Hi everyone. I know this is a busy time for many of us, including myself, so I thank you for your patience and your time. I look forward to hearing what you guys think. I was pretty proud of this one.

Yuki stood over with the two shinobi who brought them into camp. While she explained the hanged bodies and the strange, shapeshifting creature they encountered, Beki scoped the camp.

Hinata and Neji should be here, but there were so many bodies it was nearly impossible to tell anyone apart. The night dulled out the colors of flak jackets and concealed forms in the trees. Yuki noticed her daughter's nervous bouncing and gave her a gentle shove. "Just go find them already."

"Who?" The blue haired shinobi who brought them in gave Yuki a questioning look.

"Two of her friends," Yuki explained. "That monster had turned into one of them and she's worried about here."

The Second Division personnel exchanged nervous looks. Yuki rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. "Beks, do the glowy thing."

Beki blinked and complied, giving off a soft phosphorescent glow. "She'll keep it on the whole time she's walking around. You can keep an eye on her while we talk." Yuki folded her arms.

The blue haired shinobi sighed and shrugged. "Go ahead then. No funny business."

Beki wandered away from the group, laughing quietly to herself as Yuki artfully dodged any viable explanation of who she was or where she was from. Several of the shinobi shot her confused or suspicious looks. After having to deal with shapeshifting monsters, Beki thought she would be weirded out by a glowing girl in armor would unsettle her, too. She gave a friendly smile and a wave to anyone who looked like they might pull a knife. After several discouraging minutes of searching, Beki spotted a familiar frame reclining on the ground. She carefully approached, watching the slow rise and fall of Neji's torso. Her heart swelled at the sight of him. Neji's presence had always been a source of familiarity and comfort. It amazed Beki how much more seeing him meant to her now. She felt tension in her chest and shoulders loosen, her breathing steady, and her heart rate slow down. As quietly as possible, Beki set down her kanabo against a nearby tree and sat down beside him.

Neji stirred, his eyes fluttering open in the presence of Beki's glow. He squinted at her in confusion, his brows furrowing and a frown tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Don't be so happy to see me," Beki joked, smiling despite herself.

Neji slowly sat up. He reached out and touched her face to see if she was really there. "Beki...what are you doing out here?"

"Mom and I were tracking someone when we ran into people from your division," Beki explained. It took actual physical effort to restrain herself. Every fiber in Beki's body wanted to tackled him to the ground and snuggle him. They were at war, though, and she was in body armor. The embarrassment from the unprofessional behavior would only be eclipsed by the physical damage she would do to him in his half-asleep state. "They told us patrols are getting picked off and led us back here for safety."

Neji listened silently. After she had finished speaking, the quiet stretched on for a while. Beki felt an itch to fill it but before she got a chance, Neji's eyes widened in shock. "Beki, you aren't wearing any clothes under your armor!"

Beki glanced down and noticed how obvious it was when she was glowing. "Oh. Crap, I forgot. I had to go Burned Maiden earlier. Neji started to fumble around, gathering up his blanket, and hurriedly draped it over her shoulders. "You must be freezing," He sighed as he bundled her up. "Didn't you think to pack a change of clothes?"

"If we're being honest, I run hot naturally," Beki said, but snuggled into the blanket anyway. "Besides, if I put on another set of clothes I would burn through them anyway."

Instinctively Neji drew her close. Beki nestled into the crook of his neck, breathing the smell of him. "I'm glad you're alright." Neji kissed the top of her head. "I've been trying not to worry about you."

"You don't have anything to worry about," Beki smiled. "If anyone messes with me, I burn them alive."

"If we weren't at war that sentence would make me uncomfortable," Neji grinned. "But in this context...Burn them all."

"What about you, though?" Beki reached up and cupped his cheek in her hand. "Are you okay?"

Neji nodded. "I overdid it a little. I'm glad I get a chance to catch up on some sleep."

"That is, until I got here," Beki looked guilty.

