Kurama Yakumo

"Who am I? Oh, I'm Kurama Yakumo, a genius of the Kurama Clan!"

"I have parents who love me and a kind teacher. Everyone says I'll become the pride of the Kurama Clan."

"One day, I'll become a hero of Konoha, a dazzling kunoichi just like Lady Tsunade! That's what my teacher told me!"

"Kill! Kill!" A nauseating voice rang out.

"Kill? Kill who?" The girl was confused. Why kill someone? "Why should I kill?"

"Kill them all! They're your enemies! They're the ones who killed your parents!" the voice continued.

"Why are they my enemies? And that's my teacher, not my enemy."

"No! She is your enemy!"

"No, she's my teacher. My teacher wouldn't kill my parents."

"Heh heh. Your parents were killed by her. Konoha gave the order. Have you forgotten the fire all those years ago? Have you forgotten that old man telling your teacher to kill you? Come on! Listen to me. Kill her! This is the first step in our revenge!"

"Our? Who are you?" The girl in a pink dress gazed inwardly at another version of herself, clad in a black dress. Her eyes were vacant, and she asked in confusion.

"Heh heh. Who am I? I'm you, and you're me! Come on, don't hesitate. Only I can help you get revenge! Only I can help you carry out your revenge!"

"Oh, you're me. Then I can listen to you, right?" the girl murmured blankly.

"That's right, that's right. You only have to listen to me." The other girl's face was twisted, her lips curled into a cold smile. Her words drifted slowly into the air like a demon's whisper.

"Mm, then let's kill!" The once-vacant expression on the girl's face twisted into the same bloodthirsty look as the other girl's.

Her eyes turned blood-red, and a fierce gleam appeared in them.

Then the girl in pink clutched her head and screamed violently. The redness in her eyes slowly faded, as if her mind were gradually clearing.

Vaguely, the girl seemed to see her teacher looking at her in pain, covered in wounds. She saw the fire, her uncle, and her third uncle on the verge of death.

"No! I can't, I can't do this!" The girl's emotions grew more and more intense.

"Ah! Ah!"

"Tch, damn it! They all deserve to die. There's nothing you can't do. It's all their fault. They did all of this!"

The black-clad girl's expression grew more and more frenzied. The bone-deep hatred in her words was laid bare.

"Father, Mother, I... Yakumo, Yakumo knows she was wrong. She knows she was wrong. It was all Yakumo's fault. Wuwu..." The girl murmured to herself, and two crystalline tears slowly slid down her cheeks.

Now the girl's face was filled with sorrow, without a trace of malice or menace. There was only a faint sadness and an indescribable emptiness.

"Damn it, damn it!" The black-clad girl watched the girl in pink gradually calm down, her face filled with fury.

"If that's how it is, then you can die too!" The black-clad girl glared viciously at the girl in pink, then extended her right arm without hesitation.

What was horrifying was that the arm was covered in dense black hair. Its thick, dark hand was both disgusting and terrifying. It looked nothing like the arm of a young girl.

It reached silently toward the girl in pink's left chest. The girl's eyes were closed, and only a faint smile rested on her face. With a "pfft," the black arm pierced straight through her chest, meeting no resistance.

"Heh heh." The black-clad girl wore an expression of rapture. The girl in pink seemed to be absorbed by the arm, gradually turning transparent before slowly disappearing.

Then, suddenly, everything before her brightened. It was as if she glimpsed a thread of purple, a familiar face she had seen somewhere before, and a trace of reluctance at the corner of her mouth.

"This is better. As long as it's like this, it's all right." At the very end, the girl murmured these words, and her consciousness slowly sank into darkness.

"Hmph. I should have done that from the start. Useless thing, stay quietly inside me!" the black-clad girl sneered.

"Now then! Next is... Hahaha... hahaha!" The black-clad girl slowly turned around and laughed maniacally. If anyone had seen her face at that moment, they would have fainted on the spot.

Only half of the girl's face was as beautiful as before. The other half looked like a hideous monster, with a ghastly pale eyeball that seemed to hang loose, making her even more terrifying.

Perhaps it was more fitting to call her a monster.

Ueno Kei knelt on the high platform, gasping for breath. His whole body had finally relaxed, but although the battle was over, his hands were still trembling slightly.

He had seen dead people before. In his previous life, as one of the heirs to his family, he had witnessed far too many people killed for betraying the family or making themselves its enemies.

When it came to cruelty, nothing was beyond them. There was nothing they wouldn't do, only things you couldn't imagine. And having died once himself, he felt no great sorrow over another person's death.

But whether in his past or present life, this was the first time Ueno Kei had killed someone with his own hands. He had killed to stay alive. It was still killing, but he felt no guilt or burden.

He simply felt an immense turmoil inside, something he couldn't put behind him. Ueno Kei knew it was just the aftereffect of drawing blood for the first time. With time, it would naturally fade.

Once he had killed more people, he wouldn't feel so sensitive about it anymore.

Of course, Ueno Kei admitted that he had hesitated a little at the very last moment. It wasn't for any particular reason; it was just because he remembered that sorrowful expression.

It had made the boy waver. He didn't know why he'd had that thought in that moment. His emotions had simply told him he couldn't deal with the girl that way.

But in the end, reason had made Ueno Kei strike.

Kill or be killed. The choice was that simple. Anyone knew what they had to do. After enough time and enough killing, you naturally got used to it. Weren't shinobi born to kill?

Ueno Kei shook his head wryly.

Meanwhile, Yuhi Kurenai climbed the high platform with heavy steps. After the girl on the platform had been cut in two by Ueno Kei, the monsters surrounding them had also turned into wisps of black smoke and vanished.

Yuhi Kurenai looked sorrowfully at the girl lying on the ground, utterly lifeless, and slowly closed her eyes. She knew. She understood all of it.

If Ueno Kei hadn't killed Kurama Yakumo, both he and Yuhi Kurenai would have died there.

But Yakumo had been Yuhi Kurenai's very first student, and her favorite.

Ueno Kei had naturally noticed the shift in Yuhi Kurenai's emotions. He didn't think he had done anything wrong. At that moment, stopping and capturing Kurama Yakumo alive would have been far too difficult for him.

Ueno Kei could have chosen to hold back.

But if he'd hesitated even slightly, he might have been the one to die.

After all, in the final moment, Ueno Kei had seen the bloodthirsty frenzy in Kurama Yakumo's eyes and the distortion of her face. He had every reason to believe that her soul had become completely twisted.

That sight had sent a chill through Ueno Kei. It was because of that that he cast aside his last trace of hesitation and swung his blade without a moment's delay.

He had ended the life of the girl before him. Although Ueno Kei felt a trace of dissonance and a faint emptiness inside,

he felt no guilt. After all, it was either kill or be killed. There was nothing to hesitate over.

As for Yuhi Kurenai, Ueno Kei didn't know why he felt a hint of guilt toward her. Perhaps it was because Yuhi Kurenai had treated him so gently.

As mentioned earlier, Ueno Kei was simply more concerned with his own life. In terms of morals, he was a perfectly normal person.

He couldn't have been completely unmoved by Yuhi Kurenai's kindness.

So, over killing Kurama Yakumo, Ueno Kei felt a faint guilt toward Yuhi Kurenai.