The spiral on the scroll refused to stop glowing.
Raien leaned over Akari's shoulder, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. "That's not Uchiha. Not even close."
Akari nodded slowly. "It's pre-Konoha. Older than the clans. It responded to my chakra—like it was… waiting."
Raien gave a skeptical look. "And your first instinct was to touch it?"
"It felt like she wanted me to."
Raien didn't have to ask who she was.
Akari rolled the scroll back and stood. "We need to go."
"To where?"
"To the temple at Kōzai's Fall. The pattern matches one of the seals in their records. If this is a forgotten jutsu… it could explain why the scroll fragments were split."
Raien sighed. "You know that place is crawling with snakes, right?"
"Literal and political."
Raien cracked a grin. "Well, at least one of us likes metaphors."
---
The journey to Kōzai's Fall took hours by foot. The forest thickened the deeper they went, and the sky overhead grew clouded and dim, despite the midday sun.
Akari led them to an old stone gate half-buried in roots. The seal carved into its surface mirrored the spiral from the scroll.
He placed a hand on it—and the gate opened with a low hum.
"I was half-expecting an explosion," Raien muttered.
"Still might get one," Akari replied.
They stepped into the temple.
Inside, the air was thick with silence and dust. Time had almost forgotten this place. Faded murals lined the walls—none recognizable, but every face on them had eyes that followed.
Raien knelt by a broken pillar. "These are sealing marks… but corrupted."
Akari moved toward a large stone altar in the center. It bore a circular indentation, the exact shape of his sealed scroll.
With a slow breath, he drew the scroll from his sash and placed it in the slot.
A pulse of light surged outward, knocking both of them back—but not with force. With memory.
---
Suddenly, Akari stood alone in a vision—not of the past, but of a constructed space.
His mother stood before him, dressed in the same robe he remembered from childhood.
"Akari," she said, not with lips, but through presence. "If you've found this, it means you've stepped beyond what I could protect you from."
He swallowed, eyes wide. "What is this place?"
"A lock. And a choice. The scroll you hold is not a weapon—it is a door. One that leads to what was buried by all clans long ago."
"Why?"
"Because power that cannot be controlled must be sealed. And some truths must sleep… until the right hands awaken them."
Akari's fists clenched. "You should've told me."
"I tried. Every lesson, every warning—I wrapped them in riddles because I couldn't risk saying them aloud. But I always trusted you'd reach this place."
"What happens if I open the door?"
Her gaze softened. "Then you stop being a shinobi of Konoha. You become something else."
Akari hesitated. Then said: "I'm not ready to choose."
"You don't have to yet."
The light faded—
---
—and Akari collapsed to his knees as he returned to the temple.
Raien caught him before he hit the ground. "What did you see?"
Akari's voice was hoarse. "A warning. A key. And a question I'm not ready to answer."
Raien nodded slowly. "Then we don't open it. Not yet."
Akari looked at the sealed scroll, now glowing softly within the altar. "But others will try."
Raien's face darkened. "Then we get there first."
---
Back in Konoha, Tobirama stood before a panel of masked advisors. His voice was steel.
"He's activated the second seal."
One of the advisors hissed, "The Uchiha will demand he be brought in."
"He's not theirs anymore," Tobirama said. "He's beyond any clan now."
Another elder asked, "Then what do you propose?"
"We guide the outcome. From the shadows."
"And if he chooses wrong?"
Tobirama's gaze did not waver. "Then we stop him. No matter what it costs."
---
Far to the north, in the caves of the Veil, the masked woman stared into a crystal sphere pulsing with energy.
A shadowed figure approached. "He reached the altar."
She nodded. "And saw the truth."
"Will he join us?"
She traced the spiral symbol in the air. "Not yet. But he will. Because the boy wants answers. And answers always demand a price."