Chapter 8
Hot Springs and weird company
Beta: Old man of the mountain/Darklord331
Naruto and Beelzebub arrived in the Hot Spring village without incident. They had to move quickly due to what happened in the gambling town but thankfully no bounties were issued for either of them. They were safe, but Naruto hesitated to trust this information to stay on the down low given his own face is easy to recognize.
If not for the blond hair and blue eyes, the whisker marks on his face were easy to distinguish.
So, arriving in the country was a quick affair.
"Geez, I'm tired." Naruto sighed, "I think we should hit one of the springs and get some food."
Beelzebub hummed.
"I think that would be a good idea. Plus we need to take our time to do research to see if we can find these ruins."
"Well, how about that place?" Naruto pointed to one of the businesses.
"That one works." Both walked over to the business and got booked. From there, the two of them got undressed with Naruto making sure his clothes are folded neatly before wrapping a towel around himself.
Opening the door Naruto narrowed his eyes,
'Someone is here and they are strong.'
Beelzebub frowned. He could sense the raw density of the chakra, from what he could gather this person was the exact opposite of him. They had nothing but light chakra flowing through their entire body. So much, that he wasn't sure there was an ounce of dark chakra anywhere.
Having the steam clear, they saw a man with white hair sitting in the hot springs. He had no towel around his waist and was relaxing in the water. He had a barrel in front of him but instead of cleaning products it was full of food.
Just junk food, not a single healthy thing inside of that bucket. Candy, chips, you name it.
The man in question was just chewing on a lollipop in his mouth and he turned his head.
"Hey!" He smiled, "Come on the Hot Spring is great!"
Naruto deadpanned.
'Was I like this?' He thought about how he had a cheery deposition and seemed to be oblivious of how other people saw him. 'Geez, maybe I owe some people an apology.'
"Thanks." Naruto walked over to the stool and started rinsing and cleaning himself. "We'll join in a minute."
Beelzebub nodded and cleaned himself. While they were scrubbing they saw the man turn around and lean on his arms. He had the lollipop rolling in his mouth and seemed to be looking at them with curiosity.
Naruto noticed his eyes seemed to almost glow. Bright blue eyes, they shined with power, Naruto could just feel the chakra coming off his body. He had a ripped body showing he was well trained and his long white hair was tied up in a bund. He had to admit the guy was quite interesting in terms of look especially with a small golden dot in the center of his forehead.
"So," He smiled, "Who are you guys?"
Naruto frowned,
"Kinda rude not to introduce yourself before asking us for our name."
The man laughed,
"Man you're a stiff."
Naruto gained a tickmark. "No it is a courtesy, but if you want to be an ass fine we can do that too."
Beelzebub sighed,
"Calm down idiot. He is just trying to get under your skin."
Naruto turned, "I know that damn it."
"Then calm down."
Naruto grunted before finishing his clean-up process before walking over to the hot spring and settling in. His brother quickly joined him and both were situated near the strange man who was just looking at them. His smile never leaving his face,
"Well?"
Naruto sighed, he was really annoying.
"Names Naruto and this is my brother Beelzebub."
"Nice to meet you guys, you can call me Buddha!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow, yeah right he was pulling his leg.
"Buddha? Dude you can't claim the title of a pantheon."
"Actually I can you see I have achieved enlightenment." He smiled, "From this, I acquired the title of Buddha, thus it is my name!"
Naruto rolled his eyes,
"Sure so are you saying that your this same god."
He shook his head, "Buddha wasn't a god he gained enlightenment, not godhood. His ideals and beliefs are passed on to all of his followers. However, if you want me to be honest, I believe I have my own path to follow in this world. If that is the case, then I shall walk it." He then took a bite out of his lollipop and then pulled out a bag of chips from his bucket. "So, why are you guys here in Hot Spring?"
Naruto shrugged,
"History sighting."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, my brother and I are interested in history that predates the Shinobi Nations and can tell us how some lands came to be. We heard a rumor or two about ruins in Hot Springs so we came to investigate them."
"I see." He nodded his head, "I too am a lover of knowledge and history, I too have explored this entire nation due to the rumors that I heard back at the temple. That this used to be the land of evil and corruption. But I don't sense that I think there is more to the story than what is written."
"True." Naruto looked at him, "History is written by the victor after all. Most forget Uzu even existed."
