Crap title. Too tired to think of anything clever-er. This was a much better idea in my head than what managed to come out on paper. I blame it on extended lack of sleep.
Written for Deviantart's Kakairu Group's Halloween Contest.
OOOOOOOOO
At the edges of the village, wedged up between the great trees of the eighth training ground and the pillars of the outer wall, stands a squat, decaying building. A mere two stories tall, the old sanitarium has seen better days. Two of the four outside doors are warped so badly that they are unopenable. The third is buried behind the overgrown hedges that snarl their way up the pitted walls of the building. The building is long and skinny, with a wide hallway running along the front of the building. In the past, the massive row of windows on the south face allowed sunlight to stream in, lending a warm and almost hopeful atmosphere to an otherwise dismal place. At present, the windows are completely shattered, though no glass pieces have fallen out.
After all, the original design was supposed to keep people in.
Throughout the majority of year, the building remains empty, dark and chained shut, but while the locks might keep people out, they do nothing to keep the sounds in.
Footsteps. Shuddering gasps. And even whispers in the deepest corners.
OOOOOOOOOO
Kakashi scratched idly at the base of a pointed ear rising between silver spikes of hair as he watched the last of the stragglers file out while babbling away at their parents. A little girl in an exquisite heavily embroidered silk kimono and an elaborate headdress held tight to Iruka's belt and eyed her parents warily. The contrast between herself and the teacher was darkly humorous. In fact, he could see a smudge of dirt on the hem of her wine-colored sleeve. As her mother bent down and reached for her, she shrank against Iruka's leg.
He couldn't understand the thought process. True, her parents' skin was an unhealthy shade of green, their ears extended into wide, ridge fins, and their fingers webbed together below the second knuckle – all of which led him to believe that they were supposed to be some sort of swamp monster – but Iruka looked like he'd just clawed his way out of a buried coffin.
His clothes were torn, frayed and packed with graveyard earth. Meticulously painted bruises and scrapes covered his forearms and knuckles as well as the small sections of skin peeking through the holes in his clothes. The scar that slashed across his face was filled with a scab-red color and crosshatched with fine thread glued on to his skin.
It looked rather like the lower half of his face was in perpetual danger of falling off.
And yet the little girl in her elegant outfit clung tight to him as her parents gave up and grabbed her.
She let out an ear-piercing scream, threw her arms around Iruka's waist and buried her head in his hip. Iruka carefully unwound her, knelt and spoke quietly to her. Her mother quickly wiped the make-up off her face.
Without the forest green skin, the girl seemed less reluctant to accept the costumed individuals as her parents, and Iruka waved to her as she skipped out the door.
The chuunin sensei was in his element. Kakashi was not.
The Sandaime had assigned this D-rank mission to himself and his squad just this morning. The Shinobi Haunted House had become a big hit over the last couple of years. Held in an abandoned sanitarium on Halloween, the event provided a safe and spooky locale for children to celebrate the holiday. Trick-or-treating had recently become a less-than-common activity mostly because of the high concentrations of drunk shinobi celebrating in the streets.
Kakashi would not be among the celebrating masses – which was likely why his team had been 'volun-told' for this assignment - but the Sandaime also knew full well that Kakashi did not work well with children.
He'd already contemplated abandoning his team.
More than once.
When he'd received the assignment, Kakashi had informed him that he would rather be a guinea pig for Ibiki's new and improved torture techniques. Hell, he'd even supply the implements.
The Sandaime was not amused. He'd informed Kakashi that if he failed to complete the mission or if he dared to show up without a costume, he would be volunteered for both.
In a village of shinobi, using a henge for a Halloween costume was typically considered cheating, but luckily the expression on Kakashi's face, though hidden by his ANBU mask, managed to convince anyone that calling him a lazy bastard would be bad for their health. Unable and unwilling to think of anything at the last minute, Kakashi'd pulled his old ANBU uniform out of the closet. The white armor combined with his shaggy hair, dog-faced mask and a quick illusion of furred ears and a plumed tail served as a good enough approximation of a canine costume.
Though he had to admit that spending half the night in the old loony bin had been almost entertaining. Like most old buildings, the structure offered up a complex vocalization in the slightest bit of wind, giving the impression of several voices murmuring back and forth to each other. They'd flipped off the long runs of fluorescent lights that lined the hallway and turned on a string of single bulb lights placed at each hallway intersection. The kids were regaled with true stories from the building's past to the soundtrack of the creaking floors and clanging pipes. The building had historically housed criminally insane shinobi – hence the unbreakable windows and double layered doors and walls. No one was supposed to be able to escape.
"Iruka-sensei?" Sakura paused from mopping up one of the food tables. "They're all just stories, right? I mean, what was this place really?"
Iruka threw a trash bag over his shoulder. "It's exactly what I said it was, Sakura-chan. I may have embellished a little, but the numbers are accurate. At its hey-day, this building housed sixty-seven patients, ten doctors and fifteen nurses. The staff and their families actually lived on the second floor at the far end."
"They lived here?" Sakura clearly believed that her leg was being pulled.
"Of course they did." Kakashi stated with no inflection to his voice. He'd swung the ANBU mask around so it rested on the side of his head, but his expression remained bored. "Anyone who came in here never left."
All three kids stared at him.
"But some of the staff must have retired. They must have left when this place closed down!" Sakura protested.
