Chapter 48 — Secrets Beneath the Mizukage Tower
Perhaps because the Kaguya clan's final struggle had been so frenzied, many of the recovered corpses were no longer intact.
More often than not, what had been gathered were hastily pieced-together remains—some not even belonging to the same individual.
"Confirm pawn."
[Current Pawn Points: 9,525]
The morgue was instantly emptied.
Looking at the now-vacant chamber—and then at the staggering total of points he possessed—Namikaze Yami felt that every risk and every carefully laid scheme had been worth it.
Just as he was preparing to withdraw while things were still clean—
His senses suddenly caught the crisp sound of footsteps approaching from the far end of the corridor, heading straight toward this room.
"Tch. Trouble."
Yami frowned slightly. A quick scan revealed nowhere suitable to hide.
In a flash, his body shifted. Like a bat, he silently inverted himself, clinging upside down to the ceiling shadows, suppressing his breathing completely.
Creaaak—
The door opened.
A middle-aged man wearing a medical-nin uniform and a mask stepped inside, muttering under his breath as he walked.
"Honestly… they're already rushing me to extract Kaguya cell samples. Those lunatics won't even let me rest after death…"
His voice cut off abruptly.
The empty morgue froze him in place.
"…What?"
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
At that instant—
A black shadow plunged down from above.
Yami's hands clamped around the man's throat like iron vices, overwhelming force twisting sharply—
Crack.
A clean, brittle sound.
The man collapsed without even the chance to resist, terror and confusion still frozen in his eyes.
Yami caught the falling body immediately, preventing it from hitting the floor and making noise.
He worked fast.
Stripping off the man's uniform, he donned it himself with faint distaste, adjusted the mask, and activated a Transformation Technique—perfectly replicating the man's build and appearance.
"Looks like I've stumbled onto a bonus."
In his hand were the man's clearance card and a classified document.
The file detailed an order to extract Kaguya cellular samples and deliver them to Laboratory A-1.
A-1…
Even the name sounded suspiciously high-level.
Which meant this place still held secrets.
Now that he had assumed this man's identity, as long as he remained cautious, moving freely through this section of the Mizukage Tower would no longer be difficult.
And whatever waited inside Laboratory A-1—
He intended to see it with his own eyes.
___
He mimicked the medical ninja's walking posture perfectly—head lowered, pace steady—and calmly pushed open the morgue door, following the corridor deeper inside.
With the clearance badge hanging from his chest, he passed every checkpoint without obstruction. The personnel inside were all in a hurry, at most offering a brief nod in passing.
The deeper he went, the more oppressive the atmosphere became. Even the air itself seemed to thrum with a strange, unsettling energy.
At last, he stopped before a massive metal door etched with complex sealing formulas.
Stamped clearly upon it was a single designation:
A-1
A masked shinobi stood guard. After Yami presented his clearance card and handed over the documents for inspection, the guard stepped aside and allowed him through.
The heavy metal doors slid open slowly.
What lay beyond made Yami's pupils contract violently—yet he forced his emotions under control.
This was no ordinary laboratory.
It was a vast space that felt like a fusion of prison and research facility.
Human experimentation—unmistakable and undeniable.
Rows of transparent cylindrical tanks filled with pale green nutrient fluid stood in rigid formation. Suspended within them were human figures, their life or death impossible to determine, bodies pierced and bound by countless tubes.
Most bore the unmistakable hallmark of long crimson hair.
Some had already faded to a dull gray.
The Uzumaki clan.
Around the cylinders lay dense clusters of research instruments, data scrolls filled with experimental records—and several bodies that had been dissected so thoroughly their original appearance was unrecognizable.
Before he could examine further, a researcher in lab attire popped out from behind a bank of instruments. Seeing the "medical ninja," he called out immediately:
"Kimu? Did you bring the Kaguya cell samples?"
Yami reacted instantly, lowering his voice and deliberately muffling it.
"There was a complication. The bodies are gone. I was ordered to notify you—security is being tightened."
"What?!"
The researcher blanched in shock, so startled that he failed to notice the subtle irregularity in Yami's voice.
That moment was enough.
Yami stepped forward as if to hand over the documents—then, shielded by the papers, a bone spike shot forward with lethal precision, piercing straight through the man's chest.
Before even a sound could escape, Yami clamped a hand over his mouth.
Moments later, blood pooled across the floor.
This was a core Mist Village black site—lingering was suicide.
Yami scanned the room rapidly. Aside from the clearly deceased bodies, most of the Uzumaki sealed in the tanks still clung to life, their chakra faint yet stubbornly resilient—proof of the inhuman torment they had endured.
"Pawn."
[Scan complete.]
[Uzumaki clan members (alive) ×5 — Value: 100 points each]
[Uzumaki clan corpses (incomplete) ×11 — Value: 50 points each]
As for the more mutilated remains, either due to prolonged degradation or excessive bloodline extraction, the system no longer recognized them.
"Confirm pawn."
His gaze then shifted to the center of the laboratory—where piles of scrolls and research records lay stacked high.
Without hesitation, he pawned them all.
The system identified them as secret technique documents.
[Three-Tails Chakra Research Report ×1 — Value: 100]
[Three-Tails Jinchūriki Data ×3 — Value: 50 each]
[Failed Bloodline Fusion Records ×12 — Value: 0]
"Confirm."
[Current Pawn Points: 11,155]
In the span of seconds, Laboratory A-1 was nearly stripped bare—leaving only empty containment tubes and a glaring pool of blood behind.
Yami hadn't expected gains like this.
So Kirigakure had been exploiting Uzumaki sealing arts and bloodline traits to research the creation of a "perfect" jinchūriki.
Countless lives must have been consumed in these blood-soaked experiments.
By that measure, the researcher's death was mercy.
Just as Yami was about to double-check for omissions—or perhaps even search for traces of the Three-Tails itself—
The entire laboratory suddenly began to flash.
Alarms blared.
The doors slammed shut.
"Oh?" Yami said calmly. "Looks like Kirigakure finally noticed."
He wasn't worried. With space–time ninjutsu and extensive preparation, if he chose to leave, no one here could stop him.
Yet just as that thought settled—
The ground beneath his feet shuddered violently.
Something was awakening.
A moment later, a wave of chakra descended—violent, frigid, and utterly unlike that of any shinobi.
Yami's eyes narrowed.
"…Interesting."
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