The Dead Silence of the Naka River Shrine

Sunlight spilled in through the wide-open doorway.

Countless tiny dust motes danced within the pillars of light.

Inside the main hall of the shrine, the cushions that had been neatly arranged were now in total disarray.

"Ugh—"

Yashiro Uchiha braced his hands against the floor, his throat convulsing violently as he vomited a pool of bile.

He didn't bother wiping the filth from the corner of his mouth; instead, his trembling hands reached for his own neck. His fingertips touched warm skin, beneath which his carotid artery pulsed.

It wasn't severed.

And that cold chain wasn't there.

Yet, he still felt as if something were tightening around his throat. The sensation of suffocation was like an invisible hand, gripping his windpipe with a deathly hold.

"I'm not dead... I'm not dead..."

Yashiro gasped for air, sweat streaming down his aged cheeks and into his collar, soaking his undergarments completely.

Nearby, Inabi Uchiha curled up beneath a pillar.

This elite member of the Police Force, usually so arrogant, was now hugging his knees, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

He looked up, his eyes unfocused as he stared at Xuan Shi standing in the center of the hall, as if looking at a monster.

In that instant just now, he had been killed ten times over in that blood-red world.

Each time, he had been sliced apart by the masked man as easily as if he were tofu.

He had been utterly powerless to fight back.

That despair was more terrifying than death itself.

Aside from heavy breathing and the occasional retching, there was no other sound in the hall.

The elders, who had been clamoring for a coup and the kidnapping of the Hokage only moments ago, were now pale and slumped on the floor, as if their very spines had been ripped out.

"What... was that?"

A hoarse voice broke the silence.

Fugaku Uchiha remained kneeling in the seat of honor.

He hadn't collapsed in a display of weakness like the others, but his hands were gripping the fabric over his knees so tightly that his nails had snapped, and blood stained his deep blue clan robes.

He looked up, his eyes bloodshot, with dried trails of blood-tears still clinging to the corners.

"Xuan Shi."

Fugaku's voice trembled. "What you showed us just now... that Itachi... was it real?"

He was asking about the blade.

The blade that had been driven into his back.

Xuan Shi stood where he was, looking down at the leader of the entire clan.

"Whether it was real or not, the clan head should know better than anyone."

Xuan Shi turned and walked toward the window on the side of the hall, reaching out to push the shutters open.

The sound of cicadas from outside flooded in.

"Shisui has been missing for three days."

With his back to the others, Xuan Shi looked at the lush forest outside the window. "Do the people you sent to find him have any news?"

Fugaku's body stiffened.

No news.

It was as if he had evaporated into thin air.

"He is downstream at the Naka River."

Xuan Shi's tone was flat, as if he were discussing something trivial. "His body has probably been mostly eaten by fish by now. But he left something behind."

He turned around, his gaze sharp as a blade, piercing Fugaku.

"His right eye is in the right eye socket of Danzo Shimura."

"And his left eye, before he jumped off the cliff, was personally handed to Itachi."

Boom.

The words struck the hall like a thunderclap.

Fugaku's eyes widened, his pupils trembling violently.

"What... did you say?"

"Don't believe me?"

Xuan Shi sneered. "You can send someone to investigate right now. Go to Danzo's Root base, or go ask Itachi directly. Ask your good son where Shisui's eyes are. See how he answers you."

Fugaku opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

The detail was too specific.

Specific enough that it was impossible to refute.

If it were a fabricated lie, it would be impossible to be so clear about the whereabouts of both the left and right eyes.

Moreover, it explained why Shisui would "commit suicide."

Having his eyes stolen.

Being driven into a dead end.

"Danzo..."

An elder raised a trembling hand, his voice choked with tears. "That old bastard... he really dared to lay a hand on Shisui? That was Shisui, who possessed the Kotoamatsukami!"

"Why wouldn't he dare?"

Xuan Shi glanced at him. "While you were still holding meetings to discuss whether or not to stage a coup, his blade was already buried in your guts."

"Then... then who is that masked man?"

Yashiro finally caught his breath and crawled up from the floor, his voice raspy. "That ability to phase through everything... we couldn't hit him at all! That kind of monster... how are we supposed to win?"

Fear began to spread.

