Stone Tablet

The stairs continued down for a short distance before opening out into a similar room as above. At the end of the room was the main shrine of the Uchiha. The slightly weathered stone with rough edges rested on a wooden platform with two braziers constantly burning. As part of the ritual, Natsume and Sahiro took a jar of oil from a compartment in the wall to refill the braziers.

Then, they knelt in front of the stones and began to read the text. Just like her memories confirmed, the stone was made in a special way that hides layers of information based on the dojutsu used to view it. She first read it without sharingan, and the information was a simple recount of their ancestor, the first Uchiha.

He never met his father, but everything he had was inherited from him since his mother was not very powerful. Natsume understood this to be referring to Indra. The founder of the Uchiha was born in this shrine, which was personally built for his mother and him by his father. He notes how this stone has been here all along. He was always more powerful than his peers, so many gravitated toward him for protection.

Eventually, he had a large following which he eventually named the Uchiha Clan. The iconic red paper fan became their symbol because of the powerful Fire Release Jutsu he had mastered. At first, only his direct descendants could awaken the Sharingan, so it had not become a symbol of the clan right away. It was not until several generations of the bloodline passed to the descendants of his followers that everyone had a chance to awaken the Sharingan.

The story was enlightening, and she pondered it for a moment. There was not much useful information, but she understood why this account was so important. It basically recorded the beginning of the Uchiha. After activating her Sharingan, the text changed to the second layer. After reading it, Natsume felt that whoever wrote this was trying to warn someone. Perhaps this was written by Indra to warn his descendants about misuse of their power. His words were very vague and seemed to just be giving blanket warnings about the Sharingan and the curse of his bloodline.

However, Natsume interpreted it differently. She felt that Indra was trying to imply the evolution of the Sharingan was dangerous. This part was clear and any Uchiha could figure it out, however, the key was the evolution beyond the Mangekyou. She knew of the existence of the Rinnegan following after the Sharingan. It seemed that Indra was trying to allude to a higher dojutsu and to never strive to achieve it, for it would be the downfall of the shinobi world.

Finally, she activated her Mangekyou and the next layer was packed with information. It contained the detailed account from Indra speaking of his father. In this account he mentioned the power of creation that his father used to save the world, and how he had inherited this power as a dojutsu. He describes how he was able to rewrite reality or lock peoples consciousness in an illusory realm to atone for their sins.

Of course, the scale of his ability was beyond the current Izanagi and Izanami of the Uchiha. Additionally, his words implied that he could use it without blindness, however it greatly weakened him. He also talked about manifesting his spiritual form with Yin release. In order to develop the ability, he manifested it as a spiritual clone and sent it to the spiritual realm to grow from the endless Yin chakra. Once it grew enough to be considered an independent existence, he called it Susanoo.

This account included his travels around the ninja world and recorded various abilities that Indra possessed including Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. After the travel log was finished, a new account began by a descendant of the Uchiha founder. He discussed the problem of the Mangekyou Sharingan and even discovered the solution. He feared that the future Uchiha would destroy themselves if he revealed the solution, but ultimately decided to state it.

'Only when one grants light to their closest blood kin, will the light become eternal.'

She looked over at her father and noticed that he was still reading the normal text. Natsume realized that her prior knowledge allowed her to accept the information a lot quicker and jump ahead without taking time to comprehend the words. She continued reading Indra's travel logs to see if she could possibly learn anything new or gain insights into the sharingan.

Although she didn't know what text was hidden beyond this layer, she had an idea of what the Rinnegan layer said. Based on Madara's experience from her inherited memories, the text must have bolstered his pride and talked about true peace existing with the infinite Tsukuyomi. The emotional turmoil that he experienced from losing his brother and being betrayed by the clan must have made him believe anything was better than the current world. This was his most vulnerable moment, and there was this beacon of hope laid out in front of him.

"What? How can this be…" Sahiro finally read the last line of the third layer and looked over at Natsume. She had long finished reading and was just sifting through her thoughts. When she turned to look at him, and he saw her Mangekyou eyes, he pondered what she had said before. "Did you already know?"

Natsume planned to lie but when she saw his face, the words choked up. She could only close her eyes and nod. Sahiro laughed at himself and turned back to look at the stone. Tajima would often call the clan cursed whenever things went wrong, but Sahiro never really believed it. Now, he truly understood what it meant to be a cursed clan. Even their ancestor called them a cursed bloodline. Losing your loved ones to achieve a terrible dojutsu only for it to be as fleeting as their lives. However, the ray of hope for preventing that blindness was even worse than awakening.

"The Uchiha are indeed cursed."

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