Night Reading and Plans

The night wind swept past the study doorframe.

The wooden door creaked softly as it opened. Lin Feng slipped inside sideways and shut it behind him.

Moonlight filtered through the paper window, spreading a pale white glow across the floor. He did not rush to light the lamp. Instead, he stood still and listened for a few seconds—there were no footsteps in the hallway. Mikoto had probably already returned to her bedroom.

He felt his way to the desk and took a tinderbox from the drawer.

"Snap."

The instant the flame flared to life, the outline of the study emerged from the darkness. The bookshelf against the wall was piled with scrolls and books. Several used brushes lay scattered across the desk, and dried ink remained in the inkstone.

Lin Feng lit the oil lamp.

An orange-yellow halo spread outward, illuminating the writing atop the stack of documents at the corner of the desk—"Konoha Security Force · Uchiha Division · Spring Patrol Log, Year 53."

He opened the drawer beside it and took out the clan genealogy hidden at the very bottom.

Its leather cover was already worn, its corners slightly curled from being flipped through too many times. Lin Feng turned to a page in the middle, his finger sliding across the yellowed paper.

Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Sasuke.

He turned another page.

Uchiha Shisui.

He lightly tapped the name with his pencil.

Alive.

It was now the spring of Konoha Year 53.

Lin Feng leaned back in his chair, his gaze resting on the flickering flame of the oil lamp. He remembered the exact timing of Shisui's death in the original work—the cover of that volume of manga had been red, and its title page bore the words "Twin Eyes."

Autumn.

Shisui would commit suicide in autumn.

Less than half a year remained.

He closed his eyes, sorting through the fragmented information he had about this period. The Uchiha clan's radicals had already begun secretly preparing for a coup, and the Security Force was filled each day with private discussions about "the village's injustice." Itachi was still an Anbu member, but he had already grown accustomed to coldly watching the confrontation between the clan and the village. Shisui still believed the problem could be resolved through dialogue, unaware that Danzo's gaze was fixed on his eyes from within the darkness.

Lin Feng opened his eyes.

He opened the Security Force patrol log and skimmed the entries. February, Year 53: no major incidents. March, Year 53: the Konoha Police Department handled thirty-seven civilian disputes; no spies from enemy villages discovered.

Everything was calm.

The calm before the storm.

He set down the log and pulled a folded sheet of paper from the false bottom of the drawer. He had found it while organizing the room. The body's original owner had probably used it to record Anbu field assignments—summaries obtained from somewhere unknown, copied onto paper and hidden in a corner of the study.

Lin Feng spread out the paper, his eyes quickly scanning the writing.

It recorded the Anbu duty rotations through March of Year 53.

Danzo was still the leader of Root, still manipulating those unseen operations from the shadows. In the original work, he had used rumors of the Uchiha coup to force Itachi to choose between his clan and the village. The most crucial move had been taking Shisui's Kotoamatsukami—the eye capable of controlling another person's will without them noticing.

Lin Feng's fingers tapped against the desk.

"If I prevent Shisui from losing his eye..."

he murmured.

"Shisui won't commit suicide, and Itachi won't be affected by Kotoamatsukami either."

Then the night of the clan massacre...

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Ah Feng?"

Mikoto's voice came from outside.

Lin Feng swiftly folded the paper and stuffed it back into the drawer, then closed the genealogy and placed it beside the patrol log.

The door opened a crack, and Mikoto entered carrying a tray. A cup of hot tea rested on it, steam curling upward in the lamplight.

"Still reading?" Mikoto set the tray at the corner of the desk. "It's already late. Go to bed early."

Lin Feng looked up with a natural smile. "Yeah, Mom. I'll sleep after I finish this."

He pointed to the patrol log on the desk. "There were some things I was unsure about during today's patrol, so I wanted to look up some information."

Mikoto glanced at the open log but did not ask further. She merely nodded. "Don't stay up too late." Then she turned and left the study, closing the door behind her.

Her footsteps gradually faded down the hallway before disappearing around the corner.

Lin Feng waited three seconds. Only after confirming that Mikoto had gone far enough did he take out the paper and genealogy again.

He turned the genealogy to the page containing Uchiha Shisui's information and stared at Shisui's name.

"Shisui, you're currently an elite jonin in the Security Force. You possess the Mangekyo Sharingan and are skilled in Fire Release and the Body Flicker Technique," Lin Feng murmured. "You believe the conflict between the clan and the village can be solved through communication, but you don't know Danzo already has his eyes on you."

