Kirigakure.
Rain whispered over empty rooftops.
Mist clung to every wall, thick as breath.
She stood barefoot. Still. Calm.
A girl no older than Raien.
Short silver hair.
One eye veiled beneath bandages.
The other eye—glowing.
Red. Spinning. Like a clock turned backward.
She whispered to the fog, "I am summoned."
And the fog answered.
Turning around her.
Forming a door.
She stepped through.
Vanished.
Konoha. Afternoon.
Raien sat on the hospital rooftop. Alone.
He looked down at his hands.
The shadow still moved when he breathed.
A reflection of what lived inside now.
He couldn't stop thinking about her.
The Loom Mother.
She knew too much.
And Sorien was hiding something.
The Eye was changing again.
And he had no say in it.
His hands curled. Knuckles white.
Then—
A breeze.
Chilled.
Wrong.
Raien stood.
Someone was here.
At the village gate—
Rain started falling.
Though the sky was clear.
Neji and Tenten stood nearby, arguing about a patrol shift.
Then they felt it.
Pressure.
Like a genjutsu—but deeper.
Tenten turned.Eyes narrowed.
A girl was walking toward them.
Alone.
Unmarked. No headband.
Just fog around her feet.
Neji stepped forward.
"Stop there. Identify yourself."
The girl looked up.
Bandaged eye. Emotionless face.
Then she bowed slightly.
"My name is Kaen."
Tenten stepped closer.
"Are you a rogue ninja?"
Kaen said nothing.
Then she looked at Neji.
Her red eye spun once.
"You're not the one I'm looking for."
And vanished.
Just like that.
Tenten gasped. "Where did—?"
Too late.
The fog followed her disappearance like a ghost.
Raien's eyes narrowed.
He felt it before she arrived.
The sky turned pale.
The clouds seemed to lower.
And out of nowhere—
Kaen stood across from him.
Barefoot. Wet hair clinging to her cheek.
Raien didn't flinch.
"You're not from here."
She tilted her head.
"You've awakened the Fold."
Raien's eye glowed faintly.
Cracked. Bleeding again.
"You with her? The Loom Mother?"
Kaen blinked.
"No. I was… born from her."
Raien stepped back slightly.
Not out of fear.
But confusion.
Kaen raised her hand slowly.
"I am not here to fight you, Threadbreaker. Only to test your memory."
Raien's left eye pulsed.
A shadow twitched near his hand.
And behind her—
Reality bent.
For just a moment.
Raien saw himself standing behind her.Different version.Wearing Mist gear.Bloody sword in hand.
Gone again.
Raien asked, "What does that mean?"
Kaen lowered her hand.
She whispered, "Memories are choices. You haven't made yours yet."
He asked, "And you?"
"I made the wrong ones."
Then she vanished again.
This time—Raien followed.
They reappeared—
Inside an abandoned training ground.
Deep underground.
An old ANBU facility sealed since the war.
Kaen stood in the center.
The walls around them rippled with trapped memories.
Raien could feel them.
Faint voices. Screams. Footsteps of shinobi long dead.
He clenched his fists.
"What are we doing here?"
Kaen raised both arms.
The mist swirled.
Images formed in the air—
Raien saw himself…
Killing Kakashi.
Again.
Then—
Stabbing Naruto in the back.
Again.
Then—
Burning the entire village.
Kaen's voice whispered.
"These are not prophecies."
"They are options."
Raien's head throbbed.
Blood trickled from his nose.
Kaen stepped forward.
"I am here to see if your soul rejects them."
She placed a finger to her bandaged eye.
Pulled the cloth off.
The eye beneath was black.
Filled with stars.
Alive.
Raien gasped.
It was like looking into the abyss itself.
Kaen said nothing.
Just opened that eye wider—
And Raien fell—
Into himself.
Vision.
He was a child again.
Crying.
Trapped in the forest.
But this time—
No one came.
Not even the masked man.
Not even Sorien.
Just silence.
Cold. Long. Endless.
Raien looked up at the sky.
His broken eye bled out.
And turned to ash.
He woke up screaming.
On the cold stone floor of the training facility.
Kaen was gone.
But carved into the floor beside him were three words:
"Choose your Thread."
Raien sat up.
Hands shaking.
His eye was different again.
The spiral had grown.
Lines across the sclera.
More veins.
Alive.
Above the ground—
Kaen walked out of the forest.
Met by a black-robed shinobi in a crow mask.
He asked her, "Did he survive the Fold?"
Kaen nodded.
"Barely."
The man asked, "And the Loom?"
"She knows he's dangerous."
The masked man looked to the sky.
"What's his next step?"
Kaen answered softly.
"Memory or madness."
And vanished.
Back in Konoha.
Raien returned to his apartment.
Sorien waited by the door.
"Was it her?" Sorien asked.
Raien said nothing.
Just walked past him.
Sorien followed.
Raien stared into the mirror.
His eye still changing.
His shadow still twitching.
Sorien stood behind him, arms crossed.
"You've seen the beginning of your other lives now."
Raien nodded.
"And?"
Sorien's face darkened.
"Then you'll soon meet someone who remembers all of them."
Raien turned.
"Who?"
Sorien whispered:
"The Keeper of the Forgotten."