"It looks like you've lost, Chiyo-sama."
Hikaru's voice—warm, smiling—rose from behind her, and the only remaining kunai in his hand rested against her throat.
Chiyo looked dazed.
She truly hadn't expected it.
Not after burying herself under layers of puppets—screens within screens, shields within shields—yet he still broke through that fast, and ended it.
It felt awful.
Even though she understood better than most how terrifying speed-type taijutsu specialists were to puppet users.
Her son and daughter-in-law had died to Konoha's White Fang—an archetype of that exact style.
And yet she'd taken precautions this time.
So many precautions.
Still… she'd been beaten without even a chance to swing back.
Even if it was spatial ninjutsu—
even if she'd waited until he'd been grinding through fights for half a day before coming—
she'd still been cornered like this.
"You're frighteningly capable, brat," Chiyo sighed. She shook her head. "In today's shinobi world… even with space techniques involved, there aren't many who can surpass your speed."
"Chiyo-sama," Hikaru said gently, "there's always someone stronger. The sky is always higher. I've never believed I'm unbeatable—especially with the Fourth Hokage and the Second Hokage ahead of me."
"Hah." Chiyo's lips curled in something almost amused. "Still humble, are you?"
Then that smile turned strange.
"Tell me, Nightingale… are you feeling dizzy? Weak? Heavy?"
"Dizzy… weak?" Hikaru's brow lifted.
He remembered it—during the fight, there had been a faint, persistent odor in the air.
He hadn't cared. It hadn't affected his movements.
But now that Chiyo said it—
it suddenly felt less like background noise… and more like a trap he'd walked through.
Did she use something? And my body just… refused to react?
Hikaru checked himself at once.
Breath. Pulse. Chakra flow. Muscle response. Blood circulation.
Nothing.
Not even a hint of instability.
His body was too clean.
Too healthy.
That meant only one thing.
He wasn't poisoned.
"My antidote was generic," Hikaru thought, eyes narrowing slightly. "It shouldn't have done anything to a master like her… so it's the incomplete Asura chakra. It boosted my constitution enough to shrug it off."
An unexpected benefit.
A dangerous one—because he couldn't afford to get cocky about it.
He kept checking anyway. If there was even a flicker of delayed poisoning…
he'd cut her down and rip the antidote out of this situation by force.
Chiyo was brilliant—her forbidden technique could even drag a life back from the edge.
But if Hikaru was truly pushed?
He'd kill her without hesitation.
He'd already stepped off the "future preservation" path the moment he showed up in this world.
"Sorry to disappoint, Chiyo-sama," Hikaru said with a soft smile. "You mean that strange smell, right? I don't know what you used… but I'm not poisoned."
"Not poisoned?" Chiyo's expression twitched.
She took the risk—forced chakra through her system, trying to trigger whatever she'd seeded into the air.
Normally, that would turn a slow toxin into something vicious—something that tore the body apart in seconds.
Hikaru didn't move the kunai.
He watched her do it.
And felt… nothing.
No disruption. No stiffness. No vertigo.
No sudden pain crawling through his organs.
His calm became certainty.
"It's pointless, Chiyo-sama," Hikaru said, almost apologetic. "I've met someone with a very similar style. He couldn't do anything to me either. What makes you think you can?"
"…Then what do you want?" Chiyo's voice dropped.
Her toxins failed.
Her puppets couldn't stop him.
And a puppet master who got caught in melee range—
was a puppet master already dead.
She had enough self-awareness to understand it.
But there was something else too—something she'd noticed, and it was why she stopped fighting.
Hikaru wasn't killing her.
If he wanted her dead, he would've sliced her artery the instant her guards lost connection.
He didn't.
Which meant he had a reason.
A reason that could be bargained against.
A reason that gave her—humiliatingly—a chance to live.
"What do I want?" Hikaru smiled. "Chiyo-sama really is sharp."
"Hurry up and say it." Chiyo's eyes were cold. "That fake-politeness of yours is nauseating."
"Alright, alright." Hikaru sounded genuinely unconcerned. "Two things. That's all."
"If you agree, you walk away."
"And I'll give you a piece of information you'll find… very interesting."
Hikaru had planned to use her life—plus a certain "interesting" truth—for leverage.
Honestly, he'd expected it to be Rasa at first.
If it were the Fourth Kazekage, Hikaru would've pushed hard on the Pakura issue—force a signed statement, forge a paper trail for ANBU, and he'd have a clean angle to pry Pakura open.
