A/N: Gore and smut ahead!
Chapter 4
Kiba was awoken by the sound of thundering footsteps and a familiar voice.
He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep, and silently berated himself for it. He was a shinobi for god sakes, he should know better than to fall asleep on the job, especially in the middle of a critical situation. It was that thing that did it, he was sure of it. The minute the goopy strings holding it back snapped, he was hit with the worst migraine of his life. It took a lot of crouching in a dark corner and aspirin to make it go away, and when it did he was hit with a wave of lethargy. He couldn't help but fall asleep.
And he couldn't help but wake up, snapped back into action as he heard the commotion outside. He knew that the glass cracking and the long, wet thumping was just one of the monsters he'd seen patrolling the halls, but he also heard the squeaking of rubber soles on tile. He also heard someone yelling frantically, and he recognized the voice instantly.
"Neji!?" Kiba yelled through the door, not sure if he should open it. With all the weird shit going on, it could very well be one of those drippy things impersonating Neji. Or it could just be Neji, but he decided he'd rather not risk it.
"Kiba!? Kiba, for the love of god, open the fucking door!"
"Neji, what the hell's going on out there!?"
"Open the door! Please, god, it's HIM! I knew he was here, I knew it it's his fault! It's his fault! Open the door!!!"
When he heard Neji let out a choked sob, he finally opened the door. He didn't know what to think. He'd never, in all of his young life seen Neji cry. He'd never even heard about Neji crying, hell, he didn't think he could!
The second the door was unlocked, it was pulled from his grasp and thrown open wide, only to be slammed shut again once Neji was inside. Kiba took the time to evaluate his mission targets condition.
All in all, he looked horrible.
Neji's usually immaculate hair was in complete disarray, wild and plastered to his neck and forehead with sweat. Shallow scratches covered his left arm and thigh, and some thing on his right thigh seemed to be bleeding through his shorts. Neji's headband was long gone, and so were his nerves of steel apparently. The boy's knees had given out, and he had slid to the floor, breathing hard and sobbing violently. He looked absolutely terrified.
"Neji, calm down, just breathe…" Kiba said gently, trying to inch his way closer to the Hyuuga without him freaking.
"I… I… oh god, please, lock the door." Neji closed his eyes, leaning his head against the wall. His breathing began to slow as he furiously wiped at his cheeks. Turning his face away from the other nin, he undid his ponytail (which was already hanging on by a few strands) and pulled his hair back into a loose bun. When he was sure he looked half decent again, he turned back towards Kiba, eyeing him strangely. The other boy hadn't moved since he got in there.
Kiba flopped down onto the floor beside him, leaning against the wall behind them as well. He'd never seen Neji do anything with his hair other than his usually ponytail. The boy usually made sure he looked perfect before he ever set foot in public. Whatever the hell happened, it must have spooked him good. And if it could terrify Neji Hyuuga, he sure as hell never wanted to run into it.
All the same though, he was curious. He knew he shouldn't ask, that he should just let bygones be bygones, but his curiosity got the better of him, "So, Neji... who were you running from? It didn't sound like the little creepy things running around here."
Instead of hitting him or telling him to fuck off, much to Kiba's surprise, Neji turned to face him, eye's wide with shock, "You can see them?" He whispered, as if he was afraid the big beasties outside would hear, "The things? What about this room? Do you see the blood? The rust?"
"Blood and rust?" Taking a minute to look around, Kiba (much to his chagrin) saw that Neji was right. The walls were covered in a thick coat of rust, and the stalls and sinks were running red with blood, "Oh fuck… when did this happen!?"
"Shut up!" Neji whispered sharply, bristling, "Do you want every… thing in the whole fuckin' building to hear you?" Sighing, he relaxed back against the disgustingly grimy wall, "It happened right around the time I got locked in the elevator."
Although he was tempted, Kiba stifled the oncoming wisecrack. He was having a bad enough day already, and he didn't feel like waiting around for a medic he knew wouldn't come. Instead, he set his sights on the one question Neji ignored, "So anyway… who were you running from again?"
