The Truth After the Seal

Shisui pressed his palm against the remains of the first seal.

Chakra patterns spread from his palm, and fragments of the seal peeled away like shattered ice.

The air flowing from beyond the door was not wind.

It was a warm, rhythmic pulse.

Lin Feng pressed a hand against Shisui's shoulder from behind. In an instant, his senses fully opened, and information from the space ahead surged in like a tide—not traps, not sealing barriers, but something more direct.

"There are at least seven independent chakra sources."

Lin Feng lowered his voice.

"They're all living beings. But their frequencies are abnormal—like they've been suppressed, in a semi-dormant state."

He paused for a second.

"This isn't an archive."

Shisui remained silent. In the darkness, his Sharingan slowly turned, the Three-Tomoe patterns in his pupils spreading into the intricate design of the Mangekyo Sharingan. He was using his ocular power to pierce the darkness ahead, trying to see the true forms of those chakra sources.

The sharp stench of disinfectant filled the air.

The temperature was nearly ten degrees higher than in the outer passage.

Shisui's voice came from ahead, so low it was almost a murmur to himself.

"Lin Feng... look ahead."

Lin Feng raised his flashlight, its beam slicing through the darkness.

The first sweep of light passed over metal frames.

The second skimmed across transparent curved glass walls.

The third—

A humanoid figure curled inside a cultivation tank filled with pale green fluid, its naked body suspended within, its limbs bent at unnatural angles. Its eye sockets were empty, but something deep inside reflected the flashlight's glow.

They were not eyeballs.

A Three-Tomoe Sharingan had been embedded at the end of each optic nerve.

The beam continued moving.

A second tank. A third. A fourth.

They stood in two rows, stretching from where the two men stood into the depths of the darkness. Human experimental subjects at various stages of development floated inside every glass container—some had woody proliferative tissue growing from their chests, cells from the First Hokage forming bark-like patterns beneath their skin; some had black Curse Seal markings covering their arms like a network of charred blood vessels; some had faces so blurred that their gender could no longer be identified, yet every single eye socket contained a Sharingan.

One eye, two eyes—some had even been stuffed with three.

Shisui took a step forward.

Lin Feng did not stop him.

His gaze followed Shisui's back as he walked toward the largest cultivation tank at the center of the laboratory.

It was a massive cylindrical glass container more than three meters in diameter. Nutrient fluid slowly rotated within it, forming a miniature vortex. The experimental subject floating at its center made Shisui stop in his tracks.

That face.

A young face, still carrying the contours of adolescence.

It was almost exactly like what he himself had looked like at twelve.

The Curse Seal on Shisui's neck began to glow with an unnatural red light.

A scorching pain erupted beneath his skin, as if something inside him had awakened and was responding to the experimental subject in the cultivation tank. He pressed a hand over the Curse Seal, his fingertips feeling his skin tremble at an abnormal frequency.

"Cells from the First Hokage... and Sharingan."

Shisui's voice turned hoarse.

"They were fused together. Danzo wasn't trying to wipe out the Uchiha Clan..."

He lifted his head and looked at the identical face inside the cultivation tank.

"He was creating Uchiha."

Lin Feng walked up to the central cultivation tank.

The flashlight beam pierced the nutrient fluid, illuminating the experimental subject in full. The same Curse Seal pattern marked its neck in the same place as Shisui's. At the center of its chest, woody tissue formed by First Hokage cells pulsed slowly like a second heart. Beneath its tightly shut eyelids, its eyeballs moved rhythmically.

Lin Feng's grip on his weapon tightened.

The hand Shisui held over his Curse Seal began to tremble. Red light seeped through his fingers, and the experimental subject inside the cultivation tank suddenly suffered a faint muscular convulsion.

Not just that one.

Several subjects in the smaller cultivation tanks along the two rows twitched at the same time.

The laboratory lights flickered.

Chakra fluctuations spread from the central cultivation tank like ripples raised by a stone cast into water. Every cultivation tank responded to that frequency—the Curse Seal patterns on those subjects began flashing in the same rhythm.

Cold sweat seeped through the gaps between Shisui's fingers as he pressed his hand against the wound.

"I recognize the source of these cells..."

There was uncontrollable trembling in his voice.

"Orochimaru once tried to implant the same sample into my body. I refused then, so Danzo used the Curse Seal."

He drew a deep breath.

"Now he succeeded—he succeeded in creating another me."

Lin Feng's gaze shifted from the cultivation tank to Shisui.

The Curse Seal on Shisui's neck was establishing a visible resonance with the experimental subject—the red light pulsed at the same frequency, as though invisible threads connected them.

"Your body is resonating."

Lin Feng rapidly assessed the situation.

"Is this rejection between cells of the same origin, or a summons? What is its purpose?"

Shisui pressed a hand over the Curse Seal, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

His Mangekyo Sharingan spun at full force, trying to analyze the nature of this resonance. Then his expression changed.

