Pulled into his shadow by the old guard, Uchiha Gin felt suffocated, surrounded by inky darkness, his senses cut off, powerlessness overwhelming him.
Activating his Sharingan, his crimson eyes countered the darkness. As pupil power surged, his senses returned, revealing the old guard before him.
"What's your goal?" Uchiha Gin asked warily, unsure if the guard was friend or foe despite his aid.
"Heh heh heh, I've been waiting for you," the guard said, his gray-white eyes gleaming with suppressed anticipation. "Enter Cell Block Zero, find who awaits you, and all will be clear."
Before Uchiha Gin could press further, his body lightened, and he blinked back into Uchiha Ryuei's office.
Ryuei was gone. Uchiha Gin glanced at his now-calm shadow.
Without hesitation, he examined the vase on Ryuei's desk. Rotating it, the bookshelf behind flipped, revealing a dark, deep passage.
This was Cell Block Zero's entrance. Uchiha Gin was in too deep to back out. All clues pointed here—answers to the original owner's memory gaps lay within.
Entering, he found a switch on the wall. Flipping it closed the hidden door, confirming its function.
Taking a deep breath, he kept his Sharingan active, crimson eyes scanning for threats.
Cell Block Zero's layout mirrored other blocks, but its dilapidated cells were long abandoned. A pungent moldy stench wrinkled Uchiha Gin's nose, yet Ryuei's personal oversight suggested hidden secrets.
Deeper in, skeletal remains littered the cells, their twisted limbs hinting at brutal torture.
Finding only bones, Uchiha Gin reached the final cell, sealed by an iron door with complex sealing jutsu.
This was it. Unversed in sealing techniques, he frowned at the door. Forcing it open would alert others, but he lacked lock-picking skills.
As he faltered, the old guard's voice rasped from his shadow. "Heh heh heh, I can get you in."
"Thanks, senior," Uchiha Gin said, turning to the grinning guard, not refusing.
The guard had guided him here, clearly wanting him to meet the prisoner. As a disgraced Uchiha with no clan influence, Uchiha Gin doubted the guard would go to such lengths for him without reason.
The guard, unsurprised by his quick agreement, extended claw-like hands, pulling Uchiha Gin back into the shadow.
The shadow, untethered from his body, didn't vanish but oozed like ink through the door's cracks, slipping inside.
Familiar with the shadow's sensation, Uchiha Gin felt minimal discomfort, blinking from outside to inside the cell.
The cell wasn't the grim prison he'd expected. Clean walls, a bookshelf, and simple furniture made it more a study than a jail.
At a desk by the bookshelf, a figure wrote furiously, pausing at Uchiha Gin's arrival and slowly rising.
"You've finally come."
The figure turned, revealing gray-white curly hair and a wrinkled face lit with excitement. One gray-white eye, like the guard's, and a hunched frame trembled slightly at seeing Uchiha Gin.
"Who are you?" The elder matched the photo from home. His familiar curls and resembling features sparked a guess about his identity.
"As expected, you don't remember," the elder said, calming his emotions, his expression unsurprised.
"I am Uchiha Yao," he said, giving an unfamiliar name. "I had a son, Uchiha Kin."
Uchiha Kin—the original owner's late father, a gentle man from faint memories. The elder's identity crystallized.
"You're my grandfather?" Uchiha Gin asked cautiously.
"Indeed, my dear grandson," Uchiha Yao nodded, pleased.
"Why don't I remember you?" The confirmation aligned with his guess, but Uchiha Gin pressed.
"It's a long story, but remember…" Uchiha Yao sighed, then dropped a bombshell. "The culprit behind it all is your uncle, Uchiha Tajima."
"???" Uchiha Gin's head throbbed. Tajima, kind in the original owner's memories, was accused by his grandfather of causing his memory loss—a hard pill to swallow.
Seeing Uchiha Gin's disbelief, Uchiha Yao began his tale.
"Decades ago, I led the clan's research division, focused on unlocking the Sharingan's potential."
"Like Uchiha Mio?" Uchiha Gin interjected, stunned that his grandfather was a research head, making him a high-ranking scion.
"Hmph! Uchiha Mio, that coward," Uchiha Yao scoffed. "And Uchiha Yan, who imprisoned me—they're my cousins."
The clan's prominent elders were his relatives, but Yao's expression showed deep rifts.
"Forget those traitors," Uchiha Yao dismissed, unwilling to dwell. "It began the day my son died."
His voice grew heavy mentioning his son.
Dying for the clan was an honor, but for the aging Uchiha Yao, losing his son was a crushing blow.
Uchiha Kin's death was a faint mark in Uchiha Gin's mind, as if mostly erased. Straining to recall details brought only pain, like needles in his brain.
"My son, Uchiha Kin, was the clan's greatest genius, the top contender for clan leader," Uchiha Yao said, pride barely contained.
My father, a genius? Uchiha Gin's mind reeled.
The original owner's sparse memories painted his father as gentle, a devoted husband and father, but not a powerhouse.
"Your father opened his Sharingan at eight, reached three tomoe by twelve, outclassing peers—a true prodigy. But…" Uchiha Yao continued.
"He shouldn't have died! I thought he fell in battle, for the clan's honor."
"He didn't?" Uchiha Gin frowned, questioning.
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