Chapter 5: Puzzles and Pasta part 2
"Is this a joke or something?!"
Naruto couldn't help but crack a smile at Papyrus' futile attempt in tricking him. Every one of the computerized slabs turned a malicious shade of salmon pink, all except a single red tile that stood out like a sore thumb against all the pink.
Papyrus rounded off with a spoonful of Nyeh-heh-heh's then spun away.
Sans wryly looked at Naruto. "I guess my brother broke the machine, good for you." Naruto grinned even wider in response then promptly stepped on the first tile.
*FWIP
The titles began swapping pallets rapidly changing from shades Naruto couldn't place a name on. It took only but a moment for the tiles to settle down on a new puzzle. He groaned. "They...they're all the same exact colors!"
"Yep..." Sans chuckled his usual chuckle. "My brother definitely broke that thing."
With his hands packed inside his pockets, Naruto walked to the other side of the pink tiled layout. On his way out, he gave Sans a side smile. "You know...your brother's not that much of a loser after all!"
"I guess you would say...it's fun tibia around him."
"..."
"...?"
Naruto spun around and distanced himself as far away from Sans as he possibly could. At some point, he ended up in yet another strange place, the needle thin trees were spaced out so wide you could see the darkness creeping along its extended bark.
Though Naruto was never really bothered by the cold, a certain chill shivered up his spine each step he advanced. It could've been from all the dismantled snowdog necks scattered around, or just the fickle weather.
A scrawny looking faun walked beside Naruto and patted him on the shoulder. "You look jumpy," He said.
'I didn't hear him approach me...ugh..what kind of monster can do that-wait...a ghost can!' "It's nothing." He tried to sound nonchalant but it came off as a scared whelp.
The faun pulled at its purple vest collar. "I bet it's the dog sculptures they are...frightening. Well, a dog recently ran in here filled with inspiration and it's kept trying to build a snow dog that would embody its emotions. The more it built, the more excited it got, the neck got longer and it just kept on adding more snow..until...it was rather sad to watch it all go down, but I couldn't help myself."
"Oh, it must of been that one dog I pet earlier, I didn't catch his name..."
"You're talking about Lesser dog, speaking of, here," The faun plopped a short squat stick in Naruto's palm, he looked squarely at the stick. "What's this for?"
"Greater dog."
OoO
Naruto's foot tapped on the snow, gradually getting more hectic each breath he took. "These damn puzzles!" Instead of morbid spikes at the end of the puzzle, there was a wide gap, too wide for anyone with enough sense to jump over. He let out a small sigh. "Man, I have to solve this one on my own."
Like any X and O puzzle, he headed to the nearest blue X and flipped it to a red O, easy enough, the challenging part was flipping the next X. 'It's because of this slippery ice, it's impossible for me to just freely walk around, there has to be another way...'
"..."
'...maybe...I can try this...' Naruto removed his navy-blue sandals, revealing bare feet to the harsh elements, he went forward. 'I think this'll work!' His unusually clammy feet almost stuck onto the ice and without it shunting him back and forth he breezed through the puzzle.
As the last X flickering to a satisfying O, Naruto strapped his sandals back on then pressed the long-awaited gray button, activating a needle-tree enclosed path to the other side.
Ending the path was a devious fork in the road, Naruto weighed his options. 'I should...go south.'
Naruto's mind switched back to his gold piece the farther he headed south. 'Wonder how far I am until I find a town or something, then I could finally buy some food...I'm so hungry...maybe I should've eaten Pap's spaghetti, damn it, I don't think I can go on like this,'
"What's up, kid?"
"Sans?" Naruto bobbed his head up, Sans was leaning against the bare wall, he looked content, almost. "What're you doing here?"
"Nothing,"
"Yeah, right," He scoffed.
"You catch on quick...I don't think there's no harm in telling you anyways. You see, there's a door all the way to the farthest right I go to regularly. Feel free to check it out."
The blankets of snow got thinner as Naruto began his trek towards the mysterious door, sometimes he would even come across a dry patch of purple land. He bent down at a patch of naked land. "I think someone came through here recently,"
"It was probably one of those rowdy teenagers."
'That isn't Sans or anyone I know, so...' Naruto felt for his stick, grabbing it, he spun around then pointed it at whatever fiend was behind him. "COME ANY CLOSER AND I'LL-I'll..." His words ran off along with his sense to fight.
