Recommended story: 'The Journey of Souls' by feduran
Chapter Forty-six
Kushina hurried to Naruto's room to see if anyone was in there, and to her surprise not only was he in there but Hinata was on top of him. Blushing like crazy, she only had one thing to say.
"Get your clothes on and get your butts outside! Now!"
She slammed the door shut and could be heard running in a hurry. Naruto and Hinata were confused, but the mood was gone and so they complied and got dressed.
"What's going on?" Naruto asked when he reunited with the adults outside. Right away he could see they looked ready for war.
"Someone's kidnapped the girls. Someone who's potentially as dangerous as Orochimaru." Tsunade claimed.
"Boss?" Moegi said, coming around from behind Shinju. Her new appearance was immediately obvious, making Naruto gasp. She stepped forward but lost her balance and tripped, prompting him to come and help her up.
"What happened?" He asked.
"These things attacked us." Moegi said, sitting down. Her feet were clawed, but they slowly turned into hooves like a horse. She held up a hand and it turned into a tentacle before returning to a more clawed form. "The big one did something to me. Now my body, it's constantly changing."
"Like Ino, but you can't control it." Naruto noted.
"This is similar to what Orochimaru did to Sasuke and the ninja he sent to collect him from what I've gathered, but not the same. So we need to treat this threat as no less dangerous." Tsunade insisted. "Alright, enough yapping, let's go kick some ass."
Everyone nodded and left, though Moegi and Shinju stayed behind since they weren't fighters. Moegi wanted to go, but she was more a liability than an asset right now. Especially since they couldn't guarantee that the enemy could do more to her than they already had.
With Hinata being their best tracker, though not their only one, they were easily able to find what they were looking for. This enemy apparently hadn't bothered moving too far away from the hotel, it was like they wanted someone to find them. That didn't make the adults feel any better, but it also emboldened them to be more aggressive. If these things wanted a fight, they were going to get it.
"They aren't human. It's like back in Alfheim, whatever they have it's not chakra." Hinata warned. "And whatever it is, it's focused primarily around their eyes, like mine. But... two of them only have one."
"Any ideas Kushina?" Tsunade asked.
"No idea what they are, but I'm pretty sure we can make them bleed."
The captives were tied to the trees, slowly regaining their ability to move. But Sakura, Isaribi, and Ursha weren't yet mobile or strong enough yet to break out of their binds. Ino kept trying to transform but her body wasn't obeying.
"I must say children, despite how not funky it was for you to kill that dragon, I gotta say I'm impressed that you could. I honestly didn't think it was possible that anyone could do that. Maybe an Asgardian, but they never go to Niflheim. So despite all this going on, I have to say you guys are badass."
"Praise from a devil, you think we're pleased?" Isaribi commented bitterly.
"It's not the worst thing you can get from us."
"Why are you doing this? They got out fair and square. That was the deal." Sakura tried to reason.
"Because we can." The lead devil stated.
Sakura blinked. "That's it?"
The lead devil just shrugged apathetically, making her mad.
"Burst into flames!"
There was no reaction, making her curse under her breath.
"Did you actually think he would catch fire just because you said so?" Dusk asked.
"Maybe that's her Gift Dusk." Fader suggested. "Well go ahead and try, nothing you do will affect us."
Sakura did not respond, instead she was trying to think of what she could do to get them out of this.
"If you really planned on taking us to Hell, why are we still here?" Isaribi asked.
"We need all of you who escaped, and we might as well grab a few extra while we're at it. Don't worry, you'll only be damned for about a hundred years before you can reincarnate, maybe twenty-four for good behavior." The lead devil replied, with Dusk and Fader laughing at the end.
From out of the trees, dozens if not a hundred Naruto clones sprang out and charged. They saw three unfamiliar faces in front of four familiar captive girls and went right for them.
"I think this is the boy we need, boss!" Fader informed, fighting off the clones around her with a set of curved knives. She cut into the clones without mercy, as if trying to dig out any organs these clones might have.
"But which one?" Dusk asked, defending himself with a pair of sais that almost looked like they were on fire.