If Itachi's betrayal was a psychological blow, then the existence of Obito was a physical despair.

Everyone had experienced it firsthand.

Ninjutsu was ineffective.

Taijutsu was ineffective.

Going up against him was just suicide.

"You can't win."

Xuan Shi answered bluntly.

He walked to the center of the hall and surveyed the clansmen who had been scared out of their wits.

"According to your plan, three days from now is the night of the massacre."

"Itachi is responsible for clearing out the women, children, and ordinary clansmen."

"The masked man is responsible for taking out the main force of the Police Force."

"Danzo's Root is responsible for collecting the Sharingan."

Xuan Shi held up three fingers, pressing them down one by one.

"The division of labor is clear, and the efficiency is extremely high. Before dawn, the Uchiha Clan will be nothing more than a line in a history book."

"And you."

He pointed at Yashiro on the floor. "You will only become specimens in Danzo's laboratory."

"No... that's impossible..."

Inabi clutched his head, his nails digging into his scalp. "We are the Uchiha! We have the strongest ocular jutsu! How could we possibly lose so miserably?!"

"Ocular jutsu?"

Xuan Shi walked up to him, crouched down, and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Your three-tomoe, in front of that pair of Mangekyo, is worth nothing."

Inabi shuddered, not daring to meet his gaze.

The hall fell into a dead silence once more.

This time, it was a silence of despair.

Everyone kept their heads bowed.

The arrogance, the fanaticism, and the sense of superiority from before had all turned into cold, icy fear.

The road was blocked.

A coup meant death.

Not staging a coup also meant death.

With Danzo in front, Itachi behind, and an unkillable masked man in the middle, this was a dead end.

"Then... what should we do?"

Fugaku's voice was hollow.

He seemed to have aged ten years in an instant, his once-straight back hunched over.

He looked at Xuan Shi like a drowning man looking at the last straw.

"Xuan Shi, since you can foresee all of this... then you must have a way, right?"

Everyone's gaze converged on him.

Filled with hope, fear, and supplication.

Xuan Shi stood up.

He didn't answer immediately, instead taking his time to straighten his cuffs.

The timing was right.

Their pride had been shattered, and fear had been planted.

Now, this field was finally ready to be sown.

"Foresee?"

Xuan Shi shook his head. "Clan head, you have mistaken one thing."

He raised his hand and pointed to his own eyes.

His originally black pupils changed once again.

Blood-red surged.

The pattern of the counter-clockwise rotating black gear appeared clearly before everyone's eyes.

Cold chakra spilled out once more, causing the temperature in the room to plummet.

Everyone instinctively shrank back.

"These eyes are not for 'seeing' the future."

Xuan Shi's voice became low, carrying a hypnotic, cult-like power.

"After witnessing that hellish future, after experiencing the pain of the entire clan being slaughtered... it awakened."

"This is the wailing of the Uchiha ancestors."

"It is the forbidden power not recorded on the stone tablet."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over every terrified face.

"What it can do is... reset."

"Reset?" Fugaku was stunned.

"Time."

Xuan Shi uttered the word.

A collective gasp echoed through the hall.

Time.

That was the realm of gods.

Even the legendary Sage of Six Paths had never been heard to possess the ability to manipulate time.

"You mean... go back to the past?" Yashiro's eyes widened, his breathing forgotten.

"That's right."

Xuan Shi nodded. "Back to when all the tragedies hadn't yet begun. Back to when Shisui was still alive. Even... back to before the Nine-Tails incident."

"This... how is this possible?"

An elder muttered to himself. "This kind of jutsu... it's unheard of."

"Then what was it you saw just now?"

Xuan Shi countered.

The elder was speechless.

The immersive experience of death they had just felt was indeed beyond the scope of any genjutsu.

If even that kind of realistic "future" could be displayed, then it didn't seem impossible for these eyes to possess the ability to reverse time.

After all, this was the Mangekyo Sharingan.

The legendary eye of the gods, possessing the power of all creation.

"However..."

Xuan Shi's tone shifted, his expression turning grave.

"My ocular power is limited."

"These eyes have just awakened. To reverse the time and causality of the entire Uchiha Clan requires an astronomical amount of chakra."

He looked at Fugaku.

"I cannot do it alone."

Fugaku's fingers twitched.

