The silence after the retreat felt heavy, charged with lingering ozone and the metallic tang of blood. My limbs trembled as I pushed myself upright, every muscle screaming protest. Across the clearing, Yumi knelt beside Tetsu. Her hands glowed soft green as she pressed them against a nasty gash on his forearm – courtesy of Hisa's last, desperate swipe. Tetsu's Sharingan had finally deactivated, leaving his dark eyes hollow with exhaustion, but his jaw was set tight. He gave a curt nod when Yumi murmured something about clean bone.
"Status?" Anko's voice cut through the quiet, sharp but lacking its usual bite. She scanned us, hawk-like, assessing the damage. Her own sleeve was torn, revealing a shallow cut, but she ignored it.
"Minor chakra depletion, sensei," Yumi reported softly, her voice steady despite the faint tremor in her healing hands. "Tetsu-kun needs stitches. Ryo-kun..." She glanced at me, concern flickering in her emerald eyes. "...pushed far beyond his limit."
I managed a weak grin, leaning heavily against a scorched tree trunk. "Just... catching my breath." The lie tasted like ash. My chakra coils felt scraped raw, and the Otsutsuki Dojutsu behind my eyelids pulsed with a dull, insistent ache. Using that much raw lightning... it had felt exhilarating, terrifying, like holding a star in my hands. Now it just felt like I'd been run over by a stampede of summoning bulls.
Anko snorted, tossing me a soldier pill. "Don't get cocky, brat. That stunt nearly cooked you from the inside out." Her gaze lingered on the charred path my lightning blade had carved through the forest canopy, then flicked to the smoldering crater where Roku had been pinned. A flicker of something unreadable – grudging respect? – passed through her eyes before the familiar sternness returned. "Pack up. We move in five."
Tetsu winced as Yumi tightened the bandage around his forearm. "Their coordination... it was unlike anything I've faced," he muttered, his voice rough. His Sharingan might be dormant, but the analytical intensity remained. "They retreated too cleanly. This felt like reconnaissance, not an elimination attempt." The implication hung heavy – stronger opponents, deeper shadows, were watching.
Yumi finished her work, her hands still faintly glowing as she wiped blood from her cheek. "Aya-san... her wind techniques weren't just destructive," she murmured, her brow furrowed in thought. "They carried... whispers. Fragments of chakra signatures I didn't recognize." She met my exhausted gaze. "Ryo-kun, that lightning... it resonated strangely with something else out there. Something... ancient." The forest seemed to hold its breath around her words, the rustling leaves suddenly sounding like hushed secrets.
Anko's jaw tightened. "Ancient trouble is our trouble." She scanned the darkened woods, her posture coiled like a spring. "Move out. Double-time. Konoha's walls won't feel safe tonight." As we stumbled after her, the weight of Yumi's revelation settled deeper than my exhaustion. That raw power I'd unleashed hadn't just hurt Roku; it had been a beacon. And something far older, far hungrier than missing-nin, had taken notice. The shadows weren't just retreating; they were gathering.
Tetsu matched my limping pace, his voice low. "Your lightning... it wasn't just chakra." His dark eyes held mine, sharp despite the fatigue. "It felt like... defiance." He didn't say it, but I heard the unspoken question: What else are you hiding?
Yumi drifted closer, her healing glow faintly illuminating the path. "The whispers... they weren't human, Ryo-kun." Her voice trembled, not with fear, but with a healer's dread of wounds she couldn't mend. "Like wind carving stone over centuries." She touched my arm lightly, her chakra cool against my frayed nerves. "It's inside you now, isn't it? That... resonance?"
Before I could answer, Anko hissed, "Down!"
We hit the dirt as a kunai whistled overhead, embedding itself in a tree trunk with a venomous thunk. Not silver-haired Aya's work—this blade was obsidian-black, etched with spirals that seemed to drink the moonlight.
Anko rose slowly, her own kunai drawn. "Show yourself, scavenger!" Her voice cut through the silence like a whip.
From the treetops, a figure dropped soundlessly. Tall, draped in tattered grey robes that blurred his outline, he moved with eerie, disjointed grace. His face was hidden beneath a woven reed mask, but his eyes—pale, pupil-less voids—locked onto mine.
"Otsutsuki," he rasped, the word dry as dead leaves. "Little spark. You rang the bell." His head tilted, studying me like a specimen. "The Keeper hears."
Anko stepped between us, her stance wide and lethal. "You're not taking him."
The masked figure chuckled, a sound like stones grinding. "Not today. Today... is a warning." He raised a hand, and the forest floor trembled. Roots snaked upward, twisting into thorned tendrils that lashed toward us—not with chakra, but with something older, something that smelled of deep earth and decay.
Anko moved like liquid fire, kunai flashing as she severed the roots. "Cover Ryo!" she barked. Tetsu was already beside me, Sharingan flaring back to life despite his exhaustion. He tracked the tendrils' erratic paths, deflecting them with precise shuriken throws. Yumi pressed close, her healing glow intensifying as she scanned for weaknesses in the unnatural growth.
The Keeper's void-like eyes never left mine. "Your borrowed power screams into the silence, little spark," he rasped. "The Kaguya sleeps... but her dreams stir." One thorned root shot past Anko's guard, aiming for my chest. Instinct flared—the Otsutsuki Dojutsu burned behind my eyelids. I didn't have chakra for lightning, but raw defiance surged. I shoved outward with my will alone. The root shattered inches from my skin, exploding into dust that stung my eyes.
The Keeper recoiled, a hiss escaping his mask. "Defiance... yes. That will make the harvest sweeter." He dissolved like smoke, his tattered robes collapsing onto the forest floor. The unnatural roots withered instantly, leaving only splintered wood and the reek of damp stone.
Silence crashed back, heavier than before. Anko kicked the empty robes, her face grim. "Kaguya's dreams?" She spat the name like poison. "Fanatics crawling out of the woodwork." Her gaze snapped to me, sharp as a kunai. "What did you do, brat?"
My throat felt raw. "The lightning... it felt like... screaming." The Otsutsuki power still hummed beneath my skin, a trapped storm. "Like I tore a hole."
Tetsu's Sharingan flickered, analyzing the dust where the root shattered. "Not chakra," he stated flatly. "That was willpower. Pure defiance." He looked at me, his usual stoicism fractured by disbelief. "You pushed back reality?"
Yumi knelt, pressing trembling fingers to the withered root fragments. Her healing glow sputtered, repelled. "It's... hollow," she whispered, terror edging her voice. "Not just dead. Empty. Like something sucked the life out and left... nothing." She shuddered. "The Keeper called it a harvest."