Masked

10,000 yen is about 100 US dollars. 500,000 yen is about 5,000 US dollars.

Masked

Chapter 3: Dress Up

From the moment Sasuke had set foot into the Hotel's grand ballroom and looked around at the tacky decorations and cliché Halloween music, he knew it would be a bad evening.

The only good thing about tonight's Halloween Gala was that he knew he looked damned good. For some reason, feeling well dressed on Halloween lifted his spirits. Sasuke snorted. He actually knew perfectly well the reason behind why he enjoyed looking good – like a well dressed man – on Halloween night.

It was one of the reasons that Sasuke despised Halloween and obon, the Festival of the Dead. That reason had led to his absolute hatred of Halloween specifically. He picked up a glass of champagne as one of the waiters passed by. It was foolish to think that the alcohol would make him forget, but a little buzz would still be welcomed.

Amidst all the black tuxedos, white shirts, and black ties, Sasuke couldn't help but smirk as his eyes rested on Naruto who waved to him from the opposite side of the ballroom, grinning widely at him. The blonde worker had on a shimmering dark orange shirt, and though his tie was mostly black, it had a large, white ghost on it.

With the inclusion of added accessories including a top hat and cane, it only added to the outlandish nature of his appearance. A few people gave Naruto a few distasteful looks, but for the most part, people seemed amused by his choice of dress. If Sasuke were honest with himself, seeing Naruto’s happy attitude actually made him feel better rather than bitter.

"Isn't this awesome? Lots of great food and the music’s good too!" Naruto said as he moved his hips to the "Time Warp."

Sasuke pretended to ignore him, though smirked inwardly.

"Oi! You! Bastard! I said isn't this awesome?"

"I'm ignoring you. A boss’ prerogative, ignoring his workers when they’re being annoying," Sasuke said.

"Whatever. Just as long as you don’t ignore the orphans!" Naruto said happily as he tilted his top hat. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I had to pay 10,000 yen to even enter the gala to give toward the charity, didn’t I?" Sasuke asked.

"Did you donate anything more than that?" Naruto asked, pointing his cane at Sasuke threateningly.

"I gave an extra 500,000 yen," Sasuke said. Maybe now that he’d help save the orphans, he could go home now. He’d showed up and given money. Wasn’t that enough? Naruto smiled at him, seemingly pleased before getting distracted as someone stopped to comment on his top hat. While Naruto was distracted, Sasuke scanned the crowd, noticing most of his workers were easily avoiding him. The committee chair of Public Relations, the man who had planned this event, was especially keeping his distance. Besides Naruto, he doubted anyone else would speak to him. It left Sasuke feeling strangely alone.

Sasuke wondered what his lover was doing as he put the glass of champagne to his lips and took a sip. He tilted his glass back to drain its contents, noticing a poem written on the champagne flute in tiny, curved writing. His eyes widened as he brought the champagne glass to eye level and read the all too familiar words.

He glowered, feeling as though someone, somehow, was taunting him. It was a poem his mother had forced him to learn, forcing her own stupid superstitions upon him.

Once upon a Halloween night

The moon so full and strangely bright

Demons of lore came out to play

For them it was their New Year's Day.

Children dressed in costumes of old

To make themselves feel brave and bold.

They hid their fears behind their masks

Unaware of the demons’ tasks

They found and played and did their deed

As humans, naive, paid no head.

One child, just one, to fill the hole,

To save the beast - to save his soul.


"'How long is that ‘I'm ignoring you’ thing going to last?" Naruto mocked, his voice jarring Sasuke from his thoughts of the strange poem. Apparently he had unintentionally ignored a question from Naruto. "What are you, five?"

Sasuke lowered the glass from his lips as he remembered what happened on Halloween when he had been, ironically enough, five. It was after that Halloween, in fact, he’d been made to memorize that stupid poem which had caused him less than happy memories...

---


"It's not funny," Sasuke growled – at least, as much as any five year old could growl – as he crossed his arms across his chest while glaring at his older brother. For his part, Itachi merely continued to snicker.

"Not funny for you," Itachi said as he watched as his mother put the finishing touches on Sasuke's outfit. "It is for me."

"Itachi, stop harassing Sasuke. We've explained this to the both of you. Itachi, you had to go through the same thing Sasuke did at his age. You know why it's so important," Uchiha Mikoto scolded.

"Not for Halloween he didn’t! He only had to for obon! I don't wanna be dressed up like a girl for Halloween! Itachi never had to," Sasuke all but cried. Mikoto gave her son a stern look.

"Itachi is very lucky nothing happened to him. I told you about that poem I found. Who knew how dangerous Halloween could be as well? Now that Western demons have come East, you never know when they might be hunting for children! Protecting sons this way has been a tradition for hundreds of years. Dressing boys up on days that demons come out is very important! Several of your father's ancestors were taken from their homes on the demon's New Year, never to be seen from again! This has been happening for centuries. It's not just us -"

"Here she goes," Itachi muttered under his breath.

