Afraid of the Dark

Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 5: Too Many Questions

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"It's so dark that for awhile--just how long I don't know--I think I'm still unconscious." Stephen King.
- Everything's Eventual (Autopsy Room Four (1st of 14 short stories))

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In the back of his mind Sasuke knew something horrible had happened. His body felt heavy, as though there were something weighing him down, yet he couldn't feel anything on top of him. His body seemed to refuse to move: his limbs dead weight.

He could practically feel his heart beat slowing, his chest movements hesitating until they were almost non-existent.

Sasuke was aware of nothing around him, yet was completely in tune with his body: the slow yet hard thumps of his heart beating in his chest, the thumps that seemed to come less and less frequently, less hard as though slowing down, as though stopping.

Try as he might, he couldn’t focus on any other sounds or any other sensations outside of what he could feel in his body. He couldn’t see anything but darkness. He couldn’t feel what his body was touching. Nothing. Nothing but the ever slowing beats of his heart.

Ba dum…ba dum … … ba dum … … …

Finally, his heart stopped, his entire body stilled as a sense of utter tranquility settled through him. There was no movement, no sounds from his body.

The tranquility didn’t last long as he began to feel a coldness enter his body. A sort of painful freezing that started in his chest and slowly spread throughout the rest of him.

Am I dying?

Am I dead?

But no he couldn’t be dead as suddenly there were sounds and flashes around him. Even though he couldn't place what was going on, he was aware again as his focus was finally drawn away from his body to around him.

He felt something warm against him, as though his skin were on fire. Something warm was pressed on top of him. More warmth seeped into his body from the contact. The coldness that he had felt vanished instantly, and his heart began to beat hard inside him as though making up for the time it had stilled, thudding hard and loud against his chest.

Distantly, as though in a dream, he heard a voice speaking to him.

"Don’t die! You can’t die! Sasuke!"

Slowly his limbs seemed to become livelier as though the warmth was slowly filling him with life. He could feel his chest begin to rise even faster.

Another sense of tranquility began to spread through him, but this time it wasn't like the stillness from before, but rather a sort of exhaustion. The warmth felt pleasant, comfortable, and strangely familiar. Sasuke didn’t fight it when he felt the pull of blackness beginning to take him. Instead, he let it pull him away from the world of the conscious...

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Time seemed hard to place as Sasuke began to slowly wake up. Memories flashed back to him as images of Itachi practically kidnapping him and Naruto, memories of the car that had slammed into them -

Sasuke started back to consciousness in fear. His body was drenched with sweat, and he could feel his clothes sticking to his body. Worriedly he hoped it was just sweat and that none of the stickiness was blood.

"Naruto – Itachi!" Sasuke cried out. He looked around him in shock. His breath came in short pants as he continued looking around to see if Itachi and Naruto were okay from the car crash.

Instead he found himself lying in his bed, looking up at the ceiling the light of twilight seeping through his bedroom window with no one else in the room.

His body finally seemed to be able to move with the rush of adrenaline surging through him.

Sasuke sat up in bed and regretted the action as he hissed in pain. His chest hurt where the seatbelt had cut across his chest when the other car had pummeled into them.

He took a few deep breaths, looking around him, still confused. His attention turned to the empty space next to him: Naruto's empty side of the bed.

Where was Naruto? Was he okay? How did Sasuke get back home? Where was Itachi?

What had been Itachi's problem?

Sasuke grunted in pain as a sharp throb shot through his chest while a painful pounding began in his head.

"Shh, shh sweetie. Calm down. Lay back down," Mikoto said kindly to her son, her hands pressing gently on his shoulders as she encouraged him to lie back down on the bed.

Sasuke blinked at his mother in confusion. Just a second ago he was sure that no one else had been in the room with him.

"Where are Naruto and Itachi? Are they okay?"

"Naruto is in his new room, resting," Mikoto said gently wiping away the sweaty bang from Sasuke's forehead.

"What about Itachi?"

"He's at the hospital. He'll be fine," Mikoto said quietly.

"At the hospital?! Is he alright? How hurt is he? Is Dad there with-"

"Sasuke," Mikoto said so sharply that Sasuke's words died in his throat. He'd never heard his quiet, sweet mother ever sound like that. She took a deep breath and spoke in a gentler tone. "Itachi's physically okay. He's at a special hospital for people with special mental conditions."

