Sai sat in the dim light of the ROOT archives, a place that no longer existed on any map. Before him lay a single, unassuming scroll—not sealed with blood or chakra, but with simple wax. It was Databook 4, the personal copy of the man who had once been called "The Darkness of the Shinobi."
Underneath, another addendum: She became the stabilizer. For all of them. Underestimated. naruto databook 4
But below, in a different ink—fresher, shakier, as if written by an old man's hand long after the original analysis—was a single, scratched-out word. Sai held it to the candle. Sai sat in the dim light of the
Most of the book was data: mission logs, jutsu classifications, clan bloodlines. But it was the final section, written in a cramped, clinical hand, that Sai had been ordered to destroy. And yet, he could not. For all of them
It is the simple, idiotic, unstoppable refusal to let go.
"For the next generation. So they know what the darkness learned too late."
Sai's breath hitched. He flipped back two pages.