Back to Three Days Ago

The faucet was running.

A cold stream of water poured into the white porcelain basin, stirring up a ring of fine foam.

Xuan Shi braced both hands on the edge of the sink. Water slid down his chin and dripped onto the floor tiles, spreading into several dark stains.

He raised his head.

A pale face was reflected in the mirror. No blood, no wounds. The spot on the right side of his chest was smooth and intact, with only his heart beating steadily inside his rib cage.

Thump, thump, thump.

The sound of a living man.

Xuan Shi reached out and turned off the faucet.

The sound of water stopped abruptly.

He picked up a towel and dried his face, moving very slowly, as if he were wiping a fragile piece of porcelain that had just been unearthed.

Putting down the towel, he turned and walked out of the bathroom.

A burnt smell drifted through the living room.

Uchiha Akane was kneeling in front of the low table, fumbling with several plates in a fluster. When she saw Xuan Shi come out, she shrank her neck and tried to hide a plate of something black behind her.

"Um... the heat was too high," Akane muttered softly.

Xuan Shi walked over and sat down cross-legged.

He reached out and brought the hidden plate of fried eggs in front of him.

The edges were burnt, and the middle was not cooked through, with yellow yolk still running.

Akane nervously pinched the corner of her clothes, her eyes fixed on the grain of the wood tabletop.

Xuan Shi picked up his chopsticks, lifted a piece of charred egg white, and put it into his mouth.

Crunch.

The crisp, burnt sound burst in his mouth, and bitterness spread instantly.

He chewed twice, then swallowed.

Then he picked up another piece.

"Brother..." Akane raised her head, her brows bunching together. "Don't eat it. I'll throw it out and make it again."

"No need."

Xuan Shi swallowed the last piece of egg and put down his chopsticks. "It's good."

He stood and walked toward the coat rack by the entryway.

Hanging there was the dark blue uniform of the police force, the red-and-white fan crest on the back washed somewhat pale.

Xuan Shi took down the uniform and put it on. He fastened the buttons one by one, all the way to the top button at the collar. The tightened collar pressed against his Adam's apple, bringing a suffocating sense of reality.

He picked up his forehead protector and tied it around his forehead.

The metal plate was cold, pressed tight against his skin.

"Are you going to work?" Akane followed him to the entryway and handed him a lunch box.

Xuan Shi took the box, his fingers lingering on the lid for a second.

Warm.

In his previous life, when he held this body, it had been cold. As cold as ice.

"Mm." Xuan Shi stuffed the lunch box into his ninja tool pouch. "Going to handle something."

"Will you be back for dinner tonight?"

"I will."

Xuan Shi put on his shoes and rested his hand on the doorknob.

His movement paused.

He did not look back, his voice steady. "I'll bring you three-color dango tonight. From that shop by the Naka River."

"Really?!"

Akane's delighted cheer came from behind him, along with the sound of her jumping up.

"I'm leaving."

Xuan Shi pulled the door open and stepped out.

Click.

The door lock shut, cutting off the laughter inside.

The world outside was dazzling with sunlight.

The cries of cicadas filled the sky and earth, as if they meant to shatter his eardrums.

People came and went on the street. A vegetable cart rolled over the stone road with a rumbling sound. The uncle next door was sweeping the fallen leaves in front of his door with a broom. Seeing Xuan Shi, he grinned, revealing a missing front tooth.

"Morning, Xuan Shi. Off on patrol?"

Xuan Shi looked at that face.

That face which, in his memory, had been pierced through by shuriken, covered in blood.

"Morning."

Xuan Shi nodded, not stopping.

He walked along the familiar yet unfamiliar street. Every passerby, every house, overlapped with two images in his eyes.

One layer was the vivid present.

The other was the ruins and corpses three days later.

That sense of being torn in two made his stomach spasm faintly.

On his retina, a pale blue screen emerged.

[Countdown to Clan Extermination: 71:48:15]

The numbers ticked on.

Xuan Shi stared at those numbers and issued a command in his mind.

"System, extract the memory of the 'Night of Clan Extermination' from the previous cycle."

[Command confirmed.]

[Extracting visual, auditory, and pain data...]

[Data volume too large. Compress into a 'mental imprint'? Prosperity consumed: 0.5.]

"Yes."

Buzz.

A sharp hum came from deep within his brain.

Xuan Shi's steps suddenly halted.

His temples throbbed, as if someone were stirring inside them with a steel needle.

He clenched his teeth, his cheeks bulging high.

The firelight of that night, the screams, the reek of blood, the hot blood spurting from Akane's neck, Tekka's hollow eye sockets, Obito's scarlet lone eye.

All the despair and pain were forcibly compressed by an invisible power, crushed apart, then reassembled.

