The Hidden Leaf was calm.
Too calm.
The kind of silence that crawled beneath the skin.That weighed down the air like a storm still deciding where to fall.
From the outside, it looked normal.Shinobi at the gates.Merchants shouting.Children laughing.
But the elders watched the skies.The ANBU watched the ground.And the Hokage—
Didn't sleep anymore.
Tsunade stood at the top of the tower.
Eyes sunken.Hands stiff.Dreams fraying at the edge.
She'd seen the signs.
Scrolls disappearing from locked vaults.Seals unraveling on walls no one touched.Threads—golden, glowing faint—appearing in the archives and vanishing the next day.
And last night—
Jiraiya's toad arrived.
Dead on arrival.
Inside its stomach, carved by chakra:
"It moves again."
Tsunade knew what it meant.
She walked to the old well behind the tower.A place no one visited anymore.
Pulled off the cover.
Dropped a coin inside.
Waited.
One minute.
Two.
Then—
The water turned black.
A ripple climbed up the stone.
And a figure emerged.
Not wet.
Not breathing.
Kakashi.
But not the one she remembered.
His mask was torn.
One eye shut.
The other—Sharingan glowing like fire.
"Tsunade," he said.Flat. Hollow. Tired.
"You're late," she muttered.
"I was remembering things."
"Like?"
"…How it felt to watch the future die."
She didn't flinch.
She'd done that too.
Kakashi pulled a scroll from under his cloak.
Placed it on the ground.
Opened it.
Inside—A seal so old it didn't even shimmer anymore.
Just pulsed.
Like something trying to wake up.
"I found it in Rain," he said. "Buried beneath six layers of fake memories."
"What is it?"
"His last command."
Tsunade froze.
"You mean Naruto—?"
"No," Kakashi interrupted. "His seal."
The one he used when he erased himself.
"Someone's unraveling it."
She looked down.
The ink had begun to bleed.
Dripping off the paper.Crawling across the floor.
It formed a spiral.
Then—
Words.
"I am not gone.""I am becoming."
Tsunade swallowed.
"…This wasn't supposed to happen."
Kakashi looked out the window.
At the children training in the yard.
At the new generation wearing the leaf.
"You sure about that?"
Before she could respond, a knock.
Shizune burst in.
Pale. Shaking.
"They're here," she said.
"Who?"
Shizune looked straight at her.
"The Ones Without Records."
Tsunade stepped forward.
From the tower balcony, she saw them.
Six figures. Cloaked. Quiet.
Walking calmly through the gates.
Not stopped.Not questioned.
The guards stepped aside like they'd always been part of the village.
Like their names had always been there.
But no one remembered them.
Except her.
And Kakashi.
And the seal that wouldn't stop bleeding.
Deep underground, a crack formed in the memorial stone.
The one for Naruto.
Just a sliver.
Just enough for air to pass through.
And from it…
A golden thread uncoiled.
Searching.
Calling.
Binding.
Because he was never buried.
Not really.
He was stitched into the world.
And the thread was waking him up.
—End of Chapter 99—