Ruins of Uzushio.
Salt wind tore through shattered towers.Collapsed walls bled old chakra into the ocean.Coral grew through broken homes, feeding off bones long buried.
But at the center—Beneath layers of time and water—A tomb still pulsed.
Red stone.Old symbols.Spirals that bled when touched.
The fifth fragment lay inside.
And someone was already trying to take it.
The woman knelt before the tomb.
Masked. Cloaked. Hair silver-red.
She hummed.
A song older than the Hidden Villages.
Older than chakra.
Her hand hovered above the spiral etched into the stone.
It burned her skin, but she didn't flinch.
Instead, she smiled.
"So you remember me."
The spiral glowed.The stone cracked.The tomb opened.
A breath of stale, heavy air escaped.
She stepped inside.
Two days later.
Ryuki stood at the Uzushio shoreline.
Boots in the sand.Wind snapping his cloak.His eye—uncovered, glowing faintly—looked out across the sea.
Eri stepped up behind him.
"You feel it?"
He nodded.Four spirals pulsed beneath his ribs.
The fifth was near.
But the aura around it—
It felt… wrong.
Twisted.
"Someone's already inside," he murmured.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
But he could guess.
They reached the center ruins by dusk.
Red moss covered everything.
A massive crater yawned open in the earth.
Stone stairs spiraled downward.
Deep into the bones of Uzushio.
Without speaking, Ryuki descended.
Eri followed.
Step by step.
Until the light disappeared.
Beneath.
The tomb felt alive.
The walls pulsed faintly.
The spirals were no longer etched—they moved.
Like they were watching.
Ryuki reached the end of the stairs.
And found her.
Standing before the sarcophagus.
Mask cracked down the center.
Eyes glowing like embers.
She didn't speak.
Neither did he.
The fifth fragment floated above the stone coffin.
Still untouched.
Between them.
She moved first.
Fast.
Ryuki dodged.
Barely.
Her hand scraped the air—And the wall behind him exploded.
She laughed.
"I've killed bearers stronger than you."
Ryuki activated the eye.
Four rings spun.The seal on his chest blazed.
He reversed time one second.
Dodged again.
Slashed—
She caught the kunai.Twisted.Bent it in half with two fingers.
Ryuki stepped back.
Breathing hard.
Eri whispered behind him.
"She's not normal…"
He knew.
She wasn't a ninja.
She wasn't human.
She was something older.
"I am the first," she said.
Her mask split entirely.
Underneath—A face burned with spirals.Eyes empty.No soul.
"I carried all six once. Until they tore me apart."
She stepped toward him.
"And you… are my replacement."
She lunged.
Faster than light.
Ryuki didn't move.
He couldn't.
She slammed her hand into his chest.
Right over the seal.
Pain.Blinding.Agonizing.
His vision shattered.
The tomb twisted.
He dropped to his knees.
She reached for the fifth fragment.
Smiling.
"You're still too young."
But something changed.
Behind her—
Eri raised her hand.
Small. Pale.
The spiral mark burned on her palm.
The same one she'd had since she was a baby.
The tomb reacted.
It screamed.
The fragment jerked mid-air—
And flew past the woman—
Into Ryuki.
His body convulsed.
The fifth spiral burned into place.
And the tomb collapsed.
Stone shattered.Air reversed.Time stuttered.
The woman screamed.
Then vanished—Ripped backward into the spiral behind the coffin.
Gone.
Silence.
Eri dropped to her knees.
Ryuki gasped.
His chest smoked.
The fifth was inside him now.
And with it—
He saw things.
Things that hadn't happened yet.
Memories of the future.
Elsewhere.
The silver-haired boy felt it.
Fifth fragment claimed.
His eyes narrowed.
The twins stood behind him, trembling.
"What now?" one asked.
He clenched his fists.
Veins bulging.
"We kill Eri first."
End of Chapter 126.