"Drip..."
Like the sound of a water droplet falling onto a surface, soft and faint, almost imperceptible, it rang out in the darkness that had been stripped of all light.
Then, as if that sound had flipped some switch, a faint glow suddenly lit up within the darkness. A dim bronze-colored light source, seeming to come from all around yet also from nowhere in particular, illuminated this boundless region and dyed everything a murky yellow.
"Slap!"
Then, as ripples spread across the murky yellow ground like water, the sound of droplets striking something hard rang out one after another.
"Where... am I?"
Then, at those words, a pair of hazy eyes abruptly cleared as though jolted by some stimulus.
What followed was a questioning murmur, like someone waking from a dream.
I... didn't die! The next second, as the owner of those newly clear eyes shifted his gaze slightly, his face suddenly changed.
He quickly identified his surroundings.
It was still his Sealed Space! Not the black space of false death, nor the Yellow Springs Road leading to the Pure Land.
The murky yellow water-like surface, the boundless expanse, the massive gate behind him—everything proved that he still existed within the Sealed Space.
The Sealed Space of the Light Orb that had been taken from him!
In other words, he had not died when the Light Orb was taken, as Uchiha Nobuhiko had claimed.
He was still alive and well. He had not even entered the false-death space, but was in the near-death space where he could enter the Sealed Space.
"Could it be..."
At the same time, a series of images suddenly flashed through his mind—scenes of Uchiha Nobuhiko holding the Light Orb and explaining matters concerning it to him.
Damn it!
He had been deceived by a genjutsu!