The valley of the Kaguro ruins still echoed with whispers of their lost glory. The battle against the guardian had left Raizen's body battered, but his spirit burned fiercer than ever. His eyes, still bleeding faintly from overuse of his Eternal Mangekyō, glowed with restless hunger.
He stood before the shattered altar, where fragments of obsidian tablets lay scattered. On them, he had begun to piece together the truth of the Kaguro clan's downfall. Their demise was not just the work of the Ōtsutsuki—there was something deeper. Something they themselves had bound to their bloodline.
---
Raizen (breathing heavily):
"So this is the truth… Kaguro weren't merely destroyed. They were betrayed… sacrificed to a greater curse."
From behind him, the monk from earlier reappeared, his face pale in the moonlight.
Monk:
"You've seen it, haven't you? The Kaguro were powerful, too powerful. Their hunger for balance threatened even the Ōtsutsuki… but it was their own pact with forbidden power that sealed their fate."
Raizen (snapping):
"What pact?"
The monk raised his hand, and black flame-like chakra flickered in his palm.
Monk:
"They sought strength from something beyond chakra itself. A primordial void that predates even the Sage of Six Paths. They were given great power, but at the cost of their existence. Their blood became cursed… their descendants hunted, erased."
Raizen's heart pounded. His own pursuit of strength… was it echoing the same path?
---
The scene shifted. Raizen touched the altar, and visions flooded his mind. He saw the final moments of the Kaguro: warriors clad in obsidian armor clashing against godlike Ōtsutsuki in a cataclysmic battle that split mountains and boiled seas. Yet, amidst the chaos, the Kaguro's own leader raised a hand—not against the enemy, but against his kin. He offered them as sacrifice to the void.
---
Raizen (clenching his fists, trembling):
"To defeat gods, they turned into monsters themselves…"
The vision faded. He fell to his knees, blood dripping from his eyes as the truth overwhelmed him.
Raizen (whispering):
"…If this is the price of power, then what am I becoming?"
The monk knelt beside him, his voice heavy but calm.
Monk:
"Perhaps… you are destined to finish what the Kaguro could not. But beware, Uchiha. The more you walk this path, the closer you come to their curse."
Raizen rose slowly, his expression hardening.
Raizen (coldly):
"Curse or not… I will take it. If it means I can stand against the Ōtsutsuki… against fate itself."
And with that, Raizen's journey deepened—not only into the mysteries of the world but into the darkness of his own soul.
The altar behind him cracked, and for a moment, a pair of void-like eyes blinked open within the stone, watching him.
---
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