The boulder exploded off the well mouth.
Stone shattered.
Black hair erupted upward in a violent surge.
Hidan lost the initiative instantly.
He stumbled back, barely keeping his footing as strands lashed toward his face, throat, and limbs.
Without hesitation, he slashed downward.
Steel bit into his own ankle.
Blood sprayed.
The hair severed.
If he'd hesitated even a second longer, he would already be inside that thing's stomach.
Even so, standing this close to the well was a death sentence waiting to happen.
Worse—
His strongest technique, Blood Curse: Death Link, did absolutely nothing to the creature.
That alone made Hidan furious.
He risked a glance sideways.
Shinji had finished disabling the villagers.
"Hey!" Hidan shouted. "How the hell do we kill this thing?! It just keeps coming!"
Shinji didn't move.
He stood still, eyes locked on the writhing mass.
Thinking.
Replaying everything.
Opened the chest.
Attacked.
Escaped.
Smell.
Feeding.
"No creature exists without a flaw," Shinji muttered. "I'm missing something."
"Stop spacing out!" Hidan barked. "I'm running out of options!"
One kunai remained in his hand.
The other had been knocked away.
If the creature possessed real intelligence, Hidan would already be dead.
It didn't.
Its attacks followed rigid patterns.
Simple.
Instinctual.
But even instinct was enough.
Hidan couldn't damage its core.
Cutting hair meant nothing.
Loss was inevitable.
"Hold on," Shinji called. "I'm identifying its weakness."
"Shinji Akagi! You better pray I survive this!"
Hidan forced himself back into motion, hacking wildly.
Shinji closed his eyes for half a second.
Reset.
It doesn't think.
It only hunts.
And the scent appears after it withdraws.
Not during attacks.
If it could use both simultaneously, it would have done so from the beginning.
Which meant—
Two modes.
Lure mode.
Feeding mode.
But knowing that didn't solve anything.
Shinji inhaled slowly.
Why did it attack me first?
Memory surfaced.
The moment inside the well.
The first target.
Not him.
The torch.
The hair had gone for the flame before turning on him.
Shinji's eyes snapped open.
"Fire," he said.
"Huh?"
"It reacts to fire. That's the weakness."
"Are you sure?"
"Use Fire Release and burn it!"
There was a brief pause.
Then Hidan exploded.
"Burn your ancestors! I DON'T KNOW FIRE JUTSU!"
Shinji grimaced.
Right.
Neither of them did.
They weren't ninjas.
They didn't have elemental techniques.
Shinji turned.
And ran.
"YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Hidan screamed. "YOU'RE REALLY DITCHING ME?! AT LEAST DRAG ME WITH YOU!"
Betrayal burned in Hidan's eyes.
He stopped trying to fight.
He tried to escape.
Big mistake.
The black hair surged faster.
It wasn't letting its only meal leave.
Hidan realized it.
Too late.
Panic broke his rhythm.
A single misstep.
Both legs were seized.
When he tried to cut free, more strands poured in.
Overwhelming.
Wrapping.
Binding.
His arms.
Chest.
Neck.
His body vanished inside a cocoon of black hair.
He felt them probing.
For his mouth.
Nose.
Ears.
Now he understood how the animals died.
For the first time in his life—
Hidan wasn't sure his immortality would save him.
If I live…
I'm killing Shinji.
Then—
Heat.
Blistering heat.
Liquid splashed over the cocoon.
Soaked into the writhing mass.
Shinji stood nearby, holding two empty wooden buckets.
Oil.
He flicked a fire starter into the pile.
Boom.
Flames erupted.
The black hair ignited instantly.
High-pitched shrieks echoed from the well.
Shinji didn't stop.
He dumped every remaining drop of oil straight into the well.
Another spark.
A pillar of fire roared skyward.
The creature's screams twisted into something thin and broken.
Shinji exhaled slowly.
He hadn't run away earlier.
He'd gone to scavenge flammable liquid from the village.
It took time.
Almost too much time.
But it was enough.
Shinji stared into the burning well.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "Stay dead."