The air in Ling's laboratory seemed to freeze. That strand of pure senjutsu chakra, like a silver fish swimming upstream, struggled to reach into the distance along the elusive yet very real dark "veins." The process demanded immense concentration. Ling had to keep the senjutsu energy stable while mimicking fluctuations that shared the dark power's frequency but opposed its nature, lest the Sacred Lord's will detect him too soon.
Sweat trickled down his temples. He could sense a blazing, chaotic core of energy in that distant region shrouded in dense darkness-that was Sasuke. Deeper within that core lurked a colder will, greater and more ancient, like a venomous snake coiled in the depths of its lair, intensely alert to any disturbance from outside.
Just as Ling's senjutsu ripples were about to touch the edge of Sasuke's chaotic energy core, that cold will seemed to detect something. A wave brimming with rejection and malice swept toward him like a tentacle!
Ling's heart tightened. He immediately made the senjutsu ripples finer and more scattered, like a drop of ink dissolving in water, trying to evade the direct scan. At the same time, he wrapped a concentrated mental impulse, filled with warning and a call to return, in the very heart of the senjutsu energy.
"Sasuke... wake up..."
It was not a complex message, but more a projection of pure emotion and intent-a call to their former bonds, a warning of the danger at hand.
Bzzzt-!
The senjutsu ripples made fleeting contact with that cold will. Ling felt a terrifying chill rush back along the invisible connection, as though it would freeze his very soul. But the natural energy within his senjutsu gave it an innate resistance to that chill. An azure light flickered, dispersing it.
In that split-second contact, the mental impulse