The Eve of the Clash

Lin Feng slammed headfirst into a tree hollow.

His breathing had yet to steady, blood seeped from the abrasion on his left arm, and his back burned with pain.

He set the sample vial and scroll from his arms on the ground, then slid down against the trunk.

Shisui had already been waiting in the shadows.

His Sharingan turned slowly in the darkness, his gaze sweeping over Lin Feng's injuries before finally settling on the items.

"Did you get them?"

Lin Feng nodded and pushed the sample vial toward him.

"The sample and the scroll are both here. I took a rough look at the ingredients. The core formula for suppressing chakra is seventy percent similar to the forbidden technique records Akatsuki stole from the Hidden Mist."

Shisui took the scroll.

He unfolded it.

His Sharingan focused on the dense data, and the tomoe deep within his pupils abruptly began spinning faster.

Three seconds.

He closed the scroll.

Then he spoke in a low voice.

"It isn't similar. It follows the exact same framework. Danzo has Akatsuki's original formula."

Lin Feng's eyes turned cold.

Only the sound of breathing remained in the tree hollow.

Shisui set down the scroll and suddenly frowned.

He leaned forward slightly.

His Sharingan remained active, staring at Lin Feng's collar and cuffs.

"The scent of the medicine on you is wrong."

Lin Feng raised his head.

"What do you mean?"

"This isn't the scent of the sample you injected. It was attached externally."

Shisui extended a finger and lightly brushed the edge of Lin Feng's cuff, picking up traces of pale purple powder.

He brought it to his nose and sniffed.

His expression darkened.

"Danzo deliberately got this on you in the laboratory."

Lin Feng lowered his head.

He sniffed his sleeve.

An extremely faint, pungent smell entered his nostrils. It had been masked by blood and sweat until now, when he could finally distinguish it.

His expression changed drastically.

"I remember now—the mist-like medicine that splashed out when I broke the culture tank. I thought it was only an irritant."

Shisui withdrew his hand.

"The irritation was meant to conceal the tracking agent. The moment you got it on yourself in Root, Danzo knew who you were."

Lin Feng clenched his fist.

His nails dug into his palm.

"Then the planned three days of preparation were a trap. Once we acted according to plan, he'd close the net around us."

Shisui decisively closed the scroll and tucked it into his clothes.

"We have to go in tonight."

He lifted his eyes, Lin Feng's reflection mirrored in his Sharingan.

"While he still thinks you're struggling with the drug's effects."

Lin Feng met his gaze for two seconds.

Then he nodded.

"Fine."

The two rose at the same time.

Shisui swiftly gathered the items from the ground, while Lin Feng tore off a strip of bandage and tightly wrapped his left arm. His movements were crisp and efficient.

Just as they were about to leave the tree hollow—

Shisui suddenly raised a hand.

He stopped Lin Feng.

His Sharingan shot toward a point outside the hollow.

"Wait—"

He lowered his voice.

"There's the bloody scent of lingering chakra over there. It isn't yours."

Lin Feng drew a kunai.

The two moved soundlessly along the edge of the hollow toward the source of the scent.

They passed three thick tree trunks.

Then stopped.

The instant Lin Feng saw it, veins bulged on the back of his hand.

On a thick tree trunk—

A dead crow had been nailed there.

Its neck had been twisted, dangling limply to one side.

Both eye sockets were a bloody mess. Its eyeballs had been gouged out whole, leaving only dark, empty hollows.

A massive Three-Tomoe Sharingan had been drawn on the bark in blood. The blood had not fully congealed, and its sweetly rancid stench filled the air.

Shisui spoke in a low voice.

"The eyes were dug out, and it was arranged into a Sharingan. Only an internal Uchiha purge would be done like this."

Lin Feng stared at the symbol.

His pupils constricted.

"Itachi?"

Shisui did not answer immediately.

He crouched and examined the crow's broken neck.

The technique was clean.

It had been killed in one strike.

There were no signs of unnecessary struggle.

"Anbu-trained methods."

He stood, his voice carrying a gravity Lin Feng had never heard before.

"Danzo has dragged him into this."

Lin Feng tightened his grip on the kunai.

"He was dragged into this too? Does Danzo want to use him to force us back, or force him to offer proof of allegiance?"

Shisui fell silent for two seconds.

When he spoke, his tone was soft.

"I know Itachi. He won't willingly turn against us."

He paused.

"But if protecting Sasuke is the condition—his position becomes hard to predict."

Lin Feng stared at the dead crow.

The blood-red Sharingan symbol was like a silent warning.

It had congealed into a scar upon the tree trunk.

He took a deep breath.

He suppressed the surging emotions in his chest.

"The plan remains unchanged."

Shisui looked at him.

Lin Feng continued.

"But the rules have changed. We meet at midnight at Root's eastern drainage outlet. You go back and remove the lingering traces. I'll use genjutsu to interfere with their tracking in return."

He lifted his eyes.

"If we run into Itachi, I'll hold him off first. You go find Danzo's evidence."

He paused.

"Remember, don't use lethal force."

Shisui watched him without answering at once.

After a long while.

He took a kunai from his ninja tool pouch, its hilt wrapped in dark cloth, and held it out to Lin Feng.

"Mine."

Lin Feng accepted it.

Shisui bent down, removed the dead crow from the tree trunk, and stored it inside a sealing scroll.

"The crow's lingering chakra can't be left here."

He straightened up.

"If Anbu finds this, tonight's operation will be exposed."

Lin Feng placed the kunai into the ninja tool pouch at his thigh.

The two looked at each other.

No more words were needed.

Shisui turned away.

His figure melted into the shadows and vanished soundlessly into the depths of the forest.

Lin Feng stood alone before the tree trunk.

The blood-drawn Sharingan symbol remained on the bark.

He reached out.

His fingertips touched the half-congealed blood.

Cold.

Sticky.

He wiped hard.

A patch of blood was scraped away, shattering the symbol into a blurred smear.

He withdrew his hand.

Lin Feng turned and darted toward Konoha.

The drug residue on his back still burned.

His chakra flow felt as though it had been stuffed with cotton. Every extraction was half a beat slower than usual, sluggishness spreading through his chakra pathways.

He gritted his teeth.

He did not slow down.

Tree shadows rushed backward on either side.

Shisui's words kept circling through his mind.

If protecting Sasuke is the condition—

Itachi's position becomes hard to predict.

Moonlight filtered through the leaves, scattering across his face.

He remembered the child who always followed behind Itachi.

He remembered the faint yet profound light in Itachi's eyes whenever he looked at his younger brother.

If Danzo was forcing Itachi with Sasuke.

Then tonight—

He clenched his fist.

A branch snapped crisply beneath his foot.

He would wait for Shisui at that drainage outlet.

If he encountered Itachi—

He would never give up on him.

Behind him.

Within the forest shadows.

The erased blood-red Sharingan symbol retained one final trace that had not been wiped clean.

Like an eye that had yet to close.

Watching the direction in which he left.

The night wind passed through the canopy.

Leaves rustled softly.

On a higher branch, an intact crow tilted its head.

A scarlet Sharingan flashed in the darkness.

It spread its wings.

And silently flew into the shadows beneath the moon.

Lin Feng did not look back.

He had to get rid of the residue on him as soon as possible.

Midnight.

The eastern drainage outlet.

There was not much time left.