Rain.
Not from the sky.
But from the walls.
The Uchiha basement wept moisture.
Stone bleeding from age and secrets.
The boy sat alone.
Knees pulled close.
Eyes wide.
Pupil spinning slowly.
Red layered with violet.
The spiral glowed faintly.
He whispered—
"I'm not supposed to be."
He had no name.
No memories.
Just instincts.
When the Eye opened, he didn't feel power.
He felt permission.
Like reality had been holding its breath for him.
Now it exhaled.
And the world bent.
A fly landed near his foot.
It stopped.
Mid-motion.
Frozen.
He touched it.
It shattered into dust.
Tsunade's desk cracked beneath her palm.
"You're telling me there's a third user?"
Ino nodded.
"No fragment energy. No trace of Kaito's signature."
Kakashi leaned in.
"Then what is he?"
Ino looked away.
"Something… that wasn't supposed to wake yet."
Shikamaru lit another candle.
"This could be beyond control."
Sai unrolled a scroll.
Scribbled a shape.
Spiral inside a spiral.
"The pattern's warping. It's growing in layers."
Tsunade exhaled.
"Where?"
Ino's eyes dimmed.
"Uchiha compound."
The team moved by night.
Ino. Kakashi. Shikamaru. Sai.
No reinforcements.
No noise.
No chakra signals.
This wasn't a mission.
It was a containment.
They reached the compound.
Dead silence.
Not a bird.
Not a single insect.
All chakra threads in the area — gone.
Absorbed?
Wiped?
Unknown.
Sai marked the stone.
"Feels like we're walking on bones."
Shikamaru frowned.
"Because we are."
Basement door: open.
Not broken.
Not forced.
Just… open.
Ino led.
Each step heavier.
As if time thickened the closer they got.
Then—
They saw him.
Sitting.
Alone.
Thin frame.
Too young.
Twelve?
Thirteen?
Eyes glowing violet-red.
He looked up.
Expression blank.
Then he spoke.
"You're the one who remembers."
Ino stopped.
Heart dropped.
"How do you know?"
He blinked.
"I saw it in my sleep."
Kakashi stepped forward.
"What's your name?"
The boy tilted his head.
"I haven't been given one."
Sai summoned ink blades.
Ready.
Shikamaru readied shadow threads.
Ino raised a hand.
"Wait."
She stepped closer.
Examined the eye.
Not broken.
Not spiraling outward like hers or Kaito's.
But inward.
Pulling light.
Drawing possibilities into itself.
She whispered.
"A reverse spiral…"
Suddenly—
The room cracked.
Not physically.
Chronologically.
Memories bled into the walls.
Images of pasts that didn't happen.
Bloodlines that never existed.
Deaths that hadn't occurred yet.
The boy's eye spun faster.
Ino fell to one knee.
She felt herself—
In pieces.
Mother.
Shinobi.
Dead child.
Blind priest.
Each a version of her.
All gone.
She focused—
Forced her eye to stabilize.
The glow brightened.
And everything stopped.
The spiral slowed.
Time stitched back together.
The boy stared.
"…You're loud."
She stood.
Face pale.
"Who made you?"
He blinked.
"Made?"
Kakashi whispered.
"Is he even human?"
Shikamaru watched closely.
"This isn't possession. Or a jutsu."
"It's a paradox."
Ino nodded.
"He's new."
The boy stood.
He didn't raise a weapon.
Didn't flare chakra.
Just walked forward.
Stopped inches from Ino.
"You erased the Editor."
She nodded.
"He let me."
The boy touched his temple.
"I was born when he died."
Rei appeared.
Out of nowhere.
No sound.
No chakra pulse.
He stood by the wall.
Watching.
The boy looked at him.
Then at Ino.
Then at nothing.
"I see the spiral in everyone now."
Rei spoke.
"You're not one of us."
The boy nodded.
"I'm the result."
Tsunade's voice came through the comm seal.
"Ino. Report."
She pressed her finger to the seal.
Quiet.
Then replied—
"We've found him."
Tsunade: "Is he dangerous?"
Ino looked at the boy.
Really looked.
No malice.
No fear.
Just emptiness.
Waiting to be filled.
Her voice was even.
"Potentially."
Tsunade: "Restrain?"
Ino's eye flickered.
She looked at the team.
Each one already half-drained.
She made the call.
"…No."
Back in HQ.
Tsunade broke a glass.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LET HIM WALK?"
Ino's voice came slow.
Measured.
"He's not like Kaito. He's not even aware of what he is."
Kakashi agreed.
"Restraint could trigger a spiral collapse."
Shikamaru murmured.
"And that's if we can restrain him."
Tsunade paced.
"Then what's the plan?"
Ino stared at her reflection in the glass.
"We teach him."
Sai frowned.
"To be human?"
Ino's voice darkened.
"No. To be useful."
The boy sat alone in a training room.
Empty walls.
No mirrors.
He held a scroll.
Unwritten.
Waiting.
He whispered.
"Give me a name."
End of Chapter 114