Five figures moved through the trees with practiced efficiency. They wore dark clothing marked with the Kamizuru Clan insignia, bee users from the Land of Stone known for their specialized techniques.
Akatsuki led the group, her outfit bearing red accents that caught the moonlight. She'd been tracking for three days since the massacre at the border village, following a trail that made less sense with each passing hour. Whatever had killed those people hadn't behaved like any shinobi she'd encountered before.
The destruction patterns were wrong. Too random. Too violent. Like an animal had torn through the village rather than a trained killer.
"How much farther?" Hayabumi called from point position, his eagerness barely contained despite the grim nature of their mission. He was young, still viewing this as an opportunity to prove himself rather than understanding the danger they were walking into.
Kagewata's voice came from the rear, quiet and measured. "The trail ends somewhere in this forest. My bees are having trouble tracking further."
That bothered Akatsuki more than she wanted to admit. Kamizuru tracking bees were among the most reliable tools available, capable of following scent trails weeks old. If they were losing the track now, it meant something was interfering with their natural abilities.
Shirobane, the tallest of the group, spoke without looking back. "A massacre at a border village, and now our bees are acting strangely. This feels coordinated. Could be enemy forces testing our defenses."
"Or it could be—"
The explosion cut off Akatsuki's response.
The ground shook hard enough that she had to grip the branch beneath her feet to avoid falling. Trees swayed violently in all directions. Birds erupted from the canopy in a panicked mass, their cries piercing the night air.
All five shinobi froze, bodies tensed and ready.
"What was that?" Hayabumi's hand went to his weapon pouch, his earlier confidence replaced by wariness.
Shirobane's eyes were already scanning the direction of the blast. "Northeast, maybe a kilometer. That was a massive chakra discharge."
Akatsuki felt her pulse quicken. That kind of explosion wasn't natural, and it was too close to their tracking path to be coincidence. "That's our target."
"Wait." Tsuchiosu's deep voice carried a note of caution. The big man had been quiet until now, content to follow Akatsuki's lead, but his combat experience was twice hers. "An explosion that size requires either multiple shinobi or someone with high-level capabilities. Could be an ambush."
He was right. Rushing in blind could get them all killed.
Akatsuki made a quick decision and pressed her right thumb into her left palm. The summoning activated and a swarm of messenger bees appeared before her, their wings already beating in preparation for flight. These were Hayabachi shidare, bred specifically for speed and endurance.
"Request reinforcements. Show them our location and the explosion site."
The bees dispersed immediately, vanishing into the darkness.
Kagewata had already summoned her own scouts, smaller bees designed for reconnaissance rather than speed. "I'll send these ahead to get a visual before we commit."
Akatsuki nodded and turned to the others. "Standard approach formation. Hayabumi on point, Kagewata on rear guard. Shirobane, take high position for overwatch. Tsuchiosu and I will maintain center. No one engages without my signal."
The acknowledgments came in quick succession. Whatever waited for them at that explosion site, they would face it as a unit.
They moved through the forest with increased caution. Hayabumi led the way but his earlier rushing had been replaced by careful progression, checking each branch before committing his weight. Behind him, Akatsuki and Tsuchiosu maintained perfect sync, their footfalls silent despite the speed. Shirobane took to the higher branches where he could observe the approach path. Kagewata followed at the rear, her attention split between watching their backs and monitoring the scout bees she'd sent ahead.
The destruction became visible before they reached the site. Trees lay broken across their path, trunks splintered as if something massive had torn through them. The ground showed scorch marks despite the damp forest floor, and the smell of blood mixed with ash grew stronger with each step.
"This is wrong," Hayabumi muttered, his voice tight. "What kind of technique does this?"
Akatsuki didn't answer because she had no good explanation. The damage pattern didn't match any known jutsu. It was too widespread, too unfocused. Like the chakra had simply exploded outward without any attempt at control or direction.
They broke through the tree line and stopped.
The crater before them was easily fifty meters across, still smoking in places. The edges crumbled as they watched, loose earth sliding down into the center. Scattered fires burned around the perimeter, casting flickering light across the devastation.
"Is this even possible?" Tsuchiosu's usual calm had cracked slightly. He'd seen plenty of combat in his years, but nothing that compared to this level of destruction.
