Night had settled over the mountains.
No moon.
No stars.
Only darkness—
and the sound of water somewhere below.
Daichi stopped at the edge of the ravine.
"This is it?"
Renji leaned heavily against Kushina's chain.
His face had grown paler during the journey.
"The entrance is beneath us."
Kushina looked over the edge.
The rock disappeared into blackness.
"How far beneath us?"
"Far enough that falling would be inconvenient."
She stared at him.
"You're becoming funnier."
"I am in severe pain."
"That explains it."
⸻
Hana moved toward the cliff wall.
Her hand passed over the wet stone.
"There should be a symbol."
Minato stepped beside her.
"What kind?"
"A broken circle."
Renji's mismatched eye moved across the darkness.
"Not broken."
A pause.
"Open."
Kushina frowned.
"What is the difference?"
"One suggests damage."
His voice lowered.
"The other suggests invitation."
That was not reassuring.
⸻
Kurama shifted behind the seal.
His chakra had remained tense since they left the sanctuary.
"…someone is nearby…"
Kushina stopped.
"How many?"
"…one…"
A pause.
"…perhaps more…"
"Very helpful."
"…their chakra is being hidden…"
Kushina looked toward Daichi.
"We're being watched."
He did not appear surprised.
"I assumed so."
"You could have mentioned that."
"I assumed you assumed so."
Minato glanced between them.
"This conversation is not improving our situation."
⸻
Hana found the mark.
A shallow circle had been carved into the stone.
One small section remained open.
Inside it—
two handprints waited.
One black.
One white.
Renji approached the wall.
The chain around his waist supported most of his weight.
"The white seal reads the core."
Hana touched the dark handprint.
"And this one reads me."
Kushina looked at both symbols.
"What happens after it recognizes you?"
"The entrance opens."
"And after that?"
Renji remained silent.
Kushina narrowed her eyes.
"You don't know."
"I was never conscious when they transported me."
Hana looked toward the black opening beneath the ravine.
"Neither was I."
⸻
Daichi examined the symbols.
"The seals may contain control commands."
"They do," Renji said.
Kushina looked at him sharply.
"You remembered that now?"
"I felt them when we approached."
Thin lines began glowing beneath the skin of his palm.
His face tightened.
"They are trying to identify me."
Minato placed a seal tag near the white handprint.
The paper darkened immediately.
"It isn't only scanning him."
"What else?" Hana asked.
"It's sending something back."
Daichi's gaze moved toward the rock.
"A notification."
Silence.
They already knew we were coming.
Now they knew they had arrived.
⸻
Kushina stepped closer.
"Can we open it without using them?"
Daichi studied the barrier.
"Eventually."
"How long?"
"Several hours."
Renji's core flashed beneath his chest.
He inhaled sharply.
A new crack spread through the light.
"We do not have several hours."
Kushina's chain tightened instinctively.
Holding the artificial network together.
Renji looked toward her.
"Open the door."
Daichi glanced at Hana.
"And if the control seals activate?"
Hana placed her hand against the black mark.
"Then stop us."
Kushina shook her head.
"We're not planning around hurting you."
"We're planning around surviving," Hana replied.
Her voice remained calm.
But her fingers trembled.
⸻
Renji placed his palm against the white handprint.
The wall reacted immediately.
Bright lines travelled through the stone.
A cold voice emerged from somewhere beneath them.
"Vessel Zero confirmed."
Renji's jaw tightened.
Kushina felt his chakra change.
"Your name is Renji."
The seal continued.
"Core integrity: twenty-eight percent."
"Immediate recovery required."
A white line wrapped around his wrist.
Renji tried to pull away.
It held him against the wall.
His body convulsed.
"Renji!"
Kushina's chains shot forward.
They wrapped around his arm and tore the white seal apart.
The rock cracked beneath the force.
The mechanical voice paused.
Then—
"Unauthorized identifier detected."
Kushina glared at the wall.
"His name is Renji."
"Identifier rejected."
Golden chains struck the stone.
"Try again."
Minato looked toward her.
"You are threatening another building."
"It worked on the last one."
⸻
The seal flickered.
A new line appeared across the wall.
"Designation: Vessel Zero."
The letters distorted.
Changed.
"Secondary identifier: Renji."
Renji stared at the name.
For a moment—
the pain in his face disappeared.
Not relief.
Something more fragile.
Recognition.
The system had accepted that he existed.
Even if only as something secondary.
⸻
Hana placed her hand against the dark symbol.
Black lines immediately wrapped around her wrist.
Her faded mark ignited.
She gasped.
Kushina moved toward her—
but Hana shook her head.
"Wait."
The seal scanned her chakra.
"Subject H-Seventeen confirmed."
Hana's expression hardened.
"My name is Hana."
No response.
She pressed her palm harder against the wall.
"I said my name is Hana."