He was a smart man, or rather, he had once been a smart man.

He understood what Xuan Shi was implying.

"What do you need?" Fugaku asked.

Xuan Shi spread his arms as if to embrace the entire great hall.

"I need everyone."

"Every clansman who has awakened the Sharingan."

"Every bloodline of the Uchiha."

Xuan Shi's voice echoed through the great hall, striking everyone's eardrums.

"I will set up an unprecedented ocular jutsu array in this shrine."

"I will gather the chakra of several hundred members of the clan and sacrifice the fortune the Uchiha have accumulated over a thousand years."

"Using these eyes as the medium, I will activate a... group regression."

The entire hall erupted.

"Group regression?!"

"You mean you'll take all of us back with you?"

"That's insane!"

Whispers rose into a roar.

This plan was far too ahead of its time.

So far ahead that it sounded like the ravings of a madman.

"Quiet!"

Fugaku suddenly roared.

The great hall fell silent again.

Fugaku braced his hands on his knees and staggered to his feet.

He looked at Xuan Shi.

A complicated light flickered in his eyes.

There was doubt, there was shock, but more than anything... there was the desperate longing of someone who had found a way out.

If it could truly be done.

If they could truly return to the past with their memories.

That meant they would have the "script."

They knew Danzo's conspiracy, knew Itachi's movements, knew the Masked Man's abilities.

That would be a completely different situation.

That would be... a winning board.

"Go back with our memories..."

Fugaku murmured to himself, "So this is the true... bloodless opening of the gates?"

He took a deep breath, as if he meant to empty all the stale air from his chest.

He took one step forward and stood before Xuan Shi.

The two of them were less than a meter apart.

The clan leader who had once stood high above everyone else now had no choice but to look up at this young junior.

"Xuan Shi."

Fugaku's voice sank, recovering a trace of a clan leader's dignity.

"If it truly is as you say, if you can reverse time."

"Then... what is the price?"

There was no free lunch in this world.

Let alone for a forbidden jutsu that defied heaven and changed fate.

Every gaze fixed on Xuan Shi.

Xuan Shi smiled.

In the sunlight streaming in through the windows, that smile looked somewhat bewitching.

"The price is..."

He leaned close to Fugaku's ear and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"If it fails."

"The souls of everyone who participates in the regression will be utterly shredded in the turbulence of space-time."

"They won't even have the chance to go to the Pure Land."

Fugaku's pupils shrank sharply.

"And."

Xuan Shi took a step back, his voice returning to a normal volume.

"This requires all of our chakra. In other words, the moment the ninjutsu is activated, we will become powerless."

"If the enemy breaks in at that moment, we will be lambs waiting for slaughter."

This was a massive gamble.

The stake was the life of the entire clan, as well as their souls after death.

Xuan Shi looked at Fugaku, then at the pale-faced elders.

"Well?"

"Will you sit here and wait to be slaughtered like chickens by Itachi three days from now?"

"Or will you put your lives on the table and make one huge bet with me?"

"Clan leader, do you dare to gamble?"

The great hall was terrifyingly silent.

It was as if even the sound of dust falling to the floor could be heard.

Fugaku closed his eyes.

In his mind appeared the image of Itachi standing behind him with a blade in hand.

The image of Mikoto collapsed in a pool of blood.

The image of Sasuke screaming inside the Tsukuyomi.

That was the inevitable future.

That was the ending that would definitely happen if they did not gamble.

Three seconds later.

Fugaku opened his eyes.

The unfocused look from before was gone.

In its place was the madness and resolve of someone driven into a corner.

He turned and faced the elders and elite ninja who were still hesitating.

"Pass down my order."

Fugaku's voice was not loud, but it carried a bloody force that brooked no doubt.

"Enter level-one combat readiness."

"Summon every clansman, regardless of gender or age. Before sunset tonight, all of them are to gather at Naka Shrine."

"Tell them."

Fugaku paused, then slammed his palm hard against the pillar beside him.

Bang!

Wood splinters flew.

"If they don't want to die, they'd better get their asses over here."

"We are going to... overturn this damned board."

Xuan Shi stood behind him, looking at the clan leader who had finally been forced onto the war chariot.

The blood-red gears in his eyes slowly turned one notch.

The first step was done.