A Thick Pink Oil Painting

Mitaraishi Anko hurried to the wounded messenger and turned him over, only to find that he was already dead.

The last of his strength had given out after he uttered those two words—"Send help." He couldn't hold on any longer.

Anko said, "We saw him while patrolling the edge of the defense zone. He was one of the two ninja from Zone 82 to the north."

She looked at Uchiha Ling, unsure what to do.

Uchiha Ling frowned. "Our mission is to hold Zone 81. That comes first.

"If Zone 82 has been breached, the Stone Ninja could attack us from behind without our knowing. We'd take heavy losses, and the mission would fail.

"And we can't ignore a plea for help from our fellow Konoha ninja.

"Here's what I suggest. Captain Anko, you and Dule Jiong keep guarding Zone 81. I'll go take a look at Zone 82."

Mitaraishi Anko and Dule Jiong exchanged a glance. It was their only option.

Uchiha Ling leaped north and vanished into the forest.

He didn't have to search hard. A column of thick smoke was visible in the distance.

Using Transparent Release, he cautiously approached the smoke and found a corpse. An Explosive Tag had charred it and hurled it against a rock.

The corpse had been unlucky. Its cooked head had struck the rock first, leaving sticky pink brain matter smeared across the stone.

The pink brain matter mixed with red blood, forming a thick, warm-toned oil painting on the rock.

Standing beside the corpse, Uchiha Ling began to understand why the Hidden Leaf Village had so many lunatics.

War wore away a person's humanity. In his previous life, the cruelest thing Uchiha Ling had done was zap mosquitoes with an electric swatter. Two years ago, at the Ninja Academy, it