Clues

"Yo! Murder!"

Tsunade arranged the cards in her hand and casually glanced at Neji.

"Junior brother, you're hurt! Quick, let me treat you!" Shizune pushed away the cards in front of her in a daze and stood up.

"Young master, where are you hurt?" Xiao Xi practically bounced over to Neji, reaching out to feel around his body as she spoke.

"It's nothing! I ran into a few fools and already dealt with them!" Neji said with a smile, stopping them both.

He then added, "I picked a mission. Take a look. This is the information."

As he spoke, he placed the scroll he had obtained from the bounty exchange on the table.

Seeing this, everyone knew he was not seriously hurt. They suppressed their concern and looked at the unrolled scroll.

"Traces of a ritual! Could this be some kind of cult?" Tsunade said after reading it.

"They killed an entire village. That's too cruel. We have to find the culprit. And the women and children—I don't know whether they're still alive, but we must find them!" Shizune said angrily.

"That's so terrifying. Why would they kill civilians?" Xiao Xi's face showed sorrow.

"Hehe! There's no particular reason. They merely needed a little blood... Hmph! What creature in this world is more cruel than humans?"

"There isn't one. Animals kill only when they're hungry. Only humans are constantly thinking about how to kill others. Wasn't the profession of ninja born for exactly that?"

Neji answered with a smile. The two young women had not experienced much of the world, and their hearts still held pure kindness. Neji wanted to protect those pure hearts, but unfortunately, this was the Ninja World, where ordinary logic did not apply.

Neji only hoped they would be a little more vigilant, enough to protect themselves at the very least.

"But isn't that because of mission requirements? It's different from slaughtering civilians!" Shizune raised her head and said earnestly.

"Is it really different?" Neji's calm eyes were like a bottomless, icy pool, swallowing all the girl's hopes.

"It is different..." Shizune helplessly hugged Tonton tightly and turned to Tsunade as if seeking help.

"Sigh~"

Tsunade sighed softly and said with a lost look, "It's the same!"

Boom~ Shizune swayed, turmoil exploding within her heart. It was as though a belief she had upheld for so long had suddenly collapsed. Her eyes began to lose focus, while her lips still murmured something.

"Sister Shizune, are you okay? What's wrong? Don't scare me! Young master, what happened to Sister Shizune?"

Noticing Shizune's abnormal state, Xiao Xi hurriedly supported her. Looking into her vacant eyes, she seemed unable to understand why Shizune had suddenly become like this.

Xiao Xi had spent her life within high walls and great estates, without any distracting thoughts. Each day, she simply listened and did as she was told, so she had no convictions to collapse.

Shizune, on the other hand, had followed Tsunade since she was very young. Influenced by what she saw and heard, she naturally upheld a certain standard in her heart: the traditional principle of putting missions first.

Although Tsunade's so-called "rebellious" conduct in recent years had shaken that belief somewhat, it had remained largely stable. She had never expected Neji to suddenly knock it down today, bringing a profound change to her heart.

Don't go dark. Although going dark makes you ten times stronger and turning good weakens you by thirty percent, becoming a yandere would be troublesome too...

Neji muttered inwardly, but showed no concern on his face. If the girl before him had been an evil member of the Uchiha Clan, he would already have been wondering where he ought to be buried. Unfortunately, she was not.

Shizune's beliefs had long been wavering. This time, Neji had merely given a crumbling wall that was bound to fall sooner or later a casual shove. It was not a big problem.

"Get lost! Why did you bring up such things when you had nothing better to do, brat?" Tsunade shot Neji a fierce glare, stepped forward, and pressed Shizune's neck. Shizune immediately rolled her eyes back and fainted.

"It's fine! She'll be better after some sleep!" Tsunade told the anxious Xiao Xi.

Over the course of their daily interactions, Tsunade had gradually come to like this girl who never seemed to have much of an opinion of her own. Their personalities were completely opposite, yet Xiao Xi lived in a way Tsunade envied.

"Perhaps I have too much of an opinion..."

Tsunade gave a self-mocking smile.

A charred torii gate leaned crookedly at the village entrance, its vermilion paint peeling away in flakes like blood scabs. Neji's fingertips brushed over the scorched earth, where traces of Explosive Tags remained.

Murder and arson—after killing people, how could they not set fires? It had been the carnival of a pack of lunatics, leaving devastation everywhere.

Tsunade kicked open the half-collapsed door of the shrine. The moment morning light spilled inside, everyone froze.

Across the mottled floor of the main hall, three hundred and sixty corpses had been arranged into concentric circles. Each chest bore an inverted-cross knife wound.

Even more horrifying were the bloodstains splattered across the four walls—those seemingly chaotic sprays faintly formed the image of a disheveled, vicious ghost.

"Blech~"

Xiao Xi, who had never seen such a scene before, turned and ran outside to vomit.

Shizune swayed as though she might collapse at any moment.

Tsunade began to tremble, and Neji looked at her.

A long time passed, or perhaps only an instant. At last, the trembling throughout Tsunade's body subsided.

Neji turned away, suppressing the intense discomfort in his heart, and began investigating inside.

No normal person could remain indifferent before such a tragedy. The corpses of his own kind deeply stirred Neji's heart.

"This wasn't an ordinary cult." Neji dipped his fingers into the blood crust on the window lattice and rubbed it between them. "The blood sigils in the Kan and Dui positions are reversed. This is a forbidden technique meant to reverse the cycle of life and death."

Thanks to the Main House's collection and Tsunade's instruction, Neji was no longer completely ignorant of formations.

"An ordinary cult couldn't commit something this evil either." Tsunade clenched her fists until the veins on the backs of her hands bulged, gritting out the words.

"Someone's coming. Ninjas from Hot Water Shadow Village. The leader is a chunin!" Neji's Byakugan showed him the situation a kilometer away. His pure Byakugan granted him vision beyond that of an ordinary Byakugan.

"I'm sorry. The village ordered me to clean this place up three days ago, but I considered that the ninjas who accepted the mission would need more clues, so I took it upon myself to preserve the scene.

"As you can see, this place is not suitable for camping, so we stayed some distance away. It took us a while to get here. I'm truly sorry. If you have any questions, you may ask me."

A moment later, the chunin leader who had arrived spoke in a despondent tone.

"What do you think of this scene? Have you seen or heard of anything like it?" Neji asked.

"...It may have been the work of a wandering cult group. As for these rituals, I have not heard of them. Sorry..." The chunin leader fell silent for a moment before answering vaguely.

"Captain, it must be the big—"

"Shut up! Don't say another word!"

The leader sternly stopped the emotional genin in his team, then said to Neji and the others, "That is all I can tell you. If you have finished examining the scene, we will begin clearing it away!"

Neji nodded thoughtfully, then said, "We have what we wanted. You may go in."

As he spoke, he stepped aside from the passage before the door and silently watched the team carry the bodies out, trip after trip.