"Most souls here are twisted and mutated. So are called away by the Pure Land, but others are swallowed by Cleaner and brought here."
"They move and wander around here! This place represents the strongest desires and darkness inside human hearts. Because these souls lack so mories and parts of their spirit, they constantly devour their own kind to fill the gaps in their souls."
Kagetsu stopped and looked at Tsunade.
With a calm voice under Tsunade’s gloomy gaze, he said, "They’re like a pack of starving wolves gone mad. Souls like ours, whole and complete, are like irresistible delicious prey to them."
"So, the hostile, watching eyes I sensed... they really exist?" Tsunade clenched her fists, grinding her teeth.
"Yes. This is the Forest of nos! The souls that failed to leave this forest and wander aimlessly here are the place where the trapped souls pour out.
We need to harvest so of these souls and find the materials we need in this forest," Kagetsu said.
As he spoke, the rustling sounds around them grew louder.
They were surrounded densely, like thousands of ants or insects.
The first to appear in front of Tsunade were several faceless humanoid figures, but in the next mont, they quickly changed into people from Tsunade’s mories—people she had recalled many tis before.
Originally, those faces in her mory had beco sowhat blurry, but now, at this mont, those faces beca extrely clear.
The suppressed emotions suddenly burst out uncontrollably.
"Dan, Nawaki, Great Grandpa, Second Grandpa, Grandma!" Tsunade almost shouted their nas instinctively.
Her cries made those figures more vivid, and they even responded.
"Is that little Tsunade?"
"Sis!"
Just as Tsunade could no longer hold back and wanted to rush forward, a fierce flash of fire swept in front of her, covering those figures.
"No!"
Seeing this, Tsunade lost control instantly, and her clenched fist almost imdiately swung toward Kagetsu, who had just attacked beside her.
"Wake up, Tsunade-san! Those are not the people in your mories!" Kagetsu was hit by Tsunade’s punch, his feet dragging two furrows in the ground.
Then, using the connection between the runes, he awakened Tsunade from the shock in her mind.
"Look around."
Seeing Tsunade stop her next attack, Kagetsu gestured for her to take a look around.
Tsunade, now clear-headed, looked around sowhat confused. In that short mont, the two of them had already been surrounded by one after another—at least a hundred faceless beings.
As her gaze landed on these faceless creatures, they all suddenly transford into the faces of people she longed to see in her mories.
At the sa ti, an inexplicable power seed to deepen her mories and stir her emotions.
"What is this?" Tsunade stood with Kagetsu. Even though she had experienced two ninja world wars and faced many powerful and strange enemies, the scene before her still gave her chills.
"They are incomplete souls trapped in this world, evolved under the influence of the Forest of nos. They have no mories of their own, so they crave all souls that have mories.
They feed on those mories and change themselves. Their ability lets them peek into the deepest mories of a person and stir the emotions inside the viewer. During this ti, your mories of those people will be dredged up from deep inside and beco their nourishnt.
They are faceless beings, and one of the materials we need to collect this ti. Be careful of their ability. If I had to define it, their power represents the dark side of chakra and leans toward illusion techniques.
But they have no consciousness—only instinct. As long as you lock away your mories and don’t leak too much, it’s fine."
Kagetsu explained quickly to Tsunade while dodging the faceless beings’ attacks, reminding her, "Don’t associate any mories or techniques related to these people, or they will replicate those abilities.
Also, don’t hold back—finish the fight quickly. I can’t even tell how many faceless beings are here. The longer we stay, the more gather."
"If more powerful evolved beings show up, then it will be a big delay."
"Easier said than done!" Tsunade gritted her teeth and punched, smashing a wood clone created by First Hokage using Wood Release into flying wood chips.
Fortunately, although these Faceless Ones could copy abilities, their real strength was still worlds apart from that of the elders.
But it surprised Tsunade that these previously aimless enemies suddenly beca organized and cooperative.
She knew that Kagetsu and Orochimaru had an experint called Hollow, and vaguely knew there was a space similar to another world related to souls and Hollow, but she never expected this place to be so strange!
If these Hollows could co to the ninja world, it might be a disaster even worse than the Great Ninja War.
One by one, the Faceless Ones quickly disappeared under the hands of Kagetsu and Tsunade. Occasionally, one or two small, dark stones, about the size of a fingernail, dropped to the ground.
Over a hundred Faceless Ones attacking made Tsunade—who already felt almost invincible in the ninja world—feel flustered and overwheld.
It was her first ti facing these Hollows, and all the intelligence and information about them had only been collected during the recent fight.
If it weren’t for Kagetsu, she might have fallen into the enemy’s trap right at the start. There might not have been any deadly danger, but that was only a possibility that didn’t happen.
Suddenly, a sharp pain!
Tsunade felt a blade suddenly cut through her body, and her heart sank instantly.
Flying Thunder God Slash!
It was the Second Grandpa’s jutsu!
Had her mories been spied on to this extent already?
The injured soul body consud energy to heal quickly. Tsunade glanced sideways at Kagetsu.
Around them, all the faceless clones were people from her mories, but Kagetsu seed to be soone whose mories couldn’t be read.
Tsunade’s danger sense suddenly beca sharp again. She bent down just in ti to avoid a blade frozen by the wind, then grabbed the Second Hokage clone who teleported nearby. She threw him hard into a group of faceless enemies rushing at her.
"Pain Heaven Kick!"
Tsunade leapt high and stomped heavily on the ground below. The earth shook violently like an earthquake, cracking and rolling.
A circle of faceless enemies was blasted into the air, where Kagetsu sliced them in half with a circular wind slash.
Black crystals fell to the ground and were absorbed by shadows ford with Kagetsu’s shadow ninjutsu.
After fighting for a while, Kagetsu sensed more and more Hollows gathering nearby. Her whole body radiated strong pressure.
That solid, almost tangible aura made Tsunade’s heart feel heavy, as if she faced a terrifyingly powerful enemy.
The surrounding faceless enemies froze, then, overwheld by fear, they retreated and vanished into the darkness of the Forest of nos.
"Is it over?" Tsunade breathed out deeply. So many versions of the First, Second, and Third Hokage had fought against her. Even if their strength wasn’t the sa as the originals, they made her suffer a lot.
She forced down the panic caused by Kagetsu’s intimidating aura, held her ground, and as the pressure from Kagetsu faded, she finally relaxed and asked.
"Of course not. But we need to leave quickly. I could only scare them away for a mont. Against so powerful Hollows, it won’t work. Soon, they will co back even stronger." Kagetsu opened the shadow space and called Tsunade to retreat.
****
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