| abstract
| - Niagara and Takaharu are sitting in a restaurant, eating lunch. Ōta walks in, interrupting their meal, and sits down to chat with them both, informing that he was called on a mission to help out with the repair works of the Kannabi Bridge. After hearing about this, Niagara becomes enraged that she wasn't called on such a mission and storms out of the restaurant, embarrassing the two chūnin as the eyes of every other villager in the building follow her leave. Takaharu loudly apologizes to everyone for her rash behavior and runs off in search for the girl. Just as Takaharu leaves, Kosuke enters the building, being in search of Ōta, proposing the friend to take their leave, to which the green-haired boy agrees. Kosuke and Ōta are walking through an unnamed forest. As the sun falls, both boys begin to feel tired from their journey. Kosuke proposes to set up a camping side for the night and follow up to their destination in the morning, to which the green-haired chūnin agrees. As they sit down to take a rest, the forest starts to rustle in chirping bird-like sounds. Kosuke and Ōta both turn to the left, prepared for an incoming attack, with Ōta taking out his Fencing Sword and Kosuke creating a Water Clone. Despite the ruckus, nothing appeared from that destination. As he gasps out of relief, Ōta suggests that it is just their brains playing mind games on them because they are tired. As Ōta puts his blade back in its holster, Kosuke decides to take a look around, disbelieving that the ruckus was caused by their minds. Brushing through some trees, the blue-haired boy finds himself in the middle of a circle-like formation, akin to an out-of-place artifact. As he looks around the object, he suddenly notices a soulless body laying on the ground. Sensing a killing intent coming from the right, Kosuke creates a torrent of water, scaring off the predator. Glad that the enemy withdrew, Kosuke looks again at the body, realizing in shock that the body in front of him is that of a bridge worker's that they were going to be assisting. With a calm demeanor, Kosuke quickly calls Ōta, wishing him to see what had happened. Ōta follows Kosuke's footsteps, catching up to his worried voice. He gasps in terror as he notes: "This is no ordinary B-Rank mission we're dealing with anymore". As the two chūnin arrive in the village, one of the younger workers noticed their headbands and quickly runs off to notify his higher-up about the arrival of the grass shinobi. Overjoyed about such news, the chief runs out of the tent to introduce himself to the chūnin and to inform both about the current situation that they are facing, but his facial expression quickly changes as he notices that one of the chūnin is carrying a dead body on his shoulder — the body of one of his workers. Ōta and Kosuke quickly proclaim that they've found the man already dead in the middle of a forest and that the man was not alone during the time, two which the chief shows no surprising face, as he informs the ninja about the legend of the spirit that inhabits the forests. Chief: Long ago, these forests were the home of a nomadic shinobi clan. But, sadly, the world was not peaceful at the time. As wars raged on, the clan fought for their survival but was defeated because their beliefs forbade them from killing people. But one kunoichi escaped and survived. She was a highly talented one, a master at ninjutsu, capable of using the Spirit Transformation Technique — a technique that is said to be almost impossible to perform. As she tried to avenge her friends and family, the woman used this secret technique, but her body was separated from her soul forever by an enemy shaman. The woman's body died, leaving her forever wandering the forests as a spirit. But her soul wasn't immortal — she had to feed herself with the souls of others to survive. As she devoured the lives of innocent people, her humanity slowly faded away. The kunoichi became a monster and was given the moniker Muchitsujo — chaos, disorder, confusion... Every human was covered in fear, until an old man from a clan of fūinjutsu masters was traveling. Kind enough, the man decided to help the people in need and fought against the spirit. After a week, the old man returned from the forest, sealing the woman's spirit inside an old stone well, giving her a new moniker — The Well Spirit. But ages have past since their fight and the seal is weak enough now that she can escape her prison and fight for her survival again. After hearing such a story, Kosuke promises the chief to help him out to the best of his ability, but Ōta just wondered: "Maybe the spirit is not the one to blame as legends can be wrong". The chief, overjoyed with the dedication shown by Kosuke, with a sad tone invites them for breakfast as he announces (via a megaphone) that another worker has fallen in the hands of the spirit. The sound of an ocarina begins to echo through the forest as the workers mourn the loss of one of their allies. Ōta and Kosuke follow the map and find themselves near a small river. With both being quite thirsty, the chūnin decide to go find a spring of clean water, which is detailed on the map, in order to get a drink. As the chūnin venture through a small passage, they find themselves near the spring. Kosuke notes that the water is very clean, but there is something strange about it as if chakra is leaking inside it from somewhere. As the blue-haired boy advises his friend not to drink the water, Ōta notices a small disk-like draft with strange patterns on one of the stones near the spring. The green-haired boy touches the pattern and the boulders start to move, unlocking a some sort of passageway, which the two chūnin decide to investigate. As they venture through the tunnel, a large swarm of bats attack, but Ōta scares them away them off with his sword. Kosuke and Ōta see daylight as they exit the tunnel and find themselves in a some sort of shrine, which is not on the map, with circle-like markings on the ground and a stone well in the middle. The shrine is surrounded by a spring that contains several whirlpool-like formations, which appear to be very realistic. Both chūnin comprehend that this location is where the old man sealed the evil spirit in the legend. As Kosuke tries approaching the well, a blue-coloured spirit appears out of nowhere and informs both chūnin that they are on sacred grounds and that they should either free her from the imprisonment that she is in or leave. The blue-haired ninja recognises her as the one who killed the repair worker two days ago and creates a large torrent of water, which he launches right at her. Muchitsujo easily dodges and silently appears next to Kosuke's face, scaring him. She then kisses the chūnin on his forehead, putting a staff-like cursed seal on him. As the well spirit prepares to take Kosuke's soul for herself, Ōta quickly steps in and delivers a series of blows. Despite his best efforts, the green-haired chūnin's attacks didn't make a single scratch on the spirit as she informs that blunt attacks don't work on her. Seeing no other means of fighting, Ōta creates a Shadow Clone as a decoy, takes Kosuke and escapes. At the same time, worried about the two chūnin, the chief, alongside seven other workers, take their weapons and set foot in the forest in order to help the chūnin fend off the evil spirit. Synopsis: Ōta and Kosuke are sent to secure the borders of the Land of Woods in preparation for re-building the Kannabi Bridge, but the bridge repairers are disappearing in the nearby forests one-by-one. When Ōta and Kosuke chase the kidnapper in the forest, they find themselves near a dead end in the middle of the forest, with a well built in the middle of some sort of circle. Confused about what is happening, the chūnin request back-up to capture the trouble-maker that has been kidnapping the workers.
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