That twitch was so subtle that it couldn't even be captured by any Sensory Ninjutsu unless it was in an absolutely dead environment.
But it's not an isolated spasm.
In Uchiha Xuan's perceptual world, this slight tremor is nothing less than thunder in the sky.
It is like a plucked string, playing the first note in the huge and invisible network of destiny.
It wasn't her hand that was twitching, it was the thread of fate.
One end of this thread is connected to Sakura Haruno's long-frozen soul, and the other end is firmly held in the hands of Uchiha Xuan in the throne of "Throne of Heaven" thousands of meters above the sky.
The wisp of Divine Erosion Flame sneaking along the planet's leyline network was like an invisible ghost. It took seven days to reach the deepest part of the Hidden Leaf Village ruins.
It did not choose to violently break through the triple top barrier set by Hiruzen Sarutobi, which would cause unnecessary energy fluctuations.
It chooses to penetrate.
Fire is all-pervasive.
And Divine Erosion Flame, spawned by the divine power of creation, is an existence above the law.
It turns into a "fire network" that is more subtle than chakra particles, and along the theoretically non-existent gaps between the Sealing Jutsu-style runes, it silently weaves a network that covers the entire core of the seal.
This net is not offensive, it is just simulating.
Buzz... buzz... buzz...
An extremely regular and weak tremor began to echo in the dead silence of the basement.
Sixty-seven times per minute.
Not more, not less.
This frequency is exactly the heartbeat of Uchiha Xuan at that moment when Valley of the End personally laid a tombstone for this old era seven days ago.
[Ding!
A high density of "emotional residues and obsessions" was detected, which meets the conditions of "obsession resonance".]
[The consciousness of the target (Sakura Haruno) is locked in the "final moment" Memory Corridor. The mental barrier is extremely high, but it is open to specific sources of emotional stimulation (hope, salvation).]
[Start the "Consciousness Anchor Implantation" program?]
The system's beep sounded in Uchiha Xuan's sea of consciousness.
He closed his eyes, as if he was dozing, but his consciousness had already traveled thousands of miles and landed in the cold darkness.
He did not respond to the system, but used his mind to issue a more precise command.
"Not waking her up."
His whisper was barely audible in the empty control room, but it carried an unquestionable majesty.
"Let her dream about how I should appear."
Sakura Haruno's nightmare has been going on for too long.
Ten years, maybe more.
In a body where time and space are frozen, her consciousness is trapped in an eternal second.
Sasuke's decisive back, Naruto's figure falling powerlessly after being penetrated by Truth-Seeking Orb, Ten-Tails's terrifying roar that covered the sky, and... the doomsday scene of the earth being burned and the world coming to an end.
Despair is the only color in her consciousness.
However, today, for the first time, this everlasting picture has become distorted.
At the moment when Naruto fell and the world was about to be swallowed up by darkness - a figure appeared on the top of the collapsed Hokage Rock without any warning.
It was a man, wearing a dark robe burning with dark golden flames. His back was turned to her, and his face could not be seen clearly.
He just stood there calmly, facing the devastating Ten-Tails, and slowly raised a hand.
Follow your words.
The rampaging Tailed Beast, the falling Naruto, the cracked earth, everything was frozen the moment he raised his hand.
Time and space seemed to have become playthings in his hands.
"Naruto..."
Sakura Haruno's consciousness instinctively shouted, but what squeezed out from the depths of her soul was a completely unfamiliar syllable.
"Xuan..."
This call was like a key, accurately inserted into a deep keyhole in her body.
It was during the war. As a medical ninja, she had come into contact with countless Wounded contaminated with the residual blood of Ten-Tails. A trace of invisible chakra had already planted seeds in her body.
At this moment, the seeds are awakened!
Click--!
The ten-thousand-year black ice formed by Madara Uchiha Space-Time Ninjutsu that wrapped her body actually had a spiderweb-like crack on its smooth surface!
Throne of Heaven, central control room.
Chiyo Saori In the ice blue pupils, countless data streams passed quickly.
She turned to Uchibe Gen on the throne, her voice was straight but with a hint of urgency.
"Master, abnormal emotional resonance has been detected. Centered on the ruins of Hidden Leaf Village, within a radius of three hundred kilometers, a total of seventeen Fire Seal people labeled as 'survivors of the old era' have experienced abnormal mental fluctuations."
On the light screen, the screen switched rapidly.
A former middle-aged jounin was working on the assembly line of a puppet factory when he suddenly burst into tears and his movements were completely deformed.
