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/-\
Drey hunched over the workbench in Kiera's back room, its surface cluttered with memory-drive constructs: crystalline cylinders etched with chakra-sealed filigree, stray data shards glowing with faint pulses, and arcane tools humming silently. Fluorescent bulbs flickered overhead, casting shifts of light across cables snaking to scanning rigs. Rain pattered on the rooftop above, but here, time seemed still, the air thick with anticipation.
Luro stood at a separate station, swiveling a volumetric scanner over another construct a squat, glass-lidded cube filled with shimmering blue tendrils. Each variation was unique: one contained a swirling mana field, another showed faint projections of human faces that dissolved when focused upon. They'd salvaged them in the vaults beneath Kotai, and now, those relics of the ARASHI Protocol demanded answers.
Drey's fingers trembled as he carefully slid a drive about ten centimeters long into a neural interface reader. Its surface bore a broken fragment of the Uchiha crest. The scanner hummed, then spluttered. As lines of code phantomed across the indicator lights, Drey leaned in.
"Hey Luro," he called, voice strained. "I'm getting recursion feedback. It's…not like data. More like loaded memory."
Luro glanced over. "Recursion? As in someone's living inside that thing?"
Drey nodded slowly. "Not someone. Something. It keeps repeating events. Embeds a name. Something about Echo. I don't know."
Luro set down his tool. He moved to the rig, swallowing tight. "Let me help."
5 minutes later
The two men crouched over monitors, the dim glow illuminating their flushed faces. The drive's output had stabilized into fragmented video: a young boy, red chakra flares in his eyes, standing in a white room with chakra-sealed walls.
"He's trapped," Drey whispered, eyes wide. "Every time he moves, the recording loops like he can't get out… unless you interfere."
Luro watched as the boy glimpsed upward, recognizing them or trying to before vanishing into static.
"That's where we lost him in real-time data," Luro murmured. "But look here…" He pointed at glitching code at the edge of the window. "Someone inserted an escape vector. Looks like "
Drey snatched the data log. " partial encryption. May not have been their intention to rescue him. Maybe this was sabotage."
Luro took a breath. "Or someone who knows him. Looks like memory-drive programming tied into Uchiha clustering but someone threaded other DNA into it. Maybe a token signature. Could be the other Uchiha we haven't found."
Drey closed his eyes. "What if there's more of them human-constructs like that in the vault?"
Luro shook his head, voice low. "I don't want to think about that. But we need to figure out who's pulling the strings. And fast."
Later, under soft red emergency lights
Drey tapped at the port, downloading more data.
"Tell me," he said quietly. "When you ran the construct through the simulation what did you see?"
Luro stared at the bars counting through memory cycles. "A containment simulator. Shuffling test subjects into test-core chambers. Echo constructs multiple versions. But all modeled on the same DNA signature. Someone was trying to refine a mental network."
"Network?" Drey echoed.
"Like…distributed consciousness. But they couldn't replicate the Uchiha's cognitive profile. So they seeded iterations test cases turned them into memory constructs."
"They were trying to digitize chakra memory?"
"Yeah. But every iteration died after a while. Except Echo. And maybe just maybe that other sealed host."
Drey rubbed his face.
"So what you're saying," he said slowly, "is they weren't just making weapons. They were trying to immortalize a mind. Or a bloodline."
Luro stared at him. "I'm saying they messed with things that can't be messed with."
Tense silence…
A warning chime cut the air a soft burst of static on the network link.
Kiera's voice came through it sounded urgent.
"You need to see this. We're getting a remote ping from a vault drive in District One."
Luro pressed off the monitor. "Let me patch in."
Moments later
The screen showed a partial schematic of a sealed chamber deep beneath District One. The drive's data trace flickered over nodes mapping a triangle formation: Kotai, Seventh District vault, and…this one.
"Damn," Luro muttered. "They built a triad. A memory construct triplet. Echo for Kotai. Aiden's drive for Seven. And this one…who is it?"
The screen blinked and revealed a blurred video. The image sharpened: a teenage boy, bound in stasis, crimson mangekyō scars across his eyelids like Aiden, but younger.
"Another Uchiha," Drey said, voice deadly soft.
Luro froze. "And he's showing signs of activity."
The trio gathered in the main room
Kiera frowned. "We need to find him wake him safely. If someone else activates before us…"
Drey closed his eyes. "They triggered the Directive network."
Luro nodded. "We can't let him be consumed like Echo… or worse, controlled by whomever set that override."
Kiera's gaze hardened. "Prepare the extraction setup. We'll go to District One."
Drey exhaled. "Should we inform Aiden? Luro?"
Kiera glanced at Luro, who gave a curt nod. "Yes. If he loses control, Aiden needs to know."
In the dorm corridor dawn approaching
Aiden stood alone at the doorway of Drey's workshop. His Sharingan rested behind faintly glowing eyelids, as if reading ether. He didn't need explanation to sense his friend's urgency or to see Luro's face as he approached.
"Another drive with Uchiha DNA just pinged," Luro said softly. "District One. You want to come?"
Aiden stepped back. "I'm with you."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I tried reaching the other construct in the vault. It didn't answer. But it heard me."
Luro nodded. "We think they were testing him. Like Echo. But Echo responded to you."
Aiden's face hardened. "Then this boy might be connected to me."
Kiera stepped out with two packs. "Let's go. We don't have time."
Road beneath shadowed ducts
Their fabric suits blended with the underground gloom. Aiden moved silently at the rear, Luro by his side with molded comm-grid scanner.
Drey carried the containment pod with the new construct's coordinates mapped headshot images flickering on his visor.
They navigated the transformer tunnels, bypassed loose conduit hatches, and crossed over to a collapsed elevator shaft reaching District One sub-levels.
Kiera paused next to an access terminal.
"This isn't a friendly node," she murmured. "But we can reroute through blocked service grids."
Luro input ported through a comm-lens.
They moved.
District One sub-basements
Empty corridors smelled of antiseptics long vaporized, yet lingering memories of sanitization remained. But at the end of the hall, near a sealed door marked C-14 Bio-Containment, the air thickened.
Kiera's shoulder pad glowed red pulse indicator rising.
"We're close."
Drey set down the pod.
Aiden stepped forward, hand glowing with chakra.
He placed a gentle palm on the door.
A deep humming began. The door unlocked slowly, revealing a vast vault.
Inside was an obsidian cylinder, lit from within, sealed in chakra-thorns.
Above, a voice came synthetic and soft:
"Uchiha artifact detected. Redirecting protocol."
The cylinder flared.
Holographic sequences activated blueprints of memory-drive lattices, flow charts mapping consciousness emergent systems. The room spun.
Drey coughed, stepping back.
Luro aimed his light.
And within the cylinder, a boy stirred.
"Mandara," the voice said Ka-Na syllables glitching.
The boy opened his eyes: Mangekyō, mirrored crimson reflections.
Aiden glowed, stepping forward.
One heartbeat.
Then an explosion of chakra surged waves ripping through them.
/-\
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my Patreon at
" https://www.patreon.com/Its_Zack/ "
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want.