Night fell unevenly across the shinobi world.
Was it just the passage of time? No. An ancient rhythm stirred beneath the earth and memory. The awakening of the Third Pillar disrupted the balance Kakashi had just started to sense. It echoed in his bones, not as pain but as a discordant melody missing one crucial note.
He stood alone beneath the Hokage monument. The seal on his hand glowed faintly in sync with his heartbeat. The wind whispered of unsaid things. Leaves trembled on trees that had once sheltered the dreams of children long since buried under the weight of prophecy and sacrifice.
Three Pillars down. Two remain, he murmured.
He spoke to no one, yet someone answered.
You're running out of time Kakashi.
The voice belonged to Tsunade.
She approached quietly. Her golden eyes lacked their usual warmth. It wasn't distrust; she was a medic who recognized when a body or a soul was burning at both ends.
You've changed, she said bluntly.
Kakashi didn't deny it.
I've remembered things that weren't mine. I've felt thoughts that had no beginning. There's something vast and ancient living within the chakra lines of this world. I'm walking toward its core.
Tsunade exhaled, staring at the horizon.
Do you think you'll still be you at the end?
That's the question, isn't it?
Kakashi's next destination was the Fourth Pillar, deep in the Land of Lightning, hidden beneath the twin peaks of Mount Kumorashi, a place once thought cursed. Few who climbed it returned sane.
He traveled under a false name, cloaked in wind-disrupting seals that made even the sharpest Byakugan lose track of him. Konoha hadn't sent him; he chose to go.
The shrine was older than any Raikage's records. It was carved into the mountain itself, its gates bound in silver chains etched with the Uchiha fan and Uzumaki spiral joined. Seals of opposites bound together.
He stepped inside.
Darkness swallowed him.
No torch would light. No chakra flicker showed. Here even Kamui would not obey.
This was not a test of power. It was a test of presence.
Meanwhile Naruto sat with Iruka in the old academy room.
He's trying to carry it all again, just like before, Naruto said softly.
Iruka smiled faintly.
That's who he's always been. The boy who buried his heart so others could breathe. The man who watched friends die and still chose to lead.
He was always a legend, Naruto said. But now I don't know. He feels like something more. Like he's being called to something we weren't meant to understand.
Iruka nodded slowly.
Gods are born from burdens few can carry.
Within Mount Kumorashi, Kakashi reached a room without walls.
It wasn't a chamber in space. It was a pocket in reality. A void that remembered time. Suspended above a bottomless spiral, he stood before the Fourth Herald.
This one was familiar.
It wore Kakashi's face.
Older. Paler. Tired.
I am the path you could become, it said.
You're a ghost.
I'm a future. A possible end.
They walked a circle around each other. The spiral below them spun, echoing every footstep with delay, as if time couldn't keep pace.
You've always hidden behind names, the Herald said. Son of Sakumo. Pupil of Minato. Friend of Obito. Copy Ninja. Hokage. Always a mask. Never the truth.
I've worn many names, Kakashi replied. But each one taught me how to carry the next.
The Herald stopped. Then prove it.
What followed was not combat.
It was confrontation.
Kakashi relived every failure.
Rin's death replayed.
Obito's sacrifice mirrored.
The loss of Minato.
Watching Naruto suffer under his guidance.
Failing to stop Danzo's corruption.
The spiral forced him to feel each moment, no walls, no numbing. Just truth.
The pain threatened to break him.
Then something anchored him.
Laughter.
Not cruel, not mocking. Joyful.
Gai.
He heard it again. That absurd, impossible laugh after the war.
You've got one more move old friend
And then another.
Naruto's stubborn optimism. Sakura's unwavering loyalty. Shikamaru's trust. Yamato's silent support. Tsunade's faith.
He had become a pillar, not by choice but by carrying what others could not.
The Herald cracked.
Then faded.
Kakashi stood alone in the chamber again.
The seal on his hand shifted. It didn't expand; it evolved.
A sixth sigil appeared, a circle intersecting the others, with no element. Not wind, fire, earth, lightning, or water.
Balance.
He had become not a wielder but a center.
Far away, the Fifth Pillar stirred too soon.
The masked figure from the crater arrived at its gates, kneeling.
The Equilibrium has awakened, it said.
Behind it, ten other figures emerged, cloaked in silence, their chakras ancient and twisted.
Then so must the Root, one said.
In Konoha, Hinata stared into the sky.
Her Byakugan activated involuntarily. She saw something above the clouds, a shape that didn't belong. Not a star. Not a being. A hole.
A wound in the sky.
She whispered, Kakashi what are you becoming?
Back inside the shrine, Kakashi took a single breath. The chamber collapsed behind him. The mountain trembled but did not fall.
He emerged into the sunlight. The Fourth Pillar now silent stood behind him.
The sky had changed color.
Something was coming.
And he had one more shrine to reach.
......