This was a piece of history he learned in prison and from the Toads on the road. The fact there was an entire nation that was built by the Uzumaki clan and it took multiple nations to take them down, that was more than enough for him to believe his clan was probably among the strongest. But for some reason, Sukuna never talked about the issue stating that his time with the Sage and his children has always annoyed him. Nothing in particular other than the children tried to find their own paths and ideals but their father stuck his nose into it. Just the idea that he sealed him still pissed him off.
"Actually," He took a bite from his bag of chips, "Now that I think about it if you guys are so interested in history I can show you something really interesting." He smiled, "I don't think you would find this information in any history book."
Naruto raised an eyebrow,
"Oh?"
"Yep!" he got out of the spring, "Meet me tomorrow on the outskirts of town! I promise this will be worth it!"
The man grabbed his barrel and walked out of the hot spring with Naruto frowning.
'Sukuna, what was that?'
"Hard to say; I can tell he is being honest with his intentions but you felt his chakra right?"
'Yeah it was different than anyone I have seen before.'
"That is pure light chakra mastered to the point that one achieves a sense of enlightenment. It is incredibly difficult to do; even back then, not even the Sage could do this."
'Wait I thought enlightenment is only achievable with both chakras?'
"I said it is a form of it, not that it is the True path. In time you'll understand."
From this; the two brothers enjoyed the hot springs, checked into a hotel room, and rested for the night.
Next day
Naruto and Beelzebub arrived at the village's main entrance and saw Buddha standing there. He was eating a variety of snacks with him sporting a bored expression.
The man literally was eating a whole role of chocolate bars, not even hesitating to gobble them down. After he finished the chocolate he moved onto a bag of chips he was carrying with him and Naruto read the flavor,
Banana cream and Onion.
That just sounded gross.
"Oh," Buddha smiled, "You guys came, well come on our trip begins!"
Naruto rolled his eyes and Beelzebub just kept a blank expression.
The three men started down the path, getting further away from the village, and making it down the road. There they started following some faded roads leading them further up the hills of the surrounding region.
"So," Buddha turned his head while making his empty bag disappear while pulling out a lollipop. "What are you guys doing out here?"
"Huh?"
Buddha rolled the lollipop in his mouth. "I mean you guys are here for more than just some ancient studies of the previous era. So, what is the real reason you are both out here, there must be something in particular you are looking for." He cleaned his ear with his free hand, "I don't really care what it is but I know there is something out here that you guys are looking for."
Naruto narrowed his eyes,
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
"Simple it was the flow of your chakra." He smiled, "One of you has a steady flow of nothing but dark chakra in their body while the other has a small amount of dark chakra but it is hardly developed. But their light chakra is incredibly strong, making them almost shine like a beacon. While your words were able to hide your intentions of what you are looking for, your chakra can't lie."
Naruto sighed, "Your annoying but good job your ascertained that we are not actually here just for the ruins." No point in hiding it when he can see the truth.
"I know, which is why I wanted to bring you guys out here! I think I know what your looking for and if I'm honest, I have already been there."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. That was a bold claim even for someone as strong as this guy. From Sukuna, the place they are looking for his hidden first of all and the security measures he put into place were meant to keep everyone out. Someone on the Sage's level couldn't break the seal so how would this guy do it?
"Bold claim."
"Not a claim, it is a fact and a reality. For I'm Buddha and I dare not speak falsehoods!"
Naruto rolled his eyes,
"Alright then lead the way to our 'destination."
"You doubt me I see it but trust me you will believe when you see it."
Beelzebub frowned, "You said earlier that you can sense the dark chakra inside of me?"
"Yep, honestly I'm surprised that something hasn't happened to you yet."
He gripped his shoulder, "What if I told you something did?"
Buddha shrugged, "Nothing really but I figured something must have happened because Light Chakra is about mental strength where as Dark Chakra connects more to your emotions." He rubbed the back of his head, "What I learned in the temple Dark Chakra users tend to be more easily influenced by their chakra, similar to those tailed beast containers. When the chakra runs wild, it is like their minds become cloudy and they lose all sense of reality in any given situation." He tilted his head, "Come to think of I know that the Tailed Beasts seemed to be more dark chakra in origin than light."
Naruto shook his head, dark chakra? He doubted it, since the influence of the fox only made him more aggressive but when he focused, he could control the power to a degree. Meaning that it was more aligned to light chakra due to the fact it takes mental strength to control it over emotions.
