It was nighttime, and Shiori was waiting outside Yuki's house. She knew he was sleeping from the patterns of his breathing right outside his window. But still, she wanted to wait 5 more minutes before going in.
When she was sure, he was deep asleep. She went to the study room window. She purposefully jammed the lock that day in a way she could easily get in. She jumped in and lit a candle. No need to risk outsiders getting suspicious due to a light in the room, while loud snoring could be heard.
She first did a small take of the room. Everything seemed to be where they were during the day. It was a good sign. Yuki hasn't moved anything. She walked to the desk and set the candle in the small candle holder.
She skimmed through the papers on the desk first. It was all things he talked about during the day. Of course, there were a lot more details, but she didn't care much about them.
She was sure she had seen some maps of the lake when Yuki was showing the journals to her. That was what she was looking for.
It was going to be a long night.
Finally, she found it. It took her four hours to go through everything related to the room, but she had a clear picture now.
The reason the lake was not mentioned was its history. For the last 100 years, there have been a series of mysterious disappearances in the village. It was a rare occurrence for the residents to go missing, but that was not it.
A century ago, a man kept mentioning hearing strange noises in the woods. Then, one day, he went into the woods and didn't come back. People searched high and low for him, only to find his clothes washed up on the shore of the lake.
The clothing was intact, so the possibility of animal attacks was thrown off. They chalked it up to a bandit attack and left it at that. However, it was only the beginning.
Every once in a while, they would find clothing on the shore, and after a while, it became clear that it was clothing from merchants and others who visited the village.
It was rarely people from the village, but there was always clothing. About once a month, but sometimes sooner or later. They tried to find whoever did it, but they yielded no result. So they just started warning villagers off the lake. Trying their best to avoid any mention of it.
It was also better since unaware travelers would be the target. Whatever or whoever is behind the attacks only picked the villagers as targets when there was a lack of outsiders.
So they kept their mouths shut and did their best to attract travelers and to cover up anything that came up ashore.
Shiori wanted to say what she had learned was unbelievable, but the reality was that it was not. As a medic, she understood the desire to survive better than many. The villagers were powerless and afraid.
They were also uneducated. They believed what happened to them was the work of a monster or a higher being. They were powerless to stop it, so they did their best to survive.
Better outsiders than people they knew. It was the same mentality everyone had. No matter who you asked, they would always choose the person they knew over someone they didn't.
Of course, there could be ethical debates about the values of those lives and what should be done, but humans are emotional creatures. You couldn't expect them to always act based on logic.
In fact, when they did, it would be more scary.
So Shiori could understand what they did and accept it. It all comes to her now. She had a duty to save lives, and if solving this case would do so, she would do it.
Shiori spent most of the next day resting. She needed the physical and mental energy. She had to sneak back into the cave to talk to the woman. She had a few theories, but she needed confirmation.
She also needed to first stake out the area of the cave and see if she could get an idea of what was happening. She needs to gather more information on the chakra she felt that day and the cave system.
She got a few sealing papers and her notes journal to make a chakra-hiding seal. If she wanted to hide, she needed to make sure she wouldn't be sensed. She also needed a small-scale genjutsu.
She wasn't the best when it came to genjutsu, but as a medic, she had chakra control for it and knew a few basic ones. She needed one that would cause the person to overlook an area and not focus on it.
It was time for practice.
She was sitting on a branch with a view to the entrance of the cave she fell in. She wanted to use a doton to get an idea of the cave system, but she didn't want to get caught unaware and be pushed in like last time.
So, she decided to observe first. She was looking for any activities. Generally, animals were a good indicator. If there were animals, it meant that humans were not there.
Animals usually had an aptitude for sensing chakra and would stay away from people. It was part of their evolution to stay away from hunters with chakra. So, usually, the presence of animals was a good sign.
She could only see a few birds, so everything was good for now.
She was also focusing on her sensing ability. Usually, there were ways to focus on sensing. Trying to pick up a range or a baseline of chakra. If you focused on range, it would be hard to detect smaller chakra, but if you focused on sensitivity, you would lose range.
