The boy in the pod stared at Kiyoshi, eyes wide and shimmering red.
"Brother…?"
The word echoed off the chamber walls like a curse.
Kiyoshi stepped closer, unsettled.
"Who are you?" he asked softly.
"They… called me C-12B. But… Mother called me Hideo."
That name hit him harder than he expected.
Data and Dread
Kiyoshi turned toward the flickering terminal again.
Old logs.
Experiment C-12 — Chinoike bloodline subject, initial stability high… subsequent tests caused optical degradation, emotional dissonance… sibling extracted for remote containment (Sector D).
Subject C-12B retained for regeneration research.
They had split them. On purpose.
"You were the control," Kiyoshi muttered. "And I was the backup."
Behind him, Hideo whispered:
"They made me forget… everything but you."
The Return of the Cloaked Figure
Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind them.
A smoke bomb hissed from the vent, and the cloaked Root operative from earlier stepped into the room.
"So you found the failure."
His voice was cold. Confident.
"You must be one of the post-collapse cleaners," Kiyoshi said, drawing a kunai.
"I am the last loyal remnant," the man replied. "And you are both ghosts. Time to fix that."
He slammed his hand to the floor. A chakra seal activated.
Red light surged across the floor, forming jagged lines toward the pod.
"Don't!" Kiyoshi shouted, lunging forward.
Too late.
The Awakening
Hideo screamed.
His pod shattered as corrupted chakra flooded his veins.
The seal twisted his blood. Mutated it.
Kiyoshi could feel the Ketsuryugan flare in both their eyes—but Hideo's was unstable.
His pupils spun in spirals of red and black, and his body arched, bones shifting.
"He's triggering a berserker state," Kiyoshi realized. "Like that beast in the forest—but this time, with a mind behind it."
Hideo's voice changed—distorted and monstrous.
"B-Brother… run…"
Fight or Save
Kiyoshi stood still, torn.
The Root operative laughed.
"Either he kills you… or you kill him. Poetic."
Then he vanished into the smoke.
Hideo's mutated form lunged—claws formed from hardened blood, chakra flaring violently.
Kiyoshi dodged, barely.
The room shook with each blow.
"He's fast. Too fast. Stronger than the beast… but not fully gone."
Kiyoshi weaved hand signs. He had one shot:
"If I can restrain his chakra nodes—maybe I can shut down the flow, instead of destroying him."
The Battle Within
The room was chaos—crimson mist, crumbling walls, and two brothers fighting for control.
But even as Kiyoshi dodged and parried, he didn't strike to kill.
Instead, he focused chakra to his palm—concentrated like a lance.
"Target the neck node. Shut the flow. Don't kill."
He leapt.
The final blow connected.
Hideo collapsed—unconscious, breathing heavily, but alive.
Kiyoshi fell to one knee, gasping.
Aftermath
The pod chamber was in ruins.
Hideo lay still, and Kiyoshi cradled him.
"You're not a weapon," he whispered. "You're my brother."
In the shadows, the Root survivor watched silently.
"He won't kill him. Interesting."
Then he slipped away, leaving a single note behind on the shattered terminal.
"The blood is only the beginning."
[End of Chapter 14]