The wind blew bone-chillingly late at night, sweeping up withered leaves and slapping them against the walls around the new clan grounds.
Mihui wore a thick padded coat, clutching a specially made steel kunai in her hand as she patrolled the stone path along the rear mountain with two young Uchiha Shadow Guards.
It originally was not her turn to keep watch tonight, but ever since nightfall, her eyelid had kept twitching, and she could not shake the feeling that the rear mountain graveyard where their clansmen's ashes were buried carried an abnormal, icy gloom. Yuan had gone out these past few days to tighten the net and clear out the small fry of Akatsuki, leaving only her and a group of half-grown children who had just begun training in the clan grounds.
"Lady Mihui, the wind is too strong. You should go back and rest. We can keep watch here," the young shadow guard behind her said, stepping forward and rubbing his frozen hands.
Mihui shook her head, her gaze sweeping over the dark, oppressive forest ahead like a hawk's. "Cut the crap. Yuan entrusted the clan grounds to me. I won't let even a fly I don't recognize get in. Uncle Cheng's graveyard is just ahead. We'll take one look and go back."
She had only taken two steps when her feet suddenly stopped.
There was an extremely faint smell mixed in the wind. It was not the fishy scent of earth, but a stench blended from pungent chemical agents and old rotten wood. Mihui had smelled that odor before, on the Root assassins during the night of the massacre.
"Enemy attack! Scatter!" Mihui did not hesitate at all and directly flung the kunai in her hand toward the bushes to her front right.
The kunai pierced into