Bone Vines Seal the Street, Turn on Root's Killing Trap

"Who are you killing first?"

Kinoe stood outside the window without handing over the antidote, his fingers still gripping the mouth of the vial. The three Sound Ninja took the opportunity to spread out. One aimed a copper tube at Chiba's chest, another sent a swarm of snakes crawling along the floor toward the bed, while the third looped poisoned wire around the ceiling beams.

"The one who's waited the longest."

Chiba raised his left hand. Roof tiles flipped up in succession as Bone Wood vines buried around the apartment pierced down from above. Pale frameworks supported the vines, carrying shattered tiles as they sealed the doors and windows.

The sound waves from the copper tube struck the first wall of vines. Several narrow cracks split the bark, but the skeleton hidden within did not even bend.

"What kind of Wood Release is this?"

"Blow again."

The Sound Ninja put the copper tube to his lips, his cheeks swelling. A shrill scream pierced through the room, sending table legs and splintered wood skidding outward, but the Bone Wood vines tightened in the direction of the vibrations. Their tips had already reached his jaw.

Chiba curled his fingers.

The vine tips rose.

The copper tube was rammed into the Sound Ninja's mouth. His teeth struck metal with a crisp crack, and half the tube protruded from his lips.

He covered his mouth and staggered back, his words filled with blood.

"Why isn't your wood affected by sound waves?"

"You're too weak."

The ninja controlling the snakes seized the moment to raise his arms. More than a dozen slender snakes slipped from his sleeves, two of them biting into the vine bark as their bellies immediately swelled.

"Get back! They're about to explode!"

Chiba did not retreat.

The Bone Wood vines curled into a ball, wrapping the snakes and their explosive tags inside.

The muffled blast was trapped within the knot of vines, lifting only a few pieces of bark. The white framework remained locked together.

"First move."

Chiba stepped over the wires on the floor. A bone vine grew from the outside of his right arm and shot straight toward the snake handler's chest.

The man formed hand seals with both hands. Another thick snake slid from his sleeve, its mouth opening as wide as his shoulders. A second body holding a blade was hidden inside its belly.

"Found you!"

The blade had barely cleared the snake's mouth when two bone vines snapped shut from above and below. One trapped his wrist, while the other pierced the snake's belly, nailing the hidden man and the outer snake body to the wall.

The wood did not pierce his chest. Instead, it grew outward beneath his ribs on both sides, locking around his waist and back.

His ninja sword fell to the floor.

"Let go! My snake venom has already entered the vine core!"

"That's Poison Vine."

Something churned within the snake's belly. Several slender snakes that had yet to emerge lost control and turned to bite the Sound Ninja's arm.

Chiba looked away.

"One."

The ninja with the wire leaped down from the windowsill, spreading his arms. Dozens of poison-soaked thin wires sliced across the room, sealing off Chiba's shoulders and knees.

"Your wood can block sound waves, but can it block this?"

"Try it."

The Bone Wood vines swept toward the wires. Their outer bark was carved with dense, fine cuts, but the inner framework caught the wires and twisted them into several tangled knots as the vines turned.

The Sound Ninja released one side of the wire and drew a short blade with his right hand. The blade slipped around the bone vines and sliced toward Chiba's neck.

Chiba raised his elbow to block his wrist. Bone vines grew forward along his arm, crossing the hilt in an instant and winding around the man's five fingers.

The short blade was squeezed from his hand.

The Sound Ninja drove his knee toward Chiba's abdomen. Before the poisoned needles springing from his pant leg could touch Chiba's clothes, Chiba stepped half a pace forward and slammed his shoulder into the man's chest.

Two dull cracks came from his ribs.

The man's feet had barely left the ground when bone vines closed in from behind, pinning him into the broken tabletop.

"Second move."

"Aren't you still in your weakened period?"

"I don't need to recover to kill you."

The Sound Ninja opened his mouth to shout, but Poison Vine sealed his jaw, leaving only his nostrils free to breathe.

The ninja with the copper tube glanced at the door, then at the Root squad outside.

"Captain Kinoe, this isn't what we agreed on!"

Kinoe remained outside the broken window.

"Root never made a deal with you."

"You gave us the mission order, and you gave us the antidote. Now you want to deny it?"

"Capture the rogue ninja."

Two Root members entered the room, but they landed in positions that separated Chiba from the Sound Ninja. After drawing their short blades, their blade tips all pointed at the floor.

"Chiba, release the Wood Release and hand him over to us."

"Back off."

"They're suspected of attacking a Konoha chunin. The Anbu should interrogate them."

"When you were waiting for him to be poisoned, why didn't you care about the rules?"

Kinoe raised the vial into the moonlight.

"Iruka's poison is still spreading. If you keep delaying, his chakra pathways will be damaged."

