---
The shrine trembled long after the voice faded. Dust fell from the stone ceiling like mist, and violet light continued to pulse softly from the walls.
Akari stood motionless, the mask still in his hand. The presence he had felt—his mother's chakra—had not vanished, only receded. Like a tide waiting to surge again.
Tobirama stepped forward, calm but wary.
"You heard her. That voice—was it hers?"
Akari nodded slowly.
"It was… more than just a memory. It was alive."
Raien circled the room, gaze trailing over the glowing runes. "This place is bound to your blood. Whatever your mother left behind—it responds only to you."
Akari turned to the center of the chamber. A circular platform had emerged from the floor, inscribed with Uchiha and Senju symbols interwoven in ways he had never seen before. Balance. Unity. Opposition.
"This is what she was working on," he said quietly. "Not a weapon. A bridge."
Tobirama's expression shifted. "Between clans?"
"Between ideals."
He stepped onto the platform. The markings shimmered, rising like mist, wrapping around him. For a moment, he felt every heartbeat in the stone beneath him. Every memory sealed in this place.
A vision overtook him—
His mother, kneeling beside a young Hashirama, her hands glowing with medical chakra. Tobirama, younger and colder, watching from the shadows. Whispers of secret meetings, forbidden jutsu, and a growing fear of something coming from the north.
A shadowed figure appeared in the vision, cloaked, with eyes like burning silver.
Then—darkness.
Akari stumbled backward, breathing hard.
"They knew," he muttered. "They knew something was coming."
Tobirama crossed his arms. "And they tried to hide it."
Raien's voice was low. "From us. From everyone."
Akari looked at them both. "But she didn't want it buried. She wanted it passed on."
He reached into the mask and pulled out a scroll, hidden within its lining. It was old but untouched by time.
Tobirama took a step forward. "What's inside?"
Akari opened it slowly. The ink shimmered violet and black.
Not instructions.
A warning.
> "To wield this seal is to bind yourself to the will of two bloodlines. One seeks peace through pain. The other, power through loss. Both must be tempered—by choice."
Akari folded the scroll and tucked it into his robe.
"I need to learn everything she left behind."
Raien smirked. "Guess the mission just got bigger."
Tobirama turned away. "Be careful, Akari. Secrets like this… they ask for more than answers. They ask for sacrifice."
---
Outside the shrine, night had fallen over Konoha. The village slept, unaware of what stirred beneath it.
But far beyond the forest's edge, in the abandoned lands near the old battlefield, a figure watched the sky. Their cloak rippled in the wind, and silver eyes reflected the stars.
"It's started," they whispered.
Behind them, four other silhouettes stood in silence.
Waiting.