"Oh this is so amusing." The lead devil surmised while more clones tried to get the drop on him. He pulled out a gentleman's cane and hit them all like it was a club. Oddly it was having a lot more effect than it should, dispelling the clones just as easily as the actual weapons were.
While this was going on, Tsunade, Shizune, Kushina, and Tayuya discreetly got around the trees to untie the captives. Hinata was staying back with the real Naruto, who kept creating more clones but wincing all the time.
"Are you okay Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, glancing at the dark elf who was also there by him acting as a guard.
"I'm getting a lot of memories back, and their weapons hurt a lot. More than usual."
"They're devils, their weapons are designed to torment and torture better than any other in the realms. Expect them to hurt." Mariko warned.
"Any idea how to stop them?" Hinata asked.
"You mean other than hitting them really really hard? No."
Naruto ignored the pain as best he could and kept sending out more clones.
Dusk, Fader, and the lead devil kept massacring the swarm of clones. Fader looked like she was really enjoying having an endless supply of boys to butcher, while Dusk looked like he was trying to figure out where the original was. The lead devil just smiled and batted the clones into dust, it was like he was watching a good movie more than fighting in a battle.
Then Sarutobi came in, dressed in his old-fashioned battle armor, with Enma by his side. The monkey summons was more than a little surprised to be reunited with his formerly deceased partner, but he wasn't going to complain. He got in close to the boss devil who maintained his smirk and tried to whack him, but Sarutobi deflected it with a short sword his armor contained and then used his free hand to slug the devil, who actually faltered in his stance.
"My my, now it's finally going to get fun." The lead devil said, never dropping his grin or jovial tone. "Dusk, Fader, leave this one and the flies to me. Someone's going after the hostages."
"Sure thing boss." Fader exclaimed, digging her knives into a clone's body and using it as a springboard to jump up and over many more clones before it dispelled. Dusk meanwhile just charged through, cutting any obstacles in his way.
The two small devils got to the trees, seeing Sakura, Ino, Isaribi, and Ursha freed and partnered with the older kunoichi. None of them looked happy.
"Poison Fog Jutsu!" Shizune send out a spray of purple mist that swept over the two creatures.
"Yum, nice. Hey Dusk, this smells like our favorite bagel shop back in Gluttony Square."
"No I'd say it's more like my mother's roast. The one she makes for the holidays."
Tsunade jumped in throwing one of her punches at the ground. While she no longer had chakra and therefore her punches weren't as epic as they used to be, but you don't acquire the ability to create fissures with your fists without toughening up your fists in the process. Plus this was a perfect chance to experiment with her Gift, by using her healing ability on herself to reinforce her arm and take whatever damage she inflicted upon it. The result was a tremor that knocked the two devils off their feet but didn't shatter the ground.
'Damn, guess I have to restart from scratch on that one.' She thought.
Kushina sent out some chains to wrap around the little devils, which worked effectively and bound them together back to back. Tayuya got in close and put her hands by their necks.
"Give me one reason why I should leave your heads attached to your necks."
Dusk and Fader laughed and turned into flames. However, despite no longer having a physical form, the chains holding them stayed firm and true. The flames tried to escape, be it going through, under, or over, yet they couldn't move. It was like Kushina's chains were literally holding fire itself hostage. So the two little devils returned to normal.
"How can we not escape. No mortal should be able to keep us trapped." Fader lamented, trying to break her way free.
"Unless..." Dusk said, but trailed off, gulping when he saw Tayuya's grin and felt her dig her fingers into his neck.
While that was going on, Sarutobi was pressing hard against the lead devil with Enma doing whatever he could to support him. All the while, the lead devil just looked like he was listening to a young child eagerly explain something it was excited about. Even the continued wave of clones wasn't bothering him.
'He's not even the least bit threatened by me. I can hit him, but I can't hurt him. It's like everything Orochimaru pretends to be. But there has to be something that can do him harm.'
"Enma, we need to get serious."
"I agree." The monkey said before turning into his adamantine staff form.
The lead devil tensed, but quickly regained his composure.
'I saw that. Enma in this form got a reaction. It's a long shot, but this just might be my advantage.' Sarutobi thought, grinning a little before spinning the staff and swinging at his adversary. The lead devil blocked with his cane, but Sarutobi added more pressure, and it looked like the devil was finally being forced to use effort now and pushed back.
