Chapter 155: Naka Shrine

In the now-abandoned Uchiha clan compound, Homura was once again wearing a dark cloak as he stood in the middle of the street.

There was no need for him to go throw such lengths.

The compound was long abandoned.

Not a soul was living within the deserted compound.

The only person that would sometimes enter was Uchiha Sasuke.

But even that was a rare sight.

He would normally only return when it was time to pay his respects to the victims of that fateful day.

Homura knew as much since he would also come that day to pay his respects and leave flowers on some of the tombstones, but today was different.

He wanted to confirm something.

So as he entered several houses he was able to confirm a few doubts he had.

As he entered the fifth house and was holding and looking at a picture of a small family of 3, he couldn't help but sigh as he put the picture back in its original position.

Homura: "As I thought, everything has been thoroughly cleaned up…"

Homura's doubt had been answered.

It seemed that most of the houses had been thoroughly searched and had all sensitive materials taken away.

He couldn't even find a single weapon, in houses that he knew belonged to former ninjas.

Unlike the first time he entered.

Even the several dead body outlines found everywhere were gone and most of the disregarded weapons used in the conflict and superficial damage had been removed or fixed.

Homura: "As I thought…I will have to go there," as he walked out of the house, his mind filled with curiosity about the Sharingan, he couldn't help but mutter to himself. Intrigued and eager to learn more, he sought additional information on this fascinating concept.

He had managed to recover scrolls about genjutsu a long time ago, but any information specific to the sharingan abilities or inside knowledge was properly omitted or simply not specified.

After all the sharingan was the Uchiha clan's biggest secret and weapon, they wouldn't simply leave information about its inner workings inside a house for anyone to discover.

Homura could already use the sharingan his sharingan more or less proficiently, but he was self-taught.

He ignored so much about it that it had become a liability, perhaps if he knew more about the powers of the sharingan, things that only people in this world would know then perhaps he could have broken the genjutsu he was trapped inside by Yakumo's powers.

The information he had gained from his previous life was not enough.

Just as how it was not enough for him to simply learn how to weave chakra from it, it was also not enough for allowing him to truly understand the powers provided to him by the sharingan.

Thus why Homura, once again came to the Uchiha district.

He didn't want to be there…these streets brought too many memories.

Even the memories that had been annoying back then turned bitter-sour.

As Homura rounded a corner, memories flooded back to him. In particular, he recalled a heartwarming encounter with a boy whose name he knew all to well and an elderly couple selling toys. In that beautiful moment, life seemed so much simpler and filled with joy. It was a fleeting yet cherished experience that Homura relived with bittersweet nostalgia.

But now that nostalgia was just a painful reminder of a broken promise.

And as if on cue, the memory he had experienced, ended as he was brought back to an empty street once again, so he continued walking, walking further until he finally arrived at a set of long stairs and as he managed to climb those he arrive at his final destination.

Homura looked at the building in front of him and the image from his memories matched the building in front of him.

Homura: "The Naka shrine…" he muttered.

It was a shrine just like any other, except at the top of the torii gate, there was a panel with the Uchiha clan's fan.

Homura stood there for a few seconds in silence, he had avoided disturbing the Uchiha clan as much as he could, not only due to him trying to honor their memory but also because he couldn't completely disregards his feeling of being out of place.

He had Uchiha blood coursing through his veins, but he was not an Uchiha either by name or legacy.

He was simply a pretender in his eyes, not worth being called an Uchiha clan so he never truly tried or accepted that it was something he could become.

He wasn't even supposed to be born in this world, how could a being like him even be worthy of receiving a normal life or the name of such a prestigious clan?

So he wanted to earn it, by changing something or at least saving someone but even that did not pan as he had hoped.

So now…those feelings were even worse, but he would need to put his feelings aside because what he wanted to accomplish was bigger than himself, bigger than his pride.

Thus as he took the first step toward the shrine, he did not stop until he entered inside.

Homura then immediately took off his footwear and as soon as he touched the ground with his bare feet, he understood something that he suspected.

Homura: "Someone is taking care of this place with great care…it can only be Sasuke's doing…" he thought.

And it was not an invalid assumption.

There was barely any dust.

It seemed that Homura had been wrong about thinking that Sasuke may not visit the district too often, but since it was such a big district there were many ways one could have access to it one way or the other; but if Sasuke was truly the one taking care of this place it also meant that he had to be as twice as careful and could not take anything inside.

But fortunately for him what he was looking for was not something that would probably be found by someone who did not know the secrets of the Uchiha's secrets.

And even though, Homura ignored many of their secrets he knew at least one concerning this place.

And that was that deep underneath it.

In the main hall, beneath the seventh tatami mat from the far right, is a secret meeting place of the Uchiha clan. There stood a stone monument that contains the clan's secrets and can only be read with specific dōjutsu.

But Homura was not here for the stone tablet.

Nonetheless, in order to access the main hall, Homura had to use a sequence of seals to remove the sealing stone that lays atop the entranceway. The seal itself has the Sharingan in the middle which could not be mistaken.

And fortunately for Homura, he remembered the hand seals needed, and since it was a simple password to a seal there wasn't much he needed to do besides performing the sequence of seals in the right order.

Homura: "I can't waste time…If there is a jutsu needed for activating it, there have to be traces of chakra or something that only an Uchiha could find out," Homura thought as he immediately activated his sharingan and his sight turned into a bloody red color as he looked all around the shrine "Got it!" he said out loud.

