As the Jashin Religion gradually eroded the lower-class commoners of the Land of Wind, a ninja within the Hidden Sand Village also snapped his eyes open in the dead of night.
Kawanishi woke from a nightmare, his chest heaving violently as if he were trying to expel the fear from his very body. His skin was drenched in sweat. To be precise, it wasn't just his body; the entire bedsheet was soaked, making it look as though he had just been fished out of a river.
He leaned his body against the wall weakly, relying on the slight chill of the surface to steady his panicked emotions.
"That dream again..."
Kawanishi looked at the Jashin Religion mark slowly surfacing on his hand, recalling the nightmare with lingering fear. It was an indescribable monster. Every language he mastered failed to capture its bizarreness; all he could see were countless tentacles and various eerie eyes.
Just a single glance made Kawanishi feel as though his entire head was about to explode. His body felt like it was melting, transforming into another creature entirely. He had a premonition: if he dared to gaze at that monster for even one more second in the dream, his real self in the physical world would truly turn into a terrifying beast.
All of this had begun after encountering that man in the merchant guild.
"That guy..."
Kawanishi went to the bathroom and splashed his face aggressively with tap water. He slowly looked up, only to find in horror that his reflection in the mirror was twisting bit by bit into an unknown shape. A pair of square-framed glasses had appeared on his face at some unknown point, and his features had shifted into those of that man.
"Offer yourself to Lord Jashin. My Lord will bring you unexpected rewards."
In the mirror, the man's words wrapped around Kawanishi's heart like the whispers of an evil deity.
"No, no... I don't want to!"
Kawanishi punched the mirror. The shattered glass sliced his fist as expected, and blood sprayed instantly. The sharp pain allowed his mind to regain clarity for a brief moment. He slumped to the floor, gasping for air, only to see the blood from his palm pooling on the ground into a pattern—a triangle within a circle.
"Ah..."
Seeing this, Kawanishi fell into utter despair. The man's figure surfaced in his mind once again. It seemed that no matter how he struggled or resisted, he would forever be shrouded in his shadow.
The whispers of Jashin continued to echo in his ears.
"Are you content to live like this forever, like a rat in the dark underground?"
"Do you not want to live in the sunlight like those true geniuses, becoming a presence the entire Hidden Sand Village looks up to?"
"Do you not want to become the Kazekage, the most noble person in the village?"
"Do you not want everyone to surrender at your feet, only able to look up at you?"
"Offer yourself to Lord Jashin. The Lord will satisfy all your requests!"
Countless whispers rose, every word striking Kawanishi's innermost heart. Indeed, he was just a young man with mediocre talent. He had no powerful lineage, no sufficient gift for ninjutsu, and he couldn't even use Puppet Jutsu. No matter how he struggled or worked, he could never catch up to geniuses like the Kazekage or Sasori of the Red Sand. He would spend his whole life living in obscurity, perhaps killed on some battlefield and then forgotten.
But he didn't want that. Kawanishi wanted to bloom like a genius, to be as dazzling as them. He even wanted to become the Kazekage, the most noble existence in the village.
"If you want it, give yourself to Lord Jashin."
This sentence was the final straw that broke Kawanishi. His eyes became vacant as he opened his mouth and murmured, "Lord... Jashin!"
He gave up his struggle. His gaze became increasingly fervent, increasingly bright, increasingly...
Crazed!
"Lord Jashin!"
"Long live Lord Jashin!"
"Praise Lord Jashin!"
As he raised his hands to fanatically chant the Lord's name, the insects hidden within his body grew rapidly. Eight sharp appendages sprouted from Kawanishi's back. A massive, hard, and sharp scorpion tail extended from his tailbone. His eyes flickered with red light.
"Praise... Lord Jashin!"
No one knew what kind of metamorphosis this ordinary Hidden Sand Chunin had undergone during this single night.
The next day, the sun rose over the desert as usual.
Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, was gently rubbing his brow while observing the documents before him with a solemn expression. The contents concerned the frequent appearances of the Ghost-Faced Wind Scorpion and the Poison-Blade Centipede within the Land of Wind. The emergence of these two species had caused significant property damage to the residents.
While this change had more than doubled the mission requests for the Hidden Sand Village recently, this was not a result the Daimyo of the Land of Wind wanted to see. If these monsters were allowed to continue their destruction, the tax revenue of the nobles across the Land of Wind would be severely affected this year, leading to a massive deficit in the national budget.
Consequently, the Daimyo had issued an S-Rank mission to the village. They were ordered to discover where these monsters were coming from and to cut off the source.
Faced with this demand, Rasa appeared conflicted. Over the past few years, the Daimyo had been gradually reducing the military funding for the village. Now that the mission volume had finally increased, an S-Rank mission wanted to reset everything back to the way it was? Even if he, the Kazekage, agreed, wouldn't the ninjas executing the missions work half-heartedly? Generally speaking, the ninjas at the top of the social hierarchy could not truly empathize with the commoners at the bottom.
Of course, despite being the Kazekage, Rasa still had to give the Daimyo's S-Rank mission sufficient attention.
"In that case, Baki, take two squads to clear out all the monsters near the capital. Clean up the ones near the village as well while you're at it."
"Investigate where these monsters are coming from. Report the results to me immediately. Understood?"
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
As a long-time subordinate, Baki naturally understood Rasa's thoughts. While it appeared they were executing the Daimyo's task and investigating the source, whether the investigation was meant to eliminate the monsters or to better control them for themselves was another matter entirely.
Just as Baki accepted the mission and took his leave, Rasa's secretary immediately informed him of another matter.
"A Chunin named Kawanishi seeks an audience. He says he has vital intelligence to report to you immediately, Kazekage-sama."
"Kawanishi? Send him in."