Wind whispered through Konoha's alleys.Moonlight painted silver lines across silent rooftops.A presence moved.Unseen.Unfelt.But there.
Raien stood at the edge of the village.Hidden under a dark cloak.Watching.Listening.
This was his first time back since the incident at the Academy.Since the day his eye activated.
He wasn't here to meet anyone.He was here to confirm something.
The voice in his head…It had spoken again.
"Find the well. Under the old temple. When the moon is full."
Tonight was that night.
He moved.Fast.Silent.
Down past training grounds.Past Hokage Mountain's shadow.Through the forest.
The temple ruins stood half-eaten by vines.Old. Abandoned.Long forgotten by Konoha's current generation.
He stepped inside.
Dust.Silence.A cold wind blew from beneath.
He felt it.The presence.
Chakra… old as death.
He found the stone slab.Moved it aside.
A circular stairwell spiraled into darkness.
He descended.
Step by step.
Each one colder than the last.
At the bottom—A chamber.
Carved in red stone.Marks all over the walls.Sealing symbols.Ancient. Powerful. Dangerous.
In the center, a dry well.Stone rim.No water.
Raien stepped forward.His left eye pulsed.Glowed faintly.
The air shifted.A low hum.Then… a whisper.
"You've come."
Raien turned.
No one.
The well pulsed once with light.
He looked into it.Saw nothing but blackness.
Then—A hand shot out.
Not real.A projection.Chakra-built.
It reached for his head.
Raien didn't flinch.
The hand touched his forehead—And vanished.
But not before leaving something behind.
Pain struck.Blinding. Sharp.
His vision blurred.
And then—He saw it.
A flash of war.A masked man.Eyes spinning with the Mangekyō.
Raien screamed.Fell back.Blood dripping from his nose.
The chamber was still again.
Except—
The well was glowing.
Words burned into the floor.
"One eye sees the truth. The other… buries it."
Raien got up.Dizzy.Eyes shaking.
He left the chamber.
Behind him, the well pulsed again.A single crack appeared in the stone.
Something… had awakened.
Elsewhere
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat still.
He felt it.A disturbance.Deep beneath the village.
He didn't say a word.
But he stood.Took his pipe.And looked out the window.
Konoha is not ready.