Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 232

The group followed the faint light in the distance and gathered around Sora, who pointed at a black wall with trembling fingers and asked, "What is this?"

Jiraiya looked in the direction Sora pointed and saw a similar black stone wall. However, this wall was slightly different from the others surrounding it. This particular wall was engraved with some clearly visible inscriptions.

The script on the inscriptions was hunched and twisted, making it difficult to decipher. None of the people present could determine which era the inscriptions belonged to.

However, judging by the less defined and sharp outlines of these engravings compared to the crevices on the stone pillars, it could be boldly inferred that the inscriptions on this wall predated the stone pillars supporting the underground chamber.

This discovery shocked Chiriku, the abbot of the Fire Temple. Although this part of the underground cellar was rarely visited, some curious monks had explored it before, and Chiriku himself had been here twice.

But how had neither he nor anyone else ever noticed such a peculiar wall and its twisted inscriptions?
"How is this possible? How could something like this exist here?"

The engraved wall stood undeniably before Chiriku, leaving him to dismiss his oversight as mere negligence.

Observing Chiriku's reaction, Jiraiya realized that even Chiriku was unaware of the wall's existence. As for the text on the wall, Jiraiya couldn't understand it at all.

Jiraiya recalled that some ancient clans in the ninja world had stone tablets passed down through generations, used to record family secrets. Outsiders couldn't decipher these inscriptions, which could only be read by descendants using special methods. For example, the Uchiha clan's family tablet.

After the Uchiha clan's demise, Danzō had people study the stone tablet in their shrine. However, they found that the tablet only recorded the Uchiha clan's shallow history and abandoned further research.

Yet Jiraiya believed the Uchiha's tablet held more profound significance than a mere symbolic artifact. Similarly, the wall before them likely concealed deeper meaning.

However, engraving such extensive inscriptions on a wall felt a bit too informal to Jiraiya. Surely this wall was more than it seemed.

Jiraiya tried pushing the wall, and surprisingly, what appeared to be a solid wall pivoted smoothly.

The wall turned, using its center as an axis, revealing its other side to the group. It was a hidden door!

At the deepest part of the Fire Temple's cellar, a concealed doorway had been discovered!

This shocking revelation hit Chiriku the hardest. Despite years as the abbot, he had never known about such a hidden place within the temple's cellar.

Behind the hidden door, light finally illuminated a long-sealed space.

It was a small stone hall. Compared to the spacious, plaza-like cellar they had just explored, this space was much more compact. However, the information it contained far surpassed that of the previous area.

At the center of the hall was a dust-covered altar. Judging by the thickness of the dust, the altar had existed even longer than the earlier cellar.

Surrounding the altar were six monolithic stone pillars of a completely different style from those in the previous chamber. They, too, bore the same strange inscriptions as the wall.

Aside from the familiar mottled bloodstains shared with the cellar's depths, everything here—be it the architectural style or the ancient foreign pillars—felt completely distinct from the previous space.

It was as if the black trapdoor from earlier marked the boundary between two entirely different worlds.

Could this be the ominous secret hidden beneath the Fire Temple for over a century?

"Why... is it like this?"

The head priest of the Fire Temple, Chiriku, widened his eyes as he took in the surroundings. He had never imagined that such a place could exist deep beneath the temple's cellar.

A strong, unsettling aura permeated the space. What purpose could the bloodstained altar, so corroded that the marks had seeped into its stone surface, possibly serve? What kind of history did the twisted inscriptions recount? Could they detail the temple's own dark, hidden past?

At that moment, Jiraiya, who was crouched nearby carefully examining the ground, noticed something unusual.

On the long-neglected surface, there were faint but disturbing footprints.

These prints were about the size of a baby's hand, but their deformed fingers and quadrupedal arrangement made it clear that they belonged to the cannibal rats.

The tracks led from the trapdoor directly to the base of the altar before suddenly vanishing.

Jiraiya moved closer to the altar and discovered that its base wasn't fixed to the ground like most altars. Instead, there was a visible gap beneath it.

Realizing the altar's unusual nature, Jiraiya placed his lantern to the side and pressed both hands firmly against the stone structure, straining to move the ancient monolith.

The heavy, grinding sound of stone against stone reverberated through the confined space. The others, already overwhelmed by a swirl of emotions, finally noticed Jiraiya's actions.

"What are you doing, Jiraiya-sama?" someone asked.

Jiraiya didn't respond. His focus was entirely on moving the massive altar, which, despite its size and weight, slowly began to shift under his strength.

Though Jiraiya's physical power was far from Tsunade's level, moving the shoulder-height altar was still within his capabilities.

This confirmed Jiraiya's suspicion: like the trapdoor in the wall, this altar was also moveable.

As the altar gradually shifted, a gust of wind blew through the gap between the altar and the ground, stirring up fine dust on the floor and causing two smaller spectators nearby to cough.

These gusts, seeping from beneath the altar, felt like sinister winds, chilling the hearts of everyone in the stone chamber.

The wind carried a foul odor—a mix of blood and the stench of rotting flesh. Chiriku and Sora immediately covered their noses and mouths with their sleeves, while Naruto couldn't help but complain.

"What is that? Why does it smell so bad?"

Jiraiya, however, paid no mind to the odor. It was entirely plausible that the rats were hiding beneath the altar; such filth naturally belonged in a place reeking of decay and stench.

But one thing puzzled Jiraiya: they were deep within the cellar. No matter how the altar moved, there shouldn't be such strong gusts of wind.

So why was there wind blowing now?

