A Hell of a Life
Chapter 1: Aweary and Luxuria
"Seriously, just what is this place? Like thing I recall is that I was watching a movie then I dozed off before waking up to find myself wherever here is," such was the statement coming from a very confused Naruto who had found himself in an unknown place when he had woken up.
Looking around, all Naruto could see that he was in a rocky area with red mist in the atmosphere, not to mention the black clouds in the sky and he could hear the rumbling sound of thunder and flashes of lightning.
"I've got a lot of unanswered questions with one of the major ones being…," Naruto looked down at the white burning flame on his chest which is positioned at where his heart is located with confusion "What's with this white flame on my chest? It doesn't burn me when I touch it, doesn't burn my clothes either. This is so weird…,"
Surveying the area once more to at least gain an understanding or recognize where he is, Naruto took note of a path leading to a mountainous area. Naruto hummed in thought and tried to come up with some options.
"Hmmmm, maybe I can get a better scope of where I am by climbing to the top of those mountains. The sooner I get up there, the better,"
Naruto began his trek towards his targeted destination, having been doing mountain hikes and camping at forests with Jiraiya back when he was a kid and so has experience on these kinds of things. He had almost reached where the mountains are situated when something or rather someone stood in his way. It appeared to be a man but the weird thing about him is that he was practically more bones than skin and even the latter part is off as it's paler than a dead body and even has horns protruding from both sides of its head.
"What's with this guy? That's gotta be the weirdest looking costume I've ever seen. Whatever, I can finally get some answers," thought Naruto with a quirked eyebrow before speaking up "Hi there, do you live around here? I'm kinda lost and don't know where I am,"
The person looked at Naruto with narrowed eyes before finally speaking up "So, you're the one whom I've been sensing…,"
"Huh, what are you saying?"
"A human wanders about with such a powerful soul and yet no one has claimed you…this must be my lucky day," the stranger took a step forward, making Naruto feel wary and take a cautious step back.
"Uh dude, I don't know what exactly is going on here but I'm pretty sure that we can talk things out,"
"Why would I waste my time talking when I could just take your Soul, with it I will rise up in the ranks!" said the stranger greedily before lunging at Naruto who darted out of the way.
"Hey man, I don't know what you're high on but I'm not gonna let you kill me,"
Naruto frowned at the stranger and took a fighting stance, strangely enough the white flame on his chest flared as if in response to his intent to fight.
Music Start: MadWorld OST; MAD WORLD
The stranger lunged at Naruto once more with a straight punch which the blonde quicky ducked underneath the incoming attack to grab the outstretched arm to counter with a judo throw to slam him to the ground and drove a foot into the face for additional damage.
However, the stranger showed that the attack didn't inflict the expected damage as he grabbed Naruto's leg and in an immense display of strength, flung him away before rising back to his feet.
"Ow, that really hurts…," Naruto stood back up while feeling sore all over, mostly on his left leg "How, that guy been working out or something?!"
The stranger charged at Naruto to attack him "Come here and give me your soul already!"
"Quit talking crazy already! Jeez, you sound like you're from a cult or something…or maybe that's exactly the case,"
Ducking and weaving around the incoming punches and grabs like a boxer, Naruto countered constantly with rapid jabs, hook punches and elbow strikes at the stranger's chest and face, but for some reason his opponent wasn't so much as even flinching from his attacks and instead was rather feeling pain in his arms from attacking.
"Just how much calcium have you been loading into those bones of yours?" Naruto waved his arms to ease them of the pain albeit grimacing because of it.
"You're delaying the inevitable and wasting my time," said the stranger arrogantly.
"I could say the same about the latter to you,"
Suddenly a red aura began emanating from the stranger's body much to Naruto's shock and the next thing he knew was that the stranger was right in front of him and in the middle of a powerful punch which he barely crossed his arms in front of him to block but the impact sent him flying and his back slammed into a boulder before collapsing to the ground.
"What the…heck…was that? Suddenly…he goes…Kaio-Ken on me…this some…Isekai crap?" Naruto struggled to rise to his feet, failing a few times but was able to stand in spite of the blood leaking from the corner of his lips.