Gyftrot was much older than all the other monsters in Snowdin forest, and less alert, promoting kids to decorate him and his ginormous antlers. His voice was sluggish when he spoke to Naruto, it seemed each syllable dragged on longer than the last. "And you'll what, 'decorate' me like the rest of those teenagers?"
"N-no, I don't even have anything to decorate you with!"
"That's what they all say until they stick some random postcard on your forehead," Gyftrot stamped his pencil-width hooves in the snow, causing the ground under Naruto's feet to tremble.
The trembling stopped. 'What...what just happened?' Three present boxes rose from the ground and rested under his feet, he was standing on a white present box, but the one left to him was blue.
"Hohoho! This is my ultimate weapon for all those pesky youths. Have a nice trip!"
Naruto jumped off.
"You rebel! Get back on before-" While in mid-sentence, the presents rocketed into the still sky. "-they lift..."
"AH-! I could've just died or something on that!"
"No, they come back down, I think."
Naruto reached for the back of his head and gave it a needed scratching. "...You must really hate those teenager then, hey, if I take all the crap off you, you'll promise not to kill me, deal?"
"Oh fine."
The first thing Naruto grabbed was a half-eaten candy tangled within the evergreen trees on Gryftrot's antlers. "That feels a little better..." He muttered. Naruto nodded, then plucked a package of non-dog related raisins off his greasy back, last, he peeled a childhood photo of Snowdrake and his parent right off Gryftrot's forehead.
Gryftrot breathed a sigh of relief. "A weight has been lifted."
Naruto stuffed Gryftrot's weights in his pockets, except for the non-dog related raisins. "Nice knowing ya!" Naruto got a quiet muffle in response. 'Whatever, with him out of the way, I can finally see that door Sans was talking about.'
At the edge of the snow-mounted cliff held a large cave opening. "This is it then," he walked through.
Naruto's hand scraped across the concave walls, when there were no longer walls to suffice the scraping his hand fell to his side.
Using the dim glow of mushrooms dotted around the cave as lighting, Naruto could make out a purple door at the end of the cave. He timidly approached it. "This place..." His hand grazed over a symbol engraved on the door. The symbol perfectly replicating the one of his shirt. "...it's an entrance to the ruins..."
Naruto rested against the door, sprawling his legs over the teal colored grass. "I'm ok. I didn't die...Sometimes I do feel a little hungry, heh, I got so hungry, I even thought about eating Papyrus' spaghetti. I'm not sure if you met him yet, but he makes really nasty food," He clenched the grass, it felt nice the way it wriggled between his fingers. "I met lots of cool monsters along the way, they're all really fun to be with...but...it's not like I've forgotten about you!"
"I...wish you were here...Toriel...I...miss you so much."
XxxxXxx
This time Naruto had gone east and he found himself staring at mounds and mounds of snow poffs. 'Why the hell are these are all over the place?!' He stuck one hand through an isolated snow poff. "...! I got something...weird." In his palm held a small package. "They're pomeraisins, strange name."
Naruto continued his raid through the snow poffs (ending unsuccessfully) until he reached the very last one, his hand penetrated through the delicate snow shell. 'Since when was snow this hard and...' He knocked on it. 'Metallic?!'
"Woof-woof!" A white dog head and its tail popped out on either side of the snow poff.
"Oh, it's just a little dog..."
Then it stood. What he thought was a small dog turned out to be an exceedingly larger dog, Greater dog's large armor coupled with its spear cast a menacing shadow over Naruto.
"BOW-WOW!" Greater's dog bark thundered in the frigid air.
Naruto stumbled back and wavered the stick. "H-hey! I got something for you!"
Greater dog bounded for the human, flecking buckets full of slobber along the way.
*BAM
*BAM
*BAM
"...! WHAT THE HELL?!"
Greater dog helplessly laid under the weight of Gryftrot's present boxes. Greater dog was so close to the stick, it could almost feel the stick scraping against it's tongue.
Naruto ran over to the wholly white dog and shoved the presents off its back. 'These things aren't as heavy as I thought...guess nothing's in them!' "There you go!" Giving the last presents a well-deserved push, Greater dog slowly got itself up then happily pounded on Naruto.
"Alright, I still got the stick, want it?!" Naruto enticed.
"Yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip!" Greater dog's head moved like a revolving sprinkler, there was not a patch of snow safe from its slobbering.
Naruto turned, he flung the stick as far as possible, Greater dog followed in pursuit.
