Chapter 476: The Divine Artifact’s Owner

Chapter 476: Chapter 476: The Divine Artifact’s Owner

Shisui gazed around with a complicated expression.

Looking at the peaceful and prosperous Konoha before him, watching the Uchiha clansmen interact freely with the other villagers without the slightest barrier between them, he sighed with emotion.

"Even though we were fooled by the Totsuka Blade, a village like this... a life like this... really is wonderful!"

"It is. It truly is a wonderful world." Itachi paused before saying solemnly, "Unfortunately, it’s fake."

Shisui smiled. "With Senpai here, we’ll definitely be able to create all of this in the real world! Definitely!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the black pupils in Shisui’s eyes abruptly turned scarlet.

The three tomoe began spinning rapidly, quickly connecting together and transforming into the shape of a four-bladed shuriken.

At that moment, the scenery around them began to blur.

It was as though someone had poured a huge bucket of water over a beautiful painting. The lines on the canvas warped, while the colors bled into one another, mixing and intertwining into a chaotic mess.

Before long, the village that had seemed so real and lively, their beloved family members, their familiar friends—everything vanished into nothingness.

All around them was now a vast expanse of crimson chaos.

As Itachi surveyed their surroundings, he said, "This should be what the inside of the Totsuka Blade truly looks like."

Shisui, who was examining the surroundings with his Mangekyo Sharingan, suddenly wrinkled his nose.

"Huh? What’s that smell? It smells really good... Is that the scent of sake?"

Feeling his mind beginning to grow hazy, Itachi hurriedly exclaimed, "This is bad! If we can’t find the way out before we become intoxicated, we might fall into another illusion!"

Shisui covered his mouth and nose, his brows furrowing.

"My Mangekyo can’t see anything!"

At that moment, Itachi activated his own Mangekyo Sharingan as well.

Very quickly, a glimmer of light flashed across his left eye.

His entire body suddenly froze.

"I found the exit!"

The instant those words left his mouth, Itachi and Shisui felt the entire world turn upside down, as though they had suddenly plunged into a bottomless abyss.

After a long while, the two of them finally managed to recover.

Itachi propped himself up and shook his head. Looking around, he discovered that he and Shisui had already returned to the tomb chamber from before.

Crack...

Without any warning, a crack appeared across the stone gourd that had sucked them inside.

Immediately afterward, the crack spread wider and wider. In the blink of an eye, fractures covered the entire stone sculpture.

Crash...

Amid a series of crisp cracking sounds, the stone gourd shattered into countless pieces and scattered across the tomb chamber.

Covering his left eye, Itachi murmured, "So Tsukuyomi was the key to unlocking the Totsuka Blade!"

The dojutsu contained within Itachi’s left Mangekyo Sharingan was none other than Tsukuyomi.

Therefore, the instant he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, he grasped the method for controlling the Totsuka Blade and successfully brought Shisui with him out of the Totsuka Blade’s illusory realm.

At that moment, Shisui also climbed to his feet and exclaimed in alarm, "This is bad! Something just entered my body!"

Itachi asked curiously, "What was it?"

Feeling around his body, Shisui replied uncertainly, "It seemed like some kind of mirror. I didn’t get a clear look at it just now!"

The moment he finished speaking, Shisui froze.

He turned toward Itachi.

Then, at the exact same moment, the two blurted out,

"Yata Mirror!"

Although their primary objective this time had been to search for the Totsuka Blade, they were also well aware that the Yata Mirror and the Totsuka Blade should be together.

Once they found the Totsuka Blade, it naturally meant that they had also found the Yata Mirror.

Itachi smiled.

"Brother Shisui, you obtained the Yata Mirror, while I obtained the Totsuka Blade!"

Shisui nodded. Looking at the coffin resting silently in the center of the tomb chamber, he said, "This was probably a trial. Only those who can pass the trial are qualified to obtain these two divine artifacts."

Itachi nodded. "Yeah. And these two divine artifacts have fused directly with our spiritual bodies. Unless our spiritual bodies are completely destroyed, there’s no way to remove them. Perhaps that’s exactly why this ancestor was unable to pass these two divine artifacts down to the other clansmen."

Previously, Shisui and Itachi had both found it strange.

These were clearly such powerful divine artifacts, so why hadn’t this Uchiha ancestor passed them down to his descendants? Why had he instead taken them with him into his tomb?

Now that they had obtained the divine artifacts themselves, they finally understood what made these two artifacts so special!

Not just anyone could wield them.

Once someone received the recognition of the divine artifacts, their spiritual body would fuse with the artifacts and become one with them. Only when the owner’s spiritual body was completely destroyed would the divine artifacts separate from them.

The Uchiha ancestor who had possessed these two divine artifacts had clearly understood this.

That was why, before his death, he had arranged this trial and left numerous stone tokens in various locations, allowing qualified members of later generations to come and undergo the divine artifacts’ trial.

Judging from the results, however, these two divine artifacts had vanished without a trace for several hundred years.

Clearly, none of the Uchiha who came afterward had managed to pass the trial.

And once someone failed the trial, the Uchiha clansman undergoing it would become completely trapped within the Totsuka Blade’s illusory world. Not only would they fail to obtain the divine artifacts, they would lose their own life in the process.

As time passed, fewer and fewer Uchiha dared to undergo the trial.

After all, no matter how valuable a divine artifact was, it could never be more important than one’s own life.

As a result, fewer and fewer people knew the whereabouts of the divine artifacts, and the clues concerning the Totsuka Blade gradually disappeared altogether.

Shisui stood up and sighed with emotion.

"To wield the Totsuka Blade, it seems that possessing the Mangekyo Sharingan isn’t enough. You also need to possess the dojutsu Tsukuyomi. Itachi, if you hadn’t been here, I’m afraid I might never have escaped from the Totsuka Blade."

Even within the Uchiha Clan, those capable of awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan were exceedingly rare.

And for the dojutsu awakened within that Mangekyo Sharingan to just happen to be Tsukuyomi?

Such a coincidence might only occur once every several hundred years.

And Itachi just happened to be that coincidence, appearing several centuries later!

Gurgle...

Suddenly, Itachi’s stomach let out a loud growl.

Gurgle...

Immediately afterward, Shisui’s stomach growled as well.

"I’m starving!"

The two of them exclaimed in unison.

They took out their food pills and each chewed one. Then Shisui said, "I wonder how long it’s been since we were sucked into the Totsuka Blade. Senpai must have received our message by now. If he tried to find us but couldn’t, he’s probably worried sick!"

Itachi replied, "Yeah. We need to get back to the village as soon as possible."

Just then, a ninja crow flew into the tomb chamber.

"It’s a messenger crow from Senpai!"

Seeing it, Shisui hurriedly got up and approached, preparing to check the message tied to the crow’s leg.

Caw! Caw!

Before Shisui could even untie the message from the first crow’s leg, another burst of cawing echoed through the chamber.

A moment later, another ninja crow flew inside.

Then another.

And another.

One messenger crow after another came flying into the tomb chamber in rapid succession, until dozens of them covered the coffin. The tomb chamber, which had originally been deathly silent, was suddenly filled with the incessant cawing of crows!

Staring at the dozens of messenger crows before them, Shisui and Itachi exchanged bewildered looks.

"Did something happen to the village?"