Naruto: Faint Smile - CH 78 - The Abyssal One.

[Mashiro Shuri/Medic Nin - POV]

My eyes snapped open, and the world felt like it was spinning. Pain shot through my limbs, but that wasn’t what made my stomach twist. It was the air, thick and suffocating, like death was hanging over me. I forced myself up, palms digging into the cold, wet dirt. Everything was blurry at first, but the smell hit me—blood, and lots of it.

I blinked, my vision clearing just enough to see the bodies scattered around me. My comrades. Oh god. ‘The kids!’ My breath hitched. I could remember very clearly what had happened, the images of the masked man cutting Takeshi’s neck, and then Itachi collapsing after using those black flames. He was still right where he had collapsed, face-down, unmoving.

I had to heal him, I had to heal everyone.

However, as I tried to move, to do what was my job, panic surged through my chest, threatening to suffocate me. I could feel fear like no other invading my body, and despite not knowing why I was feeling like this, I found myself unable to breathe, to move. I couldn’t even utter a sound. I wanted to throw up. My hands were trembling violently, and in my apprehension, I felt something. The earth under me felt wrong—like it was shaking, or maybe it was just me.

Perhaps I was still under the influence of that man’s paralyzing genjutsu.

That’s when I heard it. A low, deep growl, so primal it made my blood freeze in my veins. I turned slowly, my entire body locked in place. I didn't want to see. I knew I didn’t want to see. I knew I shouldn’t see.

But I looked.

And there it was—a beast like I had never seen before, a few feet away from me, standing right where Takeshi had been struck down.

The beast stood there, towering over everything—its body at least twelve, maybe thirteen feet tall—like some kind of monster ripped out of a nightmare, an amalgamation of creatures that shouldn’t exist. Its head… its head was that of a lion, massive and snarling, with sharp, glistening fangs dripping saliva. On the top of its head, rising above its mane, a pair of horns curled out of its skull like a ram’s. Part of its face had these red scales that glowed dimly in the light. Its body—Kami, its body—was covered in thick fur, and its hands... if you could call them that. They were something between human and animal, claws, fur, scales, and fingers twisting together like some grotesque fusion. And its tail—much like anything from this creature, it was grotesque: a snake. Its head hissed and twisted behind it, its eyes glowing with malice.

As I took in the creature’s form, watching in utter terror, feeling its malignant chakra, its overwhelming killing intent, a sense of absolute hopelessness took hold. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run, to flee from here as fast and far as I could, but I couldn’t even breathe. My whole body shook, and as the seconds went by, I felt something wet soak my leg.

I—I had pissed myself.

The beast stood there, in the middle of all the bodies, its chest heaving, looking around, its gaze passing by me but not seeing me, its expression almost as if it was… confused? Its eyes, those wild yellow eyes, darted around, like it didn’t know what had just happened. But then, it sniffed the air. Slowly. Deliberately.

And then I saw it—saw the overwhelming hunger in its eyes.

The bodies—it was looking at the bodies around it. The bodies of my comrades. Its mouth parted slightly as saliva dripped from its fangs onto the blood-soaked ground, melting the earth.

Was this what had happened to Takeshi? Had this monster devoured him? Just as it was about to devour us?

I couldn’t think. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I thought I’d pass out right there, I was very close to having a cardiac event. 'Don’t move. Don’t make a sound. By Kami’s will, that thing hasn’t noticed you. So DON’T MOVE!' Every instinct screamed at me to run, but I knew—I knew—that if I moved, I was dead.

My only hope was that the beast would ignore me. That’s all I could do. Hope. But just as fast as this fleeting hope found my heart, its eyes found me, and unlike before, this time, its gaze acknowledged me.

'I’m dead.' 

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t blink. Its gaze locked onto mine, and I felt my entire body seize up. I was going to die; it was going to eat me just as it had probably eaten Takeshi. Its maw opened wider, saliva pouring out now, and a low growl rumbled from its chest.

The beast took a step toward me, its massive hooves cracking the earth beneath it. Its claws flexed, and the snake-tail behind it hissed, its eyes locking onto me with the same deadly intent. And then, just as the beast crouched, ready to pounce, the creature stopped.

