The first cursed spirit manifested in the merchant district as a writhing mass of shadow and teeth, roughly the size of a large dog.
Asuma immediately launched a wind-enhanced shuriken while Choji attempted a chakra-infused punch.
The shuriken passed through the creature's form, dispersing part of it before the spirit reformed.
Choji's attack connected but only staggered the entity, not destroying it.
"It's healing!" Choji called out as the cursed spirit lunged at him with supernatural speed.
Asuma grabbed his partner, pulling him back as the creature's claws raked empty air.
"Ninjutsu attacks only, but how do we finish it?" Asuma said
The answer came in the form of Yuta appearing between them and the spirit.
A brief flare of cursed energy, and the creature dissolved completely, not reforming.
He didn't need to take action personally for this level of disturbance.
"Trapping it also works," Yuta said to Asuma,
"But you need more spiritual intent behind it. Think animal subjugation, in the end, these ones are still beasts." Yuta lectured
Similar scenes played out across the township.
Sakura and Ino encountered a snake-like spirit in the residential area. Sakura's chakra-enhanced strength could knock it back, and Ino's constant mind transfer attacks disrupted its movements, but neither could destroy it until Yuta, along with the Asuma team, arrived.
Kakashi and Shikamaru faced the most interesting challenge: a spirit that kept to the shadows.
Shikamaru's shadow techniques easily restricted it, and Kakashi's lightning blade did damage it, but the creature's mobility made it nearly impossible to pin down, as well as the fact that their ninjutsu could last for only so long.
Yuta arrived but he didn't expect any less from them and easily dispatched this one too without any fancy techniques.
With the spirits cleared, anchor hunting became efficient.
The team had learned to recognize the telltale chakra rejection, and breaking the cursed objects came naturally now.
They found seven trinkets hidden throughout the township more than Kozakura, but following predictable patterns.
Yuta had already destroyed the one belonging to the grade 3 curse as it was easier to sense considering the cursed energy density around it.
The civilian recovery was more complex here.
Where Kozakura's victims had been physically affected, Ishimura's showed signs of mental contamination.
Memory gaps, personality shifts, and some speaking in fragments of languages they'd never learned.
"Deeper integration," Yuta observed, checking a woman who insisted her name was someone else entirely.
"The cursed energy had more time to work here." He said
The experimental site wasn't underground this time, it was the township's shrine, which had been modified with additional chambers and observation alcoves.
Someone had been studying the effects systematically, taking notes that were now scattered and partially burned.
"Definitely not random," Shikamaru said, examining the remaining documentation.
"Population studies, reaction time logs, contamination progression charts."
The town head, Kenji, was in worse shape than Kozakura's Hayato had been.
When they finally located him, he was sitting in his house staring at a wall, occasionally muttering about
"The voice in the statues."
"When did the merchants arrive?" Kakashi asked gently.
"Merchants? No... no merchants. The statues started talking first. Then the dreams. Then the... the forgetting." Kenji's eyes were unfocused, distant.
"How long has it been winter?"
"It's summer," Sakura said softly.
"Is it? The voice said it would always be winter now."
They got little coherent information from him, but the implications were clear: Ishimura had been under a cursed influence for much longer than Kozakura, and the effects ran deeper.
Sakura diagnosed him with a memory dissociation
"He might recover," Yuta said as they prepared to leave.
"But it could take months, and some memories might be permanently lost."
...
The journey to Yamakaze took another two days, winding up mountain paths that grew increasingly treacherous.
The spiritual pressure ahead was unlike anything they'd encountered, not chaotic like Kozakura or organized like Ishimura, but malevolent, Focused, and Hungry.
"I have a really bad feeling," Ino said during their final rest stop before reaching the mountain settlement.
"Yeah, me too," Shikamaru agreed.
"Keep cautious," Kakashi said out
Yuta grew tense each mile.
The cursed energy signature ahead wasn't just Grade 3, it might be Grade 2, possibly stronger.
The kind of spirit that could kill experienced sorcerers if they weren't careful.
However, that wasn't what bothered him; what bothered him, however, was that this wasn't the last settlement.
"When we reach Yamakaze," he said seriously,
"Stay together. Don't engage in anything alone. I doubt we'll still be dealing with mindless beasts."
"How much harder?" Kakashi asked.
"Ishimura's spirits were like wild animals. What's waiting for us in Yamakaze..." Yuta paused, choosing his words carefully. "They'll have self-preservation instincts and a mind of their own."
The mountain path ahead disappeared into mist and shadow, and even in daylight, the approach to Yamakaze felt like walking into a predator's den.
"Everyone check your equipment," Asuma said, taking a final drag from his cigarette.
"Something tells me this is where the real fight begins."
As if in response, shuriken came from all four directions from where they were at, obviously aimed to kill