"Run! Quickly!"
"Ahhh! The Monster is coming!"
The woman pressed herself into the darkest corner of the room, crouched behind a heavy wooden wardrobe. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her daughter, as if she could fuse the child into her own body and shield her from the terror outside.
Beyond the thin wooden door, chaos reigned.
Villagers screamed in agony. Roof beams collapsed with deafening crashes. The ground trembled with every thunderous impact, as though the earth itself feared what stalked through the streets.
Each sound struck her heart like a hammer.
She forced her daughter's face against her chest and covered the little girl's mouth with trembling fingers.
"Don't cry… don't make a sound…" she whispered soundlessly.
In her other hand, she clutched a scroll.
Her husband had shoved it into her arms before rushing out, axe in hand, to defend the village. He had told her it was a protective charm bestowed by the Mountain God—a miracle that had fallen from the sky.
But now, as her teeth chattered uncontrollably and cold sweat soaked her back, the scroll felt no different from a strip of useless paper.
"Someone… please save us… I don't want to die…"
Her tears slid silently down her cheeks.
Then—
"ROOOOAR!"
A monstrous bellow ripped through the night sky.
The next instant—
Bang!
The roof exploded inward.
A massive black club smashed through the tiles and beams as if they were made of straw. Broken wood and shattered clay rained down. A violent gust of wind, carrying splinters and ash, tore through the house so fiercely that she couldn't even open her eyes.
A tremendous force struck her.
She felt herself lifted off the ground—weightless—like a kite with its string cut.
Her daughter slipped from her arms and tumbled into a heap of debris.
The girl, though barely old enough to speak in full sentences, bit her lip so hard it bled. She clamped her small hands over her mouth, tears streaming silently down her face.
She did not make a sound.
The woman slammed into the ground. Agony exploded through her body. For a moment, darkness swallowed her vision.
When she forced herself to look up—
The village was gone.
What had once been a peaceful settlement with smoke curling gently from chimneys was now a hellscape.
Walls had collapsed. Houses burned in jagged silhouettes. Blood stained the dirt in thick, dark patches. Bodies lay scattered in unnatural positions. Flames licked hungrily at broken beams.
The air was thick with the metallic scent of blood and the bitter stench of charred wood.
And at the center of it all—
The Monster stood.
Three meters tall.
Its blue-black skin bulged with knotted muscles. A grotesque bull's head rested atop its hulking frame. Bits of shredded flesh still clung to its curved horns.
Its mouth opened wide, revealing jagged fangs as it chewed slowly.
Blood dripped from its lips.
In its hand, it dragged a massive black club, streaked with gore and embedded with splinters.
Perhaps the sound of her fall had drawn its attention.
Its blood-red eyes snapped toward her.
"Hu… man… food…"
The words rolled out in a guttural growl.
Each step it took felt like it crushed her heart beneath its weight.
"Monster! Don't come any closer!"
With every ounce of strength left in her body, she scrambled to her daughter and shielded the child behind her.
She stumbled backward—
And tripped over a broken stake.
The scroll slipped from her hand and rolled across the dirt.
The Monster's footsteps grew louder.
Closer.
Closer.
Her gaze locked onto the scroll within reach.
Her husband's voice echoed faintly in her mind:
It fell from the sky… a blessing of the Mountain God…
She lunged forward, snatching it up.
She had never been able to open it. No matter how they tried, the scroll had remained sealed.
But now—
This was her final gamble.
"Go to hell!"
Clutching her daughter in one arm, she hurled the scroll with desperate force.
It struck the Monster's chest with a dull clack.
And fell harmlessly to the ground.
The Monster did not even pause.
Despair flooded her veins.
But then—
The scroll rustled.
It unfurled.
Black incantations sprawled across the parchment. At its center was a single bold character:
"Impure."
The Monster glanced down.
With a sneer twisting its hideous face, it raised its massive foot.
Thud.
It crushed the scroll beneath its heel.
The incantations twisted against the ground like flattened insects.
Then the Monster raised its claws—long, knife-like talons slick with dried blood—and reached toward the woman's head.
She closed her eyes.
This was the end.
But instead of pain—
"AAARRRGH—!"
A scream tore through the night.
It was not hers.
It was the Monster's.
She opened her eyes in disbelief.
The Monster was writhing on the ground, unable to move.
Black incantations were crawling across its skin, spreading from its crushed foot like venomous vines. They wrapped around its limbs, chest, and horns, sealing it in layers of wriggling script.
Gray-white dust rose from the surrounding ruins, swirling unnaturally toward it.
The dust gathered.
Encased.
Devoured.
From its feet upward, the Monster's massive body was slowly entombed.
Its screams weakened.
Faded.
Disappeared.
Silence.
The dust hung in the air for a heartbeat.
Then—
Whoosh.
It dispersed.
The Monster was gone.
In its place stood a young man.
He wore strange clothing unlike anything in the village. His posture was steady, but—
He did not look alive.
His skin was paper-white.
Cracks ran across his face and neck like spiderweb fractures in porcelain.
His eyes—
The whites were pitch black.
The pupils were blood-red.
And within those pupils were eerie, intricate patterns.
He turned his head.
His gaze fell upon her.
The woman froze.
Her breath became shallow and cautious.
Then the young man spoke, his voice slightly hoarse, as if he had just awakened from a deep sleep.
"Excuse me… what place is this?"
"…Huh?"
Her mind went blank.
---
Later.
Inside what remained of her home, the woman—Yuriko—knelt before him.
The young man sat calmly, as though he were not a being who had just replaced a Monster.
"What place is this?" he repeated.
He already knew her name.
Yuriko.
"It… it is a village on the border of Musashi Province…"
Her voice still trembled faintly.
"Musashi Province…" he murmured.
His expression did not change, but his thoughts churned.
During his missions across the ninja world, he had traversed nearly all of the Five Great Nations.
Yet he had never heard of Musashi Province.
He raised his gaze.
"Do you know of the Land of Fire?"
She shook her head.
"The Land of Earth? Water? Lightning? Wind?"
Again, confusion.
"My Lord… I have never heard of such places…"
A faint crease formed between his brows.
He stood and walked toward the broken window, looking out at the ruined village.
"Then what happened here? Bandits?"
Yuriko's shoulders shrank instinctively.
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"No… My Lord…"
"It was the work of a Monster."
Silence lingered between them.
The wind carried ash through the broken frame.
The young man—Uchiha Lie—closed his strange red eyes briefly.
When he opened them again, the blood-red patterns gleamed faintly in the dim light.
This was not the Ninja World.
And whatever had summoned him here—
It was far from ordinary.