Blech...I don't think many people will like a horror storry. I may just leave this with one chapter... Plus I think I screwed around too much and messed up the nightmare...

"speech"

'thoughts'

dream sequence

A Haunting in Konoha?

Chapter 1

Prologue: That same nightmare…again

A man was stalking in the shadows, seeming for all the world like a wraith in a tattered black cloak with a hood billowing out behind him while he ran…no, glided across streets, up buildings, and through the air. In addition to the full-body cloak, he wore an hunter-nin facemask, only it was demented, distorted, deformed beyond all recognition. It was red with white stripes. These stripes were thin, mere lines all around the edge, as the mouth was pulled back comically wide with wrinkles accenting the edges, as if one were laughing. The eyes were equally disturbing, drooping just the slightest bit with wrinkles in the corners of the eyes as well (If you don't get it, think those happy version of the masks they use in those old drama play/theatre things…but without the nose). It was a simplistic facemask, but one that inspired fear nonetheless.

It was a festival night, and the man was currently lurking among the edges of a barbeque restaurant, calmly waiting with only the moon as his backdrop…as if he were waiting for someone…

Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ino walked out of the BBQ joint, talking animatedly as if they didn't have a care in the world. The masked stranger jumped down right in front of them, and even though those around them didn't seem to notice the obviously suspicious stranger, team ten did. The man's smiling mask leered at them before he ran off, chuckling sinisterly, like satin that's coated in acid.

Team ten immediately set off in pursuit of the stranger, but not without a, "tch, how troublesome" from Shikamaru. They followed the man into an alley, where they found him waiting, just…floating there. Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru found this faintly disturbing as his mask coupled with the stillness of his posture just oozed creepy vibes.

The creepy one spoke up, his mask staying still all the while, "hnhnhnhnhn…" he snickered, "You're mine…you've fallen…into my trap!" His voice wasn't the loud, brash, crazed, and manic screeching you would expect to hear from most killers, but a quiet simper that was all the more scary for it's smoothness and confidence, as if he knew you were already as good as dead, and he would enjoy it for all it was worth.

Shikamaru and the others could only stand there as needles started to spray from…well…everywhere. There were so many, they looked like a black cloud (like in Hero, with the arrows). They could do nothing as they were struck over and over again, a thousand times over as they fell down, all but dead as a deep yellow poison seeped out of their wounds.

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Shikamaru woke up, slowly opening his eyes as he groaned. Similarly, he noticed about eleven more groans of different timbres echo all around him. Snapping awake, he noticed that he, Chouji, Ino, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Neji, Lee, and Tenten were all tied by their wrists and feet on different chairs placed together inside an old, rotting house, probably in the outer edges of Konoha.

By now, everyone was awake and aware, raising a veritable uproar about where they were and how they were Konoha ninja, and doing 'such a thing' was against the law. They were quickly shut up by the appearance of the masked person, until…,"YOU!" the genin (minus Shino, Neji, Sasuke, and Shikamaru, of course) collectively shouted. Evidently, they were mad about the whole kidnapping thing. But hey, who wouldn't be?

"mnhnhnhnhnhnhahahahahahahahahaHA!" The man cackled maniacally. "How are you, my sweets?" He whispered to them in his sweet, simpering voice, walking up close, he examined them. At one point he put his face so close that Sasuke swore that he could smell his breath and see his eyes. His eyes were of the most putrid yellow with red dotting the irises here and there, while his breath smelled foul, but not at the same time. It was like a luring taint, that smelled of decay, but made that decay seem sweet, like the juiciest oranges. It disgusted Sasuke to no end, and he was dismayed that he couldn't pull back farther than he already had.

Eventually, the man finished and stood back probably concentrating in deep thought, when Kiba yelled out, "What the hell are you doing! Let us out, Dammit!"

Even Sasuke, who was still grossed out by the man, joined in, "We are ninja of Konohagakure! You will release us now or face severe consequences at the hand of the law!"

The disgusting man only laughed, a sweet, lilting, melodic laugh that seemed utterly unfit for someone like him. It made him seem full of contradictions, full of betrayals, full of the most disgusting and vile excesses imaginable, and most of all, full of the promise of the multitudes of pain and torture his enemies would receive if they so much as showed the slightest hint of a scent. "Feisty! Yes, you all will make the perfect bait, and the perfect offering; for the perfect one…" At that sentence, he broke into laughter once more, before leaning in towards Ino, his tongue reaching out of his mask to lick her cheek, "You all taste…sublime…" he whispered into her ear.

Ino shuddered and grew pale. If the genin weren't scared already, they were now. Sweating and twitching, Chouji had even wet himself as the man approached them with a knife, muttering to himself all the way, "ahahah…yes, he will be pleased. This is the perfect gift! I will present this and he will love me! Ahah…yes…yes…"

He approached Sakura first. Running his knife along her jaw line, he slowly unbuttoned her dress. The genin were all staring in horror as he removed all the clothes on her upper body (She still has those shorts on). Then, he made the first cut. It was deep and down the middle of her chest. Sakura winced, flinched, and tried to writhe in pain, but was held down, so she settled on biting her lip, trying not to give the man the satisfaction of hearing her scream. Suddenly, he swept the blade to the side, under the skin and cutting it off. As it fell off softly, hitting the ground with a wet squishing sound, all the genin realized it; he was going to skin them alive!

