Chapter Text
03/14/26 update: I havent forgotten about this fic guys. Ive been agressively outlining for 2+ years really trying to get the magic system right. This will be my next Linger! Xoxo - VB
“How did I let you guys talk me into this?!” Sakura hissed, pulling her witches cloak tight around her shoulders. The thrift store Halloween costume was a last minute purchase, not exactly what one would call ‘quality material’. Sheer leggings and a too short skirt offered her little protection from the evening storm brewing around them, making her wish she had gone for something more substantial. Why hadn’t she picked the dinosaur onesie?
Oh that's right. Because she wasn't suppose to be here right now: Elbows deep in overgrown grass, climbing the steep hill to MacCallum Manor.
“Please, like you haven’t been dying to sneak inside for years.” Tenten teased, strolling ahead confidently. As they hiked, her friend studied the perimeter wall for an easy point of entry, rushing ahead when she finally found one. “Here! We can get through to the courtyard this way.”
Sakura warily eyed the divot in the old fence where rusted chain link had collapsed in on itself. Twisted metal pulled savagely in all directions, as if something had shredded it trying to get out.
“Spooky, isn’t it?” Tenten grinned.
Anxiety twisted into a ball in Sakura’s throat. Even if they didn’t get arrested for sneaking in, she was very likely to contract tetanus from this terrible misadventure. She was working up the nerve to say they should just head back to the bar when a stabby skeleton talon jabbed her in the back.
“Stop being such a stick in the mud, billboard brow.”
“I'm not being a stick in the mud!”
“You’re not not being a stick.” Naruto chimed in beside her, stumbling ungracefully over a pile of loose rubble. The remains of a brick retaining wall were scattered everywhere, the old mortar long since failing. He reached a hand down for Tenten, helping her up first through the break in the fence.
“Just because I think breaking and entering is a bad idea does not make me a stick in the mud.”
Ino’s talon assaulted her again. “Look, we get it. You’re going to be a Doctor. You’re too responsible and grown up now to spend Spirits Eve stomping through a haunted mansion with your best friends, telling good jokes and drinking bad whiskey.”
“To be fair, she's always been weirded out by places like this.” Kiba laughed, slinging a too casual arm across Ino’s shoulder. "Remember that class trip we took to the old Bosch theater? She didn't let go of Naruto's hand that entire day. Naruto, didn't she even drag you into the bathroom with her?"
"She said the paintings eye were watching us." Naruto grinned.
“That’s not true…” Sakura protested quietly, the words feeling like a lie even as she said them. They had been watching. Menacingly.
She watched as Ino blushed furiously under the weight of Kiba's arm, shrugging him off and stomping up through the fence. She observed the way Tenten was wiggling spooky fingers down at Naruto, the two friends completely at ease in the rubble around them. The whole group buzzed with spirited excitement, like this was yet another grade school field trip and not what it really was: A seriously fucking bad idea.
“This building was condemned for a reason, you know. What if the whole thing falls in on us and nobody even knows where we are?” Sakura begged, a last ditch plea for reason from a group hell bent on Halloween insanity. Seriously, the dilapidated building up ahead looked the quintessential beginning of a Stephen King horror movie.
Naruto paused his excited exploring, finally seeming to register that this was not normal Sakura Anxiety. “Hey. I’ve got you, I promise.” He reassured her, smiling that familiar megawatt smile. “Besides, the fire only damaged the west wing, right? If we stick to the main building we should be fine.”
Ino groaned dramatically from the other side of the fence. "Sakura, it's cold! I know we've always said ride or die, but my love for you ends at hypothermia."
Tenten, realizing cajoling was getting them nowhere, finally took action as per usual. “Here, if it will make you feel better...”
In one fluid gesture, her phone was produced like magic from invisible pockets, fingers tapping out a lightning fast text. “Now both Hinata and Neji know where we are. If I don’t text them in the next hour, you know Hinata will call the national guard.”
Ah, yes. Hinata. The only person in their friend group more anxiety prone that Sakura herself. Hinata, who was safely ensconced in a booth back at their perfectly lovely bar down the street, sipping a whiskey sour and reading a book. Hinata, who had soundlessly disappeared to the bathrooms when Tenten had first proposed this ill-advised excursion. Hinata, who had not made school her entire personality, yet was proving in this moment to be much smarter than Sakura could ever hope to be.
