Chapter XLI

The Chamber of Horrors

TW: For a warned audience

When the young shinobis arrived in the perimeter, they stopped. There, Shikamaru was about to give the instructions and he felt his heart racing once again. He was so close; soon, he would get the long-awaited answers to this whole mystery … at least, part of it. His entire body was shaking. The demarcated area extended for several kilometres in the form of a circle and by taking advantage of the individualities of the others, Shikamaru shared with his team the procedure to follow.

Keeping in mind the possibility of a potential ambush, aware of the risk to which he was exposed, the leader would team up with Sai who would fly over the land to have an aerial view. Although this did not please Shikamaru, he had no choice. As for the other two, they would work alone.

Thanks to his Byakugan, Neji would scout in depth, examining the slightest ground, the slightest hill, the slightest waterfall, the slightest mountain… As for Shino, he would take care of patrolling more on the surface unlike the member of the Bunke; his swarms of insects were able to quickly search the territory by infiltrating all the possible tiny cracks there were. Beginning the exploration in the centre, they would gradually widen the circle as they advanced, certain they had searched the surroundings with appalling accuracy. After each thoroughly inspected area, they would meet to share Intel before continuing and so on.

They nodded and dispersed so as not to waste a single second. Sai used his Super Beast Imitating Drawing technique and summoned an inky hawk to climb on it with Shikamaru. While the other two patrolled on foot, they flew over the territory scrupulously, returning several times to the same places at different altitudes so as not to miss anything. In doing so, the leader took notes to mark the areas inspected by their care, then he would do the same with those of Neji and Shino when they met again.

However, after only about thirty minutes, Sai noticed insects coming towards them. They guessed that the bug handler had found something. From then on, heart palpitations won over Shikamaru. The two shinobis landed on the ground and running, they followed the invertebrates. Along the way, they came across Neji who joined them. The trio quickly arrived there, where Shino was waiting for them.

Shino put a finger to his mouth before speaking in a whisper. "I found the place and it's only a few metres ahead of us."

The young shinobis exchanged a look, a cold sweat beading on their foreheads. Neji used his Byakugan and inspected the surroundings to make sure they were alone. However, the latter seemed puzzled. It made the others anxious; they waited with anguish for his answer while holding their breath.

"No one. The way is clear," he whispered, ceasing the use of his eyes.

"Be careful," Shikamaru warned in a low voice. "These guys are able to appear out of nowhere and attack you in your blind spot before you even sense their presence."

They nodded and they advanced cautiously; at that, they erased their presence. On their guard, on the lookout for a trap or an enemy waiting for the right moment to emerge from the void, they approached in the thickets, following the taciturn orders of Shikamaru who led the march. A few steps and what they saw silenced them. They understood the confusion of their brother-in-arms when he had inspected the surroundings with his dōjutsu.

In this space bathed in dimness created by the thick foliage of the surrounding trees, there was, against a rock facade, a soot-stained and cracked entrance that looked as if it was about to crumble at any moment. Many stones were scattered around the opening in question, implying that it must have been hidden by a clever natural camouflage, probably with seals since there were pieces of parchment consumed by fire. Moreover, the greenery had been engulfed in flames; the grass having suffered the ravages gave way to an earthy soil and virgin of floral life. At first glance, whether it had started to rain shortly after, or the fire had extinguished itself.

If Shikamaru trusted the reports about Naruto's first fury in the hospital, Naruto was able to silence the infernos he himself had spawned, though there were still plenty of fuel to keep those fires alive and eager to continue their destruction. With Kakashi's speculation that Naruto went into a fury to get away, what they saw in front of them made sense and confirmed that theory. However, another more worrying problem remained.

How could the teams responsible for searching all the territory, before and after Naruto's return, have missed it? Especially since—in this state—it was in no way hidden and clearly visible to the eyes of the world.

"What the hell is going on?" Shikamaru asked indirectly in a whisper, a shiver of dread sliding down his spine.

"Is this the place?" Neji inquired, puzzled.

The leader nodded.

"There's no doubt, it must be that. At first, Naruto was able to master the fire release with appalling finesse before he switched to that of lightning."

