The next day, Ashina didn't call for scrolls or practice seals.
Instead, he handed the boy a small, worn notebook bound with red thread — ancient, brittle, yet brimming with quiet power.
"This," he said softly, "was written during the First Great War. Notes from when I helped design the defensive seal grid around Uzushiogakure."
Akashi opened it. Intricate diagrams filled each page — overlapping fūin layers, chakra synchronization fields, hidden circuit decoys. It wasn't just theory. It was strategy woven into ink.
Ashina's eyes narrowed.
"Most of it's still functional. But some portions… have been left untended. And others…"
He tapped a specific line of code with the butt of his brush.
"—can be repurposed. Subtly. Without alerting the council."
---
Quiet Preparations
From that day forward, their training sessions took on a second layer.
Sealing scrolls doubled as reconnaissance plans.
Fūinjutsu exercises contained coded messages between Ashina and loyal veterans.
Storage tags were secretly recalibrated to house emergency rations, explosive releases, and chakra dampeners.
Even the village's waterways, once only a backup escape route, were studied anew.
---
"We cannot stop war with words," Ashina murmured one evening.
"But if we cannot change the future… we can outmaneuver it."
And Akashi — no longer just a reincarnated soul but an heir of purpose — began writing his own layers of seals, techniques born from his Essence of Adaptation and Technique Creation.
Some were crude.
Some were brilliant.
All were designed to protect.
---
The Worry Beneath the Calm
Still, Ashina would sometimes pause in his teachings, staring out at the sea.
"We're preparing to hold ground, but what if this storm is bigger than we know?"
"What if it's not just Uzushiogakure they want… but our very lineage?"
He never voiced it fully.
But the boy understood.
Enemies who feared the Uzumaki's sealing arts wouldn't stop at borders. They would seek erasure.
---
So they worked harder.
Silently.
Hidden beneath the illusion of peace.
And still, the Emperor Eye slumbered.
But the boy felt it now — pulsing faintly behind his vision.
Not awakened… but listening.
Waiting for the moment it would be needed.
---
The mission was simple — or so they thought.
A mid-tier diplomatic scroll run to a border checkpoint.
Routine. Monitored. Supposedly safe.
Akashi and his three friends walked with the ease of familiarity, their ANBU mentor watching from the trees. The air was still. Too still.
And then…
Lightning.
A flicker. A hum. A blur of black and gold.
The forest exploded.
---
Three figures emerged — swift, confident, and lethal.
Two were Kumo chūnin, their chakra signatures heavy and aggressive.
But the third was different. Towering. Controlled fury wrapped in muscle and lightning.
Even at a young age, he was unmistakable.
"That's… the future Raikage,Ay" Akashi whispered, instincts roaring.
The mission was a trap.
---
Aiko reacted first — medical chakra flaring as she shielded Tama.
Riku charged, drawing their attackers' focus.
Akashi fell into position — analyzing, adapting, predicting.
Their teamwork was tight — too tight for Kumo to expect from kids.
They took down one chūnin together — a vicious tag combo from Tama, followed by Riku's earth-style strike shattering the man's leg.
The second was pinned in place by Aiko's chakra scalpel feints and Akashi's sealing bind.
But the third…
---
Ay broke through them like thunder through clouds.
And then it happened.
Akashi turned just in time to see his mentor — his silent guardian — catch a slash to the ribs.
The Raikage's blade bit deep, tearing through armor, blood spraying like a broken seal.
For a heartbeat, time froze.
And then...
Something shattered in Akashi's mind.
Not fear. Not rage.
Clarity.
The world bent.
Lines appeared — motion trails, tension points, chakra flows, predictions —
everything unfolded before his eyes like divine choreography.
His right eye burned crimson.
Veins pulsed beneath the skin. A spiraled iris rotated once… twice…
The Emperor Eye had awakened.
---