"No," Neji shook his head. "Getting to hold you like this, knowing you're okay...it's better than sleep."

The two held each other close, talking softly, as if the world weren't coming apart at the seams around them. Beki laughed like she hadn't seen mangled bodies strung from trees. All the pain and confusion of the day melted away in Neji's arms. It was as if all those terrible things had happened in a horrible nightmare and now she was safe and awake. He rocked her gently as they talked. Yuki kept a respectful distance from the pair. Her heart ached a little at the sight of them, seeing so much of herself and Seiichiro at their age in almost identical circumstances. Unlike the lovestruck teenagers, however, Yuki was cruelly aware of the transient nature of existence. Not that catastrophe was a guarantee; it didn't hurt to let the two spend a little more time together.

Yuki rubbed her hands together. A passerby would've taken the gesture as an indicator of cold but for Yuki it was just a way to dispel nervous energy. She began to wander through the crowd, side stepping small campfires surrounded by silent shinobi, their eyes blankly transfixed on the flames as if they contained secret wisdom. The horrors of war were familiar to Yuki, almost in a comforting way. Technology could advance, empires could rise and fall, but war would never change.

A few in the crowd tossed her the occasional suspicious or concerned look. Yuki largely ignored them. After a while Yuki paused and stared up at the sky. The camp was in the middle of nowhere. The cavernous black sky stretched endlessly around them, the moon nearly full and bright enough that Yuki could navigate with ease. She shuffled uncomfortably, kicking at the gravel at her feet as she surveyed the entire encampment. This division was much like Kakashi's; Yuki remembered them having nearly double these numbers that morning. It was incredible how easily a life was expended when it took so long to cultivate. In a natural sense, they were all going back into the dirt to fertilize the plants that fed them or fed their food. That took care of the bodies, but what of all the souls?

Innocent or guilty, each body down was a lost soul. Yuki imagined few would ever see a proper burial, let alone one in a land they knew. As populated as the camp was now, Yuki couldn't imagine the sea of ghosts this place was going to be once the conflict was over. Local folklore in the regions where the conflicts had been worst during shinobi wars were rife with ghost stories: entire legions reenacting their final battles, shinobi knocking on doors in the dead of night to ask for water that were missing their limbs from the waist down, ghost knives whizzing by, that sort of thing.

Most dismissed it all as just local legends but Yuki wasn't so sure. She had always accepted the existence of deities and spirits, be they vengeful or benign. Often things wore away over time as the environment changed and the energy dissipated. War and other large-scale tragedies had an amplifying effect, however, encapsulating a place and trapping it in a time loop, where the dead were doomed to die again and again for all eternity. Standing there in the moonlight, Yuki could almost see the ghosts filling the intentionally empty seats by the fires, hovering wordlessly beside their friends and loved ones. With a sigh, Yuki closed her eyes and prayed for them to find their way. She prayed for them to pass on peacefully and for their loved ones to be comforted. Yuki tended to lose track of time when she was praying hard for something. She put her full concentration on it to fully communicate her intent. That's why it took her some time to notice the singing that had crept into her subconscious. She opened her eyes, blinking at the once again familiar tune. It was coming from somewhere beyond the camp, further into the woods. As she turned to try to narrow down the direction of the source, the singing became more insistent. It was calling to her. Drawing her closer.

The song had filled her with fear and dread up on the mountain. Now, as if understanding it neutered its potency, Yuki felt nothing but curiosity. What could this be, if the Maidens were secured up at the shrine?

For several minutes Yuki walked deeper into the woods and further from the camp. The soft sounds of conversation and the crackling of wood died away to crickets. Yuki heard the coo of an owl. This much activity proved to Yuki there was no danger here; animals were incredibly sensitive to malintent. Silence would have put her more on edge. Owls and crickets told her it was business as usual. As the singing grew louder and more distinct, Yuki had to suppress the urge to sing along.