Special conditions? The only thing that Sasuke could think would cause Itachi to have a special mental condition was because of how he acted when they had gotten in the car.

"Is Itachi crazy?" Sasuke asked.

Pain contorted across Mikoto's face and she swiped a stray tear at the corner of her eye before it had the chance to fall.

"When Naruto woke up, he told me that Itachi had said some very bizarre things to the two of you before speeding away."

"Naruto's awake? Is he okay?"

"Yes, yes. Naruto's fine. He wanted to see you, but I made him promise to rest until you woke up. But first you and I need to speak before your father comes in to see you about what Itachi said to the two of you." Her voice fell down to a hushed whisper, and Sasuke felt apprehension due to his mother's expression.

For some reason Itachi's earlier words hung in the air, and he wondered what his brother had meant, wondered if perhaps his brother had known what he was talking about.


"I know that Mother and Father think nothing of it, and I know that neither of you remember it, and that's my fault. I shouldn't have tampered with your memories, but those things will come for you Naruto, and when they do, they will come for you too Sasuke. Our parents can't run any longer from their past crimes. They think the house is protected, but the defenses have been breeched before."


"Itachi said he tampered with our memories. Said he made us forget. He said that you and Dad are running away from something."

"That's what Naruto said Itachi had said as well. Is there anything else Itachi said?" Mikoto asked.

"I don't remember exactly what he said, but it seemed like he was worried about people coming after Naruto. He said that it had something to do with Naruto turning eighteen."

"He didn't tell you anything else? He didn't give you any other information? You didn't ask him anything after he told you that?"

Sasuke vividly remembered asking Itachi what the hell was going on, but decided he wouldn't relay his exact choice of words to his mother.

"I questioned his sanity, but I didn't ask him anything else. Is he okay? Did he go crazy? Just saying a few crazy things doesn’t make a person totally crazy. There is such a thing as temporary insanity, correct?" Sasuke asked, looking at his mother intently. She turned away from him.

Sasuke swallowed, remembering the look on Itachi's face: the look of pure fear. He hadn’t looked insane; no, he’d looked terrified of something. Itachi didn't get afraid. He'd never, ever seen his brother look like that before, and it unsettled Sasuke more than anything else that Itachi had actually said.

His mother was acting strangely, and Sasuke wondered if perhaps despite all that crazy talk, perhaps Itachi had actually been telling the truth.

Now that was definitely a scary thought.

"Mom, was what Itachi said true?" Sasuke asked. It was a silly question. Stupid. Surely it couldn't be true, right? His Mom would laugh, ruffle his hair, and reassure him that all was well.

But she didn't.

"I think I'm going to let Naruto know that you're awake," Mikoto said, smiling at him. "Why don't you just rest for a bit? I'll send Naruto to see you before your father gets home to talk with the two of you, okay?" She ruffled his hair and stood up, turning away from him.

"Mom?" Sasuke questioned, feeling that growing sense of fear well up within him again.

"I'll be right back sweetie!" she called from the doorway.

"Mom!" Sasuke shouted angrily. He went to swing the covers from off of his body to demand answers, but his limbs felt almost locked in place, and he found that his adrenaline rush had only been good enough to help him sit up. The rush of energy from the adrenaline had already drained from him, and he felt weak and heavy.

His mom hadn't answered him. His beloved, sweet, innocent-seeming mother hadn't reassured him at all. In fact, her reaction had made it seem like they were indeed running away from something in their past.

He felt like a little kid again, scared and alone like that time that the monster had come to the house.

Monster!

"A-ah!" Sasuke grunted in pain as a sharp throb shot through his head. He slumped backward on the bed, groaning slightly at the sharp pain. He must have hit his head pretty hard during the car accident.

The monster...he hadn't thought about that in years.

Another sharp pain shot through his head, making it difficult for him to think. He felt dizzy and almost sick to his stomach, and the vivid memory from his childhood of a gray-skinned monster with glowing eyes –

"Aah!" Sasuke grunted again. The sharp pangs to his head made it hard for him to think, so he took a few deep breaths, lying still. He hoped Naruto would be there soon. He wanted to see his mom again as well; he had so many questions to ask her. Yet at least if Naruto were there it would feel normal. Over the years Sasuke had found that it was hard to rest without Naruto by his side, as though Naruto calmed his mind. He needed his best friend, the person that was closer to him than his own brother, to be with him.

