Upside Down, Inside Out Chapter four
a/n: Happy holidays! I hope you guys get some kick-ass awesome gifts. I'm so glad winter vacation is here. Nothing much to say this time.
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Recap:
With the address of the new apartment complex, Naruto moved into, Sakura headed out the door of the house, towards Naruto's apartment, in the chilly night air, with butterflies in her stomach.
Whatever happens, I hope it's something good happens.
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A chilly breeze swept through the quiet neighborhood. Sakura shivered. She hugged herself protectively. Who knew there would be such cold nights in October? I should have brought a jacket along.
Sakura fingered the thin material of sweatshirt. She rubbed the flimsy material between her index finger and thumb, enjoying the feeling. As she put one foot in front of another, she pondered over the events at school had occurred.
Now, that Naruto's good looking, an automatic factor for becoming popular. Will things change between us? More importantly, will he change?
Feeling a wash of bleakness go through her after thinking about negative thoughts about Naruto becoming popular. Images of Naruto, laughing with Ino, ignoring her began to arise in her mind. Feeling a bit sick, Sakura tried to rid her head of such thoughts and images.
She turned left and began to stroll down the dark avenue leading to Naruto's apartment complex. The houses were starting to get nicer and soon she entered the rich part of the town.
Where the hell did Naruto afford to live in such a nice area? He's dirt poor the only reason why he actually has his own apartment is because of social security.
The neighborhoods were surprisingly quiet, considering it was a Monday. The streets should have been bustling with cars, since people should be returning home from the office by now.
Sakura turned another street. The houses were becoming fewer and fewer. Then she stopped in front of a gigantic building that loomed over her.
Sakura squinted at the address Naruto had messily scrawled on the crumpled piece of paper.
Yup, this is it. 30 Arrow Wood Street. Now, I just need to find Apartment #3.
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Sakura approached the apartment complex, cautiously. Once, she got a good look of the building, she gasped. Before she couldn't see the tenement very well, but now she could. The apartment building was fit for kings. The architecture was lavish and intricate.
She drew near to the entrance, which was a very sophisticated frosted glass door that gave off an imposing aura.
She reached for the handle of the door.
"May I help you?"
A young very rugged but handsome man with a somewhat of a wolfish grin, wearing a very a very elegant blue uniform stepped in front of her.
"Sorry but before, I can let you in the building; I need to know who you are and who in the building you have an appointment with. I'm the doorman." he drawled.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'm here to see Uzumaki Naruto, Apt #3."
The grin on his face got bigger, as if he knew a big secret Sakura didn't and it was killing him not to tell her. "Ah. He's expecting you. Go on. His apartment is on the first floor."
He held the elaborate door open and gestured her in.
"Thanks." Sakura muttered. Something about that guy unnerved her.
"Have fun." He said with a devilish grin on his face.
Then suddenly a stern and somber expression appeared on his face.
"But be careful." He whispered.
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Sakura slowly started her trek to Naruto's apartment. She took a quick scan of the apartment complex lounge and staircase to the apartments. There was posh red carpet on the stairs and a very elaborate chandelier hanging on the roof. And some pastries and drinks laid out for guests in the lounge.
She reached apt #3 and knocked.
The door opened and Naruto peered out. Immediately, his face brightened when he saw Sakura.
"Sakura-chan! Come in." He greeted her warmly.
Sakura nodded and stepped inside of his apartment.
His new apartment was much nicer than his old apartment.
It was needlessly to say, Sakura was very impressed.
"Wow. How did you afford to get such a place?" Sakura asked Naruto, in awe.
Sakura was remotely suspicious how Naruto could have merged from dirt poor into have an pretty nice apartment that probably cost more than Brandi Chang's BMW a month. But she decided not to pry.
"You lucky duck." She mumbled, shaking her head, trying hard not to crack a grin.
"Let me show you around."
Naruto showed every room of the spacious apartment. The new apartment was not bad but looked shabby with Naruto's not so nice accessories and home items.
