His breaths were shallow.
Each step back through the forest dragged pain up his ribs. Burn marks covered his right arm, and his flak vest was half-charred. But he kept walking.
Kiyoshi had left the backup squad behind at the Konoha outpost, ignoring every protocol.
He had one reason.
"It knew my name."
"Not just 'blood'—Kiyoshi."
-----Hours Earlier — Medical Tent
He sat on a cot, his side wrapped in ointment-soaked gauze. A medic-nin scowled at him.
"You shouldn't be moving for three days—at least!"
"Then I'll heal wrong," he replied flatly, grabbing his coat.
Komura, bruised and silent, had refused to speak of what happened. His squad's memories were fogged—a side effect of prolonged genjutsu exposure.
But Kiyoshi had no such excuse.
The creature had seen something in him.
Something it obeyed.
Now — Back in the Forest of Spirits
Night had fallen. Mist curled through the trees like a living thing.
Kiyoshi stood in the same clearing. His hand brushed the Root tag in his pocket.
"C-12. Compatible."
"What does that mean?"
He didn't wait long.
A deep vibration shook the ground.
The beast emerged again—same slitted eyes, same blackened scales—but now, it was... calmer.
It didn't charge.
It circled him.
Sniffing.
Watching.
"You knew me," Kiyoshi said aloud.
No answer, but the creature tilted its head.
Kiyoshi slowly pulled the tag from his pocket and held it up.
"C-12… that's me, isn't it?" he whispered. "Some file in their system. Some plan."
The creature snarled.
Its tail twitched—but it didn't attack.
Instead, it knelt.
Eyes on the tag.
"What the hell did Root do to you?" he breathed.
Flashback — Kiyoshi's Memory
He remembered the faces of the elders in the Chinoike cavern.
The whispers:
"Your blood is valuable."
"They took dozens of us… before you were born."
"Some never returned."
"Some were… changed."
Present
Kiyoshi realized it then.
This creature—this thing—was once someone. Maybe not fully human now, maybe not even Chinoike.
But it recognized him.
Its eyes weren't full of rage now.
They were pleading.
"Do you… want to be freed?" Kiyoshi asked, uncertain.
The creature didn't move.
Then it did something terrifying.
It spoke again.
"Command me… C-12."
His blood ran cold.
Root hadn't just mutated chakra beasts.
They had linked them to the genetics of the test subjects.
He wasn't just someone it recognized.
He was a control key.
The Choice
Kiyoshi's hand tightened around a kunai.
He could end it. Right now.
Put the creature out of its misery.
Or…
Use it.
"No," he told himself. "That's what they would've done."
Instead, he dropped the kunai.
"I don't know how to free you yet," he said. "But I will."
The creature growled again—but softer this time. Then it turned and vanished into the forest.
Watching him one last time.
[End of chapter q2]