The forest swallowed them in silence.

Every step was deliberate. Every breath measured. The forest floor dampened their movements as the team flitted between trees, shadows among shadows.

Mist clung to the trunks like the cold fingers of ghosts, wrapping around their legs, rising higher as they neared the dead forest, a place where no birds sang and no animals stirred.

Naruto felt it first: the stillness, the unnatural hush. Even the wind seemed hesitant here.

'This place… It's wrong,' he thought.

Sasuke said nothing, but his fingers twitched slightly as he scanned the lifeless trees. They were gray and twisted, leafless, their bark dry and brittle like ancient bones. Despite the morning sun above the canopy, it felt like twilight beneath the rotting branches.

Crane, the wind mistress, appeared out of nowhere beside Tenzo, made a hand signal, and then vanished again. No noise. Not even a rustle.

Mantis motioned toward a thick patch of moss near the base of a warped tree. He flicked a kunai, revealing a set of buried pressure seals beneath it, thin, paper-like tripwires soaked in senbon poison. He disarmed them with a flick of his fingers and kept moving, not even bothering to look back.

Kakashi's voice was a faint whisper through the team's shared seal:

"Tunnel entrance ahead. Thirty meters."

Ghost, eyes closed, moved slowly at the front, his palm pressed to the ground.

"Minimal chakra traces," he muttered. "But… the forest itself is disturbed. Like something watching from below."

Naruto shuddered slightly but said nothing.

They found the tunnel behind a collapsed tree stump. The rotting bark hid a metal grate, disguised with earth and vines.

Crane reappeared, knelt, and delicately pressed a tiny seal tag on the side. The grate hissed open with a low clunk, revealing a narrow shaft that descended at an angle.

The Orochimaru clone stepped forward, one pale hand brushing against the old stone edge.

"It's still intact," he whispered. "I recommended this design… heat disperses upward through a false furnace exhaust. No one thinks to enter a lab through the chimney." The rightful source is n0velfire.net

"Your other self is thorough," Tenzo muttered.

"As am I," Orochimaru replied with a cold smile.

….

Inside the Tunnel

It was narrow, tight, and sloped at a steep angle. Only one shinobi could move at a time. Naruto slid in behind Ghost, followed by Sasuke, Kakashi, and the rest of the squad. The Orochimaru clone was somewhere in the middle, unnaturally graceful in the cramped space.

The air grew colder as they descended. The walls were coated in soot and dust. Naruto's mask fogged slightly as his breathing quickened. The ANBU fox-face felt heavier than before, like it wasn't just hiding his identity, but also burying his nerves.

He wiped it quickly.

'Get it together,' he told himself. 'You're ANBU today.'

Sasuke, just ahead, moved with quiet precision. Even in this narrow space, he adjusted his weight to avoid echoing footsteps. His hand hovered over his kunai pouch at all times, muscles coiled and ready.

Naruto tried to match his rhythm, occasionally sneaking glances forward. The tension in the tunnel felt like the air itself had chakra, stale, and resentful.

After nearly five minutes of descent, the shaft widened into a stone duct with rusted grates overhead. Flickering green light pulsed from below, sickly and cold.

"The main hall lies under this chamber," Orochimaru clone whispered, running a finger along a crack in the wall. "But this point is… problematic."

"What kind of problem?" Mantis knelt beside him.

"A chakra-weaving genjutsu layered with proximity-based illusion triggers. Very subtle." The pale man tapped the floor twice. "Anyone without a specific chakra key will find themselves going in circles. Forever."

"And I assume only you and the original know the key?" Tenzo grimaced.

"Indeed. But lucky for us, I have memories of when "I" made it." Orochimaru smirked.

He placed his palm on the wall and activated a seal. A faint glow spread from his hand, serpent runes twisting along the stone before dispersing like steam.

"Now, it's safe," he said. "Mostly."

Kakashi signaled forward, and the squad moved through a hidden panel that creaked open, revealing a metal corridor that led deeper into the mountain.

….

The Lab–Entry Hall

The hallway opened into a massive underground room, a half-flooded chamber with twisted steel rafters, broken medical tables, and shattered glass tanks. Faint lights buzzed overhead, flickering like dying fireflies. Pipes ran along the ceiling like veins.

The squad spread out.

Ghost scanned the room with his chakra senses. "No living signatures," he said.

But Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "That doesn't mean it's safe."

Crane dashed forward and marked three spots on the floor with a light puff of chakra smoke, locations where the stone was too clean. Trap indicators.

"Looks like the tile was replaced…" Naruto crouched near one, inspecting the floor.

"Very good," Kakashi said. "Pressure-release. Probably triggers a chakra siphon or paralysis gas."

"Access point's there. Leading to the main archives." Mantis nodded in approval and motioned to the back wall.

The Orochimaru clone moved ahead. "Allow me," he said.

With the tip of a single fingernail, he traced an invisible seal in the air. The panel hissed and clicked, unlocking like it was obeying its master. A doorway creaked open, revealing a dark corridor lined with iron slabs and scroll canisters.

As the team entered the next room, a cold hum began to rise from the walls. It was faint, like distant singing. Too faint to be natural.

Then it changed.

The hum twisted into a sharp ring, and a red glyph flared to life under Naruto's foot.

"MOVE!" Kakashi shouted.

Naruto jumped backward instinctively, just before the floor beneath him caved in and a plume of black smoke shot upward like a geyser.

The room shuddered. The air distorted.

"Genjutsu overlay incoming!" Ghost yelled.

Crane whipped out a sealing tag and slammed it into the wall, disrupting the chakra pulse for a moment, but it was not enough.

Suddenly, Naruto's surroundings changed.

He was alone.

The corridor vanished. The walls were gone. He was standing in a hallway of mirrors, each one showing twisted versions of himself, bloody, broken, smiling with fangs.

"Naruto!" Kakashi's voice echoed faintly. "Focus! It's not real!"

Naruto grits his teeth. It's genjutsu! You've trained for this!

He closed his eyes, bit his thumb, and slammed his palm to the ground.

"Kai!"

The illusion shattered with a sound like breaking glass. He stumbled forward, back into the real world, just as Sasuke caught his arm.

"You good?"

"Y-Yeah," Naruto said, panting.

"You did well. Fast reaction. Don't hesitate to break the illusion, no matter what you see." Kakashi said as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"That thing… it knew what to show me." Naruto nodded quickly.

The Orochimaru clone examined the floor, intrigued. "Ah. In one of my older experiments… "I" built these traps to test the mind, not the body. I warned you, these labs watch their guests."

"Then we're not alone." Tenzo scowled.

"Scan again." Kakashi turned to Ghost.

Ghost's expression darkened. "Still no chakra signatures. But… something's moving. Behind the east wall."

"Want me to open it?" Ox said as he readied his axe-like blade.

"No," Kakashi said. He looked at Sasuke. "What do your Sharingan see?"

Sasuke activated his three-tomoe Sharingan and stared at the wall for a few seconds. His expression tightened.

"There's… something inside. It's not a person. It's a chakra mass. Pulsing. Like it's asleep."

"Is it sealed?" Tenzo asked.

"No," Sasuke said. "It's just waiting."

"We need to finish this sweep fast. If that thing wakes up" Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

Before he could finish, the wall began to tremble.

A low, mechanical click echoed through the chamber.

The sealed door at the back slowly began to open.

Inside, red lights flickered on.

Something stirred in the shadows.