30 A Passage to Hell

Blanket disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Tenjho Tenge

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Here we are with chapter 30. It wasn't my intention to make this a standalone but it turned out to be too long to just have as part of a chapter and too short to make a full chapter, so I decided to present this as an interlude. Here's an interlude/chapter 30. Enjoy!

Last time:

Suddenly Natsuko found she couldn't move at all and gasped. Naruto turned around and saw the Miko on all fours on the ground. "What are you doing up so late Natsuko-san…? Oh, I see, you set off one of my motion detector tags. Hang on while I inform everyone that it's okay."

Natsuko was doing her best helpless puppy dog eyes as Naruto went over to deactivate the trap. "I'm so sorry Naruto-kun. I had a nightmare and wanted to be close to you."

Naruto said, "Well, the tag set off silent alarms that woke everyone up so you'll have plenty of company now Natsuko-san." About that time Yūgao, Hinata and Maya appeared out of their tents armed to the teeth.

"What's going on Naruto?" asked Yūgao gruffly.

"Natsuko-san set off a motion trap and got stuck in place." said Naruto. "I haven't even had time to disarm it."

Yūgao saw Natsuko in her position on the ground and said irritably, "For a Miko you sure do get into a lot of trouble. What are you doing out here crawling on the ground in the middle of the night anyway?"

"Ummm…I had a nightmare?" said Natsuko as she felt the trap deactivate.

"Riiiiight." said Yūgao. "Back into the tent with you. You and I will talk about your nightmare in there." The jonin dragged the protesting Miko back into the tent they were sharing…

After trading notes, Hinata and Maya each shared a kiss with their boyfriend before they went back to bed.

For her part Natsuko had simply given up for the night. Between everyone seeing her stuck helpless on the ground and a verbal flogging from Yūgao all she wanted to do was sleep and try to forget about the embarrassment and mortification of being caught…twice.

As a result it turned out Hinata's guard shift was quite peaceful…

…

Chapter 30

Tea Country, the Village of Numa no Mura

Team 11 stopped in at the swampy village of Numa no Mura. They had travelled since sunrise and straight through the mountain forest regions only to come across an odd plateau that was swampland due to the odd weather conditions in the area. The area seemed polluted and the water tasted bad so they were relying on rations when they stopped for lunch.

Seeing a major thunderstorm was coming in the made their way to Numa no Mura because the remote village was the only one in the seldom travelled area that was actually on the map. For the most part their travel had been uneventful other than the area's nasty stench and the fact that the animals seemed weak as if ill. On the positive side Natsuko had kept her hands to herself. When they arrived at the Village gates the guards there seem very suspicious to them and only let Team 11 in for a fee.

Yūgao found the Village seemed to have only a few people in it and the people they did see were rather odd looking with pasty skin as if they hadn't seen the sun in months. There was no inn or lodging to stay at and there didn't seem to be any restaurants either. The village houses were all very old and in poor upkeep. Their windows were either boarded up or covered with heavy drapery so you couldn't see inside. "This town almost looks as if it was abandoned Yūgao-sensei." said Maya. "I don't feel very comfortable here. My gut instinct is something is very wrong in this place."

"Hinata-chan, can you see anything?" asked Yūgao quietly. "Something does seem a bit off here."

The Hyūga kunoichi activated her byakugan and whispered, "There are people in all of the houses. They all seem to be watching us through cracks in the boards. They all look malformed."

"In what way Hinata-chan?" asked Naruto. Thunder crashed overhead and it began to rain as the clouds grew thicker and the sky darkened. The paths in the village quickly were turning to mud.

Hinata said over the noise of the storm, "They all look kind of lizard-like. I don't know how else to describe it."

As there was no shelter to be seen the group got up against a larger house to shield themselves from the rain. "We may as well have stayed out in the wilderness than come here." said Natsuko. The others couldn't help but agree as the storm was growing worse and the sky grew even darker.

They saw one of the odd villagers come out of their house out into the street. It had a malformed chameleon like head and seemingly lidless eyes that stared unblinking into the sky as the rain came down. They assumed it was a male from the style of dress. Maya was trying to place if she'd ever seem such a creature before and the look of the thing in the lightning flashes wasn't reassuring. It looked at them and it's white, clammy skin contrasted wildly with its blackened, shark like teeth. It started to limp towards them at a slow pace with its hands reaching out towards them. They could all plainly see that its hands were webbed by now.

