Baggin' Some Bones

It was an eerily quiet night in the strange new village that Dana had somehow managed to stumble into, and stumble was definitely the right word. Dana had just been walking to her room to head to bed after a stressful day of doing absolutely nothing and had instead turned the corner into some strange alleyway. She'd looked everywhere for the way back to her bed but couldn't find it, so she shrugged her shoulders and made her way to go explore this strange place. Judging from the faint throbbing on her forehead, she suspected that she'd accidentally passed out and hit her head on the doorknob or something. The pain was kind of bugging her so she attempted to activate her Restoration Jutsu, but the dull throb only got more annoying so she stopped it.

She turned another corner, expecting to see more of the same warped buildings and road, but instead was now what looked like a hotel hallway that stretched on for infinity. Once again, she looked around and the place where she came from was just air. Dana sighed and itched the painful spot on her head, where had she gotten to? Oh! Those kids sure looked friendly! They were knocking on the various doors to give the charming denizens of the hotel rooms bags of sweets! What kind of evil children would do that? None, that's who!

The happy-go-lucky Senju skipped up to the adorable group of trick or treaters and tapped one on the shoulder to grab their attention. They didn't react to her touch and continued knocking on doors. They knocked on one and it didn't open... So much as dragged across the floor. Dana blinked as a body slumped out onto the hallway carpet with a meaty slap. It appeared to have lost some of its organs - Dana's medical mind truly knew no bounds - and might've been a sacrifice of some kind. The kid's only reaction was to finally turn around and greet Dana with a vacant look. He asked her the fateful question:

"Trick or treat." He spoke in a flat tone; Dana giggled and konked him on the forehead with one of her knuckles. "Why, treat of course!"

He nodded and reached behind him and brought out a hunk of human flesh. Dana accepted the gift and put it in her bag, only mildly pertubed. Well, that wasn't exactly the kind of treat she was looking for but it'd have to do. She sighed and looked around at the now-empty hallway, her intense green gaze settling on one door in particular. Something about it... It called to her. Every step she took, the hallway seemed to shrink behind and ahead of her, until it was only 10-doors or so long. She tested the doorknob and found it click instantly, opening with a creek.

On the other side of the door was a pretty standard hotel room, and on the far wall was a bed with a girl on it. A girl who looked quite scared judging from the quickness at which she'd sat up and looked around. Dana waved her hand and put on a big grin, "Heya!"

WC: 531

Daiko was laying in bed, just vibing out. You know how it usually goes. He was surprsied that he was able to fall asleep in the first place, considering he had been pretty lazy for the past few... Days..? Weeks..? Months..? It all started to blend together at this point, though he was happy with the fact that at least when his eyes were closed he didn't have to deal with the struggle and strife of modern life. Something about poetry, and whatnot. Either way, Daiko had drifted soundly off to sleep, not realizing that when he... Awoke? Things would be a bit different than he was used to. He wasn't used to having dreams, though he didn't have nightmares either. There were... People yelling about trick or treat. The hell? Daiko fond himself in the grouping with these kids, following them along as they were all dressed up in little costumes to celebrate the season. Looking at himself, Daiko noticed that he was wearing all black clothing, a hoodie and sweatpants, and he had something covering his face. Oh, dope. It was an Oni mask. Those are always cool. Especially when they're purple. 

He was trailing these kids around for quite some time, letting them snag little treats and put them in their own bags. He didn't really have a bag... But he did have a way to store stuff anyways. At one house, one of the people there noticed that he didn't have anything with him to collect candy, and gave him a whole pouch of the stuff. Nice. Doing a few hand seals, Daiko made the bag of candy disappear into the dimensional storage system that he had used so frequently. 

At one house, Daiko got a little note that said something about how there was a spooky mysterious figure in a cloak somewhere. He should probably find that. Doing a somewhat lackluster job in his search, Daiko just decided to break off of the group of kids, who decided to go home now that it had begun to get dark. Keeping his mask over his face, Daiko trails quietly along the paths that he had seen, and noticed one house was pretty spooky. It had a giant tree or something coming out of the top of it, and he imagined that there would be an angry kage somewhere around. Not the case. When Daiko knocked on this door, a spooky figure came to the door, and tipped his hat. That was... About all. Stepping off the porch, Daiko noticed that he had seemingly ended up in a completely different place entirely. 

