Raven quickly caught up with the three genin as they climbed the twenty foot wide stairway on the golden pyramid's front side, taking care to make her cape 'accidentally' move in front of her when Sasuke made a few subtle hand movements causing a breeze to hit her.
Sasuke forced himself not to pout as an errant breeze foiled his attempts to get a look at the older teen's breasts.
Raven hid her smile beneath her hood. "Let's make sure it's not cursed before we go exploring," she suggested.
"Cursed?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Shouldn't you already know since you live here?" Sakura asked, wishing she had more of a chest so Sasuke would pay attention to her like he was to the grey skinned girl. 'Grow dammit!' the little voice in her head demanded.
"Xander moved it here while we were eating breakfast," Raven explained.
"He what?" Naruto asked in disbelief as he looked at the massive stone pyramid they were standing on, already a good thirty feet up the side and not even half way to the top.
"He decided to build a castle so we'd have someplace comfortable to sleep, but got distracted when he discovered this pyramid, so he simply moved it here instead," Raven explained.
"He has a technique for moving pyramids?" Naruto asked, confused. On the one hand it would be an awesome jutsu, but on the other… how often would you use it?
"I don't think so, but it's possible," she replied. "My guess is that he simply took it apart stone by stone and reassembled it here."
"That's even more impressive," Sakura said shaking her head in disbelief. "How powerful is he?"
"Very," Raven replied. "Give me a second to check for curses." She crossed her legs and hovered with her eyes closed, her shadow peeling off the pyramid below her and reshaping itself into one enormous black bird behind her that suddenly dove into the stone, sinking into it as if it was water.
"I need to learn their jutsu," Naruto said, taking a seat on the stairs.
"We can ask, but I'm guessing a lot of them are bloodline traits," Sakura said, "because I've never seen people like them before."
"Doesn't hurt to ask," Naruto said with a shrug.
"He's got a point," Sasuke agreed, "but we should let Sakura ask. She's the most… polite of the three of us."
Naruto opened his mouth to argue before realizing Sasuke hadn't insulted and belittled him for once. "Sounds good."
The bird made of shadow surfaced from the stone, wrapped itself around Raven, and she opened her eyes as her shadow returned to normal. "I can sense a genius loci."
"A what now?" Naruto asked curiously.
"A genius loci, is a spirit that is connected to a specific place," she explained.
"Like a ghost?!" the young blond blurted out nervously.
"No, it's never been alive," Raven assured him.
"So… just a chakra construct then?" Sakura asked.
"If by chakra you are referring to life energy, then yes," Raven agreed as she floated up the pyramid, the children easily matching her pace as they leapt half a dozen steps at a time.
"If they're not a dead person, then where does the… life energy come from?" Naruto asked.
Raven slowed for a moment. She wasn't sure if she should tell them, but then she considered what their job was and decided it was better they were aware of such things. "The sacrifice of thousands of people is the standard procedure for creating such a being in this environment."
"A thousand people!" Naruto exclaimed, all three children freezing in horror.
Raven turned to face them. "Yes. Temples of this design that I have seen, have always been involved in the worship of gods that require human sacrifice, and not all of them willing. A willing sacrifice is worth a hundred unwilling ones, so it's possible the spirit was formed off of as little as a dozen faithful worshipers, but that's unlikely."
"That's a huge power difference," Sakura said with a shiver as she tried to approach the subject as an intellectual exercise to distract herself.
"Not sure how'd you convince people offing themselves was best for them," Naruto said with a frown. He knew that technically he himself was a human sacrifice, but at least he was a living one who could still walk around and buy food.
"Fanatics are people who believe in one thing strongly enough to behave that way," Sakura pointed out, "though that's kinda rare. It's hard to brainwash people that thoroughly."
"You can also accomplish it by destroying everything they value until death seems preferable," Raven said as she thought about her own situation, "that's easier and more common."
Sasuke felt a wave of nausea as he considered his brother's actions in a new light and realized until recently, he would have made a perfect sacrifice. It made him wonder if there were evolutions of the Sharingan that he was still unaware of. "And Xander stole their pyramid," Sasuke noted, pushing away his dark thoughts. "Are they likely to attack?"
"It's doubtful," Raven replied and resumed floating up the steps. "He probably collected it from half a world away and from what he's mentioned, the culture that created it is long gone."
"Looks a bit too new for that," Naruto said, looking down at the pristine golden stone.
