CHAPTER 227: 227. SUIGETSU’S AWE

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Sasuko and Suigetsu left the hideout behind and crossed the sea, the spray cool against their faces, until a stone span loomed from the mist.

"This is where you wanted to go?" Suigetsu asked, shading his eyes. He read the characters carved into the arch: Great Naruto Bridge. Sasuko’s gaze lingered there, unreadable.

Grinning around a sip from his canteen, Suigetsu flashed his shark-teeth. "Heard a rumor my senior’s senior, Momochi Zabuza, got taken down by your squad here. Think his beheading blade is still around? I’ve always wanted that sword. You know where it—"

A voice floated across the bridge, cool as steel. "You came."

Two figures approached: a hard-eyed man with a bandaged sword-hilt at his back, and a graceful youth in white. Suigetsu blinked, then stared.

Sasuko’s eyes narrowed on the matching pendants at their throats. "Zabuza. Haku."

Zabuza dipped his head once. His glance slid to Suigetsu; he’d heard every word. Suigetsu’s grin went brittle.

"Ah—hello, Senior’s senior. I didn’t say anything just now."

Zabuza ignored him. "Follow me."

Sasuko fell in behind him without a word. Suigetsu jogged to catch up, hissing, "Hey, hey—what is this?"

’Zabuza’s not dead? Also, when she said ’First recruit, why am I the third? ...Tch. Player’

He kept that opinion to himself. The girl with the sword would absolutely lop off a limb to make the point and Zabuza might finish the job.

They crossed the bridge, but instead of entering the island, they veered out across open water. Chakra rippled underfoot. Ahead, Zabuza and Haku... vanished.

Suigetsu rubbed his eyes. "They disappeared. Barrier? On the ocean?"

Sasuko stepped through empty air and was gone. Suigetsu clicked his tongue.

"Ignored again. Rude." Curiosity beat caution; he followed and the world blinked.

A titanic reef opened like a vault. Light spilled from within, revealing clean lines, gleaming metal, and the tang of sterilized air. Nothing like Orochimaru’s rough-hewn burrows of stone and timber.

They entered a small chamber. The reef-door sealed behind them with a grinding thud. The floor hummed. Weight fell away.

Suigetsu stiffened and threw chakra to his soles. "We’re... dropping?"

Sasuko felt it too, a pressure that rose and then eased, but she only tilted her head. For him, this level of engineering was hardly a surprise.

With a soft chime, the door slid open.

They stepped into... a meadow.

Birdsong. A breeze teased the grass. But instead of a sky there were impossibly tall stone pillars climbing into a blue vault dotted with drifting "clouds." Suigetsu’s jaw went slack.

"Underground," he said slowly. "We went down. So why does it look like—"

"It is underground," Haku said, smiling. "Beneath the sea, actually. You’ll get used to it."

Sasuko’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes tightened. She kept pace with Zabuza and Haku; Suigetsu bounded ahead, touching everything and trusting nothing.

A thunderclap rolled across the "field." Sasuko’s hand fell to the [Kusanagi]. Suigetsu, perched on a crooked boulder, whooped.

"Over there! Big fight! What are those things?"

Sasuko’s Sharingan spun to life, the world sharpening into perfect lines. Two blurs traded vicious strikes one wrapped in a greenish-blue "armor," the other a towering puppet bristling with hidden blades and strange vents.

"That’s Sasori testing a new puppet," Zabuza said, appearing at their shoulders without sound.

Sasuko glanced back. "Sasori?"

"Recent recruit," Haku explained. "Former Akatsuki ’Sasori of the Red Sand.’ He’s here developing new puppets and other tech."

Sasuko’s eyes thinned. She recognized the name; Orochimaru had mentioned it, once or twice. And she remembered something else the man who had humbled her so thoroughly she’d tasted dust and pride in the same breath.

He had shown her a higher ceiling. Enough power to make revenge real.

"Come," Zabuza said. "This is just a simulation yard. The real facility is above. The Boss is waiting."

Sasuko stepped forward without hesitation. That was why she’d come.

And behind her, Suigetsu finally found his voice. "Okay, I’ll admit it..."

He swept his gaze over the false sky, the whispering grass, the silent machinery pulsing beneath it all.

"...this is insane."

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