The western district became much quieter after midnight.
Steam drifted between the bathhouses in slow white clouds, swallowing alleyways and turning lanterns into blurred circles of orange light. Most tourists had returned to their inns hours earlier, leaving only workers cleaning the last public baths and the occasional drunk stumbling home.
Team Seven had been watching for nearly four hours.
Naruto had sixteen shadow clones scattered throughout the district and another twelve positioned along the surrounding forest. Sasuke watched the rooftops while Sakura remained closer to the main street, keeping track of civilians entering and leaving the area.
Nothing happened.
Naruto hated missions where nothing happened.
He crouched above a bathhouse entrance, chin resting against one hand as he watched another elderly couple shuffle down the road. One of his clones sat beside him, looking equally bored.
"This sucks."
"You're me."
"Doesn't mean I'm wrong."
"You're supposed to be watching."
"So are you."
Naruto looked at himself.
The clone looked back.
"You wanna fight?"
"Little weird."
Naruto dispelled him.
Across the street, Sasuke slowly turned his head.
Naruto pretended nothing happened.
Sakura appeared several minutes later, landing beside him quietly.
"Anything?"
"Old people."
"Suspicious old people?"
"Very."
Sakura sighed.
They'd spent the afternoon building a rough picture of the western district. Six of the original missing persons had vanished somewhere nearby, and every one of the remaining victims had either worked, shopped or regularly visited businesses within several streets of the area.
Then there was the shrine.
And Jashin.
The mayor had reluctantly allowed them to borrow the carved talisman until morning. Naruto had it sealed inside his coat, and despite having no idea what the symbol represented, he hadn't stopped thinking about it.
"There."
Sasuke's voice came quietly from above.
Naruto looked up.
Sasuke pointed.
Someone stood at the mouth of an alley.
Male.
Dark clothing.
Ordinary enough that Naruto might have ignored him during the day, except the man hadn't walked into the alley from anywhere.
He'd simply appeared.
Sakura narrowed her eyes.
"Was he there before?"
"No," Sasuke said.
Naruto signaled two clones.
They moved across neighboring rooftops without making a sound.
The man stepped into the street.
He looked around.
Then entered another alley.
Naruto frowned.
"He's not going anywhere."
Sasuke nodded.
"He's checking something."
"Or waiting," Sakura said.
They watched.
Ten minutes later, a woman left one of the smaller bathhouses.
Young.
Local.
Naruto recognized her from their interviews earlier that afternoon.
Her name was Yumi.
She walked alone.
The man followed.
Naruto's expression changed immediately.
"Move."
Team Seven disappeared from the rooftop.
They didn't attack.
Not yet.
Naruto had learned enough from Kakashi and Jiraiya to know that catching someone committing a crime was useful.
Following them to everyone else involved was better.
They stayed back.
The man followed Yumi through two streets before turning onto an older road heading west. Yumi never once looked behind her.
Naruto frowned.
"She doesn't know he's there."
Sakura nodded.
"Then she's not meeting him."
Sasuke's Sharingan activated.
"Wait."
The man accelerated.
So did Team Seven.
He reached Yumi seconds later.
His hand came up.
Naruto moved.
A shadow clone slammed into the man's side before he could touch her.
The stranger flew across the road and crashed through a wooden fence.
Yumi screamed.
"Get inside!" Sakura shouted.
The woman didn't need to be told twice.
She ran.
The stranger rolled to his feet.
Fast.
Too fast for an ordinary civilian.
Naruto landed between him and the town.
Sasuke blocked the forest.
Sakura covered the eastern road.
The man looked at all three.
Then smiled.
Naruto didn't like that.
"You're surrounded."
The stranger's smile widened.
Naruto pointed toward him.
"Seriously. That's the part where you're supposed to surrender."
The man reached inside his robes.
Sasuke's hand snapped toward his kunai pouch.
"Don't."
The stranger stopped.
Slowly, he removed something.
A pendant.
A circle surrounding an inverted triangle.
Naruto's eyes narrowed.
Jashin.
The man's gaze settled on him.
"You've seen His mark."
Sakura stepped forward.