The stranger approached Naruto with slow steps and smiling arrogantly at the sight of his prey's current state of weakness "Like I said before, you were delaying the inevitable. Now that soul of yours will be mine,"
Naruto glared at the stranger approaching him "Didn't I tell you to quit with the crazy talk, you DBZ copycat? I'm already annoyed about my current situation and you show up with this dark cult bullshit of yours? That just pisses me off!"
Suddenly the white flame on his chest flared so strongly that it forced the stranger to back away from Naruto who was confused on what's going on. Multiple coronas of white flames swirled around him and seemed to be healing his wounds then the flames swirled around his hands without burning them before transforming into pure white wrappings which wound themselves around his hands, covering them up to his forearms with the ends hanging off like tassels then red characters of unknown language appeared on them and glowed faintly.
"What's going on here?" Naruto looked at the wrappings in confusion when he caught sight of movement from the corner of his eye and immediately raised an arm to block a punch from the stranger and this time, he wasn't knocked away.
"You…what did you do to yourself?!" the stranger demanded in anger.
"I don't really know, but…," Naruto quickly lashed out with a counterpunch which actually dealt damage that the stranger cried out in pain "This means that I can finally make you feel something whenever I hit you,"
"Why you little…die!" the stranger radiated even more of the red aura and attacked ferociously.
As the battle ensued, Naruto noticed that his physique had undergone some sort of enhancement from the flame on his chest which made his skeletal system much more durable and resilient, his already impressive stamina even higher, his senses greatly sharpened. Not to mention that the wrappings on his hands seem to be boosting the power in his punches, judging from the bruises and cracks on the strangers every time he lands a hit on him.
"This…can't be…happening," the stranger groaned in disbelief at the turn of events.
"Oh but it is, now…," the red letters on the wrappings glowed brightly as Naruto clenched his fists with a glare "Grit your teeth!"
He rushed up to the stranger and proceeded to repeatedly punch him at superfast speeds at his face and solar plexus with both hands before ending the barrage as he reeled back and gave one final punch which sent the enemy flying into a boulder and quite literally shattered into many pieces of bones.
Music End
Naruto let out a deep breath with the white flame on his chest becoming as calm as a candlelight and the glow on the wrappings dimming now that the battle was over. The blonde looked down at his hands with a frown on his face as he summarized everything that has happened to him so far.
First, he wakes up in an unknown place with no clue of where he is and decided to climb to the top of the mountain in order to scope the area then figure where to go from there. Second, he bumps into an odd-looking stranger who starts raving about taking his soul and tried to kill while using some freaky power like he was from a cult. Third, the flame on his chest gave him some sort of power and gear which helped him beat the guy who literally broke into pieces of bone. All these things could only one thing…
"Naruto…you're definitely not in San Francisco right now. This had better not be an Isekai world or I'm gonna find the one responsible then drive my foot up his ass and make them send me back," Naruto groaned in annoyance "Ugh, might as well be on my way. With this weird powerup of mine, I should be able to handle any more crazies that show up,"
With that said, Naruto continued on his way and keeping an eye out for any more of those strange guys from before and sure enough, more of them appeared and even attacked him immediately with no questions asked. However, the constant fights rather helped Naruto be more attuned to the strange power of his and how to blend it with his fighting skills. Soon enough he arrived at the foot of the mountain where oddly enough there was a roman themed temple entrance built into it and a woman sat behind a receptionist counter with a tired look on her face.
She's a woman with a pale skin complexion, red irises behind a pair of round-framed glasses, and silvery-white hair which is wavy and has been fashioned into multiple curls at the ends, and having a ponytail which also has curls. She wears a red button-up long-sleeve shirt with a large folded collar underneath a black long-sleeved blazer which has an id card attached to a black lanyard, a black pencil skirt, a pair of black gloves and stilettos. But there were some oddities with them being the two small black horns with rounded tips which were poking out of her hair and the long black arrow-tipped tail waving tiredly behind her.
The woman saw Naruto approach and with a loud yawn, brought out a pen and a red clipboard before introducing herself "Name's Pandemonica, Hell's Customer Service. How may I serve you?"
Any questions Naruto had in mind to ask where shredded to pieces upon hearing the word 'Hell' but he wanted to make sure just in case he wasn't hearing things, for his sake "Um excuse me, I don't know if I heard right but you said hell right? The 'Your sins will take you to hell'? That hell?"
