He looked down in disbelief as red lines appeared and his hands fell away from his arms. Blood erupted from the clean cuts, spraying across the floor and onto the stunned Ryoma. Elder Riwugo screamed, a broken sound that echoed through the cell.
Iroha Hyuga only tilted his head and idly picked at his ear, glancing toward the sealed door. Outside, there was only silence. A cruel smile curved his lips as he spoke softly, "It seems, Elder Riwugo, you were right. The soundproofing here really is very good."
The iron door slammed shut with a heavy clang. The echo rolled through the deep corridor for a long time before it was swallowed by silence.
Ryoma Tokuma watched as the door cut off the last trace of light and sound, sealing the two figures behind it in thick darkness. Only then did his body, held tight for so long, finally loosen.
He nearly collapsed, his shoulders sagging as he leaned hard against the icy wall beside him, slick with damp moss. The cold seeped through his clothes and into his bones.
"Hah." He let out a long breath, almost greedy, as if trying to empty his chest of fear, pressure, and the sickening smell of blood. Guilt, terror, and relief tangled together until he felt close to drowning in them.
But it was done. No matter the outcome, his part in this filthy task was finally over.
At the moment his guard was lowest, a voice spoke softly behind him. "Tired?"
The voice still carried the clear tone of youth, yet beneath it was a chill that did not match the age. Ryoma Tokuma kept his eyes closed, too exhausted to care, numbness washing over him as he failed to notice what was wrong.
"Tired," he answered casually, forcing a crooked smile that looked worse than crying. "Of course I am. They are still our own people."
The voice paused, then asked again in the same calm tone, "If you know that, why were you willing to do it?"
Ryoma Tokuma remained with eyes shut, lost in his own excuses, murmuring like someone talking in his sleep. "Because we had no other choice."
The words had barely left his mouth when a sharp sense of wrongness brushed his nerves like a snake's tongue. Something was off.
This time, the voice was no longer that faintly youthful sound. It had become low, rough, and disturbingly familiar.
"No. You had a choice."
The voice behind him continued, as if reaching a clear understanding, the tone flattening completely. "We are the ones who have no choice."
Every hair on Ryoma Tokuma's body stood on end. He snapped his eyes open as the veins around them bulged violently.
Chakra surged from his body on instinct. He did not even have time to turn fully before he struck back with a Gentle Fist palm, pouring all his strength and fear into the blow and hurling it behind him with a sharp crack of air.
The figure behind him dipped low at that instant, smooth and precise, as if every movement had been predicted. The deadly palm wind skimmed past the scalp, and as the figure ducked, a hand slammed forward.
The Chakra gathered in that palm was not wild but tightly compressed and cold, carrying open killing intent. It crashed forward without mercy.
A dull, crushing sound echoed through the corridor. The palm struck squarely into Ryoma Tokuma's unguarded abdomen.
The force of the Gentle Fist poured into his body and erupted inside. His eyes bulged as blood flooded the whites, and his insides felt as if a red hot iron had been driven in and twisted.
His Chakra pathways shattered in an instant, and his organs were crushed by the terrifying impact. He convulsed violently, coughing up a mouthful of thick blood mixed with fragments and sour fluid.
An unstoppable force followed, and his body was flung backward. He slammed into the cold stone wall at the end of the corridor, the impact making the wall tremble as bones cracked with a clear kacha sound.
His body slid down the wall like it had no bones left, leaving a long, shocking smear of blood before collapsing onto the floor. He lay there, limp and broken.
"Cough… how is this possible…" Another mouthful of blood spilled out as he struggled to lift his head.
His vision swam with pain and blur, and he could only make out a figure slowly walking toward him. Then a burst of smoke exploded, and the "young guard's" Transformation Technique disguise faded away.
A sharp buzz cut that did not fit the Ryoma Clan at all came into view, along with a cold, stern face that made Ryoma Tokuma's pupils shrink and his blood nearly freeze.
"Ryoma… Tie?" His voice shook violently from shock and internal damage. "How could it be you? Why?"
Ryoma Tie, a Branch Family jonin, a contemporary of Yuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, and Might Guy. The realization hit him all at once.
If one of the guards who entered with Ryoma was Ryoma Tie, then the other person who went through that door must be someone else entirely. A name that filled him with terror surfaced in his mind, throwing his thoughts into chaos.
Before he could recover from that fear, the light suddenly dimmed. A tall shadow fell over him, cutting off the distant lamp and swallowing him whole.
Ryoma Tokuma looked up and saw Ryoma Tie's emotionless face and those Byakugan eyes filled with killing intent. His breath caught as survival instinct made him brace his hands on the ground and struggle to rise.
The next moment, Ryoma Tie lifted his foot and stepped down on Ryoma Tokuma's feet. A series of crisp kacha sounds rang out as bones began to break.
"Aaah!" His ankles were crushed bit by bit under Ryoma Tie's foot, and his scream tore through the corridor. The pain made his whole body spasm until all resistance vanished.
"Why? Ryoma Tie, are you insane? What are you people doing?" Ryoma Tokuma howled, his voice warped by pain and filled with confusion and wrath.
"Doing what?" Ryoma Tie replied calmly as he squatted down and looked him straight in the eyes. "What you did to Takao Hyuga."
"And what they have always done to us."
The undisguised killing intent in his words finally made Ryoma Tokuma understand. Terror wiped his face clean.
This was a reckoning. A reckoning by the Branch Family Members against the Otsutsuki Clan Main Family.
"No, no, you cannot do this!" He shook his head wildly, his voice shrill with fear. "Ryoma Tie, we are the same clan. We even trained together when we were young."
Seeing Ryoma Tie stand up slowly, his gaze unchanged and cold with resolve, Ryoma Tokuma completely broke. He abandoned all dignity and dropped to his knees, smashing his forehead into the floor with a dull thud.
"Please, spare my life. I should not have served the Otsutsuki Clan Main Family. I was just afraid. I did not want this either." His teeth chattered as his body shook uncontrollably.
"Give me one more chance. I can help you. I can even help you kill the Otsutsuki Clan Main Family. I know many things." He cried and begged, blood and tears mixing as he knocked his head again and again until his forehead was ruined.
Ryoma Tie only looked down at him and slowly shook his head. "No," he said coldly. "You do not know your mistake."
"You only know…"
As he spoke, Ryoma Tie lifted his foot again, aiming at Ryoma Tokuma's chin as it tilted up in pleading. "That you are about to die."