Yuki saw the break in the trees up ahead, felt the cool breeze as it passed over the lake. Her heart thrummed in her chest and her breathing quickened. The singing was overwhelming now. It was as if Yuki were in a pit, the choir singing down at her so their music bounced off the walls and reverberated in her chest. It was so loud Yuki could hardly think, let alone process what she saw as she finally broke the treeline.

The windswept water gently lapped against the shore. Near the middle of the lake was a small island of sand and rocks. A figure sat on the largest stone, another human shape sat slumped on the ground beside her. It was hard for Yuki to make out details at this distance but in her heart she knew who she was looking at. Her black hair shone like silk in the moonlight, which reflected off her priestess robes and gave her an ethereal glow. The Drowned Maiden sat there patiently, petting the head of whoever lay at her feet. The singing finally faded away. The sudden absence of the deafening noise was chilling. Yuki could feel her muscles start to tense as she approached. She stabilized her chakra and began to walk across the surface of the lake.

Perhaps it was her nerves, but it seemed to be taking Yuki forever to reach the Drowned Maiden. Out of habit, Yuki glanced at her feet as she walked and nearly stopped dead. There was a face in the water. Its eyes were wide open, staring blankly up at Yuki. She watched for several seconds to see if it would blink. When nothing happened, Yuki's eyes began to track the surface of the water. She began to see other parts: hands reaching for the surface, mounds of hair moving with the current like seaweed, spines bobbing just below the waterline. The lake was full of the dead, and based on the shinobi headbands Yuki saw them all wearing, they were fresh.

"Daughter," Ouse flashed a charming smile. "I've been waiting for you."

"Rather impatiently, by the look of it," Yuki glanced down at the bodies swaying beneath her feet.

Ouse shook her head. "Lost souls for a lost cause."

"What are you doing here?" Yuki folded her arms. The person slumped at Ouse's feet let out a strange, guttural noise. Ouse shushed it gently, petting the top of its head. The person was mostly in the shadows of the rocks, propped up slightly with its head against Ouse's leg. Yuki could make out tufts of black hair and bandages, and that the person was likely a female based on its smaller stature.

"Righting ancient wrongs, saving the world from itself," Ouse cocked her head. "Tsukimori would speak of culling the weak but I see it more as helping lost children find their way."

"To an early grave, apparently." Yuki cocked her head. "You're awfully far from the shrine. What do the Three Maidens have to do with shinobi conflicts?"

Ouse gave a small laugh. It was high and clear, like the tinkling of bells. "We're right at the core of the issue, of course. Shinobi kill each other, fight over land using chakra. All that chakra had to come from somewhere. The source of that chakra, our Mother, had a vision for all her children. The shinobi in their thirst for violence abused the chakra and discarded the Mother's vision-"

"Again, I'm struggling to see what that has to do with you three and your propensity to stir up trouble whenever we get in fights." Yuki shuffled, adjusting her position on the water.

Ouse's eyes widened and the smile took a sharp turn. "The impatience on this one! I don't know what I expected. You were always this way."

Yuki's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

Ouse shrugged, trying hard to suppress a knowing smile. "You grew up on the shrine, an orphan with incredible gifts. A spiritual successor, one could say, the bearer of my torch." Ouse stared Yuki down with lashes so long they looked like butterfly wings. "I can see it about you, the grace in your movements, the calm you surround yourself with. You were meant to be head priestess, were you not?"

"That was a long time ago." Yuki shook her head. "I'd have to say we've had some philosophical differences, you Maidens and I."

Ouse shook her finger at Yuki. "Oh no, not philosophical differences. You agree with us. When did the nations mean anything to you? The petty conflicts of the shinobi?"

"Never." Yuki frowned.

"How can you be so sure you're fighting for the right side? You should be with us, Asou Yukihana. You should be with your Mother." Ouse spoke gently as she carefully extracted herself from the thing at her feet. She crossed the space between her and Yuki. It was overwhelming how beautiful the woman was. She looked like a drawing come to life, perfectly symmetrical, full and womanly yet slender and tall. Hair like ink on skin like snow, lips red as blood and eyes as blue as ghostfire.

