The chanting went on for what seemed like hours, although it couldn't have been more than thirty minutes. The various cultists had arranged themselves into formations surrounding the bridge leading to the altar. Various candles and incense had been lit, their purpose unclear to Naruto, but the whole thing was reaching a fever pitch. The mountain almost seemed alive, the drumming heartbeat growing more and more frantic as the dark choir began to hit a crescendo. If they wanted him so bad, he'd oblige. After all, it wasn't like him to flake out on a party.
Momoi knelt next to him, hidden in the shadows. "Naruto-sensei, are you sure about this?"
"Of course," he half-lied. "These guys are pushovers. Barely worth the words that probably brainwashed them in the first place. But listen to me, things will be complicated if I have to defend you as well."
She went to speak, but he silenced with a hand.
"That's not me doubting you, but these guys are playing for keeps. I want you to try and find Mizuno and Tenten, they should be here by now but I haven't seen them. I trust you to know when to fight and when to run, Momoi," he patted her head gently. "So please trust me."
The girl seemed to react to that, and nodded. His student ran off to try and reach the surface in time. Tenten and Mizuno would protect her, which left cleanup duty to him. With a sigh he straightened and looked over this absolutely FUBAR situation. Eighteen years in this world and he always seemed to get the nuts when it came to missions. He didn't want to think where he'd be in twenty years, or thirty. The young man cracked his neck and stretched. No sense in defeating evil only to pull a muscle, after all.
The chanting died down as a great set of double doors built into the rockface opened. A man dressed in what appeared to be ceremonial funeral robes trudged through. With silent reverence the cultists knelt as he passed. This would be Lord Chikanori no doubt. From what he could see the man appeared to be on death's door. His face was wrinkled and his eyes sunken into the back of his head. He hardly looked fit to climb a flight of stairs let alone lead a cult.
He stopped just short of the bridge and turned slowly. With the cavern laid out like it was, his voice carried with a booming echo. He raised his hands and addressed his flock.
"Sons, daughters, my children. Long, long have we waited for this moment. For the day that we might welcome our Lord and Master into this mortal coil. Years of pain, of sacrifice, and vilification. Many of us lost the trust and love of our families, or neighbors, nay, even our own country. The false idols who cast us down will have their reckoning once we open the Black Stone Door to His domain," his voice was solemn, but carried energy to it.
The man's "children" were quiet, but it was clear they were in agreement. Unbidden by any cue he could see, seven of them broke rank and assembled themselves before the old man. They knelt down once again and removed their cloaks to reveal an intricate sealing formula inscribed into their skin. Naruto watched with morbid fascination as Chikanori removed his outer garment as well to expose his spindly form.
He performed a series of hand signs and laughed darkly. "Decades, decades of work. Of crude surgical procedures and untested forbidden techniques. All those lives lost were all for this moment my children. Behold the fruits of your labors, the sacrifices of those who came before us!"
The man finished his jutsu and splayed his hands outward. The marked cultists reacted as if they'd been shocked. Their eyes rolled back into their heads as their backs arched sickeningly. In the harsh glow of the lava, the borderline demonic ritual was cast in twisted shadows. Naruto could see blood being pulled right out of the unfortunate sacrifices, strained through their skin and pores. It pooled in the air above them, its donors falling to the floor like ragdolls.
"Forbidden Ninja Art: Sanguine Solstice Rejuvenation!" Chikanori cast his hands upwards and the fountain of blood fell upon him.
Like a twister it surrounded the decrepit cult leader, twisting and writhing like a living thing. Naruto could hear the man's borderline deranged cackle deepen and regain its vigor as the blood tornado began to grow smaller. By the time it dried up like a puddle in the desert Lord Chikanori stood there anew. No longer was he the old man he'd been before. Now he appeared to be forty years younger, in the prime of his youth in fact!
It's like Orochimaru's jutsu he tried to use on Sasuke! Naruto thought, alarmed.
The man inspected his flesh with sparkling eyes. He could admit that Chikanori was quite the pretty boy back in his day. Tanned and muscled like a statue cut from the finest stone. It was easy to see him as an influencer and a popular guy.