"Any who," Buddha yawned before chewing on another lollipop, "Dark charka is supposedly evil," He put quotes up, "by the beliefs of the temple. But I never saw that, like Senjutsu, manipulation of nature, it is something as common as breathing. One can't exist without the other, if one is to live a true path of enlightenment." He sighed, "Sadly I have no way to gain dark chakra myself so I think I have achieved the path I wanted to follow which is giving me greater insight into the world an the people around me." He laughed, "How ironic is it," Turning to the two brothers, "One of you is completely dark chakra, I'm completely light chakra, and the other is a mix of the two. Seems like the fates wanted us to meet?"
Naruto laughed a bit, he couldn't deny that. While he didn't believe fate controlled everything he did, he thought that something was pulling him together with the people around him. Meeting his brother was a great sign of someone who could travel and be with him through the hardships. While Buddha, annoying as can be, did seem to bring an energy that was missing from their group and something that he was missing after his time in prison. Maybe there was something akin to this fate stuff that Neji was always spouting on about?
He didn't think he couldn't fight what was in front of him or change how the world sees him. Far from it, but he did believe that the world rewards him for his own decisions.
Sukuna was vague on the concept but the one thing he did note is:
Nature is Absolute.
Naruto wanted more context but he states it isn't something he has to worry about yet.
"Maybe," Naruto sighed, "But I wanted to get back to a previous topic. You mentioned Dark Chakra and there are users out there right? As far as I can tell almost no one practices Dark Chakra so how would one go about finding information?"
Buddha shrugged, "As far as I can tell there is a large study in Demon Country, apparently there are plenty of people there that know of it. Then there is the occasional scroll or ancient tablet that can be found worldwide, detailing dark chakra in the earliest ages. Some have 'transcended' mortal flesh and basically become entities themselves or things closer to demons." He sighed, "Honestly it is hard to say where exactly the largest concentration of this stuff is but I do know that those that study it are not adept."
"Interesting." Beelzebub was curious about this, if there are more users out there was his situation not that unique then?
"Yep, though I can sense you dark chakra is not as erratic as some of the users I have encountered in the past."
"It is thanks to my little brother." He smiled, "Contrary to my look I'm about 16 while he is about 15."
Naruto glared,
"You had to tell him our ages?"
"It is important that people don't think I'm some guy in his 20's."
"Yeah I know that feeling," Buddha sighed, "I mean I'm only 20 and people think I'm in my 30's and having a mid-life crisis."
Naruto sighed, he was the youngest still? Man that sucks.
"Anyway," He continued walking, "I heard rumors of some of the people that developed dark chakra in the past. Apparently some of them either become more distinct in their evil behavior or in some cases, they can become even downright monsters. Like literally transforming before your eyes kind of thing." He rubbed his chin, "Come to think of it the temple did mention something about someone ages ago studying dark chakra and after death their spirit lingers as something akin to a god. But it is more about carnage if I'm being honest so more of a dark spirit."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, that is interesting. They must have had a powerful spirit to pull something like this off, but Sukuna did say that Dark Chakra affects people differently.
"So in short; some become literal monsters while others just become more monsters in the sense of their actions."
"Yep." Buddha sighed, "The temple has made it a mission to destroy any record of dark chakra as it was some kind of divine revelation during the time of the Sage of Six Paths."
Naruto shook his head,
"Yeah and at the same time this guy made the Bijuu and handed out chakra to everyone without considering the consequences of his actions."
"True." He turned to Naruto while crunching on his lollipop, "If this is true does this mean you hold some kind of disdain for the Sage? I mean, it sounds like you are fully against him."
"Lets just say I had someone reveal more of the true history of this world and the parts that were erased make him look pretty bad."
Buddha shrugged before they arrived at a nearby cave outlet far away from the village and hidden behind a valley of trees. "Here we are!" He waved his arm to the cave, "The secret location I was telling you about!"
'Sukuna is this-'
"Yes this is the location for the machine. I'm surprised he found it, I hid it so only select people could find it let alone get inside."
'Hm,' "Buddha?"
"Yes?"
"How did you find this place?"
"Oh," Buddha tilted his head in confusion, "I don't know honestly."
"Don't know?" Beelzebub was confused now, "How can you not know how you found something like this?"
