Drip. Drip.
Cloudy droplets struck the pooled water, their echoes reverberating through the dim underground passage.
Kisame's footsteps had long since faded away. The only sound left in the passage was Haku's stifled sobbing. The little girl knelt in a pool of blood, clutching the hem of her clothes in both hands. Her delicate face was scrunched up from crying, but she didn't dare touch the "corpse" on the ground. She knew the rules of the ninja world: the dead were nothing more than worthless chunks of meat. And she was alone again.
Just as despair was about to swallow her, Mizuki Han, lying on the ground, suddenly coughed up a mouthful of black blood mixed with ice shards.
"Cough... blegh!"
The blood splattered into a puddle and instantly froze into dark red chunks of ice from the extreme cold. Mizuki Han's body convulsed violently. The moment the Turtle Breathing Technique ended, his motionless heart began beating almost frantically, trying to force what little blood remained into his withered vessels. But his body was too badly damaged. His lung had been pierced, and every breath felt like a knife cutting into him. He struggled to open his eyes. His vision blurred, and the pain made him suck in a sharp breath.
"Brother Han!" Haku's eyes widened as she cried out. A spark of disbelief burst in her previously dim eyes. She scrambled over, not caring about the filthy water, and tremulously tried to cover the hole still gushing blood in Han's chest with her small hand, but she didn't know what to do.
Mizuki Han gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound. His mind was clear—clearer than it had ever been. His feigned death had fooled Kisame, but he was now barely better off than dead. His chakra was depleted, his lung had suffered a penetrating injury, and he had lost a great deal of blood. An ordinary person wouldn't survive injuries like these for more than three minutes.
"Blood..." he rasped. His voice was so faint it was barely audible, like a candle flickering in the wind. His eyes fixed on Haku like a hawk's, a flash of utter madness deep within them.
He needed energy. He needed the primal force of life to repair his body, on the verge of collapse, and chakra to fill the terrifying void.
And the only source of energy here was Haku—the little girl whose veins carried the exceptionally pure bloodline of the Yuki Clan.
Haku froze. Looking into Han's cold eyes, devoid of even a trace of human emotion, she suddenly understood. Without hesitation, the little girl raised her left arm and bit down hard on her wrist. Her sharp little canines pierced her skin, and blood welled up at once.
She held her bleeding wrist to Han's lips. Her voice trembled with tears, but her resolve was unwavering. "Brother Han, drink my blood! I'm not afraid of the pain!"
Warm blood dripped onto Han's cold lips, carrying a faint metallic tang. Mizuki Han didn't refuse. Like a traveler dying of thirst, he opened his mouth and drank greedily. The blood slid down his throat, bringing a faint warmth.
But more important was the system's cold, mechanical voice that accompanied the warm blood.
[High-purity Ice Release Kekkei Genkai genes detected (Haku)...] [Conditions met. Empire Procreation System: Deep Fusion initiated!] [Beginning gene sequence extraction... Extraction progress: 10%... 30%... 70%... 100%!] [Extraction successful! Forcibly repairing host's genetic chain and restoring body from the brink of death...]
As the system's countdown ended, a violent, life-filled energy erupted from Han's heart. This was nothing like the pitiful scraps he had extracted from corpses before. It was pure, higher-dimensional energy, far beyond his current level, feeding back into his body. Like a raging ice dragon, it surged wildly through his meridians.
"Ghh!" A pained growl rose from Mizuki Han's throat. Wherever the energy passed, dried, shrunken meridians were forcibly widened. Severed fibers visibly intertwined and healed under the combined stimulation of cold and vitality. The most stomach-churning sight was the horrific hole in his chest where Kisame had run him through.
Haku covered her mouth in terror. She watched as the blood on Brother Han's chest stopped flowing. At an almost microscopic level, the blood quickly froze and crystallized, turning into a layer of ice harder than steel. Then a faint blue light shone from within the ice. Driven by the system's power, the torn flesh clinging to the ice crystals began growing wildly, joining the severed lung and muscles at a speed that defied medical logic!
This was violent, extreme repair. There was no gentle Medical Ninjutsu—only the brutal method of forcibly fusing Ice Release with flesh. Though it could keep him alive, the pain was no less than being carved up by a thousand knives.
Mizuki Han was drenched in cold sweat, his fingers digging so hard into the stone floor that his nails bled. Yet his gaze grew more ferocious, and even the corner of his mouth curled into a cruel smile.
He could feel his previously faint Kekkei Genkai of Ice Release undergoing a qualitative leap as the high-purity genes coursed through his blood. The ice grew colder and denser, and his control over chakra surged by an exponential degree.
[Congratulations, host. Initial gene fusion complete.] [Ice Release Kekkei Genkai level increased: Beginner → Intermediate.] [Maximum chakra capacity increased. Minor restoration acquired.]
The system's voice gradually faded. Mizuki Han stopped convulsing and drew deep, greedy breaths, filling his restored lungs with the underground passage's air, thick with blood and stench. It was utterly foul, yet it tasted sweeter than ever.
Because he had survived.
Slowly, he pushed himself up from the filthy water with his new hands and swayed to his feet. His body was still weak, and his chest still throbbed with pain, but the chakra surging through him again gave him a sense of security he had never felt before.
The fullness of his returning strength was more intoxicating than any drug.
Mizuki Han lowered his head and looked at his bloodstained hands. He twitched a fingertip, and a small, delicate Ice Senbon, radiating bone-chilling cold, instantly formed in his palm. No hand seals, no preparation—he only had to think, and the sharp weapon appeared. This was the fine control granted by intermediate Ice Release.
"Brother... Han?" Haku huddled in the corner, watching him stand with some fear. Han's presence was now even deeper and colder than it had been when he faced Kisame. It didn't belong to a boy, but to a demon that had just crawled out of hell.
Mizuki Han turned and looked at the deep, bloody bite marks on Haku's wrist.
He walked over. He didn't thank her or offer any tender comfort. He simply reached out, his hand still smeared with his own blood, gripped Haku's chin, and forced her to look up at him.
"From now on, don't shed another tear." Mizuki Han's voice was like frozen frost, heavy with unquestionable authority. "Tears won't save your life. In this Bloody Mist, only this..."
He raised the Ice Senbon glowing faintly in his hand and gently pressed it to Haku's soft cheek. "...can keep you alive. Understand?"
The bone-chilling cold made Haku shiver, but seeing Han's cold eyes, no longer on the verge of death, she nodded firmly. As long as she could stay with him, as long as he didn't die, she didn't care what happened.
"Go." Mizuki Han put away the Ice Senbon and turned without another word, heading into the deeper darkness.
Kisame was gone, but the Great Purge was still underway. This underground space was still unsafe. He had to find a hidden shelter, and then... repay the humiliation of being toyed with like a rat a hundredfold, a thousandfold, to those Anbu.
He wasn't some stray dog who'd hide under the covers and tremble after surviving by the skin of his teeth.
Mizuki Han and Haku trudged along the dark underground river, stumbling through the water. The terrain grew more complicated, and along with the stench came the smell of toxic decay. Deep inside the underground sewage system lay a forbidden zone even the Anbu didn't want to enter.
Just as they rounded a dripping stalactite pillar, Mizuki Han abruptly stopped. The chakra within him condensed to a razor-sharp point.
In the darkness, several pairs of eyes glowing a ghostly green fixed on them. A powerful, suffocating stench came with them. It was nothing a human could give off.
They were... some kind of mutated monsters.
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