Afraid of the Dark

Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 2: Just the Beginning

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"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." Macbeth. William Shakespeare

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Sasuke shot up in bed upon hearing his mother shrieking. For half a moment he was disoriented as his young mind tried to figure out what was going on. Flashes of the night before rushed back, and he recalled the monster. Hearing his mother’s shriek ringing in his ear all of the hairs stood on the back of his neck, and a wave of fear washed over him.

He looked around horrified, watching his mother as though in slow motion as she ran frantically toward him. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke watched Naruto jolt awake. Naruto sat up and looked around in alarm.

It was then in mortified shock that Sasuke realized that there was blood all over him, his bed, and Naruto.

"What's going on?" Naruto managed to get out just as Sasuke's mom laid hands on her son. She fumbled with his clothing, checking around for wounds. Sasuke put his hands on his chest also looking for wounds, but he realized there wasn’t a wound and that he wasn’t bleeding. It took half a second for him to realize that that meant Naruto must be the one bleeding. As his head whipped to the side to look at Naruto, Sasuke’s mom moved closer to Naruto.

"What did you do to him?" Mikoto shrieked, her hand flying toward Naruto’s face. A loud crack split the air, and Sasuke watched in horror as Naruto's head snapped back, the momentum of his mom's hit sending Naruto tumbling over so that he fell off the bed. He landed with a heavy thud on the other side of his bed out of sight close to the open door.

Sasuke wanted to stand up and see if Naruto was okay, but his mother quickly wrapped her arms around him so tight that he couldn't do it.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled. He heard Naruto moan in pain, and Sasuke struggled against his mother to see if he was okay.

"Don't go near that boy!" Mikoto screeched.

"What in the world is – kami-sama!" Fugaku stood in the doorway to his son's door, taking in the blood and the scene in front of him, his eyes seeing things that his wife and son could not from that angle. "Who's this kid and why are there claw marks down his back?"

Mikoto's body froze, her arms going ever so slightly limp around Sasuke, and Sasuke took no time in throwing his mom's arms off of him so that he could see what was wrong with Naruto. He half-crawled half-leapt across his bed and looked down to see what he hadn't seen the night before.

It had never occurred to Sasuke that he hadn't seen Naruto's back at all the previous night, and he had never thought to ask if Naruto was okay. Naruto’s mom had been kidnapped and his house house-napped. Sasuke hadn’t even asked how that had happened. How had Naruto seen the monsters and gotten away okay? But apparently he hadn’t gotten away okay.

It looked like Naruto had gotten hurt fighting off or running from the monsters. Yet why didn’t Naruto say he was hurt last night if he was bleeding so much? Was he really bleeding?

But the proof was there. Naruto had landed on his stomach leaving his back facing up. Long claw marks left wide, gaping gashes in his back.

Naruto had said there were monsters and more than ever Sasuke believed him. Naruto had never had his back faced to Sasuke, but Sasuke could clearly see the rips and tears in the pajama top where shreds of cloth hung off his back now. Dried blood caked the pajamas red.

It must have been bleeding last night: bleeding a lot, especially with all the blood that was on his bed and on him too. It had started bleeding again now as well.

"He's hurt!" Sasuke said, yelling more to his mom than to his dad. She'd hit him. "And you hit him!" he yelled accusingly.

"I thought – the blood – his smell – it was on you – "

"What the hell?" Itachi asked, peering in the room behind his father.

"Call an ambulance!" Fugaku yelled at Itachi. Sasuke knew that everything must be really bad for Itachi to curse and for his dad not to yell at Itachi for cursing.

"Owww," Naruto moaned, his moan of pain muffled due to lying face down against the carpet. Sasuke stopped leaning over the bed and leapt completely off of it, careful not to land on Naruto. He got down on his hands and knees and got close to Naruto’s face.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked as he scooted closer to Naruto.

"Are you still Sasuke?" Naruto asked back. Sasuke thought that was a weird question, but Naruto had hit his head. (Well, his mom had hit Naruto's head and Naruto had hit it again on the floor, but the point was Naruto had hit his head.) Sasuke knew that people who got hit in the head acted weird for a while.

"Yeah, it's me, Sasuke. But – are you okay? Your back is bleeding!"

"What? It is?"

"Move Sasuke," Fugaku ordered, and Sasuke moved back. He hadn't heard his father leave and re-enter the room, but he must have done so because he knelt next to Naruto with several towels from the bathroom. He gently placed the towels on Naruto's back to stop the bleeding. Naruto hissed in pain and looked like he was trying not to cry.

