[HFE] A Nightmare on Takigakure Street

Missions:

During the few days she stayed in Takigakure she decided to take it upon herself to do a few of the missions posted on a mission board the Sakura Corp seemed to have next to the front of their building, possibly for them to earn more money that way but if they were slow enough to let their mission requests be taken she didn’t feel too bad about it. Plus there were several papers still hanging from the board after she took a couple for herself, giving them ample amounts if they so desired.

The first mission she set out to accomplish seemed rather trivial, just finding some door to a weird place called Christmastown and retrieving an item as proof of her having been there. In truth, she couldn’t understand why someone would require shinobi to do something so menial, yet she knew she shouldn’t complain about easy money and practice. After all, this could be a good training exercise for Kuro and his enhanced sense of smell. The wolf hadn’t been on a tracking mission before so using something simple could work in their favor to get him into the hang of it.

“Alright Kuro, our first task is to find a door that apparently moves from place to place, but should be somewhere near where we are according to a rumor. Christmastown is its name, so there’s a big chance there will be things that usually only appear during Christmas time that you can use to locate where it is. Think you could give it a shot?” Her voice was soft and an encouraging smile danced across her rosy lips as she spoke to her best friend, who barked loudly and wagged his tail in response. The wolf was revving to go out on a mission again and be of use to his companion, especially since he had begun to feel as if he were only dead weight to the Hyuuga when they went out. This could be his time to prove his worth if he could find this strange door faster than she could with her Byakugan, and with that in mind he ran off towards the forest, on high alert as he sniffed the air while running. He had gotten a little familiar with the area as they were heading towards the waterfall the other day so he could focus more on the task at hand rather than navigating. Although he did have one trick up his sleeve, something Hikari was unable to do on her own, and that was asking any animals he encountered if they had seen a door that fit their description.

Hikari remained where she was for a couple of minutes after Kuro ran off before she began to make her way to the forest as well, her Byakugan deactivated and the only thing scanning the area was her chakra sensory ability as a way for her to detect if anyone was approaching her, unless they were suppressing their chakra of course, which at the thought of that happening she decided to suppress her own chakra for the time being. She had no need to worry about Kuro finding her due to him having her scent memorized, and she knew that before long he would be running back to her in glee at having found the door for she had faith he could do it all on his own.

Back to the black wolf who was running frantically to the west side of the forest, past the waterfall they had used for endurance and breathing training, had a gleam of excitement in his crimson eyes. This was exhilarating and reminded him of the hunt when he was not a shinobi animal, when all he did was sneak around and chase after wild prey with his pack. It had been years since he had seen them, and although he loved Hikari to death, part of him wondered how they were. He didn’t miss being part of them, not after what they had done to him, but he had a few friends who stayed even when he was no longer the alpha and he longed to know if they were well, and alive.

Kuro shook his head and tried to clear his mind of the saddening thoughts, not wanting to imagine their deaths for even a second. To preoccupy himself he decided to push his body to the limits, running as fast as his legs would take him across the earthen terrain, and within minutes he began to see flakes of snow on the ground and a sweet, cherry aroma wafting through the air hit his nose immediately. Yes, I knew that scent was candy canes! I did it, I found the way to the door! He began to grin, his tongue lolling in and out of his muzzle, as he continued on the path, following the out of place snow and candy smell to a worn down tree, most likely the oldest tree in the area if he had to guess based on his limited knowledge of them. He howled as a signal for the kunoichi to know his location and waited patiently by the door, guarding it as if his life depended on it.

The moment she heard Kuro’s call she activated her Byakugan and followed the way she knew he had started off in, using her All Seeing Eyes ability to look a mile in every direction around her, a handy enough skill to have as a Hyuuga. With such an advantage on her side, it didn’t take more than a couple minutes to find the wolf and door, and before long she was reunited with the canine, rubbing his head in affirmation of a job well done. However they both knew this was only the beginning of the mission, they still had to walk through the mysterious door, retrieve an item from within, and return to the person who created the mission in the first place. It sounded rather simple on paper but neither person or wolf knew what awaited them on the other side of the door, and that lack of information made them weary. For all they knew there could be a horde of enemies waiting to ambush them the moment they stepped foot into the new world.

“Alright, time to see what this Christmastown is like, but be prepared for anything…” Her voice was calm, as if she weren’t worried about what she would see as her hand turned the frosty knob and pulled the wooden frame away from them. Kuro’s ears were pointed up and his eyes narrowed as he leaped through the door quietly, landing softly in a pile of snow on the other side of it, Hikari following him in and transforming her silencing boots from high heel form to knee high leather boot form in order to keep her feet dry and warm from the frozen water covering the ground.

