Lin Feng's Choice

Morning light squeezed through the cracks in the shattered shelter.

Lin Feng pressed his fingers against Shisui's neck, where his pulse was as faint as a thread ready to snap at any moment.

The bleeding had stopped. But the wound that pierced Shisui's left shoulder was deep enough to expose bone, while the edges of the three kunai cuts on his right arm had turned an unnatural purplish black—poisoned blades specially forged for Root.

Lin Feng tore open his last roll of bandages and tightly bound the area above the wound.

Shisui did not wake.

His breathing was shallow and rapid, his Sharingan tightly shut, his face covered in dried blood.

Lin Feng's hand stopped.

He remembered how, when they parted in Chapter 30, Shisui had pressed that sealing kunai engraved with the Crow Mark into his hand. Shisui's gaze had been calm then, as though he were handing over something he had always known he would eventually need to give away.

"If I don't come back, open it."

Lin Feng pulled the kunai from his ninja tool pouch.

The Crow Mark glimmered with a faint dark-red light beneath the morning sun. The sealing formula was intact, with chakra patterns radiating outward from the crow's eye at its center—carved by Shisui himself.

Lin Feng took a deep breath.

He poured Sharingan chakra into the kunai.

The seal came undone instantly.

Countless fine cracks spread across the kunai's surface, and dark-red light poured from them. Lin Feng's vision was abruptly dragged into a mental space formed from chakra.

Before him unfolded a structural map of Root's three underground levels.

It hovered in the air like a three-dimensional projection. The first level contained surface passageways and disguised outposts; the second contained sealing arrays and detention rooms; the third—

The third level was marked with densely packed laboratory symbols.

At the very center, a room wrapped in a blood-colored barrier bore a small line of text:

"Uchiha Contract Seal."

Lin Feng's pupils contracted.

Beneath the map, a set of formulas surrounded by Crow Marks slowly revolved. This was no ordinary sealing technique. The crow's eyes resonated with Lin Feng's Sharingan, and the information at the core of the formula flowed directly into his mind—

Kotoamatsukami.

A technique that transferred the authority for its final use.

Shisui had removed the Kotoamatsukami from his left eye and sealed it inside this kunai. The authority to use it had already been transferred to Lin Feng. Once activated, the target would be implanted with a permanent compulsory command.

It could only be used once.

Lin Feng's breath caught.

A note slipped from the edge of the formula. It was Shisui's handwriting, hurried but forceful:

"If I don't return, use Kotoamatsukami to stop Itachi from annihilating the clan. But remember, Kotoamatsukami can only be used once, so you must decide for yourself who to use it on."

Lin Feng clenched the note.

The mental space faded, and he returned to the watchtower. The Crow Mark on the kunai had vanished, leaving behind nothing but an ordinary iron kunai.

Shisui had left his last eye to him as well.

"But it can only be used once—"

Lin Feng's voice was so low it was nearly inaudible.

"—the price is too high."

He looked out the window. The sky was beginning to brighten, and less than three days remained until the Genocide Contingency Plan was carried out.

Lin Feng closed his eyes.

Two paths unfolded in his mind at once.

The first: infiltrate Root's third-level laboratory sector directly. Destroy the Uchiha Contract Seal, cut off Danzo's compulsory control over Itachi, and prevent the annihilation order from being issued. But if he failed, there would be no escape route beneath Root.

The second: return to the clan compound. Stop Fugaku and the three elders before the radicals launched their coup. But this was exactly what Danzo was waiting for—once the coup began, the clan's annihilation would have a "legitimate" justification.

Kotoamatsukami could only be used once.

If he used it on Itachi, he could forcibly stop the annihilation from being carried out. But Danzo's ambition would remain untouched, Root would still exist, and the rot among the village's upper ranks would not cease.

If he used it on Danzo, he could reverse the entire situation. But before that, Itachi would complete the clan's annihilation. Sasuke would die. Mikoto would die. Shisui's sacrifice would mean nothing.

