"Bring it."
Takama shuddered at his daughter's words, yet he remained still, trusting her judgment.
She heard the rustle first—then the weight of something massive sliding across stone.
A snake entered the chamber through an entrance designed for something so large... at least half the size of the famed Manda.
The serpent's presence entered the chamber like a shadow made flesh. Its breath was slow and ancient, like a drumbeat lost beneath the earth. Yet beneath the aura of power, Hinata felt something unexpected: curiosity. Hunger, yes—but not for flesh. For connection.
She stepped forward calmly, before the eyes of a surprised Orochimaru.
The serpent's snout brushed against her open palm. She didn't flinch.
"You will lend me your strength," she whispered. "And in return, I'll offer mine."
The creature hissed—a low, accepting sound. A pact, not signed in blood but sealed in breath and mutual need.
Orochimaru remained still, observing with unblinking intensity. Kabuto was called to the presence of his master Orochimaru, and automatically knew what to do. Then, with the efficiency of a man who had done this countless times, he brought over a strange coil of tubing and attached it to Hinata's upper right arm.
There was a sharp sting. Then, a growing discomfort crawled under her skin.
"She is called Mitsue," Orochimaru said, as he moved to the serpent. "I modified her using genetic material Kabuto collected from your earlier evaluation during his examinations in the Land of Iron. She is the result I deemed most... promising."
He connected the other end of the tube to Mitsue's thick neck. Between them, a strange glass-and-metal apparatus pulsed with faint energy. Seals, some ancient and others freshly etched, pulsed with chakra across its surface—markings only Orochimaru could fully decipher.
"The modifications were made to ensure compatibility between her chakra and your restructured system. Her father, Manda, left a legacy that I now refine. As I see fit."
The implication sent a chill down Hinata's spine.
Orochimaru knew she would choose this path. The fact that he had prepared Mitsue in advance was proof enough. She hated being guided—manipulated—but now, she could not retreat.
She was not the only victim in this room.
Hinata had heard stories of Manda. One of Orochimaru's most powerful summons—ruthless, transactional. Capable of sacrificing even his own children for his own desires.
She looked at Mitsue, then asked quietly:
"She'll survive this... won't she?"
Kabuto affixed a second line to her other arm—one for intake, the other for return. A closed loop.
"So naïve," he murmured, almost fondly. "She gains from this as well. To be free of Manda is a gift few serpents receive. Don't worry. I need her to be healthy. This process will take multiple sessions."
Before Hinata could answer, he activated the device.
Pain.
Pure and immediate.
She raised her hand as the serpent's chakra surged through the line. It coiled around her arm, heavy and cold, pulsing like liquid stone. It threaded into her skin.
She gasped.
"I can feel it..." she tried to say, but the words wouldn't come out.
And for the first time in months, she truly could. Movement within her. Frozen rivers cracking. Life, stirring.
The chakra of Mitsue flowed into her pathways—still blocked by the remnants of the Hyūga seal. Yet Mitsue's chakra was... different. Elastic. Adaptive. It wriggled through gaps that should not have existed, probing forward like a hunter through a maze.
It felt unnatural and natural all at once.
It frightened her.
Something primal stirred in her chest. Mitsue's chakra wasn't trying to consume her—it was hunting the seal itself.
Constriction. Pressure. Then—cracking.
The serpent chakra began crushing the obstructions. But the force was brutal. Not delicate. It tore at her internal pathways along with the barriers. The pain was beyond description.
Her body wanted to scream—but it could not.
Her limbs refused to move. She hovered at the edge of consciousness.
And then she remembered—she was more than flesh.
Hinata shifted her awareness.
Spirit separated from body, she watched herself from a third perspective.
Takama was next to her, she hadn't noticed him until now, her soul full of worry.
Mitsue's chakra burned within her. It was not a perfect match. Her body had not been prepared for this kind of contact. But still... there was something familiar within that energy. A thread.
She looked at Mitsue.
The serpent trembled.
Her spirit, too, was in pain. Her chakra was moving on instinct—not by command, but out of a desire to protect, to keep the pact she made with a young woman she had met in person a moment before.
A connection formed between them—not through a silver thread, but through an unnatural connection originating from Orochimaru's designs and shared agony.
She felt Mitsue's burden. And Mitsue felt hers.
Hinata understood. As the larger of the two parties, it would be the one that would pay more for the cost.
She didn't want Mitsue to bear this alone.
And so, she called.
The Silver World answered.
Not with voices—but with action.
Threads of pure vitality descended. Soul-light. Warm and bright. They wrapped around Hinata's body, guiding the process.
Her Body Forging technique activated. Not from memory, but from need. From alignment.
The silver light fed not only Hinata—but also Mitsue.
Her Grey Soul reacted, supporting the alien chakra inside her, cradling it, reshaping it. The grey soul threads entwined with the serpent chakra and moved with it.
She inhaled.
And for the first time, the technique worked.
Not theory. Not fragments. It functioned.
With each breath, her chakra moved. From her to Mitsue. From Mitsue back to her. Circles. Spirals.