With her Byakugan still activated she scanned the area while Kuro used his own enhanced senses to scope out the perimeter. It would be hard for someone to avoid both of them as they traversed closer to the lights glowing in the distance, believing that would be the best location to find an item worthy enough to bring back. They couldn’t give the person who hired them a shitty momento, not with a clean conscience anyway.

Christmastown:

Music and joyous laughter soon reached their ears as they neared the town, reaching the edge of a cliff overlooking a house around twenty minutes after their arrival in the land of Christmastown. The strings of lights and little objects around vibrantly green trees, roasts and pies filling the air with a pleasantly delicious scent, and the faces of people celebrating without a care in the world was new to the shinobi. The sight caused a twinge of jealousy to overcome her, eyes flashing green with envy at all how happy and carefree they could be. How could a town like this exist when her world is full of violence and bloodshed? Why do they get to live peacefully when our lives are always in turmoil? Why is their lives better than ours?!

Kuro head-butted her in the arm when he noticed her clenched jaw, white knuckles, and void eyes staring blankly ahead, not registering what was going on down below. Hikari patted his head softly when she came to, sorrow filling her eyes as she ran her fingers through his fur. She had no right to be angry at them for the horrors of her own life, it’s just how her cards had been delt and there was nothing she could, or rather should, do about it. Ruining their lives wouldn’t bring Salzem back or kill Yensung, all if would do was make her regret it later and hate herself even more.

She didn’t have the strength to speak up yet, her mind still trying to collect itself from the moment of losing herself, so she could only quietly tell her companion, “Let’s not disturb them, it’ll be less of a headache that way, plus we don’t even know if they are friendly or hostile to us so better safe than sorry anyways.” Kuro nodded his head in agreement and followed her as she made her way down the slippery slope and onto the ground behind a log house, lights flickering in the window beside them. With her Byakugan she was able to see three people inside the house putting the strings of light and little ornaments on a smaller tree, with boxes upon boxes of presents already lining the bottom of it. She quickly averted her gaze from them before her tempter got the best of her and looked through several more houses, hoping to find an empty one close by before breaking into one and having to deal with either subduing those inside or erasing their memories. Either option sounded like a drag in all honesty, so she wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.

As they crept from one house to the other, laying low and out of sight thanks to the shadows cast by the giant tree in the center of the village, they finally found one that wasn’t occupied and Hikari slipped in through one of the windows, leaving Kuro as the guard outside. It wouldn’t have been easy for him to go through a window and not raise suspicion, so instead he blended in with the darkness and waited for her to return with the item.

Inside the cozy house was some of the same things as all the others, a tree, decorations, presents, all the works. It was like they never ran out of the stuff, having an endless supply of all things Christmas. Not wanting to take much time she maneuvered through the living room to the Christmas tree and found a red star shaped ornament that seemed to come from a set due to the amount of them she saw still on the tree. Perfect, they won’t notice this is missing until it’s too late. She thought as she began to head towards the window, only to hear the door to the house rattle and the door knob slowly turn.

A man and a woman, okay I can take them on. They seem weak anyways. She made a last minute dash to the window, clutching the ornament to her chest to brace it for the impact as she slid through the opening and onto Kuro who was ready to go the instant he felt her land securely on his back. She was fortunate the wolf was large and she small, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to carry her on his back as she ran behind the houses and back up the slope, his footprints in the snow the only traces of them having ever been there. Soon enough even those were covered up by the tracks of the people living within Christmastown.

Once they were back through the portal they made their way back to the town, following the address on the request form to hand them the souvenir. Before they could even knock on the door, it swung open and they were both engulfed in a giant bear hug by incredibly bony arms. It wasn’t until the person released them that she noticed, with her Byakugan having been deactivated before they reached the house near the edge of the town, that their employer was in fact all bones and no skin.

“Hello! I am Jack Skellington, King of the Pumpkinpatch, and I see you have found the door to Christmastown!” His words were song-like as he spun in a circle and waved his arms around while he spoke. He is a very theatrical skeleton thing… She thought, forcing a small smile on her face as she was holding the ornament. “Thank you for completing my mission! You may keep that cute little ornament, maybe hang it up on your own tree for your doggy to play with!” She was about to thank him when he pulled out a sack and shoved it into her free hand while saying, “Here is the reward for the mission, I’m just glad to know it’s here. You can tell me the details of it at my annual October celebration tonight in the town of Halloween! If you don’t have a costume, you can get one next door at the costume shop run by my lovely wife, Sally! See you then!”

