Hinata found herself in a dazzling audience room in the elevated position of the person giving the audience. While dazzling audience rooms are meant to make the visitor feel insignificant, Hinata was feeling very small. She could only make out a shadowy figure on the other side of the blind separating them, but that figure was clearly immense.

“I must thank you.” Somehow she felt that the figure’s words resounded in her mind without bothering to travel through her ears. It smiled, and a glow in its mouth backlit sharp teeth.

“You’re the Behemoth?”

“Exactly right! And when my only connection to Earth was about to close, you were there for me! I’m very appreciative.”

“…I see. Appreciative enough to return the villagers and my comrades to normal?”

“Normally yes, but I also owe something to the kunoichi who finally reopened that connection in the first place.”

“Marunomi.”

“That’s the one! I can’t just abandon her, you know? Especially after she took my power on the chin. So I took the liberty of putting her in charge of the ranch.”

“The ranch.” For all of her combat training, Hinata still wasn’t a confrontational person. Still, anyone on Earth would’ve noticed that her tone had become so icy that carbon dioxide might start freezing out of the air.

“Exactly! I suppose you haven’t visited it yet. It’s outside that door to your right.” Alas, the Behemoth was not on Earth. A sliding door opened to her right. Bright sunlight streamed through, yet it did nothing to further illuminate the Behemoth.

Hinata got up and walked out the door. Sure enough, Marunomi was sweeping up in front of a barn. The barn was wholly closed to the outside.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ah, boss!” Marunomi straightened up and bowed to Hinata. “I’m taking care of the ranch.”

“So I’ve heard. Why is there a ranch? Why are you running it?”

“There’s a ranch because you need someplace for all those people you ate! As for your second question, if you mean, ‘why am I helping you out with this,’ well, you ate me fair and square and I have to respect that. Besides, I like this much more than the alternative.”

“The alternative?”

Marunomi said nothing in response, simply nodded and opened a human-sized door for Hinata. Hinata had a strong idea of what she’d find inside. She had no doubt that she’d be much happier if she never confirmed it. But, like a nightmare, she found herself a passenger as her body did what she very much did not want to do. She walked in with the mien of a woman prepared to see what was inside and resolve any lingering issues.

When her eyes adjusted to the light, her fears were realized. Row after row of cages stretched to the distance. Each cage was about 0.7 m wide and tall, and were stacked three high on each side of a central aisle, such that each row had six cages. And each cage contained a person.

Each person was bound so they were on their hands and knees—not that they had room to move around—and tubes snaked out of the cages, filled with a glow that was assuredly chakra. The only sound was a faint hum.

“Ino! Temari! Tenten! Sakura! Mochi-san! Lady Sushi!” Hinata recognized everyone in the first row without even needing to see their faces. But they didn’t so much as look up.

“They won’t respond.” Marunomi had followed Hinata inside. Hinata, having already given up on finding a latch for the cages, was trying to pry the bars open with a pitchfork. “And you can’t free them from those cages. Really, you’d be happier thinking of them like…wellsprings.” Hinata wheeled on Marunomi.

“Release them.” If Hinata’s voice could’ve produced carbon dioxide before, now it could liquify nitrogen. But Marunomi simply raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Sorry! Don’t get angry, boss, this isn’t a question of my will.”

“Your will?”

“Mm-hmm. Have you noticed that you haven’t been stuttering since you met the Behemoth?”

“Don’t change the subject.” Hinata turned back to the cages and resumed trying to force them open, now with her bare hands.

“I’m not really changing the subject, just explaining a little. You don’t stutter when you’re thinking, right? Only when you talk? Well, you haven’t been stuttering because we’re in your head. How can I break the bonds your mind has forged? You see, it’s not me that’s created these cages. It’s not me that’s using other people’s chakra. You’ve been hoping this is a nightmare? It is! But that’s all it is. You can’t face what you’ve done, so you’ve dreamt up Marunomi the Rancher as a scapegoat. I’m just your psyche defending yourself.”

Hinata turned back to Marunomi. She found herself staring into her own eyes.

She awoke with a start. She was back in front of the pillar, but now she was flat on the ground. The only sound she could hear was her own heart pounding. She had sweated through her jacket. She stripped it off. Her belly had shrunk back to normal, but her blouse had ridden up anyway. She gasped at the sight of what looked like new tattoos: chibi-style depictions of Marunomi, Ino, Temari, Tenten, and Sakura, and the symbol of the Hidden Village of Food. She suddenly knew that she was faster, stronger, had more knowledge, had more skills than before.

She began to weep once more.

***

“Wow. I know I shouldn’t talk, but—wow. Wasn’t that a little cruel?”

“If someone eats me, I’ll damn well play mind games with them! Besides, you should be supporting me full-throatedly. How else are you going to get another chance to taste something on Earth?”

“‘How else can I undermine her psyche until I can take over,’ you meant.”

“To-may-to, to-mah-to.”