Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 230

Is there really such a place?

When it came to the dark past of the Fire Temple, Jiraiya believed it to be mostly true. After all, it was something his teacher had told him directly. His teacher wouldn't lie about something like this.

However, whether that dark history still lay buried beneath the current Fire Temple was something Jiraiya couldn't confirm.

But given that it involved such a shameful part of the temple's past, it was almost certain that the matter had been long sealed away. Furthermore, if anyone in the temple truly knew the details, it would only be one person: Chiriku.

Although Jiraiya, like anyone else, had his share of curiosity about secretive stories, this involved the temple's disgraceful history. He felt it was better not to investigate, let alone question Chiriku directly about it.

Just then, the shout of a monk rang out in the temple courtyard. Jiraiya and Naruto turned to look, and the one calling was none other than Hoshin, the monk who had been helping them settle in.

"Sora!"

"Sora!"

Hoshin was shouting for a boy named Sora, prompting Jiraiya to step forward and ask if something unusual had happened.

But as it turned out, Hoshin explained that he had merely gotten separated from Sora while walking with him to the bathhouse. There had been no alarming incidents.

"That kid just ran off too fast, and I couldn't catch up with him. Please don't worry—go back to your rooms and rest. He'll turn up on his own soon."

"Seriously, what a troublemaker," Naruto commented offhandedly, tilting his head back in exasperation. Meanwhile, Jiraiya silently thought to himself, You're one to talk! You've given me plenty of trouble too, kid.

After parting with Hoshin, the two returned to their room.

Inside, Naruto's spare set of clothes was packed neatly in his backpack. His wardrobe didn't offer much variety—he had two classic outfits, one he wore and one for emergencies. The set he had been wearing earlier had gotten soaked in the rain and was still drying, so he needed to change into his backup.

As Naruto pulled on a fresh pair of pants, he suddenly felt something off.

A burning sensation began to creep into the cleft of his backside, intensifying with every moment until the fiery heat finally erupted from his throat.

"Ahhh!"

Naruto let out a loud yell and leaped into the air, only to slam into the low ceiling of the tatami room. He fell heavily to the ground.

"What happened, Naruto?" Jiraiya, who had also been changing, turned to ask.

"My butt! My butt! It's on fire!"

Naruto rolled on the floor in agony as Jiraiya grabbed him like a little chick, holding him steady while pulling down his pants.

Inside the pants, Jiraiya noticed a fiery red powder smeared around the crotch area.

The color, along with Naruto's extreme reaction upon contact, made Jiraiya immediately identify the substance. "It's chili powder. Someone smeared chili powder inside your pants."

"Who would do such a thing?!" Naruto, now humiliated, covered himself with his hands, looking utterly ridiculous.

Jiraiya calmly analyzed the situation. "This is the Fire Temple. Someone sneaking in here to pull a prank like this is unlikely, so it must have been someone from the temple."

"Think back—who did you clash with after arriving here?"

Naruto, spurred by Jiraiya's reminder, immediately remembered the culprit and shouted their name with a fierce expression.

"Sora!"

Jiraiya also recalled Hoshin mentioning that he and Sora had been heading to the bathhouse, but Sora had run off midway.

At that time, Sora must have noticed that the lights in this room were off, deducing that no one was inside. This must have prompted him to come up with this prank to get back at Naruto. 

It seemed that besides the similarity in chakra aura, this child's temperament was quite similar to Naruto's as well. 

Jiraiya smiled faintly and stopped Naruto, who was about to storm out and confront Sora. 

"Pervy Sage! Why are you stopping me?"

"Let it go this time. After all, you didn't suffer much, and it's a good reminder to stay alert when you're out and about in the future."

"This time, he just smeared some chili powder in your underwear. But if it were an explosive tag next time, you wouldn't even get the chance to retaliate."

Jiraiya swapped chili powder for an explosive tag in his explanation, and Naruto's vivid imagination immediately conjured up a horrifying mental image. His face turned pale as he instinctively covered his crotch.

"So, learn from your mistakes and let it go this time."

After much effort, Jiraiya managed to calm Naruto down, and the two finally laid out their bedding and lay down to sleep. 

That night, Naruto's usual sleep talk about "Sasuke" changed to something else. 

