The forest whispered as Akari moved through it—no longer just a shinobi in black, but something older, more awakened. The violet markings etched along his arms pulsed like living flame beneath his skin.
Raien kept pace beside him, unusually quiet.
"You're not asking where we're going," Akari said.
Raien gave a thin smile. "I've stopped asking questions I won't get answers to."
They walked for some time before reaching a secluded ravine outside Konoha, where the trees grew twisted and the air held the scent of burnt leaves.
Here, Akari paused.
"This place..." he murmured. "She brought me here once. Before she vanished."
Raien looked around. "What is it?"
Akari crouched and placed his hand on the ground.
The fire answered.
Flames rippled in the dirt, forming symbols too fast to read. Not Uchiha. Not Senju. But something before both.
> "It remembers her."
---
In the Hokage Tower, Tobirama stood before a wide circular table. Around him were six elders of the village—only one spoke.
"The fire within him has awakened."
Tobirama nodded. "And now we must decide: Do we guide it—or extinguish it."
Danzo, leaning against the far wall, folded his arms. "If you try to chain him now, he will burn the whole forest down."
Tobirama's eyes darkened. "Then perhaps that's the price of keeping secrets."
The elders fell silent.
---
Back in the ravine, Akari found it.
Half-buried under moss and root, a broken shrine stone marked with the crest of the Uzumaki.
Beneath it, a sealed iron scroll.
As he lifted it, a voice cracked the silence.
"I wouldn't open that."
Amari stood on the opposite ridge.
Akari raised an eyebrow. "You followed me."
"I remembered this place," she said. "I was here too. Years ago."
She stepped closer, slowly. "The scroll contains her memory. Not just her final thoughts—her last chakra imprint. If you read it, you may not return the same."
Akari looked down at the scroll, then back at her.
"I haven't been the same for a long time."
---
He opened it.
And the world around him vanished.
---
Ash.
Endless fields of ash.
And fire.
He stood inside her memory—his mother's—Miyako of the Ash Flame.
She fought alone, blades of wind and fire spiraling from her hands, her kimono in tatters, face bleeding. In the distance: beasts not of chakra, but of void.
Creatures no jutsu could stop.
Behind her, a small child cried.
Akari saw himself—barely walking, barely aware.
And he saw her final act: a sealing jutsu not written in any book, powered by something ancient and forbidden.
She bound herself into him—not just her power.
Her will.
Her warning.
> "They will come again, Akari. When they do, do not protect the village.
Change it."
---
The vision faded.
He collapsed, gasping.
Amari caught his shoulders, grounding him.
His voice trembled. "She knew everything. About Tobirama. About the cult. About the Lock."
Amari nodded. "And she gave it to you anyway."
Akari's eyes burned violet.
"No," he said. "She gave it to me because of them."
---
That night, as a storm brewed far off over the horizon, Akari stood alone on the ridge.
Raien approached quietly. "What now?"
Akari didn't look back.
"We go back to Konoha."
Raien frowned. "To fight?"
Akari shook his head.
> "To change everything."
---
To be continued...