Inside another medical chamber, later, the air shimmered faintly with sterilizing chakra.
Rows of storage seals lined the walls, each one holding a different compound Ryusei and Kanae had prepared over the last few days.
Pakura sat on the edge of the reinforced table, arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently.
Her tone was sharp, but her eyes betrayed a hint of excitement.
"So, after all this time, you finally decided I'm worth the effort?"
Ryusei glanced up from the control seal he was finishing. "You've been pestering me about this every other day. I'm surprised you lasted this long without breaking into the labs yourself."
"Don't tempt me," she said, smirking faintly. "You've been promising this for way more than a year. I started thinking you just liked watching me wait."
Kanae, standing at the far side of the room, didn't look up from the chakra monitor.
"If you two are done flirting, we can start. Her chakra network needs to stay steady, or this will take twice as long."
Pakura's smirk froze for a second, her glare shifting toward Kanae. "I wasn't flirting."
Ryusei hid a quiet smile and motioned for her to lie down. "You heard the medic. Try not to burn the place before we even begin."
She obeyed, muttering under her breath, though her heartbeat betrayed more anticipation than irritation.
As she lay back, Ryusei pressed a chakra suppression seal over her abdomen, activating a faint green glow.
Kanae adjusted the infusion array, connecting the narrow tubes carrying the refined Hashirama cell solution.
Ryusei's voice dropped into a calm, professional tone. "The idea is gradual absorption. We're integrating the cells through your circulatory chakra flow, not forcing them into the muscle fibers. You'll feel heat spreading through your body. If it gets too intense, focus your chakra around the solar plexus, not the hands."
Pakura nodded, already controlling her breathing.
The first wave entered her system, a faint warmth rolling across her chest and arms.
Her Scorch Release chakra reacted immediately, the air around her shimmering with heat distortion before Kanae's stabilizing seals suppressed it.
"Still alive," Pakura muttered. "Feels like I swallowed the sun, though."
"Good," Ryusei said. "That means it's working."
Kanae kept her Byakugan active, tracking the movement of the foreign cells. "Distribution even. No overgrowth yet. She's adapting faster than Nagato did."
"Of course I am," Pakura said, eyes half-open, tone teasing despite the strain. "He was half-dead when you found him. I'm still in my prime."
Ryusei gave her a brief, amused look. "If you're still talking, you're fine. Save the boasting for later."
The heat in her body stabilized after a few minutes. Sweat formed across her neck, her breathing shallow but steady.
Kanae adjusted the dosage, then stepped back.
"That's enough for the first phase," she said. "Any more and she'll start regenerating faster than her system can handle."
Pakura exhaled slowly, turning her head toward Ryusei. "So, how long before I stop feeling like I'm being slow-cooked?"
"A few hours," he said. "You'll sleep through most of it."
She gave him a tired grin. "I'll hold you to that. And this time, don't send a clone when I wake up. I want the real one."
Ryusei didn't answer, just gave a faint smile as he removed the chakra seals from her arm.
Kanae shot him a sidelong glance but stayed quiet, already packing up her instruments.
The silence that followed carried something unspoken, something both Pakura and Ryusei felt, but neither commented on.
Outside the chamber, the hum of seals faded.
For the first time in months, Pakura looked at him not as her savior or her promised scientist, but as someone she couldn't quite keep at arm's length anymore.
...
When Pakura woke, the chamber was dim and quiet.
The seals still glowed faintly, their hum steady like a heartbeat.
Her skin felt fever-warm, every muscle heavy, but the pain was gone.
Ryusei sat nearby, half-leaning against the table, flipping through a seal tag between his fingers like he had all the time in the world.
"You actually stayed," she murmured, voice rough.
Over the months, she'd accused him more than once of tricking her into waiting, saying he was deliberately dragging out his Hashirama research just to keep her near the hideout.
Deep down, she knew he was simply too methodical to rush, but teasing him about it had become a habit, a way to make him react, and sometimes, to make him stay longer.
He didn't look up. "Someone had to make sure you didn't explode in your sleep."
She gave a slow grin. "That's sweet. You'd miss me if I did?"
"More like I'd have to clean it up," he said dryly. "And you'd probably haunt me out of spite."
Pakura chuckled, then glanced down at her arm, where faint lines of green chakra still pulsed under her skin. "So? Did your miracle work?"