Cold sweat ran down his temples and dripped onto the collar of his uniform.

Ten seconds.

In just ten seconds, Xuan Shi's back was soaked through.

[Extraction complete.]

[Mental imprint 'Blood-Red Night' generated.]

The agony in his mind receded like the tide, leaving only a cold, heavy black point of light suspended quietly in the depths of his consciousness.

Xuan Shi exhaled a breath of stale air and straightened.

His gaze changed.

The deliberately maintained calm from when he had just left home vanished, replaced by a depth like stagnant water.

Deep in his pupils, an ominous red light faintly gleamed.

He continued forward.

His footsteps grew heavy, each step like treading on bones.

"Yo, isn't this Xuan Shi?"

Several young men in high-collared clan attire blocked the middle of the road.

The one in the lead had long hair and was spinning a kunai in his hand, a mocking smile on his face.

Inabi Uchiha.

A troublemaker in the police force, and a pillar of the radicals.

"I heard you've been scared out of your wits lately?" Inabi tossed the kunai into the air, then caught it steadily again. "Going around muttering about clan extermination, and even wanting to beg Lord Hokage? What, are you trying to disgrace all of us Uchiha?"

The others beside him burst into laughter.

"Exactly. If you're afraid of dying, get out of the police force."

"Or go home and cry in your little sister's arms."

Inabi took a step forward, his shoulder almost pressing against Xuan Shi's chest. "Hey, say something. Cat got your tongue?"

Xuan Shi stopped.

He turned his head slightly, his gaze falling on Inabi's face.

No anger, no argument.

Those black eyes were like two bottomless black holes, without the slightest ripple of emotion inside. It was as if he were looking at a stone, a tree, or... a corpse about to rot.

The smile on Inabi's face froze.

He felt the air around him suddenly grow viscous, the temperature plummeting.

There was no killing intent on Xuan Shi.

Killing intent only existed when one wanted to kill.

What Xuan Shi gave off was a deathly aura that had long grown used to death. Like a night watchman who had just walked out of a morgue, his body soaked in a stench of corpses that could not be washed away.

The kunai spinning between his fingers fell to the ground with a clatter.

Inabi felt his throat go dry. He wanted to swallow, only to find his gullet seemed blocked.

That primal terror of being stared down by a top predator made every hair on his body stand on end in an instant.

Xuan Shi withdrew his gaze.

He walked around Inabi and continued forward.

From beginning to end, he did not say a single word.

Only after his back disappeared around the street corner did Inabi suddenly gasp for breath, his legs going weak as he nearly dropped to his knees.

"That guy... what's going on..."

His companions beside him went to support him, only to find that Inabi's back had already been drenched in cold sweat.

Naka River.

The river rushed on, striking the rocks along the bank and making a splashing roar.

Following the riverbank upstream led to a dense forest.

Deep in the forest, an ancient shrine could be seen faintly.

Naka Shrine.

The secret meeting place of the Uchiha Clan, and also the forbidden ground where the stone tablet was kept.

Ordinarily, there was no one here, only a few crows preening their feathers on the eaves.

But today, the area around the shrine was heavily guarded.

More than a dozen elite members of the police force were scattered throughout the woods, several pairs of Sharingan constantly scanning the surrounding movements.

The shrine's main doors were tightly shut.

Faint sounds of heated argument came from within.

That was the debate over the coup, the contest over the future of the Uchiha.

It was also a farce of blind men trying to describe an elephant.

Xuan Shi walked out of the forest and stepped onto the stone stairs leading to the shrine.

"Stop!"

Two figures flashed out from behind the stone pillars at the shrine entrance, blocking the top of the steps.

The man on the left was tall and broad, while the man on the right had a scar on his face.

Both were elite chunin of the clan.

"Ahead is forbidden ground." Scarface stared coldly at Xuan Shi. "The clan head is holding the highest-level meeting today. Only jonin and elders may enter. Unrelated personnel, leave at once."

Xuan Shi did not stop.

He stepped up the stone stairs one by one, his footsteps echoing through the empty mountain forest.

"Can't you understand human speech?"

The tall guard frowned, his hand pressing against the hilt at his waist. "Take one more step, and don't blame us for being rude."

"These are the rules, Xuan Shi." Scarface recognized him. "Don't make this hard for us. Go back to your patrol."

In his previous life, Xuan Shi had stood here.

He had cried and begged them, begged them to go in and report, saying Shisui was missing, saying Danzo was about to make his move.

He had knelt on the ground and knocked his forehead bloody.

But they had merely watched coldly, as if watching a mad dog, and finally thrown him out.

Xuan Shi raised his head and looked at the two tightly shut vermilion doors.

An old sandalwood scent seeped out through the crack between the doors.

"Rules."

Xuan Shi's lips moved faintly, and he spat out the two words.

