Finally, I post the chapter that reveals the secret behind Naruto's Room of the Dead… have fun and enjoy… it's shorter than the previous ones, though.

Chapter Title: 61. The Writing on the Walls

Naruto glanced outside to the village houses that were illuminated in the moonlight. He quietly watched as dozens of people walked down the main road towards the centre of the village to celebrate the autumn festival. It was the first time they felt it was a good time to celebrate anything. Naruto laid his head down to rest on his arms as he watched the many colourful lights in the distance, sighing in disappointment. He longed to be out there enjoying all of the games the villagers had set up in the stalls and being normal for once, but knew he was neither wanted nor welcome at their celebration.

Nobody wanted a monster to ruin their festival.

He glanced down to the street again to see a couple of families laughing gaily with each other, walking at a leisurely pace towards the center of the festival. He frowned lightly, wishing that the young child that woman was holding was him, but he knew that that woman would most likely turn her head away in disgust if Naruto had been her cursed child. Keeping his eyes on the street he started to notice that everyone who walked past would look up warily at his window. It was almost as if going past that building would evoke the horrible demon that lived there and they wouldn't be able to enjoy their little party. Naruto glared at the man passing by and snorted, standing from the window.

He drew the blinds closed and left the sill, finally having had enough of something he really couldn't have.

"Don't worry, Konohagakure." He muttered to himself. "This beast won't be crashing your party. Not tonight."

(Star)(Star)(Star)

Tsunade was seated amongst the center of the activities. She smiled politely at everyone who passed her, grateful to Sandaime's grandson for this idea. The young teen and his friends had returned to the village with barely a scratch. They had been on the outskirts of the village, regaining any of the shinobi who might have been taken hostage.

Konohamaru had told her that if the village had something to celebrate they would be in much livelier spirits. She snickered to herself, watching him run from stall to stall, wonder clearly evident in his eyes. She wasn't quite sure if the boy had meant what he said or if he only said it to have the party. Whatever the reason, he had been right. Lanterns and streamers were hung all around the base of the Hokage monument and seemed to filter into the main parts of the village. She nodded again at a couple of chuunin students who passed by her chair. It reminded her of the two men standing at her side, one of them stiff as a board. She looked up to the jounin and frowned slightly.

"I see your three students are nowhere to be found." She exclaimed to the tense man. Kakashi shrugged lightly and looked down. He had appointed himself guard to Hokage for the night, as he had nothing better to do.

"Are you surprised?" He replied, not bothering to hide the edginess in his voice. Tsunade sighed.

"I suppose not." She answered and turned her gaze back to the festivities. "Poor children. I just don't want to see them keep it all bottled up inside until they do something foolish." She muttered to herself. Kakashi glanced down, frowning.

"They are not children anymore." He bristled. The female Hokage nodded calmly.

"I know, however what they've gone through I should not wish upon my greatest enemy, even if he did deserve it." Kakashi remained silent and went back to surveying the crowd stiffly. Tsunade shook her head and followed Kakashi's gaze to the masses where she spotted Haruno Sakura being dragged through the crowds from stall to stall by Yamanaka Ino.

(Star)(Star)(Star)

"Sakura-chan!" Ino whined impatiently. Sakura's arm was slack in her grip and the pink-haired girl neither protested nor followed. Ino turned around to look at her friend and saw that her face was once again blank. She had felt that if she brought Sakura to the festival she'd lighten up a bit and forget all the bad things for a couple of hours. Sakura gazed blankly into Ino's eyes and the blonde cringed, not knowing how her friend could have receded into herself this much.

"Ino, I would like to go home now." Sakura whispered softly, her voice barely audible over the many people's excited clamour. "I don't feel up to celebrating tonight." Ino acted as if he hadn't heard her friend's request and brought her towards a brightly decorated stall that advertised catching goldfish. The man behind the counter was laughing merrily and there were only a few people lined up to have a go at the game. Ino looked behind her again and found Sakura with her gaze on the pebbles beneath her feet and not at the stall they had come to.

"Sakura-chan, why don't you try this one?" She asked, pulling her friend closer to the stall. Sakura looked up and froze in her place, a gasp escaping her lips.