An old woman with gray hair and a broken leg was sitting in front of the allocated house, muttering to herself in the direction of the empty ruins, "... Sakura... she is still alive..."
An elderly medical ninja who once worked for Konoha Hospital actually tried to bypass the patrolling Puppet Legion late at night and sneaked alone into the ruins of Hidden Leaf Village, which was listed as a restricted area.
"The resonance is spreading through a channel that we cannot analyze," Chiyo Saori concluded. "Their 'bond' memories are being awakened. If spiritual cleansing is not carried out immediately, it may trigger an uncontrollable collective awakening among the survivors."
Uchiha Xuan finally slowly opened his eyes.
What a pair of terrifying eyes they are!
On the bottom of the purple Rinnegan, nine Tomoe slowly rotated, and in the deepest part, a scarlet blood-like murderous intention flashed past.
Not only was he not worried at all, but the corners of his mouth curved into a cold arc.
"No need to deal with it."
He stared at the old ninja trying to sneak into the ruins on the light screen, his eyes like looking at a flying insect breaking into a spider's web.
"Let them go. Let them find her."
"I want them to see with their own eyes how the 'hope' they firmly believe in fell at my feet. I want them to witness with their own eyes--"
"What is the 'only salvation'?"
Commands are rules.
That night, due to the deliberate "negligence" of the surveillance network, five former Konoha Ninja - including the medical squad leader, who were once comrades-in-arms, masters and apprentices, and companions - successfully broke through the peripheral puppet blockade and arrived in the dusty basement.
"This is it! Lord Third's top secret shelter back then!"
"Quick! Work together to break the seal!"
The eyes of the five people were burning with flames of excitement and hope. They worked together Hand Seals, used up their remaining chakra, and violently bombarded the barrier.
Boom!
With a loud noise, the triple barrier was broken.
The biting cold air burst out like a tsunami, causing the five of them to shiver.
Their eyes were fixed on the stone platform in the center of the house.
Click... click...
The cracks on the surface of the ice crystal covering Sakura Haruno rapidly expanded, and finally completely shattered and disintegrated in a series of crisp sounds!
At the moment when the ice crystals turned into ice shards all over the sky, the girl on the stone platform suddenly opened her eyes!
Five familiar faces that were excited, concerned, and full of tears were clearly reflected in her emerald green pupils.
However, those eyes that should have been filled with the joy of reunion were terrifyingly empty at the moment.
She seemed to be staring at some distant and great existence through them.
"You..."
Sakura Haruno slowly sat up and walked down the stone platform with bare feet.
She raised the hand that had twitched, and on her fingertips, a very faint, but noble, dark golden flame that made her soul tremble quietly ignited.
She looked at the five old friends in front of her, and said softly in a sleep-like but extremely clear voice:
"... It's too late."
"He has been waiting for a long time."
The moment the words fell, a sudden change occurred!
The expressions on the faces of the five ecstatic ex-Konoha Ninja instantly froze.
The "Xuanlin" Fire Seal on their foreheads, which represents the identity of people in the new era, were forcibly activated at the same moment and became extremely hot!
An irresistible will to surrender from the deepest part of the soul instantly destroyed all their emotions and reason.
"Plop!"
Without any struggle, the five people's knees weakened and they all knelt down on the ground. They lowered their once proud heads in front of the familiar yet unfamiliar girl in front of them.
Thousands of meters above the sky, in Uchiha Xuan's perception network, signals that six new "spiritual links" were successfully connected to Fire Altar were clearly transmitted.
The stern smile on his lips deepened.
In the palm of his hand, a dark red blood crystal the size of a fist appeared.
Inside the crystal, countless broken lights and shadows are swirling and merging - these are all the memories, emotions and obsessions of the more than ten years since Sakura Haruno was sealed.
They are now his trophies.
"Fetters are the most stubborn virus of the old era."
He gently held it, and the blood-colored crystal turned into pure energy, which was sucked into his body.
"Now, it's the turn of those who still believe that 'bonds' can create miracles, to make a choice."
His gaze seemed to penetrate the entire continent and landed on the Uchiha Clan's hometown, Naka River Shrine.
In the secret room on the bottom floor, next to the giant Taiseki stele that records all of the Uchiha Clan's history, another brand-new stone stele that has never been recorded by anyone or any historical data is rising silently and slowly from the ground.
The monument is blank without a single word.
Only in the center of the stone tablet, a clear mark of a female palm is slowly emerging.
Between the lines of the palm prints, bright red blood mixed with dark golden sparks is slowly seeping out drop by drop.