For years he had evaded the call that was Halloween.
He was terrified of nearly everything, and he wasn't allowed to have sweets anyway, so trick or treating didn't appeal to him, even when he was young.
Now that he was in school, and had 'friends,' his plans to sit home watching kids' movies were totally interrupted.
After school, a few days before Halloween, three students stood in the hallway. As he walked past he was grabbed by the hyper one of the bunch.
"Yukio! My man!" Katai grinned. For a Nara, he was totally the opposite of what people expected. "We've got this amazing plan!"
"Huh?" Yukio looked at the two girls he was with and his face turned fearful. "Is...is this about the holiday?"
"You know it, Uchiha," Hiro said. She was leaning against Shira, her arm over her companion's shoulders. "It's high time you left your house and acted like a real kid."
"I am a 'real kid!'" He narrowed his eyes. "Just because I don't celebrate Halloween doesn't mean-"
"No, that's exactly what it means," Shira broke in. "Toddlers can handle Halloween, yet you, who are training to be a ninja, can't even step foot out of your house until the second greatest day on Earth is over."
"I don't see the point in trick or treating if my parents are just going to take my candy."
"Well, there's more to Halloween than just trick or treating." Hiro smirked. "Like this haunted house I heard about...It's supposed to be so scary that grown men wet their pants and crawl into the fetal position crying for their mommies!"
Yukio's face was now full of dread. "I think I'll pass...Thanks… I doubt any of your parents are okay with you going to a place like that anyway, so why continue this conversation? I gotta get home." He broke away from Katai and ran down the hall towards the exit.
"He is right..." Katai looked to his female friends. "I mean...I could probably talk my parents into letting me go… Or like...Just saying I'm 'trick or treating' and sneak off… But you guys..."
Hiro scoffed. "Yasu's on a mission, Daisuke has no business butting into my life, and my parents don't care what I do. I'm going to this haunted house."
Shira nodded. "Like you said, I can just tell my parents I'm trick or treating… Naruto's off doing his own thing this year, and they said I get a chance to prove I can be trusted alone so..."
"Isn't this the opposite of proving you can be trusted?" Katai raised an eyebrow.
"There's also one problem with you guys just saying you're 'trick or treating...'" Hiro scuffed her foot against the ground. "The haunted house is about a day away… So, we'll have to leave tomorrow, get there, buy tickets and actually go through the thing…"
"How are we supposed to break away from the village?" Katai asked. "I mean… People will notice we're gone..."
"Well, like I said, I'm safe cuz no one cares where I am besides Yasumori-"
"Daisuke cares-"
"But I don't care about him," Hiro thought for a moment. "Shira...You sneak off to train sometimes right? Just say you're training and meet me in the forest. Katai, same. You're brother's on a mission too, right? So only your parents are there, and I'm sure they'll love to see you working instead of...whatever it is you do in your free time."
Katai shook his head, but didn't say anything. "That might not work, but I'll think of something… What about Yukio though?"
Hiro looked to Shira, her devious look being read by her best friend easy. The two girls nodded and gave Katai a matching smile.
"We'll talk him into it." Hiro said "I'm pretty persuasive when I want to be."
"You know… I'm not going to question what you're going to do, because then I'll be an accomplice." The young Nara waved as he walked off. "I guess we meet tomorrow then?"
"Village gate! 5PM! Don't be late!" Hiro shouted.
When Shira got home she ran to her brother's room, receiving an angry shout from her mother about etiquette, which she ignored. She busted into the room, receiving shouts from the two that shared the space.
"Do you not know how to knock?!" Kurama glared at her.
"Naruto!" Shira grinned innocently. "I need a favor!"
"Yes…?" Naruto looked at her warily.
"Okay...So...Hiro heard about this really awesome haunted house a ways away… And I need you to say you're training me tomorrow...Then like make a clone, transform it into me, bring it home and say it's me so mom and dad don't notice I'm gone."
"And why can't you just tell them the truth?" the fox's tails were lashing, annoyed with the younger being's behavior.