"What do you mean?" Sai asked. "Naruto would suddenly master Katon and Raiton?"

"That's not exactly that. Basically, his elemental affinity changes with the chakra he devours and he has imbibed himself with the nature of Kakashi-sensei's chakra. Ever since his affinity became lightning, he hasn't reused the slightest technique belonging to the Katon repertoire."

A silence.

"With the burnt state of the place, I'm sure that's it… But what the heck! How did no one manage to find this damn hideout?!" Shikamaru fumed, gritting his teeth.

Another silence.

"Looks like someone made sure no one finds it," Sai pointed out darkly.

The boys did not need to say it in words since it turned out to be true. Such a discovery broke cold sweats.

"The possibility of the village being infiltrated cannot be ruled out," Shino added calmly, but anxiously. "Why, you may ask? Because, otherwise, we would have found this place a long time ago since we found it in less than an hour."

Shikamaru clenched his fists and teeth. All of this was a bad omen. He refused to believe that there was someone who was in charge of falsifying information to protect this group with evil intentions. This individual, whoever they were, was making sure that this whole story was shrouded in the greatest of mysteries. If that was indeed the case, how did they achieve to do so? Everything was strictly classified and closely monitored and controlled. So how did they manage to access this information? It was unbelievable. Despite the obviousness itself, Shikamaru forbade himself to believe it.

"We'll look into that later," Shikamaru declared before turning his attention to Shino. "Send your bugs out to make sure the way is clear."

He nodded and did as requested. A dark and swarming cloud rushed towards the unstable entrance to explore the depths of this tunnel which froze the blood in the veins. Quickly, the invertebrates returned to their master to communicate the desired information.

"The path is clear. Nothing to report," Shino confirmed.

"Be on your guard. We can never be too careful," warned Shikamaru before leading the march.

With extreme caution, the team approached the opening of this forbidden place which it was impossible to conceive. In front of it, they noticed with horror several footprints in the earth, the soot and the ashes, indicating that they were not the first to come here. Shikamaru fumed to himself. Despite this gloomy discovery snatching the hopes away, the young shinobis did not let despair take hold of them.

The tunnel dug into the earth and was engulfed in darkness despite the light of day. All taking out a dim light, in a row, they descended the stone stairs stained with soot and foul-smelling black marks that had once been red and bloody. The more they advanced in the depths, the more a putrid odour of death was reeking the places of its poison. The air was toxic and unlivable. They had difficulty breathing and they grimaced in disgust; at this, a sulphur scent of great intensity stung their nostrils and extracted from them several coughs and gastric ascents.

Arrived at the end of the stairs, they saw an opening on their left with at the end, a corridor leading to a room. A large, heavy metal door ripped off its hinges was on the floor. There was a familiar deformation in its centre, surely caused by a powerful punch from Naruto if Shikamaru compared the damage with the one Naruto had smashed during his escape. Stepping over the said door carefully, they finally entered this room which gave them waking nightmares.

The place resembling a laboratory of horrors was completely ransacked and turned upside down. Several scientific devices had been demolished and burnt. Many various and varied electric cables and copper pipes hung from the ceiling which threatened to collapse. There were sewage puddles all over the place as the pipes were still dripping. In the centre, there was what looked like three glass tanks large enough to immerse a human being; one of them was smashed into a million pieces—something that made the boys watch where they were stepping so as not to impale their soles.

In the chaos and on the surface of the work tables, soiled instruments of death and torture of all kinds capable of cutting into flesh and inflicting unimaginable suffering and trauma were piling up here and there; in this shambles of dread, other terrible tools and others of a medical nature mingled with the scorched mess.

A few decomposing bodies that looked as if they had been burnt alive littered the area. Upon a brief visual inspection, their hearts had not been ripped out and they appeared to have suffered large, savage lacerations, many of which were fatal and born of untold violence. They determined that they must be the scientists responsible for those morbid experiments.

