The rain in Kumogakure fell differently that day.
It wasn't a storm.
Not thunder.
Not warning.
Just a heavy silence, as if the clouds knew what had been lost before the people did.
A figure knelt beside the broken shrine on the mountain pass.
His hand was shaking.
It had never shaken.
Not during war.
Not during peace.
Not even during his brother's wildest raps.
But now...
The Raikage stared at the blood left in the crater.
Not a body.
Just a pattern.
Seal marks burned into stone.
Black rings — the signature of Uzumaki sealing techniques.
A death with no sound.
No warning.
No glory.
Only silence.
"What do you mean… there's no chakra residue?" Darui asked, voice barely holding.
The sensor beside him swallowed hard. "Nothing left. It's like it was… consumed."
Raikage didn't move.
But his voice cracked.
"That bastard killed my brother."
Meanwhile, at the Hidden Leaf…
Tsunade stood at the top of the Hokage Tower.
Her hand gripped the edge of the railing so tightly her knuckles bled.
Shizune didn't speak.
Jiraiya had returned from a scouting mission the day before with rumors.
Now, confirmation.
The Eight-Tails was gone.
But the name?
That name…
She whispered it for the first time in years.
"Naruto…"
The Kage Summit was called within hours.
Scrolls flew across the skies.
The Stone and Mist refused to speak first.
But the Sand… Gaara simply said one thing:
"He warned us."
In a quiet training field far from the council chambers, Sasuke stood alone.
Eyes closed.
Not in sadness.
But in stillness.
The Sharingan spun slowly.
He felt it.
The power shift.
He didn't need a messenger.
He didn't need a report.
Naruto was back.
And this time, the world would bleed for it.
Hinata dropped the tea tray when she heard the news.
Neji caught her before she fell.
"He killed Bee," someone whispered behind them.
Hinata's vision blurred.
Not from shock.
But from certainty.
"He's alive," she whispered. "He's still alive."
In the shadows of a broken hideout, Orochimaru laughed.
"I told you," he hissed. "He's evolving."
Kabuto trembled.
"Should we run?"
"No," Orochimaru whispered.
"We watch."
And in the deepest part of the Land of Iron…
A scroll burned in the fire pit.
The message inside was never spoken aloud.
But the guards who saw the general read it swore they heard his heart stop.
A single line:
"The Chain Ghost has returned. And now he has Eight."