After running without rest for several days, he finally arrived in the village of Yugakure, where steam rose up in puffy clouds from the hot springs all around. Resort hotels were lined up next to the steam, and the place was lively with tourists. Because the ninja of the village were there to maintain the peace, people likely felt secure during their stay there. He could also see people who looked to be VIPs of the land.
“Sasuke from Konoha, yes? I’ll show you the way to Hell Valley.”
Apparently, they had already gotten the message from the Raikage; when he visited the central offices of Yugakure, a ninja appeared to act as his guide. He looked to be about thirty.
“However, the fact that you arrived here so quickly … It will take at least a day to reach Hell Valley. Will you rest for a while before we go?”
“No, I’d like to set out right away.” There was no time for resting.
The ninja nodded. “I understand.”
Sasuke had intended to go alone as long as they would just tell him where the valley was, but it seemed that Hell Valley was difficult to reach, and only someone from the local area would know it.
“To begin with, Hell Valley is forbidden ground,” the man explained as they proceeded through the forest. “It was originally a place that outsiders, of course, were told to stay away from, but even people from the village were told this, lest the calamity of the Chinoikes befall them.”
“The calamity of the Chinoikes?”
“Yes.” The man nodded. “After they were driven out to Hell Valley by the Uchiha clan, the only path left for the Chinoike clan was to fall into ruin and die. Hell Valley is a rocky place where no plants grow, full of volcanic gases; it’s not a place where people can live. However, a few months after the Chinoikes had been driven to Hell Valley, someone went to check on them and saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“An ocean of blood spreading out over the rocks where there had been nothing, and the Chinoike clan sipping it.”
Sasuke remembered Chino’s genjutsu. He had been pulled into a red sea. “Was genjutsu cast on this person?”
“No. I don’t know all the details. But after that, the village declared Hell Valley to be off-limits and prohibited anyone from going near it. And then the ninja of Yugakure forgot about its very existence. They even lost track of where it was.”
So then, why did he know the way to Hell Valley now? The question rose up in Sasuke’s head at the contradiction in the man’s story, and the man lowered his eyes.
“In recent years, someone found Hell Valley once again. His name was Hidan. He later joined Akatsuki and spread the horrors of war throughout the ninja world.”
Sasuke never expected to hear about Akatsuki in this place. It was an organization that his older brother Itachi had belonged to; Sasuke himself had also been taken in by them for a time. But by the time Sasuke joined Akatsuki, many of its members were already missing, and Hidan had not been a part of it.
“Hidan was not a man who did what he was told, and at the time, he was still a child. After hearing rumors of Hell Valley, he went and found it out of curiosity. Apparently, he was disgusted by the smell of sulfur and didn’t go too far into the valley, but he did say that there were corpses all over the place. So people thought, well, of course, no one could actually live in the valley, so they had indeed met their deaths, after all. But Hidan said that the bodies were not bones, but actual bodies, the blood not even dried. When the ninja of the village went to investigate, it was just as Hidan had said. They found the bodies of people who had only just been killed.”
So then, the Chinoike clan had lived on in Hell Valley until recently.
“Some people suspected that Hidan himself had killed them, but it appeared to have been members of the clan killing each other. We don’t know what happened, but we once more set Hell Valley as a forbidden place that was not to be approached.”
Here, the man closed his mouth for a moment. His gaze wandered around as though he were struggling with something, and then finally, he said, as if squeezing it out of himself, “No. Perhaps we just decided to feign ignorance, not wanting to get dragged into something troublesome. Yugakure has many resources; we live comfortable lives. There is the feeling among us of wanting to get rid of anything that would cause waves in our peaceful existence.”
Sasuke listened silently.
“As a safe hot-spring resort, Yugakure has also been since ancient times a pipeline between the daimyos and senior officials of the various countries. Apparently, we took in the Chinoikes because of some connection with the daimyo of the Land of Lightning. There’s also the fact that we avoided war with backdoor deals. And by pretending we saw nothing, we were able to maintain the peace.”
The man’s face was sorrowful.
“It’s the same with Hidan. Normally, the established practice is to deal with rogue ninja. But there wasn’t a ninja in Yugakure who could take on Hidan. The village decided to let him be. And because of that, people died.”
