Who Issued a Pass to the Dead?

Rain poured down in torrents, countless silver threads descending from the pitch-black sky and lashing the earth.

Inside the temporary command headquarters by the Naka River, chakra lamps dispelled some of the darkness, but not the heaviness and unease hanging in the air.

Xuan stood motionless atop a cliff a thousand meters away, like a lifeless statue.

Rainwater slid from the edges of his cloak, yet could not penetrate the three-foot radius around him.

Within those scarlet eyes, two black tomoe turned slowly, like twin abysses devouring the light. They effortlessly tore through the dense curtain of rain, taking in every movement within the camp.

His gaze finally settled on a black carriage that had just arrived.

There was no insignia on its body, but the heavy texture of special chakra metal capable of blocking all detection techniques, along with the cold aura unique to Anbu members emanating from its escort, unmistakably revealed its origin—the Konoha Special Interrogation Division.

A cold curve rose at the corner of Xuan's lips.

He knew that seated inside the carriage was the special investigative consultant for this Underground Whisper incident, a genuine Kage-level powerhouse.

More importantly, this man was a key node in the wartime intelligence network and possessed top-secret files on every high-risk target.

Among them was a file that labeled him an "S-rank unknown bloodline-limit carrier."

Once the contents of that file were thoroughly investigated, everything he had hidden would be exposed before the Five Great Nations.

He could not allow that to happen.

The memories had to be taken.

Xuan slowly pulled a scroll from his robes. It was war loot seized from the Hidden Leaf Village squad led by Kento.

As the scroll unfurled, intricate runes flickered in the dim light. It was clearly a partial unsealing procedure diagram for Dance of the Shikigami.

Though incomplete, it was enough to pass for the real thing.

He took a deep breath as the black mist energy within him began to churn.

Strands of black mist, purer than ink, seeped from his palms. They began to mimic the flow patterns of chakra, intertwining and spiraling before eventually condensing into a temporary mark identical to the "Sealing Specialist Certification Mark" demonstrated on the scroll.

The light faded inward, and its aura was convincing. Even an expert proficient in sealing techniques would struggle to distinguish it from the genuine article without conducting deep chakra sensing.

Having finished, he quickly changed into the clothes of a fallen Hidden Cloud Village sealing specialist. He pulled the hood low, revealing only a pair of eyes that gleamed with professional calm.

He did not choose to sneak in. Instead, he adjusted his breathing and strode directly through the checkpoint at the camp's outskirts with steady, faintly weary steps.

"Stop! Password!" Two guards crossed their halberds, blocking his way.

Xuan said nothing. He merely raised the sealing scroll in his hand and showed them the certification mark engraved on his left palm.

Rain pattered against the scroll, making crackling sounds that only made his figure seem more solitary.

The guards' gazes swept between the scroll and the mark. They saw the familiar standard design and clear patterns, then sensed the tranquil, waterlike chakra fluctuations unique to a sealing specialist around him—perfectly simulated by black mist. Their vigilance immediately diminished by more than half.

At a time when everyone was on edge, a "friendly" reinforcement carrying an official mission scroll could always bring a measure of comfort.

Besides, Xuan was far too composed—too composed to look like an impostor.

They all knew that those with ulterior motives would usually be even more cautious in such an environment, rather than acting so openly.

"Go in. The consultant has just arrived, and the sealing squad is on standby in the command post." The guards withdrew their halberds and stepped aside to clear a path.

Xuan gave a slight nod of acknowledgment and silently walked deeper into the camp. His figure soon disappeared into the endless rain and the hurried crowd.

Inside the command post, the atmosphere was so oppressive it seemed frozen solid.

The Kage-level consultant, a lean-faced middle-aged man with eyes sharp as an eagle's, sat at the head of the table and listened to an intelligence officer's report. "...Based on the mental regression reports of multiple survivors, we have preliminarily concluded that the Earth Eater is not a physical entity, but a chain-like mental contamination triggered by high-intensity collective hallucinations. We recommend immediately deploying the Yamanaka Clan's mental purification unit to screen all frontline personnel..."

