AUTHOR'S NOTE! Hell yeah, Halloween fic! Yeah, I know - I still have a crapload of things that need updating. Especially 'Eternally Yours,' x.x But with Halloween coming - and me being hyped up on meds 'cause I'm all sick - I decided hell to all that and wrote up a Halloween-themed fic. No, it's not a one-shot. My intention was to do that, but it would've been a million pages long - since there had to be backround, or it wouldn't have made any sense at all. xD

Anyway, this is very loosely based on the 'Saw' movies. Not completly, but it follows some of those principles. Blah, blah, blah and I should also mention that this is part flashback and part story-telling. But it'll switch to real time in the middle of the next chapter. Alright, I'll seriously shut up now and let you all read. xD Reviews are love!

DISCLAIMER! I do not - in any way or form - own Naruto or any of it's charaters. Only Shii is my own. Also, all references or similarity to Saw is done in the good of fanfictional writing - as I obviously do not own that series either. Or Adam would have lived and beat up Jigsaw. xDD

01. "It All Started When... "

There are times in everybody's life when they say to themselves, 'Oh crap, did I make a mistake?!'

For some, this dreaded time of uncertainty comes on a more regular basis; others have been lucky enough to have this feeling visit them only a few times. Unfortunately, I was one of those people who have had Lady Luck bitch slap them in the face and walk away, laughing. And even more unfortunately - so was...He.

Who is He, you may ask? It's pretty simple actually. He is the cause for all of this - this god damned mess I was in. I hope Satsujin rips him from piece to piece for all of this shit. But in saying that, I'm totally getting ahead of myself. You're probably sitting at your T.V. screen, watching the sick live feed as I'm talking to the camera, aren't you? And you're probably wondering how the Hell I got myself into this, eh?

I know, right now you're probably looking around your comfy little living room just as I said that, huh? No - there aren't any cameras in your house, watching you. I'm just good enough at reading the human's psyche that I could calculate a pretty accurate response to that statement. Don't worry, I'm not watching you.

Well, at least not in the way you're watching me right now. But that comes in later. I'll make the story quick - just in case Satsujin decides to interrupt the feed.

In case I die here - which may be very, very likely - I want people to know about me. I...I don't want to die alone and unknown. I need a legacy - or at least one person to understand. Since I know he won't ever understand, not like he used to anyway. But like I said, I'll get to that later.

So I think I'll start at the beginning. This would put us...In my junior year of high school.

Yep, it all began in high school - that day we got those transfer students...

Art Class. Room 261.

10:45 AM - September 7th, 2006

The monotonous voice of our teacher droned out the voices of my classmates. He went on through the list of 27 or so students, and finally arrived at my name.

"Densetsu, Ashita?" the middle-aged man spoke dully, looking up. I lifted my head form my arms and raised my hand to signal my presence. As soon as I caught him marking me as 'present' I let my head drop back into my folded arms - waiting for the blissful, time-wasting glory that was sleep to overtake me.

"Alright, class..." the teacher began. I looked up, surprised. What was this? The monotone-man usually sits around reading his Sports Illustrated, while we just do nothing. That much was established about this year's art class; we sit around, chat a bit or do homework. Or, in my case, sleep the forty minutes away. I saw others look up as well - apparently I wasn't the only surprised one.

"Today, we had a few new students that came into Konoha High. I'm sure you may have heard of them," the male droned on, "I'd like to introduce the new addition to our class."

With a lazy wave of his hand, he gestured to the door. A young teen - looking around my age, maybe a year older, stepped inside the plain - if not decently large - room. I allowed my sapphire eyes to widen a tad with surprise.

He was pretty tall - not like I was one to speak, at my tiny height of only five-foot-two - and had fair skin. No seriously, there wasn't a single blemish on his face. His pale complexion rivaled my own - making me slightly jealous, as I was always the one to be complemented for my pretty, and light skin. A single, bright, teal eye was visible - as the other was hidden by his long, blonde bangs. My God, his hair! If I said I was slightly jealous, now I was officially bitten by the green monster.

I always liked to think my hair was thick, lustrous, and very pretty. It was of a raven hue - naturally - and was cropped short in layers that framed my face nicely. But this guy...His long, golden hair looked immaculately cared for, and hung down to his mid-back. A part of it was tied into a high ponytail, and bangs covered a side of his face. He looked slightly feminine, but that only made him seem even...more attractive.

