Pain.
A pain so sharp, so consuming, that the world around her had turned white. Soundless. Timeless.
Tayuya gasped, air shallow and strained as her vision swam. Her lower body was pinned, twisted at a grotesque angle beneath the splintered trunk of a fallen tree. Bark dug into torn muscle. Blood soaked into the dirt below, hot and slow.
She couldn't move her legs. She could barely feel them anymore.
Her heart thudded weakly in her ears, slow and uneven. A rhythm that told her what she already knew.
She was dying.
Through the haze of agony, her thoughts drifted not to her mission, not to Orochimaru, not even to her teammates.
But to regret.
"...Tch..."
A breath escaped her lips, bitter and broken.
I never got to live.
To know what other girls whispered about behind closed doors—those flustered giggles, stolen touches, forbidden heat.
Sex.
She scoffed inwardly. Her pride would never allow her to admit it out loud. But that too, she was denied. Even that.
Her eyelids fluttered.
Then—
The tree shuddered.
Tayuya's eyes barley open, a groan tearing from her throat. She expected more pain. Instead, the pressure lifted. A weight she'd accepted as permanent was being moved. Raised.
Crack.
Creak.
Lifted.
The shattered tree rose, impossibly, as though cradled by unseen hands. No—not hands. Tentacles. Dozens of them, coiling and pulsing with an otherworldly rhythm, rising from the shadowed forest floor.
They wrapped around her gently, too gently for something so unnatural—around her waist, her back, her legs. Cradling her as if she were a child.
She couldn't scream. She could only watch. Weak. Drifting. Confused.
Her vision dimmed again as she was lifted high into the mist.
And then a voice deep, layered, inhuman whispered close to her ear.
"Let's get you new clothes."
And then—darkness.
------
The air was dense with the scent of damp wood, ash, and something faintly sweet, like rotting lavender.
Tayuya's fingers twitched first, brushing against coarse fabric beneath her. Her brow furrowed. She felt warmth, no not from sunlight—but something else… something that hummed softly through the wood she was lying on.
Her eyes fluttered open.
The ceiling above her was old, cracked timber. Dust hung in the stillness like frozen snow. Faint rays of morning light seeped in through thin slits between the planks, illuminating floating motes that danced like silent ghosts. For a moment, she didn't move.
Then she remembered. The tree. The pain. The feeling of her legs being ripped apart. Death. That horrible, yawning darkness clawing at her mind.
She jolted upright—only to stop halfway with a sharp gasp.
Her legs.
They moved.
Not just moved—they worked. The agony she'd last known was gone, replaced with a dull soreness that throbbed like overworked muscle rather than torn flesh. She swung her legs over the edge of what looked like a simple cot. Her feet touched cold, wooden flooring. Instinctively, she flinched, expecting pain—but nothing came.
Breathing raggedly, she looked down.
Her legs were whole.
Smooth. Scarless.
Healed.
She sat there, frozen in disbelief. Even Orochimaru's strongest regeneration methods couldn't work this fast. Couldn't work this clean. Not unless you were… replaced.
But she felt her chakra. It was still hers. Weak, but present. Her body… was her body.
Only now did she notice her clothing situation. Her upper body was covered by her underwraps—torn but intact. Below that, she wore only a pair of dark undergarments, also patched with dried blood. Her usual shinobi attire—fishnet, skirt, overshirt—was tossed carelessly in a woven bin in the corner, shredded beyond repair. Jagged tears, dried black stains, broken flak straps.
Tayuya's eyes narrowed.
Someone had undressed her. Cleaned her. Healed her. But hadn't done more.
Not yet.
She rose carefully to her feet, every muscle tense and alert, her instincts twitching. Her legs protested at first, wobbling slightly, but held steady.
Her surroundings were... rustic. The small room was built entirely from aged wood—walls, floor, even the ceiling. Cracks in the planks let in fresh forest air and the sound of chirping insects. There was no furniture beyond the cot, a small table with strange glowing orbs on it, and that old bin with her clothes.
A dim blue light pulsed along the walls. Not from electricity, but from strange, fungal-looking vines coiling around the wood. They beat gently with bioluminescence, like veins breathing light.
She took a cautious step forward, then another. Her bare feet creaked softly on the floorboards as she made her way to the doorless exit, framed by tattered drapes.
Outside lay a mist-covered grove. Trees rose high into the canopy, twisted and ancient, their roots so large they formed arches and paths. At the center of the grove was a small lake—its surface so still it looked like polished obsidian. No birds. No animals. Just the haunting quiet of forgotten woods.
She stepped outside, the cool air brushing her exposed skin, and made her way to the water's edge.
She knelt.
Stared at her reflection.
She looked pale. Tired. But… alive.
She cupped the water in her hands and drank.
The water was cold and oddly sweet, soothing her throat instantly. Her mind slowly began to race now who had done this? Why save her?
She tried to remember details of what happened. Tentacles. A voice. Something had spoken. Something inhuman. Not a summoning beast. Not a shinobi technique.
Her eyes narrowed.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Her instincts screamed.
