Deep Fear

Mind reading was an incredibly annoying and disgusting skill.

It was like that for both the person being read and the person doing the reading. At least, that was how Yura felt.

Yura hated mind reading. Sensing negative emotions was a crude form of it. She couldn't tell exactly what someone was thinking, but she could make a pretty good guess based on their mood. Add in a few confirming clues, and, sadly, it was all too easy for Yura to understand people's hearts.

The darkness in people's hearts was more monstrous than any demon's.

Beneath the moon, Yura sat on a treetop in the forest, twirling a strand of hair in her hand. Her finger gave a slight twitch.

Suddenly, a scream erupted somewhere in the forest, then vanished without a trace.

Lucy had a nutritious but awful-tasting soldier pill stuffed in her mouth. She watched Yura curiously. By now, she had learned that it was best not to stray too far from Yura. This patch of forest was already riddled with deadly traps.

Somewhere in the forest, a ninja was deep underground, using Earth Release to burrow more than ten meters beneath the surface as he hurried along.

But a ninja was still a person, and people needed to breathe. Even if he could remain underground for a long time, his chakra wouldn't last forever.

"At this distance, it should be far enough, right?" If he could easily get past the blockade with Earth Release, then what came next would be simple.

As he thought this, the ninja began to rise. A moment later, he emerged from the ground. The nearby forest was pitch-black, with only the cold moonlight filtering through the treetops. All around him was silence.

No invisible attack came. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, though he still couldn't afford to let his guard down.

The ninja stood on the ground and tentatively took a step forward. He hadn't run into that attack. A smile appeared on his resolute face.

Yura lifted her eyes slightly, feeling the tremors in the ground as she pinned down a tiny flicker of emotion far away in her mind.

"You've certainly run a long way."

But...

Yura's finger twitched.

Suddenly, the smile froze on the ninja's face. A strand of hair slid silently past him, and his body fell to the ground in pieces. In the cawing of shrill, savage crows, the birds that had spotted fresh food swooped down and landed, pecking at the scraps of his corpse.

Yura's hair had never been lifeless, fixed strands. It was alive and could move.

Before the hidden passage behind the waterfall outside Takigakure lay a lake. There were several other waterfalls that connected to the village in the same way. At that moment, four squads of ninjas had gathered on the lake, standing on its surface. With the waterfall roaring behind them, the Chunins looked grim.

"Did he fail?"

"Half an hour has passed. We're well past the agreed time to check in. He must be dead."

The words stirred the ninjas into a commotion.

One ninja couldn't help looking up at the pitch-black forest before them. Fear showed in his eyes, as if a man-eating demon lurked within. Shadowy shapes swayed in the moonlit woods: the corpses of their comrades, who had entered to scout ahead and been killed, then left hanging.

"What do we do?"

"We have to find the person who cast the jutsu!"

"How?"

"Can't you sense any chakra yet?!"

A ninja shook his head with obvious difficulty and bitterness. "I can't sense a thing. Not even unusual chakra."

Strands of hair formed from demonic energy writhed through the forest.

"Damn it!!!"

"What the hell is that thing?! Are we really helpless against it?!"

Fear gathered bit by bit, churning and boiling without end.

"We can't give up yet! Even if we die, we have to complete the mission!"

"Even if we run out of chakra, we have to use ninjutsu to blast a path through! The village's hope rests on us!"

Earth Release: Earth Rock Spear!

A gigantic spear of earth surged up from the ground and roared forward. With no idea where the target was, they could only fire it blindly. When the rumbling stopped and the spear came to a halt, the other ninjas' eyelids twitched as they watched them attack thin air.

That was just stupid.

But then despair closed gently around their hearts.

"Did... did it work?"

No one knew.

Then, before their very eyes, the earth spear, which had risen more than ten meters into the air, slowly shifted apart and broke down. The heavy chunks of rock crumbled in midair and crashed to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

The good news: they had hit something.

The bad news: it had done absolutely nothing.

Yura raised her eyelids and smiled faintly.

"Another little bug has flown right into me."

Watching this, one ninja sank to his knees on the surface of the water, dazed.

"What are you?! What the hell are you?!"

Everything about this was too bizarre, too far beyond reason.

He couldn't understand.

How were they supposed to fight an enemy they couldn't even see?

Some things stood there quietly, and no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't defeat them in the slightest.

"Damn it! We're retreating!"

The instant he spoke, one of the ninjas let out a sudden cry. It was as if a demon had seized him; his whole body vanished from the water's surface in an instant, dragged under by tremendous force. In the cold moonlight, the others could still see him thrashing desperately beneath the water as it filled his nose and mouth. He struggled in agony, but something monstrous kept pulling him down, and he couldn't break free.

Ninjas were people, and people were fragile.

"Retreat! Get off the water!"

Fear in their eyes, the ninjas sprang into action.

"It's here! That thing is here!!!"

In the treetops, Yura held out both hands. The strands of hair between her palms twisted into intricate patterns. Her fingers moved.

In an instant, the ninjas who had taken the lead and fled with the Body Flicker Technique were torn apart in midair. Amid the mist kicked up by the roaring waterfall, blood burst into a cloud and fell into the water.

One of the ninjas who witnessed this stopped mid-step. Sweat poured down his body, and he didn't dare move at all. Trembling and helpless, he stared in terror at the empty space around him.

"It's here..." one ninja murmured, his face twisted into an expression that was almost a laugh, almost a sob.

Then a shrill scream of terror rang out. The ninja, who had been a man, let out a woman's piercing, terrified wail. In the blink of an eye, it was as if a demon had grabbed him, and he plunged into the water with a splash.

Then a second ninja was dragged under...

Then a third...

One twisted, terrified face after another struggled beneath the water. One comrade after another vanished before their eyes.

Everything was happening exactly as it was meant to, and they were powerless to stop even the slightest bit of it.

"Haha... hahahaha..." Amid his breaking laughter, one ninja raised his blade and cut his own throat. Blood burst from his neck. His body pitched forward and quietly sank into the water.

"Delicious..."

Beneath the moon, a pair of scarlet eyes grew redder still. The killing had not stopped.

The next morning, the entire village felt heavier than ever. Overnight, all the civilians had been evacuated to a hidden shelter. The streets had lost their life, bleak and deserted, as if steeped in overwhelming fear. Unease had settled on the faces of every ninja hurrying through the streets.

Inside the building at the village center, the elderly men and women in charge had been awake all night. Unlike the younger people, they were exhausted, with dark circles under their eyes. Worse still was the crushing mental strain.

Perhaps it was because they were old, but they seemed more and more aware that the footsteps of death were quietly drawing near...

Overwhelming panic and fear circled above the meeting room, gathering into a vortex of unease.

"My lord..." A ninja burst in and dropped to one knee. His face was streaked with tears, terror plain in his eyes. Trembling, he said, "The entire reconnaissance team has been wiped out. There are no survivors."

After he spoke, a deathly silence filled the room.

Deep fear showed in the eyes of every old man and woman.