KG: Yes, I am not dead. I have heeded the call of the lost and have come to bestow you with time-consuming work from the pressures of the world. Hold your applause. Hold your applause.
Wifey: I'll hold my disgust.
KG: Ignoring!
Music of the Week: Tear Down The Bridges by End of Silence.
Quote: "I'll take responsibility for my evil actions, if you take responsibility for making me think that was all I had left," Unknown.
Night fell over Hozuki Castle. Prisoners were placed back in their cells and guards began their last routine checks before they returned to their quarters.
Once all was quiet, Mui opened the door to Naruto and Hana's room. As he had anticipated, both were still unconscious and bound to their beds. He surveyed the room only once before he stepped inside. "Get ready to move them!" He called.
About five guards walked into the room and untied both of them. Naruto and Hana were then restrained to chairs and wheeled out of their quarters. The guards then followed Mui through the Hozuki Castle corridors. The only sounds to be heard were the screeching of the unoiled wheels through the hallways.
The guards stopped at Mui's office. He opened the door and they wheeled the two captives inside. Once both were inside and Mui had checked them over to make sure that they were still asleep, he walked over to a bookcase that no one would have suspected if they did not know what they were looking for.
The warden effortlessly pushed the bookcase to the side which revealed a long flight of stairs leading down into uneasy darkness that refused to give eyes enough light to see into. The two were taken from their wheelchairs and carried down a long flight of stairs. No one spoke a word, but each step the guards took made them shiver as they felt the crushing weight of the void around them.
For the five minutes that passed, it seemed like days. Once the guards reached the bottom, they felt the breath exhale from their lungs that they had been holding. They did not speak upon what made them so afraid for fear of retribution, but the look they gave each other told them that they wished they could leave this foreboding darkness soon.
With time, Mui and his four guards were gathered within a room with very small lighting. The shine from three above ceiling lamps offered just enough light to see tables lined with vials of unknown chemicals and two patient boards for their two captive prisoners. What they also noticed...was the large box neatly fitted into the side of a stone wall.
"Place them on the table. You may leave once you're done," Mui instructed. The guards couldn't have been more thankful.
Naruto and Hana were unchained and then placed on the two tables. The four guards left without word of mouth. This left the warden alone for a time until he noticed four cloaked figures wander into the room. Each figure wore an animal mask designated to them. Two stood at each table observing the two fallen warriors that had been a part of Akari's team.
"Hmmm, I did not expect one of them to be so small. Are you sure this chakra could be found in such a small boy? I find it hard to believe," one of them said.
Mui stared at Naruto's sleeping form before turning to the gathered members around him. "Appearances are often deceiving. I don't know the origins of this boy but I'm positive that with him and the woman, we can achieve what we all want," the warden said. The four others agreed and they began their work.
Off came Naruto's shirt and Hana's top. The sealing formula for Mui's juinjutsu that he used to restrict the prisoners appeared on their bodies. He placed his hand on top of Naruto's chest. With a surge of chakra and a few words muttered to himself, Mui released the restrictive jutsu he had placed on the long, red-haired boy. Notably, Naruto breathed just a little easier.
"Now the woman," another member said. The others agreed.
The five members turned towards Hana as Mui began to work. However, the warden felt a harsh chill run down his spine as if the eyes of death were upon him. Sharp, red, dangerous eyes, like those of a great demon, were piercing into the very depths of his soul. Startled, Mui turned around but the only thing that greeted him was a sleeping Naruto upon the stone table.
"Warden Mui, is there a problem?" one of the four members asked. The jonin placed a hand to his head and he noticed how much he had been sweating. He looked down at his hands and he noticed how blurry they seemed. In that blurriness, he could also see his soaked palm tremble. Perhaps...he was more tired than he thought.
"Nothing. Let's proceed," he said. He then placed his hand on Hana's stomach and removed the juinjutsu from her as well. Throughout the process, Mui could not shake the feeling of unease surrounding not just him but the other members as well.
Once preparations were done, the four members stood at the four corners of the room while Mui stood between the stone tables that held Naruto and Hana. Then, with outstretched arms, he began performing the necessary handsigns to transfer their chakra into the box.
As Mui wove his fingers and hands, the Box of Ultimate Bliss' face lit up in a flowing sea of malicious chakra. Dark energies swirled around it like a thousand swarms of death harbingers while the box began to resonate with Hana and Naruto's chakra.
"What is that on the boy's stomach?!" one of the members exclaimed. Everyone focused on Naruto and they saw a great sealing formula planted around his navel. Had they not been on the cusp of victory, the members and Mui might have thought to question what this meant, but...they did not.
