Disclaimer: I do not own anything except my own personal ideas
Jashin's Empire
Chapter One
Two people stood outside the tall doors of the bloodstone pyramid.
"Kyuubi, is this the temple?" the younger boy, who was no more than five, enunciated each word carefully and looked up at the red-headed teenager. The teenager, Kyuubi, smiled back at him, revealing sharpened teeth.
"Yes, it is Naruto." He reached out a hand and ran it slowly down one of the doors, fingers caressing the symbols inscribed upon it. Naruto copied his movements, face rapt in awe. Naruto had heard stories of the temple, seen it from a distance even, but he had never imagined that it would be this beautiful up close.
The temple was tall, its height easily surpassing anything nearby, and made of bloodstone and metal. A large set of steps (which were dreadfully tiring to walk up, as Naruto had just learned) led up to a plateau that was roughly one hundred yards long and 50 wide. The plateau was lined with tall pillars. Each pillar was adorned with a white silk flag that had a circumscribed inverted triangle embossed on it in black.
Blue eyes looked up into deep brown, "Are you sure you can't come with me?"
Kyuubi laughed easily, "Go with you to the Initiate's Temple?" he absently grabbed the handle of his scythe, which was slung over his shoulder, "No can do Naruto. I did my training."
"Please-"
Kyuubi bent down and clapped his hands onto the boy's shoulders, "Don't beg Naruto," he admonished sternly, "Jashinists never beg. Begging is for the weak and the weak deserve to die. You don't want to be weak, do you?"
Naruto shook his head frantically, blue eyes wide.
"Good.," Kyuubi pulled the boy into a brief hug and then stood, "Make me proud little brother"
He pushed open one of the doors and held it open expectantly. Naruto gave him one last look and walked into the darkness that pooled just inside the temple.
One Year Later
Naruto stood barefoot, shirtless, and shivering from cold in the middle of the chamber. His back was stinging violently, and he could feel blood slowly running down between his shoulder blades and soaking into the waistband of his pants. A knife, bloodstained and chipped, landed abruptly on the floor in front of him. He stopped himself from making any surprised or startled movements with difficulty; last time he had jumped he had been badly whipped. A bloody and beaten man hit the floor seconds after the knife; his head connected with the stone floor with a sickening crunch. Sempai grabbed the man by his white hair and pulled him viciously upright.
"Kill him"
Naruto looked at the knife, then at the man, and then at Sempai, who was watching him with dangerously glittering red eyes.
Frightened green eyes stared beseechingly up at the blonde "Please, do—"
The man's plea turned into a scream of pain as Sempai slammed a knee, hard, into his spine. Naruto suppressed a sympathetic cringe as he heard something in the man's back break.
Sempai pulled the man's head back further, baring his throat.
"Kill him," he repeated, staring at Naruto from underneath his black fringe. He dropped his free hand onto the handle of his whip and narrowed his eyes, "now"
Naruto picked up the knife slowly, eyes never leaving the man's exposed neck, mind racing. The man had been about to beg for his life
"Begging is for the weak and the weak deserve to die…"
"…never show mercy. They would not give it to you, why give it to them?"
"…If life is precious why is there so much of it?"
He gave his head an almost imperceptible shake to clear out the ghosts of voices invading his head and tightened his grip on the knife. Sempai watched him, a cold smile playing around his lips. Naruto took a deep breath and his hand shot out. The knife flew in a sharp horizontal line. The blade cut through the man's neck easily, with only a slight viscous pull. Warm blood spurted from the wound, soaking the front of the man's ragged shirt and ropes of it splashed against Naruto's face. Sempai released the man's hair and the dying man fell bonelessly to the floor, final breaths gargling up from his ruined throat and feet twitching spastically.
"Huh, not bad for a first kill, vermin"
Something bounced off Naruto's chest and fell to the ground. In a daze the boy picked it up and hung it around his neck. The rosary's pendant settled near his solar plexus like an icy weight.
Ten Years Later
"So, out of all the little shits, you're the one who managed to kill your Sempai"
Naruto looked up from his kneeling position at the silver-haired priest who was standing in front of him.
"Yes, Hidan-san" he murmured respectfully.
"Hmmm, I'm not fucking surprised. I remember your brother Kyuubi; he was a bloodthirsty little shit."
A battered three-bladed scythe clattered to the floor in front of Naruto.
"There. By a long-fucking tradition you get your old Sempai's weapon. Use it well"
"But, Hidan-san what will the others use for weapons?" Naruto asked, eyeing the scythe apprehensively, the old scars it had caused burning with the ghost of pain.
"The others?" Hidan let out a bark of laughter, "the others from your dorm were weak. The Empire doesn't tolerate weakness in the Temples."
Naruto kept his face impassive as the hidden meaning in Hidan-san's words sank in.
'So they're all dead then…'
"Pay attention fucker!" Hidan snapped irritably. There was a brief burst of pain as he kicked Naruto hard in the jaw. The pain faded into an easily ignored throbbing, and the blonde pushed it out of mind.
"My apologies, Hidan-san"
"Eh, fuck your apologies. Anyway, the Empire wants you to head to the Konoha settlement. Some of the heathen's there have been acting up. Crush them, understand?"
"Yes Hidan-san"
"Good," the pale man waved a hand dismissively, "Get the fuck out of here. And grab a damn robe before you leave."
Naruto stood, carefully picked up the scythe (which seemed to pulse with malevolent energy) and slung it across his back. He was almost out the door when Hidan spoke again.
"Remember, there is no tolerance for failure. Don't fuck up or don't come back."
Naruto nodded respectfully and closed the door behind him. When he heard the door click shut he allowed himself to smile and set off to the room where all the Temple's robes were stored. He had done it. He was a warrior in Jashin's Empire, just like Kyuubi.
'Make me proud little brother'
Kyuubi would be proud, he knew it. He grabbed a robe and shrugged it on easily, shifting a bit this way and that to get used to the feel of it.
The robes (which were the uniform of the Empire) were floor length, with sleeves that fell to just above the fingertips. They were such a deep black that they almost appeared to suck in surrounding light and were embellished and bordered with dark purple. Naruto went through some basic fighting moves; he knew the robes were heavy because of all the armor hidden inside the cloth but thankfully they were not particularly restrictive. Satisfied with his brief inspection and testing phase he pulled the hood up and slung the scythe (he had heard Sempai call it Teikoku no ha before but he supposed he would need to rename it now that it was his) over his shoulder.
He pushed open the temple's front doors and stepped into the bloody light of the setting sun. The air smelled of death and burning flesh. A thick black pillar of smoke rose from the north end of the plateau.
Naruto walked slowly across the plateau and down the steps, not giving the funeral pyre of the failed initiates even a glance.
Konoha was a week's journey away at the least, best get started.
A/N: this is going to be my first multi-chapter fic so some reviews (but no flames) would be appreciated. They would really help me know whether or not to continue posting this story.