OoO
"So as I was saying about the sack patent, Undyne laughed me in the face, does she not understand the importance of sacks?!" Papyrus impatiently tapped his foot on the yellowed bridge, a common habit of his. "And what if a human comes to her what is she gonna do without a sack?"
Sans shrugged. "Use her spears."
"NYEHH!"
"Papyrus and Sans!"
"-I recognize that voice! It's the human and right on time!"
Once Naruto was close enough to them, Sans and Papyrus shuffled off the bridge. "Behold human!" Papyrus announced. "'Tis your final and most dangerous challenge! Introducing the Gauntlet of deadly terror!"
"Yeah," Naruto leaned on the rope railing, stiffened from the bitter coldness. "Let's see it." At word, weapons of many different diversities surrounded him. Flails, spears, flame throwers, canons, even ominous white dogs, you name it, were in its arsenal.
"Prepare yourself, for when I say the word, it will fully activate! Canons will fire, spikes will swing, blades will slice all violently up and down! Only the tiniest chance of victory remains! Are you ready, because, I. Am. About. To do it!"
"..."
"...?"
"Well, what's the holdup?" Sans asked.
"Holdup?! What holdup?! I'm activating it right now as a matter of fact!"
"..."
"That, um, doesn't look very activated."
"This is boring!" Naruto started walking again.
"Wait-wait! Human, hold up, uh, clearly this puzzle is not up to date, I cannot allow that, I am a skeleton with standards. My puzzles are very fair, and my traps expertly cooked. This method is far too direct, I couldn't sleep at night if I'd make you complete this!" The puzzle deactivated and all the weapons went away.
"Whatever you say."
"Don't think you've won this round blonde fiend! Nyehhhh-heh-heh!"
Papyrus twirled away.
"I'm not sure what my brothers going to do now," Sans went over to Naruto as he was exiting the bridge. "But he's all riled up. If I were you, I would remember the blue attacks."
"If that's all there is, then Papyrus isn't gonna give me much trouble!" Filled with determination, Naruto ran off, following the distorted snowprints Papyrus made to a small town known as Snowdin.
OoO
If Naruto could describe Snowdin town with only one word, it definitely be cozy. From its houses to its shops, every inch of wood exterior was packed tight with warmth and the occasional fur tuft. A conjoined building labeled Shop/Inn snuggled tightly in between masses of evergreen trees. "Finally, I can spend all this money!"
Warm gusts of air and a friendly voice greeted Naruto once he swung open the shop door. "Hello traveler, how can I help you?"
"Have any food?"
The bunny smiled at his presence. "I sure do, a bisicle and a cinnamon bunny-my own special recipe."
'Jeez, I was hoping she have something...else...' "I'll take the cinnamon bunny," He said.
The bunny twitched her nose, she bent behind the counter and grabbed his desired item. "You're pretty cool, y'know," Naruto as she wrapped up the pastry.
"Oh, I wouldn't call myself that," She combed through her bunny ears then fiddled with her sun hat. "I'm just a shopkeeper waiting to someday...expand, it gets a bit claustrophobic here in the Underground."
"You guys want to get out too? I bet it gets cramped in here after a while, I'll get everyone out of the underground...somehow, there has to be a way."
She nervously half-smiled. "Yeah..."
"Oh well, thanks again for the food,"
As the door shut behind him, the bunny let out an exasperated sigh. 'I just realized that kid didn't pay up for the food, wait-' She noticed a small lump of gold resting next to her furry elbow. 'This isn't enough gold!'
Naruto tore a large chunk out of the cinnamon bunny. "...! This taste so gooood!"
"Human, human, I have great news!"
'Sounds like Ice cap!'
Ice cap and Snowdrake were running towards him, if humanly possible, Ice cap's hat was bigger and better than the last one. He never ceased to please Naruto with his constant hat upgrading. "My hat evolved overnight!"
"Looks the same to me," Naruto said.
"What?! I got like 2 extra feet on this baby, in fact, my hat's gonna be taller than you at this rate."
Snowdrake slide glanced at Ice cap. "Ice cap went crazy overnight, he's highly unstable, I have to keep a close watch on him. I'm snow sweet, right?
"Oh my god, Snowdrake!" Ice cap yelled. "You're taking all the attention away from my hat with your astronomically bad puns."
"Icy how it is!"
"Snowdrake!"