When they were younger, even when Sasuke and Naruto used to get into a lot of “fights” they were still best friends. After all, it wasn't unusual: two young boys growing up, fighting, playing around, and goofing off. It was to be expected.

Yet Sasuke had always felt extremely connected to Naruto. When Naruto was around, somehow he felt safer. For some reason, he remembered someone saying something to him along the lines of how he needed to stay close to Naruto in order to stay safe. His head throbbed again at the thought, and Sasuke tried to place the voice of who had told him that. Maybe it was just something he had dreamed?

"Sasuke!" Sasuke turned his head slightly as Naruto came in their room deep worry clearly evident on his face. No, not their room. Just Sasuke’s room now.

"Idiot. You're looking at me like I'm on my death bed," Sasuke said, grunting angrily. Naruto's expression changed instantaneously. A broad smile crossed his features, but it didn’t reach his eyes. His eyes were still intently staring at Sasuke worriedly. The smile was too large, too forced. Naruto was trying his best to fake that everything was okay so as not to worry Sasuke.

"Nah. I knew you'd be fine. I've been toughening you up by kicking you out of bed in the morning. The force of the car was no match for how I trained your body," Naruto said, grinning widely as he stuck his thumb out and pointed it at himself proudly.

Sasuke snorted.

"Right," Sasuke drawled out. "You knew this was going to happen?" Sasuke asked, joking around as Naruto came forward and sat on the edge of his bed.

"Damn Sasuke, you look like shit," Naruto said, his attempt to lighten the mood vanishing as his concern overrode his ability to keep up a happy-mask of emotions.

"You always look like shit. Does that mean you get banged up daily?" Sasuke asked with a smirk.

"Idiot," Naruto said grinning, feigning a playful punch to Sasuke’s head. His fingers stopped short of connecting with Sasuke's forehead. His joking expression turned worried again. His fingers gently brushed away the bangs from Sasuke's forehead.

The touch felt like fire to his skin, and Sasuke gasped.

"You alright?" Naruto asked, pulling his hand away immediately, moving further from Sasuke on the bed as though he were afraid of hurting him.

"My head. Sharp pains," Sasuke admitted reluctantly. He didn't want to have Naruto to think he was a baby. It wasn’t like Naruto to look so worried, and Sasuke didn’t like that Naruto kept giving him those concerned looks. Right now, Sasuke felt very vulnerable. His entire body ached and felt like dead weight. Sharp pains kept shooting through his head, and Naruto's light touch had made his whole body feel like it had caught fire.

And to make matters worse, Naruto looked perfectly fine. It almost seemed insulting that he be cooped up in bed and Naruto looked okay.

Still, Sasuke would rather that he have gotten hurt than Naruto. He was glad Naruto was okay. Since he could remember, Sasuke had never handled Naruto getting hurt very well. He was also sure Naruto wouldn’t have appreciated getting hurt on his birthday.

"Not your best birthday ever," Sasuke grunted.

"Nope. Didn’t get to show off at school. But hey! I didn’t have to go at all which is cool because no schoolwork and all that," Naruto said, grinning. Of course Naruto would focus on that “happy” aspect. "You still need to give me my birthday present!" Naruto said, grinning.

Sasuke snorted, and rolled his eyes. For his eighteenth birthday, Naruto had gotten him a couple of things. One of them had been an expensive book series that he liked, and the other –

Another sharp pain shot through Sasuke’s head, and he realized he couldn’t remember the other thing Naruto had gotten him.

"You hit your head really hard," Naruto murmured. "The fact that you’re okay is the best birthday present."

Sasuke snorted. It hadn’t been that bad of an accident. Neither said anything for a moment. Finally Naruto changed the subject.

"Auntie Mikoto is acting weird. Something's up. I think Itachi might've known something after all," Naruto said, looking at Sasuke as though wondering if Sasuke would agree with him or not.

"She said that she went to get you. I thought she'd come in right after you did," Sasuke explained.

"I didn't see her. I was in my room, and I came by to check up on you on my own."

At Naruto's words of "my room" there was a sharp tightening in Sasuke's chest that had nothing to do with the pain that he felt from the car crash. It was too strange to think that Naruto was going to be separated from him like that. They'd always been in the same room together. It was something that Sasuke knew he would never admit out loud to Naruto, but he felt safer when Naruto was around him.

In fact, having Naruto around him now had made the sense of worry that he felt about his parents and Itachi’s crazy words calm down.

"So Mom doesn't know you're here – at least yet."