"Well," He sighed, "If I'm being honest, I was just wondering around outside the village a few years ago, not too long after I left the temple, and kinda stumbled upon this place. The seal on it was top notch but thanks to a mixture of light chakra and some dumb luck, I managed to open the place up. But after I saw what was inside, I just decided to seal it back up with my own chakra this time. In a method that is known only to the monks." He puffed out his chest, "Quite impressive no?"
Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, the place has been sealed since the age of the Six Paths and also was a sacred site that even fewer ever gleamed at."
"True." Smiling, "So, you guys ready to head inside?"
Naruto and Beelzebub nodded.
Buddha turned to the cave and put his hand on the side of the wall and after some chakra glowed on his hand they saw a unusual seal appear around the cave entrance. It was intricately designed and soon it vanished. Walking through the cave the two brother's followed. There they saw the place was full of nothing but dust and rocks and any signs that there might have been torches didn't exist. From what he could see, there was nothing there other than dust of the past.
Walking down the trail in the cave they eventually arrived at another entrance but this one was different. It was inside a giant circular room and a giant metal door with some oddly designed creatures on the front of the door. More it was divided into six squares vertically, each design was unique but had a matching one on the opposite side.
"Interesting," Naruto put his hand on the door, "So these must have been things that existed before our time or something that had existed but moved on. Or something related to a lost culture." Naruto put his hand on the door and frowned, who were they?
That is the thing Naruto could wrap his head around, who were these figures that created this place. It was buried so that only those fully aware of it would come here. Plus, creating chakra based weapons? Did this mean chakra did exist before the age of the Six Paths? Or was there some other kind of energy that was similar to chakra there?
He was curious.
"Alright." Buddha, put his hand on the door and they saw it glow. "Welcome to the room of what I like to call; The machine!"
Naruto was agape while Beelzebub just had his eyes widened. The room was so, it was hard to describe.
In the center of the room was a large machine with a golden circle that seemed to have lines streaming away from the center. All across the door of the machine, the circle was situated on a singular pillar sitting in the middle of the room. The room seemed to radiate power and a silent humming could be felt the minute they stepped into the room. Making them feel the pulsing sensation rushing through their body, on top of that they could feel just the power that was flowing. There were small tubes layering the wall, the floor was cold and metallic, and it seemed the entire room had no form of natural lighting but it was all visible.
"What the hell?" Naruto slowly walked up to the machine with the other two following behind him closely. "This is it? The machine that we came to see? The same one that created the seven deadly mist blades and other sacred items?" Naruto touched the front of the machine and it hummed. "How intriguing."
"Yep." Buddha smiled before holding his hand out and showing off a small seal on his palm. The hand glowed for a few seconds before a item appeared in his hand. He gripped the weapon by the saft and slammed the butt of the item into the floor with a smile on his face. "Meet my weapon!"
Naruto looked at the weapon in question was surprised to see something so, unusual. Yeah that was the right word. It was a staff of sorts, but the item itself had a giant golden cylinder at the end of it with a spike on the end. From what he could tell, the weapon itself was covered in some odd form of kanji that he couldn't read clearly, due to it being faint and blending into the cylinder.
"Interesting what is it called?"
"Six Realms Staff. I don't really control it that much, I let it decide for me what weapon I can use from time to time. But thanks to it, I haven't been in a situation that I can't win or would cause me a great amount of trouble." He smiled, "Now then time for you guys to get into the machine and get your own weapons!"
Naruto stared at Buddha and frowned,
"Why are you doing this?"
"Hm? Suspicious of why I'm doing this? Well I guess the simplest answer would be, I just want to. Thus I did it, nothing more and nothing less."
Naruto stared at the man,
'Sukuna.'
"He truly means it, I can tell. But in the end, trust is the least important thing right now. The machine, you need to get inside of the machine and find your weapon. Trust me, it will be worth it."
Naruto rolled his eyes,
"Okay so how does this work we go one at a time or-,"
"Nope. Just walk into the machine and you both can get your weapons." He waved, "Don't worry I won't go anywhere take your time!"
Naruto and Beelzebub shrugged, before walking to the door. The door slid apart, allowing them access into a completely white room. They didn't see anything other than white and couldn't perceive anything beyond the white color.
Walking into the machine, both heard the door shut and soon they were enveloped into a light.
Buddha on the outside smiled,
"Good luck you two, now to take care of the troublemakers that are coming this way."
Chapter End