The borderlands between Kusagakure and the Land of Earth were a harsh, unforgiving expanse of jagged peaks and deep, shadow-choked valleys. It was a place where nations bled into one another, a lawless region perfect for hiding secrets.
For four days, Squad Zero moved through this landscape, searching for any whereabouts of Hiruko.
Ryuu, operated as the team's forward deep-sensory probe. His Kage Bunshin, used one at a time to conserve his energy for the coming fight, would scout far ahead. When the clone dispelled, the wave of sensory data would wash over Ryuu, giving them a detailed understanding of the path ahead. It was this method that allowed them to bypass three separate Iwa patrol routes and a sophisticated network of tracker-nin that would have caught a less cautious team.
"We're close," Ryuu's commented, sensing something in the distance. He stood atop a windswept bluff, staring at a particularly imposing, mist-shrouded mountain. "I'm detecting a constant, low-level chakra signatures from deep within the mountain. It's very feint, to the point I'm even doubting my senses. There must be a Fuinjutsu seal here."
"Confirmed, Crane," Shrike's voice replied a second later. "My Byakugan sees a cavity, a man-made structure within the mountain. It's masked by a multi-layered Fuinjutsu and Genjutsu barrier."
"The mark of a paranoid man who values his privacy," Yamato's voice, as Squad Leader, was the final word. "We proceed. Cat, Crane, you're on point for infiltration. Neutralize the barrier discreetly. Weasel, Shrike, maintain a two-kilometer overwatch perimeter. Report any external signatures. We go in silent."
The team split, melting into the terrain. Ryuu and Goro approached the mountain face. As they neared, Ryuu felt the Genjutsu's effect. It was a clever application of Fuinjutsu seals along with genjutsu, designed to defeat casual observation, not direct scrutiny.
Ryuu didn't try to break it with brute force. He placed his gloved palm flat against the cold stone. "Ice Touch," he whispered. He channeled a focused, thin stream of his Ice Release chakra into the rock. Soon, the surface began cracking, becoming extremely brittle and at the same time affecting the Fuinjutsu seals.
Quickly, a hole appeared where Ryuu had used his ice touch, big enough for a person to easily fit in.
Ryuu stepped inside without a sound, Goro (Cat) following right behind him. The air was cool, and smelling faintly of blood and chemicals, a sharp contrast to the earthy scents of the outside world.
"Entry confirmed," Yamato's, seeing the two enter successfully, spoke. "Weasel and Shrike have the perimeter. Proceed with extreme caution."
The corridor stretched forward, dim and perfectly straight, before curving sharply into a wider chamber. It was vast, meticulously organized. Beakers bubbled with strange fluids, scrolls were neatly cataloged on shelves, and complex anatomical charts of various Kekkei Genkai users lined the walls.
But the centerpiece of the room was a collection with rows of large, glass stasis tubes, filled with bubbling, light-green fluid. Inside them, shinobi were suspended, their bodies in various states of grotesque preservation.
A man with crude reptilian scales on his arm, a woman whose legs resembled that of a bird. These were not willing subjects. These were Hiruko's failures and perverse successes, bodies captured and subjected to the harsh, experimental fusion of his Chimera Technique, preserved for future study.
In the center of the lab, a lone figure stood hunched over a large array, connected to the glowing stasis tubes. His back was to them, utterly engrossed in his work.
This was Hiruko.
Goro moved first, driven by his natural aggressive vanguard instincts and a visceral revulsion at the sight of the preserved bodies. His body became a blur of motion as he burst forward, aiming to subdue the target quickly and decisively. His hands blurred through a swift set of seals.
Dog → Hare → Ox
"Doton: Dochū Eigyo!" (Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole!)
Goro disappeared beneath the polished stone floor, intending to erupt directly beneath Hiruko and immobilize him from below. It was a classic tactic, typically unblockable without an immediate counter.
Hiruko, however, reacted with unnerving speed. He didn't even turn his head. He simply stomped his foot and formed a simple hand sign.
Snake.
"Doton: Domu!" (Earth Release: Earth Spear!)
The very instant Goro's attack surfaced, Hiruko's skin shimmered with a dull, earthy sheen. Goro's fist, erupting from the floor, slammed uselessly against Hiruko's impervious leg, meeting solid rock. The ANBU gasped in pain as the force of his own strike vibrated back through him.
