Chapter 90: When a Stranger Knocks, Pretend You’re Not Home

Several meters below the massive boulder lay a stone coffin, suspended in darkness. The coffin was inscribed with countless intricate, tadpole-like runes that glowed faintly, as if defying the flow of time itself, patiently waiting for the day it would see the sun again.

"…Dig, dig, dig, plant the little seed, grow the little flower…"

Inside the cramped coffin, a lonely figure slowly lifted her head. After so many years without hearing a single sound, she now faintly heard a strange singing voice from above.

"…What an awful singer…"

The limited space didn't even allow her to raise her hands to cover her ears. Helpless, she closed her crimson eyes and tried to block out the grating melody, silently gritting her teeth in the darkness.

If I find out who's singing, I'm tearing his tongue out.

"Dig in a big big garden, plant a big big seed, and grow a big—eh? What's this hard thing?"

Gin was humming happily as he dug, when his golden shovel suddenly struck something solid underground.

Could it be…?

Startled, he activated his Byakugan, scanning the hard object below—only to find his vision warped and blocked, as if some force was twisting space itself to hide it from view.

Tch! I don't believe this.

Unwilling to concede defeat, Gin cranked his Byakugan's power to the maximum. With chakra surging into his eyes, he began to pierce through the spatial distortion bit by bit, faintly making out the shape of a stone coffin.

Still not clear enough. Some "strongest perspective eye" this is.

With an odd sense of competitiveness, Gin poured even more chakra into his eyes, pushing them to their limit. His vision grew clearer as the strain on his eyes mounted—until, with a sudden flash of blue light, the ache vanished.

Had Gin seen himself just then, he would've noticed his eyes had changed dramatically. The whites of his eyes were now pitch-black, while his pupils glowed a cool blue.

"…I can see colors now?"

Blinking in amazement, Gin noticed his entire 360° field of vision was now full of vivid color instead of the usual monochrome.

"I heard the Byakugan could evolve, but this doesn't seem like a Tenseigan either…"

Pulling out a mirror, he studied his transformed eyes and felt the new power within them. It didn't feel nearly as overwhelming as the canonical Tenseigan.

Forget it. I'll study this later. First things first.

Putting the mirror away, he looked back at the hard object with his new eyes. This time he saw through the spatial barrier entirely: a stone coffin covered in sealing scripts, and inside… a girl lying silently, her face lowered, obscured from view.

"Tch… nothing special… but wow, she's pale—ah, ah, ah!"

Realizing he was now seeing her in full color rather than X-ray monochrome, Gin hurriedly deactivated his Byakugan and muttered to himself: "I didn't mean to. Not my fault."

Now certain he'd found Xiao Guang, Gin spat into his palms, gripped his golden shovel, and started digging even harder, eager to free the girl.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

"…Enough already. Who's hammering up there nonstop?"

The coffin's inhabitant finally relaxed as the grating singing stopped—only to be annoyed all over again as thudding noises began. Her fists clenched and her teeth ground together. If she could, she'd have launched a Tsukuyomi then and there.

Knock knock knock.

"Anybody home? I'm from the community outreach program, bringing warmth and care!"

Having unearthed the coffin, Gin dusted off his hands, stepped up to the stone lid, and politely knocked while calling out.

…Is he an idiot?

The girl inside rolled her eyes at the incomprehensible words. So she'd been sealed for years and the outside world had devolved to this?

"…Though… that voice does sound oddly familiar…"

The more she listened to the rambling voice outside, the more familiar it sounded. But the memory of that person's voice didn't match this airy, carefree tone at all.

"…I know you're in there! If you've got the guts, open the door! Stop hiding and pretending you're not home…"

"No, no, absolutely not."

Shaking her head furiously, the girl tried her hardest to deny that she knew the idiot out there.

"Gin! You found it?"

Gin looked up and saw a familiar figure at the edge of the pit. He tucked his shovel away, jumped out of the hole, and dusted himself off.

"Uncle, what took you so long? I already dug up the whole thing."

It was Tajima, of course, who peered down into the pit at the coffin covered in seals. His expression grew serious as he frowned.

"…So it's a Sarutobi seal. This complicates things."

Tajima immediately recognized the Sarutobi clan crest on the coffin and the unique script of their sealing techniques.

"…Trouble?"

Seeing his uncle hesitate, Gin raised a brow. Anything that could make Tajima frown was apparently no joke.

"…Hmph. Just a minor inconvenience."

Tajima, naturally, would never be cowed by mere difficulty. He activated his Sharingan, scanning the coffin for flaws in the seal.

"…Hmph. Found it."

He grinned after a while, leaping down and beckoning Gin to follow.

"This is it—the weak point of the Sarutobi seal."

Tajima pointed at a small human-shaped figure among the symbols.

"This crest is the key to breaking the whole thing."

Pressing his hand to it, Tajima sent his chakra into the seal. After some time, he withdrew his hand and gave the coffin a complicated look.

"…So it's a spatial seal. No wonder it froze the coffin in time."

"Spatial seal?"

Gin's curiosity was piqued. He looked up at his uncle, eyes full of questions.

"The Sarutobi clan used a sealing technique to create a temporal anchor, locking the coffin away outside the flow of time itself. Even I've never seen this before."

He made sure to add that last bit, just in case.

Gin tilted his head, confused. Sounds like a fancy storage scroll… except those can't hold living people.

"So… she's been…?"

If she'd been exiled outside of time, what had the girl been experiencing all this time?

"She should still be just as she was when sealed. Her mind… well…"

Tajima stopped mid-sentence when he remembered Gin had already recovered his memories.

"…So she's been awake in a pitch-dark coffin for more than ten years?"

Gin went silent. He hadn't felt much before coming here, but after watching his "life story" play out for days, the girl called Xiao Guang had left a deep impression on him. No matter what, he had to save her.

"You old man, stand aside and let me show you my treasure!"

(End of Chapter)

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