aghostownwhereibelong

told yall

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may the story continue...

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12:10 AM/01/05/20

Naruto laid himself down on the spare mattresses set up in Ichigo's room.

Ichigo was already fast asleep, and Naruto was pretty sure that everyone in the house was snoring.

Ichigo and his father set up two mattresses in the middle of Ichigo's room for Naruto to sleep in after Isshin convinced Ichigo to be okay with it.

Naruto was a little surprised that he was still here, after everything he never would have thought he would still be under the same roof, especially after healing completely.

' I wonder if I can maybe stay here. I know that would probably be too much to ask, but I don't have anywhere else to go. If I think about it close enough, then everything thats happened to me, and has been happening to me is really scary.'

Naruto turned towards his right side, facing Ichigo and his window.

The curtains were pulled slightly and he could see the moonlight peeking through slightly.

' its kinda pretty.'

He moved so that he could see more of it, now being in his eyes.

'maybe if I stop thinking about it, it'll stop being scary '.

He closed his eyes.

' Tatsuki was kind of cool. she's a good fighter. that was fun today. Ichigo was just sitting off to the side eating something. Oh, and those things he gave me today were good too! '

Naruto thought for an indeterminate amount of time.

'i wonder how his other friends are. his sister are kind of cool too. the doctor dude was weird. its crazy that i healed so fast. i wonder if thats normal. nothings really normal for me is it? '

He tossed and he turned, not feeling an ounce of tiredness.

'everything is just...i dunno. i just don't know.' Naruto grew more and more stressed as he grappled with his situation truly for the first time.

He clenched and unclenched his teeth repeatedly. Sighing over and over.

'am i forgetting how to sleep?...'

Naruto frowned, facing the ceiling and fiddling with his fingers, making nonsensical shapes after popping them.

He put his hands together into a few shapes, not really knowing what they were, and eventually he got bored with that.

His foot bounced constantly on his knee.

' ya know, you'd think that sleep would come naturally to people. but somehow, i forget that too, along with almost everything else.'

His hands behind his head now, his foot still bobbing up and down, he began to take a more positive train of thought.

' well, at least I've met some cool people.'

He glanced to his right, his roomate levitating higher off the ground than he was.

The only sign that anyone else was in the room with him was the snoring figure underneath the blanket.

' Ichigo seems cool, but I can tell that he's pretty distant still. he obviously knows how not to be rude, but everything about him is kinda off-putting at first sight. But, it isn't really fair to ichigo to judge him based off of his weird hair color.

'Who knows, maybe we can I can see about being honest friends with him in the morning. His sister is really good at cooking.'

The wind picked up outside the apparently barely cracked window.

' if i can even get to the morning. well, obviously i will since i can't get to sleep. if i'm being honest, the feeling of going sleep doesn't exactly ring a bell to me.'

Naruto stared into the moon.

With the way the night felt like, it was probably staring back at him.

'everything feels so damn...strange.like i'm an outsider or something. like i'm out of place...maybe i just don't belong here? '

Naruto huddled into a fetal position, covering himself completely with the blue comforter.

'i dont really wanna feel like this anymore '.

Naruto settled in this position, feeling the heat accumulate rapidly already.

'it's so stupid...'

He wasn't cold or anything, but the last hour or so he had spent thinking about things in combination with the heat had started to lull him to sleep.

'i feel...like..."*Yaaawn*",' i'm a broken toy...or something...'

Eventually, Naruto was trapped within the grasps of sleep, finally achieving the rest he desired.

"..."

Naruto had completely fell under the spell of sleep, when a distant cry rang out in the distance.

*rraaAA...GGGhh..hhh *

Instantly, Naruto threw the comforter off of him and sat up in his bed, poised to flee at the first sign of danger.

His abrupt movement hadn't disturbed Ichigo in the slightest, someone who's snores were almost as loud as the strong heartbeat in Naruto's ears.

" *Hff..* *Hff..*". He tried his hardest to keep his breath, but his body was holding it for too long.

Naruto's anxious eyes were trained on the window.

" *huuuuuuuuf *". He started to breathe again, against his better judgement.

His heart was echoing throughout his limbs, and battering the insides of his ribs almost painfully.

Once Naruto had calmed down some, he started to scan the room thoroughly.