"Pathetic," Hiruko sneered, his voice surprisingly robust for his wiry frame. He slowly turned, his sharp, intelligent eyes gleaming with a mad confidence. He barely registered the ANBU, his focus was already on the next phase of his plans.
"Intrusion. How unexpected." Hiruko calmly pulled a heavily sealed scroll from his lab coat. "The Third Hokage thought a simple burial would stop my research? Fool." He activated a hidden barrier, chakra rippling, surrounding himself in an intricate weave of chakra filaments designed to repel.
My turn, Ryuu thought.
His hands were already moving. He focused intensely, pulling the humidity from the air, shaping the surrounding particles. This was less a jutsu and more pure manipulation.
Dog → Tiger → Bird → Dragon
"Hyōton: Hyōryū Senko!" (Ice Release: Ice Dragon's Flash!)
It was a burst. A flash-freeze wave, invisible in the air, rippling outwards from Ryuu's hands with incredible speed, targeting Hiruko. The specialized effect wasn't meant for destruction, but to disrupt and solidify chakra and physical movement on a cellular level. It would encase him completely in ice within a split second if he wasn't able to use his elemental release at the last moment.
Hiruko barely registered the shift in the air, a faint flicker of interest in his eyes. He tried to react, his own chakra surging to prepare a defense, but Ryuu's attack was too fast. Before Hiruko could complete his own hand seals, before his brain could even fully process the threat, the Jutsu encompassed him.
The very air around Hiruko crystallized. He froze. Not into a solid statue of ice, but encased in a layer of clear, transparent ice that perfectly captured his surprised posture, his body still tense, his hand halfway through a seal. The illusionary barrier around him flickered once, then shimmered and dispersed as its source of chakra was momentarily cut off.
The powerful shinobi stood motionless, utterly immobilized. He could not move, his chakra flow locked down, eyes wide with incredulity, fixed on the boy who had done this.
Yamato and Hotaru (Shrike), followed quickly by Itachi (Weasel), emerged from the dark corridor into the brightly lit laboratory. They immediately scanned the scene, their chakra signatures flaring in quiet alarm as they perceived Hiruko's completely incapacitated form and Ryuu, standing calmly before him.
"The subject is secured," Ryuu announced, his voice flat, emotionless behind his mask. "Physical engagement was unavoidable due to rapid hostile action. Threat neutralized."
Yamato stared at Hiruko, frozen in mid-motion, speechlessly. His large black eyes then turned to Ryuu, as if seeing him for the first time.
"Unbelievable, Crane." Yamato murmured, then snapped back to focus. "Alright. Cat, good job. Weasel, Shrike, sweep the perimeter for hidden labs or concealed traps. This place is… deeply unsettling. Crane, remain with Hiruko. Do not let him go."
Yamato quickly approached the frozen Hiruko. He traced the precise outline of the Ice Dragon's Flash, his hands already weaving intricate seals, activating his Mokuton. Wood tendrils, strong and pliable, sprouted from his palms, gently wrapping around Hiruko's encased form, reinforcing the icy prison. He would secure him for extraction.
Dog → Ram → Bird → Monkey
"Mokuton: Jubaku Hōsō!" (Wood Release: Wood Restraining Bind!)
As the wooden binds wrapped around Hiruko's ice shell, securing him within a sturdy, immobile cage, Yamato added a secondary fuinjutsu array, directly applying several small, prepared sealing tags onto Hiruko's ice casing. These would cut off his access to chakra and ensure his full stasis for transport.
Hiruko's eyes, visible through the ice and now wooden prison, still burned with frustrated fury. His chakra was frozen, but his mind remained lucid, aware. He was trapped. By Konoha ANBU.
Not only that, he was defeated by a mere kid.
Yamato looked at the furious, trapped eyes of Hiruko. "Hiruko-dono," his voice was firm, resonating with a calm authority, "Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, wishes you to hear him. What you believe you know, is a lie orchestrated by a single man: Danzo Shimura."
Hiruko strained, a low growl attempting to escape his frozen lips, but no sound emerged. His eyes widened, his mental struggles palpable against Yamato's restraints. A furious tremor ran through his immobilized form. Danzo? It couldn't be. Hiruzen! Jiraiya! They betrayed him!