"Naruto, now!"
Many clones came at him, kunai in hand. The lead devil sprouted weird limbs that were like a crustacean missing the exoskeleton that clawed at every clone that came close. But these limbs had eyes and a few clones threw shuriken at them, hitting a couple. The lead devil winced in pain and grit his teeth, faltering a little. Sarutobi took the opportunity to sweep the leg and make him fall completely before swinging the staff again. The lead devil rolled to avoid the hit and scrambled back to his feet, retracting the weird limbs.
"So you can be hurt." The Sandaime smirked.
The lead devil continued to smile. "Not as much as I can hurt you."
He pointed his cane at the old hokage and all of a sudden lightning came out of it. Sarutobi spun his staff to deflect, which worked surprisingly well, and the lightning went towards Dusk and Fader, zapping them. They yelled and writhed before collapsing, steaming and blackened almost cartoonishly. But they weren't dead, because they were glaring and trying to stand up. Tayuya stepped back, just missing the lightning, and while Kushina felt a shock the chains weren't as conductive as she expected.
The lead devil glanced towards his hurt minions, and that brief moment gave Sarutobi what he needed. He came in and slammed his staff directly into the devil's face, and the force sent the devil flying through the trees. All of them.
"Wow." Several said, looking down the row of destruction. Naruto, Hinata, and Mariko came out of hiding, getting some leaves and twigs out of their hair.
"I'm impressed." Tsunade noted, looking at her sensei and remembering what it was like to see him in action long ago.
"Good thing you missed us." Naruto commented, dispelling all the remaining clones.
"Now, I know I was hitting at full strength, but it shouldn't have been that powerful." Sarutobi exclaimed.
Enma returned to his monkey form. "I think whatever these things are, they don't like adamantine."
"Adamantine? You have adamantine?" Fader asked, trying harder to break free of the chains. On the plus side, they both were already healing from their electrical burns.
"Ah, so that's why you can't escape my chains." Kushina realized, then she tightened them. "Unless you go back to the hell you crawled out of and leave us alone, you're going to have to find a way to get adamantine out of your bodies."
"Down your throats, up your asses, under your fingernails, there are so many places to stick something you don't want to have something stuck in." Tayuya added, laughing a little.
There was a roar in the distance, though not a far enough away distance. Rather, right by the hotel distance.
Dusk and Fader laughed. "You haven't won yet. Not even close."
Shinju had been standing guard over Moegi, who all this time had been acting like her own body was trying to tear itself apart. Her body just could not seem to settle on a form anymore, it was like she was trying to be every kind of animal or demon all at once. Shinju tried to soothe her in any way she could, but it was having no effect.
And then all of a sudden, a body was thrown through the wall of the hotel and another wall inside. Shinju yelped and ducked to cover her daughter from whatever the collateral damage could be. Fortunately there was none.
'Oh boy, the hotel owners are not going to be happy about this. They better not charge us for damages.' She thought, getting up to see what had caused this. She looked down the hallway, seeing a body lying on the floor. Marks on the carpet indicated they had skidded to a stop.
"Hey, what happened?" Another guest, a woman in a robe, asked. She was in the hallway and went up to the body. "Are you okay mister?"
An arm reached up and grabbed her face, making her scream and try to pull away, but the hand did not relinquish. Then there was a crunch and squish sound effect, followed by more screaming and blood being visible, and now the hand retracted. The woman was still standing and screaming, with blood pouring down her face.
"My eyes! My eyes!"
Shinju didn't have the best view, but she could tell that this woman now had bleeding empty sockets and a broken nose. Then the body rose to its feet and dusted itself off, like dirty clothes was the worst that it had experienced in all this.
"That old fellow sure packs a wallop. I should get a little more mojo on my side."
All of a sudden, dozens of tendrils sprouted and explored all corners of the hotel. They went around corners, through the doors, everywhere. More people were heard screaming, and this unknown man with horns like antlers stood there like it was music to his ears.
Of course one of these tendrils came towards Shinju, but unlike the others she saw it coming and had some training in the underworld. She grabbed it while the end seemed determined to gouge out her own eyes.
