Outside Kirigakure, on a cliff, the churning waves and the mist-shrouded village could be seen below. Ignoring the difference in elevation, the distance from there to the village centre was about three kilometres.
"Ah, I can't see the sun."
Hii Kōri looked up at the foggy sky and shook his head regretfully.
Without the sun, he couldn't use his highest-output, largest-range techniques. Dealing with an entire hidden village alone would be somewhat troublesome without them.
"Well... but if I used that technique, searching for loot would also be troublesome... you win some, you lose some~"
He lightly patted his cheeks, muttered to himself, and popped an orange gummy candy into his mouth.
The sour-sweet aroma unique to citrus fruits spread through his mouth. Using this as a way to mark time, he once again activated Nature Touch.
Walls, watchtowers, warning barrier, village layout, ninja distribution more information converged in his mind at this moment, constructing a more detailed and three-dimensional image.
Residual curse tracking was a basic search activity required for jujutsu sorcerers. Discovering residual curses could provide clues for finding the subject that released the cursed energy.
But in a place like Kirigakure, there was no need to go that far.
Curses were an aggregate of humanity's negative energy. Places like hospitals, schools, and cemeteries places that hold vast amounts of memories would become containers of emotion whenever people recalled those "bad memories," accumulating vast amounts of curse energy.
And a hidden village was even more so.
However, ninja chakra could, to some extent, suppress the buildup of curses. Kirigakure's situation lacking any advantage in timing, location, or unity—was the result of a mix of local customs, geography, professional structure, and other factors.
As 'Brother Zai' would put it, it was a case of problems piling on top of each other.
Every Kirigakure ninja, every ordinary resident living there, even the entire village of Kirigakure itself, was the subject of this curse.
The curse situation was clear at a glance. What Hii Kōri needed to investigate was simply "military strength" and "layout." After all, he didn't have the Hyūga clan's Byakugan to easily see through this thick mist.
"...Hmph. Quite the enthusiasm."
Before the taste in his mouth had completely faded, Hii Kōri withdrew his perception and began stretching with great interest.
Barging in directly was certainly possible, but as he had just said, using high-firepower techniques to blast the entire village would make it impossible to recover spoils. And fighting his way in from the front, pulling off a "Ubisoft stealth," wouldn't be much better.
Since ninjas generally had far greater offensive power than defensive capability, when a fight got heated, the environmental damage was also particularly noticeable. Some fragile but important reports or collections might "die" on the spot from the vibrations.
Even if Hii Kōri only wanted the land, that didn't mean he completely ignored the good things in Kirigakure.
It wasn't that much trouble anyway. First infiltrate and loot, then talk.
East of the center of Kirigakure, there was a building that looked like a temple or a Shinto shrine. Beneath that building sat an underground laboratory of considerable size.
That was the most interesting of Kirigakure's several experimental facilities. Even within Kirigakure itself, it was a point of extremely intense negative spiritual energy.
Clearly, some smart people in Kirigakure had also become aware of how ominous this place was and had tried to study this negative spiritual energy. The inverted shrine was the best proof of that.
This was only natural. Just as Hii Kōri had no doubt that Orochimaru had also made achievements in this field, those who had lived long in such an environment would always develop their own insights.
As for the ninja clans... their compounds in Kirigakure couldn't be described as close-knit—they were scattered all over the place, with a general vibe of "no one near anyone else."
Not too hard to understand. After all, the atmosphere within Kirigakure was nothing like the state of alliances between clans in Konohagakure. If clan ninjas had even a slight friction, it could easily escalate to an irreparable degree.
An octagon cage rising from flat ground, indeed.
"Hii Kōri, launching!"
He leaped from the cliff, his figure disappearing into the thick mist.
The cognitive interference of the Rainbow Release, combined with this dense fog, could obscure his form well. And the chakra sealing technique of the Kagura Mind's Eye had already been tested in Konohagakure. This combo technique, in an era when electronic cameras and more cutting-edge technological products had not yet become popular, was enough to allow him to infiltrate anywhere with ease.
