Under the twilight sky, the sun slanted down like a weary old man, casting long, stretched shadows across the trees.
Even in the fading light, the air still carried a lingering heat.
The wind whispered through the mountains, stirring the leaves beneath the soft orange glow, painting the world in peaceful hues.
Stepping lightly across the swaying branches, a team of ninjas in yellow uniforms leapt through the woods.
There were four of them: three men and one woman.
Leading the group was a man with black-rimmed glasses, a forehead protector tied around his head, and a deep scar carved beneath his left eye.
The others were teenagers, still rough around the edges none of them wore forehead protectors.
Jonin Sakawa was their leader.
Their squad had been stationed along the border with the main army for a week now.
Rumors of war had been swirling for months.
The higher-ups let the rumors spread, knowing full well that tension would be the spark to ignite the inevitable conflict.
The Land of Rain and the Land of Grass were deadlocked. All it would take was a single match to set the whole field ablaze.
And in Sunagakure, many had grown restless they were tired of surviving in barren lands.
They craved new territory, new resources.
A few days earlier, Sakawa's team received an A-rank mission.
Their orders: infiltrate the Land of Fire from the Land of Rivers and track down a group of Hidden Rain ninjas.
The situation was volatile, one misstep could spark a full-scale Ninja World War.
So they shed their Sand Village symbols, donned plain gear, and crossed into Fire Country under the cover of anonymity.
Several grueling days of travel had left the team worn down.
The black-haired boy on the left finally broke the silence, panting lightly.
"Sakawa-sensei, the intel says they have two Jonin. Just us... is that enough?"
He glanced around uneasily, after all, aside from Sakawa, their team was made up entirely of Genin. Only one of them specialized in reconnaissance.
Sakawa smiled under the fading light. "It's not just us," he said calmly.
"Another squad left ahead of us. We're backup. Our job is to locate the target and send a signal."
"There aren't any Leaf ninjas posted this deep, so relax."
"And..." Sakawa adjusted his glasses with a gleam in his eye, "Kimura, remember this.
Even if it's two Jonin... I can handle it myself."
Kimura's admiration practically burst out of him.
"Why are you so confident, sensei?"
Sakawa chuckled, the corners of his mouth lifting.
"The road of a ninja is narrow. Doubts creep in with every step.
If you let them take root... you're already dead."
"And-" His glasses caught the twilight as he pushed them up again, "-I am Sakawa."
Kimura's eyes sparkled like a child meeting his hero.
Sakawa noticed the boy to his right fidgeting and called out, "Watanabe, something wrong?"
"It's nothing, sensei. It's just... this place is so damn humid," Watanabe grumbled. "I feel like I'm sweating all over... and it's supposed to be sunny!"
"Our village is the best," he added seriously.
"Dry, clean, no need for baths. I hate water."
Kimura smirked. "If you hate it here, you'd die in the Rain Country. It rains every damn day there."
The team laughed softly. Even Sakawa cracked a rare smile.
"By the way, Sakawa-sensei," Watanabe piped up, "have you ever been to Konoha?"
Sakawa was about to answer, but Kimura jumped in first.
"Of course he has! There's nowhere in the Five Great Nations that Sakawa-sensei hasn't been!"
"Really?"
"Really! He probably strolled right into the Hokage's office for tea!"
"Cough-" Sakawa cleared his throat.
"Alright, enough nonsense," he said, but the faint twitch of a smile betrayed him.
"Listen up. We're not sightseeing."
"This intelligence cost the village dearly. Securing this gold mine will ease the daimyo's financial pressure, he's been tightening the purse strings for years."
"So, no mistakes."
At that moment, the girl at the rear of the group silently raised a hand.
Sakawa immediately stopped.
"What is it, Manase?" he asked sharply.
"Chakra. Ahead. Ninja," she said in clipped words, as usual.
No one needed more explanation. The team slipped into formation without hesitation, spreading out to protect their only sensor.
Sakawa's lips curled into a smile.
"Looks like we found our prey first," he murmured.
"Prepare for battle."
Before they could react, a thin white thread shot out from the trees, striking Manase square in the back.
With a powerful tug, she was yanked away from the group, her body whipping through the air.
"Manase!!" Kimura shouted in panic.
Sakawa reacted instantly, hurling a shuriken toward the thread, aiming to sever it.
But before the blade could connect, a whisper drifted through the air:
"Lightning Style: Wild Charge."
Golden arcs of electricity surged along the thread. Manase let out a gut-wrenching scream as the current tore through her body.
The shuriken struck, but barely nicked the thread, bouncing off harmlessly.
Sakawa's expression darkened. Without hesitation, he flashed through hand seals and inhaled sharply, gathering Wind Chakra.
"Wind Style: Air Bullets!"
A volley of compressed air blasts slammed into the white thread, yet it only trembled slightly.
Hamon reinforced the web, hardening it to the point where even mid-level elemental techniques struggled to break it.
A simple shuriken or a C-rank Wind Jutsu could never hope to sever it.
The Hamon-charged electricity traveled straight into Manase's brain.
Her body convulsed, then went limp.
The group, now reduced to three, could only watch in horror as their teammate hung lifelessly above them, her body swinging like a broken puppet.
Kimura and Watanabe stared, paralyzed, as the reality set in.
Their friend's corpse dangled grotesquely, illuminated by the dying light.
Sakawa clenched his fists, fury and fear warring inside him.
He had just boasted not long ago claimed he could handle two Jonin with ease.
Now, one of his students was dead before the battle had even truly begun.
A low, mocking chuckle echoed from the treetops.
