Every drop of liquid gave off a faint hiss upon touching a solid surface, like acid eating through metal.
After the black liquid splashed onto the surgical light, it flickered several times and turned dark red. In an instant, the entire operating room shifted from cold white to the same ominous dark red as the pulsing Jinchuriki beads.
Guy drew back his fist and turned, his soles twisting half a turn on the floor awash with culture medium and black liquid.
He knew that had not been Kabuto's real body, but a variation of the Substitution Technique-a liquid substitute created in an instant from the compressed chakra fluid inside the bead.
As the liquid substitute exploded, the real Kabuto had already moved to the other side of the operating room, his back against the row of Cryogenic Storage Jars that had been crushed flat and emptied.
Kabuto was still forming hand seals.
His back pressed against the metal storage jars, his center of gravity leaning slightly backward, but his hands never paused.
The eleventh seal, the twelfth, the thirteenth-his fingers were coated in black liquid as he formed them. The liquid stretched into extremely fine strands between his fingertips, solidified in the air into thin black filaments, then snapped. The fragments fell onto the floor pooled with culture medium beneath his feet, floating on the surface like a layer of black pollen.
His lips moved. He was not reciting an incantation; he was counting.
He murmured the number of each seal in an exceedingly low voice, like a lead surgeon counting instruments at an operating table, confirming that every step remained within the planned procedure.
Guy gave him no time to finish.
His third punch followed close behind his first. This time, Guy stepped forward as he struck, extending the