"I was alive in ancient times, Yukihana," Ouse spoke softly, almost conspiratorily. "My family was prosperous and I had every right a woman could pray for in those days. Yet still, I lacked power and purpose. I never bought into the righteousness or the justice of Mother's message the way Tsukimori did, but I know what embracing Kaguya did for me. When I was murdered in her service, she brought me back. Her love, her dedication, that gave me my purpose." Ouse glanced up at the moon, a small enchanting smile tugging at her lips. "Mother brought each of us back. Our true names were once common knowledge but they seem to have been lost in the ages. Mother would have never called us by our deaths; it would have been too cruel a reminder. We were not the Burned, the Drowned, nor the Hanged. Our names came from Mother's sorrow. Mother loved each of us so deeply that she couldn't handle her grief upon our deaths and split it between us. It was a small burden for us to bear in exchange for our resurrection because with it came a portion of her power. Tsukiyama was her Vengeance, Tsukimori was her Fervor, and I was her Anguish."

"Is that your recruitment speech?" Yuki chuffed. "What would I be then? You guys have all the big ones covered. I'd be the Maiden of…what else is in grief? Day drinking?"

Ouse ignored the joke and instead gave Yuki a sympathetic look. She reached up and took Yuki's face softly in her hands. "You would be the bearer of Mother's greatest pain," Ouse leaned in, almost close enough to kiss Yuki. "Her betrayal."

Yuki swallowed at the lump forming in the back of her throat.

"They made us into monsters, Yukihana," Ouse gave her a pained look. "We were peaceful priestesses and they murdered us. Death twisted us, true, but it made us in their likeness, corrupted our nature so we could combat theirs. All shinobi know to do is to destroy, to fight one another. The Mother's way is one of creation and peace. Come now. Stop playing at being their ally. You've cleaved through enough shinobi that none of them can call you 'friend'. You are a priestess. You were meant to be a Maiden. You need to be reunited with your Mother."

The sound of something stumbling through the bushes drew both of their attention. Awkwardly standing there, blinking in the moonlight, was Beki.

"Mom? What's going on?"

Ouse's eyes widened. "Mom?" She surveyed Beki carefully and then turned to Yuki with an accusatory look. "She looks like a Tsukimori to me."

"She is," Yuki spat. "She's Tsukimori and Asou."

Ouse inhaled sharply through her teeth. "Did they teach you nothing? The Mother's gift is not to be shared! It was split between us for a reason, Yukihana." Ouse gestured around her, to the sea of dead she created. "Look around us! You and I have both killed innumerable men without remorse. I would like to think you are wise enough to recognize the instability in yourself. And as for the Tsukimori," Ouse looked off in the distance as a shadow crossed over her face. "That level of destructive power bound up inside a person akin to a rope stretched taut, ready to snap at any moment" Ouse grabbed ahold of Yuki's shoulders and shook her, concern furrowing her dainty brow. "How could you possibly tempt the fates by combining them?! How could you flip the coin of madness with your own child?"

Yuki flashed a dangerous smile. "The only way to prove the fates are real is to tempt their wrath every once in a while."

Ouse shook her head and walked across the water towards Beki. Beki blinked in surprise at the approach of the woman and glanced at her mother.

"Uh, Yuki, who is this?"

"Asou Ouse," Yuki folded her arms. She watched Ouse as she moved towards Beki, looking for any indication the woman would lash out. "You would know her better as the Drowned Maiden."

Beki went rigid, her shoulders shooting up and her eyes widening in shock. She stared at Ouse. "But she's been dead for three hundred years-"

"More like four hundred and thirteen." Ouse reached up and took Beki's face in her hands. Her skin was incredibly soft for an ancient.

