Top-secret experiment, bodily transformation

"A scrap of paper with a red cloud?"

Sasuke held the scrap in a pair of tweezers and turned it over.

There was no signature, no chakra mark, only a drop of dried black blood.

Kakashi studied it for two breaths. "It isn't from Konoha's ANBU."

Shikaku stood at the secret chamber's entrance. "The Third Hokage just summoned his old ANBU squads, and now a foreign mark has appeared on the eaves. Someone's enjoying Konoha's humiliation."

Fugaku's expression darkened. "Itachi?"

Sasuke tossed the scrap into the brazier. "Whoever it is, spectators have to pay admission."

Yamada Naoto wanted to ask more, but Shikaku had already placed a report on the table. "The results of the operation against the Root remnants are in. From last night until now, forty-seven were captured, nine died, and six escaped. Half the Hokage Building's logistics network has been rooted out. Three members of the Barrier Team admitted to receiving stipends from Root."

Sasuke flipped through the report. "The six who escaped-have their families been detained and their accounts frozen?"

"Yes." Shikaku pressed his brow. "But the Third Hokage has announced at the Hokage Building that you're using the treason case to seize resources directly under the Hokage's control."

"If he still has room to talk, we aren't moving fast enough." Sasuke closed the report. "Ino-Shika-Cho, the Hyuga, and the Konoha Military Police Force. We'll divide the resources tonight."

Shikaku looked up. "Now?"

"If we don't distribute the confiscated supplies, our allies will sit back and watch. If we wait too long, they'll wonder whether I intend to keep everything." Sasuke pointed to several nearby crates. "Nonessential medicinal herbs go to the Akimichi Clan, seats on the joint intelligence review go to the Yamanaka Clan, and sealing materials go to the Nara Clan. The Byakugan experiment data and Hizashi's effects go back to the Hyuga. The police get funds and defensive equipment."

Fugaku frowned. "What about the Wood Release Charts?"

"They stay with the Uchiha." Sasuke looked at Shikaku. "That's nonnegotiable."

Shikaku fell silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled. "You're better at dividing the spoils than plenty of adults."

Sasuke raised his eyes. "Don't make the lawful recovery of stolen assets sound so ugly."

By the time Inoichi Yamanaka and Akimichi Choza arrived, the Sealing Lamp outside the secret chamber had already been changed to blue.

Choza saw the list of medicinal herbs, and his hand stopped at the edge of the table. "All these ingredients for Soldier Pills-you're really giving them to the Akimichi Clan?"

"Root used these ingredients to feed its expendable operatives." Sasuke pushed the inventory toward him. "The Akimichi Clan will turn them into supplies for the border. I lose nothing."

Choza stamped the receipt with his clan seal. "The Akimichi Clan will remember this."

Inoichi received the document granting seats on the joint intelligence review, and his gaze stopped on the final clause. "The Yamanaka Clan will take long-term responsibility for psychological screening of police recruits?"

"The expenses come out of Root's funds." Sasuke looked at him. "You do the work, I pay you. Cleaner than the Hokage Building's empty promises."

Inoichi didn't argue. He stamped it quickly.

Hiashi entered last, with Neji following behind him.

Sasuke opened the sealed cabinet. Inside lay the Byakugan experiment data and evidence related to Hizashi.

Seeing his younger brother's name, Hiashi tapped a finger against the cabinet door. "The Hyuga accept. Our Byakugan squad will maintain a permanent presence on the police defense council from now on."

Neji looked up at Sasuke. "Is the list of threats to Hanabi in there too?"

"Yes." Sasuke handed him a thin scroll. "I won't interfere with how the Hyuga handle their internal affairs. But if the Root remnants touch her, the police will draw their blades first."

Neji accepted it with both hands, the hatred in his eyes dark and heavy. "I'll keep watch."

Once the resources had been distributed, only the core group remained in the secret chamber.

Fugaku shut the door. "Time to discuss the operation."

Kakashi looked at Sasuke's left arm. "That was only the initial fusion. You want to continue?"

Sasuke spread out the revised Wood Release Charts and pointed to several red lines. "Danzo's mistake was grafting it onto his right arm without feeding the chakra into his primary channels. I'm not using an external graft."

Hiashi activated his Byakugan. "You want the Hashirama cells to enter the chakra pathways throughout your body?"

Inoichi's expression changed. "The mental backlash will be worse. Uchiha visual power already leans toward yin. If Wood Release vitality forces its way into your brain, you might never wake up."

Sasuke raised his hand and placed a Sealing Spike on the table. "That's why you're here."

Fugaku stared at him. "I won't agree to this."

Sasuke looked at his father. "You just said that if I lost control, you'd stop the operation."

"Stopping an operation and watching you throw your life away are two different things."

"The Uchiha are keeping Konoha in check with evidence and the law. But the Third Hokage still has ANBU, Danzo is still out there, and there are people out there watching beneath those red clouds." Sasuke tapped the charts. "I don't need them to respect the rules. I need them to consider whether they'll survive before they break them."

Fugaku's chest rose and fell twice.

Kakashi cut in. "What do we need to prepare?"

Fugaku turned and glared at him.

Kakashi spread his hands. "He's already decided. Arguing now will only increase the risk."

Inoichi stared at Sasuke. "I'll ask just one thing. If your mental fluctuations exceed the safe limit, can I forcibly sever the connection?"