As Jiraiya slowly moved the stone altar further aside, the foul stench no longer rushed violently toward their noses but instead seeped out more gradually. This offered everyone's senses—especially their noses and minds—a small respite.

When the altar was finally moved away completely, what lay before their eyes was a truly chilling scene.

It was a stone staircase descending into a bottomless underground abyss, with heaps of bones scattered along its steps. 

The bones displayed distinctly human characteristics, yet calling them outright human remains didn't seem entirely accurate. Their spines were short and hunched, and the skulls bore horrifying deformations, resembling grotesquely underdeveloped human forms.

These relatively intact skeletons were frozen in poses of sheer terror. Their loosely assembled frames sprawled along the edges of the stone staircase near the altar's cover, as if they had been pleading, arms outstretched, for the altar above to be removed and grant them salvation.

Moreover, the fear that lingered in this space was clearly not solely due to the darkness. Some of the bones bore unmistakable bite marks, evidence of attacks by gnawing creatures.

"What… is this?" 

The one most unable to process the sight was Chiriku, the abbot of the Fire Temple. He struggled to imagine that beneath his temple, such a horrifying site had been hidden. These macabre remains hinted at a dark chapter in the temple's history.

"It seems we have no choice but to head down and investigate," Jiraiya said, holding a lantern and leading the way. Chiriku followed closely behind, with Sora and Naruto bringing up the rear.

The black stone staircase was relatively narrow, making it difficult for Jiraiya's large, burly frame to maneuver. It was as though the stairs' designers and builders hadn't accounted for people of larger stature.

The stairs' edges were severely worn, especially in the middle sections, which had been eroded to the point of forming almost a slanted plane. Even ninja, with their agility, had to descend cautiously, turning their bodies sideways to avoid slipping into the unknown darkness below.

At least the staircase was carved from solid limestone, which, despite its worn edges, could still bear the weight of all four travelers. Unlike clichéd adventure tales, there were no dramatic collapsing floors to set their hearts racing unnecessarily.

After descending some distance, the stifling stench subsided significantly. Whether their noses had acclimated to the foul air or the opening of the altar had allowed some of the ancient, trapped miasma to disperse, none of them could say for sure.

The relief in their breathing gave them a brief sense of peace, a rare solace in the oppressive darkness.

But that peace was soon shattered.

As they continued down the bone-laden staircase, their view suddenly opened up, and the scene before them left everyone breathless.

They emerged into a vast cavern. The cavern's ceiling soared high above them, and its horizontal expanse stretched into sheer cliffs on either side. Straight ahead, the cavern extended far beyond Jiraiya's line of sight—not due to the limits of their lantern's light, but simply because it was too vast to comprehend.

In fact, for reasons unknown and inexplicable, despite the vastness and complete absence of any visible external light in this cavernous space, the group of four found their vision surprisingly unhindered.

If one were to investigate the cause, it would be the faint green phosphorescence emanating from the cavern's ceiling, the scattered ruins surrounding it, and the depths of the cave. These mysterious phosphorescent glows illuminated the entire area, making the scene eerily visible.

The sheer scope of this open and surreal view left everyone in the group gasping in awe, their audible "hisses" betraying their astonishment. Even Naruto, typically animated and prone to dramatic gestures, was rendered speechless, frozen in place, his body language paralyzed by the overwhelming shock and fear. He could only stand there, staring at the scene before him.

In that moment, all four were deeply struck by what they saw, nearly forgetting their primary objective—tracing the trail of the man-eating rats.

Naruto's gaze was fixed straight ahead, refusing to drift toward the surrounding scenes where more tangible clues might be gleaned. Instead, he stared unblinkingly at the far side of the cavern, directly opposite the entrance.

There, bathed in a concentrated glow of green phosphorescence, it was as if a massive spotlight illuminated the area. The dense, deep green hues formed by the clustering of pale green light seemed to signal the presence of something even more astonishing lurking within.

Even though Kurama was experiencing this only through Naruto's perception, the Nine-Tails could feel the profound unease that pierced through to its very essence. The oppressive, fearsome atmosphere of the environment was palpable, even to a chakra entity like Kurama.

Perhaps it was the oldest and most primal of emotions, one no rational being could entirely resist.

Jiraiya, however, went a step further, connecting what he saw to his own recurring nightmares. The grotesque pig herder, covered in flesh-eating rats, had dwelled in a glowing cavern in his dreams.

The scene before him—a phosphorescent-lit underground cavern—matched that eerie setting.

Inevitably, Jiraiya's mind linked his recent encounters with these ominous surroundings, and his instincts told him that behind all this lay terrifying truths, buried for centuries or longer.

Standing before this demonic lair could not unveil its full scope or the dreadful secrets it concealed. Resolving to press on, the group steadied their nerves and continued their exploration.

The underground cavern was not empty. Flanking a wide central road were clusters of buildings, scattered across the gentle slopes on either side.

The structures, though adjacent to one another, spanned vastly different eras. There were primitive wooden halls from ancient times alongside more modern-looking stone and brick constructions.

In addition to these structures, there were conspicuous burial mounds and primitive stone circles made of piled boulders whose purpose was unknown.

However, none of these structures instilled the terror and shock that one particular detail did: the skeletons.

The bones were scattered like a carpet, starting just a few meters from the stone steps at the entrance and spreading across the cavern floor.

The sheer number of skeletons was enough to make one's scalp tingle. Upon closer inspection, they shared striking similarities with the ones found near the staircase, leading the group to conclude they were likely human remains.