Disclaimer: Me no own shit

Chapter 3

Revised: 8/25/12

Naruto was not a stupid kid, despite what his actions during years previous suggested. So when he saw Shitai standing alone in the atrium looking nervous and missing his almost ever present cigarette he automatically knew something bad was going to happen.

"Hey, Shitai what's wrong? Why do you look so nervous? And where's the High Priest guy I was supposed to meet"

"H-him and H-hidan-sempai a-are out i-investigating –something. Uh, I g-got a l-lead o-on Saisho-no-Jiin. Y-you w-wanna g-go w-with me to i-investigate?"

"Really? What are they investigating? And why are you stuttering man?"

"S-sorry it's a n-nervous tic," Shitai took a deep breath and fished a crumpled cigarette pack from his pocket, and lit a cigarette shakily.

"All right, look runt I got bad news," he exhaled a smoke ring, blew the rest out his nose and continued, "You've been a convert long enough that a first pilgrimage is mandatory, and we were hoping that we could delay that for a while since you just made genin but there is evidence that Kyoju-sha is in the area and Hidan-sempai thinks its best that you get away until it's taken care of."

"Wait, wait I worked my ass off to be a genin, there's no way in hell I'm leaving now! And what in the hell is a Kyoju-sha? I mean why in the hell would you guys help me train just to drag me out and make me a goddamn missing-nin!?" Naruto glared at the helpless looking Shitai and had to actively hold himself back from throwing a punch.

Shitai sighed heavily, rolled his eyes at Naruto's reaction, and sat down on the stone floor, gesturing for Naruto to do the same. When they both were seated on the cold stone he began to speak in the studious voice that Naruto associated with his frequently given history and philosophy lectures.

"All right, I'm guessing that you never read the book Aijin gave you, The Tetsugaku, 'cause if you did you wouldn't be asking about what Kyoju-sha is. OK so by now you've noticed that numbers play a decent sized role in our religion, hell I've pointed it out to you before, but to recap we have two numbers that are considered 'holy' in some respects. The number 17, the number of years it took for the empire to fall, is used in a lot of ceremonies; convergences, first sacrifices, etc and the number 3 which is the number of points in Jashin's symbol, the number of people necessary for a pilgrimage, and the number of gods. Jashin, the God of Domination, had two siblings Sukui, the Lady of Salvation, the god of the weak and Kyoju-sha, the Occupant, the god of the outcast. Jashin is the only one with followers to do his will, Sukui feels that using humans as servants is wrong, but often 'nudges' people to save others, or take pity on the weak. And then Kyoju-sha is the weakest of the Siblings, and doesn't have the power necessary to manifest himself into our world. Since he doesn't have the strength necessary to manifest himself he takes residence in a host body, like a parasite, and uses them as a conduit to increase his power. He is bitter towards his stronger siblings and as a result he usually hunts the newest converts of Jashin, which puts you as a prime target."

"Yeah, that's interesting and all Shitai," Naruto said sarcastically, "But where is the evidence that Kyoju-sha is around?"

"No need to be a sarcastic ass Naru-chan," Waruku entered the atrium from the hallway to the athenaeum and sat down heavily next to Shitai, and continued, "and one of your villages shinobi was just found dead. He was literally torn to pieces by human teeth, you really wanna risk disobeying Hidan-san and running into a sadistic bastard like that?"

"No I guess not, but I still don't wanna leave the village, I worked my ass off to pass the genin test!"

Shitai ignored this and nodded as if Naruto had agreed to something, "Since that's settled, I'll tell you about the lead I got on Saisho-no-Jiin"

Naruto opened his mouth to protest and point out that he never agreed to anything and nothing was settled. But before he could make a sound the soft, hollow voice of Jashin, the voice that had been haunting his dreams for months, spoke in the back of his mind, 'Listen to him, child. Follow them and learn, for they will teach you more than that pathetic excuse for a 'sensei' your village gave you'

Naruto closed his mouth with an audible snap and shook his head once in an attempt to clear it. Shitai gave him a weird look before lighting another cigarette and beginning to speak again.

"So I've got a buddy out in the Land of Snow who's kinda like an archeologist. He goes around and searches for old ruins or temples from the time of the First Empire. Usually he turns up nothing, absolutely nothing. But yesterday I got a message from him; he's actually found an ancient temple, right on the coast of the country. So naturally I said that I'd come check it out and since you need to take your first pilgrimage and get a safe distance away from Kyoju-sha it kills a coupla birds with one stone."

