The storm above had gone silent.
Too silent.
Even the wind held its breath.
They stood in the chamber's fading light.
The lake had sealed shut again.But the pressure in the air hadn't faded.
Something had changed.
The god beneath the ice…was watching now.
No longer dreaming.
The girl didn't move.
Didn't blink.
She whispered without looking at him:
"Don't speak. Don't breathe chakra. Don't run."
He froze.
He felt it too.
A shadow above.
Not a person.
A presence.
Then—a whisper of sandals on stone.
Slow.
Measured.
A figure stepped into view at the top of the stairwell.
Then another.
Then five more.
Cloaks of black and grey.Masks carved from ivory.Eyes completely white—no iris.No emotion.
Each of them pulsed with chakra.
But not like shinobi.
Like weapons.
The Moon Hunters.
The girl moved slightly.Her fingers brushed the hilt of her kunai.
The lead hunter raised his hand.
She froze.
So did the air.
His voice was calm.
Precise.
Too clean.
"The god stirs. The Eye has disobeyed."
The boy stepped forward.
His body felt like fire.His head was splitting.But he stood anyway.
"This eye isn't yours anymore."
The masked figures tilted their heads.
"It was never yours."
The lake beneath him trembled.
His dojutsu spun wildly.
The sigil on his chest glowed with every heartbeat.
The lead hunter extended a hand.
The mountain reacted.
Veins of glowing white chakra ran through the walls.
The chamber shook.
And the lake began to rise—slowly—upward, like water defying gravity.
The god was lifting.
Still frozen.
But moving.
"We will restore him," the hunter said."You are a fracture. A mistake."
The girl whispered—
"They're trying to make you part of the seal."
He nodded.
Didn't care.
Didn't step back.
"Then break the seal."
Before she could stop him—
He rushed forward.
Straight at the hunters.
They didn't flinch.
They didn't move.
Until—
Boom.
The second hunter raised two fingers.
The air compressed.
A seal activated mid-air—
And slammed the boy downward.
Stone cracked.
His spine screamed.
But the eye…
The eye screamed louder.
A black ripple burst from his face.
Reality wavered.
The seal broke.
He stood again.
Bleeding.
Snarling.
Behind him—the lake shattered again.
The god's hand reached toward him.
But this time—
He didn't wait.
He turned.
Faced the frozen being.
And placed his palm against the ice.
A flood.
Not of chakra.
Of memories.
Tens of thousands.
All flooding into him.
Children laughing.Villages burning.Eyes being carved.Seals written in blood.
Then—
A final whisper.
"End me."
The god wasn't reaching out to take.
He was reaching out to be freed.
The boy's body convulsed.
The sigil on his chest split open—
Revealing a second mark beneath it.
A deeper one.
Older.
One meant to unbind.
The mountain trembled.
The lake cracked wide.
The girl screamed something—
But the light swallowed him.
He was no longer in the chamber.
He stood in a white void.
In front of him—
The god.
Not frozen.
Not whole.
Just… watching.
The same face.
Same eyes.
But he was chained.
By light.
By seals.
Dozens.
The boy approached slowly.
The god whispered:
"If I die, the eye becomes complete."
"But?"
"I won't die willingly."
They stared at each other.
Two mirrors.
One broken.
One ancient.
Then—
The boy raised his hand.
His eye spun.
"I'll take it. The pain. The power. The price."
The god didn't smile.
But his chains began to fade.
Back in the real world—
The hunters screamed.
Their bodies burst into white fire.
The lake erupted.
The chamber shattered.
The mountain cracked.
And from the heart of the explosion—
The boy rose.
His cloak gone.
His shirt burned off.
And on his chest—
The full mark.
A glowing, spiraling sigil that reached across his ribs.
His right eye bled.
Not from damage.
From rebirth.
He looked up.
At the hunters.
At the sky.
And said—
"He's free now. But he's not coming back. I am."
One hunter charged.
The boy raised a hand.
The hunter exploded into mist.
Silence.
Snow began to fall again.
Real snow.
He turned to the girl.
Collapsed into her arms.
And whispered:
"I need to rest… before the world learns what just happened."
To be continued.