The world was vast. Larger than any village child could imagine.
Yet to Raizen, it felt unbearably empty.
After meeting Itachi in secret, Raizen left Konoha's walls once more. He couldn't stay. He didn't belong. He was a shadow walking in a world that no longer remembered him.
As he wandered from forest to mountain, from ruined temples to silent valleys, the same reality struck him again and again:
People's eyes passed through him. Their memories rejected him. To them, he was no one. A stranger.
Once, he walked into a small tavern in the Land of Iron. The warm light spilled over wooden tables where samurai and traders laughed and shared sake.
Raizen sat quietly in the corner.
"Oi, stranger, where you from?" a bearded man asked, curious.
Raizen opened his mouth, but no words came. His nation no longer existed. His clan had forgotten him. Even if he said the truth, the man's mind would twist it into nothingness.
"…Nowhere," Raizen said finally.
The man laughed, thinking it a joke. "Hah! Then you're just like the wind, eh?"
But to Raizen, the words weren't funny. They were cruel. He finished his drink and walked back into the snow.
---
The days blurred into months. He faced beasts that roamed the wilderness—giant wolves, serpents, rogue shinobi who wandered outside the laws of any nation. His Mangekyō eyes, cursed with eternal bleeding, carved through them with ease, yet each battle left him emptier than the last.
One night, by a dying campfire, Raizen pressed a bloodied hand over his eyes.
"Why… do I still fight? For whom?"
His voice was swallowed by the crackling fire. The memories of the five nations clawed at him—their betrayal, their rage, the moment he decided to erase everything, including himself.
He remembered mothers crying as their homes burned. He remembered his own clan staring at him with fear. And finally, he remembered the silence when the world forgot.
The Mangekyō throbbed, its bleeding tears streaking down his pale face.
"Perhaps… this is my punishment. To live in a world where no one remembers my sins."
---
But fate was not finished with him.
One evening, he entered the ruins of an abandoned temple deep within the mountains of the Land of Earth. The pillars were shattered, walls covered in ivy, yet inside he found something strange—an old monk, sitting perfectly still, eyes closed, as if meditating for centuries.
The monk opened his eyes as Raizen stepped forward. And unlike anyone else, the monk's gaze did not slip past him.
"You… are burdened with a name that no longer exists," the monk said softly.
Raizen froze. His hand instinctively reached for his blade. "You can see me…?"
The monk smiled faintly. "See you? No… I remember you."
Raizen's breath caught. The first person besides Itachi to acknowledge him.
"How…?"
"The flow of life and death cannot be erased, no matter how powerful your eye. The land remembers. The dead remember. And I… dwell close to both."
Raizen clenched his fists. "…Then tell me. Am I cursed? Or am I simply lost?"
The monk did not answer. Instead, he asked, "Why do you still wander? What is it you seek?"
Raizen fell silent. He did not know. Peace? Redemption? Or perhaps just… someone who would not forget him.
The monk finally spoke, voice heavy with meaning.
"You cannot erase yourself forever, Raizen Uchiha. One day, the blood you carry… will demand to be remembered."
Raizen turned away, his cloak sweeping through the dust of the ruined temple.
"Then let that day never come."
And so, he continued walking into the dark, each step heavy, each night filled with silent battles against beasts, rogues, and his own memories. His heart grew colder, yet somewhere deep inside, the image of a small boy—Itachi—remained like a fragile ember.
The only one who remembered him.
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🔥 End of Chapter 2...