His eyes darted to each corner of the room, behind him, above him, and he moved to several different positions to get a better look out the window.

Nothing out of place as far he could see.

He exhaled fully, bringing a pillow up to his face to mask the sound.

' What was that?! '. Were Naruto's first thoughts.

His hairs stood on ends everywhere he could feel, still oversensitive.

Naruto then wiped the sweat he felt building on his forehead, still alert.

' I think I know what that was.'

Coming down from the adrenaline, he knew all to well what that roar was.

' It's... those things, huh? '. Naruto felt his fear rebuild itself on the inside.

He rubbed his hands, they had gotten cold somehow in the room temperature.

Naruto forced himself to close his eyes and center himself.

" *Hoooo..* ".

He didn't know know much time had passed.

The wind had picked up suddenly again.

' am I a danger to these people? those things are looking for me again...'

Naruto pondered this a lot more, but was interrupted by a cry,

*ROOOAAAARGGGGHHH *

Like a deer in headlights, our boy was absolutely petrified.

No longer ready to run, his body had completely rejected any reaction to the sudden roar other than him jerking in surprise.

'Why was that so close.' He could barely lift his head to look through the window.

Still nothing.

His body started trembling, fear present in every inch of his body language.

' The cry sounded...desparate. Like a really hungry guy shouting. But, like an animal.'

The scream was much closer this time, and it brought up even more instincts in Naruto that he wasn't used to.

He looked in between the curtains again, and saw nothing.

*ROAAAARGH *

Less startling this time. But still making him dangerously afraid.

Naruto was about to get closer to the window, halfway on Ichigo's bed when he suddenly heard the sound of a large crash.

A constant growl was present at the window. Suddenly, Naruto's surroundings got much hotter and his body got much colder st the same time.

The curtain was drawn, and he couldn't have seen the explicit features of this nightmare in front of him, but he saw a few things.

Two large eyes on a white mask, glowing a dim orange.

Naruto couldn't see the details on the creatures face, but he could tell the size of it was bigger than the window by itself, easily.

The dimly glowing eyes showed its pupils dilating softly.

It's eye was probably as big as his head. Bigger, maybe.

It's head took up the entire and left no room for moonlight, everything was pitch black as if the moon never existed.

Naruto's heart had a mind of it's own, and his mind was as still as the creature outside.

Sweat appeared on his head and underneath his arms. He wasn't looking directly at it, but it was looking at him.

Naruto's body began to move. He cursed himself for moving so foolishly, but he began to crawl very gently towards the window, making sure to spread his weight out around Ichigo.

Without making a peep, he diverted his eyes to the curtains and reached out for them.

With all of his concentration, Naruto stood on his knees and began to draw the curtains, pulling them closed at a moderate pace.

The creature was still there, but it hadn't reacted to Naruto turning sround after closing the curtains.

' maybe if i pretend its not there, it'll leave?...'

Naruto noted that he managed to move without stirring Ichigo, and then went down a spiral of thoughts and emotions.

' what if i have to fight? ' 'what if it attacks me while im walking back to this bed? ' ' what if he attacks Ichigo, or the others? ' 'what if? ' 'what if? ' 'what if? ' 'what if? ', despite this negative train of thought, Naruto managed to make it to his bed.

He laid towards the closet and put the comforter around his waist. Then, he attempted to mimic a normal breathing pattern, breathing for the first time since the last scream.

Naruto closed his eyes for good measure, but he knew it was still there.

He could feel it.

He could feel its eyes trained on his body.

He could feel it's pupils leaving trails on his body, inspecting its potential meal.

He could feel it's sinister presence, and it's animalistic urges.

It made him feel hungry.

It felt like his stomach had emptied itself, and had gone a day without eating.

Sweat made its own presence uncomfortably known across his body.

He couldn't see the faint traces of the moonlight anymore, the room was completely black.

He just wanted it to be over.

'pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.'

Naruto squeezed his eyes tighter than before, concentrating on nothing.

'...'

Eventually, Naruto felt coldness overwhelm his back, and the presence vanished. Completely.

He was too scared to open his eyes, or even move.

And so, since he was stuck like this, he eventually fell asleep, not even thinking because if how concentrated he was on his safety.