"You sound like you don't want Auntie to know I'm here," Naruto said, frowning. "Do you think Itachi was right, and that your parents are hiding something big?"

"Yes."

"I wish Itachi were here. They carted him off from the crash right away."

Sasuke frowned, looking at Naruto.

"I don't remember anything. What happened? Why are we here and not in the hospital?" Sasuke asked. Naruto shifted awkwardly on the bed and looked at his hands.

"You don't remember anything?" Naruto asked, looking at Sasuke intensely. Sasuke gave Naruto a disdainful look that told him that he wouldn't waste words saying it if he didn't mean it.

Sasuke waited for Naruto to roll his eyes or do something to show his exasperation with Sasuke's non-verbal explanation, and when none came, Sasuke realized how strange it was for Naruto to be looking at him so seriously.

"Sasuke, you've been unconscious for two days."

"Two days?" Sasuke gasped, looking at Naruto shocked.

"I thought...I thought you'd died at first," Naruto said, his voice cracking. "The other car hit your side, and you jolted around and hit your head and then went still. There was blood all over you. I kept calling your name, but you didn't answer me. Itachi started calling your name, and if I hadn't seen how scared he had seemed while driving us off to who knows where, I don't think I would have believed I'd ever see him so panicked. I unbuckled my seatbelt and felt for a heartbeat. It slowed down and then nothing. No heart beat. Your chest wasn't moving, and you weren't breathing. I thought you'd died," Naruto said. Sasuke could merely stare at Naruto numbly. Naruto was looking down at his hands.

The warmth that Sasuke had felt – it had been Naruto who had held him and gave him warmth.

"You called to me. I remember," Sasuke murmured, vaguely recalling how he'd heard someone say don’t die.

"Yeah, I did. And it was so weird. It was like all of a sudden you came back to life. I could feel your heart beating against my chest, and you took a deep breath of air. You didn't open your eyes or speak, but damn...at least I could tell you were alive then."

There was silence for a moment before Sasuke prompted Naruto further.

"Then what happened?"

Naruto shrugged.

"I dunno. I sorta passed out after that. I know that your parents were there at one point, and then Uncle Fugaku left with Itachi," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I don’t remember too much after that. I felt really drained after you started breathing again. I think the shock of thinking you were dead, and then the relief of you not being dead did a number on my nervous system. At least, that's what Uncle Fugaku said when I told him about it. I only woke up about nine hours ago. I was out of it for a day and a half myself."

Sasuke looked down at his own hands. It felt like something were floating in his mind, like a memory that he couldn't quite grasp. Something about what Naruto had said about how Sasuke had suddenly started breathing again gave him that feeling that he ought to know something, the same feeling when a word was just on the tip of his tongue, right there yet still out of reach.

It seemed to be so close. Right on the surface. If he could just remember what Naruto's words reminded him of –

Flashes of memory quickly passed through his mind, jolting things long buried –

He was nine. He and Naruto had been climbing on the jungle gym at their school. Naruto kept daring him to go higher. They climbed on top of the monkey bars, playing around. They stood on top of the monkey bars instead of dangling from them like they were supposed to. They were play fighting. Suddenly a teacher yelled at them to get off of the top. The yell startled Naruto so much that he lost his balance and fell.

Sasuke had felt his heart stop. Everything had felt like it had gone in slow motion. His body didn't want to act as Naruto landed hard, headfirst. Blood began to pool around Naruto's head.

Even though he was sure he couldn’t have, Sasuke had felt like he had flown from the top of the monkey bars to Naruto's side, cradling Naruto's head in his hands. The spot where Naruto's blood was pouring from seemed to suddenly close, and Naruto's eyes fluttered open.

His parents had been called to school. They seemed more angry than worried about Naruto. His mother took him aside and asked what happened. He told her he flew to Naruto’s side and made his head better. She said that wasn't possible, and to forget it. Sasuke said he couldn't. Then she'd touched his head, and it felt as though something was pulled from his mind –

Sasuke was fourteen. Itachi had taken him and Naruto to the mall to do some Christmas shopping for their mom. They stopped at the food court to get something to eat. The guy in front of them was about Naruto and Sasuke’s age and was taking his good old time getting his food.

Sasuke got slightly annoyed as the person in front of them took even longer in getter his order by triple checking his order before moving out of the way. Finally he moved off to the side with a bag of food in one hand and a coffee in the other. As the guy turned around so they were next in line to order, Sasuke barely registered that the person was someone that went to his school.

