The Hidden Will

Chapter 11: The Awakening

Chapter 11: The Awakening

The formidable stone temple rose high from the ground. Dark shadows crept on the edges of its ancient walls as the sun slowly began its decent towards the horizon. It had been decades since any mundane life threaded the grounds around where the old structure stood. Even the animals of the forest beyond it kept their distance from the four walls. It stood completely desolate for years without any maintenance but yet the marble floors hadn't collected any dust.

The inner walls were carved with pictures that told the stories of the island's antiquity. Aligned at even intervals were metal candle holders with white sticks of wax protruding out, yellow-orange flames danced at the tips of their hair. In the center of the temple rested a large stone encasing, too big for a single well-built person to move on their own. The size was too wide and too long to hold something normal such as a person or even a large animal.

But the two people inside of the temple didn't seem phased by this or even seemed to care. They stood next to the abnormally large encasing where a perfectly drawn 'x' lay. One of the men, his face hidden away by a mask, was kneeling down by the 'x'. His hands clasped together as if he were praying and he was mumbling words too fast to understand, under his breath.

Smoke began to rise from the legs of the 'x' and a circle started to form around the drawn letter. It rose around the strange symbols on the ground and yellow chakra began to emit from the ends of the 'x' until it spread and connected itself with the circle of smoke.

Without warning, the body of a man emitted out of the chakra and smoke. He was thin with a sickly gray color in his hollow cheeks and skin.

The other cloaked figure stepped back and wiped a nervous sweat from his brow. The masked man stood and stared down at the body that had just arrived, "it's time to begin, Inoichi."

The body didn't move for a few seconds but then it slowly rose and on the man's face was a mad look, a blood lust. He laughed and it sent a shiver down the boy's spine.

"Prince Kazuhiko, please move on," Madara Uchiha said.

Kazuhiko looked from Inoichi to the large box in the center, he nodded weakly. Without further orders the two men stepped out of his way and the boy went on to draw a pentagram on the marble floor. After a few minutes from the lack of progress, Inoichi stepped towards him. "Aren't you done yet?"

The kneeling boy kept his eyes on his shaking hands, "it's the floor. The marble isn't exactly helping to draw the pentagram."

"So well then skip it! Is it that hard to draw a circle and a-"

"Kiyoshi, silence yourself," Madara said in a neutral voice.

Inoichi clenched his fists at his side and turned back to the masked man, "the kid needs to hurry. Even I can smell this body decomposing," he said urgently. "If it can't even manage with just my soul, what's going to happen when Azukitogi inhabits it as well?"

The boy at work swallowed hard and tried to push the voices at the back of his head. "Without the pentagram we're not protected from Azukitogi-"

"Protected?!" Inoichi cried. "Is that what you're doing? Trying to protect us?" he took long strides until he was toppling over the prince. Up close, the smell of rotten meat wafted off him even stronger. His face had deep black holes under his eyes- probably from the lack of sleep- and they were wild. "Are you forgetting I'm about to become part of Azukitogi and you're trying to protect us?"

Inoichi began to trace back all the work Kazuhiko had done and began to erase it all, all while mumbling obscenities towards the young man.

Behind his mask, Madara frowned displeased. "You may skip the pentagram prince Kazuhiko, it's not needed."