The Watchtower Before the Morning Mist Cleared

The morning mist had yet to clear.

At the watchtower entrance, Itachi's left eye emerged through the fog—the three-bladed tomoe of the Mangekyo Sharingan slowly turned.

Lin Feng did not even have time to speak.

The scene before him instantly twisted.

The watchtower's stone walls, the morning mist, and Shisui's breathing all vanished. In their place was a blood moon, beneath which familiar figures lay scattered across the streets of the Uchiha Clan Grounds. Screams came from behind every door, and the air was thick with the scent of rust and scorched flesh.

A genjutsu.

Lin Feng remained where he was.

He looked down at his hand—the sealing kunai Shisui had left him was still clutched in his palm, and the Crow Mark burned within the genjutsu space.

"This isn't a threat."

Itachi's voice sounded from behind him.

Lin Feng turned around. Itachi stood at the central crossroads of the clan grounds, his Anbu uniform spotless, a jarring contrast to the mountain of corpses and sea of blood surrounding him.

"It's a test."

The Mangekyo in Itachi's left eye turned.

"If you hesitated for even a second in the genjutsu—"

His gaze fell upon the sealing kunai in Lin Feng's hand.

"I would take Shisui's eye right here."

The screams around them suddenly grew louder. Lin Feng saw a child collapsed nearby, dressed in a high-collared short-sleeved shirt similar to Sasuke's.

He did not look away.

"Then why didn't you do it?"

Lin Feng's voice was remarkably calm within the genjutsu space.

Itachi did not answer.

The image within the genjutsu twisted again—the clan grounds beneath the blood moon disappeared, replaced by Konoha's main gate. Lin Feng saw himself standing in the wilderness outside the gates, with an Anbu squad pursuing him from behind and a slash cut across his forehead protector.

The mark of a rogue ninja.

"Once Kotoamatsukami is activated, Danzo's sensory barrier hidden at Satomi Hill will immediately lock onto the caster." Itachi stood beside the illusion, his tone as calm as if reminiscing. "Then, like Shisui, you will become a threat the village must erase."

In the illusion, a kunai pierced Lin Feng's shoulder.

Blood splashed across the ground.

"Are you prepared to bear that price?"

As Itachi's question fell, the entire genjutsu space suddenly froze.

Lin Feng felt the sealing kunai in his left hand grow scorching hot.

He glanced down at the Crow Mark—then closed his eyes within the genjutsu space.

When he opened them again, the Sharingan in his left eye actively manifested within the genjutsu for the first time.

"What are you doing?"

For the first time, a trace of surprise entered Itachi's voice.

Lin Feng did not answer.

He focused all his attention on the sealing kunai, just as Shisui had told him when he entrusted it to him—treat it as an anchor.

The images in the genjutsu space began to tear apart.

The blood moon, the pursuing Anbu, the rogue ninja mark—all of it peeled away like shattered glass, revealing another scene beneath.

The banks of the Naka River.

Under the setting sun, Shisui handed the sealing kunai to Lin Feng.

"If I don't return, use Kotoamatsukami to stop Itachi from exterminating the clan."

The Shisui in the illusion smiled.

"But remember, Kotoamatsukami can only be used once, so you must decide for yourself who to use it on."

The image froze on Shisui's smile.

Itachi fell silent.

He did not intensify the genjutsu any further. The Mangekyo Sharingan's rotation slowed.

The genjutsu space receded like the tide.

The morning mist reappeared.

The watchtower's stone walls.

Shisui's faint breathing.

The first ray of sunlight pierced the mist and shone into the watchtower.

Reality.

Lin Feng's forehead was covered in cold sweat, and the sealing kunai had burned a faint red mark into his palm. Yet he remained standing, while the Sharingan in his left eye had already returned to its Three-Tomoe form.

Itachi stood three steps away from him.

The Mangekyo had been put away.

"You passed."

Itachi's tone remained calm, but it carried an emotion Lin Feng had never heard before—not approval, but something closer to confirmation.

Confirmation that Shisui had not chosen the wrong person.

Itachi walked into the watchtower.

He paused for a second before the corner where Shisui lay, his gaze sweeping over the blood on Shisui's body and his bandaged wounds.

Confirming his injuries.

Then he turned to Lin Feng.

"Root patrols change shifts at the hour of the boar. The gap is only a quarter of an hour."

Itachi lowered his voice.

"The sealing array on the third underground level requires Uchiha bloodline chakra to pass through—"

He paused.