The temperature in the lab slowly rose.
The machine groaned. Now working beyond imaginable limits.
Each cycle purer
Each cycle stripped away a layer of obstruction.
Each cycle was a strike against the curse that bound her.
Each breath, a blow to the forge of the body
Each breath the beginning and end of a cycle
Each breath hotter than the last
The healing had truly begun.
<<<< o >>>>
Orochimaru stood near the control apparatus, his gaze fixed on the readouts as lines of chakra data scrolled across the embedded seals and glass tubing. Despite the rise in temperature and the sharp feedback from the machine, he made no move to intervene. He watched.
While Kabuto with his hands on a section of the device inserting his healing chakra into the device with the intention of helping Hinata's regeneration.
The first hour worked as expected... When the chakra began to flow from the little girl toward Mitsue, Orochimaru knew the first and most important step had been completed.
The patient's reactions of pain and strange involuntary movements were somewhat expected; the infusion of Kabuto's healing chakra was a key element in reducing the pain of the procedure.
The moment the cycle closed, Mitsue's chakra surged, beginning the assault on her obstructed channels. That's when the real pain would begin for the little girl, and it was noticeable... The restraints held her well. Takama stood beside her—silent, unmoving. Typical.
The regenerative markers in Hinata's tissue were accelerating. Far beyond initial predictions. Her cellular repair had moved from mere reactivation into something more aggressive—reconstruction. There was something feeding that acceleration, but it wasn't Mitsue alone.
His eyes narrowed.
"Not chakra," he murmured. "Not senjutsu. But something is catalyzing the process..."
He glanced at the serpent.
Mitsue was trembling. Her coils no longer filled half the room as they once did. She had begun to shrink—subtly, but perceptibly. Segments of her scales were shifting color, rippling with an opalescent sheen. Her chakra signature was also changing—its pulse growing smoother, more refined, less aggressive.
Orochimaru pressed a hand to one of the coils.
"Elastic recoil is decreasing. Temperature regulation is rising. Chakra retention... stable."
A pause.
"She's adapting," he noted aloud. "No signs of rejection. But... not unchanged."
He turned his gaze back to Hinata.
Her breathing steady, her father at her side somehow recognizing the pattern... Orochimaru recognized that smile. Once, long ago, he had worn it too—pride, not in his own triumph, but in another's rise.
The air grew heavier with each breath. A scent of scorched iron and something ancient rose from the coils. The machine's hum became a groan, a warning—yet none in the room moved to stop it.
Her vitals were no longer predictable. Her temperature rose steadily, her breath deeper with each cycle. But her chakra flow was fluctuating—cycling through patterns that defied standard Hyūga physiology.
Not human.
Not a beast.
Something else.
Her chakra and Mitsue's were now intertwined—looping into each other not like a weapon exchange, but a biological dialogue.
Kabuto in the center of the machine was still infusing his chakra into it. Sweat on his forehead arose not only from the great prolonged effort this required but also because the temperature of the room itself was changing.
Orochimaru slowly smiled.
"She's rewriting the terms," he whispered. "A new chakra architecture. I didn't design that."
He stepped back, cautiously.
There is a force acting here that is not mine... and not under my control.
That thought should have disturbed him.
But instead—it thrilled him.
"Let's see how far you go, Hinata Gin. Let's see how much of you remains... when this is done."
<<<< o >>>>
Thirty minutes later, the chamber had quieted—if only outwardly. Kabuto slumped near the ruined apparatus, his breathing shallow, chakra spent. The machine, once humming with ritual energy, now sparked uselessly—its internal seals cracked from the unanticipated temperature variations and overwhelming spiritual feedback.
Mitsue's massive form lay coiled and motionless, visibly diminished. Her once-imposing mass had thinned, as though she had consumed herself to sustain the impossible energy demands of the ritual. Her breath was faint but steady, her opalescent scales dulled, some slightly scorched. The air reeked of burned flesh and metal, acrid and sharp.
Hinata's body gave a final twitch—and then stilled. Her rapid, strange rhythm of breathing ceased. Her limbs relaxed, drenched in fluids expelled from every pore of her body. She was unconscious, her form slumped in the restraints, barely distinguishable from a collapsed marionette.
Takama finally spoke, his voice quiet but edged with control. "The flow has stopped. Has the procedure ended?"
Orochimaru didn't answer at first. He stepped closer to Hinata's form, his eyes scanning every detail. Then he turned to Kabuto with a slight tilt of his head.
Kabuto nodded faintly, approached with deliberate care, and began disconnecting the chakra conduits from her arms. He pressed a glowing hand gently to her sternum, closing his eyes as he assessed the aftermath.
After a long pause, he exhaled. "The procedure was successful. The obstruction in her chakra network has diminished considerably, and regenerative activity has resumed. However... her physical body is under extraordinary strain. It endured far more than anticipated."
Orochimaru turned slightly, addressing Takama with quiet finality. "Take her to her quarters. She'll need rest. When she wakes, I want her account of the experience—and a full evaluation will follow."