Fire danced in the snow.
The mountain had split down its spine—like something ancient had been born from inside it.
Smoke rose, black and thick, curling toward the heavens.But there was no scent of ash.Only chakra.Raw, unfiltered, god-born chakra.
He lay still.
Unmoving.
The girl knelt beside him, hand pressed to his chest.His heartbeat was faint.But steady.
His eye…no longer spun.
It pulsed.
Dim. Alive. Dormant.
Like the god inside had finally gone back to sleep—but chose to leave the door open this time.
She looked up.
The sky was different now.
Where once there were clouds—
Now, there was a ring of flame.
Far away, deep inside the walls of the Hidden Leaf…
A scroll cracked open on its own.
The old seals flickered.
The Third Hokage stirred from meditation.
He stood.
Eyes narrowing.
"Call the elders," he said.
His tone left no room for hesitation.
"We just lost something ancient."
Further east, in the Hidden Mist—
A masked swordsman felt the tip of his blade tremble.
He looked toward the mountains.
Then toward the child sleeping beside him.
He whispered:
"It begins again."
Deep underground, far beneath Root's abandoned labs…
A man without a name sat beside a tube of glowing liquid.
Inside it, something twitched.
Its single eye spun slowly.
The man leaned closer, whispering to the sealed creature:
"You missed your chance. He found the source first."
And the creature screamed silently.
Back in the ruins of the mountain…
The boy woke.
His body ached.
His muscles felt torn, re-stitched, burned again, and forced into place.
But he stood.
He didn't need help this time.
The girl stepped back, surprised.
He didn't speak.
He looked toward the sky.
The flame ring above was fading.
But its message remained.
A god had shifted in his sleep.
They traveled quietly.
Down the mountain.Through the snow.Into the trees.
The boy didn't say much.
But something had changed.
He didn't flinch anymore.Didn't hide the eye.Didn't check his back.
He moved like someone who knew the next step already.
And the girl…she didn't ask.
Not until they reached the edge of a crater.
A battlefield long abandoned.
Crows picked at broken masks.
Bones left from some old shinobi skirmish.
There, he finally spoke:
"They're not done."
She nodded.
"The Moon Hunters?"
"No," he said. "The ones that made them."
She turned.
"What do you mean?"
He looked down at his hand.
It shimmered faintly.
And for just a moment—his skin peeled back to light.
He clenched it.
Made it stop.
"The Hunters were just keys."
"To what?"
He turned to her.
Face calm.
But eyes—burning.
"To open the vaults. The real ones."
She stepped back.
"You mean—?"
"Yes."
He turned away.
"They weren't trying to seal the god back…"
"They were trying to wake the others."
Flashback—In the moment of the god's memory—he had seen them.
Other chambers.Other prisons.Other Eyes.
Each locked away in cursed mountains.Under oceans.Beneath deserts.Inside sleeping children.
All of them sealed.Not by humans.
But by the god himself.
Because once—long ago—he had not been alone.
The girl stood silent.
Then finally:
"How many more?"
He didn't answer for a long time.
Then—
"Six."
Later that night…
They camped beneath broken trees.
No fire.
No chakra.
Only cold.
He sat alone, sharpening a kunai.His hand moved automatically.His thoughts did not.
He felt her presence behind him before she spoke.
"You're different now."
He kept sharpening.
"I'm not."
She stepped closer.
"You touched a god and lived."
He stopped.
Looked up at her.
"I didn't live. I traded."
She didn't ask what he meant.
Didn't need to.
She could see it.
The eye had gone quiet—
But not empty.
Something else was inside it now.
Not a being.
A command.
A purpose.
He stood.
"Tomorrow, we start walking."
"Where to?"
He looked east.
"Stone."
She blinked.
"The Hidden Village?"
"No," he said, eyes narrowing."The hollow beneath it. Vault #3."
She nodded once.
Then paused.
"Why are you doing this?"
He didn't look at her when he answered.
"Because the world doesn't know it yet…"
"…but the real war hasn't started."
To be continued.