'It's after my eyes... my eyes! Oh shit, the devils from Hell have followed us! We have to get out of here!'
With an unexpected battle cry, Naruto came up and slashed at the tendril, cutting it and freeing Shinju. The tendril retreated and the lead devil's attention was entirely on him now. From behind Shinju all the others gathered too, ready to fight.
"We know your weakness now. You can't win." Kushina warned.
"Oh, I assure you ma'am, I most certainly can."
The many tendrils returned to him, eyes visibly held in all, and were pulled into his body. The eyes sunk in, disappearing, and then his body began to emit mist.
"Everyone, I was told that devils use eyes for power. You know how in this world the more tails a demon has, the stronger it is? For them, it's eyes." Shinju warned.
"How many eyes does this one have?" Naruto asked.
The devil began to grow in size and change in shape. The building came apart as he burst through the walls and ceiling. Kushina tried to use her chains to hold him back, but the growth continued. The devil began to look like a blurred gorilla, albeit leaner, and grew a second set of arms that didn't look like arms or anything specific. The head was like if a horse and a lizard had a baby together, and all over the body was eyes. So many eyes. The growth stopped around the size of a long-necked dinosaur and the hotel was nothing more than broken piles of wood with eyeless people scrambling to get out.
"That's... a lot of eyes." Ino whimpered, moving to stay close to Naruto. Sakura and Hinata did the same.
"Then I'll poke out every single one if I have to." Naruto proclaimed.
Kushina and Sarutobi, with Enma back in staff form, jumped at the monstrosity. Tsunade and Shizune went to try and save as many victims as they could. Tayuya and Ayame followed after Kushina and Sarutobi, hoping to do any damage that they could. Naruto stayed back with Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Isaribi, and Ursha, protecting them along with Moegi and Shinju while also making sure Dusk and Fader stayed captive. Though once again he sent out a horde of clones to help the adults.
"Boss! Get us free! We can help you!" Fader shouted.
The lead devil responded by sending out another tendril for them. Naruto went towards it to interfere, but instead of going for the chain, the tendril went right for Fader's face.
"What? Boss no! You ca-!" Fader resisted, only to end up screaming. Blood gushed and then her body incinerated into ashes, all that remained was one eye in the tendrils grasp.
"Did he just kill his own follower?" Sakura asked, shocked.
Dusk struggled to get free now that there was some slack in the chains, but the tendril went for him too. It got to him and ripped his eye out, and like the other he screamed and spontaneously combusted.
"I can't believe I actually feel sorry for those monsters." Ino said softly.
Naruto saw the tendril drift towards Moegi, and he wasn't going to take the chance that it was going to go for her eyes too. He came at it and tried to cut it with a kunai. The tendril end was severed and dropped the two eyes, but the stub wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his side.
"No! Naruto-kun!" Hinata and Sakura shouted in terror, seeing the tendril go for his own face. Once it covered his eyes, Naruto's body erupted with red chakra, and yet the slippery appendage did not recoil.
"LET HIM GO!" Hinata demanded, going in and jabbin at the tendril with the least orthodox juuken strike she had ever done in her life, but it must have done something. The tendril spasmed and recoiled and then released the whiskered blonde, but to the girl's horror there were two blue eyes in its grasp.
"Oh no you don't!" Sakura protested, going for the tendril to retrieve his eyes. Hinata did the same, and even Ino went in. Ino decided to fight fire with fire and turned her arms into tentacles, grasping the tendril and holding it back. Sakura got in and with a kunai cut the tendril again, this time carefully grabbing the eyes and getting them away. The tendril withdrew in defeat.
"We got them back Naruto-kun. Now, hold them by your face and I can-" Sakura said quickly but she stopped when she saw his current state.
Naruto was on all fours, blood mixing in with the red chakra, and the chakra itself formed into the shape of a fox. With two tails. He was breathing heavily and stayed still, but before the pinkette could say more he lunged at the giant creature from Hell.
"Naruto-kun!" The girls shouted with worry, knowing that this was not going to be good for him. They could only watch as he tore open the devil's flesh beside his mother and the others, but the devil was putting up a much better fight than before. Now, it was taking them seriously.
