Chapter 8

So I've had some interesting conversations with one of my favorite reviewers here. Mostly related to the world building and Naruto's future. What weapon do you all think Naruto should use when he eventually rises to the leader of a grandiose army. My personal preference is a Raven's Beak Maul, but this reviewer suggested a Greatsword.

If you have a weapon you want to toss into the mighty magical hat of story suggestions, feel free. Just be sure to justify anything you suggest. ANYTHING is fair game, as long as it is suitably justified!

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"One. Two. Three. PULL!" Naruto had led his fellow tribesmen to retrieve the armor, and throwing that dead form at Azath's feet had been one of the proudest moments of his life. When Azath told him, and the other, what they had to do next… That was less proud.

He dug his hands in, pulling with all his might. The other village men helped, grabbing handfulls of the sinewy black material. Slime dripped from the seams where flesh met armor, and the ropelike flesh slipped from more than one pair of hands. Naruto was standing a few feet away from the suit of armor, and six village women worked hard to hold the heavy body down. His heels pushed hard against the sand, and suddenly, with a sickening SQUELCH, the corpse plopped out of its armor.

The Slaanesh warrior had been an imposing, nightmarish figure in life. A voice that oozed with rich seduction, on a body that twirled a massive greatsword with but a single hand. It was terror personified, and dripping with sex.

Now, as a rope-like black puddle dried beneath the suns rays, this strange demonic being was simply pathetic. Its body was a tangled mop of hair, thick cables filling the chestplate, tiny filaments hooking into the armor for mobility and attachment. The liquid that had filled the armor spilled out across the ground, a shimmery grey slime that no right-minded person would ever want to touch.

Naruto wiped his hands on his clothes. The slime still stuck to his fingers, stubbornly hanging on until the sun dried it and it flaked away in thick cloudy clumps. "This thing is beyond disgusting! Old Man, we yanked the corpse out, what do you want now!"

Said old man sat in the shade of his awning, scraping the helmet clean. He had made some interesting discoveries while pulling the 'head' of the warrior free. The Slaanesh disciples did have organs, but they were small, and hard to find. Likely augmented by magic. Their eyes were one of their few real organs, and they were connected to the centermost wrap of Slaanesh 'Flesh'. Azath had to use a chisel to chip out these cords of flesh, though the slime came out easily when it dried.

With a finishing blow, he proclaimed the helmet clean. Then he tossed it to the pile of armor, and met Naruto's excited gaze. "Naruto. Our tribe is faced with the greatest threat in our history. Slaanesh will attack us for certain, and the will certainly outnumber us. To defeat them, you will have to push your body beyond every limit you have. If you cannot do that, we will have to flee into the mountains, and hope that we survive long enough to rebuild our village."

Naruto met the intense gaze with one of his own, ignoring the shriveled corpse of the Slaanesh warrior. "You should know by now, old man. I don't have any limits. What do I have to do?"

Azath shook his head, the fire of youth never failed to amuse him. Still, this was not some simple challenge. "You are going to put on this suit of armor. It will try to destroy your mind and claim your body, as you are not one of Slaanesh. You will have to defeat it in a battle of wills, and make its magic your own. Follow me inside."

Inside of his hut, the rest of the women had dug a large pit in the ground, six feet deep and eight feet long. Azath stood by it, and Naruto looked into the deep dirt grave with fire in his eyes.

"This will not be easy Kveldulf. If you are scared, you will fail. If you are hesitant, you will fail. If you doubt yourself, the armor will break you, and we will leave you within this pit forever."

When Azath looked back, Naruto was already sliding into the armor. It was heavy, as if made entirely of lead. It was too big for him, and his limbs hung loosely in joints that still stunk of the dead Slaanesh warrior and its slimy body fluids. Still, without a word to anyone around him, Naruto crawled into the pit, and the helmet was placed over his head.

"You are brave, young Kveldulf." Azath said, as he placed a long hollow tube in the young boys mouth. "Breathe slow. Breathe deep. When the transformation is complete, we will set you free. Now be at peace, and have faith. The magicks of Slaanesh are no match for a warriors soul."

Then the first dirt fell on his body, as Naruto was entombed beneath the earth.

He was only distantly aware of things. The earth around him was cool, a welcome relief from the endless heat. It engulfed his body, swallowing him, but rather than panic he felt only peace. They had asked him to believe in himself. To face a God in a battle of wills and come out on top. This was a battle he could win, and no matter what the outcome was, it relied entirely on him.

Naruto had been fighting that way his entire life. He would do so again with glee, and win or lose, he would give his all.

There was no sense of time in that tomb beneath the earth, simply a vague impression that every second was an hour but every hour was only an instant. There was nothing to see, and so he slept. At times he could hear voices, those that traveled down his breathing tube and echoed through his skull, but they were muted and hard to understand. He could smell only the rich aroma of the soil, filling the space around his nose.

