A dark silhouette stood before the dissection table, a scalpel glinting coldly under the shadowless surgical lamp.
His fingers were long and steady, his fingertips slightly pale—a mark left by years of wearing rubber gloves. Laying on the table was a young woman. Her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths, her eyelashes fluttering weakly under the influence of the anesthesia.
She was one of the reasons he had chosen to side with Danzo. Having awakened the Singed template, he needed financial backers, and more importantly, he needed "materials."
"Begin recording," he said, his voice raspy yet calm, addressing the ninja holding a camera in the corner.
This was his 127th experiment. Each one brought him a step closer to the truth.
The moment he opened the thoracic cavity, he spotted an anomaly. The subject's heart was an unnatural dark red, its surface covered in fine, black veins that spread across it like a creeping spiderweb.
"Interesting..." He leaned in for a closer look.
Suddenly, the subject's eyelids twitched violently. On the monitor, the vitals began to spike erratically.
"No, not yet..." He moved swiftly, pulling a pale blue vial from a tray. The needle pierced the carotid artery with surgical precision.
Suddenly, the woman's eyes snapped open—pitch black, devoid of any white, staring straight at the ceiling.
Hiruko felt his heart skip a beat, but he regained his composure instantly.
"Continue observation..." he muttered to himself, the scalpel descending once more.
The monitor let out a piercing alarm as the subject's vitals began to plummet. Hiruko reached for the cold storage unit. The moment his fingertips brushed against the specialized vial labeled "Life One," a bone-chilling cold raced up his arm.
The serum was an eerie, ghostly blue, glowing faintly in the dim lab like a bioluminescent creature from the deep sea. He carefully withdrew the vial, condensation droplets sliding down the glass and onto his glove.
This serum was the result of three years of work—a weakened version of Hashirama's cells distilled from over a thousand failures.
"Injection dosage: 2ml," he whispered, drawing the fluid into a syringe.
As the needle entered the artery, the ghostly blue liquid mixed with the dark red blood, swirling into a sinister shade of violet. The data on the monitor went wild; the heart rate rocketed from 40 beats per minute to a staggering 200 in an instant.
Hiruko's eyes were locked on the readout, his pen flying across his notebook.
But a second later, the surrounding equipment erupted in a frantic wail.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Hiruko instinctively took a step back, his notebook hitting the floor with a dull thud.
"AAAAAAH—!"
A blood-curdling scream tore from the subject's throat as her body began to twist and contort. The alarms grew deafening. Suddenly, wooden branches erupted from her body, surging upward and piercing through the laboratory ceiling.
Hiruko watched as fresh, green leaves sprouted from the wood, shimmering with an uncanny luster under the surgical lights.
"Save... save me..."
The woman's voice was warped, her vocal cords seemingly turning to wood. Her eyes shifted to a deep brown, her pupils reflecting the shadows of a thousand tangled branches.
Then, as abruptly as it began, all growth stopped. The laboratory fell into a deathly silence.
"Another failure."
From the shadows behind Hiruko, an elderly figure slowly materialized.
"Indeed," Hiruko remarked tonelessly, wiping the blood from his hands with an alcohol-soaked cloth. "Turning a commoner into a ninja with high-level combat power is a path strewn with thorns. There are many more hurdles to cross."
Nearby, other ninja silently stepped forward to carry the remains of the unfortunate subject away.
Hiruko pulled down his mask, revealing a strikingly handsome and gentle face. He exuded an aura that was remarkably warm and comfortable—the kind of face people instinctively trusted.
Danzo leaned on his cane, a cryptic smile playing on his lips. "We've run out of civilian spies. You can pause the experiments for now."
"Looking for a way to vent?" The old man's smile turned sly, a glint of cunning in his eyes.
"The Wandering Priestess? You really don't hold back, do you, old man?" Hiruko looked at Danzo expressionlessly, though his tone carried a hint of amusement.
"Heh. For her, this is the best possible end," Danzo chuckled, acting as if he held the world in the palm of his hand.
"In that case... I'll take her."
It had been over a decade since he had crossed over and awakened the "Mystery of the Womb." In that time, Hiruko had been very, very busy.