Chizuki was now left alone. Many emotions were swirling in her head but the most prevalent one was…pride.

Looking at her brother slowly bleed out in front of her, she was almost thankful to him.

“You know, Yaroi? I’m almost thankful for what you did.”

Leaning against a tree, Yaroi could barely look up. The back of his skull had caved in from the impact when he crashed against the tree. His spine as well had shattered and he was bleeding out of the two stumps that used to be his arms. It was quite a miracle that he was still alive, much less coherent.

Chizuki didn’t care about his injuries. She put her hand on his head and began reading all the memories that date back to eleven years ago.

Unlike Uehara, she wasn’t experienced enough to go through someone’s memories without causing them pain. But that wasn’t her concern.

Looking at Yaroi’s pained expression, she smiled sadistically.

“It was the first time that I’ve seen master show such intense emotions.”

She ignored his squirms as her chakra ravaged his brain for his memories.

“Do you know how happy I was? Master got angry…for us. Do you realise what this means?”

She was now giving off a kind motherly smile while blood was coming out of Yaroi’s eyes.

“That means that I have a chance with master. It means that in the future, I…I can have his…hihihihihihihi~”

She recovered from her crazed expression once she noticed how Yaroi was dying soon.

“But it’s such a shame, elder brother. You underestimated master too much. I did try to warn you in the begin, that you were provoking an existence that you could never understand. And you know what else is interesting? Master is even younger than us.”

Yaroi couldn’t even respond anymore. His soul was already leaving his body and at this point, he was looking forward to the sweet release of death.

Chizuki sighed in sadness as she felt his lifeforce dwindle even further.

“Dying already? But I wanted to spend a few more moments with you brother.”

But that sadness disappeared as if it never existed in the first place, followed by Chizuki’s cheery follow-up.

“Oh well. Rest in pain, brother~”

Just like that, she pierced his heart with an ice-blade.

…

With darkness finally reigning over him, he accepted eternal rest. But, reality wouldn’t allow him to do that since when he opened his eyes, he saw a tall bare-chested man with a toned warrior’s body standing in front of twelve other men in shinobi-style clothing. The clothing was similar to your typical assassin’s clothing: all black with every inch of their body’s covered.

The skies were a sort of dark purple as well as the greenery around them. Even the multitudes of trees that dotted the landscape had purple leaves and black-purple trunks.

The man standing in front of the shinobi turned to look at Yaroi and sighed.

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“Another cursed one. I do not know what you did to anger my lord. But that matters not. What matters is that you will serve him for eternity.”

Yaroi was muddleheaded for a while but he picked up the last sentence…and it frightened him.

“W-who are you?!”

The man maintained a neutral expression.

“My name is Hiroshi Mangetsu, the first servant of my lord. But for you, it will be commander.”

(AN: For those that may not remember, Mangetsu was the first human that Uehara ever met. In exchange for protecting his little sister Sakura, Mangetsu gave Uehara access to his knowledge while also accepting his mark. It was also explained that the mark Mangetsu had would serve as the beacon to the underworld for Uehara.)

…

Chizuki encased the corpse of the recently deceased Yaroi in ice and made it float behind her.

[With your tactical mind, you would’ve been able to serve master very well elder brother. Unfortunately, you just had to be the way you are. Maybe if you had better parents, you would’ve turned out better.]

Abandoning those thoughts, she flew high into the sky with the ice-coffin in tow. Her destination was the Minamoto clan stronghold.

“If elder brother’s corpse can’t dissuade you from hunting me, then I will have no choice but to eliminate the entire clan.”

Truthfully, she doesn’t want to entertain such a thought. The people responsible for the pain she and Sakura went through are already dead. She’s also made her peace with the injustice she suffered within the clan, which is minor compared to what other people suffer daily. She had already accepted that outliving them would be enough for her.

She also long since knew that the Minamoto clan had never stopped looking for her since she disappeared. It wasn’t much of an inconvenience for her since most of her time was spent on Aokigahara. But with the new revelation that they were able to harm her, she was afraid of what would happen if they happen to come up with counter-measures that would be able to harm her master.

But she still hopes that with the corpse of Yaroi falling from the sky, they will cease their search for her and not harbor any thoughts or revenge. But deep inside, she knows that her thoughts are naive and the opposite is most likely to happen.

…

Training Ground 1, Sakura’s Training Island

Uehara appeared with Sakura on the lake-filled island. There was a small one-room house that Sakura used for when she was too tired to run back to Aokigahara.

Entering the house, he placed her on the bed before forming a shadow clone.

“You know what to do.”

Without waiting for his clone’s reply, he vanished. The clone looked at the spot where Uehara was standing and then looked at the unconscious Sakura.

He sighed as he placed his hands on Sakura.

“You better wake up soon Sakura. My nap starts in thirty-minutes.”

The clone began channeling nature chakra with one hand to flush out the ki and nature energy with the other to revitalise her body.

…

Uehara was standing by a lake and was looking at his reflection. Channeling chakra into his eyes, they turned red like before.

[Now to add a little more.]

He did that and the appearance of a single black concentric ring appeared around his pupils. Immediately, he could see the changes.

“I can vaguely see the chakra in the air.”

Previously, any sort of energy would have to reach a certain level of density in order for him to see it with his dragon eyes. His eyes changing from gold to red didn’t have much difference except for being able to see blood.

But with the addition of the concentric ring, it acted like a telescopic lens that amplified his already existing ability.

“But it doesn’t look like my father’s mandala eyes.”

Recalling the crimson-red geometric mandalas that his father had, he couldn’t help but think that he maybe awakened a different ocular ability.

“Or maybe my eyes are just a precursor to father’s mandalas?”

Shaking his head, he stopped pondering too much over it.

“I’ll ask father about them when I see him again.”

Turning his head towards Sakura’s little house, he had an idea.

“My efficiency should increase now.”

He walked inside Sakura’s house and when he saw her lying there, he felt a bit of guilt and anger. The clone noticed this and frowned.

“We’ll kill them, right?”

Uehara’s ring rotated as his silent rage was released.

“Yes. Before I slumber, I must eradicate this Minamoto clan.”

The clone nodded in approval.

“My exact thoughts. But first, let’s heal little Sakura. She’s suffering from severe ki poisoning.”

“Mm”

Using the new ability of his eyes, he and his clone were able to see the clustered ki with much more clarity. He channeled his chakra into Sakura while his clone directed it to expel the ki.

The whole thing didn’t take long. Channeling nature energy into her body, all that was left was for Sakura to naturally awaken.

Picking up Sakura, Uehara cancelled his clone.

“Shikibu should be able to take better care of her.”