Naruto Immersive Replay, The Curse of the Sharingan

Page 228

Moreover, my plan cannot tolerate any unexpected events.

Therefore, I chose to deceive him into capturing the Tailed Beast.

A perfect excuse to get rid of him. To let him chase after an unreal goal, to keep him away from the real eye of the storm I'm about to unleash.

I even...planned my own death.

Only my death can temporarily quell the doubts of all parties, allow my plans to retreat into the shadows, and perhaps... bring them a moment of peace.

But as life slowly faded away, and as Lengxi collapsed into my arms, my state of mind inevitably crumbled once again.

It turns out that no matter how many times you rehearse it, the coldness of death and the pain of losing a loved one will not be diminished in the slightest.

This time, however, I did not let myself sink into depravity.

I wait in the darkness, waiting for that inevitable variable.

When the barrier between the Pure Land and the mortal world was forcibly torn apart by an extremely ruthless force, when that familiar yet strange chakra pulled my cold soul back into my warm body...

I wasn't surprised at all.

There was only an almost cold calm, and a hint of... the smug satisfaction of a successful plan.

Madara... you did it after all.

This is exactly the kind of strength we need.

The moment I stood in the sunlight again, I had no time to reflect on my rebirth. The great battle I had foreseen, which was about to engulf everyone, had already broken out, and the shadow of death loomed over the battlefield as if it were a tangible reality.

I closed my eyes and stopped suppressing the two entangled forces within my body.

For the first time, the Twin-Headed Prajna achieved a dangerous and extreme balance within me.

I opened my arms.

An indescribable, boundless golden and black energy surged into the sky from my center! Like a reverse meteor shower, it sprinkled across every corner of the battlefield.

Those who fell, whoever they were, rose again in the light, their wounds healed, and their lives were revived.

It was as if time had reversed, and death had been forcibly reversed.

But what followed was a violent rejection and anger from the entire world consciousness!

The sky twisted and the earth roared! It was as if my existence, defying the heavens, was the greatest blasphemy and threat to this world! Staying any longer would only invite true divine punishment.

At least... they all survived.

I took one last look at the land I had forcibly saved, and at Tobirama Senju, who was staring intently at me, his eyes filled with shock, rage, and some terrible premonition.

I once again used that dangerous power, tearing open the space in front of me and stepping into the raging spacetime turbulence.

I thought this was the end, to vanish alone in endless exile through time and space.

But I never imagined... in that original world where I chose to sacrifice myself and was about to be forgotten by everyone, Uchiha Madara... he actually...

He actually managed to forcefully break through the barriers of time and space!

So resolute, so insane, so... recklessly following me, they plunged into this doomed place.

I suddenly remembered a nearly forgotten, curse-like annotation that Indra had written in blood beside that rebirth contract long, long ago:

[The twins of Prajna, intertwined by cause and effect, this seal will not cease, this hatred will not be extinguished, the cycle of reincarnation will not end, the entanglement will never cease.]

This is the truth of it all.

So-called destiny.

It's not about saving, it's not about changing.

It is something I cannot escape no matter where I flee to, no matter what choices I make, even in death, even in time and space isolation.

An eternal entanglement...

[Uchiha Showa] - Chasing Stars in Hell

The water of the River of Oblivion is cold.

It's not the biting cold of frost, but a deathly cold that seeps into the soul and slowly strips away all warmth.

I churn and roar here, using the violent power of Prajna to turn this damned river, which carries countless confused and lost souls, upside down!

“Zhili—!”

"Zhili! Where are you?!"

"Uchiha Chiri!"

My voice echoed in the empty, deathly silence of hell, heart-wrenching, yet it only attracted more greedy and numb gazes.

The evil spirits floating in the river, attracted by my movements, swarmed towards me like hyenas smelling blood.

They tore at my arms, gnawed at my soul, and tried to drag me into this eternal chaos.

Honestly, I can't feel it at all.

The physical pain and the tearing of the soul were insignificant compared to the panic and despair of not being able to find Chiri.

My nerves felt as if they were being soaked in the strongest liquor, or roasted on a red-hot iron plate, with extreme madness and occasional flashes of clarity tug-of-war fiercely in my mind.

Sometimes, I'll suddenly freeze, staring blankly at my broken soul, wondering, "Where's Chiri? Did she just go out on a mission? Will she be back soon, with a helpless smile, to bandage these new wounds I've inflicted?"

The next second, an even deeper despair would engulf me—no, she was dead, I saw her body with my own eyes.

No! Maybe it was a dream! A terrible nightmare! Chiri must still be alive! She must be waiting for me somewhere! Yes! Find me! I must find her!

So, I started a new round of searching and destruction.

The first year passed in this extreme madness and the occasional sharp, piercing clarity.

I've ravaged the River of Oblivion, leaving its riverbed exposed and evil spirits fleeing, yet I still can't find that familiar purple expanse.

