Ren walked away from the training ground chaos, the shouts and smoke fading behind him. He rubbed his temples, the headache from using his eyes throbbing worse than ever. *Blindness. I'm burning out.* He needed those cells, fast. Orochimaru was too risky, too likely to trap him. Danzo... Danzo *had* them. Right in his Root base.
He stopped dead in the street. A simple, obvious solution slammed into him. "I'm an idiot," he muttered under his breath. "Why didn't I think of this before?"
He didn't hesitate. Right there on the busy street, with people walking past, Ren focused. It was easier this time, almost instinctive. His body shimmered, dissolved, and then burst apart not into smoke, but into a swirling cloud of hundreds of vibrant butterflies – reds, blues, yellows – scattering in all directions like startled jewels. Gasps and shouts erupted around him. "Wha—?!" "He just—!" "Butterflies?!" People pointed, stunned, as the colorful cloud dispersed rapidly, vanishing between buildings and into the sky, leaving only bewildered villagers behind.
***
Deep in a forest north of Konoha, the butterflies streamed back together near the base of a cliff. They swirled, merged, and solidified back into Ren. He glanced around, orienting himself. *Borrowed memories. Fan knowledge. It should be here.* He spotted a cleverly concealed fissure in the rock face, hidden by thick vines. Pushing them aside, he slipped into a dark cave entrance.
Inside, it was cool and damp. Torches flickered further down rough-hewn tunnels. Ren knew Root patrols would be everywhere. He focused again. His body dissolved, not into butterflies this time, but into thick, silent grey smoke. The smoke drifted forward, clinging to the ceiling shadows, slipping past patrols of masked Root ninja who felt only a faint, unexplained chill. He flowed down branching tunnels, searching.
One passage ended in a massive stone door covered in glowing, complex sealing formulas. A barrier meant to keep even the best sensor out. But Ren wasn't trying to break it. His smoke form simply... flowed *through* the seals and the solid stone itself, like water through a sieve. He was inside.
The room was cold, brightly lit by sterile lamps. It looked like a twisted lab crossed with an archive. Shelves lined the walls. One section held rows of glass jars, each containing a single, pale, three-tomoe Sharingan eye floating in preserving fluid. Dozens of them. Uchiha eyes. Stolen. Opposite them, humming with potent green energy inside heavily reinforced containers, were vials of swirling, viscous liquid – **Hashirama Senju's cells**.
Ren solidified near the shelves. *No time to admire the horror show.* He grabbed two small, sturdy specimen containers designed for eyes and carefully scooped two Sharingan eyes from their jars, sealing the containers. He then snatched one of the reinforced vials holding the vibrant green cells. The vial felt unnaturally warm, pulsing with life.
The instant the vial left its shielded holder, a piercing, wailing alarm shrieked through the entire base. Red lights flashed.
*Knew it.* Ren didn't panic. He focused. His body, the containers, the vial – everything dissolved instantly back into the thick grey smoke. The smoke streamed upwards, flowing back through the solid stone of the ceiling and the complex seals of the door as easily as it had entered, vanishing completely just as the massive stone door was blown inwards with a thunderous *CRACK!*
A dozen masked Root ninja flooded the vault, kunai drawn, scanning frantically. Seconds later, Danzo Shimura stormed in, his face a mask of cold fury. He took in the scene: the shattered door, the open eye jar, the empty space where the Hashirama cell vial had been. His visible eye narrowed to a furious slit. He saw the two missing Sharingan eyes.
"Search!" Danzo's voice was a whip-crack, echoing in the chamber. "Every tunnel! Every chamber! Seal the exits! Find the intruder! I want to know who *dares* steal from me!" His knuckles were white on his cane. The security had been absolute. The seals were intact. Yet someone had walked in, taken his most precious trophies, and vanished without a trace. It was impossible. And that impossibility filled Danzo with a cold, burning rage deeper than any he'd felt before. Someone had just made a very powerful, very dangerous enemy.