In this deathly silent graveyard, that small sound was like a spark in the dark. Everyone's gaze snapped toward it at once.
"There are survivors!" a Kusagakure Ninja shouted.
Like drowning people grabbing the last straw, fear mixed with wild relief as they rushed toward the sound in a mess of footsteps.
Hearing them approach, a pale head peeked out from the house, its face completely drained of color.
When he saw the group of Kusagakure Ninja, the same lost and stunned relief appeared on his face.
Not only him, more people began to come out of hiding after hearing the noise.
Some of the Kusagakure Ninja found their family members and ran to hold them, crying without restraint.
But without exception, all the survivors were civilians.
"What is going on? What happened?"
Aoki grabbed the man by the shoulders and demanded harshly, his face twisted. "Why are only you alive? Where is everyone else?"
"Dead… all dead…" the man muttered blankly. "A monster, an invisible monster. Root couldn't stop it. No one could escape."
"What do you mean?" A chill crawled up Aoki's spine. "What are you talking about?"
An invisible monster?
Had fear driven him mad, making him talk nonsense?
"Captain, look! Over here!"
A Kusagakure Ninja crouched by a corpse and looked up in terror. "No wounds, and no signs of poison!"
"What?"
Aoki's heart tightened as he rushed over and examined the body.
He then moved to other bodies, checking them one by one.
The first, the second, the third.
Nothing. Nothing. Still nothing.
All the corpses showed no external injuries and no signs of poisoning.
"How is this possible?" he said hoarsely. "How did they die?"
It was so strange, almost as if someone had taken something away.
Their souls?
"Captain! Here, here is another one!"
At that moment, a Kusagakure Ninja stumbled over carrying a corpse that was still bleeding.
Blood?
Seeing the only different body, Aoki used Shunshin and appeared in front of him, snatching the corpse. He saw the chest pierced through, the heart missing.
He looked up sharply at the Ninja and asked in a low voice, "Where was this body found?"
"It was… it was in…" the Kusagakure Ninja swallowed hard. "In that woman's house."
"A woman?" Aoki froze, then quickly understood. "The Uzumaki Clan woman?"
Her? How could that be possible? How could that woman dare to do this, and how could she have the power to slaughter most of Kusagakure?
"Cap, Captain," the Kusagakure Ninja pointed at the corpse and trembled. "Look at his back."
Aoki lowered his head and turned the body over, his pupils shrinking.
Two lines were clearly carved into the corpse's back.
"For the pain my flesh once suffered, the pain of being gnawed."
"Now barred from the Pure Land, all of it is returned."
"So it really was that filthy woman?!"
Aoki's face became twisted as bitter rage overwhelmed his fear. "We took her and that little brat in, and she dared to do this instead of being grateful!"
No matter how she did it, these words made everything very clear.
"Chase her!" He stood up abruptly and shouted at the other Kusagakure Ninja. "She took that little brat with her, she can't have gone far. Get me…"
"Captain!"
Before he could finish, a Kusagakure Ninja interrupted, his body shaking hard. "She's already dead!"
"…"
Silence fell, as if the air had frozen.
Everyone stared in shock, and someone blurted out, "What did you say?"
"She's dead! Dead! Her body was already burned, right there in that house!"
The Kusagakure Ninja finally broke under the fear that reached his soul. He pointed at the bloody words and screamed, "It was that woman! She cursed all of us after she died!"
Those words ignited the fear of everyone still alive.
"It was her? That monster, that monster was her?!"
The image of the invisible, formless reaper that devoured souls last night merged with the image of a woman who died with hatred after long suffering.
A deep, bone-level fear flooded everyone present.
Even Aoki, who had been the angriest moments ago, felt cold rush from his feet to his head.
This was the human fear of the unknown.
And more than that, he himself had once bitten into that woman.
At this moment, on a cliff not far from Kusagakure. Nagato, Kakuzu, and the figure called Shadow stood within the shade, facing the rising morning light as they quietly looked down at distant Kusagakure. Only their robes moved, snapping softly in the wind.
"The last words have been delivered." Nagato withdrew his gaze and sighed in his heart. "Let's go."
Kakuzu also looked away, then turned to stare at Shadow beside him and let out a cold laugh. "Your methods are terrifying. Even I have never seen anything like this."
To make the spirits of the dead rise and take revenge was an ability more frightening than Impure World Reincarnation. This was an entire ninja village.
Only those Kusagakure ninja from Hozuki Castle who belonged to the so-called Grass Fruit Faction were left alive. Even though Kusagakure had already declined to the extreme, being almost wiped out overnight was enough to fill anyone with fear.
It was easy to imagine how fast this news would spread and how it would shake the entire Ninja World. "This is only the beginning," Shadow said with a smile. "You will see much more in the future."
Hearing this, both Nagato and Kakuzu sensed the deeper meaning in his words, and their eyes flickered slightly. "What do you mean…"
Kakuzu was about to press further when he suddenly felt his sleeve being tugged. He looked down and met a pair of misty eyes filled with tears.
"Tsk." Impatience rose in his eyes. "What do we do with this burden?"
Sensing Kakuzu's dislike, Karin recoiled as if bitten by a venomous snake. Her small body trembled as she stumbled back in fear.
"Don't be so rough." Shadow stepped forward and walked calmly toward Karin.
Having just let go of Kakuzu's sleeve, Karin now trembled again in fear and instinctively wanted to retreat. These three people had taken her away from that hellish place, and she did not know who they were, only that the green-eyed man called Kakuzu felt like a monster.
The white-bodied person had an aura that felt cold and hollow, while the Shadow in front of her, whose presence she could not sense at all, felt the most mysterious and the most frightening. She hunched her shoulders like a startled chick, her red eyes full of tears mixed with the terror and confusion of seeing her mother die and losing her home the night before.
At that moment, a hand landed steadily on her messy red hair, firm but not rough. Karin shuddered, her small body tensing as she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for pain or scolding.
Yet the coldness or violence she expected never came. Her tightly pressed lips loosened slightly, and her lashes trembled as she cautiously opened a thin slit and looked up with a hesitant gaze.
She still saw only darkness that could not be perceived, unable to make out the expression on the face hidden in shadow. But that hand was steady and clear-boned, and she felt an indescribable gentleness, like an unexpected patch of warmth laid over a cold night.
"Since you don't want her, then leave this child to me." Shadow's voice carried a smile, yet it held a firmness that allowed no refusal.