"How is that-there's no way that's possible," Beki shook her head but kept her gaze glued to the woman in front of her. "You should be ashes by now-"

"Little one, we've met before." Ouse's eyes were a pretty shade of blue. Not quite as bright as her mother's, more on the lighter side than Yuki's but not as silver as Beki's. Her breath smelled like figs. "Don't you remember my voice?"

Almost instantly Beki was thrown back into the memory of that cavern and the coffins. The whispery, terrifying voice that had called out to her, controlled her in that darkness. "What are you doing?"

Ouse had been examining Beki's face closely, the slightest hint of a frown on her mouth. Suddenly, she jumped with a start and took a step back. "No, this is no good. It's in her, the madness, seething beneath the surface like a curse waiting to be spoken into being." Ouse turned her eyes on Yuki. "I was hoping perhaps it would have passed over her by some luck."

"What are you talking about?" Beki felt sweat droplets forming on her back. She had no idea what the women had been talking about but couldn't shake the feeling it would affect her fate.

"The bloodlines were not supposed to intermingle," Ouse explained with a sympathetic tone. "It was stringently enforced in our day because of Mother's warnings. When she raised the Maidens from the dead, she told us to go forth and continue our lines to pass on her gift. She made it very clear that each gift came with a price. We each would carry a portion of her grief to balance our power. If the lines mixed, the balance would be disrupted, and only devastation would be left in its wake."

"Who the hell is this 'Mother' everyone keeps talking about?" Beki furrowed her brow. "And what are you trying to say here? I'm a ticking time bomb?"

Ouse took a deep breath and shook her head. "What you are is not your fault, little one. The burden of your bloodguilt falls on the shrine and the priestess for not conveying Mother's warnings and enforcing her justice." Ouse stepped back from Beki and raised her hands in a familiar gesture. "If we allow you to live, you will only leave ruin and ash behind you. Such destruction is not our way."

The dead clamored beneath Beki, their arms reaching up and taking ahold of her ankles. They began to pull her beneath the surface. As Beki panicked, her chakra control faltered. One leg broke beneath the surface and she pulled it out with a shout. Beki kicked and swatted at the hands, tugging her legs out of their grasp. But there were always more hands. They reached up from the abyss, fingers reaching, pulling, dragging. Beki began to heat up defensively but the hands didn't care as she seared their already lifeless flesh. She stumbled, falling backwards towards the water. Instantly more hands were on her, clawing at her arms, legs, hair. Beki struggled to pull herself away from them, smashing fingers and snapping wrists. Her chakra control gave out as the hands pulled her beneath the surface. Arms wrapped around her in a fatal embrace, dragging her towards oblivion.

They're trying to drown me.

Beki closed her eyes, desperately searching within herself for any trace of the Drowned Maiden. She had been there once, patiently waiting to be called upon. Beki needed her now more than ever. What had once been a simple process, closing her eyes and visualizing the Maiden come through the surface, was all but a memory. The sea that had been in her mind was nothing but an empty void. That horrible, gurgling voice that had once spoken to her was gone. There was an unmoving sentient silence in its place, watching and waiting for what Beki didn't know. Her death, perhaps. If Beki couldn't get free soon or activate the Drowned Maiden, she was done for.

Having found nothing but a void within, Beki focused on freeing herself in the tangible world. She transformed into the Burned Maiden, the explosion of her shift knocking away the bodies. Beki kicked hard, working against the weight of her armor as she approached the surface. Her lungs burned and her eyes stung in the contaminated water. When at last she broke the surface, Beki gasped a few good breaths and clawed the last few feet to shore. The now partially dismembered dead clamored for her but never left the safety of the water. Beki looked up at the Drowned Maiden to see that Ouse was facing Yuki, her bleeding back now to Beki.

"You would betray me? The Maidens?" Ouse practically screamed. "Your Mother?!"

"The moment I brought that child into the world I made a promise," Yuki's voice was low and calm but she couldn't hide the growl behind her words. "I would personally tear anyone whoever dared to lay a hand on her to pieces."