But he could feel everything. Tiny scraps of dirt that had fallen into his armor dragged at his skin. The armor touched him with its lingering chill, and as time passed he could feel it touching him more eagerly. He understood that the armor was not truly armor. It was a demon, bound in a form. A demon made from a tiny sliver of Slaanesh, a minuscule portion of the Chaos God's true power.

'Hello. You are not Haraka'Hor.' He could feel the armor inside of his mind, touching things. It was molesting his soul, and as the tainted touch of invisible fingers slid across the deepest part of his being, Naruto recoiled.

'Do not touch me, foul beast! I do not serve your master.' He struck a psychic blow against the demonic armor, and for a moment he felt its shadowy soul separate from his own. Then it was back, encircling him. Drowning him in darkness.

'I am not some minor being, to be forced aside by brute strength. You are but a child compared to one such as I. Let me see what lies within your being.' The fingers of shadow that had enveloped his soul pressed against his chest. Then they were pressing into his chest, digging through his very soul as they sought out something within.

Naruto screamed, striking back with imaginary blows, raining fire and hate and rage against the demonic armor that even now sifted through his soul. The shadow shivered, but did not withdraw. 'Ohhhh, I almost felt that one. Try again. With feeling, we adore a good feeling…'

His screams echoed up the tube, but none were there to hear his voice. They had left the boy to his spiritual battle, aware that a warrior needed privacy for battles of the soul. It was the weakest moment a warrior could have, and a stranger viewing that was a direct insult to all that they stood for.

Naruto screamed his throat raw, but it did nothing. His body was caked in sweat from fighting the demon, and all he had done was exhaust himself. The demon never even slowed its rape of his soul. Now he wracked his mind for an idea, a thought. Anything that might help. He wondered if maybe he could-

'No no, that won't help. That would be a waste of both our times… And there are Sooo many more things I'd rather do with My time.' The demon spoke, but its voice now came from inside of his mind. He could feel the dark soul crawling inside of his own, and his mind fell back on the twisted ropy monstrosities he had yanked out of the armor.

'I won't let you do that to me! You aren't going to win this!'

The demon laughed. 'Oh sweet naive little child… I've already started.'

Naruto screamed, throwing everything he had against the demon, but all it did was draw another sickening cackle from the monster. Then his throat cracked, and Naruto bit down on his lip until blood flowed down his throat.

'This is my body! You can't have it!'

'Such quaint Hypocrisy. You stepped into my body first. Foolish little mortal. To compete in a battle of wills against a GOD!'

He raged, and roared, and fought with every ounce of willpower he had. But he was a warrior of the fist, not a warrior of the soul. Naruto had never had to fight using only his mind, and he could not even begin to comprehend how to wield his own soul as a weapon.

'You are going to be my puppet for an eternity boy! And the first thing I am going to do is Slaughter your village! I think I'll even let you watch… As I take my vengeance on them all, and my pleasure on the rest.'

Dark laughter filled his mind, and Naruto could feel his own soul starting to fade away, devoured by the demonic being. He couldn't think any more. All he could do was lie there, thinking of all the people he let down while the demon enjoyed the last scraps of victory.

In a state of numbness, he drifted for an eternity. Unfeeling, unthinking. Staring into the dirt with eyes that could not see, hearing only the faintest mocking laughter in his mind.

Then… something. He couldn't understand it, but he felt a strange warmth rising in his body. The dark laughter caught a hitch, and lessened for a single moment. Naruto could feel again, if only for an instant.

He was still buried in the cold ground, breathing through a wooden tube as a demon infested his soul and turned him into something monstrous. But through the tube, inbetween his breaths, he could hear a sound.

It sounded like singing.

Then the demon was back, digging its claws painfully into his soul. White hot fire tore through his veins, and he could feel the shadow crawling down his veins. But that moment where he stopped the demon, it drove the monster to new heights of sadism. A good fight always riled the blood of demons.

'Oh. Still got a little Fight left! Yes! Give me everything you have! It only makes your inevitable loss all the sweeter. This is my body, you can't beat me here!'

Naruto was tired. So very tired. But if there was one thing he hated, it was being told that he didn't have a chance. His mind latched onto part of the demon's rant, it was the demon's body. But the demon was inside of HIS body… Picking apart his mind from the- From the inside out!

His eyes snapped into focus, as the cackling demon slid its venemous soul through Naruto, rotting away his soul piece by piece. Only to stop, when it felt something sliding inside of it.

'You've been picking me apart from the inside out. Now lets see whats inside of you!' Naruto plunged his soul into the demon, pushing into its mind, and into the very center of its being. He could feel its thoughts, its desires, but most of all he could feel its fears.

'N-no! Get out of me! You cannot enter my soul, I'm already inside of yours!' It tore wildly at Naruto, carving deep furrows of agonizing pain through his soul. But he ignored it all, as he wrought havoc on the ancient demon's mind. He tugged at memories, expunged countless depraved desires, and finally latched onto the very things that could make a Demon afraid.

