Chapter 22 Gates of Hell
"Well I never thought I would miss our rat hole of a ghetto." stated Choji as the five of them moved through the muddy streets of the village of Nadeje in the land of Granite. The buildings where in even worst conditions then the ones they were forced into in the Leaf. Bare foot children ran through the streets when they should have been in school.
"This is the poorest nation on Earth." added Temari as they moved through the streets "They only have two real source of income the granite mines and the cruise ships that come into port from time to time and the ship we were just on is the last one coming in."
"What?" asked Ino and Naruto at almost the same time.
"You two need to pay more attention, that was the last ship coming in to port the cruise line that owns the ship is shutting down." explained Shikamaru "Not enough people wanting to. Add to that the generally poor soil for growing food and the high taxes placed on them by their Daimyo."
"Why does the Daimyo tax them so much?" asked Naruto as Shikamaru grinned. "What?"
"Let's just say that may be our way in." explained Shikamaru as they kept moving.
"So what is our next move?" asked Ino
"We head to Gates of Hell." Answered Temari
"The Gates of Hell?" asked Choji
"Just follow us." ordered Shikamaru as he and Temari took the lead as they moved down one of the main streets which ran down the coast. Unlike most of the coast line of the country the current beach was actually a beach instead of cliff face. However just across the waterway from them was the massive black cliff face ofKamatayon Island about two miles away. The straight began to narrow as the black cliffs of Kamatayon Island came ever closer until it was just under a quarter of a mile away from the beach. Finally Temari and Shikamaru came to a stop.
"There it." stated Temari as she pointed across the straight toward the island. Across from them was a break in the cliff face of Kamatayon island where the hundred feet tall black cliffs dropped straight off to a small beach front maybe a fifty yards wide. The beach lead into the interior of the island.
"The Gates of Hell?" asked Naruto as he looked at the narrow beach flanked by two giant cliff faces.
"Yes, locals believe that there is an opening to hell on the island and since this is the only place on the island where people can land and move inland they named it that." explained Temari "Everywhere else is impassable."
"Well any ninja could just climb up the cliff face so they can climb up." laughed Ino as she judged the height of the cliffs "I mean climbing up something that high would be a pain but do able."
"It isn't those cliffs are made out of Obsidian rocks." stated Temari as Naruto shock his head.
"Ok what am I missing?" asked Choji
"Obsidian naturally repeals chakra, if you try to apply any chakra to it the chakra will just blow back in your face." explained Naruto
"So no one can climb up the cliffs, a perfect defense." stated Choji as he stepped out onto the water using chakra to hold him up.
"Let's get going." said Naruto as he double checked to make sure that he still had all the scrolls filled with supplies in his small pack before stepping out onto the water.
It took them only a couple of minutes for the five of them to cross the water and reach the far beach.
"Let me guess that was the easiest part of our trip." Stated Ino as they started moving up the black sand beach. As they started climbing up the hill which lead into the island itself. Before them was a nothing but knee high grass which lead into dark mountains in the distance. Not a single tree was in sight and there was no sign of animal life apart from the occasional insect.
"This is just is weird nothing but grass is growing." Stated Shikamaru as they all came to a stop as Choji suddenly came to a stop.
"What is it?" asked Naruto as Choji bent down and grabbed a clump of dirt, everyone watched as he ran the dirt through his fingers.
"This is got the worst soil I have ever seen." stated Choji "You couldn't grow anything worth eating here."
"Let's hope the former home of the demons have better soil so that we can farm." added Naruto as he looked at the impassable mountains in front of him. "I really hope we don't have to climb that."
'Same here." added Ino before turning to Temari "So where is this tunnel the demons built?"
"Should be just ahead." added Temari
"Lets hope it is still intact. It's been a few thousand years." finished Shikamaru as they kept moving across the unwelcoming landscape of the death island.
Far to the North a small caravan was moving down river side road heading deep into Sound Country. On horseback at the lead of caravan was the new leader of Sound Country Kabuto Yakushi. Walking behind him were the few sound members and their families which had remained totally loyal to Orochimaru.
"Sir if I may ask a question?" asked the most senior ninja there.
"You may." answered Kabuto as he looked down at the walking man.
"But when will we strike back at those who have wronged us?" asked the man "They are the ones who beat us and killed Lord Orochimaru."
'That they are and trust me we will strike back but Lord Orochimaru choose one path to conquest of the ninja world and that way was wrong." stated Kabuto "The world is just too big, to fight every nation and win is impossible."
"So how are you going to conquer them?" asked the man
"We are going to conquer them by controlling the people who control the different nations." Explained Kabuto as the man raised an eyebrow. "Confused?"
"Yes, sir." admitted the man "Are you going to replace the Kages with clones?"
