Disclaimer:
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 04: The Uninvited Guest
"Is this a sewer?!" he said with shock.
He had seen these kinds of structures beneath capital cities. They were used to move around water and… 'waste.'
"Why is there something like this inside my mind?!" he shouted with anger, as if this was someone's idea of a joke.
After calming down slightly, he decided to get to the bottom of this.
His eyes moved to the water at his feet. It was flowing deeper into the sewer, getting lost in the distant darkness.
"There is something that way…" He could feel a power source of energy ahead of him.
After walking for almost two minutes in this dark sewer, he arrived at a large chamber. "This must be the actual core…why didn't I appear here to begin with?... huh?" He spotted something strange.
In a corner of the chamber was a massive cage made of black metallic bars. It was not possible to see what was inside as it was all too dark.
The entire place only had a few scarce torches in it.
Upon closer inspection of the cage, he spotted some pieces of paper placed where the keyhole should be.
"Mmm…this looks like a talisman or a ch—" His instincts warned him of an attack when he felt a strong fluctuation of the energy source inside the cage.
Naruto hurriedly stepped away from the cage just in time to avoid a gigantic claw that crashed against the bars.
A pair of red eyes appeared from the darkness, accompanied by a menacing growl.
"A beast?..." The situation got weirder and weirder…why was there a beast locked inside his 'Inner Mind'?
There should be nothing here except for things that he brought himself.
"Boy…what are you doing here?" The beast spoke between growls.
Naruto's eyes opened wide. "A demonic beast?... now that is something I could never have expected." As far as he knew, only demonic beasts were capable of using human language, and even among them, only the most powerful could manage such a feat.
One thing had become clear to him. Someone had put this demonic beast inside his body. Something like this would not have happened by accident if the cell and talisman hadn't already made it evident.
"Who put you inside my body? I want answers, demon!" He shouted with rage. He did not like feeling like he was being used for some unknown purpose. He was not going to become someone's puppet.
The demonic beast showed him its fangs as it laughed. "You demand answers from me, boy?! How dare you!" The beast slammed its jaw against the bars.
"Hmph! You think I am stupid? Hitting those bars will do nothing. After all, the metal bars don't really exist, like the rest of this sewer… It's just something my mind has created to make sense of the situation." He pointed at the piece of paper stuck to the cell.
"That is the only real thing keeping you locked inside my body…and if you could free yourself by sheer force, you would have already done that. So go ahead and keep bashing your metaphorical head against the cage…"
The demon stopped its attempts to intimidate him. "Who are you?..."
"Shouldn't you know the person who is serving as your jailor?" He was trying to find out how much this beast knew about the outside world.
"I know you are not the boy…" the beast growled.
He looked down at himself.
This image was something created by his own mind, like the rest of this place.
As such, it was not strange for the demon to realize he was someone else.
His current looks were more a reflection of his old life rather than his current one since it was all still new to him.
"I'll admit this much…I am not the same boy you knew…if you even knew him, which I doubt."
The demon got closer to the bars, and he could now make out more of its face. "A demon fox…"
"Who are you?" the demon asked again.
"Mmm…you are not answering my questions…why should I answer yours?"
The demon growled in response, clearly not liking his refusal to answer.
"Demon Fox…you seem to think that we are in an even situation. You don't tell me anything, and I will do the same…but remember that YOU are the one trapped."
The demon snarled. "And how long do you think you can keep me here? A few decades?... Humans have short lives. Me, on the other hand?... I am eternal! One day, you will die, and I will escape!" The demon shouted before smashing his claws against the bars.
Naruto smiled. "Eternal…what a joke. We will see about that."
He had heard enough from this demon, so he turned around and left the cage room.
'Hey, human! Come back here!' the demon fox called, but he was ignored.
Naruto returned to the corridor where he had first entered, and upon further inspection, he found a small door on the side of one of the walls.
It was easy to miss as it had the same color and texture as the rest of the walls.
"This must be it…the real core of my Inner Mind…"
He pushed the door open and walked inside.
"What a sight…"
This was more like what he was expecting.
Most of the space was empty.
A small pool filled with some bluish liquid occupied the middle of the place.
But the important part was the golden book floating above the pool of liquid.
It wasn't much of a book. More like a thin pamphlet with a couple of pages.
That didn't matter to him at this moment.
"It is here…" Naruto smiled. "As long as I have this…I will be fine."