Perhaps a peaceful world dulled the senses of a ninja. And the world would likely proceed down that path from now on. However, dissenters would always suddenly appear. At those times, there had to be someone who could stand up against them. That was probably also the reason why Orochimaru and Kabuto had been allowed to live. But they needed to have other ninja who kept their skills sharp for the sake of peace, ready for the crisis that might happen at any time.
Sasuke suddenly had the thought that maybe that’s what he should aim to be.
“It’s over there.”
After a full day, they arrived at Hell Valley, just as his guide had said. Clouds of steam on a scale incomparable with what he had seen in the village of Yugakure rose up from the ground all over.
“I’ll go by myself from here,” Sasuke said.
“Be careful,” the man said, and left.
Alone, Sasuke set foot in Hell Valley. On both sides of the valley were bare, rocky mountains. The stone face was discolored a reddish brown in some places, and there was no sign of any plant life. The valley was replete with a foul-smelling steam, and hot water jetted out of geysers. You had to make an effort just to keep standing in the place. Banished to somewhere like this, you shouldn’t be able to live.
But the man from Yugakure had said that the Chinoike clan had been doing just that until recently. How hard it must have been for them.
Konoha’s huge, so you’re guaranteed the basics, I guess, but most places are like this. Absurd. Chino’s words came back to life in Sasuke’s mind.
Hell Valley was bigger than he had imagined, but Sasuke proceeded deeper, as if guided there.
Further in, he stumbled upon a bright red pond. It looked almost like blood. Instantly, he was on guard, wondering if he had fallen into a genjutsu, but there was no aura of chakra.
He walked over to the pond. “This …” When he took a closer look, he saw that red-hot earth was erupting from the ground. This collected at the bottom, and made the water look red.
He looked around and saw that the path ahead was dotted with these red ponds. What the ninja from Yugakure had seen was probably these ponds, Sasuke thought as he looked out over at them.
He drew in a sharp breath. In one of the ponds, he saw a human form. He immediately ran over.
“This …” It was a sight that made him doubt his own eyes. In the red pool, ninja, probably the abducted ones, were snugly packed together. A layer of red earth also covered the bottom of this pond, half-burying the ninjas’ bodies. The water was apparently cooler than the earth; he didn’t feel any heat from it. But the bodies of the ninja in it were red.
And he could sense a chakra aura in it. With his sharingan, Sasuke looked at the pond and at the ninja.
“This is …”
There was chakra in the pool, wriggling around like earthworms. The ninjas’ bodies had been cut in various places, and the chakra appeared to be entering them through these wounds. Once inside, the chakra crept and crawled around their bodies like blood circulating. The ninja with the foreign chakra winding around into every crevice of their bodies had scabs over their wounds almost like lids to keep the chakra inside, and the wounds were quickly disappearing.
Apparently, after the abducted ninja had been brought here, they were transformed into human bombs in these pools, and then sent out to the villages.
Sasuke tried a counter-genjutsu on the ninja right beside him. But the instant he put his hand into the pool, the wriggling chakra started to collect around his hand. A stinging sensation raced across his skin.
“Tch!”
Apparently, the chakra created cuts, and tried to get inside the body. He pulled his hand out of the pool, shaking off the chakra, and looked once again at the ninja sleeping in the water. He felt no intention or will in them. Having lost human emotion, they were merely Chino’s soldiers. They had indeed been made to closely resemble White Zetsu.
Sasuke turned his gaze forward. In order to save the ninja imprisoned in the ponds, in order to protect the villages, he would have to defeat Chino.
“This place …” He had finally made it to the deepest reaches of Hell Valley. The scene that spread out before him made Sasuke unconsciously hold his breath.
There, he found a red pond so enormous that the ones he had seen thus far didn’t begin to compare, bubbling and boiling, giving off great clouds of steam. It looked like the red ocean he had seen in the genjutsu. The choking heat made breathing difficult.
“Tenacious like a snake, huh?” A voice rang out from a place in the center of this boiling pool, clouded by steam. “I gotta hand it to you, Sassy.” Chino was walking toward him, barefoot on the simmering earth. Her eyes were not yet red.
“Why do something like this?” It wasn’t his nature to have leisurely chats with his opponent, but Sasuke had to ask.
Chino had been so talkative in the village of Takeno, but now her mouth was clamped shut.
“Is it true that the Uchiha clan drove your clan to this land?”