*This Halloween Special is not a canon part of this story but it is supposed to be fun! I hope you enjoy it! The timeline of this Halloween special is around the time of the Chunin Exams.*

Sakura and Sasuke waited outside of Naruto's building impatiently. Sasuke leaned his back against the wall with his arms crossed, while Sakura looked up at Naruto's balcony and paced.

"We're always waiting for him." She muttered. "He's almost as late as often as Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto rushed down the steps and greeted them with a sheepish smile. "Heh. Sorry."

"You'd better be! We've been waiting for you for a while." Sakura put her hands on her hips and looked his costume up and down. He wore old, tattered, dirty clothes and his face had been carefully painted to look skeletal and decayed. "Huh. Your costume is actually really good. You like almost like a real zombie. It's creepy."

Naruto grinned and crossed his arms. "It's great, right? It took me a long time but it's really a masterpiece!"

"Where's Natsumi?" Sakura looked back up at the window of the apartment. "I thought she was going to come with us?"

Naruto made a face, scrunching his features. "She said she needed more time to get ready. She said that her costume is pretty elaborate."

Sakura let out a quiet sigh. "The polite thing to do would be to wait for her, but I don't want to be late for Trick-or-Treating and miss out on the candy."

Naruto looked more closely at Sakura, a slight smirk forming as he looked at her. She wore a purple and orange witch's dress, with a laced bodice and fluffy skirt, paired with short, buckled heels and a pointed black witch's hat. She held a broom in her hands to complete the look and Naruto blushed faintly.

"You look really cute, Sakura-chan."

Her cheeks warmed and she turned away. "You moron. I didn't dress up to impress you."

Naruto looked at Sasuke, who stood quietly off to the side. "You didn't dress up at all!"

Sasuke scoffed under his breath. "Halloween is for children."

"W-What?!" Naruto's eyes widened briefly, then he narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. "Listen, you! Just because you're stuck-up doesn't mean you get to ruin it for everyone else! Halloween is about having fun!"

Before he could reply, a small rush of wind came between the trio, accompanied by an eerie hissing, and Naruto blinked suddenly.

"W-What was that?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "It was just the wind. Just because it's Halloween doesn't mean that you need to be paranoid."

He made a face and crossed his arms. "I-I'm not paranoid! It was just surprising, is all!"

"Naruto, you—" Sakura stopped as a soft, faint groaning filled the air around them and a chill ran down her spine. "W-What's that?"

Naruto looked around quickly, unable to find the source of the noise, then he looked at Sakura with a slight smirk. "Who's being paranoid now?"

Sakura flushed and scowled, but another small rush of wind blew by and she held her arms close to her chest. "I-I'm not paranoid. There are just some strange things happening."

A faint blur of white passed through and Naruto and Sakura yelped simultaneously.

"A-A g-ghost!" Naruto pointed at the blur as it disappeared inside of a shrub. A quiet crunching came from the bush and Naruto stepped back from it. "C-Creepy!"

Sakura shivered and reeled as Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Idiots."

He approached the shrub, moving one of the branches to reveal Yuki, Natsumi's white Ninja Cat, eating a mouse. She looked up from her meal and scowled at the Uchiha.

"Can't a cat eat in peace?!" Picking up her kill in her mouth, she indignantly strode out of the shrubbery, walking away, muttering something that was too muffled to understand.

"There aren't any such things as ghosts." Sasuke stuck his hands into his pockets as his teammates breathed sighs of relief.

"R-Right." Sakura nodded and laughed awkwardly. "Even so, that was still creepy!"

"Hmph." Naruto crossed his arms. "I know that. I was just playing along to trick you."

"Hello."

Naruto and Sakura screeched. "Ghost!"

They turned and saw their sensei standing behind them, looking no different than usual.

"Hm? You thought I was a ghost?" Kakashi innocently pointed at himself and then chuckled. "It seems Halloween has you on edge."

"Sorry for making everyone wait so long."

Naruto paled and turned to see Natsumi, then his mouth hung open in shock. "T-That's your costume?!"

Sakura's eyes widened and she stared at the red-haired girl in surprise, then contained a giggle. Natsumi was dressed nearly identically to Kakashi, including hiding her bright hair with a wig and covering her face with a mask. "That is a very elaborate costume. It seems as though she's gotten every detail right..."

Kakashi's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the girl. "She dressed as... me? Interesting choice..."

Naruto circled his twin slowly, then stopped in front of her. "Well, you look like Kakashi-sensei I guess, but something seems to be missing..."

Natsumi's eyes widened and she giggled, intentionally crinkling her eyes to mimic him. "Oh, right!" Reaching behind her, she retrieved a book from a pouch and held it open, pretending to read.

Naruto burst into laughter and pointed at her. "That's it! That's perfect!"

Kakashi put his hands in his pockets, chuckling to himself. "I see... so she's even made a prop of Make-Out Paradise. She must have spent a lot of time preparing this."

"Natsumi, your costume is really good. It must have taken you a long time to put together." Sakura complimented.

Natsumi smiled and nodded. "Wigs are harder than I thought they would be, so it took a while to get right." She patted the spiky wig, beaming proudly at herself. "But, the hardest part was doing this." She carefully removed the headband that covered her left eye, revealing an expertly done fake scar, and her eye was colored red.

"Wooaaah!" Naruto's eyes widened as he stared. "That scar looks so real! How did you do it?"

Sakura looked at her eye. "Is that a contact?"

