Third floor of Konoha Hospital, special isolation ward.
The air was thick with the pungent stench of disinfectant, mixed with a sickly sweetness of decay—the scent of chakra mutation released when a Curse Mark eroded flesh. The fluorescent lights overhead gave off a low hum, casting their ghastly white light evenly across the metal instruments and white sheets.
Mitaraishi Anko lay on the hospital bed, breathing so faintly that her chest barely rose and fell. Three black tomoe-shaped Curse Marks on her neck writhed slowly, spreading web-like black patterns across the surrounding skin as though they were alive. Each wriggle made Anko's body twitch slightly, cold sweat beading across her forehead.
Hyuga Xiao stood in the shadows at the corner of the ward, both hands tucked into his ninja tool pouch. His fingertips gently rubbed the Vitality Seed he had brought back from Orochimaru's Laboratory. His Byakugan remained active. In his vision, Anko's chakra pathways were being corroded by a viscous black energy—an energy carrying Orochimaru's signature cold, slimy presence, like the saliva of a venomous snake slowly dissolving its host's life force.
"Seventeen hours left."
Xiao calculated the time silently. Thirty-one hours had passed since they returned from the Naka River. The chakra code he had left inside Anko could only maintain forced dormancy for forty-eight hours. Once time ran out, Orochimaru's fragment of consciousness would awaken completely. Then, Anko would either become a vessel or suffer brain death.
The ward door opened.
Shizune entered first, carrying the pink pig, Tonton, in her arms. Her face bore the exhaustion of a long journey. Right after her, another figure stepped into the room.
Long golden hair was tied into a ponytail behind her head, with two loose strands falling over her forehead. She wore a dark green short coat, the