"Merry people are usually the bravest people,
who die first."
Ernest Hemingway
When I woke up, I saw only darkness in front of me. I started to worry that I couldn't see anything, thinking I had gone blind. But suddenly I heard Sasuke's familiar voice and someone else's.
I tried to hear what they were talking about, but I didn't understand anything. It was like there was some ringing in my ears. And then I felt like someone picked me up.
After that, everything was so blurry that I no longer understood where I was, who was nearby, and who, in fact, I was. My head started to hurt terribly, as if it was bursting from within, and then my legs started to hurt too. And then, with every second, I felt worse and worse, and the pain seemed to rise upwards.
I tried to understand what had happened, why everything was starting to hurt, and then it dawned on me that the technique they had used on me was starting to wear off. I tried to open my eyes, and I even managed a little: the light blinded me for a moment, but then darkness and emptiness returned.
***
Drip. Drip. Drip.
I felt something dripping on my forehead.
"What?" I asked a rhetorical question and, sitting up sharply from a lying position, opened my eyes. Looking around, I thought I had died. But then I dismissed the thought. I'm thinking, therefore I'm alive.
Getting up and shaking myself off out of habit, I started examining the room. I found myself in a dimly lit long corridor. The walls were made of old white brick, cracked and chipped. There was no floor, instead, there was unpleasant cold earth. I shook my legs a little and regretted not having warm shoes: it was so drafty on my feet! It's good there aren't any big puddles, though. On the ceiling were ordinary lamps, they shone a bit crookedly, sometimes blinked, sometimes stopped working altogether, and then turned back on. And the sound they emitted was unpleasant. Either they crackled or buzzed. It's unclear.
On the walls were strange black vines and the same black coating of murky slime. What it is, I don't know and don't want to know. They already smelled unpleasant of rot, not mold, but rotten decaying flesh.
Looking in one direction, I saw nothing but the same darkness. Looking in the other, I saw a dead end.
"Well, which is better?" I asked myself mentally and went in the direction where there was no dead end.
Where I'm going – I don't know. Why – also don't know. I'm just walking so as not to stand still. Maybe there's an exit somewhere? The main thing is not to stay here, because Sasuke, Naruto, and sensei will worry. And they'll probably ask questions later. And I don't need that.
After a minute of walking, I saw strange long inhuman scratches on the wall, under which was the same black slime.
And then I felt uneasy. I swallowed and, looking around again, saw no one.
"What if... I'm not alone here?" the thought flashed through my head. After all, this is no longer my inner world, and I don't feel anything here anymore. Forming hand seals, I started checking my chakra source, but found no physical energy. Only spiritual. So what does this mean – am I out of my body now?
"Or did I die?" the familiar thought immediately replaced the previous one, but I instantly dismissed it. "No! That can't be. They'll save me, I'm sure! The main thing is to get out of here correctly," I started to reassure myself again and noticed that over the last five years, I had asked myself this terrible question many times: "Am I alive?" If only I had asked myself this in my past life, how many things would have gone differently? Who would I have become? I would have lived not as myself and not my own life.
Pushing aside my philosophical thoughts and concentrating on the task at hand, I trudged forward.
What do I have? An incomprehensible long corridor, a cold floor, and the presence of some creature in this dungeon. Not cheerful. Scary.
First, I checked my pouch, pulling out everything I had.
"Two kunai, three shuriken, and a first-aid kit that won't be useful here... How nice," I grumbled, and pulling out a kunai, I cut my finger a little to see how relevant this weapon was here. Blood didn't flow, but there was a cut – relevant (maybe the first-aid kit too?). Then, gripping the weapon tighter, I struck the wall. As a result, a deep scratch formed, from which cracks spread. "Well, I can probably defend myself."
Then I tried to make a clone, and I succeeded, although it was a bit crooked without physical chakra, but it would do. I told him to try to gather natural chakra, and I would go further. So we did.
Heading forward, I checked what else I had along the way. And I came to the conclusion that besides weapons and chakra, there was nothing else. However, I only had one-twentieth of my chakra volume – I had spent a lot on the fight, and I didn't even have physical chakra.
Step by step, I moved forward. Quiet footsteps echoed in the corridor. The lamps crackled drawlingly. And I listened to every rustle, of which, fortunately, there were none.
Suddenly I stopped. I had two reasons for this. First, I saw a door, and second, I noticed that I was breathing strangely, as if not with my chest. And the second worried me more. I quickly brought my hands to my nose and chest, feeling that my breath had become icy.
"Okay... calm down, Ari, different laws apply here," I tried to calm myself, arguing that I probably didn't need air here at all.
I calmed myself mentally about my breathing and still approached the door. A strange stinging sensation in my chest accompanied this moment. I brought my hand to the door handle and carefully touched it. Cold.
"Why am I doing this?" the thought flashed through my mind as I opened the creaking door. I shook my head, and when the light fully entered the room, I examined it carefully.
The room was not small and was made entirely of stones and bricks. Bones and skulls lay on the floor, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling. In general, the atmosphere was a bit creepy, and the well in the middle of the room didn't add confidence.
I decided to examine the room to find some clue for an exit. Creating two clones, I sent them inside, while I remained standing at the door.
The clones examined the room, but, shaking their heads, headed back towards me.
"What about the well?" I nodded at the object that the clones had not touched. The clones exchanged glances, but had no intention of going.