Instead, they watched a surge of blue and red chakra swirl out of Naruto's body as the young Uzumaki shot open his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs. Not long after him, Hana screamed as a wondrous color of white chakra expelled from her body. White, red, and blue chakra clashed together with the dark aura of the Box of Ultimate Bliss. Its red eyes shined with an unholy intent as it continued to partake in the glorious meal presented before it.
For about a minute, the box suckled on the flowing chakra from Naruto and Hana before its hunger was sated. Both were dropped to their stone tables. Pain surged through their bodies, but...that did not stop a big smile from cracking the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's face.
"HeheheheheHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!"
Mui and the four masked members turned to see Naruto with his arms spread out like a great eagle. They watched him laugh like an evil dictator who had just successfully conquered a ruling nation. Then, they all watched him...clap his hands together. With some effort and pain, he leaned himself up but never one stopped the reverberating sounds of his hands smacking against each other.
"Finally. Well done, Mui-san. My reason for coming here wasn't a waste of my time after all dattebayo! In gratitude for your efforts, I'll try to have Ryuzetsu kill you last. Consider it a parting reward," Naruto said.
Before Mui could even begin to fathom what the redhead could have been referring to, his eyes...would never forget the sight of the four council members of the Hozuki Castle. He would never forget...the stakes of blood impaled through their bodies. He would never forget...their screams as he could do nothing but watch as their frail bodies slide down the stakes which only served to pierce them harder. He would also never forget...the hypnotic, evil, vile stare of Naruto's red eyes and crooked smile.
The warden tried to move but a wave of killing intent stopped him where he stood. He was quick to notice that this wave of terror did not come from Naruto. No, it came from the woman who had laid next to the red-haired boy. He stared into the eyes of a great beast from Hana Uzumaki.
Mui could not move. He could not think. He could not speak. The Warden of Hozuki Castle was...too scared to move against the two individuals who had only seconds ago been his captives. Then...came the sickening crunches. He watched as the stakes of blood came alive and began piercing into the flesh of the members even more than before. Their bones crunched and cracked. Their skin seemed to be struck by the sands of time as more and more wrinkles appeared upon them. Then, the blood covered their deceased bodies and rushed back to the redhead in the form of four red pills.
"These'll help my cultivation dattebayo! Come on, Hana. Something tells me this place isn't gonna be so secret anymore," Naruto said.
As soon as he said that, the walls began to shake, the ceiling began to quake, and the ground began to rumble. Stone slabs which held the hidden lab together came undone as Mui covered his head from the falling debris. Chakra exploded from the box in a violent eruption that would no doubt send the underground system caving in on itself.
He watched Naruto wave to him before the two left the room.
Once they both left the room, the two began walking back up the flight of stairs that had been used to carry them down. The rumbling never stopped and neither did the shaking. By now, they could hear the sounds of the alarms around the prison going off. No doubt prisoners and guards were waking up from their sleep.
"How do you feel?" Naruto asked.
"Well, I don't feel as drained as I did about two weeks ago. So we have the box. What now?" Hana asked.
Naruto smirked. "We wait for Mui to open it of course. He's been waiting a long time for this. A man like him...would only do this for the hope of something," he replied.
"And you want to see that hope turn to ash?" she asked.
Naruto did not reply to her. The only indication of his response was that the smile on his face had gotten bigger. However, that smile wouldn't stay for long because both noticed a blur of speed pass them by. Through the piercing darkness of the night sky, they could see Mui above them and ready to intercept.
"Try not to kill him. I want Ryuzetsu to have the pleasure," Naruto said as he kept walking. Meanwhile, a surge of chakra expelled from Hana's body.
"No promises," she replied.
"Katon: Tenrō," Mui shouted as he thrust his palm outward to place the restrictive seal on their bodies once again. He hoped to get Naruto first before subduing Hana, but that was not to be his fate. Instead, a vicious claw grabbed his face. Hana then crashed him into the adjacent wall. She then swung her body and launched her foot into his abdomen propelling him through the wall and out into the prison area.
Hana proceeded into the main prison area as well along with Naruto.
Neither could begin to ask why the prisoners and the guards were outside staring at the massive box that had just appeared in the recreation area for the prisoners. Everyone stared at its demonic presence and shape with wide eyes.
As Naruto and Hana entered the field, so did Ryuzetsu and Akari. "Well done, Akari," Naruto quietly praised to the Kusa chunin. The woman offered the redhead a swift bow of her head before she returned to the task at hand.
The Kusagakure team, Mui, the guards, and the prisoners bore witness to the massive box standing in front of them. So filled with vile chakra was it that it could make the very hairs on the body stand on end. North, South, East, and West, a mask stared it every direction. None were safe from the gaze it left upon them. Yet, no one was more trapped by its gaze...than Ryuzetsu.