A ready-made bloodline. Scorch Release.
Hikaru was headed toward chakra fusion sooner or later, and a finished kekkei-genkai was exactly the kind of tool he wanted in his hands.
But Chiyo wasn't Rasa.
Chiyo was harder.
She didn't fear death the way ambitious leaders did.
Older. Hardened. Loyal enough to burn herself for Sunagakure without blinking.
Still—
people always had weak points.
And Hikaru knew hers.
Sasori.
Guilt. Regret. The ache of a family line that broke under her watch.
Even in the future, when Sasori's crimes were undeniable, she still wanted to pull him back—if not to innocence, then at least to something human.
Hikaru could turn that into a blade.
And if he could harm Suna while gaining profit at the same time?
He wouldn't hesitate.
He'd never been that kind of saint.
"I said speak," Chiyo snapped, jaw tight.
"My first demand is simple." Hikaru's hand moved—quietly, casually—leaving a mark behind her as he withdrew the kunai like he was being generous. "I want your ANBU communications cipher-decode."
"Dream on." Chiyo whirled, fury bursting out of her like heat. "If I demanded Konoha's cipher-decode from you, would you hand it over?"
"If the benefit was big enough," Hikaru answered instantly, without hesitation, "and it was something I needed—yes. I would."
Chiyo froze.
For a second, she looked genuinely stunned.
"…Are you really Konoha ANBU?"
"Don't act holier than you are," Hikaru said, head tilted. "Trading benefit for benefit—how rare is that, really?"
Then he smiled—light, almost playful.
"I've heard the Mist is trying to end that constant stream of low-intensity border friction with you."
"But they asked for someone."
"Someone you call a hero."
"And according to the intel we got from Kiri, that person is—"
"Shut up!" Chiyo cut him off violently.
Her face went ugly—pure shock and rage.
Because she knew exactly what he'd just threatened.
If Konoha leaked that—whether by accident or design—
Sunagakure would be thrown into a pit.
The village would eat itself alive.
Chiyo's chakra twitched.
Just a trace.
A reflex.
And in the next instant—
Hikaru vanished.
Cold metal kissed her throat again.
"So you still want to move?" Hikaru's voice remained gentle.
But that gentleness felt like falling into ice.
Chiyo trembled—barely—then forced her hands down.
"…What do you want?" Her voice was hoarse, furious, powerless. "What does Konoha want?"
"Some secrets are kept," Hikaru said softly, "so they can become a rope later—used at the right moment."
He pulled the kunai away again, as if he was gracious enough to let her breathe.
"To avoid being discovered… don't do it in the first place."
"You and I both know that."
Chiyo turned slowly, eyes burning holes through him—
and finally, she nodded.
She understood.
Konoha wasn't going to expose it yet.
They were going to hold it.
And the moment Sunagakure ever stepped out of line…
they'd tighten the noose.
Being controlled by someone else's grip was humiliation.
But as he said—
if you did it, you can't pretend you're clean.
"…Continue," Chiyo said, voice low. "Say what else you want."
"The second demand isn't so outrageous," Hikaru said lightly.
"According to a deceased ANBU informant, Suna has been researching a forbidden technique."
"I don't know how far you've developed it…"
"But it's very interesting."
"And it seems you're the one leading it."
Hikaru's smile widened, like someone savoring the reveal.
"It's called…"
"Reanimation Through Living Sacrifice."
Chiyo stared at him.
Her face went flat—not calm, but empty, like her mind had hit its limit.
It wasn't even disbelief anymore.
It was the sick realization that this boy knew too much.
That Konoha knew too much.
That Sunagakure's walls weren't walls at all—just paint for their own people.
"…Why?" Chiyo finally rasped. "Why do you know everything?"
Hikaru looked genuinely amused.
"Is it strange?"
"Are you wondering why so many of your village's 'secrets' are already in our hands?"
He nodded as if answering himself.
"Chiyo-sama… your defense policies are built to make your own people feel protected."
"That's all."
"Your secrets are only secrets inside your own house."
"But outside?"
He smiled—bright and cruel in its simplicity.
"Someone knows."
"For example…"
"Konoha."
And in that moment, Chiyo understood with bone-deep clarity:
This wasn't a boy.
This wasn't even just Nightingale.
It was a blade wearing a human face.
A devil smiling politely while he tightened the leash.
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