Chapter 105 – The Eye That Shouldn’t Exist

Dust.

Old. Thick.

Danzo stepped through the vault like a shadow in a crypt.

Torches flickered to life one by one—no flame. Chakra-triggered.

The room responded to his presence.

Alive. Breathing.

Beneath Konoha. Beneath even Root.

A place no ANBU had ever entered.

A place even the Hokage didn't know.

The true heart of Danzo's secrets.

On the far wall—an altar.

Black stone. Cracked by age.

A mural above it.

An eye.

Shattered. Incomplete. Not Uchiha. Not Rinnegan. Not Byakugan.

The Eye of the Abyss.

Danzo stopped.

His cane tapped the altar once.

Then he knelt.

And whispered.

"Project Tsukihai... is still alive."

Twenty-five years ago.

A failed experiment.

A child born with no chakra pathways.

Dead on arrival.

But his left eye… opened.

It looked into the soul of the attending medic-nin.

The medic dropped dead instantly.

No wound.

No poison.

Just… gone.

Danzo had been watching.

He took the corpse. Hid the name. Sealed the records.

And harvested the eye.

The broken dojutsu.

It couldn't be controlled.

It couldn't be classified.

So it was locked away.

Sealed.

Buried.

And now…

It was back.

Back in the northern forests.

Naruto sat alone where Kaito had left him.

The earth still trembled beneath his feet.

Leaves refused to fall around him.

Nature was warning him now.

Kurama inside stirred.

:: I don't like this. ::

Naruto didn't answer.

His hand still tingled from where Kaito touched him.

Not pain. Not poison.

Something stranger.

A memory?

A vision?

He had seen… something.

A woman. White hair. Eyes full of stars.

Her voice in his ear.

"You're not meant to face him."

Naruto blinked.

"What?"

:: What is it? :: Kurama asked.

Naruto looked at the sky.

"It's not just him."

Kurama remained silent.

Naruto stood.

"He's not a threat," Naruto whispered. "He's a message."

:: From who? ::

Naruto clenched his fists.

"That's what I need to find out."

Elsewhere—

Kaito walked through the mist.

No trail.

No destination.

Kurama behind him faded, shrinking, returning into him.

The link remained open.

Two beings. Same soul. Different paths.

Kaito's eye pulsed.

It was changing again.

Faster now.

Each beat of his heart tore it wider.

More jagged.

More unstable.

He saw through time.

Moments folding in on themselves.

He saw Sasuke's blade piercing Naruto's chest.

He saw Boruto. Crying. Alone.

He saw a village… burning.

Then he saw something else.

A hand. Withered. Black.

Placing his broken eye into a child.

Kaito collapsed.

His breath ragged.

Chakra surged uncontrollably.

His skin glowed from within.

Then dimmed.

The world flickered.

He blinked—

Now he stood inside a void.

Black.

Endless.

Only one presence.

A figure cloaked in rags.

Its voice scraped like iron on bone.

"You're not supposed to exist."

Kaito stepped back.

"Who are you?"

"I am the cost."

The figure lifted its hand.

The same broken eye.

Kaito stared. "You… you gave this to me."

"I gave nothing," the figure whispered. "You stole it."

Kaito's breath caught.

The figure walked closer. "That eye is not a gift. It's a prison. A hole through which everything escapes."

Kaito's knees buckled.

The void trembled.

"You opened it."

The figure's whisper grew into thunder.

"Now it opens you."

He woke.

Sweat dripped down his face.

Breath shallow.

Kurama was gone.

No longer speaking.

Not resisting.

Something else had entered.

Something deeper.

He looked into the reflection of a river nearby.

His eye… was now full black.

No lines.

No shapes.

Only a single white ring in the center—like a pupil swallowed by oblivion.

It pulsed once.

He saw a vision.

Danzo.

Opening the vault.

Touching the altar.

Activating a seal.

Then—

Darkness.

A scream.

A memory erased.

Kaito fell to his knees.

"I'm not ready…"

Meanwhile, back in Konoha.

Tsunade slammed the scroll shut.

The intel from Naruto was troubling.

Kaito hadn't attacked.

He hadn't made demands.

He hadn't even defended himself fully.

Tsunade turned to Shikamaru, who leaned against the wall nearby.

Thoughtful.

"What do you make of it?"

Shikamaru scratched his head. "He's not an enemy."

"He released Kurama."

"He could've killed Naruto."

Tsunade paused.

True.

Shikamaru continued. "This guy's not playing a shinobi game."

"Then what game is it?"

Shikamaru looked toward the window.

"The kind we haven't seen before."

In the shadows of the Hokage monument—

A masked figure crouched.

Watching the village.

White mask.

One eye.

He whispered into a communicator.

"He's moving again. Kaito has awakened the first layer."

A voice replied.

"Good. The seal is breaking."

The masked man asked, "And the host?"

There was a pause.

Then—

"We'll retrieve him soon. Prepare for deployment."

In a hidden cave far away—

The Akatsuki were meeting.

Pain sat in the center.

Konan beside him.

The others flickering through astral projection.

Kisame. Itachi. Deidara. Sasori.

"Another one holds the Nine-Tails now," Pain said flatly.

Sasori hissed, "Impossible."

Konan's voice was soft. "There are two Kuramas."

Deidara smirked. "A two-for-one special, hm?"

Itachi spoke last.

"Do we engage?"

Pain's eyes burned like molten rings.

"No."

"Why not?" Kisame asked.

Pain's voice was cold.

"Because this one… isn't bound by destiny."

They fell silent.

Far above the skies.

Above even the clouds.

A shrine floated in space.

Cracked.

Ancient.

Sleeping.

It stirred.

Its door glowed.

The first seal had broken.

The eye had opened.

And the gods remembered his name again.

End of Chapter 105