The Scapegoat

"Strange," Yura said with a faint smile. "The scapegoat can talk."

The Caged Bird was meant to be a scapegoat. There was a nursery rhyme in the Shinobi World called the Kagome Song, and it was part of a game that children had played for generations. One child would play the demon, blindfolded and crouching in the middle, while the others circled around and sang the rhyme. When they finished, if the child playing the demon could guess who was standing behind them, that child would take their place as the scapegoat.

"Shut up!!!" Akitsu roared. Her chest heaved as she glared fiercely at Yura.

Shut up?

Looking at the ninja, who was on the verge of breaking but still struggling, Yura smiled faintly.

Not only was she not going to shut up, she was going to sing. When her nephew had a bad breakup, Yura had liked to sing him the song, "I thought it would last a lifetime, but it turned out to be just a while."

"Little skylark, lost and far from home~ Hiding among the wheat in the endless fields~"

"Though you cry and call for your mother~ All you hear is the wheat whispering in the wind~"

In the Shinobi World, more than ninety percent of ninjas—especially those from the Warring States Era—would be devastated by this song.

Absolutely devastated.

The great yokai really liked singing.

As she fluttered and circled through the air, Little Monster thought about that. But sometimes, the more she listened, the sadder she felt. Without realizing it, little pearls began to roll down Little Monster's cheeks.

"I said!!! Shut up—!!! Aaaaaah—!!!" A savage killing intent erupted. Chakra boiled and roared around Akitsu as she became a blur, charging straight at Yura with reckless abandon.

She really had cried and called for her mother.

Yura smiled faintly.

When she encountered something she liked, she wanted to attack it.

Yura herself was a severe sadist.

Her bloodthirsty nature, smiling as she killed—the hallmark of what was known as the ultimate form of sadism—meant she enjoyed tormenting weak yokai. But as a great yokai, she had no interest in ordinary people. So when she visited a human village to buy things, she paid and greeted people with a smile. But no one was ever allowed to attack her.

No matter who her opponent was, Yura would retaliate without hesitation and destroy them.

And no matter what kind of fight it was, Yura felt no pain. As an oni, she had no fear whatsoever.

In midair, Akitsu's body suddenly jolted. Her Byakugan trembled. Here it comes!

An attack!

If it was a slash, she was confident she could block it. As long as she got close...

Her body spun violently as she unleashed Rotation, the secret technique of absolute defense. In an instant, a three-meter-wide sphere of spiraling chakra blossomed in the air.

The stalemate lasted less than an instant. Then she shot backward even faster, her back slamming into a tree trunk. The impact sent her flying like a skipping stone, tumbling through the air and hurtling deeper into the woods. She traveled nearly a hundred meters before her tumble finally came to a stop.

Dust billowed through the forest.

Her limbs were bent and twisted at odd angles. Her combat suit was torn to shreds, and scrapes and blood covered her body. She leaned against a large tree, head bowed as she struggled to breathe.

In her Byakugan, her pure white pupils trembled.

Even though she could sense that invisible blade, she couldn't stop it. She couldn't block it at all. To her, what she had collided with hadn't felt like a sword, but something far larger.

Yura sat with her legs crossed in midair. Before her, the enormous black hand slowly broke apart and withdrew. That was how you played billiards: she'd spun too roundly, so one slap had sent her flying.

Although her opponent had sensed the path of Yura's sword, so far Yura had yet to meet anyone who could make her use her swordsmanship to its full extent.

Two-Sword Style—or Niten Ichi-ryu—was a downright dirty sword style, a devious one. Its secret technique was, for the most part, running your mouth. It used the power of words to crush an opponent's mental state and fighting spirit, all about tricking them and catching them off guard. It leaned toward grand strategy. The weapon used in swordsmanship didn't matter; what mattered was the tactical and strategic goal.

During the Warring States Era, people used the word "strategy" to refer to swordsmanship. Grand strategy meant commanding troops in battle and arranging formations, while minor strategy specifically referred to swordsmanship.

Compared to swordplay techniques, Niten Ichi-ryu placed greater emphasis on tactics—or rather, brains.

In that respect alone, Naruto was a promising swordsman. He was also good at running his mouth.