"Maa, I'm sure they would have, if they had the chance." Naruto and Sakura had gathered close to him and were hanging on his every word. Sasuke, as usual, was ignoring the commotion. "There was a riot just before this place was closed. The patients escaped from their cells in the night and attacked the staff. Out-numbered almost three to one," He shook his head for emphasis. "They didn't stand a chance. The Hokage at the time mustered a jounin squad to subdue the incident. All of the patients were killed, and so were the jounin."
Wide-eyed gazes were fixed on him.
"Like I said, anyone who came in here never left."
The lights went out.
For a moment, no one spoke, as if unsure whether or not their voices would betray them. High clouds covered the moon and this far from the main streets, no ambient light leaked into the wide windows.
A faint orange flicker lit the far corner of the room, bathing Sasuke's hands and face as he coughed out a burst of flame. By the time he breathed out the second one, Iruka'd located a candle and moved close enough to him to light it. The chuunin lit several more candles, providing just enough illumination to make out each other and the general shadows of the furniture in the room.
Iruka held up a hand to forestall Naruto's impending explosion. "I'm sure the generator just ran out of gas. Just stay put, I'll go get…." He raised the candle higher and looked around the room. "Where's Sakura-chan?"
"Eh?" Naruto looked around quickly. "Sakura-chan? Sa-ku-ra!" His shout trailed off with no response. He screamed her name again and tore out of the room.
"Naruto! Get back here!" Iruka clapped his hand to his forehead. "Sasuke-kun, stay here. We'll go fix the generator."
The look on Sasuke's face spoke volumes. His intelligence was evidently high enough that he would not go running off on his own.
The door slammed ominously behind them.
"I'm sure Sakura-chan just went off to turn the lights back on." Iruka sounded more like he was reassuring himself. "She probably thought you were playing a trick, Kakashi-sensei."
"Maa, she's probably fine." Kakashi agreed. They swung around the corner and padded up to the second room. "It's not like this place is actually haunted."
"You are an evil man, by the way. I thought Sakura and Naruto were going to either scream or have a heart attack when the lights went out."
"That was quite an excellent coincidence."
Iruka snickered. "They'd probably explode if they new that the background story was true."
"Really? I thought you were making stuff up when you told me that." His gaze flashed with amusement as he eyed the other man.
"Who, me?"
"Yes, you. I've seen through your innocent act." He leaned close. "What say we give them another fright?"
"Leap out from behind a door?" Iruka suggested. "That's always a good, simple gag."
"I was thinking more along the lines of disappearing." Kakashi pushed Iruka into a closet and up against the back wall. "Far creepier."
"Ah, I see your point."
"How can you?" He murmured into the chuunin's ear before nibbling on it. "I blew the candle out."
A deep chuckle. "I certainly feel it."
"Oh, do you now?"
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's voice cut over Kakashi's. "What is this?"
"I'm telling you a typical ghost story." Behind the kids, Iruka was staring at him in disbelief.
"Typical?" Naruto shouted. "You're talking about molesting Iruka-sensei!"
"It's only molesting if it's unwanted." Kakashi muttered, before raising his voice to talk over Naruto's indignant spluttering. "But, yes, it's typical. There's always the innocent, yet not moronic person who disappears in the beginning. There's the idiot who goes running off on his own. There's the intelligent person who usually comes up with the single solution that would keep everyone alive if they'd only listen. And then there are the people who firmly believe that nothing's going on, go off on their own in the pretense of investigating, looking for a way out, etc, always wind up having sex and getting attacked halfway through, which I would have gotten to if you hadn't interrupted me."
"But…but…Why Iruka-sensei!"
"Maa, the rest of you are all far too young, and I didn't want to add another person." He shrugged.
Sakura shook her head at him before turning to Iruka, making a wise decision not to pursue that line of questioning any farther. "Do you need any more help, sensei?"
"I don't think so. Thanks, Sakura-chan."
She practically bolted from the room, followed closely by Naruto. Sasuke peered at the two teachers, as if trying to read between the lines and underneath the underneath, before vanishing into the hall after his teammates.
"Really, Kakashi?" Iruka looked sideways at him after pitching the garbage bag into the hall.
"Would you rather I picked one of them?"
"Of course not." Iruka planted an empty box on the table and started stacking the last of the assorted Halloween paraphernalia into it. "I just thought we agreed to keep…this…" His gesture included both men as well as a large portion of the room. "Between us until we're sure that Naruto can handle it."
Kakashi blinked slowly. "I didn't tell him anything. It was a just story, right? You're a literary device, Iruka."
"A literary device?" One eyebrow raised.
'
"Yes. To prove the point that if you ever get into an actual haunted situation, you shouldn't be stupid….And just where do you think you're going?"
Iruka shifted the cardboard box of decorations higher onto his hip, studying it thoughtfully. "I'm trying to figure out where to put this." He raised his eyes to the ceiling in over-exaggerated contemplation, and Kakashi saw the briefest flash of the mischevious soul behind those dark eyes. "I think that closet on the second floor has some room left in it."
A deep chuckle chased him out of the room closely followed by originator, tail swishing rhythmically with each step.
Halfway down the hall, as Kakashi sidled up to Iruka, the fluorescent lights overhead flickered.
The world plunged into inky blackness.
"That's not funny, Kakashi."
"I didn't do it!"
In the silence that followed, they could almost make out faint footsteps in the dark.