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Beyond the borders of the hidden villages, far from the lights of the Art Store in Konoha, in a place where sunlight never reaches, silence was the sole ruler.
Mountains' Graveyard, a remote, bone-covered, and heavily forested region.
A vast expanse reeking of dampness and death.
Deep within a dark underground cave, there was a steady, low sound… a hiss… an inhale… an exhale.
It was not entirely a human sound, but rather the sound of massive pipes connected to an enormous mass of living wood, the Gedo Statue, pumping life into the body of a man who seemed to have forgotten how to die.
Suddenly, something moved in the darkness. A black, viscous substance rose from the ground like a living shadow.
"I've brought it to you… Madara-sama," Black Zetsu whispered, placing something strange on the cold stone floor.
Something that had no place amid the gloom of this dark, foreboding location. Volume Seven of the Naruto manga.
A pale, gaunt hand moved, one covered in wrinkles that told the stories of wars begun before the villages were ever founded. Long fingers, frail as they were, carried an authority that no eye could mistake.
The old man picked up the volume. He did not have the legendary Rinnegan eyes now, only a single, dim Sharingan eye planted in his right socket, but it was enough to tear through the pages with its gaze.
"The Art Store… Uzumaki Rubiro…" The voice emerged hoarse and broken, like the grinding of rocks against one another.
"Does this boy think the fate of the world can be condensed into pages of ink?"
He opened the volume slowly, and the first scene within was an inner nightmare Uchiha Sasuke was living through, the scene that had shaken Konoha to its core, the annihilation of the Uchiha.
A dead silence fell over the cave. Even the chakra pipes seemed to stop pumping for a single second.
The old man stared at the image of Uchiha bodies strewn across the streets. He stared at young Sasuke, weeping tears of blood. Then, for the first time in decades, a low, dry laugh escaped him, one that gradually transformed into a terrifying cackle that crashed against the walls of the cave.
"Ha… hahaha! Hashirama! Do you see this?" the old man cried out, striking the volume with his withered hand.
"Your beautiful dream… the village you wanted to protect… it is the guillotine that slaughtered your people! I told you… that peace in this world is nothing but an illusion!"
"My people, too..."
The laughter stopped abruptly, and the Sharingan's gaze shifted to a lethal coldness as he looked at the final scene of the chapter, the moment Sasuke awakened, his body engulfed by the Curse Mark.
"But… this mangaka… Uzumaki Rubiro…"
The old man's eye narrowed, "He knows too much. He knows about the curse that haunts our bloodline. He knows of betrayal before anyone has even planned it."
The old man turned toward Black Zetsu, and suddenly an aura of pressure radiated from him, one that made Black Zetsu feel as though his body would be crushed, despite being an artificial creature.
"Zetsu… this store is not merely a trading post. It is a crack in the fate of the world. If this boy knows the future of the Uchiha… then he surely knows about me. He knows about the Eye of the Moon Plan."
The old man rose with difficulty, leaning on his cane, while the Gedo's pipes stretched behind him like the wings of a caged demon. In that moment, the faint light revealed his face in full, the long, thick white hair, and the features that had once made armies tremble.
It was Uchiha Madara.
"Go to Konoha again," Madara commanded in a heavy voice.
"Do not watch the Hokage, nor the Uchiha this time. Watch Uzumaki Rubiro. I want to know… is he a prophet sent by fate to unravel my plan, or is he merely another tool I will use to paint the eternal dream that Hashirama failed to see."
Madara slammed Volume Seven shut, and with his nails, he tore through the last page.
"Uzumaki Rubiro… you have drawn the attention of the man who died before you were born. I hope your ink is capable of withstanding the flames of a true Sharingan."
…
In the Art Store in Konoha…
At the very same moment Madara closed the volume, Rob felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He glanced around the crowded store, but saw nothing except the enthusiastic customers.
Rob smiled quietly as he looked at the system interface, which had suddenly jumped by an astronomical figure under the entry:
[+25,000 Art Coin from Uchiha Madara]
"So…" Rob murmured, wiping down his counter. "The ghost has finally awakened."
