"A forge does not speak to its smith… unless it remembers him."
[Scene: Outskirts of Tanigakure — Two Weeks Later]
The nights had grown colder, the war drums quieter but more distant.Taiki Akinatsu sat before a newly built forge — one he'd made with his own hands beside a riverbank. It was modest, lined with local stone and a few rare minerals scavenged from ruins nearby.
The fire burned bright orange, yet something beneath it pulsed faintly blue — the same hue that had flared during his forging of Hiro's sword.
Taiki set down a half-shaped blade, wiping soot from his brow.He stared into the flame, watching the metal shimmer like a living eye.
"You've grown quiet lately…" he murmured, as though speaking to an old friend.
The System's usual hum responded, faintly delayed:
[Soulforge: Tier II – Active.]Emotional Resonance Stabilized. Mana Flow: Steady.Awaiting input…
But then—something new.A low tone echoed behind the mechanical voice, like two signals overlapping.
[—Forged flame recognizes its heir.]
Taiki froze. "...That wasn't the System."
The forge flared. The coals pulsed, rising and falling like a heartbeat. And then — faint whispers filled the air, layered voices in languages he did not know, but somehow understood.
"A world of chakra… yet the fire is the same.""He remembers the hammer's rhythm.""Descendant of the Divine Flame…"
The air trembled.Runes—foreign and ancient—appeared in the smoke, circling above the forge like constellations.
Taiki stepped back, his eyes narrowing. "Show yourself."
[Analyzing… Unknown Energy Detected.]Classification: Extrarealmic Residue.Warning: Contact may alter mental stability.
Taiki scoffed. "System, stability is a luxury I left behind with my youth."
He reached toward the fire.The instant his fingers grazed the heat, his consciousness snapped into darkness.
[Scene: The Forge Between Worlds]
He was standing in a vast void — endless, but not empty. Countless forges hung in the distance like stars, each one burning with a different color: white, green, crimson, gold.
Every flame hummed with voices — arguing, teaching, singing. The sound of creation.
Before him stood a figure of pure ember and iron.Its face was hidden beneath a blacksmith's mask — cracked, ancient.
"You hear us now," the figure said, voice both male and female."The forges that remember the First Flame."
Taiki stared, breath unsteady. "Who… are you?"
"You carry its echo — the same flame that once burned in the Age of Origin. When worlds were still molten, and gods forged their own fates."
The entity extended its molten hand. Within it shimmered a faint rune, shaped like a spiral within a hammer.
"Your soul was tempered in solitude, your craft in loss. That is why the Flame chose you — the True Blacksmith. The bridge between forges, between worlds."
Taiki's hand clenched unconsciously. "Bridge between… worlds?"
"Every smith that has ever sought truth hears the Flame's voice.You are merely the first to listen."
The forges around him brightened, and within them, faint shadows appeared — other blacksmiths, working in silence. Some he recognized from tales he'd heard as a boy — mythical crafters who made relics that shaped history.
And then he saw something impossible.A massive forge surrounded by floating swords, each humming with spiritual pressure that made his soul ache.And another forge — dark, serpentine — inscribing symbols across massive, cursed blades.And yet another — calm and golden — shaping a spear of divine light.
"Different worlds. Different laws. One Flame."
Taiki whispered, almost reverently, "So… there truly are others like me."
The entity nodded slowly.
"But you are still untempered.The Flame will test you — not in creation, but in restraint.For the truest smith is not one who forges endlessly… but one who knows what should never be forged."
The world of forges began to dim.
"Remember, Taiki Akinatsu.The Flame watches.The hammer remembers."
[Scene: Back at the River Forge — Reality Returns]
Taiki gasped awake, his palm still hovering over the fire. His body trembled — not from heat, but from the weight of what he had seen.
[New Trait Acquired: "Echo of the Origin Flame."]Your forge is now attuned to interdimensional resonance.Forged items may carry echoes of other realms.
Taiki exhaled slowly, his heart racing. "Other realms… So it wasn't madness after all."
He looked at the unfinished sword glowing faintly on the anvil.Within its steel was a single, faint rune — one that had not been there before.
He smiled faintly. "You left your mark, didn't you, old flame?"
The fire flickered in answer, and for a brief moment, he thought he heard a chuckle — deep, ancient, proud.
[Scene: Far Away — Hidden Village of the Leaf]
In another place, within a hidden vault beneath Konoha, an ancient relic stirred.The dormant remains of an old blade — the First Kusanagi — shimmered faintly, a rune glowing deep within its fractured core.
A whisper escaped it.
"He's awakened again…"
End of Chapter 6 – The Forge's Voice