"What...?" The old man squinted his eyes for the first time, holding back his words as he looked at Devan.
However, as cunning as he was, the Necromancer smiled brightly, "Some people don't deserve to live, Don't you think?" his voice sounded soft, calm, tranquil.
"They take advantage of you, you work hard to give them a good life, and they despise you. Some women, even if you give them everything, for them it's never enough..." Devan said, thinking that maybe the old man's problem was a family issue.
Little by little, as he spoke, he could see the old man slightly nodding his head. "Bingo," the necromancer thought, "If it's a family problem, then I can make a few small comments and see what happens," he told himself.
"Why are they so ungrateful when you give them everything? It makes no sense. You waste years of your life on them, and what happens in the end? They despise you, sometimes they cheat on you, or worse, they attack you," Devan saw how the old man's face turned redder and his expression grew more serious.
"But you are here, a person who feels, a person who shouldn't be looked down upon by her. So, Why not get rid of the problem? Tell me," Devan finally threw a bundle of high-denomination bills at the old man.
"People can change their lives if they put their mind to it."
The old man looked with bright eyes at the bundle of bills on his lap, raised his head, and stared at the man who guessed his problem—it almost seemed like he saw a shining halo above his head.
"Ungrateful people don't deserve to live," saying that, Devan turned around and began walking away calmly.
Devan's plan was simple; he wanted to test if he could truly influence people as much as Danzo suspected. So he just made a few comments, guessing that the old man's problem was family-related. His words were meant to enrage him and make him think he was the victim—to see what he would do.
Devan was smiling; however, he soon saw a new restaurant, quickly went in, ordered several dishes, and gradually began to forget about the old man.
That same night, a scream was heard in a well-known house in the Land of Waves. Then, that scream was followed by more screams, the sound of metal cutting flesh, and finally, maniacal laughter.
"What the hell...?"
"It's at the bridge builder Tazuna's house!!!"
"Go alert the guards!!"
Several villagers quickly heard the screams and gathered in a crowd with the guards to head toward the bridge builder Tazuna's house to see what was happening.
One of the guards, a man named Armin, took the lead. With force, he kicked the main door of Tazuna's house until it shattered into pieces so he could enter.
"It's open! I need two men—one on my left and one on my right!!!" Armin shouted, and two guards quickly rushed to follow his orders.
With a crowd behind him and two guards supporting him, Armin calmly entered the house.
The smell was disgusting, like a strange mix of different things. The house was a complete mess—the furniture had been smashed, the vases broken, the chairs destroyed, and the walls bore scratch marks.
Armin squinted his eyes, "Family dispute? But Tazuna was always..." Armin murmured softly before quickly heading to the basement.
Clang
Clang
Inside, one could hear something eerie. Armin swallowed hard, bit his lip slightly, and kicked the basement door open until it broke. What he saw left him completely stunned. He, the guards, and the crowd couldn't help but scream; some even ran out of the house, while others vomited on the floor.
The next morning, news spread throughout the Land of Waves.
"Bridge builder Tazuna went mad and ended the lives of his entire family in an act of barbarity and rage. His daughter Tsunami, grandson Inari, and son-in-law Kaiza were brutally attacked by Tazuna. No details about the crime will be published in the newspaper due to its severity."
That same morning, Devan was leaving his cabin again when he read this news in the newspaper he had bought earlier. His eyes slightly widened upon seeing Tazuna's image—the bridge builder—on the cover.
White spiked hair, a white goatee, and an old appearance—it was the same old man he had spoken with the day before.
"This..." He observed with almost absolute coldness the image of Tazuna, the bridge builder, on the newspaper cover. His eyes drifted over the report written beside it, all while his heart beat slightly faster for a few moments.
As if remembering something, the necromancer opened his eyes wide and quickly focused on the Fractured Mind counter in his head, completely anxious to know what number it would now display.
"541..."
Devan's heart skipped a beat, his glassy eyes narrowed, and his mind couldn't quite comprehend how the counter worked.
"It seems to increase every time something bad happens to the minds of the people I talk to, but Why does Tazuna going completely insane and committing those crimes give me so few points?" Devan couldn't understand. His mind also wandered to the memory of a few days earlier, when the counter had suddenly risen even though he hadn't tried to influence anyone's mind.
"This..." Devan hesitated, unable to grasp that perhaps the reason the counter sometimes rose suddenly was due to the gradual descent into madness of the people he had interacted with in Konoha.
"Anko, Anko, Anko wants a bit of Devan. Is that okay for my beloved?" A woman with a slightly disheveled appearance, some dark circles under her eyes, loose hair, and a deranged smile appeared behind Devan.
The woman, Anko, spoke in the third person to refer to herself, hugging Devan from behind while her eyes narrowed with different thoughts swirling through her mind.
"Was his name Tazuna?" Devan thought, remembering the old man and ignoring Anko. "Doesn't matter. I have more points on the counter. I should go influence other people's minds..." Devan muttered to himself.
"Anko wants her man's attention. Can this come true? Can the wishes of a girl lost in the infinite void become reality? Will life be fair to Anko?" the woman spoke again while her hands moved along Devan's stomach.
The necromancer returned to reality after a moment; he felt the woman's hands pressing against his stomach, her body slightly rubbing against his back, and the warmth of her breath reaching his neck.
"Anko..."
Devan paused, a bit curious, "What goes through your mind? Why do you speak in the third person? Why do you seem like a deranged woman obsessed with me instead of going mad like Tazuna?" he asked himself several questions one after another.
The reaction of each person Devan interacted with seemed to vary differently. For example, he had spoken for years with the people at the Cemetery in Konoha, and they never showed signs of going mad.
In contrast, when he spoke just once with Kurenai rejecting her, when he talked to Altair telling him about his dreams about Naruto, when he talked to Anko about her hatred toward Konoha, and later with Tazuna—all those conversations had different outcomes.
Kurenai met a tragic end, Altair was consumed by his hatred, Anko somehow was becoming more and more obsessed with him, and Tazuna turned into a criminal who, according to the Land of Waves newspaper, would be executed by hanging next week.