A/N: Alright! After being pestered for so long I've finally dug my claws into this idea, into F.E.A.R. Blowing my way through all three games, the latter of which I've nearly finished. Now y'see, I didn't know where or when to place it at first, didn't want to alter too much. But then it hit me. What does it have no short of? Terror! Fear itself, if you excus the pun. The game scared the living crap out of me and that is no mean feat

Almost anything can happen in this game ya know? Now, screwing around with canon is one thing. But messing with it as a whole...well, I'm rather new to the whole F.E.A.R. thing, but I do have some experience in what I'm doing here.

So...fair warning! The genre is Romance/Horror and the rating is M for Mature, and follows Naruto and Alma throughout their lives! Now remember folks, this is ALMA we're talking abou here. She ain't all that nice. THERE WILL BE BUCKETS OF BLOOD AND CHARACTER DEATH! If you don't like that, leave. Disclaimer over. Now for those of you who are still here...

...BRACE THYSELVES!

"Without life there is not even a shred of fear. There can be no silence without sound. Nor can there be sound, without silence. And this silence-he!-is mine. MINE."

~?

This Silence is Mine

Some doors should never be opened.

Orochimaru had been told this many a time before; by his teachers, students, mentors, even his friends. Fools, the lot of them. He hadn't listened then, and he certainly wasn't listening now. Through years of careful-if a tad questionable-experimentation he had achieved much, gained much, learned much...but it was not enough. Never enough. Even his own villlage was merely a means to an end-a means by which he might discover new, wonderous things. Always, new things!

Some doors must never be opened, eh?

Bah!

Such a weak sentiment! He spat in the face of such a saying; for one such as him, for one who feared not the reaper, there were always doors to opened, always new techniques to be learned. New limits to test! Things not only shinobi, but mankind could only dream of! Such as...this. Life and death did not concern him, but one could learn fascinating things from the beyond...

Today, he was attempting to tear apart the very fabric of reality itself. Well, perhaps that was too strong a word. He was merely seeking to open a portal into another ether, not collapse reality. And he was so close! So very terribly, horribly close! Through a marvelous union of ninjutsu and technology, he'd devised a means to make it so,to make his gruesome dream a reality. Dozens of lives had been sacrificed, their chakra-and very souls-used to power the amaglam of circuitry he'd cobbled together. What manner of secrets could he learn from the beyond?! The possibilities were endless!

Why, you ask? Curiosity! With a generous smattering of avarice, of course...

It stood to reason that there were many universes beyond his own. That there were, in fact, many, many, MANY different realms, just as there were heaven and hell. The sly sanin had glimpsed their depths through the occult and other, less invasive means, but he knew they existed. Worlds were Gods of Death cut down evil spirits in the afterlife. Lands in which warriors battled one another, in giant suits of armor. Even battles beyond the very stars themselves, were different races-some with strange bodies and stranger faces-fought equally strange, alien machines with the fate of entire worlds at stake.

Indeed, there sooooo many, he could not count hope to count them all! But it was time, time for greatness! Thanks to a few descreet gene samples taken from that Kyuubi brat, and just a touch of his tenant's chakra, it was sure to work! Certain, he told himself.

Without life there is not even a shred of fear. Perhaps it could be said that Orochimaru wasn't truly alive, that his prideful green surpassed common sense to such a degree that he no longer feared the rammifications of his actions. This was a momentous event nonetheless, and so he had sent Kabuto away, wishing the first fruits of this new world for himself. He was alone.

Thus, in his arrogance, this stupid, soulless man threw the switch.

With a terrible keening sound-not unlike that of a woman's wail-a blazing discus of orange/red blossomed into existence before him, hissing and spitting. He saw countless words laid out before him but none he desired to touch, none that aroused his curiosity. And then, like a stone cast upon the water's surface, it rippled. Changed. The sanin frowned. No, that shouldn't be possible. Something was influencing the portal, molding it to their will. Golden eyes grew wide, bulging as a small, bloody hand thrust itself into existence. What?! What was-

The portal lasted all of an instant longer, but in that instant...

...something came through.

Orochimaru's world went sideways in a cone of fiery destruction, the lab imploding around him a sea of shattered glass and tortured screams. Mercifully he remained conscious...though in hindsight, he almost wished he hadn't.

