Chapter 103 – The Council’s Secret

The elders gathered in silence.

Stone walls. Cold floor. A single lantern flickering above their heads.

Six seats.

Five filled.

Danzo stood without speaking. One eye hidden. Bandages coiled up his arm like a snake waiting to strike.

Homura crossed his arms. "You felt it too."

A nod from Koharu. "The seal… something ancient broke."

Tension pulsed in the room.

Tsunade had not been invited.

This meeting wasn't for the Hokage.

It was for the true rulers of Konoha.

Danzo's voice finally cut through the silence. Sharp. Controlled.

"He has released it."

Koharu leaned forward. "The beast?"

"The other half of the Nine-Tails," Danzo said.

Whispers flickered across their faces.

"That half was supposed to be hidden forever," Homura muttered.

Danzo's fingers tapped his cane. "The shrine is destroyed."

"How?" Koharu asked.

No answer came.

Only Danzo's single eye glowing in the half-dark.

Koharu's voice dropped. "Do we even know who he is?"

Danzo's expression did not change. "We've run his name through every database. No match. Not in Konoha. Not in any village."

"Then where did he come from?" Homura snapped.

Danzo stepped closer to the table. "He's not from this world."

Silence.

Heavy.

Then, finally—Koharu whispered, "Another dimension?"

"Possibly."

A pause.

Then Danzo spoke again. Slower.

"He's not Uchiha. But he has something worse."

He tossed a scroll onto the table. It slid and stopped in front of Homura.

Homura opened it.

Eyes widened.

"What… is this?"

A sketch. Rough. Charcoal-drawn by a surveillance ANBU before his death.

A broken dojutsu. Fractured lines. No symmetry. No clan marking.

Just raw, unstable power.

Koharu hissed. "This isn't the Sharingan."

"No."

"It isn't the Rinnegan."

"No."

Homura stared. "Then what is it?"

Danzo said nothing.

He didn't know.

And that terrified him.

Elsewhere.

Far from Konoha.

In a ruined field where the shrine once stood.

Kaito sat cross-legged on the shattered stone.

His breath slow.

Controlled.

Kurama circled him like a flame-tailed specter. Towering. Vast.

Silent.

For now.

Kaito opened his eyes.

The forest bent away from him.

Birds no longer chirped here. Insects stayed away.

Even the wind had learned fear.

Kurama rumbled, "You're quiet."

"I'm listening."

"To what?"

"The earth."

Kurama grinned, fangs glinting in the dusk. "And what is it saying?"

"That the world isn't ready for me yet."

Kurama's tail struck a tree. It exploded.

"I like you."

Kaito stood slowly.

His dojutsu hadn't stopped pulsing since the seal broke.

It was evolving.

Shifting.

Changing shape every hour.

He felt the layers unfolding in his mind.

Past.

Future.

Twisting together like threads.

He saw shadows moving beyond the horizon.

The Akatsuki.

The Council.

Naruto.

They were coming.

But not fast enough.

Back in Konoha.

Tsunade stood alone in her office.

Shizune had been sent away.

She faced the map on her wall.

Red markers blinked on the northern edge. ANBU patrols vanished one by one. Silent. No alarms. No bodies found.

She tapped the scroll in her hand.

Only one word stood out:

"Kaito."

Jiraiya's notes were scribbled across the bottom in a rush.

"He's not from here. His chakra doesn't obey rules. It shifts. He absorbed a seal without touching it. I don't know what he wants, but I fear who he's becoming."

Tsunade exhaled.

"Shizune," she finally called.

"Yes?"

"Summon Naruto."

Naruto arrived twenty minutes later.

Older now. Eyes sharp. Cloak fluttering behind him.

He still smiled. But it didn't reach his eyes.

Tsunade turned toward him.

"I need you to find someone."

Naruto tilted his head. "Rogue ninja?"

"No."

She tossed him the scroll.

Naruto read.

Then read it again.

His face changed.

"...he released Kurama?"

"No," Tsunade corrected.

"He released your other half."

Naruto went silent.

Kurama inside him stirred.

:: This… can't be. ::

Naruto swallowed. "I thought… I thought we were whole."

"You were supposed to be," Tsunade said. "But the elders lied. They sealed the second half away… far away. After your birth."

Naruto clenched his fists. "Why?"

"To control you. To control the Nine-Tails."

He didn't respond.

Kurama inside him rumbled.

:: I feel him. ::

Naruto blinked. :: You… what? ::

:: The other me. He walks again. ::

Naruto stepped back.

"Where is he?"

Tsunade pointed.

"To the north. Forest of Ash. Near the old shrine."

Naruto nodded.

"I'll go."

Tsunade's voice stopped him.

"Be careful."

He didn't turn back. "I always am."

Then he vanished.

Back in the forest—

Kaito opened his eyes.

Kurama twitched.

"You feel him too?" Kaito asked.

The beast growled. "He's coming."

"Good."

"Will you kill him?"

"No."

Kaito turned.

"I'll show him what he's missing."

A silence stretched between them.

Then the sky shifted.

A ripple.

Naruto landed twenty feet away.

Cloak fluttering.

Blue eyes glowing.

Kurama inside him howled.

Kurama outside him laughed.

"Well," the beast grinned. "This will be fun."

Kaito and Naruto stared at each other.

Wind blew between them.

No one spoke.

Not yet.

The forest held its breath.

End of Chapter 103