Chapter 60: I'll Draw a Circle and Curse You
Saiki glancing down with cold indifference, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Surprised?"
"Kaff..." Watanabe Musashi coughed up another mouthful of blood, his face as pale as paper. He said nothing. He finally understood everything.
Saiki was the architect of this entire affair. As a Hidden Hot Water shinobi, he could never have mobilized Konoha's Root. That left only one possibility. Saiki was a subordinate of Shimura Danzo, the darkness of the shinobi world.
"There's nothing left to say. My only regret is that Big Brother Jade didn't see you for what you were sooner," he said quietly, his body relaxing as he stopped struggling.
He knew this was the end. But he felt a strange sense of relief. Saiki had targeted the wrong person...
So what if you kill me? You still won't get the position of Village Leader, Watanabe thought, a faint smile touching his lips. He no longer feared his impending death. As long as the village was safe, he had no regrets.
"You can still smile at a time like this, Watanabe? I must say, I'm impressed," Saiki sneered, his eyes narrowed.
Watanabe Musashi just lay on the ground, ignoring him completely. The Leader had trusted this man, and he had turned out to be a high-level spy for Danzo. There was nothing left to say.
This blatant disregard, however, seemed to deeply provoke Saiki.
"Watanabe Musashi! What do you have to be so proud of? Your beloved village is about to be mine! You are a traitor to the Hidden Hot Water! A traitor!" he roared.
"Heh... hahaha..." Watanabe's defiant laugh echoed. He couldn't resist one last taunt. "Even a member of the soulless Root can feel anger? How laughable..."
"You! Die!"
Saiki had wanted to see despair and fear in Watanabe's final moments. Instead, the genuine mockery in his voice made Saiki's own face twist with rage. He lunged forward, raising his foot to stomp on Watanabe's chest.
But the next instant, a gray blur flashed before his eyes, and Watanabe vanished. Saiki's foot slammed into the empty ground with a BOOM!
At the same time, something rushed past his head. He ducked, but a sharp, intense pain erupted from his scalp.
"Hiss!"
He cried out, ignoring the numbness in his foot, and frantically looked around. There was no one in sight.
"Bastard!"
"Who is it?! Show yourself!"
His prey had vanished, and his attacker had even had the audacity to rip out a chunk of his hair. Saiki let out a demonic, enraged scream.
Just then, a small, juvenile wolf howl echoed through the forest.
"Awooo! —I'll be back!"
"That voice!"
Saiki started, his eyes darting to the sky, but the giant eagle wasn't there. He realized the howl must have come from the wolf pup Kael always had on his shoulder.
But... where was Kael?
On the other side of the forest, four miles away from Saiki.
"Gray-kun, why did you rip his whole scalp off?" Kael muttered, his skin crawling as he looked at the palm-sized, bloody piece of scalp in Little Gray's claws. "Savage..."
Shaking his head, Kael crouched down to examine Watanabe Musashi's injuries.
"It's fine. I'm not dead," Watanabe said with a faint smile.
"I don't care if you die or not," Kael grumbled, still holding a grudge over that ruthless kick.
He turned to look at Little Gray, who was busy drawing a circle in the dirt with its paw.
"Are you done yet, Gray-kun?"
"Woof, woof, woof! —It's my first time, I'm not used to it yet!"
Kael pursed his lips but decided to be patient. Suddenly, he froze, his eyes widening in disbelief as he stared at the wolf pup.
"Say that again."
Little Gray paused its digging and looked back at him, its big, cute eyes full of confusion. But as a summon, it couldn't refuse its master's request.
"Woof? —What's up, old-timer?" it barked tentatively.
"Old-timer..." Kael's mouth twitched. "Nothing," he said wearily. "Carry on."
Little Gray turned back to its circle.
Kael looked at Goldie on his other shoulder. Goldie stared back with wide, innocent eyes as a panicked thought entered Kael's mind.
"This has nothing to do with me! He's the one who wanted to be a dog! You can't blame me!"
Kael: "..."
A ripple of natural energy spread out, silent and unseen. Kael watched as Little Gray finished drawing a lopsided circle. A wave of warm air pulsed through the area, and for a moment, an almost invisible column of light shot into the sky, seeming to connect with some mysterious, unknown power.
As the curse was completed, a crimson light flared beneath Little Gray, tracing a bloody triangle on the ground within the circle.
What a freaky jutsu... Kael thought, unnerved.
Little Gray's bizarre, Jashin-derived ability—"Circle of Doom"—was clearly a variant of Jizo's Death Controlling Possessed Blood. While its effects weren't as devastatingly absolute, its activation requirements were far simpler. It didn't need the target's blood, just a piece of their body, like hair or fingernails.
Plop!
A small, chibi-style doll appeared on the ground.
Kael stepped closer, curious. He could vaguely make out that the doll's face and build resembled Saiki.
"Interesting..." Kael drew his kunai, a twisted smile spreading across his face. This was just like ancient voodoo. Sticking pins in a doll... Kael found he rather liked the idea.
Barely able to contain his excitement, he raised his kunai and carefully took aim.
SHLICK!
He stabbed the kunai downward, plunging it directly into the doll's crotch.
...
"AARGH!"
Four miles away, Saiki, who had been roaring in impotent rage, suddenly grabbed his groin and let out a bloodcurdling scream. The shriek was so agonizing that even Kael, all that way away, couldn't help but wince.
"You poor thing," Kael said, shaking his head in mock sympathy. "Let Gray-kun give you a hug..."
He then raised his kunai and took aim again.
Shlick!
Shlick!
Shlick!
A strange, ecstatic thrill filled Kael as he stabbed the doll repeatedly.
Beside him, Watanabe Musashi's eye was twitching uncontrollably.
He had never, ever imagined that the man Jade had placed all his hopes in, the next leader of the Hidden Hot Water Village, was secretly a deviant who enjoyed... stabbing people in the crotch.