The young kunoichi stared at the massive box whose height was so great that she couldn't even see the top of it. It probably didn't help that it was so dark outside, but...the point still stood. It seemed like a never-ending structure fit to consume all those unworthy of being within its presence. This...was the box that had taken her friend. This...was the box that had caused her countless nightmares.
Now.
Now should be the time that she was telling Naruto and Akari that she was right. The box was evil. The box had to be destroyed. This...should be the time for her to avenge her friend who had been taken back its evil presence from the greed of men. This should be the time that the numerous ways she thought to turn the Box of Ultimate Bliss into ash would be fulfilled. THIS SHOULD BE THE TIME!
But...it wasn't. Ryuzetsu could not hold her unbridled praise of the majesty of the box. Now, she saw why so many coveted it so heavily. Strength exploded from within its chambers that would rend and tear weaklings into nothingness. Such vibrant colors, such powerful waves of aura, such...beauty, they were all to be admired.
Yes, perhaps...Muku could not open the box because...he was just a simple weakling like she thought he was. However, it was clear to her that Naruto and Hana were not weak. It was faint, but she could feel their chakra permeating the air. It had been because of them that the box was waiting to be opened. Muku...was not worthy of the power within the box, but...she was. She was worthy to wield the arcane chakra that laid within its walls. That power...was hers to take.
Naruto, Hana, and Akari, discreetly watched the way Ryuzetsu showed her appreciation for the Box of Ultimate Bliss. They did not tell her, but she had been making constantly slow steps towards it. It was almost like she couldn't wait to prove that she was indeed capable of doing what that pathetic boy Muku could not. She...could control the box and...she could break Kusagakure, nay the very chains which hold the world in place if she so chose.
Mui groaned and he picked himself up from the cracked debris that he had crashed into. He stared up at the box in wonder before his senses returned to him. "Guards, hold that Kusgakure team! Let none of them near the Box! They are to be charged with the murder of the prison elders!" Mui shouted.
Confused though they were, the prison guards quickly surrounded Naruto, Hana, Akari, and Ryuzetsu. The four stood close together as they watched the soldiers arm weapons ready to be deployed if the group took a step out of line.
"...I want to kill him," Akari said. The feeling was shared between the other three as well, even though Ryuzetsu knew she shouldn't feel this way.
Meanwhile, Mui turned back to the box. To anyone else, it might seem like the energy swirling around the box was without purpose, but there was one. It was just waiting...for the Gatekeeper, the one that held the special authority to communicate with the box of desires until another was selected. For so long, for so long he had dreamed of this moment.
A handsign here, a palm gesture there, Mui held up his hands to the Box of Ultimate Bliss. "Hear me, Box of Ultimate Bliss. Fulfill my wish. Grant my desire. Open your gates, I command you! Please, if no other wish be within your power, then please let this one be so. Please…,"
Tears fell from the prison warden's face. Naruto narrowed his eyes for a moment before clarity came upon him. It must have been the same for Akari and Ryuzetsu because both were equally shocked as the other. Once the latter got over her shock, only a sea of rage remained within her body.
"Please bring back my son. Please let me see my son Muku again!" He proclaimed.
Before long, a surge of red chakra exploded from the box and the protective covering that had been a mask fell to the ground with a heavy thud. The face behind the mask remained motionless for only a second. Its eyes then shined with that same red, evil aura that Mui had seen back in the underground lab.
Then...its maw opened. Just like its eyes, it shined red with energy that no doubt connected the outside world to the unending sea of darkness that laid within the box.
All was still. Everyone was silent. Then...came the pitter-patter of steps. It was dark so it was hard for most to see, but with time everyone saw a young boy about eleven or twelve come from the Box of Ultimate Bliss. His hair was unkempt, his eyes were unfocused, and his steps were unsteady, but he walked from the box and into the prison courtyard.
"Tou-san?" the young boy asked.
Tears continued to flow from the prison warden's face like a waterfall whose damn had been blocked for so many seasons. He fell to his knees and held out his arms.
"Yes, Muku, it's me. I'm here now. I'm so sorry for everything I've done to you. I know I've done something utterly unforgivable to you and you have every right to resent me, but I swear I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Nothing like this will ever happen again. You have my word!" Mui said with outstretched hands.
The young boy who had come from the box stared into those arms for a moment. How long had he been in the box? He wasn't sure. Time seemed to warp itself around him. All he knew was that he had been in perpetual darkness for so long. Yes, it was still dark outside, but that could not compare to what he had experienced. Now, he just had his father back.
Muku was aware that he should hate his father. Perhaps if he had spent more time in the box then it might have twisted the very edges of his mind until he came to resent his father for what he had done, but...his joy of being free from the box, his joy of seeing his father again, and...the joy of knowing how much his father agonized over his decision soothed the hatred within his chest.
