EXT. LAND OF FIRE - DEEP FOREST - DAY
Sunlight spears through leaves. Bird calls. Peace pretending.
The kind of quiet that makes you trust it.
Which is always when the universe picks you up by the collar.
A faint ripple passes through the air—like pressure before a storm, except the sky is innocent.
The BIRDS GO QUIET first.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
Like somebody just muted the forest.
SFX (BIRDS): chirp—chi—
(then nothing)
CUT TO:
EXT. WATERFALL - DAY
A waterfall pounds down a cliff face with the relentless confidence of gravity. Mist hangs in the air like breath.
Under it—
SASUKE UCHIHA(Shippuden, pre-War, pre-dead Itachi) sits in the torrent, still as carved stone.
Water hammers his shoulders. His hair lies plastered to his face. His spine doesn't yield.
He doesn't flinch.
He doesn't blink.
CLOSE ON SASUKE'S HANDS — resting on his knees.
Relaxed.
Disciplined.
Ready.
Even "resting" looks like a weapon being holstered.
The roar of the waterfall should drown thought.
Sasuke's mind is quieter than the water.
SASUKE (V.O.)
Itachi…
A beat.
Not emotion. Not dramatics.
Just the name, like a nail driven clean.
SASUKE (V.O.)
Soon.
His breathing stays even.
In. Out.
The waterfall tries to shove him out of himself.
He refuses.
Mist beads on his eyelashes and doesn't fall—because he hasn't moved enough to let it.
Then—
The air changes.
Not temperature.
Not wind.
Something else.
Like the forest's skin tightening.
Sasuke's eyelid twitches.
Once.
Tiny.
A crack in the statue.
SFX (UNDER WATERFALL): thrum…
(a low pressure that wasn't there)
Sasuke's senses reach without him "trying."
A scan—automatic, predatory.
Chakra signatures? None close.
Wildlife? Too quiet.
The waterfall? Constant.
And then—
A THUNDERCLAP detonates somewhere in the trees.
Too sharp to be weather.
Too immediate to be distant.
SFX: KRA-KK—!!
The sound hits like a thrown blade.
Sasuke stands in one smooth motion.
The waterfall breaks around him and slides off like rejection.
He steps out of the curtain of water and onto stone without slipping, because his feet don't negotiate.
His eyes lift.
His face stays flat.
But the intent behind it hardens.
For half a second—
His Sharingan flickers on.
Not a flex.
A check.
A quick, clinical lens snapping into place.
RED—then gone.
Sasuke reaches for his gear.
Not frantic.
Not rushed.
Efficient, like the motions were written into his bones.
He listens again.
Another crack—fainter this time—rides the air.
Heat follows it.
Ozone.
But it doesn't feel like his lightning.
Lightning chakra has a taste to it. A flow. A familiar cruelty.
This—
This is electricity with different rules.
Chakra… with an accent.
Sasuke's mouth barely moves.
Not quite a frown.
SASUKE (V.O.)
Not lightning nature…
He steps forward—
And vanishes into motion.
EXT. TREE CANOPY - MOVING - DAY
Sasuke bounds branch to branch, silent and fast.
No wasted movement.
No dramatic landings.
A hunting hawk with a grudge.
Leaves shiver under his passing a half-beat late, like the forest keeps losing track of him.
SFX (LEAVES): shh—shh—sh—
Another electrical CRACK rips through the distance.
Closer.
SFX: KRA-K—!!
Sasuke's gaze tightens.
Not fear.
Calculation.
He lands on a thick limb, pauses for a fraction of a breath—
and the world "points" him toward the source.
A straight line of wrongness through the trees.
Sasuke drops.
Not falling.
Descending like a verdict.