In fact, even if those technologies existed, it wouldn't stop him from bringing out countermeasures.
Relying on his set of concealment skills, Hii Kōri silently passed through the layers of defense outside Kirigakure and slipped like a ghost through the village gate.
Thanks to the atmosphere of the Bloody Mist, the residents of Kirigakure had almost no desire to interact with anyone outside their own families. There was a strong sense of "we don't know each other" between people.
This made Hii Kōri's infiltration work even easier.
"Hmm... let's go check out that laboratory first..."
He walked unhurriedly through Kirigakure's desolate and oppressive streets toward the shrine-like building in his perception.
The closer he got, the more abnormal the surrounding environment became.
At first glance, there was no sense of dilapidation. In fact, the building itself was quite well-maintained flying eaves and bracketing, the paint on the wooden pillars still remaining, the stone steps swept clean of fallen leaves. But the atmosphere permeating the air was completely contrary to any place dedicated to worshiping gods and Buddhas or praying for peace.
Cold. A bone-chilling cold that seemed to freeze the soul.
Heavy. The air was as thick as gel; each breath was like swallowing mud mixed with ice water.
But for Hii Kōri, this was truly a "nostalgic trip."
"Call it a shrine, but the negative energy and curse here are incredibly strong. It's basically a horror-themed amusement park attraction."
Hii Kōri looked up at the plaque hanging at the entrance its calligraphy already blurred under the influence of the curse dwelling within it and curled the corner of his mouth in a smile devoid of warmth.
The few shrine staff members were also listless, clearly already close to exhaustion.
Hii Kōri silently bypassed those people and entered the shrine's main hall.
The interior space of the shrine was even more empty than its exterior suggested. The main hall had no enshrined statues, only some black sculptures with bizarre shapes, resembling human figures in agony.
Thinking about it, this made sense. This place was clearly not like ordinary shrines and temples; it was closer to the Uchiha clan's Naka Shrine not open to the public.
After spending two or three minutes finding the hidden passage, Hii Kōri descended the narrow stone steps.
The stone walls were damp, covered with a layer of water vapor. The fishy smell in the air mixed with the smell of some preservative, becoming even more pungent. Fluorescent stones emitting a faint green glow were inlaid on both sides of the passage, their light barely outlining the downward path. Further ahead was a darkness too thick to dissolve.
Aside from the failure to remove moisture, it was a very standard underground research passage. One couldn't help but lament the builders' lack of imagination.
Without even needing extra perception, relying solely on experience and imagination, Hii Kōri could guess what the layout below looked like.
The entrance was a preparation room and a utility room. The passage extending inward led straight to the central operating room, and from there outward extended various spaces like database rooms, independent research rooms, and break rooms.
"Hmm, the dehumidification system inside is actually pretty good."
Boldly walking past several researchers in white coats, Hii Kōri observed the surrounding layout with interest, looked at their research reports, and then curled his lip.
"It's just that the research direction is off."
Tossing the research report back onto the table and using a pencil to sequentially pierce the throats of those researchers, the jujutsu sorcerer, now materialized among the spurting blood columns and gurgling gasps, shook his head with slight regret.
Judging from the research reports, the leader of this institute was indeed a talented person. While recognizing the existence of curses, he had also, to some extent, touched upon the underlying logic of curse treatment.
To eliminate the influence of curses, there were roughly three methods.
First, "exorcism"—using curses, which are themselves negative power, to expel other curses. Second, "dispelling"—dispelling the curse by the one who cast it.
And third, "sealing"—using other containers.
"Ah, I should say 'too late' instead."
Correcting his earlier mistake, Hii Kōri stepped over the bodies at his feet, opened the heavy metal door ahead, and casually tossed a few Scorch Release fireballs behind him to destroy the evidence.