However, the other guy recognized him right away.

"You!" the guy yelled as he pointed at Sasuke. Sasuke merely raised his eyebrow at his classmate, not deigning him worth his time to even waste a scowl on him.

"Don't point at Sasuke like that you jerk!" Naruto yelled, stepping slightly in front of Sasuke. Sasuke did find Naruto worthy enough to scowl at, so he did. It was insulting that Naruto felt the need to stick up for him. He was perfectly capable of doing it himself if he so wished.

Just as Sasuke was about to ask what the other guy's problem was so that Naruto would back down, the other guy turned to him and gave him a piece of his mind.

"My girlfriend broke up with me because of you! She said you actually spoke to her. She said you never speak to anyone, so you must secretly have a crush on her! She dumped me because of you!"

Sasuke had no recollection of who this guy was talking about. If he'd spoken to the girl, it was probably to say move out of my way or some other such thing. Sasuke wasn't very sociable. However, even if he had spoken to this guy's ex-girlfriend, if she broke up with him just because Sasuke spoke to her meant that the girl was either foolishly hopeful for his attention, or she had no better excuse to dump the imbecile standing in front of him.

"Whoever she was, I've no interest in her, especially if she went out with a loser like you."

It took Sasuke by complete surprise when the guy threw his coffee into Sasuke’s face. Intense pain shot through him as the scalding coffee splattered all over his face and even in his eyes.

Sasuke cried out in shocked pain, his hands flying to his eyes to cover them.

The hot liquid felt like it was scorching his eyes out. He'd never thought much about how damaging hot drinks could be, but the painful agony he felt was like nothing he'd ever experienced before.

The pain crippled his senses, and he fell heavily to the floor in agony. He screamed and grunted, panic settling over him as he tried to open his eyes and saw nothing but blackness in his agony.

Complete blackness.

His panic at his sudden blindness overrode the pain, and the scream died on his lips as shock began to settle over him.

Suddenly he could feel someone coming closer to him, and he flinched away, fearful of what he couldn't see.

"Sasuke?! Are you okay?!" Naruto demanded, and if Sasuke hadn't been so panicked, he might have relaxed to know that Naruto was still by his side.

Coolness seemed to settle over his eyes. A few moments later he realized that Naruto had pressed his hands to Sasuke's eyes, and they seemed to cool away the pain. The pressure of Naruto’s hands left his eyes. The burning sensation left instantly as though Naruto’s hands had absorbed the pain. Sasuke blinked again, and it was like the world had gone from black to perfect light without missing a beat.

He blinked once more and Itachi stood before him, his eyes curious, but strangely not worried.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked breathlessly.

Sasuke nodded once, feeling foolish for panicking, though utterly relieved that he could see.

After double checking that Sasuke was okay, Naruto turned from his side and launched himself at the guy that had hurt him. Following Naruto's lead, Sasuke was about ready to pounce on the guy as well, but Itachi held his shoulder and looked right into his eyes.

"Weren't your eyes hit with the coffee?" Itachi asked, his voice calm and collected, as though he was completely oblivious to how Naruto was beating the living daylights out of the other guy, nor how a large crowd was gathering around watching the fight. Itachi also seemed quite oblivious to the shouts egging Naruto on as well as other shouts yelling at him to stop.

"Yes, but Naruto put his hands on my eyes and the pain stopped." It sounded so ridiculous for him to say, but for some reason, with Itachi looking at him like that, he felt compelled to tell the truth.

"I see," Itachi said, as he lightly touched Sasuke's forehead and something seemed to slide from his mind –

It was his eighteenth birthday. He and Naruto had gone to bed as usual. Naruto was hyper from all the birthday cake he'd eaten, especially since Sasuke didn't like sweets and Naruto always had Sasuke's piece.

"Why do you get a cake for your birthday if you're not going to eat it?" Naruto asked as he turned to look at Sasuke. Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, finding Naruto’s appearance strange due to the new lighting in their room.

It was the first time since Sasuke could remember that they had a different light other than their “nightlight.” Naruto had gotten him a black light for his birthday, insisting it would be “cooler” for people their age to have a black light rather than a “nightlight.” The purple-ish light made the atmosphere in the room seem so much different than normal.