"-Yo guys!" A distinct, pitchy voice cut in between their bickering, a voice like that could only belong to one of the shortest monster in Snowdin; Monster kid. Everything about Monster kid, from the top of their spike-adorned head to its striped shirt was mustard yellow.
Naruto stuffed what remained of the cinnamon bunny in his pocket. "...who's that kid?"
Snowdrake and Ice cap exchanged sharp glances. "It's just Monster kid," Snowdrake said, he muttered something else under his breath but Naruto didn't quite catch it.
Monster kid stumbled on their floppy brown feet and landed face first in the snow, they slowly got back and brushed it off. "That was so uncool..." Falling, for Monster kid, was normal, it was the laughing that came afterwards they didn't understand.
Snowdrake and Ice cap caught a few snickers while Monster kid went over to them. "Are you guys going to see Undyne too?!"
Naruto indiscreetly stared at Monster kid, having no arms, it was a wonder how they'd ever get that shirt on. "Who's...Undyne?"
"What?! You don't know about Undyne?! She's only the coolest monster in the underground, she's got all these spears and this armor, you gotta see her!"
"Hehehe, she sounds so awesome!"
"Doesn't she?! I'm getting out of Snowdin town just so I can see her, you should go too!" Monster kid trotted away.
"Hey, are you guys going to see Undyne too?" Naruto asked, turning to follow Monster kid.
"Undyne's overrated just because she's the head of the Royal Guard," Ice cap said.
Snowdrake added, "Well I hear she can bench press seven kids...that's pretty cool."
"That's nothing, my hat can bench press eight!"
"So would you say..."
'He's gonna make some kind of weird joke again, I need to leave.'
Naruto was near the edge of Snowdin, another establishment practically begged for him to open its door and walk in. His hand rested on the handle, tempted to yank it wide open. 'It wouldn't hurt just to look around, it's not like Undyne is going anywhere!'
All sorts of monsters routinely relaxed to Grillby's, including members of the Royal Guard, outside the regulars, not many newcomers visited. So when Naruto entered the laid-back pub, all eyes burned on him.
"...smells likes that bizarre puppy!" Dogamy said, breaking the tension.
"(Why it does!)"
Everyone went back to their usual business while Naruto walked by Dogamy and Dogaressa's table. "What're you guys doing?" He asked.
"Playing cards, you can play too if you want, but be careful where you sit," Dogamy nudged to Greater dog who was slobbering all over his deck much to Doggo's annoyance. "Or that big guy over there WILL jump into your lap and give you lots of love and attention."
"N-no I'm good!"
"HhhHhheydude, I-" A bunny from the booth called out to Naruto, their words slurring together. "Wait, OooOps, you're younger than I imagineddd, man, everywhere I go it's alwaysssthe same menus, the same people. Unnngh, I can't take it! I want-huhhh, where'd he go?!"
'I think I spent a little too much time in there,' Naruto's hands rested comfortably behind his head, he pushed through the snow with little thought on his mind other than reaching Undyne.
He eventually passed by the 'librarby' but its dullness was completely shrouded by a festive, galant-sized wooden house, a magnet for attention. His hands pressed on the windows, soft yellow light from inside burst from the window panes, panting his face gold. 'Doesn't look like anyone's home...'
Past the house sat a contrastingly plain shed. Too plain to even dwell on.
OoO
Fog trickled into the air, it felt every step he took was more suffocating than the last. Naruto couldn't see two inches past him, only the sound of rushing water soothed his nerves. "...what was that?" Naruto heard a familiar voice echoing through his ears, another couple of steps and the echoing turned into understandable words.
"Human..."
Naruto knew that voice from anywhere. "...Papyrus?"
"..."
"Allow me to tell you some complex feelings, feelings like the joy of finding another pasta lover, the admiration for another's puzzle-solving skills, the desires to have a cool, smart person think you are cool...these feelings must be what you're feeling right now! I can hardly imagine what it must be like to feel this way, after all, I am very great. I don't ever wonder what having lots of friends is like, I pity you, lonely human."
Naruto's fist balled up.
"Worry not, for you shall be lonely no longer for I, the Great Papyrus, will be your...I will be your..."
A/N: So there wasn't enough time for Papyrus fight, which sucks on my behalf and I'm sorry, but this just means next chapter will be longer than I intended
Also, I didn't dwell much on Snowdin town because I'll be going back to it, not every single NPC and every single area will be explored all at once, it gradually happens.