"If I'm gonna have to leave, can I at least tell Old Man Hokage it's a religious thing so that he doesn't make me a missing nin?"

"No."

"What the hell! Why not?"

"Well, two reasons: 1. If you told him it was a religious thing he'd want to know what religion and pretty much every shinobi village in the known world has a policy of extermination when it comes to Jashinism. And two, since you're instructor hasn't passed you on the second part of the genin exam you're not technically a village shinobi and therefore not able to be declared a missing-nin."

Naruto stared at Waruku and Shitai in shocked silence as his mind struggled to absorb the large amount of information he had just heard. Could he really just leave the village behind? He didn't really like the people there, but he still had some weird attachment to the place. But... Shitai had never led him astray, unlike the people in the village, so he would trust him. Slowly a grin spread across his face

"When do we leave?"

Tenshi followed the twisting passage deeper into the maze that was the 'Snow Temple'. His original plan had been to wait for Shitai to arrive before venturing past the atrium, but curiosity had always been his weakness. The temple was, in itself an anomaly, an unknown, and he hated absolutely hated unknowns.

He jammed a kunai into the wall to mark his place and turned another corner. The red light was definitely getting brighter; he could see orbs of the stuff pulsing in the ice. The red lights were another anomaly. Unlike the light in other temples it did not appear to originate from a statue or shrine, it seemed to emanate from the air itself tainting everything with a bloody tint. But that wasn't what bothered him most. The lights, which his crew had given the rather unimaginative name of 'Blood Lights', emitted an energy that seemed alive; in fact when they had entered the temple he had originally thought that other people were inside.

Tenshi tapped his temple with one finger to knock his thoughts back in line and stopped at the beginning of the next hallway. At the end of the hall was a door (carved from translucent ice like everything else in the building) and the Blood Light had thickened near it, to such a consistency that the floor itself was completely obscured. His pulse quickened, this is what he had been searching for; something big, something amazing was behind that door. Not one to waste time, he set off towards the door at a pace that was not quite a run, but not quite a walk either.

Moving through the Blood Lights was like trudging through a low field of static electricity, he could feel the hairs of his legs standing on end and his skin was prickling unpleasantly. He put his hands on the door and the feeling spread throughout his body, intensifying tenfold. One solid push was all it took to send the door in a fluid slide out of the way.

Tenshi reached a hand into the inside of his thick coat to grab his notebook and cursed when he remembered that he had left it in the atrium. He snorted, disgusted with himself, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He began to walk along the edge of the room and started to mentally take notes: 'the structure could easily be described as an upside down ziggurat with a staircase leading to the bottom. Each level seems to feature a different Jashinist symbol carved into it, the blood seal (faith), the scepter (power), the scythe (death) and several I don't recognize. The source of the 'Blood Lights' seems to be 4 statues on the second to last level. The statues appear to be of owls and the light is emanating from their eyes and open beaks. The last level is…

The bottom level was covered in a thick layer of frost, completely obscuring the view of whatever was underneath. But he could feel the power of whatever was inside pulsing against his feet and up through his body. Tenshi dropped to his knees and pulled out his last remaining kunai. After a brief and rather one-sided argument with himself about whether or not he should fetch his dig crew, he began to scrape off the frost, starting at the end closest to the stairs and working upwards.

His hand went slack, and his kunai clattered to the ice. He whistled through his teeth and stood up slowly, never once taking his eyes off his newly-unveiled discovery. After a moment a smile spread across his face.

The man tightened his grip on the branch, his fingernails splitting through the bark and digging into the wood underneath. He felt a low growl start in his chest and slowly work its way into his throat. He shook his head violently and struggled to remain in control. This was bad, very, very bad.

Kyoju-sha's influence had become much too prevalent. The influence had started out small, a few minor physical changes, hair and eye color mostly. But as the frequency of the blood lusts had increased, he had lost more and more of himself. He couldn't remember how to speak or what his name was anymore, his thoughts had become erratic and he couldn't hold memory for more than an hour. And something about his body seemed…off, it felt as if his entire body had been stretched past normal proportions. His body moved in the strangest ways now, he felt like a contortionist he had seen, in what he was sure was another life.

