| Hangman's Pass | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | |
| Kanji | 絞刑吏峠 |
| Rōmaji | Koukeiri Touge |
| English TV | Path of Hanged Men |
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This article, Hangman's Pass, is property of Wolffsbane. |
A location feared by the locals and soaked in superstition. Hangman's Pass (絞刑吏峠, "Koukeiri Touge") is a dirt path leading through the forests of the Land of Water. It is covered in a continuous thick mist, seemingly incapable of dispelling, and continues on for miles. What it earns this path its name however, is the abundance of hundreds of corpses lining its trees These corpses have been sewn into the trees, crucified into the canopies, their bodies hanging like butchered meat from iron wires. The cold temperatures of the path slows the bodies deterioration, preserving them long past their expiration date, to the point where one can even place the date of their death based off the bodies deterioration. The corpses lining this path vary in origin, some clearly being of a shinobi village, identified by their flak jackets, while others could be anything from bandits to unlucky fools who stumbled upon the passageway. It is forbidden to walk this path, as even those morbidly lost choose to not to wander it. Forbidden to all but the man who created it, Bane Anahari. Hangman's Pass was not always this way, but has become so over the course of many years. The path was originally a small deer trail, that became Bane's most frequently used passage to and from Kirigakure. This hunter-nin's commute became the source of many ambushes against Bane, who would promptly deal with them, and sew them to the trees surrounding him out of convenience. After Bane got tired of dragging corpses back to Kirigakure for documentation, he would instead string them up as he walked. A deterrent against further ambushes. Eventually the ambushes would subside, as the corpses began to outnumber the trees. To this day the path remains empty, waiting only for the footsteps of the man who created it, the return of its master, Bane Anahari.