Shira groaned loudly. "Because! It's a day journey! And I'm an academy student...They're not just gonna say 'Oh, yeah, honey! Take a long journey with your friends to a random village to a haunted house! We don't care!'"
"So you know this is a bad idea?" he retorted with a smirk.
"Shut up you stupid fox!" She turned back to her brother. "Please, Naruto? Please?" She put on her best puppy dog face.
Naruto looked at her before sighing. "Yeah...Okay… If I get in trouble though..."
"I'll take whatever you have to give!" she hugged him, a rare occurrence, then ran out of the room.
Katai walked in to see his brother talking to his father.
"Oh, hey, Katai!" Keisuke waved. "I was just about to leave, glad you're here though. I was wondering-"
"You gonna be gone past Halloween?" Katai interrupted.
"Actually...Should be back before trick or treating day of. Why?"
"Oh...well...I made plans with my friends since I thought you'd be gone but-"
"No, no! It's fine!" Keisuke grinned. "Have fun with your friends…. What are your plans?"
"Oh...Uh...We were gonna go around to different haunted houses and stuff..." the younger brother looked away, technically that wasn't a complete lie.
Yoshida looked down at his youngest son suspiciously. "Really?"
"Yeah!" Katai chuckled nervously. "I mean… Just trick or treating is boring…"
Yoshida kept looking at him, eventually shrugging. He had an inkling that the boy was doing something he wasn't supposed to, but of course he was all for that. He walked away motioning Keisuke to follow.
"Whatever you're really doing… Just be careful." Keisuke patted his brother's head before following their father.
Hiro did the opposite of her companions and went to Yukio's house. She knew Yukio never went straight home after school, so she trekked around to where she knew his brother's room was.
She threw rocks at the window until she heard the familiar thud of stone hitting skull.
"Why are you here?" Sasuke glared down at her. He knew about her from Itachi, who often did missions with her brother.
"I need a favor," before he could shut the window she continued. "It has to do with torturing your baby brother." She smiled when he looked at her with interest.
"What kind of torture?"
"Scaring the ever loving snot out of him."
"What would I have to do?"
"Just get him some place where we can get him, and cover for him for about 2 days."
"Is this some kind of Halloween prank?"
"Uh...Not so much a prank as getting him to man up and just go through with Halloween activities."
"I'm in...When do you need him?"
"Bring him to the village gate at around 5PM tomorrow."
"Yeah, fine." He started to shut the window, then remembered something. "One thing though...No candy for him...I don't know where you're taking him, but we don't need any sort of incident between villages..."
Hiro nodded and grinned. "I love it when a plan comes together..." She shoved her hands in her pockets and walked back to her house.
The next day, Hiro and Katai were waiting by the village gate.
Katai looked to his companion and frowned. "They're late..."
"They have families that care..." Hiro shrugged and checked her watch. "A few minutes aren't going to make much of a difference."
"What if they got caught?" He asked nervously. "What if someone comes after us?"
"Shut up, Nara!" She punched his arm. "Look, here they come."
"Naruto and Sasuke are with them… This isn't good..."
Hiro ignored him and waved to the pairs of siblings. "'Sup, guys? We good to go?"
"Yep," Shira nodded. "Bro's got me covered."
"Yukio's ready too," Sasuke shoved his younger brother towards the students.
"I...I thought we were training, Sasuke?" Yukio screamed as Hiro grabbed his arm. "What the heck?!"
"Your friends want you to hang out with them this Halloween," Sasuke crossed his arms. "And it's high time you man up and stop hiding from every little thing."
"You can't do this! Mom and Dad are gonna know I'm gone!"
"Dad said it's fine," Sasuke shrugged and turned to go back to the village. "He thinks this will be good for you."
"THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!"
"It's only child abuse if someone cares," Hiro started dragging him off, with the rest of their group following.
Naruto looked back at Sasuke. "You actually tricked him by acting like you wanted to spend time with him?"
"Yeah? So?" Sasuke started back towards his house.
"That's cold, man.." Naruto looked back towards the disappearing children. He grinned deviously. "You wanna have some fun with this?"