Sasuke was just about to answer Naruto’s question by explaining that he didn't have the heart to deny his mother baking for him on his birthday when he found himself caught up just staring at Naruto. The small black light that they had fixed above their bed made the white sheets contrast brightly against Naruto's skin. The sheets were pulled up close to Naruto's neck, but his bare arm was propped on top of the sheets.

Naruto's skin looked darker than normal due to the contrast, and Sasuke had the strangest urge to brush his fingers along Naruto's skin to see if it felt as different as it looked.

"What are you doing?" Naruto murmured, the earlier hyperness in his voice sounding strangely raspy.

"Hmm?" Sasuke asked, finding it almost hard to speak.

"Why are you running your fingers along my skin?" Naruto asked looking at Sasuke strangely.

Strange. Sasuke hadn't even realized he was doing that until Naruto had said something. Why was he doing this? He wasn't quite sure, but he did realize that Naruto felt strangely warm.

"You're warm," Sasuke murmured. His fingers continued to brush Naruto's arm. Sasuke locked eyes with Naruto, noticing the way that Naruto's eyes looked at him in confusion.

His hand continued to stroke Naruto's arm, this time up from his forearm, past his elbow, moving across his bicep. Sasuke trailed his fingers lightly along Naruto's collarbone to where the sheet was pressed against his neck. He pulled his eyes away from Naruto's gaze to watch his hand stroke gently against Naruto's pulse beating gently at the bottom of his neck.

Before he realized what he was doing, Sasuke moved the sheet slowly away from Naruto's neck, watching as the white sheet slowly revealed more of Naruto's skin. He stopped pulling the sheet down when it reached the top of Naruto's sleep shorts. They were dark black, and Sasuke just stared at them, staring at the drawstring that was tied in a loose knot at the front.

Slowly he pulled the sleep shorts down to see what the rest of Naruto's skin looked like beneath the black light. His hand traveled lower, and he heard Naruto make a strange sort of pleasured gasp –

Pounding. There was pounding. Was it at the door? Where was it coming from –

Yes, there was pounding at the door, but there was pounding from the headboard too –

The door burst open, and Itachi came in, looking at the two of them in shock. He yelled something at them before coming closer and smashing the black light to pieces.

The pieces of glass from the broken black light left cuts along his naked skin, but as soon as Naruto touched him again, they vanished.

Sasuke didn’t have time to register this fact as Itachi grabbed him and Naruto, flinging them apart. Naruto made a noise of protest, and he reached for Sasuke. Sasuke reached for Naruto as well, but felt his body freeze mid-motion. He felt a coolness hit him as the air chilled his naked, sweaty body, and suddenly he felt like a great deal was pulled from his mind, and like something heavy was placed over his heart –

Sasuke was eleven. He kept feeling like someone was watching him. It kept feeling like there were eyes on him. It wasn’t the first time he’d has this feeling, but this time it felt like a truly bad feeling.

When he and Naruto went to bed that night, he couldn’t help shake the feeling. While he lay awake in bed, he realized that Naruto hadn’t gone to sleep either.

"I feel like someone’s watching us," Sasuke whispered.

"I – I thought that too," Naruto said, his voice sounding scared. "What do we do?"

"Take the flashlight. Let’s go to Itachi’s room. It’s closest," Sasuke said. Naruto nodded, grabbing the flashlight before they dashed to Itachi’s room.

"What’re you doing?" Itachi asked, frowning as the two of them entered his room. He sat at his computer desk, typing up something on his computer. The only light in the room came from the glow off of Itachi’s computer screen, and from the faint glow of the flashlight in Naruto’s hand.

"There are eyes watching us," Naruto said. Sasuke glared at Naruto. He shouldn’t say something like that to Itachi. Itachi would think they were being stupid.

But instead of brushing them off as acting up, Itachi frowned at them. He turned toward his window, and his eyes widened slightly when he looked out it. Sasuke tilted his head to the side to see what had made Itachi look like that.

"Stay in here with me tonight," Itachi said, doing something with his computer before turning it off. He flipped on a light before the computer finished booting down. "Get into bed you two," Itachi said, nodding to the bed. Like Sasuke and Naruto, he too had a large bed, but it would be a little squished with the three of them in there.

For a moment, Sasuke thought that Itachi was going to get into bed with them at the same time, but instead he headed for the door, grabbing the flashlight from Naruto.

