There are some stains no water can wash away.
Some blood doesn't just mark—it changes.
And as the moon dipped behind the clouds, casting the world in silence, Ayame Uchiha stood alone in a clearing, her kunai slick with crimson, her eyes glowing red beneath her hood.
Her breath was steady.
Her face was unreadable.
But her hands—her trembling hands—dripped with blood.
---
One Hour Earlier – The Messenger
Ayame was supposed to meet a courier.
A neutral shinobi from the Land of Rivers.
Routine. Sealed scrolls. Easy.
But when she arrived… she found him already dead.
Eyes wide open.
Throat sliced clean.
No sign of a struggle.
And beside him stood a girl no older than ten.
Barefoot. Blank-eyed.
Covered in his blood.
---
The Girl with No Name
She didn't cry.
She didn't speak.
She just stared at Ayame as if looking through her.
"A child?" Ayame murmured, scanning the surroundings. "No chakra signature. No enemies nearby."
The girl tilted her head.
Then slowly raised her hand.
And smiled.
Ayame's Sharingan flared.
Illusion? Genjutsu? Possession?
She blinked—and the girl was gone.
Behind her now.
Ayame barely moved in time—spinning, blade raised—but too late.
The girl's hand grazed her shoulder.
And suddenly, Ayame saw everything.
---
Vision of a Dying World
A collapsing moon.
Children impaled on tree branches.
Konoha drowned in black liquid fire.
And at the center of it all… Sora, wearing a crown of bones.
Ayame screamed—breaking the genjutsu by slicing open her own palm.
Blood sprayed the forest floor.
When her eyes cleared, the girl was walking away.
Silent.
Unharmed.
Ayame rushed her.
No hesitation.
No thought.
Just instinct.
Her kunai sank into the girl's back—clean and deep.
The girl staggered. Turned slightly. Whispered:
"Wrong choice."
Then collapsed.
---
Present – The Guilt
Now Ayame stood over the body.
Breathing heavily.
Hands slick.
Heart trembling.
The girl had no chakra. No weapon. No fight.
And yet she was a threat.
Right?
Right?
Ayame dropped the kunai.
Her knees buckled.
"I'm not like Danzo," she thought. "I protect people. I don't murder children."
But her hands said otherwise.
And the blood wouldn't come off.
---
Sora Arrives
He found her just before sunrise.
Drawn by the trail of disturbed chakra.
Ayame didn't look at him when he approached. She didn't move. Didn't speak.
Only stared at her reflection in a pool of blood.
"Sensei?" Sora's voice was soft. Careful. "What happened?"
"…She made me see something," Ayame whispered.
Sora looked at the body. Then at Ayame.
"She looks like a child."
Ayame nodded.
"She wasn't."
A long pause.
"She showed me a version of you… where you burn the world."
Sora's jaw clenched.
"Do you believe it?"
Ayame's eyes finally met his.
And in them—fear.
"I don't want to."
---
Ren Appears
The leaves rustled gently.
Ren stepped from the shadows.
Unblinking.
Unapologetic.
"She was a fragment," she said softly.
Sora turned. "A what?"
"Danzo is experimenting again," Ren said. "Creating chakra fragments using the Ōtsutsuki ritual. That wasn't a girl. It was a piece of a future."
"…A future?"
"A memory made flesh. Pulled from timelines where you become something else."
Ayame shivered. "So… she wasn't real?"
Ren stepped closer to the corpse.
"She was real enough to bleed."
---
Sora's Resolve
Sora crouched beside the body. He stared into the child's open eyes—dark, glassy, lifeless.
Then looked at his own reflection in them.
"I won't become what she saw," he said quietly.
Ayame swallowed.
"But what if you already are? What if the hunger—what if it's already changing you?"
Sora stood slowly.
Then did something he had never done before.
He took Ayame's hand.
And squeezed.
"I'm still me," he said. "Even when I'm devouring the world. I remember who gave me a name. Who taught me to hold a kunai. Who sewed my first robe."
Ayame's lip trembled.
"I'm scared, Sora."
"So am I."
---
Elsewhere – Danzo Watches
In the hidden Root chamber, Danzo gazed into a crystal mirror.
He had watched everything.
The child. The kill. The guilt.
"She hesitated," he muttered. "She bleeds for him. The yandere's heart wavers."
He turned to the shadowed clone behind him—the incomplete one.
"Send in another fragment," Danzo whispered. "But this time… give it a face he knows."