She began to convulse horribly, tossing her head from side to side as memories of her mother and father taking her to this same stall played through her mind.

"Sakura-chan, why don't you try this one?" Sakura's mother leaned down and asked her. That day, Sakura had smiled and nodded her head feverously before taking the paddle the man offered to her.

"Mother... father..." She whispered, snapping out of her memories. Tears were pouring down her face and many people had stopped to stare at the shaking girl. Ino looked at Sakura worriedly and reached out to grasp her arm, but the pink-haired genin had other ideas and stumbled backwards. "I can't do this!" She cried and pushed her way through the gathering crowd towards the forest.

Ino stared off after the girl looking pained. She had hoped that the festival would take Sakura's mind off of her parents, not remind her of them.

(Star)(Star)(Star)

Uchiha Sasuke cursed loudly when he saw Sakura run out of the village centre and straight through the forest, going right past him. He had been sitting in a large Japanese Pagoda tree watching the village, when the girl burst into tears and had fled the stand to be on her own. He considered chasing after her, but thought better of it, knowing his presence wouldn't serve any purpose and definitely wouldn't comfort her. He cursed himself again quietly, knowing that if he had been even a little bit stronger he could have prevented her pain. If only he had kept going... ignored the blood and the pain. He could have spared so much grief. He looked out to the festival stalls and bowed his head. He could have protected all those innocents.

He scanned the crowd for any signs of his sparring partner. The blond man was no where to be seen, although he wasn't surprised in the least. He felt his shoulders slump in disappointment and sighed. He had hoped that the notion of a party would spark the teen's morale a bit, but he was mistaken. In the last month and a half, Naruto had withdrawn into himself and was a bitter shell of his former flamboyancy. He no longer laughed, pulled pranks, complained and he never smiled. Sasuke had tried everything, said everything, but the man's spirit had been crushed by the war and Sasuke's betrayal. He found that even looking into his once sky-blue eyes gave him chills. Something about the mischievous glint in his eye and the smirk that played across his features had always given him hope.

Finally giving up on finding his rival in the masses, Sasuke turned around on his branch, determined to seek him out. If he couldn't bring Naruto to smile, at least he could check up on his friend to see how he was doing and maybe head to the training grounds. After seeing Sakura run off crying, Sasuke felt an even greater urge to train. He didn't really care that he was being selfish and he ignored what the doctors had told him. They didn't realize that he needed to be free of the guilt and that the only way to do that was to train hard until the next time fate entwined his and Itachi's paths.

If he had been stronger, he would have been able to stop his brother. He wasn't about to let their next encounter end the way it had the last time... with hundreds dead. He wouldn't let any more people's lives be destroyed.

He jumped from his branch to the nearest tree and headed towards Naruto's house, not aware that his method of concealing hadn't hidden him from the Sharingan.

(Star)(Star)(Star)

Kakashi turned away from the forest when Sasuke disappeared from view. He had seen the look of guilt cross his features when Sakura had flown past him and he had seen how quickly determination set in. He was slightly worried that the man would work himself sick, but he knew that he was a very stubborn young man when he wanted to be. Even though the horrible event that had destroyed the village had been over a month and a half earlier, Sasuke still bore the scars from his battles. They were now nothing more than ugly red gashes, that over time would disappear entirely, but they only helped fuel Sasuke's intense burning desire to continue training. When he had been patched up, Kakashi had also noticed that the curse seal given to him by Orochimaru had grown and had spread to most of the side of his neck and down his shoulder. A couple of weeks after that day he had been changing Sasuke's bandages again when he noticed that the seal was still the same size. He knew that his firmer student was worried about the size of the curse seal, but there really wasn't anything Kakashi could do for him now.

Kakashi shook his head, trying to dispel the memories. He didn't want to deal with them at the moment. He knew that if he had the chance to check, he'd find the seal the same exact size, if not larger. The boy held a grudge against his brother so large that nothing would help him forget that anger, only suppress it.

Tsunade looked up at her guardian and sighed loudly and purposely. Kakashi was shaken from his thoughts as she called on his attention.