Not quite sure what all of this was about, Daiko continued walking down the corridor, in his full halloween getup. He had the dark clothing that he had came into the dream wearing, as well as a spooky oni mask that definitely frightened a few kids. Making it to the door, Daiko slowwllyyy creaked open the door, peaking only one eye in. As the door moved on it's frame it made loud clicking noises, the old age causing it to stick to the beams around it. Ah. It was that girl he taught the one thing to, and that girl that he did missions with. Uhh... Kiku. And Diana. Yes. Yes. Well, he may as well make the most of it. Walking in slowly, Daiko tilts his head and does a low-gravely voice that sounds like he had smoked a pack a day for the past 10 years. "What did I tell them??? WHAT DID I TELL THEM?" Trying to look visibly more deranged and out of everything, Daiko begins to slowly pace around the room, twisting and contorting his neck to look like some sort of horror movie villain. "FINALLY..." Daiko screamed in a gross voice, which kind of hurt. He turned his back to the two, assuming they didn't attack him or something, and slowly slid his mask up, so that the two couldn't see. "FINALLY THEY WILL SEE..... FINALLY, THEY WILL SEE!" Daiko then activated Starburst, and teleported the 5 or so meters to get behind the two girls, saying in his regular voice, chuckling a bit at the beginning. "Haha, you like that? What's up. What are y'all doin here?"

[709]

[Mysterious Figure 166/166]
[Trick or Treat! 166/166]
[Ghost! 250/250]

Saya bolted up in bed.... Only it wasn't her bed? Wierdly it was an all white bed in what seemed to be an empty room. She glanced about, searing for any other furniture. There was a bedside table but thats it. What a wierd room. She could hear the voices of her friends. The voices of her team. Why did it sound like they were coming from the ceiling? She pulled back the covers, turning her body to slide off the bed, and noticed two things immediately. 

A. The bed was much taller than she'd expected based on where the floor was. She was short, but not like. THAT short right?

b. When she stepped off the bed to stand on the floor, instead of her body going downward to where she expected there to be hard popcorn ceiling looking carpet, she just kind of fell upward. 

The issue solved itself. 

Apparently her bed was somehow on the ceiling of the room. her friends voices werent impossibly high up, she was. Well. She fell downward, gravity shifting in a quite wierd way, but thankfully she landed in an arm chair. Then the wierd sounds happened. 

"wh. What is that?! IS THIS PLACE HAUNTED!!" There was a creeking coming from the hotel room door as a sinister figure crept in. Glancing up she prepared to meet the figure with the full force of her ninjutsu only to find... It was daiko. 

"DAIKO! YOU ARENT A GHOST. Stop sneaking into hotel rooms that have beds on the ceiling

(TWC 256 ghosts mission finished)

Suddenly, a burst of emotion. Fear? Anticipation. A figure that hadn’t been there before, slowly letting itself into the room. What? Why? How? Was this thing the reason that they had been teleported to such a place? Perhaps it was the work of an enemy (stand) shinobi? Look around, what are your options? A homely looking girl she wasn’t quite familiar with, and Saya- wait, on the ceiling? Actually, huh. Considering who it was she was dealing with, the fact that her bed was on the ceiling wasn’t really something worth commenting too much on. She probably had the same thing at home. Maybe it was an exercise in fine chakra control?

Right, her mind was wandering- likely at a time where it really shouldn’t, considering that she might end up being in a confrontation. Rushing forward, she began to cock her arm backwards for a-

Except she couldn’t do that- immediately dropping to the floor next to her bed. Why? The answer quickly became clear as she checked her leg- a tugging sensation revealing that one of her legs were shackled together with a wicked combination of barbed wire and mesh, all fastened together with an elaborate, extremely thick lock and key. Oddly enough, it seemed to have ten wide keyholes. Upon which, the following had been inscribed.

‘If your friend must keep their leg, insert ten fingers in the peg.’

Well. This didn’t look good. Wait, that was Daiko? Why was he being so unreasonably silly, at a time like this? She certainly didn’t find it funny.

“Um, guys?” Kikuko would perk up from the floor. “I think I’m stuck.”

[853]
[Mysterious Figure 166/166]
[Trick or Treat! 166/166]
[Ghost! 232/250]
[Splatter Puzzle 293/500]

As Dana opened the door and stepped through, a whole bunch of weird stuff happened. Firstly, some random dude in a cool-looking mask came in and started to walk around the room she was in and rant about something. What he was talking about didn't make much sense so Dana just tuned him out and turned her gaze back to the girl on the bed. This was all very strange. Thankfully, Dana excelled and thrived in weird circumstances so she wasn't feeling uncomfortable in the slightest. She tuned back into what the man was saying, but he still wasn't making much sense so Dana's attention was diverted elsewhere.

