One more chapter or two after this one left. :D I appreciate the love this story is getting, and please continue to R and R!

A fair warning: I said at the beginning that this story was rated for some language and frightening images, and since there are those of you who know the movie and the books, then I dare you to read with the lights off, or proceed with caution. (cold sweat)

Chapter Nine

The Dragon Cauldron Unleashed

It's...the Dragon Cauldron.

That thing was the essence of a true devil in not only its aura and name, but its appearance and craftsmanship.

It stood on three legs which were ending with realistic dragon claws, and the body of the cauldron was carved with never-ending swirls, symbolizing eternity. In the center of them all was a circular crest which bestowed three tomoe joined as one. As for its texture and surface, it was apparently made of iron, which was common for alchemists among other things. But instead of the magnificent glinting mirror-like silvery gray of perfection, it was rusted with age and was now black and rusted brown in places. Flakes floated in the air.

"I'll be damned to hell," Kakashi rasped, taking the first step forward. "It's everything I thought it would be. But how do we...?"

How do they destroy it? That was a damned good question. The only issue was that they'd come to find it, rid themselves of this nightmarish hell, because they never thought that far ahead...and then they heard the sly cackling above. The group jerked their heads up and saw the three witches above, though not part of the earth like they were.

They were part of the gathering of clouds, oversized like gods - or goddesses, in their case - above the mortals.

"Well, now that you have it, what will you do now to destroy it?" Yuugao asked with a malicious twinkle in her eyes. "The Dragon Cauldron is said to be indestructible. Surely you must be aware of that even before you struck the bargain?"

Angrily, Naruto refused to believe that. There was no such thing as "indestructible"; everything had a weak point. "That's not true. There is always a way to -"

Anko cut him off with that shrill cackle of hers, and she was silenced by her purple-haired sister who snarled at her to pipe down until she was done talking. "You're even more of a fool than before, boy. You think you can try your luck and waste more time before you hear what I have to say? The cauldron cannot be destroyed physically...but only its evil powers can be stopped," she said, the glint gone now so that there was nothing but a clear iris. No mist, either.

It can't be destroyed physically...only its powers...she said just that. She said that there was a way, but not to destroy the cauldron entirely, because this iron was nothing of the world. Orochimaru did a brilliant job of seeing to that. Hinata turned to look at the dark item, eyes still activated, and examine it. She flinched at whatever it was she was seeing. "Its aura...the matter...it's so frightening. It will take a miracle..." She looked up at the witches, asking them the question of "how"?

Yuugao answered perhaps all too easily. "A dead being must be placed in, thus a sacrifice beforehand, unlike the other way around: a living body would be dropped in to die in order to give the cauldron its life."

In that instant, their shared world collided without coming into contact with another.

Someone has to get into the cauldron and die for it to work, but a dead body has to be placed in to destroy its powers.

That meant they really HAD come a long way for nothing. There was no way they could find a willing - or unwilling, like one of Orochimaru's undeserving men - victim to do the trick, killing themselves first or dying by one of their hands. But wait...

"That means...that's what Orochimaru wanted me for," Hinata said harshly, narrowing her eyes. "A living sacrifice to give life to the cauldron...and a dead person to end its life." She jerked her head up to the witches. "And you said we could have it, but why did it have to come at such a high price?!"

"Yes, we had a bargain," Kakashi angrily reminded them, earning a wicked cackle from Anko.

"Of course, we did say you could have it, but it's not OUR fault you can't do anything about it!"

Naruto was more than ready to say that there had to be another way - except he knew there was nothing else, and he loathed their position now - but the witches were leaving now, vanishing into the storm clouds of lightning and thunder, calling back to them one last time:

"Remember: we ALWAYS keep a bargain."

~o~

They pitched camp that night, unsure of what to do now that they had no real direction despite the Dragon Cauldron being before them. Still sitting on its hilltop, untouched.

And here they were, sitting before a fire which they made together.

Naruto was the one who was prodding the fire with a look of grief on his face, understandably so. Kurama lay at his feet, curled up and looking around while at a loss for words, for once.