Weakness, and Naruto sank his teeth into it like a starving man. 'Well well well, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were scared. A big bad demon, terrified of a child. Loosing a fight to A CHILD. The others must think you're so pathetic. So ugly.' He could feel the darkness shaking as he dug his hands deeper and deeper into the pit of its soul. For Naruto had seen a glimpse of the one thing the spirits of Slaanesh feared more than anything else. Their own memories.

'I give you one chance Demon. Submit.'

'Never! Your soul will be mine! You may think you are powerful human but I am-' Naruto's mental defenses fell apart, feeble though they were, and the entity of Darkness found itself wandering through Naruto's memories. In his blindness, Naruto had thought that these made up his soul, and only now did he realize that the soul ran deeper than experiences. He had abandoned his soul, allowing the Demon to do whatever it wanted to him.

He knew he could survive it. Nothing this feeble creature of hate and darkness did to him could destroy him. Naruto knew himself too well to think that. But while the Demon crawled through Naruto's head, he was fishing for every memory the Demon had… From the time when it was human.

'Wow, you've been around a loooong time.' He could feel the dark soul squirming, trying to protect its memories. But they went on for so long. For too long, and even though the Demon abandoned its attack in a desperate bid to protect its past, Naruto eventually pried out the secrets.

'You were hideous. A disgusting excuse for human. I've seen Chaos Goblins twice as fuckable as you!' Typically Naruto was above mocking his opponents bedroom prowess, but this was no time for modesty. He had to break this beast, and the more he dove into its memories, the more he understood it. The more he knew, the more he could hurt it.

'Liar!' It hissed, but its soul shook beneath his onslaught. That was the problem with living for an eternity… You eventually forgot your past, loosing it in the deepest part of your mind until even YOU couldn't find it. The Demon was incredibly skilled in the mental arts, but even it couldn't find those ancient memories

Finding the memories was perhaps even worse than when its foe did. Finding them meant remembering, and that was one thing it sorely did not want to do. Image was everything to the beasts of Slaanesh. They lived for their looks, died for their looks, and sold their souls for beauty. The suit of armor, gilded and perfect, a vast hue of colors- The bright purple that only the Nobility wore! There was no greater treasure for a lesser demon.

But as it dragged away one wretched moment after another, the Dark soul shook and splintered. Every time the soul broke, psychic pain wracked it, and its mind destabilized a little bit more. Had it tried in the beginning, it could have broken Naruto's soul just as easily… But breaking and assimilating are two different processes, and assimilating takes far longer. It is a slow and gradual process, not something that can be rushed for all but the strongest of Demons.

Now it was paying for its folly. Its mental strength, sapped from the endless surge of horrible memories. A childhood of pain and misery. A deformed face. A young love, fawning over another with perfect skin… A typhoon of pain, rage, and anger that slowly tore it apart.

Naruto could feel the Demon breaking, and fed into that. He shoved one unpleasant memory after another into it, all the while whispering the things it feared the most. 'That woman knew what you were. That's why she abandoned you. That's why she rejected you. She knew your soul was just as fucked up as you are!'

The Demon shook, and Naruto slowly recognized that it was crying. Then it slowly broke apart, falling away into nothing. The Darkness vanished, and Naruto could feel his own body again.

He sighed in relief, only to realize that his lungs weren't working. He could feel his body only in a sense, it was like every inch of his skin had fallen asleep, and he couldn't reconnect with it. He tried to move his soul, pushing it back into his body, but he didn't have enough of a soul left to regain control. The demon was dead, but that thought was anything but calming now that his body was paralyzed.

Naruto struggled to push his own soul back into its proper place, he fought as hard as he ever had. In the abstract sense he could feel the oxygen deprivation setting in, though he felt it as if it was happening to another person. He fought to regain control, fighting and fighting and fighting… It reminded him of his fight with the Demon. A haze was sliding over his mind, when Naruto realized the solution.

He stopped trying to push into his body, and imagined himself already there, simply connecting to the rest of his soul. Something slid together, like the perfect puzzle piece, and then he was gasping for air in his coffin beneath the soil.

But his soul was permanently warped. His body changed. His fingers flexed and flowed strangely, and his legs felt like noodles. "Ha-gh…" Naruto had tried to shout into the breathing tube, only for his throat to crack. He waited a little longer, letting his vocal chords relax before trying again. "Hey." It was weak, too soft to hear, like Hinata back when he had first met her.

Footsteps thumped on the ground, and eager voices shouted things he couldn't quite hear. Naruto relaxed against the floor, the fact that someone had been listening sticking in his mind. It reminded him of the singing, the singing that slowed the demon and gave him a fleeting shot at victory. Naruto vowed to repay whoever it was, then his eyelids were too heavy to keep open and he gave in to the sleep.

For the first time in three days, Naruto slept.

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End of Chapter?

So I'm actually pretty unsure about this chapter. Hence why it's going up now, at 3K words instead of the 5-7 I was going for. Let me know what you think, and after my exams on Thursday I will re-upload, with various modifications made. If you enjoyed it, there will just be more added. If you disliked it, then I'll go with one of my other ideas for this scenario.