Shirobane landed beside them, his expression carefully neutral though Akatsuki could see the tension in his shoulders. "This would require earth release techniques at a scale I've never seen. Or something else entirely."
"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 seemed wrong. Too low. Too animalistic. Not the stance of someone who had survived an explosion but of something that had caused it.
"Survivor?" Hayabumi asked, though his tone suggested he didn't believe it.
Akatsuki's instincts were screaming warnings. "No one survives a blast like that."
She turned to Kagewata. "Can you get a visual?"
The smaller woman was already moving, her body flickering as she covered the distance to the crater's edge in seconds. She reappeared on a partially collapsed stone, crouching low to minimize her profile. For several seconds she remained silent, observing.
"Kagewata, report."
"It's a man." Kagewata's voice carried uncertainty that Akatsuki had never heard from her before. "But something's wrong with him. His body isn't right."
"Explain."
"His chakra is..." Kagewata paused, searching for words. "My bees won't approach. They're terrified. Like they're sensing a predator."
That made Akatsuki's decision easier. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't human. Not anymore.
"Subdue him."
---
Pain.
That was the first thing Muzan's fragmented consciousness registered. Not physical pain, his transformed body had moved beyond that. But a deeper ache that came from being split across five separate brain structures, each one processing the world differently and fighting for dominance.
He stood in the crater, his new body trembling with barely contained energy. The explosion had happened hours ago, or maybe minutes. Time had become difficult to track when his thoughts scattered across multiple processing centers.
Part of him remembered crawling out of the rubble. Part of him remembered feeding on something small and warm in the forest. Part of him had no memories at all, just hunger and the drive to survive.
His enhanced senses detected movement approaching from multiple directions. Five sources, all moving with coordinated precision. The scent of living humans carried clearly on the night air, and something deeper stirred in his chest.
Hunger.
Not the normal hunger of an empty stomach. This was cellular, desperate, overwhelming. His transformed body had burned through enormous amounts of energy during the explosion and subsequent regeneration. It needed raw materials to stabilize, and the approaching figures smelled like exactly what his biology was screaming for.
Muzan tried to think clearly through the fragmentation. These were people. Killing people was wrong. He shouldn't want to hurt them.
But the rational thoughts were coming from only one of his five brains, and the other four were operating 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, heat signatures overlaid on normal sight. He could see their hearts beating in their chests, blood flowing through their veins.
A sound emerged from his throat that didn't feel like it came from him.
"Ggrrrhhh!"
The ground beneath his feet exploded as his legs launched him forward with force that cracked stone. He covered thirty meters in less than a second, his body moving faster than his conscious mind could process.
The five figures scattered immediately. Their coordination was impressive, each one moving to a different position to create multiple angles of attack. Professional training, his rational brain noted distantly.
But the instinctual parts of his mind only saw prey dispersing, and his body was already adapting.
He hit the crater's edge where one of them had been standing moments before. The stone crumbled beneath the impact, cracks spreading outward from where his feet touched down. His head snapped toward the nearest target, a young man with short dark hair who'd thrown himself left.
Muzan lunged after him without conscious decision.
The young man's eyes widened as he saw Muzan closing the distance. His hands moved through rapid gestures, fingers forming patterns that pulled chakra through his system. The ground responded to his will, earth rising up between them in a thick wall.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"
Muzan's fist hit the stone barrier before his rational mind could suggest stopping. The wall exploded on contact, his transformed strength shattering the technique as if it were made of dried clay. Chunks of rock scattered in all directions and the young man barely rolled away from the debris, though one piece caught his shoulder and opened a bleeding gash.
"What the hell?!" The young man's voice carried genuine shock. "He just punched through my jutsu!"
A woman's voice cut through the chaos, sharp with authority. "Don't engage physically!"
She was making the same hand gestures, pulling chakra through different pathways. Her thumb pressed into her palm and smoke erupted around her, clearing to reveal dozens of fist-sized bees materializing from nothing. They swarmed forward in coordinated attack pattern, stingers extended and gleaming with venom.
Muzan's head turned toward the approaching swarm. Multiple parts of his consciousness processed the threat simultaneously, reaching different conclusions about how to respond. His mouth opened wider than it should have been able to, revealing fangs that had extended without him willing them to.
The roar that emerged pushed air outward in a visible wave.
"GRAAAAAAH!"
