"Of all the arrogant—"
She cut herself off. Fury wasn't useful right now.
Her husband needed healing beyond what even she could manage alone. But she had a solution. A humorless sound escaped her throat. Half laugh, half growl.
"We just happen to have the right resource on this island."
Young Ay looked up sharply. "What do you mean, Mother?"
Benihime didn't answer him. She looked toward the forest instead.
"Genbu," she called, "bring her here."
Benihime didn't smile. But she felt something cold and certain settle in her chest. If Konoha wanted to play with forbidden jutsu, then Cloud had every right to use what they had captured.
Kushina...The Uzumaki blood, jinchūriki vessel, regenerative monster... wasn't just a prisoner anymore. She will be the key. And Benihime intended to use her. Thoroughly.
--
The moment Kushina hit the ground, she didn't even get a chance to groan although she was sedated she was recovering already albeit slowly. Genbu's forest shifted around her like a living trap. A ripple of chakra pulsed beneath the mossy earth, and the ground opened with a soft crack. Thin, flexible bones... more like ivory vines than true skeletal matter... slid upward and coiled around her limbs. Before she could react, they snapped shut with cold precision.
The forest swallowed her whole.
A muffled thud sounded elsewhere on the island as the ground expelled her near Benihime's feet. She lay on her side, unconscious. Her breathing was shallow. Sedatives still ran through her bloodstream like thick poison.
Benihime didn't hesitate. "Unbind," she said.
The bones receded instantly, melting back into the earth. The forest obeyed her the way a limb obeys a body... instinctively, without question.
Benihime crouched beside Kushina and pressed two fingers to her temple. A soft, pale green light flickered from her hand. The Mystical Palm Technique eased its way through Kushina's system. Sedatives burned off, nerves stabilized.
Kushina's eyelids fluttered, then stilled again. She awoke.
Benihime rose slowly. Her expression was calm. Her voice, however, was cold as ice. "Kushina, you're going to be useful," she said. "Your people touched my bottom line. So don't expect mercy."
Aya and Young Ay stiffened. Neither had ever seen their mother like this. She had always been the quiet center of the clan... unshakable, gentle, cunning when needed, but never cruel.
This was different.
Killer Bee wasn't surprised. He had seen glimpses of his master's hidden side long ago. The Eight-Sword style she taught him was born from this mercilessness. Still, even he swallowed hard. Benihime wasn't just upset... she was furious.
She rose fully, eyes settling first on her husband's cocoon, then on her children, then on the others.
"As the Raikage's Bee," she said, voice steady, "I'll take command until he recovers. Every decision I make from this moment is aimed at restoring him. Once he's well, I'll step down. Any objections?"
Her tone left no room for argument.
"No, Mother," Aya said.
"No, Mother," young Ay echoed.
Killer Bee bowed. "No, Master."
Kaien stepped forward with seriousness that didn't seem to match... murmured, "No, Granny."
Benihime nodded once and walked toward Kushina. She didn't lift the woman gently. She grabbed a handful of red hair and dragged her across the ground. Not to hurt her... but to make a point. To herself, to everyone.
Konoha crossed a line.
She laid Kushina beside the Raikage. A faint pulse of black lightning still flickered beneath his ruined skin. His breath came in thin, painful gasps. Even unconscious, he strained... his muscles trying to move, his chakra trying to surge even after her Life force pause.
Benihime touched his cheek. "He's been throwing out life force nonstop," she muttered repeating and reminding herself again and again. "Even after the fight ended. Even after Bee wrapped him. Even with my Life Force Pause… his cells still want to burn. "
She didn't have the raw vitality to patch this kind of damage. She could only buy time but reversing loss on this scale required something else entirely: another source of vitality. Yang chakra strong enough to refill a vessel as massive as the Raikage.
Her gaze shifted to Kushina. Uzumaki vitality was legendary. Not Senju-level monstrous, but next better. Close enough to stabilize her husband long enough to find a permanent fix.
Benihime placed her right hand on her husband's chest and her left upon Kushina's. The air thickened and the ground shivered as if the entire island was at a standstill.
She whispered, "Yang Release: Life Force Transfer."
The technique activated with a deep, resonant hum. It wasn't flashy. It felt like a tide being forced backward against its will.
Warmth bled out of Kushina. Strength seeped into the Raikage.
Kushina jerked awake... in agony... eyes wide but unfocused, mouth open in a ragged, soundless cry. It wasn't chakra being ripped away from her. It was life itself. A tearing, hollowing pain no ordinary person could endure awake.
Aya, young Ay stood their watching the ordeal.
Killer Bee clenched his fists and bit down his instinct to intervene. He didn't care what will happen to kushina. He was worried about his master. She was the only one here who understood life force manipulation. Stopping her mid-transfer could kill all three.
Benihime's breaths came hard. Sweat slipped down her temple... not because the technique drained her, but because forcing two bodies with different chakra systems into equilibrium was like holding two boulders together while they tried to roll apart.
"Kushina's giving too little," Benihime muttered, adjusting her chakra flow. "The transfer rate should be higher. Uzumaki vitality is strong... why is the efficiency dropping?"
Kushina screamed again. The edges of her hair began to pale, her cheeks hollowed slightly and her arms trembled uncontrollably.
The Raikage's breaths slowed but his chakra still sputtered but it stabilized. The lost life force didn't return, it only stabilized from losing what is leaving.
Benihime exhaled sharply. "Not enough. I need more. Her vitality is stable but insufficient. I need deeper reserves... something denser... something—"
"Granny, stop."
Kaien's voice cut through everything... small, steady, and commanding in a way.
Benihime looked at him sharply. "Kaien, if—"
"Uzumaki life force is strong," he said, stepping closer, eyes narrowed in thought, "but when it comes to pure life force, no one matches the Senju. Especially him. we have to get him at his purest form."
He didn't have to say the name. Everyone knew who it was he was talking about.
Hashirama Senju.
--
A/N: Now, The Raikage's internal cells destruction has stabilized for now at cost of kushina's life force.
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