The ruined nation still whispered of agony. Broken walls jutted like bones, streets drowned in ash, and the wind carried faint voices—cries of the people who once lived here. Raizen stood in silence, his hand brushing across a cracked stone tablet half-buried in rubble. Symbols… strange and ancient, yet faintly familiar.
He clenched his fist.
> Why does this place feel like a wound carved into me?
Beside him, the monk walked slowly, his prayer beads clinking softly. His usually calm gaze lingered on the remnants of a collapsed tower.
"Raizen," he murmured, "these lands… they don't just carry destruction. They carry betrayal."
Raizen's jaw tightened. He turned sharply. "What do you mean?"
The monk placed a hand against the stone tablet. Strange chakra rippled through the air, an echo of a battle fought centuries ago. "This ruin is not simply the aftermath of war. It is the mark of a power so overwhelming… it erased not only stone and steel, but memory itself. These are scars of you."
The words hit like a kunai to the chest.
Raizen staggered. Images flickered in his mind—brief flashes. Flames engulfing villages. The roar of a thousand shinobi. A scream in the dark. Then, a figure cloaked in golden light, eyes shimmering with divine majesty. And beyond that figure… a shadow. A figure wreathed in crimson threads, exuding the will of something greater.
Raizen's hand trembled. "That… that wasn't me."
But deep down, he knew part of it was.
---
The Forgotten Decree
The monk turned, voice heavy. "Long ago, the Five Nations came together for one purpose: to end you."
The words carved themselves into the silence.
Raizen's eyes widened.
"They decreed your death," the monk continued. "They declared the Uchiha line cursed, and in their fear, they allied against you. They saw the power you carried—power that rivaled the heavens. And in their fear, they marked you as the enemy."
"No…" Raizen's voice cracked. "That doesn't make sense. The Five Nations wouldn't unite so easily. Not without reason."
The monk's gaze darkened. "There was a reason. A shadow behind their decision. A will that whispered into their ears."
"Shibai."
The name tasted like poison.
---
The Apostle of Shibai
The ruins groaned as if they remembered. Raizen saw it—flashes of his battle. The apostle of Shibai, cloaked in threads of blood and light, its mere presence warping the battlefield. His past self had fought it, his chakra tearing through mountains, skies splitting under his fury.
The apostle had called him something.
"Key of the Forgotten Path."
The words still echoed.
The monk placed a hand on Raizen's shoulder. "You fought Shibai's apostle once. You thought you destroyed it. And perhaps you did. But victory was not enough. Its whispers lingered. They pushed the Nations to fear you, to decree your end."
Raizen's hands shook, nails biting into his palms. The fragments of memory bled together: him standing victorious, drenched in blood, staring at corpses of an army… then the decision.
The forbidden jutsu.
---
The Erasure
He remembered now. The choice.
The Five Nations, allied in hatred. The decree to slaughter him and the Uchiha. Betrayal from those he once fought beside. And in his rage, his despair, he unleashed it: the jutsu of oblivion.
The sky split. A dome of black light spread, swallowing villages, mountains, entire nations. In its wake—silence. No nations. No memory of their existence.
And then… nothing.
He erased not only the Nations, but his own sin. His memory, their memory, all of it buried beneath silence.
---
The Return of the Shadow
Raizen fell to his knees, clutching his head. "I… I did this…"
The monk's eyes softened with sorrow. "And yet, Raizen, this is not where the story ends. You may have erased the Nations, but the shadow that guided them—Shibai's will—remains. Perhaps stronger than ever."
As if answering the monk's words, the ruins trembled.
From beneath the earth, chakra surged. A low, resonant hum filled the air. Cracks spread through the broken streets as something stirred below—something ancient, something waiting.
Raizen's eyes flared, tomoe spinning within them.
A voice seeped into his mind, one that did not belong to him.
"The path cannot be erased. Only delayed. We will meet again, Key of the Forgotten Path."
Raizen's breath caught. His blood chilled. The apostle's voice. Still alive. Still watching.
The monk's grip tightened on his beads. "Raizen… this was not just destruction. This was sealing. You buried the past, but the past claws back."
---
The Weight of Truth
The silence returned, heavy and suffocating. Raizen stood, his fists trembling. The truth felt unbearable, but he could not deny it anymore.
He destroyed the Five Nations.
He erased his own memories.
But Shibai's will survived.
And now, as the ruins stirred, the echoes of that forgotten blood threatened to awaken once more.
Raizen turned his gaze toward the horizon, where the ruins stretched endlessly. His voice was quiet, but sharp with resolve.
"Then let the past rise. This time… I will not run from it."
The monk closed his eyes. "And perhaps, Raizen, that is why fate has led us here. Not to uncover history… but to finish it."
--
,