Disclaimer I do not own Naruto, Boruto, or any associated properties that may appear in this story. This is also an M rated story or 16 age rating in the UK. Due to excessive langue and violence.

I am sorry for the wait but chapter 10 got so big and had a couple of rewrites I had to split into a two-parter hope you enjoy and thanks for reading The Next Sannin.

The Shadow Hidden beneath part 1

A young bronze skinned woman in dark anbu like clothing, holding a file of documents runs down a dark stone hallway, that stretches out like an endless shadow of a titan. She makes her way to the singular light source of two braziers faintly glowing. They stand next to a huge steel door, that two samurai clad in charcoal black armor stand in front of. Seeing the woman approach, the samurai stand to attention and open the steel door.

A warm inviting glow emits from within the room for several seconds before the woman enters. A simultaneous soothing and terrifying melody from a small orchestra emerges from the darkness in a corner of the large room. The woman quickly gets on her knees places the documents in front of her and kowtows to the center of the room where a large velvet chair sits facing away from her towards a crackling fireplace. Next to the chair stands a small wooden table engraved with scenes of epic battles depicting the fourth great shinobi war, upon it rests a half-drunk bottle of wine and an empty glass. Next to them lays a mask in the shape of a man's face around the marking of black and red line the face leading up to the forehead where a red Rinne Sharingan is emblazoned.

The mask exuded an immense aura and presence even without the man who wears it. However, no feeling or presence can match the immeasurable dread that the woman suffers upon the utterance of a simple question coming from the man in the chair. "Why do you disturb my rest, Narui?" the man dictates in a calm, refined yet ominous manner.

"I - I am sorry my Archon, b-but a new report from the land of tea has come in" the woman struggles to say in a feared tone. In response without uttering a word, the Archon takes the maks from next to him and gestures for her to approach as he places it upon his face. Quickly doing so the woman approaches documents in hand, head still bowed.

Taking the file in his hand the Archon quickly reads through the documents seemingly pausing at unrelated points and pages seeming to analyze and plan out in greater detail. In the same cold and refined tone, he dictates "I seek to test subject 2 wake her up, then start a slower process for subjects 5e and 7b." The Archon then stands up and turns to face the Narui. As he turns around to look Narui in the eyes, she quakes in a mix of fear and awe as The Archons eyes burn read reveling the power and majesty of the Sharingan. Standing in his presence is to know God and to fear his wrath the feeling of awe, fear, and unquestioning obedience fills Narui. Handing back the file he directs her attention "Make sure the staff is evacuated before they wake up."

An unknown time later Mari begins to awaken hearing voices but is unable to tell what they are saying as if she is trying to listen to a whisper while being submerged underneath water. The voices get louder before fading away growing ever distant, as the voices fading is mirrored by Mari's consciousness. She fades back into unconsciousness and out again for how long she doesn't know minutes, hours, days even.

A bubbling noise builds up in Mari's ears, she begins to move her limbs before opening her eyes. Her eyes black as a void look out at her surroundings, she appears to be in a vat of liquid. It's both warm and cold, viscous and flowing, acidic and restorative, the contradictions making Mari nauseous. The outside of vat seems to be machinery and computers but what else she cannot seem to tell.

Weakly Mari batters against the glass, '*thud* *thud *thud*' reverberates through the vat seemingly weakening Mari even further. She rests her head and left forearm against the glass and breaths into the tubs in her nose. Closing her eyes she tries to relax and think, focusing on her breathing while submerged she places her right hand against the glass. After several moments her eyelids begin to twitch and strain as her concentration and effort increase. The hand tenses digging each finger into the glass, her hand then arm shaking from the effort and pressure. Moments pass before small cracks begin to appear in the glass, Mari smiles and presses harder against her confines, the cracks grow like a web across the vat. The liquid begins to seep out with every drop Mari's strength returns bit by bit. With one last herculean push as the palm of her hand slams into the glass, it shatters seemingly into dust.

The liquid pours out like a wave carrying Mari along with it. Slamming against the wall Mari opens her eyes open and she rubs them wearily. Resting her head against the gray stone wall Mari surveys the room she appears to be in. The towing gray room seemed to warn down as if being a ruin for a decade or more faded snakes line the walls of the room yet no dust lay upon them nor anywhere. She tuns her attention to the machinery and computers they seem far newer than the room itself so were probably brought by someone else, all but the vat and but one computer seems to be turned off, she can feel the heat coming from the closest computer but it's turned off meaning whoever was here only just left.

