Alliance of the Last Bloodlines at the Desolate Clan Grounds

"It was guiding people."

When Bai Ye opened his eyes, the Bone Wood stretcher was passing through an underground waterway. The black mark beneath his collarbone was heating up through the thin vines.

"Can you turn it off?"

"Cut off that piece of flesh."

"There's another way."

"They tried for three years. You understand it better than they did?"

"They wanted to keep the mark to control you. I only need to hide it."

Chiba stopped at a bend in the waterway. Bone Wood Vine roots pierced the mud through cracks in the wall, drawing in cool underground water.

The roots fed moisture into the thin vines, gradually thickening the wooden layer around the Cursed Seal until that parasitic chakra was trapped between the bone armor and his skin.

"And now?"

Bai Ye closed his eyes to sense it for a moment. Beneath his collarbone, it was still burning, but the chakra leaking outward was blocked by the wooden layer.

"It's still there."

"The people tracking you can't see it anymore."

"How can you be sure?"

"If they could see it, they would've caught up by now."

Bai Ye flexed his fingers. The paralysis had not fully faded, and he could only raise his arm a short distance.

"You're taking me into Konoha. Will Konoha's people spare a Kaguya?"

"Don't let them know."

"There are people guarding outside your house."

"Two Anbu. The one on the east roof changes shifts, and one stays in the northern tree."

Bai Ye opened his eyes again.

"You call that home?"

"At least there are no jars."

"What if the Anbu find me?"

"Then don't start growing bones everywhere."

"Then cure the poison first."

"I'll cure it when we get there."

The stretcher continued onward. In the narrow passages, the Bone Wood Vine tightened against the stone walls. Bai Ye's shoulder struck the wet, cold rock, and blood immediately seeped from his wound.

"You did that on purpose?"

"The path is narrow."

"The other side is passable."

"There are patrol shinobi over there."

"Where exactly are the Senju Clan Grounds?"

"Ahead."

The underground waterway connected to a cavern on the west side. Chiba pushed aside the thin roots near the exit and first used his senses to check the chakra within the clan grounds.

One of the Anbu on the roof had already left. The remaining watcher had moved closer to the main gate, focusing his attention on the empty main house.

"Stay here."

"You want to bury me in the dirt?"

"Wait until I call you."

"I don't take orders."

Chiba tore a medicine pouch from his waist and tossed it onto Bai Ye's chest.

"Blood-clotting medicine. Press it against the wound yourself."

"I can't lift my hand."

"Then keep bleeding."

Bai Ye bit the edge of the pouch and dragged the powder to his ribs. The movement pulled at a crack in his bone armor, and his face turned another shade paler.

"Do all Senju treat guests like this?"

"Have you stayed anywhere else?"

"A laboratory."

"Then I'm better than them."

Chiba crossed the cavern alone. He deliberately entered the courtyard by the abandoned well, then washed the blood from his body where the Anbu could see him.

The person on the roof did not come down, merely recording the chakra he had expended during his nighttime training.

Half an hour later, the Anbu turned toward the eastern eaves to inspect the snapped Hardening Vine Chiba had left there.

Taking advantage of the gap, the underground roots raised the stretcher and carried Bai Ye from the western cavern into an abandoned storeroom.

When the door shut, Bai Ye had already pulled a short piece of bone from his shoulder and pressed it against Chiba's abdomen.

"The poison faded faster than you expected."

"Push it any further."

"You think I wouldn't dare?"

"If that bone pierces in, the Anbu will smell blood. You won't survive the night."

The short bone paused before his clothes for a moment. Bai Ye withdrew his arm, and the wound on his shoulder immediately closed again.

"I'll remember this."

"The medicine is by the bed, food is in the cabinet, and don't open the window."

"You're really leaving me here?"

"I need sleep too."

"Where's the antidote?"

Chiba set Sleep Vine juice on the floor.

"Apply half to the wound and drink the other half. Drink too much, and you'll sleep for two days."

"You're not afraid I'll run?"

"If you run out, you can draw the Anbu away for me."

Bai Ye grabbed the medicine bottle. His fingers had not regained enough strength to pull out the wooden stopper, so he could only bite the mouth of the bottle.

"Chiba."

"What?"

"Is any of the food cooked?"

"Second shelf in the cabinet."