Hinata reactivated her byakugan and gasped, "They are all coming out of the houses in the storm; the whole village is trying to surround us!"

Yūgao drew her katana and said, "Everyone draw your weapons. You too Priestess."

Suddenly one of the creatures fell to all fours and jumped with incredible speed towards them. Maya slashed the creature with the Reiki in the darkness and the creature let out a horrid shriek that was anything but human. The creatures lunged at Team 11 and their client and a violent melee broke out in the muddy streets.

Naruto had one of the creatures head butt him so hard that he crashed through the boards of the house behind him. He was stunned by the impact but saw a horror inside the house. It was lined like a nest and a dozen child sized versions of the creatures tried to grab him and attempted to feed upon his flesh. They didn't penetrate his armored mesh and Naruto managed the throw the little demons off him. Standing back up he drew the Kurimuzo-kougou and in a flash three of the little monsters were bisected. The rest shrieked and closed for the kill…

Hinata managed to keep the creatures at a distance using the Hakutsume blades. The Hyūga Heiress was no slouch but she was getting bogged down in the mud and the creatures simply glided over it. 'I have to get off the ground. I'm getting slower and they are getting faster!' Hinata jumped onto the wall of a nearby house and quickly climbed to the roof with chakra. Several creatures tried to jump up there with her but Hinata's twin kodachis kept killing them or knocking them back off the roof. Hinata was looking around desperately trying to find the others but they were nowhere to be found….

Maya grabbed Natsuko and rushed towards the gates to protect the client. The creatures were in hot pursuit. When they reached the villages rickety gates Maya did a roundhouse kick to smash them open only for an electrical field to shock her badly. Maya collapsed face down in the mud. The last thing she saw was Natsuko being overwhelmed as she battled with her naginata…

…

Location Unknown

Yūgao woke up. She was securely bound to a wall by tendrils in some kind of damp, subterranean cave. Torches lined the walls and the place glowed in a haunting twilight. She saw the creatures all gathered there and they seemed to be singing/moaning some sort of dirge. The place was wet and smelled of mold. Yūgao struggled a bit and found the tendrils were actually vines with thorns on them. 'If I wasn't wearing ANBU armor under my uniform I would have been ripped to shreds by these things.' thought the sword mistress.

She saw Maya hanging on the opposite wall in a similar position to herself. The teenage girl's silver hair blocked any view Yūgao had of her face. The jonin couldn't even tell if her student was alive or not. 'Please just be asleep Maya-chan.' thought Yūgao in fear. 'Gods, how long was I unconscious? I remember being hit in the back of the head while fighting and then I blacked out.'

One of the creatures came over to Yūgao. It was different from the others in that it was taller and stood and walked more upright and like a human would. To the purple haired jonin it looked like a white gecko. It said in a croaky voice, "I see you are awake my pet. Several of my children died to take you and that one alive." it said motioning towards Maya.

"What are you?" asked Yūgao harshly.

It let out a raspy chuckle and said, "I was this village's shaman and healer but I became something…more. Much more!"

The purple haired woman was stunned. "You are saying you were human once?! What happened to this village?"

The shaman said, "Hmmm…It's been a while since I actually conversed with someone. My children obey me but they aren't particularly smart since they changed."

"Why did they change? How did you become like this?" asked Yūgao with a bit of fear.

The Shaman motioned around him grandly. "This place was the home of a demon that roamed the land in my youth. It is underground below Numa no Mura. Its presence was so powerful that the land and the weather changed from a grassy mountain plateau into the swampland it is today. My own grandfather sacrificed himself to seal it here and my parents wasted their lives away keeping the demon's poison from rotting the earth. When they died, I took up the mantle but there was no one after me. I was old, so old that I could barely get around myself. As I felt my life slowly ebbing away the poison started to flow and mutate the area. I prayed for guidance from the gods to help me and no answers came…that was a hundred years ago and I was already over a hundred years old."

Yūgao was dumbfounded. If this creature was telling the truth, then it was over two hundred years old and was once a human being.

