Downstream on the Naka River, waist-high weeds completely concealed an abandoned drainage outlet.
The current surged past, carrying silt from upstream against moss-covered stone walls. Baishi slipped out of the murky water like a fish under cover of darkness. Cold river water ran down the edge of his pure white mask and dripped onto the freshly scabbed wound near his collarbone, sending a faint sting through him.
He pulled off the mask painted with a blood-red lightning bolt, stripped off his black night clothes, which reeked of blood and gunpowder, and deftly stuffed them all into a sealing scroll.
After changing into a spare ANBU uniform, Baishi took a deep breath. The air smelled of aquatic weeds and fermenting mud.
"Minato must have noticed something." As Baishi wrung the water from his hair, he rapidly replayed the clash at Howling Canyon in his mind.
Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God was absurdly fast, a spatial advantage that defied the rules of physics. If they fought head-on, Baishi had no doubt that the specially made Three-Pronged Kunai would cut his throat before he had a chance to form hand seals.
So what?
A cold smile touched Baishi's lips. Even if the scorched scent left by his Lightning Release led Minato to suspect him, the Konoha High Command would never question the Yellow Flash, fresh from his resounding victory, over a nameless, expendable grunt without a shred of hard evidence. Besides, once Baishi started the second simulation tonight and brought back enough power to overturn the board, their suspicions would amount to nothing but the impotent fury of the weak.
He did not return to the ANBU dormitory. A high-fidelity Shadow Clone was standing in for him there, but Root's spies watched the place like flies. Given enough time, the clone would run out of Chakra and expose him.
Baishi darted into the dense canopy. Taking a winding route, he used blind spots and insect-repellent powder he had laid in advance to slip past two ANBU patrols unnoticed. At last, he entered a secluded stretch of stone forest behind the Memorial Stone.
He pushed aside a heavy stone slab overgrown with vines, revealing a dark stairway leading underground.
The place had once been one of Orochimaru's many abandoned temporary laboratories. Baishi had stumbled upon this blind spot during a perimeter sweep and spent three months turning it into his true safe house with Explosive Tags and Sealing Jutsu.
As he descended the damp stone steps, the mingled stench of old Formalin and moldy earth rushed into his nose.
Click.
Baishi struck a match and lit the kerosene lamp on the wall. Its dim yellow glow struggled to push back the darkness, illuminating a basement of less than ten square meters.
A crude operating table, wooden crates piled with tactical supplies, and a faintly glowing Perception Barrier array in the corner.
Baishi went to the rusty sink and turned on the tap. Cold groundwater gushed out. He thrust his hands beneath it and scrubbed hard at the traces of blood between his fingers. The water washed away the stains, but it could not wash the ravenous hunger for power from his eyes.
He looked up at himself in the cracked mirror. His face was pale, his wet black hair clung to his forehead, and his gaze was as cold as ice that would never thaw.
After drying his hands, Baishi walked to the table and took a deep-blue, many-faceted crystal from inside his clothes. It was still warm from his body.
Raija's Chakra Crystal.
In the dim light, a miniature thunderstorm seemed to churn inside it, radiating a pulse of energy that made his heart tighten.
Without the slightest hesitation, Baishi tipped his head back and tossed the crystal, worth over a million ryo, straight into his mouth.
Gulp.
The hard crystal slid down his throat. Less than three seconds later, it felt as though he had swallowed a red-hot iron.
"Ugh..." Baishi grunted and gripped the edge of the wooden table. Rough splinters drove beneath his fingernails, drawing beads of dark red blood.
Violent Lightning Release Chakra exploded in his stomach and turned into countless tiny steel blades, cutting through his blood vessels and Chakra pathways toward every limb. Forcibly absorbing such pure foreign Chakra was as agonizing as being cut to pieces without anesthetic.
Sweat instantly soaked his back. His muscles spasmed erratically from the pain, and the veins on his forehead bulged like worms. But he did not scream. He merely clenched his back teeth until the thick taste of blood filled his mouth.
"This pain... is nothing compared to having the Nine-Tails' claws tear through my heart!" he rasped, laughing through his throat.
A full fifteen minutes passed before the blue arcs raging across his skin gradually sank beneath it.
Baishi collapsed into a chair, gasping. His chest heaved like a bellows, but he could clearly feel that the Chakra already brimming inside him had swelled to a terrifying level.
He had met the minimum Chakra requirement. He had everything he needed to start the simulation.
Baishi closed his eyes and sank his awareness deep into his mind.
"Activate the Life Script Simulator."
[Ding—sufficient Chakra and a high-purity energy source detected. The second life simulation has begun.] [Available targets whose fate can be seized have been updated.] [Please select a point in time and a target to intervene...]
Baishi's eyes swept quickly across the screen.
His first experience of saving Kushina before Minato could had taught him the Simulator's underlying logic. The greater the reward at a given point, the higher the risk of death. The backlash from seizing their bond had already sent Kushina into a jealous rampage in the real world.
If he chose wrong again, the real world might be turned upside down.
With his Max-Level Lightning Release and Uzumaki Constitution, his current strength barely reached the threshold of a Special Jonin. In a battle between monsters, he would still be nothing more than a slightly tougher disposable grunt.
But he was a gambler. A calculating, self-serving gambler willing to do anything to stay alive.
The list scrolled downward, and one familiar historical event after another flashed before his eyes.
"The Battle of Kikyo Pass? No. Tens of thousands caught in a meat grinder. Too many variables."
"Kannabi Bridge? Obito's Kamui Sharingan is tempting, but trying to take it now would make it far too easy for that undead relic Uchiha Madara to notice me. I'm not ready to die."
At last, Baishi's gaze settled on an extremely dangerous point flashing with a harsh red light.
It concerned the transfer of power at Konoha's very heart, Kushina's life and death, and the crowning moment that would raise Namikaze Minato to the pinnacle of the Shinobi World.
Baishi's lips slowly spread into an almost crazed grin.
"Since Senior Minato has started suspecting me..." he murmured, his eyes chillingly cold in the blue light, "I won't mind stripping you bare in the simulation."
His finger hovered over the option marked [Night of the Nine-Tails · Namikaze Minato's Fate Line].
One press, and he would land directly outside the delivery room on that bloody night, face-to-face with Uchiha Obito in his tiger-striped mask.
Just as Baishi's finger was about to touch the screen—
Click.
An extremely faint snap, almost too soft to hear, pierced the thick soundproofing barrier and reached Baishi's ears.
It was the mechanical catch of an Explosive Tag fuse triggering after someone snapped a tripwire.
The sound had come from just outside the safe house's iron door, which weighed half a ton.
Baishi's hovering finger froze. Every muscle in his body tensed to its limit in a fraction of a second.
Someone had found this place.