The colossal airship locked into the docking bay of the jagged mountain fortress with a heavy, metallic groan.
Deep inside the ship’s core laboratory, Yukie Fujikaze was strapped to a heavy steel chair. Thick, chakra-conductive cables wrapped tightly around her wrists and ankles. A massive, mechanical extraction device hung from the ceiling, its primary node clamped directly over the Hex Crystal resting on her chest.
Doto Kazahana stood in front of her. He wore his black, prototype chakra armor.
"Your father was a fool," Doto stated, his voice distorted by the armor’s helmet. "He built a geothermal weapon capable of controlling the entire country's climate, and he wanted to use it to plant flowers."
Doto turned a heavy dial on the control console.
The cables violently hummed. A surge of raw, artificial chakra shocked through the extraction device, forcefully trying to bypass the Hex Crystal's biological lock.
Yukie screamed. Her back arched against the steel chair as the electrical current burned through her nervous system.
Doto cut the power. He walked over and grabbed her by the jaw, forcing her to look at him.
"The crystal requires your specific chakra signature to activate," Doto growled. "Stop fighting the current, Koyuki. Give me the activation sequence, or I will peel it out of your mind piece by piece."
Yukie was gasping for air. Her whole body trembled.
A day ago, she would have broken. She would have retreated into her Princess Gale persona and begged for mercy.
But as she looked up at Doto’s imposing armor, she didn't see a monster anymore. She just heard Kenji’s deadpan voice echoing in her head. You're letting a coward in a metal suit ruin your sleep.
Yukie coughed. She spat a glob of blood directly onto Doto’s polished black breastplate.
"You're a joke, Doto," Yukie whispered, her voice shaking but her eyes burning with a defiant, bitter heat. "You have all this machinery, and you're still just a coward hiding in a tin can."
Doto’s eyes narrowed behind his visor. He raised his armored fist to strike her.
CRASH.
The massive, reinforced blast doors at the front of the laboratory violently caved inward.
The heavy steel buckled and blew completely off its hinges, crushing two Snow Guard technicians against the far wall.
Through the thick cloud of smoke, Team 7 stepped into the lab.
Naruto stood in the center, a swirling blue Rasengan fading in his palm. Sasuke flanked him on the right, his Sharingan blazing red, a kunai tightly gripped in his hand. Kakashi covered the left, his lone eye locked onto Doto.
They had scaled the mountain base and ripped through the lower decks.
"Get away from her!" Naruto yelled, pointing his kunai straight at Doto.
Doto slowly lowered his fist. He turned to face the Konoha shinobi, completely unfazed. "More rats on my ship."
"We're taking her back," Naruto declared, stepping forward. He didn't sound like a loudmouthed kid. He sounded like a soldier. "She isn't just an actress, and she isn't your prisoner. She's Koyuki Kazahana. The rightful ruler of this country. This is her home, and we aren't leaving until you're in the ground!"
Yukie stared at the blonde Genin. It was a perfect, textbook hero speech. It was passionate, loud, and inspiring.
Doto scoffed. "Brave words for a dead—"
BOOM.
The solid steel wall directly behind Doto imploded.
The entire laboratory shook violently. Three feet of reinforced hull plating shrieked, buckled, and blasted inward like a bomb had gone off outside the ship.
Shrapnel rained across the laboratory. Doto stumbled forward, his chakra armor sparking as he barely avoided getting crushed by a flying steel beam.
The dust settled.
A jagged, smoking hole was torn directly through the hull of the airship, exposing the freezing, howling blizzard outside.
Kenji walked through the jagged opening.
His grey robe was dusted with concrete powder. His knuckles were bruised, and his boots were coated in the frozen blood of whatever poor bastards had tried to stop him on the upper decks.
He stepped into the lab, casually brushing a piece of debris off his shoulder.
He didn't look at Kakashi. He didn't look at Sasuke. He didn't even look at Yukie strapped to the chair.
Kenji looked dead at Naruto.
"Nice speech, whiskers," Kenji said, his voice entirely flat. "Now shut up. He interrupted my scene. He is my prey."