Night Raid on the Nanhe Shrine

Cloudless skies stretched over Konoha tonight, moonlight pouring across the entire village.

Two thick stone pillars stood to either side of Naka Shrine's entrance. Twin clusters of crimson flames burned quietly atop them, casting flickering light across several meters of ground.

Two figures stood beneath the fire pillars, dressed in the Uchiha Clan's signature high-collared black attire, silently guarding the entrance to the forbidden grounds.

"Do we really need to take this so seriously, Brother Inabi?" One of them yawned lazily, his tone full of indifference. "This is the heart of Uchiha territory. Who would dare break in?"

Inabi frowned and shot him a glare. "Tekka, focus. This is the Police Force's duty. We can't afford even the slightest mistake."

Uchiha Tekka shrugged nonchalantly, forcing himself to look a little more alert as he perfunctorily replied, "Got it, got it."

Seeing his careless attitude, Inabi secretly felt a headache coming on.

That said, he actually agreed with Tekka deep down.

This was Uchiha territory, heavily guarded. There was no way anything could go wrong.

Tekka was a junior Inabi had personally brought into the Police Force. Now, the two of them served under Elder Yashiro, and they had long since quietly formed their own faction.

Their group worshipped strength and was fiercely loyal to the Uchiha Clan, determined to reclaim the clan's former glory and status.

They only lacked someone truly capable of leading them.

They had once tried to win Shisui over, but he had always brushed them off with a few words, never willing to truly stand on their side.

At that thought, Inabi narrowed his eyes slightly and sank into contemplation.

"By the way, Brother Inabi, did you hear?" Tekka suddenly asked.

"Hm?" Inabi snapped back to his senses.

Guard duty was tedious enough already, and he did not mind chatting for a while.

A mocking smile tugged at Tekka's lips. "That Uchiha Shinji actually refused to join the Police Force and went off to study medical ninjutsu instead."

He snorted. "I really don't know what's going through his head. I heard several elders were furious."

Leaning against a stone pillar, Inabi spoke indifferently. "Just an ungrateful fool. He's gained a bit of fame recently. Maybe..."

Before he could finish, the air suddenly rippled with an eerie distortion.

The next second, a heavy, dull pain exploded at Inabi's right temple. His entire body flew sideways out of control before slamming heavily into the ground.

"Who's there?!"

Inabi nearly blacked out on the spot. Through the agony, he forcibly activated his Sharingan and struggled to rise.

But another violent blow struck his head. Accompanied by the sharp crack of a wooden stick breaking, he caught only a glimpse of a blurry humanoid form of Chakra before losing consciousness completely.

"Inabi!"

Tekka's expression changed drastically. Just as he was about to rush forward, the space before him suddenly twisted.

A black shadow burst forth from the void and drove a heavy fist viciously into his abdomen.

"Urgh—!"

Tekka instantly doubled over like a shrimp, stomach acid surging up as he nearly vomited.

Before he could react, someone suddenly locked his neck from behind. The attacker's arm clamped down like an iron hoop, choking the breath out of him.

He desperately raised his hands to pry it loose, his face flushing red as Chakra became impossible to circulate through the suffocation.

Tekka kicked against the ground and twisted his head with difficulty, trying to see what his attacker looked like.

But all he saw was a vicious, pure-white fox mask.

"You're even wearing a mask, damn it!"

Tekka's eyes gradually rolled back. Filled with unwillingness, his body went limp, and he passed out completely.

The flames continued to burn quietly.

Shinji slowly exhaled, casually tossing the half-broken, fist-thick wooden stick in his hand aside as he looked at Tekka and Inabi lying unconscious before him.

"Just to be safe, I should tie you two up."

He muttered softly, then pulled steel wire from his Ninja Tool Pouch and securely bound the two of them to the fire pillars, carefully covering both their mouths and eyes as well.

Seeing them slumped helplessly there, unable to move, Shinji was quite satisfied with his work.