Immediately, Neji turned away. He wasn't going to say it; Kiba had no right to know. Only he, Tsunade and Gai knew about that night, about what happened, and he was going to make damn sure it stayed that way.
"Neji…" Kiba pressed, now totally intrigued, "Please… This mess is probably my fault anyway, so let me help fix it." I truth, he already had a pretty good guess who it was Neji was so afraid of. In addition to his mission info, he also received a copy of his targets police and hospital records. There was nothing too extraordinary on his police report, but his hospital records were another story. After his Chuunin exam check-in and the failed Sasuke retrieval mission, Neji was checked into the sexual assault ward. If anything was wrong with Neji, it had something to do with the attack.
"Help? You want to help!?" Neji scoffed, "You've done enough! If you hadn't… ugh, you probably led him here! Who hired you!? Was it him!?"
"Was it who!?"
"The repo-man!"
Totally flabbergasted, Kiba sat back, looking at Neji as if he'd grown another head, "The repo-man? Neji, is that the guy who—"
"Who what?" Neji whispered, his expression blank. He couldn't know, there was absolutely no way he knew about…
"The guy who… raped you."
Neji recoiled as if he'd been hit, "How the fuck do you know about that!?"
Kiba sat back on his heels, reaching a tentative hand towards Neji. He'd totally fucked up now… Neji probably thought that no one would find out, and he'd completely destroyed that theory, "It was part of my mission description… look, Neji no one else knows, and I swear to god my mouth is totally shut on the entire subject! I just want to help…"
"You want to help…?" Neji asked timidly, looking back at Kiba over his shoulder.
"Yes, I want to help."
Turning around, Neji shimmied up the two feet to where Kiba was sitting, taking his outstretched hand in his, "Then help me forget." He breathed.
What happened next, Kiba really couldn't say. All he knew was that Neji perched in his lap, arms around his neck and mouth firmly attached to his.
Neji's lips were fuller than any of the girls (and guy) he'd fooled around with before, and he really knew how to work his tongue. Before he could grasp the situation, Kiba had flipped them over and taken control of the kiss, his tongue invading Neji's mouth, drawing a moan from the boy underneath him.
Kiba slid his free hand under the back of Neji's head, pulling his hair free of the half assed bun. Fisting a hand into the thick, dark locks, Kiba pulled them gently, planting light kisses and bites along the older boy's neck, trailing down to his collarbone.
Sliding the loose gray sweater off of Neji's shoulder, a spark of realization cut through the lust like a knife. This was the man who'd just begged him to hide him from his rapist. He'd been so terrified he'd cried. And now, probably from shock, he was desperately clinging to the one normal person he could get his hands on, and Kiba was taking advantage.
Pulling back, Kiba looked down at the boy beneath him. This wasn't the arrogant, stuck up little snot he barely knew. This was a horribly abused and frightened young man who was franticly trying to piece together some semblance of normality. It was awful what had happened to him, and it was awful how Kiba was letting himself forget about Neji's well being and instead taking what he wanted, what he wasn't even sure he wanted!
So why didn't he seem to care?
"This can't be real…" Kiba whispered, running the backs of his knuckles against Neji's cheek, "How could this be happening?"
Neji's hand encased his own, his fingers curling gently around his, "Then it isn't." He replied gently, kissing Kiba's knuckles softly, carefully as if he were going to pull his hand away.
Lowering his head, Kiba ran a trail of long, warm butterfly kisses along Neji's jaw, "How?" he asked, gently nibbling at Neji's throat.
"Trust me."
Looking up sharply, Kiba came face to face with one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever seen. Neji didn't beam or grin or even smirk… just a small quirk of his lips, but it seemed to transform his entire face. His eyes were brighter, cheeks healthier… he looked absolutely mesmerizing.
Kiba captured Neji's lips again, his tongue urging them apart, mapping out every curve and contour of his mouth. His hands found the waistband of Neji's pants and set to work on ridding the boy of those as quickly as possible.
Vaguely registering the small vial being shoved into the palm of his hand, Kiba knew he was on the verge of snapping. It just didn't seem real… nothing did. He couldn't think. He wouldn't allow himself time to think. If he thought, than this would be over, all of it and he knew he would never get this chance again.
