Ten Minutes of Steel Spent for Evolution

The pile of stones rose half a foot, then dropped back down.

Iron Claw's right hand gripped a rock, leaving five dents in its surface, but the boulder pinning his waist and abdomen still did not move.

Chiba sat down atop the rubble.

Iron Claw stared at him.

"What are you sitting there for?"

"Waiting."

"Waiting for Konoha reinforcements?"

"Waiting for you to change back."

Iron Claw lowered his head and glanced at his hardened arm.

"This technique can last an entire day."

"You threw seventeen punches just now."

"So what?"

"Starting with the third punch, the color on your right shoulder faded. After the eleventh, your footprints became twenty percent lighter."

Iron Claw pressed his palm against the pile of stones.

"You were counting the whole time?"

"Habit."

"Then did you calculate how many punches it would take me to kill you after I got out?"

"Three."

"You do know your stuff."

"Which is why you're not getting out."

The metallic color on the back of Iron Claw's hand receded a short distance toward his wrist, then was quickly replenished by chakra.

He hid his hand behind a rock.

"Come over and talk."

"We can talk here."

"I know who the buyer is."

"The one in the pit knows too."

"He only met the contact. I saw the token the buyer left behind."

"Take it out."

"Move the rocks first."

Chiba took out a sample vial from his pack and placed it beside his knee.

"You can hold on for another nine minutes."

"Nine minutes is enough for me to kill you."

"Then hurry up."

Iron Claw exerted himself again.

The rocks squeezed against one another, and the Bone Vines buried beneath them tightened in response. Several supports locked around the backs of his knees, shrinking his range of movement by another half foot.

His hardened fist struck the pile of stones twice.

When the second blow landed, Iron Claw's shoulder had already revealed its original skin color.

"What kind of vine is this?"

"To keep you from crawling out."

"You still had the strength to set this up while the mine was collapsing?"

"I set it up first, then it collapsed."

Iron Claw stopped striking. Instead, he gathered his chakra, concentrating the hardened color around his waist, abdomen, and the side of his neck. His exposed right arm gradually returned to flesh and blood.

"Aren't you afraid I'll use Steel Hardening Technique again after I recover?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you sitting so close?"

"Easier to collect blood."

Chiba unscrewed the sample vial and set it by his feet.

Iron Claw looked at the mouth of the vial and spat out a mouthful of saliva mixed with dirt and ash.

"Where did Konoha raise a brat like you?"

"An orphanage."

"Are you the only one left of the Senju clan?"

"For now."

"The buyer's offering a high price. Capturing you alive can fetch the price of three jōnin corpses, yet you came out yourself looking for a fight."

"Who gave you the information?"

"Move the rocks first."

"Seven minutes left."

"Shut up!"

Iron Claw swung his fist at the rubble. His flesh-and-blood palm knocked aside a small stone, while the back of his hand split open.

Chiba had thin vines carry away the drops of blood that fell on the stone surface and deliver them into a second sample vial.

The system did not react.

The residual metal-element chakra in the blood was rapidly dissipating in his normal state.

"You're stealing my blood?"

"Not enough."

Iron Claw withdrew his injured hand into a crack between the rocks.

"You want Steel Hardening Technique?"

"Your technique doesn't suit me."

"A piece of wood wants to become iron too?"

"I can try."

Iron Claw leaned back against the pile of stones, his breathing gradually becoming heavier.

"Let me out. I'll teach you Steel Hardening Technique, and we can kill our way back to Konoha together. I'll split half the buyer's money with you."

"You wanted to sell me just now."

"Deals can change."

"People can be traded too?"

"Ninja trade their lives for money. What's there that can't be negotiated?"

Chiba looked toward the vine shells trapping the four hunters.

"What about them?"

Iron Claw did not look in that direction.

"Four genin. If they die, we can find more."

The sensory ninja at the bottom of the pit heard that and rammed his shoulder against the vine wall.

"Iron Claw, you said we'd split the bounty equally!"

"Keep yelling, and once I get out, I'll kill you first."

"You can't get out at all!"

The sensory ninja continued shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Konoha brat, I'll tell you where the token is hidden. Spare my life!"

"Talk."

