Best From Nothing:
the night was cold but it was no more than what Midonatio expected, he had after all forced the tiny window open and jammed it ajar so it wouldn't get stuck again.
That wasn't the only thing keeping the shadow teen awake, even as his big brother snored softly on the other side of the room; the invite to Uchiha Sasuke's birthday party seemed to be calling to him from under the bed.
"stupid Uchiha." Midonatio mumbled unhappily under his breath.
Midonatio rolled off his mattress and onto the floor in one swift movement; the shadow teen clicked on a small flash light so he could see the contents of his old suitcase better.
He reached for his old clothes to take the invite from between them but stopped short, picking up the box of secrets instead and pulling out the photo album.
Light from flash light shone uselessly off the pages of the album, so he adjusted it so he could see them properly, the shadow teen had never looked inside the photo album; the first photo was exactly the same as the one in his locket, only bigger, the next couple were nearly exactly the same but they ranged in age and clothes.
In all of them all three of his parents were looking happily at the camera, standing close to each other and looking like they hadn't a care in the world.
Midonatio smiled to himself and flipped to the next page only to see a slightly sullen looking Eclipse back at him; her black hair was tied back tightly, dressed in a black and red dress and she was sat behind a large wooden desk.
"she was a mayor." the shadow teen remembered from his mum's letter, since he re-read it every year on the anniversary of their death.
Turning the page again he thought Naruto was looking back at him but quickly realised it was their father, his hair slightly less wild than the sun teen's, but he was dressed in a yellow tailcoat and matching mask he was holding a sign that said 'Yellow Flash'.
Next was their mum, her long red hair in loose curls and in a floor length dress covered in lace, frills and diamonds, she too held up a sign at shoulder level but her's said 'Red-Hot Habanero'.
Midonatio paused halfway through turning the next page when he heard someone moving about upstairs, so he waited till all was quiet again before continuing; his mother's black and silver dress was cut out at the front, revelling pale legs and her inky black hair was cut short, her sign read 'Dangerous Shadow'.
"the Yellow Flash, Red-Hot Habanero and Dangerous Shadow." Midonatio whispered, flipping backwards and forwards between the photos.
The rest of the album was just of all three of them, or one at a time, in various clothes, situations and different ages. The final picture was of both Eclipse and Minato sat behind the same desk in a red and black office, with Kushina stood between them, a hand on each shoulder and all of them beaming brightly.
The shadow teen closed the album softly, "maybe I should show Naruto this." he thought for a moment.
Midonatio replaced the album in its box and pulled out the red envelope from between his old pair of jeans; his name written in beautiful gold letters and everything about it said expensive.
Peeling back the wax print of the Uchiha Fan Midonatio slid the invite within out.
Namakazi Midonatio
you are cordiality invited to the sixteenth birthday of
Sasuke Uchiha
The celebration will be held at the Uchiha Manor on the 23rd of July
from 8pm till Midnight.
In honour of our heritage the theme is Royalty
Princes, Princesses, Dukes, Duchesses, Kings and Queens
No response necessary
We look forward to your attendance.
"Royalty?" Midonatio mused, "how typical."
the Uchiha's family were the riches family in town, the father was head of the police department and the mother from a very well off family before she had even married.
Most of the male cousins, uncles and brothers worked for the police station too, they too had married well off woman.
The shadow teen sighed deeply, the cold air tickling his bare skin, "now I have to dress up." he thought moodily.
Midonatio was more than sure that their mum had dressed Naruto and he up when they were younger, he remembered her being the kind of woman to take grate amusement in cute but embarrassing things.
Suddenly Naruto fell out of bed, landing with an undignified noise on the cold floor and it took him several tries to untangle himself from his sheets; Midonatio raised an eyebrow and laughed lightly under his breath.
"i had a strange dream." Naruto finally said, his voice groggy with sleep.
"can you remember it?" the younger twin asked.
Naruto pouted slightly and even in the darkness Midonatio could see his brother blushing, "no." the sun teen mumbled.
"liar." Midonatio laughed, "bet it was about Sasuke."
the sun teen spluttered something unintelligent, suddenly very interested in his sheet and didn't look his baby brother in the eyes.
Midonatio smiled softly, "i was just reading the invite." he told Naruto suddenly and he turned his shocked blues eyes to Midonatio's odd ones.
"good point." Naruto said, his blush not subsiding, and dived at his school bag, emerging seconds later with his invite.
The sun teen sat next to his brother, ripping the envelope open with no grace and quickly read his invite; a small gasped escaped his lips and the colour drained his face.
"what's the matter?" Midonatio asked.
"it says Namikazi Naruto." the blond gasped, hands shaking slightly.
Midonatio smiled and took Naruto's hand in his, "Itachi knows about our past." he told his big brother softly, "he must have written all these."
Naruto looked very confused but quickly shook it off, part of him could trust Itachi too, "what's with all the royalty stuff?" he finally asked.
Shrugging Midonatio looked over at the boxes in the corner of the cellar; boxes filled with things that Jona and Theo had grown out of, things that were no longer wanted but there was no chance of them going to charity and things that wouldn't be missed. A sudden idea appeared in the shadow teen's head.
Midonatio flew across the room, leaving darkness behind him as he took the flash light; the boxes were unlabelled but it hardly mattered, "help me with these." he instrusted and began pulling the top box off.