Like a genuine sealing specialist, Xuan stood quietly at the edge of the crowd, eyes lowered as though studying the scroll in his hands. In truth, the perception of his two-tomoe Sharingan had already analyzed the entire command post's layout, the positions of its personnel, and every flow of chakra.

His target was the consultant himself.

But a direct attack would be no different from suicide.

He needed a perfect opportunity.

His gaze fell upon a busy clerk behind the records desk.

The man was writing rapidly, recording the key points of the meeting.

Just as the clerk turned toward the bookshelf to fetch a fresh blank scroll, Xuan moved.

He seemed merely to be passing by, his wide right sleeve brushing lightly over the tabletop of the records desk.

A wisp of black mist, smaller than a speck of dust, quietly slipped from his cuff. Like a living thing, it burrowed into the clerk's sleeve and instantly attached itself to his skin, leaving behind an extremely faint soul mark.

This was a newly developed ability. So long as the marked person's soul fluctuations resonated with specific information—such as a file about him—the information would automatically be relayed to him through this mark.

It was an insurance policy, a backup method for stealing intelligence remotely.

After finishing this, his gaze returned to the consultant, only to be drawn to an item hanging at the man's waist—a bronze bell of ancient design.

The bell bore the personal crest of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. It was a token of identity for the Hokage's direct envoys, granting the highest passage authority within the wartime Allied Forces system, equivalent to the Hokage's personal presence.

Xuan's breathing abruptly stopped.

With that thing, he could freely enter and leave every core area of the Allied Forces, including... the archive storing that top-secret file.

He did not act at once. Instead, he became the perfect hunter and patiently waited for his moment to arrive.

Time passed second by second. At midnight, it was time for the shift change.

An orderly entered the command post carrying a steaming bowl of soup and respectfully offered it to the consultant. "Sir, you haven't rested in over ten hours. Have something warm to warm yourself up."

The consultant's tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and he nodded.

To make it easier to hold the bowl, he instinctively removed the bronze bell from his waist and casually set it on the nearby table.

Now!

The instant the bell left his body, Xuan activated Inferno Perception. Everything around him transformed into a thermal world made of flowing chakra.

He clearly "saw" that the consultant's attention was entirely focused on the hot soup before him, and an infinitesimal gap had appeared in the chakra defenses around his body.

Through the Sharingan's high-speed dynamic visual calculations, the duration of that gap was—0.4 seconds!

Enough!

Xuan's body seemed to melt into the air and shadows without making the slightest sound.

He flashed to the table like a ghost. The fingers of his left hand twitched, and a small cluster of vapor appeared out of thin air, turning into thin mist that briefly obscured vision. It perfectly mimicked the opening gesture of Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique, drawing everyone's attention for 0.1 seconds.

Meanwhile, his right hand moved without trace, like an antelope hanging its horns. Two fingers precisely pinched the bronze bell and smoothly slipped it into his sleeve.

The entire movement flowed like clouds and water, seamlessly connected to his turning stride. It was as natural as a breath.

No one noticed. Even the Kage-level consultant only felt as if his vision had blurred for a moment, then blamed it on the fatigue of working for too long.

Xuan did not retreat immediately.

At this moment, the most dangerous place was instead the safest.

Holding the scroll, he pretended to be searching for sealing materials and unhurriedly turned toward the passage leading to the underground storeroom.

Relying on the faint residual authority aura on the bell, he easily passed the guards' questioning and entered the empty basement.

He placed the bronze bell on the cold floor, crouched down, and covered it with his palm.

Thick black mist surged forth like a tide, completely enveloping the bell.

The black mist transformed into countless fine tendrils, precisely connecting to the trace of the owner's mental imprint remaining within the bell.

Soul Probe: Surface Reading, activate!

A massive amount of fragmented intelligence flooded crazily into Xuan's mind like a breached dam!

Countless images, sounds, and words interwove into a vast, chaotic panorama of war.

Naruto and Sasuke were about to join forces against the final enemy, Kaguya Otsutsuki... Madara Uchiha had been revived and had become the new Ten-Tails jinchūriki...