"Who is Jashin?"
The stranger laughed quietly.
Not nervously.
Not fearfully.
Happily.
"You don't even know."
Sasuke's Sharingan tracked every movement the man made.
"Where are the missing people?"
The man's eyes moved toward him.
"Saved."
Naruto stiffened.
"Saved from what?"
"Everything."
His hand tightened around the pendant.
Naruto stepped forward.
"Where are they?"
The man's smile slowly disappeared.
"You shouldn't interfere."
"Too late."
Something flashed across the stranger's expression.
Disappointment.
Almost pity.
"You could have been useful."
Naruto frowned.
"What the hell does that mean?"
The acolyte moved.
Sasuke reached him first.
A kick caught the man's wrist and sent the pendant spinning away. Sakura swept his legs a moment later, and Naruto's clone caught him before he ever reached the ground.
Three additional clones appeared immediately.
One pinned each arm.
Another locked down his legs.
The real Naruto crouched in front of him.
"Okay."
The man struggled once.
He wasn't going anywhere.
Naruto's expression hardened.
"Now we talk."
The acolyte stared up at him.
Then smiled.
Sakura noticed the change immediately.
"Naruto."
The man's jaw snapped shut.
Hard.
A wet crunch came from his mouth.
Naruto recoiled.
Blood immediately poured between the man's teeth.
"What the fuck?!"
The acolyte opened his mouth.
A mangled piece of his own tongue dropped onto the dirt.
Sakura went pale.
"Hold his head!"
The clones tightened their grip.
Blood ran down the man's chin and soaked the front of his robes, but instead of screaming, he laughed through what remained of his tongue. The sound came out wet and broken.
Naruto stared at him.
"What is WRONG with you?!"
The man's eyes were ecstatic.
Sasuke moved.
"His collar."
Too late.
A thin piece of sharpened metal slipped from inside the acolyte's sleeve.
One of Naruto's clones caught his wrist.
The man twisted violently.
Skin tore.
He didn't care.
He forced the razor upward.
Sakura lunged.
"STOP!"
The blade crossed his throat.
Once.
Hard.
A dark line opened beneath his jaw.
Then blood erupted.
Naruto's clones immediately forced his arm away while Sakura dropped onto him, both hands glowing green.
"No!"
The acolyte convulsed beneath her.
Blood poured through Sakura's fingers faster than she could close the wound.
His eyes remained fixed on Naruto.
Happy.
That was the worst part.
He wasn't afraid.
He wasn't regretting it.
He looked relieved.
Sakura poured more chakra into the wound.
"Stay still!"
The man's lips moved.
Only mangled sounds emerged.
But Naruto could almost understand them.
Praise.
A prayer.
Then his body went limp.
Sakura continued healing.
"Sakura."
She didn't stop.
"Sakura."
Her hands shook.
"I can close it."
"Sakura."
She finally stopped.
Silence settled over the road.
Blood covered her hands.
Naruto stared down at the body.
The acolyte had bitten apart his own tongue and opened his throat rather than answer a few questions.
Not because Team Seven had tortured him.
Not because he'd believed escape was impossible.
Because whatever waited on the other side apparently frightened him less than talking.
Sasuke crouched beside the body.
"He planned for this."
Naruto looked toward him.
"The blade."
Sasuke indicated the hidden razor.
"He carried it somewhere nobody would search immediately."
Sakura slowly wiped her hands against a cloth.
"He intended to die if he was captured."
Naruto looked at the Jashin pendant lying several feet away.
"That's fucking insane."
Nobody disagreed.
They searched the body carefully.
No identification.
No village forehead protector.
No money.
No orders.
Nothing except several blank slips of paper, the hidden razor and another Jashin symbol sewn into the inside of his robes.
Naruto's frustration grew with every empty pocket.
"He had to come from somewhere."
Sasuke looked toward the forest.
"Then we find where."
Naruto nodded.
But the dead man's expression remained with him.
Not fear.
Ecstasy.
They returned to the inn shortly before dawn.
Sakura began organizing everything they'd learned while Sasuke took the first watch. The body had been turned over to local authorities under strict instructions that nobody outside the mayor's office be told about the Jashin connection.
