We stayed in the hall. Hours passed.
He gave me food—simple rice and dried seaweed—and watched me eat. It tasted like nothing, but I chewed slowly. He said nothing more, and I didn't ask. Later, he threw me a bundle of cloth. Simple robes, gray-blue and damp.
"Get used to discomfort," he said. "It's the only constant here."
That night, I didn't sleep. I lay on the stone floor, wrapped in cloth that smelled faintly of brine and old sweat. My body ached. My head throbbed. But my mind refused to shut down.
Kirigakure. Village hidden in the Mist. The Bloody Mist. A place where children killed each other for graduation. Where secrets were currency, and strength was truth.
And I was here now. Trapped in a body not mine, in a world I only thought I knew. Every breath I took seemed heavier. Like the pressure around me wasn't physical. Like the depth was psychological too.
I reached out with my senses. Chakra. I could feel it faintly. A reservoir beneath my sternum, quiet and cool. Not dense. Not wild. Just... hidden. But it was there. And I would shape it.
Morning came in shades of gray. Kisame returned, Samehada now clinging to his back like a second spine. "Time to learn," he said. "Follow."
He led me outside. Out of the stone halls and into the open. Mist rolled thick across the courtyard. It tasted like iron and algae. The sun was just a brighter shade of fog. We passed no guards. Just silence. And the sound of water dripping from stone.
He brought me to a pool. It wasn't natural. It was carved. Circular. Deep. And at its center—chains. Anchored to the bottom, long and slack.
"Get in," Kisame said. I didn't move. He didn't repeat.
I stepped forward and climbed in. The water closed over my shoulders. Cold again. But this time, familiar. Like returning to something.
Kisame tossed something into the pool. It landed with a splash. A kunai.
"Find it. With your chakra. Eyes closed."
I blinked. Then obeyed.
The darkness behind my eyelids
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