Halloween 2015

I don't own New World of Darkness or Naruto!

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Animals talking

Thoughts

"Talking"

"Computer Voice"

"Monster Talking"

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Date: July 9th, 2000

Location: Uzumaki Home, Pine's Falls

Jun finishes packing a duffel bag of cloths along with a pocket knife and some dry rations. Michi mentioned that they managed to borrow a large tent from Maru's family, so all she really needed as a sleeping bag along with some cloths. Why didn't he tell us his plans?

There's a sense of betrayal and anger at how thoughtless Shin had been. After all, he could be killed and none of them could have done a thing to help! She didn't know how to express her feelings properly!

Zipping up the zipper, Jun shoulders her duffel bag. She walks out of her room, taking the steps two at a time, she makes it to the door. Taking off the duffel bag from her shoulder, she puts on her windbreaker jacket and then her runners. Checking her pockets, she zips her keys into her inner pockets and picks up her duffel bag.

"Ok, I'm off. See you in a few days!" She calls out and opens the door, once out, closes the door, heading for the school.

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Location: Black Oak Park

Shin thrusts his poorly made fishing spear into the river and it hits. He pulls out a Northern Pike from the river as he lifts his spear up. The fish flips and flops on the wooden spear as he walks out of the river with his prize.

Lowering the spear down, he takes his bowie knife out and uses the butt of it, he slams it down on the pike's skull. With that done, he take the fish off his spear and puts his bowie knife back in its sheath. He digs out a particular knife from his bag, one he's used before for this particular task.

With no need to speed, Shin slowly and carefully, guts the fish and then begins the process of de-boning it. Although evening, the sun remains out, one of the benefits of living so far north. Once he's done, he spears small stick through the pike's flesh.

Two trips later back to his campsite, Shin is ready to light the campfire. He gazes at the pile of wood he collected this afternoon and spent a good bit of time cutting using his hatchet. He's also collected some dry moss and tiny sticks as kinder for starting his campfire.

Taking the box of wooden matches, he strikes it and a tiny flame sparks to life on the tip. Using his free hand, he shields the flame from the wind as he lowers it onto the kinder he collected. Soon enough, the flame grows and he carefully nurtures the flame.

Then, taking the stone it's resting on, he gently drops the flame onto a dry log. The wood within the shallow pit is mostly dry, but he's got some greener branches to use so he doesn't have to worry about using all his wood tonight. As the fire grows within the pit, he takes the fish and stakes it near the edge of the campfire to begin cooking.

Looking into the fire, Shin finds himself relaxing. After a bit, he gets up and takes an old fashion kettle from its resting place and heads for the river to fill it up. Once done, he sets the kettle on a metal rack that's kind of over the campfire.

He's got a sports container that he'll fill with the boiled water so he has drinking water. He sits back on the log once he adds two green branches to the fire. Shin glances at the fish and knows that the fish still needs time to cook before he'll need to turn it.

Shin turns his head south as he thought he heard something in that direction. Cocking his head slightly in that direction, he focuses on listening in that direction. After some minutes, he figures it was just his imagination.

Then, he hears Kin's voice, yelling, "Damn you to fucking hell, Shin! Where the flying fuck are you?!"

He blinks as he again turns in that direction, not sure if what he's hearing was actually was he was hearing. After all, he didn't see any reason why any of the group would want to go camping. Nor did he get why they'd come after him, it's not like anything is going to happen out here. There's very little reason for any worry on their part, he's been camping out here since he was nine.

Suddenly, Yoshi comes striding out of the tree line near the river. Then, upon seeing him, calls out in a loud voice, "Found him! He's got a fire going too!"

"I see the smoke!" Kura cries out and as Yoshi walks over, the other teen is glaring at him. Shin wasn't intimidated in the least, finding it hard to take seriously as he takes in Yoshi's looks.

"You didn't stuff your pant sleeves into your socks? Did you even bring bug spray? Or tweezers?" He asks, yes, his pants are rolled up and his socks are resting in his runners, but he hasn't entered into any high grass lately.

