Morning in the Hokage's Study and the Red-Haired Witch's Interrogation

The faint light of dawn struggled through the shattered floor-to-ceiling window of the Hokage's Office, carving the wreckage-strewn floor into mottled patches of light and shadow.

The air was thick with a complex, pungent smell: the scorched stench of wood shavings, the metallic tang of forcibly torn metal, and... a faint lingering trace of sacred yet domineering Yang Release Chakra left behind after burning fiercely.

Baishi leaned back in the Throne that symbolized Konoha's highest authority, propping his chin up with one hand, his expression lazy and indifferent.

Before him, a Water Mirror formed from Chakra floated silently in midair. Within it lay the dark underground depths at the border of the Land of Rice Fields, thousands of miles away. Amid the agony of his severed arm and his feverish excitement, Orochimaru was issuing orders to accelerate the Impure World Reincarnation. His twisted, exhilarated face looked particularly ridiculous in the Water Mirror.

"What a... delightful expression, Orochimaru."

Baishi felt no ripples in his heart. If anything, he found it a little dull.

So-called top scientists, so-called masters of forbidden techniques—after witnessing power on a higher level, their reactions were no different from gamblers who had lost themselves red-eyed at the tables. Greed had always been the best fuel driving these "geniuses" toward destruction.

He slowly raised his other hand and gave the Water Mirror a light wave.

The mirror's surface rippled like a lake struck by a stone, then dissolved into specks of light that scattered into the air.

The office returned to silence.

Baishi closed his eyes and felt the immense Chakra coursing endlessly through his body. With Kushina's "love-filled" Nine-Tails Chakra from last night as a catalyst, the One-Tail Shukaku he had forcibly devoured, along with the Wood Release and Sharingan power of the Mutant "A-Designation," had begun