Several bees faltered in their flight, their primitive nervous systems responding to a predator call that bypassed training. But they pressed forward anyway, driven by their summoner's will.
From above came another voice and Muzan's enhanced vision tracked the tall man positioned in the trees. His hands moved through different patterns and the air around him shimmered as dozens of needle-thin projectiles formed from compressed chakra.
"Bee Sting Senbon!"
The needles rained down on Muzan's position, each one coated in toxins designed to paralyze. 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 automatically, his cells breaking down the foreign substance and pushing the needles back out through his skin. The wounds sealed before blood could even begin to flow.
"Impossible." The tall man's voice carried disbelief. "He's healing instantly."
Muzan's eyes locked onto the man's position in the trees. Something was happening to his right arm, flesh rippling and changing without his conscious control. The limb extended like melting wax, stretching to twice its normal length. Red protrusions burst through the skin along its length, forming spikes that glistened wetly in the moonlight. His hand twisted and merged, fingers fusing together into a bladed point.
The transformation hurt in a distant way, like pain happening to someone else's body. But the instinctual parts of his mind recognized the new form as a weapon and used it immediately.
His arm whip lashed upward toward the tall man's position with speed that surprised even Muzan. The extended limb curved through the air and sliced clean through the branch, cutting it as easily as paper.
The tall man leapt away but the whip followed him, tracking his movement with precision. It wrapped around his leg and the spikes dug deep into flesh.
Blood sprayed from the wounds and the tall man gasped in pain.
The largest of the five figures was already moving, covering ground with surprising speed for his size. His hands slammed together and pulled massive amounts of chakra through his system. The earth responded violently, a thick column of stone erupting from the ground and slamming into Muzan's side with tremendous force.
"Earth Release: Earth Pillar!"
The impact threw Muzan sideways, his arm whip releasing the tall man automatically. He twisted in mid-air and landed on all fours, body moving with coordination that felt more animal than human.
His crimson eyes fixed on the large man and a growl rumbled from his chest.
"Grraaahhh..."
Both his arms began extending now, the flesh stretching and morphing in the same disturbing way. Red spikes erupted along their length as his hands fused into bladed points. Within seconds he had two whips, each three meters long and covered in gleaming protrusions.
He swung them at the large man without thinking.
The whips cut through the air with a whistling sound and the large man raised his arms, chakra flowing through his system to harden his skin. The transformation happened in an instant, his flesh darkening and taking on a stone-like texture.
"Earth Release: Hardening!"
The whips struck his hardened arms with sounds like metal hitting rock. Sparks flew from the impacts. The whips carved shallow gouges in the stone-textured skin but couldn't penetrate deeply. The large man grimaced but held his ground.
"His strength is monstrous!"
A smaller woman appeared behind Muzan, moving so fast her body seemed to flicker in and out of visibility. Her hands released a swarm of larger insects, hornets rather than bees, that descended on his back with aggressive intent.
"Hornet Fury!"
The hornets' stingers struck repeatedly, injecting venom designed to incapacitate. Muzan's body twitched from the impacts and he turned to face this new threat, abandoning the large man.
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 transformation was revolting to the small part of Muzan's consciousness that was still rational, but the instinctual parts recognized it as functional.
The mouths inhaled with tremendous force.
Air rushed toward them in a visible current, pulling everything nearby with it. 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, destroying the summoned insects instantly.
"What kind of monster—"
The woman's words cut off as the suction began pulling at her body. Her feet slid across the ground despite her attempts to resist. She threw a kunai into the earth and grabbed it, using the anchored blade to prevent being pulled into the mouths.
"I can't resist the pull!"
The woman with red accents was already responding, her hands moving through rapid gestures. Her remaining bees positioned themselves in a circle around Muzan and began glowing with chakra, their bodies swelling visibly.
"Bee Explosion Formation! Detonate!"
The bees exploded in sequence, each one releasing concentrated chakra in a devastating blast. The explosions engulfed Muzan in fire and concussive force, smoke billowing up to obscure the impact site completely.
"Did we get him?" The young man's voice carried desperate hope.
The smoke cleared and Muzan stood in the center of the blast zone 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 skin showed no burns, no tears, nothing to indicate he'd just survived multiple point-blank detonations.
His crimson eyes swept across all five figures surrounding him.
Then his back began to bulge.
The transformation was happening faster now, his body adapting to threats with increasing efficiency. 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, seeking targets.