"You still carry residual fluctuations from the contract seal. That should be enough to fool the first trap."

Lin Feng tightened his grip on the sealing kunai.

"Why are you helping me?"

His voice was quiet, but every word landed with finality.

"You are the executor of the clan extermination plan. Codename: 'Crow.'"

Itachi did not deny it.

Morning light streamed through the watchtower entrance, splitting his face into light and shadow.

"Because Shisui walked that road too."

At last, he spoke.

"He chose to believe that you could accomplish what none of us could. I only came to confirm—" Itachi turned around and looked at the gradually thinning mist outside the watchtower. "—that he did not choose the wrong person."

Lin Feng fell silent.

He looked at the unconscious Shisui. The sealing kunai in his hand gave off a faint warmth.

The air between the three of them was like a drawn bowstring.

Then Itachi continued.

"Once Kotoamatsukami is activated, Danzo's sensory barrier hidden at Satomi Hill will immediately lock onto the caster." His tone returned to absolute calm. "Then, like Shisui, you will become a threat the village must erase."

Lin Feng listened.

"Are you prepared to bear that price?"

Itachi did not turn back to look at him.

"I owe him my life."

Lin Feng spoke.

His voice was not loud, but it did not tremble in the slightest.

"I also owe him a choice. If the price is becoming a rogue ninja—"

He clenched the sealing kunai, the lines of the Crow Mark digging painfully into his palm.

"Then I accept."

Itachi turned around.

His gaze lingered on Lin Feng's face for a long time.

Then he told him one last thing.

"Remember, Danzo still has at least three spare vessels containing Sharingan eyes hidden away."

He lowered his voice even further.

"Your opponent is not merely a conspirator. He is a monster who will calculate every ability you possess."

Lin Feng nodded.

"I know. That is why I will not rely on Kotoamatsukami alone."

Itachi said nothing more.

He turned and walked toward the watchtower entrance.

The morning mist had nearly dispersed.

Before stepping across the threshold, he paused for a second.

He did not look back.

He only left behind one sentence.

"Don't let Shisui die in vain."

Then his figure vanished at the boundary between the morning light and the lingering mist.

Lin Feng stood inside the watchtower, listening as the footsteps faded away.

The heat of the sealing kunai in his hand continued.

He returned to Shisui's side and checked his wounds again. The blood loss had stabilized, and though his breathing remained faint, it was gradually evening out.

Then he heard Shisui murmur in his sleep.

"Forgive me... Itachi..."

The voice was so soft it seemed ready to dissipate into the air.

Lin Feng's hand stopped halfway through the motion.

He looked at Shisui's face—a fresh trace of blood had seeped from the corner of his eye. It was not from a wound, but overflowed from where the Sharingan was.

At the same time, the Crow Mark in Lin Feng's palm began to heat up.

Not with its previous warmth.

It was searing.

He opened his hand.

The lines of the Crow Mark were emitting a faint red glow, as though responding to something.

The blood at the corner of Shisui's eye ran down his cheek and dripped onto the cloth beneath him.

A chakra reaction.

Shisui's chakra reaction was recovering.

Not awakening—more like a fluctuation at the subconscious level.

Lin Feng looked at the Crow Mark in his palm, then at Shisui's pale face.

He did not wake Shisui.

Instead, he unfolded the map of Root's underground structure.

The intelligence Itachi had provided ran through his mind one item at a time.

The shift change at the hour of the boar, with a quarter-hour gap.

The Uchiha bloodline sealing array on the third underground level.

The residual fluctuations of the contract seal to fool the first trap.

Lin Feng picked up a charcoal pencil and marked the intersections of the patrol routes on the map. The route map Shisui had left behind began to cross-reference with Itachi's intelligence, and a clear infiltration route gradually emerged.

The location of Danzo's laboratory.

The precise coordinates of the sealing array.

As he drew the final mark, the pencil tip stopped over a blank area on the third underground level.

Itachi had not said what was there.

But on Shisui's structural map, that spot bore the totem of a crow.

Lin Feng reached out and pressed the Crow Mark, still burning in his palm, against that totem.

The mark's red glow overlapped with the totem.

A line of tiny words surfaced on the paper.

"The price of Kotoamatsukami's final usage authorization—the caster's ocular power will be permanently sealed."

Lin Feng stared at the words.

Then he looked up toward the outside of the watchtower.

Morning light had fully illuminated Konoha's skyline.

The cry of a crow drifted from the distance.

The hour of the boar.

He had less than a day left.