"The monsters hurt him," Sasuke said knowingly, worriedly. Fugaku turned and gave his son a strange look before he turned back to Naruto.

"What's your name?" Fugaku demanded, his voice quiet, but not quite friendly.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said hesitantly. Fugaku seemed almost surprised to hear the name. He turned to look at Sasuke and then shot a glance up toward where his wife sat leaning over the bed looking shocked and mortified that she had hit a hurt child.

"Indeed," Fugaku said. Sasuke wondered if his mom had hit his dad in his head earlier because “indeed” was such a weird thing to say when you found out someone's name. Fugaku’s eyes held his wife’s gaze for a long moment before his attention flickered back to Naruto. "I'm going to lift you up and put you on the bed," Fugaku explained to Naruto.

Naruto didn't answer as Fugaku picked him up, cradling him awkwardly as he laid Naruto down on his stomach. Mikoto scooted out of the way to make room for Naruto to lie down.

"Where did you and Sasuke meet?" Fugaku asked Naruto.

"We met at the street lamp," Naruto answered.

"The street lamp?"

"The one across the street," Sasuke said, pointing out the window where the street lamp was visible, even though it had since been turned off for the day.

"When did you meet? How long have you known each other?" Fugaku questioned frustrated. Sasuke hurriedly tried to answer, sensing his father’s tone of voice that meant, "that wasn’t the answer I was looking for. Try again."

"I heard him outside the window last night. He came over since he couldn’t go home," Sasuke explained, but his father made no notion that he’d heard him, his attention focused on Naruto.

"What happened to your back?" Fugaku asked.

"I dunno."

"The monsters got you, didn't they Naruto?" Sasuke asked, thinking Naruto was a lot cooler than he had first thought for a five and three quarter year old. He supposed if he'd been hurt like that he would have been crying too.

"I-I guess so. I don't remember. I know the monsters got Mom and took the house," Naruto said, crying once again.

Fugaku and Mikoto shared a look that Sasuke didn't recognize as a six year old, but would later learn meant, "something is seriously wrong here."

"I bet the monsters clawed his back and made him forget," Sasuke reasoned. Fugaku turned to look at his youngest son.

"Sasuke, be quiet," Fugaku hissed. Sasuke's chest constricted at being addressed like that. His father seemed angry with him, and Sasuke had no idea why. Fugaku went back to asking Naruto several questions, his hand staying gently on the blue towels that were slowly turning red in spots. Sasuke stayed quiet, surprised when only a couple minutes had passed and Itachi came back upstairs followed by people that had on uniforms and had some of those funny things around their necks like doctors had.

The one that entered through the door first came to Sasuke, and Sasuke jumped when the man wearing white gloves began to poke and prod at his body.

"Stop it!" Sasuke said. "I'm not hurt – Naruto is," Sasuke said, and then pointed to where Naruto was on the bed to show who Naruto was. The man ignored him, but Sasuke didn't argue with the man as he saw several more people arrive and start to check and see if Naruto was okay.

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The rest of the morning passed in a blur as Sasuke, despite telling everyone he was okay, had to be carried out of the house on one of those long boards. Naruto got carried out too, so Sasuke didn't feel quite as silly since Naruto had been taken out on one too. His mom had gone in the ambulance with them, holding both of their hands. The only cool part of the entire morning was that they got to go in an ambulance to the hospital and got to drive through all of the lights really fast. Still, it had only been partially cool because Sasuke had been worried about Naruto. They’d had to attach an IV of blood into his arm, and the sight made Sasuke slightly nauseous as he watched them poke different needles into Naruto’s arm.

He wondered how badly the monsters had hurt him. Would he be okay?

The next part of the morning after he had been checked out by a doctor (he found out that the people who had come to his house were not quite doctors but called paramedics) he went and saw another doctor who wasn't dressed like the rest of the doctors in the hospital. His mom told him to be good for this doctor and to answer all the questions he asked. She gave him a kiss on his forehead and ushered him into the room, telling him that when he got done he’d finally be allowed to see how Naruto was doing. He hoped this would go quick so he could check up on his new friend.

"Be good for Dr. Ibiki," his mother said quietly before shutting the door behind him. As Sasuke entered the room his eyes landed immediately on the man behind the desk. The doctor had scars down his face, and Sasuke wondered why a doctor had so many scars if he was a doctor and was supposed to heal people.

"Hello Sasuke," Dr. Ibiki said. "Why don't you sit down?" Sasuke looked around nervously. Everything had happened so fast that morning that he finally took a moment to look around now that he seemed to have time. Dr. Ibiki had an office all to himself. The room was mostly brown with green cushioned seats and green drapes. Sasuke slid into one of the green chairs and scooted to the edge, feeling rather small as his feet still didn't reach the floor.

