Underground Morgue

The hospital's Underground Morgue never saw sunlight.

When the iron door swung open, a wave of disinfectant and cold air rushed out. Lights along the wall flickered on one after another, casting white light over rows of metal body drawers and making the corridor seem endless.

Kinoshita Shinji walked ahead under escort by the Konoha Military Police Force.

His legs were still trembling. The black grudge inside him had been drawn out, but three years of mental corrosion had left many of his memories ragged and broken, as though insects had eaten through them.

Naruto followed behind him.

Kakashi and Jiraiya flanked him. Several medical ninja had been called in to examine the morgue's layout. The Third Hokage had come too. He stood at the corridor entrance, his face colder than the walls.

He had never imagined someone had planted a covert operation in the hospital as well.

The Hokage Office, Root, the advisors, the Sarutobi Old Storehouse, the Naka Stone Tablet, Minato's Old Residence, and now the hospital's Underground Morgue.

Konoha was like a garment hollowed out by moths.

It still looked wearable, but the inside crumbled to dust at a touch.

Kinoshita Shinji stopped before the third row of body drawers.

"Here."

He pointed to a drawer on the bottom row.

An old number was affixed to its door. The register listed it as holding the remains of an unnamed shinobi killed in battle years ago.

A medical ninja frowned.

"That number should have been cleared. A drawer wouldn't stay occupied this long."

Kakashi gripped the handle, but just as he was about to pull, Naruto raised a hand to stop him.

"There's a seal."

A black thread, almost too fine to see, lay hidden in the gap around the door.

It was no standard Konoha seal.

A golden formula appeared in Naruto's palm. He pressed it against the door, inch by inch.

The moment the black thread sensed Chakra, it writhed like a living worm and tried to burrow into the golden formula.

Naruto gave a cold snort.

Nine-Tails Chakra wrapped around the outside of the formula.

The thread let out a faint shriek as it burned. At last, it curled into a ball, and Naruto sealed it inside a tiny sphere of Chakra.

Kakashi pulled the drawer open.

There was no body inside.

A hidden compartment lay beneath the drawer.

Jiraiya lifted its cover, revealing a narrow ladder leading down.

Cold air surged up from below.

Colder than the morgue itself.

Kinoshita Shinji went pale. "I only delivered things. I've never gone down there."

Naruto descended first.

A small sealed room lay at the bottom of the ladder.

Preservation jars and racks of Scrolls filled the room. Diagrams of the human Chakra network hung on the walls, but instead of a typical shinobi's Chakra points, they marked the stages of Chakra development in infants and young children.

A sealed glass case sat on the table in the center.

Inside were several dried blood samples.

The label read:

"Naruto Uzumaki, seventh day after birth."

Naruto stopped before the table.

Jiraiya's face darkened the instant he saw the label.

"They took your blood?"

A medical ninja checked the records beside it, his voice shaking.

"Blood is taken during newborn examinations, but these samples aren't in the official medical files."

Kakashi opened a Scroll.

The more he read, the tighter his fingers gripped it.

"Nine-Tails seal compatibility."

"Uzumaki Bloodline recovery capacity."

"Chakra stimulation experiments."

"Age three, four, five... They did this every year."

Naruto walked to the record rack.

The files were arranged by year.

From his birth to the present.

His physical condition, fluctuations in the seal, wound recovery, and Chakra responses to emotional provocation had all been recorded in meticulous detail.

When he was four, villagers had pushed him into a river, and he had run a fever for three days.

The record said:

"Under high fever, Nine-Tails Chakra did not activate to protect the host. Continue observation."

When he was five, Root had tested him with a sealing needle.

The record said:

"Mild pain stimulus can cause a brief leak of Tailed Beast Chakra. Subject has no ability to control it voluntarily."

Jiraiya slammed his fist into the wall.

The wall cracked.

"Bastards."

Kakashi said nothing.

As he stared at the records, he kept seeing a tiny Naruto sitting in a hospital corner while medical ninja drew his blood and examined him. The boy hadn't known he was being observed rather than treated.

The Third Hokage picked up a record. His face darkened further when he saw the approval section.

His name wasn't there.

Neither were the advisors' names.

There was only an unfamiliar symbol.

A black ring with a vertical line through its center.

Jiraiya frowned.

"That isn't the seal of any Konoha department."

Kinoshita Shinji huddled by the door, his voice trembling.

"He wore that symbol every time he came."

Naruto picked up the rubbing of the Black Ring Mark.

The Nine-Tails spoke quietly within him. "Brat, it smells just like the Black Sludge."

Naruto asked Kinoshita Shinji, "What did he want this data for?"

Kinoshita Shinji clutched his head in pain.

"I only heard him say it once."

"He said... if the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was pushed to his limit and the Hokage system wasn't there to catch him, he would become the perfect rift."

Jiraiya's expression changed.

"A rift?"

Kinoshita Shinji nodded.

"He also said the more Konoha feared the Nine-Tails, the easier it would be for the Nine-Tails to become a door."

Naruto looked at the blood samples.

A door.

This was no ordinary power grab or simple attempt to frame someone.

The shadowy figure wanted to use the Nine-Tails—or rather, the rift between Naruto and Konoha—to open something.

A system alert sounded.

[Hidden experiment uncovered: Nine-Tails Rift Plan.]

[Mission issued: Destroy the illegal blood samples, make the hospital's hidden files public, and cut off the mastermind's access to the host's physical data.]

Naruto raised a hand.

Chakra arms swept up all the blood samples and data.

"Wait," Jiraiya said quickly. "We can use those as evidence."

Naruto did not stop.

"Keep copies for evidence."

He looked at the medical ninja.

"Copy them."

The medical ninja immediately took out blank Scrolls and began recording.

Kakashi joined in copying the files.

Once they had copied all the critical information, Naruto piled the blood sample containers, experimental needles, and sealing stimulators in the center of the room.

Nine-Tails Chakra descended upon them.

Glass shattered, blood samples evaporated, and sealing needles melted into scrap.

Six years' worth of stored physical data and blood samples vanished bit by bit in golden flames.

The Third Hokage stood in the doorway, his voice hoarse.

"Naruto, I'll investigate the hospital thoroughly."

Naruto did not turn around.

"You won't be the one investigating everything."

He handed the rubbing of the Black Ring Mark to Jiraiya.

"You investigate this."

Then he looked at Kakashi.

"You investigate the hospital staff."

Finally, he looked at the Third Hokage.

"You investigate yourself."

The Third Hokage stiffened slightly.

Naruto picked up the last Scroll from the back of the room.

It had no title. Only one line was written on its seal:

"If the Nine-Tails accepts its host, proceed immediately to phase two."

Naruto tore the seal open.

The first sentence inside read:

"Once the subject escapes isolation and control, prioritize inducing the Five Great Shinobi Villages to intervene."

The words drove an icy spike into everyone's back. The Five Great Shinobi Villages—that meant the mastermind had calculated when they would come, who would arrive first, and how they would get here.