"In Iron Claw's left boot sole. There's a black iron plate in the hidden layer, carved with tree roots!"

Iron Claw reached for his left leg.

The Bone Vines buried beneath the stones tightened ahead of him. A thin root pried open the sole of his boot, and the black iron plate slid out through a crack in the rubble.

Chiba used a vine to retrieve the iron plate.

There were no words on its surface, only an upside-down dead tree. Its roots stretched upward while its branches were buried underground.

It resembled the dark pattern on Root mission bags, but lacked the outer ring.

"That isn't the buyer's token."

Iron Claw propped up his upper body.

"I just picked it off a corpse."

"Whose corpse?"

"Yaqu's."

"Where did he get it?"

"Untie one of my legs first."

"Four minutes left."

Iron Claw raised his arm and smashed down toward Chiba's feet.

The hardening only covered his fist; his elbow and shoulder remained flesh and blood. After his fist struck the Bone Vines, it failed to break the supports and instead twisted his wrist aside.

He pulled his hand back, his breathing already in disarray.

"You want to wait until I exhaust my chakra, then use poison to control me?"

"Yes."

"Aren't you afraid I'll sever my own chakra pathways?"

"You'd die faster that way."

"I can still bite off a piece of your flesh before I die!"

"Try it."

Chiba moved forward half a step.

Iron Claw opened his mouth and cursed several times, but his body did not move again. The hardened color receded from his shoulders to his chest, then finally concentrated around his neck and half his face.

After a while, the side of his neck returned to its skin color as well.

Chiba stood up.

Iron Claw immediately raised a hand to protect his throat.

"Wait, I'll cooperate."

The bony Poison Vine stopped before the back of his hand.

"You had two choices just now."

"I still do."

"Tell me."

"First, I let the poison enter your chakra pathways, extract your cells, then turn you over to Konoha for the bounty."

"And the second?"

"If you don't cooperate, I kill you, then extract them anyway."

Iron Claw licked the blood from his lips.

"You call those two choices?"

"One means living. The other means dying."

"If I live, can you guarantee Konoha won't send me to the interrogation division?"

"No."

"Then why should I choose the first?"

"You can choose the second if you want."

The vine tip curled around the back of Iron Claw's hand and pierced beneath the skin beside his carotid artery. Before the venom was even released, half his face had already pressed back against the stone.

"The first one. I choose the first one. Stop!"

"Don't resist with chakra."

"Pull the vine out first!"

"If I pull it out, you'll use Steel Hardening Technique."

"My chakra is already exhausted!"

"Then don't rush."

The toxin entered his bloodstream, and Iron Claw's arm quickly lost its support.

Chiba had another thin vine pierce his shoulder. Its roots spread beneath the skin, gathering the remaining earth-element and metal-element chakra.

The World Tree panel lit up.

[Defeated a quasi-jōnin-level target.]

[Obtained 6 evolution points.]

[Cell sample extraction in progress.]

[Obtained an active earth-style cell sample.]

[Obtained an active metal-element cell sample.]

Three new branches split from above the World Tree's trunk, gray leaves lighting up one after another.

[Evolution Path One: Wood Release: Metal Wood.]

[Wood absorbs metallic elements, increasing hardness and penetrating power while gaining combined offensive and defensive properties.]

[Evolution Path Two: Wood Release: Earth Root Network.]

[Roots combine with earth-element chakra, expanding underground sensing and remote control range.]

[Evolution Path Three: Wood Release: Mineralized Shell.]

[The outer layer of wood undergoes mineralization, gaining ultimate defensive capability. Movement speed and chakra consumption are affected.]

Iron Claw's voice came from beneath the pile of rocks.

"What exactly did you put in my body?"

"Taking something."

"You've already taken half a bottle of blood!"

"I still need cells."

"Even Konoha's Interrogation Department doesn't take samples like you do!"

Chiba pulled out the vine tip and sealed the sample vial.

The system branches were still awaiting a choice. The Metal Wood and Resonance Vibration routes were the closest, separated only by an unlit composite node.

He reached out and touched the first branch.

Outside the mine, someone pushed aside the rubble, and Kinoe's voice came through.

"Chiba, hand Iron Claw over to Root."