Uzumaki Naruto frowned deeply. Already a year and a half into his training trip he'd learned a lot from the old perverted sage. This time though, he couldn't help but feel like he'd hit a stumbling block. For the past two months he'd been trying to master yet another one of the Fourth's kick ass jutsu, this one being the very technique that earned him his nickname 'The Yellow Flash', the Hirashin no Jutsu. For most people trying to learn a super powerful jutsu that would be acceptable, but Naruto was the kid who learned the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu in one night, and the Rasengan in just under a month.
A two months with minimum progress was simply unacceptable!
From what Jiraiya told him, it was a powerful space-time jutsu that allows you to teleport across great distances in literally a flash. The problem was knowing how to lock onto the beacon seals the technique depended on. If you didn't you ran the theoretical threat of being lost in space, time, and reality never to return. For that reason, well, most of his practice was being done with shadow clones. He'd figure out how he was going to do it, then have the clone do just that. If it didn't work, he'd figure out what the clone did wrong and try again.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he said lazily as another double popped into existence.
"Okay, lets try this again," the clone said with a sigh. Without another word he closed his eyes and tried to focus on the seal mounted on the pole across the clearing. Thinking he had it, he started the jutsu and was literally gone in a flash.
Naruto's clone cried out in surprise as he appeared well into the air. Spinning his arms in the air, the screaming double face planted into a hard stone floor. When he'd first learned the technique, that would have been enough to make him pop, but these days his clones could take a great deal of abuse before being disrupted. The days of one tripping over his own feet and being popped were over. These days they could take far more damage than even your average civilian, not that that was saying much in the Ninja world, it was still far better than exploding with a sneeze.
With a grown, the double slowly lifted himself off of the ground and sat indian style on the floor, rubbing his head. There was just something about this place that put him on edge. It reminded him of the foxes...
"Well, well, well..."
Naruto felt a chill go up his spine and craned his head over his shoulders. Needless to say he jumped to the ready at a moment. Standing in this place was a giant monster, about 8 ft of horn and muscle packing a giant scythe that exuded an aura of promised savagery and pain that reminded him of the Kyubi, or maybe Shukaku. Anyways, it was bad, it was evil, it was obviously something demonic.
"Oh spare me the foolishness, human," it intoned in a surprising almost amused voice, totally lacking Shukaku's manic lunacy or Kyubi's oozing contempt and barely contained killing rage. "Welcome to my prison. I don't wish to remain here any longer. I doubt that you want to remain here, so maybe we can come to an agreement and you can get out of here alive."
Naruto frowned. He didn't want to loose another demon on the world, but he needed to know what this place was. He was pretty sure that Ero-sennin would want to know where this place was, if only so he could make sure things thing didn't escape. There was just something about it that put him on edge. It was powerful, he could tell.
"So, if I wanted to let you out, what would I do."
"You simply needed to bond to the Tower Heart and dig us out," the demon replied with a frightening, fang filled smile.
Naruto scowled. Let it out and be its first kill. He knew how demons think. He wasn't stupid, and even though he had no intention of letting this thing out, he resented the implication.
"And what keeps you from just killing me when we're done."
The demon had the nerve to laugh. "I see you're no fool. Very will, if I must, I will swear my loyalty to you then. I serve you, you give me something to k-k-k-k-kill!"
The demon pulled out a simple golden amulet and threw it to Naruto. It looked like just a simple metal disc with a stylized image of the monster's face on it. "Um, what's this?"
"That is my talisman, it symbolizes my loyalty. Just don't abuse it, or I may be inspired to take it back," the monster finished with a growl. "Now bond to the tower heart."
"So how do I do that?"
"Simply bleed on the cover of the tower heart and give it an influx of power. It will handle the rest."
"Um, that's a problem," Naruto replied, a bit relieved actually. "I'm not a real person, I'm just a shadow clone. I don't bleed."
"I see," the demon replied with a sigh. "Oh well, onto plan B."
Naruto blinked. "What's plan B?"
The demon smiled darkly. "Why, so good of you to ask."
In a blur the monster flicked slammed the base of his massive weapon into the ground. With a 'shink' the blade popped out into readiness and he hefted it for the kill.
The clone sighed and shrugged. He couldn't find the damned thing anyways so might as well just let it pop him.
The scythe fell upon the clone with deadly force, splitting it in two before it exploded in a burst of chakra smoke, as expected. What happened next on the other hand, was far from expected and had a mage or other magic user been in the area, would have been an eventuality subject to many years of research to completely understand.
This alone though is not enough. Naturally all energy follows the path of least resistance. For a shadow clone, this means that that part of the clone's chakra and the memories embedded within will naturally return to the creator. In this case though, with dimensional walls between the clone and Naruto that was not an option. Even an inactive dungeon heart draws in energy from the world around it to sustain itself in its state of hibernation. As such, the burst clones chakra was simply another pull of energy to draw into itself. This of course wouldn't matter except in the academic sense if it wasn't for the rather unique nature of the Dungeon Heart binding ritual and of charka it self.
The blood element of the binding ritual was simply to put the life force of the subject in direct contact with the heart as to bind it. The power was to give it the jolt to begin its operation. An exploding shadow clone produces both. As the chakra construct dispels it releases a burst containing the two primary elements of chakra, physical energy and spiritual energy, the two forces needed to activate a dungeon heart, bringing along with it the memories of the clone.
Thusly it was to the Horned Reaper's eternal surprise when the the cover of the Dungeon Heart began to glow, before shattering outwards in a massive burst of mana. He stepped back, honestly surprised as the support aperture for the beating magical constructed formed over the Dungeon Heart pit.
It made him laugh. He finally had his way out. He just had to wait for the little shit to regenerate. He just had to wait a few months.
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(Posted Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:29)
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