghost." He then turned around when Boruto and Himawari shouted at him to leave their father alone. Holding out a hand and then pulling a finger in, at his command, another trunk appeared behind them and opened to let them fall in, closing and locking afterwards. They were trapped inside. Naruto acted on fatherly impulse and lunged forward.
"LET THEM GO!" The damned thing wouldn't unlock because it was the ghost butler's order. "You let my kids out of here," he growled savagely, "you're gonna take me to my wife, and you're gonna let us out of here right now!"
Oh, how bad those words of choice were. "You want out? Very well." Suddenly, a very powerful grip latched itself onto his throat. Naruto gagged and tried to pull himself out of it, but Ramsley shifted from solid form to ghostly blue, and you could see through him now. He brought Naruto into the air. "Now, for the last time: good night, Mr. Uzumaki."
Glass shattered as he was thrown backwards; he'd been tossed out through the roof and was sailing downwards to crash. He screamed like there was no tomorrow - and he found himself slammed facedown on the glass of what looked like the greenhouse. His numb, pain-ridden body slid down and landed on the hood of the rental, which honked and raised the alarm at random. Naruto groaned as he lay there for a moment before collapsing onto the earth. The constant honking and beeping were going to give him a headache.
Damn, that all hurt like a bitch.
He jerked his head up at the sounds of shutters closing on all windows, security increasing to make sure he would never get in. What was he going to do now that he was out here and his family in danger in this cursed place - with that bastard who caused all of this? If he ever got to Ramsley, he would make him pay when he got the letter to Toneri and saved his wife.
~o~
Toneri opened the doors to the latest room of the mansion. This tour was everything but beyond what she'd imagined. The ballroom...it's almost like Beauty and the Beast. If it were light, it would have been so beautiful. Hinata was stunned by the vast space, imagining all the parties, light and laughter that happened here.
"This house has waited so long to have its shroud of darkness lifted. And tonight..." He walked to stand before the dimly lit middle of the floor, looking about as if searching for something. "...after oh, so many years, I believe it may be possible that the story will finally end differently." He turned back to her, hands on his hips. "Hinata...do you believe that love is about second chances? Forgiveness?"
"Yes, I do," she answered, thinking about her husband.
But then, it was as if something changed when Toneri came her way by a step. "Do you...remember?"
R-remember what? "Toneri, are you all right?" she asked, wondering what happened just now. Why was he acting like this? He was now pacing back and forth before her, talking half to her and to himself.
"I thought that bringing you back to Oosutsuki Manor would make you remember."
"Remember what? You're scaring me!" Hinata burst out. Is he going insane or something? Why did I even agree to be alone with him, to let him show me around only to end up here -?!
He whirled back to her and took both of her hands into his in an act of desperation and passion. The last word scared her worse as the dancing blue figures in Revolutionary and French garments began to appear around them. What was happening? They are from the past. Toneri's hold tightened as quickly as he husked out desperately. "Where IT happened: where we spent our last moments together, where we danced together for the last time before you -" He stopped there, squeezing his eyes shut as if having an internal struggle before he burst.
"- before you killed yourself! But now you've returned to me." He pulled her close to him before placing his mouth on hers. His lips were so soft, but barely there; she was almost lost in the contact - but her brain snapped when she remembered who this was and what he was saying. "And at long last we can be together," Toneri panted out. "You were my world, my life - and I have loved you in death as I did in life!"
Hinata mustered her willpower to pull herself out of his touch. "Let me go!" She ran for the doors they'd come in, hoping to outrun him and get back to the room, hoping Naruto was there so they could get themselves and the kids away from this place. She made a mad dash up the staircase now.
It's him...he's dead. He's the one who loved her - and now he thinks I am her. Something terrible is going to happen. But I am not Harumi!
"You are her!" Toneri's voice cried out to her. "You are Harumi! Can you not sense that you must be?! Search your heart; I am your one true love!"
"I'M NOT HARUMI!" Hinata screamed over her shoulder by the time she reached the hallway and door she was looking for. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" She made it inside safely and locked the door as quickly as she slammed it. He was out there now, but he couldn't get in. She half-expected him to - and not - since he was clearly a ghost and could walk through walls. But she didn't want to think about that.
Naruto wasn't here, at all. Did something happen to him? How were the kids?
