| 2012 | October Halloween Special | In Naruto?!

The campfire was crackling loudly, the sound resounding through the silent air with the buzzing of mosquitoes and the chirping of crickets.

"Ohh, it's that time of the day already-ttebayo!" Naruto beamed, rocking in his seat excitedly.

You released an irritated grunt as the log you were seated on started to tremble, probably the blond's doing. "Naru-fish, could you please stop rocking the log?"

"Ah, sorry, [Name]-chan!"

You chuckled, replying the blond with an 'it's alright'.

"Apologies aside," a certain ravenette stated, "what did you mean by 'that' time of the day, dobe?"

"He probably meant something perverted," Sakura snickered, and the whole group laughed lightly, the crackle of fire drowning out the joyful sound.

It was currently somewhere in the evening, around nine o'clock, or so. You sighed happily, eyes closing as you remembered how you got to camping, in the forest, to boot.

It was the school holidays, and half of your class had suggested camping as an interactive activity. It was excruciatingly hot, as it was Summer, a great opportunity to camp outdoors with most your class.

"I do think he meant story-telling, Sakura-san," the male who was new in your class, Sai - the male with the social skills of a one-year-old - blinked, "It's a--

"Yeah, I meant story-telling, dattebayo!" Naruto emphasized the last word exuberantly, hands waving about in circles, ignoring the fact that he had just cut Sai off. "You know, those scary stories everyone has to share when they're around a campfire! It's tradition-ttebayo!"

"Tradition?" you raised an eyebrow, as did most of the others around you.

"Look, since you guys are so clueless, I'll start first-ttebayo!"

"What?! You don't just call people clueless because they raised an eyebrow, baka!"

"Mendokusē..."

"NANDATO, NARUTO?!"

You sighed, palm coming into contact with your face.

[ ◊ ]

"Yosh, this is a story called 'The Alice Killings', which remains, to this day, to be one of the strangest and unsolvable serial killings in Japan-ttebayo!"

"Naru-fish, where did you hear this? I've never heard of it..."

"Hm? Oh, I got the story off some hooded guy [1]."

"Annnnd, you just so happened to stop and listen to him?"

"Yeah, I mean, we were in Ichiraku!"

"Oh. That explains it."

"Look, let's got on with the story...the first victim, was Sasaki Megumi."

"Ohh, Sasaki-san!" somebody drawled, their words slurred.

Your right eye twitched [2], the voice of your drunk employee a sign that you would have to work overtime, again.

"Yamamoto," you 'tch'ed, slamming a bowl of miso soup down onto a tray, surprising most of your employees who were watching as to how the soup didn't slosh out of the bowl. "You're drunk. Again."

"Sorry, hiccup!"

"It's a Tuesday, Yamamoto. It's your shift, now."

"Sorry, Sasaki-saaaan~!"

You closed your eyes, two tick marks pulsing on your forehead. "Yamamoto, if this happens again, you will get sacked, 'ya hear me?!"

Even when he was drunk, Yamamoto seemed to understand that you were very outraged. "H-hai, Sasaki-san, hiccup!"

God damn it.

[ ◊ ]

"Why are you telling us how she worked?"

"Shut up! Let me continue-ttebayo!"

You 'ugh'ed, finding it ironic that you were drunk - you had just sacked Yamamoto two days ago. You swayed in your steps, stumbling across the street like some maniac. You grunted as you bumped into a wall, leaning against it as leverage as you hung your head, attempting to get your thoughts straight.

"Megu...mi-chan!"

You 'hm'ed, raising your head at the distorted voice. Beside you, was a couple whom you were quite close to, concern etched across their faces.

"What," you managed to string together without slurring - it wasn't even a question.

"Do you need a ride home?" Huh, your hearing was working great, now. "You look like you do. And it's one in the morning..."

"No," you replied almost immediately, raising your hand in a gesture of 'no', "no. I-I-I can wa-walk home, 'cup!"

"...are you sure?"

