(Smites self, who, consequently is theshinykitty) ARGH! I'm starting a new story AGAIN, when I have 3 more to finish! ...Oh well! Please enjoy my new story, which, (eventually) shall be SasuNaru! Yay! But there's also a teensy bit of SakuSasu (ARGH!) but don't wory, it's just loveless plot device. Oh, yesh, this story is loosely based/inspired/(coughstolen) from the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Naruto not mine.

Requiem for a Dream
1: Nightmare

(Sasuke POV)

Hazy silver mountains passed, all in a perfect row, moving slowly past my window.

Mountains soon gave way to the foggy landscape of rice fields, the occasional wooden electrical pole moving on by. I put my hand on the window glass, hardly noticing the icy chills it sent through my veins.

As I stared out that smoky double-paned glass, memories flew by like the landscape, ever changing. My mind drifted over the events from the past few years, reminding me of exactly why I was on this deserted bus, heading to... where? Oh well, all that mattered was getting away from the hallowed old house, and the memories-and people- they housed.

I pulled my hand off the window, leaving a misty handprint on the glass. I shook my shaggy black hair softly, as if reprimanding myself for remembering. I left to forget.

Miles and miles passed, as did the hours, and soon, the rice paddies were replaced with a swallowing darkness. The only light was from the bus' headlights and the car in front of us, which seemed so distant. The soothing motion of the bus was like a broken record playing a lullaby, and soon my eyelids grew heavy, and finally fell, bringing the paradise of sleep.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I could feel the warm sunlight on my skin, and I could see its light from behind my closed eyelids. The sheets around me were fine and apparently made of silk. I could smell the sweet aroma of bacon frying on the stove, and I could hear the sounds of breakfast being prepared. Then, it stopped abruptly, and a sweet angelic voice sang through my ears, "Sasuke-koi, breakfast is ready!"

My eyes immediately snapped open.

My heart raced as I turned my head in all directions, taking in the surroundings.

I was in a room- my room, but... not. Instead of the messy clothes-strewn floor, there was soft white carpeting. Instead of the stained walls with ripped wallpaper, there was a brightly painted soft white on all sides. My bed, too, had changed. The once old and battered sheets looked new- straight out of the package. I looked to my left. My once bloodstained desk, holding a solitary razorblade clumsily thrown on the surface, was replaced with a brightly polished wood table.

My mind raced with a thousand different thoughts.

Had he caught me?

Where am I?

...Is this... a dream?

"Sasuke-koi? What's taking so long?" the sweet voice called again.

No... no. This can't be home. This... this is the antithesis of my home. A clean room, a bright atmosphere, a voice that holds a sweet melody- this is definitely not home.

I quietly pulled the sheets off me and walked softly to the door, bare feet making a muffled thump, as if a single loud noise would wake me from this... dream.

Shaky hands clenched around the shiny brass doorknob, turning it to reveal a bright wood hallway.

I stared in wonder along the walls, filled with pictures of... me, smiling... something I hadn't done in a long time. I paused and stared at a close-up picture of me, everything about the photo was bright and happy, but... there was something not quite right about it. I searched the picture over and I stopped at the me in the photo's eyes. They were... shiny... but dull. Like a beautifully painted lifeless doll. The were a blank brown, a dirt path leading nowhere.

I jumped back, though, when I heard her teasing, playful voice again, "C'mon Sasu-koi! Breakfast is getting cold!"

I had to find out who she was, why she called to me so sweetly, and most importantly, where the hell I was.

I rushed past more lifeless pictures of 'me,' and rounded the hallway down a set of polished wood stairs into the kitchen.

And that's when I saw her. She was... an angel. Soft cherry blossom hair flowed through sweet smelling air as she turned to face me. A warm smile adorned her perfect features.

I was breathless.

But... that's when I saw her eyes- blank, like the photo's; a doll's. Dull and lifeless green orbs out of place on a stunningly picturesque face.

She spoke, "Sasuke-koi? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!" A sweet melody reached my ears as she giggled softly.

My mouth seemed to be frozen; half with shock and amazement, half with fear.

I finally got the words out, "who... who are you? And... where am I?"

"Silly! I'm U-chi-ha Sakura!" she said as if I were a child, and she found this very amusing, "I'm your wife! Don't you remember?"

...What?

