NOW. This story includes Supernatural Themes, Murder, Suicide, Gore, Vore, Molestation, Violence, Strong and Suggestive Language, and LOTS of blood. THIS STORY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. Read at your own risk. I own nothing but the plot and story line. Please Read and Review.

Kiba's curses rang out in the large, open foyer. The window… hit him. Or at least, it had felt like it. There was a burning feeling in his stomach, as well as a painful sting that signaled the quick arrival of a nasty bruise. Still, it didn't stop him jumping to his feet, afraid the floor would somehow do the same as the window had. But everything remained still after that. Everything but his chest, which was rapidly rising and falling with his frantic breathing. This was supposed to be a simple mission; a SIMPLE one! Now they were locked in, with no way out, and-

"Kiba!" Shikamaru cried, earning a startled stare from the boy and his dog. "Now isn't the time to panic."

When Kiba started to interrupt, Shikamaru raised his hand in a well known gesture to let him finish. He took pity on the guy, but at this crucial moment, to panic was to dig the hole deeper, and Shikamaru knew this lesson all too well. He continued with an even tone of voice, despite his own growing dread,

"Obviously, there's something going on that's a little more complicated than what we first thought. I don't want to risk having whatever happened with you and the window to any of us, so for sanity's sake, I'll assume we're completely locked into this house. Our only logical solution is to continue on with the mission; figure out who inhabits this mansion and get them to let us out, because they can come and go as they please.

"So that means that our only path right now isn't out; it's up." Shikamaru paused for a moment before sending a glance around the silent group, though his gaze came back to linger meaningfully on Kiba's fear-flushed face. "Alright? Are we agreed?" He gently insisted.

Hesitantly, the group nodded, though as always it seemed, Naruto was the first to recapture his bravado. Bringing his finger up to his nose and scraping his fingernail against the outside of his left nostril, he slowly grinned, saying with an ease that none in the room felt, least of all himself,

"Of course we're agreed. It's what we came here to do, ain't it? So if the only way is up, then let's find those damn stairs and get done with this creepy mission!"

Neji was about to agree with the boy, but before he could, Naruto turned around and took off toward one of the many doors this grand hall housed. With a sigh and a shake of his head, Neji heard Sasuke angrily shout at Naruto not to run off, even as he ran after him. Kiba, still shaken up from his unexpected assailant, meekly followed the group as they eventually caught up with Naruto, who had randomly run up to the third door on the left, and thrown it open. Naruto had hoped to find automatically the room with the stairs leading up to the top floor of the mansion, but instead, he was disappointed to see what looked like a dining hall, complete with a long table, perfectly set with fragile china, wine flutes filled a quarter of the way full with a deep red liquid, and blood red candles burning a wonderful cinnamon scent throughout the entire room. Strangely enough, even though the candles had been burning before Naruto opened the door, it looked as though no wax had begun melting as a result of the burning wicks.

There were three doors in this room; two on each side of the long table, and one all the way at the back of the hall, which had to be a good fifty feet from where they stood. With a frown, Naruto imagined that the stairs for some odd reason would be all the way at the back of the mansion. And the quicker they got there, the better it was for everyone. So before anyone else could say anything, Naruto took off once more at a dead run, toward the door farthest from him. He ignored for the moment the frustrated shouts of everyone else, knowing they'd soon eat their words when he told them he'd found the stairs. Just the thought made him grin to himself as he once more threw open the door when he got there.

But he was disappointed again. It was just another room, a lounge, it looked like, filled with chairs and rugs and whatever. Naruto didn't care. Without waiting for anyone else, Naruto scouted the next set of doors; four more, two just ahead, and two to his right; on a random whim, Naruto ran for the north most door on his right, grabbing the handle and tossing the door open again.

A library. More doors. To the left this time.

A study. More doors. Straight now.

Another lounge. Even more doors. With a frustrated grunt, Naruto chose the door closest to him and threw it open much harder than he had been before, only for his face to light up. There they were, in all their polished glory; the stairs to the second floor. With a triumphant yell, Naruto called back to the others,

"I found the stairs! Last one to the top's a coward!"

With a grin, Naruto broke into another run, using all of his speed to get him quickly up the stairs, laughing breathlessly as he reached the top. He bent at the waist, pushing his hands to his knees and trying to catch his breath, waiting eagerly to hear the sounds of pounding footsteps on the stairs behind him.

They never came.

