The upheaval in the Land of Rain sent tremors all the way to the Hidden Sand mainland.
As the puppet clone transmitted the memories of the battlefield like a film reel, Shiraishi's expression grew increasingly somber.
The Rinnegan... the mysterious space-time Sharingan...
The waters of the shinobi world were deeper than he had imagined. The terrifying power contained within that massive Gedo Statue made Shiraishi realize that the undercurrents in the world were now a raging torrent.
To use the Rinnegan and such potent Sharingan as mere chess pieces suggested a mastermind of immense proportions.
Perhaps it truly is the work of Uchiha Madara, Shiraishi mused, though he doubted the masked man was the legend himself. More likely a puppet pushed to the forefront.
The Akatsuki of history was no wonder a threat to the Five Great Villages. With the Gedo Statue, reviving the Ten-Tails was entirely possible.
Shiraishi recalled what Ashura had told him: the Ten-Tails was sealed by the Sage of Six Paths and his brother, and later split into the nine Tailed Beasts.
If this "Madara" intended to revive the Ten-Tails, his goal was likely absolute control over the world.
A sense of crisis surged within him. Shiraishi decided to overhaul his intelligence deployment. He needed a core member planted deep within the Akatsuki.
The organization was currently in its infancy—vulnerable but hungry for personnel and funding. It would take them at least a decade to gather enough power to challenge the Great Villages.
His intelligence from the future indicated that Suikazan Fuguki, wielder of the Samehada, would eventually be killed by Kisame Hoshigaki, who would then join the Akatsuki.
Samehada...
Shiraishi knew he had to accelerate his moves. Having Hozuki Mangetsu in the Mist was no longer enough.
He reached for a scroll and unfurled it. His violent Cyan Flame erupted in his palm, and black runes began to crawl across his skin. Driven by the Yin-Yang chakra, he entered a state of eerie transcendence.
"Ninjutsu: Heavenly Curse of the Five Phantoms!"
Using the system's "Curse" skill as a core, combined with his Yin-Yang attributes and Cyan Flame energy, a spectral image flickered behind him.
A ball of silver-white soul light hovered in the air, splitting into a large orb and a small one. A piece of his soul was being cleanly severed.
The immense curse power expanded. The burning blue flames and the severed soul fragment merged into a unique spiritual entity, greedily absorbing the energy of vengeful spirits sealed within the scroll. This mass of resentment then shot out into the world, seeking a suitable host.
Though his soul was split, the link maintained by Shiraishi's Regeneration Core allowed for limited telepathic communication, ensuring he wouldn't lose his sanity, though the process was excruciating.
This was now an S-Rank Forbidden Jutsu of the Sand—a technique that, unlike Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation, which weakened the soul, actually reinforced the user's spiritual stability through "breaking and rebuilding."
The Mist and the Leaf
In the Hidden Mist, the newly inaugurated Fourth Mizukage had shifted policy. The village was now in isolation, closing its borders to the world.
While intended to help the village recover from the war, it had instead led to internal chaos. Meanwhile, the Sand had gradually seized control of the Mist's maritime influence, leaving them with little more than their home islands.
Suikazan Fuguki, the intelligence chief of the Mist, turned a blind eye to the Sand's encroachment due to his secret dealings with Shiraishi. However, even he felt the pressure as the Mist spiraled into civil war among the bloodline clans.
Fuguki headed to a secret intelligence base hidden behind a dark waterfall. After forming hand seals, he stepped through the curtain of water. Inside, whirlpools of water droplets hovered in the air, controlled by a pale blue telekinetic force.
"You've arrived..." a voice drifted through the spray. A youth in Shinobi Sect robes stood atop the lake's surface, his control over the water as light as a feather.
A Rebirth in Konoha
In the Uchiha compound of the Hidden Leaf, tragedy had struck twice. Following the death of Uchiha Zhan, his only son—the cousin of Uchiha Shisui—had succumbed to injuries sustained in the war against the Mist.
Despite a direct order from the high command to save him, the boy's body had been too frail. He passed away after months of agony.
However, the moment the fifteen-year-old boy stopped breathing, the mark of the Heavenly Curse of the Five Phantoms manifested on his chest. Runes ignited as the curse light, which had gathered resentment all the way from the Sand to the Leaf, merged with the corpse.
Suddenly, scarlet Two-Tomoe Sharingan snapped open. Under the horrified gaze of Zhan's widow, the boy sat up from his hospital bed...
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