"What?" Yoshi asks dumbly and he sighs, "You know, ticks? They do occur in forests. It's why you stuff your pant sleeves into your socks, to keep them from crawling up your pants leg."

Shin notices a hint of emotion for a second but Yoshi manages to sit down calmly and very calmly rolls up his pants. Shin picks out one tick on the back of Yoshi's leg.

"I see one. Give me a sec." He says and walks over to his bag, opening up on of the smaller pockets, he pulls out a sandwich bag and opens it to retrieve slightly blacken tweezers. Stuffing the plastic sandwich bag into the pocket, he lets his knapsack go onto the ground.

As he picks up a small branch from the campfire, the others make their appearance. He doesn't pay them much mind as he holds the tweezers in the flame. Ignoring the others looks and minor rants about his irresponsibility concerning leaving Pine's Falls without telling anyone, he puts the branch back into the fire and with the slightly burning tweezers, he walks over to Yoshi, who holds still.

He blows the fire out and then, carefully, yet with ease, grips the tick with the hot tweezers. Plucking if from Yoshi's leg, he walks over to the fire and crouching, holds the tick over the flames. Once it's one fire, he stands and drops it into the fire.

"Ok, tick checks, all of you. Their girls can wait and do each other once we're done with you three." Shin tells them and, well, they did as he bid as none of them had wanted to have any of those blood suckers on them.

As he continues to check over Yoshi, finding another three, Maru and Michi begin setting up their tent while the girls prepare their supper. Thankfully, Kura turns his fish over so the other side could cook.

He finds another tick on Yoshi's backpack and says, as he tries to decide on who's next, "I got bug spray in my tent."

Yoshi gives him a stiff nod and goes to retrieve it. "Ok, Michi, your next." Shin says, figuring it would be best to do him next as he's so much taller then Maru and will likely need the sunlight to find what ticks there could be on him.

This is going to take a while. He thinks to himself as he reheats the tweezers while Kura begins to look over their bags, checking for ticks.

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Date: July 11th, 2000

Location: Black Oak Park

Kin wishes she'd just stayed home. Or bullied Shin into leaving yesterday. "This sucks." She murmurs as she glares over to Shin as the teen is in the process of skinning a rabbit that had gotten trapped in a snare trap.

She's no judge but, it kind of looks that his slow and steady is working for him. Not that Rin could tell from where she's sitting or that she's any kind of an expert when it comes to skinning animals.

Chouji and Sasuke are out in the woods finding edible plants while Jun, Sakura, and Shikamaru are out gathering wood. She's staying at the camp, keeping the fire going as they are boiling some water in Shin's kettle.

Most of the others seemed to have decided that this little trip could be productive exercise. Namely, getting some hands on experience out in the wilderness. She didn't see the point, after all, if the apocalypse did happen, why not just stick to towns and cities? Or even farm steads?

Plus, we'd likely have a car or a truck. Could even find a trailer or RV to use too. There's no need to us to camp out in the wilderness. She thinks to herself. Not in this day and age.

Jun arrives with an armful of sticks and twigs as she adds them to the stack of wood, Jun glances towards the kettle before walking over to the sports bottle that Shin filled up earlier with post boiled kettle water. Kin watches as Jun gulps down a few mouthfuls before pulling it away from her lips.

None of them thought to bring bottled water or even a portable water filter. They'll have to wash the bottle later, like when they get home as they need the water it stores. Looking back at the fire, she tosses another log into the campfire.

"Need a hand?" Jun asks Shin once she's approached the boy.

"Sure." She hears him say and as the kettle begins to sound a very soft whistle, she sighs.

Putting on the old oven mitt, Kin gets up and gingerly grips the kettle's handle, pulling it off the small rack that its resting upon. She puts it on the ground near where the sports bottle is resting on a pile of rocks.

As she returns to sitting down, she looks up to find Sasuke comes towards the camp with some greens sporting tiny red berries. "Found some gooseberries." He says as he joins her by the fire.

"Are they any good?" She asks as she looks at the mini branch Sasuke is offering.

