The entrance was hidden beneath Amegakure's oldest tower.Forgotten. Sealed.Accessible only through pain... and blood.
Konan led him.
Raien's left eye glowed faintly, illuminating the hallway ahead.The moisture in the air seemed thicker here.
"Why was this place buried?" he asked.
Konan's expression remained unreadable.
"Some truths are best left in darkness."
Raien gave a tired smirk."I'm starting to hate the dark."
They reached a circular door. No handles. No seals. Just a flat stone surface.On it, an inscription.
古の瞳は,記憶の棺を開く.
Raien translated aloud.
"'The Ancient Eye opens the coffin of memory.'"
Konan turned to him.
"Use your dojutsu."
Raien stepped forward.The moment his left eye looked into the stone—
Click.A pulse of chakra shot out.
The stone rippled like water—Then began to dissolve, revealing stairs spiraling downward into black.
The Library of Whispers.
A place built during the Warring States Era.
Before the founding of the villages.Before the Uchiha.Before even the Sage's teachings spread.
Each wall was lined with scrolls, glowing crystals, and glass tablets—etched with shifting characters.
The air smelled of dust and electricity.
But Raien felt something else.
A presence.
He turned.
No one.
Just rows and rows of silence.
But the eye in his head… started to itch.
He walked slowly, drawn deeper.
Each scroll revealed fragments of truth.
One talked about an eye that defied time itself.
Another mentioned "The Seven Cracks of Sight"—a dojutsu so unstable, even the Rikudou Sennin feared it.
But one scroll…
One scroll changed everything.
It was marked with the same sigil as the one in Raien's eye.
He opened it.
And read.
The Nenseigan was not created… it was born.A manifestation of regret. Of fate that refused to accept itself.It sees not just chakra, not just truth… but the lies that shape reality.It was sealed away in a child not of this world. A vessel forged in sorrow.
Raien's hand trembled.
Not of this world.
"…Me…"
He stepped backward.The scroll fell from his hand.
Then—
Footsteps.
Echoing. Deliberate.
Someone else was here.
Raien turned fast.
And saw her.
A girl.
Same age. Dressed in black.Face pale. Left eye covered by cloth.
But her right eye glowed red.
Not Sharingan. Not Rinnegan.
Something else.
Something… familiar.
"Who are you?" Raien demanded.
The girl tilted her head.
"You saw the third crack."
Raien's breath caught.
"…you too?"
She removed the cloth from her left eye.
A shattered iris. Red. Cracked down the middle.
The Fourth Crack.
Raien took a step back.
"That's impossible."
The girl smiled faintly.
"My name is Kuroha. I was the first."
She walked toward him slowly, the lights dimming with every step.
"I was born with it. You… were given it."
Raien clenched his fists.
"Given?"
"Placed. Like a piece in a game."
She stopped.
"Do you remember the dreams?"
He didn't answer.
She raised her hand.
Instantly, the room changed.
Scrolls vanished.
Walls twisted.
They stood on a mountain now.
Cold wind. Thunder.
Kuroha's eye glowing like a star.
"We're inside the dojutsu," she said.
Raien looked around.
A dream? A genjutsu?
No. Something deeper.
"This place… is memory," he whispered.
Kuroha nodded.
"Every crack breaks a truth."
She turned to him.
"The third crack gives you vision.The fourth… gives you choice."
Raien looked down at his hands.
"What if I don't want it?"
Kuroha's face turned dark.
"Then you'll die."
He met her gaze.
"Why?"
She pointed to the sky.
Above them—
A rift opened.
Black lightning cracked across it.
From within—
Something moved.
Huge. Inhuman.
Its eye…
Glowing like his.
Kuroha whispered,
"That is the final version of you. What happens if you take all seven cracks."
Raien's mouth went dry.
"It's a monster."
She looked away.
"No. It's you… unchained."
The mountain crumbled.
They were back in the library.
Kuroha stood by the entrance now.
"You're not ready for the fourth crack yet."
Raien exhaled. His hand still trembled.
"Then why show me?"
She looked at him—serious now.
"Because he is waking up."
Raien froze.
"Who?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she vanished.
Just like that.
Gone.
Later—
Raien sat alone in the chamber.
Scrolls scattered around him.
Konan entered silently.
"You're pale."
Raien looked up.
"…I saw the fourth crack."
Konan tensed.
"And?"
"I don't want it."
She nodded.
"Wanting has nothing to do with it."
Raien looked at the cracked mirror in his hand.
He saw his reflection.
His eye glowed again.
Faint. But steady.
Still changing.
Elsewhere.
Deep underground.
Chains rattled.
A figure stood in the dark.
Bound by chakra threads.
Eyes closed.
Then slowly…
They opened.
One eye red.
One eye black.
The being smiled.
"The Nenseigan has reached its third crack."
It looked up.
"Soon… he'll be mine."