Neji groaned softly as Kiba pushed into him, his fingernails digging grooves into his back. Kiba hardly noticed the sting of nails ripping at his skin or the small trail of blood flowing down his back, his head clouded as he thrust into the boy beneath him.
Hiking his thighs around his waist, Kiba growled deep in his throat, trying not to hear the small, pitiful sounds Neji was making as he drove into him. "Don't think" kept running through his head like a mantra, his eye's squeezed shut as he tried to ignore the fact that Neji's clawing at his back wasn't from pain or pleasure, but from genuine fear. He tried to ignore the boy's pleas for him to stop, to let him go, that "It hurts, oh god, please stop, please!" He tried to ignore the fact that he wasn't helping, and that he was, in fact, just as bad if not worse than the "Repo-man",
Soon, all the begging and the ragged sobbing stopped, and the room was deathly quiet, the only sound was the wet, sickening slap of skin on skin and Kiba's muffled groan as his orgasm slammed into him.
"Kiba…"
The smell of blood hit his nose, and his eye's immediately snapped open. Kiba sat back on his heels, his eye's wide.
"Kiba…" Neji croaked as a trail of blood ran down his chin. Arching his back, his blood soaked hair sticking to the floor, his hands shaking uncontrollably against the cracked, rusty tile. Trails of blood tracked down from his hair line, running over his face and pooling into his eyes.
"Oh god, Neji, what…?" Kiba trailed off, falling backwards as Neji grinned at him through the endless rivulets of red.
"Kiba." He said, his eyes almost purple from the blood, but still wide open, "Wake up you mother fucker before I kick in your shin!"
And with a slap, he was back in the present, staring at a non-bloody, not crying but very pissed off Neji.
"I've been calling you're name for ten fucking minutes! Jesus, when you're out you're out…" Neji stood up straight, holstering a blood stained gun in his bag. He looked terrible, but he wasn't drowning in pools of blood, so that was definitely a bonus.
"Yeah, I've heard that a lot." Kiba mumbled as he pulled himself to his feet, "And you swear way too much." It was just a dream, he thought, a weird, totally inappropriate, down right out of place dream, but a dream nonetheless.
"What do you mean?" Neji asked, giving him a weird look, "I've only talked to you twice, and that was today." With a huff he turned towards the sink, turning on the water and vainly trying to get some of the blood out of his loose grey sweater.
"Huh… it was actually accurate." Kiba muttered, surprised how detailed his nightmare (cause really, what else could he call it?) was. Just like in his dream, Neji was wearing civilian clothes. Nothing special, just a baggy grey knit sweater and a pair of khaki Bermudas, but every single detail was accounted for, from the length of the shorts to the way the too big sweater hung loosely off his left shoulder. Everything was eerily similar.
"What was accurate?" Neji questioned, not taking his eyes off his sweater sleeve, frowning when the stain seemed to grow rather than dissipate.
"Ah, nothing, just a dream." Kiba walked over to Neji, grabbing hold of the boy's wrist, examining the damage done to the sweater, "Damn, you fucked this up. You're not gonna be able to get this out without a shit load of bleach."
Neji wrenched the aforementioned wrist out of Kiba's grasp, and with a frustrated groan, he rolled the sleeve up to his elbow, "Thanks for the insight, genius." Frowning again at the other sleeve this time, he rolled it up to, "Now who swears too much…?"
Not even dignifying that with a response, Kiba looked around the small restroom, cursing under his breath. Not only was his dream right about Neji's clothing, but it was also right about the rusty, bloody scenery, "When the hell did this happen?"
"Hmm?" Neji looked around, taking in the change in their surroundings with great ease, "Oh, this… I think it happened right around the time I bumped into that crazy bitch and got locked in an elevator."
"What was that?" Kiba demanded, eyes desperately searching Neji's face for any indication that he was joking, that he hadn't heard that. He couldn't have. He could understand that he could have dreamed about the clothes and the change in ambiance, because he was certain that he'd seen them before he fell asleep, but if he'd heard Neji correctly…
How could he dream about something, accurately, that he didn't know?
