January 1, 1913
Japanese countryside
A few days have passed since the meeting with the Demon Slayer Giyū Tomioka, who had sent three certain children in search of a man called Sakonji Urokodaki. Since the sun was out today, Nezuko Kamado had been hidden away in a small cave while Naruto Uzumaki stayed with her and Tanjirō Kamado went to look for something that he could carry his sister in during the day.
Eventually, Tanjirō came across a couple who were tending to their fields and he approached.
"I beg your pardon," Tanjirō said. "But may I take that basket and a little straw and bamboo?"
"We don't mind," one of them said. "But the basket has a hole in it."
"That's all right," Tanjirō assured them. "Can I pay you?"
"No need, it's a broken basket," the other replied.
"Please let me pay," Tanjirō protested.
"No thank you," the second farmer said. "You can have the other stuff too."
"But I want to pay," Tanjirō asserted.
"We don't want it," the first farmer replied. "What a stubborn kid!"
"Just take it," Tanjirō said as he forced the money into the second farmer's hand. "It's only a few coins anyways!"
"Owww," the second farmer cried out in pain as Tanjirō gathered the items and left.
"Thank you very much!"
Just inside the cave in which Nezuko was hidden sat Naruto, who was picking at a loose thread in his orange-haori as he waited for Tanjirō. The Uzumaki really liked the color orange and when he had first come to Mount Kumotori almost two-weeks-ago, he had been dressed all in orange.
Compared to the clothing-style of everyone around him, his original clothes were very strange.
Kie Kamado had made these new clothes for Naruto, which at first he protested saying that he could get his own, however she insisted. And when she was done, Naruto had cried. Back in his hometown, he had been an orphan, living on his own for his entire life, he wasn't used to this...
...he wasn't used to people caring for him like that, so in return he did everything he could to help the Kamado family. And now, Naruto would do anything he could to help the Kamado siblings.
"Nezuko, Naruto, I'm back," Tanjirō's voice called to the two twelve-year-olds, snapping Naruto out of his daze and he looked up to see the elder Kamado crouched at the mouth of the cave.
"Hey, Tanjirō," Naruto greeted, before turning to the back of the cave. "Nezuko dug a hole."
As if on cue, a grumpy-looking Nezuko peeked out from a hole that was at the back of the cave.
"Mmmm..." Nezuko groaned unhappily, her face all scrunched up.
"She really dug that," Tanjirō asked, and Naruto nodded. "My little sister is like a mole now."
"Yeah, I guess so," Naruto agreed. "She must really not want the sunlight to hit her."
"Just wait," Tanjirō told his sister as he got up and went back over to where he had set down the supplies that he had bought from the farmers. A basket, some bamboo and also some straw.
Naruto moved to the edge of the cave where he watched Tanjirō fix up the basket. Once Tanjirō was finished, Naruto moved aside as the elder Kamado brought the basket inside the cave and sat down near the hole that the younger Kamado had dug to better hide away from the sunlight.
"Will you fit in here," Tanjirō asked his little sister as he showed her the fixed-up basket. "I want us to travel during the day. I'll carry you."
"That'll be adorable," Naruto remarked, a mental image of such popping up in his mind.
"Get in here," Tanjirō said, pointing to the basket as he set it down. "The basket."
Nezuko crawled out of her hole and into the basket, which was only about a third her size.
"Looks like you're too big, Nezuko," Naruto noticed and Tanjirō nodded in agreement.
Nezuko has grown up, Tanjirō silently realized. I still think she's a little girl.
"Hmm?"
But then, he thought of something.
"Nezuko, you're as big as an adult," Tanjirō noted. "Can you...reverse that...and get smaller?"
"Smaller...get smaller, Nezuko," Naruto said as he patted the girl's back and then Nezuko stood, pushing the basket up onto its bottom as she went in headfirst, shrinking to a smaller size. "Ah!"
Nezuko then shifted around into a sitting position in the basket with her knees close to her chest.
"Oh, good," Naruto exclaimed.
"That's perfect," Tanjirō told Nezuko as he patted her head. "Good girl, Nezuko! I'm impressed!"
With Nezuko in her basket that was covered with a blanket to protect the younger Kamado from the sunlight, Tanjirō and Naruto set out again for Mount Sagiri where Giyū had told them all to go.
Later on as the day became evening, they crossed paths with a woman who was travelling with her child, or at least appeared to be. Regardless, the boys approached them to ask about Sagiri.
"To get to Mount Sagiri, you first have to cross that mountain," the woman said. "The sun will set soon. And you're going to carry that huge load? It's dangerous."
"We'll be plenty careful," Naruto assured the woman as he and Tanjirō gave her a grateful bow.
"Thank you very much," Tanjirō added, the elder Kamado carrying the basket on his back.
"People really do disappear up there," the woman warned the boys. "So don't get lost!"
Eventually once the sun set, Nezuko was let out of her basket to walk alongside the boys. Along the way they came across a building, a temple or waystation of sorts that was along the road.
"Oh," Tanjirō exclaimed. "There's a waystation."
"There's a light on," Naruto noticed. "Someone must be there."
"Right, let's go," Tanjirō agreed as the three children approached. However... "I smell blood!"
Tanjirō grabbed Nezuko's hand and ran towards the waystation, Naruto close by their side.
"These mountain paths are dangerous," Tanjirō noted. "The travelers may be injured!"
"Are you alright," Naruto called into the waystation as he ran forward and pulled open the door.
Naruto gasped while Tanjirō's breath caught in his throat as they and Nezuko were met with the horrific sight of three bloodied-corpses on the floor and an ashen-gray man crouched over them.