Tayuya spun around, her chakra flaring reflexively. In one motion, she moved to form a hand sign—only to be instantly yanked off her feet.
Whip!
Thick, purple tentacles burst from the ground and trees, wrapping around her wrists, ankles, and waist in an instant. Her body was suspended in the air—arms stretched, legs bound and spread, her back arched slightly as more tendrils wrapped across her torso.
She struggled, snarling, teeth clenched. "What the hell!?"
> "Whoa. Easy there, girl."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. Smooth. Deep. Almost amused.
"You just got healed last night. Can you at least rest before trying to pick a fight?"
The tentacles held her firmly—but not painfully. There was no crushing force, no malicious squeeze. It was… clinical. Containing.
Tayuya's heart pounded. "Where are you? Show yourself!"
A rumble echoed from the trees—like laughter buried under stone.
> "You were dying. I found you. I healed you. I even patched your bloodied little body and washed the filth off. You're welcome, by the way."
She spat to the side. "You think that gives you the right to tie me up like this?!"
> "I think it gives me the right to keep my guest from accidentally tearing her insides open again. You have no idea how broken you were. Trust me—it took a lot of effort putting you back together."
The tentacles slowly lowered her back to the ground, though they remained wrapped around her arms until she stopped struggling.
When her feet touched the earth again, the voice softened slightly.
"You're alive, Tayuya. That's no small thing."
Her eyes widened. "You… know my name?"
"Of course I do. I've been watching all of you for a long time and I already know about your mission taking sasuke for your master orochimaru thinks you're dead."
This makes Tayuya nervous because she doesn't know how it knew her about Orochimaru orders to take sasuke to him. But it's voice didn't sound hateful but amused.
The tentacles loosened. The tentacles slithered back into the shadows of the trees.
Tayuya collapsed to her knees, breathing hard, eyes darting.
The forest was still again. Silent.
But now she knew it wasn't empty.
Something lived here. Something powerful. Something watching.
The air itself felt thick, like it was waiting for something dreadful to emerge. Her instincts screamed at her to flee, but her legs, recently healed from near death, remained tense and heavy.
The leaves rustled again louder this time followed by the unmistakable squelch of something wet and heavy dragging itself across the forest floor. Then, from the underbrush, it came.
A massive, grotesque creature slid into view, casting a looming shadow over the clearing. Its leech-like body writhed with slow, deliberate motion, covered in a glistening black-violet membrane that pulsed faintly as though alive with some kind of corrupt chakra. Long, whip-like tendrils trailed behind it, twitching as if sensing the air.
Tayuya instinctively reached for a weapon, but found none. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.
"What the hell even are you?" she spat, trying to mask her fear behind a wall of aggression.
The creature paused, rising slightly on its mass. Its voice was deep, almost oily, vibrating with something ancient.
"My name is Reibi, Tayuya. Though... some used to call me the Leech Demon during the Second Shinobi World War."
Tayuya's mind clicks when this creature mentioned it's name Reibi. Orochimaru told the sound four about the sky village destruction by a creature with unlimited chakra and nullified jutsus.
"You're the zero tails."
Reibi tilted its head with a deadpan, unimpressed stare.
"Great. Another moron who thinks I'm related to those glorified chakra pets."
Tayuya blinked.
"You mean... you're not one of them?"
"Look im not one of the villages with chakra beasts that used them for war," Reibi said, voice thick with disdain. "Those things were branded and named by the man who desperate to maintain peace with the hidden villages. Me? I'm not part of their little club."
Tayuya swallowed. The creature's presence was smothering, not just physically but spiritually. She could feel its chakra, vast and hollow, pressing down on her very soul.
"Then what are you?" she asked, quieter now.
Reibi shifted, some of its tendrils curling around its body.
"I am the result of every grief, every regret, every shadow in a shinobi's heart. I don't need a tail to be feared. I don't need a number to matter. I am the hunger you can't name, the void that waits when the blood runs dry. I am what remains when the killing stops and you realize the silence is worse."
Tayuya stared at it. For once, she had no snark, no insult. Just a strange, sinking awe. She realized this thing hadn't just survived the war it remembered it. Not like a man tells a story, but like a scar tells the tale of the wound.
"So..." she said slowly, "what do you want with me?"
Reibi lowered itself slightly.
"Maybe I just want company," it said with dry amusement. "Or maybe I see something in you. Something bitter. Something broken. You're not like the others. You don't chase peace. You don't cling to illusions. You understand pain. That makes you useful."
Tayuya's jaw clenched. She didn't like being called broken—but he wasn't wrong.
"So what now? You eat me?"
Reibi's mask twitched in what might've been a grin.
"No, Tayuya. I saved you. Remember?"
She did. The flashes returned how her legs pinned under a tree, her vision going dark, a cold touch lifting her away from death.
"You're welcome, by the way," Reibi added, with a huff.
Tayuya looked away, then back up at him.
"Thanks... I guess."
"Good," he said, slithering slightly closer. "Now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way..."
He extended one of his tendrils and gently poked her forehead.
"Let's get you some new clothes. You look like hell."
End
Hey everyone I know it's short but the next chapter will be out and Tayuya getting new clothes.