Chapter 106 – The Shrine That Watches

The moon was bleeding.

Not red.

Black.

A crack spread across its surface like a dying eye.

Only one man saw it.

Not because he looked.

But because he remembered.

Kaito stood on the cliffside, staring at a sky no one else could see.

The wind didn't howl.

It whispered.

A voice from before birth.

:: Wake it. ::

He turned.

The forest behind him was still.

Too still.

No chakra.

No life.

Even the birds had left.

Kaito raised his hand.

The black ring in his eye spun.

The world answered.

A ripple spread from his feet.

The earth peeled back.

Stone stairs emerged.

Winding downward.

Into the mountain.

He stepped forward.

Deep in Konoha.

Naruto knelt before Jiraiya.

The old sage looked tired.

Older than usual.

But sharp.

Very sharp.

"I've seen a lot of strange things," Jiraiya said. "But two Kuramas?"

Naruto nodded.

"He didn't even fight me. Just… tested something."

Jiraiya sat down beside him.

"You said he used your seal?"

Naruto touched his chest.

"It was like he rewrote it. In an instant. No hand signs."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed.

"That shouldn't be possible."

Naruto's voice was quiet.

"He has a dojutsu. One I've never seen. Not Sharingan. Not Rinnegan."

Jiraiya didn't speak.

Then finally—

"Describe it."

Naruto hesitated.

"It's like a crack in space. A void."

Jiraiya stood up slowly.

Paced.

"That eye… it's not from this world."

Naruto looked at him.

"You know it?"

"No," Jiraiya said. "But someone else might."

He glanced toward the Hokage Mountain.

"There's one scroll left. One we never open."

In the sealed archives of the Uzumaki clan—

Tsunade broke the wax seal.

She opened the forbidden scroll.

Her hands trembled.

Even she didn't know why.

The first line read:

"Beware the Eye that Sees Before Time."

Her breath hitched.

A drawing on the next page.

Rough.

Childlike.

But unmistakable.

Kaito's eye.

Meanwhile.

Kaito descended the stairs beneath the mountain.

Each step bled chakra.

Old chakra.

Older than nations.

The deeper he went, the more the air changed.

It felt… watched.

And when he reached the bottom—

It was there.

A shrine.

Floating.

Stone, but not carved.

Forged from something forgotten.

A monolith in a chamber that wasn't hollow.

It was alive.

Kaito stepped forward.

Symbols glowed as he approached.

A voice greeted him.

"Welcome back."

His breath caught.

"I've never been here."

"Yes. You have."

A pulse ran through the air.

He felt it in his bones.

"Your eye is incomplete."

He didn't answer.

The shrine continued.

"Do you want to remember?"

Kaito hesitated.

Then—"Yes."

The monolith opened.

Light poured out.

No warmth.

No welcome.

Just truth.

It hit him.

Like a blade of memories.

He screamed.

His past unfolded.

Not in order.

Fragments.

A voice. A man. Cloaked in black.

"You were born to unseal the gate."

A symbol etched into his back.

A name carved into his tongue.

Tsukihai.

He saw Danzo.

Younger. Smiling.

He saw a white-eyed woman staring at him in fear.

He saw death.

A thousand times.

Each time erased.

Each time rebooted.

He hadn't been reincarnated.

He had been restarted.

Again.

And again.

And again.

When the light faded, he collapsed.

His eye now bled.

Crimson drops hit the stone.

The shrine pulsed.

Then spoke one last time.

"One seal remains."

"The Key is in Konoha."

Kaito's eyes widened.

It wasn't Naruto.

It wasn't Danzo.

It was someone else.

Someone hidden.

Someone who didn't know they were the Key.

Back in Konoha.

Ino screamed awake.

Sweat drenched her sheets.

She stared at her mirror.

Her eyes were glowing.

Not blue.

White.

She didn't know why.

But deep in her mind—

A voice whispered.

"It's time."

Meanwhile, in the ruins of the Uchiha district—

Sasuke stood before the family shrine.

He'd been summoned by a dream.

Not his own.

He touched the tablet with trembling fingers.

The Sharingan activated.

Then the Rinnegan.

Then—

Something answered.

Not Madara.

Not the Sage.

Something older.

The tablet glowed.

Words he'd never seen appeared.

"Beware your brother with no blood."

Sasuke stepped back.

"The hell…?"

His Rinnegan flickered.

A face flashed in his mind.

Kaito.

Then it was gone.

Far north.

Beyond all maps.

A group in black robes stood before a gate carved into the frozen sea.

Their leader lowered his hood.

A single eye.

Empty.

Hungry.

He raised his hand.

Spoke a command.

The ice shattered.

The gate began to open.

Behind it…

Something woke.

Something older than chakra.

Back in Konoha.

Jiraiya handed Naruto the scroll.

"This was locked in the Uzumaki vault. Hidden even from your mother."

Naruto unrolled it.

His breath caught.

A prophecy.

Handwritten.

By a forgotten sage.

"The boy born with no fate shall open the Eye."

"He shall wear two names."

"One from man. One from void."

"When the second Kurama awakens, the shrine will breathe."

"When the shrine breathes, time will bleed."

"And in the end, only the Broken One will remain."

Naruto looked up.

"Kaito's not here to fight us…"

Jiraiya nodded.

"He's here to break time."

End of Chapter 106