The black lines tightened.
"Behavioral deviation detected."
Kushina's chains rose.
Hana looked toward her.
"Not yet."
She turned back to the wall.
"I am not your subject."
The mark on her neck pulsed.
Pain moved across her face.
But she did not remove her hand.
"My name…"
Her breathing shook.
"…is Hana."
⸻
The black symbol fractured.
Not physically.
The seal formula split beneath her chakra.
For one second—
Kushina saw golden light inside it.
A trace of the Guardian Binding remained within Hana.
Anchoring her.
Protecting the name she had chosen to keep.
The system flickered.
"Designation: Subject H-Seventeen."
A pause.
"Secondary identifier: Hana."
Hana slowly lowered her hand.
"Good enough for now."
⸻
The cliff began to move.
Stone folded inward.
A narrow platform emerged from the rock.
Metal rails disappeared into a passage beneath the ravine.
Old lanterns awakened along the walls.
Not blue like the sanctuary.
White.
Harsh.
Cold.
The air smelled of metal—
chemicals—
and something burnt.
Hana stepped back.
"I remember that smell."
Renji's shifting eye darkened.
"So do I."
⸻
Daichi entered first.
Minato followed.
Kushina kept one chain around Hana—
and another around Renji.
The platform lowered as soon as they stepped onto it.
The mountain swallowed them.
Above—
the opening closed.
Complete darkness surrounded them.
Then the white lights returned.
One after another.
Revealing the tunnel.
⸻
Metal tracks stretched in both directions.
Small transport cages stood against the walls.
Some empty.
Others stained.
Kushina looked away from one of them.
Too small for an adult.
Hana did not.
She stared directly at it.
"They transported children too."
Renji's voice remained flat.
"They transported anyone whose chakra interested them."
Kushina's fingers curled.
Her chains responded to the anger.
Golden links scraped against the platform.
Daichi looked toward her.
"Control it."
"I am."
The metal beneath her chains bent.
Minato glanced down.
"Mostly."
⸻
The platform stopped.
A long corridor waited ahead.
No guards.
No alarms.
Nothing moved.
Daichi drew his kunai.
"They left the entrance unprotected."
Renji stepped off the platform with Kushina's support.
"No."
A pause.
"They left it open."
Kushina looked at him.
"For us."
"Yes."
⸻
A thin seal line ran along the center of the floor.
Minato crouched beside it.
"Detection formula."
"Can you disable it?" Kushina asked.
"Yes."
He placed two fingers against the seal.
The formula went dark immediately.
Then lit up again behind his hand.
Minato frowned.
"It reformed."
Daichi studied the walls.
"The entire tunnel is part of the seal."
Renji continued walking.
"Breaking one section changes nothing."
"So we're visible everywhere?" Hana asked.
"Yes."
Kushina sighed.
"I hate this place."
The lights above them flickered.
A voice answered through the corridor.
"I remember you saying that before."
⸻
Everyone stopped.
Renji became completely still.
The voice was male.
Calm.
Older.
Not the Voice beneath the sanctuary.
Human.
Hana's hand moved to the mark on her neck.
"He's here."
Daichi looked toward the ceiling.
"Show yourself."
A quiet laugh echoed through the tunnel.
"You have always been impatient, Daichi."
Daichi's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Kushina saw it.
"You know him."
"No."
The voice answered for him.
"He knows what I was."
⸻
A seal screen awakened on the wall.
At first—
only static.
Then an image appeared.
A man stood inside a white room.
No mask.
Dark hair touched by grey.
An Uzumaki spiral had been carved directly into his forehead.
Not tattooed.
Burned.
His eyes moved across the group—
even though the image should not have been able to see them.
Then they stopped on Kushina.
"So."
A pause.
"The primary heir finally entered my laboratory."
Kushina's chains rose.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled faintly.
"Someone your sanctuary tried to erase."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"No."
His attention shifted toward Renji.
"It rarely does."
⸻
Renji stared at the screen.
The seal lines across his face began glowing.
"You."
The man's smile softened.
Almost warmly.
"Renji."
The name echoed through the corridor.
Renji's breathing changed.
"You called me Zero."
"In front of the others."
A pause.
"Never when we were alone."
Renji's hand moved to his head.
A memory struck him.
Kushina felt it through the chain.
A white room.
The constructed body sitting behind glass.
The man standing outside after the other researchers had left.
His hand pressed against the barrier.
A single word written in condensation.
Renji.
The memory vanished.
⸻
Renji staggered.
Kushina caught him with the chain.
"No."
His voice came out strained.
"That is not how I chose it."
The man watched him carefully.
"You heard the name from a dying prisoner."
Renji froze.
"Yes."
"Because I placed him beside you."
Silence.
Hana looked toward Renji.
His mismatched eye shifted violently.
Blue.
Red.
Gold.