"They'll do." Sasuke states simply and she takes the branch and pops one into her mouth. She makes a face, but then, she really doesn't want to eat the rabbit Shin had snared and killed.

"What's the other stuff?" She asks and Sasuke answers, "A few Choke Cherries and a handful Star Chickweed leaves and stems."

"Oh." Kin states simply and pops another gooseberry into her mouth, deciding that she rather have berries then eating raw leave and stems.

"Wow your fast" Shin complaints Jun and she stead fasts refuses to look in that direction. She didn't need to see the un-skinned body of the rabbit.

"The knife helps." Jun admits while Rin notices that Sasuke is watching Jun's progress with skinning the rabbit. "This is a bowie knife, right?"

"Yea, my godfather got it for me for my eleventh birthday." Shin tells them, although it's likely aimed at Jun.

"Nice." Sasuke states before getting up and walking in that direction.

Thankfully, Sakura and Chouji arrive with Sakura having some difficulty in carrying this tree branch. She gets up and help Sakura with it while Chouji walks over to the campfire, adding what looks like all he's found it a lot of tubers.

"Thanks." Sakura says as they get the branch to the wood pile. "Leave it for the boys to chop." Rin advices and then, Sakura looks off towards the river before paling.

"Yea, they're skinning a rabbit. Shin found it in one of his snares." She explains and Sakura states a soft, "Oh."

Digging into her pocket, she holds out the mini branch that still has some gooseberries on it. "Here." She states and once Sakura takes it from her, she guides Sakura so her back is towards the scene.

Shikamaru arrives with armful of fairly decent size branches, a few of them look fresh, and add them to the pile. Shikamaru glances off towards the sight behind them before walking over to the sports bottle and taking a drink out of it. She watches as Shikamaru checks the kettle to see if it's overly warm.

Seeing that it still is, he puts the sports bottle down and comes join Sakura and herself around the camp fire. After a few minutes, Sasuke and then Chouji walk over to the fire and places their stuff into a pot Chouji had brought.

Chouji then walks over to the kettle with the pot. She watches as Chouji pours some water into the pot, just some. Chouji then picks up the sports bottle, unscrewing the top and filling up the bottle. There's still some water within the kettle as Chouji screws the cap back on.

Chouji then slowly stirs the stuff in the pot for a bit. Then, he tips the pot over and gently lets the water out. Soon enough, Jun says she's done skinning the rabbit.

Shin then begins to consider how to dry the rabbit skin, it's clear that while Shin has read up on it, he's never done so before. "Michi? You know how to best cook the rabbit?" Shin calls over.

Chouji gets up after saying, "Yea, I do." And the proceeding conversation consists of such. She does her best to ignore what they are talking about and when they approach with said rabbit, she excuses herself and heads a bit into the tree line.

A bit later, she knows Sakura joins her and for some time, they both just kind of stood there, in a comfortable silence. Rin hates camping and vows never to allow them to drag her out ever again. "Never again." She murmurs to herself out loud.

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Date: July 14th, 2000

Location: Nightshade Residence, Saskatoon

Today's the final day and it's taken him six days to earn Charlie's trust. Given that he's within range of the chain, it was Charlie who walked right up to him and then sat at his feet, looking up at him in an expectant fashion.

Red glances towards Taichi and then slowly bends down. He touches the collar, his fingers slowly tracing it as he seeks to unfasten the collar, curious if their guess is correct and that it's the collar that's the source of whatever it is keeping Charlie in the form of a dog.

He pricks his finger but the collar comes free. As he pulls his hand up, letting the collar drop, Red's more intent on his finger then on Charlie. He can't tell how bad it is and he puts the finger into his mouth.

Then, as he looks to his left, he finds a rather tired person standing there complete with cloths. "Well, thanks." The man tells them before bending down to touch the collar.

"Here, let me attend to that." Taichi says, coming to his right. Red pulls his finger out of his mouth and watches as Taichi takes a moment to look it over before placing a bandage on it.

