Konan's breathing is a ragged saw against stone. Tsutako works in silence, her needle weaving black chakra thread through the unraveled flesh of Konan's shoulder—where Hanzo's chakra-vacuum chains had scraped existence itself away. Each suture glows faintly before dissolving, paper fibers knitting with muscle under Tsutako's trembling hands.
*"She's burning months, not weeks,"* Tsutako whispers, avoiding my eyes. *"Every cell's a lit fuse now."*
Beyond the curtain of dripping rags separating our alcove from the main tunnel, voices rise—Yahiko's sharp with fury, Nagato's low and resonant.
*"—fused? Like some kind of failed experiment?"*
*"Deeper, Yahiko. Their chakra... it's braided at the quantum level. Tearing them apart would..."*
A pause. Then, softer: *"...unmake the space they occupy."*
Konan's good eye opens—amber iris fractured by pain. *"They're scared,"* she rasps. *"Good."*
---
### **Akatsuki's Ultimatum**
Yahiko shoves the curtain aside. Rainwater slicks his fiery hair to his temples. Behind him, Nagato's Rinnegan pulses in the gloom like twin dying stars.
*"Hanzo's hunting you,"* Yahiko states, gaze locked on Konan's decaying arm. *"He's pulled forces from the northern front. Because of* you. *Every hour you breathe, he butchers a block of civilians to draw you out."*
Nagato steps forward. *"Your fusion... it creates a gravitational signature. Hanzo's salamanders can taste it."* His eyes flicker to the pulsating lattice beneath Konan's collarbone. *"You're leading him to every soul sheltering near you."*
Konan tries to rise. I feel her chakra surge—and the sickening *tear* as her paper stitches fray. *"So what's your solution, Nagato? Kill us?"*
Yahiko's hand drops to his kunai. *"If we have to."*
*"No."* Nagato's voice cuts like ice. *"They anchor the instability. Destroy them, and the singularity in Yuki's core collapses... taking a quarter of Amegakure with it."* He turns to me, Rinnegan swirling. *"Hanzo didn't just weaponize you, Yuki Kashiwagi. He made you a fail-deadly bomb."*
---
### **The Sannin's Bargain**
A paper crane smolders into existence above Tsutako's palm—Jiraiya's summoning seal.
*"Tsunade's here,"* Tsutako breathes, translating the ash-text. *"She found Hanzo's research on the Kashiwagi Clan. And she's... offering a bargain."*
Konan's fingers dig into my wrist. *"What does the Slug Princess want with walking corpses?"*
*"Not corpses,"* Tsutako meets Konan's gaze. *"Test subjects. Tsunade believes she can slow your entropic decay... using *Hanzo's* data on cellular gravity sinks."*
A cold laugh escapes Konan. *"So we trade one monster's cage for another?"*
*"She offers three days,"* Tsutako insists. *"Three days without pain. Without decay. Enough time to..."*
*"...to kill Hanzo,"* I finish, the gravity well in my chest humming darkly.
Silence hangs thick with rain and ruin.
Yahiko slams his fist against the sewer wall. *"You're not killing anyone! You're a liability! Akatsuki will handle Hanzo—"*
*"With *what*?"* Konan snaps, surging upright. Paper shards flare around her like broken wings. *"Hope? Speeches? Hanzo has *children* wired into living weapons! He'll grind your idealism into the mud!"*
Her outburst costs her. Black blood wells at her nostrils. The crystalline frost in her bad eye spreads.
Nagato catches her as she sags. Violet light spills from his Rinnegan, washing over her decaying arm. For a heartbeat, the unraveling *stills*.
*"Three days,"* Nagato murmurs, his voice strained. *"Tsunade's offer. Take it. We'll guard your backs."*
Yahiko stares, betrayal sharp on his face. Nagato doesn't flinch. *"Sometimes, Yahiko... we fight monsters with monsters."*
---
### **The Procedure: Gravity's Shackle**
Tsunade's lab isn't a lab—it's a collapsed field hospital, reeking of blood and ozone. She doesn't greet us. Just grips Konan's translucent arm, green chakra flaring.
*"Hanzo was a fool,"* she snarls, fingers probing the crystalline fractures. *"Feeding a singularity chakra to *stabilize* it? Like pouring oil on a wildfire!"*
She slams a vial of viscous, pearl-colored liquid onto the table—slug enzymes. *"Your cells aren't decaying, girl. They're *accelerating*. Approaching light speed relative to normal spacetime. That's why you're crystallizing."*
Tsunade's gaze flicks to me. *"And *you're* the anchor dragging her toward the event horizon. Tsutako! The Kashiwagi Stone Tablets—*now*!"*
As Tsutako unfurls stolen clan scrolls, Tsunade mixes enzymes with ink made from powdered obsidian. Her hands move—not healing, but *sealing*.
*"What's she doing?"* I hiss to Tsutako.
*"Forcing your singularities into... harmonic resonance. Like tuning forks. If it works, the gravity wells will stabilize *each other*—buying Konan time."*
*"And if it fails?"*
*"The dissonance tears you both into quantum foam."*
Tsunade's needle drips black light as she drives it into Konan's sternum. Konan doesn't scream.
She looks at me.
*"If this goes wrong... warp space. Swallow us both. *Don't let Hanzo get the data.*"*
---
### **Aftermath: Calm Before the Storm**
Dawn bleeds grey through the cracks in the ceiling.
Konan flexes her hand—no frost, no translucence. Just pale skin and the ghost of lattice scars. Tsunade's seal glows faintly over her heart, pulsing in sync with the hum in my bones.
*Three days.*
Nagato waits at the shattered doorway, cloak heavy with rain. *"Hanzo knows,"* he says quietly. *"His scouts felt the... stabilization. He's mobilizing Subject #13 and the Salamander Vanguard."*
Yahiko steps from the shadows, his face hard. He tosses Konan a scroll—a map of Hanzo's inner fortress, glowing with weak ink.
*"Akatsuki's price for those three days,"* Yahiko states, voice devoid of warmth. *"You breach the western gate. Draw his elites. We hit the lab where he stores the other 'Calamities.'"*
Konan takes the scroll. *"And when it's done?"*
Yahiko's eyes linger on Tsunade's seal pulsing beneath her tattered shirt. *"Then we decide if you're worth the wound you carry in your chest."*
As they vanish into the rain, Konan's hand finds mine. Her skin is warm.
*"No more running,"* she whispers.
The singularity in my core thrums—not with pain, but purpose.
Above us, the rain drums harder. Hanzo's war bell begins to toll.
---