The girl nodded tiredly "That's the one, if you can't tell from the horns and tail that I'm a demon,"
"Suddenly, I'm wishing that I was Isekaied after all. I don't remember committing any major sins that would bring me here! I know I did some bad things but none that serious!" Naruto was in a mental panic and trying to come to terms with the truth.
Pandemonica herself was busy scrolling through the pages before stopping at one "So, your name is…Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. It says here that you're subject of a contract with your soul as the payment,"
"Contract? I don't recall making any deals with any demons while I was alive!" Naruto protested.
"Actually, you're still alive which is actually strange since your soul is supposed to be taken upon your death,"
Naruto blinked in confusion "I am alive, then how did I get here? Last thing I remember was that I was asleep back home and woke up to find myself here,"
"I see, it would seem that someone is trying to exploit a loophole in the contract by attempting to obtain your soul by ways of premature death, *Sigh* this is so tiring," said Pandemonica tiredly.
"So, how do I get back home?"
"You might need to take it up with the CEO of Hell,"
"You don't mean the very devil, do you?" asked Naruto, his skin turning pale at what she could possibly be insinuating.
"The very one,"
"Ugh, not once in my life did I think something like this would happen to me," thought Naruto with a mental sigh "Alright then, so where do I find the devil?"
"On the eighth floor once you go straight down, be aware there are dangers and puzzles on the way," Pandemonica explained.
Naruto sweatdropped at this "Uh, thanks for the info,"
"All part of the job, have a nice day in hell,"
"Uh right…," Naruto was about to leave when he noticed the dark bags under her eyelids and paused for a moment "Um, are you doing okay?"
Pandemonica looked at Naruto, wondering what he was up to but responded with a tired sigh "As okay as I can be, all this workload leaves me all tired out. I try to perk myself up with coffee, but the quality rather makes things worse,"
Naruto frowned at this, seeing how exhausted she is. He never would have thought that even demons would have things rough here in hell in terms of economy. Guess there's always something new to learn about, even so…
"If you'd like, I could help you once I get back to earth," said Naruto.
Pandemonica looked a bit confused at his statement "I don't understand what you mean by that,"
"I may not look it, but I'm a part-timer at a well-known coffee shop in San Francisco, the owner has taught me how to create various types of coffee which I take great pride and hardly ever received any bad reviews from customers,"
"Is that so, can you name a few?" Pandemonica asked, wanting to see if he was being genuine and can easily tell if he's lying.
"Sure I can; there's espresso, macchiato, latte, mocha, cappuccino, americano, irish, flat white, glace…," Naruto was listing off.
"Okay okay, I get it…," Pandemonica had to stop him as he was seriously tempting her with the worst part being that he was telling the absolute truth with no hesitation.
"So, how about it?" asked Naruto "I even know the perfect pairings of dessert to go with each of them,"
That did it, Pandemonica made up her mind "Very well then, I'll help guide you to the CEO. It's rather sweet of you to offer, though. I just don't like not feeling like myself when I don't have the right coffee to drink,"
"I understand what you mean, sometimes work seem to suck the life out of you then you need something to revive you. I work a lot of parttime jobs so that's an example," said Naruto.
"I see, you have your own source of stress,"
"I think everyone does, we just don't know what they are,"
The duo made their way inside through the temple-like entrance and went inside, finding the interior to be rather similar to those medieval video games that he often plays back home as a solo player or in co-op.
"So, how exactly do I reach the lower floors?" asked Naruto curiously, wanting to know the challenges ahead.
"Normally, you would have to locate the stairs after you've solved the puzzle on the floor," Pandemonica sighed tiredly "But now you need to solve the puzzle and trigger a switch in order to activate a teleportation circle which would take you down to the next floor,"
"Sounds rather tiring," Naruto commented.
"You wouldn't be any further from the truth and I'm saying this as a demon,"
"Now let's see what this place has for me,"
The moment Naruto stepped into the room, large parts of rocks began to shift and move about to reposition themselves, the blonde surveyed the newly changed area and saw that it had somehow transformed into a form of an obstacle course which he would have to traverse in order to reach the switch above which is a red orb floating atop a pedestal.
