Five figures moved through the trees with practiced skill, their dark clothing marked with the Kamizuru Clan insignia. They were bee users from the Land of Stone.
Akatsuki led the group, red accents on her outfit catching the moonlight. She had been tracking for three days since the massacre at the border village. Whatever had killed those people didn't behave like any shinobi she had encountered before.
"How much farther?" Hayabumi called from point position.
Kagewata's voice came from the rear. "The trail ends somewhere in this forest. My bees are having trouble tracking further."
That bothered Akatsuki. Kamizuru tracking bees were among the most reliable tools available.
The explosion cut her off.
The ground shook hard enough that she had to grip the branch beneath her feet to avoid falling. Trees swayed violently. Birds erupted from the canopy in a panicked mass.
"What was that?" Hayabumi's hand went to his weapon pouch.
Shirobane scanned the direction of the blast. "Northeast, maybe a kilometer. That was a massive chakra discharge."
"That's our target," Akatsuki said.
"Wait." Tsuchiosu's deep voice carried caution. "An explosion that size could be an ambush."
Akatsuki pressed her thumb into her palm. Messenger bees appeared. "Request reinforcements. Show them our location and the explosion site."
They moved through the forest with increased caution. The destruction became visible before they reached the site. Trees lay broken across their path, trunks splintered. Scorch marks covered the damp forest floor.
They broke through the tree line and stopped.
The crater before them was easily fifty meters across, still smoking. Scattered fires burned around the perimeter.
"Is this even possible?" Tsuchiosu's usual calm had cracked.
"There." Kagewata pointed toward the crater's center.
A figure stood in the settling dust, hunched over and trembling. Even from this distance, something about its posture was wrong.
"Survivor?" Hayabumi asked, though his tone suggested he didn't believe it.
Akatsuki's instincts screamed warnings. "No one survives a blast like that."
Kagewata flickered forward, reappearing on a partially collapsed stone. For several seconds she remained silent, observing.
"Kagewata, report."
"It's a man. But something's wrong with him. His chakra is..." She paused. "My bees won't approach. They're terrified."
Akatsuki made her decision. "Subdue him."
---
Pain lanced through Muzan's consciousness.
Not physical pain, but a deeper ache from being split across five separate brains, each one fighting for dominance. He stood in the crater, his new body trembling. Time had become difficult to track.
His enhanced senses detected movement approaching from multiple directions. Five sources, all moving with coordinated precision. The scent of living humans carried clearly, and something stirred deep in his chest.
Hunger clawed at him.
Not the normal hunger of an empty stomach. This was cellular, desperate, overwhelming. His transformed body needed raw materials to stabilize, and the approaching figures smelled like exactly what his biology was screaming for.
Muzan tried to think clearly. These were people. Killing people was wrong.
But the rational thoughts came from only one of his five brains. The other four operated on pure instinct.
He raised his head and his eyes locked onto the five figures surrounding the crater. His vision painted them in shades of red and grey.
A sound emerged from his throat.
The ground beneath his feet exploded as his legs launched him forward. He covered thirty meters in less than a second.
The five figures scattered immediately.
He hit the crater's edge where one of them had been standing. The stone crumbled beneath the impact. His head snapped toward the nearest target, a young man with short dark hair.
Muzan lunged.
The young man's eyes widened. His hands moved through rapid gestures.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"
A barrier of stone erupted from the ground. Muzan's fist hit it and the wall exploded on contact, his transformed strength shattering the technique. The young man barely rolled away, though one piece caught his shoulder and opened a bleeding gash.
"What the hell? He just punched through my jutsu!"
A woman's voice cut through the chaos. "Don't engage physically!"
She pressed her thumb into her palm and smoke erupted around her, clearing to reveal dozens of fist-sized bees. They swarmed forward, stingers extended and gleaming with venom.
Muzan's head turned toward the approaching swarm. His mouth opened wider than it should have, revealing extended fangs.
Several bees faltered, their primitive nervous systems responding to a predator call.
From above came another voice. "Bee Sting Senbon!"
Needles rained down from the trees, each one coated in toxins. They struck his back, shoulders, and arms, embedding themselves in flesh.
For a moment, Muzan felt the venom entering his bloodstream. Then his regeneration activated, his cells breaking down the foreign substance and pushing the needles back out through his skin. The wounds sealed instantly.
"Impossible. He's healing instantly."
Muzan's eyes locked onto the man's position in the trees. Something was happening to his right arm without his control. The flesh rippled and changed. The limb extended like melting wax, stretching to twice its normal length. Red protrusions burst through the skin, forming spikes. His hand twisted and merged, fingers fusing into a bladed point.
His arm whip lashed upward with blurring speed. The extended limb curved through the air and sliced clean through the branch.
The tall man leapt away but the whip followed, tracking his movement. It wrapped around his leg and the spikes dug deep into flesh.
