A/N: Just watched the RING 2! A wonderful movie to be sure, if a bit old. By the end, I actually felt a little sorry for Samara. She just wanted a mommy. A parent, if you will. Given how cruel the world was to her, and what happened...well, if you don't believe me, watch both movies for yourself. Anywho, I watched the movies. Both of them. And then I had the most curious dream. And no, before you say anything, I'm not crazy! Well, not much at any rate. I also credit 1Werewolf-Of-Darkness1 for some of the words and the marvelous inspiration that he/she bestowed upon me!

Anywho, this oneshot was born from the desire to see a happy end from the girl who never got one...and until people say otherwise it is just that, a ONESHOT. So flamers stop flamming! Now, as to what you think of it...

...I'll leave to you, dear readers, to decide if it should be continued. Off we go!

I sincerely hope you enjoy!

"Why do they hate me? Why? WhywhywhywhywhywhyWHY?! I don't want to be alone anymore...I just...want...

~?

Papa

Dark and cold. Why did she do this to me? I've asked myself that everyday since I was put in this prison. Even now as I'm no longer living. Here I sit. Waiting. Waiting for another unsuspecting soul to watch it. The video. My video. My cry for help across entire world, entire dimensions. But part of the bargain is that they watch it. Then I kill them seven days later. A terrible thing for them. But everyone must suffer. It won't stop.

I want it to stop.

Someone helped me, once. She wasn't afraid of my curse. Yes that's what it is. A curse. Rachael knew how I felt. I thought she would let me love her. That she would be my mommy. But just like the mothers before she betrayed me.

I think of her betrayal as I sit in the well. Cold. Wet. Alone. I hug myself and tears fall down my ghostly face. My black hair fanned out around me in the water. After I died I only lived in cold and darkness.

I just want a mommy who will love me. Maybe a daddy, even. I don't want to be alone anymore.

I felt it. Someone's time was up. Their seven days. I sighed and gripped the wall. I pulled myself up and climbed. Not feeling or thinking. When I kill it's like I'm a hollow being. Nothing matters. Just that someone was going to die. Because they failed at spreading my curse. My cry for help. I pull myself out of the well and stare ahead. I can see him. A young man of about eighteen years. Older than me. Whiskered cheeks. Blond hair. Bright blue eyes. He stared wide-eyed at me. They always stared.

I walked forward.

As I got closer he frowned, mildly concerned. But he didn't scream. Why didn't he scream? He just stared at me, confused. Baffled. He didn't scream. Even when I raised my arms. Reaching. Imploring. Don't run away, I thought at him, unable to speak. That was what the others did. That was why they died, scared to death. But he didn't run away. Closer now, my fingertips brushing the wall of static that separated me from this world-a wall, a barrier keeping me out. Trapping me. Imprisoning me.

And then I stepped through.

Uzumaki Naruto hadn't been expecting her to crawl out of the television.

Naruto froze, every muscle in his body clamping down, refusing to move as she stalked toward him, arms outstretched. Then she stepped through the screen, through the static, crawling out of the television as though it were no more than a wall of water, easily traversed. Part of him gibbered madly at the sight, the other...well, it didn't feel anything. Nothing at all. He flinched slightly when she flopped onto the wooden floor of what used to be his bedroom, lying sprawled in a puddle of water.

"What in the world...?"

Emboldened by his words, she jerked herself upright in stiff, awkward motions. Pinning him to the wall with...with what? Her eyes. He caught just a glint of something behind her wet hair...taunting him.

Strangely enough he couldn't bring himself to feel fear; there was only confusion. Who was she? What did she want with him?

It seemed so stupid looking back now; all of this had begun with that damned tape they'd found in the archives. That, and boredom.

Kiba, being iba dared him to play the video. But there was something odd about it. He'd vehemently insisted that, if you didn't get someone else to watch it after seven days...you died. Seemed he was right. His fingers twtched, summoning a thread of chakra. Seconds later a rasengan circled in his lone hand, the spiraling sphere hummng warily as he stared down the strange girl. If she planned to attack him, she'd find herself in for a most unpleasant surprise.

The girl looked at him, as though not entirely sure of what to do. Naruto couldn't tell what she was thinking; try as he might, he simply could not see her face underneath all her hair. Then, as though summoned by that very thought, the ebon tresses parted, revealing the most beautiful creature he'd seen in a long time. His heart skipped a beat. There was nothing monstrous about that face; a visage that had been submerged in water for all those years, pale, smooth, and so very...young. She smiled at him, a small, tentative thing, hesitant and confused.

