The walls ahead seemed endless, stretching into darkness beyond the reach of light. As they drew closer, the surface of the Underground Palace became clearer.
The main body appeared to be made of massive stones of an unrecognizable dark color. Its surface was covered with faintly glowing Ao moss and black, shell-like growths.
The stone was marked by deep erosion from time, rough and ancient, carrying the feeling of a savage era. The first impression was that it had slept here for a time far longer than the history of the Five Great Nations.
Most striking was the enormous gate directly facing them. It stood silent and unmoving at the center of the structure.
"So this is the door Raikage-sama mentioned, the one that eats people?" someone whispered.
Their lights wavered across the massive gate like small, uneasy fireflies. The gate was tightly shut, over a hundred meters tall, its material neither stone nor metal.
It carried a heavy, dark Ao bronze hue. Patches of Madara corrosion and twisted totems covered its surface, their details unclear in the dim light.
What they felt instead was a crushing pressure. Even without fear of large objects, everyone from Kumogakure felt their scalps go numb.
Standing before the gate, Yugito Nii looked at the stone tablet in front of it. The text carved there was completely unreadable to her.
However, based on the Scroll sent by Raikage-sama through Root, the village had already decoded part of it. They now knew the origin and secret of this Underground Palace and its link to Akatsuki.
Yugito Nii frowned and looked up at the dark stains on the gate. She could clearly feel the Two-Tails inside her growing restless again.
It was not excitement, but the response of a wild cat facing an unknown threat. Her instincts urged her to crouch and growl in silence.
The mission was to open this gate, yet she did not know how to proceed. Every instinct screamed that Zetsu's side should not touch it lightly, and the Scroll had also issued a serious warning.
As she was thinking, Yugito Nii's eyes flickered. She glanced toward the distant darkness behind them.
"Let's check the surroundings for another entrance," she said.
The people from Kumogakure paused in surprise, then quickly followed her into the darkness on the left. Their lights vanished from the front of the gate.
Not long after they left, a figure silently approached. He wore the Forehead Protector of a rogue from Kumogakure, clearly a bounty Ninja.
"Even the Two-Tails Jinchuriki is here, and with the bounty from Iwagakure and Onoki, this really is big prey," he muttered.
Thought crossed his eyes at first, but when he looked up at the gate, it turned into greed. Driven by tension and an unknown impulse, he stepped forward and reached out.
Tap.
His trembling fingertips touched the icy surface of the gate, and he shivered. At the same time, his cloudy mind cleared as he realized he had done something foolish.
He tried to pull his hand back, but it was already too late. A faint hum sounded, vibrating straight into the bones.
A ring of eerie deep blue light flared across the gate. A terrifying suction locked onto his hand.
"What is this? It is draining my Chakra!" he screamed.
The Chakra inside his body was torn out by invisible force, pouring from his eyes, nose, and pores. The blue glow on the gate grew brighter.
The process was horrifyingly fast. In just seconds, his Chakra was completely drained.
"Damn it! What kind of monster is this?" he cried.
He struggled and screamed, but once his Chakra was gone, his body collapsed in weakness. That was only the beginning.
As if sensing the depletion, the blue light faded, replaced by something worse. His flesh visibly shriveled, dissolving like it had met acid.
"No! No!" he screamed.
A broken cry escaped his twisted throat, then cut off abruptly. With a soft tearing sound, his body collapsed like a punctured sack.
In moments, skin clung tightly to bare bones, and his eyes dried into dull gray orbs. A faint breeze passed, and the remaining skin and bone against the cold gate turned to dust and scattered away.
In the distance, whether it was Yugito Nii and the Kumogakure Ninja or the hidden figures watching in silence, all were frozen. The deathly quiet from Zetsu's direction seemed to cover everything.
Anyone who witnessed it felt their blood freeze. Fear crawled up their spines and into their heads.
Just seconds ago, he had been a living Ninja. Now he was nothing more than another stain on the gate.
The process was swift, strange, and complete. Not a single drop of blood fell, because even flesh had been taken.