Suddenly, Saya!

Dana clapped her hands together in delight when someone she recognized finally showed up. Saya was one of the few people in Kirigakure that Dana had had lengthy conversations with and probably one of the few people Dana considered a friend; it was nice to see her in a place like this. "Saya!" Dana exclaimed happily, completely forgetting about the rambly guy in the room. That proved to be a mistake cause it looked like something interesting happened whilst she wasn't looking, judging from the reactions of Saya and the other girl.

She turned around to see... That one guy she'd met to do missions with, and then dipped halfway through. What had his name been again? Dai... Dui? Daikooo. She snickered; that probably wasn't his name but she found it funny so that was what he was going to be referred to as in her thoughts from now on. Dana even went as far as blocking out his actual name from her memories when Saya told Daikooo off for pretending to be a ghost.

Trouble seemed to be brewing for the impromptu team, as the girl on the bed fell to the floor and informed everyone that she was stuck. Dana looked over to the girl and saw that her legs were indeed wrapped in barbed wire. That didn't look very comfortable at all! "Don't worry guys! I got this." The white-hared Senju said with a proud voice, and she skipped over to the girl on the floor. The wire looked strong which would mean that Dana would have to use her strongest Jutsu to blow it apart. That would also probably end with half the hotel being blown up though, so Dana refrained from doing so. Oh well, it looked like she was going to have to obey the weird rhyming words on the lock.

The Senju then shrugged and proceeded to put all her fingers and two thumbs into the 10 keyholes without an ounce of fear or trepidation.

WC: 444
TWC: 975

Daiko laughed a bit and then realized that they were probably in a serious situation. Right now probably wasn't the best time for his antics, but. Oh well. He didn't say this to anyone, but he could've probably just teleported everyone out of this hairy situation and just got back to the stuff he was doing. Oh well. That took a lot of chakra that he was too lazy to expend. 

Nodding towards Saya, Daiko apologizes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I just thought it would be funny... What the fu--" Daiko just then noticed that there were weird shackles that seemed to be holding his old training partner, Kikuo. Huh. Weird. Something about putting 10 fingers in the holes of the things. Weird. "Yeah, you know. That is quite puzzling... Uhh-- I wonder what else is going on in here." Just then, a voice came on from an intercom, which sounded raspy and tired. "WELCOME TO MY... LITTLE GAME...." The voice started... "Much like little rats, you've found yourself looking for the cheese... And that's what you'll have to get in order to escape..." After this, the doors had all begun to lock, and heavy pressure of chakra began to build up around the room they were in, and Daiko felt his ability to do his teleporting antics... Somewhat suppressed. Oh shit, oh fuck. They might actually be stuck. 

Blinking for a second, Daiko tried to take in everything that was around. It looked like Dana had taken the liberty to stick her fingers in Kikuo's shackles, and Daiko wasn't quite sure what would go down. Oh, damn. It seemed like there was a small hole in the wall that had something in the back of its cavern. Peering in, Daiko noticed that there was... Cheese? In there? Huh. That's weird. Maybe the voice over the intercom literally meant cheese. Oh well, nothing bad could come of this. Instantly, Daiko began to reach his left hand into the hole in the wall, gripping the hunk of cheese tightly in his grasp. Phew. Nothing bad happened. He began to pull it out of the hole, when a guillotine came down and shredded his arm at his elbow, chopping cleanly through it before black-ooze came out of the stump on his left arm where blood would normally come out. "Yo, hold on guys. I got this."

Very quickly, once the guillotine began to raise, Daiko quickly reached his right hand in and yanked his arm out, still holding the cheese in grasp. Walking up to the bunch of girls, he would hold up his disembodied arm holding the cheese. "There might be a key or something in here. I'onno."

Nodding his head, Daiko would worry about his arm shortly. For the moment, he had to make sure that everyone was gathering the clues that they needed to get out of here. Considering that he couldn't feel pain, something like this was kind of boring for him and was only in the way of what might come next. Maybe there would be some sort of big party? That would be dope. 