Natsumi nodded again, carefully prodding next to her eye. "It's pretty uncomfortable, and it was hard to get in, but I think it's worth it to make it accurate."

Naruto nodded, then crossed his arms as she recovered her eye. "But why dress as Kakashi-sensei?"

Her cheeks warmed slightly and she was grateful for the mask. "Well, Kiri helped me to come up with the idea. We started to discuss costumes weeks ago, and she said that there were only four options for costumes— scary, sexy, cute, or funny." She shrugged. "There's no way I could do either of the first two, and I knew that all the other girls would be dressing cute in order to impress boys, so I opted for something funny in order to really stand out."

Her cheeks grew hot and she waved her hands quickly, looking up at the Jonin. "N-Not that I'm trying to make fun of you or anything. They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, right?"

Naruto laughed. "You really nailed it."

Sakura glanced down at her own costume, then at Sasuke from the corner of the eye. "Even if that is why I chose this costume, it sounds embarrassing when she says it that way. Isn't there someone that she wants to impress?"

"Sorry again for taking so long." She scratched the wig and then looked over the group. "What did I miss?"

"Naruto thought there was a ghost." Sakura giggled, disguising her own fear.

Natsumi giggled. "Really? But, I thought ghosts weren't real?"

"They're not." Sasuke muttered, looking over her costume and then looking away.

Kakashi chuckled. "Actually, there is one that has been sighted before."

They turned their attention to Kakashi, with Naruto and Sakura staring in shock.

"W-What? Seriously?" Sakura clasped her hands together, holding them close to her chest.

He nodded. "Sightings are very rare, but this ghost has been around since the village first founded."

"A real ghost?" Natsumi watched the Jonin carefully. "Is there a story behind it?"

"Hm..." He crossed his arms as he thought. "Well, I'm not sure if I remember all of the details exactly, but the story takes place just after the Leaf Village was first founded."

He looked at them to be sure they were all listening, then he continued. "There was a large celebration to commemorate the occasion. Many noble families came to the Village from all around."

Kakashi looked up in thought as he recalled the details of the tale. "The Lord and Lady of one such noble family, along with their son, arrived early to prepare for the event from a country now forgotten. Days before the celebration, several Leaf Shinobi dispatched to fetch the Lord and Lady's daughter, the Princess Akahime."

Kakashi paused and looked at the Genin as they listened, though Sasuke kept his eyes turned away as if uninterested.

"As they were escorting her from her home, Shinobi from a rival clan ambushed them. They killed the guards and princess, stealing the precious pendant she wore before vanishing without a trace. The only survivor was one of her guards, who was so distraught after the ambush that he killed himself. To this day, the mystery remains unsolved as to who was behind it, but they say that the spirit of the Princess Akahime is still bound to this world and that she searches tirelessly for her missing pendant and her family."

"Well, have fun trick-or-treating!" Kakashi chuckled, his tone changing completely as he turned to leave.

Sakura and Naruto's eyes were wide, both pale.

"Y-You can't just say something like that and then leave!" Naruto pointed at him, his hand shaking slightly.

Sakura gulped and laughed under her breath. "Naruto, don't be silly. I'm sure he's just making it up to mess with us. Right, Sasuke?"

She glanced over at him, and he met her eyes briefly. "It sounds as though he's telling the truth." Sasuke paused. "With the exception that ghosts aren't real."

"O-Of course, I know that." Sakura blushed faintly and Kakashi chuckled with his eye crinkling shut.

"Oh, the ghost is real, all right. Guy saw her once when we were around your age. Ask him about it when you see him next."

Sakura gulped and fell silent as Naruto shuddered. Sasuke looked away, scoffing quietly under his breath. "Those fools are actually falling for it."

"Cool." Natsumi murmured under her breath and the three Genin looked at her. She glanced up at Kakashi. "Is there any kind of record of her death?"

"Huh?" Naruto narrowed his eyes. "You actually believe that the story is real?"

Natsumi nodded. "Ghost or not, it's an unsolved murder. It would be really cool if we could be the ones to finally solve it, right?"

"What do you mean?"

Natsumi nudged her twin. "Just think about it; If we managed to solve a mystery that no one else has been able to solve, everyone will praise us, right?"

Naruto's mouth slowly turned upward in a grin and he laughed. "Yeah, you're right! Let's do it!"

"W-What about Trick-or-Treating?" Sakura watched the twins sharing a mischievous smile.

"You could come with us." Natsumi offered.

Naruto looked at his teammate. "And when we solve it, everyone will think that we're so amazing!"

"Well..." Sakura considered. "But I was also really looking forward to getting candy and showing off my costume."

"What about you?" Natsumi put her hands on her hips, looking at Sasuke now and he met her eyes. "Will you come, too? It's not as if you're excited about Halloween in the first place."

"Hmph." He crossed his arms. "Fine. I suppose it's better than doing an activity for children."

Sakura sighed and kept her eyes on the dark-haired boy. "Well, if Sasuke wants to, then I guess I will, too."

"Oh, alright. I'll go, too." Sakura relented and Naruto cheered.

Kakashi chuckled. "I suppose if you want to look into it, there are old records from the investigation in the archives, though it's sure to be locked."

"Locks mean nothing to me." Natsumi muttered, then laughed when four sets of eyes fell on her. "I-I mean... I think I know of a way we could get in easily."

"She still seems suspicious." Sakura looked at Natsumi sideways. "But she is Naruto's sister, so..."

"What are we waiting for?!" Naruto grabbed Natsumi's arm and ran ahead, pulling her along. "Let's go!"