"If the curse had been guided into a container and sealed at the very beginning, that could have dealt with it. But no one would have been able to detect a curse of that level. Compared to sealing, exorcism is simply more convenient."
"But now, this pure curse field has no physical form. Using containers to package it in small portions is meaningless... this is the consequence of mismatched expertise. What a shame~"
Surveying the scene beyond the door, Hii Kōri shook his head regretfully.
Behind the door was an extremely vast underground space, with a ceiling height of nearly eight meters and an area almost completely hollowed out beneath the entire shrine.
But what was stacked here was not various experimental instruments. What occupied his field of vision were hundreds of neatly arranged, cylindrical, transparent culture tanks.
Those culture tanks were about three meters tall, filled with faintly glowing culture fluid, and inside children soaked in them.
At a glance, almost every culture tank contained a figure of varying size. They were completely naked, eyes tightly closed, mouths and noses connected to breathing tubes.
They were a group of children ranging from about five or six to twelve or thirteen years old.
Or rather, things that had once been human.
Although they still generally maintained a basic humanoid form, their bodies had already undergone severe distortion.
Some had arms fused into fleshy whips like octopus tentacles. Some had vertebrae piercing through the skin, forming vicious thickets of bone spurs on their backs. Some had half their faces fused into fish gill slits and scales. Some had legs fused into thick, tumor-covered flesh pillars thousands of forms, none alike, as if human features had been forcibly spliced with various marine creatures, or even purely imagined monsters.
But this was not human modification to create combat weapons. Those deformed limbs, far from being usable for combat, would in turn interfere with normal movement and daily life although the children soaked in the tanks probably no longer had a chance for a normal life.
From these children, Hii Kōri could observe very strong traces of curses.
Not only the curses they had against their tormentors for being treated this way, but even more so the cycle merged with the curse atmosphere of the entire Land of Water.
Clearly, these children had been designed from the very beginning to be consumables—human pillars used to contain curses, to alleviate Kirigakure's curse situation.
A cult's characteristic "living sacrifice" ritual, one might say.
Thinking this way, the medical information that Kirigakure had taken when they destroyed Uzushiogakure back then had probably been used here.
To be fair, in a certain sense, this was indeed an "effective" method.
Including the shrine built above, and the twisted divine statue enshrined within—these methods also fell under "exorcism" using the "curse" itself to resolve the "curse."
"It's just that the curse settled in the entire Land of Water for so many years is not something that can be cleared by such means. Not understanding the magnitude—these children's lives were just wasted."
Lamenting this, Hii Kōri's interest gradually waned.
Probably due to his mindset as a new father, he couldn't really stomach seeing children being modified like this.
Killing them on the battlefield, using appropriate techniques for modification and reinforcement that was one thing. But this kind of meaningless consumption was another entirely.
"What are you—"
Before the researcher who had finally noticed someone invading this laboratory could finish his sentence, Hii Kōri had already severed his head with a Wind Release blade.
Then, a surge of air surges from that door, transforming into swirling wind blades that pour into every corridor and every room of the entire underground laboratory.
Torn-apart traces like those left by a ferocious beast instantly filled the entire institute. Whether ordinary researchers or the guards stationed there, none had any resistance against the raging wind blades, reduced to scattered pieces of flesh, then further ground into even and dirty blood mist in the wind vortex—like a shredder—coating every corner.
After casually disposing of everyone in the institute, he stamped his heel. Rashōmon opened its shadow space and absorbed the children whose forms had been modified like Mahito's cursed technique.
Hii Kōri planned to find an appropriate time to try to use his own cursed techniques to restore these children to a state untainted by curses.
But next...
"Rashōmon."
Using his index fingernail, he cut his thumb and pressed it against the air. A mechanical bird and another construct the Mechanical Wolf materialized beside him.
"I am here."
Crimson eyes opened in the shadows as Rashōmon's silhouette rose behind him.
"Go. Raise some hell."
"Your command—"
***
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