As the teacher dribbled on about his name and other unimportant things, I secretly admired how he made the bland uniforms we were all required to wear look amazing. Damn, this boy has some kind of talent. He had rolled the sleeves of the long-sleeved white shirt up to his elbows, and the grey sweater-vest that was required fit his body very nicely. It didn't hang off him or anything - unlike with the other males in the school. The matching grey slacks fit his slender figure, and was cut to his size perfectly, as he most likely had it custom tailored.

I raised a slender eyebrow at this thought, thinking that he must have some money to his name - unlike the rest of us. Konoha High was as poor as the students that attended it. And yet this boy...This boy with his brand-new messenger bag which put all of ours to shame...Why was he here?

"Yes, yes. You may take that empty seat over there," the droned buzz snapped me out of my thoughts. There was rustling, and it seemed that every head in the whole classroom turned to look at me. I cocked my head to the side; why are they staring at me?!

The answer came to me as I caught sight of the empty seat next to me, and the gorgeous 'new guy' walking towards it. Okay, walking doesn't quite cover it. It was more of a graceful stride and - Oh crap, I'm totally fangirling. And he was slowly coming to sit next to me. Oh crap, oh crap.

"You don't mind if I sit here, do you, yeah?" a mellow, deep voice asked. I coughed and looked up at the teen - who had already taken the seat and was lounging in the plastic, blue chair lazily.

"No, 'course not." I replied with a tiny grin, "Not like there's anywhere else to sit, anyway."

"Good point," he agreed, idly moving a sting of hair back into place, "So, you're name is...?"

"Ashita. But you can call me Shii - everyone does," I answered, fiddling with the strap of my worn-out bag.

"Shii, huh? Well Shii, what have you guys done yet?" the teen questioned as he reached into his bag and pulled out a pencil. I shrugged, not knowing how to answer.

"Nothing, I guess. Think of it as a study hall." I looked at him, and noticed his affronted expression. Did I say something wrong...?

"Bullshit!" he whispered rather fiercely. I shrugged and lay my head in my hands once more.

"And so is the academic excellence of Konoha High," I quipped, shooting him a grin. He snorted and stuck the pencil behind his ear, crossing his arms.

"Not like you kids have any talent, yeah. But still," he muttered. I once again found myself raising an eyebrow.

"Us kids? And what do you mean by that?" I shot at him - ignoring the few heads that turned at my loud accusation. The blonde smirked lopsidedly, and shrugged a single shoulder.

"What do you think it means?" he responded airily, cerulean eyes sparkling with mischief. I sniffed primly, and regarded him as such.

"Well, I think it means we have a challenge..." I hesitated, and remembered that I hadn't caught his name before. Catching my mistake, the boy smirked crookedly once more.

"The name's Deidara, yeah."

"Well then," I muttered, "It looks like we have a challenge Deidara, now does it?"

Lunch. Cafeteria.

12:15 PM. September 7th, 2006.

I was sitting outside, situated against my usual oak tree with my peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich in hand. I was on the verge of taking that first less-than-filling bite, until a hand (complete with black-painted fingernails) snatched it out of my hands.

"What is this, hmm?" a stately little sniff followed the haughty comment. I glared at the responsible blonde, and attempted to snatch it back out of his hands.

"Gimme my precious food back! I'm hungry, dammit!" I growled, and found myself jumping up in a vain attempt to get my food back. Damn that boy.

"How can you stand this stuff? I pity you Shii, yeah," was his only reply. I was still jumping around; unfortunately his tall-ness against my five-foot-ness foiled my food-retrieval mission.

"It's not like I can get any better, alright?" I shot back, and stopped my jumping, "I'm hungry. Now...Please, give me my lunch back, Deidara."

"I'll be damned if you're eating this, yeah. In exchange for giving me such an amusing challenge before, I'll treat you to lunch. Deal?" the blonde grinned down at me. I crossed my arms in response.

"Oh really?" I stalled, wondering if he was bullshitting me or not. After all, I did just meet him less than two hours ago.

"Really," he replied sincerely, "Besides, what's such a lovely young girl doing eating lunch by herself, hmm?"

"She's enjoying some peace and quiet from guys like you," I replied, following him as he walked in the direction of the school's office. He laughed charmingly at this, and dumped my poor sandwich into a nearby trashcan.

"You have wit, Shii. I'll give you that much so far, yeah."

Honestly, I can't say if I regret going for lunch with him or not. Deidara was such a charming guy - not to mention drop dead gorgeous, of course - and who was I to refuse him? People may have complemented my looks, or my sarcastic wit, but that didn't really mean I had many real friends. Many people regarded me as that funny girl in their class. Not funny enough to hang out with, but cool enough to talk to for a bit before that bell rang.