But he had come out here for something, right? Surely he had, he wasn't crazy enough to come this close to the village for no reason. Well, he hoped he wasn't that crazy, but Kyoju-sha had turned him practically feral, no reason he couldn't have turned him crazy.

Wait. There was the reason; his prey was about two miles out from the village and moving away at a slow pace. He crouched on the branch, his muscles bunching like a steel spring but before he took off something else caught his attention. His prey was being chased by four people that reeked of the village. HIS prey was being chased; oh no, no, no, no this would not do, not at all. He was barely aware of his upper lip curving into a canine like snarl, all he was aware of was that someone was trying to steal his kill and that could not be tolerated. A snarl tore from his throat and he took off towards the usurpers, intent on destroying them.

The departure from the village had been going relatively well. Naruto had gone back to his apartment and packed his tattered backpack with clothes and all the cup ramen in his cupboard. Once packed, he had slipped past a sleeping Kotetsu and went to meet Shitai and Waruku at the statue. They had set off towards the border of Fire country, weaving through trees and making small talk until Waruku had said:

"Guys, we have people following us. We gotta move, fast."

Shitai stopped, and looked around slowly, trying to sense out their pursuer's chakra. There they were, four people of jounin level at least, closing fast. He cursed under his breath and flicked his smoldering cigarette away into the trees.

"Naruto, hop on my back. There's at least four jounin after us and we HAVE to go!"

Naruto nodded and climbed onto Shitai's back. The moment he was secure, they took off through the trees so fast that the surroundings blurred into a mess of greens.

Naruto's mind was a jumble of panicked thoughts. What would happen if their pursuers caught up with them? He had never seen Waruku or Shitai in a real fight, what if they lost? What would happen to him? Would they take him back to the village for questioning, or would they just execute him? They had a policy of extermination after all. Naruto was shaken out of his thoughts as Shitai came to an abrupt halt. He looked around and saw that Waruku was facing back they way they had come, "Something's wrong, they've stopped moving…wait," His body stiffened, "you guys go on ahead, I have to go back there"

"What! why?" Shitai said surprised

"Shitai, do you trust me?" Waruku asked, turning and tilting his head so his hair fell to the side and he could lock eyes with Shitai

"Yeah….but….why would you go back there?" Shitai asked, sounding more confused than ever.

"You're just gonna have to trust me on this, Shitai."

Shitai stood there, confused and conflicted, before striding up to Waruku and grabbing him in a tight hug. "You better come back all right, or I'm gonna track you down and beat the shit outta you."

Waruku chuckled, and when Shitai released his hold, he turned and took off into the trees. Shitai stared after him for a minute before turning and saying:

"Hold on tight, Naruto."

He took off into the trees, moving faster than ever.

Waruku weaved quickly through the trees. It was good that Shitai trusted him enough not to put up a big fight, each second was precious. That last chakra signature he felt was more than creepy, it was unnatural. And it had moved so fast, practically coming out of nowhere and cutting off their four pursuers. He had sworn to Aijin-hime that he would protect Naruto from Kyoju-sha and that was what he was gonna do. He slowed and dropped to the forest floor. Moving as quietly as possible, he approached the edge of the clearing. He stopped and crouched, low to the ground, as he saw Kyoju-sha's container. The container crouched over the body of one of Konoha's jounin, body bent at strange angles, resembling a human spider crouched over a fly. As he watched, the container looked up and his golden eyes locked on him, freezing him in place.

"Hokage-sama."

The elderly Sarutobi looked up from his desk, worry clearly written on his aged face

"Yes?" he asked, hoping desperately that they had found Naruto

"We've lost contact with the recovery team."

Any hopes that Sarutobi had were dashed and leaned his head against his clasped hands and sighed heavily, "I don't know what to do Kakashi. We don't know who the kidnappers are; we don't know what they want. I just don't know what to do."

Kakashi frowned behind his mask, "Well, I do have a theory about who it could be, although it is unlikely."

The Sandaime looked up so fast that he cricked his neck, "Who do you think it could be?"

"Well after the Kyuubi attack, I helped with the orphanages and there was this young kid with blue hair that lost his parents in the attack. From what I hear he ran away from the orphanage when he was 12, but I could have sworn I saw him around the village lately. It's possible that he might have found out about Naruto and abducted him in some form of revenge," Kakashi noticed the hopeful looked spreading across the Hokage's face, "I wouldn't get your hopes up though Hokage-sama, he was a civilian kid; according to the recovery team the kidnappers were moving at shinobi-like speeds."

