Naruto Immersive Replay, The Curse of the Sharingan

Rin Shikaga's blade sliced ​​through several falling cherry blossoms. Mito was still smiling, but the diamond-shaped mark unique to the Uzumaki clan had appeared on the back of her neck, a sign that the sealing technique was about to be activated.

"Rin." You raised your hand to stop her, the withered cherry blossoms crumbling into powder in your palm. "What do you want from me?"

Mito's smile gradually faded. The scroll she took out from her bosom had the dark yellow hue characteristic of ancient parchment and made a crisp sound when it was unfolded.

The pattern drawn in blood-red sand at the center of the scroll made Rin gasp.

Chapter 52: The Island

It was a demon with bone wings on its back, its body pierced by nine chains and nailed to the altar, the patterns of which were exactly the same as the seal on your heart.

“A sealing technique left behind by the Sage of Six Paths.” Mito’s fingertips lightly traced the edge of the scroll, where the leather had oxidized to green. “It can keep you alive, if you dare to use it.”

The moment the scroll was fully unfurled, all the cherry blossoms in the courtyard withered instantly.

Withered petals formed ancient characters in the air, the very second half of the text you had seen on the Uchiha stone tablet but could never decipher.

"The price." Your voice suddenly sounded inhuman, filled with multiple reverberations. "What price is required for this level of sealing technique?"

Mito's red hair moved without wind. She took a deep breath and pointed to the almost faded small characters at the edge of the pattern. Kaga Rin could barely make out that it was an ancient proverb.

[A Jinchūriki with the Rinnegan]

"I see...no wonder you suddenly contacted me."

You lean against the windowsill, your fingertips casually flipping through the 'Sage of Six Paths' notes that Hyuga Hatosaki had sent you, the parchment pages rustling softly.

Cherry blossom petals falling outside the window occasionally stick to the edge of the paper, only to be casually brushed away by hand.

"The climate in the Land of Snow is too cold, not suitable for long-term settlement..." Shika Rin drew an X on the northern border of the map with his fingertip, the boy's brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a mosquito.

Mito Uzumaki, biting her pen, mumbled, "The borders of the Land of Iron are easy to defend but difficult to attack, but they are the first to be hit in a conflict between the five great nations."

The brush left a blot of ink on the map, like dried blood.

After eliminating more than a dozen locations, the two looked up at the same time, their eyes landing on the figure by the window.

The sound of you closing the scroll startled the sparrows under the eaves, and the black runes on your profile twitched slightly.

“East of the Land of Fire,” you point to a blank space on the edge of the map, “there is an island that has never been marked.”

The points of light that appeared in the void gradually expanded, revealing the outline of a crescent-shaped island. Mito's eyes widened; this was clearly a perfect combination of advanced illusion magic and geographical mapping.

"Surrounded by the sea, with turbulent currents and perpetual fog." Your golden eyes rippled, and a three-dimensional image of the island's mountains and rivers appeared. "Most importantly..."

The scene suddenly shifts to the seabed, where intricate reefs act as a natural barrier, and deeper still, there are air currents formed by chakra reactions.

"—It's well-hidden." Mito gasped. "But the terrain... how did you know about a place like this?"

The room suddenly became so quiet that you could hear the sound of dust settling on the floor. Lu Helin saw your fingertips tremble almost imperceptibly, and your usually composed figure showed a rare stiffness.

The memory of the torrential rain suddenly overwhelmed your eardrums, and the golden light in your right eye slightly blurred. It was as if you could see that soaking wet boy standing under the eaves again, water droplets dripping from his hair and accumulating into small puddles on the wooden floor.

"elder sister..."

When Uchiha Su raised his head, his pale face was covered in water droplets.

Water droplets, indistinguishable as rain or tears, clung to his trembling eyelashes, making his dark eyes, so like yours, shine.

All the words of reprimand stuck in your throat. You smelled blood, and although the rain had washed it away most of it, the dark red stain on his cuff still stung your eyes.

"What happened, Ah Su?!"

The sound was even sharper than he had imagined. His instincts as the leader of the assassins instantly kicked in, and his chakra stirred up a small storm in the room.

The scrolls hanging on the wall rattled, and the candlelight was suppressed to an eerie blue.

Su's lips trembled as he suddenly threw himself into your arms. This usually stubborn younger brother was now lying on your shoulder like a broken reed, his bony shoulder blades digging painfully into your back through your soaked clan robe.

When the warm liquid soaked through his clothes, you realized he was crying, not a childish sob, but the suppressed whimper of some animal driven to the brink of despair.

"Did the elders do something to you?"

Your action of tearing open Su's collar was almost violent. When you saw the sealing array on the boy's back that was still bleeding, your fingernails instantly dug into your palms. It was the forbidden technique, the Shackles Technique, which was specifically used to control disobedient geniuses within the clan.