So can you blame me for jumping at this opportunity? I could tell he had a great personality, and he was sharp enough for me to have conversation with. I didn't care if he was interested in me in a girlfriend-boyfriend way or not, so I allowed him to get close to me.

He made my Art class and lunch the best periods of the day. Because I knew I would always have someone to talk to. I guess you could say we just 'clicked'.

I found out he was an amazing artist - not only in drawing, but in sculpting as well. He never spoke of his family - but I only assumed that it was because he didn't want to gain popularity because of their money. He found out I was pretty good with a pencil and paper as well. I knew I wasn't as good as him, but it was something we could talk about. He found out that my parents had divorced, and that I lived in a two-bedroom apartment with my father. He found out my father worked in an office somewhere, but spent all his earnings on going to get me a good education.

Deidara found out my pastimes were watching anime, drawing and that I attempted to learn how to 'glow stick'. He also found out my favorite colors were lilac and black, that I loved to eat vanilla ice cream - soft serve, with rainbow sprinkles on a cone -, and that I was horrible at DDR.

So you see, I let him know more about me than I knew about him. All I knew was that he came from a well-off family, he used Herbal Essences shampoo and a wet-to-dry flat iron, and that he occasionally would smoke. Well, not counting his amazing artistic abilities, of course.

I never was a person who wanted to know more about a person than they would let on - at least, not until after high school I wasn't. In that way, I was never suspicious that he got all his money, or his nice clothes, or his expensive sports car from anywhere other than his parents. I wouldn't have ever thought anything bad about the gorgeous boy in my art class named Deidara. Looking back, I decided that there is a word for people like that - Naive. I was a foolish, naive, high school girl at that point in time.

Through that September and October, I regarded him as one of those people I could tell anything to. I saw that he in turn regarded me with interest, and I was continually surprising him with my personality. I began to let him drive me home, and we would talk about the most random things during the short drive.

I admit, he could get on my nerves with his biting sarcasm, but like I said - it was fun to talk with someone would could meet my wit. And then...

It all came to an end. I still remember talking to him on Goosey Night - about silly things, like if he was going to egg anyone's house. He smiled that crooked smile I'd come to love (and then miss terribly) but I caught a flicker of emotion in his usually sparkling teal eye. It worried me for a second, but then he told me that he wasn't much interested in this night of mischief; in turn, we began a conversation about how other teens needed to grow up. So I thought nothing of that spilt-second dark shadow.

But then, on the next day - Halloween - he vanished. Just like that. He never came into school anymore after that day.

And that was the first time - on Halloween night, as children were laughing and screaming with mirth out side my very window - I cried myself to sleep. To this day, I don't know why I was foolish enough to do so. Maybe it was because I felt that he had somehow betrayed me; probably because I had the frame of mind that he would always be there for me to speak to.

It was terrible at first, that uncontrollable feeling of loss. No one I knew - no one at all that I spoke to - seemed to know what happened to him. The first few months after that were terrible. Until my father finally told me that he had heard his parents moved away - to Los Angeles, he thought.

Soon - too soon, in fact, high school ended. I graduated with decent grades, and got accepted into collage. I bid my farewell to my father and thanked him for all the opportunities he gave me. I moved away, and into a small studio my father gave me as a graduation gift. I thought nothing of the fact that it was in L.A. - for by this point in time I was slowly beginning to forget my friend.

That is...Until that fateful day.

When both out lives collided in the most twisted of ways. And that is where the story shall go on.

For - ironically - the fateful day of when we met again was exactly two years after he disappeared.

On Halloween night.

KAZ SPEAKS! Oh yeah, I'm so cool. xD I think the concept was pretty well-thought out, huh? Hmm, I should get hyped up on cough meds more often! (Kidding!) xD

Anyway, everything that happened in Art or Lunch was a flashback, in case you were wondering. :D I think I might've overdone Shii's description of Deidara, but oh well. I'm not complaining. There are some questions left unanswered, Im aware of that. It's done purposely - and everything will be revealed as the story goes on.

I should also mention that 'Satsujin' is the Japanese word for 'Murder'. Hmm, kind of like the Jigsaw alias, huh? -mysterious music plays- xD Only time - and how fast I type - will tell!

So review please! I need feedback! Reviews are candied love!!

EDIT! As of 10/30/2008 - I fixed all the little grammar errors, since I didn't have time to do so before. Also, a few more sentences have been added as well. Sorry for not fixing this before (since I usually go through a severe edit-conditioning process before posting each chapter. xD)