I made them have holidays like Halloween and Christmas, and I made the Academy like school, to try to modernize it, so you guys can relate to it better. Cuz honestly, they're just like us. Haha.

Love, Rachel

*Tsunami's POV*

"What's your costume gonna be?"

"I'm so excited."

"My mom made it."

"My costume's better than yours!"

"I get to go trick-or-treating all by myself this year!"

Talk of the upcoming hoiday filled all of the 9-year-old's mouths. Halloween was only a few hours away.

"Hey, Halu, you wanna go trick-or-treating with me?" Kyoko asked, poking my arm.

"Can't," I replied. "I'm already going with Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba. You can come if you want."

"Kiba? Gross!" she moaned.

"You don't have to come."

"No, I'm coming," she grumbled, then looked at me, curiously. "What about Naruto?"

"What about Naruto?"

"Won't he want to go trick-or-treating with you?"

"I don't know." Crap. I didn't even think about Naruto!

The bell rang and everyone ran out for lunch and recess.

"Hi, Tsunami," Naruto said, smiling at me.

"Hey, Naruto," I greeted my best friend with a fake smile.

"What are you doing for Halloween?" he asked as we pulled out our lunches.

"Trick-or-treating with Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Kyoko." His face fell.

"Oh."

"You can come if you want," I offered but Naruto shook his head.

"That's okay. Your friends don't like me all that much, anyway." I opened my mouth to deny it, but we both knew it was true. Even if he was my best friend, they still saw him as an outcast.

"I'm still sleeping over tomorrow night, right?" I asked and he nodded. Ever since we had that one sleepover when we were 7, we had made it a tradition of me to sleep over at his house every Friday night. "

"Yeah."

"Good," I said, smiling at him but the rest of our lunch was spent in silence and awkward small talk.

It was later that day as I stood outside of the Academy. I pulled Naruto into a tight hug as everyone departed from the Academy. "I'll see you tomorrow night, kaay? Then we can share candy," I whispered in his ear and then leaned back and smiled at him.

"Tsunami! Hurry up, we gotta get going!" Shikamaru called and I gave Naruto a wide smile before running to meet my other best friend.

"Okay, okay, I'm here," I said, panting to catch my breath and we started down the road to Shikamaru's house. "Do you know where we're all meeting up?"

"Yeah. Kiba, Kyoko, and Choji are gonna meet us at the Academy and then we're all going to Kyoko's house," I said, and Shikamaru nodded.

"Okay." We stopped by Shikamaru's house to pick up his costume and then swung by my house to get mine.

"So what's Naruto doing for Halloween?" Shikamaru asked as we walked to the Academy and I shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Oh, I just thought-" he started, but I cut him off,

"I don't know, okay?"

"Okay..." he murmured and we were silent until we met up with Kiba, Kyoko, and Choji.

"HI, GUYS!" Choji cried, happily. THey were all holding their costues close.

"What's the dog doing here?" Shikamaru moaned, eyeing Akamaru crouching at Kiba's feet.

"We're a package deal! You inite me and you invite Akamaru, too!" Kiba snapped and Shikamaru groaned.

"This is gonna be such a drag!"

"Do we *have* to bring that yappy dog along?" Kyoko grumbled and I rolled my eyes.

"Will everyone shut up? Let's just go to Kyoko's house to change into our costumes so we can get going!" I said and everyone folowed me, grumbling under their breaths.

When we got to Kyoko's, we each took turns changing into our costumes in the bathroom.

I was an angel (ironic, huh?) while Shikamaru was a traveler ninja, and Kiba was the Hokage, Kyoko was a zombie, and Choji was a regular Leaf Ninja.

"Ooh, you all look so cute!" Mrs. Jalika gushed and she raised a camera to take our picture.

"Mother, no!" Kyoko moaned and covered her face. "We just wanna go!"

"Oh come on, Kyoko, your mother just wants to catch you at your best hour," Kiba mocked, smirking and she stuck her tongue out at him. Mrs. Jalika stood by, clueless of Kiba's petty insult against her daughter while the rest of us snickered.

"Okay, you guys, let's go!" I cried, trying to distract Kyoko's mother before she figured out the fued between Kiba and Kyoko.

"YEAH!" Choji agreed and we all ran out the door.

"OH MAN, THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!" I cried, happily as we made our way back to Kyoko's house. I was all hyped up on candy as we dragged our pillowcases along the streets.

"Okay, Tsunami, I think you need to cut back on the candy," Shikamaru said, irritably while Choji and Kiba continued to stuff their faces.

"It's Halloween, Shikamaru! Loosen up!" I cried, excitedly and dug in my pillowcase for a piece of candy and then shoved it in his face.

"I don't even like Butterfingers," Shikamaru grumbled and I gasped.

