"Whoosh, whoosh..."
Shuriken whistled through the silent chamber, first spreading out, then converging on a single point as they flew toward the black-robed ninja ahead.
Sensing something, the black-robed ninja immediately stopped what he was doing, put away the scroll, and darted sideways, dodging every incoming shuriken.
"Who's there..."
The black-robed ninja drew a deep breath, staring with lingering fear at the shuriken buried deep in the wall.
Then he turned his gaze toward the direction the attack had come from.
A beautiful woman in lavish clothing stood before the passage leading out of the basement. What startled him most was that she actually possessed a pair of Byakugan eyes.
Shock filled the black-robed ninja's eyes. He blinked hard, thinking he must have been hallucinating.
But when he opened his eyes again, the woman ahead had vanished.
"W-where did she go?"
He looked around the room in astonishment, but could find no trace of her.
Just as he began to think he had imagined her, a sharp pain in his back snapped him to his senses.
"Urgh..." He grunted and looked behind him.
The woman had plunged the kunai in her hand deep into his back.
"Cough, cough..." He coughed uncontrollably, then asked in terror, "The Byakugan... you... who exactly are you..."
The black-robed ninja lurched forward, wrenching himself free of the kunai in his back.
"Splurt..." He had barely taken a few steps before the agony sent him collapsing to the floor.
He turned back and stared fixedly at the woman's face.
A moment later, the image of a girl with the same pale skin and white Byakugan eyes surfaced in his mind.
"You..." He could scarcely believe it, but as the image in his memory gradually overlapped with the woman before him, he had no choice but to