"Maybe you..." said one of the clones first, and to prevent an argument at the root, I ordered the one who spoke to go.
"And you provide backup," I told the second, whose face had already broken into a smug smile.
"Oh, come on," he snorted and went to the one who, already leaning down, began to peer into the void.
"Well, what's there?" I asked, leaning against the open door.
"There's something there, but it's not visible yet. It's dark," the double replied halfway, and I suddenly heard a rustle from the side. I quickly moved away from the door and started looking around fearfully. Some anxious feeling crept into my chest. Something is wrong here...
"Aaaah!" I suddenly heard the double's cry in the room and, turning around, saw only one – the one who wasn't approaching the well. "Oh God... God!" he said, backing away slowly, as if stunned, from the well.
"What happened? Where's the other one?" I asked sharply, trying to understand why I hadn't received the memories of the other clone.
"Let's get out of here, let's get out!" he ran to the door, but it slammed shut loudly right in front of our noses. Frightened, I took a few steps back and drew my weapon. Judging by the sounds, he was trying to open or break it down, but it only lasted a few seconds. And then he fell silent.
"W-what's there?" I asked quietly, swallowing a lump of panic. But the only answer was a sharp, wild scream and attempts to break down the door. He was pounding and screaming with such force, as if he was being torn to pieces in there.
"Damn it!" I shouted, and with all my might, I took off. Without thinking, I ran wherever my eyes led me: I turned somewhere, opened some doors into some new labyrinths of corridors. I wanted to run away from that place as far as possible, that I didn't notice a figure that suddenly came out from around the corner.
Before I could stop, I crashed into this something, knocking it down. And only then, when I tried to get up, did I see who I had knocked down.
"Minato-sama?!" I exclaimed in surprise and plopped down on my fifth point, unable to get up.
"Ariza?" he also said, surprised, starting to get up. "What are you doing here?"
"And what are you doing here?" I asked an impudent counter-question, but his next words shocked me.
"I think I died."
"W-what?!" flashed through my mind, as I sat silently, opening and closing my mouth and staring into space. "H-how?" I swallowed, feeling a bitter pain in my chest. "W-why?"
"It was necessary," he lowered his gaze.
"W-were you killed?" I asked cautiously, putting the kunai back in my pouch.
"You could say that," he answered reluctantly, and I realized it was better not to touch on this topic. "Let's go," Minato walked up to me and offered his hand. I looked at it for a few seconds, then took it and stood up. The sensations from the touch were somehow familiar, although I didn't recall shaking hands with the Hokage. Moreover, his hand was so cold, as if he had kept it in the freezer.
"Minato-sama, if you died and ended up here, then I... I guess I did too?.." I asked quietly, starting to check something.
"You know that best," he replied, and I realized he simply had no way of knowing what had happened to me.
"And where are we? And where are we going?" I started asking a series of questions as we walked down the corridor, turning at unknown forks.
"I don't know where we are, and we're going where I, presumably, think the exit is."
"I see. And does Naruto know?"
"Naruto?" he asked me questioningly. "I don't know, perhaps you've already found out."
"Minato-sama, did we defeat the Sand?"
"I don't know," he shrugged.
"And what should I do with the scroll you gave me?"
"That's for you to decide," he evaded the question again.
"And how soon will we arrive?"
"We're already close," he replied, and we turned the corner, emerging into a corridor where a bright, warm light shone at the end.
"Are we going there?" I asked, pointing at the light, and Namikaze nodded. "And why did you decide that?"
"I feel it," he shrugged.
'But I'm a sensor too, and I don't feel anything here,' I thought incredulously, and then I remembered that he was a genius, and it was foolish to consider the fact that he felt something and I didn't as strange or suspicious.
"Ah, I see," I nodded, and we walked towards the light. I wonder where we'll end up? Will we go to our world? Or to the Pure Land? Or maybe to Hell? Although it's not a given that we'll end up anywhere. There's no particular fear right now, only excitement. I'm sure I didn't die, so I just need to somehow get back into my body and that's it.
When I emerged from my thoughts, I noticed that Minato had stopped, and I walked past him, a little further towards the light.
"Minato," I said, dropping the "sama," "please tell me my shortened name," I asked, regretting not asking this question earlier. I so foolishly followed someone without even verifying if the person before me was truly him. Like a child, I was fooled by his appearance.
I hoped for an answer and was about to turn around to ask again, but suddenly my gaze fell on our shadows. Yes, as strange as it may sound, despite the light at the end of the tunnel, our shadows were cast not away from it, but towards it. Mine was darker and clearer, and his was quite transparent, so much so that you wouldn't notice it immediately.
"Ariza, let's go," he tried to evade the question again.
"No, we're not going anywhere until you answer," I stated the condition more confidently, without taking my eyes off the shadows. Either they were simply mesmerizing, or I was afraid to look the 'Hokage' in the eyes.
"Maybe... Ariza-chan?" he offered an answer, and I noticed that his shadow began to grow and change, taking on strange, unnatural shapes, becoming clearer, darker, writhing like a shed lizard's tail or a caught snake. After a few seconds, his shadow began to resemble some kind of monster with long arms and claws. He stood just as still and, as before, breathed heavily. He was doing the very thing that made me suspect him from the very beginning. After all, I had been breathing the whole time, and he hadn't!
"The answer is incorrect..." I said with disappointment and pulled two kunai from my pouch, "Devourer!"
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: patreon.com/Granulan