In one corner, there was a hard-surfaced, bloody examination table surrounded by all sorts of equipment, including a light that had come loose from the ceiling. On it, there were thick leather ties intended to restrict the ankles, wrists and torso; to this, it was possible to add more to immobilize the legs, thighs, neck, hips and head, thus preventing the slightest movement whatsoever. These sturdy leather belts were tattered and bloody, betraying that their victim had fought hard and fiercely to hurt themselves. In addition to this uncomfortable and terrifying table, there were a few damaged stretchers with similar restraints and just as much soiled with hemoglobin that had turned black with an infernal smell.

Very close to this table, there was a half-open door with stubborn exterior locks. Cautiously, along with Sai, Shikamaru stepped inside. Unlike the laboratory, this room—this dungeon had not been engulfed in flames and destruction … but it was where the infamous smell mixed with sulphur was the strongest, intolerable even; the duo felt as they were breathing in olfactory acid, wiping out their sense of smell and their innocent nostrils that had not asked for anything. Obviously, this was where Naruto must have been locked up most of the time.

Inside, sounds were muted. By closing the door the time of a breath, an absolute and agonizing silence became king; they could no longer hear the outside and quickly, this unlivable silence was broken by the beating of their hearts constantly intensifying. Beyond any doubt, they understood that this was a means of cruel torture in its purest form. A prolonged session in this room would drive anyone insane; eventually, they would hear their own heartbeat like a powerful hammer on metal and the blood travelling through their veins and then their brain. The body was a prison of flesh, and this prison of flesh was locked up in a prison of stone. That was the definition of this inhuman cell. Naruto had to have stayed there the entire time of his sequestration. Shikamaru dared not imagine the distress of his broken friend and the even more monstrous damage to his mind after a month imprisoned in there.

Of course, that was just the tip of the iceberg, as the cage continued to climb the scale of horror as they inspected it further.

The cold stone walls and floor were strewn with countless savage scratches, and once scarlet shards carpeted the surroundings, betraying that someone had been beaten to blood. The floor was stained with an unknown, foul-smelling substance and a disturbing amount of short and long light and dark hairs were piling up all over the place. Hanging on the wall opposite the door, there were four metal rings and five chains; unsurprisingly, the whole thing was covered in black and red blood once again. Due to their location, the chains prevented the victim from standing or lying down and could be adjusted as desired.

Above, on the ceiling, there was a lighting system capable of plunging the room into a bright and aggressive glow for the retinas. Besides, there was some kind of water system; on the ground, there was a hole covered with a mesh for the evacuation of water. Shikamaru deduced that this system was used to "calm down" Naruto's fiery ardour. However, he feared that it was another heinous means of torture. He wondered if the water could have devastating or painful consequences on the body of the blond once of fire or if his current lightning nature could also be affected by wind… He could not be sure, but the water was an effective way to put out "fires," things said.

Finally, in this very poorly ventilated and too small room, they found in a corner a steel bowl and a strange accessory. It looked like a muzzle given the wire mesh that could cover part of the face. Three leather straps and a blindfold to impede the eyes accompanied the disturbing fluid-stained once scarlet object.

The duo emerged from the chamber of horrors to continue their search. The group was now on a quest for anything that would bring to light the terrible experiments done on Naruto… Of course, with what their eyes could see, none of them wanted to imagine the hell their comrade had to go through. Unfortunately, speculative images tormented their minds involuntarily.

The places spoke for themselves.

They pushed the bulky objects, analyzed the smallest nook, the smallest cubic centimetre… Shikamaru noticed a small shine under a real mess which captured his attention. Clearing the debris, his heart skipped a beat.

"Naruto was indeed here," he announced with dread to his companions before showing them his find, to affirm his words beyond any doubt.

In the leader's hand was Naruto's necklace. Since this jewel was unique in the world, it could only belong to him.

"It's his," Sai confirmed when his ebony eyes landed on the object in question.

A haughty silence settled.

"We just inspected the whole room," Shino grimly said. "Everything has already been searched. No sign of documents, parchments, books, any paper, even scorched… The bookcases are empty. We also found a safe that survived the fire, but it was opened and emptied of its contents."

