Hello all. First thing's first. I'm planning on seeing this story through to the end; I have a really good idea for the perfect horror story, but I'll need your help. I thrive on reviews, as we all know. So please, read, and leave a review so that I know how it's going. This first chapter is just the prologue to all of the good stuff that's going to happen, but I wanted to give the readers insight as to what brought the ninja to such a position.

NOW. This story includes Supernatural Themes, Murder, Suicide, Gore, Vore, Molestation, Violence, Strong and Suggestive Language, and LOTS of blood. LATER CHAPTERS ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. This prologue contains none of the warned above, however future chapters will. Read at your own risk. I own nothing but the plot and story line.

Pain. Pain was his world, now. It spoke for him in the screams torn from his worn throat. It listened for him so he didn't have to strain to hear the cruel world outside his torment. It breathed for him, so he wouldn't have to take in anything but the coppery scent flooding his nostrils and mouth. But most of all, it lived for him; for as long as he was in pain, surely he could not be dead. The pain was his friend when all else had abandoned him to his fate; it lived and breathed and spoke, all for him. The pain was selfless, never asking anything more than company in return for such a boon. He had conquered the pain, and in return, it had allowed him existence and forgiveness. Or perhaps, it gave him forgetfulness, instead. He no longer knew who he was, and he no longer cared. His past, his future, his present; nothing mattered. Simply that he was.

And he was.

*~*~*~* A Few Days Earlier *~*~*~*

Naruto's jaw became slightly slack at the sight before him. A large castle like tower loomed before him and his friends, the large moon cast behind it and painted an odd, sickly color red. It was eerie to say the least, but not a single person trembled in awe or fear before it. Later that day, Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Shikamaru, and Kiba had been assigned a D rank mission; figure out who had broken and entered into the abandoned mansion. It was a simple enough, up front mission. The Lord Hokage had picked personally the five ninja for the job; five, just in case something went wrong in apprehending whomever it was.

Shikamaru, funnily enough, was the only one to protest the job, complaining of how it would cut into his sleep for the night.

And so it was that the five ninja set off toward the abandoned mansion at the very outskirts of the Hidden Leaf Village. By the time they arrived, night had already fallen, painting the sky a peaceful black, though not a one of them could pinpoint a single star in the open, cloudless sky. Perhaps the intense glow of the full moon blotted them out as it cast an odd glow over the vast expanse of the completely brick, slightly destroyed mansion. Here and there, bricks lay in abandon on the poorly cared for garden, overgrown and decaying all the same. Windows were cracked and in some areas, completely broken out, with shards of such unwanted glass strewn across the perimeter of the mansion, directly underneath the destroyed windows. Thorn bushes and vines all but swept away the path to the ornate double doors leading in, though Sasuke made short work of the shriveled excuse for shrubbery with a Fire Ball Jutsu.

As the fire burned back the long, thorn filled vines, it lit up what the moon could not; graffiti painted lewdly on the broken bricks both fallen and still holding their place on the mansion walls. Strange spots of darkened color splashed across the door and the concrete steps leading up to it, and pale bones scattered haphazardly across the umber colored lawn. When there was nothing left for the fire to consume, it extinguished itself for lack of incentive to continue on, leaving five pairs of eyes staring at the now ominous outlay.

Sasuke was the first to notice the curtain move on the fourth story's left turret, and pointed it out soundlessly to the others. Strangely enough, it seemed that realizing the reason why they were here was staring them in the face motivated them to move past the destruction that lay surrounded at their feet, venturing blindly into the unknown to complete what should have been a simple mission. As they entered the mansion, none of the group noticed the curtain being gently replaced to its previous point, nor the sinister fog that began to drift in from the west, slowly coating the entire estate grounds. Nor did they notice the way the heavy iron door they had left moderately open slowly, silently, began to swing shut on its own.

No, the only things that alerted them that something more complicated might perhaps be afoot, was when darkness suddenly overtook them, casting what had been lit by the outside into pure blackness, and the sudden, drained feeling that stabbed at the heart of them all. Then just as suddenly as things had seemed to go wrong, every light in the mansion seemed to flicker on, illuminating the five ninja in their surprise.

"What the hell just happened?" came Naruto's astonished cry.

"I… couldn't say." Neji responded, his eyes glancing around the room in a slow, methodical manner. "I've never experienced something quite like that before."

