Underground Analysis and the Daimyo Residence's Hidden Secret

Bang—

The heavy lead door slowly closed behind him with a dull thud, completely shutting out the lingering heat that belonged to Kushina and Mikoto Uchiha's faint fragrance from the Hokage's Office.

Beyond the door was another world.

The air instantly turned cold and thin, carrying the distinctive mingled scent of disinfectant and metal as it entered Baishi's nostrils. The surrounding walls were cast from the hardest Chakra-Conductive Metal, their smooth surfaces reflecting his impassive profile. This was his private laboratory, located in the deepest part of the Hokage Building—a Nest where he shed every disguise and revealed his truest fangs.

In the office earlier, faced with Kushina's concern and worry that could nearly melt a person, he had appeared gentle and patient. He had told her that Orochimaru's remaining followers had been eliminated, but there were still remnants at the border that needed to be cleared out—a patrol mission that only the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki could carry out perfectly.

The simple red-haired woman had not doubted him in the slightest. With the firm conviction of "protecting Baishi," she transformed into a crimson streak and eagerly rushed toward the border.

And now, the warm mask belonging to the Fifth Hokage had been casually discarded outside the door.

Baishi walked to the analysis table at the center of the laboratory. The only sound in the entire space was the faint, steady hum of the machinery. He slowly spread his palm, revealing a small pinch of Cursed Seal powder that had been stripped from the Skeleton Monster's core and reduced to ash.

They looked utterly unremarkable, like ordinary dust left behind after a fire.

Yet under Baishi's Sharingan, every particle of dust contained an extraordinarily complex and sinister Chakra structure.

"Orochimaru..."

Baishi murmured, his voice especially clear in the empty laboratory. "Your 'masterpiece'