"Ready to begin?"
"Yeah. Everything's prepped — we were just waiting for you. Your chakra supply's stable, right?"
Tsunade could tell right away.
This wasn't the real Kyoichi — it was a shadow clone.
Still, this clone carried a frightening presence. Kyoichi's body had long since approached the level of her grandfather's Sage Physique, and even his clones were strong enough to rival elite shinobi. She wasn't worried about his skill.
But...
Shadow clones always carried a risk — chakra limitation. And this one had clearly been created before Kyoichi left the village. If his chakra ran out midway through surgery...
That would be a disaster.
"No problem," Kyoichi said with a casual smile. "I don't have an enormous amount of chakra, but it's more than enough for one operation.
Besides, I'm not the lead surgeon — just assisting. I only need to confirm whether there's a curse seal or not."
It was true — compared to his original self, this clone's chakra was only a fraction.
But compared to any other ninja, even high-ranking jōnin, this clone's chakra reserves still vastly outclassed them.
For a single surgery, it was more than enough.
And if things really went south — he still had Sage Chakra.
Sage Chakra wasn't a cure-all, but substituting it for regular chakra was trivial.
Tsunade exhaled softly, reassured.
It had been a long time since she personally led a surgery.
But the moment she stood before the operating table, her expression turned calm and focused.
Nagato lay on the table.
No anesthesia.
And yet, his gaze was clear — steady — unshaken.
"I don't need medicine," Nagato said firmly. "I want to watch. I want to see with my own eyes whether there's a curse seal inside me."
"But—"
The others exchanged uneasy glances.
It wasn't just unprecedented — opening someone's chest while they were fully conscious meant unbearable pain.
And even a small involuntary twitch could spell disaster.
"I'll use genjutsu to block his perception," Kyoichi said calmly.
"Genjutsu?" someone echoed, puzzled.
Tsunade, however, understood immediately.
So his Yin Release control had progressed this far… He could now shape Yin chakra at will to influence the senses.
Nagato, for his part, knew his request was excessive — but he truly wanted to see for himself.
Kyoichi's genjutsu intertwined with medical ninjutsu, subtly altering Nagato's nervous signals, severing pain and touch from his consciousness.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes slightly.
This was the domain of five-sense manipulation — an ability once exclusive to the Kurama clan. But Kyoichi's method was different.
The Kurama used pure genjutsu, their Yin Release so refined it could directly control perception.
Kyoichi, however, combined Yin Release with medical techniques, effectively hacking into the nervous system.
The result wasn't as elegant as Kurama-style illusion —
but it had one major advantage: it could be learned.
Unlike the Kurama's hereditary talent, Kyoichi's method relied on ninjutsu fundamentals. Any skilled medical-nin of jōnin level could potentially learn it —
because it wasn't truly an illusion, but a refined form of neural interference, much like Tsunade's Mind Body Disturbance Jutsu.
Now wasn't the time for discussion, though.
Tsunade simply nodded and got to work.
Her chakra scalpel sliced open the chest cavity.
Nagato felt nothing — no pain, no discomfort — but his eyes tracked every movement.
Kyoichi stood beside him, eyes closed in concentration. The potted plants around the lab trembled slightly as his sensory field expanded to its utmost limit.
No foreign chakra could escape his notice.
Nagato felt his heart settle.
With Kyoichi here, nothing would go wrong.
Tsunade made a small incision and began to probe with chakra, scanning the organs carefully. Once confirmed, she expanded the cut slightly and prepared to insert a diagnostic probe.
"Wait — Nagato, try focusing your chakra into your heart."
"Like this? Okay…"
Nagato complied.
That was the advantage of him being conscious — total coordination.
He concentrated chakra into his heart.
It was something no sane person would ever attempt — the heart was too delicate. A small mistake could be fatal. Only here, in this controlled lab, could it even be considered.
He didn't know what would happen — but soon he felt a strange weakness. His chest tightened as the chakra there dissipated instantly.
"What—?"
Kyoichi's eyes flicked open.
"Just as I thought…" he murmured.
Earlier, when Tsunade's chakra probed the area, he'd sensed a faint, foreign ripple — fleeting, almost imperceptible.
A presence that wasn't hers.
It vanished too fast to analyze — gone in the blink of an eye.
Kyoichi had suspected a cursed seal, likely planted by Madara. So he'd asked Nagato to channel chakra into his heart, triggering its reflexive reaction — and sure enough, it had surfaced.
Tsunade leaned closer, eyes sharp.
"There — a formula, etched into the heart tissue. It's a seal of some kind! Damn it… Madara really had a method for controlling others!"
"But why didn't I ever notice—?"
"It probably has passive functions — like preventing you from taking your own life," Kyoichi guessed.
Nagato fell silent.
That... made sense.
The heart was fragile — overloading it with chakra would damage it, so no one would ever do it naturally. A perfect place for Madara to hide his control.
Tsunade frowned. "So the question now is — how do we remove it?"
The seal was embedded deep in the heart muscle. Attempting to dispel it could easily damage the organ — and there was no guarantee it wouldn't self-destruct.
"I'll check first," Kyoichi said. "If that fails… we'll use the last resort."
He probed with chakra.
The formula was intricate — layers of Uchiha design intertwined with ocular chakra. Breaking it was almost impossible.
He sighed softly. "...Well, when repair fails—"
He looked up, expression dry.
"—the best fix is replacement."
Tsunade grimaced but said nothing. He wasn't wrong.
Still, it was a last resort.
Kyoichi made one more attempt.
The seal suddenly flickered — and shifted.
It had a transfer mechanism.
His eyes narrowed.
In an instant, he extended invisible hands — chakra sculpted through Yin Release — and pinned the formula in place.
Nagato's face paled. He couldn't feel pain, but his body trembled reflexively as the foreign chakra writhed inside him.
The cursed seal fought back fiercely — its chakra was dense, high-quality, and nearly indestructible. Even Kyoichi's Sage Chakra couldn't burn it out completely.
Kyoichi frowned.
"So… removal's out of the question."
"I'm going in," he said at last.
Tsunade gave a curt nod.
"Understood."
Her hands flashed through seals, medical chakra flooding into Nagato's body. The others prepared replacement cell tissue — if something went wrong, they'd activate the contingency plan instantly.
Kyoichi moved.
A snap of his fingers — a tiny chakra scalpel formed at his fingertip, finer than a hair.
He sliced across the heart's surface, clean and precise.
A sliver of tissue — and the curse mark with it — came free.
Blood surged, ready to erupt.
But Kyoichi's chakra flared — an invisible wall sealed the wound instantly.
"Seal!"
"On it—!"
The team worked in perfect sync.
Tsunade applied immediate medical ninjutsu, while others used pre-prepared White Zetsu cells to patch the incision.
In the blink of an eye, the wound was closed — smooth and whole, as though the seal had never existed.
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