After a few minuets the twins discovered two of the boxes contained mass amounts of clothes, while the other four were just filled with junk.
"what do you expect?" Naruto asked his brother's back as he bent inside a box, "to find an amazing outfit?"
Midonatio suddenly appeared again with what looked like a lace curtain in one hand, "i don't expect to find it." he answered slightly breathlessly, holding the dirty material up against his body, "i expect fate to be on our side for once."
the blond raised an eyebrow but said no more, the tiredness he had felt before was gone as he too began looking through the boxes; surprisingly Naruto found several things that were orange.
A beautiful orange shirt, age 12, with almost matalic swirls all over. An orange and black belt that would have to be resized if it was ever going around Naruto's thin hips. Several sets of brightly coloured shoe laces.
Midonatio made some discoveries of his own, beside the lace curtain; a thin material long coat in a slightly fade black. A silver shirt with glass buttons. A star covered tie that he remembered Theo wearing just the once.
"what are you planning to do with that curtain?" Naruto asked, sizing the belt up right.
The shadow teen held the item up, the light from the flash light shining straight through, "i'm gunna make masks." he said thoughtfully.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "it doesn't say anything about masks."
"i know." Midonatio snapped lightly, "i just thought it would be nice."
"and how, my dear brother, do you intend to turn a pair of manky white lace curtains into masks?" the sun teen asked with a slight teasing in his voice.
The shadow teen dropped the material, finally the sun was beginning to shine through the window, giving him a strange glow, "it's a secret." he whispered.
They spent a while putting all the other stuff back into the boxes and shoving them back in the corner and finally get dressed properly. The clothes they had salveged were stashed safely in their old suitcases under the mattresses.
For the next couple of days and leading into the weekend Midonatio worked hard in making some masks for the two of them; even though the lace was dirty it didn't take more than some soapy water to get it white again, luckily it was Midonatio's turn to do the washing.
He thought it would be a problem since he had so little money but he made do with what he had, resulting in snapping several orange felt tips that belonged to the Mayton twins and using the leaking in to dye Naruto's mask.
For his own the shadow teen stole a bottle of ink from Neji's school bag during P.E., expencive stuff only to be soaked into the curtains.
After cutting them into eye-mask shapes he strengthened them into the right shape with a whole bottle of PVA glue and finished off with some of Tulip's old earrings.
The Namikazi twins hadn't had any contact with either Uchiha brother since the day they had dropped off the invites; they had seen Itachi's red sports car drive past them every morning but he never stopped to offer them lifts any more but the looks Sasuke gave Naruto when he thought no-one was looking said another story.
Finally the day was there, July the 23rd, Uchiha Sasuke's sixteenth birthday; the whole school was buzzing with excitement, at least the girls were, giving the youngest Uchiha a heap load of gifts ever before lunch time.
The twins watched in amusement as Sasuke tried to eat his lunch in peace but was interrupted every other moment. Midonatio nearly died laughing when one girl made the Uchiha jump and he accidentally choked on something he was eating.
"Mid." Naruto suddenly said from behind his notes, "what are we getting Sasuke for his birthday?"his blue eyes looked worried.
The shadow teen frowned, "you'll be giving him your love and I'll give him a day where I don't hate him." he said firmly and a blush stained Naruto's marked cheeks.
The blond cleared his throat, "shall we go there at ten tonight?" he asked quickly.
Midonatio nodded but suddenly someone was standing above them; bright green skinny jeans, a tight green top, big eyes and one very bushy eyebrow.
It was Rock Lee, another one of Sasuke's friends but one who never gave them any trouble, not that he usually gave them the time of day either.
"hello." Rock Lee said politely.
"afternoon." Naruto and Midonatio greeted.
Rock Lee straightened his shoulders, "i was wondering if you were going to Sasuke-kun's youthful birthday?" he asked cheerily.
The twins shared a look, "it's hardly 'youthful' if he's getting older." Midonatio mentioned and the other boy's shoulders dropped slightly.
"and we had no intention of going." Naruto added quickly, putting on his monotone voice, "why?" he inquired.
Rock Lee flushed a very strange colour of pink, "i know you two don't drive so I was wondering if you wanted a lift with me." he said
Midonatio stood quickly, shocking Rock Lee so much that he took a defensive stance, "and why would you offer something like that when you have never even talked to us. You want to drop us in some field in the dark?" the shadow teen snarled, "or make utter fools out of us, the poor kids?"
the bushy browed boy turned a darker shade of pink, "no." he exclaimed, "it's just, I live two doors down from you." that news shocked the twins, "and I thought I could spare you the journey but if you're not going." he turned to leave but Naruto caught his hand from where he was still sitting on the ground.
Naruto smiled brightly, "thank you but we're not going." he told the boy softly.
"not till ten." Midonatio mumbled under his breath but Rock Lee caught it.
His unibrow vanished under his bowl haircut, "so you are going?" he asked, the excitement in his voice again.
The shadow teen sighed deeply, "no offence but I wouldn't take a ride from one of Uchiha's friends anyway." he snapped as softly as he could.
Rock Lee nodded, "see you tonight then." he waved goodbye and ran at top speed back to his group of friends.
Midonatio flopped back onto the grass, "well, now they'll be expecting us." he sighed.
"nevermind." Naruto said, still smiling.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Rock Lee talking to Sasuke separate from the others.