Chapter 136: “Spiral Seed”
The wind stopped.
Not slowed.Stopped.
As if the world paused—holding its breath.
Ryuki's eye glowed.His spirals stayed dormant.But his grip on his blade was tight.
Too tight.
The boy stood calm.
Arms at his side.Head tilted.Eyes spinning silently.
White.Colorless.Pure.
Eri didn't move.
But Ryuki could feel it—The spirals inside her trembling.
The boy wasn't just a remnant.
He was the seed.
Not born with chakra.Not crafted by hands.But grown from possibility.
"You don't have a name," Ryuki said.
The boy stared at him.
"Names are for the living."
Ryuki stepped forward.
"I don't want to fight."
"You will."
His voice didn't carry malice.
Just certainty.
The ground shifted.
Not cracked.
Rewritten.
Eri looked down—her shadow was gone.
Ryuki glanced behind.
They weren't in the field anymore.
They were in a different place—Same sky.Same sun.
But everything else... wrong.
Konoha stood in the distance.
Burning.
Children with white spiral eyes stood where statues of Hokage once were.
No faces.No chakra.
Just silence.
Just possibility.
"This is one outcome," the boy said softly.
"If I grow without choice."
Ryuki gritted his teeth.
"You're showing us the future?"
"A possible one."
Eri stepped beside him.
"Why?"
The boy blinked slowly.
"Because I don't want it either."
They were back.The vision faded.
The grass returned.Sky normal.
Just three souls again.
Ryuki took a slow breath.
Then asked:
"…What are you really?"
The boy paused.Then spoke.
"I am a Spiral Seed."
"Born from Kurashiki's ending."
"Created by the collision of time, memory, and choice."
"I am what comes after... everything."
A beat of silence.
Then—
Eri stepped forward.
"You're not a threat."
He nodded.
"Not yet."
Ryuki asked, "Can we stop you?"
The boy frowned.
"You can raise me."
That stopped them.
Eri's eyes widened.
"Wait… are you saying—?"
"Yes."
"Let me choose.Not the world.Not chakra.Not fate."
"Let me become human."
Ryuki glanced at Eri.
They both knew the cost.
The Spiral War had left fractures everywhere.
Allowing a Spiral Seed to grow...
It was a gamble.
But it was the only way forward.
A future without sealing.Without killing.
A future with trust.
Eri nodded first.
Then Ryuki.
He sheathed his blade.
"What do we call you, then?"
The boy looked up.
Silent.
Then whispered—
"Souta."
The wind returned.
Time moved again.
And a new spiral began to form—
Not in power.
But in peace.
Elsewhere.
Far underground.
A man in rags sat in a temple of spirals.
Eyes stitched shut.
Voice hoarse.
"They've accepted the seed..."
"Good."
"Let the world grow soft again."
"So when it shatters—"
"I'll be waiting."
End of Chapter 136.