Then the shaman clapped its webbed hands and said, "That's when I had a revelation! I could absorb the demon's power and protect the village forever. I spoke to the demon and in exchange for the power to live I would set it free. I fooled the demon though and kept absorbing its power until I and I alone controlled the poison. Through it I control the land and I control the people…I AM A GOD and the demon is no more. Now my children only exist and live to serve me!" The shaman started cackling wildly. "You should feel honored that I have deemed you worthy of speaking to mortal!"

'This creature is insane.' thought Yūgao. 'He has become a demon himself.'

…

The Village of Numa no Mura

Hinata was lying on the roof of the house she'd chosen as her battleground last night in the sunlight. When morning had come the creatures withdrew and she was victorious. Dozens of them died and their bodies littered the ground around the house. When the creatures withdrew Hinata was so exhausted from the hours of fighting through the night that she nearly collapsed. Hinata slept for hours but nothing disturbed her while she was asleep. When she awoke the first thing Hinata noticed was it was in the early afternoon from the position of the sun. She activated her tired byakugan eyes to look for the others.

The first thing Hinata noticed was an energy barrier lining the village. 'That wasn't there last night.' She thought to herself. Hinata saw dozens of bodies of the creatures stinking in the sun. The sights and smells made her want to vomit. She saw Natsuko outside the gates of the village on the other side of the barrier. She didn't look badly injured but was tied up securely, gagged and lying on the ground.

The two guards were talking to each other and her although Hinata was too far away to tell what they were saying. 'Natsuko is in trouble but it seems she's just a prisoner for now. What is that barrier I'm seeing? Where are Naruto-kun, Maya-chan and Yūgao-sensei?!' That's when Hinata noticed a pattern painted on the earth. It started at the center of the village and it expanded outwards in a spiral from there. She traced the pattern with her eyes and it finally led to Naruto. He was sitting on the ground in the shade and Hinata quickly roof hopped over to see him.

…

Naruto was exhausted. A house caved in on him during the fighting last night and he nearly drowned in the mud. It was a miracle he was even alive. Naruto spent part of the morning searching for the others but couldn't find anyone until he found the guards at the gates…

…

Flashback…

Naruto threw a kunai at the gates but some kind of barrier was there that stopped it midair with an electric shock. He saw the two guards that let them into the village the night before.

Naruto came close to the gates and said, "Open the gates and let me out. I have to search for my friends!"

The taller guard said, "Damn, you're still alive? You must be one tough ninja. Anyway, you're probably the only one left until they come back out tonight. The barrier won't let you out unless we open the gates and we aren't going to risk you getting out if you're that strong. We've got this priestess out here cause she's a Miko and will fetch a good price on the market as a sex slave."

"WHAT?! You knew about these…these monsters?!" yelled Naruto.

"Of course, we did." said the shorter guard. "We get a good salary to let fools in so the old man can do whatever he wants with them."

Naruto was stunned. "How could you do that? You're basically feeding human beings to animals! Just as bad you'd do that to a Miko?!"

"Money talks kid." said the taller guard. "If I were you, I'd take my own life. The gods only know what the old man will have in store for you if you're alive when the sun goes down."

Flashback end…

…

Naruto hadn't found any traces of the girls or their weapons on the ground, just semi-dried mud and dead creatures everywhere. There were so many dead around one house he couldn't get near it because of the smell. He soon set up a sealing array to detect the source of the barrier and found it originated underground. After testing the nature of the barrier with a few seals made by shadow clones Naruto discovered what kind of seal he needed to create to suck up the barrier's energy. Naruto figured if he couldn't disrupt the barrier then he'd absorb it into a seal.

Thus, Naruto and his clones had a horrifying job to do. After laying out the pattern for the seal in the soft earth, Naruto and his shadow clones had to find a plentiful source of chakra conductive liquid to paint the seal with. As disgusting as it was the blood of the many slain creatures was chakra conductive and there was plenty of it…liters and liters really. Naruto got sick on a couple of occasions but he pressed on until the sealing array was done. He was sitting in the shade resting before he activated it. Naruto was tired. That's when he heard a noise on a roof close and he saw his Hinata-chan!

The blonde ninja was trying to stand up when Hinata landed in front of him and nearly tackled him to the ground. She sobbed out, "Naruto-kun!" as she held onto him for dear life.

Naruto hugged his girlfriend tightly as tears spilled out of his eyes and he whispered, "Hinata-chan!" The pair held on to each other tightly and cried for a few minutes before they brought themselves back under control emotionally and sat down together to talk. The young couple explained to one another exactly what had happened to each of them during the previous night.