Grey.
The fragments inside him reacted to his confusion.
The man continued:
"I needed to know whether you could preserve an identity."
"You manipulated me."
"I gave you an opportunity."
"You gave me another test."
The man did not deny it.
⸻
Kushina stepped in front of Renji.
"He chose the name."
The man's eyes moved toward her.
"I selected it."
"He chose to keep it."
A pause.
"That makes it his."
For the first time—
the man's expression hardened.
Only slightly.
"You speak like a Guardian."
"I am one."
"No."
His gaze lowered to the golden chains.
"You inherited their weapons."
A pause.
"You have not yet inherited their failures."
⸻
Daichi stepped closer to the screen.
"What do you want?"
The man looked toward him.
"The same thing I wanted when you abandoned the project."
Kushina turned toward Daichi.
"What project?"
Daichi's face remained unreadable.
The man smiled.
"He did not tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
The screen brightened.
Old records appeared behind the man.
Seal diagrams.
A constructed body.
A white vessel core.
Daichi's handwriting covered the margins.
Kushina stared at it.
Then at him.
"Daichi."
He did not look away from the screen.
"I studied the core."
The man continued:
"He designed the first stabilization network."
Hana's face went pale.
"For Renji?"
"No," Daichi said.
His voice was quiet.
"For Akane."
⸻
Silence filled the tunnel.
Kushina remembered the tag.
The message.
Daichi saying he had helped Akane create it.
The counter-seals.
The organization's experiments.
"You worked with them."
Daichi finally looked at her.
"Before they became this."
The man laughed softly.
"That is what everyone says after leaving."
Daichi's grip tightened around his kunai.
"We were trying to save unstable Jinchūriki."
"And we still are."
"You began using prisoners."
"We began using available subjects."
Hana flinched.
Kushina's chains struck the floor.
The corridor shook.
"They have names."
The man's gaze moved toward her.
"And names make suffering less useful?"
"No."
Her voice lowered.
"They make it impossible to pretend suffering is only data."
⸻
The man stared at her for a long moment.
Then sighed.
"You have Akane's certainty."
Daichi moved closer.
"Do not speak her name."
"You still believe she died because she refused your help."
The screen changed.
For a fraction of a second—
a red-haired woman appeared behind the man.
Bound to a chair.
Head lowered.
Kushina's breath stopped.
Then the image disappeared.
Static returned.
"Akane?" she whispered.
Daichi had gone completely still.
The man smiled.
"Old recordings can be persuasive."
Kushina could not tell whether it had been real.
That was the point.
⸻
Renji's core flashed violently.
He dropped to one knee.
The seal lines across the tunnel reacted to him.
White light travelled beneath the floor.
The man looked toward him.
"You do not have much time."
Kushina moved beside Renji.
"We're going to the First Seal."
"I know."
The man's gaze shifted toward Hana.
"And you brought the final vessel."
Hana stood straighter.
"I'm not yours."
"No."
A pause.
"You belong to the Voice now."
Kushina's chains snapped toward the screen.
The wall shattered.
The image disappeared.
But the voice continued through every light in the corridor.
⸻
"You believe dividing the core will free them."
Daichi turned toward the ceiling.
"It will."
"It may."
A pause.
"If Renji survives the journey."
Kushina looked toward the tunnel ahead.
"What do you want in exchange for the passage?"
A soft laugh.
"You misunderstand."
The white lights turned crimson.
Metal doors slammed shut behind them.
Then ahead.
The group was trapped inside a single section of tunnel.
"I did not invite you here to negotiate."
⸻
Black formulas spread across the walls.
Hana cried out.
The circle on her neck darkened.
Renji's body arched.
His core pulled against Kushina's chain.
Minato threw seal tags toward the doors.
Daichi formed hand signs.
Kushina's chains drove into the walls.
The researcher's voice remained calm.
"I invited you here because all surviving pieces have finally returned."
The wall ahead opened.
Not into another corridor.
Into a chamber.
Dark.
Silent.
A single figure stood at its center.
Red hair covered his face.
Black seals wrapped around his arms—
his throat—
his chest.
Hana stared at him.
Renji's breathing stopped.
Kushina felt the Uzumaki chakra immediately.
Wounded.
Restricted.
Furious.
⸻
The young man slowly raised his head.
His eyes were open—
but the black markings had reached them.
Kushina knew him from the records.
From the name hidden inside the organization's files.
"Ren."
His lips moved.
At first—
no sound emerged.
Then his voice passed through the corridor.
Broken.
Controlled.
"Do not come closer."
The black seals tightened.
His body convulsed.
One hand lifted against his will.
Chakra gathered in his palm.
The researcher spoke one final command.
"Bring me the Guardian."
Ren's expression twisted in pain.
His eyes found Kushina's.
For one brief second—
they became clear.
"Run."
Then he attacked.