If he used it on Shisui—

Lin Feng clenched the kunai.

Shisui would never agree. How could that man, who would rather leap from a cliff than allow Kotoamatsukami to be abused, possibly accept becoming the target of a compulsory technique himself?

The Sharingan in Lin Feng's left eye began to spin on its own.

The tomoe rotated faster and faster. His chakra resonated violently with his surging emotions, and blood-red patterns began appearing at the edge of his vision.

He pressed a hand over his left eye.

Just then—

A crow cried outside the watchtower.

It tore through the silence.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Lin Feng instantly went on alert. He put away the kunai, lowered his body, and spread his chakra perception outward in an instant.

A cold, sinister chakra approached through the morning mist.

It was not ordinary Anbu.

The density of that chakra was extremely high, carrying the sharpness forged through countless trials. And—

Footsteps stopped at the watchtower entrance.

Five paces away.

A figure slowly emerged from the morning mist.

Uchiha Itachi.

He wore Root's standard black robes, and a slash had been cut across the Konoha emblem on his forehead protector. His left eye's Three-Tomoe Sharingan had already transformed into a crimson Mangekyo, its pattern resembling three interlocking black blades.

The mist parted around him.

Itachi's voice was utterly emotionless:

"How much do you know?"

Lin Feng did not retreat.

Instead, he stepped forward and stood at the boundary between morning light and shadow.

"Enough."

"Enough to stop you, or stop the entire village."

Itachi's Mangekyo narrowed slightly.

Lin Feng stared at that crimson eye. The three-bladed pattern was clearly visible, and tiny cracks had begun appearing around the edge of the pupil—a typical sign of overusing the Mangekyo.

"Your left eye..."

Lin Feng's voice deepened.

"Has Danzo already forced you this far? The Uchiha Clan Annihilation Plan—do you really intend to carry it out alone?"

Itachi was silent for three seconds.

The morning wind passed through the watchtower, sweeping up dead leaves from the ground.

"Some things only need one person to bear them."

Lin Feng tightened his grip on the kunai in his pocket.

He looked straight into Itachi's Mangekyo and said each word distinctly:

"Shisui left Kotoamatsukami to me. If you insist on taking that path, I'll use it to make you protect the village with your own hands—not destroy everything."

Itachi's expression did not change in the slightest.

But his voice dropped lower:

"Then you should understand. Whoever you use Kotoamatsukami on, you will bear the consequences."

The crow cried again.

It flew up from the top of the watchtower and swept across the mist-shrouded morning sky.

Itachi spoke again. This time, his question struck precisely at the core of Lin Feng's current struggle:

"What are you going to do? Infiltrate Root and stop Danzo, or go stop Fugaku and the radicals first?"

Lin Feng did not answer immediately.

He remembered what Shisui had said at Ichiraku Ramen in Chapter 30:

"If this is a trap, then at least stay alive and tell Sasuke the truth."

He remembered the calm look in Shisui's eyes as he pressed the kunai into his hand.

He remembered how Shisui, covered in blood when he stumbled into the watchtower in Chapter 31, had said, "The Genocide Contingency Plan has begun," instead of, "Save me."

Lin Feng raised his head.

Morning light fully illuminated his face.

"I won't choose."

Itachi's Mangekyo paused for an instant.

"Because Shisui taught me that protecting your comrades should not be a choice between two options."

Lin Feng stepped forward, crossing the boundary between morning light and shadow.

"Infiltrating Root and stopping the radicals—I'll do both. Kotoamatsukami can only be used once, but I won't treat it as a multiple-choice question."

"I'll make it the final safeguard, not the only answer."

Lin Feng's reflection appeared in Itachi's Mangekyo.

The cry of a crow drifted from afar.

The morning mist began to disperse.

Inside the watchtower, Shisui's breathing became steadier.

The standoff continued.