"Why?" when she spoke, her voice rooted him; the words hauntingly soft yet strange and alien; as though another were speaking with her. Through her. Naruto coughed, momentarily taken aback. The Rasengan in his hand sputtered and died, guttering out as he lost focus and control. A small, nervous smile plucked at his cheeks.

"Why...what?"

"Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Naruto considered it for a moment; pondering his answer. Afraid. Why wasn't he? He'd fought against madmen who tormented others for their amusement. Orochimaru. Pein and Kaguya, to name a few more. Over the last year, he had seen war, death, destruction and loss. Crushed a living Goddess and sealed her away, redeemed his friend, and lost his arm, eking out a bitter victory at the very last. He'd suffered the pain of losing a eye as well, dealing with potential blinding...until Sasuke had torn the Rinnegan from his own face and forced Sakura to implant it in him.

Yes, Uzumaki Naruto had seen humanity at its darkest...and brightest. He housed the chakra of demons who made the lords of the underworld look tame by comparison. By contrasts, this young, ghostly girl was no more than an ant to them. To him.

"I guess you just don't seem very scary to me, is all." he shrugged. "I've seen way worse."

"..."

The silence that followed was deafening, and Naruto fidgeted restlessly in it, painfully aware of the water still soaking into the hardwood floor of his apartment. Water ran from the walls now, and the ceiling, the droplets poolng together as the strange wraith regarded him. He coughed.

"Who are ya, if you don't mind me asking?"

Samara frowned, daring to hope. He couldn't be her mommy. Not like Rachael. But maybe...just maybe...? Her bare feet padded forward. When she spoke, her voice was the most naked whisper of an answer.

"...Samara. Who are you...? What...? " she walked towards him warily, as though she half-expected started screaming at the top of his lungs. Her hand touched his cheek. Something brushed against his mind, a cold tendril of curiosity. Naruto stiffened, but didn't resist, staring back at those dead brown eyes. Memories assailed her at once, beating at the flimsy barrier she desperately erected. Pain. Loneliness. Suffering. Sandess, to sorrow, to rebirth; rishing from the ashes like a phoenix, reborn in the eyes of all. Stilll she persisted. Questing, probing, testing the depths of what seemed like confidence, but was it really-

"Away with you! "Kurama snapped at her and the girl withdew violently, starting as if she'd been slapped. She gawped at the boy, wide-eyed. There was something inside him already. Something dark, yet bright at the same time. Old, ancient, and incredibly, terribly powerful. She felt horribly small before this prescence, no more than a dust mote in the eyes of this beast. It snarled and she felt herself come apart before it, unable to weather its gaze for more than a moment before she jerked back to reality.

"Not human. Like me." the words escaped her in a rush as she backpedalled.

The blond boy-Naruto, now that she had a name to go with the face-looked back at her with rueful resignation. "Yeah, I guess you could put it that way, 'ttebayo." his broad shoulders rose and fell in an easy shrug. "I was never really human to begin with, But then again," A hand rose sheepishly to scratch at the back of his head, then paused, "Yer not really normal yerself, ain'tcha?" She stiffened as that same palm came down on her head, mussing her damp tresses softly. Affectionately.

"You're really not so scary after all." he said, the words almost a sigh.

Samara heard all this and felt her dead heart stir. Just a little. Like her. He was like her. Her curse didn't effect him. She could touch him without his face warping in agony, without his death. He did not feel the fear she carried, did not die from looking at her. But what place di-d she have here? She was dead. A ghost, a wraith amidst the living. She didn't belong. No matter how much she might want to. Thinking such, she turned to go-leave his sight-to depart

...I'll leave, then."

"You don't have to go, you know."

She cocked her head aside, considering him, then the static-filled screen, then him again. "Where else would I go?"

"Don't you have a home?"

Samara shook her head.

"What about your parents?"

She clenched her tiny fists.

"Daddy never loved me. He loved the horses. And mommy killed me by putting me in that well."

Nauto felt his beating heart break. "That's horrible!" a fist rose, smacking against an emptypalm. "Where are they?! I'll kick their asses!" Samara felt the ghost-ha!-of a smile pull at her pale lips. She fidgeted, restlessly in place. This boy was nice. He was kind. Not like the others. He didn't scream. Kind. So very, very kind. She couldn't stop thinking about that. Not like him. Not like... Daddy. An abrupt thought stabbed at her from out of nowhere, sending her reeling. Shocked as she was, it was all she could do to choke out a reply:

"Can't. They're already dead."