"The Kages are just figure heads of military strength only the real power comes from the Daimyo and the big business who supply the missions for the ninja villages." stated Kabuto "If we control them we control the world."
"So you are going to replace them with clones?" asked the man
"No, that would cause a war we couldn't win. Instead I will control them by controlling their pocket books." explained Kabuto as the man raised an eyebrow "The land of Sound is soon going to be the banking capital of the world where the rich and powerful store their money and where they come for loans."
"Control the money, control the people, control the world." answered the man as Kabuto smiled
"Right on, we are going to conquer the world without drawing a kunai." stated Kabuto as the entered a the still burnt remains of Sound village, this village wasn't one of the multiple lab bases set up by Orochimaru instead this was an above ground village just like the Leaf. This was the village where the family of those loyal to Orochimaru stayed and it's only real job was growing food to support the military. "Luckily there are more than a few people who owe to Orochimaru and myself and it is time to collect."
Far to the South on Kamatayon at the base of one of the mountains stood Naruto and the rest of his team. Before them stood the beginning of the steamily unpassable mountain.
"I am so happy we don't have to climb up that." Stated Ino as she looked in front of her, there mostly hidden behind some fallen rocks was the opening to the tunnel which was built by the demons long ago as road between their homeland and the outside world was.
"Agreed, climbing up those hills back there was hard enough." Huffed Choji as he tried to get his breath as he looked back at large rolling hills that sat at the base of the mountains that they had spent the better part of the morning going over. 'I should have had those extra stack of pancakes this morning."
"I could go for something like that about now." said Naruto as his stomach grumbled a bit.
"It would only weigh you down and we have a lot of walking left to do." explained Temari "Hopefully this tunnel will take us right to the old home of the demons."
"I just hope it's intact and we don't have to back track our way out." added Naruto as he unsealed some flashlights before handing them out.
"I don't think we have to worry much about that looks like this is cut out from a layer of limestone so it should be totally intact." added Shikamaru as they entered the darkness of the tunnel.
Back up in the Leaf village the Homura Mitokado was having a cup of tea on his roof side patio with a book in his hands. Suddenly the sliding panel behind him opened up as his official aid stepped outside.
"I thought I ordered you not to disturbed me?" asked Homura without looking up from his book.
"Sorry sir, but Makya Yamamaka is here to see you." Explained the aid as Homura put down his book as he nodded his head.
"Please send him up and make sure to bring another glass of tea." ordered Homura as his aid nodded his head before going to carry out his orders. Within minutes an older man with blonde hair stepped onto the patio.
"Welcome Makya to what do I owe the honor of a visit from the head of the Yamamaka clan?" asked Homura as the man sat down across from him. "May I offer you some of the yellow cake, a gift from the Daimyo personal baker. It is probably the best cake I have had in a while."
"No thank you, I am not here on clan business per say." explained Ino's uncle Makya. "See this is shameful but no one in my clan has seen my son in three days."
"Is he away on a mission or something?" offered up Homura as Makya shock his head.
"Unlikely he wasn't schedule for any missions, so unless he was ordered by Lady Tsunade on a secret mission he should still be in the village." explained Makya
"You don't sound as worried as I thought you would be." Observed Homura as Makya lowered his head a bit.
"This is shameful to say but my son is a player, it is well known inside the clan that he gets drunk and them goes home with some random woman." Explained Makya as Homura nodded his head. "I mean I played the field a bit when I was his age so I can't blame him totally but he has never been gone this long before."
"And what do you want me to do?" asked Homura
"Maybe start a quiet search for my son, we don't want to make this too public." explained Makya as Homura nodded his head in agreement.
"I can do that easily enough." confirmed Homura
"Thank you." Said Makya as he moved to stand up.
"However I have to ask if you have thought about my proposal about replacing our current Hokage and replacing her with the young Hyuga Heiress?" asked Homura
"I have to admit I have my worries about putting someone so young on the Kage chair however we aren't being threatened with any wars and she will have time to be molded into what the village needs." Added Makya "However it seems like the Hyuga clan is getting yet more power in the village and that makes my clan worried."
"Maybe an arrangement could be made?" asked Homura knowing that council levels clan were often worried if a single clan grew too powerful.
"A union of the Hyuga clan main house and our own clan would go a long ways to help ease our worry. My son's current girlfriend could be dumped and he could join with the Hyuga girl." offered up Makya as Homura lowered his head a bit "What?"
"That may be hard since you yourself has admitted your son is a player and Hiashi will never allow his daughter to marry someone like him." explained Homura as an idea entered his mind "This may sound crazy but instead of your son joining with the Hyuga girl, instead of having your son's oldest son or daughter marry the first born of Hyuga."
