Whooo… whooo…
The sound of wind was especially clear amidst the empty silence and darkness.
At this moment, the Kumogakure group had already entered the so-called "Abyss" mentioned in the scroll.
At first, they thought the word "Abyss" was merely an exaggerated description.
But after entering it themselves, they realized,
The term suited this place perfectly.
Its very shape resembled a crack, as though the earth itself had been violently torn apart.
Standing above and looking downward, one could see only immeasurable darkness.
Even light itself failed to illuminate its depths.
It was darkness that seemed capable of swallowing light whole.
Yet everyone, including Yugito Nii, still proceeded inward.
They gathered chakra beneath their feet to adhere themselves to the rock walls,
A skill any ninja could perform proficiently.
"How far have we descended?"
Walking at the front of the group, Yugito's catlike pupils glimmered faintly in the darkness as she asked.
Behind her, over a dozen elite Kumogakure ninja followed closely.
Their breathing sounded heavy beneath their masks.
The lamps in their hands were the only source of light in this boundless darkness.
The dim yellow glow illuminated merely a few feet ahead.
Anything farther was greedily devoured by the surrounding blackness.
"Yugito-sama, the depth is already approaching one thousand meters."
A ninja responsible for surveying spoke quietly.
His voice echoed through the narrow space, carrying an almost imperceptible tension.
They had been descending through this seemingly endless abyss for a very long time.
The air was becoming thinner and thinner, mixed with a decaying odor of rust and dust that defied description.
Above them was a sky so distant it had long vanished into darkness.
On either side were damp, rough rock walls resembling the intestines of some giant beast.
"Mm. According to the estimated depth provided by the Raikage-sama, we should be close."
Without turning back, Yugito simply nodded faintly.
The group carefully advanced through the absolute darkness.
The slippery footing forced them to tread cautiously with every step.
Everywhere they looked was dead blackness.
Only the narrow beams of light guided their path.
Thinking back to how relaxed they had been when they first entered, several of them could not help but break into cold sweat.
Before arriving, none of them had realized this place was so deep.
At such a height, even a ninja falling down would not survive.
Just then,
Yugito's feline pupils suddenly contracted.
She could feel the Two-Tails' chakra inside her beginning to stir uneasily.
Not as a warning,
But more like instinctive fear.
"Stop."
Yugito raised a hand.
Her voice was calm and clear.
The entire group froze instantly.
All light sources focused forward.
The beams pierced through the darkness,
Only to seem as though they had struck a wall.
They had finally reached the deepest part of the abyss.
Tap… tap…
Releasing their grip from the rock walls, the group fell briefly before landing upon solid ground.
No longer confined within a narrow fissure, the space before them suddenly opened up.
And for the first time,
There was light.
"W-What is that?"
One young Kumogakure ninja blurted out in shock.
The beams from their searchlights stretched forward, outlining a colossal shadow that suffocated the senses.
It seemed that the end of the abyss had been artificially hollowed into a massive cavern.
Within the darkness rested an underground palace so enormous it surpassed imagination itself.
"Stay alert."
Yugito's low, solemn voice shattered the deathly silence.
"It seems this is the target of our mission."
As she spoke, she took the lead and walked forward.
The Kumogakure ninja followed closely behind, silently tightening their grip on their weapons.
The palace's overall structure could not be seen at a glance.
At the very least, the walls before them appeared endless, extending far into darkness beyond the reach of their lights.
As they gradually approached, they finally saw the surface clearly.
The main structure of the underground palace appeared to be built from some kind of enormous stone with a deep, indistinguishable color.
Its surface was covered in moss that emitted a faint eerie glow, along with black shell-like growths resembling barnacles.
The stone was marked everywhere by erosion left behind by the river of time.
Rugged.
Ancient.
Primitive.
Its very presence gave the impression that it had slumbered here for a span of time vastly older than the history of the Five Great Nations combined.
Most eye-catching of all,
Was the gigantic gate directly facing them.
"So this is the 'man-eating' door the Raikage-sama mentioned?"
The lights in everyone's hands swayed uneasily upon the massive silent gate, like tiny fireflies trembling in the darkness.
Embedded in the center of the palace facade, the gate stood tightly shut.
Its height exceeded one hundred meters.
Its material looked neither entirely stone nor metal, but possessed a dark bronze hue.
Mottled verdigris spread across its surface.
Gigantic twisted totems were carved upon it, though the dim lighting made the details impossible to discern.
What they could feel,
Was the overwhelming pressure rushing toward them.
Even without megalophobia, the Kumogakure ninja felt their scalps tingle numb.
