The Hokage's office was quiet except for the ticking of an old clock and the rustle of papers. Outside, Konoha basked in the orange glow of late afternoon, villagers going about their lives unaware of the unseen storm gathering beyond their borders.
Naruto stood at the window, arms crossed, his eyes tracing the distant forests. The unease that had been gnawing at him since morning refused to fade.
Sasuke's voice cut through the silence. "You felt it too."
Naruto nodded slowly. "Yeah. A flicker of chakra… old, but not like anything we've sensed since the war. For a second, I thought I was imagining it."
Sasuke stepped into the room, his lone Sharingan glinting faintly beneath his bangs. "You weren't. It was faint, but the signature was… unsettling. It carried an echo. Like a name you should know but can't remember."
Naruto turned to face him, frowning. "We've faced gods, Otsutsuki, even beings beyond this world. But this… this feels different. Almost like a shadow out of place in its own time."
---
An Unseen Absence
They spread old maps across Naruto's desk, tracing the direction of the disturbance. Sasuke's finger paused over an unmarked region—scars on the landscape where forgotten nations once stood. But their records showed nothing, only blank spaces where history should have been.
Sasuke tapped the map. "This area… it's wrong. I remember nothing about it, and that itself feels suspicious."
Naruto scratched his head. "You think someone erased records? Even memories?"
Sasuke's gaze was sharp. "Possibly. But why would anyone go to such lengths?"
In the silence that followed, neither of them realized that the missing history was Raizen's doing—or that the apostles of Shibai still moved in the shadows.
---
A Trail of Fragments
"Let's send a scouting team," Naruto suggested. "Shikamaru can—"
"No." Sasuke's interruption was immediate. "This isn't something for the others. If the chakra we sensed is truly ancient… sending anyone else would just be risking lives."
Naruto met his eyes and nodded. "Then it's us. Just like old times."
As they prepared to leave, Naruto's fingers brushed over a drawer—inside, a tattered scarf Itachi had once left during a mission was stored. He paused for a moment, though he didn't know why the scarf made him feel a strange sense of longing. Somewhere, deep down, echoes of erased memories tried to resurface.
---
Shadows Watching
Far beyond the walls of Konoha, two masked apostles observed the Leaf through a hidden seal.
"The Hokage and the last Uchiha are moving," one said, voice laced with satisfaction.
"They are blind," the other replied. "They don't remember the old wars, nor the man who once stood against Shibai. Their ignorance will guide them into the net we've prepared."
The first apostle's fingers traced strange runes in the air. "And Raizen? His presence threatens the balance. He remembers fragments even after erasing the world. If he joins with them…"
The second's tone hardened. "Then Shibai himself will ensure they never leave the ruins alive."
---
Departure
Night fell over Konoha as Naruto and Sasuke leapt into the darkness, chakra flaring faintly under the moon. The village lights faded behind them, replaced by the whisper of wind through trees.
Naruto grinned faintly, though the tension in his shoulders betrayed him. "Feels weird sneaking out like this again."
Sasuke didn't smile. "Stay sharp. Whatever's out there… it's waited decades to move."
---
Meanwhile: Raizen
Far away, Raizen paused on a cliff overlooking the shattered remnants of a once-great nation. Dust swirled around his boots. In the crumbled ruins below, a faint pulse of foreign chakra resonated—the same trace Naruto and Sasuke had sensed.
He felt the pull of a memory he couldn't fully recover, a battle long ago against Shibai's apostle, the moment before everything unraveled. His hand tightened on his sword's hilt.
> "The world thinks you're forgotten, Itachi… but I'll uncover the truth, no matter what it costs."
---
A Converging Fate
As the three threads—Naruto and Sasuke's pursuit, the apostles' schemes, and Raizen's search—moved closer together, the land itself seemed to hold its breath. The stars above glittered like distant witnesses to a history none of them could fully recall.
Somewhere, far beyond even the apostles' sight, a ripple of power stirred. Shibai's will, long dormant, twitched awake.
And in Konoha's archives, a single forgotten scroll glowed faintly—its seal cracking, whispering the name of a man the world had been forced to forget: Raizen Uchiha.
---