...Unless you've given up on me already? TT
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The light mist that enshrouded Konoha Village was slowly evaporating in the morning sunlight. The three genins made their way along the damp ground, headed for the nearest of the locked houses. This was the one they almost tried to get into, until Naruto had her accident. Today, they had decided to try an early morning start, because they would make better time, but mostly because they were all up before dawn anyway.
The three of them had been back long enough to need more clothes from their respective homes, so all looked a little fresher. Sasuke and Sakura still had on their respective red and dark blue outfits, while Naruto wore her orange pants, a black t-shirt, and her goggles. No one had said more than a few words to each other all morning, and they had no idea what might be inside the house. Enemy ninja. A diseased animal. Undead zombies. Could be anything.
Sasuke went to the door first, knocking lightly. The hinges creaked as it swung open loosely, not even latched shut. More cautious than ever, he pushed it open even further. The sun's rays had not yet reached the windows on the side of the building, so darkness still loomed before them. Slowly, the black-haired ninja made his way into the building, with the girls following right behind him. In the back of his mind, Sasuke suddenly started thinking of Naruto, but tried to push it aside; he didn't need distractions right now. The blonde was unknowingly releasing a fresh cloud of pheremone chakra due to her fear. It was dark and scary, after all.
A sudden bump made all of them jump two feet into the air. Noises echoed from the dark hallway in front of them, and Sasuke quickly disappeared into it, followed by more noises, and a muffled yell. The young ninja re-appeared, holding none other than Hinata! He had both of her hands behind her back with one arm and was covering her mouth with the other. She, obviously, was scared spitless. Sasuke quickly let her go.
"Naruto-kun!" she cried, then quickly latched herself onto the young blonde's arm, trembling.
"Hinata! What's going on, here? Where is everybody?" Naruto sounded unusually worried.
"U-u-upstairs. A-all the adults just ...just ...everyone... walked away... the eyes... almost lost..." Then she burst out in quiet, muffled sobs.
Sasuke turned to Sakura. "You, come with me. You two..." he looked at the two girls "you two stay down here for now. Keep an eye out." And their black-haired and pink-haired heads vanished into the fading darkness.
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After what seemed like an eternity, Hinata finally calmed down enough to let go of Naruto's arm, which was starting to fall asleep, anyway. "I'm so glad to see you, Naruto-kun. I..." Just now, she caught a better look at the only other person in the room. "What...? What happened, Naruto-kun? That's not what you left here looking like!"
"Huh?" Naruto quickly looked down, then back up, and said "Oh, yeah. That. Well..." The young ninja began to explain how he had just woken up as a she, over a week ago, for no apparent reason. As she explained, she remembered the eyes. How they had been so ...all-seeing. How creepy they were. "So what about here? Just what happened?"
They had been standing all this time, so both sat down. Hinata began to explain. "Five days ago, everything was normal. Nothing was supposed to happen out of the ordinary. Then, for no reason at all, everyone just stood up and began walking away. Well, almost everyone. There were a few families that just got scared, packed up, and ran. They all thought the place was haunted, or something. No one would stop, turn, anything. They didn't even hear my pleas. It was just ...so weird."
Naruto, normally bored to tears during a long story, was totally focused on Hinata.
"Soon after, I met up with Neji, Rock Lee, Tenten, Kiba, and Kino. They had all remained normal, but their families had all left. Even the trained and battle-hardened chuunins and jounins were gone. The six of us could only watch as the entire village calmly walked out the gates and never looked back. That was when... I saw a strange vision. It almost looked like an eye, blood red, but with strange black swirls circling the pupil."
This description caused Naruto's heart to stop. No, it couldn't be that. That was just a dream... right?
"Sharingan."
Poor Hinata almost jumped out of her skin. Sasuke was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, watching the two of them. "That's exactly what a Sharingan eye looks like. They are possesed only by members of the Uchiha clan; my clan. ...You said it was a vision?"
The black-haired girl was trembling again. "Y-y-yes."
"That's not all, Sasuke" Naruto spoke up. She proceeded to describe her dream, about meeting Ebisu in the forest, getting hit with a strange juutsu, then seeing the eyes that were described as Sharingan. When she described how the swirls merged with the pupil, Sasuke whipped his head around and glared at the blonde. Angrily, and quickly, he jumped up, grabbed Naruto by the collar and yelled "What do you mean, they merged?!"
Silence filled the room like a sudden flood. No one spoke, no one moved... hell, no one breathed.
Finally, the angry ninja dropped Naruto and apologized. "Sorry. I didn't mean to blow up like that. It's just... just..." He quickly stormed out the front door. Sasuke stood outside for a long time, just staring. Thoughts surged in his mind. Images of death and destruction. Blood. Two evil, red eyes.
"Brother. What are you doing?"
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I think we're gettin' somewhere! Well, now the focus is turned from romance to suspence. Hopefully it'll stay that way. I'm better at it.
R&R, dern it!