"- some Chinese still practice this very same idea! Koreans and Thai, I believe do too. There is documented evidence and great, historical literature that talks about how parents used to fear the demons' and evil spirits taking their children. The classic story by Pearl Buck -"

" - The Good Earth, yes, we know it mentions the parents pretending their son is a girl to make the evil spirits not want him. We know it’s from your favorite book," Itachi said.

"That's right! And don't forget that if you meet an evil spirit or demon tonight, to tell them you're a girl because demons only go after little boys. However, if you see a ghost, they will go after anyone, so make sure that you-"

"-run in a zigzag because ghosts can only move straight, and it takes a while for them to turn around," Sasuke finished with a sigh.

"That's right! That is why -"

"The bridges over water gardens in Asia are all zigzagged to prevent evil spirits. Not to mention that's why we have all the stone guardians that protect us," Itachi dead-panned.

"Good," Mikoto said with a nod of her head, clearly proud of her sons.

Sasuke merely scoffed. Even at the age of five, he knew his mom was a bit of a nutcase, thinking about silly things like demons and ghosts. All that stuff didn't exist. Itachi told him that their mother was probably just sad that she never got girls so she used it as an excuse to make them wear frilly dresses.

At least they hadn't had to have their ears pierced like their father. Their grandmother had been even more superstitious than their own mother and had pierced her son's ears to make him look more feminine as a child.

Once Sasuke was completely dressed and ready for trick-or-treating, Sasuke merely stood at the front entranceway with his empty candy-bag in hand, glaring at the door. Itachi had already left, flaunting his very boyish Ninja Assassin costume, complete with a fake sword.

Sasuke was so jealous. He glared at the door.

"Come on Sasuke! You'll miss all the candy," his mother said as she opened the door and ushered him out to go trick-or-treating.

Sasuke did NOT want to be seen in a dress. Last year had been the first year his family had celebrated Halloween. Before they had moved to Kyoto, the small town they had lived in hadn’t celebrated trick-or-treating. But since they moved, things had changed. Once his mother had found out about the holiday, she had treated it like she did obon and made him dress up like a girl. She meant it to “protect” her precious, young son from the supposed demons. No other boys he knew had to do what he did. Thankfully last year his father had been home instead of out on a business trip, and his father had let him change into another costume after they had left the house.

Because his father wasn't home and since Itachi was going out with friends, he would have to go around with his mother looking like a girl because he wasn’t old enough like Itachi was.

"No!" Sasuke said. "I'm not going!" he yelled as he ran through the house and out the back door, ripping off the frills before he ran into his backyard and into the light dusting of woods.

He curled his legs up to his chest and glared at nothing in particular. His mother put her hands on her hips as she stood in the back entryway and called for him to come back. Sasuke merely shook his head. She gave him an exasperated sigh and headed back in the house. He sat there stubbornly, watching, mostly hidden as kids came to his door and got candy from his mother. He saw the kids leaving with large handfuls as his mother had originally thought she'd be taking him around, so they'd gotten a lot more candy because they knew leaving a bowl out on the front step unattended without anyone stopping them would mean kids would take more than just one or two pieces.

Sasuke glared angrily at the other children, watching as it got darker and darker, only slightly comforted to see that his mother occasionally looked out the back window to make sure he was still there. He wished she would come out and tell him he could go in another costume, but she didn't.

Instead, it got colder and later. Sasuke swallowed back the feeling of missing out on the trick-or-treating like everyone else. He glared at his stupid costume, wishing he could have been a cool ninja like Itachi.

"You glare a lot."

Sasuke jumped up as he looked to his left where the voice had come from.

A little boy, around his age, stood with whiskers on his face and what looked like nine tails coming out from behind him. He held a large bag that already seemed to be filled and over flowing with candy. Fox ears stuck out from beneath the boy’s blond hair. His animal costume looked very realistic.

"What are you supposed to be?" Sasuke asked.

"A Nine Tailed Demon Fox. See all my cool tails?" the boy grinned as he shook his tails around. Sasuke opened his mouth, ready to ask how they moved on their own like that when the other boy spoke, "Are you a fairy princess?"

Sasuke glared some more and sat down in a huff.

"I'm a boy," Sasuke said angrily. "I'm not a girl!"

"Well, duh. I can tell you're a boy. I mean are you dressed as a fairy princess? My godfather is dressed as the Queen of the Fairies," the demon fox boy said. Sasuke gave him a weird look.

"Why?"

"'Cuz it's Halloween! Duh! You can be anything! But right now, you only seem lonely. I am too. My parents couldn't take me trick-or-treating because they’re not allowed to come here any more. They have each other. So I have to go trick-or-treating by myself. I hate being by myself. You’re all alone too. Will you go with me? We won’t be lonely if we are together."

Sasuke looked at the other boy. He seemed like he had enough candy that he wouldn't be able to even fit more in his bag. The other boy seemed nice, and he wasn't making fun of Sasuke for dressing like a girl. But even so, Sasuke didn't want anyone to see him like this.

Sasuke watched as the other boy looked at him. Despite all the candy in his bag, the boy looked truly lonely. His eyes were very sad like when Sasuke had to stay home by himself. He wanted to say yes to make the other boy smile, but…

"I didn't want to dress like this..." Sasuke said sadly.

