Return To Innocence

Return To Innocence


I don't own Naruto


Rated: M language, violence, some questions about relations.

Last Time

Sasuke looked back at Naruto hugging him. He was in complete surprise. Slowly bring his hand to awkwardly pat Naruto’s back, he couldn’t help the little warmth that spread across his cheek, which he promptly squashed back down. An Uchiha does not show emotions after all.

Naruto moved away almost reluctantly smiling a true small smile at Sasuke before declaring he needed to get something to eat, leaving Sasuke with his feelings. The dog and cat sitting next to him watching him and the TV.


November 22

Unforgettable

A week later nothing too interesting happened. Naruto and his friends met and partied, while Sasuke occasional studied, and worked. Naruto had still felt like eyes were on him but it wasn’t that bad not like last week. But he was still plagued by nightmares of his own imagination running wild. His past had not helped with that either, but now he had friends and loved ones to protect. He had his own life now away from his shadowed past. And that's what had kept him going all these years. Now if only he had someone to share his secrets with, someone who would stand up to him and encourage him, to believe in him. Not like that cold heartened prick Sasuke. They had yet another fight the previous day on who should cook dinner, clean, and feed the animals. Neither had wanted to do any of these mentioned requests so they had fought, literally. Rolling and kicking, not to mention punching. Trying to out due the other like they had done sine Preschool. That's how they got anything done and unfortunately that's how they had accomplished nothing. Leaving too angry teens slamming the doors to their bedrooms without any food nor cleaning done.


He had just got off of work and was heading towards the curb by his little community when he saw Tsuande and another neighbor just standing outside looking towards his house. Naruto scratched his head wondering what was it now. Was Shadow out and about again barking at random shadows or was the alarm going of yet again due to a multifunction.

“Hey Old hag what are you staring at?” Naruto asked. Swaying over to her and a man with red hair at a sluggish pace. He knew something was wrong especially when he had spotted Houghens standing by the old hag. Houghens was the main streamline of gossipers. Whatever he knew soon everyone knew.

They didn’t answer, not even when he had called Tsuande an old hag. Naruto stopped to take a look and almost fell down on his ass. He just stared, and couldn’t form any coherent words for what he saw.

By his house, his next neighbor was outside and about walking around his and apart of Naruto’s property. Now this wouldn’t be so weird, of course the man had never even walked around his property to begin with but the thing that he was doing...

Naruto’s neighbor was practically running around gathering wood and nails, then he would dump them by a window and start hammering the wood to the window sills, closing parts of them up and leaving other parts wide open. Naruto turned towards Tsuande looking at her strangely, why would you find this entertaining? The man was seriously crazy and needed to be locked up. Couldn't they call the police or something. Sure the strange bastard was on his own property but couldn't they get him for the noise violation or maybe insanity.

This scene also reminded the blonde about the movie called, ‘Signs’. A very scary and troubling movie. A little creeped out he turned towards Tsuande. His face stained and his eyes darting around looking at the other houses and people pointing towards his and the crazy man's home.

“Oi Tsuande why are you watching this?” Naruto questioned still eying his crazed neighbor.

“Oh because I have nothing better to do, you brat, and I think the guys cute if not a little eccentric.” She finished talking to the man next to her.

OK, Naruto thought, It’s time to go, with that Naruto parted waving a good by and heading towards his house making sure to be quiet and not alert his neighbor. Naruto quickly fished out his keys before unlocking all the locks and heading inside. When he was done locking them back up he heard paws scamper down the hall towards him, the next thing he knew was that Shadow was right in front of him waging his tail and barking once.

Naruto laughed and slid his hand down the dogs back before straightening, and walking in the kitchen. There Naruto found his cat Ramen waiting by the window sill for him. He started to deposit all of his things before reaching for his cell. It was the only way he could reach anyone, because they had decided from the start that they didn’t need phones around the house just cells. It really was a lot easier and it cut the bills down a lot.

Naruto sat down in the kitchen chair already dialing Sasuke’s number. He didn’t feel all that safe, especially with his next door neighbor out and all.

“Naruto what do you want? I’m in the middle of class.” Naruto heard Sasuke hiss.

“I’m sorry, I thought you would be done by now... when are you coming home.” Naruto finished lamely.

“About six if you hang up now Dobe.” Sasuke said lowly trying not to get caught in the middle of class.

“Oi Sasuke kuuun thanks,” Naruto shouted and waited for what happened next.

“...We do have a policy about no cell phones Mr....” The line went dead with Naruto cracking up.

Man that was easier then he thought. But it served him right after what had happened the previous night Trying to regain his breath after about a minute, Naruto also flipped the cell and walked towards the living room to watch TV. Sasuke was so going to kill him for this when he got home. Maybe he should make dinner tonight and clean the dishes. He didn't have work after all.