At this revelation, Sakura couldn't hold it in anymore. She screamed in agony. She screamed in pain. But most of all, she screamed for the loss of hope, the loss of all the things she had left to do, and the loss of her friends and her love with her. Her shattering screams and screeches filled throughout Konoha, striking fear in some primal aspect of people through the sheer agony and sorrow conveyed in those screams. Until, suddenly, it fell silent. The people of Konoha were still frozen, though they let out a small breath of relief now that the horror was over. However, the strangest thing was, none of the Shinobi went to investigate the screams. Simply, they were simply all too scared of someone, or something, that could make a human produce such inhuman sounds of pain and torture. Even Morino Ibiki, said to be the master at torture and interrogation, cowered in a dark corner of his home.

Inside the derelict house, all the genin were shocked and traumatized. They did nothing else but…just…stare at the at the corpse of Haruno Sakura, who had the skin of her entire torso sheared off by that psychotic bastard, who was currently putting in the finishing touches by skinning her head as well. Finished, he stood up, and looked at the others. Realizing they were next, they all raised a bemoaning wail, begging to be released, the wail was not enough to reach out of the house, but enough to fill the inside with the noise. Taking no heed, the psycho approached Sasuke.

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As the screams rose once more, this time unceasing as the killer moved from one victim to another with incredible speed, Naruto was returning from a short C-rank mission outside of village borders.

A few dozens of meters away from Konoha, Naruto started hearing the screams. Naruto's eyes widened. He recognized those voices! His friends were being tortured! Hurrying, Naruto jumped the gates, ignoring the village guards in his haste to find his friends, and his would-be family…

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The killer had finished skinning his victims, and was now eating the skin that was shaved off. The dead bodies were piled up onto a food cart stolen from a local restaurant. Savoring the taste of human skin, he chewed slowly.

He was still eating, the white flesh hanging out of his mask as he bent over the pile of skin, when Naruto burst into the house, panting. Naruto's eyes widened as he noticed the bodies there. Skinned alive, none of them were recognizable, the only defining feature left was they're eyes. But before Naruto could say anything about this, the masked one spoke in a tiny, shrill version of his normal voice, "Ah, Naruto, my love…you've come!" He was over by his side in a second, pushing him towards the center of the room where the remains were.

Whispering in Naruto's ear, the perverse psycho said, "Do you like it? It's your offering…eat it, I've saved you the best…" Naruto was by now sick to his stomach. This guy killed in one of the most painful ways imaginable, and then ate his victims like they were a treat!

When Naruto made no move to do…well…anything, the unnamed stranger became annoyed, "Do you not like the offerings? Are they not good enough for you?" So saying, he slid his knife under his neck.

Naruto gulped and looked down at the corpses, then threw up. They were disgusting. Starting to attract flies, the corpses all stared at him through lidless, dull eyes; almost as if they were blaming him for not being there, and trying to rip his soul with guilt as revenge. And that was not the worst of it, the rest of their bodies were dripping in blood that coated their now exposed muscles and organs. The sheer sliminess of their organs and muscles were just disgusting.

Unfortunately for him, the ninja with mental problems seemed to take offense at his actions. Eyes almost bulging through his mask, he yelled, "Do you not like the offerings! Do you think you're too good for me! Well, heh, If I can't have you, then no one will! Aha, Aha, Ahahahahaahhahahaha!" Laughing with wild abandon, he leapt at Naruto.

Naruto was still stunned and motionless from his encounter with the bodies. So, when he became aware of his crazed attacker, he could do nothing more than scream and hope for a quick death, unlike that which was afforded his friends. His attacker lunged and pierced his lung through with the knife in his hand. Unbelievable pain coursing through his nerves, he screamed fo-

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Naruto bolted upright the scream just starting to die on his lips. Noticing his heavy sheen of sweat, he wiped off his face with his sleeves, causing a damp spot to appear on them. "Damn," he cursed, "not again."

Uzumaki Naruto had been having the same recurring dream for the past year. He'd been having it for so long and he'd worn out most of his reactions to it; people were starting to think he was mentally insane. There would be some crazy bastard with alternating masks killing his friends and acquaintances through the worst ways imaginable. Granted, there were different methods of murder and the victims shifted from his genin partners, his jounin sensei, and his older acquaintances (such as Jiraiya and Tsunade), but each one still had enough similarities to be considered a recurring dream. It happened so often that he was becoming afraid to sleep at night.

Padding into his rather small kitchen, he stepped quietly over the tiled surface to fill a glass of tap water. His hands shaking violently, he almost spilled the water before he brought the glass into the bathroom with him where he took out successfully some of his medication and swallowed it along with his water. Apparently, the medicine was supposed to help him with his dreams by repressing his brain activity or whatever. He only knew that it hadn't worked so far, but he continued taking it more out of habit than the hope that it would start working later on.

Knowing that he wouldn't be going back to sleep, and that it was almost 4:30 in the morning anyway, he brushed his teeth and took a cold shower before making his regular cup of chicken flavored cup ramen for breakfast. Seeing that he had a few hours until he was to meet with his team, he made some tea and sat in his kitchen, thinking about random things for the next few hours.

Noticing that it was about time to go, he put on his battle outfit and strapped on his weapons, and calmly walked out of the door, still with a slight tired droopiness on his face. Unbeknownst to him he was about to experience the most horrible and stressing series of days of his life.

Well, that's the first chapter! R&R please!