A dream.
That's what it felt like.
Raien stood in the middle of a rain-soaked forest.The air was thick with silence.Not even the insects dared whisper.
He looked at his hand.It was glowing again.Not chakra. Not fire.
Something deeper.
Fate.
Then he saw it—A single red string floating in the air.Attached to nothing.Drifting.
It shimmered.
Raien reached out.
His fingers passed through it—
And time fractured.
He awoke screaming.
Gasping.
His body drenched in sweat.
Konan burst into the room.
"Another vision?"
Raien could barely breathe.
"I pulled something. I don't know what. It felt… alive."
Konan didn't speak.She watched him.Silent. Calculating.
Raien looked at her.
"There's something about this dojutsu. It's evolving. It's not just sight anymore."
He sat up, panting.
"I think… I touched fate."
Outside, the rain fell harder.
A black bird landed on the rooftop nearby.
Watching.
Listening.
Then it flew into the storm.
Carrying word to someone far, far away.
That afternoon—
They stood in the underground chamber again.
Konan had cleared a space.Drawn seals in blood.Lit blue flame candles.
"This place is protected," she said.
"You can try again here."
Raien hesitated.
"Last time… I think I broke something."
Konan narrowed her eyes.
"Then be careful not to break everything."
Raien sat in the center.
He closed his eyes.
And focused.
The dojutsu pulsed.
A hum echoed.
He could feel it again—Not chakra. Not energy.Threads.
Lines of probability.
Futures not yet real.
Choices.
He reached for one—
A thin silver thread.
It shimmered.
And pulled itself to him.
A flash.
He saw it.
A boy.
Dead in an alleyway in the Hidden Mist.
Too young. Throat slit. Forgotten.
No one came to help.
A name echoed in Raien's mind.
Tetsuo.
Raien frowned.
"I don't know him."
But his heart felt heavy.
Then—He pulled the thread.
Just a little.
The image changed.
Same alley.
Same boy.
But this time—
Alive.
Bleeding. Crawling. But alive.
Someone finds him. Carries him away.
Raien opened his eyes, heart racing.
Konan looked stunned.
"What did you see?"
Raien's lips trembled.
"I changed a death."
Konan's gaze darkened.
"You interfered."
Raien stood.
"He was just a boy."
She stepped forward.
"Do you know who you saved?"
Raien blinked.
"No."
Konan turned away.
"…Tetsuo."
She paused.
"In the future—he becomes the Hidden Mist's Butcher. Kills hundreds. Sparks a clan war."
Raien froze.
"No…"
Konan turned.
"You changed his fate. Now he lives. And now—everything else will shift."
Outside the chamber—
A wind howled.
Thunder cracked.
In the distance, a scroll burned itself blank.Information rewritten.
Reality… adjusted.
Raien sat down again, pale and shaking.
"I didn't mean to—"
Konan kneeled beside him.
"You must understand. This dojutsu is not a gift. It is a curse.Every choice you touch echoes across the timeline."
Raien looked at his hand.
"…I didn't even try hard. It just happened."
Konan nodded.
"Because the third crack… lets you reshape inevitability."
Elsewhere.
Far beyond Amegakure.
A man in a white cloak opened his eyes suddenly.
He smiled.
"So… the Third Crack has begun making edits."
He walked into the rain.
"Hilarious."
Meanwhile, in the Hidden Mist—
A boy stumbled through a crowded street.
Blood still caked his shirt.
Eyes wide. Afraid.
People ignored him.
Except one.
A shinobi.
He knelt down.
"You alright, kid?"
The boy stared.
"…What's your name?"
"…Tetsuo."
The shinobi blinked.
"Tetsuo? You sure?"
The boy nodded.
The shinobi stood.
"You're supposed to be dead."
Tetsuo didn't answer.
Back in Amegakure—
Raien wandered the old corridors of Pain's archive.
His thoughts twisted.
Did he save a boy?
Or create a monster?
Was it even his choice?
He paused near a cracked mirror.
Stared into his reflection.
The left eye glowed dimly.
Then—A whisper.
A voice.
From inside.
"Touch one thread… and the whole web trembles."
Raien turned sharply.
No one.
Just his reflection.
But in the mirror—his reflection was smiling.
He wasn't.
Konan approached later.
"You should stop for now."
Raien didn't respond.
Konan handed him a scroll.
"What's this?"
"A list of timelines. Ones already affected."
Raien unrolled it.
Names. Places. Dates.
All flickering.
All uncertain.
Raien whispered,
"…I broke too much already."
Konan nodded.
"Then maybe it's time to start fixing."
Raien turned to her.
"How?"
Konan said nothing.
Instead, she looked up.
The candles flickered.
And behind her—
A seal activated on the wall.
It glowed in crimson ink.
And opened a hidden compartment.
Inside—
A scroll.
Sealed with black wax.
Raien reached for it.
As he touched it—
The wax cracked.
And suddenly—
The entire room shook.
Outside, lightning split the sky.
In the forest—
Crows scattered.
Something had been released.
Something old.
And angry.
Raien unrolled the scroll slowly.
His heart froze.
Inside—
A name.
His name.
Written in a language he didn't recognize.
And beneath it—
A drawing.
A figure with the same eye.
A prophecy written in blood:
When the Broken Eye reshapes fate, the End shall awaken to correct the error.
Raien whispered.
"…I triggered something."
Behind him—Konan whispered one word.
"…It's begun."