His steps still did not stop.

There were still three steps between him and the two men.

"Looking to die?"

A harsh glint flashed through the tall guard's eyes, and he wasted no more words. He lunged forward, his right hand forming a claw as he grabbed for Xuan Shi's shoulder, intending to throw him down the steps.

The move was fast, carrying the sound of wind.

But in Xuan Shi's eyes, it was as slow as a snail.

Compared to Obito's Kamui, compared to Itachi's Body Flicker Technique, an attack of this level was laughably crude.

Xuan Shi shifted slightly to the side.

The movement was tiny, only a few centimeters.

That large hand brushed past his collar and grabbed empty air.

The tall guard lost his balance, exposing a massive opening.

Xuan Shi raised his hand.

A thin layer of chakra clung to the edge of his palm, sharp as a scalpel.

He cut down.

Smack.

A soft sound rang out.

The knife-hand strike landed precisely on the tall guard's carotid sinus.

The tall guard did not even manage a grunt. His eyes rolled back, and his body went limp like a noodle as he collapsed.

The scar-faced man beside him froze for a moment, not yet understanding what had happened.

He instinctively drew his blade.

The blade had only slid two inches from its sheath.

A hand was already pressed on his hilt, forcing the blade back in by brute force.

Immediately after, a knee rapidly enlarged in his vision.

Thud!

A dull impact rang out.

Xuan Shi's knee drove into the scar-faced man's stomach.

The scar-faced man's eyes bulged. A mouthful of sour fluid sprayed from his mouth, and his body hunched like a cooked shrimp. Clutching his stomach, he dropped to his knees, making pained retching sounds.

The whole process took less than two seconds.

There was no flashy ninjutsu clash, only the most direct, most effective destruction of bodily function.

Xuan Shi withdrew his leg and patted nonexistent dust from his trouser leg.

Two elite chunin lay at his feet, one unconscious, one stripped of combat ability.

He stepped over their bodies and stood before the shrine's main doors.

The argument inside was still going.

"Fugaku! We can't hesitate any longer! The village has gone too far!"

"We have to launch the coup at once! Control the Hokage Building first!"

"But the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's side..."

"We can't worry about that much! The glory of the Uchiha cannot be lost!"

Those voices were filled with anger, anxiety, and blind confidence.

Like a group of people trapped in an iron room, arguing over whether to kick the wall with their left foot or their right, while no one noticed the roof had already been doused in gasoline.

Xuan Shi raised a hand and adjusted his slightly crooked forehead protector.

He took a deep breath, and chakra surged into his right foot.

Since the door could not be knocked open.

Since words would not be heard.

Then there was no need to knock, and no need to speak.

He only needed to let the light in.

Even if that light was the dazzling gleam of blood.

Xuan Shi took half a step back, power driving from his waist, and kicked the seam between the two heavy doors.

Boom—!!!

A deafening blast exploded like a thunderclap.

The two thick solid-wood doors could not bear the force. The door bolt snapped, and wood chips flew everywhere.

The doors crashed inward, slamming heavily into the walls on both sides and shaking loose countless specks of dust.

Sunlight poured through the open doors like a sharp sword, piercing the dark, stifling air inside the shrine.

The argument stopped abruptly.

Dozens of pairs of eyes turned as one, staring at the figure standing against the light in the doorway.

Dust danced in the beams of light.

Xuan Shi stepped on the shattered wood scattered across the floor and walked into the shrine, step by step.

His shadow stretched long, extending all the way to the feet of the man kneeling in the seat of honor at the front of the hall.

Uchiha Fugaku.

The clan head of the Uchiha Clan.

Fugaku frowned as he looked at this intruder, a flicker of dignified anger passing through his eyes.

"Who are you? Which squad are you from?"

"Who let you in? Where are the guards?" Elder Yashiro slammed the table and rose, shouting sharply.

Xuan Shi did not answer.

He walked to the very center of the hall and stopped.

He looked around.

Those familiar faces. Those faces that would become corpses in three days.

He could even name every single one of them, and he could describe how every single one of them would die.

"I came to deliver something to you all."

Xuan Shi spoke.

His voice was not loud, yet it was clearly audible in the deathly silent hall.

He raised his hand and pointed at his own head.

"To deliver a... funeral invitation."

The words fell.

He suddenly lifted his head.

His originally black eyes were instantly swallowed by bloodred.

Three tomoe emerged, spun, and fused.

An extremely cold chakra storm erupted with him at its center, blowing the candle flames in the hall into a wild sway and snuffing out more than half of them in an instant.

Darkness descended.

And within that darkness, a pair of scarlet eyes bearing eerie patterns slowly opened.

"Look at me."

Xuan Shi said softly.

"Look at... hell."