Chapter 8:
Author's Note: This is Chapter Eight, and I started writing it immediately after publishing Chapter Seven. I will strive to have more chapters ready for publication sooner.
The group made their way out of the town, traversing mostly empty streets. Although it wasn't exactly a ghost town, there was a tangible feeling of uneasiness in the air. Some dirt from the streets was kicked up ahead of them, and the overall absence of people intensified the sense of unease. As they exited the town, the mood lightened a bit due to the fresh forest surroundings. Even for this time of year, the trees were vibrant and green. It seemed to have rained a little during the night, not enough to create a lot of mud, but sufficient to release the pleasant scent of petrichor into the air.
Meno quickly scurried around, sniffing the general area. Despite being an older dog, his sense of smell remained as sharp as ever. Akai followed him, attentively noting any unusual noise or scent in the forest. However, they discovered nothing out of the ordinary. As they continued their journey, Nagato suddenly appeared in Akai's view, mildly startling her. "Do you see anything?" he asked. "Not a thing, at least for now," Akai replied. "How's the trap setting going?" They turned around to see Ito and Mukata setting traps as they progressed, maintaining a significant distance between each one. The traps varied in size and quality, ranging from leg hold traps to foot snares—non-lethal contraptions primarily utilizing vegetation such as the abundant trees and bushes. "Did you find anything?" Akai inquired of Nagato as they continued walking and scanning their surroundings.
"Not much, to be honest. I don't sense anything particularly unusual. The Hokage should have sent an actual sensor-type ninja if we were to scout the reasons behind these disappearances," he replied, displaying a hint of frustration with his own abilities.
"You're right, but a large portion of the force has been occupied with rebuilding and maintaining security since the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox. It appears we're relying solely on our instincts this time," Nagato responded.
Akai released an exasperated sigh upon seeing his smile. He took immense pride in his puns. The years she had spent working on her own, separate from their team, had almost made her forget Nagato's sense of humor. Yet, it managed to lighten the atmosphere somewhat. "Was the pun really necessary?" she asked, turning her attention back to the forest and attempting to pick up any scents once again.
The dense forest emitted an enchanting fragrance and boasted breathtaking beauty. The trees reached towards the sky, their twisted and gnarled trunks adorned with emerald green leaves. The air was rich with the tangy aroma of cedar, pine, and fir, and the sun struggled to penetrate the overhead canopy, creating a dreamlike and otherworldly ambiance that both soothed and captivated.
The forest floor was teeming with dense and lush undergrowth, with ferns and shrubs obstructing the paths. The ground was blanketed in a thick carpet of fallen leaves and twigs. As the forest seemed to exhale with a gust of wind, carrying distant scents, she suddenly heard Meno whimper and sneeze before the pungent odor assailed her. It was a repugnant mixture of decaying flesh, damp earth, vinegar, and stagnant water, inducing an immediate wave of nausea. She instinctively covered her nose, closed her eyes, and gasped, "Hey, guys, I think I've found something!"
She coughed a little bit before looking back at them, Mukata came closer to her, asking "What is it?''finally overcoming the scent she answered "I don't know exactly where it is, but it smells like rotting flesh, damp earth and… vinegar?", she pointed to the general direction where the scent came from.
"What are we waiting for?!"Nagato exclaimed
Nagato exclaimed, and the group began to move towards the source of the smell.
The party trudged through the dense undergrowth of the forest as they continued their search for the source of the smell. The further they went, the closer they got, and soon enough it was almost unbearable due to its intensity and pungency. After a few moments, it became apparent that there was no end in sight; it seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the group found a clearing on the forest floor where the ground seemed to sink slightly. Mukata made the Snake hand seal making his arm seemed to darken before punching a hole thru on the ground, creating a hole which revealed a cave similar to a cicada burrow.
The pungent scent emanating from the cave was almost overpowering as they approached it and Akai couldn't help but remember her time during the second great ninja war, with the smell of rotting and long since dead corpses.
The party descended into the darkness of the tunnel, with Nagato leading the way.
As they went further and further down, Mukata recognized the way the cave looked—similar to that of the holes of cicadas when they unburrow. he managed a small smile as he remembered his interest in entomology, before the mood shifted back to being eerie and intriguing as they finally reached the end of the tunnel—filled with several human and animal corpses.
The sight was gruesome, but what made it even more shocking was how mangled and mutilated some of them were considering how long they had been there.
"What the actual fuck?" Ito asked shocked at the sheer way the body's looked, even in the war, the sight of corpses were most often than not due to immediately lethal damage
Many still had clothes on; others were stripped down with only bones remaining. On closer inspection, there seemed to be a pattern to each and every single body they looked as if someone or something had sucked every las bit of internal matter in the body's, the skin almost sticking to the bones, as if all of their fat and mussels had been taken out of them. they noticed on the clothes of the human victims and some of the animals. All of them had several thousand stabs, each of them barely as thick as a tree branch, the holes looked as if whatever stabbed them had been moved around to either take more blood out or to make it as painful as possible.