"If this is how far our descendants have fallen, better to purge you and start over." Ouse stepped back so her eyes could be on them both. "Heathens and blasphemers, all."

Beki looked at Yuki for direction. Her mother raised a hand, keeping her eyes on Ouse. "Stay on shore."

"Are you sure?" Beki picked up her dropped kanabo.

Yuki nodded. The vision of beauty before her quickly wilted. The milky skin turned deathly pale, streaked by blue veins and a sickly gray green tint. Her too-red lips turned the color of a bruised plum. Ouse's clothes and hair clung to her skin as the water coated her body, revealing she was wearing nothing underneath. Ouse looked up at Yuki with the eyes of a corpse, offwhite and glassed over, her lips curled into a snarl. She parted her teeth and disgusting algae filled water came bubbling out, splattering her clothes and splashing into the water beneath their feet. Beki watched in horror as Ouse threw herself at Yuki, a rattling scream escaping the Maiden's lips as she charged. At the same time, Beki saw that beneath the surface the dead were maneuvering towards Yuki at frightening speed. Their convergence upon Yuki happened at the same time as Ouse's attack. Beki opened her mouth to let out a cry of warning.

Beki heard a cracking sound and felt a rush of cold air so strong it nearly knocked her off her feet. Yukihana had instantaneously shifted into Yuki-onna form. The release of power was so intense that it had frozen the surface of the lake for several feet around and beneath her, trapping Ouse's helpers. Yuki had also thrown up her hands and stopped Ouse mid attack, holding her wrists before they could bring the blade down. She gave her ancestor one swift kick to give herself some space. Ouse's face was twisted with rage as she moved in for another attack. She vomited water as she moved, slicking the surface of Yuki's ice. Yuki stood there, her white hair and corpse eyes staring Ouse down as she closed in with her knife raised. At the last second, Yuki raised her hands and trapped Ouse from the ankle down in ice. It stopped her dead in her tracks, the rest of her lurching forward with the sudden obstacle. Ouse snarled and struggled against the ice. Yuki circled her slowly as the ice crept its way up Ouse's body. The bodies in the lake became more desperate, pounding on the thick ice above them to try to rescue Ouse. Any time Ouse tried to bring in water or spit it up for an attack, it just fueled Yuki's encroaching ice. After it encased her arms, Ouse became very still. She watched Yuki with an unsettling smile. "You'll trap me again? That didn't work out so well for your predecessors, did it?"

Yuki shook her head, her hair catching the moonlight. "Keeping you alive was a mistake-"

The bell like laugh was gone. The gasping, gurgling sound Ouse made would have floored a man with less resolve than Yuki. Instead, Yuki got in close, almost so their noses touched. "What's so funny, mother?"

"Killing me would be worse," Ouse cocked her head, her features still lovely even in their monstrous state. "The last time we were killed, we came back twice as strong. Nothing will save you when she raises us again, Yukihana. That is, if there's anything left for us to come for once that abomination of yours finally snaps."

"I've heard enough from you." Yuki stepped away and the ice inched its way up Ouse's face, trapping her mouth in the ice. Before it had completely encased her face, Yuki pulled back and roundhouse kicked the ice block. It shattered Asou Ouse into chunks, half of her head still looking up at Yuki in surprise as it crumbled into the lake. The dead beneath the waves fell still, slowly sinking to the bottom as the source of their power faded from existence. Yuki paused for a moment, surveying her work, before looking up at Beki. "That was a lot easier than I-"

A scream full of bloodcurdling fury and pain filled the air, tearing apart the calm and setting the hair standing on both of their necks. A chill ran down Beki's spine at the otherworldly sound. No animal or person she had ever heard make a noise like that. It was straight out of a nightmare, something she couldn't have imagined if she tried. Her body responded involuntarily. Besides the goosebumps, Beki began to shake. Not a little tremble, but a full body spasm to accompany the icy fingers creeping their way down her spine. Beki's eyes widened as she located the source and shakily raised a finger towards it. "Moooooooom-"

Yuki's eyes followed Beki's accusing gesture to the source of the hellish scream. The person who Ouse had been comforting hadn't been one of her dead shinobi pets. This person, no, the form was too twisted, too malformed to be a person. This thing had risen up onto its feet. It was half bent over, long lean legs that led to a torso bound in rope, its arms secured and crossed over its chest. Ropes dangled down over its legs and trailed like tails behind it. The lack of arms for balance forced the thing to lean forward, its head out before it.

"OOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" It bellowed, that same shrill, nails on a chalkboard, choked out sound. It wheezed, inhaling with difficulty as it staggered towards them. As it approached, Beki saw it stand up to its full height and her knees knocked together.

Its face was wrapped in bandages. Tufts of black hair poked out in places but otherwise the bandages were so tight Beki could see its features beneath, specifically the open mouth twisted in horrific pain. That terrifying face would be enough to haunt Beki's nightmares, but worse, the head was attached to a neck that was far too long. Stretched out to almost twice a normal length so the muscles couldn't quite support the weight of the lolling head above it. The bandages were looser around the throat, letting gray flesh creep through. Beki saw a horrible purple rope shaped bruise encircling the throat like a choker. It oozed terror, between the vision of it and the bloodcurdling noises it made. For the first time in her life, Beki was frozen in horror. All she could do was watch as one of the rope like tails raised itself up off the ground and shot out for Yuki. Before she could react, it had her by the throat, dragging her around on her own ice so she couldn't get the footing to fight it. Yuki struggled, tugging at the impossibly strong and sentient ropes attacking her, afraid to extend her claws and possibly impale herself. For half a moment, Yuki stopped fighting it. It yanked her painfully but bought her a safe window to free herself. Her claws cleaved through the rope, but only barely.

"Beki!" Yuki dropped her Yukionna form and ran for her daughter. "Start running now!"

Beki stared at her blankly, blinking dumbly at the creature coming to kill them. "Dammit Beki!" Yuki slapped her across the face and took her arm in hand. "RUN!"

Beki was tugged along for a few moments but the strike had brought her back around to her senses. She followed her mother into the woods, imitating the way she vaulted roots and swung from branches to achieve maximum speed. "Why aren't we headed toward camp?!" Beki asked.

"What, do you want to see everyone slaughtered?!" Yuki spat. "We need to buy time for me to think of a way out of this!"

Beki could only nod in agreement as she raced along the forest floor, her wet armor slapping against her legs. After a few minutes, the horrible screeching faded but Yuki motioned for Beki to keep the pace. "We're going to need some help," Yuki shook her head. "This...she's too much to take on alone."

"You took out the Drowned Maiden like it was nothing," Beki furrowed her brow, water droplets running down the sides of her face from her still soaked hair and headband. "I get that she's probably the most gut clenching scary thing I have ever seen in my life. Do you think that if we put our powers together we can't take her down?"

Yuki stared out ahead, a frown twisting her features. "No, Beki. I had a type advantage against the Drowned Maiden. Nothing quite stops water in its tracks like ice. Those ropes were infused with chakra. Toramura had just modified the gauntlets. If he hadn't I wouldn't have been able to cut my way out."

"So what are other people going to get us?" Beki blinked.

"If nothing else, they'll help draw her attention." Yuki surveyed the now deathly quiet forest around them. "Not that I wanted to run her through a camp of sleeping shinobi."

"Well, what do we do then?" Beki glanced nervously over her shoulder.

"The first patrol we see, we recruit." Yuki nodded confidently. "Not that it'll be hard to convince them to help us fight the Hanged Maiden. We all took on zombies today, right?"

...