Naruto remained awake.
The talisman sat inside his coat.
He could feel its weight even though it barely weighed anything.
Eventually Sakura fell asleep over her notes.
Sasuke remained by the window.
Naruto waited.
Then he created a shadow clone beneath the blanket.
The clone rolled over.
Sasuke glanced toward the bed.
Naruto snored loudly.
Sasuke looked away.
The real Naruto slipped through the bathroom window.
He rented a small storage room downstairs under the excuse that Team Seven needed somewhere secure for mission equipment.
Naruto locked the door behind him.
Then placed a sealing tag across it.
Only after checking the room twice did he sit down.
The mayor's talisman rested in front of him.
Beside it sat the pendant recovered from the dead acolyte.
Identical symbol.
Different materials.
Naruto stared between them.
"Saved."
That word bothered him.
The acolyte hadn't called the missing people prisoners.
He hadn't said taken.
He'd said saved.
Naruto touched the wooden talisman.
Nothing happened.
He fed a tiny amount of chakra into it.
Still nothing.
"Come on."
He tried the pendant.
Nothing.
Naruto leaned back.
Normal chakra wasn't the answer.
Then he remembered something he'd been deliberately avoiding.
His inventory opened.
The Uzumaki Death Seal Mask appeared in his hands.
Naruto stared at it.
The pale face stared back.
He'd learned enough about the thing to know it wasn't something he should wear simply because he was curious.
Unfortunately, Naruto Uzumaki had never been particularly good at leaving mysteries alone.
"Just looking."
He lifted the mask.
"Nothing stupid."
Then placed it over his face.
The room changed.
Naruto's breath caught.
The lantern still burned.
The wooden walls remained unchanged.
But layers appeared over everything.
Faint traces.
Spiritual residue.
The Uzumaki mask allowed him to perceive things that normally existed beyond ordinary chakra senses.
Naruto looked toward the talismans.
And froze.
Black threads crawled across them.
Not painted.
Not carved.
Attached.
The strands twisted around the inverted triangle and disappeared into something Naruto couldn't see.
Naruto leaned closer.
The pendant felt different.
Older.
He reached toward it.
The threads moved.
Naruto stopped.
They hadn't moved randomly.
They had recoiled from him.
Naruto swallowed.
"Okay."
That wasn't good.
He focused through the mask.
The darkness behind the talisman deepened.
The wall behind it seemed farther away.
Then farther.
Naruto's breathing slowed.
Something was there.
Not inside the room.
Somewhere beyond it.
The black threads stretched toward that impossible darkness.
Naruto couldn't see where they ended.
So he looked harder.
The Uzumaki mask grew freezing cold.
Naruto's fingers tightened against his knees.
The darkness shifted.
Something moved.
Naruto stopped breathing.
An eye opened.
Not completely.
Just enough.
Something enormous seemed to focus on him from impossibly far away.
Naruto couldn't move.
The sensation lasted less than a heartbeat.
Then—
A black hand exploded from the darkness.
Naruto recoiled.
Long fingers reached toward his face.
Toward the mask.
Toward him.
"SHIT!"
Naruto ripped the Death Seal Mask away.
Everything vanished.
The room returned.
Naruto crashed backward into a stack of crates.
Wood shattered around him.
His chest heaved.
The talisman sat exactly where he'd left it.
Nothing moved.
Nothing reached for him.
Naruto stared.
His hands were shaking.
"Nope."
He scooted farther away.
"Nope. Nope. Fuck that."
The Uzumaki mask lay beside him.
Naruto looked at it.
Then at the talisman.
Something had looked back.
The System chimed.
PING!
Naruto flinched so hard he nearly kicked another crate apart.
"What?!"
Blue text appeared before him.
Hidden Objective Discovered!
The God Behind the Symbol
Jashin's influence has been detected. Discover the truth of Jashinism!
Reward: ???
WARNING
Certain truths were hidden for a reason.
Naruto stared at the notification.
Then at the Death Seal Mask.
Then slowly toward the two talismans.
"Yeah."
He swallowed.
"No shit."