The woman with red accents made a sharp gesture. "Fall back!"
But Muzan was already moving.
All eleven of his whips lashed out simultaneously, nineteen if he counted the ones he could feel beginning to form in his thighs. They moved too fast to track individually, cutting through everything in their path. Trees were sliced in half, their trunks sliding apart with wet grinding sounds. Boulders split like overripe fruit. The ground itself tore open in deep furrows where the whips carved through earth and stone.
The young man threw himself flat as a whip passed centimeters above his head, close enough that he felt the air displacement. "They're everywhere! I can't track them all!"
The tall man, already injured from the earlier attack, was slower to react. Three whips converged on his position from different angles. His hands moved desperately through the familiar gestures.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall!"
The wall rose between him and the incoming whips, but the bladed extensions punched through the stone like it wasn't there. One caught him across the chest, carving a deep gash that sprayed blood across the torn ground. He gasped and fell backward, his technique failing completely.
The smaller woman appeared beside him in a flicker of movement, grabbing his arm and pulling him away just before another whip slammed into the space he'd occupied. They reappeared twenty feet away but the tall man was bleeding heavily, his hand pressed against the chest wound.
The large man charged forward again despite seeing what had happened to his companion. His massive frame barreled toward Muzan with determination that overrode tactical sense. 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 that would have pulverized normal flesh. Muzan's whips coiled together, forming a defensive barrier between them. The rock fist collided with the interwoven whips and for a moment they held against each other, neither side giving ground.
Then Muzan's whips began rotating.
They spun like drills, grinding against the stone gauntlets with a sound like metal being torn apart. Sparks flew from the contact points. Chunks of rock broke away and scattered across the ground.
The large man's eyes widened as he felt his technique failing. "What—"
The whips broke through his defense and wrapped around his arms, torso, and legs in rapid succession. The spikes dug deep into flesh, finding gaps in his stone-hardened skin. Blood poured from dozens of puncture wounds simultaneously.
"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 in the earth and blood splattered across the torn landscape.
The woman with red accents' face twisted with fury as she watched her team member being destroyed. Her hands flew through rapid gestures, pulling massive amounts of chakra through her system.
"You want a monster? I'll show you a monster! 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 that suggested this was no ordinary summon. The buzzing from its wings shook the air itself.
"Kill it!"
The Queen Bee shot forward with shocking speed despite its massive size. Its stinger thrust forward like a lance aimed directly at Muzan's chest.
Muzan released the large man, letting him collapse into the crater he'd created. His thighs were already bulging, flesh rippling as new whips formed. 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 with wet squelching sounds.
The Queen Bee's buzzing turned into a terrible scream that hurt to hear. Its wings faltered and it crashed to the ground with the whips still embedded in its body.
Muzan's thigh whips retracted smoothly, pulling back into his flesh and leaving the Queen Bee to dissolve into smoke as its summoning broke.
The woman with red accents stared at the dissipating smoke with hollow eyes. "No... that was our 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. Some distant part of his mind recognized this should horrify him, that he'd become something monstrous.
But the instinctual parts were in full control now, and they only saw one more target.
The tall man was shouting from where the smaller woman had dragged him, his voice carrying desperation. "Scatter! We can't fight this thing! Retreat and wait for
reinforcements!"
But Muzan's body was already blurring forward, whips striking in a coordinated pattern that left no room for escape. The young man tried to form his defensive technique again but the whips shattered it before the wall could fully form. The force of Muzan's charge hit him like being struck by 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 in a desperate attempt to blind him. The insects swarmed his eyes and for a moment his vision was obscured.
His back whips lashed out without needing sight, moving on pure instinct. One caught the smaller woman across the ribs and she screamed as blood sprayed from the deep gash. She flickered away but her movements were sluggish now, the injury severe enough to compromise her abilities.
Only the woman with red accents remained standing and uninjured.
She faced him alone, breathing hard, her eyes locked on his transformed body. "What are you?"
The question was barely a whisper.
Muzan's whips withdrew slightly, coiling around him. His crimson eyes fixed on her with an intensity that felt almost like curiosity, though he wasn't sure if that was his emotion or something his transformed body generated.
Then the mouths on his arm whips opened wide.