By the time she had registered all of the information he gave her, the strange skeleton was already back through the door, leaving her in astonishment at their exchange. Never had she met someone as...interesting, for lack of a better word, than me, and definitely not one as talkative.

“Oh! One last thing, no need to search for the town of Halloween, you’ll find it when the time is right!” His voice echoed around her despite his body being nowhere in sight, as if he spoke to her telepathically.

“Thank you, Mr. Skellington. I shall see you tonight.” She tried to keep her voice was stuttering as she found the words stuck in her throat, confusion written across her face as the duo walked down the stairs and back to the place they were currently staying in order to prepare for the celebration to come. She had a plethora of outfits so choose from and wanted to keep the ryo she had recently received, so she elected to not visit Sally’s store.

Once she arrived at her temporary home she ate and took a nap, deciding rest would be necessary if they were going to be up all night at his celebration, for who knew how long skeletons, ghosts, and the like partied until. Hell they could party for a day straight, she wouldn’t know, and as such needed to be prepared for anything, especially if this invite wasn’t just for fun. Perhaps they were to secretly be his guard while at the event. If so they both needed to be in their best shapes and not exhausted at all. Thus the duo tossed and turned but eventually slept for a couple of hours until it was time to change and be found by the town of Halloween.

“Woof!” Kuro quietly barked as she nudged Hikari, making sure the kunoichi was awake, to which she laughed and sat up, having been lost in thought about what outfit she would wear. She had worn the bunny girl costume at the costume contest for the Sakura Corp ball, so that outfit and anything like it was out since she wanted to be original. Kuro was being dressed back in the sheep costume; however, since it was just too dang adorable for her to pick anything else, and since she had cleaned it earlier that day, they had nothing to worry about.

Hikari’s Costume:

“Hmm...what do you think of this one?” The snowy haired woman spun around in a mostly black witch’s robe with white poking out for the skirt beneath the robe like dress, a black pointed hat sat atop her head with a white bow, and she wore black boots that ended mid-calf with black socks that went up to her mid-thigh. A wooden wand sat at her hip as the last accessory, since she decided to leave the broom out of the outfit for aesthetic purposes.

Kuro went up to her and nuzzled her hand with his tail wagging as a sign that he thought the costume was perfect for her, although truth be told he would’ve thought anything was perfect for her. “Costume, check. Now to enter the party, however we do that.” Came her soft voice as she thought aloud before heading out the door, not needing any of her belongings or ninja items due to her having all of the necessary equipment always on her person. The only things she needed were Kuro, her tattoo, and her Byakugan, everything else was just a bonus. The moment she opened the door to the apartment she was staying in the world went dark and distant chanting could be heard. The once desolate town of Takigakure was now a bustling party full of costumes, or creatures, galore. It took her breath away for a moment to witness such a massive crowd all gathered around, drinking alcohol and dancing like there’s no tomorrow, which granted that could be true for some of the guests, she wasn’t quite sure.

“Hikari, Kuro! You two made it! Love the costumes, they are so adorable! I could just eat you two up! Hahahaha...” He trailed off in a fit of laughter, his skull grinning from ear to ear as he felt his stomach. Somehow Hikari didn’t think he was entirely kidding about the eating them part, and wondered just what skeletons diets consisted of if not flesh. “Thirsty?”

“No, not re-”

“Ghost! Come here!” He ignored her rejection, calling over one of the nearby waiters carrying a tray full of pumpkin themed foods and orange drinks in champagne flute glasses as he himself moved to sit in a booth nearby that was shaped like a bat. The waiter itself was nothing more than a floating body and head, no joints visible to connect the two parts to each other, as if they were all squished together into one dark purple cloud of matter. “Thank you, Gary, keep up your best work!” With a wave of his hand Jack sent the thing on its way, forcing a glass in her right hand, a piece of pumpkin dessert in her other hand, and one of the pumpkins on the floor for Kuro. “This is the best food and drink you’ll ever have, created and perfected by yours truly.”