"Guess this trial requires me to cross over to the other side and reach the switch," said Naruto thoughtfully, seeing how some of the rock platforms were moving around in midair "No time like the present if I want to get out of here,"
Naruto crouched slightly then dashed towards the elevated floor, using the gathered speed to run up the wall and grab on to the ledge then pulling himself up. He stood to see that multiple rock platforms were moving horizontally and vertically.
"All too similar to platformer video games except there's no respawn in hell, okay then…let's see how to get through this,"
He carefully observed the moving platforms and was slowly memorizing the pattern of their movements and coming up with how he could traverse the obstacle. Naruto took a few steps back with a deep breath then he dashed forward and leapt off the ledge and started jumping from one rock platform to another, taking a moment to wait for the platform he targets to move into position then jumping towards a vertical rock platform and ran along it before kicking off to land on the next platform. Naruto continued to use his enhanced athletic skills to make his way towards the switch at the end.
However, Naruto realized that he had made an error in the timing of his next jump as the target platform was out of his range and began to plummet to the ground. In a panic, Naruto didn't notice the red characters on his wrappings glow red as the ends sudden extend themselves and latch onto the platform then pulled him up to it.
Naruto looked at the wrappings in shock as the ends of them reverted to normal "Whoa, talk about a gift that keeps on giving…and I like it!" he stood up and stretched a hand towards the next platform whilst imagining the wrappings extending themselves towards it, then the wrappings immediately complied and did as such before pulling him over to the platform.
With the discovery of the new feature, Naruto made his way to the pedestal even quicker than before and pressed his hand on the orb which caused it to glow brightly then everything reverted back to normal with the exception of a red magic circle with the design of a pentagram appearing in the middle of the room as Naruto went to look at it with Pandemonica beside him.
"I'm guessing that this will lead to the next floor is I'm right," Naruto inquired.
Pandemonica nodded tiredly "That's correct…hm?" then she noticed something behind Naruto and sighed.
Blinking in confusion at her reaction, Naruto heard heavy breathing and turned around to look behind him only to be shocked to see that someone had been standing very close without him knowing.
She appears to be a demon girl just like Pandemonica with several differences being that her white hair is wavy and unruly with cowlicks of hair at random pattern, her red eyes have luminescent white pupils which are shaped like hearts and a constant blush under her eyes. Another unique thing about her would be the many red hearts floating around her head and forming a vague circlet. Whilst wearing the same black business suit on bustier figure than Pandemonica, the girl wears a red turtleneck sweater underneath, her black pencil dress with wide slits on both sides, and red leggings.
"Um, who are you?" asked Naruto confusedly.
The girl breathed heavily "You and me…now,"
"Huh? What?" Naruto took a step back with his cheeks blushed red at being approached so aggressively like this, he looked at Pandemonica who wearily adjusted her glasses.
"You may have to forgive Modeus. Most demons here in hell are like her due to the fact that the lust for sin is in our blood and it's very hard to keep in check," Pandemonica explained.
"Yeah, I can definitely see that now that you've explained it," said Naruto, yelping in shock when he saw Modeus' face close to him and jumped back.
"Why are you stalling? Let's get started already," Modeus complained.
"Actually, I can't right now since I've got something important to do," said Naruto.
"What could be more important than what we could be enjoying right now?" Modeus pushed up her bust with both hands and let them go to make them bounce, making Naruto stare with maximum attention before snapping back into focus.
The blonde turned away with his face beet red and muttered to himself "Oh geez, am I going to be meeting more girls like her on the way down?"
However, his mumbles were heard by Modeus who looked at him with wide eyes "More girls? You came here to create a harem of demons?"
"Huh, what?" Naruto was confused to hear her statement.
"You poor fool…they will rip you to shreds, and I have to see this,"
Breathing heavily with excitement, Modeus grabbed a confused Naruto by the arm and proceeded to pull him into the teleport circle to be warped away to the next floor. Pandemonica witnessed all this and sighed in mental exhaustion.
"I'm too tired to describe the kind of luck he has to be able to make Modeus of all demons to become attached to him. Almost all men meet their end by her in their first encounter, no doubt this must have been planned by whoever brought him here," said Pandemonica before stepping into the teleport circle to follow after them.
Elsewhere in hell, three demons sat together around a large circular table as they hovered over a dark abyss below them.