"No." Sasuke pushed the sealing array's core toward him. "What you can do is drag me back to the operating table and keep me from killing the medical staff."

Inoichi swore. "You really know how to make trouble for people, kid."

Hiashi took the chakra-point diagram. "Neji will assist me. If our Gentle Fist seals the points even half a beat too late, Wood Release chakra will surge into his heart's pathways."

Neji nodded. "Understood."

A small tube of stabilizing fluid was drawn from the cultivation tank and fed into a compact array.

Sealing Tags lit up from the floor to the walls. Sasuke stepped into the center of the array and removed his outer robe, revealing his left arm, where the blue-green markings had yet to fade.

Fugaku sat by the door with his sword across his knees. "Before we begin, I'll ask you one more time. Are you certain?"

Sasuke reached out and pressed his hand against the array's core.

"Begin."

The stabilizing fluid was injected into his veins.

This time, the blue-green markings didn't stay on his left arm. They crept along his shoulder and neck toward his chest. Fine beads of sweat appeared on Sasuke's forehead, his three tomoe spun, and blood vessels spread across the whites of his eyes.

Hiashi moved immediately. "Neji, left ribs!"

Neji struck with two fingers, sealing back a section of the chakra.

Kakashi watched the Sealing Lamp. "The chakra in his right leg is out of control!"

Fugaku swept his sword across the floor, slicing through half a lightning-fire tag and easing the pressure within the array.

Inoichi pressed his hand to Sasuke's forehead. "Don't resist! I'm only examining your mind!"

A muffled sound escaped Sasuke's throat. His hand clamped onto the edge of the array's core, bending its hardened steel frame.

Inoichi's face went pale. "It's nothing but killing intent in there. Danzo, Itachi, the Third Hokage... isn't there anything in your head that belongs in a normal child's mind?"

The three tomoe in Sasuke's eyes spun faster. "Shut up."

Kakashi suddenly said, "Wood Release chakra is surging toward his eyes!"

Fugaku's blade flashed, severing three energy lines around the array's outer ring. "Sasuke, get out!"

"Keep going." Sasuke forced out the words. His visual power pressed the blue-green markings back down his arm, and a deep pulsing sounded within his chakra pathways.

Hiashi's Byakugan strained until his eyes ached. "His constitution is changing. Muscles, bones, chakra reserves-everything is increasing."

Neji's fingers were going numb, but he didn't dare stop. "Is he devouring that chakra?"

"Not devouring." Sweat dripped from Inoichi's forehead. "He's ordering that power to obey."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open, and the three tomoe stopped spinning.

The Sealing Lamp shifted from red to blue-green, then from blue-green to white.

The Wood Release chakra at the array's edges stopped raging and sank into his entire body along his chakra pathways. Sasuke's chest rose and fell as he lifted his hand from the array's core.

Five warped finger marks remained in the hardened steel core.

Watching from outside the door, Yamada Naoto felt his scalp prickle. "Clan head?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

He raised his hand, gripped a corner of the hardened steel operating table beside him, and gave it a light squeeze.

The steel plate caved in.

Fugaku stepped forward and caught his wrist to examine him. "His pulse has stabilized."

Kakashi circled him once. "Your chakra reserves have increased severalfold, at least. Your recovery isn't normal either. The puncture from the needle has already closed."

Hiashi deactivated his Byakugan, his tone conflicted. "Your body is beginning to approach that of the Senju Clan."

Neji looked down at his numb fingers. "Eight years old?"

Sasuke picked up his outer robe. His movements were a little slow, but he let no one help him.

Inoichi sank into a chair. His hand shook twice as he picked up a teacup. "Next time you do something like this, don't call me in the middle of the night. It'll kill me."

Sasuke straightened his collar. "Your pay goes up thirty percent."

Inoichi looked up. "Fifty."

"Deal."

Hearing that from outside, Shikaku pushed the door open and entered. "You're still haggling? There's movement at the Hokage Building."

Sasuke fastened the final button. "Tell me."

"The old ANBU squads didn't come to the secret chamber." Shikaku handed him an urgent report. "They went to Konoha's outer barrier. The Third Hokage claimed he wanted to strengthen defenses, but they're actually inspecting the police's new blockade points."

Kakashi's expression darkened. "He's looking for gaps."

Sasuke changed into a brand-new black clan head's Hokage Robe, the Uchiha Clan Crest on its cuffs dark beneath the lamplight.

He flexed his wrist. His body brimmed with more chakra than ever before.

"Let him look." Sasuke headed for the door. "The more he investigates, the more fingerprints he'll leave behind."

Fugaku followed him. "You've just completed your transformation. You need rest."

"Rest?" Sasuke stopped at the end of the corridor. His gaze passed through the sealed window toward the dark clouds rolling in beyond the village. "Someone has already hung an invitation from the Hokage Building's eaves."

Kakashi looked at the ashes of the burned red-cloud scrap, his gaze darkening.

Outside the secret chamber, a member of the Konoha Military Police Force rushed over, carrying an urgent report from the Barrier Team.

"Clan head, someone just passed through the outer barrier. There was no breach, no footprint, only traces of spatial distortion."

Sasuke brushed his fingertips over his collar, a cold smile lingering on his lips.

"Finally couldn't hold back."