"Yes, 'cup!"

"...hmmm...."

You watched with half-lidded eyes as the couple walked away, the male glancing over his shoulder for another second, before they disappeared from your sight, rounding a corner. You sighed, pushing yourself off the wall, stumbling for a second before managing to upright yourself. You were about to take a step forward before an arm suddenly slithered around your neck, thick enough to cover your mouth, muffling your screams.

You were then dragged backwards, as if you weighed nothing. You continued to scream, clawing at your assailant's arm with your drunk might (which, was not very strong).

Your muffled screaming soon died down - you were way too tired to fight back with your full strength, and your head was pounding. The last thing you remembered before blacking out was your head being pulled back, demented smile coming into your visage.

[ ◊ ]

"She wasn't found until the next mourning, when a couple walking a few metres from Megumi's house saw a large amount of blood on an overgrown, unused path. They followed it, where they found Megumi's dismembered body. Her parts were impaled on tree branches, and when the police arrived, they found a playing card crammed into Megumi's mouth.

"It was a Jack of Spades, which had the word 'Alice' written on it. There were no fingerprints or any DNA to be found. Megumi was the first 'Alice'."

You raised an eyebrow at Sakura and Ino, who had shivered. Whether in fear or because of the frigid air (despite the warmth radiating from the campfire), you weren't sure.

"Scared?" Kiba smirked, also catching their slight movements.

"N-no! It's just cold!" they both protested, their voices synced, and you could only shake your head at them.

"Alright Naru-fish, story's over. The first 'Alice' is way too similar to us female teenagers. Sakura and Ino are already shaking in their boots."

"B-but, she's twenty-nine, dattebayo!"

"Doesn't matter. Next!"

"I'll go," Sasuke sighed; Sakura and Ino leaned in, ready to hear their love's story to the end.

...Kami, they're obsessed...

[ ◊ ]

"This is a true story - the events that take place in the retelling happened to me and my brother."

"How should we know if you're lying or not, chibi?"

"Shut up, [Name]."

 You rolled your eyes.

"This happened when I was seven, and my brother was twelve."

"Ah, young and stupid, I see," you commented, making most of the boys snicker.

"It started with a visit to my obaa-san, Aiko Uchiha. She's an eccentric old lady and a kleptomaniac."

"What did she collect?" you raised an eyebrow.

"Dolls."

Naruto seemed to tense at the word, making the story-teller smirk. "Oh, is the dobe scared?"

"No! I'm just...aware that dolls are wooden figures that can be possessed b-by--"

"Alright, enough," you raised a hand in the gesture of saying 'stop', "we'll torture Naru-fish later. Do continue with your story, chibi."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but complied to your command.

"Anyways, while we were at her house, Itachi and I explored it. It was isolated and was situated away from the Uchiha estate. We were curious, and we soon came upon a 'locked' door," none of you knew that he had air-quotated 'locked', "none of her other doors were locked, so we were quite surprised, and attempted to open the door."

"I repeat: young and stupid."

More snickering. A scoff.

"We, shockingly, were able to open it."

"...huh?"

"We were supposed to push it. We formerly pulled it."

"You said it was--"

"Note the air-quotations."

You all (besides Sai, Ino, and Sakura) deadpanned at Sasuke, who merely shrugged and continued with his story.

"Inside, was a collection of dolls. She had a load of them, they piled the shelves and littered the ground, and there was a foreboding aura that escaped the room. Yet, we walked deeper inside, anyways."

"There should be a disorder for this. Young And Stupid Disorder. YAS. Doesn't sound too bad."

Snicker.

"I can't remember this too well," the chibi continued, ignoring you, "but I swear I saw the dolls' eyes following me and my brother as we walked inside. They didn't move - it was just their eyes. The room seemed never-ending, it was more like a hallway than a room.

"When we finally reached the end, we found one petite doll capsuled in a large glass jar, the only one with its eyes closed. It was placed in what seemed like a shrine, now that I think about it, but I probably didn't know, back then.

