AN: Yay for updates! Guys, I was so happy with all the reviews, so here's a super-long post for all you wonderful people! (Plus, it's midnight: the time when all things evil and teen roam around. Muahahaha!) The review responses are at the bottom, but I recommend reading the fic first. Please tell me what you thought of this one! Love ya all!

The Fall

Chapter 9

Naruto

I could tell something was up from the look on Sakura-chan's face. She turned back to me with a smile that was almost immediately replaced by a stunned, sort of horrified expression. I looked around to see what she was looking at, but there wasn't anything there – at least, nothing that would get a face like that out of her. Unless she had some weird phobia of dandelions. She was still staring when I turned around.

The only thing left for her to be staring at so unflatteringly was…me.

Well, ouch.

A little late, I lowered my arm while trying not to show her how much it bothered me to have her look at me that way. It was hard.

Then, I noticed something: she was following it by dipping her head as it made its progress down to my side. So…she was staring at my arm? I looked at it, too. It wasn't exactly sprouting feathers. By the time my eyes returned to her, I was feeling seriously confused.

"Sakura-chan," I called, "what's wrong?"

She looked up, took a step towards me, and opened her mouth to say something – only to stop again. I was pretty sure she was biting her lip. She said something I couldn't hear.

"What?"

This time, she shouted, "Nothing!"

I never claimed to be smart with these things, but you didn't really need to be to see that she was lying. I was about to tell her so when she turned and ran off. As if all that wasn't weird enough, she kept looking back at me as she dashed away.

And I thought that living girls were confusing.

XXX

I waited for Sakura-chan to come home. She didn't. That night, the only time I saw her in my nightmares.

Dying.

I would walk onto the roof and be surprised when I found her there, over the safety rail. Sakura-chan turned back to look at me, and our eyes would meet. Then she was gone – one second she was falling off of the roof, and the next, she lay on the ground, limp and broken and dead.

As if once wasn't bad enough, it would replay. She fell and fell and fell and fell and died and died and died and died, and I couldn't save her. Not even once.

I woke up sweating feverishly. Sakura-chan still hadn't come home.

Home.

Since when was it her home, too? Or maybe I was the only one who thought that way.

I closed my eyes. Before I knew it, my nightmare was repeating itself, as if it had forgotten that it was supposed to be confined to my sleeping hours.

When I opened my eyes again, I was bent over and my face was trying to drown in my hands.

Sakura

The chain kept following me around. Even when the other end (a.k.a. Naruto) wasn't anywhere near me, it never broke; it just kept dragging around soundlessly behind me, like a long metal snake that was sleep-slithering.

I didn't go back to Naruto that night. I didn't want to.

Instead I wondered around the streets, thinking. What was with the chain? Did it really just appear, or had it always been there?

I groaned in frustration. Wasn't being dead supposed to end your problems? Wasn't being dead supposed to be peaceful – a calm, endless state of rest, relaxation, and stresslessness? I had honestly believed it would be. I'd really thought–!

But now look at yourself.

I missed Naruto. Where was he? I needed someone right now. I needed someone to tell me everything was going to be okay, that it would all work out somehow, and I wasn't alone because they were there. They were there for me.

Naruto was the only someone I had anymore.

Why did I even leave him in the first place?

I looked down at the cuff resentfully. An irrational tsunami of rage flooded me, engulfed me, swallowed me whole and washed me away as I thought about the stupid thing. It bothered me. It reallyreallyreally bothered me. I started kicking and tearing at the chain savagely; all of a sudden it seemed to represent everything I'd gone through up until this point.

I stomped and yanked and kicked and slapped and snarled and even considered biting the cursed thing. I did it for Kentou, for my funeral, for my parent's grief, for the burdens I presented to Naruto just by being, for everyone who never saw me no matter what I did or said to them, my pain, my anger, my hatred, my loneliness, for dying and, finally, for coming back again.

And it still wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. I was still so hopelessly dissatisfied.

The word seemed to resound within me. Hopeless.

Eventually, my anger faded, but it didn't go away. Nothing did. Not my memories with Kentou. Not my feelings. Not my mistakes. Not even the chain.

I slumped to the ground from all that melodramatic emotional and mental exhaustion.

The mysteries of the chain presented me with a new distraction that I welcomed. Thoughtfully, I examined my newest accessory.

I could touch it – I wouldn't be wearing it otherwise – even without Naruto around, which was new. Although that might have been because it was connected to him, as well; in a way, it connected us both.

Wait.

I sat up straight. That brought up another thought – one I'd already thought about but hadn't spent much time on. Maybe the chain had something to do with why Naruto – and only Naruto – could see me. Maybe it represented those "attachments left behind" that all those ghost hunter people and crystal ball freaks on TV were always talking about. I snorted. If it was, then that would mean they were actually right about something. Mother Nature must have gotten a glitch in her programming system because that was so not natural.