"Is that all? We'll trade costumes! Here!" the other boy said happily.

Sasuke wasn't ever able to recall how they changed costumes so fast, but he was suddenly in the nine-tailed demon fox outfit, the tails behind him whipping around like they were alive, and the other boy stood looking like a girl in a fairy princess outfit. The boy didn't seem at all phased by it. Sasuke found himself distracted for a moment as one of the nine tails swished by his face. He swatted at them, but they kept moving, like they had a will of their own. Once he got them to behave, he turned to look at the other boy.

"Isn't it stupid dressing up like a girl?" Sasuke asked. The blonde tilted his head curiously.

"Why? Now people who just gave me candy won't recognize me and they'll give me more!"

Sasuke shook his head as the demon-fox-turned-girl grabbed his hand as they ran off, going door to door having a blast trick-or-treating.

Never before had Sasuke had so much fun. As they walked back to his house, the blonde-haired boy turned to him.

"No one has ever gone trick-or-treating with me before," he said to Sasuke. "Actually, no one has ever talked with me before. People only usually see me during festivals and sometimes Halloween, but even then, I usually get ignored. Can we be friends?" the boy asked, looking almost scared that Sasuke would say no.

Sasuke smiled, happily.

"Yes," Sasuke replied. "Here. You can even have most of my candy. I don’t like it very much anyway." Sasuke reached in his bag and dug out a lot of the stuff he didn’t like. Bright blue eyes welled up with happiness, looking completely overwhelmed. He got a big, goofy grin on his face before he leaned over and gave Sasuke a grateful hug and sloppy kiss to his cheek. Sasuke blushed furiously, but it felt good to have made his new friend so happy.

When Sasuke returned home, he once again found himself dressed in the dress, but he didn’t care because he’d had a lot of fun and his bag was still filled with a lot of candy. He’d given all the kind he didn’t like to his new friend. He grinned as he turned to look at the other boy, only to find himself alone on his own door step.

The grin fell from his face as he realized he was alone again.

Before he could even grip the handle, the door swung open. His mother looked first relieved, and then extremely angry before she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him inside.

"Never, never run away like that! I should have gone with you! You shouldn't go wandering around alone, do you hear me? And how dare you go and get candy when you told me you didn't want to go!"

Sasuke was too shocked to argue as his mother took the candy from him and forced him to spend the rest of the night in his room.

Even the next day, he didn't get his candy bag back. Instead, his mother just made him memorize a stupid poem about what demons supposedly did on Halloween. Sasuke wasn’t allowed out to play for a week. Twice he saw from his upstairs window his new friend outside waiting for him, but Sasuke’s mom told his friend to leave both times. It hurt watching his friend look so sad as he got turned away. The third time his friend was told to leave, he never came back. Once Sasuke was allowed out of the house again, he’d asked everyone he knew about the blond haired boy. No one knew his name or anything about him.

That Halloween was the last time he ever went trick-or-treating. He hated candy anyway.


---


"You okay?" Naruto asked as he looked at Sasuke worriedly. Sasuke didn’t answer immediately. Even though he’d had to dress up for obon and Halloween until he was eight (though he refused to go outside), the memory of leaving that lonely boy by himself still haunted Sasuke.

"Just need to get out of this stuffy atmosphere," Sasuke murmured as he put his glass down, willing the memories away.

"Yeah. I thought about disappearing until after the Gala. Apparently there's supposed to be a cool party afterward," Naruto said enthusiastically. Sasuke made a non-committal sound as he wandered off, suddenly not wanting to be around Naruto’s happy attitude.

Sasuke knew from having met his lover here for a previous rendezvous that there were some private changing areas down near the ballroom part of the hotel. It wasn’t a bedroom, but it would serve as a place for privacy.

He wandered toward one, hoping to get away from the noise and the crowd for a bit.

Just as he approached one, hoping that it was unlocked, the wind was knocked out of him as he was pushed face first into the door as hands struggled to tie something around his mouth. Even as he attempted to react, he was slammed roughly back into the door. The person behind him turned the knob, letting the door swing forward, leaving Sasuke to stumble as his support gave way. As he tried to steady himself, Sasuke tripped as the other person shoved him inside the dark room before closing the door and Sasuke's easiest means to call someone for help.


Next Chapter: Unmasked


Just fyi, that poem is one that I wrote. Do not use it without permission.

Several important historical notes; some of the historical information has been slightly altered. It is true that in Asia young boys were dressed up as girls as it was believed demons would bypass young girls. However, it was not restricted to any one day. Demons could supposedly come out at any time, and therefore some young boys constantly went around wearing girl’s clothing. It’s not very practiced today, but my Chinese history professor’s father had his ears pierced because his mother was trying to protect him from the ‘demons.’ The Korean manga, “Bride of the Water God” had recently addressed the idea of dressing a young boy up as girl for his protection.

Halloween isn’t as widely celebrated in Japan, but it still does occur. Obon is a Japanese holiday, usually celebrated in mid-August where they celebrate what Westerners would consider All Soul’s Day or a Festival of the Dead.

Anyway – hope you liked the chapter! ~ Jelp