What They Made You

Chapter 03

After regaining his equilibrium, Minato sat up and looked around the cold empty warehouse. He never took the time to really observe the details of the decrepit old building they had picked by chance to enter. The building had a very industrial feel to it. It had huge thirty-five-foot ceilings with dark, weathered high beams. The walls that surrounded the warehouse were what appeared to be a very rickety looking aluminium siding.

The old concrete flooring was riddled with crack from years of wear and tear. A thin layer of dust and dirt had collected through the building. The walls housed tall, thin, now very broken windows around one length of the building. On the opposite side, that wall houses three different huge bay doors that must have been used as a loading bay for the loading and unloading of whatever used to be stored there. At the other end of the building there were several abandoned racks of shelving that appeared to somehow have more dirt on them than the floor.

Nighttime had consumed the evening sky and has now enveloped the warehouse in total darkness. Minato could no longer see anything but the faint glow of the moonlight radiating in through the broken windows.

'What happened? Where am I?' Minato thought to himself.

'The warehouse? Why am I....' Before he could finish his thought, memories hit him like a freight train. The last thing he can remember was being in the warehouse asking for the Kyuubi to grant him it's power and the crystal.

'The crystal, fuck....'

Being springtime, the days were getting longer so he feels it shouldn't be dark yet.

'Wait, I must have passed out again, but if that were the case where are the.... SHIT!' "GUYS! Where are you? Are you there?" he asks, panicking and trying to see if he can locate his missing friends in the dark rundown building.

Groans echoed simultaneously through the hollowed-out building.

"The hell was that shit?" Grumbled Iishi.

Nadire says "Not sure, does anyone have a light?"

"Yeah, give me a second" Dosu pulls his shiny silver Zippo out of the back pocket of his black loose-fitting jeans. Dragging his thumb over the wheel causing the flint to spark the flame to burst to life luminating his immediate vicinity.

"Minato?" asks Nadire.

"I'm here" he responds.

"So, did it work?" asks Ryuki.

"Not sure, but with the pain and missing time it better have" Minato responds unenthusiastically.

"Did you bring the book Minato?" Nadire asks.

"I'll have to check my bag, mind bringing the light over here Dosu?" They all get up and follow Dosu in the direction of the sound of Minato's voice.

"Any idea why you didn't get sent flying like the rest of us pretty boy?" taunts Iishi.

"Leave him be" warns Nadire.

"Really it's fine Nadire. Actually, no I don't know but by all means, if you would rather know the feeling of your brain combusting while have your organs simultaneously feel like they're being fried in a vat of oil by all means with can switch." Spews Minato, he was not impressed with Iishi attitude towards him.

"Wow, you really did it this time Iishi, I don't think I've ever heard Minato pissed off before." Gengko was getting way too much amusement out of the whole situation.

"Nah, I'm alright. Was just really painful, it better have been worth it is all I have to say" say Minato.

"Thanks for the light Dosu, now my back should be right around here somewhere." Pocketing the cracked crystal in the front pocket of his navy-blue hoodie, Minato stands up and looks for his pack.