The morning after the festival, Kazuki raced through the village streets, dodging carts and civilians, heart pounding with the urgency of Tsunade's summons. The joy of last night was gone. Only the faint scent of fireworks and a half-burnt lantern reminded him the festival had even happened.
When he burst into the Hokage's office, he found Tsunade standing behind her desk, arms folded. Kakashi leaned against the wall beside her, his expression unreadable. Shikamaru sat with his hands steepled in front of him. On the table between them lay a black kunai, its blade etched with twisted Raijin-style seals. The markings shimmered faintly—wrong, unstable.
"This was found in your team's training ground," Tsunade said without preamble. "Someone's been marked. We don't know who... yet."
Kazuki's throat tightened. The air around the kunai felt warped, like it was vibrating just slightly out of sync with the rest of the room.
He didn't need to ask what kind of mark.
His second Storm Seal pulsed with heat, like it recognized the corruption in the blade.
Kazuki began watching them—Hinata, Ino, and Tenten. At first, he told himself he was being paranoid. But soon, the changes were too sharp to ignore.
Hinata started pulling away. She'd mumble apologies and excuse herself from group meals, leaving early from missions with some vague reason. Her eyes—so clear when they fought together—now avoided his.
Ino, by contrast, grew cold. Distant. She snapped at him during sparring, brushed past him like he was just another obstacle. She didn't flirt. She didn't smile.
Tenten, usually the balance between the two, went quiet. She spoke only when required. Her teasing jabs vanished. She trained like she was punishing something invisible.
During a mission break by a riverside, Kazuki asked, "Are you all angry with me?"
The silence that followed cut deeper than any answer.
What he didn't know—what he couldn't know—was that the enemy had already begun working. Subtle genjutsu, woven into dreams and memory fragments. Emotional illusions designed to corrupt from within.
That night, the dreams returned. But they weren't memories. Not exactly.
He stood in a place he recognized and didn't. The sky burned purple. The air shimmered. And she was there—the violet-haired girl from another life. The one whose death still echoed in the deepest chambers of his heart.
She cried into his chest, clutching his robes like she was drowning.
"You were mine," she whispered. "Why do you let them touch you now?"
Kazuki tried to speak, but her voice drowned his thoughts.
"They'll betray you. Like last time. They'll leave you behind."
He woke with a start, hand trembling. The dream lingered in his skin, in his breath. The second seal flared like a brand beneath his shoulder blade.
A curse. That was no simple nightmare. Someone was trying to twist his heart into a weapon.
The next evening, he found Tenten waiting alone on a bridge near the old weapons shop. Lanterns floated along the canal below, their lights flickering in the dusk.
"You've changed," she said as he approached. Her voice was steady—but something in her eyes had cracked. "Ever since that trial."
Kazuki stepped closer, confused. "What do you mean?"
"You say you care about all of us," she continued, "but that's not love. That's cowardice."
He flinched. "I never lied to you. I'm still trying to figure out what love means to me. But I—"
She interrupted with a kunai, thrown hard into the wood between them. It stuck, quivering.
"You want all of us," she said. "But you don't see what that does to us."
A tear slipped down her cheek. Just one.
Kazuki stepped forward, voice low. "Tenten… I don't want to hurt you. I want to grow strong enough to be worthy of you."
She stared at him for a long moment.
"Then stop running from how you feel. Pick one of us. Or be honest about who you are."
She vanished into the dark before he could answer.
The next morning, Ino met him at the memorial stones.
"You touched my hand," she said, gaze locked on his. "You looked at me like I was the only one. Don't pretend that didn't mean something."
"It did," Kazuki said. "But I don't want to break anyone's heart—especially not yours."
She laughed bitterly.
"Then don't give it to anyone. I'm not going to fight in a ninja harem competition. That's not who I am."
She brushed past him. "You're either falling for all of us... or none of us."
Her perfume lingered long after she was gone. So did the ache in his chest.
He found Hinata that night as he meditated beneath a tree. The storm seal on his back flickered with quiet arcs of lightning.
She didn't say anything at first. Just knelt beside him, letting the silence settle.
"They're hurting," she said finally. "Because they care."
He opened his eyes. She was watching the stars.
"I'm hurting too," she admitted. "But I won't ask you to choose. Not yet."
Kazuki let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
"You're too kind."
Hinata shook her head.
"No. I'm just not turning love into a war zone."
She reached for his hand, gently folding her fingers over his.
"You're not alone, Kazuki. Not in this life. Not in your next."
And for the first time in days, the storm inside him began to quiet.
The next day, their team trained deep in the forest when a surge of chakra cracked through the trees like a thunderclap.
Three figures dropped from the canopy. Masked. Dressed in tattered Raijin robes. The center one—a woman with long, dark hair and violet eyes—stepped forward.
Kazuki's heart stopped.
The girl from his dream.
"Kazuki Arata," she said, voice sharp as a blade. "You abandoned love for strength. Now we'll take both from you."
Battle erupted.
Kazuki fought with lightning and fury, but the enemies didn't aim for him. They struck the girls.
Ino was pulled into a genjutsu—forced to relive her darkest betrayal.
Tenten's skin turned pale, poisoned with chakra venom that twisted her thoughts into madness.
Hinata dropped to her knees, gasping as her mind was pulled back to Neji's final moments—again and again.
Kazuki roared, storm chakra exploding from his body. Lightning cracked the sky as he threw himself between each of them, breaking the illusions with sheer force of will.
His skin seared. His vision blurred.
But he held them.
"You will NOT break them!" he shouted, voice shaking the earth.
Tenten, through tears, whispered, "You're worth fighting for."
Ino clung to his arm, crying, "Don't push me away again."
Hinata laid a hand on his chest. "You still have us."
The seals on his back glowed white-hot. The masked intruders flinched, retreating into shadow.
But they left behind a message.
This wasn't over.
Later, at the hospital, Tsunade stood at the foot of Kazuki's bed, arms crossed.
"You're getting too emotionally tied," she said. "That makes you vulnerable."
She sighed.
"But maybe that's the only thing keeping you human."
She turned toward the window.
"The Third Trial is coming. You'll have to choose your anchor. Or lose everything."
Kazuki looked across the room.
Ino. Tenten. Hinata. Sitting side by side. Not speaking. But not fighting.
Something had changed.
Kazuki sat up, the storm in him rising.
"I'm done hiding," he said.
"I'll protect all of them… or die trying."