Below the Hokage Rock, this was a quiet mountain path.
Here, the sounds of battle erupting in the distant forest could not be heard, only silence remained.
As if it were two different worlds.
Aoba and Sakura had already stepped onto the mountain path.
They walked onto the small road leading above the Hokage Rock.
This courage-testing activity involved groups of ten going in batches, twenty people each time, but each group had a different route, so there wouldn't be a situation of running into each other.
"Aoba," Sakura suddenly said, "I heard this place used to be a mass grave."
"Mass grave?", Aoba blinked, what a classic rumor.
"Sakura, did you hear it wrong? Who would bury people here for no reason?"
"Definitely not wrong, I heard it's because there used to be frequent wars, too many wounded in the hospital, people dying every day, and the corpses couldn't be stored in the hospital, so they secretly buried them here, and I heard that every night, especially in the deep of night, there would be sounds of painful wailing from here."
"..."
'If that is true, wouldn't a single Fire Release be more convenient than burying in the mountains?'
Aoba felt like laughing, but he still comforted Sakura, "How could that be? I go to the hospital often and never heard of such a thing, besides, there are no such things as ghosts in this world."
'All the ghosts are in the Pure Land.'
"But it seems like someone really heard wailing sounds," Sakura was still a bit worried.
"Maybe someone was testing a ninjutsu," Aoba said.
"Is that so, then…", At this point, Sakura froze on the spot, and Aoba was suddenly pulled by her.
"What's wrong?", Aoba asked in confusion.
Sakura was trembling all over, eyes staring straight ahead, her hand shaking as she pointed at the ground beneath her, "Ao… Aoba! Help… help me take a look, I think I just kicked something."
"What thing?"
Aoba looked toward Sakura's feet, in the shadows, it seemed like a ball-shaped object, with quite a bit of hair on it.
'No way?'
Aoba was shocked in his heart.
"Don't panic, let me take a look," He leaned in a bit, and found it was indeed a head, still bloodied, staring at him with wide-open eyes.
An expression of dying with regrets.
"What… what is it?", Sakura's voice was trembling, "Could it be the head of one of those corpses?"
"No way, some kid probably came to play in the mountains and dropped their ball here," Aoba kicked the head away.
'Your head is too fake.'
'Whose head is just lying here, and the eyes are still moving?'
"See how scared you are," He patted Sakura's head, comforting her.
"How about we head back first? We've only just come up a short way, we can go by another path."
"No… no way," Sakura shook her head hard, then held onto Aoba's arm, tightly clinging to him, hiding behind him.
"If I were alone, I'd definitely be scared, but if we're together, then I can be strong."
Aoba saw Sakura insist, so he didn't try to persuade her.
"Then let's speed up a little."
They walked for about ten minutes, everything was peaceful, except for running into a few limb props, which he kicked away in advance. Nothing else happened.
Aoba felt a little confused, 'Could someone have embezzled the courage-testing event's funds?'
Along the way, besides a few props, there were no traps at all, it was so simple.
"Looks like this 'Path of the Ninja' is just like this," Aoba said.
"Phew~", Sakura, who was still nervous and afraid before, now relaxed quite a bit after not encountering anything strange for a while, and let out a long sigh.
"Maybe I was scaring myself…"
"Yah!"
Sakura suddenly jumped up, Aoba quickly steadied her to keep her from twisting her ankle and falling.
"What… happened?", Aoba asked while looking down at Sakura's feet.
Then he understood the reason.
It was a distorted shadow, looked like a shadow jutsu from the Nara clan.
"I… I felt something touch my foot just now," Sakura's voice even carried a sobbing tone.
"It was a branch," Aoba casually picked up a branch and threw it away.
"Let's move a bit faster."
"Mm-hmm!", Sakura nodded as well.
The two went from walking to a light jog.
Before long—
They had already run halfway through this ninja path.
The two emerged from a dense forest into a more open area ahead.
Under the moonlight, a long-haired little girl was kneeling there with her head down, hands covering her face.
Faintly, the sound of sobbing could be heard.
The two instinctively stopped.
"Aoba, is that person injured and got left behind by her friends?", Sakura asked with concern, tugging Aoba.
Aoba: "..."
'Isn't that an obvious trap…'
'Is Sakura really such a scatterbrained girl?'
"Should we go take a look?"
Sakura nodded and pulled Aoba's hand as they walked toward the girl.
"Um… are you okay?", As they got closer, Sakura asked softly.
"I… I fell when I was running earlier, hurt my face, it really hurts…", the sobbing voice replied.
While the girl spoke, it seemed blood was dripping from her face.
Sakura, warm-hearted, said, "It's okay, we know medical ninjutsu, we can help you."
"Really…?"
The girl suddenly raised her head, revealing a pale face under the moonlight. With no facial features, only five black holes on her face, with thick black blood dripping, and hollow eye sockets staring at Sakura.
"Help… help me!", All her joints twisted like a puppet on strings, moving eerily.
Aoba remained calm.
"Ah!", Sakura screamed directly.
"Help me first!", Another hoarse, unpleasant voice rang out beside their ears.
Suddenly, two hands landed on their shoulders, and both of them instinctively turned their heads.
An old hunched granny, with eerie pitch-black eyeballs, stared unblinkingly at Sakura.
More importantly, this granny had a cat face, with her mouth split to her ears, revealing a blackened gum.
"AHHH—",The scream echoed through the entire forest.
Sakura jumped and clung to Aoba like a koala, hugging him tightly, her body trembling slightly.
"...", Aoba could only support her body, then raised his fists and struck one punch each.
Bang! Bang!
Two puppets shattered.
Aoba patted Sakura's back, wanting to say something, but Sakura spoke first.
"Ao… Aoba, my legs are weak, I can't move right now…"
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