"W... wife? You're my... wife...?" And despite my odd predicament, I started to laugh, "wife? WIFE!" She seemed to be confused as I laughed like I've never laughed before; I've never HAD a reason to laugh before.

"Okay, lady. That's enough, I'm calling the police," stray snickers still finding their way out.

"...Police? What's that?" She asked, genuinely confused. "Sasuke-kun, what's going on? Why are you acting this way?" She stepped a step closer to me.

I quickly backed away from her delicate fingers reaching out to me and looked all around. There were no phones anywhere in sight. I looked past her to what seemed to be the living room and saw there was no TV, no radio, no form of electric appliances anywhere to be seen, sans the lights in the ceiling.

"H-hey, I don't know what's going on here, but I'm leaving," fear seeping into the happy laughter of a few moments ago.

I pushed past her bewildered face and opened the heavy wooden door.

A clearing in a serene wood- what the house seemed to be built in. Sweet flowers littered the ground like a million gems, strewn across the grass carelessly. The sky- the sky... The sky was... was...

I staggered back in disbelief, my mind worked furiously; trying to figure out what my eyes could not.

The sky was... white. Bleached- ashen- a blank sheet of paper; barren. No clouds, no sun, no moon, no birds winging their way through this spotless desert in the heavens.

"What... what is this?" Astonishedly I asked, turning to face 'Sakura' in her pretty pink apron, acting as if this were all very normal for her.

"This is our garden, Sasuke-koi," she said as if coaxing a shy young foal to her side, sickly sweet words coming out of naturally cherry red lips. "Come back inside Sasuke-koi, your breakfast is getting cold." She held out her hand.

I slapped it away.

"No! No! This... this is a dream! It can't be real!" I screamed, "Any moment now... I'll wake up... back to my room, back at home... I don't care if I have to be back with him anymore! Just wake up! WAKE UP! It's a dream!"

"...Sasuke-koi..." Her voice suddenly changed, stopping me in my tracks, her once sugary sweet voice now a sultry temptation. "...Sasuke-koi... This ISN'T a dream... I'll show you..."

My legs had frozen, hearing those words. She walked slowly up to me, my eyes trained on her pouty pink lips. I couldn't help but be entranced, like a puppet bowing to it's master.

They softly pressed against my own, sweet sensations running through my body. I held on, for what seemed like an eternity of the most perfect paradise.

But that's when I opened my eyes. I looked directly into hers. Those blank, achromatic, spheres staring back at me.

I immediately pushed her away. 'Just a dream, just a dream!' I reminded myself, over and over again.

Wild eyes and full of fear, I ran off into the woods, her frantic shouts of, "Wait, come back Sasuke-koi!" still ringing in my ears.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

My lungs burned from running through the trees, snagging my clothes every five seconds, it seemed. I began to slow down once I felt that I had gotten sufficiently far enough away from... wherever...

I looked around at the various trees as I walked further and further away from the clearing, I began to notice something strange.

The farther away I got, the less the tress... looked like trees. Walking briskly, I inspected the other trees; they looked like drawings of trees done by a toddler, the lines bent and broken; the colors going outside their boundaries.

A few minutes later, they ceased to look like trees at all, lines hastily drawn on the landscape; as if they become successively lazier the further they got from the house.

And then, there was nothing.

A barren wasteland; the sky- and everything turned to a lightless coal black.

All I could hear was my soft footsteps, like small, sharp staccatos down an echoing hallway.

And there, was a head of shaggy blonde hair, A bright orange jacket adorned his graceful back. A golden sunshine in this black void.

I called out. "H-hey!"

He turned from his sideways position to face me, a full grin on his glowing face. And his eyes- eyes that were alive with laughter and the sky blue of life.

"Heh..." he chuckled, "She must have gotten a new one..."

"W...what?" I answered.

"What else?" he said, "the puppet master, Lord of the Doll House, dead green eyes. Y'know, the one who calls herself 'Sakura.'"

I was taken aback by all of this. "...Who... who are you...? And why do you know all of this...?" I asked in a daze.

"Oh right," he grinned and held out his hand, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, at-your-service! And I was once one of her... experiments; or as she calls them- husbands."

"...I'm Uchiha Sasuke." I shakily reached out to grab his hand, but I went right through him.