"Why are you not enjoying yourself?" She asked. Kakashi looked at her, but said nothing, glad that most of his face remained hidden. "You should have fun, enjoy the lights and the life that is left in Konohagakure." She spread her arms wide to emphasize the wondrous excitement that had overtaken the village after so many days of sorrow. Kakashi shrugged and glanced somberly out to the flocks of people that gathered around each stand.

"What's the point?" He asked, his voice monotonous. Tsunade shook her head sadly.

"At least half of the people present lost someone dear to them in that battle, however they are doing their best to go on with their lives. Why can't you?" She asked. Kakashi sighed and dipped his chin to his chest.

"It's because they have had so much time to grieve and mourn for their dead. I cannot go on with my life happily and forget it all until I have properly mourned. Something of which I do not have enough time to do."

Tsunade studied his face for a few moments before nodding and returned her gaze to the festivities. She had offered the Jounin to take off as much time as he wanted but he had flat out refused saying the amount of time he needed was too much and that he had wanted to mourn on his own terms, without anyone forcing him into grieving. He hadn't wanted to sit at home brooding. Iruka wouldn't have wanted that.

(Star)(Star)(Star)

Sasuke stepped up to the wooden door of Naruto's apartment and rapped softly on the solid frame. When no reply came he slid open the door, not entirely surprised to see it unlocked, and stepped inside. The whole room was darkened and all the blinds had been drawn so that the festival lights were blocked out. Sasuke looked around and noticed that an eerie silence had descended upon the entire apartment, broken only by the slow and steady drip of water from the leaky faucet in the kitchen. He walked forward and looked first in the kitchen and then from room to room. There was nothing, no one.

He paused when he felt his foot slide in something wet on the floor. He looked down and lifted his foot to see what he had stepped in. The ground was littered with small splotches of a dark liquid that led from the kitchen to the room that Naruto had always kept locked, only now the door was left cracked open slightly, the light flickering as though it had been on for hours, but the room was still dark and he couldn't see inside too well. He took a step closer to the room and his breath hitched in his chest.

In the light, he saw the dark liquid turn to a sickly red and the drops become puddles, leading him directly to the room. He frowned trying to calm his breathing and convince himself that there was nothing wrong, but as he kept inching cautiously closer, the droplets of liquid were starting to look all too much like blood. He came up to the opening of the door and pushed it open, tensing for an attack, but none came. He peered around the door frame and instantly wished he hadn't as horror and nausea washed over him like a tidal wave.

Sitting in a thick pool of his own blood was just the boy he had been searching for, with his arms hanging limply at his sides, wrists slit deeply. His head lolled onto his shoulder gruesomely and his skin was a ghastly white. Written all over the white walls of the room were names. Just above Naruto's tilted head, he recognized the characters that made up Iruka's name, painted in thick red blood, still dripping down onto the blonde's shoulders. That was when he realized that some of the names looked very familiar. Iruka's name was on the walls, as were the names of Sakura's parents and two of the previous four Hokages. The walls were painted almost completely red with the bloody names of the dead.

Sasuke stumbled backwards, tripping over his own feet, as he gasped for breath at the sight of his rival. It took him a moment before he could collect himself and run forward. He lifted the blonde's arms trying to stem the flow of blood, while doing everything he could think of to try and bring him back to consciousness again. He tried to keep his mind off of the writing on the walls, but his eyes kept wandering to the blood that dripped from his friend's fingertips and the freshly written characters of Umino Iruka.

"Naruto!" He screamed, his eyes moist with tears. He didn't even notice them as he felt the boy's cold clammy neck for a pulse. It was faint, but he eventually caught traces of it and let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He picked up Naruto's lifeless torso and sat behind him, maneuvering his body like a chair, trying to busy his fingers with using his shirt to stop the bleeding.

A sharp hollow laugh jolted him back to his senses. He looked at the blonde to find him chuckling hoarsely to himself. He frowned, shifting Naruto's body in his lap so he would be a bit more comfortable.

