Main World.
Spring, year 26 of Konoha.
British Continent, New Capital.
Imperial Palace, Side Hall.
Mikoto stood before the mirror in a black maid's uniform, a white apron tied around her waist, her hair pinned up to reveal her slender neck. She held a white mask in her hands. It had no features, only two pitch-black eyeholes. She looked down at the mask and remained silent for a long time.
"Put it on." Toyotomi Yinglang's voice came from behind her.
Mikoto raised the mask and put it on. It was light, cold against her skin. Through those two pitch-black eyeholes, she looked at herself in the mirror-not herself, but a woman without a face.
"Let's go." Toyotomi Yinglang turned and walked out.
Mikoto followed him. Three maids dressed exactly like her were already waiting in the corridor. They wore the same black maid's uniforms and the same white masks, their hair pinned into identical buns. Standing together, the four were indistinguishable. Mikoto stood among them like a drop of water falling into a river, unable to find her own place.
Konoha.
Beneath Hokage Rock.
Spring sunlight spilled over Konoha's streets, bathing everything in warm gold. Mikoto stood behind Toyotomi Yinglang with her head lowered, looking through her mask's eyeholes at the land where she had once lived. The streets were still the same streets, the houses still the same houses. But the people were different. She saw several people walking down the street in dark gray Clan Clothing, a small character meaning "abundance" embroidered on their cuffs. Their eyes were scarlet, Sharingan slowly revolving in their sockets.
Mikoto's pupils contracted slightly. She recognized those eyes. They were the Uchiha's Sharingan. But the clan emblem on those people's cuffs was not the Uchiha's red-and-white fan. It was the character for