A Long Road Ch 10

A Naruto Fan Fiction

I do not own Naruto

Ch 10: The Abyss

He woke up slowly, disoriented and confused. His entire body was engulfed in pain, but it almost seemed relaxing compared to what he had experienced when he was last conscious. He could barely blink or breathe without hot agony coursing through him down to his bones. He sat there for hour's maybe days but it was hard to tell. After a long time he realized that certain places all over his body were numb, almost like they had been cut away from the rest of his form. There were more then a few dozen scattered around his body and the patches of numb flesh burned around the edges more then the other parts of his figure. He had tried to count all of them with his senses because he couldn't move, but he could never get past 23 before he lost track. He had a hard keeping his mind on track and anything more then basic thoughts gave him a headache.

After what he considered a day and a half he was able to grasp his thoughts more fully. The pain had dulled but only slightly, and he was able to turn his head to the side of the bed without his body screaming at him quite so badly as it had before. Deus was sleeping on the bed across the cavern. Naruto had not heard him move since he had awakened. He looked to the floor to see that in the place of the seal that occupied the space earlier was now a patch of rock that had become molten and then cooled over the course of time when he had been asleep. He drifted into sleep against his will.

…

The next time he opened he eyes he was well enough to limp around. Deus was gone but he had left a cane for Naruto to use. Observing the patch of super heated and cooled rock he noticed that there were some irregularities in its mostly smooth surface. The place where he had been when the seal started was angled into a pit, it was shallow but deep enough for someone to stumble over if they weren't paying attention. At the lip of the depression the ground was raised no more then the thickness of his hand. The rest of the rock was covered in seemingly random bumps and grooves that were caused by the movement of the lava when it was active.

He pulled up the shirt he was wearing and looked at the numb patches that he noticed before. The patch of skin was completely black and dead. "Fuck." Naruto muttered worried. He could tell that it had become smaller while asleep; he had always been a fast healer.

The light emanating form the mouth of the cave was appealing to him, he had not seen outside since he had arrived and his curiosity was peeked. As he approached the opening the wall of light that blocked his vision was blinding, but when he broke the surface his eyes quickly adjusted. Deus was siting in a wicker chair that was crudely hand made, enjoying the scenery of the forest that surrounded a small clearing of land where the cave was situated. He turned to Naruto and smiled. "Welcome back." Naruto had never noticed what Deus had looked like before. Of course he had seen him but had never taken in how strange looking he was; well most of him was normal but his skin was a pale almost snow white, and his eyes were a deep shade of red that reminded him of fresh blood. Perhaps the shock of Jiraiya's death had made him numb to some details that had surrounded him.

"How are you feeling?" Deus spoke waiting for him to say something. When he tried to speak his voice failed him. Clearing his lungs he spoke in a rough tone "Like shit." Well it looked like his vocal cords still had not recovered form all the screaming. "Good to hear. When your better are you ready to start training?" Not wanting to strain his cords he just nodded in conformation.

…

The next few days went slowly, Naruto rested most of the time and Deus was nowhere to be found; he didn't talk about where he went and Naruto didn't ask even if he wondered. Trust was one thing he had for the man but only because he did not know much else. The black dead flesh withered and faded away and with it so did all his sense of Chakra; it was a strange and empty feeling he was not use to. But something new filled him; gradually he began to feel something he had never experienced. Something he couldn't describe with words but could feel more clearly then anything around him. If he could tell someone what it was he could only say that it was a warm feeling but also dead and empty at the same time.

A day later it was time to start becoming strong under the guidance of Deus. Naruto heard a call for him to come out of the cave and when he did he saw Deus standing waiting for him. "Sit Naruto." Was all he said and Naruto obeyed him. They both took a seat on the ground and stared at each other. "Can you feel it?" Deus asked. "Ya." "I need you to know that I will not let you back inside until you can do what I ask of you, I will also need you to stay in this clearing. Do you understand?" Naruto only nodded silently. Deus then brought out his hand palm up and closed it, seconds later he opened it again and produced a small jet black crystal. "This is the physical manifestation of the power the flows through us." Deus handed the small stone to Naruto and he observed it. The crystal was about a centimeter thick and was no longer then one of his fingernails, both ends narrowed into a sharp point that pricked his finger when he lightly touched it. "If you can draw the power from this crystal then the first step to grasping it will be in your hands." Without another word Deus stood and walked to the mouth of the cave staring out at him.

…

Naruto was stretched out on his back looking up at the sky, the crystal sat in his open right hand. Four days of sitting out in the freezing cold of the approaching winter had zapped his strength. He tilted his head to the side to see Deus sitting at the cave where he lived. He had not moved since the challenge began. Naruto wondered if Deus was just waiting for the moment when he would break and ask to be let into the cave. Was this just a test to see how far he could go? No that wasn't it, Deus had been sitting there the entire time, never taking his eyes off him; he was waiting for something to happen. What? What was it he was supposed to do with this useless rock? He had tried everything to get it to do something. His last attempt was to force it under his skin to see if it would react with his power unconsciously, but nothing had worked. He held it up the light of the moon but it did not twinkle despite its somehow glossy look.

He was furious at Deus for putting him out here with out telling him anything. This was a waist of time and they both knew it. He would never be able to save Sasuke because he was too weak, and he always had been. He had let down his friends and there was no way to recover from what Deus had done to him. He thought of Sakura standing there in front of him pleading for him to bring Sasuke home. Closing his eyes the last bit of hope slipped through his fingers and tears rolled down his face. It was over, his life was pointless and if he died out here he would not have cared.

A tingling feeling made his right hand itch. Then it felt warm but also dead and empty. His eyelids shot open and looked at his palm, it was gone. A grin sprouted and the tears stopped. He looked over at Deus but he was nowhere to be seen, and neither was anything else. A dark abyss stretched for an eternity in all directions, never stopping, never wavering. He stood and looked into it not blinking. He could feel something there; he could tell it was aware of him but not how he knew that. A deep fear griped him like nothing before, invading the far corners of his mind and body. He could feel the intent of the mysterious form that hid in the darkness, it was coming from all directions and felt like he was stuck under water.

He wanted to call for Deus but the air in his lungs seemed to be frozen under the fear of what was happening. For a long time he stood there waiting for something, but nothing came. His eyes darted from side to side but it was futile, there was nothing to see in the darkness. Every way he turned he could feel whatever it was looking back at him just beyond his vision. Naruto realized that the thing watching him was the abyss. Once more he looked into the blackness and this time the feeling was closer then ever, it was almost suffocating. He felt bare and open to the abyss, all his feeling and thoughts were reviled to it and there was nothing he could do to stop it. But the abyss didn't care, that much was clear to Naruto. He was nothing more then a fly on the wall compared to it.

All at once the abyss was gone like it had never existed. He was looking up at the night sky. Deus was standing there looking down at him. "Did you see it?" "Ya." Naruto replied. They walked back to the cave and fell asleep.

"When you look into the abyss the abyss looks into you."-Friedrich Nietzsche

…..

thanks for reading.