Hikari was wholly unprepared for this man and his shenanigans, even if he was a Pumpkinpatch King there had to be limits for him as well. There was no way he actually enjoyed bossing her around and talking nonstop, was there? “Thank you, King of the Pumpkinpatch, I am very excited to try anything you have graciously offered me.” Her own words were courteous for the last thing she needed was to piss off a big shot like Jack Skellington. To keep her promise she took a sip of the orange liquid, nervous of how it might affect her. As she drank it her eyes opened widely as a tingly warm sensation slid down her throat with not a single after taste, and she couldn’t tell there was any alcohol in the fruity beverage, the concoction of the orange and vanilla flavors masking it perfectly. “That was incredibly smooth!” She would exclaim in appraise to him as she then went to take a bite out of the fluffy pumpkin item, feeling the light texture melt in her mouth and overcome her senses with an even more intense orange and cream flavor mixture. Hikari was not much of a sweet-tooth kind of person, but she would gladly eat more of those any day. “You truly are the best chef I’ve ever encountered, Lord Skellington.”

“Please, just call me Jack.” Came his velvety response as he crossed his left leg bone over the right and rested his hands on his black suit pants. He was decorated in a fancy black tuxedo, a white handkerchief in the pocket, and a name tag that read Groomsman on it. So he is dressing up as a human, clever for a dead man. “Now please do tell where you saw the door.”

“It was on the trunk of the oldest tree on the western part of the forest, about three miles inward from the mission board. The scent of candy canes and faint hints of snow will help guide your way there if you plan on going to it.” Her once eager and wondrous voice was now replaced with her usual monotone pitch as she morphed into her more professional persona for the discussion.

Jack gave her a light chuckle before replying, “Oh no darling, I’m not going back there yet. But, if you accept my next request, then you will be. However, before I continue, do you accept this new task?”

Without hesitation, she said, “Yes, I accept.”

“Good, I had no doubts about your answer anyways but you know how business is, always have to ask regardless. Now,  I need you to go back and guard that door without killing anyone. You must take those who threaten it alive, for they will be helpful in finding out more about my enemy, Oogie Boogie. He wants to ruin my plans for Christmas, and I cannot allow him to succeed.” His eyes glowed a menacing red hue briefly after he finished talking, to the point where she wasn’t sure if it had been his eyes or just the flickering from one of the large stage lights moving around the party area. “Have a little fun first before you go back out there though, after all this is part of the task too and I would hate to make you work the entire time! I must go mingle around again, so I’ll see you after you catch his underlings.”

With that the strange man left her to her own devices in the bat booth as he sauntered over to a couple of mummies, or people just dressed like them, and a red haired woman came over to greet him, her body full of stitches that she couldn’t tell were real or not. At this point she had given up on trying to decipher what wasreality versus this magical new world full of Halloweentown and Christmastown and people like Oogie Boogie and Jack Skellington.

Despite trying to have fun at his celebration, she found it hard to enjoy herself amongst the strangers living it up. It had been one thing to socialize at the ball the other night when they were all part of the shinobi world, but trying to gain connections amongst things that weren’t from her world seemed a little...pointless. If she was likely to never see them again why waste the effort when she could leave and do her job guarding the door instead?

“Well I think we better head out now. Enjoy the cake, Kuro?” Her voice was quiet under the loud boom of music resonating throughout the open area, but thanks to Kuro’s canine hearing he was able to understand what she said despite the outside sounds, and nodded his head in response as he got up from the ground. The duo passed by creatures in all sorts of outfits as they headed for the door they had transported in from; some of the costumes were ones she recognized, such as vampires and goblins, but others were foreign to her, like the woman with snakes on her head or the man carrying a large boulder over his head. Personally, her favorite was the snake woman, as the idea of such venomous and violent animals sitting calmly on one’s head was a unique and intriguing idea to the Hyuuga.

When they passed through the door she expected to be at her apartment, seeing the familiar cream colored walls and grey staircase; however, instead, they were greeted with the door to Christmastown somehow, and the moment Hikari turned around the door to the town of Halloween closed and vanished in thin air, as if it had never been there to begin with.

“Kuro you saw that too, right? It’s not just the alcohol getting to me?” Her eyebrows were furrowed as she looked back at her companion, watching his own widened eyes and gaped jaw become her answer as he was too shocked to register her question. “Magical doors suddenly appearing and disappearing, okay then…” She muttered to herself before leaning against the side of the tree, her Byakugan active yet again and her chakra suppressed. Kuro sat on the other side of the door against the tree, his ears perked up and eyes constantly moving.