The massive gate stood silently, its terror unspoken but heavy in the air. Someone behind Yugito Nii whispered, their voice shaking beyond control.
"What… what is that thing…"
Yugito Nii's pupils had shrunk to thin lines. She stared at the gate that had devoured a life, while the Two-Tails inside her let out a deep, uneasy rumble.
The flames unique to Two-Tails could burn souls, allowing her to sense clearly that the man had lost more than flesh. Even his soul had been taken.
Yet amid the fear, Yugito Nii noticed something else. Her voice was hoarse and soft as she spoke.
"That gate… did it open a little?"
"..."
The dead air was so quiet it felt solid, pressing down on everyone's chest. The new stains on the gate silently proved that what had just happened was real. In the darkness that had seemed calm before, several quick breaths appeared, clearly from people hiding just like that Kumogakure Rogue Ninja.
Aside from that brainless Kumogakure Rogue Ninja, no one who came here today was a fool. No one was stupid enough to jump out and be the first target. Even those who had Sensory Ninjutsu and could sense others present chose not to act, watching coldly as that Kumogakure Rogue Ninja was used as a test stone.
They never expected to witness such a strange scene. A gate that could devour Chakra and even eat people was beyond normal sense. While most were still frozen in shock, the smell of blood suddenly spread through the air.
Boom!!
Several arcs of red cut through the darkness as blood splashed, and a body with its throat, tendons, and hands cut open was thrown out of the shadows like a broken doll. The face was full of terror as the person slammed into the massive gate. The Root had no time to react or resist.
Buzz!
The deep blue glow appeared on the gate again, and the same horrific scene repeated itself. From the torn throat came only broken gasps before the body was visibly drained of Chakra and flesh, ending just like the previous Kumogakure Rogue Ninja.
"That's right."
This time, Yugito Nii saw it clearly and thought to herself, "It really did open a little." She was not the only one who noticed, and the others present sensed it as well. Throwing that unlucky man onto the gate was done to test a guess.
"..."
Several people stared at the slit in the gate, now just a little clearer than before. The tiny gap seemed to mock how small a single life was. The crack was bottomless, and nothing beyond the gate could be seen, only a purer darkness that felt cold and empty.
The chill brushed against their faces, and the air in front of the Underground Palace grew heavy. At that moment, someone finally acted. A sharp hum followed.
Buzz!!
A blazing white light flashed on, tearing apart the darkness that hid everything. Dozens of hidden figures were revealed at once, each pulling away from the others and squinting toward the source of the light. No attack followed, and the light vanished as quickly as it came, swallowed again by the darkness.
Soon after, a voice reached everyone's ears.
"Yugito Nii, right?"
Yugito Nii's catlike eyes shifted slightly, following the sound to five figures walking out of the dark. They were five Ninja of different builds, wearing different colors and not wearing a Forehead Protector. When she saw them clearly, Yugito Nii's pupils tightened.
"You are the Hollowanyuan Group, the 'Ninja who hunt Ninja'?" She stared at them and spoke in a low voice. "So someone hired you."
If one looked closely, all five figures wavered like smoke, clearly not their real bodies. The leader spoke calmly. "We take money and remove trouble, nothing more. I just didn't expect a Two-Tails Jinchuriki to be here, so the final payment will need to be higher."
He continued evenly, "You can see it too. To open this gate, it needs to swallow more Chakra." Another beside him added, "Among everyone here, there is no better choice than you."
Yugito Nii sneered, her fingers extending into sharp claws. "You think you can force me?" One of the Hollowanyuan Group laughed. "Meeting us means your luck is bad."
"Hmph, just a bunch of bounty Ninja daring to talk big!" A Kumogakure Ninja beside Yugito Nii said coldly.
If the enemy's real bodies could not be found, then forcing everyone out with wide attacks was the answer. Thinking this, the Kumogakure Ninja raised his hands to form seals as his Chakra surged. "Lightning Release: Lightning Release, Thunder Rat—"