"Oh that's right," he explained, "I guess I've been here so long that I've forgotten my physical body..."

This is a dream, this is a dream...

"And oh," he added, "this IS a dream, just not yours. It's hers. I've been here for... 100 or so years, stuck in her god-forsaken dream, or my nightmare."

My brain tries to process all of this information at once.

"Wait... then, why haven't you aged?" I asked, referring to his 15-year old stature, "and... why did she replace you with... me?"

"I dunno," he answered eloquently, "Maybe it's dealing with some shit about time-space continuum and whatnot like that. Yeah, and she replaces us old ones constantly 'cause the smart ones realize something's not right, and rebel against her, I've seen it many times, nothing works though. But mostly, she just gets tired of us, and decides to get a new one. Plenty more fish in the sea, yeah?" he chuckled at his own joke.

I, of course, didn't think this was a laughing matter. "So? How do I get out of here?"

He stares at me as if I just asked him why they call it Ovaltine when the jar is round. "If I knew THAT," he says, "don't you think I would've been outta here by now?"

I stare at him.

"Noo..." he says sarcastically, "I decided to stay here just for the helluvit."

He sighs.

"Look, all I know is that you can't get out of here by wandering around in this nothingness- I've been at it for over 70 years, and I'm still here, yeah?"

Something inside me stirs, "Yeah?" I say with an arrogant smile on my face, "Maybe it's because you're too stupid... dobe..."

I can see his baby blue eyes narrowing in anger, but something in him must have clicked, because he looked down, an almost sadness in his eyes, and sighed. "Look, we're not going to get anywhere by fighting," he said, "I want to help you escape, I do, but without a physical body, it's rather hard..."

I suddenly feel regret boiling away in my stomach, pulling at my heart when I see his sad eyes.

"But, hey, I know one thing, after being a puppet in her dollhouse for so long, I've had allot of chances to explore; and one thing I've noticed is that there are no mirrors in the house. Not even a vaguely reflective surface to see your reflection in. Not even in the glass windows. Maybe there's something to that..."

He begins to think.

I stand there awkwardly for a few moments, and finally say, "so... mirrors. Got it. So, I guess I should go back now, right?"

He looks up, surprised. "Oh! Yeah." He points to the left of me. "I think that should lead you back to the woods and the house."

"Right." I say.

I begin to walk away when I hear my name being called.

"Sasuke!" He runs up to me, flushed, a pink glow on his whiskered cheeks.

And all of a sudden, he kisses me.

But this... this, was a different kiss than the one with 'Uchiha Sakura,' that one had passion, but no heart, this one was... something else. Real emotion and feeling. Real eyes.

I stood shocked for a few moments, before I took charge. Slowly, I pried open his lips with my tongue, but that's when he pushed me away.

"S... sorry," he said, blushing like mad and looking down. "I've... just been really lonely, y'know? ...Sorry..."

I blushed too, when I heard his stammering and saw his flushed face. "It's... it's okay..." I said, my mouth under-exaggerating what my heart meant to say.

"…I though you didn't have a physical body," I say.

"Oh… yeah…" he stammers, "If I try, I can solid for a few seconds…"

We stood there awkwardly for a few moments until I said, "Um... I... guess I'll go now... bye..."

"Bye..." he said quietly.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After what seemed like an hour of dread walking through crayon trees, then 'real' trees, I stood before the grand wooden house. Sakura was apparently waiting on the steps for me.

"Ah! Sasuke-koi! You're back!" She ran up to me and wrapped her cold, dead arms around me.

"Yeah..." I said.

"Well, I have lunch all prepared for you, so let's go eat, ne?" She asked, honey laced through her words.

As I started to eat the grand feast she had prepared, the savory dishes felt like nothing but sand in my mouth.

I couldn't forget about Naruto.

The sunshine in this... imaginary world.

Yo, it's 2:30 in the morning and my arms hurt from typing and it's freezing cold, so please don't blame me is the end part of the story's a bit… weird. I also realize I stole the title for this story off of a movie, but oh well. Sue me. (Actually, please don't…)

Also, if you wouldn't mind, someone please tell me which story (Neji Over Angsts Some More, Uzumaki Spiral, Stray, or Requiem for a Dream) you would like to see updated soonest, so I know which one to get my lazy ass typing at…

Read? Review!