Drip.Drip.
Water fell steadily in the vaulted underground space. The sound echoed through rusted pipes and concrete arches. Damp air carried mold, iron oxide, and something spoiled.
In the shadows, a black cat crouched low.
Its fur absorbed light. Its paws toyed with several half-dead white snakes. When one stopped moving, the cat loosened its grip. When it twitched again, the paw pressed down once more.
Not hunger. Control.
The cat raised its head.
Only then was its face clear.
One eye black.One eye white.
Most would assume it was blind in one eye.
They would never imagine that the pale eye was a transplanted Byakugan. A prize that other villages killed for. A dojutsu that once earned Kirigakure's Ao the title "Byakugan Killer."
No one sane would implant such an eye into an animal.
Someone had.
The cat seized a snake corpse and sprang upward, landing silently among the intersecting drainage pipes. It crouched at a bend, claws gripping rust.
The white eye dilated.The black eye narrowed.
Below, murky water rippled.
Moments later, three figures skimmed across the surface.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and two ANBU had taken the long route. False paths. Traps. Deliberate misdirection. Orochimaru had layered the tunnels with enough distractions to bleed time and attention.
"This place suits him," Hiruzen thought. "Snake and rot."
He stopped before a corroded metal door and raised a hand.
The ANBU moved first.
The door was smashed inward.
The smell hit immediately.
Chemical disinfectant. Blood. Rotting flesh.
Yellow lights flickered overhead.
Hiruzen's pupils contracted.
The walls were smeared with dried blood. The floor was layered with dark residue that no amount of washing would remove.
Glass cylinders lined the room.
Inside them, human shapes floated in green solution. Skin translucent. Chests split open. Hearts still beating. Organs grafted, twisted, connected by tubes and seals.
Red numbers marked the containers.
Shelves held jars packed with organs at various stages of development. Some twitched.
One ANBU's breathing went sharp.
Hiruzen had expected this.
Years ago, you approved worse, a voice in his head reminded him.
Hashirama cell experiments. Volunteers. Justifications.
Even now, pity lingered.
Then he saw the far end of the room.
A surgical table.
A small body.
A cut throat.
Hyūga Shinya lay there. Blood soaked his neck. His face twisted in fear and pain, tears sliding down his cheeks. His hand lifted weakly toward Hiruzen. His mouth moved.
He couldn't hear it.
But Hiruzen understood.
"Third Grandfather."
Orochimaru turned.
Light revealed his face. Pale. Smeared with blood. At his feet lay a headless corpse still bleeding.
Something in Hiruzen snapped.
Not the experiments.
Not the betrayal.
That child.
Hiruzen remembered Shinya.
As honorary headmaster, he visited the Academy often. Once, during a lecture on the Will of Fire, he noticed a boy staring up at him with unguarded admiration.
Later, curiosity got the better of him. He read the child's reflection essay.
It wasn't ornate. It wasn't clever.
It was sincere.
A village like a tree.The Hokage as the trunk.Families as branches.Children as fruit.
Naive. Honest. Painfully earnest.
This is a child who looks beyond his clan, Hiruzen had thought.
A good child.
Now that child lay butchered.
Hiruzen's expression hardened fully.
"Orochimaru," he said, voice shaking with restrained fury. "What have you done?"
For the first time, Orochimaru misjudged him.
Hands moved.
Seals snapped into place.
"Summoning Jutsu."
Smoke burst.
A massive monkey appeared beside Hiruzen, armored, alert.
"Enma."
The staff formed instantly.
No hesitation.
Orochimaru's face went rigid.
Too much. Too fast.
He exhaled hard.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Gales shredded the room. Glass exploded. Jars shattered. Fluid sprayed everywhere.
He lunged for Shinya.
The staff struck.
The blow sent Orochimaru flying. Blood sprayed from his mouth, thick with fragments.
He stabilized in midair only by instinct.
No time.
"Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole!"
He dove into the ceiling stone and vanished.
Hiruzen was already at Shinya's side.
"Get this child to medical immediately," he ordered.
The ANBU obeyed.
As they leapt away through the tunnels, neither noticed the faint curve of Shinya's lips.
Aboveground, Orochimaru surfaced, chest burning.
Then lightning.
Hatake Kakashi appeared without a word.
"Raikiri."
The strike came.
Before collision, a sound.
Metal tearing.
Orochimaru glanced down.
The black cat sprinted past him.
The white eye looked back.
Recognition hit.
"Byakugan—"
Explosion.
Multiple tags detonated simultaneously.
The laboratory collapsed inward.
Rock, steel, flesh scattered.
As dawn broke, Shinya lay unconscious in ANBU arms.
Sunrise bled across the horizon.
I didn't expect him to die, Shinya thought distantly. He's too valuable.
Orochimaru would survive.
Good.
He closed his eyes.
Next comes the Tenseigan.