"He probably cleaned it as he took it apart," Raven replied.
They reached the plateau at the top of the pyramid and stopped to stare at the enormous stone building that covered it, made from the same golden stone, the stair leading to a massive empty chamber right in front of them, open to the elements and brightly lit by the sun pouring in.
"It's a palace," Sakura said, eyeing the pillars that were encircled by carvings of dragons.
"Also a temple," Raven added. "The gods were believed to live in their temples, so of course they tried to make them as lavish as possible to curry favor."
"No one wants to deal with a cranky god," Naruto offered as they approached.
They entered the stone palace and looked around the open chamber, nothing but bare stone and carvings remained or if they had, Xander had removed them.
"I don't recognize the language," Sakura said as she tried to figure out what was carved on the walls.
"The pictures are self explanatory," Sasuke said, pointing to a figure on an altar with its heart being cut out.
"You might want to redecorate," Naruto suggested with a shudder.
"We probably will," Raven said as they passed through the alter room that had probably seen the death of thousands, though if there had been an altar, Xander hadn't seen fit to bring it, and into a small chamber off to the left near the back with stairs leading down into the darkened interior.
Sakura and Sasuke reached into their pouches and brought out modern looking glowsticks, snapping them in their hands, the light they gave off was more akin to a lantern than a chemical light.
"Where are we going?" Sakura asked.
"To check out the spirit," Raven replied.
"Can we not?" Naruto asked hopefully.
"You don't need to come along," Raven told him.
"I'm going," Sasuke said refusing to give into fear and wanting to see what all the sacrifices had wrought, wondering if it had been worth it.
"Me too," Sakura agreed quickly, not willing to leave Sasuke alone with an attractive female, especially one he'd shown interest in.
"Fine, let's do this," Naruto said, refusing to let Sasuke show him up.
Raven continued down the steps until she came to a landing with an enormous pair of stone doors engraved with feathered serpents. She waved her hand and the edges of the doors were outlined in shadow, slowly opening to reveal a room filled with piles of gleaming gold, jade, and gems.
"Woah," the three children chorused softly, looking at the mounds of treasure containing works of art that they knew they'd probably never see the equal of outside a daimyo's palace.
Sparks of light flowed from the corners of the room, coming together to form an indistinct humanoid form.
"Ahhh!" the three genin dropped their glowsticks and drew kunai.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven called out, thrusting her hands forward and sending a wave of black energy to encase the spirit in a bubble.
The three had turned to her for a sign of what to do, but on seeing she appeared unconcerned they relaxed and slid their kunai back into their holsters.
"What is your purpose?" Raven asked. After a few seconds she nodded as if it had spoken. "I can see where that would be confusing."
"What'd he or she or it, say?" Naruto asked.
"Its job is to guard the treasure room and make sure no one desecrates the temple or steals anything," Raven explained.
"Is some of the treasure missing?" Sakura asked, looking around.
"No, in fact Xander polished everything," Raven replied, slightly amused.
"Then what's the problem?" Naruto asked.
"Well, Xander did take the entire thing," Sakura pointed out, "but… it's all still in the treasure room."
"Yes, apparently the God-King who created it never considered anyone actually taking the temple so it's unsure what to do," Raven explained.
"I'd say that makes Xander the new God-King," Sasuke suggested.
Raven tilted her head as if listening and released the figure. "Well, that's one problem solved."
The figure bowed and dissolved into sparkles of light.
"That was easy," Naruto said, relieved he wouldn't have to face whatever that had been.
"The spirit wasn't that powerful," Raven replied.
"Didn't it take at least a thousand deaths to create?" Sasuke asked.
"Or a dozen willing ones," Sakura reminded him, trying to be helpful.
"Building things on death is like making a castle of sand. Pile enough grains and you can make something that looks impressive, but it's always weaker than one built on a solid foundation of dedication to ideals," Raven tried to explain. "Life creates, death just… imitates and poorly at that."
Naruto looked thoughtful as his other two teammates reclaimed their glowsticks and followed Raven back up the stairs. "Hey, wait for me!" he exclaimed and hurried after them.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
"You're playful today," Xander noted, trying to ignore the warmth from the demi-goddess on his back and the two soft mounds nesting atop his hair.
"I'm not dealing with politics and don't have to worry about acting regal," Hippolyta said cheerfully.
"Heavy is the head that wears the crown," Xander quoted.
"Exactly," she said, and bounced her breasts on his head.