"Tou-san!" Muku exclaimed. The young boy ran towards his father with open arms. Just like his father, tears fell down the side of his face.
"...Tch, how boring dattebayo,"
Muku opened his eyes and joy...was quickly replaced with fear when he saw a large stake of blood pierced from the floor and through his father's body. Prisoners and guards widened their eyes as the strike had sent the sharp point of the stake from Mui's back and through the open cavity of his throat.
"M-M-Mu...ku…," Mui garbled as blood filled his throat and clogged his lips. His vision grew blurry while he coughed and spasmed violently. His body grew cold. His eyes began to roll into the back of his head as pain surged through his body.
"M-MUI-SAMA!" The guards shouted as they were quickly ready to intercept Naruto and the rest of his group, but the blonde clenched his right hand and yanked it towards himself. Almost instantaneously, the guards screamed as blood was forcefully pulled from their bodies in the shapes of blades and sharp points. They each fell to the ground while the prisoners opened their eyes in utter shock.
Naruto turned to the rest of the prisoners. His eyes pierced through the darkness like a sharp sword.
"Boo..," he said.
Like a herd of headless animals, the prisoners ran away from the courtyard not caring about who they stepped on to get away. In time, the courtyard was clear of hostiles and Naruto began walking forward. Followed behind him were Hana and Akari.
"What happened to Ryuzetsu having the pleasure of killing him?" Hana asked.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Couldn't hold it in. I'll make it up to her later," he answered.
Ryuzetsu stayed behind for only a moment to see the bloodshed that happened all around her. The mechanisms that fueled her brain's thought processes quickly allowed her to connect the dots. The Kusagakure team had not come here to destroy the box...but to take it for themselves. The way Hana and Akari walked after Naruto seemed like so many guards that protect the nobles she had seen. Perhaps...this was why Daijin-sama had brought him along because this was their plan to make her see that with this red-haired boy...the full potential which laid within her could be unlocked.
Even as the white-haired young kunoichi stared at her grief-stricken friend sob over his father, she felt nothing for it. The love, respect, and adoration she had once shared for her friend seemed to be buried beneath of tide of watered indulgence and power. Muku had been sacrificed to the box, and yet...his strength was not enough. He was weak. Even now, after he had spent so much time inside and come out, he had not changed. He looked every bit the loser that the dark voices in her mind told her he was.
Ryuzetsu...began moving her legs. How odd that the box should have been less than a minute's walk away and yet she felt like she had been walking for almost two hours. As if in a dream, a haze, an illusion, the young kunoichi thought about times like this. So many dreams and nightmares had come to her in this one week than they had at any other time. For so long, she wondered what she would say to Muku, what she would say to his father, and what she would do with the Box of Ultimate Bliss once she saw it.
By the time she was aware of herself, she looked up and noticed Naruto, Hana, and Akari waiting for her at the entrance of the Box of Ultimate Bliss. When she turned her head, she saw Muku sobbing, wailing, and crying at the loss of his father by Naruto's hand. She should be angry. She should hate Naruto. She should hate...herself for stopping the loving reunion of a father and son set apart by tragic fate. She...should have.
"Muku," Ryuzetsu called. The young boy, her friend, stared up at her with red, puffy eyes, a nose lined with snot, and flowing tears.
"R-Ryuzetsu…," he sobbed out. He tightly clung his arms around his father's body while she looked on. She placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. With her eyes, the questions she had pondered, the turmoil she had been enduring, it was all gone. Everything...seemed so clear and concise to her. Everything seemed to make sense when she touched her friend for the first time.
"Why does this keep happening to me?" Muku asked. His tears fell on his father's face. Ryuzetsu looked on until her hands slipped around his shoulders. Then...her right hand covered his mouth.
"Because...even when you experienced the power of such an artifact for over two years, even when you were hailed as a prodigy in our village, you were...are still weak, Muku. In the name of the past friendship I had with you, I'll send you to your father so that no more bad things will happen to you. On someone like you, I've wasted enough tears. If you and Mui won't use the box, then I will," Ryuzetsu said as she stabbed Muku through the back with a kunai that she had pulled from her weapons holster.
If one had to ask Ryuzetsu how she felt as she struggled to hold back the choked screams of her former friend while the life drained from his eyes, then she would say that she felt absolutely nothing. She did not feel guilt. She did not feel joy. She did not feel anger. There was a sense of nothingness that filled her body.