"I reached out and took the glass jar, and Itachi was about to pop the cork off before our obaa-san came. She immediately snatched the jar out of my hands and placed it back in the shrine, and when she turned around, she was glaring at us; as if attempting to bore a hole in our heads.

"She shooed us out of the room, and we realised that the room actually seemed smaller than it did, before. She scolded us when we were out, but she was talking too fast for us to apprehend what she was saying. But, I was able to understand a small phrase, 'stay away from the sealed kirā-ningyō [3]'.

"We were both sceptical, and whilst we were walking home, we discussed on going back to investigate the doll, again."

"You had a very serious case of YAS as a kid, didn't you, Sasuke?" Kiba snickered, and you laughed as said ravenette did nothing except roll his eyes.

"When it was around midnight or so, we met up again, and we decided to put our plan into action. Itachi remembered the way to our obaa-san's house, and I remembered the way to the room. When we arrived at her house, we weren't surprised to find her up and awake, sitting in the kitchen whilst sipping on tea, examining one of her dolls.

"We easily made it into her house, she had left her doors unlocked, as usual. We also made it to the room easily, since we had no need to tiptoe or anything. She would've been too obsessed with her doll to notice.

"We pushed the door open, and this time, all the dolls' eyes darted towards us. Their eyes really did move, this time - it was more noticeable in the dark, and the aura emitted from the room was ghoulish, as if something alive was in there. At first, we hesitated on going inside, but we suddenly heard footsteps, and we stepped inside in a panic. We closed the door and muffled our breaths, thinking it was our obaa-san.

"But the footsteps didn't even stop, they continued to resound throughout the hall before disappearing into silence. We were relieved, but when we realised we were in the room, we were actually quite frightened."

"Really?"

"Well no, Itachi didn't seem frightened."

"Like the great big brother he is," you grinned.

"Anyways, we walked deeper into the eerie room, making sure to stick close together. The dolls' eyes glowed brightly in the dark, and they were definitely moving. I swear I could hear soft clacks as we walked in the room, as if the dolls were moving their limbs before going back to their original state. When we reached the end, we saw the doll in the jar again, its eyes still closed.

"We were able to reach out and uncork the lid with no-one stopping us, but it was quite arduous to actually get the lid off. When we finally got it off, we heard a faint wail, and the doll's eyes snapped open with a click. It jumped out of the jar, and it clattered off in a sprint. We could hear its soft footsteps fading into nothing as the door to the room was swung open, but not by our aunt.

"The dolls on the shelves and the ground now seemed like they were glaring at us, and their mouths clacked open with a soft hiss. 'You imbeciles', 'fools', 'she's going to kill you', phrases like those escaped their mouths in soft, raucous voices, and we ran for it."

You blinked when you heard Naruto gulp, the others leaned forwards in their seats, no doubt in anticipation.

"The next day, the local police had found my aunt, dead on her bedroom floor, her blood making a miraculously large pool beneath her. She had slashes on her legs, and they were frantic, as if the perpetrator couldn't reach up to her stomach. The police never found the killer, and the case soon became cold.

"But my brother and I knew who killed her - it must've been the doll we released. Every night in bed, I was always thinking, 'this is it', waiting for the doll to creak my door open to take my life. But, she never came, and it was relieving to know that I was able to live this long."

Sasuke then leaned back, obviously finished with his story. There was a silence, the chibi's words being absorbed in everyone's head, and the tension in the air was so thick, you probably needed a butcher's cleaver to cut through it. You stared into the fire, sighing after a minute or so.

"Anyone else got a story?"

The silence continued after your question, and you checked your watch. It was now ten-thirty, and you couldn't find out as to how two stories could drag out for one and a half hours. Shrugging, you leaned forwards, forearms leaning on your knees and back hunched as you stared deeper into the crackling embers of the fire.

"I guess I'll give it a go."