Over the past three days, he had already figured out the patrol routes around the shrine and the guards' shift-change schedule.

It was now two in the morning—the time when sleep weighed most heavily on people and the guards were at their most lax, as well as the easiest time for flaws to appear.

Under normal circumstances, outsiders could naturally never break into the Uchiha forbidden grounds.

But he was a thief from within.

He had not had the opportunity before, but now, the opportunity was right in front of him.

Using Transparent Release to conceal himself, Shinji had silently approached the on-duty Inabi and Tekka, just in time to overhear them discussing and mocking him.

So he had not hesitated. Seizing a fleeting opening, he struck cleanly and decisively, knocking them both unconscious.

"Two idiots."

Feeling thoroughly pleased, Shinji turned and walked toward the shrine gates.

The moment he stepped onto the stairs and approached the wooden door, a faint pale-yellow barrier enveloped the entrance, shimmering with a dim glow.

"A barrier?"

Shinji raised a brow slightly as his Sharingan activated at once.

He lifted a hand and lightly touched the barrier, his body passing straight through without the slightest obstruction.

With a soft chuckle, he stepped inside.

Though he had never been here before, he had already pried plenty of crucial information out of Shisui through indirect questioning around the time of that funeral.

As long as one possessed the Sharingan, this barrier could be passed through freely.

Upon entering the shrine's main hall, he saw an altar bearing the Uchiha Clan crest enshrined at its center.

Shinji walked straight to the right side of the altar, counted to the seventh tatami mat, and stopped before a bluestone slab. His hands swiftly formed seals.

A low hum arose as the stone slab slid half a meter to the left on its own, revealing a pitch-black stairway that descended beyond sight.

Without the slightest hesitation, he leaped down.

There was still plenty of time before the shift change, but the longer the night dragged on, the more likely something would go wrong. He could not linger.

When he reached the spacious second underground level, two clusters of flames ignited out of thin air, illuminating the entire secret chamber.

At the heart of the firelight stood the Six Paths Stone Tablet, worshipped by the Uchiha Clan for generations.

Shinji knew the general contents of the inscription well, which was precisely why he had no interest in the stone tablet at all.

Its contents were nothing more than a deception Black Zetsu had used to fool Madara Uchiha.

His gaze swept over the surroundings, and he soon discovered a stone door in the wall to the left.

"This should be it."

Shinji hurried over and pushed open the stone door. A long, narrow corridor appeared before him, connecting several secret chambers with different functions.

He quickly identified them.

"Clan History Archive, secret scroll repository, sealing chamber..."

With a plan already formed, he headed straight for the secret scroll repository.

"First, I'll find the Transcription Seal."

Pushing open the repository door, he found rows upon rows of neat bookshelves filled with Sealing Scrolls.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Shinji carefully searched through them one by one.

But after half an hour had passed, his brow furrowed tighter and tighter, and disappointment gradually crept onto his face.

"So few ninjutsu scrolls?"

The vast majority in the repository were Fire Release techniques, mainly basic C- and D-rank jutsu. There were pitifully few techniques of other elements; he could not even find a single B-rank Water Release scroll.

After all, the Uchiha Clan specialized in Fire Release, and most clan members did not make a point of training other elemental natures.

Forbidden techniques such as Izanagi and Izanami were nowhere to be found.

Shinji noticed obvious drag marks on several bookshelves. Someone had clearly taken things away beforehand.

"Looks like Fugaku and several elders hid away the forbidden techniques and high-level secret arts."

"Maybe they're in the Police Force?"

He rubbed his chin as he silently speculated.

His gaze finally settled on an inconspicuous bookshelf in the corner.

Shinji walked over and patiently searched through its scrolls one by one.

At last, a specially made dark-black beast-hide scroll fell into his hands.

He slowly unrolled it. The four vermilion characters, "Transcription Seal," came into view, accompanied by a clear Sharingan pattern.

"Found it."

Shinji stared at the sealing technique scroll, and at last, a long-suppressed smile curved his lips.