I shrugged to myself and got back up. Night was falling and I didn't feel like hanging around to watch the local potheads smoke weed. Ugh. I shuddered at the thought. I still didn't understand why anyone would want to do that stuff. To be honest, I wasn't too interested in finding out, either.

Though I considered going back to Naruto's place – he was probably worried – I decided not against it: we could both use some time to ourselves, and I had some thinking to do. After a moment, I started walking again.

XXX

My parents seemed to be doing better than they had been a few months ago. They didn't talk as much as they used to, and there was a lot less laughter – especially with all the reminders hanging around the house – but they were continuing on with their lives. I can't deny that I was touched, though, by how reluctant they were to leave me behind. At the same time, I wished they would just forget me and maybe have another kid (though they were kinda old). If they did, I hoped mom stayed away from the wild mushrooms this time. (Mom said they did some funny things to my coloration genes.)

After checking up on them, I went to my room. It was still virtually untouched, although there wasn't as much dust as there should have been. Icy needles slid cleanly into my unbeating heart when I saw how rumpled the covers on my bed were. Had someone slept in it? I imagined my mom slowly pulling herself into my bed, trying not to crease the smooth covers as she did so. The thought made me subconsciously squeeze my eyes shut to try to get rid of the image.

But the problem was, it wasn't even there in the first place.

Naruto

Sakura-chan didn't come back for a few days. Without knowing where she could be, I was left without any option other than waiting. It kind of made me think about all those scenes from movies and stuff, where someone leaves and the other stays, just waiting for that person. The person who leaves usually has some obvious difficulties like villains or magical journeys or whatever. But I'd never thought that it might be hard for the person who got left behind, too.

And then Sakura-chan left me behind.

All I seemed to be able to do was wait for her.

XXX

For some reason, Sakura-chan seems to have this thing for coming back in situations where I least expect it. Like, say, when I was taking a shower.

Yeah…awkward.

September

Sakura

After the day that the chain appeared, it was always there. I thought about telling Naruto about it but decided against it for the time being. Somehow, telling him we were connected by an invisible chain sounded really…not how I wanted it to sound. So I decided to wait until he saw it, until it disappeared, or I found some way to prove it existed without making a complete fool of myself. Luckily, Naruto seemed to sense I didn't want to talk about it with him, so he didn't ask. Or maybe he just didn't want to know. I'm not sure which was the case, but either way he kept quiet about it.

Despite that, things changed a little since then. The secret I was keeping from him seemed to build barriers between whatever brief openness we'd had before. I didn't hang around him all the time anymore, because sometimes being around him became hard for the both of us.

October

Whether Naruto had noticed it or not, I had: being around me was hard for him.

It didn't take a genius to figure out why. When he was with me around other people, he had to act like I wasn't there. He couldn't let himself look at me for too long, let alone do something like talk with me or laugh at me when I poke fun at people. Although it went against his nature, he had to care about what everybody thought of his actions; he had to be careful, be normal, or else he'd wind up in a padded cell halfway across the continent, taking meds that would turn him into a zombie and worse, into a stranger.

And it would be all my fault.

November

I would stay with him and keep him company, of course I would, but wouldn't that just make things worse? Then we'd be truly cut off from the world, clinging to each other so much that we would hate each other, despise each other, but we'd still cling onto each other because we had nothing else and no one else to grip.

And it would be all my fault–

Naruto

Sakura-chan was acting weird. She avoided me a lot.

December

Sakura

all my fault–

Naruto

It just kept getting worse.

January

Sakura

all my fault–

February

Naruto

Soon, she stopped showing up to school.

March

Sakura

allmyfault.

So Naruto had to be careful, so careful, and it was going to drive him crazy. I was going to drive him crazy.

Whether anyone saw him talking to thin air or not.

April

AN: Okay, that's the end of the chapter! I hope it was satisfactorily long, and even more satisfactorily good-quality (;D), 'cause you guys are awesome and made me pumped enough to write it! X3

To:

Emmy loves her Demon Naru: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to post this! X3 (I'm one of those authors that's really impatient to have their stories read, you know? Except I love getting feedback so people can tell me what they think so far. That's why I love your reviews^^) Annnyway, enough about me (it's the story you're here to read, right? ;D) why don't you tell me your opinion on this chapter, hmm? :3

mrgirmjaw: why, thank you :) I hope you liked this chapter, too^^

Ichigo Kuroyuki: I am happy to say that I have :D and you have my nickname! O_o (at least the first part)

9-tailed reaper: hope this one was more satisfying^^ and I really hope you still like where it's going :D

Kurai Shigashi: You flatter me^^And yes, indeed, me'sailor, much t'be revealed. Arr! ^.# Did this help answer some of your questions?^^

strawberry030: thank you :)and I luv strawberries^^ (see above comments.) Lol I sound like my textbook. Wait. Ew! O_e

Damsel in Shining Armor: Aww your comment keeps making me smile every time I read it haha^^ I hope enjoyed this chapter, as well!