"What," the ashen-gray man asked as he turned to face the three children, his mouth covered in blood and filled with sharp-teeth. "Hey! This...is my territory! Get away from my feeding ground!"
A man-eating demon, the boys both realized in horror, Naruto having been filled in about demons and such following their departure from Mount Kumotori. One the other hand, Nezuko salivated as she looked upon the three corpses, however she did her best to resist her demonic-urges.
"...hmm..." the demon asked as he looked closer at the children. "Something's wrong here."
The ashen-gray man rose to his feet as he realized just what the three children were.
"Are you three human," the ashen-gray demon realized, before...
Wup!
The demon charged at the children, tackling Tanjirō and Naruto out of the way station. Or at least he would have, Tanjirō pushing Naruto out of the way right as the demon tried to tackle the boys.
Whok!
As the demon only tackled one of his targets, Tanjirō swung up his hatchet and slashed it
Fwmp!
The demon stood as he threw Tanjirō away from him and Naruto ran to his friend's side while the man-eating demon placed a hand on his wound, blood spilling from where Tanjirō had cut him.
"A hatchet," the demon noticed, before laughing. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" Not bad!"
The demon grinned and the boys watched in surprise as the demon's wound began to close up.
"But a wound like this will heal in no time," he continued. "See? The bleeding already stopped?"
"Shadow Cl—," Naruto started to say as he brought his hands together to form a handsign, but a white hot pain sliced through him, emanating from the boy's stomach and he fell to his knees.
"Naruto, are you alright," Tanjirō asked as he crouched down to check on his friend. However, at that moment, the demon rushed Naruto and Tanjirō, tackling and pinning the boys to the ground.
"Damn...he's fast," Naruto groaned, the burning pain slowly beginning to subside little-by-little.
"And incredibly strong," Tanjirō added.
"You'll never do that again," the demon told Tanjirō. "I'm gonna snap both of your necks!"
However, unfortunately for him, Nezuko had turned to see that the boys were in trouble. She had been continuing to resist the urge to eat the dead humans inside the waystation and succeeded.
Whok!
Nezuko had come sprinting from the way station and kicked the demon's head clean off. Tanjirō and Naruto sat up as the demon's body fell off of them and they looked up at Tanjirō's little sister.
"She just killed him," Naruto remarked in amazement. "Well, he was a demon, so..."
"N...Nezuko," Tanjirō exclaimed as the demon's decapitated-body moved to attack the girl.
Whok!
Nezuko swiftly turned and kicked the demon's body away from the boys, making it hit a tree.
"I can't believe it," Tanjirō remarked. "It just moved with its head ripped off!"
"Is...is that even possible," Naruto asked, but before Tanjirō could respond, the head spoke.
"Why youuu," the demon's head screamed at Nezuko and the boys paled. "I knew it! One of you is a demon! Something didn't seem right! Why are a demon and two humans doing together?"
It's still talking, Naruto and Tanjirō thought in horror, neither expecting demons to be like this.
Tmp. Tmp. Tmp.
The headless-body had gotten up and ran at Nezuko to attack her. Naruto ran to intercept it.
"Stop," Tanjirō shouted, raising his hatchet in case the demon's body knocked Naruto away, but the severed-head launched itself at Tanjirō using a pair of arms that it had suddenly grown out of either side of its head. It grabbed the boy's shoulder as it bit down on the blade of his hatchet.
What the—? The head grew arms?
"Get off of me," Tanjirō shouted as he headbutted the severed-head, managing to make it let go of his shoulder and his hatchet, before grabbing it and giving the thing one more good headbut.
This guy's tough, the Waystation Demon thought to itself. His head...is hard!
With the demon stunned, Tanjirō swung his hatchet into the tree, pinning the severed-head.
"Nezuko, Naruto," Tanjirō called out as he turned away to help his sister and his friend.
He pinned me to the tree with his hatchet, the head thought as Tanjirō ran off. My hair is tangled up on the haft! And I grew these hands too short, so I can't get a grip! Ugh!
Tanjirō eventually found the two twelve-year-olds fighting the decapitated-boy, or rather the body was stomping on them while Naruto again tried to shield Nezuko from a demon attacking them.
It was like the other night...but different...this demon being much weaker than that other demon.
Thud!
"Knock it off," Tanjirō shouted as he tackled the decapitated-demon off of Nezuko and Naruto, who sat up and looked to see the demon and Tanjirō roll away towards a cliff-edge. "Argh!"
Nezuko scrambled to the edge of the cliff to reach down and catch her brother as he fell over. To make sure that Nezuko didn't fall off as well, Naruto ran over and helped the siblings back up.
The decapitated-body, meanwhile, hit the ground down below with a splat.
January 2, 1913
Japanese countryside
The Kamado siblings and Naruto returned to where the severed-head was pinned. The head had coughed out some blood in reaction to its decapitated-body hitting those rocks with a splat.
Shing.
Wow, Tanjirō thought as he unsheathed a small knife. How many demons are there? The pair of twelve-year-olds stood nearby while the thirteen-year-old approached the head with his knife in hand. He smells different than the one that was at my house. Tanjirō raised his blade to stab the head. A different demon. But, if I don't kill him, he'll attack more people. So I have to do this.
"Eh? Tanjirō, look out," Naruto called out to his friend as a man wearing a tengu-mask came up behind the eldest-surviving Kamado and reached out to grab his shoulder. Tanjirō turned around just in time to see the masked-man come up behind him as he placed his hand on his shoulder.
"You can't kill it with that," the newcomer informed Tanjirō.