The probe was only an inch away from the eyeball.
The cold metal needle tip reflected a blinding gleam beneath the surgical lamp. A drop of clear disinfectant trembled at its tip, carrying a chilling aura that made one's skin crawl.
"Don't move, young lady." The medical ninja pinned Hinata's forehead down with his left hand while operating the control lever with his right. "This eye-extraction device is very precise. Shift by even a millimeter, and your optic nerve will be mangled. Cooperate obediently, and you might suffer a little less."
Danzo stood two steps away, his withered fingers clenched tightly around his wooden cane. His cloudy left eye was fixed on the probe, greed and fanaticism reflected in its pupil.
"Quick! Take it out!" Danzo rasped impatiently. "My perfect vessel only lacks this final piece!"
Just as the probe was about to pierce the cornea.
The medical ninja's hand on the control lever suddenly froze. He saw Hinata's face.
The face that had been streaked with tears and twisted by fear had lost all weakness in that instant, like a receding tide. The girl's lips curled upward in an utterly incongruous expression, forming a cold, cruel smile filled with intense mockery.
"What are you smiling at?" An inexplicable chill rose in the medical ninja's heart, and his fingers began to tremble uncontrollably.
"I'm laughing at you." Hinata's voice no longer shook. Every word was like a blade, carrying detached disdain from high above. "You don't even know your time of death has come."
Before her words had faded.
The intricate array engraved by Hyuga Xiao himself at the Life Gate acupoint on Hinata's lower back suddenly lit up.
There were no hand seals, nor was there any need to refine chakra. An overwhelmingly domineering energy, one that belonged to