"That could work." stated Makya "However what if they only have the same gender children."
"That is unlikely but if so it was just the will of God." added Homura as Makya nodded his head in agreement.
"I guess that could work." confirmed Makya as he stood up "I thank you for all your help."
"And I thank you for everything you have done." explained Homura as he took another drink of his tea as Makya left the patio leaving Homura to his thoughts.
On another rooftop a very similar scene was playing out only instead of fresh tea and yellow cake, there was cold water in chipped glasses.
"Ok everything is perfect?" asked Kakashi to himself as he looked around at work, a half broken patio table with a broken off sun umbrella. Some half broken mismatched glasses and some bar stools to sit on. "Who I am kidding it's a piece of shit, I need to do something to make this somewhat decent."
Suddenly the sound of the door behind him opening up, instantly he spun around only to see a black haired woman and a brown haired woman step onto the rooftop.
"Why would Kakashi want to meet up here?" asked Rin as she walked behind Shizune.
"I have no idea." snapped Shizune
"Well I thought we should all sit down and talk." Explained Kakashi as he stepped aside to show is work "So I made dinner for the three of us?"
"Kakashi you can't cook to save your life, unless that has changed when I was away?" asked Rin as she looked at Shizune. "I know when we were on missions I did the cooking for the team."
"Not even close, he once came in to the hospital because he burned himself." chuckled Shizune as Rin raised an eyebrow wondering what was so funny "He was trying to make pasta and he caught it on fire."
"That sounds like Kakashi, one time Minato-sensie left him in charge of grilling some fish and let's just say somehow he managed to burn one side while leaving the other side totally raw." explained Rin "And somehow it was the side away from the fire which was burned and raw side was near the fire. I still have no idea how he did that?"
Both women broke out laughing at Kakashi's expense who couldn't help but smile as he watched the two women who each held a special place in his heart. Rin his first love who he had lost which had caused him to abandoned all hope of finding anyone to share his life with. Then there was Shizune the woman who gave him hope that there was a chance of having someone to share his life with. Now he had them both and all he had to do was find a way to get the two of them to get along, he had hoped that a dinner would go a long way to settle things but it seems like that wasn't even needed.
"One time when we were on mission he decided to take a quick nap and ended up snoring so load it alerted an enemy guard that we were there." Laughed Rin "If it wasn't for Minato-sensie the mission would have been over."
"Oh that is nothing one time he was so focus on reading one of those perverted books that he used to read all the time that walked right into the women's locker room in the village's gym. He was half way undress before he realized where he really was." laughed Shizune "And he only realized where he was because this old lady who had to be in her late sixties put some money into his belt after he took off his shirt."
"She thought Kakashi was a stripper?" laughed Rin
"I know, I couldn't stop laughing myself." explained Shizune as both women broke out laughing at the top of their lungs at Kakashi who simply smiled as the two of them bonded.
The hours seamed to drag on as Naruto and his friends moved down the dark tunnel which would hopefully lead them to the location of the old demon city. The tunnel twisted and turned, moved up and down as it followed the bedrock it was cut into however to the amazement of everyone the rock was stable and the tunnel free of all but the smallest rocks.
"About how much longer do you think?" asked Ino as her flashlight light started to fade a bit from the batteries running low. However before anyone could answer they turned the corner only to see natural sunlight coming from the other side of the next bend in the road.
"There is your answer." laughed Choji only to get slapped in the shoulder by his gennin teammate as everyone picked up there pace as they moved toward the sunlight. Finally they made the last turn only to see the opening to the outside world that they had been searching for. The exit was partly covered with overgrown brush but sunlight was still getting through.
"Here goes." said Naruto as he pulled a large knife from his pack and quickly hacked a path through the brush emerging on the other side. Instantly he stopped as he looked out at the scene in front of him.
"Wow." strutted Ino as she looked at this beautiful valley which was spread out in front of them. The valley was almost totally surrounded with the mountains they had just passed under, however at the base of the mountains where rolling hills covered with deep rich green grass, there were small forests poking up all over the valley as not one but three decent sized rivers flowed out of the mountains. The rivers snaked across the ground before exiting out in what seemed to be a small exit out what seemed to be the ocean itself. Near the center of the valley at the point where all three rivers met before running toward the sea was a large field of grass. They could make out a small group of deer move across the field.
"This is amazing." said Temari with tears of joy in her eyes as a flight a birds took off from a nearby tree.
"Who would have believed something like this could have been here?" asked Naruto with a smile as he looked toward Ino who was also crying tears of joy as she look at the valley before them. "I think we found our new home."
Well I hope you liked this chapter and that you are looking forward to seeing what comes next. Now I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I hope that you all keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.