Ch. 8- Halloween Part 2

School was.....interesting. Most of the teachers and students were dressed up in some form of costume. Halloween events went on for the whole day, and by the time they went home, they were all thoroughly sugar high. Costume repairing, as well as slight changes followed, but soon, everyone was ready to leave. Leave meant different things, though- for Sakura, Lee, Ino Shikamaru, Hinata, Naruto, Tenten and Sasuke, it meant having Kurenai and Asuma drive them back to school for the Halloween Dance. For Neji, Shino, Chouji and Kiba, it meant trick-or-treating with Kakashi and Gai. However, mostly because Gai wanted to stay close to Lee, and Kakashi didn't want to leave Kurenai and Asuma alone for too long ( see Chapter 5 ), they elected to come along and go trick-or-treating around the school. All the guys were ready and waiting when Kurenai emerged from the girl's room.  Forestalling the inevitable questions with an upraised hand, she guestured towards the door. Ino was the first to emerge, dressed in a carefully repaired Ed costume. Tenten followed her, still dressed in her Kagome uniform. Sakura and Hinata emerged a few minutes later, having both changed their clothes. Hinata was dressed in a dress like the one Haruhi wore in Episode 8 ( to supper ) Sakura was dressed in the white shirt and black skirt that Winry wore in the city. Lee gallantly opened the door for Sakura, while Naruto performed an extremely accurate ( but not quite fake ) Tamaki-staring-at-girl-Haruhi act, while Sasuke laughed until he cried behind his back.  But with only a few mishaps, the whole cavalcade arrived at the school. With the boys in one van and the girls in the other, both groups got a severe lecture about etiquette, responsibility, ect. When both vans arrived at school, the girls abandoned theirs in the parking lot. Kakashi and Gai stopped for long enough to let Sasuke, Naruto, Lee, Shikamaru and Asuma out. Asuma and Kurenai had volunteered to chaperone......but were those their real motives? No one knew. They all looked at each other, not knowing what to say, but the moment was ruined by Kakashi cackling "See you guys later!" and driving off with more squealing of tires than was absolutely nessecary. Laughing, the others headed into the school. The first part of the dance was fairly uneventful. Dancing, laughing, eating, drinking, joking- the works. But due to the fact that Ino coat was a large part of her costume, she didn't take it off, and soon began to get too hot. "I'm overheating." she told Shikamaru during a pause for munchies. "Can we go outside for a bit?" "Sure." Shikamaru said, taking her hand and leading her towards the doors to the outside. They went out into the the parking lot, and Ino sighed as she felt the cold air on her skin. Looking around, she noticed something shining  in the streetlight a few feet away. She squeezed Shikamaru's hand to get his attention, and pointed to it. "What do you suppose that is?" she asked him. "Dunno." he said. ( A notorious moment- HE DIDN'T KNOW!! xDD ) "Shall we take a look?" They walked over there, and discovered, lying in a puddle, Gai's jounin vest ( which Lee had been wearing as part of his costume ) with a forehead-protector sticking out of one of the pockets. This was what had shone in the streetlight and caught Ino's eyes. They looked at each other, and then Shikamaru picked up the vest and started pulling it into the shadows as Ino turned and ran full tilt for the school. Going back inside, she searched the crowd, and found her fellow ninjas. But Asuma and Kurenai were nowhere to be seen. In the middle of explaining what they had seen, Ino stopped. She knew something was wrong. "What the-Shikamaru!" She spun and raced for the doors, everyone else following. Sure enough, when they got outside, they could see a couple of dark forms huddled around something on the ground. Something that was too big to be a vest. As they raced towards the scene, the ninjas automatically assumed fighting positions. Launching herself into the air, Ino aimed a flying kick at the first of the mysterious people. But a dog barked a warning, and Ino twisted in the air, missing Kiba by mere inches. Landing hard on the ground, she looked up at him. "Where did you guys come from?" she asked him. "We lost Kakashi and Gai, so we decided to come back here and ask Kurenai or Asuma to come with us and look." he replied. "And then we found this. And that was when we realized that Lee was missing, too." Ino thought about this for a moment, and then said "We can't find Kurenai or Asu-" Shikamaru clapped a hand over her mouth and looked out into the blackness. "I know you're there." he said, in a perfectly calm voice. "Come out. The trick is over." The four senseis- plus Lee- stepped out from where they had been hidden in the hedge. "Trick or Treat!" yelled Gai gleefully. "I'll show you trick!" Shikamaru growled, chasing Gad down the street while everyone else laughed themselves silly.