The room was dark. A glow from the television shown brightly, giving off a light that whitewashed the room. A beaten up couch sat but a few feet away from the shimmering TV. And upon that couch sat a young boy. Whose hair and eyes where about as dark as the room. He wore a hooded sweatshirt and baggy pants. Headphones covered his ears. A microphone descended from the right speaker.

“I’ve lost visual of PonyBoy223…” The raven haired boy spoke into the microphone. In his hands was a wireless Xbox 360 controller. His fingers quickly and errorlessly pushed buttons, making the character on the television move and do maneuvers of all sorts. A voice spoke through the headphones into the boy’s ear.

“Crap! I’m dead, I’m dead! Someone get here and back up GaaraSandDemon!” The boy quickly responded to the stranger’s voice. He clicked away.

GAME OVER

The boy muttered a swear under his breath and threw his controller on the ground. With a long sigh, he leaned back and rubbed his temples. He closed his eyes. Staring at the television in the dark for so long made his eyes burn. A high pitched ring pierced the silence in the room. The boy felt a vibration his in pocket

His cell phone was ringing.

He dug into his pocket and flipped open his phone. “What?” His voice was low and stern. On the other end of the phone was a more friendly voice.

“Sasuke? Hey it’s Sakura.”

“What do you want?”
“Lost again huh? That BlondeFox876 is giving you a pretty hard time!”
“Whatever. What do you want?”
“N-nothing really. I just wanted to talk…you know, like REAL boyfriend and girlfriends are suppose to do!”

The boy who Sakura called Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance. He was her boyfriend, yes, but he only agreed to go out with her if she would stop calling him for no reason. He stopped talking.

Sakura took the hint and said her goodbye. Sasuke slapped his phone shut and stuffed it back in his pocket. With his head resting in his hands, he opened his eyes and stared at the blank blue screen on his TV. His gaze scanned his apartment. Clothes, wrappers, and other unrecognizable things were scattered around. His elevator eyes came to a halt at a familiar box that sat on top of a stack of gamers magazines. Which where on a desk placed closely to the couch.

Lazily, he scooted himself to the box. He reached in and pulled out a CD case. The case had bold black letters written on it. Stay Alive. Sasuke pondered for a moment. When did he get an illegal copy of a game that’s not even out yet?

His fingers traced the words on the case. Then it hit him. It must have been when he visited Lee earlier today. He remembered Lee telling him about some game he downloaded off the internet. Lee told him something, this game was different, nothing like the other games he hacked into and downloaded.

Sasuke chuckled. “That Lee, always having a way to hack into anything.” But, how Sasuke came upon this game, he did not know. Sasuke licked his lips as he thought.

“What did Lee mean by this game was different?” Sasuke stared at the game. Almost entranced by it. The dark black letters seemed to be drawing him in. He pulled the case open and inserted the CD in his Xbox. He picked up his controller and put on his headset. The blue screen on his TV morphed brown. There was an old fashion looking scroll on the screen. There was also a prayer written on it. Sasuke started reading it out loud, into his speaker.
“Come to me, clouds. May you rise as an evil storm-Whoa!”
Sasuke stopped abruptly because as he read this prayer, the words on the screen began to disappear. Sasuke’s mouth dropped open. “Wow, now this is one high tech game…”
He took a deep breath, and began reading the prayer again. “-born to rip them open. Let the cover of night bear witness and destroy-”
He stopped again but this time he stopped because he had seen a black figure zip across his apartment out of the corner of his eye.

Sasuke jumped up. “Who’s there?!” he immediately said. No response.
A faint humming sound filled the room. Sasuke’s hair on the back of his neck stood up. His ears where pounding…no,it was his heartbeat. He heard footsteps in the kitchen. “H-hello?” He hesitantly walked over towards the kitchen.

Just as he was about to reach the doorway, a loud ear piercing sound rang.

His cell phone again.

Sasuke nearly leaped out of his skin. He gripped his chest, fearing that his heart would never go back to its original pace. The phone continued to ring.

“H-hello?” Sasuke answered his phone weakly.

“Hey dude! How’s it goin!? Did’ya play the game I burned ya yet?” It was Lee.

“Uh, yeah. Hey Lee. Where exactly did you get this game?”

“I hacked into some nerd’s site and downloaded it…why do you ask?”

Sasuke stayed silent for a while. He glanced nervously at the kitchen.

“Ah…No reason.”

“Oh…ok…...so yeah, I’m playin’ the game right now and I doin’ pretty good. Ah crap! NO NO!” Lee started yelling.

Sasuke widened his eyes. He gripped his phone tight. “LEE?! What’s wrong?” Lee’s breathing was heavy and unsteady. “Lee?” Sasuke questioned.

“Man…holy crap that was scary….” Sasuke heard Lee light a cigarette.

“What was?”

“This game. I was doing good then all of a sudden this freaky torture room appears and I fell back and got hung by a chain. Dang…what a rush!”

Sasuke shook his head and laughed. His raven locks fell over his eyes. “Okay, Lee. Goodnight.”

