In a quiet room at the Hatake Residence, Ling sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, his aura as still as water. Yet deep within his consciousness, his exchange with Tobirama proceeded at unprecedented speed, like two overclocked processors.
The backlash of intent when those three attack cores were annihilated was blocked, but its "path" and "texture" have been recorded. Tobirama's voice carried a researcher's fervor. It shares an origin with the will at the Netherworld Marsh altar and the Seabed Base, but it is more concentrated, more "close." This confirms our suspicions. The so-called "Sacred Lord" is not a single, fixed individual, but something more like an immense collective consciousness situated in a distant dimension or a deep spiritual realm. He can project power and will through specific mediums, such as the Sacred Core, Cursed Seal, and Shadow Crows.
Can we trace it back to the Crow's Nest? Ling went straight to the point.
Difficult, but not impossible, Tobirama analyzed. Shadow Crows are constructs of pure energy and spirit. Their existence depends on three elements: 1. The controller's will, possibly that of the Sacred Lord or his high-ranking priests; 2. A stable energy source; 3. A "coordinate" or "beacon" used for positioning and projection-the kind of spiritual mark we discovered and erased before. We destroyed the point at the Cemetery, but since they could launch another attack, there must be other "beacons" we don't know about around Konoha, or even inside it.
When the attack happened, my Senjutsu perception picked up a faint directional trace in the energy flow. Ling recalled what he had sensed. It vanished in an instant, but its general direction... pointed northwest.
Northwest... Tobirama swiftly pulled up the map of the Land of Fire from Ling's memories. *The northwestern border of the Land of Fire adjoins