Chapter 58

The Main Hall of the Fire Temple was decked out in Gold plating and red-laquered wood. Giant, bronze statues of Susanoo, Ameterasu, Inoshishi-no-Kami, Hachiman, and Kagutsuchi gazed down at me as Chiriku led me into the main hall and past the altars with their various offerings. We passed by a table with a bronze brazier inset in the center similar to the one that Master Tenzin of the Konoha Fire Temple had used for his divination, and back behind an enshrined group of blade fragments that a placard claimed belonged to Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, sitting at the end of the hallway on a silk cushion. Then we went through a doorway into the inner temple complex.

Here, I could see the walls were covered in fuuinjutsu, and there was the telltale prickle on the back of my neck that denoted the presence of spiritual energy as well. The hallway stretched on for a few minutes before opening up into an open-air atrium. Two floors ran around in a square, with the second floor acting as a balcony. The stone flooring ran only around the edges of the atrium, as the middle was taken up by the peak of the mountain, rising up above the two floors to tower into the open sky, complete with Inoshishi-no-Kami's cave. The mouth of said cave was roped off with a white shimonawa rope festooned with prayer strips.

The cave wasn't our destination, though I could feel Inoshishi-no-Kami stir from his end of our link via the Blade of Inoshishi-no-Kami as we passed the cave. Instead, Chiriku led me off to the right, down a hallway that smelled of incense and up a flight of stairs before we entered a room that was more of an office than any priestly chamber. A vast rack of scrolls covered one wall, with various scrolls situated in the many honeycomb-shaped alcoves within it. The back wall of the room was blocked by a mahogony desk that appeared the be carved with various sutras and prayers. The desk also made the hair on the back of my neck prickle with Spiritual Energy, but that wasn't what drew most of my attention.

No, that was reserved for the man seated behind the desk. Abbot Bansai wore the typical uniform of the Fire Monks, a white and black robe with no adornments. He was an older monk with a full, gray, beard, though I had seen other Elder Monks before and that did not neccesary denote him as the abbot. No, the only thing to denote his status was the elaborate eboshi-style hat he wore on his shaven head, black on black embroidery and dark red and burnt umber beading marking him as the abbot in charge. That and the deference that Chiriku showed him.

"Abbot Bansai, I have brought you Akimichi Choji, as requested." Informed Chiriku with a respectful nod.

"So you have. Thank you, Chiriku, you may return to your students now." Nodded back Abbot Bansai.

"Abbot. I'm not sure how much Master Tenzin told you when the two of you spoke, but I'm not just here to escort the supply caravan." I offered with a shallow bow. Just because he wasn't in my chain of command didn't mean he wasn't due respect, after all.

"Please, no need to be so formal. I'm an old man, I've had enough formality in my long life. Please, sit. I have Matcha and Senbei crackers, will you take tea?" Smiled Abbot Bansai.

"Please, thank you." I responded with a smile of my own, sitting down.

As an attendant came forward from a side room with tea and rice crackers, I felt relieved. Given how grumpy Elder Brother Hideo had been and how taciturn Sensei Chiriku had been, I hadn't been expecting much cordiality from Abbot Bansai. Quite the opposite, in fact. That he'd turned out to be a hospitable, kind, old man had been the opposite of what I'd expected. He even poured me my cup of matcha himself before pouring his own. Once he'd taken a sip, he removed his ceremonial hat and cracked a small grin at me.

"Not what you were expecting, I see." He mused.

"No. Don't take this the wrong way, but with how standoffish some of your brothers have been I was expecting someone more. . .inflexible." I admitted.

"Yes. That does tend to be the stereotype of Clergy, doesn't it? I must confess that there is some measure of truth in that stereotype as well. My predecessor, Abbot Kaneda, was like that. He was an incorrigible stickler about dogma, temple rules, the power of the Order, and half a hundred other things besides. It served him well in his climbing of the ladder here, and he outpaced my own advancement quite swiftly. He was only a few years older than I am and he was made Abbot while I still taught History to the Initiates." Chuckled Abbot Bansai.

"What happened to him?" I questioned.

"Stress got to him in the end. He had been increasingly combative with the Daimyo over issues of Canon Law in the Capital. One of our Brothers at the shrine there was accused of defrauding the Daimyo over a matter of an exorcism. Apparently, ridding the Winter Residence of the Daimyo of the hungry ghost of his grandfather's executed concubine, Lady Imagawa, wasn't worth the fee charged by the shrine. The Daimyo had him imprisoned for daring to defraud the Lord of Fire Country pending investigation. It sent poor Kaneda into quite the uproar. He was convinced that our Order should be exempt from imprisonment by the Daimyo as a matter of canon law. When the Daimyo refused to budge, the stress caused his heart to fail." Answered Abbot Bansai.

"Huh. How long ago was that?" I queried.

"Oh it must have been nine or ten years ago now. Lord Shijimi was still new in his position as Daimyo. Regardless, I conducted an investigation personally into the accusation of fraud and came to an amicable agreement with the Daimyo. That was why I was elected to be the new Abbot." Informed Abbot Bansai.

"Huh, interesting." I shrugged, taking a sip of tea.

"Not quite so interesting as you, however. It is not every night one of the patron Kami of your Order deigns to visit you in your dreams, even for a man of my rank and experience. However, Lord Inoshishi-no-Kami made it quite clear that you are his empowered champion and that I am to render you any aid I can. Apparently, the fate of the world is at stake. How could I say no to a request from such an august presence?" Chuckled Abbot Bansai.

