The “town” wasn't much of the sort. Just a few shoddy buildings built into the wall of a modest underground cave, protected by a small barricade of rocks and mud. Some unhealthy looking glowing mushrooms struggled to give a little light, still less than on a cloudless night on the surface, though to Naruto's augmented sight it was more than adequate. All in all it looked terribly rundown.
He briefly mentally checked was his new “minions” were doing back at the Dungeon. Not much, it turned out. Apparently whenever a Keeper wasn't there to look over their shoulders, most denizens of the Underworld considered that an invitation for some good old-fashioned unproductive idleness.
"Hey Horny?“
"Reaper. It's Reaper, you little... arrgh... what do you want?“ the Horned Reaper sighed.
“Why is this village here?”
“What kind of question is that? It's a village. It's... here.”
“But why would anyone build a village in this place? There's no fields for food, or forest or anything.” Naruto specified in a contemplative sounding voice. It was, he thought, an unusually deep question to ask.
“Oh. Then, I suppose it's because of the surface king. Or one of the surface kings, or whatever. Every century or so, one of those pompous posers gets it into his head that he's the one to “civilize” the underworld and make it the newest province in his kingdom. Then I get lot's of people to k-k-k-k-kill, and when it's all over the surfacer panics, runs away and builds fortresses at whatever portals can be used to reach the Overworld, to make sure the Keepers don't get there.”
“And?”
“And villages like this are what pops up around the fortresses and portals, and are left when some megalomaniac Keeper comes and goes and burns the fortress down, and breaks through into the Overworld, never to be seen again.”
“Oh.” Naruto stood still for a moment. “Wait here, Horny.” he then said and wandered off.
Not for the first time the Reaper wondered what good act he had committed to be punished with such an annoying brat for a Keeper.
It was another boring day at the unnamed village by the underworld fortress of Lord Adelsknecht the Brown-Nosed, vassal to His Majesty King Reginald. Nothing ever happened around here at the ass of the Underworld. What little local Keepers there were were too busy fighting against each other and plotting on how to “ascend” into the ranks of the evil, terrible, and powerful Keepers far away under the other side of the continent that had their domains around late Keeper Asmodeus's former Undercapital and the other independent underworld cities that actually mattered..
He supposed he should be thankful, but even so, the unshaven guard at the gap in the primitive barricade that passed for a gate was bored.
Booooooored. So bored. Incredibly bored. Unspeakably bo-
“Hey!” a disgustingly cheerful voice chirped.
“Zzzz. Er, what?!”
“I said Hey! You're the guard here, right? I'm looking for a way to Konoha. You know what way that is?”
He now had a chance to examine the owner of the voice which had interrupted his quite contemplation. It appeared to be a young blonde man of maybe about twenty years, barefoot and clad in some kind of improvised toga made of bedsheets. Alone. In the middle nowhere somewhere in the Underworld.
The guard stared.
“Errr.... hello? Gate-guard-san? Does this village have a Kage or something? Maybe he can tell me which way?”
The guard continued to stare.
“You okay, Gate-guard-san? Ah, nevermind. I'll find my way around myself. Bye.”
The young man slipped past the guard, and entered the little village build into the side of the cave.
Strange...
For a moment he could have sworn the man's eyes had a soft red glow. Not normal nightvision. Unnatural somehow. Like magic. Like what Keepers were supposed to look like.
Nahhhh....
After all, what kind of Keeper would walk right into an outpost of the Overworld, without an army of burning, raping, and pillaging minions in tow, as if it were the most natural thing in the world?
Preposterous!
The guard went back to being bored.
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(Posted Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:31)
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