The first is a robust and very tall Latino man with olive colored skin complexion and mostly bald with exception for hair on both sides of the head where four incense dots could be seen on the forehead, he also has facial hair styled into a beard and mutton chop with a notable amount of body hair. The man wears an expensive-looking sleeveless white suit with a red handkerchief tucked into the breast pocket which poorly fits his body figure. He wears expensive jewelry consisting of four golden bangles in each arm, four rings in the middle and ring fingers, and a necklace of large blue prayer beads with a pair of earrings.
The second is an attractive woman with a pale skin complexion and a svelte body figure whilst possessing a pair of ram horns, she has blonde hair reaching past her collarbones, and green tattoos all over her body except for the head and neck. She wears an outfit which is mostly ruby colored, consisting of a sleeveless coat with a large midriff which has a spiral design on the chest, a leather harness underneath, spiked arm bands and forearm length fingerless gloves with gold accents, and a pair of thigh high boots.
The third is a tall sinister looking older man with a pale skin complexion and white hair that is neatly combed back into an orderly style, piercing blue eyes which can strike fear into those of weak will, pointed ears and a crooked nose. He wears a dark purple stripped suit with a long-sleeved white shirt underneath, a blood red tie tucked into the suit, dark blue gloves which match his similarly colored executive shoes, and a white handkerchief tucked in his right breast pocket. At a glance, he could be described as a modernized vampire.
"So, what's the reason of this meeting, Belze?" asked the demon woman curiously.
"I wish to inform you all that a living human possessing the Soul Flame has been sighted here in hell," said Belze stoically.
This made the rotund man almost drop his cigar which he barely caught in time before it fell into the abyss, he raised it to his lips to take a puff but ended up scorching it due to holding the cigar wrongly before correcting himself "Are you sure about that boss?"
"I'm positive, Elvis,"
The woman giggled in excitement "I hope it's a man, I can think of so many uses with them, they can be such wonderful toys that I can never get tired of playing with,"
Elvis protested "You loco chica, no way!" he turned to Belze "Let me deal with this human, cabron!"
The demon woman slammed her palms on the table and placed a foot on it as she glared at Elvis "Butt out, fatass!"
"Get your feet off my table, Shannon!" Belze slammed a hand on the table, releasing a purple wave of silencing them both and making Shannon comply to the order. He turned to speak to Elvis "Find out more about the human and see if you can capture him,"
Elvis took a drag from his cigar and exhaled smoke from his nostrils "You're the boss…," he grinned at Shannon who looked away with a pout.
Belze chuckled evilly, once they obtained the power of the Soul Flame; not only will they be able to overthrow the ruler of hell but also control the earth, making humanity into nothing more than worker bees creating honey in their paradise.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto woken up to find himself in a strange place with a strange white flame on his chest and as if that wasn't enough, e gt attacked by a strange guy who was raving about acquiring his soul and showed to have powers like he was from a dark cult. During the fight, Naruto discovered that the flame on his chest was far from ordinary as it enhanced his overall capabilities and equipped him with mystical combat wraps which have a lot of abilities and he was able to win the fight.
Along the way, Naruto meets a girl whose name is Pandemonica and reveals to him that he's in hell and his soul was subject to a contract but wasn't supposed to be in hell. Upon learning of this, Naruto was informed that he would need to meet with the devil in order to figure out what was going in relation to him being part of a contract he never took part in and who or what brought him to hell in order to actively target his soul. Being the nice guy he is, Naruto offered to make some high-grade coffee for Pandemonica when he returns to the earth which enticed the tired and stressed demon girl to follow him.
After passing the first of many trials and opening up a way to the next floor, Naruto encounters the lustful demon Modeus who immediately wants to get and dirty without any formal introductions whatsoever or else…but apparently Naruto's luck came into play as a misheard mutter led to Modeus tagging along with or without his consent but at the very least he'll be alive. It would appear that a trio of demons are targeting Naruto for his soul which seems to be highly valuable and made him a target in hell. Stay tuned to find out whilst reading and reviewing as always.
As you guys can see, I'm doing a few twists for the venture through hell since you wouldn't want to be reading 'Naruto kicked the stone here, avoided the spikes, picked up a key…' stuff like that. So, I'll be taking a few notes from other games to make things interesting while striving to make this story worth reading.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out and staying alive.
