Chapter 9 The Knife and the Memory

Episode 9 – The Knife and the Memory

(65 Days Before Graduation Exam – Hidden Leaf, Late Evening)

Word count: 1,345

"Some memories aren't yours.

They just wear your voice."

— Ryūketsu Doctrine, Forbidden Verse XVII

[Opening Scene – Shrine of Echoes, Midnight]

The torches burned low.

The ancient walls still held warmth from the fire seals Satoshi lit before sundown, casting shadows like flickering ghosts against the cracked mural of the Third Son's descent — Riku no Mikoto, falling from the heavens like a dragon bound in chains.

Satoshi sat in the circle again.

The blood-sealed scroll from Ishirō lay open in front of him. But tonight, the glyphs weren't idle. They pulsed faintly — like breathing embers — reacting to the Celestial Fragment at his neck.

He had resisted this second trigger.

But the world wasn't going to wait anymore.

He bit his thumb.

Drew a seal across the ground.

"Memory Bending: Phase Two — Refraction."

The shrine dimmed.

[Vision – Unstable Memory Stream]

He stood in a temple that wasn't his.

Golden light pooled around pillars carved with celestial script, languages that no chakra user in Konoha had ever learned.

Before him — a man cloaked in red and black robes, head bowed. A monk.

"The boy carries both weight and code."

The voice was soft. Cold.

Not his memory.

Not Ryūketsu.

This… was Jigen's.

Satoshi staggered.

Images slammed into his skull — too fast to parse:

• A white eye with six tomoe.

• A giant chakra fruit tree writhing in the void.

• The body of a monk burned hollow from the inside.

• And a baby, barely hours old, crying in his arms.

Jigen (voice echoing):

"He will be the sleeper. The contingency. If Kaguya's failure births another war, he will wake the Balance."

Satoshi screamed.

[Shrine – Present Moment]

He broke the seal, rolled backward, and vomited. Blood in his mouth. Steam rising from his skin.

The floor beneath him was scorched, the memory having manifested chakra through his own core.

He wasn't just unlocking memories now.

He was channeling foreign imprints — fragments of a being not of this world.

Satoshi (panting):

"…That wasn't me.

That was never me."

But the memory was inside him now.

And it whispered a name he had never spoken:

"Isshiki."

[Scene: Hokage Tower – Morning Briefing]

Hiruzen reviewed the death report again. The Root operative's body hadn't decayed like a normal corpse — the chakra was drained unnaturally, leaving only brittle nerves and scorched muscle tissue.

Kakashi (reading over his shoulder):

"This isn't a jutsu. It's a memory seal rupture. Reverse-charged."

Hiruzen:

"Then the scroll he unlocked is more than Ryūketsu. It's celestial."

Kakashi:

"And that means Jigen's watching."

The room fell silent.

Hiruzen (grimly):

"Then Satoshi may not be Danzo's target anymore."

"He might be someone else's weapon."

[Scene: Academy Training Field – Team Drills]

The students ran in formation, pairing off in squads to practice retrieval drills. Satoshi's new Squad 4 hadn't been assigned a jonin yet, so they trained independently — a situation that already raised flags with Shikamaru and Sasuke.

Sai struck wooden dummies with silent precision, watching Satoshi from the corner of his eye.

Tatsuki, however, was more honest.

Tatsuki: "You're pale. Pale-r than usual. You sleep at all?"

Satoshi (coldly): "I've been speaking with the dead."

Tatsuki: "…Nice."

He looked at her, faint smirk breaking his usual stillness.

There was something stabilizing about her sarcasm. Something real.

[Scene: Forest Trail – Later That Day]

As they walked home together, Sai fell back silently.

Tatsuki (low voice): "He gives me the creeps."

Satoshi: "He watches, but doesn't record. That means he's not reporting — he's waiting."

Tatsuki: "Waiting for what?"

Satoshi (serious): "For a reason to kill us."

They reached the old northern path — where a burned oak stood like a skeletal hand. There, on instinct, Satoshi stopped.

The leaves didn't rustle.

The wind didn't shift.

But something felt off.

He threw a kunai into the tree line.

Thunk.

A body fell.

A chuunin — bleeding from the stomach, clutching a torn Root ID.

Eyes wide. Dying.

Chuunin (gasping): "He—they turned on me… I was supposed to escort scrolls from the inner archives… but they—Danzo—he said—"

He seized.

Foamed at the mouth.

And burst into blue flame — a seal exploding in his throat.

Tatsuki: "What the hell—?!"

Satoshi dropped to his knees, scanning the charred flesh.

The chakra signature was Root's — but the burn pattern?

It had Ryūketsu characters hidden in the sigil.

Satoshi (to himself):

"They're using our seals. Not just observing.

They're reactivating them."

Tatsuki (stepping back): "What does that mean?"

Satoshi (darkly):

"It means Danzo has access to my clan's sealed archives.

And someone's helping him from the inside."

[Final Scene: Hidden Root Bunker – Below Sector 13]

Danzo stood alone in front of a crystalline chamber.

Inside it — a humanoid shape. Not alive. Not dead.

A body with Satoshi's chakra signature, grown from DNA collected at birth.

Danzo (quietly):

"Balance must exist on both ends of the blade.

If the heir awakens too soon… we give the world his reflection."

The clone opened its eyes.

Golden. Hollow.