Despair

Killing them would have been as easy for Naoki as crushing six ants.

But he didn't move.

"Anu." Aikawa Yumi's voice turned cold, and the smile vanished from her face. "Didn't you hear what I said?"

Naoki was silent for a moment, then finally stepped out of the shadows.

His footsteps were so light they were almost inaudible. His dark eyes seemed to swallow all light...

Hasegawa Kenichi's laughter cut off abruptly.

He'd met plenty of dangerous people, but the aura radiating from this young man made him instinctively take a step back.

"Y-You... who are you?" His voice began to tremble.

Naoki didn't answer.

He walked up to Hasegawa Kenichi and stopped.

They stood close enough for Hasegawa Kenichi to see his own reflection in those eyes.

"Get lost."

Naoki uttered just one word.

His voice wasn't loud, but it struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.

Hasegawa Kenichi's Adam's apple bobbed. He wanted to say something tough, but his lips were trembling. The men behind him didn't even dare breathe loudly, and some had already started edging toward the door.

As the killing intent radiating from Naoki grew stronger, Hasegawa Kenichi finally couldn't hold out any longer. He turned and ran.

The whole group scrambled out of the tavern and disappeared down the street.

The tavern fell quiet again.

Aikawa Yumi walked up behind Naoki, her face icy.

"Anu really doesn't know how to behave. Looks like I'll have to make you suffer a little."

Naoki frowned and spun around, only to see the hand sign made by the sinister Buddha statue in his dream, and Aikawa Yumi's lips moving.

Blood-red darkness descended once more, and he collapsed to the floor with a thud.

Perhaps because two souls had merged, Naoki's soul was far stronger than an ordinary person's, allowing him to sense some of the changes happening within him.

When he woke from the dream for the third time, he felt that he wasn't quite the same as before...

"My soul is being corrupted..." he murmured.

He got up, walked to the window, and pushed it open.

Kannazuki Town was quiet beneath the night sky, like a sleeping child. The sea breeze brushed his face, carrying a salty dampness, while the distant sound of the waves rolled in, gentle and unending.

Naoki raised his hand and looked at his palm.

In the moonlight, it looked just as it always had—fair and slender—but he knew something had quietly changed.

He closed his eyes, trying to sense the source of that strange feeling.

At first, he felt nothing. But when he calmed his mind and focused on the depths of his consciousness, he saw...

A blood-red mist.

The mist spread along the edges of his consciousness, slowly writhing like a living thing as it eroded the clarity that belonged to him.

"Is this... where that dream comes from?"

Naoki opened his eyes. His Two-Tomoe Sharingan gleamed an eerie red in the moonlight.

He tried to dispel the red mist, but when his chakra touched it, it was like a stone sinking into the sea. Nothing happened.

"It's no use."

"You're awake."

Aikawa Yumi's voice came from behind him.

Naoki didn't turn around. He kept looking out the window.

"What did you do to me?"

Aikawa Yumi walked over and stood beside him. Moonlight fell across her face, lending even more radiance to her already striking features.

"It was just a little punishment."

Naoki shook his head.

"If the punishment is just sleeping, then I have nothing to fear."

"Do you remember what I told you?" Aikawa Yumi pressed herself against Naoki and looked up at him. "Your dreams will devour your soul, and eventually, they'll play out in the real world."

"No!" Naoki had never believed he would kill Sakurai Hideko with his own hands.

"You will. Those devoured by their dreams eventually lose their humanity and memories... They become nothing but walking corpses..."

The woman nestled against him. Though she was warm and soft in his arms, Naoki felt utterly desperate.

If he'd still been half-skeptical before, seeing that red mist in his mind had dispelled all his doubts.

Naoki stood by the window, the moonlight tracing the cool outline of his profile.

Aikawa Yumi nestled against his side, her red skirt fluttering lightly in the night breeze like a burning flame.

She looked up at Naoki. Her languid eyes reflected the moonlight, and his silence.

"Are you scared?" she asked softly, drawing circles on his chest with her finger. "Can my Anu be scared, too?"

Naoki didn't answer.

