The cold wind carried away the last snowflake. Dawn's first faint gleam pierced the clouds, only to be twisted and swallowed by an invisible barrier at the edge of the ancient forest known as Firstborn Forest.
A faint yet tenacious pulse of life hung in the air, rhythmic and oppressive, like the breathing of a slumbering behemoth.
Xuan closed his eyes, quietly sensing the power from the Rinnegan fragment within him being drawn by invisible threads. A yearning from deep within his bloodline made him uncontrollably want to step into that darkness.
This urge was both a summons and a warning.
"Lord Xuan," Saori said from behind him, her voice extremely low as if afraid of disturbing something. "The intelligence has been confirmed. This is the legendary land where the Ten-Tails first took root. The Allied Shinobi Forces set up top-tier seals here on three separate occasions, but every elite shinobi squad assigned to the sealing went mad after completing the mission. Not one was spared."
Xuan slowly opened his right eye. Around the scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan, a pale violet phantom of the Rinnegan flickered like ripples before vanishing, bringing with it an inhuman majesty.
"Madness only comes because they cannot see the truth, nor bear it." His voice was calm, without the slightest ripple. A cold curve touched his lips. "This forest has never been a forbidden land. Saori, it is a granary."
Before his words had faded, the pupils of a figure hidden in the dense shadow of a giant tree's canopy a hundred meters away suddenly contracted.
Kato Kaze, the Forest Guardians' chief sensory shinobi, held a complex Mind Net hand seal. He had long since brought all chakra frequencies in the area within his perception.
When he caught that tyrannical, distorted, plunderous life force within Xuan,