Its ears twitched. Its nose sniffed the air again, more sharply this time, and whatever it caught wind of made the beast freeze, its entire body going stiff. I could hear its breathing change—its eyes dilated, its entire body was… focused. Its head jerked slightly, as if hearing or sensing something far away.

Its eyes narrowed, and that low growl rumbled again, but this time, there was something else in it. Something more than hunger. Hatred. Pure, unfiltered hatred. I didn’t know why, but something out there—far away—was calling to the beast. And whatever it was, it made the beast’s body tremble with fury.

For a moment, it didn’t even look like the beast was breathing. Its whole body was taut, as if waiting for something, some signal to release the rage coiling in its chest. Its golden eyes flared with a wild, violent light, and this time, they weren’t looking at me anymore.

It was like I didn’t exist once more. Like it didn’t even care if I lived or died.

The relief that should have come, didn’t. I was still shaking. My legs didn’t work, almost as if my brain couldn’t catch up with the fact that I was still alive.

———————————————————————————————

[Arata Takeshi - The Abyssal One.]

The world was a blur of fog. Thick, suffocating, endless. It pressed in from all sides, swirling in dark, formless shapes, but none of that mattered. The pain was no longer there. Nothing in the fog mattered. His thoughts were fractured, scattered like broken glass, and the only thing that remained clear—the only thing that stayed anchored in the storm—was his hunger.

It was almost as if he had never eaten before.

His body felt… different. Bigger, perhaps?

His body moved, heavy and slow, but powerful. Every step cracked the ground beneath him, his hooves crushing the earth, but he didn’t care. He barely noticed. Somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, he remembered. He remembered his name. Takeshi.

But it was meaningless.

It was distant, like a whisper in a language he had long since forgotten. Takeshi was a name, a word, a shadow of something he used to be. But now, that name was smothered by the overwhelming need to consume, to destroy. His muscles tensed, his claws flexed, and the snake at the end of his tail writhed, eager, hungry.

The female medic nin lay at his feet, trembling, terrified. Her scent filled his nostrils—sweat, blood, urine and fear. Her flesh smelled better than the others, maybe because she was a female? He didn’t know. All he knew was that the moment he became aware of that pretty little thing, his mouth watered, the hunger clawing at his insides. He could hear her heartbeat, frantic, irregular. So easy. So fragile.

His massive head lowered, fangs bared, saliva dripping from his maw. All it would take was a single bite to sample her, and she would be gone, and after he was done with her, the rest would follow. Maybe it was of poor etiquette to eat the dessert first, but he was too hungry to care. His claws scraped the dirt as he crouched, ready to tear into her.

But then—he felt something.

A presence. A familiar presence. Not far, but close enough for him to taste it on the air. It slithered into his senses like a blade, sharp and vile. His nostrils flared, and the rage boiled inside him, overpowering the hunger for the woman’s flesh. His body went rigid, his head snapping up from the quivering woman towards the direction of his new target. His heart pounded, the blood in his veins boiling with something worse than hunger.

Hate. 

The fog in his mind swirled, shifted. Images flickered in and out. A masked face. Him. The masked man. That same cursed chakra, the same scent, the one that burned in his memory, even now, when nothing else but his hunger made sense.

The masked man had tried to kill him, cutting his neck. The memory was distant, yet fresh, broken, but clear enough to fuel the fire in his chest. He could feel it—him—out there, not far from here. The man who had ruined everything. The one who had unleashed the Nine-Tails, who had destroyed so much. The man who had

 taken part of his family away.

Takeshi’s lips curled back into a snarl, his eyes burning with nothing but feral rage, as the woman looked at him in fear, her existence now nothing more than a nuisance. He… was all that mattered now. The masked man.

He needed to be devoured. To be torn apart.

Only then—only then—would he feel satisfied. His claws dug into the earth, muscles coiling, his entire body trembling. The fog in his mind churned and twisted, thickening, a single feeling cutting through it all, sharp and visceral. —Devour him.— Tear him apart. 

The masked man would die by his teeth, by his claws. He would pay for what he had done.

And after that… after that, he would find —Danzo.— 

The name burned into the corners of his fractured mind, anchoring him to the rage. The need to destroy. Danzo’s face flickered in the fog, distant but clear enough to ignite that same violent hunger. —Devour them all.— 

He would have time to devour the others. But first… the masked man.