The tunnel narrowed as Kozan and Mei moved deeper, the air warming with each step. The stone walls pulsed faintly with veins of chakra not rushing like water, but beating, slow and deliberate, like something ancient was breathing through the earth.
The deeper they went, the more Kozan's skin prickled.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Mei kept her voice low. "This place… how long has it been sealed?"
Kozan's hand brushed the wall. The chakra reacted to his touch not violently, just awake.
"A long time," he murmured. "But it was waiting."
"For you?" Mei asked.
He didn't respond.
But they both knew.
The Last Door
The tunnel ended at a massive stone gate, covered in spiraling seals and interlocking segments that shimmered with dormant chakra. In the center was a circular mark the same symbol that sat on Kozan's wrist.
The air was thick enough to feel.
Mei exhaled quietly. "This is not Iwa's work. I've never seen seals like this."
Kozan stepped forward.
"It predates the villages."
"How do you know?"
"I don't," he said. "But my body does."
He pressed his hand to the symbol.
The seal reacted instantly, threads of light surging out like veins igniting. The stone groaned, shifting, unlocking layer by layer. Dust rained from the ceiling. The ground trembled.
Mei braced herself.
Kozan didn't flinch.
The door slid open.
A low hum drifted through the air, like the sound of a thousand whispers layered together. The chamber beyond was enormous a cathedral hollowed out of the mountain, lit by soft blue light radiating from crystal nodes embedded in the walls.
And at the center stood a single figure.
Suspended.
Floating.
Human-shaped.
But not alive.
Not yet.
The Other Prototype
The figure hung within a lattice of chakra threads that wrapped around it like a cocoon. The body was pale, unfinished, with hair drifting weightlessly. Its face was smooth, peaceful, eyes closed. It looked young maybe thirteen.
Kozan froze.
Mei looked between him and the suspended figure. "Kozan… who is that?"
He stepped closer, slowly, as if afraid the air would shatter.
"I think…"
His voice wavered.
"I think it's what they wanted me to become."
Mei stared. "Another… you?"
Kozan lifted a hand toward the cocoon. He didn't touch it the chakra around the body flared like a warning.
"No," he whispered. "Not another. The original."
The word sat like stone.
Mei frowned. "Explain."
Kozan closed his eyes.
Memories he didn't want began to surface, rising from the black water of his mind.
A room. White. Cold. A voice saying:
"The first one failed. We start again."
Hands lifting him.
"This one doesn't cry. Good. He'll adapt to the imprint."
He felt his pulse hammer in his neck.
"They didn't make me first," he said. "They made me… after."
Mei's stomach twisted. "Then this"
"is Prototype One," Kozan finished.
The suspended figure's eyes cracked open.
Mei reacted instantly, forming seals, lava chakra building in her lungs
But Kozan raised a hand.
"No."
The figure's eyes didn't move. They were unfocused, pale blue like dawn behind fog. But something inside them stirred. The chakra cocoon pulsed in rhythm with its chest.
"Kozan…" Mei warned.
He stepped closer.
"It feels me," he said. "It recognizes me."
"Is that good or bad?"
"I don't know."
The figure's lips parted.
A dry whisper escaped, barely sound at all:
"—Ten…"
Mei stiffened. "What did it say?"
Kozan swallowed.
"That was my designation."
Her heart clenched.
"Kozan"
The figure's head twitched slightly, like a puppet testing its strings.
"Ten… returned…"
Mei stepped between them, blocking Kozan with her arm. "It's waking up. We should retreat until we know what we're dealing with."
Kozan's gaze didn't move from the figure.
"We can't leave."
"Why?"
"Because it's not waking," he whispered. "It's searching."
"For what?"
"For itself."
The cocoon flashed.
Hard.
A wave of chakra exploded outward, blasting dust and air through the chamber. Mei shielded her face. Kozan stood still, letting it wash over him.
The figure's body trembled.
Its head raised.
Its eyes empty yet piercing found Kozan.
And then it spoke again:
"Ten… incomplete."
Mei's hand shot to her kunai.
But Kozan felt something else beneath those words not threat.
Despair.
A memory struck him like a hammer:
A man yelling:
"The first one can't regulate its chakra output shut it down!"
A child scream, muffled.
A tank cracking.
A soft voice saying: "This one number ten is stable. We'll move forward."
Kozan's breath shuddered.
Mei's eyes widened slightly.
"You pity it."
"No," Kozan said softly. "I understand it."
The figure continued, voice glitching like a damaged instrument:
"Ten… purpose… unknown…
…where is the directive…?"
The word directive stabbed at Kozan's spine like a cold needle.
Mei whispered, "They programmed them."
Kozan didn't deny it.
The figure's fingers twitched, the cocoon stretching.
"Ten… retrieve core memory… incomplete…"
Mei stepped back, panic flaring. "It's drawing chakra it's going to break free!"
The cocoon began unraveling, threads snapping one by one.
Kozan moved before she did.
He placed his palm gently against the cocoon.
The entire chamber froze.
The threads halted mid-break.
The figure stilled.
Even Mei felt the air shift like the entire structure was holding its breath.
Kozan spoke quietly, calmly, with the same voice he used with dying enemies and frightened children:
"You don't have a directive."
The figure's head twitched.
"You were left here," Kozan continued. "Abandoned. Forgotten."
A tremor ran through the figure's body.
"But you're not alone," Kozan whispered. "Not anymore."
Silence.
Then the figure whispered:
"Ten… override… accepted…"
Mei grabbed Kozan's shoulder.
"What does that mean?!"
But Kozan already knew.
The cocoon dissolved.
The figure fell.
Kozan caught it before it hit the floor. The body was light almost weightless. Warm. Alive. But weak, as if its chakra pathways had never fully formed.
The figure looked up at him, eyes flickering with confused light.
"Name…" it whispered.
Mei exhaled slowly, realizing what was happening.
"It's asking you."
Kozan stared down at Prototype One pale, trembling, unfinished.
Another version of him.
A brother he never knew he had.
A weapon that never woke.
He opened his mouth
But the ground shook violently.
A seal burned to life on the far wall.
A voice artificial, ancient, cold echoed through the chamber:
"Unauthorized activation detected.
Purging prototypes."
Mei cursed. "Kozan MOVE!"
The walls split open.
Dozens of stone constructs crawled out, forming like bodies from clay, eyes glowing with killing intent.
The whole mountain began to collapse.
Kozan lifted the unconscious figure into his arms and turned toward Mei.
"Run."
She didn't question him.
They sprinted toward the tunnel as the first golem lunged.
Kozan didn't look back.
But the last thing he heard before the door tried to seal them inside was the faint, weak voice of the prototype in his arms:
"…Ten… don't leave me…"
The door slammed.
The mountain roared.
And Kozan ran into the collapsing dark, carrying the one thing he never expected to find:
Someone who needed him.