Chapter 171: What Does The Land Of Stars Have? Uzumaki, Kaguya, Uchiha?!
Shura seemed very satisfied with Shisui’s current dazed and lost state.
He no longer spoke, simply standing there quietly, the white fox mask reflecting an inorganic sheen under the hospital room’s pale lights, like a spectator from hell appreciating the despair seeds he had personally sown taking root and sprouting.
Time flowed slowly in the suffocating silence, every second as long as a century.
Finally, Shura spoke again, breaking the solidified despair.
His tone returned to that indifferent control over everything, as if the previous heart-piercing words were just a speck of dust casually brushed away:
“Feel your newborn power well, Uchiha Shisui. This pair of three-tomoe Sharingan nurtured by despair and betrayal will be your only reliance for seeing the truth in the future.”
He slightly turned his body, his gaze seemingly cast toward the endless darkness outside the window.
“By my calculations, there’s about a year left until that ‘script’ officially plays out.”
Shura turned back to Shisui, the gaze behind the mask carrying a trace of cruel expectation: “When the time comes, use these eyes of yours to see for yourself. See how Konoha rings the final death knell for your Uchiha Clan…”
“Oh right, don’t even think about escaping. You surely don’t want to see Susanoo split the Hokage Building in half, do you?”
The warning-laden words fell, and Shura stayed no longer.
He turned, his black robe brushing silently over the cold floor like wings of the dark night, heading straight for the hospital room door.
The metal door hinges emitted a faint groan, the heavy iron door slowly closing behind him, blocking out the corridor’s light and also the figure that brought the despairing prophecy.
Click.
The faint locking sound was particularly piercing in the deathly silent hospital room.
On the hospital bed, Uchiha Shisui still maintained that tense, rigid posture.
The three-tomoe Sharingan under the gauze had stopped its mad spinning, but that cold, violent eye power had not subsided, like a lurking venomous snake slowly coiling and settling in his eyes.
Every heartbeat came with the sharp pain still burning deep in the eyeballs that had not fully subsided, as well as the despairing gazes and shrill wails of clan members before death in the illusion, repeatedly tearing at his nerves.
He slowly, with extreme difficulty, raised one hand, trembling as it touched the two clumps of gauze soaked in bloody tears and cold and sticky before his eyes. His fingertips met bone-chilling coldness, and an aura of despair that seeped into the marrow.
Fugaku Clan Head calmly offering his neck.
Aunt Mikoto’s silent falling tears.
Itachi’s hollow, numb gaze when swinging the blade.
The Anbu’s ice-cold indifferent surveillance posture outside the wall.
Shura’s curse-like words echoed repeatedly in his ears: “What you hoped for is nothing but beautiful foam…”
The cold despair, like a deep-sea chill current, completely submerged him.
No angry roars, no unwilling howls, only a deathly, suffocating void.
He lay there like a puppet with all bones removed, stiffly, with only that hand pressing on the bloodstained gauze, its five fingers suddenly clenching tight, gripping the white bedsheet beneath him with such force that the knuckles turned pale, as if to crush the fabric along with this cruel reality.
The next day, Shisui quickly adapted to his new eyes.
And was settled in a stone-built small courtyard not far from Uchiha Hikari’s mansion, similarly brand new yet exuding a cold quietness.
The gauze over his eyes had been removed, and on his slightly pale cheeks, the newborn pitch-black pupils slowly rotated a pair of three tomoe, silently recounting the profound transformation and pain brought by that illusion.
Though not as usable as his original Mangekyo, it at least allowed him to recover to elite jonin strength.
But every breath left a cold stinging pain deep in the eye sockets from that illusion technique’s Night of the Uchiha Clan Downfall, as well as the strange swelling heat of these new eyes greedily absorbing chakra and striving to stabilize their own existence.
Shisui stood on the cold stone steps of his small courtyard, trying to let the autumn breeze cool the churning clan extermination illusions and Shura’s cold warnings in his mind.
He knew that after Danzo’s sneak attack, returning to the village now would only deepen the contradictions between his clan members and Konoha.
Moreover, Shura giving him this cloned Sharingan transplant technology definitely wouldn’t let him leave freely.
He didn’t want to bring Konoha two mysterious enemies, nor deepen the contradictions between Konoha and the Uchiha Clan.
For now, it seemed he could only stay temporarily in the Land of Stars.
‘Just right to check the situation in the Land of Stars and gather some intelligence on Hoshigakure.’ Uchiha Shisui thought this way.
Laughter and chatter from children came from next door, attracting Shisui’s attention.
His gaze unconsciously swept over the adjacent courtyard, when a flash of bright red suddenly crashed into his not yet fully adapted vision.
It was a spiral clan crest, forged from some tough red metal, firmly nailed to the tightly closed dark wooden door of the neighboring courtyard.
The design was ancient and simple, with smooth lines, carrying the heavy sense unique to an old family.
Uzumaki Clan?
