Night falls again.Same rooftop. Same moon.Different presence.
A rustle behind me.
I don't flinch.
"I know you're there," I say.
She walks into the moonlight.
Hyūga girl.Same one from before.Still watching me like I'm a question with no answer.
"You're not from here," she says quietly.
I stay silent.
She tilts her head, curious. "Not Konoha-born. Not shinobi-trained. But you moved like you saw me coming before I did."
"You're Hyūga," I reply. "You can see chakra."
She nods. "And what I see… doesn't make sense."
I turn my head slightly. Just enough for my left eye to catch the moonlight.
It flickers. Barely visible red. Broken pattern. No tomoe. No ripple. No clarity.
She takes a small step back. "It's not natural."
I look back at her. "It's not supposed to be."
Flashback — Hours Earlier.
The Academy.
I walked through its gates with Anko by my side.
"Since you forgot everything, you're going back to the basics," she said.
Back to the Academy.
My mind protested. But I didn't argue.
Better to keep appearances.
Inside, kids practiced chakra control. Tree climbing. Shuriken throws.
I recognized them all.
Young versions of future shinobi. Names that would matter soon.
Naruto.Sasuke.Sakura.Shikamaru.Hinata.
They were all here. Loud. Young. Raw.
I wasn't part of them.But I was watching them.
Waiting.
Sasuke stood out.
Eyes sharp. Cold. Already isolated.
He stared at me when our eyes met.
A flicker of something in his gaze. Not curiosity. Not interest.
Recognition?
No. Paranoia.
Like he felt something was wrong with me.
He wasn't wrong.
"Your chakra doesn't circulate like ours," the Hyūga girl says, dragging me back to the present.
"You've been watching me?"
She doesn't answer.
Instead, she sits across from me.
Close enough to reach me.
But doesn't move.
"It's like your left eye creates its own chakra stream. Disconnected from your tenketsu. Like it's... feeding on you."
That word lingers.
Feeding.
I look away. "What do you want?"
"I want to know why the Byakugan reacts around you."
My eyes narrow. "What do you mean?"
"Every time I look at your chakra with my Byakugan," she whispers, "my vision strains. Like it's trying to resist your eye."
We both fall silent.
Then I ask something I hadn't yet dared to think.
"Could it kill you?"
Her expression doesn't change. "I don't know."
A beat.
Then she stands.
She pulls something from her sleeve.
A paper slip. Sealing tag.
"I'll be watching you," she says.
Then vanishes again.
Later — That Night.
I stare at the tag in my hand.
She left it behind on purpose.
I place it on the table.
Sit down. Think.
Memories are still fragments.
Some are mine.Some are Ren's.Some… don't belong to either.
And the more I use the eye, the more I feel something pulling.
Something beneath the surface.
Like the eye is waiting to be awakened fully.
Waiting for… pain? Purpose?
Or a target?
Somewhere Else. Far Away.
A secret room.Dozens of scrolls.All marked with symbols of ancient clans.
A man with grey robes sits in silence. Long hair tied. Scars across his face.
He reads a single scroll.
One sentence written in blood:
"A child has awakened the Forbidden Eye."
He closes the scroll.
Stands.
Whispers to no one, "We sealed that thing a generation ago…"
A shadow steps forward. "What are your orders?"
"Send someone to confirm. If the eye exists… we destroy it. And the vessel."
Next Morning.
The Academy again.
Basic sparring. Paired drills.
Iruka watches with mild disinterest.
I get paired with someone I didn't expect.
Hinata.
She bows politely.
I do the same.
We engage.
She's careful. Her strikes aren't meant to land. Just test.
But I'm not here to test.
I let my instincts take over.
Dodge. Parry. Step in. Twist.
I counter with just enough force to brush her arm, redirect her chakra.
Her eyes widen.
I shouldn't know how to do that.
But I do.
Her Byakugan flares involuntarily. Just a flicker.
My left eye pulses.
And—
"Connection detected.""Hijack route initializing…""Foreign Dojutsu: Byakugan.""Result: Partial Sync — Rejected."
Pain. White-hot.
I stumble back.
Vision splits.
I see through two perspectives at once.
Mine.And hers.
For two seconds—I see myself from her eyes.
Then it snaps.
I fall to one knee.
Bleeding from the nose.
Iruka rushes over. "Are you okay?"
I nod. Lie.
"It's just chakra exhaustion."
He buys it.
Barely.
Hinata looks… shaken.
She doesn't speak again. Just bows and steps away.
The Byakugan reacted.
And I saw it.
No. I borrowed it.
Even if for a second.
This eye—my eye—doesn't just see.
It learns.
Copies.
Hijacks.
Even if broken, it's still evolving.
And that's what makes it dangerous.
Final Scene.
Far from the village, someone stands on the edge of a cliff.
A woman.
Hair white. Eyes pale. A seal over her forehead.
She opens a scroll.
An old one. Nearly crumbling.
Inside, a drawing.
A single red eye. Cracked. Glowing.
She speaks softly.
"The God-Eye still exists... after all this time…"
She turns.
Begins walking.
Toward Konoha.