Disclaimer: If I owned them, would they really be ninjas and not personal sex slaves? Pffft.
Warning: Yaoi, cursing, death, and a little bit of OOC but not much.
Pairing: SasuNaru, others later.
Summary: AU Naruto is a failed experiment searching for a heart. He meets Sasuke, a boy who is desperately trying to save Halloween, and himself.

o-o-o

Forget Me Not
Prologue

o-o-o

Everything was so dark...-

He was...

Dying?

Or maybe something different?

He could see light. Bright and vibrant when he opened his eyes, and smiled. But there was no light, when he looked around. Why? It was so beautiful. His jaw tightened when he tried to cry, and feeling the immediate ache in his limbs, panic coursed through his body.

"I am..."

"You are my experiment, young child, and a success! How do you feel... you're only missing one thing, that is."

The boy turned his head, wincing at the sight befalling his eyes. A man was talking to him, softly, but condescendingly he could tell, and as he turned around, he gasped at what he saw. Scars marring the dark shadow's bluish skin, littering arms and legs alike. His eyes were cold, his jaw seemed almost too big for him. Long black hair cascaded down his back, held back only by a headband. Muttering to himself, the shrouded figure swept around the room, tinkering with various things at his disposal. The boy vaguely recognized a pair of sharp things in his hands.

"I will call you Uzumaki Naruto. Do you like that name, experiment? I think it quite fits you."

Experiment? Na... Naruto? His name sounded strange on his tongue, his eyes burning, but no tears fell and he couldn't understand why. "Who am I?" he questioned softly, but it was lost in the loud clanking noises the man was making. Looking down probed a gasp from his oddly cold lips. His arms were stitched in places where bone met bone... like he was a rag doll of sorts.

Naruto quickly glanced down, his arms and legs tied to a cold sheet of metal, and he shivered. "What's happened to me?"

Finally, the man spared him a few words, meeting his eyes with a type of smoldering vengeance.

"Why, you're my creation!" he hollered, as if Naruto should have known already.

Slowly, Naruto eyes widened, mouth trembling with the news. His shaking fingers touched his stitched up lips, realization dawning on him like a match lighting up the dark. "What do I look like... how, how is this possible? Where am I? Who are you?"

His questions left the man smiling, but it hadn't reached his eyes, which Naruto later found out, always had the same cruel gleam in them.

"Well, to answer your first question... here," he handed Naruto a chipped up mirror, and the boy took it, hands quaking with fright.

He nearly let out a shriek at his reflection, the strange burning sensation back behind his eyes as he gazed upon himself, shock marking his dreadful features rather than disgust. There was so many of those damn stitches that he almost screamed again, biting him freezing lips to stop it. His hair seemed to be the only normal thing on his head, its bright color an ironic acceptance he had to deal with. His thoughts were interrupted when the doctor spoke again.

"Before I tell you how it's possible, let's start with the basics, shall we?" the man chucked as he approached Naruto. "My name is Orochimaru, and you're in Hallows' Eve. A fitting setting, I think for you."

Nodding, Naruto sucked in a breath. "Will you release me...?"

Loud laughter filled his ears, cold and menacing. He winced, arms twitching from his constant shivers. Why was he so damn cold?

"All in good time, dear boy. But where would someone like you go? You see I have big plans for you. My first experiment. How interesting." Two fingers traveled up his shoulder, clutching at his chin with mock tenderness. "You know, all you need now is a heart. Won't that be grand?"

Despite himself, Naruto bit out, "Lovely."

That hand that once provided warmth dug into his skin painfully now, long nails clawing at him. When Naruto fought off another terrified whimper, he looked back up into the other man's face. A smile curled his thin lips, but it wasn't to be taken as happiness, Naruto knew.

"Now now, child. You shouldn't disobey your master. This time, I'll let you off. But if this occurs often, well, we won't think about that, will we?"

It was then on, that Naruto came to know the man as a snake, and every time he touched him, the boy would violently shiver, and the burn behind his eyes would start, leaving him begging for sleep for hours.

The cold never left him.