There was Naruto's old 20 inch TV and a beat up brown recliner in the living/lounge room. The entire apartment was dimly lit.
The kitchen was small with mahogany furnished cabinets and equipped with a nice refrigerator and stove.
Naruto's room was cluttered with stuff or junk. Empty ramen containers were all over the space and his small twin bed was not made, with the comforter and sheets on the floor.
The bathroom was nice with a fancy shower and hand basin, inlaid with black marble.
And finally there were two rooms with large windows that were completely empty, containing nothing.
"Well, that's all there is really to show." Naruto said obviously proud of his new apartment.
"Even though this is a good improvement for you, this place is still messy." Sakura said critically, shaking her head.
Naruto just grinned, and scratched the back of his head.
Sakura tried very hard not to stare at Naruto's teeth. There is something I can't up my finger on. His teeth look too sharp and white. And long up close.
Not noticing Sakura's denial, Naruto went cheerfully rambling on. "I'm not as neat as you Sakura-chan. Let's go check out the latest chapter of death note."
Sakura immediately perked up. "Sure. I've been waiting for the latest chapter for some time."
"Let me go and get it downloaded, so we can start reading it." And Naruto started to trudge towards his room.
Sakura watched Naruto mumble something and then started heading to the kitchen, in hunt for something to eat. Knowing Naruto never has his fridge or pantry stock with food, this would be a hard task.
Sakura peered in the fridge attempting to find something edible.
No such luck.
Instead, she found an old dried up apple core.
Sakura groaned and shuffled over towards the cabinets. This time, she did find something edible, something which she always found in Naruto's house: Instant Ramen. Naruto practically lived off that stuff.
But this ramen was strange; she had never seen this type of ramen at Naruto's house before. Sakura warily brought the Instant Ramen up to her face, squinting at it in wonder. The nutrition facts and everything was written in Japanese. The entire packet was red and the noodles on the cover of the packet were red.
Sakura sniffed it in suspicion. It smelled stale and of iron. Curious, Sakura slightly opened the packet and broke off a tiny piece of the strange noodle and nibbled on it.
She blanched.
It tastes like... blood.
Sakura recoiled in horror and before she could do anything, someone snatched the ramen packet out of her hands.
It was Naruto.
"Heheheh. Sakura-chan, it's finished downloading. We can go read the latest chapter now." Naruto voiced nervously.
Sakura narrowed her eyes. Something is very wrong here.
"Naruto, what the heck was that?" She asked him in distaste, pointing at the ramen package.
An expression crossed Naruto's face. Sakura couldn't tell if it was guilt, anger or sadness. This was very strange, since most of the time she could read Naruto like an open book.
"You'll find out soon, Sakura-chan." he murmured.
Then suddenly, he turned back to normal. A smile broke across, making his teeth look whiter than ever. "Now, let's go read the latest chapter of death note."
And by saying so, he began to waddle back to his room.
Sakura didn't say anything or question Naruto about his strange comment. But inside, she was very curious.
Something is very wrong here.
She eyed Naruto in skepticism before treading after him.
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Sakura sighed in content. She and Naruto had finished reading the latest death note chapter available for free download on Naruto's new slim laptop. It was kind hard to read in on his laptop, since Naruto kept on blocking her view of the screen and had to bonk him on the head to finally get him out of the way, since he was so immersed in reading the latest chapter.
The chapter was quite good. Stopping at a cliff hanger in suspicion that there was another Kira, besides Light.
"That was a good chapter. The next chapter should be coming out next week." She said cheerfully.
"But I wanted to see who the new Kira is." Naruto whined.
"Until next week. Besides, what time is it Naruto?"
"8:30 PM." He said lazily.
Sakura jumped up. "Get ready, we're supposed to be at Itachi's apartment in half an hour! Did you pack every?" she questioned Naruto, hoping very much that they wouldn't be spending the rest of the half an hour fishing through Naruto's closet and his apartment, looking for things that he would need at Itachi's apartment.
