Chapter 1
Title: Ouija Writer
Story Author: Lynn
Pairings: NarutoSasuke, SaiNaruto, GaaraNaruto, NejiNaruto
Summary:Naruto is a famous horror writer but the stories aren't his. The real author is dead, letting Naruto use his stories for a price: his sanity. But what if Naruto didn't know and instead, fell in love with the dead man?
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto… cry.
"Any person, upon dying, can choose to remain in this world instead of passing to the next. There are simply a few laws that must be maintained. To cite them all would take hours but there are a few main laws.
The Laws of the Dead
1) You are not permitted to leave your designated house/area. If that house is destroyed, your soul will be destroyed along with it. If you choose to leave that area, your soul will start to disappear piece by piece, with every step you take.
2)You will lose your personality. After choosing to remain, you will only be a crude outline of your original person; though you may [rarely feel every other emotion, you will never know love again.
3)You will lose your material form. You will never be seen or heard from again, which may or may not be an advantage, depending on how you look at it.
4)You are not allowed to commit any direct evil upon the living. If you do, you will lose all chances of passing on to the spiritual world.
But after thousands of years, after finding so many loopholes, one can't help but want to have some fun…"
-o-o-
Dropping the bag of tools at the doorway, Naruto walked into the house, taking each step slowly, cautious that this ridged old broken-down house would fall apart at any second. The blond sighed
When he had first purchased the house, he thought only of the fact that he was homeless, having been kicked out of his old apartment due to his inability to pay rent on time. When he had first purchased the house, he didn't bother to wonder why this house was so cheap, affordable to someone so low in poverty. But now that he's seen the house, he began having second thoughts.
Naruto continued through the house, cold sweat forming on his forehead. Suddenly, he started to tremble, as if a freezing gust of wind had just blew through him and chilled him in the bones.
"W-what was t-that?" he shook out. Gaara raised one of his finely trimmed brows.
"What are you talking about?"
"What am I talking about? You mean you didn't hear that-" Naruto stretched his face, stuck out his tongue, and started to make gurgling noises, attempting to imitate a ghostly sound. "You didn't hear that?"
Gaara walked on, not even bothering to look at the blond. "We should get going. I have to get back to work after this." Naruto squinted his eyes at Gaara, indignant to being ignored.
"Fine, be like that. Don't come crying to me when something bad happens to you- something very bad," he muttered, sticking his hands in front of Gaara's face and wiggling his fingers, as if something mystically evil will spark out from the fingertips.
"I don't believe in the supernat-"
Gaara tried to continue but Naruto stopped him, placing his hand over his mouth as the blond let out a shrilling scream.
"L-look at that! What the hell is that?"
Gaara ripped the hand away from his mouth.
"That," he paused to spit out the taste of Naruto's dusty grasp, "is a spider."
"I know that! I mean, look at the size of that thing! It's like, bigger than my head!"
Gaara narrowed his crimson eyes at the exaggeration –this is really giving him a headache. "So kill it."
"What?! That's horrible! I can't do that!"
"Then keep it as a pet. What's the problem?"
Lips twitching, he slapped Gaara on the shoulders. "Do you do that or something? That's seriously weird!"
"Then kill it! What do you want me to do?" Naruto grinned from cheek to cheek, grabbed a broken piece of rotten floorboard and handed it to Gaara.
"You kill it."
The redhead rubbed his temples and with a short sigh, beat the slightly oversized spider with his fist. Naruto screamed again, this time, repugnantly.
"What the hell was that?" he shouted, his voice echoing through the empty house as he hit Gaara repeatedly with the piece of floorboard. "What's wrong with you? That's disgusting! Quick, go wash your hands!"
Normally, Gaara would have defended himself –he really didn't see the problem in using his hands- but he decided it would be smarter to give in. He let Naruto push him into the bathroom, in hopes that this old house actually had running water; they haven't even started the renovations and Gaara was already annoyed out of his mind.
From the looks of things, it seems like he'll end up being late for work. Maybe he should call Neji and ask for assistance?
Gaara snorted softly. Yeah right, like I'm going ask that arrogant ass for assistance.
And as much as he hated to admit it, he liked spending time with blond, though he wasn't sure why.
