Masamune folded his arms, speaking with a mixture of pride and irritation. "Don't embarrass yourself. We Uchiha are not so petty." His words were directed sharply at Uchiha Mamoru, who had been bristling moments earlier.
Mamoru opened his mouth as if to argue, but closed it again. His teeth ground together, a sign of words he dared not speak aloud.
Shigure watched him, thoughtful. No wonder Fugaku rose to be clan head and captain of the police force… this one, Yoshitsugu, isn't even close. The contrast was glaring to Shigure, and only deepened his respect for Fugaku's sharp leadership.
"All right," Shigure said firmly. "Worthy of the Uchiha name. You're men who keep your word. Since you've asked for my help, I'll take this seriously. I'll draw out your dormant potential."
Masamune's stern features softened. He inclined his head. "Shigure-dono… thank you. Please, follow me. There's a place where your path begins."
He turned, robes sweeping as he led Shigure deeper into the clan's compound. Step after step, they moved past watchful houses and solemn courtyards until the walls gave way to old growth trees. Before long, the silhouette of a weathered shrine appeared, its dark roof tiles brushed with moss.
The Nanga Shrine.
Every Uchiha child grew up hearing whispers of it, though most would never step foot past its gates. Built near the Nanga River, it was a holy ground, a secret forbidden to outsiders. Here, the clan honored both gods and ancestors, and here, truths of their bloodline lingered unseen.
"This is where we part," Masamune said at the threshold. His voice carried a rare gravity. "Your father… he left something for you here. You'll recognize it the moment you see it. I must return to the hall, but… tread with caution."
With only that cryptic reminder, Masamune departed, leaving Shigure alone in the shrine's heavy silence.
The shrine was smaller than the legends made it sound. Shigure's Sharingan eyes swept over the dimly lit main hall. Within moments, he'd scanned every altar, every column, yet he found nothing unusual—until he let his dōjutsu guide him deeper.
A faint shimmer at the back of the chamber caught his eye. Hidden among the carved wood of the wall was a mechanism, nearly invisible without the Sharingan's clarity. Shigure pressed it gently.
With a low grinding noise, the floor shifted. Stairs yawning downward revealed themselves.
"So that's the trick. Only an Uchiha eye could see the path..."
He descended.
The subterranean chamber was quiet, almost oppressively so. At its center stood a monolithic stone tablet, ancient and cold, inscribed with text. The three-tomoe Sharingan in Shigure's gaze allowed him to parse some of the words.
The secrets of our clan… the stone left by the Sage of Six Paths himself. But this one… hasn't Black Zetsu already tampered with it by now?
The tablet spoke of ocular evolution—the path from the three tomoe to the Mangekyō Sharingan. Nothing he read was unknown to him. Beyond Mangekyō, the stone hinted, lie glimpses of the Eternal Mangekyō, the Rinnegan, and—further still—the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Shigure closed his eyes against it. "Not what I'm searching for."
He turned away. And it was then, in the furthest shadowed corner, that he noticed it: a forgotten scroll, brittle with age, the seal still faintly stained with blood.
Shigure approached, heart pounding. "This has to be it."
The moment the scroll unfurled, light pulsed from its surface, latching toward his chakra like a living thing. The illusion struck without warning, dragging Shigure into a crafted world.
At first, panic licked at him. An illusion scroll! The clan means to entrap me? Yet no malice bled from the genjutsu. Instead, he was lifted, given a vantage like a god, watching not his dreams but a memory.
Two figures appeared.
The man bore striking resemblance to Shigure himself, older, with the same sharp features and eyes carrying the weight of command. His father.
Beside him stood a red-haired woman, white-eyed as a Hyūga, her expression gentle despite the exhaustion etched on her face. His mother.
Their voices seemed to reach directly into his soul.
"Shigure…" His father's tone was lined with a sadness too vast to hide. "If you are seeing this, then it means your mother and I are gone. And it means the clan has finally acknowledged you."
His mother laid a hand on the man's arm, nodding.
"You should be strong now—strong enough at least to stand among jōnin. But the path ahead isn't simple. The enemy we faced… they are not people ordinary minds can comprehend. Even together, your mother and I suffered grievous wounds battling them."
The man's gaze bore into Shigure across time itself. "If you are not yet of Kage strength, stop here. Leave. Only by possessing chakra on the level of a Kage will the rest of this message unveil itself."
Shigure's jaw clenched. "I've already surpassed that." He poured his chakra into the scroll.
The illusion flickered. His father reappeared, wearier now.
"…Kage-level strength. You've come far, my son." His smile was faint but prideful. "But I must be honest—at your current level, you can only protect yourself. These enemies surpass ordinary definitions of power. Even Kage fall to them. You must break past those limits… surpass shadow itself."
Shigure did not stop. He released his full super-shadow level of chakra into the glowing scroll. A sharp light swallowed the vision, and new images spilled forth.
Blood.
His parents stood side by side, battered and coughing scarlet onto the dirt, their breaths ragged. Limbs trembled, yet neither yielded. In the darkness ahead of them lurked something vast, its form blurred, but the killing intent enough to suffocate even through illusion.
His father stumbled, then raised his blood-slick hand. Fingers traced hurried motions in the air—numbers, sequences of strange digits, committed desperately to memory.
Then the image went black. Both parents wavered, then vanished like smoke.
Shigure stood frozen in the collapsing illusion.
Super-shadow level enemies… what kind of nightmare were they facing? Were they truly destroyed in that battle? Or did something deeper happen?
The sequence of numbers repeated in his mind, etched into memory. I'll need Konoha's analysts to interpret this.
But one truth gnawed at him: their deaths had little to do with Uchiha politics. His parents may have been ridiculed and cast out for their forbidden union, but their end—no, the battle itself—was waged against something far greater.
"What enemies move in the shadows of this world that even Kage cannot resist?"
The shrine around him returned to view as the genjutsu crumbled.
When Shigure left the chamber, carrying the scroll, Masamune was waiting. "Well? Did you find what you came for?"
Shigure inclined his head slowly. "Answers? No. More questions, yes. Still… I found something. And it matters."
He hesitated. "But tell me, Masamune. Why was my father's name erased from the clan records?"
Masamune's face hardened. "It was necessary. The Uchiha have strict rules—our bloodline must remain pure. To ally with another Kekkei Genkai clan… if exceptions were allowed, the purity of the Uchiha line would scatter within decades. That is why—"
"Enough. I understand," Shigure cut him off, voice cold.
So that was it. His father exiled for falling in love, mocked and pushed aside. Yet that was a different story than the enemy his parents fought with their dying breaths. Two truths, one wound bleeding into the other.
Shigure exhaled, letting the bitterness simmer beneath his calm mask. "I gave my word. Let's not waste more time. We'll begin unlocking your potential. Who steps forward first?"
Masamune raised his hand, steeling himself. "As leader, I will go first."
The shrine fell silent, the air heavy with destiny, as Shigure prepared to awaken what lay dormant in those before him.
Shigure begins the dangerous ritual of unleashing hidden Uchiha potential, starting with Masamune—knowing full well it could either strengthen them… or destroy them.
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