That night, three rice balls and a piece of smoked meat disappeared from the storeroom, while the wooden window remained shut.

The following morning, when Chiba went in to change the dressing, Bai Ye had already removed the old bandages and was scraping away the rotten flesh around his wound with a bone blade.

"Don't touch the right side."

"If it's rotten, cut it off."

"It'll leave a scent after you cut it."

"Then you do it."

Chiba took the bone blade, switched to Scorch Vine to burn away the edges of the rotten flesh, then packed medicine powder into the needle wounds.

"Hiss. You call that applying medicine?"

"I didn't tell you to scream."

"You don't make a sound when you cut yourself?"

"I can't reach it."

"Who was the one whose hand got pierced by a bone spear last night?"

"You're lying in my house right now."

Bai Ye shut his mouth. After a moment, he kicked the empty plate beside him.

"Is there any more meat?"

"At noon."

"I'm hungry now."

"There's rice in the cabinet."

"It's raw."

"Cook it yourself."

"You won't let me start a fire."

"Then wait."

By the evening of the third day, the bloody smell in the storeroom had completely faded. Bai Ye could walk to the door while supporting himself against the wall, though his right leg still lagged half a step whenever he put weight on it.

Chiba brought two bowls of hot soup. He sat beside the door and pushed the other bowl toward the bed.

Bai Ye did not take it right away.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

"It took you three days to ask that?"

"I couldn't lift my hand the first two days. Asking would've been useless."

"Can you fight now?"

"I can still pull out one bone."

"Save it for eating."

Bai Ye picked up the bowl of soup and smelled it first. Only after confirming there was no Paralysis Vine scent did he take a sip.

"You already got your evolution. Keeping me around will bring pursuers, and I'll eat an extra share of food."

"If I kill you, I lose an extra arm."

"I never agreed to work for you."

"The Senju need people if they're to rise again. You need somewhere to belong, and I need fighting strength. It's only a deal."

"You trust Kaguya people?"

"No."

"Then you still dare keep me?"

"I don't trust many people in Konoha either. I still live here."

Bai Ye used his chopsticks to push aside the herbs at the bottom of the bowl, then picked out a leaf and held it in his mouth.

"What if I kill you in the middle of the night?"

"You can try."

"What if I leave?"

"Leave the pursuers' location behind first."

"You charge a toll when recruiting people?"

"The food and medicine from these past few days weren't free."

Bai Ye set the bowl back on the floor, laying the chopsticks across its rim without touching them again.

"The people chasing me came from the Land of Rice Fields. They call themselves Hidden Sound Village, but they don't even have a village. They only have a laboratory built inside a mountain."

"Who leads them?"

"I never saw his face. Everyone calls him Lord Orochimaru."

"Who else?"

"A Yakushi handles blood draws and medicine. He pushes up his glasses whenever he smiles."

Chiba recalled the old textbook Yotsuki carried with him.

"Name."

"Kabuto. They call him Kabuto Yakushi."

"What about the shinobi chasing you?"

"The mark on my collarbone is the marker they left behind. There should be two nearby. One uses sound waves to disrupt chakra pathways, while the other can release snakes from his arms."

"How strong?"

"Together, they can kill an ordinary chunin."

"Where are they hiding?"

"There's a rendezvous point outside the northeastern forest. After I escaped, they didn't dare enter Konoha's patrol zone directly."

Chiba picked up the empty bowl and prepared to stand.

"Take me there tomorrow night."

"You just finished evolving. You're even conserving strength while walking."

"I'll recover by tomorrow night."

"Why should I help you?"

"If you take out the rendezvous point, your Cursed Seal will lose one line of tracking. They won't be able to find you for a while either."

Bai Ye fell silent for a while, raising his hand to touch beneath his collarbone. The thin vine barrier was still pressed beneath his skin.

"One more condition."

"Say it."

"I won't take the Senju name."

"No one asked you to change your name."

"And I won't kneel to you."

"The Senju don't take people who kneel."

Bai Ye raised his hand, his palm hovering between them.

"First survive. Then we can talk about the revival you mentioned."

Chiba grasped the hand rough with bone calluses, then released it a moment later.

"Deal."

Footsteps came from outside the storeroom. Yakushi Yeyue entered the courtyard carrying a lunch box, the toe of his shoe stopping before the second empty bowl.