Kakashi was grim and tight-faced, probably brooding on how bleak things were, and no doubt wondering if his life of serving his land and his people had really come to this...

...but Hinata wasn't having any of this. Not when she herself had been abducted from home - to find that accursed thing and nearly become a lamb to offer to the false god - and then got these wonderful men in the process. So what that they were trying to save the world? And so what that things were worse instead of better? There was going to be a way to get a sacrifice for the cauldron, kill it and then save the world...but to think this way made her ill to her stomach. She'd heard of her own mother taking her own life, her father accidentally killing his own brother over a trickery...

"...feeding pigs is all I've been good at," Naruto finally said bitterly. "All I did was let you all down." He threw the stick down to the side and kicked at the dirt, like a child when things didn't go his way. This made Kakashi raise an eyebrow and Kurama jerk to all four feet.

"I've made small mistakes at home, but here, I've really done it: one mess after the other. Without my sword, I'm nothing! I can't even protect these lands, myself or...any of you."

This pity party made her snap, but releasing her agitation wouldn't work. So, kindness and understanding was going to boost if by a small miracle. She took his face in both of her hands, forcing him to look at her, watched from across the small fire by Kakashi and by Kurama who moved to watch with the soldier. "Naruto, that's not true. No one is perfect even if we desperately try," Hinata said passionately. "Even my family isn't, though we appear to be. I believed in you from the moment I met you even when you didn't appear to be much; you ARE someone with or without that sword. You heard my father and dear Kakashi -" She genuinely meant the word, and it might have made him blush a little at such a praise. "- when they said a real warrior has a heart stronger than any weapon he uses."

His eyes were shining as if touched by her words. Even more when the fox grunted and swished his tail without reason.

"You heard her, brat. And before, I thought you were an ambitious runt despite protecting that little sow of yours, but I was wrong. I couldn't hate you forever for trespassing, especially when you fed me like no one else." So, in other words, he didn't hate Naruto as much as he let on. It was a tsundere thing all along, and almost laughable. Hostile only to spend more time with him and warm up.

"You guys are all my true friends...and I'm grateful to have you here," Naruto finally croaked, standing up then, and he took both of her hands into his, stunning Hinata. She never thought that she'd see the day someone like him would make her feel this way, to connect with her and endure so much...if they ever made it out alive...

She waited for him to say something else when he looked at her, jaw opened for a few seconds - but he didn't say what she thought he would, instead settling on this, in case it was the wrong time: "Hinata, you're kind and have so much faith even when everything has taken a dead end. You're strong that way, just like with that crossbow and your eyes."

Oh...is this how it feels...?

Hinata was referring to how her heart was beating, but it was intruded when they heard those terrible ROARS overhead, and their heads jerked up to see the two serpentine dragons flying. They had been found!

~o~

It was one fine way to end the world. They had the cauldron, only to not do anything with it...and here they were now.

Should they have gone out regardless after getting it? Perhaps, but their hesitancy to take someone's life was a stunt...

They were all still together, except Kurama who had run off like he did the time Naruto chased after Tonton before those dragons took her. Only before those men and the dragons swooped in, he called to the group that he was going to hide and then follow them, with a plan he had no time to explain.

He was still guilty of not having his sword, but it wasn't like he could predict the future himself, and it wasn't like Hinata had that ability other than seeing everything in a circle. A circle...which means failure has really come full circle. Just when things were beginning to look up and we had acknowledged that we would finally figure out what to do...

...but look at us now: taken down to the lower levels - and we see hundreds of skeletons of soldiers, behind those two doors where we didn't know what was hidden - and we're chained up by the wrists and forced to watch as the cauldron is brought in.

The Dragon Cauldron was placed on the highest pedestal of stairs. Kabuto the rat was standing beside it, snapping at the fools who dragged it with straining efforts to get the cart out of here, before clearing his throat and turning his attention to the trio who were farther above, on a small wooden bridge and away from the sea of dead soldiers, and putting both hands behind his back.

"Excuse me for ignoring you. You did come for the cauldron, didn't you? You thought to destroy its powers if you couldn't hack it up yourselves."