Xander snickered. "My crown is soft and squishy," he said, getting a laugh.
"Excuse me," Kakashi said, not wanting to interrupt but wanting to start working.
"Yes?" Xander asked.
"Can you remove the ice so I can get to work?" he requested.
"Sure," Xander agreed. He turned to face the ship and took a deep breath before exhaling an enormous torrent of flame that melted the ice covering the hole in the side of the ship, releasing a wave of sea water and crates from its interior. Xander quickly zipped around, catching and stacking crates, leaving Hippolyta to fall into the water as she hadn't been prepared for him to move that fast. "Sorry," he apologized.
Hippolyta waved it off as she regained her feet, ignoring the small river of ice-cold water pouring around her with a smile.
Kakashi had leapt to the side to avoid the water and was examining the crates as he waited for the ship to drain. "Looks to be simple preservation seals," he said, drawing a kunai from his pouch and tapping on different parts of a crate before moving it away from the others and cautiously slit the seals. After several seconds of waiting, ready to move in an instant, he flicked open the top of the crate, wrenching nails from the wood, and leapt back a dozen feet.
When anything failed to occur, he nodded to himself, put away the kunai and walked back to the crate, peering inside. "Silverware and cutlery," he announced, "high quality."
"I hope someone ordered some plates or I'm going to have to make some," Xander said, "and considering my attempts to make anything in pottery class, they will not be pretty."
Kakashi examined the rest of the crates. "I doubt any of the crates are trapped, see if there are any chests. Heavy duty chests, containing precious metals and jewels, are far more likely to have traps on them."
Xander scanned the ship with his X-ray vision before floating inside, ignoring the water dripping on him from the waterlogged wood as the ice melted in the tropical heat. He followed a ladder up from the hold into the lower decks and down a hall that lead to the captain's cabin where he'd piled all the weapons he'd collected. There was a clear spot on the floor of the cabin that looked empty, but his x-ray vision insisted an iron reinforced trunk was there.
He examined it closely to make sure there weren't any of those tags connecting it to the floor of the cabin before picking it up and breaking whatever magic was making it invisible. A gurgling noise came from several points on the walls around him and water poured out of a number of small holes, dropping a plethora of tiny silver needles to the deck.
Xander examined the floor beneath where the trunk had sat. 'Pressure plate,' he mused. 'Surprised it didn't go off when the ship breached the surface earlier.'
He floated out the hole in the side of the ship and saw that Hippolyta was helping Kakashi sort through the crates.
"I'm not sure what you'll do with a hundred rolls of silk, but you have them," Kakashi said, setting a crate on top of a small pile of them.
"Togas, bed sheets, curtains," the Amazonian Queen said with a shrug.
"And here's the gold and jewels to go with it," Xander said, setting the trunk down in the sand.
"There isn't any furniture, but we seem to have nearly everything else we'd need to hold lavish dinner parties," Hippolyta told Xander. "The ship was probably contracted to carry orders for a prince to set up a household or five."
"The average citizen doesn't have the money to order foreign goods, they tend to buy from local shops," Kakashi pointed out as he examined the trunk and winced. "This is going to take a while."
Haku finally arrived and stepped up onto the beach. "Who is the temple for?" he asked on spotting the pyramid.
"I needed stone to build a castle, but I liked the way it looked, so I decided to use it instead," Xander replied, surprised the young nin had made such good time across the water. "I had to clear away a lot of vines and dust it off a little, but it has plenty of room and should keep the rain off."
Haku looked from the pyramid to Xander and back again before slowly nodding.
"It may upset the god it was dedicated to," Hippolyta pointed out.
"Doubtful," Xander replied, "the people who built it are long dead, so I doubt he'd even notice before we leave and if he does have a problem with it… it's just one god."
The two nin stared at Xander for a moment before turning their attention to something less disturbing, Haku joining Kakashi in examining the trunk.
Haku's eyes lit up on realizing what he was looking at. "I love puzzles like this."
"You have experience in disabling traps of this nature?" Kakashi asked.
"Also making them," Haku said. "It's a fun intellectual exercise."
"Anything else left on the ship? It looks rather untidy just sitting there," Hippolyta joked with Xander.
"Half the cargo is still on board and I still have to collect all the weapons," Xander replied.
"Let's clean it out so you can dispose of it," she said, leaping aboard, "it makes the beach look untidy."
"I was going to bury it in the sand with the top half sticking out," he teased as he followed her.