Sasuke was about to hang up the phone when Lee nervously said.

“Ah, so Sasuke. You wanna come over tonight? Or something? We could go hang out- you wanna come over?”

“Nah, I’m all right.”

“Oh, okay, cool. See you tomorrow then.”

“See ya Lee.”

“Yeah…”

Sasuke shut his cell phone and shook. As if trying to loosen up his tense body. No more late nighters for him. He walked into his bedroom, taking second glances at the kitchen as he walked by. He pulled his sweatshirt over his head and unbuttoned his pants. He let his pants drop to the floor and he threw his sweatshirt onto his dresser.

He hopped onto bed and closed his eyes. Tomorrow was a new day. New events, new surprises.
Sasuke had always loved to wake up in the morning and greet the new day. But this next morning, Sasuke will probably wish would never come.


MY COMMENTS:
AHH! What will happen next?!? Well if you've seen the movie, you will probably know what happens to Lee. *dramaric music* ...*is shot*

“It's the game of life and death....”



Daybreak was more than unkind as Sasuke’s eyes painfully adjusted to the morning sun streaming through the open window. Sasuke’s mind, still hazy with sleep, pondered over the night before. He had talked on the phone, but to whom? Silence filled his room, all except the morning doves who cheerfully cooed outside on a nearby tree.


Sasuke was pulled out of his daze by the startling ringing of his phone. He blindly searched for his phone, to put an end to the annoying ring. He clicked his phone on and answered it with a breathy “Hello?”

A man spoke on the other end. “Sasuke Uchiha?”
Sasuke sighed. “Speaking…”

“This is detective Kakashi Hatake from the Konoha Village Police Department. I have to ask you to come down to the station.”

“W-what? Why? What did I do? I didn’t do anything!”

“We have some questions regarding some information we have about your friend, Lee.”

Sasuke’s eyes grew wide and he almost lost his grip on the phone. There was a short silence. What information could it be about? Sasuke thought for a moment. Could it be about the illegal game?

“What information?” he spoke with a hint of fear in his voice. The man paused, and then sighed.


“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this. But this morning your friend Lee was found in his house, hung by a chain. We searched his house and when we looked in one of the rooms. How do I explain this…if I where to label it I would say it looked somewhat like a torture room.”

Sasuke’s mouth dropped open and this time, he dropped the phone. The soft clanking sound filled the silenced room. His hands trembled and his eyes frantically searched the room, with no object to locate in mind. A small voice came from the phone on the floor.

“Hello? Mr.Uchiha? Are you there? I know this is hard, but please…”

Sasuke swallowed, trying to rid the lump in his throat. He weakly gripped the phone and spoke into it. “I-I’ll be there I-in an hour.” By the tone of his voice, Kakashi knew he was getting choked up.

“Uh...no never mind. I can see you’re taking this pretty hard. Just forget it. I have many other people I can call. Thank you.” A dial tone rang, telling Sasuke that Kakashi had hung up. He pressed the “off” button and threw the phone. He took in short, uneasy gasps. With a few moments of silence he shook his head and started for the bathroom.

“How could this happen? I just don’t get it. I just talked to him a few hours ago…” He thought as he twisted the knob on his sink. The hot water sprayed from the faucet, steam lazily rising up towards the ceiling. He cupped his hands and let the water fall over his skin. He splashed the water he caught in his hands onto his face. The sudden shock of heat, fully waking him up.

He placed a hand on each side of this sink. Staring at the fogging mirror. His reflection becoming a hazy blur. Even though the mirror was a blur, he could still see the horrified look on his face.
His friend, more like a brother, was gone. A single tear trickled down his cheek.

“This is insane.” He mumbled, “I need to do some serious gaming to get my mind off of this.”

That certain morning had been unkind to Sasuke…and so was this red light. He impatiently drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. It had been a week since Lee’s funeral and Sasuke has finally gotten the courage to go back to work. Red flashed to green and Sasuke drove forward. The wind howled as it creped in through slightly open windows. Sasuke couldn’t bare the silence any longer. He turned his radio on. Silence.

“Stupid piece of crap…” he said as he flicked the screen that was suppose to tell him what station he was on. He leaned back in his seat and rubbed one of his temples. Maybe he didn’t have the courage he thought he had. He closed his eyes in thought. Remember that if Lee was still here…he would be in the passenger seat.

Probably rambling on about some game and Sasuke would be annoyed, yet he would smile at the sight of his brother-like friend. A loud ear piercing honk came from behind. Sasuke’s eyes popped open, revealing that the light had turned green.

He rolled down his window and waved apologetically. Another honk. Sasuke rolled his eyes and pressed the gas pedal with his foot. He pulled into an allay way and parked his car. He inserted his key to lock his car. A shadow appeared in the corner of his eye. Chills ran up his spine. With his heart racing he pulled up his drooping pants and hastily walked into a run down looking building.