"..."
Standing before the gate, Yugito looked toward the stone monument nearby.
It was filled with writing she could not understand.
But according to the scroll sent by the Raikage-sama, the village had already deciphered part of it and learned some of the palace's origins and secrets.
Yugito frowned and looked upward toward the dark stains upon the gate.
She could clearly sense the Two-Tails inside her becoming unusually active once again.
But it was not excitement.
It was more like a wild cat instinctively arching its back and growling silently in the face of an unknown threat.
Their mission objective was to open this gate,
Yet at this moment, she had no idea how to begin.
Every instinct of a feline was screaming at her not to touch the gate lightly.
And the scroll had also issued severe warnings…
Just as she was thinking,
As though sensing something, Yugito's pupils flickered faintly.
Her gaze drifted toward the distant darkness behind them.
"Let's search the surrounding area."
She spoke calmly.
"See if there are other entrances."
The Kumogakure ninja were briefly stunned.
But they quickly understood and followed Yugito into the darkness on the left side.
Not long after they departed,
A figure silently approached.
Wearing a Kumogakure rogue-nin forehead protector, he was clearly a bounty ninja.
"Even the Two-Tails Jinchūriki showed up… and with Ōnoki's bounty on top of that, looks like we really hooked a big fish this time."
A thoughtful look flashed through the rogue ninja's eyes.
But when he raised his head toward the giant gate,
That contemplation transformed into greed.
Driven by extreme tension and some inexplicable impulse, he stepped forward and unconsciously reached out his hand.
Tap…
His trembling fingertips lightly touched the icy-cold surface of the gate.
The chill made him shudder instinctively.
At the same time, his previously clouded mind instantly cleared.
He realized he might have done something stupid and tried to withdraw his hand.
But,
It was already too late.
Bzzzt!
A faint hum resonated, subtle yet penetrating straight into the marrow.
A circle of eerie deep-blue light suddenly lit up across the gate.
An overwhelming suction force instantly latched onto his palm.
"W-What is this?! This gate is absorbing my chakra?!"
The chakra within the rogue ninja's body was violently torn away by an invisible force.
It burst forth from his seven orifices, even every pore on his body.
The deep-blue glow upon the gate became slightly brighter.
The absorption was horrifyingly fast.
His chakra poured away like floodwaters bursting through a dam.
Within mere seconds, everything inside him had been drained dry.
"Damn it! Damn it! What the hell is this thing?!"
The rogue ninja screamed in agony while desperately struggling.
But soon his chakra was completely exhausted, leaving him powerless.
Yet,
This was only the beginning.
As though sensing that his chakra had run out, the blue glow upon the gate abruptly vanished.
But a new and even more terrifying change immediately followed.
"No! No no!!"
Under his horrified gaze, the flesh beneath his skin visibly shriveled and dissolved as though corroded by acid.
"AAAAAH!! SOMEONE, "
A brief scream of terror squeezed from his distorted throat.
He managed only a broken syllable before his voice abruptly cut off.
Rip!
Accompanied by a sickening tearing sound of flesh, his body collapsed like a punctured sack.
In less than two breaths, skin clung tightly to dry bones.
His eyeballs withered into two gray-white glass beads.
As a faint breeze passed through, the skin and bones pressed against the icy gate, now utterly devoid of flesh, crumbled into dust and scattered into the air.
"..."
In the distance,
Whether it was Yugito and the Kumogakure ninja, or the several hidden figures silently observing from the shadows,
All fell into absolute silence.
A dead silence engulfed everyone.
The blood of every witness seemed to freeze solid at that instant.
An icy chill mixed with indescribable terror crawled up each person's spine.
Just seconds ago, that had been a living ninja.
Now he had become another stain upon the gate,
Like a pair of grotesque twisted murals.
The entire process had been swift, bizarre, and complete.
Not even a drop of blood remained,
Because even the flesh itself had been devoured.
The giant gate stood silently there, radiating a wordless horror that grew increasingly tangible in the air.
"What… is that thing…"
The muttering voice of a Kumogakure ninja behind Yugito trembled uncontrollably with fear.
Yugito's catlike pupils had narrowed into slits as she stared fixedly at the gate that had devoured a life.
Inside her, the Two-Tails Matatabi emitted a deep growl unlike anything before.
Because Matatabi's flames could burn souls, she could clearly sense that the man's flesh had not merely been drained,
Even his soul after death had been absorbed into the gate.
But amidst the terror,
Yugito sharply noticed something.
"That gate…"
Her voice was hoarse and faint as she said:
"Did it… open a little?"