The cavern did not collapse when Kozan left it.
That, more than anything, unsettled Mei.
She walked beside him in silence through the narrowing tunnel, her senses stretched thin, expecting the mountain to come down on them at any moment. But the stone remained still. The air no longer breathed. The blue glow behind them had dimmed to nothing, leaving only the pale reflection of mist-light on damp rock.
Whatever had been sleeping there was gone.
Or worse finished.
They emerged onto the upper ledges of Raiden Gorge just as dusk bled into the sky. The mist rolled low across the ravine, softening the jagged terrain, hiding the scars left by battle. The Iwa shinobi were gone. No bodies. No traces of pursuit.
They had run.
Mei exhaled slowly. "They'll report everything they saw."
Kozan nodded once. "They already were."
She studied him from the corner of her eye. He walked steadily, but something about his posture had shifted a subtle tightening, as if he were carrying weight in a place no one else could see.
"What you fought down there," Mei said carefully, "wasn't a summon. And it wasn't a construct."
"No."
"And it wasn't human."
Kozan stopped walking.
The mist thickened around them, reacting to his stillness. Mei halted a step behind him.
"It was never meant to be," he said quietly. "None of it was."
She waited. She had learned when not to press.
"They cut pieces away," Kozan continued. "Not metaphorically. Literally. They took what didn't stabilize and buried it. Stored it. Fed it chakra so it wouldn't die."
Mei felt a cold weight settle in her chest.
"And you?" she asked.
He turned his head slightly. "I was what remained."
The words were simple. Flat. But they struck harder than anger ever could.
Mei reached out, then stopped herself. "Kozan… that doesn't define you."
He met her gaze.
"I know."
And somehow, that frightened her more than if he hadn't.
Stone Watches the Fog
Far away, in the heart of Iwagakure, the report did not land softly.
The Tsuchikage did not shout. He did not break anything. He simply listened as the remaining shinobi spoke voices hoarse, hands shaking, words tumbling over one another as if speed might outrun fear.
"…the cavern reacted to him."
"…it spoke. Not to us. To him."
"…the thing called him a fragment."
"…he destroyed it without killing the mountain."
Silence followed.
Heavy. Pressurized.
One of the elders shifted uncomfortably. "That aligns with the older records."
The Tsuchikage's eyes narrowed. "The sealed research?"
"Yes. Pre-village. Before the great wars formalized power. The Mist wasn't the only one experimenting then."
"But they were the most… successful," another elder muttered.
The Tsuchikage folded his hands. "Successful at creating what?"
No one answered.
Finally, one voice broke the quiet low, grim.
"A walking imbalance."
The Tsuchikage stood.
"Kirigakure has a shadow," he said. "And shadows distort perspective."
"What do we do?" someone asked.
He looked out toward the distant mountains, toward where mist met sky.
"We don't provoke him," he said. "And we don't underestimate him."
A pause.
"And we assume he isn't done uncovering what he is."
Rumors Spread Faster Than Fog
By the time Kozan and Mei returned to Kirigakure, the whispers had already arrived.
They followed him through streets and corridors, hiding behind bowed heads and polite silence. Shinobi paused in their training. Civilians pretended not to stare. Children were pulled a little closer to their parents.
Kozan felt it all.
He always did.
Fear felt different than hatred. Fear was quieter. Heavier. It made people careful in ways that resentment never did.
Chōjūrō was waiting at the tower gates, his expression tight.
"You're back," he said, relief flickering briefly across his face. Then he noticed Kozan's eyes. The relief faded.
Mei stopped beside him. "Council chamber. Now."
Inside, the air was thick with tension. Scrolls lay open. Messengers waited by the doors. Intelligence reports from Iwa, Kumo, even Fire Country had begun to arrive questions disguised as diplomacy.
Mei took her seat.
Kozan remained standing.
"They know," one councilor said. "At least part of it."
"Then they know less than they think," Kozan replied calmly.
Another councilor swallowed. "You fought something ancient. Something connected to forbidden research. Something that called you a fragment."
The room stilled.
Kozan didn't deny it.
"That thing was a remnant," he said. "A failure left to rot."
"And if there are more?" someone asked sharply.
Kozan's eyes lifted.
"Then I'll find them."
The council shifted uneasily.
Mei watched him carefully. "And if they find you first?"
He didn't hesitate.
"Then they'll learn what happens when the past reaches for me."
No bravado. No threat.
Just certainty.
That Night
Kozan didn't sleep.
He stood on the tower balcony, mist curling around his feet, eyes fixed on the dark water below. The city was quiet. Too quiet.
He flexed his fingers slowly.
Fragments.
He could still feel the cavern's pulse in his bones. Still hear the way the creature had spoken not with malice, but longing. Like something that had been waiting too long for an answer.
Come back.
He clenched his fist.
"I won't," he whispered to the empty air.
Behind him, soft footsteps approached.
Mei stopped beside him, resting her arms on the railing.
"They're afraid," she said.
He nodded.
"They always are."
"They're afraid of losing control," she clarified. "Of what they can't predict."
He glanced at her. "And you?"
She didn't answer immediately.
Then, honestly: "I'm afraid you'll carry this alone."
He looked back out at the water.
"I always have."
Mei exhaled, a faint cloud in the cool air. "That doesn't mean you should."
For a moment just one Kozan's expression cracked. Something tired surfaced. Something human.
Then it was gone.
"I don't need saving," he said.
"I know," Mei replied softly. "But even storms need somewhere to break."
The mist thickened, responding to the unspoken tension between them.
Far below, the water rippled.
And deep beneath the earth far from Raiden Gorge, far from Kirigakure something else shifted.
Not a fragment.
Not a failure.
But a watcher.
Waiting for Kozan to remember something he still hadn't found.