"We're so close, my children! This blessing handed down to us by Chozotl is merely a taste at the eternal life he offers. All your needs, all your wants, all your pleasures, all of it he will provide to us. His loyal flock. But now it is time to take back what is owed to us!"
This time the crowd did react. As one they shouted their bloodlusted excitement.
"Now is the time for our Lord's reincarnation! Let him be reborn into the flesh of a demon, to swallow whole the great evil and show to all his benevolence."
Naruto had heard enough, with a leap he jumped from his vantage point and landed in the middle of the stone floor. The cultists stood and began to reach into their cloaks but were stopped as Chikanori raised a hand. Tensely, they backed off and allowed the two men to face off with one another. There was something to the man's features that seemed familiar although Naruto couldn't place it exactly.
"And so the prodigal son joins us," Chikanori reached a hand out. "Welcome."
Naruto snorted. "I would've felt bad if I didn't show up after all this work you went through."
"Think nothing of it. No price is too small for the resurrection of our Master. He will bring this world together, no longer bound by the differences in our blood. As one we will usher in a world of peace."
"Yeah, real 'peaceful' religion you have here. Where does it say the part about butchering innocent people and trying to assassinate infants?"
Chikanori sighed. "An unfortunate necessity. One I would have rather avoided. But you were causing problems and we needed the standing government as weak as possible. I'm sure you understand?"
"Oh, I understand," Naruto barely swallowed his anger. "I understand I'm going to kick your nuts up into your throat!"
Chikanori laughed. It was a rich, bassy sound with a nice ring to it. He stepped over the corpses of his sacrificial pawns and approached the blonde shinobi. Naruto could sense an ominous feeling radiating off the guy. Just looking at him was enough to make goosebumps run up his arms.
"Brave, but foolish. Even out here we've heard tell of your exploits, Naruto Uzumaki. How you defeated Pain, how you defeated the one-tailed Shikaku. When you first came to our quaint country I saw your work and knew you had to be the one. Yes, yes, we needed you."
"Sorry to say, but my body is not for sale. I already have one creepy evil spirit living in me and he doesn't even pay rent," Naruto smirked.
"Cute, cute. Your compliance isn't really a factor, but I'll grant you the chance to prove yourself. There are some among my flock who think that I would make a better vessel. However, with my leadership in addition to a nigh-perfect sacrificial body for Him, we will be unstoppable."
The man flexed and a wave of unnatural aura pulsed through Naruto. Even with Sage Mode he could feel the ill intent radiating off him. The man's muscles ballooned grotesquely, swelling to impossible sizes. For a moment he looked about ready to pop before his body adjusted to fit the sudden muscle mass. He still looked like more of a monster than a human, but now he was in control of it. He towered over the blonde ninja by at least three feet, his face so distended with excess blood that his tongue lolled out of one side of his mouth.
"Sho 'den!" he slurred. "Show me wash ya got!"
Chikanori reared back and slammed a fist into the floor. It shattered the stone with ease, sending a shockwave rippling out. It forced Naruto to leap upwards, making a hand sign as over thirty clones appeared around him.
"You want my body!? Have as many as you want!" they cried out in unison, all of them streaming towards the hulking monstrosity.
Chikanori just smiled.
0-0-0-0
Momoi sped on breathlessly through caverns and hallways. It was hard to figure out where she was going, but she knew she was going up. With no other way to know if she was going the right way it had to do. Something rumbled below, sending vibrations through the floor and entire mountain. Was Naruto-sensei fighting those guys down there? She had to hurry!
The young girl rounded a corner and came upon another chamber. This one was different though. It held a variety of infirmary beds and expensive looking medical equipment. With hesitance, she began to navigate the makeshift hospital wing. This place smelled like death and more potently blood. The scent of the stuff was so thick that it made her gag in places. There weren't any people in the beds, but as she rounded a corner she stifled a gasp.
At one end of a small divet in the rock was what appeared to be a surgical table. Dried and fresh blood soaked the thing through and through, staining the ground around it. Bookshelves full of journals and tomes surrounded the operating room like looming obelisks. Once again, there was no one on the table. What could they have used this place for? Surely the cultists didn't get hurt that often, right?
