Beneath
Hello there! I return with another chapter of this glorious story! Wow, it's been a while since I've made two updates in such a short amount of time in between. I tried my best to make this chapter long for guys like you asked, so I hope you enjoy because I really like how it turned out. Now, without further adieu, I present to you the second chapter of Beneath, Motherly Love!
Motherly Love
"Just promise me… okay?"
~?
"How unfortunate."
Kurama sighed from within the recesses of her cage, shifting from side to side. Yin blew a strand of her long and bright, waist-length crimson hair from her face, looking over her bloody red fingernails as she watched the goat-like woman save her partner from this 'Flowey' character. She looked above her head, watching as the once thick trails of solid golden chakra running across the ceiling of the godly Uzumaki thinned and became damn near transparent, the now pencil-thin streams of cyan energy flowing slowly through the pipes without a care in the world. Bare as the day she'd been born within her human form, she rested a leg atop the other as she sat in her red-furred recliner contemplating this phenomenon to herself quietly.
"Hehehe…
Kurama looked over to the side lazily, the foxlike ears standing out atop her head twitching from the sound as she did so. Standing over the shallow water on the opposite side of her saffron cage was an entity she was unfamiliar with. A young girl with shoulder length caramel colored hair stared at the floor from beyond her sanctuary, her body twitching and spasming in random spurts. The Kyuubi got up from her recliner, staring curiously at the apparition before her. Reaching the cage in silence, she allowed her supple and perky breasts to press against the arousingly cold steel of the bars as she leaned closer still.
"RAAAAGGHHH!"
Unflinchingly, the humanoid Kitsune stared into the jaws of death, her nine tails of scarlet fur swishing behind her uncaringly. Sinister scarlet slits bore holes into the soulless black eyes that were inches from her face and vice versa. The striped green shirt she wore bore some semblance of battle, if the dried crimson stains were any indication. The biju swiftly caught the attack, her hardened skin rendering the blade ineffective and useless and, after sending the girl a hostile glance, closed her fingers around the kitchen knife, shattering the weapon as if it were naught but an unwanted plaything.
"I will have you…
The Nine-Tailed Fox batted her eyelashes innocently as the Uzumaki's bodily invader ground her teeth together furiously.
"I WILL KILL YOU NINE-TAILS!"
She walked back to her chair, returning to her rest, completely disregarding the young terror just outside her doors, all the while never once noticing the hairline crack in the cage bars.
(...)
The redheaded shinobi awoke abruptly, rising in an instant, his body set ramrod straight and drenched in a cold sweat. His fingers grabbed at his chest, fruitlessly gripping onto his shirt as if it were his lifeline. Grey eyes bulged, the orbs bugging out of his head through his internal terror. He'd have cried out by now if it weren't for the slightly embarrassing fact that he didn't remember what his nightmare was about. He just vaguely remembered seeing Kurama there and that he knew something was wrong. He thought of speaking to her but thought better of it.
If there was something wrong, she'd tell him, right?
Besides, if he tried to speak to her now and she just so happened to be taking one of her naps, he'd never hear the end of it. He briefly looked over himself, eyes widening when he saw that it wasn't the glossy complexion of his newly grown limb greeting his vision, but rather the white wrappings of bandages around said arm and knees. He tried to take the bandages off but then thought better of it and left them once he felt a near unbearable stinging sensation begin to settle in. With the sensation dissipating due to him already having left the gauze and medical tape alone, he swung his legs over the side of the soft bed below him and hopped off. The first thing he noticed was that just about everything was bigger than him.
Unlike the version of him in some of his earlier adventures, he realized the problem immediately. "Well, shit." He looked up, his head moving to accommodate the cerebral command, his scarlet bangs swishing aside to let him see to purple ceiling. It's so far away… He lifted an arm, vainly grasping for the ceiling. He was a fucking kid again. If there was a god out there, and there was seeing as he'd met plenty of them during his travels, then they abso-fucking-lutely hated him. With a passion.
Ring! Ring!
He looked downs hen the low and subtle jingle of a sound reached his ears, blowing a puff of carbon dioxide when a lock of his hair covered his vision. A small, red, heart-shaped charm hung from a thin yet apprehensively strong line of string, the charm glowing a baleful red, radiating with untold power all the while. He stared at it for a long time, attempting to decipher its purpose. He lifted his hands, slowly but surely, wrapping his small child sized fingers around the strong string from which it hung. Then he pulled with all his might. He tried to take it off, he really did. But, whatever sorcery preventing him from doing so stopped him in his tracks. He gave up, exhaling softly as he walked to the door of the room he stood in. He attempted to turn the doorknob until his cautious subconscious commanded he revise his thinking. Drawing upon the energies in his body, he allowed his form to take shape. He walked forward, the effects of intangibility seeing the light of day as he all but phased through the rectangular shaped construction of wood. The very moment his bodily molecules became solid once more, the most delicious scent drafted up his nose, causing his nostrils to expand with delight.
He closed his eyes and his form floated toward the origin cartoonishly.
When next he ripped his eyelids apart, he found himself in a kitchen, his face inches from a gorgeously crafted pie. He jumped back in surprise as the heat of the snack blasted into his eyes, warming his sclera uncomfortably. He adjusted the short-sleeved striped shirt and shorts he just noticed himself to be wearing. "Do not be weary my child. It is for you after all." This was one of the first times Uzumaki Nakaru could say that he'd physical jumped out of fright more than once in the same day. Turning on his heel, the redhead slipped into a ready stance, flawlessly dropping into a form of the many combat katas he knew.
Wide, friendly eyes filled his vision.