"Hey! Where are you –" But Naruto’s words died on his lips as he suddenly slumped back asleep, and Sasuke felt himself suddenly very, very tired –

Sasuke was six. He'd just turned six in fact. It was the first time that he and Naruto had ever met. Naruto hadn't been sent to their home because his mom was in a coma! Sasuke remembered now. Naruto had been running away from the monsters who had kidnapped his mom and his house. The monsters had also clawed up Naruto's back. Sasuke and he had been taken to the hospital because Naruto had almost died.

Dr. Ibiki had told them to stay close. He'd also told Sasuke that he'd saved Naruto's life. He'd also told them something about monsters –

"Aah!" Sasuke grunted as wave of intense pain jolted through his head.

"Sasuke!" Naruto cried in concern, darting forward. He touched Sasuke's head. The pain died immediately, but a strange burning sensation seemed to spark from where Naruto had touched him. Sasuke jerked back, and Naruto did the same.

Sasuke blinked his eyes, looking at Naruto confused. Those memories seemed so far away, yet he was sure that they had happened.

His mind went through all the memories, but he quickly sidestepped the one on the night of his eighteenth birthday. It seemed far different than all the rest, and that one was more broken than the others.

What it implied had happened between the two of them left a large knot in the pit of Sasuke’s stomach, and it was something he couldn’t think about right now. Instead he focused on the memories of them being hurt and then a strange healing occurring, just like when Naruto had been hurt by the monsters.

Another memory of Dr. Ibiki saying that Sasuke had saved Naruto's life flittered through his mind, and he had a strong feeling that everything started there.

Monsters. Something to do with monsters. It was utterly stupid, yet he knew all of them were connected somehow.

"Naruto, I think we need to get away from here. I think Mom and Dad are hiding things from us, and I think something else is happening between us."

"What are you talking about?"

"I think Itachi was right. I think they're hiding something from us, and I think they're messing with our memories." Itachi had even said that he had, but it had at least seemed like Itachi was going to tell them the truth.

"Sasuke sweetheart, why would you say such a thing?"

Sasuke turned toward the doorway, his face set as he stared at his mom. Her face didn't seem angry, but rather resigned, almost weary.

"What are you hiding from us?" Sasuke asked bluntly.

"Sasuke," Naruto said sharply, looking back and forth between mother and son.

"That's not the right question you need to ask. I can't tell you until you ask the right question. That’s how the rule works," Mikoto said, calmly placing her hands in front of her.

"Ask the right question? Rules? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Figure out the right question, and then I'll tell you the rest. And watch your language."

Sasuke stared at his mother, wondering what stupid sort of nonsense was going on. The only thing that he could think of was that there were monsters that had come after Naruto. It seemed that some of his memories had been erased, but why? Was that the right question?

"Why are you erasing our memories?" Sasuke demanded.

"Uh...?" Naruto said, looking at Sasuke. Sasuke's mother shook her head.

"Not the right question."

"Why are the monsters after us?" She just shook her head again.

Sasuke was about to ask, ‘why can we heal?’ when a strange thought occurred to him. If there really were monsters in addition to humans, maybe he and Naruto could heal because they weren't human either? Were they monsters? He didn't want to word it like that, so instead he asked,

"What are we?" Sasuke whispered. Mikoto looked at Sasuke, and her eyes flittered slightly, and she smiled at him.

"I thought for sure you would have asked me that important question ages ago. You were four when Itachi figured it out. He wondered about how the picture broke, and he heard you talking to me about monsters. You were close to figuring it out several times. I think Itachi was trying to protect you from asking it because he didn’t like the answer to the question so much."

"What are we?" Naruto repeated Sasuke’s question, but directing it at Sasuke, not Mikoto, clearly wondering why Sasuke had asked that.

"That's it, isn't it? What are we? That's the question, isn't it?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, yes it is."

"And?" Sasuke asked, feeling impatient that he wasn't being answered. Mikoto smiled gently.

"Why, you’re a fairy of course."


- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Sometimes things look better in the dark when you don’t really know what it is you’re looking at." ~ Jelp

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Next Chapter: Fairy Tales


Sorry for the hiatus. Just didn’t feel like writing, and I think part of it was due to a health issue that made me blah. For those of you who read Highs and Lows you know I’m diabetic, and I just found out that I have something called Hashimoto’s disease. It’s a thyroid problem that was partially caused due to my diabetes. I’m on meds now, and I’m feeling better. Ironically enough, I didn’t know I was feeling bad till I started feeling better!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you thought! ~ Jelp