Naruto's opinion of their employer fell yet further as they stepped through the entryway.

Art on the walls, masterfully carved

furniture, and more indoor space than he could even imagine using. It was a sin in itself that he lived here when the two dozen employees had that bunkhouse, but actually kicking them out of their shitty hovel and making them sleep in tents? The rich fuck could have at least sent them into town to sleep on the inns floor, or rented a barn or something! He'd briefly considered that he may be broke. After all, rich people did run out of cash occasionally; they just moved out here, and the orchard wasn't producing anything yet, but that clearly wasn't the issue.

The judgmental scorn almost outweighed the heavy feeling of dread hanging about the empty manor.

"What now?" he asked in a whisper.

"Clear the place, room by room, with you in front. With the curtains drawn, I should be able to…." she trailed off rather than mention the fine details of her attack out loud. Naruto took a deep breath. The enormous building had quite a few rooms, and most of the doors were shut.

At least they weren't locked.

The first knob he turned led into some kind of patio, or sitting room. The interior held a cold fireplace and a bigass window that took up almost the entire western wall. Made for a nice view of the forest but a damn chilly interior, he almost wanted to go and light a few logs, but with Sasuki's limitations, the darkness was probably wiser. Besides, the room was clear quick enough; he would just shut the door behind him to mitigate that creeping cold chill.

Or he would have done that if the door behind him led back into the parlor he entered from. Much more pressingly, where the fuck was Sasuki!? Without thought he shouted out for her!

No answer.

Everything seemed so much darker as he stepped away from that big window, into the long hallway that had come out nowhere. The sound of his slow footsteps was loud, so loud that he at first didn't hear the soft, feminine sobbing from above. It didn't sound like his girlfriend, but then again, had he ever heard her cry? Like, even when they were ten? Besides, that younger Hyuuga was in here somewhere.

More importantly, he had no better leads. The stairs were easy to find, and after climbing the dozen marble steps, the noise still came from above. The attic was harder to enter, both in terms of finding the cord that pulled open its entrance and in terms of finding the nerve to actually climb the ladder.

It didn't help that the sobbing got louder the instant that black square in the ceiling opened.

"Sasuki?" he tried, receiving no response. The actual interior of the attic was unimpressive compared to the lower floors; the structure of the room was curved sharply like a great tent, limiting space. Aside from a fine artisan window on the road-facing side, there was little in terms of decoration; the room was bare. Still, the woman sobbing five steps away didn't acknowledge him.

Her face was invisible, hidden in her knees as she hugged herself on the ground, but her hair was a long, vibrant eggplant color. It occurred to him then that they really should have asked what the daughters looked like. It might have helped with identifying the ghost vs. the object of rescue. Naruto groaned before taking his next action.

The young man inched forward, raising a hand and trying to sound non-threatening as he spoke.

"H-Hey there," he began as he closed in on her.

The sight of her long, mangled neck as it shifted straight backwards 180 degrees to look up had him standing up straight and backing up nearly straight into the square hole he'd just climbed! A shocked gasp gave his brain the power to halt. She wasn't coming closer; it sounded like maybe, just maybe, her sobs quieted a bit. Tears still ran across her face, but the noise was softened. Of course the sight of a trail of tears trailing up her face and wetting her hair was a bit disturbing in itself, as one might imagine..

Well, he didn't have a magic fucking dagger.

"H-hello," he tried again, his eyes locked with her. The specter remained still, only quivering lightly with her sobs as Naruto tried again. "Gods… you poor woman, what happened to you?" A sharp inhale preceded her answer.

Well, answer.

"I CAN'T LEAVE HER! I CAN'T LEAVE HER HERE ALONE I HAVE TO STAY!"

The whole house seemed to shake with her words, instilling a deep and primal terror that he felt all the way down to his soul. It was only the words themselves that gave him some comfort. If that was her motive her little sister must be okay, right? Unless she was lying. Could ghosts lie? Fuck! He really should have asked like, at least ten more questions.

"She's safe, then? She's in here somewhere?" he asked. The spirit seemed to get herself a little back together at these words, in several senses. The sobs quieted down again, and the foot long mangle mess of a neck seemed to shrink back partway. It felt like a good sign.

"She's safe. Hanabi's safe…..Hanabi's safe….Hanabi's safe…" the words were spoken like a protective spell, a mantra of comfort that she so desperately needed.

"Is Sa- the black haired girl I came in with? Is she safe too?" he asked, sighing as she nodded.

"W-Why did you kill yourself if-

-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHSTUPID STUPID STPUID!" she roared, once again shaking the house and his resolve, arms clasping either side of her head as the sobs resumed thricefold.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry really was it a lie or…." the quaking slowed with his words as her hands fell back to the floor. "I just want to help!" he promised, and right then, in that moment, it wasn't even a lie. Perhaps that's why the neck shrank down yet further, until she looked almost alive. Her eyes looked into his own blue orbs for some time.

"I didn't know what else to do! My… my betrothed he was going to do something horrible. He was going to hurt, to kill, So many people and…. for me! H-he was about to leave to do it and I-I-I just didn't know how else I could stop him!" she fell back into sobs as she placed her head on her knees.

Naruto found his attention taken by the attic window that flung violently open and the brief flash of a familiar young woman nose diving out of it. The form he was talking too oddly didn't move. Not that this was important.

"By all Gods right and good, that's terrible," he mumbled. "I'm so sorry I…" he didn't know what else to say, let alone do. Stalling her, that was the plan, distracting her, but could he really let Sasuki stick a knife in this woman ghost or no?

"stupid…stupid…stupid…"

"It's not stupid it's selfless!" he gently argued without thinking, speaking as much to himself as this terrifying alien being. "You did something incredibly noble; you sacrificed your life for others; you should be proud of that! You should be on a higher plane right now," he grumbled out the last bit, almost missing the soft hum she replied with.

"I can't leave. I can't leave Hanabi alone here, father will just marry her to that awful man. The plot will continue on and all those people will die and I'll have stupidly died for nothing stupid….STUPID…" her words sounded less disheveled than utterly miserable, helped only further by the way she remained huddled in on herself.

"It bought time, though! Maybe…maybe we could sneak her- Hanabi? Could we get her out or something?" he thought aloud. "W-what exactly was your fiance going to do?" he dared ask, remembering that unsettling grin on that smiley redhead sitting with Hyashi.

"Father wants the mayor dead. He wants to be magistrate of Ironhold, and since he's the only prominent noble up here, he's likely to get it if there's a vacancy," she swallowed, the last unsettling extra inch of neck shrinking back. The ghost looked alive again. "He told me to brag, to impress me or... something. Simon said he was going to poison a barrel at the inn, h-he had a tool that could let him do it without opening it. The mayor and g-gods know how many others would drink before it kicked in, and he'd be able to slip out before anyone died,"

"By the void!" Naruto cried. Was he going to do that right now? Surely he would wait until he confirmed the ghost was dead, at least, right? Wrong. No, no he couldn't be sure of that. "Please, you have to let me and my friend go, now! We have to stop him, warn someone, or…" he trailed off when the sobbing stopped. When she looked back up at him with those enormous lavender eyes. "Please," he ended simply.

The silent eye contact lingered for maybe ten seconds.

"GAH what the fuck!?" Sasuki cried, suddenly finding herself beside the front door they'd entered from, nearly blind from the sudden switch from pitch black to snowy landscape. She was so on edge that she nearly shoved the dagger in her hand right into the blonde idiot when he appeared in her view.

In her defense, he grabbed her shoulders with a wild look in his eyes.

"Sasuki, we gotta go, NOW!"

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