Chapter 62: Nightmare Loop
Shizune hurriedly ran over and picked up the pearl necklace, her eyes anxiously darting around. After a moment of hesitation, she finally identified the source of the strange noise—it was coming from the inn's kitchen.
A flood of gory images surged through her mind. Biting her lip, Shizune drew a kunai and cautiously approached the kitchen door. Holding her breath, she tried to peer through the crack in the door.
It was pitch black inside—she couldn't see a thing. But that eerie, bone-chilling chewing sound kept coming. Smack... smack... It was almost like the smell of roasted suckling pig wafting in the air.
Unable to restrain her anxiety, Shizune pushed the door open...
Suddenly!
"AAAHHH!!!"
A shrill, bloodcurdling scream rang out.
The scene before her rendered her mind completely blank. She desperately wanted to turn and flee, but her legs felt nailed to the ground—she couldn't move.
With a jolt, Shizune shot upright in bed.
"Guu guu~"
Clang, clang...
The night wind tapped gently against the windowpanes, birds chirped in the distance. Shizune gasped for air, her expression slowly softening.
"It... it was just a nightmare."
She had just dreamed that the inn's cook had a pig's head and was using people as ingredients in the kitchen. The most ridiculous part? That pig-headed man had the face of Tonton! Absolutely absurd...
Feeling relieved, Shizune raised a hand to rub her eyes.
Wait—something was off.
Why was her hand... a pig's hoof?
She tried to stand up, only to realize she couldn't balance on her legs. Her view of the world had dropped significantly. Staring in horror at her hooves, Shizune broke down.
"Is it possible... I'm under a genjutsu?"
She hesitated, trying to form hand signs to dispel it—but hooves weren't exactly made for intricate chakra seals.
At that moment, a shadowy figure quietly entered the room. In his hand was a gleaming, razor-sharp butcher's knife. He stepped toward her one foot at a time.
Shizune tried to speak, but all that came out was a pig's squeal.
Terrified, she scrambled under the bed, curling her front legs around her head, eyes tightly shut, body trembling uncontrollably. Her squeals echoed throughout the room—but no one came. Not even Tsunade.
Tap... tap... tap...
The footsteps drew closer. Her breathing grew erratic as she prayed the bedframe was sturdy enough to shield her—at least for a little while.
Through the dim moonlight filtering in from the window, she could see the silhouette's legs standing right beside the bed, slow and methodical—like a predator savoring the hunt.
A few seconds later, a pair of legs stopped.
Shizune prayed with all her might.
Please don't kneel down... please be blind... don't see the little pig under the bed...
No such luck.
A grotesque hand reached under the bed and clamped down on her tail with terrifying precision.
Shizune thrashed with all four limbs, but she couldn't stop herself from being dragged out.
Her pig eyes filled with tears as the figure lifted her and calmly walked toward the kitchen. Her mind was teetering on the edge of collapse—she couldn't tell anymore if she was human or pig.
When he slammed her onto the chopping board, every drop of blood in her body froze. All she could do was stare helplessly as the butcher raised the cleaver, a twisted smile on his face, and began chopping the "meat" one piece at a time...
"AAAHHH!!!"
Shizune bolted upright in bed again.
"Guu guu~"
Birdsong and morning sunlight poured in through the windows. Shizune blinked in a daze, instinctively rubbing her eyes—this time with hands. Real hands, not hooves.
"Another dream...? A dream within a dream?"
Her brain froze for a few seconds. Her whole body ached, and instead of resting, she somehow felt even more exhausted.
"What the hell is going on...?" Shizune muttered as she massaged her temples and dragged herself out of bed. Flashes of the nightmare flickered in her mind like shards of broken glass.
She splashed cold water on her face, trying to shake it off, staring at her reflection in the mirror. An uncanny, lingering sense of disorientation lingered.
"What an awful, awful dream loop…"
Tonton was still nowhere to be seen. Every morning around this time, her disciplined little pig would be out taking care of her "business."
But after everything she'd dreamed, Shizune felt uneasy. She quickly got dressed, flung open the door, and rushed straight to the kitchen.
That's where the nightmare had taken place.
The kitchen was empty. No boss, no chef. No surprise the business was terrible with that kind of work ethic.
Shizune forced the gruesome images out of her head and took a deep breath before throwing the kitchen door open.
Inside, everything was tidy and spotless. Nothing unusual at all.
Seeing the scene, Shizune let out a massive sigh of relief.
"It really was... just a dream."
But Tonton was still missing.
Forget being polite or worrying about disturbing the other guests—Shizune stepped into the hallway and shouted at the top of her lungs:
"Tonton! Where are you?! Come back already!"
Her voice echoed down the hallway. No response.
Outside, dead leaves rustled in the wind. The silence was suffocating.
Something wasn't right.
She'd yelled that loudly—Tonton might not have responded, but the innkeeper, the guests, even Tsunade-sama should've heard her. Why was the inn still so eerily quiet?
A wave of unease swept over her again.
Just then, a noise came from inside the kitchen freezer.
Without thinking, Shizune rushed over and flung it open.
...!!!
"AAAHHH!!!"
She screamed and collapsed onto the ground, tears welling up in her eyes.
Inside the freezer—her mentor, her one and only Tsunade-sama—had been cut into pieces. The chunks were neatly stacked. Crimson blood stained every corner of the freezer.
Shizune's mind couldn't process it. And then—
She woke up. Again.
"Still... a dream?"
...
Shizune was losing her mind.
Each time, she plunged into a nightmare more harrowing than the last, only to wake up and return to the same starting point. She couldn't escape. She was trapped in this endless cycle, sinking deeper and deeper into a dream that wouldn't end.
Even the will of a shinobi had limits.
Her maddened screams echoed through every inch of the inn.
Tsunade burst into the room. "Shizune! What's wrong?!"
What she saw stunned her.
Shizune was clutching her own hair, screaming and shrieking like a madwoman. Her once-silky black locks were nearly torn out. Her face was contorted in agony, her eyes vacant—like someone who had completely lost touch with reality.
As one of the greatest medical ninja in the shinobi world, Tsunade immediately recognized the cause—no physical wounds. The damage was all mental.
But that was the problem. All of Tsunade's medical techniques were tailored to the body. No medical ninja in the shinobi world could heal the mind. If they could, there wouldn't be so many shinobi who ended up broken.
Watching someone she cared about suffer like this, while being powerless to help—it felt like déjà vu, like reliving the pain of the past. For a moment, it nearly shattered Tsunade's own resolve.
But she quickly pulled herself together. There had to be a way.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
With a puff of smoke, Katsuyu the slug appeared. Tsunade quickly gave her instructions:
"Take Shizune. We're going to find Orochimaru!"
But in the very instant Katsuyu appeared—
Everything changed.
Tonton, who had been sitting quietly in the background like a harmless prop this whole time—suddenly opened her mouth wide and lunged at Katsuyu with shocking speed!
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Just dropped a new fanfic! It's a chill, easy-to-read story with a fun twist, the main character has the Flame-Flame Fruit in the Naruto world. The powers are cool and used in interesting ways, but don't worry, he's not insanely overpowered. There's a good balance, solid pacing, and some nice character moments.
Highly recommend checking it out.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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