Hidden Rain.
Lightning forked across the black sky.
Thunder rolled like a beast awakening.
The silver-haired boy stood at the highest spire. Cloaked. Hood down. Hair slicked with rain.
He opened his eye—the real one.Not broken.Not sealed.Complete.
Three perfect rings spun in silence.
Each one alive. Ancient. Cold.
Below, his followers knelt.
Each marked by the spiral.
Each a hunter of fragments.
"Three," he said.
"They should have been mine."
Konoha.
Tsunade paced.
Ryuki sat across from her, injured again, silent again, stitched again.
"You fought who?"
He didn't answer.
Sai answered for him.
"A construct. No chakra. No signature. Only one group could build something like that."
"Zetsu," Tsunade muttered.
Ryuki opened his mouth finally.
"They know I'm winning."
Tsunade stared at the boy.
He looked like a kid again.
But the eye under the bandage burned like a god's.
"Three fragments?" she asked.
Ryuki nodded. "Yes."
"Then I'll be clear," she said. "If this escalates, I can't protect you."
Ryuki's gaze didn't change.
"I don't need protection."
Elsewhere. Deep forest. Near the border of Iron.
The trees stood tall, coated in frost.
A man walked alone.
Black scarf. Tall boots. Katana across his back.
He hummed as he walked.
Not a tune.Not a melody.Something older.
He stopped at a shrine.
Kneeling.
Pulling a scroll from his robe.
A small voice whispered from behind the shrine:
"Do you have the next target?"
The man smiled.
"Yes. Ryuki."
Night. Konoha rooftops.
Eri found him.
Alone. Sitting on the edge of the old academy building. Watching the stars.
She sat beside him. Quiet for a while.
Then—
"How much longer can you survive this?"
He didn't answer.
She leaned her head on his shoulder anyway.
"Then I'll just stay until the end," she said.
Ryuki closed his eye.
His voice was soft:
"I'm scared, Eri."
It was the first time he'd said it out loud.
She didn't move.
She didn't speak.
Just held his hand.
Hidden Rain.
The silver-haired boy opened a scroll.
Inside—maps. Seals. Chakra signatures.
"Land of Iron," he said.
One of the kneeling hunters spoke.
"Should we send the twins?"
"No."
He stepped down from the platform.
"I'm going."
They gasped.
"You?"
The boy smiled. Eyes flashing silver.
"He's not the only one with fragments now."
Later. Underground. Konoha.
Ryuki trained in the shadows.
The seal on his chest glowed bright.
Three spirals, each alive.
He moved faster than before.His kunai distorted the air.Each punch cracked the stone around him.
But he wasn't alone.
Sai watched from above.
Silently.
Recording everything.
The next morning, a raven dropped a scroll on Ryuki's windowsill.
He opened it.
Inside—
Only a single line:
"I have your fourth fragment. Come and take it."
Signed:
—R.
No location.No mark.No time.
But Ryuki knew.
Far North. Land of Iron.
Snow fell across the shrine.
A shadow stepped through it.
Silver-haired.
Unblinking.
Waiting.
End of Chapter 124.