The body was still warm.
Burn marks around the chest.
No blood.
No wounds.
Just… drained.
Like life had been sipped away.
Ino knelt beside the corpse.
Jonin rank.
Dead in seconds.
A spiral-shaped scorch mark carved into the dirt nearby.
She didn't need to guess.
Another fragment had awakened.
Tsunade stood behind her.
Arms folded.
Jaw tense.
"This makes five."
Ino didn't respond.
She examined the chakra residue.
Dark.
Erratic.
It pulsed like a broken heart.
Tsunade finally spoke.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"
Ino stood slowly.
"Would you believe me if I did?"
Tsunade stared.
"No."
"Then don't ask."
Later.
Ino walked alone through the outskirts.
North forest.
Dense.
Quiet.
She wasn't tracking chakra.
She was following fracture patterns.
Residual impressions.
Like ghosts of possible futures burned into the present.
And this one was close.
Too close.
Behind her—
A whisper.
Low.
Scraping.
Like teeth on glass.
"You found me first."
Ino turned.
Slow.
Precise.
A boy stood near the trees.
Not Rei.
Another.
Older.
Wearing a Kiri hunter mask.
But she felt it.
Kaito's presence.
A broken version.
This one was… feral.
His mask cracked.
One eye visible.
Spinning.
Dark red spiral.
He tilted his head.
"You're cleaner than I expected."
Ino didn't blink.
"You killed five shinobi."
He grinned.
"They screamed in different languages."
Flash.
The boy lunged.
Faster than most Jonin.
But not faster than her now.
Ino spun.
Dodged.
Tagged his shoulder with a chakra thread.
Mental link: initiated.
Mindscape.
Chaos.
Rain falling upward.
Screams in reverse.
Memories looping.
Kaito—this version—stood shirtless.
Scars covering his chest.
He laughed.
"Even here, you follow."
Ino stood calm.
"You're unstable."
He walked closer.
Each step echoing like metal on bone.
"I was the first one who refused to die."
She frowned.
"You ate the others."
He grinned wider.
"Only the weak ones."
Ino struck.
A psychic blade formed mid-air.
He dodged.
Countered with a pulse of fractured time.
She staggered—
Saw her own death flicker.
For a second.
Her own heart stopping.
Then—
She snapped back.
Eyes glowing white-gold.
Her new dojutsu surged.
Light pierced the dark.
Kaito's fragment screamed.
"YOU THINK YOU'RE WHOLE?!"
She walked through his illusions.
Unbothered.
Unflinching.
"You're not Kaito."
He charged.
Too wild.
Too broken.
She placed her palm on his forehead.
And whispered—
"Rest."
In the real world—
His body collapsed.
Silent.
No blood.
Just still.
Ino exhaled.
The wind picked up.
She turned—
Rei stood by the trees.
Watching again.
"You killed him."
Ino didn't nod.
Didn't look away.
"He was already dying."
Rei stepped closer.
"You're strong."
She looked at him.
"Stronger than you?"
He didn't smile.
Didn't speak.
Just turned and walked away.
Back in the village—
Tsunade stared at the report.
Eyes narrowed.
"You neutralized him?"
Ino nodded.
"No body left?"
Ino shook her head.
"He dissolved into chakra fragments. Not usable."
Tsunade poured herself sake.
"One of these fragments comes near the village again…"
Ino interrupted.
"They will."
Tsunade looked up.
And saw something behind Ino's eyes.
Not madness.
Not fear.
Just—*
distance.*
Night.
Ino sat in her apartment.
Mirror covered.
Lights dimmed.
She held a kunai.
Scraped it slowly across her palm.
Not to cut.
To feel.
To remember she was still flesh.
Still grounded.
She stared at the blood.
Watched it bead.
Watched it fade.
Then disappear.
Gone before it touched the floor.
She whispered.
"Reality's bending again…"
Elsewhere.
In a cave far from fire country.
A man opened his eyes.
Hair silver.
One arm missing.
A spiral mark across his face.
Another fragment.
But different.
More intact.
More… aware.
He reached into the air.
And tore it.
A rift opened.
Not to a place.
But to a choice.
He stepped in.
Ino woke with a jolt.
Sweat cold on her neck.
She didn't dream.
She felt.
Someone new had moved.
Smarter.
Older.
Strategic.
A fragment Kaito feared.
She whispered his old name.
"Kai…"
But it didn't comfort her.
Because now—
She was being hunted back.
End of Chapter 111.