In order to further mark themselves from view, and give them a chance at ambushing whoever comes for the door, she created a deep mist around the area in a 50 meter radius with the center point being the tree. This technique, Hidden Mist, would allow her to see through the mist but prevent almost anyone else from seeing through it, thus giving them the advantage and first attack.

“Hey this fog is really thick, I can’t see anything. Bobby? Dillon? Where are you guys?” A small, meek voice could be heard to Kuro’s right, still rather far from them but coming closer each second. Two other scents filled his nostrils moments later, coming closer to Hikari than him, but he wasn’t worried about two going for her since he knew she could easily handle what appeared to be children from the sounds of it. All he had to do was subdue the scaredy cat, and that was exactly what he did. Using his prowess as a hunter and his excellent sense of smell, he circled the young boy three times, growling as he passed a different side each time and eliciting a whimper from the boy in return that grew louder with time. Then, as he ended up behind the boy, he pounced, knocking the child onto their face, not hard enough for them to break anything, and placed his large paw at the back of their throat, emitting a low noise from this throat as a warning signal to the child that they should not move. This caused the boy to pee his pants before passing out, too frightened to deal with the monster that was most like going to eat him, or most likely were his thoughts before he went unconscious. After Kuro checked to make sure he wasn’t dead or faking it, he carried the boy back to the tree and waited for Hikari to dispel the Hidden Mist jutsu.

Hikari, on the other hand, could easily see the two children approaching from her front, walking side by side as they held onto each other’s shirt sleeves. He seriously sent kids? Are you fucking kidding me? Have even a modicum of decency, goddamn! She thought in irritation, becoming increasingly more annoyed with whoever this Oogie Boogie person was, and hoping she could crush him for how he treated children. They could’ve easily been killed if she had been a different shinobi, one that didn’t wait to analyze their opponents first but went straight for the kill, and yet he still decided they were the best choice to be sent?

Let’s just get this over with fast, for their sakes. She moved to meet them in the middle and wordlessly activating her Gentle Fist: Tenketsu Needle technique and striking them both at the neck, forcing them to fall unconscious due to the kenketsu point being blocked off. It wouldn’t harm them in any way and was the best option she could think of to painlessly knock them out so she could take them back to Jacks.

After doing a once over to make sure there weren’t any other people lying in wait to ambush them, the petite woman deactivated her Hidden Mist jutsu and the duo carried the three children back to the place they first met Jack, ready to rid themselves of the memory that children were sent as henchmen for a bastard of a man. The sooner they were done with this mission, the better.

“My, that was fast! Great job.” Was their greeting upon returning to his home, again being welcomed before they were able to knock. She hadn’t expected the skeleton himself to answer the door, assuming he was still at his celebration and would’ve had a guard or butler do it for him, but then again this man was full of surprises so she should've thought to expect that and made a mental note to not have any thoughts about him if they ever did business again. “I’ll take the kids, here is your payment. Tsk, it’s a real shame he is having young children do his dirty work, but now I hope you can understand why he must be stopped no matter what. He has no morals or compassion, he’s a real monster.” He ranted with a tone that didn’t convey he was sincere with his words, as if he could care less that children were involved at all. It irked her to hear how nonchalant he was about the ordeal so she tried to leave as quickly as possible, thanking him, taking her rewards, and excusing them soon after. He didn’t pay her fast exit any attention, probably too occupied with another party or way to foil his enemies plans, either way she didn’t care about his next plan of action.

(Exit)
(TWC: 5,000) 2276
(Using the 700 wc I gained from here plus 800 from my Advent Calendar bank- 1,044 left after this deduction, putting my real TWC at 6,500)
(Claims: Mission rewards (4,000 ryo, 700 wc, no ap b/c I’m maxed out),
1724 for Eight Trigrams: Storm Senbon, putting it at 1750/1750 (previous wc from here),
2500 for Breath of the Cinder, putting it at 2500/2500,
500 for Fire Lash, putting it at 500/500,
500 for Eight Trigrams: Thirty-Two Palms, putting it at 500/500,
500 for Gentle Step: Front Kick, putting it at 500/500,
500 for Chakra Disguise, putting it at 500/500,
276 for Hiding in Fire, putting it at 276/1000,
and 16 stats for Kuro <3)

Hi, Hik I enjoyed reading this one.

I have both good and bad news. Bad news is you can't use max stat discount while doing a mission. The good news is Storm Senbon costs 1750, not 3k, the WC on the jutsu needs to be updated. Feel free to allocate the words to something else.

Bump when ready

Oops my bad, sorry! >_<

I have made the requested edits <3

Approved