First C-Rank Mission (III) [Chapter 27]

We arrived at Yugakure and I had to say, I wasn’t impressed. Yes, Yugakure was not a major Shinobi village, but it was still a Shinobi Village. However, the security was extremely lax. They simply took a small entrance fee from us and after that, they allowed us to enter the village without much fanfare. I noticed Shinobi Patrols going around, but from the looks on their faces, they were bored out of their minds.

“You said the security is going to be tight” I furiously whispered.

“Yeah, that is what I was expecting, but let’s not raise a flag, hm?” Yoruichi asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, let’s not” I agreed and Namaikina simply hummed in agreement. “So, what now? I don’t think we would need to take our time or anything” I pointed out and Yoruichi nodded her head in acknowledgement.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to raise any suspicions. So, let us get a room in an inn and after that, we can go out to sightsee” Yoruichi explained our next course of action and since it was a good plan, none of us raised any objections. Getting a room was kind of hectic since most of the inns were already full, but we did manage to find ourselves a nice room with two beds.

The room did cost us more than what it was usually supposed to, but we weren’t going to complain, much…

“This is the only temple in Yugakure” Yoruichi said while staring at the rundown temple in front of us. The temple was barely standing and I was going to be surprised if we found anything inside there. The temple had been clearly abandoned for years and I could see that vegetation had done its work as the whole temple was covered with moss and vines.

“Maybe, there is a secret temple?” Namaikina suggested weakly and instead of denying, Yoruichi seemed to hum at the suggestion.

“It is possible, but we have to check this out” Yoruichi explained before she turned toward Namaikina. “There is nobody around and I don’t think anybody is going to come here, but I want you to stay outside and keep an eye. If someone arrives then you know what to do” Yoruichi said firmly and Namaikina nodded her head in understanding.

Without saying anything else, Yoruichi simply signaled me to follow her inside which I did while Namaikina went to hide near the temple. The temple floorboards started to creak under the pressure, but thankfully it held. We arrived inside the temple and just like I expected, there was nothing inside the temple, at least, there was nothing salvageable, but on the inside, I was kind of freaking out.

There was an eerily familiar sigil on the wall, but that was not something I recognized at first. The first thing I recognized was the sigil of the triple-bladed scythe right under the other sigil… I broke out in a cold sweat. I was right, this was the temple of Jashin. I immediately started to wonder if Hidan was already immortal or not… Once again, I cursed myself for the lack of detailed canon knowledge.

“I don’t think there is anything useful in here” Yoruichi cursed, looking annoyed.

“Do you want to look out a bit more or bug out?” I asked, not wanting to spend any more time inside this creepy temple.

“Can’t leave yet… For the time being, we have to consider that this is the only temple in Yugakure. We can’t leave any stone unturned… We must find something. We can’t return to the village empty-handed” Yoruichi explained in a grave tone and even though I grimaced at her words, I didn’t complain anymore.

So, we started to look around, but there was nothing to find, not truly except for a floorboard, which was looking relatively brand new. “Hey, check this out” I called out to Yoruichi who appeared beside me within moments. “What do you think? This looks kind of new” I pointed out and Yoruichi seemed to agree with me. So, we started to look around the floorboard, trying to find any clues.

“Look” Yoruichi called out and turned toward where she was pointing. “Looks like drag marks” Yourichi added and yes, they were most definitely drag marks.

We both stared at each other for a moment before we decided that the floorboard must be some kind of hatch. We immediately started to look for a way to open it. “Here” I called out as I managed to lift the floorboard by nudging a kunai through the edge of the floorboard. After all the training I received, there was no way I was going to stick my fingers into random places.

“Nice!” Yoruichi whispered with a gleeful look on her face and we immediately started to inspect the floorboard with our kunais. When the two of us were finally satisfied that there were no traps, I decided to lift the floorboard, revealing a staircase, leading to an underground basement. “Sage! What’s that smell” Yoruichi muttered with a grimace and even I wasn’t faring much better.

“Fuck! Let’s go in” Yoruichi declared and the two of us finally started to creep inside. The staircase was completely dark, but thanks to the light coming from the other end of the staircase, we didn’t have any problem climbing down. The smell was getting stronger with each step, and I was starting to get a really bad feeling about this.

“What the hell is this place…” Yoruichi muttered as we arrived at the end of the staircase, only to find a massive hall in front of us. The hall was in pretty good shape, unlike the temple above us. Even the torches were lit, which meant that someone was here recently and that didn’t bode well with me. The hall was decorated with sigils of Jashin and I bet they were drawn with blood.

Then my gaze finally landed on the triple-bladed scythe affixed on a platform, but that wasn’t all… There were several sacrificial platforms inside the room and all of them were drenched with blood… Now that I have noticed, the blood seemed kind of fresh. Fuck! Fuckfuckfuck! We needed to get the fuck out of here… I turned toward Yoruichi who was inspecting the platforms.

“Looks like we have found ourselves some lost lambs” Someone jeered from behind and I felt cold chills run down my spine…