Morning light spilled across the rooftops of Konoha in soft gold, catching on the tiled edges and the carved faces of the Hokage Monument. The village looked peaceful. Normal.
Too normal.
We stood in front of the mission desk while Kakashi leaned against the wall like he had nowhere better to be. His orange book was tucked under one arm, and he looked almost amused.
"So," he said, "your first C-rank outside the village. Escort duty. Protect the client until the bridge is complete."
He stepped aside, revealing an older man with weathered skin and the faint smell of sake clinging to him. Tazuna. He looked unimpressed with all of us.
"This is Tazuna," Kakashi added. "Bridge builder from the Land of Waves."
Naruto puffed his chest out immediately. "Don't worry, old man. We'll crush anyone who tries anything."
Sasuke exhaled through his nose like he already regretted being here.
Hinata offered a small bow. "We'll do our best."
Shisui stood a little apart from us. Relaxed, but not really. His shoulders were loose, his expression calm, but his awareness stretched in every direction.
I stayed quiet.
Kakashi's eye shifted toward me. Not sharp. Just curious.
"You're not officially assigned," he said. "Still want to tag along?"
I nodded once. "Yeah."
I kept it simple.
It was our first mission outside the village. That alone would've been enough.
But that wasn't the real reason.
There had been too many ripples lately.
The Uchiha conflict. Rumors about the Akatsuki moving sooner than expected. Strange border activity that never quite made it into official reports.
And then everything went quiet.
No retaliation. No escalation. No visible reaction. Just calm.
I hated calm. Calm meant something was waiting.
A pressure sat behind my ribs. A whisper of dread. Like a page had been torn out of a book I thought I knew by heart.
I didn't say anything. I never did.
But Naruto noticed. Naruto always noticed.
As we walked toward the village gates, he bumped his shoulder into mine.
"You're quiet. Like… extra quiet."
"I'm just thinking."
"You always say that."
Shisui didn't turn around, but I felt his attention sharpen. I hated how perceptive he was. I hated how perceptive they both were.
The road out of Konoha was too calm. Hinata's Byakugan flickered on and off as she scanned the treeline. Sasuke's Sharingan spun lazily, more out of habit than caution. Naruto kept glancing at me. I kept glancing at the puddle on the road.
I opened my mouth to warn them.
The puddle exploded.
Not with chains. Not with the Demon Brothers.
Three masked rogue ninja shot out of the water, blades flashing. Their movements were sharp and coordinated. Too sharp.
Shisui moved first. He vanished and reappeared in a blur, intercepting the closest attacker with a single precise strike to the throat. The body dropped before it fully understood what happened.
Hinata's Byakugan flared bright.
"Two more. Left and right."
Her voice was steady. Focused.
I watched the attackers' stances. Not Kirigakure hunters. Not mercenaries I recognized.
Unaligned. That wasn't how this mission was supposed to unfold.
Naruto rushed the left attacker, reckless but fast. Sasuke cut off the right with a sharp spinning kick that forced the masked shinobi back a step.
The third came straight for me.
I met him halfway.
Lightning cracked across my palm. Not a full Chidori. Just enough. The air split with a sharp snap as I drove the current forward. He convulsed mid-lunge and stumbled. I followed through with a water-coated palm strike that slammed him into the dirt.
Hinata slipped behind Naruto and redirected a blade aimed at his ribs with a gentle fist strike that shattered the attacker's chakra flow.
Naruto blinked at her. "Whoa. Thanks, Hinata."
She flushed but didn't falter.
Within seconds it was over.
The remaining attacker tried to retreat. Shisui didn't give him the chance.
Silence settled over the road
Too fast. Too clean.
Shisui knelt and removed one of the masks. He studied the face beneath it for a moment.
"These aren't bandits," he murmured. "They're trained."
Naruto looked at me again.
"You felt something before this, didn't you?"
I didn't answer.
Because yes.
I had.
Shisui stood and studied me.
"We'll talk later," he said quietly. "Just don't carry it alone."
I looked away. I already was.
Shisui signaled for us to move on. Tazuna was pale but steady. Naruto kept glancing back in the direction of the bodies. Sasuke wiped blood from his knuckles. Hinata stayed close to the client.
I walked a few steps behind them, the pressure in my chest tightening.
Something was wrong.
I formed a shadow clone with a flicker of chakra and sent it back down the road.
By the time we reached the bridge, the fog had thickened into something oppressive. It swallowed sound. It swallowed distance. It swallowed certainty.
Then the clone dispelled.
The memory hit me like cold water.
The bodies were gone.
All three.
No drag marks. No blood trail. No chakra residue.
Just empty dirt where corpses should have been.
My breath caught.
Hinata's Byakugan flared again. "Two presences," she whispered. Then her tone shifted. "No… three."
The air changed.
A flicker of movement caught my eye. Haku had shifted on his perch, posture tightening.
Then something massive slammed into the bridge.
A sword, enormous and brutal, embedded itself in the wood with a deep, echoing thud.
A man appeared standing on its hilt.
Bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face. Zabuza.
But the cloak wasn't right. Black fabric. Red clouds. My pulse started hammering in my ears.
No.
This isn't how this goes.
Kurama stirred inside me, a low rumble that vibrated through my bones.
"That one reeks of slaughter."
Another figure rose from the water itself. Tall. Blue-gray skin. Predatory grin. A bandaged sword resting against his shoulder, pulsing faintly like it was alive.
Kisame.
The world tilted slightly beneath my feet.
I changed something. The thought wasn't loud. It wasn't dramatic.
It was cold.
Shisui's voice was low, steady.
"Everyone… prepare yourselves."
I swallowed.
This wasn't canon anymore.
This was consequence.