"So this power source is underground Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata.

Naruto nodded. "The center of my sealing array is directly above the source Hinata-chan."

Hinata motioned towards her eyes and smiled. "Let's go have a look then."

…

Underground

Yūgao saw Maya wake up with a start. Maya looked around wildly before she saw her sensei hanging on the wall opposite to her. "Sensei!" whispered Maya.

The purple haired woman nodded wearily and said quietly; "We're both tied up very securely Maya-chan and our weapons are down there on the floor out of reach. Even using chakra to enhance my strength I haven't been able to break these vines. If I even had access to one kunai I could cut us loose."

Maya sagged a bit but then got a gleam in her eye. The silver haired girl suddenly smiled and winked at Yūgao and channeled chakra into her wrists. The jonin was dumbfounded when a kunai appeared in each over her student's hands and she began to cut her way loose quickly. 'Maya-chan had invisible seals painted on her wrists by Naruto-kun. He never ceases to amaze me.'

Maya landed quietly on the floor in a crouch seconds later and quickly put on all her gear. She quickly drew the Reiki and whispered, "Ready Sensei?"

Yūgao nodded and four slashes of the Reiki later she was free of her bindings and crouched on the floor in front of Maya picking up her weapons. "Your boyfriend's seals are a life-saver Maya-chan." said the purple haired jonin quietly.

Maya smiled and nodded before she blushed and realized she'd just admitted Naruto was her boyfriend to Yūgao. She was going to say something when the shaman's croaky voice said, "My, what clever girls you mortals are…And here I was almost ready to have you sacrificed to me. (Sigh) "I guess I'll just have to render you harmless myself or I'll lose even more of my children to those swords of yours."

"What in the hell are you?" asked Maya rudely. "A talking albino gecko?"

"Tut, tut my dear child. I am a god." said the shaman.

"He's a demon." corrected Yūgao as she drew her katana.

Maya smiled manically and said, "Gods and demons die too you know." She leveled the Reiki into the ready position and it began to hum slightly in tune with her chakra. Maya moved in a blur to decapitate the shaman. The Reiki struck the side of his long neck before it ricocheted back causing the shocked Maya to go tumbling back past her equally stunned sensei.

The shaman ran his finger all the tiny cut in his neck and said irritably, "I actually felt that little girl. It may only be a paper cut but it stings, nonetheless. You have defiled me you unwholesome child. Your suffering is going to be legendary for insulting a god!"

Both sensei and student screamed as bolts of energy lashed out at them from the shaman's raised fingers…

…

In the Village above

"They are directly below us Naruto kun!" said Hinata with wide eyes. "The person that is the source of the power is arcing it in bolts of energy towards Maya-chan and Yūgao-sensei!"

"Stand back Hinata-chan." said Naruto as he cut his palm and slammed it into the center of the seal painted on the ground. "Fuinjutsu: Greater Evil Absorption Seal!" The entire village lit up with the raw power of the seal Naruto had created and the seal began to draw energy into itself starting with the corpses of the white creatures lying nearby…

…

Underground

The shaman's bolts of energy arced away from Yūgao and Maya straight up through the ceiling of the cave and even out of the tiny cut in the shaman's neck. "WHAT IS THIS?!" screamed the shaman. "My power! I can't stop it! It's being pulled right out of my body!" He was screaming in agony as he clenched his raised hands into fists and attempted to pull them down to his sides and away from whatever force was tugging on them stronger than even gravity.

Maya was stumbling to get back up but Yūgao was already on her feet. She body flickered in front of the shaman and sliced his gut open horizontally which made him shriek in pain as she body flickered away. Energy was gushing out of the gaping wound when Yūgao appeared beside her student and said viciously, "He's not invincible now."

Maya was going to decapitate the creature when the shaman suddenly was pulled upwards by the stream of energy exiting his abdominal wound. Both women took a step back as the shaman's 'children' came racing in to attack but their bodies started to disintegrate the moment the stepped in the range of Naruto's seal…

…

In the Village above

Naruto watched with grim satisfaction as the bodies of the creatures broke down and left human skeletons behind. 'Whatever the hell they were I guess they must have been human once.' thought the blonde. He watched as the seal increased its power greater and greater from whatever creature below was being drained of its power.

