The candlelight flickered against the stone walls, casting long shadows over Akari's face. He sat silently, back pressed to the cool earth of the ancient chamber. Raien paced a few steps away, glancing at the remnants of the broken mask on the altar.
"You knew something like this would happen," Raien muttered, not as a question but as an accusation.
Akari's eyes didn't meet his. "I knew… there was something inside me I didn't understand. I just didn't think it would have a voice."
Raien folded his arms, the dim flame reflecting in his tired eyes. "It wasn't just a voice. That thing—it wanted control. What did you see?"
A pause. Then, Akari whispered, "A battlefield. Not one I lived through. One I inherited. My father… he stood over bodies—Senju and Uchiha alike. And I—" His breath caught. "I was the mistake meant to end it."
Raien knelt down, placing a hand on the cracked mask. "You aren't a mistake, Akari."
"You say that," Akari said, voice tightening, "but even Tobirama sees me as a weapon. A risk he's tolerated. Never trusted."
Silence filled the chamber. Heavy, honest.
Then Raien smiled faintly. "And yet, he's not the one here crawling through forgotten ruins beside you."
Akari's lip twitched. "You don't crawl. You hover."
The tension broke, just slightly.
Raien leaned back against the stone. "So what now? That seal—whatever it was—didn't finish its work. You resisted it."
"For now," Akari said. "But there's more. Sayaka knew. She's guiding us. Or testing us."
Raien considered that. "She never did anything without purpose."
A silence again. Not cold this time—reflective. The kind that lives between people who've shared pain.
Then Akari stood, brushing dust from his shoulders. "We move before nightfall. I want answers before anyone else tries to give them to me with a kunai."
---
In another part of the forest, Sayaka stood beneath a tree strung with wind chimes. Each chime bore an Uchiha name.
A younger shinobi approached. "He's awakening. Just as you predicted."
Sayaka didn't smile, but her voice softened. "It's not about prediction. It's about pattern. History moves in spirals."
"And what if he breaks the spiral?"
"Then we finally have a chance."
---
By dusk, Akari and Raien reached a plateau where the land opened wide—burnt trees, scorched rock. A battlefield long buried by silence.
Akari knelt, running his fingers through the ash.
Raien asked, "What is this place?"
Akari's gaze was distant. "Where my father fell. Where my mother walked away."
And from the shadows came a voice. "Where your name became a threat."
Sayaka stepped forward, her silhouette outlined by the dying sun.
Akari stood slowly. "You always did like entrances."
Sayaka's eyes glinted. "And you always asked the wrong questions."
Raien's hand moved toward his weapon, but Akari held up a hand.
"Why now?" Akari asked.
Sayaka's voice was steady. "Because soon, they will come. And if you don't know who you are when they do—you won't survive."