The raging waves seemed to have receded temporarily, leaving behind a desolate, icy beach.

My heartbeat—if the dead still have a heartbeat, they would have been silent for many years.

until that day.

A faint yet incredibly familiar chakra fluctuation, originating from the same source as me, gently stirred my long-dormant senses, like a tiny pebble thrown into stagnant water.

I suddenly raised my head, turned mechanically, and looked in the direction of that sensation.

It was a newly arrived undead, looking very young, with fearful eyes and pitifully weak soul power, yet it carried a trace of... the power of Prajna.

A reincarnated being with such meager power?

At that moment, my lifeless heartbeat, tragically, violently, and as if revived, suddenly throbbed! A faint, almost nonexistent flame of hope was ignited!

Maybe...maybe she can...

I practically scrambled to her, ignoring her terrified eyes, and grabbed her tightly, crying, "Power! Give me your power! Help me resurrect someone! Quickly!"

The weak undead was so frightened that it trembled and could not speak, only shaking its head desperately.

The flame of hope was instantly extinguished by the cold reality, turning into a raging inferno!

So weak! So useless! This reincarnated being can't even protect himself, how can he bear the power of Prajna? And how could he possibly have the ability to revive my Chiri?!

"Useless!!" I screamed, the despair and anger that had been building up for ten years finally erupting at this moment! The dark red Prajna power surged out uncontrollably, instantly annihilating that weak soul along with that meager trace of the same source power! Not even a trace was left!

Looking ahead at the empty space, the rage receded like a tide, leaving behind an emptiness and coldness that was deeper and darker than before.

What...did I do?

I just... destroyed a possibility... even if it was only one in a billion...

Haha...hahaha...

I'm... insane.

I almost forgot.

I am Uchiha Showa.

I am the Right Minister of Prajna, representing destruction, madness, and the ultimate curse.

How could someone like me possibly rely on others? How could I possibly rely on those weak reincarnated beings?

The only one who can truly rival me, the one who has the potential to reverse life and death... is the legendary Left Prime Minister Prajna, who is one with me on two sides but has never appeared.

But...where is she?

So, the waiting began.

Waiting in a place like hell is a torture more cruel than any other form of torture.

Year after year.

I stand like a gradually weathering statue by the River of Oblivion, sensing each new soul that arrives.

Every time I sense even the slightest bit of shared energy, that damned flame of hope ignites uncontrollably, scorching my already battered soul.

And then, each time, came only deeper disappointment.

Too weak... They're all too weak... Either their souls are incomplete, or their temperaments are flawed, or their power is so weak as to be negligible.

None of them are capable of bearing the power of the Left Prime Minister.

Hope rises, shatters, rises again, shatters again, over and over again.

My emotions were gradually worn down in this endless cycle.

No more rage, no more manic laughter, no more even despair; only a numbness that has seeped into my very bones.

Like a stone forgotten in a corner, cold, stiff, unable to feel the passage of time.

Until...the arrival of the first hundred years.

That was the deadline I made with Death.

I can't even remember what I paid for this privilege of staying in the River of Oblivion for a hundred years and not being reincarnated.

Perhaps my madness pleased Him? Or perhaps I sacrificed something important?

Zhili, I've been looking for you for so long.

I turned hell upside down.

I waited a full hundred years.

But... you're still not here.

The Left Prime Minister, who could help me, did not appear.

I... I think... I really can't keep going anymore.

The last bulwark built by the spirit finally collapsed completely after a century of solitude and countless dashed hopes.

It turns out that the most terrifying thing about hell is not the mountains of knives and the sea of ​​fire, nor the boiling oil.

Instead, it is an eternal, lifeless silence without you, and a hopeless wait that cannot be stopped.

My consciousness began to dissipate, the light of my soul grew dimmer and dimmer, and the obsession that sustained my existence seemed to have finally reached its limit.

It seems that in the end... there's nothing I can do to save you.

Before my last bit of consciousness faded, I seemed to see again the smile that Zhili gave me that night.

I'm sorry... I couldn't... find you...

It's ridiculous. Uchiha Showa went on a wild and exciting rampage, turning the River of Oblivion upside down, only to disappear without a trace in the end.

Just as that last glimmer of consciousness was about to be completely extinguished.

"Whoa—!!!"

A baby's cry, exceptionally clear, loud, and brimming with vibrant life, pierced the eternal silence of hell! It also instantly pierced my dissipating spirit!

I jolted awake! That cry forcibly pulled me back from my daze!

That cry...that surge of power...

It's the aura of the living world! And... this resonance originates from the very source of the soul...

The power of Prajna? So pure...so...powerful.

Like a dying beast letting out its final howl, I struggled, using the last ounce of strength to lunge towards the blurred boundary between hell and earth! I tore open that invisible crack, peering out recklessly!