A strange new life

Halloween Special

If I could make a sound, I’m pretty sure someone would say I was cackling like an evil witch. I couldn’t help it. My masterpiece sat there, just in front of me.

It was perfect. Beautiful.

I threw my head back, silent-cackled again. Clawed fingers up. The classic crazy villain pose.

It took a while until I regained my bearings. I wiped an errant tear away. Damn, that was embarrassing. Laughing until you cry. I closed my eyes. Deep breaths helped me take control of myself. When I calmed down, I looked over the perfection on my kitchen table.

Small rectangular forms. Chocolate, wine red, sun yellow and sky blue. Colored caramel sprinkled with powdered sugar. An urge to laugh almost overcame me again, but I held back. With trembling hands, I took one candy. Took a sniff. Debated if I should risk a bite. Shook my head. Not worth it.

I gathered my magnum opus, taking care to not jostle the candy too much. With careful and deliberate movements, everything went into the container I had prepared. With one final longing glance, I sealed it. I placed it on the stack, with the rest of the explosive candies. On the left, was the other normal candy I prepared for tomorrow’s academy exercise. A sigh of contentment escaped me.

The inspiration hit me after I finished baking the candy for the event. I already had exploding cupcakes, but what about exploding candy? The idea was perfect! Of course, I wasn’t crazy. This one, different from the cupcakes, wasn’t a real explosive. It was just explosive. I mean, if everything worked like I planned, it would expand and burst out, splashing sugary syrup everywhere. Not to mention the extra effects. I really wanted to test those.

A loud knock at the door interrupted my musings. “Hinata-chan!” The sunshine brat called out. Why was he here? Did something happen? Why was he banging on my door in the middle of the night? “Hinata-chan, we’ll be late for the training mission.”

I blinked a few times. Looked at the clock on the wall. Seven and half in the morning. Looked to the window and toward the sky. Overcast, dark clouds, but definitely morning. Shit, I was going to be late. How did time pass so fast?

The banging on my door sounded again. “Hinata-chan? Are you still sleeping?”

Without waiting, I turned around, ran. I was at the door before Naruto could rattle it again. Pulled it open. The brat had his hand raised, ready to cause even more fuss. He looked at his hand, the door, then at me. His cheeks turned pink, he looked away. I looked down. Last night, inspiration struck when I was preparing to sleep. I was still in my pajamas. I rolled my eyes. Brats will be brats.

Without waiting for anything, I grabbed Naruto, pulled him inside the apartment. Before he could say anything, out popped my board. “Naruto-kun, I overslept. There's a stack of seals on my kitchen table. Can you gather them for me?” I showed him the board.

Naruto tilted his head. Nodded. He turned, but before he left I grabbed his arm. He looked at me again. I went to write again on the board. “The stack on the left. Leave the ones in the center there.”

Naruto read it again, scratched his head. Shrugged, nodded.

After that, I bolted for my bedroom. Had to take a shower and get out of my pajamas. Today was a special day.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror: Soft round face, fair skin, big black eyes, snake pupil in one of my eyes. Hair was done in a half bob cut, with the left side shaved. Shaved by virtue of necessity. Emosuke had, once again, tried to burn off my face for no reason. The gall of the brat. What was he? Depressed or something?

The face on the mirror reflected my annoyance with Emosuke. Or annoyance with all else. I mean, how could I compete with the clan kids at this rate? The three basic academy jutsu? That was just unfair. Stupid village rules and clan favoritism.

But enough moping about, today I had grand things planned. It was the last day of the tenth month. That meant Halloween! Not that anyone in Konoha even knew what Halloween was. There were a few civilian festivals in the village, mostly centered around one holiday or another. There were even a few spirit themed festivals, with the lanterns and all. But that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted — no, I needed — a good trick-or-treat Halloween day.

Unfortunately, there was no way I could organize a trick-or-treat day. The context just wasn’t there. Young shinobi in training disguising as spiritual creatures and knocking on other people’s doors asking for candies? Yeah, not happening. Which was why, after badgering Iruka-sensei for a long while, I managed to wear down the man and convinced him to accept one of my plans.

This whole situation, of course, was disguised as an academy exercise. Which was why I went on a cooking spree yesterday. I baked a lot of candies. Iruka-sensei agreed to hide the candies and set us to find them. It wasn’t trick-or-treat, but candy treasure hunt on Halloween would suffice.

“Hinata-chan, we’re gonna be late!” Naruto yelled again. “I can’t be late today. Today is the day I defeat Sasuke!”

I rolled my eyes again. Sunshine brat and Emosuke rivalry was annoying as always. But Naruto was right. With one last look at the mirror, I left my bedroom. Naruto was already at the door, waiting. He handed me the stack of seals. I gave him a smile. Ushered him out. Closed the door. Academy waited for no one.

