After successfully "guiding" Kagami Uchiha on the training grounds that day, Uchiha Cang focused even more on this low-risk, high-efficiency method that combined "Weaving Logic" with "Guidance."
He continued to keep a low profile, spending most of his time on "Inner Seeking," consolidating the harmonious fluctuations within him and honing them until they grew ever more rounded and fluid. His control over his own power became increasingly precise. Though his total Chakra and mental strength grew slowly, their quality continued to improve, like steel tempered a hundred times over—far more resilient and powerful than Chakra of the same quantity.
At times, he would stroll through the clan compound, seemingly without purpose, while in truth observing the younger generation and subtly influencing them in ways almost impossible to notice. Kagami Uchiha's progress was particularly evident; his fundamentals grew increasingly solid.
However, the atmosphere across the compound did not ease with this slight improvement. On the contrary, it grew ever more oppressive. Uchiha Madara's injuries kept recurring, and all the pressure fell on Izuna Uchiha. His excessive use of the Mangekyou had visibly worsened his eyesight, and his temperament had grown increasingly irritable and resolute.
That day, a high-level meeting was held in a grave atmosphere.
Izuna sat at the head of the table, dark shadows beneath his eyes. His voice was cold. "The border patrol suffered another severe blow. It wasn't Tobirama Senju himself who attacked, but... a squad of Senju shinobi who were confirmed dead in last month's battle."
The meeting room fell deathly silent.
"The dead... came back to life?" one elder murmured in disbelief.
"Not truly." Izuna's fingers tapped the tabletop, betraying his unease. "According to the survivors, those 'dead' had an eerie grayish-white complexion, their bodies covered in cracks. Their movements were stiff, they felt no pain, and the Chakra within them was cold and unnatural. They could even use some of the techniques they'd known in life. Most importantly—their eyes were completely vacant, as if they were nothing more than puppets being controlled!"
Puppets?! Controlling the dead?!
A chill swept through the entire meeting room. This was more horrifying than any known Forbidden Jutsu. It was the most complete desecration of the boundary between life and death!
"It was Tobirama Senju!" another elite jonin snarled through clenched teeth. "Only that madman would research such an evil Forbidden Jutsu!"
"We have to find out what it is!" Izuna slammed his hand on the table. Three Tomoe appeared in his eyes as his emotions surged, and his vision seemed to blur again. He forced himself to steady his gaze. "We can't just destroy it or defend against it! We need detailed intelligence on that technique! We have to learn its principles, its weaknesses, and... what Tobirama intends to do with it!"
His gaze swept across the room, filled with an almost frenzied determination. "Send out our most elite reconnaissance squad. Their target—the core laboratory of Tobirama Senju! At any cost, obtain every piece of information about this Forbidden Jutsu that controls the dead! If possible... bring back a sample!"
The order was given with unyielding resolve and a bone-deep chill. Everyone understood that this mission was more dangerous than any before it. They might be facing creations of a horror that transcended life and death.
Uchiha Cang listened in silence, tumultuous waves rising in his heart.
Impure World Reincarnation! This was an early form of Impure World Reincarnation! Had Tobirama already begun exploring this field at this point?
He had assumed that Tobirama's research was still focused on the Flying Thunder God and Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags. He hadn't expected Tobirama's extreme wariness of Uchiha power and desperate hunger for victory to have driven him to touch this forbidden field so early.
The emergence of this technique meant that the cruelty of war and its limits were about to be pushed even lower.
After the meeting, Cang felt unusually heavyhearted. History seemed to be accelerating and growing darker because of certain factors—perhaps including the chain reaction caused by his own small interference with "Causality."
A reconnaissance squad of five Uchiha elite jonin slipped silently into the heart of Senju territory under cover of night, carrying with them a resolve to die.
Meanwhile, deep within the Senju Clan Compound, in an underground laboratory.