"This is all my fault. Boss lost his eyes to protect mine." Moegi whimpered, crying out of guilt.
"Don't blame yourself. You know Naruto-kun wouldn't blame you." Hinata advised.
"We have to help him." Ino stated.
"We will." Sakura nodded, then handed over Naruto's eyes to Moegi, who was squeamish but did not refuse. "Keep these safe until we get him back."
And so Sakura, Hinata, and Ino went in to support their comrades, while Isaribi, Ursha, Shinju stayed back with Moegi.
'I should be helping them too. If only I could actually do something. If only my body would be normal, or at least something more powerful. Something like the boss. I want to be strong like Naruto, I need to be like Naruto.'
All of a sudden, Moegi's body was covered in red vapors, making the other two girls worry but keep their hands off her. Her body kept changing, but this time it was different. It was... controlled. Purposeful. Uniform. When the vapors faded, there stood what looked like an anthropomorphic female fox wearing Moegi's clothes. The fur was red but the ears were yellow with red at the tips, and there was dark red fur where human hair would normally be. The hands and feet were covered in black fur and had brown claws. There was white fur around the mouth or muzzle, the chest and belly, and the inside of the ears. This fox girl also had two tails, red with yellow at the end, but weirdest of all was that she now had three eyes. Two of which were the same blue as Naruto while the third was black.
"What happened? What happened to me?" She asked, staring at her hands. She looked at her body and aside from the obvious changes, another that stood out was that she was taller. Not full grown, but easily tall enough to pass for Naruto's age group. This meant that her clothes looked too small on her.
"Moegi?" Shinju asked.
The fox girl looked to her mother. "Yes, it's me. I..." She looked back at the battle, seeing everyone persist in the struggle, and she felt her blood boil. "I think I can help now."
"You can't-" Shinju pleaded, but it was no use. Moegi went in to join them.
The others had been doing whatever it took to hurt this thing, but it was proving difficult. Not just because it could heal, but this devil was so much uglier up close. From a distance, even a mere throwing distance, you could make out the shape but not features, but when you were right up against it, like a flea on a dog, it was utterly revolting. The flesh of this devil looked like an assortment of melting human beings pushed together. You could see faces, arms, chests, legs, genitals, breasts, it was like someone had thrown a bunch of bodies into a blender but kept it on the lowest setting. The eyes were big, like giant squid big, with bodies ringed around them, and the eyes no longer looked human even if they once were.
The ninja repressed their disgust at this abomination and tried to attack it, but the bodies making its overall body retaliated. Mouths grew and tried to bite, arms extended and tried to slash or gouge, voices could be heard just above a whisper calling for mercy. It was honestly very hard for them to handle. It was like literally fighting a nightmare.
'Is this what happens to you in Hell?' Ino asked, trying to tear out one of the eyes but the bodies by it were fending off her weaponized arms. 'Do you get absorbed by these horrendous things and become a part of their body? Just another piece of their flesh? I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.'
One of the bodies came up behind the platinum blonde and grabbed her shoulders, pulled her hard backwards until she was on her back. Once there, the devil's flesh began to crawl over her, as if to swallow her. She screamed and transformed into a much spikier version of herself, tearing the flesh but only delaying the consumption. Fortunately Naruto heard her and reacted by instinct, coming over and ripping the flesh with his clawed hands enough that she got out.
"Thank you so much Naruto." She said, getting away from the devil. She felt so violated right now.
Kushina wrapped chain after chain around it while Sarutobi jabbed every eye with his staff that he could. Tayuya clawed at what she could reach and Ayame threw every weapon she had.
'I have an idea, it's risky but it's our best chance.' Sakura thought, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a moment. "Everyone, back in Konoha right now!"
All of a sudden, all of the humans in the area just disappeared. Not even like a shushin where there was smoke or leaves to indicate a vanishing, they were just gone. All that remained was the giant devil... and Moegi.
"What? Where did they... Why am I still here?" Moegi asked, seeing no one around.
The devil grinned and snatched her up. She kicked and bit but it wasn't enough.
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
"Oh, somebody will come for you. I would bet everything I have on it." The devil told her, laughing a little at the end.