Neji's search left him with nothing but perhaps more questions, however. On the outside, the mansion looked every bit its old age; crippled, decaying, listless. But on the inside, the floors sparkled as though they had been waxed just that morning. All of the lights were in perfect working order, the walls were spotless and frighteningly enough, the window that he had noticed from the outside to be completely broken out was as perfect as if installed just the day before. Obviously, Neji was not the only one to notice this detail, it seemed. Sasuke shifted over to the window, gently placing his hand on the glass as if it were an illusion and would slip right on through into the night air. But his flesh met the cool glass and stopped, unable to go any further.

Around the same time, Shikamaru was studying the door with a look of apprehension. How could something so large and heavy, that took them nearly five minutes to get open, shut so soundlessly? And on its own, no less.

"I've got a bad feeling about this place…" Shikamaru voiced, still eyeing the door suspiciously.

Kiba found himself about to agree with Shikamaru when a whimper from atop his head caught his attention. His hand reflexively went up to gently pet Akamaru's head in a comforting gesture, but it didn't seem to help. Kiba pulled down his hood and helped Akamaru down from his perch, only to find the poor dog trying to bury its way back into Kiba's jacket. His eyes widened slightly at Akamaru's odd behavior, but the pup didn't seem to bother saying why he was acting this way. So instead, Kiba gently helped his dog into the top half of his jacket where the zipper stopped, almost to his neck, Akamaru's head hanging out the top.

"Yeah, I think you're right, Shikamaru. Maybe we should just get out of here, go tell Lady Hokage or something, let someone else do this." Kiba spoke, as he moved with a long stride toward the double doors, his hands outstretched to grab the large, brass rings that served as handles.

Naruto scoffed at Kiba's actions, turning up his nose slightly even as a smirk crawled across his lips. He was probably the one out of the five who was the most afraid of the situation they were in, but of course, he would never let them see it. As his hands linked behind his head, he laughed out his remark even as Kiba pulled on the door's handle.

"What's the matter, mutt? Running away already? A haunted house gonna scare you back to mommy?"

"Oh, shut it, Naruto!" Kiba retorted, casting a glare over his shoulder as he tugged on the door.

Nothing happened. Kiba heard Naruto laugh and say something else, but exactly what he said went right over the top of Kiba's head. He paused, looking at the door, before redoubling his efforts, putting his entire weight and strength into pulling the iron door open. Still, nothing.

"Um… guys…?" Kiba was slightly horrified to find that his voice was shaking slightly, and that no one was listening to him.

Instead, it seemed they had gotten into a debate with Naruto, arguing over his comments and such. Kiba, who's heart had begun to beat faster, turned back to the door. Feeling frantic, he gripped the brass ring with both of his hands and placed his left foot on the door that he wasn't trying to open, using the added force to try and help. When that didn't work, he lifted himself completely off the ground, both feet on the other door as he yanked for all he was worth. The iron door never budged an inch.

The sound of Kiba's strain finally caught the attention of the quarreling group behind him, and despite Naruto's sarcastic comment about Kiba being weak, it wasn't long until everyone shared in Kiba's horror. Even when all five of the capable ninja combined their efforts to open the door, they found it was stuck by some invisible force that couldn't be thwarted by just pulling on it. Naruto was the one who first suggested just destroying the door, and it was a shaken up Kiba who challenged Naruto to be the one to do it.

With a 'Hmph', Naruto waved the rest of them to step back, and began to focus his chakra. His plan was simple; a Clone Jutsu and a head on assault. Strangely enough, after three times, Naruto couldn't even get the Jutsu to come close to working. After minutes of just standing there, Kiba taunted, though the fear was obviously evident in his voice,

"Now who's scared, huh…?"

But Naruto didn't rise to the challenge. Instead, he challenged everyone else to try and perform a Jutsu to break down the door; it didn't take them long to realize that for some reason, nothing worked. No matter what anyone did, Jutsu simply could not be performed. This realization was the first to collectively frighten the entire group, and in a scared daze, Kiba dashed to the window Sasuke had previously tested, slamming his fist against it with such force that the glass should have shattered in an instant. Instead, what happened shocked everyone into stillness.

With an ominous purple light, Kiba's fist was thrust back, as was Kiba himself; he landed on the polished floor and skidded back a few feet, a surprised, panicked gasp falling from his lips. The window remained whole and unbroken, without so much as a fingerprint. It was only then that the five ninja began to realize exactly what danger they had become trapped in. But there was absolutely no way that any of them could ever imagine just what was to happen to them in that supposedly abandoned mansion.

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