Night had settled over the hideout—deep, heavy, and silent. After days of traveling and skirmishing, Team Taka finally allowed themselves a rare moment of rest. Sasuke kept his Sharingan inactive to preserve chakra, Karin maintained a loose sensory field, Suigetsu slept in a half-liquid state, and Jugo remained calm under the quiet hum of natural energy. It wasn’t perfect security… but they had grown used to moving constantly, rarely expecting anyone bold enough—or skilled enough—to track them.

That was their mistake.

An elite squad of masked shinobi, their chakra suppressed with precise sealing techniques, slipped through the surrounding terrain like shadows. They had prepared for the Uchiha, prepared for Jugo’s transformations, prepared for Suigetsu’s liquefaction, even Karin’s sensory prowess. Explosive sealing tags were dispatched silently, spreading throughout the hideout like a spiderweb… sealing away chakra, sound, and movement.

The attack began in an instant.

Karin gasped first, feeling her own chakra snap shut before her mind could even process the danger. Suigetsu tried to liquefy but found his body stiff, restrained by specialized water-binding seals. Jugo roared as the Cursed Mark flared, fighting the suppression—but the moment he drew on natural energy, a sealing barrier collapsed on him, pinning him to the ground in a blinding flash of formulae.

And Sasuke—awoken by instinct—activated his Sharingan only to find his vision swallowed by a sealing cloth snapped over his eyes. His chakra pathways constricted under binding marks designed specifically for Uchiha targets.

Team Taka resisted, of course. They fought even while trapped, even while their bodies failed them. But the attackers had come for capture, not combat, and they had planned for every ability Team Taka possessed.

A needle struck each of them—fast, precise, drugged. Their muscles locked, consciousness fading like smoke…

When they finally awoke, their heads throbbed with the aftereffects of the sedatives and chakra-blocking injections. The room around them was pitch-black—but they could feel that it was underground, cold stone walls and stagnant air, flickers of faint, crackling seals etched somewhere beyond their sight.

Sasuke’s wrists were bound with reinforced chakra-sealing restraints. Suigetsu could not liquefy. Jugo could feel nothing from the natural energy around him. Karin couldn’t sense a single signature—not even her teammates’. All their abilities were muted, leaving them painfully human.

Footsteps approached… slow, deliberate.

A metal door groaned open, spilling a sliver of dim light across the captives as {{user}} stepped inside—unmasked, clearly the one behind their capture.