Their gazes snapped upward, and there, among the shadows, two crimson orbs gleamed.
As if that wasn't enough, another set of golden eyes opened beside them.
Golden chains slithered into view, writhing like living serpents, casting a dim, eerie glow around the figure perched high above.
The figure leaned forward, letting the light reveal him a little.
Blood-red hair, crazed crimson eyes, and a twisted smirk stretching across his face, he looked more demon than human.
Sakawa's heart sank.
"An Uzumaki...?" he muttered under his breath.
The red hair, the chains, there was no mistaking it.
Only the Uzumaki clan could manifest such terrifying traits.
Kadoya's smirk deepened at Sakawa's recognition.
Though not Uzumaki by blood, by title... he certainly was.
"Let's play," Kadoya whispered, his voice cold as death, amplified by Chakra so all three survivors could hear.
Without warning, he charged, Chakra and flame igniting beneath his feet as he launched downward like a missile.
"Fall back!" Sakawa barked, leaping back with all the speed he could muster.
Kadoya crashed into the ground where they had just stood, sending up a burst of dust and debris.
In the same instant, golden chains lashed out, ensnaring Watanabe's limbs.
"Watanabe!!" Kimura screamed, panic gripping him as he watched his friend being lifted off the ground.
"Let him go, you freak!!" Sakawa roared, recognizing instantly what was about to happen.
He drew a poisoned kunai and charged forward, if he could just land a hit, even a graze, he could force this maniac to retreat.
But just as he lunged, Kadoya vanished.
Appearing directly behind him.
Before Sakawa could even register what happened, Kadoya made a casual hand sign.
"Water Style: Bubble Sealing Jutsu."
A black-sealed bubble snapped into existence, trapping Kimura inside.
Kadoya placed his palm against the bubble's surface, smirking wickedly.
"Fire Style: Burn to Ash."
Flames erupted inside the sealed bubble, no room to run, no way to defend.
The screaming didn't even last two seconds before it was snuffed out.
At the same time, the golden chains tightened.
Watanabe's agonized wails tore through the darkened forest as his arms and legs were torn from his body with sickening cracks.
Sakawa stared, frozen, as Watanabe's broken torso twisted in agony, tears, snot, blood streaming down his face, begging without words.
The bubble popped.
Where Kimura had been, there was nothing left but a pile of ash.
The forest fell deathly silent, save for the soft creaking of Watanabe's ruined body swinging in the breeze.
The Jonin staggered back, a chill slithering up his spine as the red-haired lunatic started chuckling, like he hadn't just butchered three Genin without even breaking a sweat.
In the brutal world of shinobi, Genin deaths were common.
Many of them were cannon fodder, poorly trained, inexperienced, and often too slow to survive hidden traps, rogue kunai, or encounters with higher-ranked enemies.
But even so...
Watching them die like livestock, with such casual cruelty, gnawed at Sakawa's core.
Fear, raw and primal, wormed its way into his heart.
In this twisted world, the ones shinobi feared most weren't necessarily the strongest.
It was the lunatics. The psychopaths. The ones with no limits, no morals, no regard for life or logic. The ones you couldn't predict. Couldn't reason with. And couldn't control.
And the thing standing before him, this boy with blood-red hair and crimson eyes, was exactly that.
Suddenly, Kadoya's head rotated a full 360 degrees with a grotesque crack, his eyes never leaving Sakawa's.
The Jonin felt the last remnants of his courage snap.
Without thinking, he turned and fled.
"Are we playing tag now?"
Kadoya's voice drifted through the forest, light and innocent, the way a child might ask to play.
It made Sakawa's blood run cold.
He pushed himself harder, vaulting over roots and weaving through the trees at breakneck speed, heart pounding against his ribs.
Yet... no matter how fast he ran... no matter how far he went...
He could hear it.
Footsteps.
Always behind him. Never too far. Never too close. Just close enough to remind him, he was there.
Humiliation, rage, and despair churned inside him, a toxic storm.
But most of all, he felt fear.
The kind of fear that stripped away everything else, pride, dignity, reason, until all that remained was the instinct to survive.
Then, without warning, he stopped.
Not by choice. Not from exhaustion.
But because it was there.
Kadoya stood ahead of him, blocking the path. He stood there unmoving. Grinning. Crimson eyes glowing faintly in the dark.
Sakawa tried to move, but his body refused to.
It felt like the monster's gaze alone was enough to freeze his soul.
Kadoya's form blurred, a flash of movement so fast it barely registered.
And then... the Jonin saw it.
In Kadoya's hand, still dripping, was a beating heart.
His heart.
Sakawa stared, wide-eyed, as a strange, hollow coldness spread through his chest.
The night air whistled through the gaping hole where his heart had once been.
"Oops. You need this?"
Kadoya asked sweetly, tilting his head like a curious child.
"Here."
He extended the heart toward Sakawa, offering it back.
Then, smiling, he simply let it fall.
The heart hit the ground with a wet, sickening slap.
Sakawa's body crumpled a moment later, lifeless.
Looking down at the lifeless body, Kadoya simply makes a few hand seals, sealing away part of the horrified corpse's memory. Before he casually turned and left, disappearing back into the darkness.
Stylish Ranking: Smokin' Sexy Style!!
Reward: + 2000 Evil Points + 2000 Ninja Points
Congratulations! Quest Complete: "Terror Incarnate"
Reward: + [Haunted]
[Haunted] - Once activated, the user would create an aura that makes the surrounding air colder, the user's voice becomes magnetic, drawing everyone's attention, their presence lowers by 15% while hidden, and increases by 20% once exposed.