"Are you done yet? Stop checking yourself out on the mirror and hurry up!" …He really wasn't sure why; the blond could be such a nag. With a groan, Gaara followed Naruto out, picked up a piece of sandpaper from the bag they had left by the doorway earlier, and began sanding the walls flat. And all while, as they worked, Naruto thought back to the noise he heard upon entering the house, like some sort of immaterial groan or laugh, reverberating through the dying floorboards, through the cracked windows, and through the missing doors, shaking the house's very foundation. He knew what he heard, despite what Gaara thinks, and the very thought scared him stiff every night in the lonely house.
-o-o-
"Just give up, Naruto. I will never go out with you!"
Naruto watched Sakura's retreating figure gravely, blue eyes tearing with sorrow. Neji shook his head.
Neji, a graduate student after his accounting degree, worked as a bartender at the most popular bar in town. Every evening, the tables would be filled with customers, usually with girls around his age, sometimes there for a drink or two, and sometimes there just to ogle at the handsome attendants. Sakura, a familiar drinker, appears at the bar a couple of times a week, usually at eleven a.m., to scope the room for Sai, Neji's more sought after coworker. It is also around that same time does a certain candid blond appears, to try and charm the pink-headed girl and failing without exception each time.
Pity swelled up inside the stoic man, always seeing his good-natured friend get rejected. And as if a routine, Neji would quickly mixed a Long Island Ice Tea at the first sign of Naruto's rejection and delivers it to the blond.
"Don't you look happy today?" Neji said with his usual complimentary smile; it's part of the job description. Naruto, though very familiar with the routine, always seems surprised when the drink appears –maybe it's Neji's timing. Naruto patted the seat next to him, and grinned at the bartender.
"You know," said Naruto, gladly accepting the drink, "I'm not really in a grumpy mood because of the Sakura thing –that's happens everyday." He started to nervously stir the drink before looking up, looking Neji straight in the eye; his stare was so intense that Neji shifted his seat back a little. "Hey Neji, do you believe in ghosts?"
-That was unexpected. "…What?"
Naruto stood up abruptly, catching the attention of everyone in the bar. "Do you believe in ghosts?" he shouted with a frantic motion, waving his hands in the air.
"No…" Neji trailed off, unsure of how to reply, "not really… Sit down before you get yourself thrown out."
As Naruto settled down, face flushed with embarrassment, Neji began his inquiry. "So, why the sudden interest in superstition?"
"Well, you know I got this new place-"
"You moved?"
"Yeah, I told Gaara to tell you."
"…"
Naruto looked thoughtfully at Neji. "For roommates, you guys don't communicate much."
Neji and Gaara had been roommates for around a year, starting when Neji began graduate school. They got along quite well at first; Neji was never home, working all day long at the bar when he wasn't at school, leaving the apartment with enough privacy to fit Gaara's needs very nicely (he wasn't a very outgoing person). When Neji got home and Gaara wasn't asleep, they'd chat a little about the previous day before preoccupying themselves with their usual businesses. But lately, however, they've had a lot of fights, usually about nothing in particular.
Actually, now that I think about it, there's really nothing to fight about –there's just something about Gaara now that I can't stand… though I have no idea what the problem is.
" … and lots of banging." Neji looked at Naruto for a while, before realizing that he had spaced out. Smiling apologetically, he asked the blond to repeat himself. Naruto huffed, showing his irritation, and quenched his thirst after the long narration before starting again.
"Sometime, when I'm alone at night, I hear these weird noises, sort of like a soft rhythmic banging-"
"Rhythmic banging?"
"Yeah like," Naruto started drumming on the table. Tap… tap… tap. "Like that, as if a visitor who wants to enter your room but doesn't want to disturb you, rapping very lightly at the door."
"So you're saying," Neji began, choosing his words carefully with an air of disbelief, "you have a friend who's dead and wants to visit you?"
Naruto gaped at Neji, as if he was some sort of idiot. "What are you talking about? Why would a friend keep me up all night? –And who do I even know that's dead?" Impulsively, Neji wanted to throw in Naruto's deceased parents but he thought against it. "I'm saying, I think my house is haunted."
Naruto continued on, describing his encounters with the ghost –about the weird feeling his house gives off, about how his television always fuzz-ing up after midnight, etc-, he inched closer and closer to Neji's face. And at that close a distance, Neji started to trail away from the story.
He started to analysize Naruto's facial traits, from his tanned skin to his wide to softly colored aqua eyes. With pride, Neji could say that he was definitely more handsome than the blond but there was something about the way he looked that's different from anyone else he's ever met, even if he wasn't the prettiest man alive.