Yura's many-sword style required her to focus on coordinating multiple weapons, like commanding an army, and choosing different tactics to suit different situations.

Akitsu didn't know how she had lost. Yura knew exactly why.

All power came from a person's heart. Once your resolve crumbled, winning was just a pipe dream.

Akitsu struggled to lift her eyes and look toward Yura, who hadn't pursued her and was a hundred meters away. The layers of branches and treetops couldn't block her view.

"Someone once said..." Yura floated through the forest, gliding slowly toward the White Fox ninja. She stopped above her and looked down. "Heaven won't let someone who seeks victory with the intention of taking their enemy down with them keep winning forever."

It was an interesting saying, almost like a divine prophecy in the Shinobi World. Any ninja who fought with the intention of taking their opponent down with them usually met a bad end. Danzo, for example, had sealed away half a bridge.

Akitsu's eyes trembled. The instant she heard those words, she immediately thought of it.

"Is this fate...?"

"Heaven" was a concrete symbol, a reference to fate.

If this was fate, Akitsu suddenly felt that everything she was doing was pointless.

"I think that's just a useless excuse," Yura said with a faint smile.

If someone couldn't win even with the intention of taking their enemy down with them, then what about someone who took on a tank with a bomb strapped to their chest? Didn't that count as a win?

Akitsu struggled to raise her head and look at Yura's face. Sunlight sifted down through the treetops, making it hard to see her clearly. She seemed to stand high above, like a god coldly looking down on the world. The scarlet fox mask on her head wore an eerie, ominous smirk at the corners of its eyes.

"What do you know..." Akitsu gave a strained laugh, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She lowered her head and said, "What could you possibly know about me..."

"There's a kind of bird that buries its head," Yura said with a smile. "When danger appears, it sticks its head into the dirt and acts as if the danger doesn't exist. How could a bird like that ever decide to take someone down with it? The saying that Heaven won't let someone keep winning forever is just a way to comfort yourself."

"No!!!" She wasn't lacking in the courage to take someone down with her. But the image of burying her head seemed strangely familiar. The words reached her lips, then she swallowed them.

"Did you know that when birds press their heads close to the ground, it looks like they're cowering and retreating? In truth, they're using their excellent hearing to sense distant movement and determine where danger is coming from," Yura said.

Huh?

Akitsu looked up at Yura.

"So, with those eyes of yours, can you really see where the danger is coming from?" Yura smiled faintly. "Can you see who your true enemy is?"

Her true enemy?

The Hyuga Main Family?

Beneath her mask, Akitsu pressed her lips together.

Of course her eyes could see that clearly. But things would get better. Now there was a village. The First had said that everyone in the village was like family, and that there would be no divisions between clans. The branch family's circumstances and fate would surely change from now on!

Surely!...

Would they?

Yura descended with a faint smile. Her low laughter echoed through the forest as she lowered herself until she was level with the girl. She reached out and removed the White Fox mask, studying the girl's eyes, as clear and translucent as gemstones.

Akitsu wanted to move, but...

Yura extended a slender finger and gently lifted the girl's chin. "You have such a beautiful face..." Yura's eyes lit up.

Akitsu felt a lump in her throat, and the hair all over her body stood on end.

She had never been this intimate with anyone, let alone a woman. Both her body and mind instinctively resisted.

"It'd be such a shame to quietly wither away in a place like that..."

What did she mean?

"I'll tell you plainly. You escaped from one cage only to enter a bigger one," Yura said with a faint smile. "Little scapegoat, your fate of dying in someone else's place won't end. But being grateful to the demon even as you take their place is just too pitiful."

Akitsu's pupils trembled. Suddenly, she understood where that sense of unease she'd felt all along had come from.

This woman was probably sixteen or seventeen. She looked like Hanabi as a young girl, but the difference between their fates and stations was like heaven and earth. Yura smiled faintly.

"Can you tell me your name, little scapegoat?"

Akitsu's pupils trembled. In a quavering voice, she asked, "What do you mean? What did you mean by what you just said?!"

"You..." Yura said. "Your name."

"Akitsu..." the girl replied, gritting her teeth. "I'm not a scapegoat!!!"

She wanted to confirm something.

But if that was true, it would be too cruel. Far too cruel...

"Tell me! What did you mean just now?!"