Hiruzen stood at the entrance of the library, his weathered fingers wrapped around his pipe, the faint glow of embers flickering with each inhale. He exhaled slowly, sending wisps of smoke curling into the air, blending with the dim lighting of the room.
Inside, Kakashi and Shikaku moved methodically, their sharp eyes scanning every inch of the area for clues. They checked the floors, the walls, even the shelves—yet nothing stood out. No signs of forced entry. No chakra residue that would indicate a fight or a hasty retreat.
Had it been a false alarm? A faulty sensor seal misfiring?
Maybe.
But this was the second unexplained breach in just two weeks. Too much of a coincidence for Hiruzen's liking. Were the two events connected? And if so—what were they dealing with?
From the far end of the library, Hando and Kaito were still bickering, their voices low but sharp, filled with frustration. They stood before an ornate cabinet, its surface gleaming under the candlelight, carved with intricate Uzumaki sealing patterns.
Inside lay the most sacred and powerful techniques of the Namikaze and Uzumaki Clans. Ancient scrolls of fuinjutsu and ninjutsu, some so dangerous they had been forbidden—like the Reaper Death Seal, the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style. Others held Minato's legacy, including the Rasengan and the Flying Thunder God Technique.
The cabinet was impenetrable, sealed by blood-bound barriers that only the clan heads—Minato and Kushina—could bypass. But they were far away, attending a political summit in the Fire Capital with their two younger children.
So how had someone gotten in?
Hiruzen stepped further into the room, his gaze drifting to the long wooden table near the center. Scrolls and books lay scattered across its surface, some opened, others stacked neatly. A wealth of knowledge, free for the taking.
And yet... nothing had been stolen.
Why?
Hiruzen frowned, placing a hand on the back of one of the chairs. What kind of thief goes through all the trouble to infiltrate one of the most secure locations in the compound—only to leave empty-handed?
Shikaku's voice pulled him from his thoughts.
"So, Shikaku, any leads?" Hiruzen asked, though he already knew the answer.
Shikaku let out a long, tired sigh, his usual bored tone making it clear he wasn't optimistic.
"There's nothing to go on."
He gestured lazily at the room, his half-lidded gaze sweeping across it.
"No lingering chakra signature, nothing we can trace—just this low hum of... something. Some unknown energy, faint but everywhere. Whoever was here didn't leave so much as a footprint. No fingerprints, no disturbances. It's as if a ghost passed through the room."
Hiruzen's eyes flickered with intrigue. Unknown energy?
Shikaku continued, absentmindedly twirling the toothpick between his teeth.
"The windows? Shut tight. Laced with trigger seals. Untouched. The doors? Iron-wrought, only open with two keys."
He pointed toward Hando and Kaito, who acted as the temporary clan heads in Minato and Kushina's absence.
"No vents. No signs of Earth Release tunneling. And even if someone tried, the security seals make it impossible. Troublesome..." Shikaku ran a hand through his dark, spiky hair before sighing again. "I've got nothing, Hokage."
Hando stormed over, his frustration bubbling over.
"Aren't the Nara supposed to be geniuses?" he snapped. "What about the seals that were destroyed?"
He jabbed a finger toward the cabinet, his pale blue eyes burning with irritation.
Shikaku barely reacted. Instead, he lifted an eyebrow, tilting his head slightly.
"And yet... the cabinet wasn't opened, was it?"
Hando froze, his jaw tightening.
Shikaku leaned back lazily, taking another slow chew on his toothpick, his voice annoyingly calm.
"Like I said—no evidence that those scrolls were touched. The blood seals are still intact."
Silence followed.
For all the chaos and suspicion in the air, the truth remained the same.
Someone had broken in. But nothing had been taken.
And that was perhaps the most troublesome part of all.
✨🟣🔵🟢🟡🔴🟠✨
The Third Hokage sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair while drumming his fingers against the wooden surface in contemplation. A thin wisp of smoke curled from his pipe, the embers glowing faintly in the dim morning light.
Across the office, Kakashi stood with his usual slouch, one hand tucked into his pocket, the other holding his ever-present orange book. He wasn't fooling anyone. The subtle shift of his one visible eye proved he was paying attention.
Beside him, Shikaku Nara sat in a chair, chewing lazily on a toothpick, one eye cracked open while the other remained shut. It was too damn early for mysteries.
It had been nearly twelve hours since the incident, yet they were still no closer to an answer.
Hiruzen exhaled deeply. Something wasn't right. The first bizarre event—a severed arm unlike anything they'd ever seen—was disturbing enough. But now, a ghost haunting a tower near the house of the first suspect? The timing was too convenient.
He leaned forward, voice low but firm.