"What was the child's name, Kakashi?"

"Hokage-sama, I really wouldn't ge—"

"What was his name Kakashi!" the Hokage interjected, losing patience.

"I don't remember his last name, but his first name was Shitai."

'Shit!' Waruku pulled his head back quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid Kyoju-sha's claws. They cut through his hair and left four diagonal scratches across his face, all of them miraculously missing his eyes. He leapt backwards, flipping in mid-air and landing on a tree branch, shaking his head rapidly in an attempt to keep blood from getting into his eyes. He launched himself off the branch and pulled out a kunai as he did so. He flew over the head of Kyoju-sha and flung the kunai at his back, before tucking and rolling into a crouched position at the end of the clearing. He turned and just managed to get his hands up to catch the foot that was aimed at his head, the speed of his opponent was incredible. He twisted the foot sharply; trying to break the ankle, but Kyoju-sha twisted with the movement and brought his free foot around and into Waruku's jaw, knocking him free and sending Waruku sprawling onto the forest floor.

Waruku used his hands to propel himself to a standing position and twisted his body to avoid a clawed swipe at his midsection, pistoning his fist forward into Kyoju-sha's jaw as he did so. The feral man stumbled and Waruku pivoted on one foot, pulled out a kunai while ducking under another swipe, and jammed the knife into the back of Kyoju-sha's leg. Continuing with his pivot, he released the kunai and slammed his elbow into his opponent, smiling as he heard a rib break. He leapt backwards away from Kyoju-sha and skidded to a halt near the edge of the clearing, watching his opponent warily.

The feral man growled and fell to a knee. He groped blindly at the back of his leg until he found the knife. He wrapped a hand around the knife and growled again, the growl grew in volume and intensity as he ripped the kunai from his leg and threw it at Waruku. The kunai moved at such a speed that Waruku, even though he saw it coming, was not able to dodge it. A piercing pain, starting in his chest, radiated through his body. He coughed and a cloud of blood exploded from him lips. 'I think that hit something important,' another cough racked his body and he wiped fresh blood off his chin with a shaking hand, 'Shit,' Kyoju-sha sprung at him, claws outstretched and Waruku stepped back, stumbled over his feet and fell to the ground. The container flew over his head and he scrambled away on his heels and elbows, mind working overtime. He had to find some way to kill this feral asshole, he could feel himself dying, but he'd be damned if he didn't take Kyoju-sha's container with him. He plunged a hand blindly into his robe, searching for a kunai and felt the rough paper of an exploding tag brush against his finger tips. Desperately he seized onto the tag and ripped it from his pocket, simultaneously pulling his rosary over his head and off his neck. Normally an idea like this would never occur to him, but he had made a promise and his vision was already fading fast, so he had to do what was necessary. He put the tag into the palm of his head and wrapped his rosary around his hand so that Jashin's symbol was resting over the tag in his palm. He struggled to his feet (ignoring how his vision blackened and swung wildly) and spread his arms wide as Kyoju-sha rushed him. He was hit in the midsection, and he felt claws dig into his stomach but it all seemed so far away. He pushed chakra into the tag to activate it and wrapped his arms tightly around the container, he had to hold him still for at least five seconds and all his remaining strength went into this task.

As he closed his eyes for the final time, his mind travelled back to a conversation he had with Shitai when they were both about 13. They had been lying on the floor of the training room, exhausted after one of Hidan's harsh training sessions, when Shitai had propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at him:

"Hey Waruku, do you ever worry about dying?"

"Not really, why? Do you?"

"No, but w-well…uh…I-I w-worry a-about you d-dying"

Waruku chuckled, "You're stuttering, Shitai."

"What? No I'm not!"

"And you're blushing. How cute."

"Dammit Waruku, I'm being serious!"

"Ok, Ok sorry. But you don't need to worry about it."

"Really? Why not?"

"The way you fight, you'll be dead long before I am."

"Ok…hey…wait…not funny asshole!"

Waruku smiled weakly 'Jashin, I was so wrong.'

White light swallowed his world.

Chapters 7,8, and 9 combined

How are the revisions going? Reviews are appreciated.