The katana on the sword rack hummed, and the wind you created as you turned overturned the coffee table, embedding three shuriken deep into the doorpost.

"Sister! No!"

Su hugged you tightly from behind, her icy fingers intertwined around your waist.

"No! You're all alone..." Su's voice shattered amidst the thunder, "They'll punish you according to clan rules!"

You turned around and cupped your brother's face in your hands. The skin beneath your fingertips was as cold as a corpse, and only tears continued to flow.

When did the little boy who always followed behind her, calling "Sister, wait for me!" start having fine lines around his eyes?

"Is it because of me?" Your voice was so hoarse that even you felt like a stranger to yourself. You recalled the sinister looks in the elders' eyes when they warned you three days ago, "Don't be too sharp."

Su shook her head frantically, water droplets splashing everywhere. "They're the ones who're so stubborn! They want to use me to counterbalance your power..."

A thunderclap strikes, illuminating your face; tilting your head back feels like you're trying to swallow something sharp.

The sound of rain suddenly seemed to fade into the distance, leaving only my younger brother's suppressed sobs in my ears.

"Let's leave," you said, your voice as soft as a sigh, "to a place where no one can find us."

The moment those words left his lips, the spiderweb under the eaves snapped, Su's eyes widened, and blood seeped from the crack in his lips. "But the mission to protect the Uchiha..."

“That’s the curse that trapped us.” You wiped the bloodstains from your brother’s face, your fingertips stained with dark red. “A cage woven by our parents’ last words.”

As the rain subsided, two dark figures swept past the torii gate of Nanga Shrine. Su didn't even have time to grab his medical kit, only taking the wakizashi left by his father.

You were even more straightforward; you cut off the hem of your tribal robe and wrapped it around your hands as a bandage, and hastily tied your katana to your back with strips of cloth.

"Lord Lengxi! Just now..."

Before the patrolling genin could finish speaking, the Sharingan with two tomoe was already spinning in his eyes.

"You didn't see anything." Uchiha Rei's voice was mixed in with the rain. Watching the two disappearing figures, he silently threw the pass token in his hand into the shrine.

That was the first day Leng Xi arrived at the Hawks' Faction, the life-saving charm you secretly slipped to him.

The fishing village after the rain was filled with the scent of seaweed and firewood. You wrung out your soaked robe and looked up to find your younger brother, Su Zheng, surrounded by a group of fishermen's children.

Those little hands, tanned dark by the sun, cautiously touched Su's sleeves, their eyes filled with innocent curiosity.

Your eyes are like rubies!

"Could you teach us shuriken, sir?"

Is it true that ninjas can walk on water?

Your fingers unconsciously press on the kunai, but you find that there is no fear in the eyes of these fishermen, only childlike curiosity.

A girl with braided pigtails even boldly approached, wanting to touch your falling black hair.

“We…” Su’s voice choked.

Upon encountering kindness for the first time in seven days of fleeing, the young ninja's eyes instantly reddened.

The old fisherman noticed your tattered clothes, and a glint of wisdom flashed in his cloudy eyes. "Exiled from your family?" He turned and waved before you could answer. "Come, children, hot soup can heal all wounds."

The fish soup that night was so salty it tasted bitter, yet it caused Su's tears to fall uncontrollably into the bowl.

After hearing your brief account of your experience, sighs rose and fell from the wooden hut among the fishermen.

"Let's head east!" The youngest fisherman suddenly jumped up, his fish-scale-covered fingers pointing to the dark sea. "My great-grandfather said there's an island blessed by the gods beyond these waters!"

At dawn, the old fisherman insisted on seeing you onto the ship, his rotten, wooden hands pressing a rough amulet into Su's hand. "When the storm comes, hang this on the mast."

After boarding the boat, you discover that the old fisherman has deliberately left fresh water and dry food in the hold.

As the oars pierced the mist, a boy chased after the boat onto the rocks, shouting, "We must find a paradise on earth!"

The waves washed away your memories, leaving you with only the memory of using your newly awakened Sharingan to predict the trajectory of lightning as you passed through the thunderstorm area.

I remember using fire jutsu to dry his soaked clothes, and I remember a certain dawn when an emerald-colored island suddenly appeared in the rosy light.

As her bare feet touched the soft white sand, Su suddenly knelt down.

You thought he was injured, but then you heard him sobbing, which he had suppressed for many days. The boy clutched a seashell that had been washed ashore by the waves, and his tears fell onto the sand, turning into small dark dots.

"Sister...are we really...free?"

You simply bent down, picked up another seashell, and gently placed it in your brother's trembling palm.

You built a wooden hut by the hot spring in the heart of the island. Su used his clumsy earth-escape technique to create a crooked bed, while you used fire-escape technique to burn the first fish you caught.