[ ◊ ]

There was a pregnant pause, your face indifferent as you continued to stare into the flames, as if you hadn't noticed that it suddenly went silent. It was after ten seconds before you opened your mouth, words slipping off your tongue.

You would tell the most spine-chilling story of the night - you'd make sure of that!

"Have you ever had bug bites?"

"H-huh?!"

You remained unwavering in your façade as nearly everyone (except Sai) fell on their backs, legs sticking up in the air.

"All that suspense for a stupid question like that-ttebayo?!"

"[Name], could you do this seriously?!"

Your eyes shifted to Naruto, who immediately stopped in his ranting, face pale as your eyes bore into his own, making him gulp. Kiba eyed the blond strangely, leaning back when your eyes darted towards him. You stared at him for two seconds before you averted your gaze back to the campfire, shoulders shaking as you malevolently chuckled.

"Answer my question," you snapped, voice low and unearthly, making the people around you sweatdrop (besides Sai). "Have you ever had bug bites?"

There was a twenty second pause, in which only the hooting of a nearby owl and the chirping of crickets reverberated in the still air.

"Y-yeah," Naruto stuttered, "of course! S-so what?! Everyone has 'em-ttebayo!"

You were obviously doing a very good job at being creepy.

"There was once a secluded village called Sotoba [4]. It was closed off from the world with numerous mountainous plateaus, an extremely rural village that nobody knew of until two years ago."

"Two years ago?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

Leaning up, you nodded solemnly.

"Two years ago, a large, black cloud could be seen drifting up in the air slowly, the eerie cloud eventually swallowing up the sky. When it covered a city, that was the beginning of the finding of Sotoba. Most people had theories that it was a volcano that had recently erupted, but experts knew better than this.

"A gargantuan fire was reported to local authorities, sweeping up forests and closing in on the city. They immediately made haste to douse it out, and succeeded after four [5] hours. The ashes continued to emit black clouds of smoke though, and the authorities followed the trail of burnt ash, stumbling upon the town of Sotoba.

"What met them was a shock. There was nothing left of the village - everything was eaten away by the fire that had been raging five hours ago. There were many dead bodies found scattered around the village, crushed by charred wood and molten bricks.

"But it was later found by anthropologists that the cause of death wasn't the fire; they died long before the fire. They were dead for approximately four months, give or take. Some were found dead for countless years, which was impossible. The mysterious village was then left alone when they couldn't find any more answers, lush foliage soon taking over the ashes of the fallen village."

"And this has what purpose in your story?" Shino asked, and you coughed into your fist, the bug-lover earning envied glares from Kiba and Naruto [6]. 

"Well, it plays an integral part in my story, Shino. Because I know how the mysterious dead died."

"Wh-what?"

You smirked. "Back to the subject of bug bites. All the dead beings had two, minuscule holes pierced above where their veins should be, parallel to each-other."

"Annnd?"

Inhaling, you smiled. "I'll tell you something. They weren't bug bites."

"Huh?"

"Months before the destruction of Sotoba, on Friday the twelfth of August, an epidemic broke out in the village. The disease first started out with the victim looking anaemic, a disease concerning the lack of either red blood cells or haemoglobin in the blood. The victim then died a few days later, the cause being a failure in the functioning of an important organ.

"At first, it was considered as a one-time death, and it was never thought to have been a disease, before more and more villagers continued to die, and the burials needed for the bodies flooded the temple beside Sotoba.

"All the victims of the disease had what seemed like bug bites on them, and it wasn't long before a trio of kids grew suspicious of the village. I don't know the tiny details, but I do know that they found out a disturbing fact whilst digging up a grave."

"Why would they--"

"I don't know. There weren't a lot of details in the journal."

"Journal?"

"Wait, you mean this story's true?!" Naruto's cerulean eyes bulged out of his head, wide with fear.

Ignoring them, you continued with your 'creepy-[Name]' act.

"But, by doing so, they indeed found a disturbing fact."

Your classmates leaned forwards in their seats, hanging on every word that dropped out of your mouth. You smirked, head lifting to reveal your uncanny eyes.