Sasuke formed his own devious smile and turned to his teammate once more. "Sure… Why not?"
Naruto ran back into the village to grab some supplies. Sasuke followed his lead, though with a different motive.
Once the group arrived at the village Hiro heard the house was at thy stopped in awe.
"For a small village, they really do it up for Halloween..." Shira looked around.
Yukio, who was still trapped by the arm by Hiro, pulled his hood over his eyes. "Good...we saw the village… Can we go now?"
"No way!" Katai grinned. "This place is great!" He pointed to a group of children in costume roaming the streets. "Looks like trick or treating started here already! Should we get in on this?"
Hiro shrugged. "I guess we should… I mean, we'll be gone just past trick or treating back home… So, we should probably have some candy to prove we were 'good.'"
"We-we don't have costumes though," Yukio perked up. "We can't get candy! So..let's go back home! You guys can still make trick or treating there is we don't waste time on that dumb haunted house."
"Don't worry, we'll confiscate your candy," Hiro started pulling him down the street.
"We. Don't. Have. Costumes!" He reiterated. "They're not going to let us have candy without dressing up!"
"Oh! You kids don't have costumes?" A young man called from across the street. "I can give you a good deal!"
"That sounds perfect," Hiro smiled and led the group to the shop, ignoring Yukio's loud pleas to go home. "Whatcha got?"
"Just about everything!" the shop keep smiled. He led them inside, revealing just about any costume that came to the children's minds.
Katai pointed eagerly to a werewolf mask. "Shira! That's perfect for you!"
Said girl narrowed her eyes. "And why is that?"
"Well, I read in your hospital file-" He got quiet when she let out a low growl. "Well, anyway, you like dogs right? This is like a dog, but better! You can even get some of those tattered clothes to go along with it!"
"This is one of those things you're gonna complain about if I don't do, isn't it?" she sighed and went to get the mask.
Katai grinned and started looking for a costume for himself.
Yukio was being dragged through the shop by Hiro, who picked up some make up and temporary hair dye. "Got a look in mind for you, Uchiha." She let him go and gave him a warning glare before motioned to the clothes section. "Pick out whatever you want."
Yukio frowned before doing as he was told.
Hiro watched him for a moment before looking for a costume for herself. She pointed to a pinstripe suit. "Hey, shop dude, how much can I get this for?"
"Hmm? Oh...well I suppose pretty cheap...50 Ryo sound fair?"
"Got yourself a deal." She pulled it down and grabbed some skeleton face paint.
"You gonna be that dude from that movie?" Katai ran over to the counter with a magician's costume and a pile of fake innards.
"Jack's a beast man," she nodded. "So, we got a werewolf, you're apparently going to be a horrible magician-"
"I tried to cut myself in half and-" he held out the guts. "this happened."
"Right…" Hiro shook her head. "Shira's a werepup, and Yuki's gonna be a zombie."
"You guys are going to look great!" the man behind the counter smiled. He took their money, then let them change in the back.
After they were back on the streets, they started going house to house, unaware they were being watched.
"Naruto… This is a really bad idea..."
"Shikamaru… If I knew you were going to be a downer the whole time, I wouldn't've brought you." Naruto turned to the other two he brought. "Now, since they're busy getting candy, we're gonna book it to the haunted house and tell them to let us run it for a bit. With my clones and you guys' jutsu, this is gonna make it the best Halloween these kids ever had!"
Kiba patted Akamaru's head as he barked and grinned. "Who would've thought being 'too old' to trick or treat would lead to this, huh boy?"
Sasuke sighed. "Could you guys scream a little louder? I don't think the entire village heard you."
Shikamaru glared at his sarcastic classmate, then groaned. "You do know this whole thing is a bad idea..." He gestured towards the houses. "We're about to-"
"Oh shut up!" Naruto took off towards where he had gotten directions to. "You're being a drag!"
Shikamaru sighed, and eventually followed Sasuke and Kiba as they went after Naruto. This has a zero chance of success…