"Tell me, Kakashi. Don't you think it's strange that a severed arm of unknown origin is followed up by an incident involving an unidentified intruder?"
Kakashi's visible eye stretched slightly, and for once, his book lowered just an inch.
"Hokage... you think—"
"It's possible." Hiruzen cut him off. "Nothing was taken from the tower, at least as far as we know. There were no reports of foreign spies in the village. This leads me to one conclusion..."
Shikaku finally opened both eyes, his sharp gaze settling on the Hokage. "You suspect Naruto."
Hiruzen sighed, rubbing a hand down his weathered face. "Most likely. What happened in the forest with that boy left me uneasy, and I have reason to believe he wasn't completely honest with us."
Kakashi snapped his book shut. "But Hokage-sama, you confirmed the boy didn't lie. Even when I tailed him, I found nothing out of the ordinary. He's nothing special."
Hiruzen's lips curled into a grim smile. "And what if he wants you to believe that?"
Kakashi stiffened slightly.
"The entire clan believes he's a waste of space. His own family barely acknowledges him—"
"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, that's not—"
SLAM.
Hiruzen's fist struck the desk, rattling the ink pot and sending a scroll rolling toward the edge.
"Don't." His voice was sharp. "Don't defend your sensei, Kakashi. The boy has been alone for most of his life. He's been pushed into a corner, ignored, neglected, and left with only a caretaker while his parents focus on their other children. So don't try to tell me that he hasn't been cast aside."
The silence in the room was heavy.
A knock at the door broke the tension.
Hiruzen inhaled slowly, composing himself. "Come in."
The door creaked open, and a brunette woman wearing glasses stepped in. She wore a crisp white lab coat over a deep blue blouse and a burgundy pencil skirt, her posture tense as she approached the desk. In her arms was a thick, sealed scroll.
She adjusted her glasses. "Apologies for the delay, Lord Hokage. The analysis is complete."
Hiruzen nodded, waving her forward. "Hinaka, I trust you followed my instructions?"
"Yes. As per your request, all blood samples and data copies have been destroyed. Only this original report remains."
"Good," Hiruzen murmured, eyeing the scroll. "Now, tell me what you've found."
Hinaka hesitated. Then, with a slow, measured breath, she placed the scroll on the desk.
Her expression was tight, as if she had seen something that refused to be understood.
"To be blunt, Lord Hokage... this thing shouldn't exist."
The room tensed.
Even Kakashi, who had returned to his book, stopped flipping pages.
"Explain," Hiruzen ordered.
Hinaka pulled a chakra-infused scalpel from her pouch and set it on the desk. The blade gleamed under the sunlight.
"We tried to dissect it using conventional means—blades, fire release, even chakra-enhanced scalpels. Nothing worked. The tissue wouldn't separate. Even the decayed cells remained preserved, as if frozen in time."
Hiruzen frowned, his pipe momentarily forgotten. "Preserved? As in immortal?"
She shook her head. "Not quite. The cells aren't regenerating, but they refuse to decay. It's like they exist in a state of suspension."
Shikaku hummed, sitting forward slightly. "That shouldn't be possible. Even reanimated corpses under Edo Tensei eventually degrade."
Hinaka nodded. "And yet, here it is—a severed arm that refuses to rot, yet also does not heal."
She unrolled a chakra parchment covered in complex sealing diagrams.
"We conducted multiple sensory scans. It doesn't just have an unusual chakra signature—it has none."
Hiruzen's brow furrowed. "None?"
"None. No life force. No residual energy. No traceable essence."
Kakashi leaned forward slightly. "So... it's just dead tissue?"
Hinaka hesitated, then shook her head. "No. It's something else. Something... outside our understanding of biology and chakra."
She tapped the center of the parchment, activating an ink-based projection of the arm's internal structure.
The image flickered, revealing a cross-section of bones, muscles, and something... impossible.
Hiruzen's eyes darkened. "What am I looking at?"
Hinaka licked her lips before answering.
"Lord Hokage, this arm wasn't just powerful because of its physical strength. It was powered by something else—something foreign. There are traces of an energy we've never encountered before. Something beyond chakra."
Shikaku chewed thoughtfully on his toothpick. "Are you saying it's a new type of energy?"
"Perhaps," Hinaka admitted. "But it doesn't function like natural energy. It's denser—almost as if it was... holding reality together in a way we don't understand."
She placed both hands on the desk and leaned forward.
"And the craziest part?"
The room was silent.
"The energy?" she whispered. "It didn't come from the arm itself."
Silence.
Hiruzen's fingers tightened around his pipe. "Then where did it come from?"
Hinaka swallowed. "The arm... was merely a conduit."
A pause.
And then:
"Something was using it. Powering it. And whatever it was... it's not from this world."