"We should probably go back to the town"
Nagato said as he tried to look away from the scene, as gruesome as it was they had to continue with the mission, for now their best option would be to go back to the town and warn them about the situation.
"You're right, whatever did this is dangerous, and we don't know anything about it" Mukata added, pondering about what the best action to take.
"It might be a good idea for two of us to go back to the village and inform them about this. If we are dealing with a wild animal, someone from the Aburame clan might be more useful," Akai continued.
"Akai is right, it is our best option, asking for backup in general would be really helpful, and it might be some rouge ninja,or maniac", ito said as she examined further the corpses, "Whatever did this was either really lucky of actually know what it was doing-" she moved around some of the rotting skin with a senbon giving her a better look at the placement of the punctures "-It managed to hit most of the important veins and the liver in most of these, even on the animal ones" She said as she carefully moved a small squirrel out of its place, it's tiny neck snapping because of the movement, separating its head from the rest of its body as the rotting, almost dry skiing chipped off its place, she a little disgusted left in its place and turned back to the group, who were deep in thought considering their options, altho they were all capable ninjas, they were by no means an assault team, at most they had Nagato and Akai as Hard hitters, but Ito and Mukata weren't exactly powerhouses, both of them with very limited jutsu and chakra pools, "I think Akai and Ito should stay here, if whatever was here comes back for more civilians you'd be able to fight it and heal any injured sustained in a worst case scenario", Nagato proposed, and the others nodded in agreement. Despite the grim circumstances, their training and experience as ninja had taught them to think on their feet and adapt to unexpected situations. After setting up a perimeter with some basic traps around the cave entrance, the group ran back to the town , once they got there, Mukata led the way reading the information given to them finding out where the leader of the town- the man that had requested the mission- was located, soon enough they got to the what was apparently his workplace/ the town hall as they entered they were greeted by a receptionist, before she could actually ask what did they needed, Mukata asked to talk to the leader, as the tired employee moved away from their desk and went into a separate room, leaving them waiting for a response they stood waiting near the desk the layout of the building as a whole was reminiscent of the Hokage building back at Konoha, a few minutes later, the employee signaled them to come in, as they came into the rather large office they saw an incredibly old man
"I presume you are the Konoha ninjas we requested, correct?" he inquired, extending his hand for a handshake with Mukata, a gesture swiftly reciprocated.
"That 's correct. My name is Une Mukata, and my teammates here are Inuzuka Akai, Kachi Ito, and Momochi Nagato. We are here to report important information regarding our mission. We've discovered a large 'cave' outside of the town filled with the corpses of both animals and people. We suspect that this may be related to the disappearances, and if not, it's certainly a matter of great concern."
The old man seemed very surprised for a second "-Hmm… i see-" the man stroke his white beard in thought, "-Thank you for bringing this to my attention, you think the best option is to request from konoha ninjas that are more specialized or better suited to deal with this scenario"
a bit taken back from the accuracy of the man's guess Mukata nodded adding "Exactly sir, we believe different team would be able to deal with the situation in a far better than us"
"Well then, might I ask what would you recommend we request from Konoha? beyond the mission we requested there is little we can do, since the last few years the rate of the disappearances has become a pressing issue for our town-"
"-Then why hadn't you requested a mission sooner?" Ito interrupted.
"As i was saying, due to to the small population size we wouldn't have been able to request a mission then, and it wasn't an issue back then, it seemed like nothing incredibly important… one or two animals every 5 years or so, suddenly the disappearances started to occur more and more often, over the time of three years, the rate and the size at which people and animals disappeared increased dramatically… then we chose to accumulate money to ask for a mission from Konoha, and here we are"
"Oh, well there shouldn't be a problem, if we request a change of teams, i doubt they would charge you extra for it", Nagato added. "That's a relief, forgive me but i must ask if your team would be able to stay here until the new team arrives, just to be safe"
The team looked at each other before Mukata answered.
"We were prepared to spend at least three days on this mission so there shouldn't be any problem, but we still have to send at least one of us to request the change of teams"
"Thank you so much, the population of this town have lost so much by now, the best we can do now is ask for help and wait. You may stay in the town's inn until the new team arrives"
"We probably should discuss which one of us goes back," Nagato added.
"Oh right, we probably should leave and discuss that in the inn" Akai said as she signaled the group to leave, after they all properly excused themselves, they started the walk back to the inn, thru the wide empty streets the wind once again became ominous as it blew against them.
Writer's note: Sooo, finally here is chapter eight, I have been working on it for quite a while. i hope you liked it, btw special thanks to mai london, you made a singular review and looking at it, helped me keep on writing, see you in the next chapter!