Listening to these words, Shikamaru quickly glanced the surroundings around him, as did Neji who was scanning the area with his Byakugan. A black anger seized the leader; a blue vein swelled on his temple and he clenched his fists so roughly that he dug his fingernails into his skin. In a way, if he could have chosen, he would have preferred to never know. He had some idea as to the horrors that had caused his friend's trauma and agonizing pain. In all this, he could have ended up here too, living this diabolical hell of torture that no one deserved to suffer. To his dismay and misfortune, they had found nothing, nothing at all. These people, this group had made sure to erase the slightest trace of their activity and the experiments in question done on the blond forever marked by this bloody and nightmarish darkness.

"Damn it!" he yelled, punching one of the battered machines with his fist.

The others did not show it, although they experienced similar emotions while keeping their composure unlike the leader of the group.

Once again, Konohagakure found itself back at nothing…

"I maybe found something," Neji declared.

The boys gasped in surprise, their eyes locked on the member of the Bunke who approached one of the devices. He inspected it carefully. He asked for help to pull it from the wall and without hesitation, the young shinobis lent him a hand. Behind the machine, a large metal plate was firmly fixed with nails. Grabbing a kunai, Neji set about opening it. Inside, they saw a device not unfamiliar to them.

"A black box!" Sai exclaimed.

A gleam illuminated the darkness and restored hope.

"Those guys forgot to take it," Shikamaru added with a tremor in his voice, inspecting the acceptable condition of the machine. "With a bit of electricity, we could turn it back on and listen to the last message…"

"I've found a generator in the mess earlier," the bug handler exclaimed. "Hopefully, it still works."

In silence, the teenagers recovered the said generator in order to connect the device in good condition and probably able to work. Luck finally smiled on them when they were able to start it. The unacknowledged excitement caused subtle tremors in the young shinobis about to listen to the testimony able to clear up this whole story.

With the batteries low, Shikamaru hurried to operate the reluctant machine to listen to what the black box had preciously recorded. His shaky hands made it difficult for him and did nothing to help his somewhat chaotic manipulations. Nevertheless, with a little persistence, he succeeded. Holding his breath, he took a quick glance at his brothers in arms before starting the audio testimony.

In the eerie silence, the shinobis listened attentively despite the crummy audio quality saturated with hisses, implying that the black box or the machine had been damaged. As soon as the recording stabilized enough to understand, they heard a man's voice gasp loudly while in the background, screams of death tore through the environment overloaded with the sounds of gusts of flame, destruction and Naruto's familiar feral howls.

After a few seconds of catching his breath, the individual finally found the strength to speak, betraying in his tone of voice that he was seriously injured.

"As ordered, we had begun the incubation process … but despite the powerful sedatives, the beast woke up and became fully possessed by its instincts. It freed itself and we tried to contain it, to subdue it, but it became mad and even hungry, it's too powerful for us … it's destroying everything … killing us all… It's seriously injured… Its wounds are too serious for it to survive… I told you that the seraphim was not ready and that the ritual of sublimation was not finished although you didn't want to hear anything. Its yesterday's hopes and its humanity still persist… That's why it …it has… "

Before the scientist could finish his sentence, the enraged grunts took over and the man begged for his life. However, he let out a spine-chilling scream before the testimony abruptly cut off. The crackling broke the leaden silence in which the whole room was immersed.

In shock, none of them dared to say anything. Listening to this frightening recording had greatly disturbed them. No one needed to explain what happened in the end; everyone had easily guessed it.

A thousand and one question bombarded their minds, especially Shikamaru. He was perfectly aware of this whole story, including Naruto's unstable and traumatized psyche, by far. From what he had just heard, these guys had not finished their experiments on the sapphire-eyed boy, indicating that he was "incomplete." This observation made many cold sweats break out in addition to shaking his heart in his aching chest; At this, several points were clear.

They had tried to strip Naruto of his humanity.

They treated him and talked about him as if he were a mere beast.

His savagery had been deliberately trained in his mind which they had broken.

Hellow! A few short words from the author!

I hope this story continues to pique your interest! This chapter closes the second book

The third book, called "Destruction," will start next week!

Thank you for your valuable comments that give me a boost of motivation!