Midnight.
A cold wind whispered through the ruins on Amegakure's outskirts.
Raien sat alone on a stone slab.Still. Silent.
His mask lay beside him.
The third crack in his eye pulsed faintly under moonlight.
Konan watched from a distance.
His breathing slowed.His fingers curled into fists.
And then—
A pull.
Like gravity. But from inside his skull.
His broken eye flickered—
CRACK.
He fell into the vision.
Darkness.
Then light.
A forest. Rain-drenched. Familiar.
He turned—And saw it.
A small clearing.
And in the middle—
Neji Hyuga.
Fighting.
A mission gone wrong.Three enemies.Unknown headbands.
Neji's Byakugan active.His palms moved with deadly grace.
Then—
A mistake.
One blade.From the blind spot.
Straight through his ribs.
Neji gasped.Blood spilled.
His knees buckled.
The other two rushed him.
No time to counter.
And just before the final strike—
Raien's eye flared—
And he was pulled back.
Raien shot awake.Gasping.
Konan was already beside him.
"You saw something," she said.
He nodded.
"Neji… He's going to die. Soon."
Konan's eyes narrowed.
"You can't save him."
"I have to."
"You don't understand. Every change echoes. The Entity—"
"I don't care."
Raien stood.
His eye still glowing faintly.
"I'm done watching people die when I can stop it."
Konan said nothing.
She looked at him like she already knew what would happen.
Two days later.
Hidden Leaf.
Night.
Raien stood at the gate, cloaked in black.
The headband on his forehead belonged to no village.
The guards barely saw him.
He was already gone.
Moving through rooftops.Hiding in the shadow of the Hokage's light.
He didn't care for being noticed.
Only one thing mattered.
Neji.
He reached the Hyuga compound.
Saw the faint blue flickers of chakra through walls.
He waited.
Two more ANBU passed.
Still, no sign of the Entity.
He moved closer.
Then—A whisper.
"You shouldn't be here."
Raien spun.
Nothing.
But his eye twitched.
A thread.
Thin. Faint.
Following him.
Watching him.
He ignored it.
Not now.
He reached the compound wall, his hand already performing seals—And then—
A hand gripped his shoulder.
Raien turned.
Kakashi.
Calm eyes. Covered Sharingan.
"I thought I saw a ghost," Kakashi said softly.
Raien didn't flinch.
"You did."
Kakashi's hand tightened.
"You shouldn't be in the Leaf. You left."
"I didn't choose to."
"Then why return?"
Raien met his gaze.
"To stop a death."
Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"Who?"
"Neji."
A pause.
A long one.
Then Kakashi sighed.
"He left on a mission this morning."
Raien's heart dropped.
"Alone?"
"No. Tenten and Lee are with him."
Raien turned.
Started walking.
Kakashi didn't stop him.
Just said, "You change one thing… You better be ready for the avalanche."
Meanwhile—deep in the Land of Rivers.
Neji, Tenten, and Lee walked through a foggy pass.
Their scroll was simple: eliminate a rogue shinobi causing unrest in a minor village.
Nothing they hadn't handled before.
But Neji's eyes kept twitching.
Something felt… wrong.
Tenten noticed.
"You good?"
Neji nodded.But his hand hovered near his kunai pouch.
Lee, cheerful as always, was recounting his training that morning.
Then—A whistle.
A blade.
They ducked just in time.
Ambush.
Three shinobi dropped from the cliffs.
Fast.
No chakra signatures.
Neji activated his Byakugan.
"Right side!" he called.
Lee charged.
Tenten flipped and released a scroll midair—A barrage of kunai raining down.
The enemy dodged expertly.
Neji kept watching—
And then he saw it.
The blind spot.
One of them was already behind him.
Too fast.
Too silent.
Blade out.
Neji turned—
Too late.
The blade came down.
But then—
A flash.
A crack of light.
The attacker was gone.
Neji gasped.
Behind him—Raien.
His left eye glowing red.
"What—who—?"
"No time," Raien muttered."Stay close."
The others regrouped.
Lee blinked.
"Wait—aren't you—?"
Raien stepped forward.
"I'm a mistake. Doesn't matter."
The enemies regrouped, confused.
Raien reached into his sleeve.
Pulled out a seal-tag. Burned it.
The sky cracked open above them.
A wave of pressure dropped everyone but him.
Time slowed.
The enemies froze.
Raien grabbed Neji.
"This never happened."
Then the seal vanished.
Time snapped back.
And the attackers—gone.
Burnt to ash by an unseen force.
Lee and Tenten stumbled to their feet.
"What the hell just—?"
Neji looked at Raien.
"You saved me."
Raien just stared.
"You were supposed to die."
Neji didn't speak.
Just clenched his fists.
Raien turned away.
"I have to go."
But before he could—
The sky above ripped open.
The world twisted.
And something began descending.
The Entity.
It had followed him.
Neji's eyes widened.
"What is that?"
Raien just whispered—
"The correction."
The ground cracked.
Konan's voice echoed in his mind—
"Every change echoes."
"Every thread snaps back."
And Raien realized…
This time, the price wouldn't be him.