In Otogakure, Jugo received information from a clone he had sent to Sunagakure hidden with Dosu's group. He sent more than one clone and when he discovered the result, one of them disappeared.
As soon as he received the information, Jugo smiled slightly, Chiyo was coming, that was a good sign.
But he was busy with something else right now.
He had been trying to understand the Wraith potion for a long time, but this one was the hardest to understand.
Prisoner is linked to containment.
Lunatic is linked to madness.
Werewolves are associated with savagery and the connection between their kind.
Zombies are connected to the concept that permeates the space between life and death.
In a way, they can all be loosely guessed from the name, but... what is a Wraith?
A spirit? A ghost? Then why wouldn't the potion have those names? Why specifically Wraith?
Jugo tried many things, thinking that Wraith would be linked to a more negative aspect of the word, causing fear and discomfort in living beings, even sucking their souls.
But while he was thinking, Jugo began trying to imitate some of the famous ghosts from his previous life, using a criminal as a target, he didn't act directly or appear quickly.
No, Jugo first created a containment failure situation, allowing a criminal to escape.
The man seemed happy as he tried everything to escape Otogakure, at first everything seemed to be going well, but little by little, the man sensed something was wrong.
During the day, he felt a persistent chill clinging to him, a chill that wouldn't go away even under the midday sun, at night, he seemed to hear murmurs coming from nowhere.
He had frequent nightmares, but when he woke up, he never remembered anything.
One day, he was sleeping and woke up outside, lying in the open air. He didn't even know how he got there! Had he developed sleepwalking? He found no trace of anyone around him, no one but himself.
The man's heart grew heavier and heavier, he could barely sleep. The dark circles under his eyes were deep, he felt as if someone was watching him, but he never found anything.
One day, as he approached a puddle of water, he swore he saw someone staring directly at him! But when he looked again, there was nothing there.
Fear consumed him so deeply that he began to think he was cursed. Was this some kind of precaution from Otogakure? Did they not pursue him because they knew he was going to die?
It was while eating roast rabbit near a campfire one day that he seemed to hear a whisper in his ear. - Three days...
He jumped away, frightened, screaming and searching for whoever had spoken here and angrily began attacking from all sides, finding nothing.
He didn't understand what three days meant, but he didn't forget, he just became more paranoid, trying to go further, to escape it, but it was no use, the cold remained, he still felt like he was being watched and he still saw things from time to time.
It was only at almost the same time the following day that he heard it again. - Two days...
The enraged man unleashed a fire blast jutsu, burning everything around him, but nothing appeared.
He tried everything, running away, hiding, fighting... nothing seemed to help, he could still feel it behind him, whatever it was.
When the sound reached his ears again, saying - One day...
He didn't jump, he didn't run away, too tired to attempt anything futile, he stayed there, fear gnawing at him, his bloodshot eyes seemed as vacant as those of a blind man, but that night, while he slept, he felt nothing, for the first time, he slept completely soundly.
He woke up startled, confused by the lack of anything... whatever it was he was going through.
Throughout the day, nothing happened, he seemed completely free. The man was full of hope, perhaps he had escaped, gone far away from all of that, he would finally be free!
He went even further on the last day and only stopped to eat at night, this time managing to catch some fish in the lake.
He saw nothing behind him in his reflection, which made him even happier, but there was still something inside him telling him that it hadn't passed yet, that thing, it said three days, the time hadn't run out yet.
He was trying to convince himself, to convince himself that he had managed to escape, that it was over, a smile lingered on his face during the day, but the closer that time got, the more anxious he felt.
He leaned against a tree as his dinner began to smell delicious. He looked at the moon, sensing that the time had come, but nothing happened. As he ate, frightened, nothing happened, until the moon was much farther away and still nothing.
He smiled.
He escaped, tears streaming down his face, he had never felt so happy in his life.
As he wiped away his tears, he sighed, opening his eyes, he was ready to begin a new life.
But as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the thin, pale face and lifeless eyes, he could still see the campfire behind the figure. His eyes widened, he wanted to scream, but he couldn't. A hand grabbed his neck as he was slowly lifted into the air, gasping and writhing, trying to break free.
The creature's mouth opened in an impossible way, inside, he saw a dark abyss, something that seemed like it would suck him in and leave nothing behind. The man's soul was extracted as he screamed, the soul writhed as it sank into the endless abyss, but at the last minute, the creature stopped sucking. The soul quickly returned to its body, unfortunately, the man had already fainted.
Jugo smiled slightly, letting out a light and happy laugh.
He seemed to understand something, a Wraith is not an normal spirit, it's a bad omen, a curse, something that clings to you, something you can't escape. It can't be seen, but it's there, until the end.
His potion, which was at 2/10 full, jumped directly to 3/10 in those few days. He felt that if he had devoured the man's soul, he could have gone straight to 4/10, or at least gotten close.
But doing so would be turning to the side of indulgence, Jugo underestimated a Wraith's desire for souls, he barely managed to control himself and sucked the soul out of that guy.
If an ordinary soul was like a delicious meal, the soul of the man bathed in despair seemed like the most delicious thing Jugo had ever seen in his life, even with his Bind, if he hadn't used all his willpower, he wouldn't have been able to resist eating it.
This made Jugo let out a long, heavy sigh, but the smile soon returned to his face. - Finally, finally I understand what it means to be a Wraith.
Generally speaking, a Wraith is a spirit that maliciously attaches itself to someone, temptingly consuming them until nothing remains but despair and fear, then it swallows them whole, like a delicacy of the highest quality.
This is Wraith.
Jugo looked at the man, his soul no longer quite as alluring as in moments of extreme despair, but still seeming delicious. He controlled himself, picked up the man, and quickly returned to the village, much faster than the man could go.
Upon arriving, he threw the man back into prison as if nothing had happened, he didn't care about Chiyo's arrival and let a clone handle it. He, on the other hand, grabbed another prisoner and started the game again.
In a month at most, he would have finished his work!