She didn't want to go back through the bedroom door, but the windows turned out to be locked. She was against breaking glass, but she did try using the stool at the vanity, and it only repaired itself just like that. Hinata had never felt so afraid in her life, for herself and her family...
"Madam."
Spinning around, she saw Ramsley standing there. Maybe he could help her if he knew what was really going on. "Oh, Ramsley," she pleaded, "you've got to help me. There is something horribly wrong. Oosutsuki-san..." He cut her off gently, but somehow, she felt no real reassurance with his words.
"Yes, my dear, I know. He's expecting you." His shadowed eyes seemed to darken. "He's always been expecting you." He turned his attention to the foot of the bed, and she followed it, gasping in shock when she saw the wedding dress and box of jewels from the attic. "And you haven't put on your dress yet. We can't keep the master waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Hinata demanded furiously, losing her cool, clenching her fists at the sides, her nails digging into her skin. I'm trapped here. Why can't anyone see I am not HER?! I can't be! I am Hinata Hyuuga, Uzumaki when I married the man I love, and I have two children and a great life at home! "I am not marrying that crazy bastard. I am not Harumi!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, descending into a choking sob she swallowed back.
But Ramsley looked at her without even a shred of sympathy. "Of course you are, my dear. You may not see it yet, but in time, you will."
"You don't think I'm actually going through with this madness, do you?!"
"Oh, yes, I very much do. You see..." He stepped backwards without turning, gesturing towards the oval mirror above the vanity. "...we wouldn't want anything to happen to the children."
Hinata gasped in horror when green smoke covered the edges of the glass, and she was given the horrified faces of none other than - "Boruto! Himawari!" Her children, her precious lives, were imprisoned someplace as blackmail leverage! Her temper and fury doubled when she rounded back to the man responsible. "You wouldn't -!" The butler simply gazed on off to the side.
"I wouldn't, but that is entirely up to you. If not, I really do fear for the children." She turned her back to him and doubled over, collapsing onto her knees, placing her head on the dresser to weep. She was so helpless she hated it. Her children were locked up, but what about her husband? Had Ramsley done something to him as well? Everything was coming together: the call to ask her to come alone, but here she brought her whole family into this. She knew something had been horribly wrong, but it was too late. Naruto had been tricked as much as she'd been.
Some moments passed before the door reopened, but the bastard wasn't back. "Mrs. Uzumaki, you have to go through with this." This voice was rougher than either Toneri or Ramsley. She jerked her head up and glared at the two servants, including the maid she'd seen and followed earlier. Both of them looked grim in the face as if unable to help her if they wanted to. "If only we could help you, but we can't," the taller man with bandages around his face said. "If you want to save your family, this is it." With that, he turned to open the door again and left her with the maid.
"He said that if we disobeyed him again, we'd be dealt with in the worst possible manner," she said - no, wait, Hinata heard the deep undertone. It must really be male, dressed only as a woman because he somewhat looked like it. "There are worst things than purgatory."
Which means they are in deep as much as I am.
She changed into the dress with forced haste, feeling like a ghost. All she could think about was her family and her life she was going to lose now. When she was in, the "maid" named Haku helped her close the back and then her hair.
Now she was walking her way towards the man who still saw her as the woman he loved and lost. When she'd felt sorry for him, now she was forced to be someone she wasn't. He looked her over with a loving eye at the dress he finally got to see "her" in - I'm not Harumi, she kept telling herself over and over - as he stood at the bottom of the stairs with many candelabra lit, but nothing had been cleaned in centuries, so it was still a sad Gothic setting. Her hair was now held up in an elegant, small and sleek bun accented with a small comb sparkling with crystals, attached to a seven-foot-long veil hand painted with an exquisite floral motif. The earrings weighed heavily as her heart, and the bejeweled ribbon was twice wrapped around her throat. The flowers in her hands were lush and romantic with red, white and pink roses.
However, it seemed Toneri was troubled by the tears she was shedding. But Ramsley, in the priest's robes and carrying the book, leaned in and whispered something to him that wiped that concern off his face. He thinks they are tears of joy.
"Harumi." He offered his hand to her. Being called that name made her choke on her response at the hard and warning look from the butler.
"Y-yes, my love." The organ had stopped playing so Zabuza, the bandaged man, and Haku could watch with pure sympathy.
