A crack in the sky.
Lightning without sound.
The clouds above the Land of Rivers began spiraling.
Not wind.Not storm.
Something else.
Raien stepped forward.
His broken eye burned like fire now.
Neji, Lee, and Tenten stood behind him, frozen.
Even their chakra trembled.
The sky screamed.
And from that wound in reality, it descended—
The Entity.
Not a man.Not a beast.
A cloak of writhing black tendrils.
Eyes that didn't blink.Didn't shine.Didn't exist.
Only watched.
Raien whispered, "You followed me…"
The Entity hovered.
Its presence crushed the air.
Grass died around it.
Even time staggered.
Tenten tried to move—She fell to her knees, bleeding from the nose.
Lee growled. "What… is that?"
Raien's voice cracked. "Balance. Correction."
He turned to them.Fast. Serious.
"Don't move. Don't speak. And whatever happens, don't interfere."
The Entity extended one finger.
It pointed.
Right at—
Neji.
Raien's heart dropped.
He stepped between them.
"That death was mine to rewrite."
The Entity said nothing.
But the tendrils moved.
The wind bent sideways.
And then—
Boom.
Raien was thrown back.
Crashing through stone.
His ribs cracked.
But he stood.
He had to.
The Entity floated forward.
Raien's eye glowed.
Blood leaked down his cheek.
"I won't let you touch him."
The Entity paused.
Then… it turned.
To Lee.
Raien blinked.
What?
Then he saw it.
A thread.Thin.Black.Running from the Entity—
Into Lee's spine.
Raien's breath caught.
"No…"
The correction already started.
Lee's face shifted.
For a split second—Not anger. Not fear.
Something wrong.
Something cold.
Neji noticed it too.
"Lee?"
Lee twitched.
He turned—And punched.
Neji barely dodged.
"Lee!?"
Lee didn't respond.
He charged again.
This time faster. Stronger.
Raien shouted, "He's being controlled!"
Tenten screamed, "What the hell is happening!?"
Raien rushed between them.
Lee's fist met his palm.
Crack.
Bone split.
But Raien didn't budge.
His eye glowed harder.
A seal burned into the ground beneath him.
The Entity screeched.
Raien threw Lee back—Hard—but gentle.
"Sleep."
A whisper.A command.A ripple of red light.
Lee collapsed.Breathing.Alive.
Raien turned.
Faced the Entity again.
"I know what you want."
Silence.
Raien's bleeding eye twitched.
"You want to restore the timeline. Fix the mistake. Reset everything."
He took a step forward.
"I'm not letting you."
Another.
"I'm not afraid of correction."
Another.
"I am the mistake that keeps walking."
His hands formed a seal.
But it wasn't chakra.
It was something else.
Reality-binding.
The air shimmered.
The Entity shrieked.
A surge of black tendrils lashed out.
Raien stepped into them.
His coat ripped.His skin burned.
He screamed.
But didn't fall.
Behind him, Neji shouted, "RAIEN!"
Tenten was pulling Lee to safety.
Raien roared—
And activated the Third Fracture.
CRACK.
His broken eye split again.
Now glowing red-gold.
The world shook.
The Entity reeled.
The sky closed.
Reality screamed.
And then—
Boom.
A blast of red-white light.
The Entity vanished.
Gone.
Not dead.
Just delayed.
Raien collapsed to one knee.
His hands trembling.
His eye bleeding.
But he smiled.
He won.
This round.
Silence returned.
The trees swayed gently again.
Lee began to wake.
Groggy. Confused.
Neji approached Raien.
"You… you fought that thing off?"
Raien didn't respond.
He was staring at his hand.
At the glowing fracture.
Neji knelt beside him.
"What is that thing?"
Raien whispered, "A reminder."
"A reminder of what?"
Raien looked up.
Of pain.
Of rewriting fate.
Of breaking reality just to save one life.
He didn't say that.
He only said—
"…That I'm still being watched."
That night.
Far away.
A woman stood before a great scroll.
She was blindfolded.
Chakra danced around her.
A raven perched on her shoulder.
She opened her mouth and whispered—
"Thread detected."
A second voice answered.
Mechanical. Hollow.
"Delay acknowledged. Prepare next sequence."
The woman nodded.
Pulled out a dagger.
Carved a symbol into her palm.
A triangle inside a shattered circle.
The mark of the Thread Keepers.
Then she whispered:
"The fracture spreads."