*~*~*~* Meanwhile *~*~*~*

"NARUTO!" Sasuke's frustration at the golden haired boys' actions was clearly evident as he rushed through dining room, through the open door into what appeared to be a lounge. It barely took a second to catch Naruto's trail of wide open doors, so Sasuke's momentum never faltered; he barreled through one room and into the next, his brows furrowing in anger the further he had to run. How far could Naruto have gone? By the time he'd made it through too many rooms to keep an accurate count of, Sasuke finally slowed to a halt, looking around with a skeptical glare. It seemed like… he was back where they'd first come in; the foyer. But all the doors were shut, even though Sasuke knew for a fact that they'd left the doors open behind them, just as Naruto had.

Running a hand through his raven colored hair, Sasuke forced himself to sigh slowly, expelling the air from his lungs as if it were his anger embodied. Shaking his head, he turned around, planning on following the open doors back to the rest of the group.

Only to be met with a door smashing into his nose. A sharp stab of pain spiraled from his nose to every part of his aching head, causing him to jump back in shock. His hands flew up to hold his nose even as he backed away from the door, now oddly closed. But a tickling sensation on the palm of the hand held to his nose confused Sasuke enough to pull his hand away, only to curse loudly. Blood.

*~*~*~* Meanwhile *~*~*~*

"NARUTO!" they heard Sasuke yell.

Shikamaru shook his head, thinking to himself about how much those two might very well jeopardize the mission just by that one yell. There was really nothing else they could do, though. Shikamaru, Kiba, and Neji walked at a normal pace, coming closer to the end of the dining room when a loud, wooden 'thunk' was heard. Neji was the first to spin around with his high reflexes, but Shikamaru soon saw exactly what had caught Neji's attention. The door that they'd come into the dining room from had somehow been shut.

They all paused for a moment, Neji himself wondering exactly what had happened; he hadn't felt any breezes while in the main hall, nor were any of the windows in the dining room open. So that left the possibility that someone had to have closed the door; which in turn, meant whoever they, were knew that the ninja were here. With a grimace, Neji began walking toward the door that was just shut, planning on either opening it again, or breaking it down, if it was locked. But the second he took his first step toward the door, the light coming from the beautiful chandelier on the roof of the room, hanging over the table; burst.

Glass scattered violently around the three boys as they ducked and yelped from the sudden destruction, and it left the only light in the room to the many candles, still burning in all their perfection on the dining room table. Neji slowly stood back to his full height, his wide gaze moving from where the chandelier had been, to where it now was, all over them and the floor. But his gaze soon returned to the closed door, and his grimace fell back to his lips, turning them heavily downward. Something was happening; something none of them could have ever imagined, and Neji was going to get straight to the bottom of it. He took another step forward toward the door, only to pause, listening to Kiba's words from behind him.

"Maybe you shouldn't do that… Let's just… get out of here. Find Naruto and Sasuke."

With a frustrated sigh, Neji glanced over his shoulder to reply, "Then go find Naruto and Sasuke. I want to check on something."

As Neji continued to walk back across the room, Shikamaru shivered; not because he was afraid ( Well, maybe he was, just a little, but there was no way he was going to admit it at this moment in time.. ) but with widened eyes, he realized his shiver came because a small wind had started up at his back. Before he could turn around to figure out where exactly the wind was coming from and why, the soft breeze turned into a hard gust, almost pushing Shikamaru forward.

And blowing the candles out, one by one, as though the wind was chasing Neji down the hall. It caught Neji's attention too, but by the time he turned, he was already at the edge of the table, and so was the wind; but instead of just blowing out the last candle, it seemed to topple it onto the pretty table cloth.

Seconds later, half the table was in flames.

*~*~*~* Meanwhile *~*~*~*

After Naruto had caught his breath, he raised himself from his slightly bent position, all the while wondering why exactly he hadn't heard any of his friends coming up the stairs behind him. As he turned around, expecting to be able to jog lightly down the stairs again to find those slow pokes who had let him pull so far ahead, Naruto realized with a shock that there was nothing but a polished floor and a long hallway stretching out before him.

Not for the first time that night, he felt his hands become moderately clammy. What the hell was going on in this place...? Naruto shook his head, trying to get his thoughts in order. He'd been looking for the stairs; he found the stairs. He went up the stairs and then the stairs were just... gone. Poof.

It had to be some sort of trick. Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, taking a small breath. Maybe when he opened his eyes he'd see the stairs. Maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him in this creepy place. Or maybe he was dreaming; this sort of shit always happened in those damn nightmares, didn't they? Yeah, that was it. Naruto was going to open his eyes and find he was lying in his bed. Now he didn't feel so bad.