Muku, a claimed Kusgakure prodigy, had begun to experience the darkness of death for a second time. He dropped his father's body and clawed at Ryuzetsu's arms, but months and months of no food, water, or any other sustenance had left him pale and brittle. Against Ryuzetsu's trained body, he could provide no foothold for himself. Instead, pain surged through the young boy's body as his former friend drove her kunai even deeper into his back until it pierced through his heart and his chest. Soon, just like when he had wandered within the Box of Ultimate Bliss, darkness overcame him and he closed his eyes for the very last time.
Once her former friend stopped struggling, Ryuzetsu pushed his body off her kunai. Her face scrunched up when she saw how soaked her arm was in the blood of one of her most dear friends. The white-haired girl rolled over and vomited the contents within her stomach.
"Must have been her first kill. Most shinobi consider it a rite of passage that all genin go through, but...not many murder their friends," Akari said.
"He wasn't a friend. He was just a weak chain. Now that she's free, she can move forward," Naruto replied.
"Naruto-sama, did...you do it too?" Akari asked.
The redhead frowned for a moment as he stood at the door to the realm of darkness within. "I had to," he replied. Hana and Akari glanced at each other, but whatever questions they had they didn't ask. Instead, they decided to silently wait for Ryuzetsu to collect herself.
The time it took for Ryuzetsu to find some semblance of self-control came in about two minutes. She rubbed her eyes and looked at what she had done. Father and son laid on top of each other as lifeless as she had envisioned in recent dreams. When she looked down at her hands, they were stained with crimson fluids. A sigh, she grabbed a dirty rag and wiped the blood away. She then placed her kunai back in its holster. Then...she continued walking until she met with the others.
"Still want to destroy it?" Naruto asked her. She turned to him and took off the green bandana that had been used to keep her hair together. Once she released it, her hair fell down in such a way that truly made Naruto realize that Ryuzetsu would become one of the most beautiful and deadly female warriors ever produced within the Elemental Nations. He had to have her. He would have her. When she looked at him, he would have kissed her if he were not concerned about her emotional mood at the moment.
"You're leaving it to me?" she asked.
"Of everyone here, you are the one who has the most history with the box, Ryuzetsu," Akari stated.
Ryuzetsu stared at the opening of the box and folded her arms. "If Muku and Kusagakure don't want to use it, then I will," she answered. She then shivered when she felt two hands on her shoulders. When she turned her head, she noticed Naruto smiling at her.
"I couldn't have said it better myself, Ryuzetsu. Hana, teach Akari what I've been doing. I'll teach Ryuzetsu," Naruto said.
"But how will we get out?" Akari asked.
"I have a plan for that. In the meantime, each of you take six of these blood pills and one of these newer pills I made. Take them only if you really need to," the young jinchuuriki stated. He gave each woman their required amount. Akari and Ryuzetsu looked them over curiously while Hana clenched her own.
Seeing that she thought there was no more discussion, Hana grabbed Akari's arm and pulled her inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss while Naruto took Ryuzetsu's hand into his own. To her, his hands felt...much warmer than she thought they would. It...was nice.
"Tell me one thing, Naruto," Ryuzetsu said. He turned his head towards her.
"Daijin-sama didn't send us here to destroy the box. He sent us here for you to get it, didn't he?" she asked.
The Kyuubi jinchuuriki remained silent for a moment. He felt no ill intentions from the young girl and though he thought to lie, something within him had decided to give her the honesty that she desired so much. "What makes you ask that?" he returned to her.
"You stopped addressing Akari-sensei professionally and turned more casual. I imagine you've done this before. Plus, it would explain why a non-shinobi of Kusagakure would come on a mission as important as this.," she answered.
...What a woman he had come to find.
"Good and evil are only concepts rationalized by those too weak to change the terms themselves. The Grass Fruit and Flower groups came to understand that about the box. What is deemed evil is only a term that people use when they can't control a power they don't know the origins of. I was sent to evaluate who in Kusagakure had the power, strength, and courage to become the master of the Box of Ultimate Bliss. And, I found none more beautifully prepared than you," he told her.
That vague answer should not have pacified Ryuzetsu as it did, but she found herself believing him. Right, perhaps...she was the same way. Perhaps that was why she found herself looking at him when she thought no one else was looking. The compliment had thrown her off as she averted her eyes from his intense gaze. Yes, she was strong. She was the one who would inherit the Box of Ultimate Bliss and the limitless energies that swirled within it.
"Right, stay in the realm of the dead, Muku. It's where a weakling like you belongs," Ryuzetsu thought to herself.
Once Naruto saw that this young kunoichi had the resolve to go through with her decision, he pulled her into the box. Once they stepped inside, the door closed and the box lay still within the central courtyard of the Blood Prison.
Meanwhile, inside the box, for the first time, Naruto felt like his life was being choked off. Darkness, endless darkness, unfathomable darkness, that was what surrounded him and Ryuzetsu. So dark was it that he couldn't even see his hands or his feet as they walked one in front of the other. There...was pressure here and that pressure seemed to drive the very strings that held his mind together to the breaking point.
