I soared through the air, not bothering to go at full speed. I had to conserve my energy. Although having my chakra reserves topped off was nice, they would be useless if I exhausted myself physically.
The facility was a mess.
The top of the hill had been completely destroyed, melted away by a powerful fire jutsu unleashed from within. Almost the entire western half of the hill was either gone or crumbling from the numerous sword slashes inflicted during my fight with Mangetsu. Only the southern part remained mostly undamaged.
I found Gai near one of the large holes that led out of the facility, swatting the mutated experiments away as if they were annoying flies.
The usual joy and eagerness were absent from his face, replaced by a grim expression. I landed next to him and immediately beheaded a researcher who tried to run past us, likely fleeing from the experiments infesting the facility's lower levels.
"Ah, Ryuuzaki-kun. I hope your opponent was more youthful than these… things," he said, a small spark of his signature energy returning.
"I'd say he was. But this isn't really a fight, it feels more like mercy killing," I replied, my voice heavy with grimness.
I had never been to the lowest levels, so the sheer number of mutated people surprised me.
If the curse mark had around a fifty percent survival rate, there must have been over a thousand initial experiments.
Considering Anko's mark had a survival chance five times lower, the real death toll was likely much higher.
Gai nodded, his grim expression persisting.
"Some of them are lucid enough to avoid me still. But how long will they remain themselves? We can't let them get to the water," he said, echoing my thoughts almost perfectly.
"Then we'd better hope they don't have a way to directly enter the sea from the facility," I sighed as I sliced down another creature, this one resembling an anglerfish.
I motioned with my sword, ready to cleanse the corridors as swiftly as possible.
"Scatter; Senbonzakura," I commanded.
My sword glowed pink for a moment before splitting into thousands upon thousands of crystal-like cherry blossoms, which created a whirlwind of destruction around Gai and me, shredding everything that approached.
Several of the experiments were caught in the chaos, their bodies vanishing almost entirely; only blood and small pieces of flesh remained, painting the floor red.
"I'll comb through the facility, Gai-san. I can bring it all down from the lowest levels," I said, my eyes scanning the swarm of experiments running around, attacking anything that moved.
"Do that, Ryuuzaki-kun. But be careful. There's no telling what unyouthful things you'll find there." He gave me an encouraging nod, eager to finish this mission.
"Have you collected any data?" I asked quickly, hoping he or someone else had managed to do so. He nodded and gave me a thumbs-up.
"Anko-san ransacked their main archive, I believe. I've blocked the other entrances from use, so I'll go see if Anko-san or Kurenai-san need help," he affirmed, making me smile slightly.
I turned back toward the inside of the facility and made my way in, the storm of cherry blossoms making me untouchable to the mutated horrors.
"Just another day on the job, I guess..." I muttered under my breath as I entered one of the damaged rooms.
It had likely served as a control room to monitor the experiments but was now a warzone, filled with mutated fish-people fighting each other. The floor was littered with the bodies of both experiments and researchers.
I quickly directed Senbonzakura to attack. The cherry blossoms formed a wall with no room to dodge and surged across the room, reducing everything inside to a fine red mist.
It was a brutal but painless death for those whose minds had been broken.
This scene repeated itself multiple times. Occasionally, I was attacked in the corridors, but the swarm of crystal blades always handled them swiftly and efficiently, leaving a bloody trail in my wake.
"Maybe that stupid moniker isn't all that stupid after all…" I thought as I observed another experiment be turned into a smear of blood.
The one positive aspect of all this was that I had accumulated a massive amount of chakra stored within the Senbonzakura petals.
I had to transfer it into crystals capable of holding large amounts of chakra, but that was a small price to pay for what amounted to the chakra of over a hundred jonin. The curse marks on the experiments greatly enhanced me by boosting the chakra reserves of the unfortunate individuals.
Once the time was right, that chakra would be used to bring this entire place down; or more likely, erase it from existence.
After what felt like an eternity, I reached a reinforced door and pried it open, revealing an elevator shaft.
Coincidentally, this location was far from any areas housing experiments, almost on the exact opposite side of the facility.
If one were to enter through the door on the south side, this elevator would be just a short walk through the medical room. This made me suspect it led to a hideout rather than more rooms filled with experiments.
However, it also meant that some researchers might have had enough time to reach this point and hide down below.
I decided to be thorough.
I called all the cherry blossoms back and reformed Senbonzakura into a sword before jumping down the shaft, crashing through the roof of an empty elevator.
After dusting myself off, I cut the door clean open.
The reinforced steel let out a horrendous screech as it slid down and fell with a heavy thud. The loud noise clearly alerted people nearby.
I sensed four individuals rushing towards my position and readied myself.
None of them had curse marks, so I could try to capture them, if possible. Aside from them, there were three other chakra signatures, one belonging to Isaribi.
