I could hear my own heartbeat louder than the waves beneath the bridge. Slow at first. Controlled. I forced my breathing into rhythm.
Two enemies in Akatsuki cloaks.
That alone confirmed it.
The timeline had shifted.
Zabuza stood balanced on the massive blade embedded in the bridge, mist curling around him like it obeyed. Beside him, rising from the water with lazy confidence, was Kisame.
His chakra hit me like a physical thing.
Heavy. Hungry.
Naruto stepped forward instinctively. I felt his chakra flicker in response, like a reflex.
Shisui's voice cut through the air. Calm. Commanding.
"Formation."
We moved without hesitation.
Hinata's Byakugan flared bright. Sasuke's Sharingan sharpened to full awareness. Naruto spread his stance.
I watched Kisame.
He wasn't focused on Shisui. He wasn't focused on Sasuke. He was watching us.
The twins.
That cold certainty tightened in my chest.
They're not here for a bridge builder. They're scouting. They're hunting.
Zabuza vanished from the sword in a burst of mist. Shisui flickered forward to intercept him, and the sound of steel meeting steel cracked through the fog.
Haku appeared next, mask gleaming, senbon already flying. Naruto and Sasuke rushed him together, Hinata right behind them, calling out angles and openings.
That left me with Kisame.
He walked toward me like he was strolling through a market. "You're the one with the interesting chakra. I could smell it from the shore."
I swallowed hard. Lightning crackled along my arms. Water gathered at my feet. I forced my breathing to steady.
"I'm not interested in being eaten."
Kisame laughed. "You say that now."
He swung Samehada down at me. The blade tore through my water shield like it was paper. I barely dodged, feeling the wind of the strike brush my cheek.
I countered with a burst of lightning, but Samehada drank it greedily, the bandages writhing.
Kisame tilted his head. "Not bad. Try harder."
I moved. Fast. Faster than I should have. I struck with water, lightning, anything I could shape quickly. Kisame blocked everything with casual ease.
He wasn't even trying.
Naruto's voice cut through the chaos. "Menma!"
I glanced over. Naruto was fighting Haku with Sasuke and Hinata, but his eyes were locked on me.
Kisame lunged again. I dodged, but he was faster this time. His fist slammed into my ribs and sent me skidding across the bridge. Pain flared through my side.
Kurama's voice rolled through my mind like thunder.
"Let me out."
Naruto created shadow clones, flooding the bridge in orange bursts of motion. Sasuke pivoted left, launching a controlled fireball that carved a glowing path through the fog.
Hinata called positions with eerie precision.
For a moment, it felt stable.
Then the water beneath me surged.
I barely had time to turn.
A dome of water erupted upward and swallowed me whole. Cold crushed into my lungs.
The world became blue distortion and pressure.
I formed seals underwater. Lightning burst from my body. The water flashed white.
For half a second I thought it worked.
Then Samehada throbbed. I felt my chakra being pulled. Not cut. Not blocked. Drained.
The lightning weakened as it was eaten alive.
Kisame blurred forward.
The impact hit my ribs like a battering ram. Water rushed into my mouth. My ears rang violently. I tasted blood and salt at the same time.
I felt everything slipping.
Kurama's chakra pressed against the seal, hot and impatient.
"Let me out."
I didn't think. I didn't decide. I just stopped resisting.
The world exploded.
Chakra tore out of me in a violent burst. The air warped. The fog evaporated in an instant. The ground cracked under my feet.
A cloak of bubbling red chakra wrapped around me, thick and heavy. Two tails tail formed behind me, lashing the stone hard enough to leave dents.
I screamed. Not in fear. In pain.
The red chakra poured from my skin like liquid fire. It didn't sit on me. It burned through me. Every pore felt like it was splitting open. My veins felt too small to contain the pressure flooding through them. But the damage just repaired itself.
The water dome cracked.
Then shattered.
We crashed back onto the bridge in a torrent.
Kisame staggered back, but his grin widened.
"Well now. That's interesting."
I moved before he finished speaking. I didn't run. I launched. The world blurred around me. I slammed into him with enough force to send him flying across the bridge.
Samehada pressed against my cloak.
The sensation was horrific.
It was like something biting into living flesh made of fire. I felt chakra ripping away from me in chunks, and Kurama's energy surged harder to replace it. The feedback loop burned worse. I hit him again. And again. And again.
Kisame laughed through the pain. "You're a monster, kid. I love it."
Shisui had disengaged from Zabuza instantly.
"Menma."
Warning. Concern.
I tried to answer but my teeth were clenched too tight. The cloak didn't want to recede. It wanted more.
Kisame landed lightly several meters away, studying me with sharp interest.
"Interesting," he said softly. "You're not as stable as the other one."
Other one.
Naruto stepped closer to me.
"Menma," he said. "Stop. It's me."
His voice cut through the roar in my ears.
The cloak flickered violently.
It hurt to breathe. It hurt to exist inside my own skin. The chakra felt like acid crawling along my nerves.
I forced myself to focus on Naruto's voice.
Not the fight.
Not the enemies.
Naruto.
The red haze trembled. Then began to recede.
Every inch it withdrew felt like tearing glass out of muscle. My legs buckled the moment the chakra collapsed fully.
I hit the wood hard. Everything hurt. Not bruised hurt. Burned from the inside out hurt.
My skin felt raw. Sensitive to the air. My lungs felt scorched.
Naruto dropped to his knees beside me.
"You idiot," he said, but his voice cracked. "You don't have to do that alone."
I tried to laugh.
It came out as a weak cough.
Kisame wiped blood from his lip and grinned.
"Fun as this was, we're done here."
Zabuza disengaged from Shisui, breathing hard. Haku appeared beside them, mask cracked.
Kisame gave me one last look. "We'll meet again, little fox."
They vanished into the mist.
The mist thinned slowly, like it had been holding its breath.
Silence returned.
Shisui crouched beside me. His expression was controlled but his eyes were sharp.
"You pushed too far."
"I know," I managed.
Hinata approached carefully. Her Byakugan flickered over me.
"Your chakra network is inflamed," she whispered. "It's… unstable."
Sasuke stood nearby, watching me with something complicated in his expression. Not judgment. Not fear.
Recognition.
Naruto stayed beside me.
"You don't have to carry everything," he said quietly.
I looked at the sky above the bridge.
Gray. Heavy. I had confirmed it. The timeline was broken.
Akatsuki had moved early. They were watching. Because of me.
The burning in my skin lingered long after the cloak was gone. A phantom sensation of fire beneath flesh. A reminder.
I thought I could adjust the world without it adjusting back.
I was wrong.
And the worst part was not the pain. It was the realization that next time, they would come prepared.
For us. For me.
For the storm I started.