Bone Wood Binds the Enemy, Senju Gains New Blood

The black Cursed Seal crept along the Bone Wood framework to Chiba's wrist. Several bulges immediately rose beneath his skin, drilling toward the depths of his chakra pathways.

"You can swallow bones. Can you swallow this?"

Bai Ye pressed the mark below his collarbone. The flesh on his chest was still growing outward, and his right leg, which had just been paralyzed by the poison, actually managed to shift forward again.

"This thing listens to you?"

"It just wants to find a living person."

"Then give it back to yourself."

Chiba gripped the contaminated Bone Wood vine. The newly grown vines by his hand immediately tightened, their crossed framework pinning the black markings and sealing them outside his wrist.

[Unknown parasitic chakra is invading the host's chakra pathways.]

[Immediate removal of the contaminated Wood Release structure is recommended.]

"Can't cut it off."

[Continued contact may cause the sample contamination to spread.]

"It came from Bai Ye's bones, so it can return the same way."

Bai Ye could not hear the system prompts. He only saw the black markings on the vine pause briefly before beginning to contract in his direction.

"You want to use it to touch me?"

"You've got it backward."

Chiba had Poison Vine coil around the contaminated Bone Wood. Pale purple patterns advanced along the white framework, quickly colliding with the black Cursed Seal.

The two currents of chakra crowded into the narrow core of the vine. The outer bark split open one crack after another, exposing the framework within, already dyed black.

Bai Ye raised his hand and sliced through the vine.

Chiba clenched his fingers first. Instead of withdrawing, the contaminated vine used the still-unbroken connection between their bones to pour the paralytic poison back into him.

"Your bones recognize it."

The mark beneath Bai Ye's collarbone pulsed twice. Black patterns spread across his chest, and his right leg, which had just regained movement, dragged across the ground once more.

"You used my Cursed Seal to send poison into me?"

"It connects your whole body for me. Saves me the trouble of looking for a wound."

"This thing will devour you first."

"It doesn't have time."

The scattered Bone Wood vines rose at once. Their white inner bones supported their bodies, pushing aside the broken bones still growing from the ground as they closed in behind Bai Ye.

Bone blades extended from between the armor plates and slashed repeatedly at the vines.

The first only split the outer skin.

The second caught the bone blade.

The third curled around his elbow and forced his entire right arm back against his chest.

Bai Ye wrenched his shoulder, but no new bones emerged from within the bone armor. The poison had already entered the chakra nodes near his spine through the Cursed Seal.

"Let go."

"You wanted me dead just now."

"I still do."

"Then stand up and kill me."

Bai Ye braced himself against his knee. His left foot barely dragged forward half a step before the Bone Wood vine around his waist tightened, pulling him back into place.

The bone armor over his chest tried to close, but the vine tips had already entered the cracks left earlier. Purple spores continued seeping inward through his blood.

"You lost."

"I'm still alive."

"That's why we can talk."

Bai Ye looked up at him. The emptiness in his eyes, once occupied only by swinging blades and drawing bones, now held a moment of hesitation.

"Talk about what?"

"Lie down first."

The Bone Wood vines pulled in opposite directions. His uncontrolled legs could no longer support his body, and Bai Ye fell sideways among broken bones and mud.

His bone armor struck the ground. Blood seeping from the cracks quickly soaked through his clothes. He tried to raise his left hand, but his fingertips only grasped a handful of dirt.

"Kill me."

"Name."

"Kaguya Byakuya."

"Your real name?"

"My clan called me Bai Ye. The laboratory added Shuo Ya."

"Only use the first one from now on."

Bai Ye's breaths grew shorter. Under the effects of the poison, the bone armor on his chest began falling away on its own, exposing several old wounds that had been torn open again and again.

"You're changing a dead man's name?"

"The Kaguya clan is gone too?"

The hand clutching the dirt loosened slightly. Bai Ye did not answer.

Chiba crouched before him and picked up a still-living fragment of bone. Bone Wood patterns immediately lit up along his fingertips.

"You're the only one left?"

"What's it to you?"

"Answer me."

"Everyone who chased me out is dead. The ones left at the clan grounds won't live much longer either. Is that enough of an answer?"

"Who wiped out the clan?"

"Themselves."

Bai Ye turned his face aside. Blood-stained hair clung to his cheek, but he still forced out a short laugh.

"Kaguya people only know how to charge forward. Even if they can't win, they still charge. The elders called that honor."

"You ran."

"I was stuffed into a tank. Even if I wanted to die with them, I couldn't go back."

"So you want to die here?"

"Does it matter where I die?"

"It does."

Chiba tossed the broken bone back beside him. His fingers settled beneath Bai Ye's collarbone as thin vines burrowed into the pinpricks around the Cursed Seal, isolating the remaining chakra layer by layer.

"If you die here, you'll just be a corpse with no one to claim it."

"And if I go with you?"

"Live first."

"Then you'll draw my blood, cut out my bones, and stuff me into another tank?"

"There are no tanks at the Senju Clan Grounds. There are plenty of empty rooms, though."

Bai Ye stared at him for a long time. He tried to raise his hand to brush away the thin vines, but his arm still would not obey him.

"You want my Shikotsumyaku."

"I do."

"What's the difference between you and those people?"

"They chained you up. I'm letting you choose."

"What if I choose not to go?"

"When the poison wears off, you can leave."

"You'd let me go?"

"If you stay, you can kill for me, guard Senju for me, and help me deal with the people who captured you."

Chiba tightened the thin vines isolating the Cursed Seal, preventing the contamination from spreading further.

"If you leave, we may be enemies the next time we meet. When that happens, I'll kill you."

"You call that a choice?"

"At least there are two options."

Bai Ye stared at the face not far from his own. It took him a long while to force out a sentence from his throat.

"Are you the only Senju left?"

"There's also a distant relative who doesn't want to come back."

"I'm the only Kaguya left too."

"Then stop lying there pretending to be dead."

"I can't move."

"The poison won't fade until dawn."

"You planning to carry me?"

"Drag you back."

"Senju, you really know how to recruit people."

"Call me Chiba."

A system panel unfolded between them. The dim white branches of the World Tree finished closing, and four new nodes lit up in succession.

[Defeated a special-physique target at the Chunin level.]

[Evolution Points +4.]

[Cell extraction function available.]

[The current target possesses the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai. Extract a cell sample immediately?]

Chiba looked at the wound on Bai Ye's chest. Behind the extraction option, two previews had already appeared: bone regeneration and chakra proliferation.

A living sample could make his next evolution faster, but the extraction process would cause Bai Ye to lose flesh and blood again. It would also turn the choice they had just discussed into nothing more than empty words.

"Do not extract for now."

[The opportunity for cell extraction will be retained.]

[Please note: the target may resist after recovering.]

"If he dares resist, I'll beat him again."

"Who are you talking to now?"

"I'll tell you later."

Chiba had the Bone Wood vines form a stretcher, supporting Bai Ye's back and the bend of his knees. He then used Poison Vine to seal the wounds that were still bleeding.

"Come with me. There are empty rooms at the Senju Clan Grounds."

"I haven't agreed yet."

"You can refuse after you wake up."

The vines lifted Bai Ye from the ground. His eyelids struggled open a few times before finally closing.

Chiba followed the way they had come toward Konoha's outskirts. The aftermath of his reduced combat strength dragged at every chakra pathway, and the Bone Wood stretcher was far heavier than usual.

Before leaving the bone forest, the black mark beneath Bai Ye's collarbone pulsed once more. This time, it pointed toward Konoha.