Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Bless the Child ❯ Chapter two ( Chapter 2 )

The temple had an ancient, worn feeling to it, accentuated by the thick layer of dust that coated everything. Naruto scanned the small room for any signs that anyone else had been there recently (one always kept an eye open for possible enemies) but found nothing. As far as he could tell, no one had been to the temple in ages. Odd, considering it was located along the main road. Still, it was dry inside, and seemed to be a good place to wait out the storm.

 

Brushing the locks of wet hair away from his eyes, Naruto, being the curious person that he was, began to look around. This small room that the door opened up to was small and pretty bare save for a few stone benches and iron brackets located on the wall to hold torches. All of those were empty, save for one, which held an odd metal-made torch, the top part that held the fuel being shaped like a spider. The fuel wasn't anything that Naruto recognized, but when he lit it, it burned brightly enough.

 

It was a good thing he had that torch, because the next room was like walking into a cave. If there were any windows in this place they were so thickly covered with grime that no light made it inside. The iron brackets in this room were all empty, the torches long since removed, it seemed. The torch that Naruto held offered a small circle of light, allowing him to see the larger stone benches before he ran into them. Unlike the benches in the first room, these ones were ornately decorated with motifs of various animals and plants. The one that most often repeated was that of a tree whose branches and roots formed an intricately interwoven, interconnected knot.

 

The walls were covered with various murals, most of them depicting strong warriors fighting off giant demons. The demons looked like giant forms of misshapen animals. From what Tsunade had told him about the people of the Rain Wilds, where the Village of Time was located, worshipped animal spirits, and where totemic animal spirits played a huge role in their culture, it made sense. It also made Naruto a bit nervous because of the Kyuubi sealed inside of him. Tsunade had offered to have someone else take the mission, but Naruto had once made a promise to visit the Rain Wilds…

 

Naruto pushed that memory away. He didn't need to dwell on sad memories at that particular moment. So he turned his attention back to looking around. His attention was directed to the front of the room, where a massive stone altar took up the most of the space. The smooth marble stone was carved so that it looked like a giant stylized coyote.

 

The entire place was odd, but shelter was shelter, and he wasn't going to complain. The rain had felt good at first, but now that he was soaked, Naruto regretted wishing for it, and besides, the temple was cooler than the temperature outside, and in soaked clothes it felt downright cold.

 

Looking around, Naruto began to gather bits of debris until he had enough to build a small fire, which he lit with the torch. Once the fire was burning nicely on the stone floor, Naruto placed the torch into a nearby bracket, then stretched out in front of the flames, letting the fire dry his clothes and body. The flames were soothing to watch, and before long the young ninja had dozed off.

Konton and Chame had followed the movements of the young ninja closely, keeping themselves carefully hidden. Not that a mere human could have detected them, not unless that human had the Earth-Sense, which Chame and Konton could both tell that this one did not. The two godlings watched as the ninja looked at the different murals and the altar before settling down to build a fire. Chame was glad he hadn't noticed the door going down into the crypt because, even though she was a godling, crypts gave her the creeps.

 

Finally the boy fell asleep, and Chame left her perch in the rafters, moving silently until she was next to the young teenager. The godling grinned as she went to work, calling upon the Earth-energies, weaving them together as she formed the special spell. Chame, being a Spirit of Creation, knew all of the levels of Earth-Magik, and it was a simple matter for her to call upon that level that was connected to The Mother to weave this spell. It began to take form in her cupped hands, a small orb of flickering green and gold chakra.

 

Molding the chakra and Earth-Energies very carefully, Chame used her powers of Creation to set off the spark of life that would turn this spell into a child. Other energies she wove into the orb as well, one to create a viable womb to protect the child in this boy's body, another to keep the boy's body from refusing the other energies. Now ready, Chame placed the glowing orb into the ninja's body, watching it glow for a moment before disappearing completely. The ninja shifted restlessly for a moment, then settled once more without waking up.

 

Grinning about how well that had worked, Chame returned to the rafters where Konton waited. The second godling rolled his eyes at his partner's smug look.

 

“I told you it would work,” Chame hissed quietly.

 

“Oh, you did the spell well enough,” Konton said dismissively, “but it won't mean a thing if the child isn't carried to full term.”

 

“Don't worry, it will be,” Chame said assuredly. “I'll make sure of it.”

 

 

 

Naruto woke up feeling slightly disoriented for a moment. The feeling passed just as quickly as it had come, and Naruto dismissed it as fatigue from the trip. Yawning, Naruto sat up and stretched, and looked around. The fire had burned down while he slept, though the torch still burned brightly. Looking outside, Naruto saw that the rain had stopped and the sun had come back out, so it was time to continue with his mission. As he left the temple he didn't notice the two oddly colored birds following behind him.

 

 

 

 

A small flicker of light within the surface of the giant crystal disk caught Benni's eye as she watched it from the top of the stairs. The demon sealed beneath the disk shifted and strained against its prison for a moment before falling silent once more. Dutifully the young woman reported the incident to the Tokikage.

 

It was the Village of Time's responsibility to make sure that this particular demon was kept sealed within its specially made prison, and every movement it made was carefully monitored. The last movements had come some time ago, and though no cause had been found for it, Benni's instincts were telling her that something was up.

 

“I am inclined to agree with you, Benjamin,” The Tokikage, an aged man well into his seventies, said with a weary sigh. His black eyes were filled with worry, and there were a few more lines in his dark face that hadn't been there before.

 

“Do you wish for me to look into it, Grandfather?” Benjamin, better known to the Time Ninjas as `Benni', asked.

 

“Yes, I do. And keep an eye out for a ninja coming from Konoha. I am waiting for a message from the Hokage, and it is important that it arrive safely.”

 

“That is about a two week trip from their village to ours, so it will take time. Still, I will head in that direction first, since one of our more ancient temples is located in that direction, and my instincts tell me that is a good place to start.”

 

Benni's `instincts' were well known to the Village. They were one of the reasons she was such a good ninja. Most of those instincts were connected to the Earth-Sense, which she had inherited quite strongly, so her instincts about certain things were rarely wrong.

 

“Then go, and see what you can find out.”

 

“Yes, Grandfather.”