"The grave was empty."

"Wh...at...?"

"In other words," you closed your eyes, "the dead came back to life."

[ ◊ ]

"The resurrected were called 'Shiki' [7], and their main diet consisted of blood. Human blood. When the doctor of the village found out about this, he finally understood the causes of the deaths in the village. Shiki were sucking out blood from the remaining villagers, and their dead bodies would resurrect into Shiki or Jinrou - it was a like a life circle. The number of villagers still alive dwindled. It was only after four months that the doctor found a way to kill the Shiki - which was to hammer / drill a wooden stake in their hearts.

"The war between humans and Shiki began, and eventually, the Shiki's population decreased drastically. Deciding to finally destroy the remaining Shiki, the live villagers set their precious village on fire, and that was the last time the Shiki were ever seen.

"But of course, there are still some cases out there in the world where an ordinarily healthy person fell ill with anaemia, and died a few days afterwards.

"Others call them 'vampires'. But it doesn't matter what they're called, the symptoms are the same. Two parallel 'bug bites', a case of anaemia, and eventually, death."

There was a pregnant silence, in which you continued to stare eerily at everyone with deathlike eyes. Naruto gulped beside you, shifting a centimetre away from you.

It was only two minutes before a smile graced your lips, and you broke into a fit of laughter. Your classmates immediately groaned, rolling their eyes before they fixated their playful glares at you.

"[Name]-chaan!" Naruto whined. "You scared me!"

"Was that really a true story, [Name]?"

"Y-y-you sc-scared m-m-me, [N-N-Name]-chan!"

"That's the point!" you managed to blurt out between your laughs. "I scared the shit out of you!"

"Not funny!" Ino and Sakura chorused, embarrassed blushes on their faces.

Your laughs died down into chortles, before you fully stopped, sighing in content at the success of your plan.

"Mā! It's time for some sleeping! It's like, ten-forty-five, now," you smiled, your hands coming together with a 'clap!'.

"Haah, I bet we can stay up 'till one," Naruto mumbled, and you playfully punched his shoulder.

"Just 'cause we're teenagers, doesn't mean we don't need our beauty sleep. Come on, we'll continue our story-telling tomorrow!" you stood up, hands gesturing for everyone else to also stand up.

Some of them were able to stand up without a sound, but the others immediately complained.

"Ehh, but it's so early, [Name]!"

"There's nothing wrong with sleeping, Kiba. In fact, you'd get an extra hour of sleep. So, to bed, everyone!"

"Yes, okaa-san," Naruto dully replied, and light laughs came from everyone, including you.

"Go, before I ground you all," you pointed to the already set-up tents surrounding the campfire, circling behind the ring of logs.

Your classmates continued to jokingly complain, but complied to your commands, anyways. You sighed as everyone crawled into their allocated tents, most of them shared between either two or three.

"[N-N-Name]-ch-chan," Hinata called softly from inside a tent, "a-are you c-coming?"

You smiled, lips curling back to reveal the bare, shining fangs in your set of teeth.

"Co~ming!"

It was quite funny that nobody bothered to ask you where you had gotten the journal from.

~ Owari.

------------------------------------------

[1] = It is said that the serial killer is a mysterious hooded man whose face was never revealed. No, they're not the same - the serial killer's probably dead, by now. It's either a descendant, or just a copycat who told Naruto the story.

[2] = If you can't quite get this, the reader will roleplay as the first victim, and that's all the roleplaying in the story that I'll type. Too much roleplaying'll get me off-track.

[3] = Translation: Killer-doll.

[4] = A reference to the manga 'Shiki: Corpse Demon'. It's a pretty good manga I came upon.

[5] = A note, the number 'four' usually is a symbol of death.

[6] = Well, if you don't get why they're glaring at Shino with envy, it's because when they interrupted you, you snapped and glared the shit out of them. When Shino interrupted, you merely coughed into your fist.

[7] = Translation: Corpse Demon.