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A thin sliver of pre-dawn light cut through the cracked roof of the rebuilt workshop. The air smelled of damp concrete, solder, and hope tempered by fear. Kiera's personal sensors were still down after yesterday's meltdown, so she'd pored over the shattered remains of the orb with her hands just bare fingertips touching glass shards and etched rune-fields.
But none of that mattered now. Because this morning, Aiden rose from the rubble with something new in his eyes.
He blinked twice, slower than usual Sharingan flaring into full view. Deep red, dripping with something inhuman yet ancient. It startled Kiera, standing in the doorway, holding a fresh cup of caf.
"Your eyes…" she said softly.
He lifted a hand, almost unwilling. "They changed overnight." His voice carried the weight of memory and omen.
Training in Silence
Words didn't come easy for Aiden lately. There had been too much broken infrastructure, too much leftover echo of war. He pushed himself into Drey's old dojo their makeshift sparring room, half waterlogged, half tech salvage.
Luro stood aside, watching. Each time Aiden flexed the new Sharingan, the drilled chakra trembled like silk bending in wind.
They'd needed to test something. The shard of glass from the rammed/twisted orb tiny, polished fragment. Aiden pressed it between his fingers now, holding it like a compass.
He focused. The shard's symbol flickered in his vision. The runes spun, clockwise, then counter. Aidan breathed, stepped forward, and pressed the shard to the floor.
Silence. The piece quivered.
Then his chakra expanded. A wave of red light flooded the dojo cracks painted in crimson, overhead lights warping. Kiera shielded her eyes. Luro staggered backward, stunned.
And when the light receded, the shard had merged into the concrete floor. Gone. Almost like a drop of blood soaked in.
Sharingan: Awakening the Echo
Aiden dropped to his knees. "It's absorbing it," he whispered. "My chakra." His Sharingan pinwheeled three tomoe merged with a new symbol: a spiral inside a nine-pointed star.
Luro stepped forward. "Let me scan it."
The air shimmered as Luro's device flicked. Lines traced across the floor: his scanner flashed warnings.
"Spiral Sigil: Chakra damping; nine-star overlay: amplification. That shard was not just glass it was a node."
Kiera crouched beside Aiden, voice almost reverent. "It bound to your chakra network."
Drey emerged from the lab next door, device in hand. "That symbol... I've never seen anything like it. But ancient records in Milan archives show a similar rune used in spiritual binding seals before the Fourth War." He looked down at his device. "This symbol acted as an amplifier for illusions not genjutsu, but perceptions. Shared hallucinations. Shared memories."
Aiden's head snapped up. "Are you saying… I can broadcast?"
A silence settled. Outside, a lone water droplet hit shattered glass. The shard's creation could rewrite everything. It had to be tested.
Testing the New Power
Aiden stood. Kiera stepped back a pace. Luro switched off scanners.
Drey drew in a breath. "Be careful."
Aiden's Sharingan spun. He reached out and closed his eyes. Then he touched the spot where the shard had lodged.
Inside his mind, the dojo changed. It became the ruins of Konoha charred pillars, ghost-trees, ash in the wind.
Kiera's eyes went wide others were here. Shadows of Shinobi, their bodies unconsciously moving, standing at attention.
Luro sighed. "That's not illusion this is projection."
The shadows arranged in formation. Weapons rendered in red holograms. It was real enough to shake anyone with the right chakra sensitivity. Kiera's hand flew to her throat.
Aiden's eye flared. "You're seeing it too." He locked gaze with Drey.
The doctor covered his mouth.
Aiden's chakra bled outward, weaving a red net in the air.
The world shifted from dojo to Konoha battlefield, then back.
Kiera staggered. "This is – this is memory sharing at scale."
Drey's voice cracked. "He's channeling a psychic echo. He's… reliving someone else's vision. Hunter? Madara?"
Aiden's eye flickered. He dropped his hand, chakra wave dissipated.
Silence.
Kiera collapsed to her knees. She looked at Aiden in awe and fear. "What does this do?"
