The air was still, heavy with dew and the musk of soil. A storm had passed in the night, leaving the forest soaked in silence. Water dripped from leaves in slow, rhythmic taps.
Sora sat cross-legged on the damp grass, eyes closed, hands resting on his knees. Ayame stood several paces away, arms folded, watching him like a sentry.
Today was different.
Today, she wouldn't interfere.
Because today, he asked to unlock it.
Not a jutsu.
Not a weapon.
But the hunger—that thing inside him that pulled at space and chakra and matter like a star without mercy.
He had always resisted it. Until now.
"Don't lose control," Ayame said quietly, though her voice held no judgment. Only concern.
"I won't," he replied.
But the truth was, he didn't know if he could promise that anymore.
---
Flashback – Days Earlier
Ayame had given him a scroll—sealed tightly in chakra, lined with her own blood signatures. It had belonged to an ancient Uchiha defector—one who had researched absorption techniques and the curse of forbidden hunger.
The Devourer Doctrine.
There were only three rules written within:
1. What is consumed is never truly gone.
2. Power devoured must be mastered—or it masters you.
3. To eat is to become. To become is to lose.
Sora didn't flinch at the warnings.
He understood instinctively.
This wasn't just a jutsu.
It was evolution.
---
Present – The Forest
Chakra gathered in his chest like coals turning to flame.
He focused, visualizing not just the flow of chakra through his coils but beyond—into the pull that waited under his skin, like a second stomach that never filled.
He held out his hand.
Ayame had placed a chakra construct in front of him: a small orb of spinning wind chakra, artificially maintained.
"Devour it," she instructed.
He inhaled sharply—
—and the world buckled.
The orb collapsed into his palm.
Not shattered. Not dispersed. Eaten. Vanished, drawn into a spiral of warping energy that shimmered briefly, then disappeared.
His fingers curled into a fist.
He stood slowly.
"I can feel it… still spinning inside me."
Ayame's eyes narrowed. "Suppress it."
He tried.
The wind chakra bit back from within, lashing through his veins like razors. He gasped, dropping to one knee. His chakra flickered.
She didn't move.
He had to fight it.
And he did.
He closed his eyes, drew the energy in, swallowed the storm, and broke it down into his own. Not just stolen—but owned.
The wind chakra vanished.
His own chakra spiked.
Ayame exhaled.
"You mastered it."
"No…" Sora stood shakily. "I became it."
---
That Night
Sora couldn't sleep.
He sat near the cave mouth, watching the stars. They looked different tonight—closer. Hungrier.
Ayame joined him, cloak wrapped loosely around her.
"You're changing."
He didn't answer.
"You absorbed wind chakra," she continued. "It'll make your body lighter, your reflexes sharper… but it'll change your temperament too. Wind doesn't like being still."
"I know."
She turned to him.
"What do you feel?"
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then: "Hunger."
"Physical?"
"No. Deeper. Like I want to consume everything. Not to destroy… but to understand."
Ayame's expression darkened.
"That's how it begins."
He turned toward her. "Is that what happened to the others?"
"There were no others," she whispered. "Just stories. Warnings. Fragments of Kaguya's essence sealed in ancient chakra records. They say the Devourer wasn't a person, but an urge. A mistake in nature. An echo of something beyond this world."
"I don't believe in mistakes," he said. "Only broken things waiting to evolve."
Ayame didn't sleep after that.
---
Elsewhere – Uchiha Clan Archives
The scroll Fugaku had opened refused to close.
It bled chakra now, threads of black mist curling through the cracks in the wood. His eyes narrowed at the sigils burning through the floor beneath it.
"Sora," he muttered.
A cursed name.
A name not of this world.
He turned to his assistant.
"Double the surveillance. I want Ayame alive. The boy too."
"And if they resist?"
Fugaku's gaze darkened.
"Then wake Shisui."
---
Back in the Forest
Sora stood at the edge of a cliff, breathing deeply. The wind whipped through his hair, charged with the same element he had devoured.
Ayame stood behind him, arms crossed.
"This isn't just about power," she said. "It's about identity. Every element you consume will shape your nature. Too much imbalance, and it could tear your soul apart."
Sora nodded.
"I'm not afraid."
"Fear isn't the danger. Hunger is."
He turned.
"Then I'll starve the world before I let it consume me."
Ayame said nothing. She knew there was no stopping him now.
Only guiding him.
If he was a god in the making… then she would be the blade that cleared his path—and the chain that pulled him back if he ever fell too far.
---
Deep Within Sora's Mind
He dreamt again.
A black void, endless.
A spiral of white lines twisted around him like a serpent, coiling tighter and tighter. At its center stood a figure.
Tall.
Pale.
Hair like snow.
Eyes filled with galaxies.
Kaguya.
She smiled at him—not kindly, not cruelly. Just knowingly.
"You're not mine," she said.
"But you will become what I failed to be."
He reached for her—and she vanished in ash.
The hunger pulsed louder.
The dream faded.
---
Sora woke with a whisper on his lips:
"Ōtsutsuki…"