[518]
{1227}

[Mysterious Figure 166/166]
[Trick or Treat! 166/166]
[Ghost! 250/250]
[Splatter Puzzle 500/500]

"Oh. Huh. I could just use Kanzeon lotus embrace a--or.... I suppose you can get your fingers chopped off dana that is also an option." Yanno. She knew that her team wasn't exactly the most strategic, but this was... Bless her heart. Shortly after Dana made the horible decision to just strait up decapitate her fingers Daiko found something to one up her. Why were her friends even like this?! Thankfully there was still herself and kiku. Yanno that saying about a friend group all sharing one singular brain cell? Dear readers, if you could see me, you would see that I am motioning exageratedly towards our protagonist and her group in refference to this.

"The next game is simple. You've felt pain, but how much can you endure? Within the tubes is a key, but you must grab it quickly.... Or I will take your breath way." The voice was laughing menaically as it explained the next cause of intense pain for our dear proteagonist and her team. Saya glanced at the group in confusion. What tubes?! Even as she asked herself the question, The sound of water filled the room. Apparently there were large tubes in the ceiling, which she'd missed when she was sitting literally on the ceiling. True to his word, The evil disembodied voice caused a great volume of water to pour into the hotel room. Had the doors always been fully water sealed?! She really needed to pay more attention.

Thankfully, Saya was a senju. Water was an element she felt comfortable in. As the first few gallons poured into the room, threatening to fill their space and kill them all saya formed the seals for Five feeding sharks. THe water drew up, the flow turning into a large shark and well. As each of the sharks finished forming, THeir snoots were wedged so tightly into the water tubes that the flow completely stopped. After a few moments there was a hiss of steam and a loud popping sound. One of the sharks came out of its tube, which had stopped flowing water, holding a key in its jaws.

"Good shark Deonicius. Good shark." There was a momentary pause before words flowed from the speaker again.

"Damn fucking kids. Ruining my good murder puzzles. How is that kid not bleeding out with his arms cut off?! How is thi--

Uh sir. Theres a..

Not now Tiffany. Hold my calls, I need to kill a bunch of ninja.

Yes sir, I just thought I'd tell you that the light is on. I think uh. I think you forgot to turn the microphone off...

DAMN IT!! AHEM! You've done well so far, but this last test will not be so easy. I hope you're prepared. Failure to perform this task perfectly will end in death" THe back and forth ended with a meniacle laugh and then a pause. There was some mumbling, followed by the womans voice pointing out the light agian, and then with a pop the sound disappeared.

(TWC 760, ghosts and splatter puzzle finished)

With a terrible grinding noise, the sound of ten little blades screeching in a rusty homemade contraption, Dana’s fingers are severed from her hands with little fanfare or noise. Sharp and sudden, she would have little time to register the pain before the wire would fall around Kikuko’s ankles, causing her to hiss in pain as the barbs scratch at her legs on the way down. There was...a lot of blood. But she could walk, couldn’t she? Good. That meant that she could walk- and perhaps save her teammates.

Mind buzzing with activity, Kikuko would briefly fish into her pockets for a kunai- when had she had her pouch back with her?- before hacking viciously at the padlock, eventually cradling the lock in her arms, fingers still kept inside. It was a macabre, terrible container, but it would have to do until they could get them reattached by medical personnel. By all the gods, why was she feeling so calm? So clinical? Was it the voice of experience, or something else grabbing ahold of her mind?

Crossing her fingers together in the hand sign for the shadow clone technique, the clone would move to assist Dana in whatever way she possibly needed while she scanned for an immediate exit for the room. “We need to get out of here, now.” She would quickly state- although quite frankly, it was stating the obvious. “Whoever this person is, they’re a skilled trapmaster. We can’t be playing their games.” Watching as Daiko would then be injured with a quiet horror, and then Saya’s sudden and brutal attack against the water levels, an idea would form in her head. A crude, uncertain, possibly dangerous one, but an idea nonetheless. It wasn’t as though they had time on their side.

With a daub of blood from her ankles- icky, but useful in a macabre sense- Kikuko would begin to rapidly draw a seal array upon the exit of the room (Or perhaps simply a wall if there was none). Once she was satisfied, she would turn to the rest of her team members. “Take cover now, and hunker down on my signal. We’re blowing this popsicle stand.”

Getting herself to the absolute farthest corner of the room as possible, she would hunker down behind a bed, pausing to help the others there as well if nobody else had a better option for shielding. Then, with the signal tiger hand seal she would remotely activate the array: a ball of fire consuming the door with a foundation shaking explosion. Just like that, they would have an exit.

...Is it just me, or does it sound like disco in here?

[1315 words]
[Mysterious Figure 166/166]
[Trick or Treat! 166/166]
[Ghost! 250/250]
[Splatter Puzzle 293/500]
[They Did the Mash! 221/500]