Naruto frowned. The idea of burning down an Inn really didn't appeal to him at all. While he was stuck in a den of evil, hurting innocent people really wasn't something he was willing to accept. The so called heroes on the other hand, he didn't want to hurt them but he couldn't see a way around it. According to Horny tended to be so full of themselves and their own sense of self-righteousness that they'd kill him first, pat themselves on the back later, all without without even bothering to question if he actually was a bad guy or not. While Naruto didn't like needless bloodshed, he was willing to kill, after all he was a ninja and it simply wasn't personal, but from the sound of it these nuts went beyond that. For them hunting whatever they perceived as “evil” was their mission. They only viewed the world in black and white, and for someone who came from a world that existed entirely in shades of gray that kind of blindly single minded mentality was simply alien.
As much as he hated to say it, he honestly wouldn't have much of a problem about killing them. He was a ninja, they were the enemy, and they were not going to stop until he was dead. For him it wasn't personal. He was sure they'd disagree and he had a feeling that this breed of single minded lunatic was the type who'd breed 'Avengers' like Sasuke the way the Inuzuka bread ninja dogs, but he wasn't just going to lie back and die. He might have been a clone once, but he was a real person now, and he wanted to live.
The attack on the Inn though, he had a feeling it would be a very bad idea. Even if the Inn wasn't full of heroes he wasn't sure if this lot would be able to keep from erring well on the side of caution and killing everyone inside, or even going to the next degree and burning down the entire village 'just to make sure'. He didn't want to be the instigator of a bloodbath on the side of the Uchiha Massacre. The Sandaime would have never doing anything like that.
With that in mind, Naruto looked to the elderly goblin and smiled. Naruto liked money. No, actually, he loved money. It wasn't the money itself but it was the things that you could buy with money. He'd learned early on that nothing was free. Money meant electricity, housing, heat, and food. As long as you had money you could live without fear of being without the most basic necessities of life and you could worry about other things, rather than the ever present threat of exposure, hypothermia, and starvation.
“Lets start with the treasure,” he said with a smile.
“Wonderful Keeper!” Gnarl exclaimed. “My goblins and I have been digging all about for several months and we think we might have a couple good leads.” he paused for a moment. “I don't mean to be so bold, but do you think that I could have a finders fee?”
“We'll see,” Naruto frowned. “Something up, Horny?”
“Don't call me that,” the demon growled. “And nothing is the matter. I just... yes. Indeed I do. I recognize this place. It was the dungeon of my former master.”
He looked into the air and began to walk. “Come, and I'll show you the treasury.”
Gnarl and Naruto looked at eachother.
“Well, isn't this convenient.”
“Sure is,” Naruto replied. “By the way, what is your name anyways?”
“I'm Gnarl. While I might be a goblin, don't judge me by the standards of my lesser kin. I might not look like much, but I've got it where it counts.”
Naruto nodded. “The most powerful person I ever knew was a kindly, harmless looking old man who was like a grandfather to everyone in my village, and I'm friends with a toad the size of a small mountain. I know better than to judge people by how they look.”
“You're different than most keeper's I've met,” Gnarl admitted as the followed the Horned Reaper. “Most would have me licking their boots.”
“I don't have any boots to lick.”
Gnarl nodded. “Yes, you're a fixer upper but I think we can work with you. A bit of leather, a spot of armor, and you'll be downright terrifying. You already have the looks down, what with that entire dashing but feral thing you have, and for a Horned Reaper to actually obey you, you most have some real power backing you up besides just being a Keeper. Its true, you are rather naive, and seem to be a bit soft...”
“Gnarl...” Naruto warned.
“Oh, but we can deal with that. After all, evil always finds a way.”
"Gnarl, you do realize I spent however long, trapped down there, doing nothing but hanging out with, and sparing with said Horned Reaper?"
Gnarl actually paused. “Sparing? With a Horned Reaper? Are you mad?”
The reaper laughed. “Actually, while he might be a soft hearted fool, he can give it as good as he gets.”
