Pain wasn't the first thing Kaito felt.
It was pressure. A crushing force spreading through his chest, then out through his limbs like a dam had ruptured inside him.
His eyes shot open.
A faint humming filled the room — electric, low, and unnatural. The ceiling above him was scorched. Thin cracks traced outward from a single charred circle above his bed.
His body trembled, not from cold or fear, but from sheer overflow.
Kaito threw the blanket off and stumbled to the mirror. His reflection blinked back at him.
Pale skin, sweat-drenched. But his eyes—
They glowed.
Not just the stormlight flickers he had seen before. This was constant. Pulsing. Gold laced with violet, stormlight infused into his irises like veins of lightning across the sky.
He clutched the edge of the table as a burning throb tore through his left shoulder.
He pulled back his shirt. The seal had activated.
What once looked like a simple spiral formation had now expanded, branching across his collarbone like a spiderweb of ink and light. The tendrils moved, adjusting, alive.
"Something triggered it…"
The next morning, Tsunade's expression was unreadable.
"Describe everything. From the moment the pain started to the moment you woke up."
Kaito recounted the pressure, the vision, the lightning. Everything but one thing — the name in the scroll. Katsuro Shiden.
Not because he didn't want to share it. Because something deep in his gut told him not yet.
Tsunade examined his shoulder in silence.
"This seal wasn't designed to contain the stormline," she said. "It was designed to regulate it. Whoever embedded it did so knowing you'd awaken early. They planned for instability."
She sat back.
"That level of foresight is disturbing. There's only a handful of people in the Five Nations who could engineer something this precise."
Rei, leaning against the doorframe, spoke for the first time.
"Which means one of them is involved. Or at least… watching."
Tsunade nodded. "And until we know who, you are not to train alone again. Understood?"
Kaito gave a reluctant nod.
Later that day, Kaito found Hinata in the forest clearing near Training Ground 7.
She turned before he even spoke. Her Byakugan had flared the moment he approached — no doubt detecting the storm chakra surging through his tenketsu like a raging river.
"You're unstable," she said softly.
"I know."
"You should rest."
"I can't."
She considered him for a long moment. Then without a word, she stepped aside and activated her stance.
"If you refuse to rest… then you train under someone who will not hold back."
Their spar was a blur.
Hinata struck with precise, devastating grace. Gentle Fist met storm-infused instinct. Every hit forced Kaito to adapt — until his reactions started shifting.
His chakra surged toward her strike points before she even landed the blows, anticipating her movements.
Lightning danced between them.
One misstep, and a shockwave burst outward — flinging them both apart.
Kaito slammed into a tree, panting, smoke rising from his jacket.
Hinata stood opposite him, her eyes wide.
"You're not controlling the chakra," she said, "it's starting to control you."
Kaito closed his eyes. "I know. And I think someone else can feel it too."
That night, Rei stood atop the village wall, arms folded.
In the distance, beyond the trees, something stirred.
She couldn't explain it — just a prickle of chakra across her skin.
Lightning far off on the horizon.
No storm clouds in sight.