The inside lights were dim and the air was dense, filled with cigarette smoke. Sasuke coughed once and walked straight towards the counter with his eyes locked on his feet. A timid looking girl stood behind the desk, slowly drying a wet glass. Her eyes drifted forward. She gave a small smile at the sight of Sasuke. Her voice was slow and timid.


“Sasuke…” She said as she merged from behind the counter, “Sasuke welcome back. How are you?” Sasuke lifted his head and gave her small smile as he took her into his arms. When she pulled away from the friendly hug she asked again, this time more subtle. “How are you?”


Sasuke shrugged and opened his mouth to answer but was rudely interrupted by an obnoxiously loud voice. “SASUKE BUDDY!” A bundle of messy blonde locks popped up from behind the counter, fallowed by a broad smile. The blonde placed his hands on his hips. “God man! How fricken long does it take you to get over ONE death?!” He laughed.


Sasuke narrowed his eyes but his anger quickly faded away at the thought of Lee. His eyes found their way back to his feet. The blonde brushed away Sasuke saddened gaze. “What stuff did he leave ya? I bet Lee had bunches of bootleg copies of awesome video games. Hey Hinata, didn’t you say Sasuke got all of Lee’s crap?” Hinata, still hesitant said “Oh well…yes he did.” She answered, and gave the blonde a quick angry glare making clear for him to “shut up.”


Sasuke smiled at the blonde’s stupidity. He sighed, “Yes, Naruto I did. I knew you would wanna see them the most so I brought them here.” He lifted his hand; he was holding a black bag with Lee’s name on the strap. The blonde, Naruto, tilted an eyebrow toward Sasuke and smiled. He climbed onto the counter as Sasuke placed the black bag onto the marble surface. Almost immediately Naruto started rummaging through the bag. He pulled out various cords and controllers.


“Hot damn, he really does have a lot of crap!” he said, faking a southern accent.

Hinata smacked Naruto hard on the shoulder. “How can my own brother be so different from me, and say mindless crap like that?!” She turned toward Sasuke, who was leaning on the counter. “Sasuke listen, I’m sorry about Naruto. Just don’t listen to him. He doesn’t mean I-” Sasuke interrupted her by putting his hand up. He shook his head.

“It’s ok. I over reacted anyway, I shouldn’t of been out of work for so long.” He smiled and hugged Hinata. She let some of her weight fall on him. She spoke into his black shirt. “Are you sure? I mean, you and Lee were so close. Do you really think you’re ready to start working again? Because I can cover for you again for…another week or so…” Sasuke lightly pushed her back. “I think it would be best if we just stop talking about…” Sasuke stopped talking as he saw Naruto pull a lighter out of Lee’s bag.


Sasuke’s eyes widened. Naruto lit it. The flame a light orange with a pale blue at the start of it. The flames tiny light flickered into the poorly lighted room. Sasuke turned away quickly. “God, Naruto!” He sighed deeply. Hinata turned around to see what Naruto had been doing. She narrowed her eyes.

“Dammit Naruto!” She said sternly. Naruto quickly realized what he was doing and put out the tiny flare. He rolled his eyes as Hinata walked over and started whispering another apology to Sasuke. His blonde locks falling lazily over his baby blue eyes as he searched deeper into the bag.


“Bingo!” he said as he pulled out one of the games. “Stay Alive! Now I’m likin’ the sound of that!” As he said this Sasuke turned back around and said.
“No! Dude, I don’t think that games a good one. It was….” His voice got softer, “It was the game Lee was playing right before he…” He nodded. The ending of his sentence was pretty obvious. Naruto and Sasuke’s eyes met for a couple sentences. A few moments later Naruto narrowed his eyes. A smile crossed his lips, exposing his white teeth. Sasuke sighed and shook his head. He knew exactly what Naruto was thinking.


“Heck yes! We are playing this game! I mean, what kind of gamer wouldn’t pass this up?! An Illegal copy of what is suppose to be an amazing game! Dude, call up Kiba and get his puppy-dog ass over here! Tonight! We are having a gamer’s night at your apartment Sasuke!” Naruto laughed a bit and stared at the game.


Hinata put her arm around Sasuke’s shoulder. “He looks like a little kid on Christmas morning.” Sasuke laughed. Hinata smiled and tilted her head. “Yeah, he’s one immature turd…But he’s all that I have left in this world. And I wouldn’t trade him for anyone.” She squeezed Sasuke with her arm that was wrapped around his shoulder and walked behind the counter. She grabbed another dish and resumed drying. Naruto hopped down and shoved all the junk he took out of the bag, back into it. Sasuke cracked his fingers.

“Well, I guess tonight will be one interesting one!” He said as he walked behind the counter. His eyes met Naruto’s; there was a moment of silence. Naruto gazed into Sasuke’s deep dark eyes. He was almost lost in their blackness. He shook his head out of it and winked at Sasuke. Sasuke shifted his stare from Naruto’s beautiful blue eyes to the old beaten up couch that was barely holding together, by the "sitting area." He walked into the back room, to check in.

As he walked through the door he gave himself a tiny slap on the face. “My god! Did I just blush!?”