"If you're a doctor, why do you have scars on your face?" Sasuke asked. When the doctor just stared at him for half a moment, Sasuke swallowed, resisting the urge to scoot back into his chair. The tension left him as the doctor gave out a low, amused laugh.

"I'm not a normal doctor. I'm a psychiatrist. I don't heal bodies but rather minds."

Sasuke did shrink back this time, not liking the image of this guy touching his mind in order to make it better. The idea of the doctor’s large hands touching his brain was rather scary – and rather gross.

"My head's just fine. Don't touch my brain," Sasuke said in the best grown-up kid voice he could muster. Dr. Ibiki laughed again.

"You're a laugh a minute kid. I don't touch your brain to "heal" it. You talk to me, and you tell me your thoughts, and then we heal your thoughts, so to speak. Do you understand?"

Sasuke swallowed. No, he didn't really understand, but he wasn't going to tell the doctor that. The doctor scared him. Instead of speaking, Sasuke merely nodded. The doctor lifted a clipboard from off his desk along with a pen.

"Let's start with some easy questions," Dr. Ibiki said. "First, how old are you?" Sasuke sighed in relief. That really was an easy question.

"I just turned six four days ago," Sasuke answered. Dr. Ibiki began to write.

"When was the first time that you met Naruto?"

"Last night."

"Where did you meet him?"

"Under the street lamp," Sasuke paused, remembering how his father had wanted Naruto to give more details, "which is across the street from my house."

"Do you know what time it was when you saw him?"

"Yes."

Dr. Ibiki looked up at Sasuke, slightly amused. "What time was it?"

"It was after midnight. I...I couldn't sleep because I don't have my nightlight any more," Sasuke muttered quickly. He didn't want the doctor to think that he was a bad kid and stayed up late when he wasn't supposed to.

"I see. Were you watching out the window when Naruto appeared?"

"Umm...no."

"What made you look out the window?"

"Naruto was throwing the white stones in the neighbor's yard into the storm grate. It made a noise and startled me awake."

"I thought you said you couldn't sleep."

"Well – I couldn't at first but then I was almost asleep and the noise made me wake up."

"Was Naruto bleeding then?"

"I don't know. I didn't look at his back. I saw him and he was crying. I went outside, and he said he was scared of me because he thought I was a monster but I'm not, and he said he knew that afterward because I came into the light and he had been attacked by monsters and his mom was kidnapped, which is spelled with two p's, not one, and his house was housenapped but I don't know how to spell that, and I don't know how that happens, but that's what he said," Sasuke blurted out in a rush. Dr. Ibiki didn’t speak for a moment, and Sasuke felt stupid for blurting everything out. His father would have yelled at him for spouting out so much at once. He would have told him that a good son would have been able to explain it better.

"He said monsters kidnapped his mother?" Dr. Ibiki asked, writing furiously.

"Yes."

"And his house was...housenapped?"

"Yes."

"I've never heard of a housenapping before," Dr. Ibiki said. Sasuke was glad that the doctor hadn’t heard of it either. It made him feel less silly.

"I hadn't either. Maybe Naruto was making it up, but he knew about the monsters, and I met one before, and the monster was scary enough that maybe he could do it."

Dr. Ibiki looked up sharply from where he was writing down.

"You met a monster before?" Sasuke gripped the end of his chair and began to shake his feet back and forth but then stopped. His father always said that it made him look foolish when he did that. His sons should behave so they would never look foolish.

"A while ago. I flushed the toilet and it appeared," Sasuke said. As soon as he said it, he wished he hadn't. It sounded so stupid, and he blushed. "Well, I saw it after I flushed, so maybe flushing the toilet didn't make it appear, but I think it made it appear."

Sasuke looked down at his feet. He wished he'd changed into something other than his pajamas when they had tried to give him hospital clothes. There was still blood on his, and he felt really silly in them. The doctor kept giving him strange glances, and it felt like it did when he talked to grown-up adults that didn't believe him. He was a grown-up kid now, so the grown-up adults should listen to him. At least, he thought that was what was supposed to happen.

"What did the monster look like?" Dr. Ibiki asked. Sasuke fiddled with a speck of blood on his pajamas, and he felt so bad because it was Naruto's blood. Maybe they should have called and woken up the police last night instead of waiting. Maybe Naruto wouldn't be in the hospital right now, and maybe Dr. Ibiki wouldn't be asking him all these questions that made him feel stupid. "What did the monster look like?" Dr. Ibiki repeated.

