A wave washed half a boat ashore.
The boat had been destroyed by a Water Release technique. On the deck lay a young fisherman named Yokoshima.
After crawling onto the sand, he immediately stuck his fingers down his throat, forcing himself to vomit repeatedly until he had emptied the seawater from his stomach.
Just moments ago, out at sea, he had encountered a group of ninja running across the water's surface. One of those ninja had casually used a jutsu, smashing his family's small boat to pieces.
His father had been swept away by the water jutsu, lost to the sea. Yokoshima had heard the sickening crack of his father's breaking bones.
Yokoshima stood up from the beach, staggering toward the small fishing village where his home was.
He had to take his family and the others from the village and flee.
Why hadn't the noble officials said anything about ninja fighting nearby?
The closer he got to the village, the slower his movements became.
Quiet. Too quiet.
Yokoshima covered the last hundred meters like a madman, charging into the village.
"Sister, sister, what are you doing?"
He saw his younger sister leaning against a post.
"What are you doing outside Uncle's house? Ninja are coming soon! Let's go! Come with me!"
His sister's back was turned to him. Yokoshima tried to pull on her shoulder, but his hand met a strange resistance.
When his sister used to get angry, she would also turn her back and refuse to budge.
He tried again, but his hand froze on her shoulder.
He saw... he saw a wire piercing through his sister's shoulder, pinning it to the post beside her.
In his despair, Yokoshima's pupils constricted sharply.
Slowly, carefully, he looked.
His sister wasn't leaning against the post... she was... she was sewn to the post with wire...
Her left shoulder was pierced, the wire passing through the post.
Her chest and abdomen were crisscrossed with a zigzag pattern of wire stitches, the wire ultimately sewn into the post as well.
Her left knee, ankle, these joints... wires passed through the hard bone...
Her right leg was crossed behind, looking as if she was standing playfully. In reality, her right leg was completely suspended, only her toes touching the ground.
As for her head...
Her head was tilted to the right. That wasn't a cute pose. It was because another wire was hanging her head from the eaves of the building across the alley.
"No! No!"
Yokoshima stiffly moved past the wire hanging from the opposite eaves and saw his sister's face.
There was even wire on her face. It pulled up the corners of her mouth, creating a ghastly, grinning smile.
Yokoshima fell back onto the ground.
The village chief had said that ninja were homicidal maniacs who wielded terrifying violence.
No one could punish ninja. The jutsu of just four ninja could destroy an entire village.
At this moment, the village chief's child-frightening description became concrete reality.
Yokoshima sat slumped on the ground, scrambling backwards until his back hit a wall.
How he wished everything before his eyes was an illusion.
Scanning his surroundings, Yokoshima saw someone inside a window. It was his aunt.
His aunt was looking down at his sister through the glass.
"Aunt! Aunt! Why..."
Yokoshima wanted to say more, to ask something, but then he saw that his aunt's eyes were open only because wires were holding her eyelids up.
Leaning against the wall, he slowly pushed himself up.
His mind was blank for several minutes, he then rushed like a lunatic toward the other houses in the village.
Wires were everywhere. Corpses were everywhere.
And yet, every corpse stood or sat as if alive.
They were all sewn with wire to nearby walls, posts, or eaves.
This was a dead village, where every person, like a sewn puppet, was pretending to be alive in death.
His mother, his older sister, his younger sister, his brother-in-law, his nephew... all were dead, yet appearing alive.
Yokoshima himself was a true walking corpse, not blinking an eye as he looked, dragging his feet as he walked.
Until some rumbling sounds reached him, to which he paid no heed.
Until he walked out of the fishing village from another direction and saw some ninja bursting out of a coconut grove.
Instantly, his eyes turned bloodshot, veins flooding the whites.
Wires!
He saw the wires!
One ninja wore a white mask with long, narrow eye slits. He held a weapon like a long needle, with wire threaded through its eye.
The long needle and wire were his weapons.
Yokoshima stared at the several water ripples on the mask, recognizing him as a ninja from Kirigakure.
The Land of Whirlpools used to be protected by Uzushio-nin, whose forehead protectors were spiral-shaped.
Later, after Uzushiogakure was destroyed, the Land of Whirlpools came under Konoha's protection. Konoha's forehead protector resembled a mouse or a leaf.
Yokoshima was an ordinary fisherman who had learned from the village chief how to identify ninja affiliations.
A female ninja rushed out from the coconut grove. That ninja wore a Konoha forehead protector.
"Kuriarare Kushimaru! Don't think you can escape!"
Yokoshima heard the Konoha kunoichi shout the name of the Kiri-nin with the long needle and wires: Kuriarare Kushimaru.
Kuriarare Kushimaru... it was him who had killed everyone in the fishing village with such perverse methods...
Yokoshima threw himself at Kuriarare Kushimaru without a second thought.
Kushimaru was about to flee toward the sea when, from the corner of his eye, he saw a young fisherman coming at him from the side.
He casually threw the Longsword Nuibari, not wanting any unexpected interference with his escape.
The Longsword Nuibari shot toward Yokoshima, who felt no fear at all. He only wanted to kill Kushimaru.
However, he didn't even have a weapon in his hands.
At that moment, a Stone Panda suddenly crashed down in front of Yokoshima.
The Longsword Nuibari struck the Stone Panda's body, failing to pierce its hard stone skin.
Yokoshima also crashed into the Stone Panda's back, falling to the ground.
When he got up, dizzy and disoriented, he found that his enemy Kushimaru, the Stone Panda, and the Konoha kunoichi were all gone.
More ninja rushed from the grove, all passing Yokoshima, running across the water's surface, giving chase out to sea.
Yokoshima stood there like an idiot, staring blankly at the sea.
He didn't know how much time had passed when someone walked out from the village.
"Horrible, truly horrible. Even I am not as beastly as Kuriarare Kushimaru."
Yokoshima turned and saw a young man wearing a black cloak with red clouds.
The emptiness in his eyes vanished, replaced by urgency. "You know Kuriarare Kushimaru? Who is he? Please, can you help me get revenge?"
After saying a few words, Yokoshima was almost in tears.
Hidan waited patiently.
If this boy dissolved into a weeping mess, he would have no value.
After a few minutes, the pain had vanished from Yokoshima's eyes, leaving only deep-seated hatred.
Hidan nodded repeatedly. "Kid, I like the look in your eyes.
What a wonderful look it is.
Love and friendship are jokes. Only hatred is eternal.
If you hate this world, join the Three Gods Religion.
The Three Gods Religion will guide you to utterly change this wretched world.
Together, we will create a world without war, without killing.
I saw a little girl in the village who looked a lot like you, probably your sister, right?
Join the Three Gods Religion. The Three Gods will grant you the power for revenge, and also the power to build a new order.
This world deserves to be destroyed. In the next world, children like your sister will grow up healthy and happy.
Come on, kid. Tell me, are you willing to join the Three Gods Religion?"
Yokoshima nodded without hesitation, saying,
"I am willing to seize any chance for revenge. I am willing to offer everything I have, to join this Three Gods Religion you speak of..."
Hidan thought that this kid only understood revenge and didn't yet grasp the allure of the new order the leader spoke of, but it didn't matter. He would understand the greatness of the Three Gods Religion in time.