The Kiri kunoichi, Sen, nervously moved through the brush. It had been almost twenty minutes since her superior had gone out looking for her squad mate, who herself had gone missing almost an hour ago. The moon was almost full and made it nearly as bright as day. The light hurt the situation almost as much as it helped, casting the entire woods in an ominous blue-white glow. It was unsettling how quiet it was. Sen shuddered at the way her heart pounded in her chest, advertising her presence to the world around her. The most disorienting thing about her search was the paradoxical sensations of being completely alone in the wilderness but also feeling like she was being watched. Sen followed the patrol route her squad mate had headed out on and logically her superior would have taken as well.

There was a sound, like a soft whisper, off to her left. Sen's head jerked in that direction but not even wind was there to greet her. The utter stillness set her hair on end. Had she imagined it? Or were her teammates pulling a tacky prank?

Sen cautiously approached the source of the sound. The trees were thicker here, trunks ranging from the thickness of her thigh to her torso and as tall as the eyes could see. She had to inch her way forward through the dense brush so as not to make noise. It was hard; the bushes were thorny and latched onto her clothes, snagged at her gloves, and pulled at her hair. At last, Sen cleared the underbrush and entered a small clearing in the trees. She almost walked right into her superior.

"Yusuke san," Sen jumped, laughing nervously. "You had me worried-"

His empty eyes stared back at her, tongue lolling out of his mouth. It took her almost a full thirty seconds of staring at him to notice the rope wrapped around his neck, suspending him from the branch of one of the great trees. Sen stumbled sideways nervously, only to collide with another form. Her teammate swung slightly from the impact, swaying back and forth like the pendulum in a clock. Her eyes were vacant and her head hung at an unnatural angle from the rope. Sen let out an involuntary squeal of fear before she clapped a hand over her mouth. Both Yusuke and Haruhi had bloodied up fingers with hunks of skin, the ropes around their neck soaked with the blood of their desperate, futile attempts to free themselves. Had they killed themselves? Wouldn't they have given Sen some indication, at least in a change in their behavior, to make her believe it possible?

Sen looked up at the rest of the clearing only to have her breath catch in her throat. The entire clearing looked like a macabre set of windchimes: bodies swaying from ropes in the trees. Sen looked around, knowing the killer must be close. Again, she felt like she was being watched but also completely alone. Perhaps it was the eyes of the dead she was feeling on her back. Sen slowly made her way around the clearing, surveying each of the bodies. They all looked rather fresh. In total, there were thirteen. They were all in various states of distress. Some were completely intact, their looks of surprise still plastered on their faces in death. Others had met crueler fates. Limbs were missing, the wounds appearing as though they had been torn and not severed away. All that was left of one man's head was from the jaw down. One of the bodies looked older than the others and it was in the worst shape. The skin was a sickly gray where it was exposed and the clothes were mostly gone. Wrappings hung around the face but the rest of her body was only partially kept decent by the rope she had been bound and hung by. A chill crept down Sen's spine at the sight of the woman's unnatural, stretched out neck. How long did a person have to be hung for for their muscles to give out that way?

Sen felt something plop on her shoulder and nearly screamed, thinking that some kind of tree snake or spider had fallen on her shoulder. When she looked, it was much worse.

The noose had come from nowhere. It tightened around her neck and Sen swatted behind her for her assailant but no one was there. Sen was bodily hoisted into the air, her fingers between the rope and her neck. It hurt desperately but she knew she needed enough slack to keep her windpipe from being crushed. The rope twisted as Sen was raised out of sight far up into the trees. Strangely, Sen spotted no one. After a few seconds the weight of Sen's body on the rope broke her fingers. The pain was intense but did nothing to compete with the panic of how difficult it was becoming to breathe. As her vision began to blur, the rope twisted around again and Sen found herself face to face with the older looking body from below. It dangled directly in front of her, so close their noses almost touched. The wrappings around its face were just loose enough for the moonlight to catch the evil glint of its pitch black eyes. Sen began to panic, her breathing becoming more rapid and strained as she struggled against the rope. The thing gasped and wheezed, each breath slow and pained to matched Sen's own, swaying mockingly in rhythm with Sen as she kicked out her final moments.