She limited her range to a small radius enough to pick up the chakra of small animals. She started meditating. Slowing her breathing and taking deeper breaths. Being as still as possible.
Letting her mind empty and her senses take over. She then started dimming her other senses. She did not need to smell, see, or feel. Only to listen and sense chakra.
Listen for the smallest noises around her. Looking for anything that shouldn't be there. Sense chakra to identify anything in her range.
Time did not have a meaning to her. Her physical body was just a vessel. While she was focused, she also felt free. Her mind was free to focus on any abnormalities or things that triggered it. A bird looking for food, a squirrel hiding in the next tree.
She was just an observer. She would locate her target.
When she finally stopped, it was already dark. Her body was stiff from stillness, and the hash branch dug into her legs and back.
She was lucky the branch was large enough for her to sit on and rest her back, but she needed to get back to the inn to sleep. She stuck to tree branches as she headed back.
She wasn't about to alarm any wild animals hunting in the night. The innkeeper greeted her. She asked for some food. The lady told her that it was late and they only had leftovers, but she accepted.
She ate quickly and headed for the showers. After rinsing herself, she decided it was time to sleep.
she spent the next three days much the same. By now, she was even aware of the routine of some animals. But now she had enough confidence to take the next step.
She jumped to where the cave was and started channeling doton. She wasn't an expert, but a trick she learned from Tsunade-sensei was to sense through the ground.
You could send a continuous stream of doton chakra through the ground and feel what is below by sensing how fast the chakra travels. It was the same principle of things that had different densities.
She knew where the beginning of the cave was, so she got a feel of how chakra going around the empty space of the cave feels like. Then, she gradually spread her chakra through the cave to get a mental image of how it looked like.
She traced the tunnel to where she found that woman. She followed the path above the ground. It was going deeper into the forest and away from the village. The cave was bigger than what she first believed. After the big area, there was another tunnel on the other side.
This tunnel was much wider than the one she used. It was where that vile chakra entered the cave. She was starting to get a headache from the strain, so she stopped.
She looked around her. This part of the forest was more dense, but it also seemed void of life. The branches on the trees were sparse and didn't have many leaves. The grass was also short and in small patches.
If she were to guess, she would say that the forest was drying out. The reason was beyond her as she was not an expert in this area despite her knowledge of plants.
She would probably ask Yuki if he was aware. The villagers could probably hire an expert.
She spent a few more minutes taking all the details of her surroundings before continuing. She followed along the path. The tunnel was long, but it finally surfaced near a small rocky plain. The area was full of rocks. The bigger ones were the size of hills.
There were signs of human intervention. The tunnel reached an abounded cave. There were signs and bars warning people to keep away. There was even one claiming it was due to an unstable structure and the chance of the cave falling down.
She wasn't about to explore the cave herself. She just needed to know what to expect. She was also going to stake out here this time to see if the person from that day would show up.
She surveyed the area to find the best spot. She wouldn't do it today since she was already tired, but she would come back early tomorrow.
After choosing an area in the forest that had a view of the cave entrance, she took a mental note to bring binoculars with her.
She headed back, trying to memorize the path.
She was back in the inn. She had dinner with Yuki with the excuse of checking on him to see if he was doing better. She made them both dinner with a rabbit she caught on her way back.
During the dinner, she asked Yuki about the area, but he didn't have much to say. According to him, the trees of that area were deteriorating for a while now, and no one could find out why. The area affected was slowly growing but not at a frightening speed.
The experts they hired also didn't have an idea, so they just let it go. Also, just as she thought, the rocky area was where they mined stones for construction. The rumor was that the cave was dug by a man looking for valuable stones, but he never found anything and gave up when the digging became too dangerous.
She still needed to gather more information, but things were looking good.
She was in position. Her seals were up, and her chakra was hidden. The place she was looking for had a good cover with branches and leaves. She even checked from the clearing to make sure she wouldn't be seen.
She came here early in the morning before the sun was up. She was careful the whole time since she didn't know when she would come in contact with her target. So far, nothing happened.
There was no sign of anyone, but what bothered her was the lack of animals. It was as if they purposefully avoided this area.
It was near noon when she sensed it. That dark charka. It was coming from the caves.