Four men sprang out: two from a room and two running from further down the hall.
I immediately recognized their headband symbols; those of Otogakure, the Hidden Sound Village. Which meant they were likely Orochimaru's lackeys or enforcers.
I didn't have time to deal with them extensively, so I opted for a quick, non-lethal approach.
Even without concrete proof of their affiliation with Orochimaru, having individuals from a ninja village involved would undoubtedly raise alarms in Hiruzen's mind.
"Hey! Brat—" One of them attempted to say something, but he didn't get to finish his sentence.
I sprang into action, blitzing around them and delivering a high kick that landed just behind his ear, knocking him out.
Two of the others jumped away, but one tried to counterattack, unaware that he was terribly outmatched.
I used Hirenkayku to reposition, dodging his fist in the process. I locked his arm above my shoulder and pushed him back, tripping him and sending him to the floor just in time to avoid a barrage of weapons thrown my way.
"Hirenkyaku!" I announced as I effortlessly weaved through the swarm of kunai and shuriken.
I disappeared from their view and reemerged right next to one of them, taking him out with the same kick to the head that I used on his friend.
Those two would no doubt suffer nasty concussions when they woke up. The remaining assailant, seeing no way out, drew more weapons, positioning himself to jump away as he threw them.
I recognized the danger when I noticed explosion tags tied to some of the projectiles. With no safe way to take him down, I crystallized my right arm and shot a crystal bullet at him.
The projectile tunneled right through his eye, killing him moments before he could trigger the explosion.
The last man had just gotten to his feet, trying to go through hand seals, but I closed the distance before he could finish. I kicked at his clasped hands, an attack he barely managed to evade by abandoning the hand sign he had been forming.
I quickly seized his left hand with my right, creating a hand sign with our fingers. He looked at the half-formed sign his own hand formed with confusion, and in response attempted to punch me with his right hand.
I held onto his hand instead of disengaging, blocking his punch while forcing his fingers to form a different hand sign.
"Crystal Release: Sinking Prison," I announced, pushing him into a nearby wall.
The moment his back hit it, the wall crystallized, engulfing him and leaving only his face exposed for air. He struggled but quickly realized there was no escape.
My-my chakra..." he stuttered, realizing the crystals were siphoning away his reserves.
It didn't take long before he succumbed to chakra exhaustion and lost consciousness.
I quickly performed the same jutsu on the other two living ninjas, encasing them near the elevator shaft. This would ensure their survival while I dealt with the last researchers.
Moving on, I cautiously entered the empty room to my left. I had to force my way through another locked door only to discover a secondary control room filled with monitors displaying various feeds from the facility.
Many cameras were damaged or destroyed, but some still showed footage of the collapsing facility and the rampaging experiments cut off from escape routes.
Unfortunately, there were no useful documents, just personal belongings of the researchers, which were of no use to me or my mission.
Finally, I decided it was time to get Isaribi out of the way. I entered the room she was in, this time properly, as the door was unlocked.
It was a relatively normal-looking bedroom, albeit lacking in decorations. Isaribi was lying on her bed, reading a magazine as if she had no care in the world, while the last two researchers were hiding behind a two-way mirror, most likely fussing over the seal I put on her.
"You should get out of here, Isaribi. This whole facility is going down," I said plainly, getting straight to the point. There was no time for sugarcoating.
She turned to me, visibly distressed.
"What? That loud crash was you?! What do you mean it's going down? Doctor Amachi still hasn't cured me!" I couldn't blame her for her panic.
"Amachi is the reason it's going down. His human experiments end today," I responded calmly, my gaze shifting to the two researchers behind the glass.
"And you two… perving on a little girl behind that mirror..." I remarked, my voice dangerously steady.
"Hey! I'm seventeen!" Isaribi yelled, clearly offended by my description.
Was she more upset about being called a little girl than about two guys watching her through a two-way mirror?
"Ah... sorry, I guess. Perving on a young wo—no, that still doesn't make it sound less creepy..." I sighed, cutting myself off.
"And seriously? That's what you're angry about?" I asked, exasperated, and flicked my finger against the mirror, shattering it into a million pieces to reveal a small observation room.
"Wait, this was here the whole time?" Isaribi asked, disgust and shock mingling on her face.
"Who did you think I was talking to when I mentioned people spying through a mirror?" I replied sarcastically as I trapped the researchers, just as I had the ninjas.
"Wait! This is bad, definitely, but what about Amachi?! You can't just barge in and kill him!" she exclaimed, still clinging to the fantasy of being cured by him.
"Sure I can. Last I checked, human experimentation is frowned upon at best and illegal in most places," I shrugged, unfazed by her outburst.
"What are you even talking about?" she asked, clearly unaware of what Amachi and Orochimaru were cooking up in here.
