The seal opened.
Not with sound.
With silence.
A silence so deep it crushed the lungs. The black stone door uncoiled like a serpent, vanishing into the walls, revealing a cavern beyond—wide, empty, and humming with ancient chakra.
Ryuki stepped in first.
The air inside was wrong.
Heavy.
Like it had been sealed for centuries.
Sai followed, cautious, every step measured. His ink beasts slithered at his side—ready, tense, alert.
The chamber was circular. At the center stood an altar. Floating above it—a sphere of black glass. Swirling mist trapped within. Pulsing like a heartbeat.
It looked just like Ryuki's eye.
He approached slowly.
The broken dojutsu pulsed in response. Resonating.
He reached for the sphere.
But a voice stopped him.
"I wouldn't."
The air twisted.
A shadow peeled itself from the far wall.
Humanoid.
Tall. Slender. Masked.
The mask was pale, cracked, and stitched down the middle.
Half-white.
Half-black.
The voice was doubled.
As if two people were speaking at once.
"Ryuki."
He froze.
"…Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head.
Then stepped forward.
Each step echoed louder than the last.
"I am what you left behind."
"What they cut from you."
The broken eye flared.
Images flashed across Ryuki's mind—
A lab.
A scream.
Chains.
A child torn in half—
And then darkness.
He dropped to one knee, clutching his head.
Sai moved forward—but the masked figure raised a hand, and Sai's ink beasts dissolved into the air.
Frozen.
"I don't understand…" Ryuki gasped. "What do you mean left behind?"
The figure stepped closer.
And removed the mask.
Beneath it—
Ryuki.
Identical.
Same eyes. Same voice. Same broken seal on his chest.
Except… the right eye glowed complete.
"You weren't born broken," the double said. "You were split."
"I'm your other half."
Far above, back in Konoha, Naruto stirred awake.
Sweat on his brow.
A sudden chill down his spine.
Kurama's voice echoed in his mind.
"Something old just woke up. Something dangerous."
In the chamber, Ryuki's hand trembled.
His double—the Other—stepped around him, gesturing to the black sphere on the altar.
"My consciousness was sealed inside this. My body was left to rot in a lab under Rain."
"Zetsu found me. Repaired me. And now I'm whole again."
Ryuki backed away.
"You're lying."
The Other Ryuki's expression darkened.
"I am you."
He touched the sphere.
It cracked.
And from within, black mist poured—surging toward Ryuki like a tide.
"No—!" Ryuki raised his hand, trying to resist, but the dojutsu activated on its own—dragging the mist in, pulling it into the broken eye.
His chest flared with pain.
The seal across his skin ignited.
He screamed.
Sai tried to move—but he was still frozen in place.
The mist fused with Ryuki's eye.
For a moment, everything went still.
Then—A pulse.
Ryuki's body was thrown backward. He hit the wall. Hard.
He slumped.
Eyes wide.
Breathing shallow.
The broken eye now glowed deeper—no longer cracked… but not whole either.
The Other stood over him, watching.
"You've absorbed the first fragment," he said. "Soon, we'll be one again. Mind, body, and power."
Ryuki's hand reached up, shaking. "I'll never become you."
The Other grinned.
"Then keep resisting. That makes it fun."
He vanished.
Melted into the shadows.
Sai was freed.
He rushed to Ryuki.
The boy was unconscious—but breathing.
Steam rose from the eye.
The seal across his chest… had changed again.
Now there were two spirals.
One clockwise.
One counter.
Above ground, storm clouds rolled in over Konoha.
And in the depths of Rain, the silver-haired boy knelt before a hooded figure.
"He has the first fragment," the boy said.
The hooded figure nodded.
"Then it begins."
End of Chapter 120.