Exposed Mid-Journey

Watching these eight sentries standing expressionlessly before him, Kamizuki nodded slightly, feeling that his control was quite impressive.

Kamizuki did not hesitate, extending his right hand toward the eight sentries. A force of attraction surged from his palm, and under its pull, the chakra within the bodies of the eight sentries was drawn out and funneled into Kamizuki's right hand.

After only a moment, eight streams of pale blue chakra had all flowed into Kamizuki's palm.

The moment the final wisp of pale blue chakra entered his hand, the eight sentries who had been standing before him collapsed to the ground, their life force completely extinguished.

Kamizuki had done this solely to absorb their chakra, hoping to glean some useful intelligence from their memories.

Yet, for some reason, Kamizuki did not obtain a single piece of information from the absorbed chakra, which left him utterly baffled.

Glancing at the corpses, Kamizuki shook his head, casting these inexplicable matters to the back of his mind. He formed hand seals and whispered, "Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld," pressing his right hand to the ground.

The moment his palm touched the earth, ripples spread across the ground surrounding the eight corpses. In an instant, those ripples transformed into a swamp, swallowing the bodies whole.

Once the corpses were completely submerged, the swampy ground instantly reverted to its original state.

Having finished this, Kamizuki checked the surroundings once more. Finding nothing unusual, he quietly slipped out of the cave and crept toward the settlement of these mysterious figures.

As soon as Kamizuki emerged from the cave, he found a vantage point on a hill, looking down at the small village nestled in the valley.

Under the scanning gaze of the Tenseigan, everything in the small village was laid bare before Kamizuki's eyes. In a wooden cabin that was slightly larger and more luxurious than the others, Kamizuki spotted a figure possessing a massive amount of chakra. He estimated that such a level of chakra could only belong to someone with at least the strength of an entry-level Kage.

Guarding the front of this cabin were three individuals wearing animal masks. The chakra level of the one in the center suggested the strength of a mid-level Jonin, while the two flanking him appeared to be women based on their builds; one had the strength of an early-level Jonin, while the other was at the peak of the Chunin level.

Kamizuki swept the village with his Tenseigan, hoping to find the missing Genma, Mangetsu, and Mai, but after a thorough search, he could not find any place that looked like a prison or a holding cell.

Looking at this setup, Kamizuki felt a sense of familiarity, much like the patterns in the games he had played back on Earth—as if he had to defeat these bosses before he could clear the stage.

Kamizuki decided to deal with the three mini-bosses in front of the cabin using the same method he had used on the sentries.

Acting on the thought, Kamizuki turned his gaze toward the moon. Following the same steps as before, a thread of energy connected to the moon, which then reflected back down onto the valley, splitting into three streams that shot toward the trio in front of the cabin.

However, the effect was not the same as before; Kamizuki's control failed. He thought with some confusion, Why is my control not working on these three?

Just then, the three masked figures in front of the cabin seemed to sense something, and all three looked up toward the hill where Kamizuki was hiding.

Kamizuki was still pondering why his control had failed when he realized, to his surprise, that he had been detected.

At the very moment the three masked figures pinpointed Kamizuki's location, the individual with the massive chakra inside the cabin also sensed him. A dark figure inside the cabin waved a hand at the three outside.

The three masked figures flashed and sprinted toward Kamizuki's position.

Kamizuki watched as the three figures raced toward him at high speed, and within moments, they arrived at the hill where he was hiding.

The trio leaped up and stopped a hundred meters in front of Kamizuki. They didn't follow the old tropes; there was no arrogant opening monologue, nor any other unnecessary movements.

The masked man who appeared to be a mid-level Jonin pulled several Senbon from somewhere and flung them toward Kamizuki.

While the three masked figures were approaching Kamizuki, inside the wooden cabin, a man who looked to be in his twenties or thirties was kneeling. Before him lay two naked young women, both currently unconscious.

The man was using blood flowing from his own fingertips to carve unknown curse marks onto the bare skin of the two unconscious girls.

Only after he had covered their naked bodies with the unknown curse marks did the man stop his hand.