"WHAT?" Naruto, with his bird's nest blonde hair, and robin's egg eyes, shouted. Said shout was directed at his best friend/employer Haruno, Sakura. Sakura stared back at him. Her grass green eyes were filled with determination, for you see, Naruto was not the easiest person to deal with, especially not when one is trying to get him to take an unwanted job. "You've got to be kidding me! No way am I going to stay in some run down old castle with a murderous ghost!" The blonde boy continued to rant on about why no one, including his-self, wanted to accept the job. His loose fitting orange sweater swayed with the movements of his flailing arms and the vibration of his body as he continued to yell.

Sakura leaned back in her seat other side of the table, her bubble gum pink hair bounced slightly with the movement and her bangs fell in her face. She blew them away with a puff of air and gave a soft sigh when they fell right back down. She leaned over to her right to whisper something to her husband Rock, Lee.

Though Lee and Sakura were married, Sakura simply refused to take her husbands name stating that 'If she were to change her name it would take away from her image.' Naruto and Lee couldn't understand why she thought that, but they let her have her ways. Though Naruto's crush on the woman had gone and passed he still admired her for her strong spirit and persistent ways, she had never lost an argument in her life and she didn't intend to start now.

"Naruto-kun please calm down." She folded her hands in her lap and twiddled her thumbs. She watched the bright red nail polish as her fingers moved around each other. "I'm sorry, but all of the other employees are either away on vacation or are already working a case."

Naruto looked to Lee for assistance. The man simply shrugged his shoulders, the green material of his turtle-neck sweater wrinkled for a moment before relaxing back onto his skin. Lee hadn't said anything, but Naruto could clearly hear what the bushy browed male was thinking, It's a losing battle, you might as well quit.

"What are the details?" Naruto slumped forward in his seat, his hair brushing over the table top.

Sakura smiled at her friend and clapped her hands together in glee. "Oh, Naruto! I knew you wouldn't let me down! Lee could you get the folder for this case?"

Lee was dragged out of the blank state he had fallen into and nodded once before getting up and heading to another room the Naruto hadn't noticed when he'd entered the building.

Sakura watched as her husband, who closely resembled a humanoid bush with over sized eyebrows, left the room. "Naruto," She called his name as if he was a young child. "Do be careful. Not only are you one of my best employees, you are one of my closest friends. I simply wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything were to happen to you."

Naruto tapped his feat on the floor, not caring to respond to his friends shot speech. Thump, tap, thump, thump, tap…

Lee came in with an over stuffed manila folder and set it down in front of the blonde who was seated in the high-backed chair.

"Those are the case files. If you have any questions the phone number of the person you should contact is stapled to the back." Naruto turned the parcel over and found that there was indeed a phone number written in Sakura's elegant calligraphy. He also noted that there was a map folded into a neat square taped beside it. Naruto read the words 'Just in case' with a heart beside it written on the otherwise clean paper.

When the blonde looked up again to see that the other male was already back at his wife's side. "Am I dismissed?"

Sakura nodded and motioned with her perfectly manicured hand toward the door in which Naruto had entered. He pushed himself away from the table and stood, rather clumsily from sitting for so long, and left.

………

"God damn it!" Naruto placed his now bleeding finger in his mouth. 'That's the fifth time today that I've been bitten by a rodent!' He swatted the small field mouse with his foot and watched as it scampered away.

It had been a week since he had accepted the case of 'The Blue Man' and three days since he had arrived at Arundel castle. He had yet to read the case files so all he knew was the information that Sakura had informed him of. Which was…limited to say the least, all he knew was that the ghost had killed four teenage boys for reasons unknown and he was most likely to be spotted in the library.

He was currently walking through the third floor corridor. According to the map this was where all of the main bedrooms were located. He had passed a few family portraits earlier and made note that a few of the faces had been ripped off of their owners. Which meant that it was always the, what he assumed to be older brother's face that was missing.

Naruto came to a stop when he spotted yet another portrait…but this one was different. Naruto took two steps forward…he paused. He took four steps back and stopped.

He glared at the portrait of the young man clad in black. The ink haired boy's eyes were following him! That he knew, was not normal. He walked up to the portrait and waved his hand in front of the painting's face. It blinked.

Naruto took his bible out of the bag he had slung over his right shoulder. Blood started to seep out of the bottom of the golden frame that the portrait was in. A voice popped into his head.

'What do you want?'

Naruto stared at the painting his hands shaking. Blood was starting to seep into his shoes. If his mind had been functioning correctly, he would have made a mad dash for the nearest exit.

'What do you want!' The voice was louder now. The painting's eyes turned from onyx to red.

"W-who are y-y-you." Naruto choked out his voice barely above a whisper.

The blood ceased to flow and began to soak into the wall and floor.

'Uchiha Sasuke.'

Naruto returned his bible to his bag. "That's you in the painting, isn't it?"

'No. It's Batman.'

Naruto frowned. "Are you the one who killed those boys?"

It took the voice, now known as Sasuke, to respond. 'And what if I am.'

Naruto held his breath. "Are you going to kill me as well."

'No.'

"Where are you?" Naruto noticed that the painting no longer seemed to be following him.

"Behind you."

Naruto gave a startled yelp before whipping around to come face to face with what he though could only be described as perfection. He took a step back to regain his balance.

"You're Sasuke?" Naruto asked stupidly.

Sasuke sighed. "Don't ask stupid questions like that."

Naruto heard the large steel doors open signaling someone's arrival. He snapped his head in the direction of the noise.

"I wonder who that could be?" Naruto looked back at Sasuke. He nearly screamed. In Sasuke's place was the most terrifying creature he had ever seen. It had all of Sasuke's features, but his skin was rotten and chunks of it were falling off. His eyes were sunken back into his skull and part the left side of his face was missing revealing the bone that was underneath. His clothing was no longer the neatly pressed elegant substance it once was, now it was gray and torn with blood stains along the front. The worst part though was the gaping hole in his chest where his heart should be…

………

R&R