"It's no use trying to save me, Sasuke-kun." Naruto whispered, tearing his hands from Sasuke's grasp. He made to argue and take them back again, but he saw a strange look of despair and grief flicker across his rival's face. He paused for a moment, finding himself lost in the boy's clouded blue eyes. "I'm not going to die..." He muttered, hanging his head in defeat, which thoroughly confused Sasuke. He frowned at the boy, but Naruto made no move to raise his glance to meet the Uchiha heir's glare. He pulled at the hem of his shirt and cleared away the blood before thrusting his hand beneath Sasuke's nose.

He looked down to see that the wounds, however deep they might have been, had already started to heal up and repair themselves right before his eyes. He couldn't believe it.

"Look for yourself. The cuts are already healing... I'm being forced to live."

"How...?" He trailed off, looking to Naruto for some sort of answer. Naruto shrugged, getting a far away look in his eyes.

"I'm cursed, remember?" He breathed out, his voice rough from crying. "The fox demon. The reason those ninjas tore the village apart a few months ago. Everyone is blaming me... and they're right. No matter how I want to live my life... or end it, the demon part of me makes all the decisions. I can't die by my own hands. Pretty ironic, ne? All those people from the village died against their wills... and me, the cause of it, forced to live against my own will." He looked up to Sasuke, his face relaxed with weariness. Sasuke looked up to the walls again and had to choke back tears, finally recognizing the common link between all the bloody names. Naruto believed that he was the cause of each person's death. "I'm so damn fucking tired of it, but there's nothing I can do..." He whispered, his salty tears mixing with the blood smeared across his face. "I guess you learn something new everyday, ne?" He added bitterly, making to rub away the tears but only succeeding in making them indistinguishable from the blood that dripped from his fingers.

Sasuke scowled darkly before gathering the blonde in his arms, rocking him back to sleep, muttering words of encouragement and hope from depths of which he hadn't known he had. For a moment he wondered why the lies poured from his mouth like running water and remembered the cheerful bright smile he had come searching for. He knew that whether they were lies or not, everything would be alright if that smile returned, but looking around at the blood splattered room in the dim flickering light and smelling the bitter tang of copper, he knew that even the truest lies were still just lies and it would take more than those to bring back the smile, however false it was, that once brought hope to his mere existence rather than the need for revenge. It may have been overly fake, but he felt that if Naruto could survive his pain and suffering and still put on a smile, so could he have the same strength to keep living through each day. It was something that told him, after he found vengeance by defeating Itachi there would be something left for him to return to.

Feeling Naruto finally go limp in his arms, he sighed and lowered his head to rest gently on the top of the blonde's, nuzzling the soft, blood-matted hair before closing his eyes, as well, and falling asleep to the buzz of the broken light bulb.

(End of Chapter)

WAHAHA! I've been waiting to post this chapter for almost two years!

Would you actually believe I had this written before anything else in this entire story? The only thing added or changed was the Third became Tsunade and I added the room. The room was actually supposed to be revealed later on when Neji and Hinata confront Naruto about Hanabi's death. I just decided you guys had been waiting for too long… and I lost my notes for those chapters. Aside from those additions, everything else is from nearly a year and a half ago. And because I wanted to keep it as much like the original, it's the same length too. About 2000 words shorter than my standard chapters now.

I gave this chapter to Mi-kun early on in the story… and it didn't make much sense to her, but then I resent it to her just after Iruka died in my story and she reread it and everything clicked. Hurrah for editors. Hugs for Mi-kun, cause I never would have gotten this far (in terms of popularity or anything) without you deleting all those commas. Plus, you're good to bounce ideas off of. If I become famous, I'm going to you first to check out my stuff. Heh…

To Aragornthia: I don't mind that you took a break. It must have been something wrong with the story. I'm glad you decided to give it another shot though.

To everyone else: Thank you so much for reading my stupid idea for a fanfiction. I don't know what compelled me to try something as big as this, but the response has been overwhelming. If I'm lucky and can get my notes organized, I can figure out how many chapters till the end, but as of right now, there's nothing so I have to go get organized. Heh heh… I'm not going to promise any dates for releasing the next chapter, but I will say this… I am working on it and it should be finished soon.

Oh… and for proof that this is as old as I say it is… this chapter is the source of the title of the story… Naruto no Hohoemi… Naruto's Smile. I changed it when I realized that there was a pattern throughout the whole story.