Then, suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, the brown haired and amber hazel eyed man starts chuckling while holding the collar. He takes a step back, rather unnerved at the man and the sound. Seeing how he's affecting the two teens, the man gives them both a wide, savage grin and he wonders if they did the right thing, getting the collar off.

"The looks on your faces... Don't worry! I owe you one! And I'll repay my debts!" The man then adds, in a softer tone, "Charlie Harris always repays his debts."

"Now then, you two better get. You don't want to be here when we face off. Now shoo!" Charlie says, making a shooing motion and, well, Red nods and they both head up the stairs.

Their bags are by the door and they pretty much bolt out of the house, just walking quickly away. It take them a while but they make it to a restaurant and Taichi goes in to use the phone while Red tries to relax. Taichi comes out and they wait.

Soon a taxi cab drives up and the driver asks, "Taichi Ishisin?" Taichi nods and with that, the cab driver helps by opening the trunk.

Once their belongings are within, they get into the back. "The grey hound bus station please." Taichi tells the driver and with a nod, they drive away from the restaurant.

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Location: Black Oak Park

Shin finishes stirring the water with a large stick within the campfire and then, he pours more water over it all. "Ok, dirt now." Shin tells Yoshi, who then dumps the shovel full of dirt into the shallow fire pit.

Mist fills the area while the sun is only starting to creep up across the horizon. As the pit is now filled with dirt, he pours the last of the water over the dirt. He drops the stick and turns his back on the fire. "That should do it."

He checks the top of the kettle, making sure nothing else is within, he then walks over to where his stuff is, adding the kettle within the bag. As he hitches the pack onto his back, he glances at the others, they were all more then willing to leave. Rin and Kura keep sending looks of disapproval at him every few seconds, as though that will hurry him up.

Looking away, he takes a look at the rest of the campsite and as he's about to say he's ready to go, someone comes walking out of the densest part of the mist with a squirrel upon a shoulder. The man is rather oddly dress, corn braids upon his head along with his bread neatly done up in a braid.

"A crazy hippie, great, just what we need." Shin hears Kin murmur rather loudly but the man with the squirrel doesn't pay much mind to any of the others. "Shin Yajuu? You brought it, didn't you?"

The man looks at him with a great deal of expectancy and Shin finds himself taken back. "Brought what?" He asks in bewilderment, after all, this is the first time he's met the man.

"The journal." The man gently tells him and Shin blinks, wondering how the man knew he had brought Ayaki's journal with him. Not that he got much of a chance to read it, what with needing to forage for more wood and plants to feed the others.

Due to the amount of people, there hasn't been much fish near the camp site and everyone wanted him to stay within sight of the camp. Like they were grounding me. Shin thought sourly but he frowns.

"What's the journal to you?" He asks after a few seconds while the others try to get answers from the man, like who is he, where did he come from, was he stalking them, did he think corn braids really worked for him...

"A relic of a more innocent time." The man states simply and he blinks, he may not have finished reading the journal but he had gotten to the part concerning Ayaki's witnessing the Fetch of Yamato dying by a scruffy man welding a club.

"You know my name." The man, nay, Ayaki says and he feels a lump in his throat. "Yea, I guess I do."

Shin then swings the pack off his back and digs into the main part, pulling out the journal. "Here you go." He says once he's zipped up the back again and swings it onto his back along with walks over towards Ayaki.

Ayaki smiles and takes the journal from him. "Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me." Ayaki tells him and he just nods.

"Did, well, Yamato?" He asks and Ayaki just sighs. "Never the same after the Hedge." Is Ayaki's reply and he accepts that.

"Good bye, and what it's worth? You and your friends have my blessing, may fate smile upon you all." Ayaki says and a glowing pup seems to show up next to Ayaki's feet while the sun shines down.

As the pup and the sun light fade, Ayaki turns and walks into the mist. Leaving them alone as his friends take a moment to recover from the display and begin questioning him about what that was all about.

Experience Earned: 5

Current Total Earned: 28

So ends Chapter Five!

Author's Note: And two butterfly's beat their wings.