"Damn Sora, damn Sora…"

The incessant muttering in his sleep made Jiraiya wonder whether Naruto was actually asleep. 

Naruto was the type of idiot who could fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, and in this regard, Jiraiya wasn't much different. 

Yet tonight, for some reason, Jiraiya found himself unable to sleep. 

The faint smell of rat droppings lingering in the room continuously irritated Jiraiya's nasal passages, making it difficult for him to drift off. 

After what felt like an eternity of his brain's olfactory system battling his mounting fatigue, Jiraiya's mind finally succumbed to drowsiness, and he began to dream. 

In the strange air that smelled like fermented feces and rosemary, Jiraiya had a dream. 

It wasn't a dream of past events with the other two members of the Sannin, nor of the trivial moments he'd shared with his students. Instead, it was a series of unsettling nightmares of things Jiraiya had never seen before, filled with inexplicable dread. 

In his dream, Jiraiya found himself standing before a cavern bathed in a faint, blood-red glow. 

At the entrance of the cave, Jiraiya—perhaps driven by uncontrollable curiosity, or perhaps because dream logic dictated it—found his body slowly walking toward the eerie cavern.

Suddenly, in the pitch-black depths of the cave, a sinister figure emerged from the blood-red glow. 

The shadow moved slowly toward Jiraiya, accompanied by a sticky, squelching sound emanating from below. 

Looking down, Jiraiya realized the figure's legs were submerged knee-deep in a pool of foul, reeking filth.

Ahead of this malevolent figure, grotesque and indescribable creatures—bloated, pallid, and covered in bulbous tumors—crawled out of the viscous mixture of blood and flesh. These monstrous beasts charged at Jiraiya like swine being driven by a butcher. 

The creatures swiftly scaled Jiraiya's body. He tried to turn and flee, but his feet were stuck in the same slimy filth, rendering him immobile. 

The creatures covered him completely, leaving only a small gap around one eye. Through this gap, Jiraiya finally saw the face of the abhorrent figure in the cave.

It wasn't human at all!

It was a humanoid shape composed entirely of countless cannibalistic rats, herding these monstrous swine!

When Jiraiya clearly saw the grotesque pig farmer's face, the countless man-eating rats making up its body scattered instantly. The two points of light beneath the black fur were their sharp fangs.

Like a carpet unfurling, the swarm of rats surged toward Jiraiya. Just as their fangs were about to touch his body, now covered in grotesque creatures, a piercing cat's cry jolted him awake.

Jiraiya shot up abruptly from his bedding, but at that moment, he had no time to worry about the cold sweat soaking the front of his sleeping robe.

Sharp cat cries echoed through the silent night of the Fire Temple. Accompanying them was the relentless, harsh commotion emanating from the wooden walls and beneath the floorboards.

These low-pitched yet piercing noises came from countless four-legged beasts. Hidden in the unseen dark crevices, they screeched, ran, and scratched.

Squeak, squeak, clatter, crunch.

The sounds flooded Jiraiya's mind like a tide. The sheer volume of noise created by these sharp-fanged creatures drowned out even the mournful cries of the big cat outside. Their numbers were terrifying.

If not for the floor and wallboards acting as barriers, these filth-dwelling beasts would have undoubtedly burst forth, devouring everything on the surface.

At that moment, as Jiraiya carefully listened to the noises around him, he picked up on some comparatively subtle sounds from within the room itself.

Quickly springing from his bedding, he leapt to the table where he had earlier placed his belongings and swiftly lit the candlestick with a match.

In the flickering candlelight, Jiraiya saw several plump, oversized rats perched beside Naruto's bedding on the other side of the room.

These rats were enormous, nearly as large as a cat. Their sharp fangs and glossy, grease-like black fur were almost identical to the man-eating rats from Jiraiya's dream. 

However, the rats in his dream exuded a far more menacing aura. These ones merely seemed to lazily perch on Naruto's body, greedily soaking in his warmth like contented house cats.

Their claws gripped tightly onto the quilt covering Naruto. Their casual demeanor suggested they had already claimed him as their prize or were treating his broad, soft back as a lounging terrace. They appeared utterly at ease, trampling upon the once-mighty human beneath their feet.

And Naruto, fast asleep, seemed entirely unaware of these filthy intruders atop him.

