There was something ancient about hatred.
It wasn't loud.
It didn't always burn.
Sometimes, it was patient.
Like a thread woven slowly, strand by strand, until it wrapped the neck of a village.
And in Konoha, that thread had a name.
Shimura Danzo.
Arashi moved through the village with quiet steps. Not hidden. Not loud. Just present.
The attack on Kakashi had changed everything.
It wasn't an assassination attempt.
It was a test.
Danzo hadn't aimed to kill—just to push. To see how far Arashi would go when the leash tightened.
And Arashi had decided.
There would be no leash.
In the Namikaze estate basement, Himari was sitting beside Kushina, eating mochi slowly.
Her chakra was more stable now—less volatile, less sharp—but still dangerous.
There was something buried beneath the seal Kushina had suppressed. Something not even the Uzumaki threads could untangle.
Not yet.
Minato watched her from the doorway.
"She's quiet," he said.
"She's healing," Arashi replied.
"She doesn't know who she is."
"She knows who she isn't. That's a start."
Minato glanced over. "And what about you?"
Arashi didn't answer.
He looked down at the blood-drawn blueprint he'd laid on the table.
A map.
Of the Root facility beneath the old war hospital.
Not the primary base.
A forgotten one.
Built to look like a quarantine zone.
But inside…
Inside lay the vault.
The one Tenka had once whispered about.
Where Danzo stored his original bloodline samples.
The ones used to create KAI-0.
And perhaps… to shape Himari.
Kushina tightened the final seal on the reinforcement band and handed it to Arashi.
"You're going tonight, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"You won't find only ghosts."
"I know."
She placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't come back with more weight than you can carry."
Night fell with an unnatural stillness.
Even the wind held its breath.
Arashi approached the war hospital ruins under a camouflage field—non-jutsu, low chakra signature masking.
He slipped past the dead gardens, over rusted fences, and into the collapsed western wing.
The scent of old chemicals and paper still lingered.
He found the hidden passage behind the ruined incinerator.
Exactly as Tenka described.
A staircase spiraled down—deeper than any hospital floor should've gone.
And at the bottom: a sealed metal door, half-rusted shut, marked by a symbol almost no one alive recognized.
Uzumaki-Konoha hybrid seal.
Arashi pressed his chakra into the matrix.
It resisted.
Not because he wasn't permitted.
But because it was afraid.
Whatever lay inside had not been touched in years.
The door groaned open.
He stepped inside.
And found walls lined with glass canisters.
Dozens.
Each filled with fluid.
And inside…
Floating samples.
Tissue.
Hair.
Eyes.
Blood vials.
Some labeled.
Others not.
Names etched into plaques:
Hyuga.
Senju.
Uchiha.
Uzumaki.
And one canister, near the back, labeled only:
"HIMARI-X"
Arashi stood still.
His heart cold.
This was it.
This was how Danzo had played god.
This is where Root's hands had written sin in the blood of children.
He opened the scroll he'd prepared and began sealing the canisters one by one.
Not for destruction.
Not yet.
For proof.
For justice.
Halfway through, he paused.
A faint sound.
Movement.
Then—
"Your mercy really is a flaw."
Arashi turned slowly.
Danzo stepped into the chamber, flanked by two Root operatives.
His face was calm.
His gaze calculating.
"You should have burned it all," Danzo said.
"I will," Arashi replied.
"Then why did you hesitate?"
Arashi didn't answer.
Danzo gestured to the samples. "These are nothing. Collateral. Evolution requires suffering."
"They were children."
"They were possibilities," Danzo said. "Some failed. Others didn't."
He stepped closer.
"But you're more dangerous than all of them, Arashi. Because you think you can protect without sacrificing anything."
Arashi clenched his fists. "I've sacrificed more than you ever will."
"Not enough," Danzo said. "Not yet."
He nodded once.
The two Root operatives attacked.
Fast. Precise. Coordinated.
Arashi didn't move.
He exhaled.
And let his blade fly.
Flash. Parry. Blood.
The first operative collapsed, throat cut mid-motion.
The second reached Arashi's blindside—only to step into a pressure seal Arashi had pre-marked.
It exploded in a silent burst of chakra suppression.
The man dropped instantly, convulsing.
Danzo didn't flinch.
"You're better than I thought."
"I'm only just beginning."
"You won't expose me," Danzo said.
Arashi reached into his pouch and pulled out a final scroll.
He opened it.
A chakra recording.
Audio only.
But clear.
Danzo's voice, recorded from KAI-0's awakening chamber:
"You should not have survived. But now… you will serve."
Danzo's eye twitched.
Arashi smiled.
"I'm not the only one who hears this tomorrow."
He sealed the scroll, dropped it into a crow's pouch, and let it fly.
Danzo moved.
But not fast enough.
The crow escaped.
The message… delivered.
Danzo didn't speak again.
He just turned, face unreadable, and vanished into smoke.
Not beaten.
But exposed.
By dawn, whispers spread.
The Hokage received a scroll with Root's private seal.
Two jōnin found a burned lab beneath the old war hospital.
And a Hyuga elder quietly passed out in his chamber upon learning one of the Branch House children had "vanished" from their ledger—but was spotted entering the Namikaze estate.
The blood-laced thread had been cut.
But it still left a scar.
At home, Arashi sat beside Kakashi, watching him practice tree-walking.
The boy was getting faster.
Sharper.
But still… innocent.
And that innocence was Arashi's to protect.
Even if it made him a villain in someone else's story.
That night, Himari whispered something to Kushina as she fell asleep.
A question.
"Is Arashi… my family?"
Kushina brushed her hair aside.
"He is now."
To be continued.