The air in the Hokage's office was still, but heavy with tension.
Kazuki stood before Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. Behind the aged leader, rows of scrolls sealed with chakra wax lined the walls. On the desk between them lay the torn robe of the Mist rogue, its scorched fabric bearing a twisted emblem—three jagged lines curled into a storm triskelion, half-melted from lightning. A symbol the world had tried to forget.
"Kazuki," the Hokage said, voice low but firm, "what I'm about to tell you... isn't in any history book."
Kazuki said nothing. He didn't need to. The weight in his chest, the thunder that sometimes rumbled just behind his ribs—he had known for some time that something about him didn't belong.
Hiruzen continued. "The Raijin Clan wasn't just wiped out. They were feared. Feared for a reason. During the Warring States era, they were hunted down by cults and factions who believed their storm chakra disrupted nature's balance. Too powerful. Too unpredictable."
Kazuki's fists clenched.
"They created something before they fell. A trial. Three of them, actually. The Raijin Trials—encoded into natural chakra zones. Meant to awaken the full breadth of storm blood—but only for someone strong enough to survive them. Someone who could endure truth, and pain."
The image came back to him again. Flames licking at the sky. A woman screaming his name as a lightning bolt shattered their village walls. A child's cry lost in the howling wind.
He had lived this before.
"You don't have to do this," Hiruzen said, gently.
Kazuki looked up, his eyes calm. "Yes, I do."
Back at the Academy, whispers moved faster than shuriken. Ino found him first, intercepting him near the old training dummies with a glare sharper than steel wire.
"You were with the Hokage for an hour. You think people wouldn't notice? What are you hiding from us?"
Kazuki didn't answer. Not with lies, not with truth. Just silence.
Ino's frustration erupted. "You think you're protecting us by shutting us out? All you're doing is pushing people away!"
Nearby, Tenten—just leaving the weapons shed—paused at the sound and walked over.
"Maybe," she said coolly, "if you stopped throwing yourself at him and actually tried listening, he'd trust you."
The words hit like a senbon.
Ino turned on her. "Oh? And what makes you think you understand him better than me?"
Tenten didn't flinch. "Because I don't treat him like a fantasy. I treat him like a person."
Kazuki stepped between them, expression unreadable. "Stop."
But the crack had already split. Ino stormed off. Tenten shook her head, muttering under her breath, "Idiot... why do I even care..."
From the shadows, Hinata had seen it all. She pressed a hand against her chest as though calming her heartbeat. The truth was cruel: even her kindest intentions might never be enough to stand beside Kazuki in the storm.
That night, Kazuki left the village. He moved like a shadow through the trees, scroll sealed and tucked under his vest. The coordinates led him to a cliffside cave system beyond Konoha's borders—the Echoing Caves. Wind tunneled endlessly through the stone. The walls pulsed faintly with chakra. Storm chakra.
But he wasn't alone.
Hinata followed him quietly, her footsteps feather-light. Tenten arrived moments later, crouched in a nearby branch. And Ino—panting, irritated—stepped out from the bushes.
"You didn't think we'd just let you do this alone, did you?"
Kazuki sighed. "I won't protect you."
"You won't have to," Tenten replied.
They entered together.
The deeper they walked, the more the world warped. Sounds bent around them, like the cave itself was whispering. The storm triskelion appeared on a wall ahead—glowing faintly. When Kazuki stepped near, his chakra surged, and a voice rumbled through the stone.
"Trial of Identity. Let the storm remember who you are."
His body went rigid, eyes wide—then he vanished.
In his mind, he was somewhere else. A sky of endless clouds churned above. Lightning lanced down around floating shards of memory—glimpses of a life long lost. He saw himself—young, kneeling before an altar. A woman with storm tattoos calling him Raijin's Flame. A child clinging to his leg. And then—fire. Screams. Steel breaking through the sky. His own hand, unlocking the seal around the village temple.
He had betrayed them.
Not for power. Not for hatred. But to protect someone he loved. And in doing so, he had doomed them all.
"Will you run from your past?" the voice asked again. "Or face it?"
Outside, his body shuddered violently. Storm chakra lashed out, cracking the stone. Ino tried to reach him—lightning scorched her wrist. Tenten pulled her back, but neither girl ran.
Hinata stepped forward. Her hands trembled, but her feet held firm.
She knelt beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder, forcing her chakra into his body, syncing it with the chaotic pulse of his storm blood.
"I'm not afraid of your pain," she whispered.
Kazuki's storm calmed. The thunder in his body receded. He breathed in—and opened his eyes.
A searing flash of light etched itself across his shoulder, forming a spiraled tattoo of black and silver lightning: the first seal of the Raijin Trials.
They left the caves at dawn, exhausted and silent.
On the trail back, Kazuki didn't speak—but Tenten stepped beside him and took his hand. Her grip was steady.
"You don't have to carry it alone. Not this time."
He didn't let go.
Ino, rubbing her burned wrist, gave him a sideways look. "I'm still mad. But... I get it now. You're hurting. Just don't shut us out."
"I'm not good at this," Kazuki admitted, voice soft.
"Neither am I," she said, bumping his shoulder. "So let's suck at it together."
Hinata walked quietly behind them, watching the way their shadows crossed. She didn't say much—but when Kazuki looked back, she held his gaze without flinching.
"Thank you," she said. "For letting me stay."
He gave the smallest nod.
Far above, in the canopy of the Forest of Death, a figure watched them through a mask shaped like a cracked storm cloud. His shoulder bore the same triskelion tattoo—but it was blackened, broken, oozing shadow.
"So... the heir has begun."
His voice rasped through the mist.
"Let's see if he survives the second."
And with a flicker of lightning, he vanished.