"So you'll help me?" I asked, hope kindling in my chest.

"I will. Unfortunately, your Hokage has only given you a month's leave to take in aid from us before you are to be recalled back to Konoha. That will likely be time for you to learn one technique of the Raigo (Welcoming Approach) style, along with the basics." He confirmed.

I was about to object to that, pointing out that between soldier pills, bala matcha, and fuuinjutsu, I should be capable of a lot more than just learning the basics and one technique. Abbot Bansai held up a hand to forestall my objections, however.

"I know that you have various training aids to act as multipliers for training purposes and that you believe yourself to be capable of learning more, but we also must prepare you to delve into the Deep Temple Archives. Normally, a brother must achieve mastery in Onmyōdō to enter the Deep Archives. They are guarded by Spiritual Guardians that are normally only able to be bypassed by certain secret Spiritual Energy techniques. Unfortunately, you do not and can not posses those. Not with your body so aspected toward the Yang energies. That means you will need to be clever enough to bypass them, which requires a certain mindset that will need to be drilled into you." Intoned Abbot Bansai.

"How do you mean?" I frowned.

"They will set you impossible tasks to perform in order to bypass their chamber and enter the Deep Archives. To accomplish them, you will need to think in an unorthodox manner. Should you fail, they will attack you. As strong as you may be, even the lesser spirits that guard the Deep Archives will likely prove more than a match for you." Cautioned Abbot Bansai.

"All right. How do I train to accomplish these tasks?" I questioned.

"Why, the same way all Monks have done since time out of legend, riddles and koans." Grinned Abbot Bansai.

Thus began my training in at least some of the Arts of the Order of the Fire Monks. During the day, I was trained into the ground in the Raigo by Chiriku and his subordinate instructors. The Raigo was a curious mix of Shaolin Kung Fu, Bajiquan, and Fut Gar, three styles developed by the Monks of the Shaolin Temple, Wudang Monastery, and Qingyun Temple back in my old life on Earth. However, chakra was added into the mix fairly early on. In fact, it was added into the mix from the start for me, as I was able to skip the body conditioning phase thanks to my career as a Shinobi.

Once the basics were down, I was asked what technique I wanted to learn. My answer was the Susanoo no Ken (Fist of Susanoo). As it turned out, the key to that technique was to pulse chakra into your fist in a fluttering motion. Doing so in such a manner would help to bypass a certain level of damage resistance from toughened skin, muscles, and bones in a less precise version of what the Hyuuga did with their Gentle Fist. You wouldn't be able to shut off tenketsu or target single organs with it, but you would completely demolish the innards of your opponent with the attack, provided they don't have a technique to counter.

Something like the Raiton: Raigeki no Yoroi (Lightning Release: Lightning Armor) of Kumo or the Doton: Iwa no Tai (Earth Release: Body of Rock) of Iwa would defeat the technique. Outside of similar Nintaijutsu or the Eight Gates, though, if you could land it, it was a fight ender. Of course, that wasn't all I did, not by a long shot.

No, by night, I was stuck solving various riddles, working through thought experiments, and pondering koans from the various scriptures of the Temple. I had always been something of a puzzler, even in my old life, but several of the riddles and all of the Koans were tedious, difficult, or just plain arcane. The archiac language of the Koans didn't help much, requiring me to translate them from the older style of writing first before I could even start figuring out the meaning behind them. It was even slower going than the Taijutsu Practice was.

I knew Shikamaru would be overjoyed at this sort of puzzle-solving training, but for me it started to drag on at times. The vegetarian diet didn't help much, as I didn't have the energy I normally did thanks to my usual diet. Of course, the fact that the portions weren't sized for an Akimichi probably played a part there in and of themselves. Unfortunately, by the time that my month at the Fire Temple was coming to a close, I hadn't gone through as many of the riddles, thought experiments, and Koans as Abbot Bansai would have liked me to, even if I did manage to get the Taijutsu stuff down. We were out of time, though. I was made aware that just delving into the Deep Archive could take up to two days, then there was the time needed to actualky look through the Archive to get the information I needed about the True History and the fight against the Obsidian Empress.

With five days left until I was officially recalled to Konoha, I had to go in, whether I was ready or not. As it turned out, the Deep Archive was inside Inoshishi-no-Kami's cave. Abbot Bansai and Chiriku pulled aside the Shimonawa rope and bid me good luck as I took my first steps inside. It was time to make like Askeladden from the Polar People's Folklore and try to outsmart a few supernatural opponents.

I took one look back at the outside world before proceeding down into the cave, pressing onward as the Earth swallowed me up. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, here we have the start of Choji's stay at the Fire Temple. Abbot Bansai is a good guy in canon, so he is here as well. Of course, Inoshishi-no-Kami helping out behind the scenes and visiting Abbot Bansai in his dreams to tell him to help Choji doesn't hurt either.

Of course, Inoshishi-no-Kami doesn't really have much in the way of sway over the Guardian Spirits of the Fire Temple's Deep Archive. They're the spirits of deceased monks interred in a special ceremony to allow them to watch over the Deep Archive. That means they're in Lord Yama's chain of command, not Inoshishi-no-Kami's.

That also means that bypassing them is gonna require Choji to actually be more clever than the Guardian Spirits to pass their tests. There was a reason I chose Askeladden and the Troll for the folktale from the Storyteller in the last chapter, after all.

At any rate, the next chapter will involve the trip down into the Earth toward the Deep Archive.

Stay tuned. . .