Gnarl's jaw actually went slack. “You actually spar with a Horned Reaper?”
“Almost killed me the first time we fought,” Horny reflected. “On spell, one shot. What was the same of that one again?”
“Rasengan,” Naruto replied.
“I think I feel faint,” Gnarl replied. “Master, I'd just like to thank you for not single handedly massacring me and my tribe.”
“You're welcome, I think” Naruto sighed and looked at the demon they were following. “You know where you're going?”
“We seem to be going towards the old Inner Sanctum. Don't know why we're going there. There's nowhere there that it could be.”
Horny laughed as he reached the end of the hall and kicked an ancient broken door out of his way, sending it flying off its hinges. On the other side was a once fine throne room. The walls were covered with tattered, rotten tapestries many of which showed the signs of ancient burns and other combat damage. The walls were scorched and cratered, and in the center of the room lay a broken throne.
Horny snorted slightly and sneered at the elderly goblin. “That's where you're wrong. With a snort he walked towards a rotten door that lay against the side wall.
“Its through there.”
Gnarl blinked. “What? It's in the privy? You really expect us to believe that your previous master went digging around in his own filth every time he wanted to get some gold?”
The Reaper laughed. “No. It has a false bottom. He used his Portal Gem to create a small magical rift to the Infernal Abyss.”
Gnarl blinked. Then blinked again. “Are you telling me that he created a gateway to hell to deal with his raw sewage?”
“Yes,” the Demon replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
He sighed and shook his head. he paused. “I guess that explain the slight oder of brimstone...”
The demon laughed and walked into the bathroom. It was small but looked to have been luxury, once upon a time, with fine tile and a marble toilet top. Without any hesitation he pressed in an insignificant looking piece of broken tile, and with a groan the toilet retracted into the back wall, and folded out of the way, being quickly replaced with a set of spiraling stairs.
Sneering the demon walked down the hidden hallway and waved his hand. “I think the Keeper can get the door.”
Naruto frowned as he followed the demon. “What do you mean by...,” Naruto paused as looked up as they reached the end of the small staircase. In front of him was a massive metal door, slightly rusted but still strong covered with all kinds of magical runes. “Oh.”
Gnarl smiled and glanced over. “Don't worry about it keeper, I'll send for my Goblins. They could have this down in...” he scratched his chin, “About a week?”
“I don't have a week,” Naruto replied. Slowly he held out his hand and much to the old goblin's surprise a glowing sphere or magical energy began to form in his hand.
“What's that?”
Naruto grinned and pressed the sphere into the door with a squeal of twisting metal and the wail of failing wards. “RASENGAN!”
It was a testament to the quality of the door's construction and its sheer weight that it was not catapulted into the room with a force of a missile. Still, the resulting mass looked more like a piece of twisted scrap than a magical door.
“That's an impressive Spell,” Gnarl admitted, once again. He'd seen it used against one of his Goblins, and while it looked useful, it was one thing seeing a goblin blasted into a stone wall like a missile. Its a whole other story seeing it turn a warded vault door into scrap metal.
He paused for a moment. Scrap metal. He'd have to get the tribe down there to retrieve the door. They could probably do something with all that metal. After all, Giblet was a rather capable blacksmith, for a Goblin, and his tribe was rather low on weapons. Most of them had to settle for wooden clubs.
His train of thought was completely disrupted though, when Naruto motioned to Horny, who gave the wrecked door a solid kick. The twisted mass fell forward with a loud crash, and what they all saw before them was a beauty to behold.
While Gnarl was rubbing his hands together in glee Naruto simply could not believe what he saw. Through the door was a huge room completely full of gold. He'd expected a large vault, yes, but this was wealth beyond his comprehension. He didn't think that there was this much money period. There were mountains of cash on the ground, and items and treasures to the side that he couldn't even identify but he could tell that they were valuable. If he was back home, he could probably buy his own ninja village with this much money!
“Wow.” It was all that he could say.
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(Posted Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:14)
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