Cloth rustled beside the bed. Iruka supported himself against the wall and sat up. His left arm could no longer rise, yet his right hand still reached for his ninja tool pouch.

"Don't give it to him."

Chiba did not turn around.

"You want to lose an arm?"

"I said, don't trade your blood for it."

Kinoe's fingers shifted over the vial's mouth.

"He knows the condition?"

"He can guess."

The ninja with the copper tube took advantage of their conversation and crashed toward the window. He spat the remaining half of the metal tube at Kinoe while his body slipped through a gap in the vine wall.

"Stop him!"

The Root members chased through the broken window, but after landing, the man did not run toward the street. He pressed both hands against the mud, pouring all his chakra into the soles of his feet.

"Earth Release: Hiding in Earth Technique!"

The ground collapsed into a gap.

The Sound Ninja had barely sunk his calves into the earth when underground water veins were drawn toward this area by the roots. The soil became saturated, and several water-absorbing vines surged up from below, wrapping around his ankles.

"Let go! I surrender!"

"Third move."

Chiba closed his five fingers.

The roots split apart to either side, yanking the Sound Ninja's legs back to the surface. His knees slammed against the stone pavement, and before he could raise himself, bone vines had looped around his neck and pressed his face into the pooled water.

"Don't kill him! He can testify!"

Iruka shouted from against the bed, his chest heaving several more times afterward.

Chiba halted the vine tip and reached out to tear open the Sound Ninja's outer clothing.

Two poison vials, a roll of forged experiment records, and a sheet of gray paper folded into the shape of a cedar leaf slid out from the lining.

When Kinoe saw the paper, he immediately pulled the vial back into his sleeve.

"That's just a Hidden Sound Village contact paper."

"You recognize it?"

"Konoha has confiscated similar items before."

Chiba unfolded the gray paper. There was no writing inside, only nine pinholes and three creases.

There had been no such code in his memories of the previous life's plot. Yet the mission pouches at the waists of the Root members bore the same arrangement, and the crease at the edge even matched Kinoe's squad number.

The Sound Ninja pinned in the water raised half his face.

"That's the rendezvous code you gave us. Enter the village at the hour of the Monkey, act at midnight, leave a route open on East Street, hand over the target at the old shrine."

"Shut up!"

A Root ninja beside Kinoe stepped forward, and a bone vine immediately pressed against his throat.

"Take another step."

The short blade froze in midair.

Kinoe looked at the gray paper in Chiba's hand.

"Hand over Root's classified information."

"You just said it belonged to Hidden Sound Village."

"This matter requires investigation."

"I'll give it to the Third Hokage."

"Chiba, you don't know what holding that will bring."

"I do."

Chiba folded the gray paper back into its original shape and tucked it into his inner pocket. Then he had a thin vine curl around the antidote hidden in Kinoe's sleeve.

Kinoe clenched the vial.

The vine did not pull. It merely rested at the vial's mouth.

"The paper, or Iruka's life?"

"Neither belongs to you."

"Then keep holding it."

Iruka's breaths had grown shallow. The poison patterns crawled from his left shoulder to the side of his neck. His fingers tried to grasp the bedframe, but twice they failed to catch hold.

Kinoe waited for a moment before finally letting go.

The vial slid along the vine into Chiba's palm.

"This medicine can only slow the poison."

"Enough."

Chiba bit open the stopper and poured half the medicine into Iruka's mouth. He poured the rest around the needle wounds on Iruka's shoulder, and Poison Vine immediately pressed against his chakra pathways, drawing the fading poison outward toward the wounds.

Iruka coughed twice, his palm finally gripping the bedframe.

"You really kept the evidence?"

"Yeah."

"They won't admit it."

"Then let them lose sleep first."

Kinoe turned and sent a signal to summon the Anbu. Red light rose over the roof, and footsteps soon echoed through the nearby streets.

Using the vines for support, Iruka stood up. His gaze swept over the three immobilized Sound Ninja before finally settling on Chiba's shoulder.

Moonlight leaked through the damaged roof. Shattered tiles and poisoned blood hung from the Bone Wood vines, while the student who should have been resting in the medical department stood at the front. Even the wound on his arm had not split open again.

"Chiba, when did you become this strong?"

"Last night."

"I wasn't complimenting you."

"I could tell."

"Hand them over to the Anbu first. As for what happened tonight, you're not allowed to hide a single word."

Chiba supported Iruka's right arm as it nearly slipped down.

"Medical department first."

Iruka looked toward Kinoe outside the window.

"You're coming too."

Kinoe did not respond.

Iruka shoved the bloodstained kunai back into his ninja tool pouch.

"I'm still alive. No one is writing my report for me tonight."

As the distant Anbu rushed past the street entrance, the gray paper in Chiba's pocket began to heat on its own. Among the nine pinholes, a fourth unfinished order slowly emerged.