Mari's head still spinning she looks down realizing that she is essentially only in a white bra and pants, suction cup-like marks dot her body. "What kinda experiment was this?" She asks the universe knowing that no answer will come. Shakily standing up Mari gets to her feet, using the wall for leverage she begins to walk glancing around noting a sign for the room 'Subject 2 test area', "guess I'm subject 2, fun" Mari responds.

Mari slowly makes her way to the door, grabbing the handle tightly she yanks it open to the side, in the process dropping to one knee clearly still suffering from whatever has happened to her. Placing her head against the doorframe Mari looks down the corridor. The corridor seems more in place than the room as if the sands of time have in part spared it from decay. Snake carvings line the corridor purple and green lights stand in lanterns up and down its eerie length, faintly lighting the corridor and exaggerating its decor in a less than charming way.

Now seeing the corridor Mari seems to remember something like this but she doesn't know it all seems familiar and she hates that it does. Using this hate and frustration Mari pulls herself up onto her feet while doing so gripping the doorframe so hard it cracks. Slowly she walks forward an anger welling up she didn't know she had, carrying her onward and allowing her to brush off more of the effects with every step. Mari stops at a cross path she can go right, left, or forward, above each pathway is a sign 'Testing', 'Exit', and 'Storage'. Mari walks forward to the Testing area figuring that is where Hana and Kasai will be at least that is what she hopes.

Getting closer to the door Mari begins to hear noises of equipment being packed away and voices coming from the room. "I still can't believe we are abandoning base for this" one voice protests.

"Ye well orders from the Archon himself, and I advise you hurry up Subject 2 should wake up within the hour, so we need to flush 18c and 19a before that happens, and they wake up" another voice responds.

Mari breaths heavily and kicks the door in. She quickly scans the room and her eyes lock on two stunned scientists and a samurai clad in black armor. Rage emanates from the young girl as the scientists, one man in his late 40's the other a young woman in her mid 20's clearly belonging to the first and second voices respectively. The scientists stand shocked at the sight of Mari. They are standing next to two tubes of the same viscous liquid that Mari found herself in containing Hana and Kasai.

The black-clad samurai wastes no time and charges the girl he believes is still weak and sluggish. Without channeling chakra into his blades he swings the katana in his left hand at Mari with force and murderous intent. The blade is simply caught by Mari and snapped like a twig. Falling forward due to both the failed swing and being overwhelmed by the bloodlust emitting from the young girl before him, he is perfectly positioned as Mari still staring at the scientist plunges her hand straight into the samurai's chest and pulling out his heart. The samurai's lifeless body falls to the ground. Mari grabs the remaining katana from his corpse and maliciously walks toward the scientists.

Moments later the vat containing Kasai is covered in blood. Mari closes her eyes and breaths to calm her mind. Within a few moments, Mari now surveys the room she now finds herself in. Four vats stand in a room only slightly bigger than the one she awoke in, two vats contain Hana and Kasai although she cant currently see him due to it being covered in blood. The other two seem to be filled with a crystalline-like liquid and the inhabitants are older in their late 20's to early '30s. One a pale and large man easily head and shoulders taller than Mari and probably double her width, the other a slender dark-skinned man around Mari's hight both men have scaring account the eyes and across the face. Unlike Mari, Hana, or Kasai who are all in some sort of medical undergarments these men seem to be in some kind of red and black armor.

With a single large swing Mari slices into the vats cracking them open and releasing her comrades. Kasai and Hana are carried out by the tide of liquid as it evaporates upon prolonged contact with the air. Mari glances toward her teammates before quickly turning her attention to the vats of the armored people. Their eyes begin to open and the crystalline liquid drains, causing them to thrash around violently.

Kasai is the first to open his eyes and glances around looking at the nearly naked Mari covered in blood. "Nice ass" he mutters weakly, in response getting a harsh look from both the awakening Hana and the blood-covered Mari.

Mari gets down onto one knee and looks at her teammates "Ok let me help you guys up, and then the two of you get our stuff alright" she iterates and in response the two definitely look at her. "Listen neither of you two is fit for whatever fight is about to happen, so get our stuff and come back by that point you should have recovered. I saw the path to a storage area back that way"

"Fine" Kasai and Hana weakly mutter helping one another up. Walking out arm in arm they give a glance back to Mari who once again picked up the katana and readies herself in a fighting stance.