This slightly comical scene was, in Jiraiya's eyes, incredibly perilous. A slight movement from one of the rats could easily drive its fangs into Naruto's throat.

Without hesitation, Jiraiya leapt to Naruto's side, yanking the quilt off and flinging it aside. The rats perched on it were hurled against the wooden wall, then fell to the ground.

Disturbed from their rest, the large rats bared their vicious fangs at Jiraiya. Harsh hissing noises escaped from the depths of their throats through their teeth.

But when Jiraiya brandished the candlestick and lunged at them, the fierce creatures sensibly darted into the room's darker corners.

Jiraiya pursued them but could only watch helplessly as the rats disappeared into a hole that seemed custom-made for their bodies.

Before going to sleep, Jiraiya had thoroughly inspected the room and found no rat holes. This hole, located where two wooden wallboards met the tatami floor, must have been gnawed out by the rats.

The hole was large enough for Jiraiya to easily fit an arm through. The fact that such a sizable hole was created in just half a night demonstrated the astonishing bite strength of these rats.

With such powerful jaws, biting through a human neck would pose no challenge at all.

In the candlelight, Jiraiya noticed faint traces of blood on the teeth marks lining the hole's edges.

"Naruto!"

The image of the rats crouching on Naruto flashed through Jiraiya's mind. He quickly turned and rushed to Naruto, grabbing him.

"Hey! Naruto! Wake up!"

Under Jiraiya's vigorous shaking, Naruto finally opened his eyes groggily.

"What's the deal, Pervy Sage?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Hurt? From what?"

Even with Naruto's usual slow reactions, there was no way he wouldn't notice if he were injured. This reassured Jiraiya.

Whose blood was it, then, at the mouse hole?

Just then, a piercing, blood-curdling scream tore through the night sky, echoing across the entire Fire Temple.

The distinct pitch and tone unmistakably belonged to a human voice.

Jiraiya quickly shoved open the door and dashed toward the direction of the scream. Sensing that something serious might have happened, Naruto hurriedly ripped off his childish sleeping cap, quickly changed clothes, and followed.

"Help! Someone's dead!"

The cries startled an increasing number of monks awake. Most had already lost their sleep during the earlier chaos caused by the swarm of mice, so they quickly rushed out of their quarters.

Jiraiya was the first to find the source of the cries. He confronted the caller and asked urgently, "What happened?"

"Someone's dead!"

The man, a ninja monk himself, should have been more composed in the face of death. Yet, his face was filled with uncharacteristic fear.

"Where? Take me there!"

"But..."

The monk hesitated, knowing Jiraiya wasn't part of the temple and reluctant to lead him further in.

"Take me there!"

Jiraiya raised his voice sharply, his piercing gaze making the monk shudder. The cold intensity in his eyes was like a blade, leaving the monk no choice but to submit to his authority.

Under the monk's lead, Jiraiya and Naruto were guided deeper into the Fire Temple.

The location was behind the dining hall. While most of the Fire Temple was constructed with wood and stone, the kitchen area behind the hall was built entirely of solid earth and stone.

In the kitchen lay a dark cellar entrance, its ominous appearance drawing everyone's gaze.

The monk picked up a toppled lantern nearby and, with trembling hands, led the way. Jiraiya and Naruto followed him into the dim, echoing cellar passage.

From both sides of the passage, Jiraiya could hear faint squeaking noises coming from the cracks between the stones. The scratching of rats' claws on hidden, narrow tunnels behind the walls produced a dull, unsettling tapping sound.

The commotion of the mouse swarm on the ground had long subsided, and no sounds of rats could be heard above. Yet here, their activity persisted, faint but undeniable.

Did the rats emerge from underground? The question lingered in Jiraiya's mind, but no answer was forthcoming. He could only follow the monk deeper into the pitch-black, seemingly endless cellar.

After some time navigating the dark maze, the three finally reached a deeply buried section of the Fire Temple's underground cellar.

The cold storage area was lined with fruits, vegetables, and other provisions for the temple. But in the center of the meticulously arranged shelves lay a gruesome sight: a blood-soaked mass of flesh.

It was impossible to discern what animal or person this pile of mangled flesh had once been. However, the tattered gray-white robes amidst the gore suggested that this had been one of the temple's monks.

A shattered corpse of a temple monk lay sprawled in the cellar's center, discarded like a piece of broken refuse.