The deep canyon was completely shrouded in darkness and thick fog. Towering ancient trees swayed violently in the gale, their branches producing shrill, eerie cries.
Yura of the Hair transformed into a streak of blood-red light and fled desperately through the dense forest, moving at a speed several times beyond her normal limits. Her seductive expression had long since become distorted by fear, and her heart pounded violently in her chest.
Too terrifying!
That silver-haired man soaking in the hot spring was fundamentally an abyss disguised as a human.
With nothing more than a casual glance, he had burned away the life-source hair she had cultivated for hundreds of years. The overwhelming sense of terror had reached the deepest part of her Soul, making Yura—a Hair Demon who had always delighted in hunting and tormenting powerful opponents—experience for the first time the despair of prey facing an absolute predator.
"Escape... As long as I make it back to the underground cavern and hide my original body, the Red Skull, no one will be able to kill me!"
Yura gritted her teeth as she saw the entrance to her secret cavern approaching.
However—
Just before she could enter the dark passage—
"Since you've come, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
A deep, lazy voice suddenly resounded in the depths of Yura's mind and even within the very core of her Soul.
Buzz—!
Yura's body froze in midair.
Not only her, but even the howling mountain wind and falling leaves seemed to stop. It was as though the flow of time itself had been frozen by an incomprehensible force.
Under Yura's terrified gaze, the empty space before her suddenly rippled.
It was as if an invisible curtain had been torn apart, revealing a pitch-black spatial rift.
A slender hand with distinct joints and jade-white skin casually emerged from the rift.
The hand did not reach for Yura herself.
Instead, it ignored the layers of soil and stone, passing directly through the underground cavern and accurately reaching the deepest part of the bone mound.
It grasped the Red Skull that represented the source of Yura's life.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
The instant the hand seized her true body, Yura screamed in terror.
She felt as though her entire Soul had been caught in an iron grip. The slightest increase in pressure would be enough to erase her existence completely.
On the other side of the spatial rift, Uchiha Tobirama calmly leaned against the edge of the jade hot spring.
His right hand remained extended into the void, the Red Skull resting within his palm.
A cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"You entrusted your life to a piece of dead bone."
Tobirama's voice traveled through the spatial rift and reached Yura clearly.
"Such a primitive method of existence is hardly worthy of being called life."
Crack!
His fingers suddenly tightened.
"No!"
Yura's scream abruptly stopped.
The Red Skull shattered beneath Tobirama's overwhelming physical strength, breaking apart into countless fragments and scattering across the underground cavern.
Yura's consciousness rapidly faded.
Her body above ground collapsed, and the mass of black hair that formed her original appearance fell motionless onto the earth.
For a being like Uchiha Tobirama, killing an enemy was no more difficult than breathing.
Yet just as Yura's consciousness was about to completely disappear into the darkness—
"Did I permit you to die?"
That domineering voice once again dragged her consciousness back from the brink.
Inside the hot spring, the six black tomoe within Tobirama's eyes began rotating in a profound pattern.
He slowly opened his right hand.
Pure energy, carrying the majesty of creation and the Laws of the heavens, gathered within his palm.
Yin Release represented the creation of form.
Yang Release represented the power of life.
Under Tobirama's extraordinary control, the two forces intertwined and fused perfectly.
"Yin-Yang Release: Creation of All Things!"
Buzz—!
The moment the words were spoken, the Laws of the surrounding world seemed to tremble.
Within the underground cavern, the fragments of the Red Skull began to move.
The scattered bone powder rose from the ground and rapidly reorganized as though time itself were flowing backward.
This was no simple restoration.
The fragments transformed into completely new bones. Pure Yang Release vitality formed muscles, blood vessels, and internal organs around them, while Yin Release shaped the nerves and structure of the new body.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
A powerful heartbeat suddenly echoed through the dark cavern.
In only three breaths, the life form that had once existed as nothing more than a skull had been completely reconstructed.
Yura of the Hair had been given a genuine body of flesh and blood.
Warm blood flowed through her veins.
Her lungs drew breath.
Her heart beat with powerful vitality.
Her existence was no longer dependent on a lifeless skull hidden underground.
Yura slowly opened her eyes.
"What... happened?"
She stared blankly at her hands.
For the first time, she could truly feel the warmth of her own body and the surrounding air.
She placed a hand over her chest.
The powerful heartbeat beneath her palm was unmistakable.
She was alive.
She had been given genuine life.
The transformation from death to rebirth had completely destroyed the last trace of resistance within Yura.
Before her stood an existence who could casually destroy life and then recreate it with a single technique.
To Yura, such power was no different from that of a supreme deity.
The spatial rift slowly contracted.
An irresistible force pulled Yura through it.
A moment later, she landed beside the steaming jade hot spring.
Yura immediately lowered her head before Tobirama.
"Yura thanks Master for granting her a new life."
Her voice trembled with awe.
"From this moment onward, Yura will faithfully serve Master and obey every command."
Tobirama slowly opened his eyes and glanced at her newly reconstructed body.
"Since you have received a new body, come down and join the others."
"Yes, Master."
Yura obediently entered the hot spring and joined Ryungetsu Senki and Princess Izayoi.
...
Time passed like an arrow.
For an immortal existence such as Uchiha Tobirama, the passage of time was nothing more than an insignificant sequence of numbers.
