December 31st, the year-end festival!
This year's cold wave had arrived earlier than usual. Heavy snow fell, and the biting chill drove people to put on thick clothes to fend off the harsh winter.
Yet the bitter cold could not stop the excited villagers from crowding the streets, because the New Year was about to arrive.
The New Year calendar in this world was the same as Japan's after the Meiji Restoration in his previous life, using the Gregorian calendar.
Night was approaching. The setting sun left an orange afterglow on the horizon before slowly vanishing, plunging the sky into darkness. Only the high-hanging moon and stars scattered across the sky gave off faint traces of light.
By then, the lights in Konoha had begun to come on. Villagers traveled in groups through the streets and alleys, buying New Year goods and visiting one another.
The streets were also filled with little girls in kimono and shrine maiden outfits, waving things that might have been toys or ritual implements as they imitated the festivities of the year-end festival.
Konoha was full of laughter and joy, warm and harmonious beneath the lights of countless homes, as though nothing worrying had happened that year.
Yet in a remote corner on the outskirts of the vast Konoha, the dark and empty Uchiha Clan Compound looked utterly out of place against the brilliantly lit village outside.
"What a miserable contrast."
Standing at the gates of the Uchiha Clan Compound and looking at the lights of Konoha in the distance, Sasuke mocked himself.
Looking at it this way, there was a reason the original owner had been so chuunibyou and so desperate for revenge.
Anyone who had been betrayed by the people closest to them, the people they respected most, then had to return home every day to be reminded of them, only to see the contrast with distant Konoha's happy and fulfilled life...
Under such circumstances, it would have been good enough if a normal person did not go mad.
"Let's go."
Sasuke chuckled and headed east toward the Naka River, carrying several items in his hands.
According to his memories, these were offerings used for the clan's annual ritual.
Since he had taken over this body and would live on under the name Second Pillar...
He did not mind spending some time doing whatever he could when it came to maintaining a sense of ritual.
Naka Shrine!
After entering the shrine, Sasuke followed the memories in his mind into the main hall. He set the items aside before beginning to inspect the shrine.
Come to think of it, Sasuke had never properly examined this shrine. Over the past five months, he had only come here twice, and each time he had gone straight to the Uchiha's secret underground gathering place beneath the seventh tatami mat in a room of the side hall.
This was a shrine with a culture reminiscent of Japan. Since no one had come to clean or maintain it for a long time, the main hall had accumulated plenty of dust and cobwebs. After giving it a cursory look, Sasuke decided to clean it later.
"Is that a black Tomoe being enshrined?"
The main hall of Naka Shrine did not enshrine any deity, nor even an Uchiha ancestor. Instead, it held a thick black Tomoe the size of an adult's arm, shaped like a comma and made of a material that looked both like stone and crystal.
Tomoe usually symbolized the shape of the soul and spirit, and also the shape of the moon.
Both were closely connected to the Uchiha.
Especially since the Uchiha's Sharingan itself took the shape of a Tomoe, it was only natural for them to enshrine one.
"Huh?"
After taking a closer look, Sasuke noticed something strange. Tomoe usually had a head and a tail. The tail was pointed and thin, while the head was broad and round, with a hole drilled through it for a cord.
But this one had no hole in its head. Or rather, the hole was inlaid with a crimson crystal about two fingers wide, resembling a Glaze diamond.
"This thing isn't simple!"
The instant Sasuke saw the red crystal, he sensed that it was anything but ordinary. Earlier, when he had arrived at the shrine, he had used Fire Release to light the lamps.
When he used Fire Release, he had felt a faint and inexplicable resonance. But he had not thought much of it at the time, assuming it was because this shrine had been worshipped by generations of Uchiha.
Now it seemed that this mysterious red crystal had reacted to the Fire Release in his body.
Curious, Sasuke stepped forward, removed the red crystal from its setting, and examined it carefully.
The red crystal was diamond-shaped. It felt warm in his hand, its texture dense and delicate, smooth and gentle, with an oily sheen. Other than that, it seemed like an utterly ordinary crystal.
"Chakra Crystal!"
"This is Chakra Crystal!"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly. After examining it for a while, he recognized its origin.
Sasuke was no stranger to Chakra Crystal. In his previous life, he had known of one such item: the crystal necklace left behind by the First Hokage.
The First Hokage's Necklace had been formed from the First Hokage's crystallized Chakra. It contained Hashirama's Wood Release Chakra sealed away during his lifetime and possessed the power to suppress the Nine-Tails.
The First Hokage's Necklace was crystallized Wood Release Chakra, while the piece in Sasuke's hand was crystallized Fire Release Chakra.
When Sasuke had previously looked through the shrine's books, they had vaguely mentioned that the Uchiha clan also possessed a piece of Chakra Crystal.
Who would have thought it was here!
The books did not clearly state whose Chakra Crystal it was, but it was probably not Indra's. Otherwise, aside from the fire attribute, it should have contained more Yin Release attributes.
It was likely left behind by some Uchiha ancestor in history who had cultivated Fire Release to a transcendent level.
"If this red crystal is the Uchiha Chakra Crystal recorded in the books, then this black Tomoe..."
After putting away the Fire Release Chakra Crystal, Sasuke stepped forward again and examined the black Tomoe.
"Obsidian? Black chromium?"
Touching the black Tomoe, which seemed more like crystal than stone, Sasuke muttered to himself.
He discovered that as soon as he placed his hand on it, the black Tomoe began absorbing some of the warmth from his palm. It was even continuously absorbing the radiant heat from the surrounding flames.
Obsidian was a natural Glaze formed when magma flowing from volcanic lava suddenly cooled, while black chromium was a loosely layered crystalline oxide with dendritic formations.
This black Tomoe was made of something like obsidian, but its properties resembled black chromium, which had often been used in his previous life for solar absorbers and optical instruments.
"It's Fire Obsidian!"
A flash of insight struck Sasuke as he recalled the records in the clan book Mineralogy of the Ninja World.
Fire Obsidian was very similar to obsidian. Both formed when magma from volcanic lava suddenly cooled, but while obsidian was Glaze, Fire Obsidian was a metal!
The precursor to Fire Obsidian was Chakra Metal, but the conditions for its formation were extremely harsh. It could form naturally or be made artificially.
Natural formation required two conditions.
1. Volcanic lava.
2. The volcanic lava itself had to be a Chakra Metal ore vein.
Artificial formation required Chakra Metal to be thrown into volcanic lava and burned and forged for at least a hundred years before success was even possible.
Fire Obsidian was the best material for forging fire-attribute weapons, without question.
That might not be easy to understand.
According to Mineralogy of the Ninja World, Kiba, one of the Seven Ninja Swords, had been forged from Thunder Pattern Steel, a material similar to Fire Obsidian.
The precursor to Thunder Pattern Steel was also Chakra Metal. It formed through a fortunate coincidence, like millennium-old lightning-struck wood, after enduring repeated strikes of natural lightning without being destroyed.
"Looks like I'll have a divine weapon of my own too."
A trace of a smile appeared in Sasuke's eyes as he sealed the black Tomoe into the storage scroll he carried with him.
Clap! Clap!
After putting everything away, Sasuke stood up and clapped his hands, intending to continue with the clan ritual.
"Uh..."
Looking at the now-empty offering table in the center of the main hall, even someone as thick-skinned as him felt a little embarrassed.
He really had intended to come and complete the clan ritual.
But after arriving, he had swept up every single object used in the Uchiha clan ritual.
What a sin, what a sin...
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