They inhaled with tremendous force, pulling air toward them in a visible current. The woman's feet left the ground as she was yanked toward the fanged openings, unable to resist the suction.
"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 in a last attempt at defense.
"Bee Shield!"
The mouths bit down on the bees instantly, destroying the shield before it could form properly. The woman flew into range of the whips.
They struck from multiple angles simultaneously, cutting through flesh and bone with surgical precision. 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 before it hit the earth.
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 unconscious and bleeding out. The tall man barely alive, hand still pressed against his chest wound. The smaller woman clutching her ribs and wheezing. The large man motionless in his crater.
And the woman with red accents, dead at Muzan's feet.
Muzan stood over them, his chest heaving as the whips retracted slowly back into his flesh. His body returned to something approaching human proportions, though his skin remained pale and his eyes still glowed crimson in the darkness.
He stared down at the dead woman's body and felt something stirring in his transformed biology. Not an emotion exactly, but a physical need that bypassed conscious thought.
Hunger.
His body moved before his rational mind could object. He dropped to his knees beside the corpse, hands grabbing her shoulders. 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, hot and rich and overwhelming. He swallowed automatically and bit down again, tearing away meat and muscle. His teeth worked methodically, ripping through tissue like he'd done this a thousand times before.
The taste sent shockwaves through his system. His body shuddered with something between relief and pleasure, like a desperate thirst finally being quenched. Each swallow made him feel stronger. Minor injuries he hadn't even noticed sealed completely. The exhaustion from the fight faded into nothing.
Part of his mind was screaming in horror at what he was doing, but that part was getting smaller. The other four brains were processing the feeding as correct behavior, reinforcing the action with chemical rewards that made him want to continue.
He fed until the woman's body was mangled and partially consumed, then his senses detected another heartbeat nearby. The large man in the crater, still unconscious.
Muzan crawled toward him on all fours, moving like a beast rather than a person. He grabbed the man's arm and bit down, tearing away chunks of flesh. Blood ran down his chin as he chewed and swallowed, his body demanding more despite already being full.
The hunger wasn't about nutrition. It was about acquiring strength, about taking the power contained in these bodies and adding it to his own. His transformed biology had rewritten his base drives and this was what it needed to stabilize and grow stronger.
He moved to the young man next, the one who'd been thrown through the tree. Still breathing shallowly. Muzan's fangs sank into his shoulder, ripping away meat with practiced efficiency. 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, bits of flesh stuck between his teeth.
"No... please..."
Her voice was weak, barely audible.
Muzan grabbed her ankle and dragged her back. She didn't have the strength left to resist. His teeth found her throat, tearing it open in a single bite. He fed on the exposed flesh, drinking the blood that poured out until her struggling stopped.
The tall man had propped himself against a tree, trying to stop his bleeding with shaking hands. He looked up as Muzan approached and his face went pale with understanding and horror.
"Monster..."
The word was whispered, carrying no anger, just a simple statement of fact.
Muzan's fangs pierced his neck and tore away the flesh. Blood sprayed across the ground and the tall man went limp, his eyes staring at nothing. Muzan continued feeding until his body finally signaled that it had enough, that the immediate hunger was satisfied.
When he finished, Muzan remained crouched over the last corpse. Blood and gore covered his hands and face. His breathing had slowed to something more controlled. The red haze that had been clouding his vision was beginning to clear.
His crimson eyes blinked and awareness returned like a wave crashing over him.
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, torn apart and partially devoured. The evidence of what he'd done.
"What...?"
His voice came out hoarse but recognizably human, not the bestial sounds he'd been making during the fight.
He stumbled backward, away from the corpse. His legs gave out and he fell hard on the torn earth. His eyes swept across the scene again, taking in details his fragmented consciousness had missed while operating on instinct.
"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 now that his consciousness was reunifying. The fight. The whips extending from his body. The feeding. The taste of flesh and blood in his mouth. The satisfaction he'd felt with each swallow.
He'd killed them. All five of them. Had torn them apart with body parts that shouldn't exist and then consumed their flesh like an animal.
And worse, part of him had enjoyed it. His transformed biology had rewarded the behavior, had made it feel right and natural. Four of his five brains had been perfectly content with what he'd done, viewing it as successful survival behavior.
Only the smallest part of his consciousness, the piece that still remembered being Muzan Kibutsuji, was horrified.
And that part was losing the struggle to maintain control.