Don't Play with Nature!

 The smell of salt and vinegar reeked from all corners of the worn out room. The rotting wood around the eccentric shinobi Saturn was frothing with ancient termites and webs of fungi. He pinched his nose as he cursed at the Gods for placing him under the most vile of circumstances. First it was the stinky ninja and their dead skunk, and now it was the Rot. The Rot was a significant symbol of Kumon history, to those who were aware of the reign of the terrible plague. Thousands of Kumons suffered in poverty and lack of access to proper hygiene. For Saturn, his current filthy predicament was a choice. Looking on from the single window in the grand room on the first floor of the haunted Mayberry Mansion, the ninja observed the party finally assemble at the meeting point. He had made sure to conceal is presence to the best of his ability by suppressing his chakra using Chakra Nullification although one among the group may be able to detect his presence with the proper sensory techniques. It was a test of capability and willpower that he had devised to scout his teammates - to learn their abilities and compile a mental list of whom to call under what circumstances.

  The ninja had in fact been to the very same mansion just days earlier with two other Kumon shinobi to investigate an identical report of a haunting that was slowing down a renovation project. He had come to learn that the project was funded by the old butler of the mansion whose original residents had perished in a fire. According to the public records, it was a wildfire. According to the butler, it was a man by the name of Haju Yayate or something like that. Whatever was the case, no construction company would go near the site as there were multiple reports of a curse that plagued the charred mansion including a case of a whole crew of construction workers going missing in the very same mansion. Upon inspecting the house, the trio of Saturn, Rizuke and Majima uncovered that a homeless man, in his mid to late 70s, was responsible for the so called haunting. When Saturn had sparked his lighter, thousands of deafening screams echoed in the halls as though terrified of the flame that came forth. It was a convincing story, and his Genjutsu had fooled the unskilled workers and amateur shinobi for months while he took refuge in the remnants of the mansion. Upon evicting the man with force, Saturn had declared that the case was solved, and trusted his teammate to file the report. Mysteriously, Rizuke had not been seen or heard of since.

 Saturn however did not connect the case of the missing Genin to the haunted mansion, as he was sure about that particular case being cracked then and there with his teammate at the site. This is why when the mission popped up again to the party he found it to be most peculiar. Still confident that he had solve the case, he decided that he would go ahead and hide in the mansion to spook the party of ninja in the spirit of Halloween. That is why he took the time to paint the walls of the house in ungodly amounts of vinegar, and lay rivers of salt all across the wooden floors. As he looked on, however, he noticed the most unwelcome pattern. As the crowd of civilians were lined up to witness a spectacle, the ninja observed Jun as he spoke to the chef. Although he could not make out the words from so far away, his fellow Genin's body language spoke more than enough to reveal the nature of what his plan was. Unless he acted quickly, he would be in the house yet again when Moyasu burns it down! And why was the stinky ninja bruised up like that?!

  "Hold on, just a moment! There's no need for that.." A broad shouldered shinobi of an average to slightly taller than average height, with thick blonde hair and icy blue eyes approached the party of ninja from the road, as if coming from away from the mansion, to the site. He looked just like Saturn. It could be a shadow clone, or it could be Saturn himself but given that shadow clones are perfect replicas, he would hope that the trio would not be able to tell the difference. He looked over at the white haired ninja and for the first time did not cringe - he was prepared with sensory deprivation to suppress the nasty stink and now he needed to convince them to go into the mansion with him to take in the delightful smell of vinegar - and without hesitation he even unzipped his cyan hoodie and handed it to them! Underneath, he wore a plain black short sleeved shirt. "How did you get bruised up like that, and Jun and chef here are not even sweating?" He tried to deduce the situation but found it to be much too bizarre. "Here, put this on for now so you can look decent in front of all those oldheads over there. You can return it to me after you wash it." Saturn shrieked as the ninja fell back from their blood loss, and leaped to the side instead of catching the stank. "Get up.." He pleaded, dropping his hoodie on top of the collapsed ninja, "Mint?" He offered.

"Listen, I don't know what those oldheads over there heard about a spectacle here but the mission report says the haunting is inside the mansion." He tried mansplaining the situation to the trio, trying to pitch the idea that they go venture inside before burning it down so swiftly. Besides the stench of vinegar and the salt that was scattered across the wooden floors, the trio could expect to find a wide array of procurements that Saturn had planted in the halls using False Surroundings technique. Among the illusions were large crowds, loud noises, surprise parties, talking to strange people, pineapple on pizza, The Moon, Bright lights, fingers dragged across chalkboards, mint, more vinegar, cat tongue, harsh food critics and lastly Saturn himself (or his clone) who waited to fine tune the debauchery. He had to convince them to explore the mansion or all his preparations inside would have been for a waste, and he couldn't allow that to happen, "Before you burn the whole thing down so quickly, why don't we actually go take a look inside and find out what all this talk is about? ....Unless you're wussy."