"Danzo feared your genius," Yamato continued, his voice steady, acknowledging the man's inner turmoil. "He twisted your research. He sent his Root agents to eliminate you under false pretenses, staging your supposed assassination by Jiraiya-sama to secure your experimental data for his own gain. It was all a calculated betrayal. Danzo has been neutralized. His conspiracy unravelled."
Hiruko's struggles intensified, not in an attempt to escape, but in sheer, disbelief-fueled fury. His entire body, trapped within the wooden prison, strained against the bindings, silent, violent thrashing that communicated raw, unfiltered rage. His face contorted, twisting the rage into what looked like a painful scream of denial, even though he could not produce any sound.
The implication of years of his life being driven by a fabricated betrayal was a bitter pill that his proud, paranoid mind vehemently rejected.
"Minato-sama offers you a place back in Konoha," Yamato stated, his voice now softened, laced with Minato's genuine sincerity. "Under his direct supervision, with resources to continue your research into chakra synthesis and augmentation. A chance to work for the Leaf, to truly achieve what you sought – to create power, but for the village's protection, not through isolated, forbidden means."
Hiruko simply stared, his frozen eyes wide, burning with rejection. His entire body screamed with frustration against his bonds, his rage too overwhelming for any potential hope to break through. He wouldn't believe them. He couldn't. Almost a decade of paranoia, of self-imposed exile, built on a foundation of carefully constructed hatred, would not shatter by mere words, even from the man wielding the legendary Wood Release.
Yamato sighed, a long, weary exhalation that belied the stillness of his posture.
"It seems reasoning will need to wait for a calmer moment," Yamato concluded. With another series of rapid hand seals, he reinforced the Mokuton binds, and applied several more specialized fuinjutsu seals across the ice. The wood constricted slightly, and Hiruko's eyes, fixed in furious disbelief, slowly glazed over as his consciousness was finally subdued, plunging him into a deep slumber.
While Yamato secured Hiruko, the rest of Squad Zero initiated a meticulous sweep of the extensive laboratory. Hotaru used her Byakugan to literally see through the walls and behind shelves, spotting concealed data scrolls and experimental logs.
Ryuu moved systematically, collecting anything that pertained to Kekkei Genkai research, cellular degradation, or unusual chakra applications.
Lining a different section of walls were tubes holding animals. A tiger with extra, bone-reinforced limbs. A bird with enhanced sound-wave organs. These were grotesque, perverted forms of natural life, the fruits of Hiruko's desperate genius to synthesize biological advantages without the risk of shinobi retaliation. But his main obsession had been human subjects.
Ryuu paused before a row of six stasis tubes containing human bodies. His instincts screamed for him to analyze. He immediately ran a silent, chakra diagnostic.
He distinguished between living and deceased. The live ones were pitifully few, kept in forced stasis – just two, both former shinobi, their identities unrecognizable. The other four were corpses, decaying in the green fluid.
But unlike one might expect, these dead ones weren't innocents. He noted the distinctive equipment still fused into some of their bodies. They were indeed rogue shinobi. Bandits. Even missing-nin who had disappeared not too long ago. Hiruko had clearly not enslaved civilians, he had harvested from the world's undesirable elements, using criminals for his monstrous experiments.
Still, it was atrocity, no matter the victim's past.
He confirmed that while deeply unethical and illegal, Hiruko's depravity, born of twisted scientific ambition and decades of bitter resentment, still lacked the industrial-scale, profit-driven inhumanity.
There was a difference. One was a monster driven by pure acquisition of power and a desire to dismantle systems for chaos (Orochimaru). The other was a monster forged by betrayal, trying to become unbreakable out of fear, utilizing immoral methods but with a contained, warped ambition (Hiruko).
Ryuu found meticulous logs on Hiruko's primary data array – a compact, self-powered computer running on chakra instead of electricity, its functions complex, a precursor to the true scientific advancement in Ryuu's memories. It contained not just research on the Chimera Technique itself, but detailed findings on Kekkei Genkai origins, cellular stability in chakra environments, and notes on prolonging life through genetic manipulation.
This was exactly what he needed for his own research into Shikotsumyaku. His hand twitched with excitement.