Ling's awakening brought a long-absent vitality to Shikkotsu Forest, but the faint sense of something wrong lingering in his heart remained like a wisp of shadow beneath a clear sky. He still spent most of his time asleep, relying on the Katsuyu Sage's life energy and the mark Hashirama had left within him to slowly repair his nearly collapsed body and soul. Yet during his brief moments of wakefulness, he would instinctively look inward, trying to trace the source of that "cold familiarity."
Tobirama was troubled as well. He understood its likely source better than Ling did-the tampering left behind by his younger self. It was certainly no simple space-time beacon. It was more like a concealed observation window, perhaps even a... back door. He had to find out exactly what it was and deal with it before it caused consequences beyond their control.
Several days later, Ling's mental condition improved enough for him to remain awake longer and perform some basic inward examination. During one deep meditation, he held his breath and focused, sinking every scrap of his feeble awareness into his sea of souls. Instead of sensing passively, he actively "scanned" every corner of his soul origin, inch by inch.
The life mark Hashirama had left behind was like a warm sun, radiating a reassuring glow that nourished everything around it. Yet at the edge of that warmth, in an exceedingly well-hidden corner that almost blended into the background of his soul, Ling finally caught the source of the discord-
It was an extraordinarily tiny silver Runes, its structure astonishingly complex. It had no physical substance, instead consisting of pure soul energy and mental power, cleverly embedded within a "gap" in his soul origin. Like a perfect parasite, it silently gathered stray soul information and transmitted it in