Morning.
Birds chirped.Leaves danced.
But inside Raien's head… silence.No thoughts.No voices.Nothing.
He sat alone.Back pressed against his bedroom wall.Blank scroll in front of him.
It wasn't blank anymore.
Symbols floated on it.Only when his eye activated.
Words shifted.Changed.Rearranged themselves when he blinked.
It wasn't a jutsu.It was alive.
Footsteps.
Neji knocked.
"Raien. You good?"
Raien didn't answer.
Neji opened the door anyway.
Saw the scroll.Saw Raien staring.
Saw… the eye.
Neji paused.
"Raien... your eye is—"
Raien looked up.It vanished.
Too late.
Neji had seen it clearly.
"That's not a Sharingan."
Raien nodded.Quiet.
Neji frowned.But said nothing.
Only watched.Then stepped out.
Raien exhaled slow.He already knew—
Neji would tell someone.
Later that day.
Training field.
Kurenai called them all together.
Raien.Neji.Hinata.Shino.Kiba.
No missions.
Just team drills.
But her eyes were different.
She was watching Raien.Every move.Every blink.
He felt it.
Even the wind felt colder.
They started drills.
Shino controlled insects.
Hinata practiced gentle strikes.
Kiba used his beast mimicry.
Then came Raien's turn.
Target dummies in place.
"Use your best jutsu," Kurenai said.
Raien hesitated.
Looked at his palm.Symbols shifted slightly.
He stepped forward.
Breathed in.
Focused.
Didn't use hand signs.Didn't call out a name.
He just thought.
The air cracked.
Dummies burst into dust.No fire.No chakra trails.Just... erased.
Everyone froze.
Even Kiba stopped chewing jerky.
Kurenai didn't blink.
"Again."
Second time.Same result.
Even faster.
No chakra flared.No visual cues.
Just pure disappearance.
"Raien…" she said, tone low. "What technique was that?"
"I don't know."
"You have to know something."
Raien looked at her.
And lied.
"I think I created it. In a dream."
Silence.
Then Kurenai nodded.
But her eyes said: You're hiding more.
Night.
Kurenai met Asuma in the woods.
Voices low.
"He's not just another genin," she said.
Asuma lit a cigarette. "None of them are these days."
"I saw a dojutsu I've never seen. Three rings. Red eye. No chakra release. Just results."
"You sure it wasn't a mutation of Sharingan?"
"I'm sure. The way he erased those targets… It wasn't chakra. It was... reality being undone."
Asuma exhaled.
"The elders need to know."
Kurenai hesitated.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"Why?"
"Because if they know… they'll take him."
Meanwhile.
Raien wandered into the woods again.
Drawn.
Like something called him.
And there—waiting—was her.
Long black cloak.Silver-white hair.Eyes that shimmered between blue and gold.
She didn't smile.
Didn't move.
Just watched.
Raien stopped a few feet away.
"You again."
"You remember me now," she said.
Raien nodded slowly.
"You were in the vision."
She tilted her head.
"I was never out of it."
Wind picked up.
She stepped forward.
Held something out.
A stone.
Oval.Dark.Veins of red lightning crackling inside.
Raien didn't take it.
"What is it?"
"A piece of you."
"I don't want it."
She smiled faintly.
"You will. Soon."
She dropped the stone.
It didn't hit the ground.
It hovered.
Then sank slowly into the soil.
Gone.
Raien stared at her.
"What do you want from me?"
"I'm not here for want."
"Then why follow me?"
"To protect you."
Raien narrowed his eyes.
"From who?"
Her smile vanished.
"From the Ones Who Remember."
Suddenly—Screeching.
Dozens of black birds above.
Cawing.Circling.
Then—silence.
The woman looked up.
"They've found us."
Raien felt it too.
A pressure in the air.
Like the sky was bending.
She grabbed his wrist.
"No time."
Flash.
Space warped.
Color inverted.
And they were gone.
Elsewhere.Hidden Chamber.Underground.
Torches lit the room.
Three men stood in black robes.Faces hidden.Only mouths visible.
"They've located the boy."
"And the key fragment?"
"Already seeded. Inside him."
One of them stepped forward.
"Activate Protocol Echo."
A scroll unfurled.A drop of blood spilled on it.
The ink shimmered.
In the forest Raien had just left—The air twisted.
Something stepped through.
Tall.Clawed.Mask of bone.
It had no eyes.
But it was coming straight for Raien.
Inside the pocket dimension—Raien collapsed.
He gasped.
The woman held him up.
"You're changing too fast," she said.
Raien clutched his chest.
His veins glowed briefly.Symbols appearing across his forearm.
"What's happening to me?!"
"You're becoming."
She placed a hand over his eye.
Raien froze.
He could see everything.
The past.The sealed jutsus.A memory from another life—
He was kneeling before the Sage of Six Paths.
And then—
It vanished.
He screamed.
Collapsed again.
The woman looked down at him.
"You only have three weeks," she said softly.
"To what?"
"To choose which half of you survives."