On his seventh day in the hospital, Shuo had eaten most of the handful of candy Sai had brought him.
Seven pieces remained. He counted them three times. Not because he had nothing better to do, but because his chest felt tight, and he had no way to pass the time.
The dark cloud outside his window had hung there for three days.
It hadn't rained or dispersed. It just fucking hung there, like a heavy stone pressing down until people could barely breathe.
Everyone in Konoha had seen it. Some said Pain was behind it, that it was ninjutsu; others shouted at the tops of their lungs that it was an abnormal weather phenomenon, that the weather was about to change.
Shuo knew it was neither.
It was chakra, an absurd amount of chakra, condensed in midair like a blade still in its sheath. Everyone knew it would fall sooner or later, but no one dared make the first move.
"You've been staring at it for three days."
Sai pushed the door open and came in, carrying two paper bags filled with food and changes of clothes.
"Yeah."
Shuo answered without taking his eyes off the window.
"Figured anything out?"
"It hasn't moved."
Shuo spoke flatly. "But it's slowly growing, absorbing the surrounding chakra bit by bit."
Sai walked to the window and followed his gaze.
He couldn't see chakra, but he believed Shuo-the kid's perception had never been wrong.
"Pain's doing?"
"Maybe. Maybe not."
Shuo shook his head, picked up a piece of candy, unwrapped it, and tossed it into his mouth. Even its sweetness couldn't suppress the gloom inside him.
"What else could it be?"
Shuo didn't answer.
The information in his head was a mess. The cloud's chakra composition was unlike anything he had ever seen-not