Clang!
The staff clattered to the floor.
A massive sphere of kikaichū—the dreaded "Insect Jade"—buzzed like a swarm of hornets unleashed from hell.
In the dead silence of the operating room, even the dullest mind would sense the abnormality.
Chihaya Tō, engrossed in Hikari's delicate nerve-reconnection procedure, scowled at the interruption.
Neural surgery demanded absolute focus. A single lapse could doom the patient. Worse, unlike other procedures, success couldn't be confirmed until the subject awoke—making it a high-stakes gamble with zero margin for error.
Since when does Ryōma fumble like this?
He turned to reprimand the Aburame—only to freeze.
His neck wouldn't move.
Nor his limbs. His torso. Even his lips felt numb, his tongue stiff as a decade-old shoe sole.
What—?
Blood vessels bulged in his widened eyes. Black, block-like curse marks slithered across his skin—and Hikari's too, though hers burned with crimson edges, spreading like wildfire to her wrists.
Beneath them, kikaichū formed living wires linking Ryōma to his targets. Blue chakra surged through, saturating their bodies with paralyzing seals.
Self-Cursing Seal Technique.
A Root-standard restraint—chakra infused with binding curses to immobilize targets. Normally, it required physical contact. But Ryōma had weaponized his insects, turning them into conduits for remote activation.
Seeing his prey locked down, Ryōma exhaled.
Chihaya was irrelevant. Hikari was the true threat.
The Self-Cursing Seal was notoriously hard to break. In decades of service, no one had escaped its hold—until—
Crack.
A fissure split Hikari's curse mark.
Ryōma's stomach dropped. He pumped more chakra through the insect wires—
Too late.
Creak.
Her fingers flexed. Delicate arms swelled with corded muscle, tendons taut as drawn longbows.
Snap.
The curse marks shattered.
The Insect Jade, mid-flight toward Danzō's helpless form, froze—
"Hmph."
Hikari's lips parted.
Boom!
A compressed fireball erupted from her mouth, engulfing the swarm in a supernova of heat.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Kikaichū combusted like firecrackers, their charred remains stinking of burnt protein.
Failed.
Ryōma's hope died with his insects.
If Hikari stood with Danzō, even Itachi couldn't kill the old man now.
Zzt!
Lightning arced from Hikari's feet, racing back through the insect wires. Ryōma convulsed as volts locked his muscles.
Betrayal. Capture. Torture. His fate crystallized—a lab rat for Root's worst experiments.
But none of that mattered.
The mission—stop Danzō—had failed.
"Lift his curse. Clean this up. Or when Danzō wakes, no one saves you."
Hikari's voice was ice. Already, she'd returned to surgery as if nothing happened.
Ryōma, drenched in cold sweat, obeyed.
Chihaya gasped as his curse broke—only for kikaichū to flood his throat.
"Ghk—!"
They burrowed past his gagging, drilling into his heart—nesting, breeding, primed to explode on command.
One glance at Ryōma's frosty glare told him: Make a sound, and you die.
Chihaya's hands shook. His scalpel clattered.
Danzō's loyal disciple? The man who'd devoted his life to immortality?
Gone.
In his place stood a survivor—back bent, head lowered, a perfect subordinate.
Click. Click.
The tension dissolved. Ryōma resumed his post. The room stilled.
Only Danzō's ragged breaths marked time.
"Surgery's complete. No complications." Hikari peeled off bloodied gloves.
"None at all!" Chihaya bowed, crumpling the gloves—his famed germaphobia gone.
"Shall we wake Lord Danzō?"
Hikari smirked. "Your call."
"Y-Yes."
As Chihaya injected the stimulant, Hikari moved to Ryōma's side, hefting Samehada.
The Aburame's confusion radiated off him: Why stop me but spare me?
Simple.
You'd have died for nothing.
Hikari had spotted Danzō's insurance the moment she activated her Byakugan.
Among the ten Sharingan on that arm, one pulsed with dual-layered chakra—Izanagi, pre-sealed via Shisui's Mangekyō.
Just like Madara tricked Hashirama.
Kill Danzō, and the three-tomoe would rewrite reality—resurrecting him without sacrificing Shisui's eye.
With Hikari's Sharingan mass-production, three-tomoe were expendable.
Ryōma's loyalty was proven. But his value lay in his position—Root's second-in-command.
Hikari's ambitions demanded more than Danzō's death.
She wanted his empire.
The labs. The intel network. The personnel. The resources.
Chihaya in Medical. Tsubaki in Equipment. Ryōma overseeing operations. Soon, she'd control everything.
And when her strength peaked—when her body matured—
That would be Danzō's end.