The Tengetsu compound was silent that morning—too silent.
Akio noticed it the moment he awoke. No sound of sparring from the east courtyard. No rhythmic clack of wood on stone as the younger initiates performed morning drills. The incense fire in the hall hadn't been lit.
Even the birds avoided the compound sky.
He pulled his mask over his face, tied his white hair behind his ears, and stepped outside. The wind cut cold. Still, Akio walked as though the temperature didn't touch him.
Something had changed.
The Shrine VaultIn the oldest part of the compound, tucked beneath a sloped rise behind the archive building, lay the Shrine Vault—an underground chamber only opened during specific rites.
Akio had only entered once before, as a baby during his naming ceremony.
Now, he descended its steps again—this time alone.
The stone walls glowed with faint chakra-laced carvings. Not words, but constellations—each representing a bloodline memory passed down through the Tengetsu. The Eye of the Universe had long guided them, not with prophecy, but with perception.
And perception had limits... unless honed.
At the bottom, Grandfather Hiroshi stood in front of a pedestal. A sealed tablet hovered above it, suspended by chakra flow.
"You felt it," Hiroshi said without turning.
"Yes."
"Good. That means you're ready to learn about the fracture."
Akio stepped closer.
"The fracture?"
"The moment our legacy was almost erased."
Hiroshi touched the stone tablet. It flared once, then settled.
"Years ago," he began, "before the clans gathered under the Leaf's banner, our ancestors lived with the Hoshitsuki on the Moon. One in body. One in eye. But fear separates faster than time."
Akio listened silently.
"When the Uchūgan's power began manifesting beyond expectations, even among children, the other clans... grew afraid. Of us. Of what we might become."
"Like the Uchiha."
"Exactly. And like the Uchiha, our closeness to them became our curse."
Akio watched the chakra in the tablet swirl like mist. "They tried to eliminate us?"
Hiroshi nodded. "They tried. And nearly succeeded."
Konoha – Academy GroundsClasses resumed in the afternoon, but Akio's mind remained in the vault.
He took his usual seat beside Naruto, who was busy trying to balance a textbook on his head during chakra control drills.
"Iruka-sensei said we're gonna be tested on this," Naruto grumbled.
"You'll fail," Akio replied flatly.
Naruto nearly dropped the book. "Rude!"
"But not wrong."
From across the room, Sasuke glanced their way. His gaze flicked between the two—nothing dramatic, but Akio caught it.
"Are you and Sasuke friends?" Naruto asked suddenly.
"Not yet," Akio answered.
"Huh. You kinda look like him when you frown."
"I'm not frowning."
"You're always frowning."
Akio turned a page in his notebook. "You talk too much."
Naruto grinned. "Still like you better than that stuck-up Uchiha."
Akio smirked behind his mask.
After Class – Training Field 3That evening, Akio trained alone.
Weighted gloves on. Blindfold tied. Stones tossed into the air by a makeshift trap system he built from scratch.
He caught one.
Two.
Missed the third.
He grunted quietly. Not at the failure—but at the predictability of it. His body moved faster than most of his classmates, yes, but there was a ceiling… and he could feel it pressing down.
Without the Uchūgan, he was still better than average. But that wasn't enough. Not in a world where clans were eliminated out of fear. Where children with bloodline eyes were watched before they were old enough to wield kunai.
He threw the gloves down, untied the blindfold, and looked up at the fading sky.
"I need more," he muttered.
That Night – Under the Cedar TreeThe moon hung low, nearly full.
Akio sat under the same cedar tree where he'd first felt chakra stir, where he now often reflected in silence. Tonight, something was different.
His hand hovered above his notebook. Instead of writing, he watched the stars.
One blinked.
Then again.
He narrowed his eyes.
That was no star.
A quiet shimmer of light glided toward him. Thin, translucent. A wisp of chakra memory—something ancient embedded in the clan's ancestral grounds. A fragment from a time before the compound existed.
The voice came like a wind behind his ears.
"You must learn to see beyond light…
And remember what was never taught."
Akio didn't speak.
The wisp coiled, then vanished.
He stayed there until dawn.
[End of Chapter 6]