His lab lay sprawled out before him, the test subjects little more than charred corpses in their cages. Shadows danced dimly in the broken lights, illuminating bloody smears on the wall where the more unfortunate ones had tried to escape and been ground to a fine, meaty paste. Despite himself and all he'd seen throughout his storied career, the man gagged. Moments later his stomach seemed to come to the same accord, divesting a half-eaten bit of food onto the bloody tiles at his feet.

...free. I'm...free...where am I?'

Orochimaru glanced up at the sound of the voice...and froze at the sight of the bloodstained spectre standing before him. He was not expecting this.

Skin pale as ash. Eyes the color of warm honeysuckle. Hair dark as night; ebon tresses the color of crow's wings. Clad in a red velvet dress. He couldn't bear to look straight at her-nay, the very act of doing so caused a massive migraine to pound at his temples. A very real trickle of fear wormed its way into his heart. This girl...what was she...?

Then she saw him.

The little girl smiled softly, cocked her head aside, and pressed a single, solitary finger to her lips. You're going to die. Against all odds, he heard the words, though her lips did not move. A voice that sent cold fingers of dread trailing up and down his spine, a noose of ice and fire wrapping itself round his neck. He tried furtively to stand, but a bolt of agony prevented him. When he risked a glance down, he saw why; one of his legs had been shorn off just above the knee. When he tried to raise his arm, that too vanished, gone in a bloody mist. The poor man couldn't even bring himself to scream.

The girl came closer. Orochimaru cringed.

"W-W-What are you?"

'Alma.'

One moment she was a little girl; the next, a grown woman. Then a girl again. What madness was this? Were his eyes playing tricks on him, somehow? Warm. He felt..oddly warm. His legs, his chest, now his arms, why couldn't he make himself move and oh dear sweet kami what was happening, his skin was falling away oh, make it stop make it stopstopstopstopstopstop-

His last thought was thus:

What have I unleashed...?

And then he only knew the abyss that he had eluded for so very long.

Alma Wade stared down at the still-steaming skeleton that had once belonged to the reviled member of the Sanin. She didn't know where she was. When she was. All she knew was that she was free. Free from the cold and cruel machines, the men, and their hateful experiments. She felt something then, a stirring, a curiosity, drawing her attention. It was like a scent; subtle but faint, lingering in the ashes of the lab. Whatever it was it set her into a frenzy; her little eyes grew wide, and a small smile blossomed on her bloody face. A tiny giggle forced itself between her lips.

She'd found someone like her.

That same night, miles away in the Hidden Leaf village...Uzumaki Naruto began to have the strangest dreams. He dreamnt of this strange, silent little girl, unaware of the terror that had just become fixated upon him. It was already decided in that instant, his strange fate, sealed in the moment that Alma Wade became aware of his existence.

They were, each of them, only eight years old.

A/N: And there we have it! NarutoxAlma! I've only seen two stories pairing these two together, but I thought to myself, what if it started from the beginning. A young Alma and a young Naruto, all of this before the F.E.A.R. games themselves. Now, I obviously didn't want to bring Naruto to Alma's world-tried that already, it just didn't work-but the thought of little Alma Wade raining down a fiery vengeance on any who dared to trifle with what she saw as hers, now...that's something I could get behind! And yes, Orochimaru is dead! Kaput! Gonzo! He won't be coming back!

So, in the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview! The death and horror continues! With just a little obsessive fluff...

(Preview)

Alma scowled.

She didn't like the pink one. No, perhaps that wasn't strong enough. She HATED the pink one.

She was rude to Naruto, always pushing the smaller boy around, always ignoring him. And yet...and yet...!

HE focused on her. He pleaded for her attention, begged for her affections, when HE belonged to her. Would she take him away? No. A seed of anger, then fear began to grow in Alma's heart, twisted and knotted like a gnarled root. No. Naruto belonged to her. He was her friend. And any who dared to hurt him would pay the price. Eyes narrow, she focused her will on the green-eyed girl, bringing all that not-so-insubstantial wrath to bear upon her in a tidal wave of force.

With a single thought, Haruno Sakura began to bleed.

R&R! =D