Forgetting that he was not supposed any sound, but he cared hardly as he proceeded to go where he needed to, and soon enough, he found himself in front of his target.

Homura: "I hope this is right…" he said in an almost worried but slightly hopeful tone.

Homura closed his eyelids briefly and then began to mold his chakra as he concentrated in front of the stone tablet.

Homura: Muttering as he performs the seals "…. and Snake... There!"

With the seals executed correctly, the sealing stone glowed briefly as it got lifted up in the air before sliding away, revealing the entrance to the main hall. Homura took a deep breath and stepped towards the flight of stairs leading towards a dark corridor but since he could still barely see he had no problem finding the main hall.

Homura: "This…this is too clean. There must be some sort of mechanism or barrier set in place." He thought as he tried to check for potential traps or unwanted surprises but thankfully it was an uneventful affair as he then proceeded to find the room that he was looking for.

After using a lighter to enlighten the room with a makeshift fire, Homura proceeded to carefully thread the place once again.

The dim light filtering through the fire set illuminated the room. Dust particles danced in the air, creating an ethereal atmosphere.

Homura: "So that's the so-called Stone tablet, huh?…Not really much different than I expected." He said, as he could barely make sense of what was written on the tablet while some things were incomprehensible but Homura got more or less the gist of it. But it was nothing more than some sort of… warning? It truly wasn't clear. The meaning of words used had been around for so long, and he could not read everything written in it that although the overall interpretation was somewhat clear.

Homura: "Tailed beasts?…are tailed beasts prone to being controlled by the power of the sharingan? (Madara, Sasuke, and Obito are the only Uchihas capable of putting the nine tails under genjutsu…Is it a power that all who have mangekyou are capable of? Controlling a being with so much chakra and power can't be that easy,)…No, that can't be right…right?"

Although in the manga there were depictions of tailed beasts being controlled by users of the sharingan… however, any thoughts about that topic swiftly ended as soon as Homura read the last part that interested him.

And immediately his mood soured.

Homura: "!!!…*sigh*" Homura sighed as he closed his eyes for a moment to gather his thoughts and stop his heartbeat from going haywire.

Instructions on how to obtain the mangekyou sharingan written on the tablet were what had put him on edge.

He had thought several times about how he could make himself stronger consistently, and he knew that the mangekyou was the fastest way to achieve it but Homura did not want to have anything to do with that accursed power.

The price was too steep and relied on things that he didn't know he had within himself or was willing to even entertain the consequences and ideas behind it all.

Regardless, he didn't want to walk that path.

Homura: "(Who wrote this? Why would the sage of six paths even tell the Uchiha clan about that? Is this also black zetsu's doing? Obtaining the Mangekyou… Can't be that easy is that why?)…I need more power but…I don't even know if awakening it…" Homura thought to himself, then muttered "Kill your best friend".

He then proceeded to shake off such thoughts from his mind, he was slightly surprised that he even muttered that.

He didn't even have a best friend.

However, an image of a smiling Naruto intertwined with Takao's image inside Homura's head. Which left him slightly confused.

He doubted that he would feel guilty enough to flip upside down Homura's entire world; if he had to kill Naruto.

Homura doubted that the amount of pain one would feel from killing a really close friend could be so easily translated from person to person.

It wouldn't be something he could come back from, even imagining it was something he had trouble putting together but he didn't believe that he could even go through with such a vile plot.

Not even for the sake of acquiring power, he wouldn't be any better than those he hated.

Besides, killing one's best friend wasn't even a surefire way to obtain it, that was a not-so-unfounded misconception since it could be the push one needs, however, he couldn't kill Naruto even in his wildest dreams.

The nine tails jinchuriki could only be killed by someone who measured to the nine tails itself or had a way to overpower it, and seeing how he couldn't even begin to imagine how much chakra the nine tails had to be able to blow away an entire landscape in an instant; it just seemed like a hopeless endeavor.

Madara was born different even if he had the power of the mangekyou sharingan.

His ultimate defensive power called the susanoo, seemed leagues better than other susanoos; so Homura didn't believe he would accomplish much by imitating or gaining the same powers as the madman.

In fact, the reason as to why Homura is so obsessed with kekkei genkais, was also precisely because he did not want to rely on such power.

So instead of wasting more time thinking about things he'd rather not think about, he went back to search for his primary objective.

Homura's eyes scanned the surroundings, and he found what he was looking for – a hidden compartment within the wall. As he gently pressed on a certain brick, a small section of the wall moved aside, revealing a wooden box. He recognized it from the stories he had heard and the research he had done. This was where the Uchiha clan kept valuable heirlooms and secrets.

Homura: Excited "So it was true! Can't believe a third-party game held such information…(Just what is true or false in this world?)"

He carefully opened the box and saw several scrolls, each sealed with the emblem of the Uchiha clan. These scrolls contained forbidden jutsu and confidential information that only the Uchiha were allowed to access.

Homura: Whispering "That was easy, if only everything was that easy... *sigh* Now, let's see if there's anything about the Sharingan and its genjutsu abilities."

He began to sift through the scrolls, searching for anything that might reveal more about the Sharingan's power over genjutsu. Hours passed as he read and studied the ancient texts. The more he learned, the more intrigued and amazed he became at the potential of the Sharingan.

Like a child who had gained a new toy, Homura was completely absorbed and almost forgot that he was supposed to simply scan the documents inside his mind.

chapter end