"Do you not like the pie?" he stood straight, staring into the eyes of the anthropomorphic goat standing before him in silence. The woman-he suspected as much by the sound of its voice-looked down at him with a smile even through the awkward silence provided by his refusal to speak. The silence became too much for him. "Uhh… I actually didn't try it yet…" The older woman formed an o shape with her mouth and quickly rushed past him, retrieving a small kitchen knife from one of the drawers. She cut a slice of the pie, sliding it onto a plate and passing it to the miniature shinobi with a small sigh, a wide grin on her face all the while. "Thanks miss…" She laughed quietly-what an angelic sound-down at the redhead as he examined the edible sweet. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. If you need anything else, I'll be waiting in the den." She left the kitchen without another word, leaving him there alone with the slice of pie. "I'm not really all that hungry anymore though." Just as those words left his lips, the item from within his grasp pixelized before his very eyes, the caramel colored cubes evaporating into the heart charm hanging from his necklace.
"Oh.", he stated, surprised. "That was… convenient."
Exiting the kitchen, the Uzumaki found himself in the aforementioned den, a blast of warmth leaping from the fireplace and onto his face, making all storages of cold atop his flesh flee. Toriel Dreemurr-he'd no idea how he knew her last name-sat in a recliner, reading a book with a pair of reading glasses resting lightly on her muzzle. "Toriel?" he called to her dragging her attention away from her book and onto him. "Yes, my child?" she asked him in return. He suddenly felt weight of a thousand suns fall upon his shoulders, regret gripping his heart as he stared into those innocent eyes of hers. Regardless, he steeled his resolve and stepped up to her, grey eyes flashing a violent violet briefly. "How do I leave?" She stared at him in silence for an unprecedented amount of time before she spoke again. "Why would you want to leave?", she said.
"This is your home."
Nakaru blanched, staring up into those eyes of the anthro creature, watching as they flashed with a crazed sight, unsure of how to word his next sentences.
"Do not falter."
He'd no time to rethink the advice given by his tenant in the speed of the moment when his mouth opened and his lips formed the words.
"How do I exit to the ruins?"
…
He flinched a little when she rose from her seat suddenly, her face, dark and sullen as she closed her book and tested it on the fireplace beside her. "Go to your room my child, I've something I must attend to." She scurried out of the den like an exposed rat, swift and without regret. He quickly followed her quietly, his many years of shinobi training back from the beginning of his adventures resurfacing in a manner of moments, his feet alighting upon the floorboards soundlessly. He came to a staircase, its dark and dank interior beckoning him sultrily with its invisible prowess. He hopped down the steps, his small yet lithe body easily handling the feat.
He came to a short stop however, once he very nearly bumped into the anthromorph. She dared not to look at him as she spoke her mind out to the ninja, letting her words do the work. "Every human that falls down here meets the same fate.", she began as she stared ahead. "I have seen it again and again." She finally turned to look at him and her face was cold, saddened by what seemed to be years of grief, her eyes already fallen and her ears drooping. "They come…", she told the fun-sized Uzumaki.
"...and they die."
His face fell in an instant.
"WHAAAT?!"
She chuckled to herself, "You naive child…"
"I know I'm naive!", he shot back at her using his own verbal tone, watching as she physically flinched away from him. "That's why you need to tell me what's going on so I won't be! So that I can survive!"
She turned away from him once more, beginning her trek toward the depths of the corridor as she spoke to him, "If you leave the ruins… they… Asgore will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand? Now, be a good little boy and go to your room." Tories eventually disappeared from his sight within the blackness, leaving the Shinobi standing there, befuddled and clueless. What do I do about this? He pondered lightly. I can think about that later! I can't let her get away! He sprinted after her, his miniature legs going full tilt as he tried to catch up to her. He ended up at a large, heavy-looking door, his person of interest barring his path.
"Do not try to stop me.", she spoke, a dark and maddening voice escaping her diaphragm as a spiral of blazing fire magic circled within her palm. "This is your final warning."
Scarlet eyes with an onyx flower-like pattern blinked owlishly at the door for all but a moment before they faded back to grey.
"That's the way out of the ruins isn't it?"
The goat woman flicked away her magic, turning to face him. "You want to leave so badly?" Her voice grew cold and distant from ears, even as his vision began to fade before her. His arms became too heavy for him to hold them up and his legs felt like jelly, so much so, he'd almost lost the strength to stand. If she'd any idea of what was happening, Toriel gave no indication as she began to talk again. "There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself."
"Prove to me you are strong enough to sur-AAH!"
The small light hanging above their heads that barely illuminated the area around them shattered in an instant, seemingly without any provocation. She fell to her knees in fright, staring out into the darkness in terror when she felt a cold breath along the nape of her neck. An eerily glowing pair of eyes, one scarlet and one violet, became visible before her. Sharp, pearly white canines flashed in the black, the demonic entity stepping forward. A small ball of her incendiary magic bloomed to life in her grasp as she held it out, desperate to see, to know what had happened.
Rather than the Uzumaki Nakaru she'd come to know and hopefully taken in as her own, there stood someone else completely. A green sweatshirt with a single saffron stripe and a pair of light brown slacks was the acquired attire of the person before her. Chocolate brown locks cascaded of their ears, ending just before their shoulders. They raised a hand, an ethereal scarlet gauntlet wrapping around their forearm, allowing a trio of claws to form from it, extending to a sharpened point as they smiled insanely down at Toriel. As the First Human smiled down at Toriel.
"Chara…?"
And then the claws rained down.
A/N: Sorry about the re-upload, I just wanted to fix some spelling and grammar mistakes.