He recalled Shisui's final fate in the original work—Danzo took his right eye, Shisui gave his left eye to Itachi, then leaped into the Naka River to end his life.

"What if I can let you know about Danzo's malice in advance?"

Lin Feng simulated the conversation in his mind.

—Feng, you need to be careful of the clan radicals. They're plotting a coup.

—No, they aren't the ones I'm worried about. It's Danzo. Shisui, you have to believe me. Danzo will take your eyes.

He had rehearsed this conversation countless times in his mind, but each time it still felt imperfect. Shisui was not the sort of person who would easily change his judgment because of a young man's warning. Lin Feng needed to present sufficiently convincing evidence.

Lin Feng thought of Itachi again.

—Itachi, your hesitation and obedience now will eventually lead to the tragedy of the entire Uchiha... including your younger brother Sasuke.

But he could not approach Itachi directly.

That man was too perceptive. He could see through a person's intentions in three sentences and determine whether someone was lying from the slightest movement. If Lin Feng went to him in his current state, not only would he fail to persuade him, he would expose himself instead.

Shisui was the better point of entry.

Lin Feng took a deep breath, opened the blank notebook on the desk, and dipped a brush into the ink.

The brush tip touched the paper, and he wrote the first line stroke by stroke:

"1. Stabilize the Sharingan at Two-Tomoe within one month."

Improving the Sharingan required emotional stimulation, but Lin Feng had yet to find a way to reliably trigger changes in his ocular power. He could only practice repeatedly, trying to control the flow of chakra in his eyes through meditation and gradually overcome the problem of it activating passively.

"2. Master Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."

This was a foundational ninjutsu of the Uchiha clan, as well as a skill every adult clan member had to use proficiently. Lin Feng remembered that the body's original owner had learned this technique before, but his memories of the hand seal sequence and the details of chakra release were somewhat vague.

He needed to find time to practice in private.

"3. Find an opportunity to contact Shisui privately within two months and deliver a warning."

This was the core of the entire plan and its ultimate goal. Before Shisui fell into despair, Lin Feng had to make him believe in Danzo's malice. If he succeeded, not only would Shisui survive, but Itachi would not go further and further down the path of darkness.

After writing the last stroke, Lin Feng placed the brush on its holder.

The night wind stirred the window paper, producing a faint rustling sound.

He stared at the three lines in the notebook for a long time. In the end, his gaze fell beneath them, on a sentence he had not written but that kept resurfacing in his mind—

Beware Danzo.

He was the true enemy.

Lin Feng blew out the oil lamp.

Darkness engulfed the study once more, with only moonlight filtering through the paper window and leaving a blurred patch of white on the floor. He stood, put the notebook and genealogy into the drawer, and turned toward the door.

His hand rested on the doorknob, and he paused.

Shisui's personality surfaced in Lin Feng's mind—he valued the village, longed for peace, and was willing to give everything for the sake of the village and his clan, even sacrifice himself.

"What if you approach him under the pretext of preventing internal conflict?"

Lin Feng quietly asked himself.

What Shisui hated most was infighting within the clan. If Lin Feng told him that the clan radicals were secretly planning a coup and that someone wanted to exploit it for personal gain, Shisui would most likely believe him.

Because he hoped it was true.

He needed an ally.

And Lin Feng could become that person.

Lin Feng opened the door and walked out. The hallway was utterly silent. He returned to his bedroom, took off his coat and hung it on the rack, then climbed beneath the covers.

The ceiling was somewhat hazy in the darkness.

He closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and organized everything he had gained today—

He had confirmed the timing and Shisui's fate, clarified the goals of the first stage, made an action plan, and found a strategy for approaching Shisui.

His mentality had shifted from its initial confusion and chaos into clear, proactive planning.

From here on, every action would revolve around this plan.

Improve the Sharingan, train in the Great Fireball Technique, and find an opportunity to contact Shisui.

These were the three rules Lin Feng had set for himself.

The night deepened.

The occasional chirp of insects drifted in from outside. Lights still glowed in the southern end of the Uchiha residential district in the distance, likely from the Security Force duty room. Lin Feng turned over, pulled the blanket up to his neck, and slowly drifted into sleep.

Tomorrow would be the first day of training.