His eyes squinted in thought. "Oh. Well, that's good, then. Assholes like that deserve to die. Soooo," he seemed to ponder his words a moment longer, weighing them, testing them, before speaking. "If you really want to, I guess you can stay here. I just came by to move a few new things in, but-

"I can stay?" her eyes lit up, the ember of hope fanned to a roaring flame deep within her chest.

"Well, yeah, sure. As long as you don't hurt anyone."

"But...I'm dead." the words felt hollow, empty. "I can't stay."

"Hmm...I might be able to do something about that." his eyes twinkled. "Just stay put for a bit. I'll be right back! I promise!"

Before she could ask what he was up to, the boy flung open the door and darted outside.

He did not return for some time.

The sun had just set when he returned.

"All right!"

Naruto flung the door open with such force that Samara physically jumped. Lights flickered. He laughed. "Relax, relax, its just me!" Looking at Samara, who had been levitating an empty desk out of boredom, he urged her back from the arch and unfurled the large parcel he'd been carrying under his arm. Tarps fluttered away...exposing a corpse. At least, she thought it was one. The stark white skin of the body startled her, as did the black hair and pale, golden eyes. It...looked like her, right down to the heart-shaped face and small build, bearing enough of a resemblance that it was...

...eerie.

"It's been about a year since the Fourth Shinobi war," he said by way of explanation, hurring about the room, setting various items in place. "We still had a few of the White Zetsu bodies laying about in the lab. Sakura-chan's been able to figure out we can animate them, making them look like normal, human people, and I thought to myself...

"I had to beg Tsunade-ba-chan to let me see take this, by the way." he was rambling now. "You owe me a week's worth of ramen if this works." Samara hadn't the faintest idea what ramen was, but she nodded slowly anyway, watching him like a hawk as he finished the preparations. "There." Naruto declared suddenly, dusting off his hand on a curtain, wiping away the symbols he'd drawn with his own blood as a catalyst. "You might be pale for a few days, but you'll have healthy skin soon enough."

Samara finally found her voice, at those words.

...you're going to put me...in that?"

"I'm going to bind your soul to a body, yes." Naruto answered by way of a stern glance. "Its the closest thing we have to a human one. You'll be faster, stronger and albe to regenerate. A year ago, I wouldn't even have been able to perform a jutsu like this. Now, though? It might work...

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then you'll probably be trapped in an empty body, slowly suffocating." he said nonchalantly. "You'll die, basically."

"But-

"Hold still." He raised his lone limb, exposing a strange, circular mark on his hand. Before she could protest, he pressed it to her forehead. "Not sure quite how this'll work, seeing as you don't have a body, but...here goes nothing. Now, what were the handsigns I saw Obito do? Geh, gonna be hard with one hand. Oh, right...Rinne Tensei no jutsu!" Before her very eyes his right eye blazed an eerie purple, blinding her. The mark on his hand burned maddeningly, searing her, burning, then...numbness.

Samara felt herself being pulled apart, sucked inward...downward, into something. Blackness took over.

Naruto glanced down at his handiwork, watching as the blood he'd scrawled on the floor slowly drew itself up into the small body that he'd "borrowed" from the shinobi medical lab. Being the hero of the villaged allowed you to go all sorts of places, yet even he wasn't allowed where he'd gone. Indeed if this didn't work, the consequences might very well rear up and bite him in the ass. Even now, as he watched them form a small seal-a perfect circle on the neck-he wondered if he'd been right to do this. Leaning forward, he patted her cheek.

"Did it work...?" Nothing happened.

Then Samara's eyes burst open with a gasp. She leapt at him in a blur of white and black, laughing. Small arms encircled him, gripping tightly.

"Daddy!"

"Ooof! Okay! OKAY! It worked!"

A/N: Yes, yes, yes, I ruthlessly manipulated the plot, as well as Naruto's abilities, to give Samara a happy ending! Sue me! I LIKE HAPPY ENDINGS! And remember, Naruto is a good soul, always willing to help!

So there we are! Samara finds her way into the Naruto verse. Just a little fluffy bit where she finally finds some peace of mind with someone who maybe, just maybe, might be able to empathize with her. Sort of like Alma in a way. Just out of curiosity, who do you think would win should it come to pure fear? Alma Wade, or Samara? Personally, I think that they're pretty evenly matched, considering the horror icons they've become. But enough about that! I hope you enjoyed this short, fluffy bit as Valentines Day approaches!

So...in the immortal words of Atlas...

...Review Would You Kindly?

R&R! =D