"Tap. Tap. Tap."
The dull sound of a wooden cane striking the floor came from the shadows deep within the laboratory. The rhythm was exceedingly slow, yet it carried the oppressive authority of someone accustomed to giving orders and controlling life and death.
Accompanied by those suffocating footsteps, the grotesque mass of flesh soaking in the enormous culture vessel began to pulse even more violently. The muffled thuds shook the blastproof glass slightly. Grayish-white First-Generation Cells and dark-silver Astral Matter were savagely tearing into each other, devouring one another and squeezing out nauseating yellow-green pus. The stench of formaldehyde mixed with rotting flesh was so thick it nearly seemed tangible.
Hinata was tightly bound to the cold stainless-steel operating table. She turned her head and looked past the blinding surgical lamp toward the source of the sound.
A shriveled old man with half his body wrapped in bandages entered the harsh white light, leaning on a wooden cane as he stepped forward.
Shimura Danzō.
His exposed left eye was webbed with murky blood vessels. That single eye was fixed on Hinata atop the operating table, overflowing with undisguised fanaticism and greed. He was not looking at a living person, but appraising an unparalleled treasure—a miraculous elixir that could elevate him to godhood.
"Lord Danzo." The fox-masked ANBU agent and the two medical shinobi in white coats immediately dropped to one knee, their attitudes utterly respectful.
"Hiashi did not grow suspicious, did he?" Danzo walked to the operating table and looked down at Hinata.
"No. Lord Hiashi was extremely furious and even intended to attack, but in the end, he put the village's greater interests first and compromised," the fox-masked ANBU reported with his head lowered.
"The greater interests? Hmph." Danzo sneered, his age-spotted face twisting into a mocking expression. "The