~o~
He couldn't even break through the glass of the greenhouse - or was it the library he'd been in earlier? - because when he picked up the nearest statue he could find, the glass didn't shatter entirely and only repaired itself. After several tries, he gave up altogether and collapsed beside the car which stopped blaring.
Oh, God...this is the greatest failure of my life. He reached into his pocket to pull out the watch his wife took off in anger when they fought, staring with a heavy heart at the rosy face etched with crystals, placed on pure white. The man who sold it to him suggested to "treat her with a little decadence without regret." Well, here he was now with the greatest regret ever.
Naruto closed his hand around the gift to Hinata and put it back where it was. From the corner of his eye, a familiar ball of green rolled his way. "Leave me alone," he mumbled, turning halfway from her.
Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Oh, I see. You're just gonna sit here feeling sorry for yourself."
"Tell me why not. This whole thing was my fault. We should never have been here in the first place." He leaned his head back and looked up at the now-clear starry sky. "We were supposed to be back home, traveling to Suna where a good friend of ours lives. We should be sitting at a warm fire on a cold night, in the waters under the sun, and enjoying local good drinks and so on." And I made us come here. "But it's too late."
"No, it's never too late."
He looked at her with discouragement, the feeling in his bones. "Look, Green Granny, I tried to get in, and I failed, okay?" Easy to say, like Hanaru used to tell me. My big sister should be here because she knows this better than I do.
Tsunade seemed to be getting a kick and...trying to help him still. Listen to the gypsy in the ball like he did before, right? She hadn't been wrong about one thing thus far. "You try, you fail," she agreed. "But the only true failure is when you stop trying."
"And what do you want me to do, huh?" That pretty face smirked.
"Try again, of course."
~o~
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered tonight in the sight of God to join this man and this woman in the bonds of holy matrimony. Wilt thou, Toneri Oosutsuki, have this woman be thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holiest state of matrimony?"
Toneri bowed his head, half-closing his eyes as he breathed out, "I will."
It was hard for Hinata to not sob, her lips quivering as the same thing was asked of her. She wanted so much to scream, throw down the roses in her hands - the sweet romance so sickening that this was all a big lie - but what good would it really do? And the name she was still called, Harumi Ukatane, made another tear escape and burn her cheek.
"I do."
This satisfied Ramsley as he then reached into his robes and pulled out a small vial just as Haku did the honors of presenting a goblet of red wine - and the vial cap was popped open to let a small white powder come in a little amount to vanish into the liquid. Hinata held back her horror.
It's the very same poison Harumi used to kill herself...isn't it?
"From this day forward, you shall be joined together as one for all eternity until the very end of time."
~o~
The car through the glass did just the trick. Haul back, sail through with a scream of excitement and worry - and the impact was worth it.
Tsunade was also saved by the air bag in case of crashing, which was just what they did. It also meant a cost of money to repair the damages done, but he would worry about that another time. He was in now, thanks to the gypsy. Now, to find the kids first, save them from death by suffocation - if they were still in the trunk - and then they would find Hinata. The letter would be read if Toneri was there; he just HAD to listen and believe that the woman wasn't his Harumi.
He ran and ran, not stopping until he found the trunk, hanging upside down and on the side, chained damned good. "Boruto! Himawari!" he roared, dashing forward - but he should have expected the suits of armor to come to life and attack him.
Oh, hell to the no. He threw himself forward and jumped as axes were swiped over his head and beneath, but the strikes ended up cutting each armor dude down. The deadly axe blades would wrack into the floor when he ended up on his back, but harrowly missing. That axe he took out of the one warrior's hold and kicked him into pieces of armor, then used the weapon in hand to parry another with a sword, but that thin thing was no match for the hard axe.
He was in front of the thing that entrapped his son and daughter, and hacked at the lock and chains, which fell apart as the lid of the trunk opened to let both Boruto and Himawari jump out alive and well. Words could not describe how happy he was that they were safe...but there was one person left.
The wedding was going on behind these doors. He'd heard the brunt of it just before he kicked them open, as well as WHO was saying them: "- if anyone has any objections -" You're really gonna get yours now, Ramsley.
"Yeah, I got a few objections!" Naruto shouted as soon as he was inside, the kids behind him, and Hinata - God, she looked so beautiful in that dress if not for what was happening - was in tears when she saw them. She wasted no time dropping the goblet of red wine and running his way, disregarding the furious Toneri, the butler and the two servants who were happy he came in time.