Inside here, he could hear the moans and groans of hundreds of people that he and Ryuzetsu shared this space with. He could not see them, but their wails were too noticeable. It was like he was traversing the seamless road of the underworld. His mind was unraveling and it felt like the powers that be within the box sought to drain him until there was nothing left. In essence, inside this box, there was only a prolonged death for lesser men. The line between living and dying rested here.
...perfect.
Naruto took in a deep inhale and a surge of pain filled the very bones within his body as the box's energy clung to his being. Yes, this was what he needed. Spending time upon his cultivation here would yield great benefits.
"Ryuzetsu?" Naruto called.
"I'm here," she replied.
Her hand still felt warm in his own, but he decided not to focus on that at the moment. Instead, he pulled her to what he assumed was the ground. "Good, now sit here with me. Cross your legs. One palm on top of the other. Inhale, then exhale. Word of warning, it hurts. A lot," Naruto told her.
Though it was so dark Ryuzetsu couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed, she still did what the redhead told her. Once she was centered and focused, she inhaled.
"AUGH!" Ryuzetsu groaned before she violently coughed.
Pain.
Deep searing pain rushed through her body. This was worse than any kick, punch, or stab that had ever been inflicted upon her body. It felt like her entire body was being crushed, broken, and buried under the heat of a great fire. Sweat poured down her face and, if she could see inside this unending darkness, she would have been sure that she was bleeding somewhere.
Once the pain lessened, she took a few calming breaths, but none as deep as the one Naruto had told her to do.
"Told ya it hurts," He said to her.
"What...was...that?" she asked.
"That was you taking your first step into chakra cultivation that I've been researching. It doesn't help that your first time performing this method is in an environment like this. What you're doing is making your body receptive to the chakra and other energies within the Box of Ultimate Bliss. It's pain for me too, but try and gather this chakra into your abdomen and then spread it out over your body. The pills will help to stabilize both your body and your chakra, but the best benefit is without them. Now, as you've always done, prove you're worthy to inherit the power here," Naruto instructed.
Ryuzetsu spoke no further words. Neither did Naruto. Amongst the wails and cries of the people within the box, both sat and trained. The former was sure that there was no pain that she would ever feel that was worse than this.
The same could be said for Naruto. He could feel his chakra coils burning and his blood vessels surging and rushing through every fiber of his body. If there was light within the box then one would have seen the veins popping along his forehead, neck, arms, and legs. Truly, what an unholy artifact he had finally discovered after taking over the various members of the Grass Fruit and Flower groups.
With the confines of his mind, the darkness crept closer and closer.
Closer.
And closer.
And closer.
…
Soon, there was no sound to be heard. There was no wailing from the innumerable people that had been taken by the box. There were no grunts or pained coughs from Ryuzetsu. There was...nothing. There wasn't even any pain on his end. He was just...here.
Naruto opened his eyes. Around him laid numerous corridors and steel pipes along a ceiling. Below him was enough water to submerge him up to his knees. No matter where he turned, there was darkness within each corridor. Each hall called out to him as if asking him to venture into their depths so that they could consume him, but there was one that seemed to call the loudest.
Kicking up his knees through the rising waters beneath him, Naruto began his trek through one particular sewer corridor that beckoned for him. He wasn't sure how much time passed from when he stepped into the shadows until he arrived at the exit, but when he stepped forward he was not prepared for what greeted his gaze.
A wave of malicious chakra and killing intent was thrown into his face all at once. A feel of disgust ran through his body when he felt his legs tremble and a shred of fear expel on his face. The fight or flight response of his body ran haywire. When was the last time he felt like this? Perhaps it was back in Konoha? He couldn't be sure, but...this sense of disturbed fear made him chuckle.
That chuckle did not last long because he heard a deep growl whose sound reverberated through the very bones with him and through the hall he had been residing in. Once the darkness was cleared away, he realized he had been standing in front of a massive set of long, thin iron bars. Between these bars was a set of doors whose lock was a flimsy, unassuming piece of paper.
"...Seal," Naruto said to himself, reading what had been upon the paper. He quickly began to connect the dots within his head. It all seemed to start making sense if only a bit. The malicious chakra, the immense killing intent that could even make him feel fear despite the numerous times he had seen death in the memories of others, the gates, the seal, it could all mean one thing, and that...made Naruto's smile widen.
The growling got deeper. Naruto picked up his feet and began walking to the iron bars in front of him. "...It's funny. I had always planned to meet you when I was more adverse in fūinjutsu, but I suppose we all can't have what we want in life. You're proof of that concept enough, ain't ya...Kyuubi no Yōko?" the redhead asked.