He was scared, but not of dying or being controlled. He was afraid that the dream might really come true, that he might kill Sakurai Hideko with his own hands.

That gentle face, those clear eyes like spring water, the girl whose cheeks had flushed when he held her arm on a rainy night... If he really ended her life with his own hands someday, what would be the point of living?

Despair spread through his heart.

He closed his eyes, and Sakurai Hideko's face flashed through his mind. When he opened them again, his Three-Tomoe Sharingan had appeared.

But what use was the Three-Tomoe Sharingan now?

Aikawa Yumi's gaze fell on the three tomoe in Naoki's eyes. Her pupils contracted slightly, then she smiled again.

"Oh? You awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan under these circumstances?" She reached out to stroke Naoki's cheek. "My Anu really is a genius."

Standing by the window, Naoki's black hair was tousled slightly by the sea breeze. A few strands fell across his brow, making his handsome face look even paler.

Aikawa Yumi gently caressed his face.

His brow was sharply defined, and his eyes held a cool, detached quality, as though a thin veil separated him from everything around him.

She loved that aloof, untouchable quality.

"Have you had enough?" Naoki suddenly asked.

Aikawa Yumi giggled. "No. Of course not."

She moved in front of Naoki, wrapped her arms around his waist, and rose onto her tiptoes...

But Naoki suddenly shoved her away and muttered, "Bitch."

Aikawa Yumi bit her lip, suppressed the strange emotion welling up inside her, and forced a smile.

"The more you resist, Anu, the more excited I get. Keep it up, okay?"

With that, Aikawa Yumi swished out of the room in her red dress.

Naoki sat cross-legged on the bed, his back against the wall.

Moonlight streamed through the window and spilled across the bare room.

He didn't sleep. He didn't dare.

Ever since that dream had begun to eat away at his soul, every time he fell asleep felt like a gamble: would he wake up remembering who he was, still able to tell dreams from reality?

With his eyes closed, he could feel the blood-red mist deep in his consciousness growing thicker. It writhed slowly like a living thing, eroding the clarity that belonged to him.

"Soon..." he murmured. "If I can't find a way, maybe I really will..."

"Will I, really?" he asked himself.

He could hardly imagine the dream becoming reality.

Was Aikawa Yumi lying to him?

Naoki slowly shook his head and began to analyze the situation.

The red mist in his mind was real, and so were the changes he'd experienced lately...

If the mist took over his mind, his changes would grow more and more pronounced. In the end, he might not even recognize himself. Then perhaps the dream really would come true.

Perhaps by the time he returned to Konoha and saw the real Hideko, the image of Hideko in his eyes would already have merged with the eerie figure from his dream. Then he might actually attack her in a hallucination or in a moment of lost control.

"The person I most want to protect... will I destroy her with my own hands?"

Naoki clenched his fists, thinking of a way to solve the problem.

Perhaps a Yamanaka Clan shinobi skilled in Yin Release could help with this sort of thing, but... Naoki was a transmigrator. What if someone saw something they shouldn't? What then?

"This can only be a last resort..." he thought.

Should he ask the Ninja Cats to help him think of a solution?

Naoki considered it, then shook his head.

The Ninja Cats might be good at gathering information, but there was nothing they could do about something like this.

Who else, then?

Naoki thought of Uchiha Fugaku and Shisui.

He figured that, by now, both of them should have awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. If they helped him...

He shook his head again.

Even though he didn't have the Mangekyō Sharingan, he knew it well. Perhaps Shisui's Kotoamatsukami could help, but the root of the problem was probably Aikawa Yumi.

She was the one who'd planted this seed in him. She would have to help him understand it, too.

Naoki gradually thought things through. Leaving probably wasn't the best option...

In the days that followed, Naoki began living in the tavern.

Aikawa Yumi didn't seem eager to make him do anything. Every day, she just had him help with chores like sweeping the tavern, arranging the shelves, and wiping down the glasses.

The tavern reopened.

Business was slow for the first few days. Every now and then, a regular would come in for a drink, spot the taciturn young man behind the counter, and ask a few curious questions.

"Yumi, who's this kid? Your new employee?"