Naruto sat down relaxing by putting his feet up on the table, watching the news. He hadn’t been sleeping all that great lately. It really wasn’t his fault, ok maybe it was a little since he did agree to watch Pumpkin Head, but it was a dare that stupid Shika made up. It was about two nights ago when Naruto and his friends sat around the television that night and watched it. The movie itself was cheesy but the plot was good. It wasn’t really all that scary. What was really bothering him was when the animals had acted strangely that one week ago, and Naruto just knew it had nothing to do with Sasuke. Shadow would know if it was Sasuke and he was pretty sure Ramen would know too.

He returned back to reality to when Ramen jumped up on his lap making himself comfortable before falling asleep. Naruto just ran his hand through the cats light fur falling into a light sleep, with tiered eyes closed, listening to the purring.

The next time Naruto woke up it was quiet and peaceful. The house was always buzzing with sound, being the TV, the animals, or the radio that was playing. He was tempted to go back to sleep when he thought it was a little too quiet. Naruto opened his eyes, squinting a little from the artificial lighting in the living room. He then turned and saw that the TV was off. Naruto looked at it for a few minutes then looked to see where the remote was. He had thought for sure he turned it on right after he called Sasuke. He always had either the radio on or the TV on. He found the remote right next to him and turned it on, the channel went to cartoons. Naruto slowly lowed the remote on the coffee table. His eyes narrowed at the screen, he could have sworn he was watching the news but oh well. Maybe he had hit the remote in ignorance as he had slept or the cat had pressed the button turning it to cartoons. Naruto got up slowly stretching, wondering if he was just making a big deal out of this whole thing. Listening to his popped muscles cracking and staining he grunted and scratched his chest.

He looked around the living room, seeing that the lights were on. The couch he was on was a soft cream color not his favorite but it was comfortable. By the couch was a leather love seat that was situated by the small fireplace they never used. On the coffee table there were a bunch of old magazines and cup holders. And by the TV itself they had a stereo system with two different CD stacks right by it. One for Naruto and the other for Sasuke, on account that they both listened to different music.

Everything was in order expect he didn’t see Ramen or Shadow anywhere. Naruto didn’t really feel like calling them for food so he decided just to take a quick shower before Sasuke got home. But before that, Naruto went into the kitchen to see if his crazy neighbor was still outside.

Pulling back the curtains Naruto saw nothing over there but shadows lengthening the darkened yard. He could see a fence that he knew was white and some rose bushes but other then that, nothing. He turned around and headed for his room intent on getting a shower. He hit the familiar floorboards that creaked with his weight, and was about to turn when something caught his interest. Up stairs he saw a flash of brown. Why was Sasuke’s dog up there? Naruto thought looking up. He was about to turn when he heard something.

It was like a clicking noise and it seemed to be coming up stairs. Naruto turned debating on what he should do. He wanted to know why Shadow was up there and what that noise was, so he took a deep breath and started to slowly walk up the stairs. He really did hate the stairs one because he didn’t like going up there and two was because he always seemed to fall down them. Gripping the handrail he straightened up his back and slowly crept up, listening to his padded foot steps.

He finally got up to the landing, eying the little attic door that was firmly closed. That was another place that he would never go, the attic.

Naruto turned left seeing again a flash of brown go through the second door. They always kept the doors up here closed. The first one was closed, it was the bathroom, and the second door was the bedroom which was open. Naruto frowned, staring at the door wondering if maybe Sasuke had forgot to close it? He had yet again heard the clicking noise starting at random and then nothing.

Naruto slowly crept forward, pushing the door open even more. Listening as it creaked open. He stood in the doorway frame, not seeing anything but darkness. Naruto quickly fumbled for the light switch wanting to see what was in there. All he could see was pitch black and his eyes started to play tricks on him like the darkness itself was moving. He found the stupid switch at last and flipped it. He looked around quickly to spot... intense brightness greeted him, making him see little black spots in his vision. But he stayed perfectly still. Just before he went blind he saw something move under the bed.

Naruto tried to see what it might have been but the dark blue covers of the bed spread were blocking his view. Naruto looked everywhere else in the room, he spotted the small night stand, the window, a desk, and a book shelf but nothing more.

He walked in until he was half way in the room. He felt like something was wrong, he could just feel it. It was so strong it was giving him goose bumps on his arm. He could feel his skin clam up and shivered just thinking about it. Naruto was about ready to just leave when he gave a small start at the clicking noise that had resumed.

He told himself that it was nothing and that he was just getting all worked up about it. Then he heard the annoying clicking noise again. Naruto turned towards the window only to see a tree branch brushing against the window sill. Now that he saw it, he felt pretty stupid with being scared about something like that. Breathing out slowly and feeling his heart beat somewhat normal he clenched his fists and tried to relax.

Shrugging his shoulders already turning around intent on taking that shower, he heard something else. He turned his upper body and looked towards the bed, there was like this shuffling noise over there. That’s when Naruto remembered Shadow was up here too and he was probably under the dumb bed. Smiling at the dog’s act Naruto came closer to the bed before kneeing on the carpeted floor.