Momoi knew she had little time to spare, but it still called to her. Curiously she ran up to one of the bookshelves and took down a journal. With feverish intensity she flipped through the pages to try and figure out what this place was for. It didn't take long to understand. These were medical diaries, accounts of operations and surgical procedures done on people. A lot of the words didn't make sense to her, but she could pick up the important bits. There were a lot of entries about "bloodlines" and artificial implants.
Another rumble shook the entire room. She was running out of time. Hastily she pocketed the journal she was holding and kept moving. It was hard to tell how much progress she was making in the dim light of the caverns, but bit by bit she could hear something. It sounded like clanking. Just like the sounds she heard when she had first been taken into this infernal place. The mine!
She exited a corridor and stopped as she came upon a massive chasm. Stone walkways and bridges formed a spider web of networks above and in front of her. This would be the main room that connected the rest of the complex together. In the gloom of the place, she was sure she could see figures mining away. She snaked her way around them, intent on keeping hidden to the shadows, but stopped as her foot touched something cold. Momoi looked down and blinked when she found a kunai. Her eyes slowly trailed upward and she saw a variety of ninja tools littering the ground. Tenten-sensei must've come this way!
With reckless abandon the young girl followed the weapons through the cavern. She stopped in her tracks as she rounded another corner. She had found Tenten-sensei, but not how she wanted. The woman was wounded, quite grievously. Blood pooled from a wound in her side as she wheezed pitifully, slumped against a wall. Momoi's foot tapped a shuriken just enough to make a sound, and the kunoichi reacted by drawing a knife and preparing to throw. Momoi flinched and waited for the impact, but it never came.
"M-Momoi?" Tenten squinted her eyes. "What're you… where's Naruto?"
"Ms. Tenten!" Momoi ran to her side. "You're hurt!"
"Where. Is. Naruto?"
"H-He's down below, fighting the cult's leader. They want him to be the vessel for Chozotl. He told me to come get you and Captain Mizuno. Where is he?"
"He's-"
"Momoi!" the girl startled as she turned. Mizuno stood there, sword in hand, at the end of the corridor. "There you are!"
Tenten grimaced. "G-Get behind me."
"What's going on?" Momoi asked, confused and afraid.
Mizuno stepped forward, looking remarkably healthy if not for the few cuts and scrapes he had. The man's face was all hard line and disciplinarian stares. She had been in a few of his drills and knew what a hardass he could be. The last thing she wanted was to make him angry at such a delicate time like this, but something was off. Ms. Tenten was struggling to get up with an angry scowl on her face.
"She's delirious, Momoi. We were attacked by some maniac named Roebuck who placed her under a genjutstu before wounding her. I have no way of undoing it, so I had to try and find Naruto in the meantime. Do you know where he is?"
"He's fighting the cult leader down below, s-sir."
"Good, let's get moving and help him."
Mizuno stepped forward only to be stopped as Tenten raised a kunai. Something was definitely wrong. If Ms. Tenten was under a genjutsu, then why didn't she attack her? If they were both attacked, then why did Captain Mizuno look more or less fine?
Anxiety wormed in her stomach. "We can't leave her here! She'll die!"
"An unfortunate sacrifice for the mission, Momoi. As a soldier, you need to be able to make the tough calls when it counts. If we don't help Naruto he might lose, and then we all lose. Everyone. The whole world," he emphasized gravely.
As if to punctuate his words, another rumble shook the cavern.
"B-Bullshit…" Tenten breathed.
"Naruto-sensei said that those who leave their comrades behind are worse than scum! I won't leave Tenten-sensei!"
Mizuno gave her a long, hard look. For a minute she thought she might crack and cave in, but she stuck it out. Naruto-sensei had ordered her to find Mizuno and Tenten, and she wouldn't leave here without the both of them. Eventually, the man sighed and hung his head in genuine remorse.
"That is such a shame."
She barely saw him coming. The sword flashed out and struck dead center in the stomach. For a moment, it was as if time had stopped. Through all their arguing, she hadn't noticed him getting closer and closer until he struck. In shock, Momoi looked down to see how bad the damage was.