He shuddered. "It… it lets me paint thoughts, not just read them. If it works, I can show the city what's coming... or bury memories again."
The Emerging Threat
No sooner had he spoken than alarms boom from their sensors.
Luro cursed. "Grid activity. Lockdown protocols triggered. Drones recharging at Jackson Hub are launching."
Outside, the rain redoubled. The grid triggered Sectorary measures.
"Dusk Directive is going live," Drey murmured. "It's time."
Aiden closed his eyes, chakra-spiral humming through his muscles.
He held the shard beneath his palm. "We have to show them the truth."
Kiera found his gaze. "Not in the street."
"In the heart," he said.
War in the Streets
Moments later, they moved as a unit. The new Sharingan pulsed beneath his eyelids the shard's symbol recalled colors from his chakra.
They took backstreets toward the public broadcast terminal, their destination: the media nexus atop District Seven's tower.
Sirens burst in the sky as drones formed spider-web patrols above them. Aiden stepped onto a charred vehicle, using his Sharingan to reflect signals creating illusions of extra comrades, phantom clouds of shinobi flickering in red.
Drones fired but diverted sprayed into walls. Luro's makeshift EMP grenade cracked open a drone, disabling its logic feed. They slipped inside the hallway that led upward.
Kiera kept pace, hands on scanner, checking someone was following them. She tapped Aiden's shoulder.
He nodded. The Sharingan employee amplifiers lit in blue-white. He closed his eyes.
The corridor around them shimmered, walls peeling back like digital folds. Not an illusion, but an opening an invitation. Gateway to a hidden hallway.
They stepped through.
Reaching the Nexus
The control room hummed with old tech screens flickering static, greyscale and then color. He touched each monitor.
Serpentine script began to scroll: "DUSK PROTOCOL OVERFLOW DETECTED MEMORY BREACH IN PROGRESS."
Aiden's voice echoed through the speakers. His eye glowed. "This city has forgotten what built it. I'm going to remember it for us all."
He projected the memory of a fallen shinobi. The battlefield from the dojo shared.
Screens lit. Citizens on sidewalks heard it in their monitors or comm feeds.
They saw a hooded figure with holo-blades, cutting through civilians but then the blade melted… revealing the crest of the Uchiha on its guard. Children crying. Jutsu blown back.
They saw mad scientists, tangled in cables, pointing to charts with runic symbols.
They felt the vibrations in their bones as the battlefield imagery clashed with corporate logo blips.
They sobbed.
They recognized their city.
A hush fell. Confusion in the broadcast. The new media network had no protocol.
It broadcast arbitrage.
And the city stopped in its tracks.
The Backlash Begins
Aiden dropped from the terminal. The shard's symbol faded.
He coughed. Luro put a hand to his shoulder. "You OK?"
He nodded once.
Kiera watched monitors loop the broadcast. She whispered: "There's movement. The Dusk Directive is reacting."
Drones overhead surged, military fleets rose from repair bays, military governors flicked on overhead bay doors.
From the terminal, a transmission came in. A voice authoritative, cold.
"This is City-Control. You are interfering with undisclosed protocol for public safety. Stand down or be considered hostile. Surrender now."
Aiden stared at the receiver, voice flat. "Tell them: I'm taking back the truth."
Cliffhanger Opening
Before Aiden could broadcast again, the door burst open.
Soldiers poured in armored units branded with an eye symbol, inverted; the same red sealed sign they'd seen on drones.
They held stun rifles.
Aiden stepped forward, shielded by chakra aura.
Kiera pressed against the wall. Luro moved to flank them.
Then, the drill began.
Soldier voice: "Aiden Uchiha, you are hereby detained under Dusk Protocol. Surrender your shard…"
A beam of light focused behind the soldiers.
A second Aiden Mandara stood at the door.
His sharingan scarred. His chakra wild.
Luro gasped. "He got loose."
Mandara's hand rose.
Aiden raised his other arm.
Between them, the shard symbol glowed above their palms.
And Kiera whispered to Drey:
"This isn't over."
/-\
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my Patreon at
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You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want.