Damn Iruka-sensei. That man was evil.

Ragged breaths escaped me. I was sprawled on one of the training forests, sweat dripping from my forehead. I guess his idea of treasure hunting was to set other shinobi to hunt us while we tried to find the package. This was supposed to be fun treasure-hunting. Not to flee for my life and find treasure. But it was fun, nonetheless. Between Henge, Kawarimi and Bushin no jutsu, I think I did well. Behind me, the kunoichi in charge of catching me was also breathing heavily. Even if she wasn't as exhausted as I was. Our eyes met. I gave her a big smile. She smiled back.

If I just looked at this from another angle, wasn’t this just a game of tag mixed with capture the flag?

“Good job.” The kunoichi said after a moment. “You gave me a good workout.”

I did a small victory dance. The kunoichi chuckled.

That wasn’t to say I managed to complete the exercise. The girl was relentless. I couldn’t shake her off, and nothing I did was enough to get past her and toward the goal. Time ran out before I managed to get past her. Which was fine.

We returned to the entrance of the training forest. The rest of the class was already there. It seems I was the last to return. Kunoichi-chan gave me a wave. She looked at Iruka-sensei and Mizuki. They exchanged nods. She left.

From near sensei, Emosuke sneered. From his self satisfied smile, I’m guessing he was the first to complete the training. Naruto was there as well, hand behind his head, hollering something or another. I guess he also managed to reach the goal.

The other students seemed fine. None of them looked as ragged as I felt.

Iruka-sensei cleared his throat. “Good job. Everyone did very well on today’s exercise— ”

Mizuki cut Iruka-sensei mid speech, eyes toward me. “Even those who didn’t manage to complete their goal.”

Iruka-sensei coughed. “Yes, even those who didn’t manage to get to the goal. But everyone put in the effort. Congratulations.”

Some of the kids cheered.

Iruka-sensei held up the container of colorful candies I had made. My eyes widened. I recognized it. It was the wrong ones — the experimental ones. I reached for my board, scribbled as fast as I could. Kiba shouldered past me, reaching for his prize.

“Second place isn't so bad,” he grinned, picked up a bright blue candy. Next to him, Shino accepted a yellow one, while Sasuke examined a wine-red piece with his usual brooding persona.

I looked at Naruto, who was rubbing his neck. Our eyes met. He looked at my board, the message I scribbled there. Realization dawned on his face. His mouth formed a perfect 'O'.

But it was too late.

The first explosion came from Kiba. The blue candy expanded in his mouth like a balloon before bursting with a soft pop. A cloud of sugar powder erupted, coating his hair in a spectacular array of bright colors. The edible glitter sparkling with a rainbow shine under the sparse sunlight. Akamaru barked, licked Kiba’s face. Barked again, tail wagging fast.

“What the—” Shino started, but never finished. His sun yellow candy burst next, and suddenly the air was filled with the excited buzzing of his kikaichu. Oh no, insects and sugar.

But the best—or worst—was Sasuke. He had just taken a tentative bite of the wine-red candy when it exploded in a shower of crystalline sugar. The Uchiha heir stood there, frozen.  Powder settled on his face and hair. Then a stray beam of sunlight broke through the clouds, and Sasuke sparkled.

The class fan girl’s squeals of delight could probably be heard in Suna.

But that wasn’t the end. The rest of the candies on Iruka-sensei’s hand exploded. Syrup and powdered sugar, and all those other things mixed into my experimental candies covered the rest of the class.

Mizuki bellowed, face red with fury. "What is th—" He stopped mid-sentence, having accidentally inhaled some of the airborne candy powder. His next words came out in squeaky high pitch: "What is this?"

The entire class fell silent. Even Sasuke stopped trying to wipe off the sparkles.

"When I find out who's responsible, they'll clean the Academy for a week!" Mizuki continued, looking mortified, his voice even higher.

I erased the warning I had written on my board, started to write an explanation. Wasn’t sure if Mizuki would accept this was just a misunderstanding, but Naruto jumped forward, hands behind his head and wearing his biggest grin.

"Got you all good, dattebayo!" he declared. "This is my best prank ever!" 

There was another moment of silence. The whole class yelled. “NARUTO!!!” He ran. The class ran after him.

Later that night, I went to visit the brat. Even made sure to buy his favorite ramen. I looked at Naruto. He slurped his food. Gave me me a thumbs up, “Your pranks are way better than mine, Hinata-chan!”

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t hide my grin. Next time, better make sure Naruto wasn’t anywhere near my experiments... or maybe not.

After all, Sasuke did look much better with a bit of sparkle.