Author's note: It's no longer Halloween here, but I couldn't resist sending one more treat your way! I have no clue what I was thinking when I wrote this; blame my sleep deprived mind. It's ... something. Hopefully still suited for the Halloween spirit!

Main warning at the end like usually for my Halloween fics!

Warnings: Naruto's pov; Alternate universe; slash; bullying; violence; NOT FOR SAKURA FANS!; horror; Halloween fic

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like it and I wish you all a Happy Halloween!

Mirror Move

Naruto had never liked looking into the mirror at home. Ever since he was a kid he had done everything he could to avoid even glancing briefly at it, let alone actually look into it.

Because his mirror image scared him.

It was subtle, the creature in the mirror. It was him yet at the same time it wasn't him. When Naruto looked into the mirror he would see himself at first. The longer he stared, however, the more things would change. His blue eyes would slowly gain a reddish sheen and look back with a sinister glint in their depths. An eerie smirk would spread out across his face even when he wasn't smiling at all. At this point he would always run away, scared out of his wits, but if he dared to glance back, he would find his image staring back at him – even when he didn't look at it directly.

He had cried a lot about it when he had been a kid. Terrified of the scary creature in the mirror, he had absolutely refused to be alone in the bathroom, insisting that either mum or dad had to be with him. Because if they were with him, his image would stay normal and the scary monster in the mirror didn't get the chance to terrify him.

Mum and dad had indulged him for a couple of years until they deemed him to be too old to still believe in scary stories and had insisted, gently but firmly, that he could go into the bathroom alone. He tried to make himself believe that the scary being in the mirror was just his imagination running wild, but it was always there: gazing back at him with eerie eyes and an even scarier smile. It taunted him, the creature, daring him to keep looking.

Naruto didn't dare.

So he kept his eyes down every time he entered the bathroom and refused to look up even once; not even to check whether his mirror self was finally normal. It never was. The more he acknowledged it, the more it seemed to enjoy it, so Naruto ignored it as best as he could.

That worked until his image started talking to him.

It started out almost unnoticeably at first, but hyper aware as Naruto was every time he walked into the bathroom or passed a mirror somewhere, he picked up on it immediately. The quiet whispers calling out his name, telling him to look. Inaudible at first, but slowly growing in volume.

The first time it spoke his name aloud, Naruto was startled into actually looking up – and regretting it immediately. His mirror image grinned back at him and as Naruto watched in silent terror, the being in the mirror slowly raised its hand and pressed it against its side of the reflective surface. Naruto looked down, saw his own hands tightly clenching the edge of the sink.

He ran out of the bathroom and didn't return until the next morning.

His mirror image kept talking to him; its voice distorted and painful to listen to, like glass getting scratched.

Naruto kept ignoring it – until he could ignore it no longer.

"I could help you."

Naruto steadfastly ignored the mirror and focused on carefully spreading out the balm over his sore side. The skin was already starting to darken in several places there; he would have to be careful with how he moved around for the next couple of days if he didn't want to alarm his parents.

"Don't you want help?"

The scratchy voice was grating on his nerves. It needled at him, worsening the headache he had been carrying around ever since Sakura had punched him in the back of his head. His head was a pounding mess and the distorted voice only made it worse.

"All you have to do is say the word." It was spoken in a sing-sung type of voice, scratchy and awful.

Naruto snapped. For the first time in more than three years he looked up and stared right at his mirror image. His image perked up at that and smirked, tilting his head slightly to the left.

"You look awful," the evil being cooed and snickered. It raised its hand and racked its fingers down the glass like claws. The god awful screeching noise had Naruto clutching his head, but when he looked up again, there was not even the slightest blemish left on the mirror.

"What can you possibly do, huh?" he hissed; his fear swallowed up by the fury he felt at the taunting smirk on his own image.

He was so sick and tired of constantly feeling afraid every time he walked past a mirror! What could his image even do, trapped as it was beyond the mirror? That was right, it couldn't do shit! All it could do was try to scare him by changing its looks and Naruto had let that go on for far too long. This bullshit ended today; he had other things to worry about, things that were actually tangible, people that were all too real and could actually hurt him. His image couldn't hurt him, no matter how much it tried to scare him.

