Alarms echoed through Root's underground corridors like a heartbeat that didn't belong to the facility.
Short. Sharp. Repeating.
Red warning lights flickered to life along the stone walls. Sealing arrays ignited in sequence beyond the chamber doors, layer after layer activating as if the entire underground complex had been waiting for this moment.
Inside the central suppression chamber, the air felt heavier.
Uchiha Ren stood at the center of warped restraint bands and fractured sealing lines.
His breathing was steady.
Too steady.
Danzō's gaze never left him.
"Seal the outer corridor," Danzō ordered calmly. "Activate second containment grid."
Root operatives moved immediately, even those who had been thrown against walls seconds earlier. Pain didn't slow them. Blood didn't matter.
Only the mission.
The Sage-affiliated shinobi stepped forward again, natural energy gathering around him like invisible armor.
The pressure in the room increased.
Ren felt it instantly.
His skin tightened. His elasticity dulled slightly, as if the world was becoming more solid around him.
Good.
This was real resistance.
This was structure.
Ren flexed his fingers slowly. The warped restraint bands stretched but didn't snap.
Not yet.
Danzō's voice was even. "You're not escaping."
Ren tilted his head.
"I'm not running."
The drums inside him rolled once, low and deep.
Doom.
The Sage shinobi formed hand seals, and natural energy surged outward, pressing down like gravity made tangible.
Ren's shoulders lowered slightly.
The floor beneath his feet dented from the pressure.
The suppression pillars flared brighter, feeding off the Sage's interference.
Danzō noticed the subtle change in Ren's posture.
"You rely on distortion," Danzō said. "Without it, you are merely a child."
Ren's smile deepened slightly.
"Then stop suppressing it."
The Sage shinobi lunged.
Not with a blade.
With his palm.
Natural energy-infused chakra struck Ren square in the chest.
For a split second—
Ren's body did not stretch.
The impact landed.
The force drove him backward into the chamber wall, cracking stone on impact.
The drums faltered.
The Sage stepped back, watching carefully.
"See?" Danzō said softly. "Structure breaks chaos."
Ren slowly pushed himself upright from the fractured wall.
Dust fell from his shoulders.
His lip bled slightly.
He touched it with two fingers.
Looked at the blood.
Then laughed.
Not loud.
Not wild.
Just once.
"You're wrong."
The drums didn't answer immediately.
Instead—
Ren exhaled.
And compressed.
His body drew inward, muscles tightening like rubber wound around a spindle.
The suppression bands creaked.
The Sage's eyes widened slightly.
Danzō leaned forward.
Ren's heartbeat spiked.
Doom.
The Sage pushed more natural energy into the chamber, trying to hold him in place.
The suppression pillars flared white-hot.
Ren's skin paled faintly again.
His hair lifted subtly as static crackled around him.
The Sage moved again—
Palm strike aimed for Ren's shoulder.
This time—
Ren moved first.
Not by stretching outward.
But by rebounding.
He allowed the Sage's strike to land—
His body absorbed the impact—
Then redirected it.
The recoil shot through Ren's frame and exploded outward.
The Sage shinobi was launched backward across the chamber, slamming into a suppression pillar with enough force to shatter part of its outer casing.
Natural energy flickered.
The pressure in the room weakened.
The restraint bands around Ren's wrists elongated visibly.
Danzō's eye sharpened.
"He converts force," Danzō muttered.
Ren straightened slowly.
"Yes."
The suppression pillars hummed erratically.
The Sage rose again, breathing harder now.
"You adapt too quickly," the Sage said quietly.
Ren's gaze shifted to him.
"You interfere too slowly."
The drums rolled louder.
DOOM.
The chamber doors burst open as additional Root units flooded in—heavier armor, thicker sealing tags, chakra nets already forming in their hands.
Ren looked at them calmly.
"You brought more."
"Overwhelm him," Danzō ordered.
Chakra nets shot forward, wrapping around Ren's body from multiple angles.
The nets tightened, pulling him downward.
Natural energy pressed from above again as the Sage joined the suppression.
For a moment—
Ren knelt.
The drums slowed.
The nets glowed brighter.
Danzō's expression didn't change.
"Break him."
The Root operatives began layering additional tags across the nets.
Ink lines crawled over Ren's body like black veins.
The Sage pushed harder.
Natural energy pressed into Ren's elasticity, forcing it inward.
Ren's breathing grew heavier.
The floor cracked beneath his knees.
His head lowered.
The drums were muffled now.
Doom… Doom…
Danzō stepped closer.
"This is the reality of the world," he said. "Power exists within systems. Outside them, it is destroyed."
Ren lifted his head slowly.
Blood ran down from his nose.
But his eyes—
His eyes were calm.
"You still don't understand," Ren said softly.
The drums exploded.
DOOM.
The nets didn't tear.
They stretched.
All of them at once.
Like rubber pulled to its limit.
The suppression pillars flickered violently.
The Sage shouted, increasing natural energy output.
Ren's body compressed further—
Further—
Further—
Then—
He released everything.
The recoil wasn't a wave this time.
It was directional.
All stored force snapped outward from Ren's center point.
Chakra nets shot backward, slamming Root operatives into walls with bone-cracking force.
Sealing tags ripped from his body mid-stretch, flinging outward like blades.
The suppression pillars shattered entirely, exploding into fragments of stone and light.
The Sage-affiliated shinobi braced—
But even he was driven to one knee as the chamber floor fractured in a wide circle around Ren.
Dust filled the air.
Smoke.
Flickering red alarms.
When the dust cleared—
Ren stood alone at the center of a broken suppression chamber.
The restraint bands around his wrists hung warped and useless.
His breathing slowed.
The pale tint faded.
The drums settled.
Danzō remained standing at the edge of the destruction.
Unmoved.
Unshaken.
His cloak fluttered in the settling air.
"Interesting," Danzō said quietly.
Root operatives struggled to stand.
Several were unconscious.
The Sage rose slowly, eyes narrowed now—not in curiosity, but recognition.
"You can't cage him," the Sage said.
Danzō's visible eye didn't blink.
"All things can be caged," he replied. "You simply build a larger cage."
Ren stepped forward.
The broken chamber floor dented slightly under his foot.
He stopped a few meters from Danzō.
Close enough to see the old man clearly.
"You built a cage," Ren said softly.
He glanced around at the destroyed chamber.
"It just wasn't strong enough."
Danzō's cane tapped once against the fractured stone.
"Do you think this ends with you walking away?"
Ren smiled.
"No."
He turned his head slightly toward the corridor.
More footsteps were coming.
More Root.
More reinforcements.
The facility was mobilizing.
Ren looked back at Danzō.
"This ends with you realizing something."
Danzō's eye narrowed.
"And what is that?"
Ren's smile sharpened.
"You can't control what bends."
The drums rolled again.
Not violently.
Not explosively.
Just steadily.
Doom.
Outside the shattered chamber—
The deeper levels of Root began activating emergency protocols.
Sealing vaults.
Containment barriers.
Even heavier suppressive measures.
This was no longer a quiet experiment.
This was now a classified threat.
Danzō raised his hand.
"Level Three containment," he ordered.
The entire underground complex shifted.
Ren's eyes flickered with interest.
So.
They were escalating.
Good.
He wanted to see how deep the roots truly went.