"What part?" Neji asked, a little put off by Kiba's tone of voice.
"The part about the elevator."
"I got locked in there after I met this Claudia chick." Neji said, recalling every little detail about what happened to him to an un-listening Kiba.
How the hell could he possibly have known that? Kiba distinctly remembered the Neji in his dream telling him that the mall had transformed after he'd gotten locked in an elevator. He'd dreamt something, probably before it even happened. How did that happen without—
"Wait, what?" Kiba asked, "Claudia? As in Claudia Wolf!?"
"Well, I didn't get her last name, but she said she was Claudia and she was here to witness the beginning of judgment." Neji replied, a little apprehensive as to why Kiba was so damn interested in that psycho.
"Shit, that sounds like her too…" Kiba leaned back against the grimy wall, running a hand through his bangs, "Neji, she's the chick who hired me to track you. She's the one who said that you were essential to her 'family' or something."
"What?" If looks could kill, Kiba would be a heap of ashes on the restroom floor. Neji looked as if he could murder him.
"Look, Neji, she seemed harmless enough. She was just asking for help and—"
"And she started this!" Neji shouted, slamming his fist against the sink, apparently not caring if he woke up all the evil beasties in the entire mall, "You helped her! You helped her do this to me!"
"Hey, I hate to rain on your pity party, but I'm stuck here too!" Kiba shouted back, bristling. He didn't care if he pissed Neji off anymore. If that asshole thought he was the only one in deep shit at the moment, he was sadly mistaken.
"Yeah, but your not the one who has to keep watching their fucking back!"
"Why the hell is that any different than what is happening to me!?" Kiba demanded, still fuming, but now genuinely confused. Neji wasn't stupid, he must have known that Kiba can see the monsters too, and that they have a nasty little habit of attacking anything that moves, which included him!
"Because you haven't spent the past three weeks in hell!" Neji was screaming at him now, going beyond anger into full blown hysterics, "You haven't had to install three new dead bolts on your front door! You haven't had to get an extra motion sensor for your bedroom! You don't have to worry every night before you go to bed, or when you leave the house, or when your taking a fucking piss that someone is going to shove a gun to your head and—"
Kiba took a step back as Neji's hands flew to his mouth, trying to get as far away from the Hyuuga's personal bubble as possible. His years of training were warring with his better instincts. All his shinobi training told him to keep his distance, and that Neji was unstable at the moment and would probably attack. His instincts, or rather his morals, were telling him that space was the last thing he needed, and that the poor guy was in way over his head.
He was snapped out of his little tug of war when Neji knelt down to pick up his bag, "Hey, where you going?" Kiba questioned.
"I just… just leave me alone. If it weren't for…" Neji mumbled, staring at the floor, "I gotta go, I gotta get out of here."
"Neji, wait, I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Neji replied, still not looking up, his hand fumbling with the door knob, "You couldn't have known who she was."
Kiba raised an eyebrow, taking a tentative step towards Neji, "Who is she, then?"
"I don't know." Neji chuckled, then chocked it back, hearing his own hysteria within the frantic giggle, "One of them, I guess. All I know is she knows me. She knows stuff even I don't."
Kiba reached out, cautiously placing a hand over Neji's, stopping him from opening the door, "Y-you don't have to go alone."
"I know."
And then he was gone.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"A subway!? How the fuck did I get in a subway?"
Sasuke's question echoed throughout the empty space, the only sound joining it was the sharp slapping of Sasuke's slippers as he walked up towards the turnstiles.
He'd gone through the hole against his better judgment, expecting to end up in the room next to his, or maybe in the boiler room or something… but as soon as he got halfway through, he realized that it was much, much longer than he anticipated. And when he started to reach the end, it had started to change from a ragged, carved out cave in stone to an industrial pipe. Then he'd blacked out. The next thing he knew, he was passed out in the middle of the Hazel St terminal.
Walking down the abandoned halls, Sasuke cracked a smirk. He couldn't help it, the irony was just delicious. His final ultimatum; either starve to death in his apartment, or venture into the one place he hated more than the Uchiha compound, a subway.