His image lifted its eyebrow and the red sheen in its eyes seemed to deepen. "I can do more than you think," it spoke eerily. "I know more than you think."

"Yeah?" Naruto forced himself to scoff, swallowing back the lump in his throat. His fingers only trembled slightly when he started rolling up the right side of his trousers to inspect the sore spots on his leg. "What do you know, huh?"

"I know you've been nursing a silly crush on that guy in your class," the image sneered, grinning nastily when Naruto unwillingly froze up. "Yeah, you can try to ignore me all you want, I know you. I am you."

"I'm nothing like you!" Naruto spat back immediately.

"If that helps you sleep at night," the image smirked and started tapping its nails against the mirror.

It echoed through the bathroom and Naruto stared down at his leg, spreading out the balm without registering the pinpricks of pain whenever he pressed too hard.

"I'm not as bad as you think I am, you know," his image continued and it would sound more believable if its voice wasn't dripping with taunt. "How about I help you out a bit, hm?"

"Yeah? How would you do that, huh?" Naruto muttered.

"What if I tell you that you aren't completely without a chance with that guy?"

Against his will, Naruto's heart started to beat quicker and he looked up reluctantly, staring back at his image, who had one corner of its mouth curled up. "What do you mean?" he asked, unwilling to give the image more attention, yet he couldn't help himself either.

"Like I said," the mirror image spoke casually. "You wouldn't be a completely hopeless case if you would ask him out."

"How would you even know?" Naruto demanded suspiciously.

The smile that curled the mirror image's mouth sent cold shivers down his spine.

"Your world is not different from mine," it said.

The tapping stopped. Naruto left the bathroom as fast as he could.

His heart was pounding. His blood was rushing loudly in his ears. His knees were weak like jelly and his mouth was as dry as the Sahara desert. He kept walking, though. Walking until he reached Sasuke's desk, where the boy was absorbed in the book in front of him.

When Naruto's shadow fell over him, Sasuke looked up; a hint of curiosity lightening up those deep black eyes.

"Hm?"

They had a break because the teacher had to step outside unexpectedly to take a call and most students were idling away the time in the hallway, but there were still some classmates present in the room. Naruto was hyper aware of some of those gazes, particularly a green eyed one which was watching his every move like a hawk.

He could feel her piercing stare, could practically feel the anger wafting off her, but he took a deep breath and said, stammered, "I – I was wondering if, erm, if you would like to go out? With me, I mean? Like go out to that café near the fountain?"

His voice was definitely reaching a higher pitch and he could feel himself colour red; his cheeks hot as if he was hanging above a fire.

Sasuke leant back in his chair; his hands loosely holding his book open. "Like a date?" he asked neutrally; nothing in his voice or his face giving away what he felt about that.

Naruto thought he was going to be sick.

"Erm, if you'd like it to be. If not, then – then just as friends?" he replied awkwardly. His entire face felt like it would burst out in flames any second now.

"Like a date sounds good," Sasuke said almost flippantly; nonchalant in a way Naruto could only wish he was as well.

When Naruto dared to look at him, however, he saw that the tips of his ears were red and there was a pink hue dusting his cheeks. Butterflies exploded in Naruto's stomach and he grinned, pinking as well when Sasuke offered him a small smile.

"So it's a date," he said shyly, hopefully; not daring yet to believe this was actually happening.

"It's a date," Sasuke confirmed and their fingertips touched across the table.

Not even the beating that followed from an enraged Sakura afterwards could kill the butterflies racing in his stomach.

"Told you I was right," his image smirked; its eyes gleaming devilishly.

"Shut up," Naruto snapped and marched out of the bathroom.

His mirror image never failed to send revulsion through him at the mere sight of it, but after his first date with Sasuke, he was – he wouldn't say no longer scared, but he stopped avoiding looking into the mirror.

Ignoring it wouldn't work as the years before had shown and truly, what could his image do? Yes, it could talk, yes, it liked to torment him by changing its face in the most gruesome of ways, but ultimately it was only an image. A vision trapped behind a layer of reflective glass. It couldn't reach him. It couldn't hurt him.