He turned to look into the depths of the icon of pure evil willpower, momentarily wincing as he thought about what to do in order to get this thing working on the dead ones littered across the grounds below the pedestal...and that was when all attention was directed to the beyond, where the platform was connected to an archway which displayed a shadowy figure coming into eyesight. Kabuto swallowed and bowed his head at the appearance of his master.

There stood Orochimaru himself, and his eyes flashed when he saw the trio of captives, lips pulling back in a tight smirk. His voice slithered like silk, only to tighten like a noose.

"My...such a brave band of oddities: a pig boy, a fair maiden, and a disgraced soldier of my enemies."

You...bastard. You dare speak like that of people you once called - "Who were once your comrades and even your loved ones, you snake!" And the man knew exactly who he spoke of, for Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.

"None of which matters to me anymore, dear Naruto...now that I finally have what I spent a lifetime of searching. And all those who were sacrificed will not be in vain when I finally finish what I started." Hinata and Kakashi were glaring murder at his words with Naruto, who bared his teeth as he growled. The snake man's attention flickered to the girl he had once captured for a living offering, smirk fading. "It's a shame that you cannot be used this time, but it's hardly important. At least you shall watch the show with your friends."

"Monster," Hinata hissed back.

"You captured someone else instead while you were hunting us, didn't you?" Kakashi added, and Orochimaru chuckled.

"No time had to be wasted any more than it has been, but yes. And it gives me great joy that you have finished for me so that we all shall see what fate has in store." He walked over in two, slow but swift strides and stood behind the cauldron, resting both hands on the rim and peering into its core. His eyes seemed to darken as his lips were slurped by that loathsome tongue. "Constructed from the purest steel I could find from the earth - and other secrets best kept to myself, but blood is one I shall reveal - only for the years of nonuse and the earthly elements to take its toll," Orochimaru murmured, face deepening before brightening up again. That was when he stood back and waved his hands, then produced a glittering purple puff of smoke - and there it revealed a live, bound captive who was also gagged.

"To give life in exchange for this one: one of my own lackeys who has been useless...but now he shall prove useful. Given you three are no longer befitting to be candidates now that the arrangements are in place." He raised the whimpering man whose eyes were wide with the purest of terror at knowing his final fate. "I now call upon my army of the dead: the Cauldron Born."

The victim could only scream through his gag and not wail words, for no one would - or COULD - come to his aid. He was put all the way into the cauldron, and Orochimaru threw his hands into the air once more, shouting at the top of his lungs that spittle leaked from one corner of his mouth.

"ARISE, MY MESSENGERS OF DEATH: OUR TIME HAS ARRIVED!"

~o~

Oh...it's horrible!

The word was an extreme understatement at its finest.

First, the Serpent King put his sacrificial lamb into the cauldron, then bellowed his incantation...only for blood to begin leaking out from the thing, and within was heard the muffled cries and thrashing, but you couldn't see the face of the sufferer at all. The cauldron's claws were opening and closing even as one single drop of the red liquid landed atop one of the "feet".

Hinata wanted to close her eyes and turn away, but physically couldn't. Her heart was cold with terror as her blood froze. She could still hear the mention of blood used in creating this monstrous tool, and wondered if any friends and that woman the snake had loved were part of it...

Blue light was now glowing as Orochimaru weaved some hand signs, then threw those appendages into the air again, followed by a glowing yellow beam which shot north and hit nowhere in particular - from inside, the man's screams could be heard - before reverting to demonic red and gold, the howls subsiding just as the human face formed within the light, before turning into a skull which symbolized death, and returning back into the cauldron.

But then the most repulsive thing happened just as the cauldron was coming to life: all lights faded, and a sickening green and purple mist crawled out, leaking down the platform and stairs to float over the mass of soldier skeletons from these despairing lands and that of the flourishing Konoha.

"I've said this many times: I'm sure many of them are our own...some even my friends," Kakashi said to them, bowing his head and closing his eye. He couldn't bear looking anymore, which she wanted to very much.

In the meantime, where in heaven's name was Kurama?