He pocketed the tag. "Only one batch down. The next ones come on schedule. Gradual upgrades, you're my long-term project, after all."
Pakura smirked faintly. "Project? You really know how to make a woman feel special."
He tilted his head, that calm, amused look never leaving him. "That's only the start. Give it some time, and you won't be just a project anymore. I'll be rebuilding you piece by piece, into something that might finally meet my standards."
Her brow lifted, amusement flickering in her eyes. "Rebuilding me, huh? That already sounds like taking some kind of ownership. And those standards of yours, are you even designing me to your taste now?"
Ryusei smiled just enough to be infuriating. "Maybe I already have. Both."
It wasn't far from the truth, in a way.
Ryusei had spent countless hours near her living place here, sometimes in real person, sometimes as a clone, checking on her progress, teasing her, or dropping in just to make her roll her eyes at his comments.
When he couldn't come himself, his shadow clones trained with her, sparred, or brought small reports to keep her from feeling forgotten.
Over time, that rhythm turned into something neither of them questioned: she'd complain, he'd smirk, and somehow the days didn't feel as long.
And this was why his teasing and playful remarks no longer offended her; she'd grown used to them, even found them oddly engaging, almost electric, in a way that left her feeling unexpectedly good sometimes.
Meanwhile, she just rolled her eyes at his last sentence, but couldn't hide the faint color on her cheeks. "You're impossible."
"And yet," he said lightly, "you're still here."
She sighed, lying back again. "Only because you promised I'd be able to burn Rasa and others alive on my own someday."
The mention of Rasa always sharpened her tone, but the fire didn't hide what Ryusei already understood.
Revenge was still her goal, but leaving him wasn't.
She'd gotten used to his voice, his quiet confidence, and the way his presence anchored this place.
Even her jealousy toward the others, Kanae, Kiyomi, and even Tsunade, when she visited, had cooled into something playful, like an unspoken rivalry that only made their exchanges livelier.
"Promises I keep," he said. "Though if you're planning to overthrow an entire village, try not to collapse halfway through. I don't do refunds."
Pakura's laugh was quiet but genuine. "I should've known you'd find a way to turn medical recovery into a business model."
Ryusei's tone turned playful. "If I didn't, you'd have left a long time ago. Admit it."
Her eyes narrowed, but there was no real bite in it. "You're just afraid I'd forget you."
"Pakura," he said with that faint half-smile that always made her suspicious, "I don't invest this much effort in anyone planning to forget me."
For a moment, she couldn't find a comeback.
The warmth in her chest wasn't just from the Hashirama cells anymore.
"Careful," she muttered. "You sound like you're flirting."
He shrugged. "Maybe I am. It keeps my patients motivated."
She exhaled through her nose, smiling despite herself. "One day you'll slip and say what you actually mean."
Ryusei leaned forward, lowering his voice just slightly. "You'd be disappointed if I did. The mystery's the only thing keeping you entertained."
Pakura stared at him, then laughed softly. "You really are a problem."
"I prefer long-term project," he said. "Now sleep. The next dose is tomorrow, and I need you alive for at least that long."
"Bossy," she muttered, closing her eyes again.
"Efficient," he corrected, standing up and adjusting the seals.
When he glanced back, her breathing had already steadied, but the faint smile still lingered on her lips.
Ryusei looked at her for a moment, the corners of his mouth twitching. "One more variable behaving exactly as expected," he said quietly.
Then he left the room, knowing full well she'd remember every word when she woke again.
Yet he didn't mention that Kiyomi was next in line for the same procedure, and that he'd be heading there with Kanae soon after.
From the beginning, the plan had always included both of them, Pakura and Kiyomi, receiving the 'Hashirama treatment' as early as possible.
"One older, fiery, and carved straight out of battle. The other younger, charming, and convinced she owns the room, and probably me too."
He walked down the corridor with that usual unhurried gait, arms folding loosely as a faint grin tugged at his mouth. "Blessed might be one word for it," he thought. "Outnumbered feels more accurate."
A quiet sigh followed. "Hashirama's cells are dangerous, sure," he mused, "but still safer than my schedule, and those two."
But the grin still lingered, subtle but genuine. "Still, good problem to have," he admitted. "Could be way worse. After all, at least they're both lethal and gorgeous in their own way."