Naruto pulled back the comforter to see under the bed, opening his mouth to berate the stupid dog. Naruto frowned as he couldn’t really see under the bed, but he did hear the dog shuffling under it coming closer to him. Naruto waited patiently seeing parts of brown fur already, smiling at the scardy cat Naruto reached into the darkness intent on dragging the dog out when he felt something snap at his hand, looking down quickly frowning he saw two glowing yellow slitted eyes and sharp white razor teeth snarling at him.


“AHHH!”


Screaming at the top of his lungs, Naruto quickly backed away from the bed, but he could see the thing clawing out from under the bed trying to get to him. It's sharp claws like daggers, wanting to rip his feeble flesh to shreds. Panicking Naruto screamed once more before getting to his feet and running out of the room like a mad man. He could feel the thing chasing after him as he turned and fumbled down the stairs crying and cursing only to feel strong arms wrap around him. Naruto already panicked screamed louder choking and struggling to get free.

“Dobe, Naruto what are you doing?” The voice said just as loudly.

Naruto abruptly stopped thrashing around, to look teary eyed at Sasuke’s coal black eyes. Naruto breathed in a shuddering breath and hugged Sasuke tightly, baring his head into Sasuke’s chest. His heart pounding madly and his brain short circuiting.

Sasuke who had just got home and had heard a loud scream upstairs, panicked himself. He was already going to run up there when he saw Naruto practically fall down the stairs, while screaming and crying. The blonde looked so terrified that for one moment Sasuke was sure the other was going into fits.

“Naruto what’s wrong, what happened,” Sasuke softly demanded. Tightening his hold on his friend.


Naruto quickly tried to breath normally, trying to calm his pounding heart and lungs. When he thought he could talk enough he choked out his sentence.

“I...I was upstairs and oh god Sasuke you should have seen it.” Naruto whimpered, truly afraid.

“What did you see?” Sasuke asked awkwardly, rubbing the blonds back.

“I... saw something under...under the bed and it had yellow eyes and claws and...” Naruto choked, not able to finish his sentence.

Sasuke didn’t say anything just kept holding the blond for comfort. “Naruto I’ll go up there and see if I see anything alright.” Sasuke said pulling away.

Naruto looked up quickly shaking his head, “NO”. He yelled, then spoke softer, “No Sasuke.” He finished still shaking his head. Whatever was up there wanted to tear and render anything that came within a ten foot radius.

“Naruto I want to know what’s up there. Now you go into the living room and wait or you can come up with me.” Sasuke said already advancing up the stairs with a knife in his hands. He had gotten it when he heard the loud scream and cursing. Naruto stood right where he was and waited for Sasuke to return. He didn’t know what that thing was but he was not going up there again.

But would Sasuke be alright? Naruto was getting even more worked up now. What if the thing killed Sasuke or what if... when five minutes seemed to pass. He was ready to go back up there when he saw Sasuke turning the corner.

Smiling the blonde waited for Sasuke and it looked like Shadow, who was trailing him too, get down.

Sasuke sighed before looking at Naruto then at the dog, “Naruto are you sure you saw yellow eyes under the bed?” He questioned and Naruto nodded.

“Look Naruto Shadow was the only thing in the room and I checked under the bed and everything.”He finished agitated. he had just got home and wanted nothing more then to just relax, instead he had almost had a heart attack. And a frantic blonde saying something that had not been Shadow was up there indenting to kill him.

Naruto sent a hard glare at Sasuke, he couldn’t believe this bastard He thought Naruto was making it all up.

“No I saw yellow eyes and not Shadow's gray. I know what I saw up there Teme.” Naruto said before moving into the living room tightening his fists at his sides. He had to sit down now or his legs were not going to hold his weight much longer.

Sasuke had followed along with the dog. “Look Naruto I’m not saying your crazy or anything, but maybe you saw Shadow and with the darkness under the bed and all.” Sasuke tried to say crossing his hands over his chest. He did not need this now or ever.

They stayed like that for a long time before Sasuke had declared that he needed to make dinner. Even when that task was done everyone stayed quiet eating, moving the food around the plate, or just staring of into space. It was highly uncomfortable and stuffy. Sasuke got up to take the dishes in the sink before announcing that he was going to bed only to have Naruto stop him.

“Sasuke could you well... could you sleep in my room tonight.” Naruto said looking hopeful, which blew Sasuke away. Trying to squash unwanted feelings that seemed to bloom in his gut. He was only going to sleep there and nothing else. But other things didn’t seem to agree with him on that subject.

Sasuke was ready to say no but if Naruto was asking him this then he really was scared. So Sasuke only nodded and they went together in the blonds room.

That's it for this Chapter, if you like this one check out my other story. Oh and if you have any suggestions feel free to reply.

TBC