"Just follow me; I'll show you..." I sighed.
It would've been quicker to knock her out, but I dismissed that thought immediately. She needed to know the truth before we left. If I kept her in the dark, she might seek revenge or do something equally reckless.
Hesitant to follow, I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the observation room, pointing to the screens where she could witness how she would end up if we didn't intervene.
The screens displayed what was once a human, now grotesquely mutated, beating another equally deformed individual to death with their own severed leg. It was not a pretty sight.
"I killed at least a hundred similarly mutated individuals in the lab," I told her, my voice firm.
This situation was hitting close to home, reminding me of the Root facility where I found Noriaki.
"You're lucky, you know," I finally said after letting her watch for a moment. "The seal that caused this was applied when you were young. Around seven or eight, I'd guess." I revealed what I had learned about her condition.
She turned to me, expression blank, but I could see her eyes welling with tears.
"Your body has resisted the change remarkably well, but even then... I'd give it two years at most before you're no better off than them," I said, pointing at the screen.
"So what? Do I just turn into a monster now?" she asked, her voice breaking.
"That's up to you," I replied. "The seal I used on you gives you limited control over the curse seal beneath it. You will only turn into a fish if you want to." I simplified it for her; few ninjas understood Fuinjutsu, and there was no need to confuse her with technical terms.
"My team has someone with a curse seal as well. The purple-haired woman... You can try talking to her after this is over," I added, hoping to ease her worries.
"What will you do now?" she asked in a weak voice, tears streaming down her face. I shook my head, trying to focus myself.
I wasn't good at comforting crying girls, or people in general. The only thing I could offer her was closure, but that wouldn't erase the pain of betrayal.
"I'll wipe every last trace of this facility off the map," I declared, turning to walk out of the room and stopping her from following me.
"Stay inside there... it will be the only safe spot when I do it," I said, unsealing the large crystals where I stored chakra, and connected them to myself for a refill.
I slowly went through hand seals, finishing the jutsu while kneeling and pressing both hands to the floor.
"Crystal Release: Advent of a Crystal World," I declared quietly, channeling all my energy into the jutsu, quickly draining almost all the chakra stored on those crystals.
The floor, walls, and ceiling of the corridor lit up in brilliant pink crystal as my jutsu rapidly consumed the entire hill we were beneath, turning everything into more crystal.
The whole place rumbled and shook as the rock and concrete were devoured from the bottom up.
Isaribi stood in the doorway, looking bewildered at the jutsu I had unleashed.
"It's time..." I murmured under my breath after a short while of channeling the jutsu and stood up, clasping my hands together in a snake seal.
"Time for this whole place to shatter," I stated with finality as the ground beneath me began to crack.
The entire crystal structure; all the rooms, furniture, facilities, and creatures outside along with the hill itself, dirt, and grass, turned into crystal because of my jutsu. Then, as I commanded, it shattered, leaving only a concrete room standing inside a massive crater.
Millions upon millions of tiny prisms of crystal flew around, being carried by the wind as the only reminder there used to be a hill.
The only untouched elements were the crystal prisons where I had hidden the unconscious researchers and ninjas.
I quickly summoned Yoru, finally able to do what I had wanted for a while.
"Happy hunting, Yoru. Go and kill any fish hybrids you find. If they can be reasoned with, bring them to me," I instructed her, watching as she became even more excited than usual.
"Such a big hunt! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she exclaimed, nuzzling my cheek and clearly eager for a good chase. "Can I call Zangetsu? Or Mochi? Or anyone else?" she bombarded me with questions, making me chuckle.
"Sure, knock yourself out." I laughed, her good mood feeling contagious after such a painful day.
"Don't worry, big bro. We'll get them all!" she promised, speeding off into the distance, knowing not to interrupt ongoing fights.
"So, do you want to see what Amachi has to say for himself, or do you want to get as far away from here as possible?" I asked, already expecting her answer.
"I'll go see Do-Amachi," she replied, drying her tears as she gazed at the crater I had just created.
"Those crystals looked beautiful..." she sighed, still mesmerized by the sparkles of crystal floating through the air.
I looked at her with slight concern. She sounded suspiciously like Hinata. More specifically, like how Hinata sounds when she's lost in her fantasies.
Please, Marzanna, not another one.
I sighed, deciding not to think about it.
"Just don't fall behind too much," I said, snapping her out of her daydreaming.
With her mind back in reality, I jumped toward the direction where I sensed Anko. It seemed that Amachi had been dealt with, and she was taking a breather, so it should be safe.
Kurenai and Gai, on the other hand, were engaged in a fight with two quite powerful opponents.
I would have to point Isaribi in the right direction and hope Anko wasn't too trigger-happy after blowing off some steam.