The air beneath the Forest of Death carried the rotten stench of dust that had accumulated for a thousand years.
Hyuga Xiao tucked the first Covenant Stone Fragment close to his body. When his fingertips touched the crystal's icy surface, he could feel a pulse—like the heartbeat of a living thing, or the echo of some ancient ritual. The light on the altar had already gone out, leaving only the engraved markings glowing faintly in the darkness.
"Equal Guardian Pact..."
He quietly repeated the words from the vision, his Byakugan remaining active in the dark. In his field of vision, the altar's structure revealed complex chakra circuits. Those circuits were dimming at a visible rate, as though they were collapsing on their own after fulfilling their purpose.
He had to leave immediately.
Xiao turned toward the passage he had entered through, his footsteps leaving shallow prints on the dust-covered stone slabs. Before he had taken ten steps, he suddenly stopped.
Within the Byakugan's three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vision, seven chakra signatures were closing in from three directions.
They were not from the Hyuga Main House.
He knew that kind of chakra flow all too well—cold, orderly, carrying deliberately suppressed killing intent. Root.
Why would Danzo's men be here?
Xiao's mind raced. The Forest of Death was Leaf Village's training ground, and Root did have the authority to patrol it. But the underground altar was extraordinarily well concealed. Without the Curse Mark Fragments to guide him, even he would never have found it. Unless...
Someone had been watching him all along.
The thought sent a cold sweat down Xiao's back. He recalled those barely perceptible stares during previous missions, and the overly sharp-eyed men among the "guards" sent by the Main House. So it was not only the Main House. Even Danzo had long