It was not fear.

It was something deeper—the cold clarity of being plunged into an ice cave after someone had touched his bottom line.

"It's not rejection. It's calling to me."

He murmured.

"This is an active summons—they're searching for cell samples from the same origin."

Lin Feng had already moved to the operating table at the edge of the laboratory. He swept aside the bloodstained surgical tools scattered across its surface, revealing a data terminal beneath. The screen was dark, but the chakra circuits of its encryption system were still faintly operating.

"Shisui."

He called out.

Shisui turned away from the cultivation tank, the Sharingan pattern in his eyes still maintaining its Mangekyo form. He walked to the operating table and pressed his palm against the terminal's surface. Chakra flowed in at a specific frequency—the forced activation technique he had mastered as a member of Root.

The screen lit up.

Green text began scrolling.

Experiment IDs: A-001 to A-047

Cell fusion success rate: 23.7%

Curse Seal control protocol: Third-generation modified forced suppression type

Mass production schedule: Third phase entered

Shisui's gaze passed over the data line by line.

Then the screen scrolled to the final page.

His fingers froze in midair.

The title of that page was marked in bold red text—

[Uchiha Shisui: Perfect-Compatible Body Transplantation Plan]

Lin Feng saw Shisui's shoulders stiffen.

"It says here—mass production plan."

Shisui's voice was terrifyingly calm. It was the kind of calm that only emerged after every emotion had been forced below freezing.

"Danzo intends to create enough controllable experimental subjects to replace the entire Uchiha Clan's position in Konoha. He won't kill us."

He pointed at the line of text that represented his fate.

"He'll turn us into obsolete models that are no longer needed."

Lin Feng stared at the screen.

His eyes swept over the plan's detailed contents—the surgical procedure for extracting eye tissue from living bodies, methods for preserving cell samples, and a scheme to controllably replicate Mangekyo Sharingan abilities. Every item was marked with the same prerequisite.

[Execution timing: Operate immediately after target is captured or confirmed dead]

He saw Shisui's name listed under [Prototype ID].

A red note followed it—[Only perfect-compatible body. Irreplaceable.]

At that moment, the laboratory lights flickered again.

It was not unstable voltage.

Something was absorbing the chakra in the room.

Lin Feng abruptly turned his head.

The nutrient fluid in the central cultivation tank was developing abnormal currents. The originally slow vortex began accelerating, bubbles surged up from the bottom, and the surface churned violently. Unit One's tightly shut eyelids trembled.

The black Curse Seal patterns on its neck spread at a visible speed—from its neck up toward its jaw, then through the network of blood vessels toward its chest.

A pop-up window suddenly appeared on the data terminal's screen.

Red text flashed with urgent light:

[Warning: Unit One activation response threshold exceeded]

[Chakra fluctuation frequency match confirmed]

[Same-origin cell resonance triggered—target connection established]

[Emergency protocol activation recommended immediately]

Shisui was still standing where he was, his gaze fixed on the plan bearing his own name.

Lin Feng grabbed his shoulder.

"It's moving—the chakra density in the nutrient fluid is rising."

His voice was rapid and clear.

"Shisui, its eyes... are turning toward you."

Shisui's eyes widened.

His Mangekyo Sharingan met the pair of eyes that had yet to open inside the cultivation tank through the glass wall—the experimental subject's eyeballs rotated beneath its eyelids, locking steadily onto where he stood.

And the Curse Seal on its neck was spreading even faster.

Shisui felt the burning pain in his neck intensify in an instant.

Cells from the same origin were responding to the summons.

The experimental subject created with him as its prototype was searching for him through the Curse Seal.

Lin Feng's other hand was already pressed against the data terminal's storage interface. His fingers moved quickly, copying all experimental records, image data, and plans into the sealing scroll he carried with him. The progress bar on the screen rapidly advanced.

70%.

85%.

96%.

At the same time, he sensed the chakra changes throughout the laboratory—not only in the central Unit One, but also in the experimental subjects inside the smaller cultivation tanks on both sides, which had begun showing varying degrees of muscle movement.

100%.

Copy complete.

Lin Feng pulled out the scroll and seized Shisui's arm, dragging him backward.

"We need to decide immediately."

His gaze swept over the experimental subjects convulsing more intensely inside the cultivation tanks, then fell on Shisui's profile lit by the red glow of the Curse Seal.

"Retreat, or destroy them first."

Shisui's Sharingan remained fixed on the central cultivation tank.

The adolescent experimental subject floating inside, his duplicate, the prototype of the weapon he had been forced to become, had eyelids whose trembling gradually became a conscious struggle to open.

All the laboratory lights went out.

Only the sickly green glow of the nutrient fluid in the cultivation tanks remained, along with the morbid red light of the Curse Seal on Shisui's neck.