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "I forgot all about that! I finished packaging earlier." He pointed to a shabby small looking suitcase in the corner.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "You sure that's all you're going to need?"
Naruto shrugged. "I won't need much."
He scowled with a look of disgust on his face. "But I don't get why we have to stay at Itachi's place. My place is perfectly fine. I can't believe we are going to have live with such a bastard!"
Sakura stifled a laugh. "Like I said earlier, this place is messy and almost always there is no food to eat. And Itachi isn't that bad." She pointed out.
Naruto looked down and clenched his fists. When he looked up, amazingly, his eyes had changed color from sea-blue to a fiery burnt orange, dancing with mischief and malice.
"You know, Sakura-chan..." He purred his voice deeper.
"We don't have to go to Itachi's place." He started drawing closer to Sakura until their faces were only inches away. She stiffened.
He placed a finger on Sakura's neck, tracing down in a suggestive manner.
"We can stay right here..." He said in an insinuative way.
He closed the distance between them and licked the shell of her ear. "And instead, I can pleasure you, in ways you never felt before."
Sakura was frozen. Paralyzed in fear and something else. Her pulse quickened. She was torn; a part of her wanted him to stop but another part of her wanted him to continue. She wanted to inhale his delicious scent and closer her eyes and let him continue.
He started a trail of soft kisses down her neck. "We can continue what we stared earlier. What do you say?" He asked her slyly.
Sakura fought her urges and pushed Naruto away; her face turned and flushed red. "NO! Snap out of it Naruto, like before " She said firmly.
Naruto was in the corner of the room, where Sakura had pushed him into. His face was downwards, as he stared at the floor, his face not visible.
Everything was silent in the room; nothing could be heard except Sakura's soft breathing.
Finally, Naruto broke the silence. A painful expression was on his face. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan. I don't know what got into me. Let's get out of here and go pick up your stuff at your house and then go to Itachi's place." He said weakly.
Sakura decided to forget what just happen and forgive Naruto. "It's OK. Things happen." She reassured him. But there's was hint of uncertainty in her voice.
She gave him a fake smile. "Anyways, it will take about twenty minutes to walk from here to my house and Itachi's apartment is too far way to walk to from my house."
Naruto beamed a true smile. "We are not going to walk! I have a car." He said smugly.
Sakura's eyes almost popped out of her head. "When did you get a car? How did you afford to get a car? Where do you learn how to drive? Do you have a license?" She demanded to know, pestering him with questions.
Naruto snickered. "Have no fear. I know how to drive. I bought with some of the money I have from my summer job."
Sakura just stared at him.
"It's in the garage. Let's go." Naruto said, grabbing his suitcase and dragged Sakura out of the apartment.
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They were now in the apartment complex garage. Sakura shivered. This place is creepy, she thought, as she saw a rat scamper across the garage's floor.
"There she is! Isn't she a beauty?" Naruto said proudly, gesturing towards a car.
The car that Naruto was gesturing at was a very ancient looking, scratched-up, beat-up, small white car.
"1960 Ford Cortina Mark 2." He said appreciatively.
Sakura raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure that won't fall apart in two seconds?"
"Hey! She's perfectly fine, ready and running." Naruto said, offended.
"I'm taking your word and hopefully it is." Sakura said warily as she eyed the car.
"Hop in." Naruto urged her.
"Fine." Sakura gingerly opened one of the car doors and carefully stepped in.
The seats smelled of ramen and of Naruto's musky scent.
It wasn't too bad.
Naruto jammed in the keys and turned them. The car gave a great shudder before staring up, the engine roaring loudly to life.
Sakura winced, sensitive to the loud noise.
Naruto gave her a giant grin, "Hold on tight, Sakura-chan." He said before hitting the accelerator, swerving the corner, and disappearing into the black night.
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END OF CHAPTER
End of chapter, author's rambling: Hope you guys liked this chapter. I'm currently the queen of denial and writer's block. Sorry about the late update.