Thunder cracked across the Konoha skyline. Storm clouds loomed over the village as if the heavens sensed something was about to break. Down below, unseen by the people, the roots of Konoha trembled.
In the ancient stone chambers hidden beneath the Uchiha Naka Shrine, Sasuke Uchiha stood in silence.
He held the obsidian-carved figure in one hand, and the Madara scroll in the other—both pulsing faintly with chakra. On the stone walls around him, the ancient murals had changed. They no longer depicted the founding of the Uchiha clan. Now they showed scenes of blood rituals, merging flesh, and eyes sprouting from unnatural places.
The shrine had shifted.
Sasuke stared ahead, his Sharingan spinning, his mind caught between revelation and confusion.
> "Who are you really, Kibutsuji Muzan…?" he muttered.
From the shadows, a voice replied—not cruel, not loud—but unsettlingly calm.
> "A better question, Sasuke Uchiha… is: What are you becoming?"
Sasuke turned, blade drawn.
Muzan stepped forward from the darkness, as if the shadows themselves had given birth to him. His long hair shimmered in the flickering torchlight, and the black threads of his kimono danced with a life of their own.
> "I've been watching you," Muzan said, hands behind his back. "Your anger. Your pain. You hide behind vengeance, but your blood sings for more than that. It sings for transcendence."
Sasuke's grip tightened. "You don't belong in this world."
Muzan smiled faintly. "Neither do you."
---
Above ground, in the Hokage's tower, Tsunade slammed her palm against the table. "He was sighted inside the village?"
Kakashi, still half-bandaged from the last border encounter, nodded. "A Mist shinobi, twisted beyond recognition, attacked the western wall. Chakra poisoning. The jutsu were corrupted—like something was… overriding them."
Tsunade turned to Jiraiya, who looked unusually grim.
> "This isn't just demonic," he said. "It's systemic. Muzan isn't just turning people—he's rewriting the chakra system itself. Like he's replacing it with something darker."
A tense silence followed.
"Then we have no choice," Tsunade said. "Activate Protocol Anbu Black—every Uchiha ruin, every underground crypt, lock them down. No one goes in or out."
Jiraiya didn't move. "There's one we can't reach."
"…Which one?"
"The Naka Shrine."
---
Beneath the Naka Shrine, a storm brewed not in the skies—but in chakra.
Muzan circled Sasuke slowly. "You're smarter than most. You've already noticed the changes. The seal under the pedestal… it wasn't made by any clan. Not Senju. Not Uchiha. Not even by the Sage of Six Paths."
He paused, and the torchlight flickered unnaturally, casting twisting shadows on the walls.
> "That seal was mine. Placed here long before Konoha was born."
Sasuke stared. "You expect me to believe you predate the Sage?"
Muzan lifted his hand. Black veins pulsed beneath pale skin. "Your world was shaped by chakra. Mine was shaped by blood. When I crossed over, I saw what this place could be. And I saw… you."
> "The boy who lost everything. The boy who holds hatred like a sword. You're not that different from me."
"You're wrong," Sasuke hissed.
He formed seals—Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!
Flames roared through the chamber, engulfing Muzan. But as the fire cleared, Muzan still stood, untouched. His body shimmered, momentarily translucent. No heat. No burn. Just cold.
> "I've consumed demons. Rewritten my flesh. I am not bound by your laws anymore."
He dashed forward. Sasuke's Sharingan flared as he barely parried the incoming claw strike. Metal scraped bone. Sparks flashed.
Sasuke flipped, slashing horizontally. Muzan ducked and countered with a blood tendril from his palm, which wrapped around Sasuke's arm.
"Your hatred gives you strength," Muzan whispered. "But it's also a door."
Sasuke's arm burned as the blood tendril tried to inject something into him—a mutagenic chakra. But Sasuke focused, his Sharingan evolving into Mangekyō, blasting the tendril away with raw force.
> "I'm no one's puppet."
He leapt back, panting.
Muzan nodded. "Impressive. You resisted the blood curse. That makes you the perfect vessel."
"What do you mean—?"
Before he could finish, the stone beneath them began to split. The shrine trembled violently.
Then… it descended.
The entire platform they stood on sank into darkness, revealing an ancient catacomb below.
---
What lay beneath was… monstrous.
A vast chamber filled with glass sarcophagi, each one holding a shinobi from forgotten times—some still twitching, others missing limbs, all of them mutated. Some had multiple eyes. Others had tails or bone growths. Symbols pulsed on their skin. And at the center…
A black chrysalis.
Pulsating. Breathing. Alive.
Muzan gazed at it with reverence. "My gift. My rebirth."
He turned to Sasuke. "You think this world is strong because of chakra. But I've seen your future. It ends in ashes. Endless war. False peace. Kages dying. Villages rebuilding. Over and over."
He stepped forward.
> "But with me—true evolution. No more chakra wars. Just survival of the perfected."
Sasuke growled, "You're insane."
"Insane?" Muzan chuckled. "Perhaps. But visionaries always are."
He raised his hand.
The sarcophagi began to open—reanimated shinobi began to rise, their eyes hollow, bodies reshaped by blood curses. They spoke in broken tongues, uttering fragments of ancient jutsu and demonic chants.
Sasuke activated Susanoo.
The skeletal armor flared to life, sword in hand, chakra radiating like a beacon in the cursed chamber.
Muzan narrowed his eyes. "Let's see how long your chakra can hold… against a world of monsters."
The chamber exploded in chaos.
Sasuke's Susanoo clashed with cursed jutsu—blood spears, smoke serpents, demonic clones. Muzan watched from the edge, arms folded. He wasn't testing Sasuke's strength.
He was testing his will.
---
Above ground, Jiraiya's toad spy network activated all at once.
Dozens of signals.
Tsunade shouted, "What is it?!"
Jiraiya's eyes narrowed. "A mass chakra fluctuation… beneath the Uchiha district."
"…Is it him?"
He nodded.
> "Muzan has begun."
---
Back in the chamber, Sasuke stood amidst carnage. The fallen cursed shinobi were twitching, fading into black smoke. His Susanoo flickered, cracking.
Muzan finally stepped forward, slow clapping.
> "You're ready."
Sasuke coughed blood. "For what?"
> "To become more than Uchiha."
He reached toward the black chrysalis. "Next time we meet… I will show you the truth. But for now—sleep."
Before Sasuke could react, Muzan whispered an incantation. The floor shattered, and black liquid swallowed Sasuke whole, hurling him through a dimensional void.
---
Above, the shrine exploded.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and ANBU stood outside the ruins, staring at the black crater where the Naka Shrine had once been.
No chakra. No trace.
Just silence.