Blood sprayed from the wounds.
The largest of the five figures was already moving. His hands slammed together and the earth responded. A thick column of stone erupted from the ground and slammed into Muzan's side.
"Earth Release: Earth Pillar!"
The impact threw Muzan sideways, his arm whip releasing the tall man. He twisted mid-air and landed on all fours.
His crimson eyes fixed on the large man and a growl rumbled from his chest.
Both his arms began extending, the flesh stretching and morphing. Red spikes erupted along their length as his hands fused into bladed points. Within seconds he had two whips, each three meters long.
He swung them without thinking.
The large man raised his arms, chakra flowing to harden his skin. His flesh darkened, taking on a stone-like texture.
"Earth Release: Hardening!"
The whips struck with sounds like metal hitting rock. Sparks flew. The whips carved shallow gouges in the stone-textured skin but couldn't penetrate deeply.
"His strength is monstrous!"
A smaller woman appeared behind Muzan, moving so fast her body seemed to flicker. Her hands released a swarm of larger insects that descended on his back.
"Hornet Fury!"
The hornets' stingers struck repeatedly. Muzan's body twitched and he turned to face this new threat.
His mouth opened wider than any human jaw should allow.
Multiple smaller mouths erupted along his arm whips, grotesque fanged maws forming where they had no right to exist.
The mouths inhaled with tremendous force.
Air rushed toward them in a visible current. The woman's hornets were yanked from their attack pattern and sucked directly into the fanged openings. The mouths bit down with wet crunching sounds.
"What kind of monster..."
The woman's words cut off as the suction began pulling at her body. Her feet slid across the ground. She threw a kunai into the earth and grabbed it, using the anchored blade to prevent being pulled in.
"I can't resist the pull!"
The woman with red accents was already responding. Her remaining bees positioned themselves in a circle around Muzan and began glowing with chakra.
"Bee Explosion Formation! Detonate!"
The bees exploded in sequence, each one releasing concentrated chakra. The explosions engulfed Muzan in fire and concussive force, smoke billowing up.
"Did we get him?"
The smoke cleared and Muzan stood in the center without a mark on him. The craters around his position proved the explosions had landed, but his regeneration had repaired the damage faster than it could accumulate.
His crimson eyes swept across all five figures.
Then his back began to bulge.
Nine thin protrusions burst from his spine and rapidly extended into bladed whips, each one four meters long. They writhed in the air like independent creatures.
The woman with red accents made a sharp gesture. "Fall back!"
But Muzan was already moving.
All eleven of his whips lashed out simultaneously. They moved too fast to track, cutting through everything in their path. Trees were sliced in half. Boulders split apart. The ground itself tore open in deep furrows.
The young man threw himself flat as a whip passed centimeters above his head. "They're everywhere!"
The tall man, already injured, was slower to react. Three whips converged on his position.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"
The wall rose but the bladed extensions punched through the stone. One caught him across the chest, carving a deep gash that sprayed blood. He gasped and fell backward.
The smaller woman appeared beside him in a flicker of movement, grabbing his arm and pulling him away. They reappeared twenty feet distant but the tall man was bleeding heavily.
The large man charged forward again. His hands moved through different gestures and chakra flowed into them, forming stone gauntlets that doubled their size.
"Earth Release: Rock Fist!"
He swung with devastating force. Muzan's whips coiled together, forming a defensive barrier. The rock fist collided with the interwoven whips and for a moment they held against each other.
Then Muzan's whips began rotating.
They spun like drills, grinding against the stone gauntlets. Sparks flew. Chunks of rock broke away and scattered.
The large man's eyes widened. "What..."
The whips broke through his defense and wrapped around his arms, torso, and legs. The spikes dug deep into flesh, finding gaps in his stone-hardened skin. Blood poured from dozens of puncture wounds.
"AAAHH!"
Muzan's body moved on instinct, pulling the large man off his feet and slamming him into the ground with bone-breaking force. Once. Twice. Three times. Each impact created a crater and blood splattered across the torn landscape.
The woman with red accents' face twisted with fury. Her hands flew through rapid gestures, pulling massive amounts of chakra.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
The smoke that appeared was enormous, clearing to reveal a bee the size of a horse. Its stinger was as long as a sword and its compound eyes gleamed with intelligence.
"Kill it!"
The Queen Bee shot forward with shocking speed. Its stinger thrust forward like a lance aimed at Muzan's chest.
Muzan released the large man. His thighs were already bulging. Eight extensions burst from his legs, four on each side, and shot outward like spears.
The Queen Bee tried to dodge but there were too many whips coming from too many angles. They pierced through its body from multiple points, punching through chitin and flesh.
The Queen Bee's buzzing turned into a terrible scream. Its wings faltered and it crashed to the ground with the whips still embedded.
