Before they could secure the Chronicle, a darker presence revealed itself: an ancient jutsu within the stolen pages began to awaken the Vale’s seals early. Tendrils of blackened mist rose, coiling toward pockets of chakra wells—thin enough now to be manipulated. The ground trembled. The team pressed on to the Hollow Vale, where the air tasted like old rain and the echoes of past jutsu hummed. Beneath a broken stone altar they discovered a sealed spring of pure chakra: a well that had once fed a clan of elemental guardians. A second group—led by Kaito and his lieutenant, a former Orochimaru disciple named Sera—arrived in time to clash again.