Hinata deactivated her byakugan. "Maya-chan and Yūgao-sensei are both alright but the energy from the seal is so bright I can't look at it!"

"It's alright Hinata-chan; as long as we know they're all right." said Naruto "Let's just let the seal do its work. Shadow clone jutsu!" Ten shadow clones appeared. "Wait by the village gates; as soon as that barrier falls rescue Natsuko. The two guards are expendable if they can't be knocked out quickly." The ten clones saluted and took off towards the village gates.

…

Underground

The creatures were dying in droves by now and the energy that corrupted the cave was being drawn out using the screaming shaman as a power conduit. Yūgao and Maya watched the macabre spectacle as the creatures died leaving behind a pile of human skeletons. Even the vines on the wall withered and died as the energy was leeched out of them.

The desperate shaman started sending bolts of energy he was drawing from the dying creatures to fight his way to the surface to stop whatever was taking his power. He felt the poison of the polluted land fading and it took all of his effort to draw it from the swampy countryside leaving withered plants and animals behind to die. There was a shockwave as the poison all entered the shaman at once to increase his power to phenomenal levels. Maya and Yūgao were knocked back by the wave of power as the shaman broke to the surface of the ground and found himself in the center of a sealing array of colossal complexity he couldn't begin to comprehend.

The shaman saw Naruto and Hinata standing away from the center of the seal and he unleashed a massive energy bolt to kill the two teenagers. It wasn't enough. The bolt simply was absorbed into the seal leaving Naruto and Hinata unscathed. That's when the shaman fell to his knees and began to lose his gecko like form. He was withering away rapidly as the tainted energy that kept him alive was pulled out. The barrier and the entire village were flashing and arcing as the last vestiges of the power were being absorbed. The shaman's eyes locked on Naruto and he saw an Uzumaki spiral painted on Naruto's hand in blood to charge the seal if needed.

"N-no!" rasped out the old shaman as he withered into a frail, two hundred year old man. "An-an Uzu-m-maki! Only they could d-destroy a god with their infernal seals! C-curse you boy!" It was all over in a flash and the shaman/creature was nothing but an ancient man that was dying fast as the final bits of energy left his fragile body and entered a complex fuinjutsu array Naruto had on a scroll. When the last bit of energy was absorbed the scroll rolled up tightly and a seal with the kanji for 'evil' appeared on it.

…

Numa no Mura Village Gates

Both guards watched in befuddlement as the barrier kept crackling in and out of visibility to the naked eye. Then it fell entirely. "What the hell is going on?!" said the taller one.

Naruto's ten clones leaped over the gate and the two guards died in an instant before they could react. One of the shadow clones went over and freed Natsuko from her bindings and she immediately wrapped her arms around him and started crying into his chest. She said, "Naruto-kun! They were going to sell me! They told me all of you were dead and that those horrid creatures ate you!"

The shadow clone consoling Natsuko turned his brothers and said, "One of you dispel and tell the boss that the priestess is safe."

…

At the center of the village

Yūgao and Maya hopped up through the hole in the cavern roof and saw Hinata and Naruto. They saw the massive sealing array that was literally burnt into the earth as well. The old shaman looked like a mummy more than a human now. 'I-I was a god…' he croaked.

The jonin glared at him with hard eyes and said, "Die and go to whatever hell you are destined for you old fossil. The world won't miss a god the likes of you." The shaman tried to say something else but his body crumbled into dust before he could utter another sound…

…

Hours later…

Team 11 and Natsuko watched from a distance as Numa no Mura burned into ash. The skeletons, the cave, the town and the bodies of the two guards burned to the ground leaving nothing even marking a grave of the self-proclaimed 'god' and his 'children.' They were all tired and dirty but Hinata checked them all over thoroughly and healed the injuries they had. By morning the village was nothing but smoldering embers and Team 11 had left without looking back.

Numa no Mura had ceased to exist…

…Interlude end…

…

POSTSCRIPT:

Upon proofreading this I came to the conclusion there was a bit of H.P. Lovecraft's influence here which is odd since I haven't read any of his work in years. At any rate I hope everyone enjoyed this little side story. Next chapter we'll return to the regular story line and catch up with what everyone else was doing while Team 11 was fighting in Numa no Mura. See you next time. Blue out. 6/26/23