'Smooth was the sound of pebbles against water and rough was the sound of light against dark. An echoing silence split the room. A waking nightmare of fears drenched into poor souls' heads and corrupted their view. Not a chance did any have of escaping the demons. One watching owl hooted in desperation as the darkness of the night gripped its feathers with its terrible, haunting arms and…' A boy described.

'No! Naruto! When you said you were going to tell a story, we expected a true story. Stupid!' A girl with pink hair argued. Her bright green eyes were full of annoyance at the yellow-haired boy who sat opposite her, and yet she still felt a slight fear within her of what would happen next.

There was a loud rumble of thunder outside and the trees clawed the windows in terror. Lightning flashed and haunted nature, taunting it with its very wake.

Naruto's face dropped in bore. 'And then the owl and the dark creature danced and danced and then ate some ramen. The end.' He muttered reluctantly. 'And that is true!'

Another boy sat near the argumentative two. His hair was as dark as his eyes and his thoughts wondered far from the strange story that Naruto had concocted.

'Sasuke-kun! What about you? Do you have a story? It is dark at night, and Kakashi-sensei hasn't even arrived yet.' The pink-haired girl asked.

'Sakura-chan! Sasuke's no good at telling stories!' Naruto barked.

'You haven't even heard him tell a story!' Sakura hissed back.

'Well, you can tell it'll be boring anyway.'

'Naruto!'

'Sakura-chan! Why don't you tell us a story?'

Sakura hesitated. Her pink hair wavered about her shoulder as she cleared her throat. She then waved her hands in the air. 'Eh? Me? I-I'm n-no good at telling stories!' She stammered. A tremble awakened in her heart. But I don't want that idiot Naruto to tell that scary story again… and I don't really want Sasuke-kun to be put under pressure… 'A-Actually, I might have a story…'

'Yay! It had better be scary!' Naruto cheered and nodded.

It was getting cold and chills surrounded the three. There was a flickering fire in between them and it shimmered in the wind. Heat hissed from the core of the flame and warmed the air. It was already so dark; you could only see everybody's faces and the parts of their clothes that faced the fire. It was like the rest of them didn't exist, engulfed by the furious darkness.

Sakura nodded shyly, giving a quick glance to Sasuke. 'This story is a t-true story… A-And in my eyes, it's one of the scariest stories I could imagine.' Sakura stuttered. With a gulp, she continued. 'A girl was the age of eleven. Her name was Katani. Many people jeered at her because she was different. She was scared all of the time because of this, and was forced into moving house. Her mother was ill. Her father… she never knew him. She was so alone in this house, all on her own. Her mother spent all of her time in the hospital, and the doctors always reassured her, telling her things that would make her feel better, when they just made her feel worse.'

'What does that have to do with a scary story…?' Naruto murmured, annoyed.

'Naruto!' Sakura screamed, throwing a mound of mud in Naruto's direction. 'I had to listen to your strange, twisted story, now you listen to mine! Anyway, the girl was always so scared of things in the new house. She heard creaks and banging sounds in the night. She would sometimes hide somewhere, but she knew nowhere was safe. The next day, at school, she saw the person that she recognised was her most precious person. This boy's name was Kazenga.'

'What a strange name!' Naruto argued.

Another mound of mud was flung at Naruto. His usual blonde hair turned a horrible brown.

'I made it up on the spot!' Sakura snarled.

'So it isn't a true story!'

'It is!'

'At least use a cool name, like Ramen, or Naruto!'

'What kind of a name is Ramen?'

'A great name!'

Glares were passed from the two.

'Moving on, Kazenga was the most popular boy in the school. Everybody envied him because of that and all the girls adored him. So one day, Katani clenched her fists and took a deep breath and headed to where Kazenga was. She was so scared. She could feel the bubbles of doubt fizzing in her heart. She closed her eyes tight when Kazenga asked her what she was doing. She almost screamed. 'I-I…' She muttered. 'I-I… You're my most precious person!' She shouted, as high as her lungs would let her yell. She then looked around her, and could see the figure moving away from her. Tears fell. Laughter broke out. Everybody taunted her. Jeers were passed from person to person. She hated that day and wished that nothing like that would happen again. She wanted to move house again, but she couldn't. She didn't want to leave Kazenga. And amongst that crowd of laughing people was her most precious person, laughing and laughing at her, making her tears fall, once again.' Sakura said solemnly.

'Eh? What happened to the haunted house?' Naruto asked, confusion rattling his brain.

'I cut that bit out. It would've been too scary for you, Naruto!' Sakura replied with a grin.

'I don't know those two people. Are they really real people?' Naruto questioned.

'Of course not.' Sakura answered. 'I changed the names. I guess parts of it weren't true, but I'd imagine that as the scariest story I could think of.'

There was silence and the rustle of leaves around them shattered it. An eerie silence then formed again.

'I want to tell a scary story!' Naruto shouted, breaking the quiet environment.

'You've already told one!' Sakura replied sharply. Her eyebrows knotted in frustration.

'Fine. Hey Sasuke. Tell a story.' Naruto ordered.

Sasuke looked up at the recognition of his name and saw the other two of his group watching him eagerly, awaiting a story to begin. 'I have no story.' He muttered.

'Dumbasuke.' Naruto commented.

'Oi! Sasuke-kun can tell great stories!' Sakura argued.

Sasuke let out a short sigh. He knew that Kakashi wouldn't turn up at any time soon. He couldn't sense any presence around him, except for the small hum of the insects at work, and even they had been scared away by the pointless arguing from Sakura and Naruto. 'Fine. I have a story, but don't be scared if it's too scary for you.' Sasuke said. 'So whoever feels faint right now can leave. I might as well tell a story. It's not like Kakashi's going to turn up soon. This is my story. There was a faint hum from machinery all around. It was a developed age and everybody had learned to use the valuable resources around them.'

'Machinery? Eh? What's this about?' Naruto asked, confused.

'Na…ru…to! Stop spoiling Sasuke-kun's story!' Sakura screamed, throwing another mound of mud at the poor, confused blonde-haired boy. 'Carry on, Sasuke-kun!'

'As I was saying… Actually, no. To make it more easier to understand, the world has gotten better, and people have managed to make clones, copies of themselves. One day, however, the creator of these clones died in a mysterious accident. Nobody knew what happened to him. Some thought he was suffocated, whilst others thought… others thought he may have been strangled. Nobody really knows what happened to this guy.' Sasuke explained. 'People have investigated the body, but there was one thing that stood out the most.'

Sakura whimpered and shook beside Naruto, gripping a small leaf for dear life. 'I-I…' She breathed. 'N-Never mind. C-Carry on, Sasuke-k-kun.'

'Yes, anyway there was one thing that stood out the most from everything else; something that was so clear, so vivid, that nobody could miss it.' Sasuke described. 'It was something that was so horrible that some people dared not tell a soul about this. And this something was…'