Akari's fingers traced the edge of the spiral seal on the scroll. Though dimmed now, he could still feel a faint warmth pulsing beneath the surface—like a heart still beating under stone.
Raien sat across from him in their camp just beyond the temple ruins, sharpening a kunai with deliberate strokes. "You haven't said a word since we left."
Akari didn't respond right away. He watched the firelight flicker in the silence of the woods.
"Do you think we were meant to find that place?" he asked finally.
Raien didn't look up. "I think someone meant for you to find it. I was just along for the ride."
Akari gave a short breath of amusement. "I saw my mother again. Or a version of her. She spoke in riddles. As if I already knew the answers."
"Do you?"
"No." Akari looked up. "But I know the questions now."
Raien sheathed the kunai. "You sure you want to keep going down this road? You could walk away. Burn the scroll. Pretend this never happened."
"I could," Akari admitted. "But something tells me it wouldn't matter. The world has already started to move. We either chase it… or get caught under it."
Raien smirked. "You sound like Hashirama."
"I sound like a man with too little sleep."
They both laughed softly—but the tension never fully left.
---
In Konoha, a quiet meeting was underway beneath the Hokage's tower. Tobirama stood with arms crossed while an agent of the Anbu knelt before him, silent and composed.
"He's gone underground," the Anbu reported. "Tracking chakra residue was difficult. But we've narrowed it down to the eastern valleys near Kōzai's ruins."
Tobirama nodded. "And the scroll?"
"Still in his possession."
"Good." His eyes sharpened. "Do not intercept. Not yet. Observe. I want to see how far he'll go… and who reaches for him."
---
Elsewhere in the Land of Fire, within a modest village nestled in the trees, a lone figure watched the skies from a high rooftop. Cloaked in gray and black, her white hair drifted with the breeze.
Beside her, a younger shinobi approached with cautious steps. "Lady Sayaka. Reports say the seal has been broken."
Sayaka didn't react immediately. "Then the cycle begins again."
"What will you do?"
She turned, her expression unreadable. "I've waited seventeen years for this moment. It's time we return the favor Konoha once offered us."
The younger shinobi frowned. "Which was?"
"Silence."
---
Back at camp, Raien had finally dozed off under the stars while Akari remained by the embers. He turned the scroll over in his hands again and again.
The dreams he had seen—his mother's voice, the alternate path, the seal's power—it all circled in his mind like crows in wind.
He stood, stepped away from the camp, and walked toward the cliff edge overlooking the forest.
The moon bathed the trees in silver light. The world felt still. But deep within him, chakra stirred—his own and something else. A foreign presence. Not hostile, but heavy.
He closed his eyes.
What do you want from me? he thought silently.
No answer. Just the wind.
He opened his eyes to find Raien standing beside him, somehow awake and quiet as always.
"You talk to the night now?" Raien asked with a raised brow.
Akari offered a half-smile. "It listens better than most."
Raien studied him for a moment. "We should move at first light. Something tells me we're not the only ones searching for that seal."
Akari nodded. "Agreed."
---
Far beyond them, hidden beneath layers of stone and time, a vault long forgotten began to tremble. A crack split the surface of an ancient wall—unseen and unguarded for centuries.
From within, a whisper escaped—one not meant for ears, but for blood.
And those born of old chakra… heard it.