The room smelled of disinfectant and blood.
Outside the infirmary door, Kurenai stood with her arms folded, watching as the medics worked.
"She's stable," one said, voice low. "But…"
The head medic shook her head slowly. "Her chakra network is barely functional. If she were a civilian, I'd call her comatose. But she's not. Somehow, she's still here."
"Her chakra levels are below any known threshold," another added. "Even less than a civilian. It's like the chakra's there, but sealed—or worse, consumed."
They didn't know what to make of it. No one did.
"She won't be able to mold chakra, not with a network this damaged."
Kurenai turned her gaze to the still figure on the bed. "Can it be repaired?"
No one answered.
<<<< o >>>>
Outside the medical wing, the whispers had begun.
"She moved like no genin I've ever seen."
"That wasn't the Hyūga style. That wasn't anything from Konoha."
"Could be she was trained elsewhere. Illegally."
"Doesn't matter. Her chakra is gone. She's finished."
Kakashi listened from a distance, one eye closed, head tilted slightly.
"She moved with rhythm," he murmured, "like someone who's been fighting for years."
Gai stood beside him, arms crossed. "A flame bursting out of a candle. And now…"
"Now it flickers."
They both fell silent.
<<<< o >>>>
In the Silver World,
Michel stepped through the quiet.
He hadn't been here since the fight. Not truly. Before, it had only been fragments of his consciousness—his soul anchored outside, constantly resisting the pull toward Hinata. But now, he stepped in whole, fully present.
The Silver World belonged to Hinata. But he could walk it now without fear of fusing into her soul.
The air was calm.
The grass shimmered like moonlight. The sky, as always, was pale and unmarked.
There she was.
Hinata lay in the clearing, curled as if asleep, her chest gently rising and falling. Her form was whole, unmarked, but still. Dreamless.
Michel knelt beside her.
Her chakra here was dim, like an ember lost in ash. He extended a hand, not to touch, but to feel.
"You're here. But not awake."
He closed his eyes.
She fought. She rose. She awakened the impossible. And the world punished her for it.
But Michel didn't despair.
Because he now knew.
The seal had failed to erase her.
The world had tried to suppress her.
And yet, here she was—still alive.
The Silver World hadn't collapsed.
It had evolved.
He looked up. Beyond the field, he saw faint glimmers. Possibilities. Shapes not yet formed.
A forge being tempered.
He looked back down.
"You need something more, don't you?"
He knew what it was.
But he didn't say it. Not yet.
Instead, he sat beside her, cross-legged. His form still bore the scars of his last sacrifice—fragments missing from his aura, parts of his soul turned dull and quiet. But he was still here.
Still watching.
Still waiting.
"I'm not going anywhere."
<<<< o >>>>
In the physical world, Naruto walked the hallway in silence.
He paused before Hinata's door.
For a long moment, he simply stood there, hand raised halfway to the handle.
Then he lowered it.
And moved on.
<<<< o >>>>
In the Silver World, Michel lit a small flame between his palms. Not heat. Not fire.
Guidance.
He set it beside Hinata's sleeping form, and watched as the light softly illuminated her face.
"You've already changed the world once," he said gently. "But you're not done yet."
Michel stayed beside her in silence.
Then, softly, almost like a whisper.
The world didn't need more words.
But maybe… it needed a memory.
He began to sing.
A lullaby.
The same one her mother had once sung. The same one her soul had reached for without knowing. The same one that once brought peace to Michel in another life, far from this world.
His voice was old, worn, but steady. A song of hope, of home, of hands never letting go.
He didn't know if she could hear it.
But he believed… that maybe, somewhere deep within, she would remember.