"Unbelievable…" Seeing the enormous number of Art Coins, Rob's eyes went wide.
…
[— Manga Scene —]
"Some minor sound nins bullying these second-rate ninjas and declaring victory?" Neji stood on a nearby tree branch alongside Tenten, by second-rate ninjas, he meant Shikamaru's team.
"What!?" Dosu was startled.
"They keep coming out like cockroaches…" Zaku sneered.
Neji noticed Lee had collapsed on the ground.
"You made a mistake…" said Neji.
"Lee…" Tenten looked at the fallen Lee on the ground.
'That's Lee-san's team…' thought Sakura.
"That knocked out freak right there is from our team and… You're going to pay for that!!!" The veins around his white Byakugan eyes emerged as he said it, making them tremble.
'What's this…? It's like his eyes see through everything…' Dosu thought in shock.
"If you are going to go any further… I'm going all out…"
'Huh? This chakra…' Before Neji could finish his words, he sensed a familiar chakra.
"Hehe… If you don't like it so much, then stop acting cool and come down here…" said Dosu.
"No. It seems that won't be necessary…"
Sasuke's chakra, now mixed with the strange chakra emanating from the Curse Mark, erupted.
"Sasuke-kun!! You're awake…" Sakura rejoiced as she saw Sasuke rising.
'Huh!' But she was horrified by his strange appearance.
'That's… Sasuke-kun…?' thought Ino, who was currently inside Kin's body.
"Sakura… Who did that to you…?" Sasuke stood; the Curse Mark had spread across half his body. The aura surrounding him from the Mark, combined with his activated Sharingan, made him look like a beast that had just woken.
"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura was shaken.
"Who is it?" Sasuke repeated his question.
'The curse seal is wrapped around his whole body…' Dosu's eyes went wide.
"We did it!" Zaku declared with a triumphant smile, as though their goal had already been achieved.
[— End Scene —]
Hyuga Hizashi felt as though he had become detached from reality at that moment.
He had never felt this way before, but it truly seemed as though he had stepped into the world of the manga, because in that moment, he was looking directly into Neji's eyes, which resembled his own perfectly.
Not only because they shared the same Byakugan, but something deeper than that… those eyes carried the very same traits he himself wore now.
Eyes drained of meaning, simply because he did not feel the same regard that his older brother received… and what a cruel joke it was, older by only a matter of minutes, since they were twins to begin with.
His misfortune was being born immediately after his brother, Hyuga Hiashi. That small thing had predetermined his fate within the clan from the start… and now, the forbidden subject was being broached, the splitting of the clan into a main branch under his brother's leadership and a branch family under his, all to support the main house… because two tigers cannot rule the same mountain.
Now, looking into Neji's eyes, he saw himself in the future… for some reason, he felt a pang of pity for this boy, even though he hadn't seen much of him yet.
"Come on, Neji… show me how you'll crush those bastards from Otogakure and show them what true power looks like…"
He felt a kind of pride watching Neji grow furious at the sight of his teammate Rock Lee being hurt by the enemy.
"Unfortunately… it seems Sasuke has woken up…"
Hizashi felt a flicker of disappointment that he hadn't yet gotten to see Neji fight. It appeared Sasuke had awakened at that very moment, and he truly looked like a beast ready to tear apart anyone in his path.
Even Hizashi, who was merely a reader, could feel Sasuke's savage aura in that moment. "What did you do to him, Orochimaru?"
It seemed as though the moment of Hizashi's immersion in the manga's events was severed in that instant, as he raised his eyes to stare at the man behind it all.
Orochimaru.
…
Hizashi and the Hyuga clan were not the only ones staring at Orochimaru in that moment; he was the center of everyone's attention.
Including the Uchiha clan, who had still not recovered from the shock of their own annihilation in the manga's main timeline.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 145: Granted Power!
Chapter 146: I Got a Little Carried Away, My Apologies.
Chapter 147: The Fastest Team to Pass the Second Exam!
Chapter 148: A Rain of Blood…!
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