He'd run off, saying he was hiding because of a plan, not telling them what, but she knew there was no time to explain as those men and those dragons reached far too fast. Their weapons were taken easily, and she was sure she'd seen it in Naruto's eyes as he wished more than ever that his sword was there to help them - or those blasted witches. She cursed all three of them to herself. Why did her father, Naruto's parents and his guardian Jiraiya even bother to ENTRUST the cauldron with those horrible women?!

Maybe he's coming in at this moment, but through the lowermost levels where there are rats...the dungeon's moat. Yes, he must be. I would use my eyes, but Orochimaru will no doubt catch on.

Some green smoke was touching Orochimaru, bringing out the effects so that they'd appear on the inflicted, if not to harm. What she and her boys were witnessing was the stuff of nightmares. Horns growing from the mane of midnight hair...scales penetrating the face and making him more reptilian than man...the jaw and nose extended to become more defined and animalistic...and claws for hands.

Orochimaru was becoming the Dragon Emperor, first appearing as such. And he was relishing it as he brought his hands before himself, completely ignoring his anxious rat boy and stand-by soldiers who had their axes, swords and pole-arms raised. All bore fascination and fright.

It wasn't long before one of them, with a cocky leer, reached out with his pole-arm, causing some lightning to form as a test to see if this ancient dark magic was really working...and he truly underestimated the powers of the dragon, of life and death. What he did was the most fatal mistake ever made.

Screams were heard throughout as three skeletons came to life, bursting from that place and baring their bony teeth. To see that and those soulless black eyes, no bits of flesh or sinew remaining, dripping with slime and some blood, was enough to haunt your dreams for a long time to come. And one of them is from Konoha, the other two from here in Oto...one enemy wreaking vengeance and the other two having no free will against their own comrades... And it was evident with what they did to the soldier who prodded at the source of their life-giving energy, along with two others nearby.

She had to at last jerk her head away at what she partially saw but knew was happening, the last one prolonging more than the other two so that the final moments were agonizing: one man was sliced in half by a great sword, down the middle of his body, beginning from the top of his head. Another was decapitated in a single, clean blow.

And Naruto forcing himself to mention the final was the reason she thought all of this horrid: "Melting down to the bone -" Seeing nothing but rot and slime, exposing the skeleton beneath. "- oh, gods."

"- my beloved warriors have come to life. In centuries' past, no one has ever created an army like this. Now...go forth, my deathless warriors and destroy all in your path."

Since their services were clearly no longer required, as well as fearful for their own lives like their three butchered comrades, Orochimaru's living men fled, some dropping their weapons and scampering like scared animals while the rest clutched onto theirs with some ounce of bravery left in them.

I never...thought it would end like this. Hinata kept her eyes shut as she could no longer look at the walking skeletons in their tattered clothes which revealed every contour of their bones, carrying their weapons with great strength and limping on, rattling and sometimes jerking. Their foul smell made her want to vomit. Her ears heard Kabuto urging his master to go with him so that they could have a view from above...

"Better to die honorably, I suppose now, than to live and see this," Kakashi grumbled, bowing his head in defeat.

Hinata couldn't believe what she was hearing, and neither could Naruto. This man faced imprisonment here in these walls, and so had they, but they were all back here for what appeared to be the final time - where the hell was Kurama?!

She chose now to turn the Byakugan on, and that was when she caught sight of what she knew had been coming all along. It seemed hope wasn't lost, but it was far from over.

Iron on Wiki: "Pristine and smooth pure iron surfaces are mirror-like silvery-gray. However, iron reacts readily with oxygen and water to give brown to black hydrated iron oxides, commonly known as rust. Unlike the oxides of some other metals, that form passivating layers, rust occupies more volume than the metal and thus flakes off, exposing fresh surfaces for corrosion."

Definition of tsundere: a Japanese term in which a person begins cold and even hostile but gradually warms up and becomes friendlier.

I hope you weren't too frightened by the undead warriors coming to life, or what happened to those three men. As to that, the one melting down to the bone was inspired by a deleted scene of the movie, but it was cut out because it was too graphic for a Disney animated movie.