At that moment, he felt a sudden chill that made his hair stand up. He turned his head and saw the air in front of him twist. Something stood there, between form and nothing.
A low hum sounded. His body stiffened, and his heart felt as if it were grabbed and stopped for a moment. Then something passed through him, tearing his soul apart and pulling it free.
The pain came from the deepest part of him. He could not cry out, because his soul was already separated and he could no longer control his body. He could only watch as his skin lost its color and his view drifted away from his body.
In his spirit state, he finally saw it clearly. A shadow wrapped in black robes, like thick dark liquid flowing over its form, stood before him. Its head was covered by a pale bone mask with black hollow eyes, bared teeth, and a large black hole in its chest.
Moonlight passed through her body, leaving no shadow on the ground, only a vague outline. "What is this?" was his final thought, before his white spirit was swallowed completely.
His body fell to the ground with a dull thud. Inside, one of the drunk Kusagakure Ninja suddenly said they heard something outside. Even through the haze of alcohol, the strange sound made them stand up in alarm.
Before they could act, the temperature dropped sharply, and they saw a twisted, unseen figure. White mental energy was torn from their mouths, noses, eyes, ears, and even their pores. They collapsed stiffly to the floor, eyes dull and without life.
Death kept walking in the dark. A heavily drunk Kusagakure Chunin slumped over the counter and lost all signs of life. A Jonin handling documents had his soul taken in silent cold and fell onto his desk.
Whether the target was a sleeping Genin, a drunk Chunin, or an alert Jonin, no one was spared. There was no warning, no cries, and no escape.
There were no loud noises and no signs of Ninjutsu. There were no screams, only spreading death. Faces froze in fear at the moment their souls were eaten.
Finally, someone noticed the strange deaths. A sharp whistle cut through the night as the first Kusagakure Ninja sounded the alarm. In an instant, half of Kusagakure was stirred.
"What happened?" "Is it an enemy attack?" Grass Ninja rushed out with weapons, looking around in panic, but they saw only a silent night.
"What is that?" someone shouted as they saw the distorted figure. Kunai, Shuriken, and even Explosive Tags were thrown, but they passed through it like air. A Jonin tried to block it with Earth Release, yet the body slipped through without pause.
Ninjutsu struck it and went through without effect, cutting only empty air. It moved forward slowly and could not be stopped, erasing life wherever it passed, like a bringer of death.
"What is that thing?" "Is it a monster?" Fear spread quickly among the Kusagakure Ninja.
They were facing something that could not be touched by physical attacks. This was not force against flesh, but the swallowing of souls. Their resistance looked weak and pointless.
Someone shouted in rage and fear, calling for the Sealing Technique team. But Kusagakure's so called Sealing Technique team had only five people, and all of them had already lost their souls.
The steps of the void never stopped. It passed through thick earth walls and simple wooden doors, quietly taking the souls inside. It searched every corner and dragged out those hiding.
Every place it reached, someone died. Someone finally broke down and screamed that it was a ghost, trying to flee Kusagakure. At the edge of the village, they saw five talismans marked with the word "forbidden."
At that moment, Shadow, Nagato, and Kakuzu stood on high ground, coldly watching the struggle inside the Barrier Technique. Five C-rank Barrier Techniques formed a sealed area by placing talismans linked to the caster's Chakra at five points.
Once activated, the Barrier Technique could not be broken unless all talismans were destroyed at the same time. It had no attack power, but its defensive sealing ability was extremely strong. This was the Barrier Technique Nagato used to hide and protect the Outer Path Statue, and Kusagakure had no way to break it.
Cries of begging and screams echoed from cellars, village gates, and shaking houses. Each bite of pain guided her toward those who had once tortured her. There were no blind spots and no survivors.
Screams, curses, pleas, explosions, and the clash of weapons followed one another. All sounds of the living vanished without a trace, swallowed by complete silence.
There was only death left walking through the night.
"Huh?"
The returning squad leader, the Jonin Aoki, stared at his subordinate with a stunned look and spoke. "Are you joking?"
"Cap, Captain, they are all dead! Really! All dead!"
The Kusagakure Ninja was crying hard, snot and tears running down his face. Fear twisted his features, and his voice was close to a scream.
"Bastard! Do you know what you are saying?"
Aoki frowned tightly, then led the confused and uneasy group forward, forcing down the pounding in his chest as they entered Kusagakure.
When the darkest moment before dawn passed, the sky turned a dull gray without warmth, like the belly of a dead fish. The fog over Kusagakure began to sink and fade.
The morning light only drove away the mist, but it brought no warmth or life.
What appeared under the weak light was a wasteland of death, deathly silent.
It was a complete dead zone, deathly silent.
There was no movement anywhere in Kusagakure. No voices, no birds, and even insects seemed to have vanished at this moment.
The wind swept through the empty streets, carrying fog and dust, making a low sound like a dying breath.
"…"
The shock and faint impatience on Aoki's face froze in place.
Behind him, the group of Kusagakure Ninja who had been longing for hot food and beds after their return all stood stiff. The desire on their faces turned into blank disbelief.
"No… impossible…" someone forced out a dry whisper.
But when the fog fully cleared and the full sight of Kusagakure appeared, their last weak hope collapsed like bubbles.
Bodies.
Bodies everywhere.
On the streets, in courtyards, inside houses.
Hundreds and thousands of bodies lay scattered in different poses. Every one of them was a familiar Ninja.
Their empty eyes reflected the cold morning light, twisted, curled up, standing stiff, or reaching out in vain. They silently showed the fear and despair they felt at the moment of death.
Every corpse had lost all color, showing a strange mix of waxy white and gray.
That was the mark left when the soul was taken and all life dried up.
The density of the bodies was so great that they covered almost everything the eye could see.
A heavy smell of death and fear hit everyone's noses, causing instant nausea and dizziness.
"Ugh!"
A young Genin's legs gave out and he dropped to his knees, retching loudly.
No one helped him. The others stood like statues, their eyes unfocused as they scanned the nightmare before them.
"Really… all of them…" one Kusagakure Ninja said, his voice rough like sandpaper.
"What happened here?" Aoki felt his hands and feet go cold, as if his blood had stopped. He staggered forward a few steps without thinking.
Just then, a very weak and suppressed sobbing sound came from a house on the left, almost lost to the wind.