Not like Sakura could.

"How long do you think you can keep that hidden, hm?" his image asked boredly.

Sometimes Naruto wondered if he was just imagining the red sheen in those eyes growing more obvious. A trick of the light perhaps. Or the image trying to mess with him as it was wont to do so often still.

"It's fine," he muttered, wincing when he carefully rolled up his sweater.

Sakura had got him good this time. He hadn't heard her approaching at all and she had taken him by surprise behind the school when he had been emptying the garbage bin; part of cleaning up the classroom. The first kick against his back had caused him to lose his balance and he had fallen straight against the waste container, smacking his head against the metal. Disorientated from that hit, he had been too late to get up and she had got in some good kicks against his side and his back before he had managed to get up and run away.

Where before she had restricted herself mainly to the occasional punch or firing off her sharp tongue, now she no longer held herself back. Seeing Sasuke together with Naruto had set her off completely apparently and she was pissed off that Naruto had got the guy she had panted after for years.

"You ever thought about punching her back?" his image suggested idly. "A taste of her own medicine as they say."

"It's fine," Naruto repeated and started dabbing the balm across his lower ribs. He was lucky mum and dad were still at work now; he didn't know how exactly he would have explained his smudged shirt or the way he awkwardly limped inside. "I just need to avoid her for a couple more months. We'll graduate then and I won't have to see her any longer."

They wouldn't be attending the same university, he had discovered to his quiet relief. Just a couple more months of keeping his head down, of trying to avoid rising her ire. He could do that.

"You never get tired of being her personal punching bag?" the image asked cruelly, tapping its fingers against the glass rhythmically. "You look a right mess; aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

The words shouldn't sting so much, Naruto told himself and began applying the balm to his back as best as he could. It was stupid to let them past his defences, stupid to be affected by them to the point of hot tears stinging the back of his eyes.

They shouldn't sting – but they did. Because it was right.

He was tired of constantly having to be on guard when he was at school. He didn't want to keep smuggling balm inside the house, pay it with his pocket money, just so mum and dad wouldn't grow suspicious at the amount of bruises he was covered with nearly each week. He wanted Sakura to stop, because what had he ever done to her except for dating the guy she had wanted? How was it his fault that Sasuke wanted him and not her? Why was he the only one she singled out even though loads of girls had crushed on Sasuke too? Why did she think it was okay to beat the shit out of him when he had never done anything wrong to her?

"I can help, you know," his image cooed, soothed. "Just say the word and it will all be over. I promise."

The tears were spilling over now, hot tracks burning rivers down his cheeks, and his vision was blurry when he blindly looked into the mirror's direction. His back and lower ribs ached fiercely, the pain blooming every time he so much as breathed. He was tired, so tired …

He nodded.

Red eyes glistened in response.

Sakura didn't show up in school the next day. Nor did she show up the day after that or the day after that. The teachers did their best to keep them oblivious, but the rumour mill started working in overdrive and in no time at all the entire school knew what had happened.

Sakura had been found in her bathroom, the mirror broken and her face sliced apart; a mirror shard still clutched in her hand, cutting open the flesh there as well. She had been screaming wildly, they said hushed, losing it out of nowhere, telling something to leave her alone. The door had been locked, keeping her panicking parents out until her dad had managed to kick in the door.

Some said that she had only mumbled one thing to her parents before she had bled out: "She's not me."

Nobody understood what she meant with that, if she had already said such a thing to start with. It was all just rumours, after all. The only truth they had, was that she had died in her bathroom, seemingly out of nowhere.

Naruto didn't think about her. He spent the last couple of months left in the school year bruise free; the balm left forgotten in the back of one of his desk drawers. He and Sasuke became steady, switching from dating to actually being boyfriends.

He tried not to look into the mirror. But even without looking, he knew what he would see.

Red eyes gleaming with satisfaction and an eerie smirk plastered across a face that was his and yet not his.

The tapping never stopped.

The End

AN2: Main warning: character death

Well this was ... definitely something to write. No idea what I was thinking (but when do I ever do when writing?) Hopefully this fit the Halloween spirit!

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.