Echoes of the Shrine

Dawn had barely begun to lighten the sky.

Lin Feng was already standing at the edge of the Uchiha Clan Grounds, checking the shuriken and kunai in his ninja tool pouch to make sure he had not missed anything.

He took a deep breath and stepped across the boundary of the clan grounds.

The patrol shift change within the grounds took place at five in the morning. By acting during this gap, he could avoid more than ninety percent of the watchful eyes.

Lin Feng lowered his body and moved swiftly along the route he remembered. He had lived in these grounds for seven years; every alleyway and the distribution of every house's shadows were etched into his mind.

Footsteps came from the corner ahead.

Lin Feng immediately pressed himself against the wall and held his breath.

The conversation of two patrolling clansmen drifted over from behind the wall. "The clan head held a meeting all night last night..." "I heard the Security Force's authority got cut back by the Hokage's side again..."

The voices faded into the distance.

Lin Feng did not delay and continued onward. His movements were light, leaving almost no footsteps on the stone-paved road. Being a transmigrator had given him a degree of cautious discipline beyond his peers. In the ninja world, such qualities were the most basic survival instinct.

Half an hour later.

The outline of Naka Shrine appeared at the end of his sight.

The shrine stood along the banks of the Naka River. Its buildings were old and poorly maintained. Though the Uchiha valued ancestral heritage, most of them were no longer particularly devout toward places of worship like this.

Rather than enter through the front gate, Lin Feng circled around to the rear of the shrine.

He crouched down and lightly tapped the ground with his fingers, confirming there were no trap seals beneath it. This was the most basic precaution. Even on his own Lineage's territory, he could not let down his guard completely.

The Konoha Security Force had Uchiha members within it, but its surveillance did not reach this place. That was precisely why the Uchiha Stone Stele had remained hidden here for so many years.

Lin Feng pushed open the rear door of the shrine's main hall.

The hall was dim, with dust floating silently in the morning light. A thin layer of dust covered the altar, clearly showing that no one had come to clean it in a long time.

He walked to the altar, crouched down, and felt along the edge of its surface with his fingers.

The genealogy had mentioned that the Uchiha Stone Stele was hidden beneath the altar.

Lin Feng pushed the altar with force, only to find that it would not budge. It was not a matter of weight—it was sealed.

He activated his Sharingan.

Three tomoe spun within his pupils. Faint chakra patterns emerged in his field of vision, forming a hidden sealing formula. This seal was not particularly advanced, but without the Sharingan, even discovering it would have been difficult.

Lin Feng adjusted his chakra output and dismantled the seal's patterns bit by bit.

As the final strand of chakra dissipated, the altar slowly shifted to the left, revealing a stairway leading underground.

A secret chamber.

Lin Feng descended the stone steps. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw a black stone stele nearly two meters tall standing in the center of the chamber.

The stele's surface was covered in fine, dense patterns, like countless blood vessels twisting together. A dark red gleam flickered faintly deep within them, as though some living thing were breathing.

The Uchiha Stone Stele.

Lin Feng extended his right hand, his fingertips touching the stele's surface. It was ice-cold, the chill seeming to seep straight into his bones.

He took a deep breath and activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

The instant the Sharingan's power touched the stele, the patterns on its surface lit up sharply. Blood-red radiance bloomed from deep within the lines, illuminating the entire secret chamber.

Countless words and images surged into Lin Feng's vision like a tide. The flood of information was so immense that his brain nearly felt as if it would burst.

His ocular power was insufficient.

Lin Feng gritted his teeth and persisted, forcibly reading what he could make out.

"...Mangekyo Sharingan... requires losing someone important..."

"...awakens through ultimate sorrow..."

"...ocular techniques awaken... according to the power most desired within the wielder's heart..."

The fragmented words were like shattered mirrors.

Lin Feng tried to read deeper, but the stele seemed to suddenly reject the connection. The blood-red patterns quickly dimmed and returned to ordinary stone markings.

He narrowed his eyes and silently committed the information he had obtained to memory.

The condition for awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan was essentially confirmed—losing someone important. This had been known information in the original Naruto, but confirming it personally through the stele meant the fundamental rules of this world had not deviated.

Suddenly.

Lin Feng's body stiffened for an instant.

He caught an exceedingly faint sound coming from the secret chamber's entrance, as if something were shifting slightly across the ground.

It was not the wind.

It was a person.

Lin Feng did not turn around immediately, nor did he show any abnormality in his body. He slowly withdrew his right hand and pretended to rub his eyes, revealing a weary expression.

That breathing was light and steady.

It belonged to a well-trained ninja.

Root.

The word surfaced in Lin Feng's mind in an instant. Konoha ANBU's most secretive branch, directly under Danzo's command, specialized in monitoring the Uchiha Lineage. Their attention on him meant yesterday's training-ground conflict had already marked him as "someone requiring observation."

Lin Feng slowly turned around.

His movement was natural, as though he had merely finished looking and was preparing to leave. As he turned, he swept a glance toward the secret chamber entrance from the corner of his eye.

There was nothing in the shadows.

But his instincts told him someone was there.

He could not expose his true purpose.

Pretending he had found nothing, Lin Feng dusted off his hands and leisurely walked up the stone steps.

He closed the altar and restored it to its original position, then left through the shrine's side door.

Sunlight had already filtered into the woods, while birdsong rose and fell all around him.

Lin Feng did not immediately return to the clan grounds. Instead, he deliberately took a conspicuous path leading out of the village. He needed to confirm whether the observer would continue following him.

After walking roughly three hundred steps.

Lin Feng confirmed it—someone was following him.

That person's concealment was excellent, nearly blending into the surroundings, but Lin Feng could faintly catch fluctuations in the other party's presence through the special perception brought by his transmigration.

He pretended to crouch down and tighten the straps of his ninja tool pouch, his gaze sweeping behind him.

A branch in the forest bore an extremely faint indentation.

Root.

Lin Feng heightened his vigilance inwardly, but his expression did not change. He stood and continued forward. When he reached a patch of shrubs, he flashed to the left and formed hand seals, using the Substitution Technique.

Chakra burst forth.

He left behind a log where he had stood, while his real body had already hidden in the crown of a neighboring tree.

The observer paused.

The figure hesitated, clearly not expecting Lin Feng to suddenly pull such a move. A moment later, the person withdrew their chakra presence and chose to retreat.

Lin Feng did not relax his guard.

He waited for roughly two minutes. Only after confirming that no other presences remained did he slide down from the treetop and return to the Uchiha Clan Grounds by an entirely different route.

By the time he reached the entrance to the clan grounds, the sun had risen.

Lin Feng stood before the door of his home and looked back along the road he had taken.

There was no one there.

But he knew he had been placed on the list. Root had already noticed his unusual behavior, and stricter surveillance would surely follow.

Lin Feng pushed open the door and entered. Only when he closed it behind him did his expression truly darken.

The stele's information had confirmed that awakening the Mangekyo required paying a devastating price, forcing him to rethink his plans.

And Root's appearance meant that he had even less time than expected.

He could no longer fight alone.

Lin Feng stood before the window, looking out at the rooftops of the distant Uchiha Clan Grounds, and made his decision.

Shisui. He had to find him as soon as possible.

That man, who also possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan and likewise moved between the clan and Root, was the most reliable potential ally.

Lin Feng removed the ninja tools from his pouch and wiped them one by one.

Outside the window, the morning light steadily brightened. A new day had begun in Konoha.

But his war had already begun ahead of time.