"…Neji, what are you doing?" Neji started chuckling awkwardly, waving off the question.
"I was listening to your story! –And I think," insert another awkward laugh, "you're thinking too much into this." He ruffled Naruto's hair, as if he was a child too immature to understand what he was speaking. Then, with embarrassment rising to his face, he used the blonds' head as leverage to get up and started back to the desk for work, wanting to get away from the uncomfortable situation he put himself into. But as he left, he couldn't help but feel a small tug at his heart, like he had somehow betrayed the blond.
Naruto sat there for a while longer, looking at his morbid reflection on the rim of his drink. Neji was usually the person he went to when he wanted to discuss something, when he was in need of comfort. With an empty feeling, he peered at the clock on the wall, eyes following the moving seconds' hand.
Maybe I should talk to Gaara? For such a talkative person, Naruto didn't have many friends, much less many close friends. Naruto sighed
What's the point –If Neji doesn't believe me, why would Gaara?
Downtrodden and fatigued, he walked out the exit and on his way home, completely unaware of the gaze that eyed his every step as he left as he retreated out the door.
-o-o-
The gentle breeze blew through the branches of the trees outside, pushing the leaves onto the window. Naruto slept on, though tossing a little every time the tree scraped the glass. It was two in the morning and Naruto was exhausted. He hasn't gotten a bit of rest for the past week –too busy being frightened out of his sleepless dreams.
And tonight was no different. When the clock stuck three, there came a tapping from the wall farthest away from the bed.
Tap… tap… tap…
Naruto wiped the saliva from his face and turned onto his side, stuffing a pillow over his head.
Tap… tap… The sound started to quicken, getting louder with each beat. Naruto stirred again, this time flopping onto his belly. The sound then disappeared altogether.
Silence filled the room, disturbed only by Naruto's light snoring. He slept soundly on for another fifteen minutes as the rain began to fall outside, each drop sliding down the window side. Suddenly, a loud thud rang through the room, awaking Naruto with a start.
He sat on his bed, half asleep and looking wildly around the room. Rubbing his eyes clean, he glanced outside the window, noting how late it was. And as he settled himself back into bed, he jerked up again when he heard the tapping.
Tap… tap… tap…
This is seriously creepy, Naruto thought, letting out a soft squeal as he tried to hide himself in bed. Though the house seemed much more homely after the reconstructions, Naruto could only afford so much renovating. The place was mostly empty furnished with what little furniture Naruto had before he bought the estate while the basement, however, remained as dirty and grimy as before.
Tap… tap… tap…
Wait a second, what was he doing? Naruto Uzumaki was't scared by some ghost!
Naruto flung his covers over and ran barefoot onto the floor –maybe the ghost would leave if he pretended he wasn't frightened and rather, was very aggravated.
"What do you want from me? You want to make noise?" he shouted, trying to hide that fact that he was scared witless, as he started jumping on the floorboard, "I can make noise too! See, my noise is louder! Now what?" He jumped till the floor creaked, jumping harder as the tapping grew deafening, almost as if both were competing.
When the tapping stopped again, Naruto's fear began to take surface. Why did the sound stop? Why did the sound stop? This is bad.
Usually in horror movies, when the ghost disappears, he's planning something much worse, trying to catch the protagonist off his guard. Naruto wasn't just going to sit around and wait for that to happen. He rushed down the stairs in a frantic motion, quickly put on his coat and shoes, and ran down the block.
I'm was sleeping with Gaara tonight.
-o-o-
"Absolutely not." Naruto clenched onto Gaara with what little energy he had left in him.
"Why do you have to be so mean? I haven't slept in a week!" he pouted, trying to squeeze tears into his big blue eyes. Gaara peered at the blond apathetically; it's too late for this.
"You could sleep on the couch."
Naruto shook his head, letting out a long whine. "But your bed is better! You sleep on the couch-"
"You can sleep in my room." Naruto had forgotten Neji was even there, who was woken up along with Gaara when Naruto came pounding at their door. Naruto rushed up to Neji and thanked him repeatedly ("You're always there for me") before quickly dashing into his room and falling fast asleep.
Gaara glared at his roommate –Neji always made him seem like the bad guy. In truth, he would much rather have Naruto sleep in his room than in Neji's, though he's never admit it. And with a soft growl, Gaara retreated back into his Naruto-less room.
Neji shut off he living room lights as he watched Gaara leave. And with a smug grin beaming from his face, he snuggled onto the couch and dozed off.