He'd never ridden on one in his life. He never saw the point. He was a ninja, he could get anywhere he wanted on foot for free, and he'd get there just as fast as anyone on the subway. The only reason Konoha has a subway track was for the civilians.
So it really shouldn't have surprised him to find a civilian.
"Hey, hot stuff." The civilian called to him.
Sasuke was completely floored. It wasn't like he'd never seen a drag queen before, but this was just too fucking weird. He was escaping his apartment via the subway the appeared in his bathroom wall, and just happened to run into a drag queen.
"Hey, honey, you alright? You look fucking sick…" The man in the stilettos asked him, walking up to him with practiced ease, despite the four inch contraptions strapped to his feet.
"Uh, no, not really." Sasuke replied, "Who are you?"
"You don't know? You're in my dream and you don't know who I am?"
Sasuke was taken aback by the statement, "You're dream?" He asked, "You think this is a dream?"
"Well of course it is!" The man replied, "What else could it be? I'm Starla, by the way."
"Starla?"
"Well, it's really Hitoshi, but if you go spreading that around I'll fucking gut you." Starla stated unwaveringly, with a small humorless smile, "And who might you be, cutie pie?"
"Sasuke…" He replied uneasily, wary of the seemingly harmless man. He didn't know who was fucking with him, but he wanted them to stop.
"Well Sasuke, shall we?" Starla gestured towards the turnstiles, smile widening, "Or are we just gonna stand here and stare?"
Shaking his head, Sasuke started off down the hall, brushing past Starla. What did it matter if he helped a drag queen get out of the subway? It beat sitting at home watching a black TV screen.
They walked just two feet before Starla clasped a cold, skinny hand around Sasuke's fore arm, stopping him in his tracks.
"What is it?" Sasuke insisted exasperatedly.
"Fuck, I think I'm gonna puke!" Starla staggered forward a few feet, letting go of Sasuke's arm and attempting to regain his balance. With a couple more lurching steps, he made his way towards the bathroom door, and much to Sasuke's amusement, made a show of not going into the men's room. He knew he'd seen the guy before but he just couldn't remember.
Leaning against the adjacent wall, Sasuke slid down onto his ass, crossing his arms and closing his eyes. He knew the guy, he knew him. He was certain he'd seen him around quite a bit, but he just couldn't place where and when it was.
He was snapped out of his reverie when he heard the door swing open, "Finally, shit it took you long enough." He muttered, waiting for some snide comment or smart ass remark, but instead was greeted with ragged growls.
Looking up, his hand tightening around the lead pipe he'd grabbed from home, his eyes met something else's, or at least what was left of them.
Jumping to his feet, Sasuke dodged out of the way to the green dogs attack, whacking it across the back of the head with the pipe. The thing gave a low whine, but as soon as it had gone down, it was back up on its feet.
Giving the thing three more whacks, two to the head, and one last one to the back legs, it finally went down with an ear splitting cry.
"What the hell is this thing!?" Sasuke demanded, giving it a kick. He'd never seen anything like it in his life. It looked like a cross between a diseased dog and Orochimaru. The thing was green and flaking, its tongue grotesquely long and wrapping around its hind legs. It was fucking disgusting.
By passing the thing, Sasuke kicked open the bathroom door, only to find out that Starla wasn't there. There was, however, a big, ornate hole carved into the middle of the far wall.
"Oh well." Sasuke muttered under his breath, "Anything's better than this." Entering the hole, Sasuke could have sworn he saw Starla sitting in one of the over turned stalls, but before he could investigate, he wasn't in the subway anymore, but sitting on his bed.
Looking around, Sasuke deduced that it was, in fact his room.
He tried not to think. He tried not to think that his door was still locked, that there was a creepy, giggling, growing hole in his bathroom wall. He tried not to think that he might have just left someone to die.
Lying back against the pillows Sasuke closed his eyes, willing himself to just sleep, but he knew that with what was happening lately, it was absolutely no use.
It was going to be a long time before he could sleep peacefully again.
TBC.
A/N: Jesus, this took a long time and lots of long nights to finish, but thank god it's OVER. Next I have to tackle getting Tenten and Sakura's episode started. Wish me luck!