"How can you not like Butterfingers?" I shrieked as we arrived at Kyoko's house.

"My mom's making lasagna for everyone," Kyoko said as she put her hand on the doorknob. "Hey, do you guys want to sleep over?"

"BOY-GIRL SLEEPOVER, YEAH!" I screamed while Shikamaru and Choji looked uneasy, and Kiba looked pouty.

"I don't wanna sleep over at your house," Kiba said and Kyoko rolled her eyes.

"Then go home!"

"No, Kiba, stay! Don't pay any attention to Kyoko. We can still have fun," Choji said and then turned to the raven-haired girl on the porch. "Are you sure your mother will let boys sleep over?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe if we all sleep on the trampoline," Kyoko said.

"Yeah! We can sleep on the trampoline you have in the backyard!" I squealed, but Shikamaru just stared at us.

"It's cold out, you guys. I don't want to sleep on a stupid trampoline all night, where I'll freeze my butt off."

"Then we'll bring lots of blankets!" I cried and Kyoko nodded.

"Hold on!" she yelled and disappeared into the house.

"Will her mother let Akamaru come?" Kiba asked, worriedly and I nodded.

"I bet she will."

"YOU GUYS! MY MOTHER SAID YES!" Kyoko yelled, poking her head out the door and gestured us inside. "Come on! Dinner's ready!"

"What about pajamas?" Choji asked.

"Your clothes are here, just sleep in those!" she shouted and disappeared again, while the rest of us followed her inside.

All five of us (six, counting Akamaru) were all huddled together on the trampoline, in a sea of pillows and blankets and candy.

"The stars are really pretty," I whispered as we all stared up into the dark sky, filled with twinkling lights.

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed while Kiba shrugged and murmured,

"I guess so."

"What do you guys wanna do?" Kyoko asked with a bored sigh and while Kiba and Choji offered up lame ideas, Shikamaru whispered in my ear:

"Tsunami, you wanna tell the scary story I told you and then we can scare everybody?" I looked over at him and grinned.

"Let's do it!" I sat up and turned to face my friends. "We should tell scary stories."

"Scary stories?" Choji whimpered and huddled into his blanket.

"Scary stories? Kick ass!" Kyoko cried and Kiba grinned and nodded.

"I'll go first!" he volunteered, but I shook my head.

"No, I wanna go first. It was my idea."

"Fine, but I call going second," he said and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine!" I reached for the flashlight in front of me (Kyoko's mother gave us each one) and shone it on my face. "There was once this little girl around our age- actually, she was exactly 9 years old. And her parents were gonna be gone all weekend on some dangerous mission, so she was gonna be alone with only her loyal dog to protect her." I leaned over to pet Akamaru. "Like Akamaru." I could see Shikamaru start to slink away from the group, slowly and unnoticed. The other three were too busy staring at me to notice him. "Only this girl's dog was a lot bigger and stronger than Akamaru, so the girl knew she could count on the dog to protect her while her mother and father were gone.

"Anyway, it was later and the girl was reading late into the night. She put her hand over her bed to let the dog lick her hand. It helped her feel safe, because she knew he was there. It was getting late so she decided to go to bed. But something woke her in the middle of the night." Choji clamped his hands over his ears, but then removed them, unsure if he wanted to hear this or not. Kiba clutched Akamaru close to him and Kyoko just stared at me, her eyes wide.

"It sounded like 'drip, drip, drip'. She threw her hand over the side of the bed to let the dog lick her hand in the dark before getting up to go investigate the noise. She heard that it was coming from down the hall in the bathroom. 'Drip, drip, drip'. She heard it again. The girl turned on the light and saw that the sink had been barely left on and was dripping. Drip, drip, drip. She sighed and turned it on. She had been stupid for being scared." I saw my three friends let out a soft sigh of relief. I had them now.

"So she went back to bed and let the dog lick her hand once more before she fell back asleep. Then she woke up the next morning to hear 'drip, drip, drip' again. I thought I turned the sink off, she thought and let the dog lick her hand again. She didn't know why, but it made her feel better. The girl got up to go turn the sink off, but the sink wasn't on. The dripping was coming from behind the shower curtain. So she opened the curtain and saw her dog hung from the ceiling, his blood dripping into the bathtub making a 'drip, drip, drip' noise. Behind the dog, written in blood was: PEOPLE CAN LICK TOO."

Shikamaru licked Choji's hand and hissed, "People can lick too." Choji shrieked and jumped five feet in the air and Kyoko and Kiba screamed and scrambled off the trampoline, too. Shikamaru and I cackled with laughter at our friends' scare.

"Tsunami? Shikamaru? You asswipes!" Kyoko yelled, angrily while Choji wiped tears from his face.

"Whoa, you guys sure got us good!" Kiba said, grinning and Kyoko and Choji started to grin, too.