The failed artwork was thrown into the sea by the younger brother, who laughed loudly, and the splashing water startled a flock of seabirds.

Until one full moon night.

When you wake up in excruciating pain, you find Su Zheng using chakra to burn your frosted wrist. The boy's face is covered in tears, and the light of his medical ninjutsu flickers in the darkness.

"It's... no use..." Your teeth chattered, shards of ice flying. "The assassin's chilling poison... can't save me..."

The next three days were like hell. Su held your gradually cooling body, watched your fingernails fall off and grow back, and listened to the inhuman roars coming from your throat.

At its worst, what flows from your Sharingan is not blood, but pale blue icy tears.

"It's...over..." On the morning of the fourth day, you weakly propped yourself up and found the tent filled with herbs that Su had collected.

The boy was using chakra to heat the seawater in the iron bowl, his eyes were dark and bluish-black.

Su smiled and handed over the hot soup, but you suddenly grabbed her sleeve, revealing a dense array of pinch marks underneath.

“Ah Su…”

"Shall we go find the antidote?" Su suddenly interrupted you, her voice as soft as a feather.

Your pupils suddenly contracted, but Su had already turned to pack his bags. You didn't see the resolute look that flashed in your brother's eyes.

The incident occurred on the evening of the fourth day of the recovery period.

You are drying freshly picked herbs when you suddenly hear Su's scream. When you instantly move to the source of the sound, your blood freezes instantly.

Uchiha Yoshio was using an iron hook to pierce Suku's collarbone, the blood appearing eerily black in the setting sun.

"It seems you find this hard to believe." Yoshio twirled the chains, his brother's screams startling a flock of seabirds. "If it weren't for the chakra communication from Uchiha Soku..."

The world suddenly went silent. You mechanically turned your head and saw the wet tear stains on your younger brother's face.

"...Why?"

“The cold poison…every time my sister has an attack, it feels like she’s died again…” Su’s lips trembled. “If we go back, at least…at least we can get the antidote…and it won’t be so painful.”

When the sealing techniques of the three elders struck your back at the same time, your Sharingan clearly reflected the image of Su being hung up by iron hooks.

The sole of Yifu's boot crushed the boy's bleeding back, shattering all his innocent fantasies.

"Come at me if you have a problem! What kind of skill is it to bully children!"

“The value of a leader of the assassins is much higher than that of a brat.” Yifu pulled on the iron chain, and Su’s scream tore through the sea breeze. “But punishing traitors… there are quite a few interesting clauses in the clan rules.”

As you were dragged toward the ship by your head, in the excruciating pain that gnawed at your nerves by despair, the last thing you saw was Su's wrist, its bones exposed by the chains, and the little house you had built with your own hands in the distance, with an unfinished seashell wind chime hanging under the porch.

"What are you thinking about? I called you several times and you didn't respond." Mito's voice suddenly pierced through the memory.

Mito's voice pulls you back to reality, and you realize that you have crushed the window frame, and the splinter has pierced your palm, drawing tiny beads of blood.

"It's just some past events." You let go of her hand, letting the blood droplets fall to the ground. "Just that island."

After you left, Shikaga Rin asked Uzumaki Mito in a low voice, "Was Father... crying just now?"

"Shut up," Mito snapped, unusually serious. "Never ask that question again."

Before the morning dew had completely evaporated, Hashirama Senju stopped his younger brother, who was hurrying away, at the training ground. The rising sun gilded Tobirama's white hair with a golden edge, but also clearly revealed the blue shadows under his eyes.

"Tobirama, didn't you get enough rest last night?" Hashirama reached out to block his way, his brows furrowing involuntarily.

In his memory, his strict, almost demanding younger brother had never allowed himself to show such obvious signs of fatigue.

Tobirama dodged his brother's outstretched hand, the sleeve brushing past him and carrying a bitter herbal scent. "The experiment took too long."

He subconsciously touched the side of his neck, where there was a new wound hidden by his white hair. It was a mark left by the gold-style chains when Uchiha Nagi went berserk last night.

Hashirama wanted to ask more questions, but the distant sound of bells interrupted his thoughts. It was the signal to convene the clan meeting, and the deep sound startled countless birds into flight.

"Let's go, Father is waiting." Tobirama strode towards the main house, his back as straight as ever, only the bulging veins on his clenched fists betraying his true emotions.

Inside the council hall, the twelve elders were seated according to their seniority, with the Thousand-Hand Buddha sitting in the main seat, the clan emblem behind him gleaming with a cold, iron-like luster in the morning light.

When Hashirama's tall figure appeared at the doorway, the older elders exchanged meaningful glances.

"As you all probably already know," Buddha's voice was like a dull knife scraping through a bamboo tube, "the news that Uchiha Madara has succeeded as clan leader."