Muzan's thigh whips retracted smoothly, pulling back into his flesh. The Queen Bee dissolved into smoke.
The woman with red accents stared at the dissipating smoke with hollow eyes. "No... that was my strongest summon..."
Muzan's head tilted as he focused on her, his nineteen whips rising into the air around him like a crown of bladed extensions.
The tall man was shouting from where the smaller woman had dragged him. "Scatter! We can't fight this thing!"
But Muzan's body was already blurring forward, whips striking in a coordinated pattern. The young man tried to form his defensive technique but the whips shattered it before the wall could fully form. The force of Muzan's charge hit him like a boulder and he was flung backward through a tree, his body crashing to the ground in a spray of blood.
The smaller woman appeared behind Muzan, releasing a cloud of hornets directly at his face. The insects swarmed his eyes and for a moment his vision was obscured.
His back whips lashed out without needing sight. One caught the smaller woman across the ribs and she screamed as blood sprayed. She flickered away but her movements were sluggish now.
Only the woman with red accents remained standing.
She faced him alone, breathing hard. "What are you?"
Muzan's whips withdrew slightly. His crimson eyes fixed on her.
Then the mouths on his arm whips opened wide.
They inhaled with tremendous force. The woman's feet left the ground as she was yanked toward the fanged openings.
"NO!"
She threw every weapon she had but they were all sucked into the mouths and crushed. Her hands moved through desperate seals and her remaining bees swarmed around her.
"Bee Shield!"
The mouths bit down on the bees instantly. The woman flew into range of the whips.
They struck from multiple angles simultaneously, cutting through flesh and bone. Blood filled the air in a fine mist and the woman gasped as the light faded from her eyes.
Muzan's whips released her and she fell to the ground, her body going still.
Silence fell over the battlefield except for the wet breathing of the injured and dying.
Four bodies lay scattered across the torn ground. The young man was unconscious and bleeding out. The tall man was barely alive. The smaller woman clutched her ribs and wheezed. The large man lay motionless in his crater.
And the woman with red accents was dead at Muzan's feet.
Muzan stood over them, his chest heaving as the whips retracted slowly. His body returned to something approaching human proportions, though his skin remained pale and his eyes still glowed crimson.
He stared down at the dead woman's body and felt something stirring in his transformed biology.
Hunger gnawed at him with renewed intensity.
His body moved before his rational mind could object. He dropped to his knees beside the corpse. His mouth opened wide and his fangs extended fully.
He bit down on her arm and flesh tore between his teeth. Blood flooded his mouth. He swallowed automatically and bit down again, tearing away meat and muscle.
The taste sent shockwaves through his system. His body shuddered with something between relief and pleasure. Each swallow made him feel stronger. Minor injuries sealed completely. The exhaustion faded away.
Part of his mind was screaming in horror, but that part was getting smaller. The other four brains were processing the feeding as correct behavior.
He fed until the woman's body was mangled and partially consumed, then his senses detected another heartbeat. The large man in the crater, still unconscious.
Muzan crawled toward him on all fours. He grabbed the man's arm and bit down, tearing away chunks of flesh. Blood ran down his chin as he chewed and swallowed.
He moved to the young man next. The body was still breathing shallowly. Muzan's fangs sank into his shoulder, ripping away meat. The body twitched once as life left it, then went still.
The smaller woman was trying to crawl away, one hand pressed against her bleeding ribs. She looked back and saw him approaching, his face covered in blood and gore.
"No... please..."
Muzan grabbed her ankle and dragged her back. His teeth found her throat, tearing it open in a single bite. He fed until her struggling stopped.
The tall man had propped himself against a tree, trying to stop his bleeding. He looked up as Muzan approached.
"Monster..."
Muzan's fangs pierced his neck and tore away the flesh. Blood sprayed and the tall man went limp. Muzan continued feeding until his body finally signaled it had enough.
When he finished, Muzan remained crouched over the last corpse. Blood and gore covered his hands and face. His breathing had slowed. The red haze clouding his vision was beginning to clear.
His crimson eyes blinked and awareness returned like a wave.
Muzan looked down at his blood-covered hands, then at the mangled body beneath him, then at the carnage spread across the forest floor. Five corpses lay torn apart and partially devoured.
"What...?"
His voice came out hoarse but recognizably human.
He stumbled backward. His legs gave out and he fell hard. His eyes swept across the scene again.
"No... no, no, no..."
His hands went to his head. His fingers touched something wet and sticky. He looked at them and saw blood and bits of flesh coating his skin.
The memories came flooding back. The fight. The whips extending from his body. The feeding. The satisfaction he'd felt with each swallow.
He'd killed them.
And worse, part of him had enjoyed it. His transformed biology had rewarded the behavior, had made it feel right.
Only the smallest part of his consciousness remained horrified. The piece that still remembered being Muzan Kibutsuji.
And that part was losing the struggle to maintain control.