No sooner than those words expelling from the boy's lips did a pair of claws attempt to slash at his face. One was just close enough to nick his cheek and draw the blood from its side. The Uzumaki stuck out his tongue and licked it off. Then, Uzumaki Naruto was greeted with the sight of a giant fox with a magnificent orange coat of fur. Its red, slitted eyes conveyed the malice within its heart for him while its nine tails swayed menacingly. Its teeth were white like ivory and sharper than any samurai blade were born menacingly.
"How nice it would feel without this cage to rip you to pieces in my teeth. How fortunate for you this cage prevents me from obtaining such a sweet memory for myself. Even now, as I look upon you, upon that once blonde hair turned red, upon those blue eyes, and upon that disgusting stench of a now-deceased clan, I only find myself wishing to subject every horror to you that I have thought of for all this time," the monster who had been the destruction of Konoha said.
"Is that a fact? Well, I'm glad I'm worth the contempt of a monster whose mere footsteps spell natural disasters. But I can't say the feeling isn't mutual. Tell me, when I was getting shit thrown me, stabbed, burned, and all the other stuff, how much of that did you actually feel?" Naruto asked. For his response, a dark grin in the form of sharp teeth filled his eyes.
"Not. A. Thing," it spoke.
Naruto snorted. "I figured not. Well, I guess that's another thing I can add to my growing list of things I will burn Konoha to the ground for," the red-haired boy said as Kyuubi watched his eyes glow with the same color as his hair.
"Keh, right. You have been fairly busy lately. I must say, though I do loathe you, you have kept me reasonably entertained with your pursuits towards your home's destruction," Kyuubi responded.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Home...is where the heart is. I'd rather drive a stake through mine before I call that crater waiting to happen a home of mine. If you thought what you did was bad, then I'll make sure what I do is worse," the boy boasted.
"Hah! As much as I would love to see that, I don't think you'll get the opportunity, brat," the demon fox spoke. Its tone was filled with amusement that was only magnified by its deep voice.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what is that?" he asked. Color him truly curious.
"Well, it's pretty obvious, brat. You're dying," the Kyuubi answered. The smile on Naruto's face gave way to a deep frown. He looked left and he looked right.
"Is that right? And what pray tell am I dying from?" Naruto asked with no shortage of sarcasm in his voice.
"I'd call it your own hubris, brat. Not just you, but also those two human meatbags you brought with you. If anyone has any hope of surviving, it's that inhuman hybrid you brought with you. It's simple really. Whatever your...cultivation is, it's going too slow. Had you simply existed in the box and wandered around aimlessly like a headless chicken like most of your species does then you might have been able to live for fifty, maybe sixty years, but you're not doing that. You're forcefully injecting the demonic energies of this box into your body. Do you really think you humans are that capable of handling the powers beyond your own comprehension?" Kyuubi asked.
Naruto shrugged. "The Yondaime Hokage seemed to have handled you fairly easily," he returned.
A gust of wind blew against Naruto's face when a giant claw slammed into the iron bars of the Kyuubi's prison. "Mind your tongue you insolent welp! The only reason your Yondaime Hokage bested me was because I was not fully in control of myself! Had I fought on my own terms, I would have erased both him and that miserable village from the face of the earth!" Kyuubi growled out.
Naruto rolled those words around in his head. Oh, so there was more to this story than just a demon's tirade. "I'm sure you would. Now then, back to me dying. How do I...stop dying?" he asked.
"And how should I know that? Stop your stupid cultivating of the box's chakra? But I bet you've already injected enough of it into your body that it doesn't matter. Better yet, why am I even telling you? If you die, then I will die as well, but I'll reform eventually. Granted it would take a long time, but...what is time to an immortal like me?" the Kyuubi bellowed enough to shake the room they were in.
The Nine-Tailed Fox's eyes glazed around the room and smirked. "Just look, brat. Your end is near," it said.
Naruto followed its eyes and he saw the walls of the room become slowly covered in darkness. Like a slithering snake, it seemed to stalk Naruto and the Kyuubi slowly. The former didn't want to admit it, but he was a little stuck on what to do. No matter what, he wanted to finish his cultivation of the box. He would be damned if he stopped. All of his efforts to get here would have been for nothing and he would become another willing husk to fuel the dark desires of the box and the demon that laid within it, but...he didn't want to die either.
"Free me…,"
The Uzumaki turned to the bijuu.
