The Altar

As Aaron's mind continued thinking of all the different possibilities, he heard the door to the room he was resting in open loudly.

Footsteps began approaching his crip, Aaron felt tense but could do nothing other than wait for the person to reveal themselves.

"Hey kiddo, how're you doing?"

A grown man was peering into Aaron's crib, he seemed tall and well built, short black hair and a stubby beard with some short grey hairs appearing sparsely

His deep raspy voice was filled with care, his deep blue eyes had a mixture of happiness and sadness glossing over them while he stared at his new-born child.

"You have my eyes…"

The grown mans sentence began to breakdown, Aaron could notice his eyes began to look reddish.

After a couple more minutes of silence Aaron heard loud knocking on his door. Hearing this his father picked him up and embraced him tightly.

"Sleep"

Aaron's vison suddenly turned dark as he felt his world turn to darkness.

A young child who was recently born was sitting atop an altar in a massive cave, the altar was made of stone and had many symbols engrained in it.

The altar was a hollow obelisk made of stone with different symbols engrained inside and out of it. Acting as a cage to keep what was inside at bay.

The markings continued beyond the altar into the stone ground. They formed an interconnected circle around the altar with more markings inside the circle. Around the perimeter of the circle were smaller circles with their own symbols for people to stand in.

Standing in their respective circles were a group of men and women all wearing similar clothes. This included black skin-tight sleeveless tops, white harem trousers and black gauntlets covering their forearms.

One of the circles for them to stand in was slightly different, there was an extra set of symbols giving it a more important look. The man standing in this position also had unique clothing.

He had a fancy black robe which reached to his feet. On top of his robe, he had a black silky cloak which draped to his feet. His long dark hair which reached his should matched his clothing.

[Image of clothing]

"Is everyone prepared? If you are then we will start with the sealing process." The man with the dark cloak glanced briefly at the rest of the group.

In a moment the group of shinobi standing around the altar began to form the same hand seals, as they finished their last hand sign, they all spoke in unison.

"𝑺𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒊𝒒𝒖𝒆: 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘 𝑪𝒂𝒈𝒆"

Suddenly the chakra inside of the shinobi's bodies were being drained into the ground beneath them. The symbols etched into the stone nearest each shinobi began to glow in a dark hue.

As more chakra was being drained from the shinobi more symbols were being powered, they acted as a funnel leading to the altar,

After a few more minutes the symbols on the altar were being powered. Every symbol in the circular formation was now being powered. Powering each symbol required a great deal of chakra leaving most shinobi panting and drenched in sweat. Some were also struggling to stand.

Once all the symbols were powered, a dark cage which was so dark it seemed to consume light began to materialise around the altar and child.

The cage was made of pure darkness, once inside you would become disoriented, couldn't measure distance well, couldn't see anything but darkness and have no tell of how much time has passed since you entered. If you were outside, you couldn't look inside.

…

In a second Aaron began to slowly wake up. His eyes were slowly opening in a lazy fashion. He had suddenly fallen asleep earlier and couldn't remember what happened.

His eyes were properly focused and with minimal movement for his child body could look around. He was shocked, despite opening his eyes he couldn't see anything.

Anywhere he turned it was pure darkness. In this darkness Aaron felt slightly claustrophobic, he was tiny compared to the looming darkness all around him.

He felt slightly suffocated in the situation, once he realised, he couldn't do anything immediately he began to take deep breathes in a hope to calm his breeding and relax slightly. He was confused about the situation. Where was he? How did he get here? All types of thoughts swarmed Aaron's mind.

'It's good to know I'm not injured. Whoever or whatever did this doesn't want to harm me, for now at least.' Aaron knew he needed to adapt to whatever situation he was in and focus on what he could directly control.

While engrossed in his thoughts Aaron felt something touch his hand. Instinctually he attempted to back away first, then try and investigate. Being in a new-borns body made most movements difficult for Aaron but for a strange reason he felt stuck in place with no control of his body, unable to do simple movements like blinking, or closing his mouth.

The creature which touched Aaron's hand began climb on it. The creature was small, about the length of a pinkie finger. He could feel a slimy residue being left anywhere the small creature passed on Aaron's skin.

'Is that a worm? Or a leech? Why is it on my hand?' The small creature reminded Aaron of the different insects he would find in his garden with his father when they would play.

The small insect began to manoeuvre around Aaron's palm, making its way towards his forearm. After reaching Aaron's forearm it continued forward towards his shoulder. It only stopped when it reached his chin.

Each second the slimy creature crawled on Aaron's skin felt like hours, especially as it began to slither up his chin onto his childish face. Aaron was panicking, he had a horrible feeling he knew where the insect was going.

Whatever part of Aarons body the insect passed a trail of a slimy substance would be left behind it. The insect moved at an agonisingly slow pace.

Stopping just before his lips, the insect examined Aaron's small face before continuing its crusade into Aarons open mouth. The insect crossed over his tongue before continuing forward down his throat.

The longer this lasted the more Aaron felt like puking, he could feel the insect move down his throat, until Aaron felt a sharp pain on the left side of his chest, where his heart should be. After feeling this pain Aaron could feel himself becoming extremely tired, his energy was draining astronomically fast.

After losing too much of his energy he fainted.