-

As the years flew by, Naruto became sadder and sadder. He realized that not having a heart ruined quite a few things for him, and his master Orochimaru was so vile and cruel, that he could hardly stand to be around the man. He was used like a slave and kept hidden when there were visitors. He found he barely smiled, the stitches almost getting painful. Whenever he asked Orochimaru about his construction, the snake would go on crazed ramblings, which usually ended up with Naruto cowering in a corner, feeling empty inside as usual.

It wasn't a life he wanted to continue living.

One day, the psychotic doctor took him into town, which frightened him just as much as Orochimaru's office. It seemed the place was in a constant state of darkness, and the trees never grew. Nothing did. It was dead-like, ghosts floating about like it was the most normal thing in the world, and graves the distorted people simply walked over.No one smiled, no one laughed.To Naruto, normal it was.

This... this was his home.

But on that fateful day, he met someone who changed his entire outlook. A boy just as sad and empty as he was. Orochimaru kept him close, smiling that haunty smile as he strolled around the town square. A man dressed in black held a megaphone. Naruto heard his deep, hoarse voice. It didn't sound very happy, but then again, the shadow wasn't pleased. Surprisingly, Orochimaru approached the figure, glancing at him every few seconds.

"Ah Sasuke, still trying I see?"

Orochimaru received a glare in return while the raven haired man returned to his work, shouting out something about Hell-o-een. Naruto rolled the word around on his tongue, finally pronouncing it as Halloween.

Orochimaru shot the boy known as Sasuke a pitying glance, continuing his walk. Naruto chanced another look at the boy, only to find those dark eyes glued to him. Naruto couldn't even smile, as he was yanked along. When they returned home, Orochimaru expected to be thanked in full for his kindness, in a way that terrified Naruto more than anything.

Sasuke.

The name would never be lost in Naruto's mind.

-

Naruto realized, once, that he would never age. In the span of an hour, it seemed five years had past, without Naruto changing one bit. He couldn't cry, his smile had faded, and emotion besides fear or the occasional shock was dead to him.

The bright side, however, was that Orochimaru had quickly lost interest in him, saying he had become useless and was too unfeeling. Orochimaru had began working on another project, one he said that wouldn't disappoint him so.

Though Naruto never saw him again, forbidden from the outside world, Naruto often wondered what had become of Sasuke, who was desperately trying to convey some sort of message. He never asked, though.

Tonight, there would be changes. Needed - to be changed. He wanted, so bad, oh God, to feel something. Love? He'd only heard about it once, one of Orochimaru's old lovers. But that was all.

Putting on his only smile he knew, he cautiously carried a tray of food to the mad doctor, who was working diligently on his latest experiment. Naruto noticed a head but no neck, parts of a body. His stomach quivered, but he willed it away.

Orochimaru studied him as he wiped his brow, suspiciously.

"Hungry doctor?" Naruto whispered, something mysterious bubbling up inside him.

Carefully, the man picked up a cup of coffee, eyeing it. "Would you like some, Naruto?" he asked sweetly, holding the cup for Naruto's inspection.

Shock registered as Naruto's shaking fingers took it. "I.. I'm not thirsty."

Orochimaru grinned to himself. "No, no you wouldn't be. Insolent boy."

His hand reeled back and smacked the blond, sending him to the floor while he sipped his tea, silent. "One thing you can prepare decent, I must... sa... sa - "

Naruto's eyes watered, a scream lodged in his throat at the red tears that finally escaped after so long. Only two slid down, staining his scarred cheeks.

Ragged, hoarse coughs erupted from Orochimaru's throat, hands instantly going up to kneed and soothe, but nothing consoled it. Loud hacks, his neck felt as if it was twisting off, itching and so -

He started for Naruto, who flew out of the way, shrieking when the doctor's foot caught on a chipped tile, and his body crashed to the floor, his choked breathing ceased for the moment.

Naruto did the only thing he could think of, and ran.

-

TBC?...

Author's Notes: 'Twas just an idea. As I was planning The NBC scenes in Kingdom Hearts II, I drew a SasuNaru pic of Jack and Sally. And thus, this was born. It gets darker, believe me.

And Sasuke is not modeled after Jack. There is no Christmas involved in this story... but a different plot. Naruto had Sally's background for a reason. f anyone likes it, pleeeaaase review for me. Feed the starving author. :3