“We good?” Tenten's body was already turning back up the hill. “We’ve talked about doing this since we were twelve and they’re probably demolishing the place next month. When else will we get the chance to actually do this all together?”
“Do you think we’ll find any cursed treasure?” Naruto asked excitedly.
“Bet you $10 we find old MacCallum’s mummified body.” Kiba grinned wickedly, waggling his eyebrows at a still blushing Ino.
Her friends were practically dancing from foot to foot in mischievous anticipation, moments away from living out their collective childhood fantasy.
"Come on Sakura, please? I don't want to do this without you."
Naruto’s damn smile was always her downfall. 16 years together now and still she was unable to deny her foster brother anything.
“The only thing you’re going to find is a bunch of trouble.” Sakura sighed, realizing there was no way out of this mess. “And as usual, I’ll be the one to get you all out of it. Come on, but keep your damn voices down.”
The air became a choir of whispered hurrah's as she crawled her way up through the gaping fence, careful not to rip her tights on the mangled chain link. As they continued up the hill, Naruto slipped his fingers into hers, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
Her foster brother always went out of his way to make her feel important, but the others had surprised her tonight. Despite the chilling breeze, a secret bit of her heart warmed at the efforts they were making to include her. Though her time in the foster system had been short lived, she still bore the scars of those earlier years. The fear of being unwanted... haunted her.
She honestly didn't know where she would be now, if it weren't for this found family they had built.
“I can’t believe we’re finally doing this.” Naruto whispered beside her, sharing a conspiratorial grin with Ino.
"I know. It only took us 10 years to get Sakura on board!"
"I hate you all." Sakura hissed into her cloak, not meaning the words even a little bit.
She was loath to admit it, but her friends were right. Scaredy-cat that she was, she had been dying to see the inside of MacCallum house. Even before the mysterious fire 12 years ago, the place had been a local urban legend. The surrounding town was always circulating with whispers of cult leaders, fanatic followers, and rumors of powerful occult treasures.
With the rest of her life a soon to be set course, (Med school, residency, establishing her own private practice) she might not get another chance to act like a stupid kid with her brother and the friends she'd come to cherish.
'Okay. You can do this.' She reassured herself. Besides...nothing inside that house could possibly be worse than being left behind.
They had just made it to the top of the hill when a confident Tenten froze in her tracks.
“Uh...did you guys see that?”
Everyone stopped short, five sets of eyes probing carefully through dark.
“Up there. I think I can see something moving…”
Sakura’s eyes went up and up, scanning the fourth floor windows of the massive estate for any sign of movement inside. Somehow, the building was even more imposing up close, soaring overhead and disappearing into the mist. But squint as she might, all Sakura could make out were the inky shadows of bare tree branches swaying in the storm.
“Don’t get twitchy on us now, Captain.” Naruto teased, breaking the tension. “This whole thing was your idea.”
Tenten huffed, refusing to be embarrassed. “Who’s twitchy?! I’m not twitchy!”
With that, she readjusted her pirates hat and stomped her way up to the Manor’s back porch. Sakura was sure her foot would go right through the rotted steps, but miraculously the old things held her weight. The rest of the group quickly followed after her, eager to get out of the oncoming drizzle.
In the end, Sakura couldn’t even call their bad idea 'breaking and entering.' The once boarded up back door had long since fallen off well-worn hinges, old paint peeling away from the copper deadbolt. One by one, they slipped inside the house that had gnawed at their curiosity for nearly a decade. Only Sakura lingered on the back porch, unable to shake the feeling that they were being...watched.
“Hey, you coming?” Ino whispered, beckoning to Sakura from beyond the doorway. A hush of solemnity had settled over the group, her friends finally feeling the weight of the risk they were undertaking.
Sakura's eyes were locked on the threshold. Were those grooves on the tattered wood trim from peeling paint? Or were they... claw marks...
She hesitated, torn between caution and the terrible knowledge that there really was no turning back now. The time to really put her foot down had long since passed. Unable to help herself, she bore a final look over her shoulder across the courtyard. Her eyes carefully raked the fourth floor windows of the burnt up West wing, again only finding darkness.
‘There’s nothing up there.’ She told herself, repeating the mantra again for good measure. 'You haven't seen anything creepy like that in a long, long time...'
“Yeah. Wait up for me.”
And with that, Sakura entered MacCallum Manor, the weight of unseen eyes following her inside.