"The one I saw was from a couple years ago. It had grayish skin and glowing eyes. It didn't like light. The monsters Naruto saw were the same. He told me so."

Dr. Ibiki stopped writing on his clipboard. He set the clipboard down on the desk in front of him.

"Sasuke," the doctor said his name so sharply that he couldn't help but jump a little. He kept his head down so he wouldn’t have to look at the doctor and his many scars. "Monsters do not appear when you flush the toilet." Sasuke felt his face flush. Of course part of him had known that, and of course part of him had known that Dr. Ibiki, just like his mom, wouldn't believe him. It still made him feel embarrassed though. "But there are other things that make monsters appear."

Sasuke's head snapped up to look at the doctor in front of him.

"You believe me?" Sasuke asked. Dr. Ibiki raised his hand and slowly traced a few of the scars across his face.

"These scars are from a monster that sounds very much like the one that you and your friend have met." Sasuke's eyes widened in horror.

"So the scars on Naruto's back were from them," Sasuke whispered, mortified. Dr. Ibiki nodded. He got up out of the chair from behind the desk, and he looked even more intimidating as he stood up.

"This... monster...as you call it, can be very dangerous in certain circumstances. I have met quite a few different types of “monsters” over the years. Some types are actually quite nice the majority of the time," Sasuke couldn't believe that the monster he had seen could ever be nice, especially if monsters could hurt Naruto like that. Then again, Dr. Ibiki said there were different types, so may the other type was nice. Dr. Ibiki's tone became suddenly harsh again.

Sasuke wondered why a monster would ever attack Dr. Ibiki. If Sasuke were a monster, he would stay far away from Dr. Ibiki.

"The monster you saw, the type of monster that hurt Naruto, is very dangerous. The claws that these monsters have are even more dangerous than other creatures’ because they can hurt a person very badly, yet the person who is hurt will not feel pain at all. Imagine Naruto’s situation. He was bleeding but had no idea that he was hurt. He could have bled to death without ever knowing he was bleeding. There are very few who can survive an attack from that type of monster. In fact, Naruto would never have been able to stay alive if you hadn't found him when you did. It's hard to explain to you now, but you saved Naruto's life."

"I did? So Naruto’s okay?" Sasuke asked. He had thought that that was what the monster could do: hurt people and make them not realize they were hurt! He’d been right. His dad had seemed mad when he had said that, but now the doctor had said the same thing. Sasuke felt a little less silly now, especially since he had helped Naruto.

"Yes," Dr. Ibiki said, and he smiled so that his scars stretched strangely over his mouth. He put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, and he looked pleased with him. Sasuke gave a half smile back, but his smile faltered when the doctor's smile vanished. Dr. Ibiki got down on one knee and looked directly into Sasuke's eyes. "You must now make me a promise, Sasuke."

"A – a promise?" Sasuke asked.

"You must promise never to tell anyone else about the monsters."

"What about Naruto?" Sasuke asked after a moment of thought.

"You can talk to him, but only him. Don’t talk about it, not even your mom or dad. Not even your brother, but especially not your parents. It will just be our secret."

"I promise. But why-"

"Good."

"But-"

"Don't worry. I promise that as long as you stay close to Naruto, no more monsters will come after you."

"But – but – I just met Naruto last night! I can't stay close to him. He, well, I know his mom and his house are gone now, but doesn't he have to go somewhere? Don’t his mom and house need to be found?" Dr. Ibiki gave Sasuke a searching look.

"I've persuaded your parents to let him stay with your family. I have a feeling it will take time to find Naruto’s mother and house. That’s if they are still around. I have a feeling no one may ever find them. And in the meantime, I want you to stay very close to Naruto. Sleep in the same room if at all possible."

"Oh," was all that Sasuke could manage to say. He didn't know what to think. He knew that he and Naruto were friends now because only friends battled monsters in the movies, and he guessed it kind of made sense that Naruto had to come and live with him now. In the movies the friends always stuck together, so he guessed he shouldn't be too surprised that Naruto was going to be living with him and his family now.

Still, as Dr. Ibiki ushered him out of the door, he couldn't help but shrug off the strange feeling that something wasn't right. The idea of Naruto staying at his house didn't seem to feel right; instead of feeling like less monsters would be around, it felt like there would be more. It definitely didn’t feel right.

In fact, it felt very, very wrong.


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Even after one evil has been destroyed, there's always something even more terrifying that comes along to challenge the hero(es) of a story. ~ Jelp

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Next Chapter: Hiding the Truth


The next chapter and possibly chapter 4 will still be when they are younger, but the chapter after that will have a large time jump. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought. ~ Jelp