Midnight.
Hyuk stood alone in the Haruno family archives, a flickering lantern at his feet casting shadows across the stone walls. Shelves of old scrolls surrounded him—forgotten texts, faded seals, and records no one bothered to touch.
Except him.
The room smelled of dust and ink. Time lingered here like a warning.
He reached for a scroll tucked behind a false panel—one he had only recently discovered after Sayuri's silence pushed him to act. It was unlabeled, bound in red string.
Unsealing it carefully, he unrolled the parchment.
There it was.
In ink older than war.
"Vein of Thorns: Blood Memory Transmission."
A forbidden jutsu.
Not medical. Not purely combat. Something else entirely—hybridized genjutsu and chakra infection. The user injects their chakra into another's circulatory system through wounds or touch, planting hallucinations from within the bloodstream. A way to cloud memory. Corrupt thought. Reshape identity.
And beside the jutsu, hand-drawn diagrams of black veins blooming up from the wrists, spiking across the chest, curling like roots into the temples.
A single phrase was scrawled in the margin:
> "We bloom in silence. We bleed in power."
Hyuk stared.
He didn't flinch.
---
Two days later.
Team 7 had been summoned—not to the Hokage's Tower, but to a secluded courtyard near the Intelligence Division. An ANBU operative stood before them, faceless behind a blank white mask, rain trailing down his cloak.
"There's been another Thorn Vein sighting," he began.
The air turned cold.
"Two villagers were discovered in a fugue state," he continued. "One survived. One didn't. They were found near the ruins of an estate tied to the Haruno clan."
Naruto blinked. "Wait—Haruno? Like… their clan?"
The ANBU turned his mask slightly toward Hyuk. "Near your family's old summer home."
Silence fell.
Sakura looked at Hyuk uncertainly. "That place hasn't been used in years…"
Hyuk said nothing. His eyes were already locked forward.
Kakashi folded his arms. "We're investigating. You're coming with me."
---
The road north took them through a thick, overgrown forest. Mist rolled across the trail, hiding roots, swallowing sound. Naruto tripped twice. Sakura kept glancing at Hyuk, unsure whether to say anything. Sasuke kept to himself, walking a few paces ahead, quiet but alert.
No one spoke.
By late afternoon, they arrived at the estate.
It was barely standing—roof collapsed, porch rotting, windows like broken eyes. Ivy crawled up the walls. The trees around it leaned unnaturally inward, as if recoiling from whatever lingered inside.
Even Naruto fell silent.
Kakashi took point. "No chakra signatures nearby," he said after a moment. "But something's wrong here."
They entered cautiously.
The air inside was warm. Not welcoming—too warm. Like stale breath in a sealed room.
Sasuke stepped toward a broken cabinet. "There's writing on the wall."
Sakura followed. "It's… the Haruno crest. But it's different. Twisted."
In the main chamber, Hyuk found it.
A mirror.
Tall. Old. Covered in a faded cloth.
He stared at it, breath caught for a moment—not from fear, but from something deeper. Something that hummed beneath his skin.
He pulled the cloth off.
The reflection wasn't his own.
It was a man.
Tall. Pale. Black hair down his back. And eyes—not pink like Sakura's, but green like his. The same shade. Unmistakable.
He wore old robes. On the fabric: the ancient Thorn Vein crest, a spiral of thorns curling around a bleeding rose.
The man looked at Hyuk.
And smiled.
Then blood began to drip down the inside of the mirror. Silent. Viscous.
Hyuk staggered back. His head split open with pain—not a blow, but a surge. Chakra—not his own—invading his pathways.
"Hyuk!" Sakura cried, rushing toward him.
Sasuke stepped in front of her, pulling a kunai. "Something's happening to him."
Kakashi moved instantly, forcing the others back. "Get him out of here—now!"
The mirror shattered.
Black vines erupted from the walls.
Sakura screamed. Naruto drew two kunai, hands shaking but ready. "W-What is that?!"
Kakashi used a wide defensive sweep with a wind-release kunai, slashing at the vines. "Stay together!"
Sasuke kicked a piece of debris into the vines, slowing their advance. "They're moving like they're alive!"
Hyuk collapsed to his knees, eyes wide, blood dripping from one nostril. The veins along his temple had darkened slightly, pulsing faintly with a black hue.
But he forced himself up, breathing ragged.
"I saw him…"
Naruto blinked. "Who?!"
Hyuk's voice was hollow. "Hyuma Haruno."
Sakura froze. "That's—he's dead. That was great-uncle Hyuma. My mom said he was erased from the clan records."
"No," Hyuk said, eyes cold. "He's alive. Or someone's using him."
The vines stopped moving.
Just like that.
As if they'd gotten what they came for.
---
That night, Hyuk sat in silence on the roof of his apartment, shirt sleeve pulled back.
Along his forearm, a faint pattern of black veins had appeared. Barely visible. But they pulsed when he focused.
Not a mark.
Not a curse.
A sign.
The Thorn Vein had awakened inside him.
---
Elsewhere, deep in the forests beyond the borders of the Land of Fire, a masked figure stood before a small shrine.
Behind them, the Thorn Vein crest glowed faintly in the dirt, drawn in chalk and chakra.
A younger voice spoke. "Is he ready yet?"
The masked one replied, voice emotionless:
"His blood remembers. He will come to us."