"Not without its mast," she called back. "If the mast was still on you could have a flag for it, but without it… meh."
"Damn, that would look cool," Xander admitted as he joined her.
It only took a few minutes to clean out the hold, Hippolyta tossing crates to him that he set on the beach, before they poked through the rest of the ship and collected all the chakra weapons that were on board.
"I'd have preferred something of European design, if not Grecian of course," Hippolyta said as she swung a katana through a lightning fast series of attacks and blocks, "but these are masterfully crafted."
"Why does no one use maces?" Xander asked. "These are all edged weapons."
"Because they can be used to channel chakra, which allows the blade to cut through nearly anything," Kakashi replied as he carefully place a drop of blood on a seal where Haku indicated, causing it to light up and dissolve.
Haku opened up the trunk, revealing stacks of gold and silver bars stamped with Asian symbols and a plethora of gems and expensive jewelry.
Raven returned with the three genin in time to see the trunk opened. "That will fit in with all the treasure you have in the temple."
"The temple has treasure?" Hippolyta asked curiously. "Then why retrieve all of this?"
"I'd already planned on getting some pirate treasure. I wasn't about to give that up just because I'd already discovered a fortune in gold and jewels, besides I needed some stuff that the locals would accept without requiring a jeweler or an archaeologist," Xander explained.
"What do you need local currency for?" Kakashi asked.
"I plan on buying some furniture," Xander replied. "I figure I'll pop into a city and buy some beds and a couch."
"Cool swords," Naruto said as he eyed the gleaming chakra blades laid out on the sand.
"Feel free to take one," Xander said, "I have plenty."
"Really?" Sasuke asked, looking interested.
"Sure," Xander replied. "Each of you take one, I'm sure you'll find more use for them than I would."
"But… Chakra blades are expensive," Sakura said in disbelief.
Xander shrugged, while the boys glared at Sakura and she shrunk back.
The two boys grabbed katanas while Sakura picked up a kodachi, finding the size easier to handle.
"We told the guardian spirit in the treasure room that you were the new God-King," Raven told Xander, "it seems happy with that."
"The what?" Xander asked.
"The temple had a guardian spirit to prevent thieves," Raven explained. "The fact that you took the entire temple confused it, as all the treasure is still in the treasure room, so it wasn't sure what to do. Sasuke suggested you were the new God-King and it was happy to accept that."
Xander considered that. "Well, that's not all that strange and as long as it's not causing trouble, I guess I don't need to exorcise it."
"Naruto, Sasuke, put those down," Kakashi said. "I'll have to get you training in basic kenjutsu before you can handle them."
"I can handle it just fine," Naruto argued.
"Sharp bit goes in the other guy?" Sasuke asked, trying to hide his amusement.
"If you stick it in yourself you're doing it wrong," Naruto agreed.
Kakashi quickly disarmed all three genin and chose two blades for himself from the pile, before sealing them all away. "ANBU has special classes on how to handle Chakra weapons," he told them, "I'll enroll you three in them when we get back."
That seemed to please the genin as they perked up at the thought of proper training.
"So, we're going shopping for furniture," Hippolyta said.
Xander noted it wasn't a question.
"They got some great stores in Konoha," Naruto said eagerly. "You should go to the place I bought my stuff at, they're super comfortable."
"It's as good a place as any," Xander agreed.
"We have about thirteen hours till we have to be back here, but if you carry the ship we can make it in a single trip," Raven suggested, looking at the damaged merchant vessel still mostly encased in ice.
"What are the landmarks?" Xander asked. "I'm not familiar with this continent, but if there are any easy to see features from the air, I should be able to spot them."
"I've got a map," Sakura said brightly, looking forward to a quick trip home where she could take a nice hot bath and not sleep on the ground and deal with insects.
As the three genin gave Xander directions and described the village, Kakashi sighed. This was going to severely complicate his mission report.
Typing By: Abyssal Angel
TN: I'm guessing Amaterasu. Mayan pyramid is a bit off for it, but it wouldn't be the first time fiction from one local area has appropriated lore from someplace foreign, and Naruto is Japanese, so a twist take on an old local legend works out, and Amaterasu is the Japanese god of the sun. Then again, the bit about a 'god-king' likely means it was an uppity mortal instead, which wouldn't surprise me either. Also, I wonder if Xander will make a 'Mount Rushmore' comment once they get to Konoha. XD