Reborn as an Uchiha [Naruto fan-fic]

23 : Heralds of pain

A/N: You know I honestly wanted to drop this book but eventually changed my mind.

I’ll go into the details at the end so for now enjoy the chapter.

When Renji woke up he found himself  in a large and empty cavern.

While feeling very disoriented and confused, he habitually absorbed every detail of his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed were the grand and virtually impenetrable bars that barricaded the entrance to the cave.

The second were the long and crude chains shackled to his wrists, their ends extending to the deepest depths of the mysterious cavern.

There were candles lined neatly along the walls. Their burning lights dyeing the cave a warm orange glow.

Momentarily regaining his senses, Renji clasped his hands together and formed a seal.

It only took a split second for him to notice that he couldn't mould chakra.

Even when he seriously concentrated on sensing it, he could only feel a sliver of his chakra seeping through a seal that had been placed on his abdomen.

‘what happened?’

After the initial confusion Renji was almost instantly overwhelmed by dread when he realized the gravity of the current situation.

He attempted to struggle but the thick chains that bound him remained firm and unrattled.

'Where is this place?'

While rotating his head, Renji's eyes widened in horror when he noticed the designs carved onto the floors and walls.

A staggering, almost maniacal number of seals covered every nook and cranny of the colossal-sized cave.

Rather than a cell to detain a human, the entire space looked like a prison created for the sole purpose of sealing away an indescribable horror.

“oh, he’s finally awake”

Renji raised his head to see two guards who had at some point, appeared at the other side of the bars.

The light in his eyes glimmered with clarity and apprehension as he recognised their uniforms.

At least he now knew who his captors were.

Kusagakure!

…

Karin stared at the shop owner with a mix of irritation and amusement.

It was bad enough that he tricked her into working for him, but now, he expected a 4 year old to single handedly man a whole ass shop while he rushed off to god knows where.

Since she came into this world this was definitely the most irresponsible adult she had come across.

'He doesn't treat me like everyone else does a 4 year old. It's like he already knows...'

After seriously considering the possibility of this thought, Karin glanced at him in alarm.

Sensing her gaze, Tengen locked eyes with her and let out a knowing smile.

She recoiled in shock before hearing his laughter.

“Haha ... Don’t worry, I won’t be gone for too long”

‘as expected, he’s not a simple character’

Mistaking her silence for unamusement he quickly added

“You should already know the prices by now, if you meet any customers you can’t handle just tell them that I’ll be back soon”

Seeing as she was still unconvinced Tengen pulled out his trump card

“I’ll pay you a lot of money”

“Deal!”

He let out an exasperated sigh before giving further instructions

“Stay put and don't respond to strangers, I’ll be back soon”

Karin scrunched her face in displeasure as she watched the middle aged man disappear amongst the crowd.

‘what an unpleasant fellow’

…

Tengen instantly knew something was wrong the moment his chakra connection with Renji was suppressed.

Although it wasn’t totally destroyed, it was weakened to the point that he couldn’t tell where the boy was.

Fearing for the worst he quickly made arrangements and left to find Anko. If his hunch was right then she would also be in a similarly dangerous situation.

He weaved his way through the streets while leaving after images in his wake.

Now that things had already developed to this level he couldn’t risk getting there late because of his being over-cautious.

His quick thinking paid off because when he got there, the hospital was still being encircled ...wait, encircled?!

‘Damn it’

The Uchiha immediately performed a summoning and gave a scroll to the strange monkey-like creature that appeared.

After the summoned messenger evaporated into a cloud of smoke he began to make his final preparations.

...

Something was off. She couldn’t quite place her finger on it but, after yesterday’s encounter with Miku she’d had a strange sense of foreboding ever since.

Although she was still a step away from the jonin rank, being a shinobi who had participated in the war and as a result, amassed a lot of experience, Anko had developed a keen intuition and awareness of danger.

Something felt wrong.

However, no matter how much she pondered about it, the answer always eluded her.

It was hidden somewhere in her subconscious, always just slightly beyond grasp.

This anomaly caused her paranoia to kick into full gear when she was summoned to the director's office.

“We need to have a chat, meet me in my office”

Doctor Shori with his thick glasses and thinning grey hair stated while wearing a congenial smile on his face.

“WHY?”

Anko unconsciously blurted out before realizing her mistake

“Why? Hmmm …”

The director didn’t seem to notice her transgression as he seriously pondered on how to phrase his words.

“It’s because-"

“-Don’t bother. I already know why”

“huh?”

The director asked, seemingly in confusion.

“I'm sure you just want to keep me distracted while this hospital is being transformed into a kill box. Correct me if I’m wrong”

The man chuckled lightly before speaking…

“You are wrong. I was actually planning on hypnotizing you”

(Genjutsu)

…After which he removed his glasses, rubbed on the lenses, and put them back on.

“You don’t have to make this difficult”

Chapter end

A/N: Actually there are no details. I just read a comment that said ‘thank you for the chapter’ and that was all the drive I needed. I’ll be back to releasing a chapter per day.