The atmosphere here was even colder and more oppressive than in the Uchiha Clan Compound. The air reeked of preservatives and some kind of special clay. The walls were covered in complex Sealing Jutsu formulas that glimmered with a ghostly blue light.
Tobirama Senju stood before a huge examination table. On it lay not a living person, but the recently pieced-together remains of an Uchiha shinobi—"salvaged" from the previous battle. A layer of special grayish-white clay mixed with Chakra-conductive material covered the corpse. Much of it was still rough and uneven, lending the body an eerie appearance.
In one corner of the laboratory, several enormous glass containers held even more unrecognizable tissue samples, some still bearing the Uchiha clan's Gunbai crest. Most chilling of all were the two figures standing motionless in the shadows on one side of the room.
They wore Senju Clan clothing, but their skin was deathly gray-white, and their bodies were covered in strange cracks. Their eyes were vacant, and they showed not the slightest sign of life. They were the very "dead" who had attacked the Uchiha patrol!
Tobirama formed a complicated hand seal, channeling his cold Chakra into the corpse on the examination table. At the same time, he barked at a Senju prisoner bound tightly nearby, who was on the verge of death—either a death-row prisoner or a volunteer who'd offered himself for testing: "Forbidden Technique: Impure World Reincarnation - Modified!"
Hum!
A dark light flared. The prisoner let out a bloodcurdling scream as his soul seemed to be forcibly torn from his body. It became a blurred silhouette, struggling as it was stuffed into the clay-covered Uchiha corpse!
The next instant, the "corpse" snapped its eyes open!
A pair of vacant, emotionless Sharingan slowly revealed a Three Tomoe pattern!
"GRAAH—!" The Reanimated Body let out a roar that sounded nothing like a human voice and struggled violently, trying to break free from the examination table. Its Sharingan rotated mechanically, attempting to copy the abilities it had possessed in life. But the soul and vessel were incompatible, and the technique was still woefully incomplete, leaving its movements chaotic and distorted.
"The stability is still far too poor... The soul's rejection is severe, and the power of the Sharingan can't be properly reproduced. It can only retain basic Taijutsu and some nature-transformed Chakra..." Tobirama observed calmly, recording the data at high speed. There was not a trace of guilt in his eyes for desecrating life—only focus on the technical problem and a fervent desire to overcome it.
"I need a better sacrifice... a stronger soul to serve as a 'Wedge'... I also need to further optimize the Summoning Contract and the binding runes..." he murmured to himself, his gaze passing over the two earliest and relatively "successful" Reanimated Bodies in the corner, made from the corpses of ordinary Senju shinobi and relatively weak souls.
"Uchiha... the power of your cursed eyes will eventually become the tool I use to protect the Senju and wipe you out!" A cold, cruel smile curled his lips.
He could almost see it: on some future battlefield, an army composed of dead Uchiha tearing into their own comrades.
This was how he would answer the Sharingan!
What he didn't know was that, in the shadows beyond the laboratory's outer wall, the Uchiha reconnaissance squad had infiltrated with an advanced concealment talisman and extreme caution. Through a narrow gap, they watched this soul-shattering scene of the desecration of the dead.
The Uchiha squad leader dug his fingernails deep into his palm until blood welled up, but he didn't notice. Reflected in his Sharingan were the gray-white, cracked bodies, the vacant Three Tomoe, and Tobirama Senju's cold, expressionless profile.
Fury and revulsion overwhelmed him in an instant.
The news had to get back!
No matter the cost!
Inside and outside the laboratory, the covert struggle between the Uchiha and Senju clans was driven toward an even more frenzied and desperate abyss by this Forbidden Jutsu that trespassed upon the taboo of life and death.
Could the seed of faint light survive amid the darkness where the Sprout of Profanity spread?
Could Uchiha Cang's "Weaving Logic" withstand a challenge so far beyond reason?
The storm had yet to come, but the chill had already cut to the bone.
Before you continue