For several days, the magnificent airborne palace known as Cloud City traveled openly through the skies of the Sengoku Period.
Within the luxurious palace, Tobirama spent his time observing the world and training the people under his command.
At noon one day, Tobirama stood upon the palace's broad jade viewing platform.
Dressed in a pure black robe, he leaned lazily against the white jade railing while Kikyo gently stood beside him.
"I've grown tired of the atmosphere of this Sengoku Period."
Tobirama's gaze passed through the clouds.
Below, feudal lords continued their endless conflicts while demons hunted humans across the land.
To him, everything had become dull.
He was preparing to order the System to initiate another planar leap when—
Buzz!
An extremely subtle but unusual space-time ripple suddenly entered his perception.
Tobirama's eyes narrowed.
The ripple did not originate from powerful Spiritual Pressure or Demonic Qi.
Instead, it directly affected the timeline underlying this Universe.
His gaze instantly crossed thousands of mountains and rivers, locking onto the ancient well hidden behind the Higurashi Shrine.
The Bone Eaters Well.
Within Tobirama's perception, a violent dimensional distortion was occurring inside the well.
An extremely pure spiritual power was crossing five hundred years of time, colliding with the Sengoku Period.
"Heh..."
A low laugh escaped Tobirama's throat.
To the people of this world, time was an irreversible river, while the Bone Eaters Well was merely a mysterious forbidden place.
But to Uchiha Tobirama, who possessed authority over multiple dimensions, this so-called time-travel mechanism was hardly an insurmountable barrier.
"Interesting."
Tobirama turned around.
Kikyo looked at him curiously.
"Master, what are you looking at?"
"I sensed an interesting Soul traveling toward this era through the river of time."
Tobirama's eyes gleamed with interest.
"It is an extremely pure Soul. More interestingly, its original aura bears a remarkable resemblance to yours."
Kikyo was slightly startled.
An ancient legend suddenly came to mind.
A faint smile appeared on Tobirama's face.
"Let's go. I'll take you to meet your interesting 'reincarnation' from five hundred years in the future."
"While we're there, we can begin a new chapter in this otherwise boring Sengoku Period."
As his voice fell, Tobirama stepped forward while taking Kikyo with him.
Their figures instantly transformed into a black aurora that pierced through the sky, crossing the distance toward the Bone Eaters Well.
...
At the same time.
Five hundred years in the future.
Tokyo, Japan.
Higurashi Shrine.
The modern world was completely different from the Sengoku Period.
Skyscrapers towered over the city, vehicles filled the roads, and people lived peaceful, ordinary lives.
Few would believe that demons and supernatural beings existed, much less that an ancient dimensional passage was hidden beneath the surface of their world.
At the Higurashi Shrine, a fifteen-year-old girl named Kagome Higurashi was searching through the shrine grounds.
She wore a green sailor-style school uniform, and her shoulder-length black hair framed her youthful face.
"Buyo! Buyo! Where did you run off to?"
Holding a packet of cat treats, Kagome carefully pushed open an old wooden door covered in faded talismanic seals.
This was the building her grandfather had always forbidden her from entering.
Inside was the Bone Eaters Well, an ancient well said to have once been used to dispose of the remains of demons.
The wooden door creaked loudly.
The interior was dark, and the air carried the musty scent of old wood.
"Meow..."
A faint cat cry came from beside the well.
"Buyo! So that's where you were!"
Kagome breathed a sigh of relief and hurried over to pick up the fat calico cat.
She was about to leave when—
Crack!
Crack-crack-crack!
The heavy wooden boards covering the well suddenly began splintering.
"What's happening?!"
Kagome cried out.
Before she could react—
Boom!
The boards exploded apart.
A terrifying wave of Demonic Qi erupted from the bottom of the well like a black storm.
Kagome's eyes widened in horror.
Several pale, segmented limbs covered in sharp barbs suddenly clung to the stone walls of the well.
A horrifying monster crawled upward from the darkness.
It had the upper body of an ugly woman and the lower body of an enormous centipede.
Mistress Centipede.
Having sensed the presence of the Shikon Jewel within Kagome, the monster had awakened from its long slumber.
"I found it..."
Mistress Centipede's voice was filled with greed.
"The scent of the Shikon Jewel... Give it to me!"
Her enormous body lunged forward.
Several pale segments wrapped around Kagome, leaving her unable to escape.
"AAAAAH! Help!"
Kagome screamed in terror, and Buyo slipped from her arms.
She had grown up in a peaceful era and had never encountered anything remotely resembling the monster before her.
Fear overwhelmed her.
"Give me the Jewel!"
Mistress Centipede ignored Kagome's struggles and dragged her toward the well with tremendous force.
Kagome lost her footing.
The world suddenly spun around her.
She fell into the Bone Eaters Well.
But there was no solid ground waiting below.
Instead, she entered a bizarre space-time tunnel filled with distorted, multicolored light.
Kagome was swept into the violent current.
"Someone... please help me!"
Space-time turbulence surrounded her.
The journey across five hundred years had begun.
For a girl from the peaceful modern era, being suddenly thrown into such a terrifying supernatural world was an unimaginable crisis.
Yet, deep within the turbulent passage, an even more astonishing presence was already approaching from the other side of the river of time.