Yet amid this storm of shocking intelligence, one deeply buried encrypted message made Xuan's pupils contract sharply!

It was a Postwar Joint Governance Agreement secretly signed by the upper echelons of the Five Great Nations.

One supplementary clause had been written in blood-red chakra ink, its contents horrifying: "Given the extreme instability and destructive nature of Uchiha Clan bloodlines, all parties to the agreement unanimously consent that, after the war ends, should any holder of an ancestral Uchiha bloodline be discovered—specifically one possessing the Rinnegan or the potential for ocular techniques of an equivalent level—regardless of their stance, the 'purification procedure' shall be initiated immediately, in order to thoroughly eliminate the potential threat they pose to the future new order."

Purification procedure...

Xuan slowly raised his head. There was no longer a trace of emotion in his scarlet eyes, only a chill more piercing than ten-thousand-year-old black ice.

He laughed softly, his voice hoarse and filled with endless mockery. "So I'm not some savior burdened with great expectations... From the very beginning, I was a danger that had to be eliminated."

He rose to his feet and tucked the bronze bell, now stripped of its mental imprint, into his robes.

As he exited the storeroom, he flicked a finger. A wisp of exceptionally faint tailed beast chakra, purified after being devoured by him, drifted silently into a corner of the corridor like a dandelion seed.

Moments later, a piercing alarm rang throughout the camp!

"Alert! Alert! A high-risk chakra contamination source has been detected in Underground Zone B! Suspected tailed beast aura! The entire camp is entering maximum alert!"

Chaos descended in an instant.

Countless ninja rushed out from every tent, and the entire command headquarters became a complete mess.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Xuan moved against the flow of people and blended into the evacuating crowd. Unhurriedly, he made his way to a temporary morgue at the edge of the camp.

Rainwater washed over corpses covered in white sheets.

Xuan's gaze locked onto one of them. It was a Hidden Leaf Village jonin whose heart meridians had shattered after being affected by Underground Whisper while on patrol.

The man had only just died. The chakra within his body had not fully dissipated, and his soul had not completely left his body.

Xuan crouched beside him and lifted the white sheet, revealing a young face twisted in pain.

Expressionless, he extended his right hand and pressed it against the man's forehead.

"The next meal has already been delivered to my mouth."

Black mist erupted wildly from his palm. Like a starving beast, it instantly devoured the jonin's corpse!

"Devouring complete. Chakra +94. Soul energy conversion in progress... Total energy has reached 532 points!"

The cold system notification exploded through his mind.

[Host energy reserves have met the evolution conditions.

Consume 500 energy points to forcibly accelerate the maturation of the left eye's Mangekyō Sharingan?]

Xuan chose "Yes."

In an instant, indescribable agony erupted from the depths of his left eye!

It was as though his entire eyeball had been thrown into a furnace, then pierced by countless steel needles!

The two tomoe in his left eye spun madly, so fast that they became a scarlet afterimage. Then, with a bang, they violently shattered amid their extreme rotation!

The shattered tomoe did not disperse. Drawn by an even more powerful ocular force, they began to reassemble as if being reborn from fire.

At the center of his scarlet pupil, three black patterns shaped like curved sickles emerged from nothingness. They crossed one another, forming a strange new pattern brimming with ominous intent!

The prototype of the Eternal Mangekyō had taken shape!

The pain receded like a tide, replaced by an unprecedented field of vision and insight.

In his left eye, the world now took on a more fundamental form, one composed of energy and laws.

He slowly rose to his feet. Rain soaked his bangs, droplets sliding down his resolute face and mixing with the streak of blood spilling from the corner of his left eye, making him look both bewitching and terrifying.

He lifted his head and looked toward the brightly lit command headquarters through layers of rain and the chaotic crowd. A cruel smile curved across his lips as he whispered in a voice only he could hear:

"Now... it's my turn to give you orders."

The night deepened, and the wind and rain continued.

A chaos personally ignited by him was drawing back the perfect curtain for the hunt to come.