"What the fuck!?" Mizuno grunted angrily.
Locks of thick brown hair had entangled the weapon. Just as she hadn't noticed Mizuno's approach, she hadn't noticed her hair reacting to her heightened emotional state. With a creak and a strain her hair rushed the man, unbidden by herself. He let go of the sword and jumped back, drawing a smaller blade from behind his back.
"This could've been so easy, kid. Why'd you have to go and make me the bad guy?"
Momoi finally found the words to speak. "You're a traitor!? B-But how!? Why!?"
"Because I've waited long enough for this moment. Years of bowing and scraping, of painful alterations and impossible standards. All of it was so that I could finally ascend to my rightful place in this world. When that blonde fool offered up a new generation of perfectly willing soldiers, how could I have refused the chance to work them under my spell?"
How could he? They trusted him!
"So… you're the one who's… who's been feeding the enemy… information," Tenten surmised.
"It wasn't hard. You leaf village ninja are so trusting. If I had been a bit more careful I could have taken out that bitch Shion and those two little bastards in one fell swoop. As it stands, I'll need to wait until this is all done."
"I… " tears stung her eyes.
She had trusted him, and he betrayed her. He betrayed everyone. He hurt Tenten-sensei, and had nearly gotten Lady Shion. Momoi remembered the affection on her teacher's face as he let her hold his children. How innocent they had seemed in her arms. And this asshole was going to kill them without a second thought?
No… she refused to let that happen. Even if she was weak, even if she was just some dumb little girl, and even if he was a trained soldier, she wouldn't let it happen. Momoi felt chakra suffuse her hair, the individual locks and strains whipping out like they were caught in a hurricane. She stared down the Captain- her enemy, with nothing but pure hate. If he wanted to take Tenten-sensei's life, he'd have to go through her.
"I won't let you do that!" she screamed, hair snaking out to crush the man to a greasy pulp.
"Show me what you're made of then, kid!" he brandished the shortsword as its edge took on a dark red hue.
0-0-0-0
"Is that all you got, boy!?" Chikanori deflected a punch and followed it up with the sweep of an arm the size of a tree trunk.
It knocked away half a dozen clones like they were nothing. Naruto hissed in anger as he formed another rasengan and came in low to strike the man in the center of his mass. Chikanori tried to crush him with an overhead swing, but he rolled out of the way with inches to spare. The orb of violently rotating chakra crashed into the man's solar plexus with all the force of a train. It detonated into a flash of blue-white light and sent the mammoth man skidding backwards.
It's barely hurting him, Naruto observed as the man stood back up. His skin was blackened and charred, but it barely seemed to phase him.
"Owie, that was mean. Really mean."
Naruto formed another small army of shadow clones and sent them forward. There had to be some sort of weakness in the man's form. From what he could see, he wasn't able to use jutsu in that body - if he could at all - which gave him the distinct advantage. However his taijutsu surpassed even Rock Lee's by a mile wide margin. A tidal wave of clones came down upon the man, each intent on beating him to a pulp.
The gargantuan cult leader just gave a lopsided smile and clapped his hands together. The shockwave it produced was enough to blow the first wave away, even destroying a few of the closest ones, and destabilize the rest. As a blur, Chikanori launched himself through the center of the crowd and pulverized a huge chunk of the group. With a wicked laugh he landed back down just in time to swing a massive fist into the back of another unfortunate clone. Naruto bit back an angry snarl and tried to formulate a plan.
"Whatcha thinkin about?" he heard a voice from behind him. Naruto turned just in time to catch a mighty blow from Chikanori that sent him smashing into the wall hard enough to shatter the obsidian.
He's… too strong, Naruto realized. If they were fighting in an open space he'd fare better. But in this place he couldn't use his strongest techniques without bringing the mountain down on top of him. Meanwhile Chikanori had all the close-quarters advantage he could need.
With a mighty pull he extricated himself from the rock and fell to the ground. His whole body hurt, and he was pretty sure at least one of his ribs was fractured. Chikanori stood across the floor, dancing about almost childishly as he showed off like some kind of prize fighter. His followers cried out in victory and clapped like this was all some sort of game to them. Naruto had to beat him here. If he lost, if he was sacrificed, then this world would be over.