"My pet," Aikawa Yumi would reply with a grin every time. Then she'd watch the regulars' surprised expressions and smile even more broadly.

Naoki didn't comment. He just went about his work in silence.

He gradually figured out Aikawa Yumi's daily routine.

She slept until late morning, sat around the tavern for a while in the afternoon, and often disappeared at night. Sometimes she didn't come back until late; sometimes she stayed out all night.

Naoki never asked where she went or what she did.

He was just waiting.

Waiting for his wounds to heal completely, for his chakra to recover, and for a way to stop his soul from being corrupted...

Two months passed in the blink of an eye.

Night always fell quickly in Kannazuki Town.

Once the sun sank beneath the sea, the salty sea breeze swept into the tavern through its open doors, bringing a chill with it.

Naoki stood behind the counter, polishing an already gleaming glass with a rag, though his gaze was fixed on the street outside as it slowly darkened.

Ever since Hasegawa Kenichi had scrambled out of the tavern that day, no one in Kannazuki Town had dared cause trouble there again. Even the regulars, usually drunk as skunks, only dared to speak in low voices after entering. They would glance now and then at the taciturn young man behind the counter, hurriedly finish their drinks, and hurry out.

"Anu, what are you staring at?"

Aikawa Yumi's voice came from behind him.

He hadn't noticed her coming downstairs. She had changed into a dark purple outfit, her belt loosely tied and a patch of pale skin showing at her neckline.

Naoki didn't turn around. He kept polishing the glass.

Aikawa Yumi walked closer and suddenly kissed him on the cheek.

She was getting bolder and bolder lately. Naoki shifted away, but she followed him.

Just then, the room suddenly fell silent, and the light inside dimmed.

Naoki looked up. Hasegawa Kenichi had walked in.

"Hahaha." Hasegawa Kenichi strode into the tavern.

"This is perfect."

He pulled a wad of bills from his pocket.

"Here, take this money. You two, put on a little show for me..."

As he spoke, he clapped rapidly. The men behind him joined in, some whistling while others slapped the tables.

"Put on a show!" one skinny man jeered. "Give us something to look at!"

Aikawa Yumi's smile froze for an instant, then she returned to her usual languid expression. She released her hold on Naoki and slowly straightened her clothes.

"Hasegawa Kenichi, you ran off with your tail between your legs last time. Why come back?" Her voice still held a smile, but there was no warmth in her eyes. "Are you tired of living?"

Hasegawa Kenichi's laughter cut off abruptly.

He instinctively took a step back, but then remembered something and puffed out his chest, shouting with forced bravado, "Miss Yumi, quit trying to scare me! I was careless last time, but this time... this time, I brought a weapon!"

As he spoke, he drew a short blade from his waist. Its edge glinted coldly in the dim light.

The men behind him also drew their weapons: short blades, clubs. They all looked eager to fight.

Naoki remained behind the counter, watching with an expressionless face.

His gaze swept across the group before settling on the short blade in Hasegawa Kenichi's hand.

"Well?" Seeing Naoki stare at his weapon without saying anything, Hasegawa Kenichi assumed he was scared and grew bolder. "Kid, if you know what's good for you, do as you're told and get out of the way. Don't interfere with my business."

Naoki lowered his eyes and continued wiping the already gleaming glass.

Aikawa Yumi glanced back at him, a playful smile curling her lips. "Anu, he's already told you what to do. Why are you still standing there?"

Naoki didn't respond.

He put down the glass and stepped out from behind the counter.

Hasegawa Kenichi's laughter caught in his throat again. He remembered the suffocating aura that had radiated from this young man.

"You... What are you going to do?" His voice trembled as the short blade in his hand inched forward. "Don't come any closer! I've got a knife!"

Naoki stopped.

Just then, Hasegawa Kenichi suddenly lunged, thrusting his blade at Naoki. The men behind him rushed forward as well.

Hasegawa Kenichi's men surged in, blades and clubs flashing through the dim tavern.

Attacks that would have been fatal to an ordinary person looked as slow as still images to Naoki.

He sidestepped the oncoming short blade, caught the attacker's wrist with his right hand, and twisted it gently.