"Free me from this cage and I promise to save you and both the human girls. Think about it, brat. All the memories you've consumed, the souls you've taken, and the lifeforce you've obtained, you know a good deal when you hear it. You must not have been blind to the fact that your wounds heal faster than a normal human's. That is because the properties of my chakra aid in your regeneration. However, I bet you didn't know that this seal limits how much chakra I can give. If you were to take it off, then I could use my chakra to heal you and your body while you cultivate the Box's energies. It's a win-win, isn't it?"
Naruto couldn't deny that this was true. It was a win-win, but it was also because the redhead had so many memories that he knew when a deal was too good, especially one made by an immortal demon or what have you.
"Oh, really? I thought time was inconsequential for a demon like you. Besides, you just went through a good spiel about how much you hated me. Why the change?" Naruto asked.
"Don't mistake my intentions, brat. You get to live, and I don't need to waste my time reforming. That's all there is to it. If you don't like it, then you can remain here while your squirm trying to think up foolhardy solutions," the Kyuubi answered back.
"...And I'm expected to believe that when I do free you that you won't stomp on me, swallow me, or try to destroy Konoha before me?" the blood user asked.
"Well you're not expected to believe it, but...do you really have a choice?" the great demon asked.
The darkness drew itself closer around them both. From the top of the walls, it slid down to the very end of the floor. Then, it began to crawl along the floor to them both.
"I'd suggest you make your decision soon. The seal is degrading," Kyuubi said. Naruto looked down at his stomach and he saw a flood of blood pour it and into the murky waters below.
Contrary to how calm he outwardly seemed, Naruto's mind was racing fast. He had no doubt that the darkness consuming him would mean his death. He also knew that he could not trust the Kyuubi. However, that did not leave him with very many options. What could he do? What could he do to keep himself from dying aside from putting some blind faith in a demon that had laid waste to the Village Hidden in the Leaves? He remembered the last time he had placed such strong hope in something, and the past him would have met his demise right now.
Suddenly, Naruto paused. Ideas began connecting themselves together as if a cloud of haze had been dispersed and forgotten about. When the redhead stared at into the eyes of his tenant, he chuckled.
"What do you offer the person...who wants everything to die?" Naruto asked himself. He then began walking towards the cage. The Nine-Tailed Fox's teeth gleamed as Naruto floated in the air until he came right in front of the seal. He then grabbed one of the corners of the tag.
"...and by his hand, I saw the gates of the underworld open and...he was overtaken by rage," Naruto replied to himself as he began to slowly rip the sealing matrix away. Yes, it was all going according to plan. Once he ripped away the Kyuubi's seal then he would make sure to show the Kyuubi who…
One corner. Naruto was one corner away from enacting the plan that he had so brilliantly been hatching away in his mind. He became away of two hands on his shoulders. They shoved him away and Naruto found himself landing on his back in the murky waters that he had been standing on.
When he looked up, he noticed a hand reach out to him. His eyes traveled up even further and a sea of red hair led into a field of yellow hair. Two sets of eyes stared down at him. Kyuubi bellowed angrily.
"YOU TWO! WHY ARE YOU HERE?! I KILLED YOU BOTH!" It roared angrily.
However, Naruto was in utter shock. He stared at the woman who had offered her hand to him like he had seen something that he should not have seen.
"Uzumei?" Naruto asked.
"Uzumei? I told you this was going to happen, Minato! Our son doesn't even recognize us, dattebane!" the woman said angrily while Naruto's eyes turned to the man. When the man faced him, a deep rage filled the redhead's body. All the memories that he had cultivated had given him ample sight of...Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage and...the man who defeated the Kyuubi no Yoko. That man...stood in front of him along with this woman who might as well have been Uzumei's biological twin.
...wait, did she say' our son?'
The man rubbed the back of his head and laughed. "Come on, Kushina. He's never seen us before. Maybe he thought you looked like someone else," the older man said.
Both seemed to fire off random comments to each other before they finally took notice of Naruto. The older man named Minato had the decency to look sheepish.
"Oh sorry, Naruto. We must be acting like a couple of clowns to you. I bet your confused about what's going on. Truthfully, we're a little confused too. I had designed the seal to release the bit of our chakra we have under precise conditions, but...I suppose not everything can go according to plan, does it?" The man asked.
Naruto said nothing.
"...I think we'd better start explaining ourselves, Minato," the woman named Kushina replied. The man named Minato laughed.
"Right, right. You see Naruto. It's us. Your mother, Uzumaki Kushina, and me, your father, Namikaze Minato. We're...we're your parents," he said.
SNAP
...Naruto felt his mind break into pieces.
KG: Don't even begin to ask why this took as long as it did. I have no answer.
Wifey: Just admit you were playing League.
KG: Okay fine I was playing league. And speaking of League, I might go back to SoL for a bit once this little...arc is concluded. I miss my Irelia.
Wifey: You're so stupid.
KG: Am not! CREAM SODA! Bye.