That ninja clan long extinguished in the flames of war, with only a few legends left and cold names on Konoha’s memorial stone?
He couldn’t help recalling the first time clashing with Uchiha Hikari, the red-haired woman who had used Adamantine Sealing Chains to bind three Stone Ninja nearby.
His heart felt gripped by an invisible hand, and Shisui’s body was already moving.
He leaped silently, landing lightly and soundlessly on the courtyard wall like a fallen leaf.
“…The chakra flow needs to sink deeper into the meridians, Kimimaro.” A gentle female voice rang out in the courtyard, a red-haired woman around twenty-something guiding a white-haired boy’s training.
“Excessive Yang Release power is like a flood; without a dam to guide it, it will eventually overrun the riverbed. The Yin Release power brought by the Byakugan is the dam. You must learn to feel its ‘stillness’ and use it to constrain the overly violent ‘motion’ in your bloodline.”
In the center of the courtyard, Kimimaro Kaguya was shirtless, his posture straight as a pine.
He closed his eyes in concentration, under his exposed skin, faint white bones protruded and subsided faintly, like breathing.
At his side, the gentle-faced Uzumaki Kushina lightly pressed her palm virtually on Kimimaro’s shoulder, a soft pale green chakra glow enveloping him.
Further away, Mizuki Haku stood quietly attending, fingertips twined with visible cold white mist.
Another girl with brown hair, a few small freckles on her face, and faint smoke swirling around her body, watched Kimimaro’s practice curiously.
Shisui’s breathing nearly stopped.
Uzumaki remnants!
Kaguya Clan!
And an Ice Release Bloodline Limit!
A… bloodline limit ninja even he had never seen!
This small courtyard hid four descendants of bloodline families long deemed extinct or extremely rare by the world.
This was absolutely no coincidence!
That Shura, what kind of grand web was he weaving in the Land of Stars?
Collecting these lost powers, what did he intend?
Shock like cold tides instantly submerged his thoughts, his eyes faintly aching.
“Who?” Uzumaki Kushina’s voice suddenly turned cold, the gentle chakra glow instantly retracting, her sharp gaze lifting to the figure on the courtyard wall.
Shisui lightly landed in the courtyard: “Sorry for the intrusion. I’m Uchiha Shisui, temporarily residing next door to recover. I happened to see the Uzumaki Clan Crest and got curious for a moment.”
“Uchiha Shisui?” Uzumaki Kushina’s scrutinizing gaze lingered on his newborn eyes for a moment, her medical ninja acuity instantly understanding.
Her tense expression eased, revealing a knowing smile: “I see. Lord Shura mentioned your situation. Come in and sit for a bit, no need to stand on ceremony.”
She turned to the boys and girls in the courtyard: “Kimimaro, Haku, Yukimi, this is Shisui of the Uchiha Clan, the strongest ninja of Konoha’s Uchiha Clan.”
As the strongest graduates of this year’s Star Ninja Academy, the three were led by Uzumaki Kushina, who had already been promoted to jonin, and Uchiha Hikari would also train them.
“The name of Shisui the Teleporter is well-known.” Kimimaro opened his eyes, those recently transplanted Byakugan looking at Shisui, his gaze calm and unwavering, nodding slightly: “I’m Kimimaro of the Kaguya Clan.”
“Hello, I’m Mizuki Haku of the Yukigakure Clan.” Haku returned the greeting mildly, the gentle smile even making Shisui feel a warmth.
“Wow! A Konoha ninja! Hello, hello! I’m Yukimi, of the Iburi Clan!” Yukimi greeted enthusiastically with a girl’s curiosity.
Their clan’s bloodline limit issue had been resolved, now able to live normally under the sun, and Yukimi, as the most talented child of the Iburi Clan, was naturally given focused training.
“Uzumaki Clan… and Kaguya Clan survivors…” Shisui’s voice carried a faint dryness hard to detect, his gaze sweeping over Kimimaro’s Byakugan.
He recalled Shura’s second attack on the Hyuga Clan Territory, taking four pairs of Byakugan—had they been transplanted to this boy?
And the Yukigakure Clan and the never-heard-of Iburi Clan.
All bloodline limit ninja clans.
“Kaguya Clan, I remember wasn’t it already two years ago that…” Shisui recalled the Kaguya Clan rebellion incident once mentioned by Fugaku Clan Head.
“Exterminated?” Uzumaki Kushina took over, her tone calm as if stating a distant past event.
“Things are impermanent; some seeds always struggle to live on in the ashes.”
“Just like our Uzumaki Clan—the Land of Whirlpools is long history, yet the scattered bloodline has taken root again here, hasn’t it?” She pointed to the ground underfoot, then to herself.
Shisui’s heart sank heavily.
Uzumaki Clan, Uchiha Clan, Kaguya Clan, Yukigakure Clan, and an never-heard-of Iburi ninja clan, plus this pair of Byakugan…