He thought of his friends back in the Leaf Village, the bonds he'd forged over the years. He thought of his team, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, even Sasuke. All of them would die if he failed here. Then, with horror, he realized it would be more than them. Iruka and Taruho, Shion, they'd be the first to die. His students would be killed without any chance to defend themselves.
No.
Naruto felt a surge of strength flood through him, so potent it took his breath away. If they wanted a demon, he'd give it to them. As the power of the nine-tailed fox began to course through him, he felt himself struggle to hang onto it. He couldn't lose control, he had to protect his friends. His family.
Just give me a little bit you bastard. Enough to beat this guy, Naruto clenched his fist as a warm red glow suffused his form.
Strangely enough, although he couldn't explain how or where it came from, he felt… agreement?
He smirked. Guess you don't want to get evicted either, huh big guy?
"Oho, now this looks fun. This would be the nine-tailed fox, yes?" Chikanori smiled widely.
"It's over for you Chikanori. You and your little cult. I won't let you hurt anyone else," Naruto stated resolutely. "This is your last chance to give up."
The man just smirked and readied himself into a stance. Naruto summoned a clone and began to form a rasengan in his hand. He poured the tailed beast chakra into it, forcing the orb to grow larger and brighter. It took on a red hue as he tinged it with the demon fox's power. If his opponent wanted to play hardball, he'd do the same.
Naruto leapt forth, hand extended, intent on closing the gap between them. Chikanori reeled back as his fist and arm swelled with blood. The rest of his body seemed to deflate as the excess blood filled the arm, growing to inhuman proportions. The two forces collided with one another, concentrated chakra pitted against monstrous strength. Naruto grit his teeth as the fox's strength allowed him to slowly overwhelm the cult leader. In turn, Chikanori's body look fit to burst with all the blood flowing through.
The ground quaked, the floor cracking as the whole cavern shook violently. Caught between an immovable object and an unstoppable force, something had to give. The tailed beast rasengan exploded, flinging both the men across the room and shattering the ground around them. Cultists were flung around violently, some unfortunate enough to be dunked into the lava river below them.
Another tremor went through the mountain. This one was bigger than any other the blonde ninja had felt. Naruto's hand burned, and he was pretty sure he had fractured his wrist, but one look at his foe told him he came out ahead. Chikanori's hand, halfway down to his elbow, had been blown clean off. The man regarded the missing appendage with shocked confusion. He was still up and about, but he'd taken a hit.
"Not bad. Not bad," he barely smiled. "Guess my grandson was right about you."
"Grandson?" Naruto asked, eyes narrowing.
"Ha! I suppose it does no harm to tell you now. Did you really think that we were one step ahead of you because we were lucky? No, we had someone on the inside this whole time. An agent we had kept in reserve just in case."
Naruto growled, but didn't respond. So there had been a leak.
"You already know him. After all, he helped you train those brats."
"No…" Naruto breathed as realization dawned.
"Mizuno, my grandson, has performed admirably. When he first caught wind of you, he offered up the plan to sacrifice your body for our Lord. Now that I've seen your power in person, I can only think myself a fool for not believing sooner."
He lowered his head in shame. How could he have been so dense? His emotions had gotten the better of him, and now Tenten could very well be injured or worse because of it. A shock of panic ran through him as he realized that Momoi had no idea either. Those two could very well be walking into a trap as they spoke! Naruto looked around the room and tried to figure out how to end this as quickly as possible. From the rumbling that had yet to stop, he could assume that this whole place might collapse very soon. If it did, it would spell the end for everyone still trapped in here.
Naruto's eyes drifted over to the altar that still stood in pristine condition. An idea sparked in his mind. Without that, there could be no ritual. How very fortunate that it was suspended above a pool of burning magma. He didn't need to match Chikanori in strength, but merely use that zealotry against him. The fox jinchuuriki stood, hands balled into fists.
It was time to end this, and Chikanori. He'd send the man to a fiery death with one blow.
Or maybe die trying...