With a small, relieved smile, Naruto slowly reopened his eyes, only to yelp and throw himself to the side; not only had he still been in the mansion, on the second floor after running up the stairs that just weren't there anymore, but he'd opened his eyes soon enough to see an arrow whisking straight for him. With his reaction time, Naruto was able to mostly get out of the way of the deadly arrow, but a sickening squelch along with the ripping sound of his jacket sleeve, as well as the white hot pain that shot through his right arm announced that the arrow didn't completely miss him.

The golden haired boy landed on his right shoulder on the polished floor, skidding a few inches as he did so. His groan of shock and pain filled the silent hall as he reached up to the arm the arrow had embedded itself in, only to wince and hiss at the pain that came from even slightly touching it. Panting, Naruto slowly pulled himself up to the wall into a sitting position, noticing with disdain how his body was shaking finely. It was only then that he began to examine exactly what had been done.

The arrow itself was wooden, but there was a steel arrowhead on it; the wood looked like it was old and rotted out, like it had been decaying over several, several decades, and despite the force that the arrow had probably been given, it hadn't gone all the way through his arm; instead, it had gone through all of the muscle on the underside of his arm, to the point where just a quarter of an inch of the steel arrowhead was peeking out in a haze of red ooze that quickly stained his jacket.

Naruto whimpered slightly, both at the pain, and knowing that it had to come out. But the second he actually gripped the wooden part of the arrow, it broke. There wasn't even a snap of the wood to announce it; it just came away like something that wasn't even attached in the first place. And it left the arrow head embedded in his arm, still. Naruto threw the wood onto the floor in frustrated pain, his entire body shaking violently now, only to watch it splinter out, cascading over the polished floor in several directions. Flimsy. Deadly.

Giving a yell of frustration, Naruto slammed his fist into the ground, only to pull it back quickly as a sharp, unforgiving jolt of molten agony barreled through his entire arm; for his second of anger, Naruto had forgotten that even though the arrow's body was gone, the arrowhead was still in his arm, and DAMN did it hurt like a bitch. Even though he was sitting on the ground, he had almost lost his balance and leaned dangerously far to one side; he tried to catch himself, but his arm was just too weak and painful, sending scorching waves of pain through his entire arm with every second pressure was applied to it, and Naruto ended up face planting the floor.

For a second, he sprawled there, panting and close to tears from the intense pain. It wasn't real. It couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. It seemed to become a chant to Naruto as he laid there, unwilling and unable to move for a few seconds. But even he knew it was real, and that he couldn't lie there forever. Gritting his teeth, Naruto pushed all of his weight onto his good arm and forced himself into a kneeling position, though he kept his forehead on the cool floor. At least it felt slightly good, compared to the agony he was currently... and would be facing...

Slowly, taking care not to use his right arm too much, but still brushing the afflicted area and pulling at the drying blood, Naruto took off his orange jacket, leaving him in his black undershirt, which luckily enough, the sleeve ended just above where the arrow had pierced him. With shaking hands, Naruto used his right fingers to tenderly grip the quarter of an inch of the steel arrow head that was sticking out of the back of his arm, wincing slightly in the pain that came from just that small action.

Naruto then took a deep, steadying breath, noticing grimly how even his breath was trembling as he expelled the air. Then he yanked on the arrow.

And screamed.

The steel moved slowly, cutting through his flesh, causing a new fountain of blood to seemingly open up, trickling down his arm in a steady wave of crimson ooze, pooling around his arm; but he didn't stop. The pain flooded his entire body like he'd been lit on fire, but he couldn't stop. Inch by slow, agonizing inch, Naruto tried to pull the arrowhead out of its snug prison, only to cry out sharply as his fingers fumbled with the bloodied and slick steel, coated with his blood. The sharp steel gashed two of his fingers open as they slipped, sending more sparks of pain through his agony riddled body.

It took three attempts, each time tearing up his hand even more trying to get the arrowhead out, before the steel finally ripped through his flesh all the way, sending flecks of blood scattering about on the polished floor, not to mention a fresh wave of that thick crimson liquid cascading down his arm into the sticky pool beneath his arm. The steel arrow made a sharp clanging noise as Naruto threw it to the floor, filling the semi silence along with Naruto's heaving pants. And for the longest time, Naruto just laid there, holding his arm.

Crying from the pain.

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