The moon was a pale, fractured bone in the sky as Dan stood atop the Uchiha clan's lookout tower. The village below was silent, but the "Architecture's" sensory net—a series of microscopic chakra-conductive wires Dan had strung through the district—was screaming.
[System Notification: Spatial Distortion Detected.]
[Coordinates: 400 meters North-East. Naka River Shrine.]
[Analysis: The distortion does not match Hiraishin. It is a localized vacuum. Probability of 'Kamui' manifestation: 99.8%.]
"So, you've finally come out to play," Dan whispered.
Zip.
He vanished, his Hiraishin movement now so refined that he didn't even leave a ripple in the air.
He reappeared on the roof of the Naka Shrine. Standing in the center of the courtyard was a man wearing a long, hooded cloak. His face was obscured by a swirling, orange spiral mask with a single eye-hole. He was looking at the stone tablet of the Uchiha, his posture relaxed, almost bored.
"It's rude to stare at a family's secrets, Obito," Dan said, his voice cold and steady.
The masked man didn't flinch. He slowly turned his head. The single visible eye—a 3-tomoe Sharingan—glinted in the dark. "Obito? That name has no meaning anymore. But you... Dan Uchiha. You're the 'Anomaly' Zetsu has been whispering about."
"I prefer 'Architect'," Dan replied.
"You're a child playing with powers you don't understand," the masked man said, his voice a deep, hollow rasp. "The Wood Release? The Space-Time movement? You're trying to build a castle on a foundation of sand. This world is a dream, Dan. And I am the one who will wake everyone up."
"Then let's see if you can wake up from this."
Dan didn't waste time with words. He lunged. His speed, enhanced by the First Gate and his Hiraishin-boosted reflexes, made him a blur. He thrust a lightning-coated kunai directly at the masked man's heart.
The blade passed straight through.
Dan didn't stop. He somersaulted over the man, landing and immediately spinning to launch a Great Fireball. The flames engulfed the masked man, but he simply stood there, the fire washing through his body as if he were made of smoke.
"Intangibility," Dan muttered.
[System Analysis: Target is shifting his physical mass into a separate dimension. Estimated duration of intangibility: 5 minutes of continuous use.]
"My turn," the masked man said.
He lunged forward with surprising speed, his hand reaching for Dan's throat. Dan didn't dodge; he used his own Void-Step. For three minutes, the courtyard became a chaotic dance of two ghosts. One could not be touched; the other could not be caught.
"You're fast, I'll give you that," the masked man said, standing still as Dan appeared ten feet away. "But you have to solidify to hit me. And when you do, I'll be waiting."
"I don't need to hit your body to hurt you," Dan said.
He slammed his hands onto the ground.
"Wood Release: Underground Root Bind!"
Massive, chakra-suppressing roots erupted from beneath the shrine. They didn't target the man's body; they created a cage of dense, living wood that saturated the area with Dan's chakra.
[System Command: Execute 'Spatial Anchor' Protocol.]
"Now!" Dan roared.
In the Mirror Space, Dan's clone had been calculating the "Frequency" of the spatial distortion since the fight began. Dan released a burst of chakra into the roots. The Wood Release didn't just bind; it acted as an antenna for a high-frequency sealing formula.
The air around the masked man began to thicken. He tried to phase through the roots, but he found his "Slip" was becoming sluggish.
"What is this?" the masked man hissed.
"You use a separate dimension to hide," Dan explained, his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning violently. "But that dimension still has a door. I'm just... changing the locks."
For the first time, the masked man looked panicked. He tried to warp away entirely, the air swirling around his eye in a vacuum.
"Too slow," Dan whispered.
Zip.
Dan appeared directly in the man's personal space. Because the "Spatial Anchor" was active, the masked man couldn't phase out fast enough. Dan's hand, coated in Purple Electricity, slammed into the man's shoulder.
CRACK.
The sound of shattering bone echoed. The masked man spiraled backward, his cloak tearing. He hit the stone wall of the shrine with a heavy thud.
"You... you actually touched me," the man gasped, clutching his shattered shoulder. He looked up, and for a second, the orange mask cracked, revealing a glimpse of scarred, white skin.
"I didn't just touch you," Dan said, walking toward him. "I marked you. Everywhere you go, the Architecture will follow."
[System Notification: 'Hiraishin Mark' successfully imprinted on the target's Zetsu-matter arm.]
"This isn't over, Dan Uchiha," the masked man said. He used his remaining strength to force a warp. This time, the spatial anchor couldn't hold him as he poured a massive amount of his "other" chakra—the power of the Gedo Mazo—into the escape.
He vanished, leaving only a few drops of white, synthetic blood on the stones.
The Aftermath
Dan stood alone in the courtyard. He didn't chase. He knew he didn't have the chakra left to follow him into another dimension. His eyes were bleeding, the price of the Mangekyō's "Ame-no-Uzume" being used to anchor reality.
[System Warning: Physical Body at 95% Strain.]
[Recovery Time: 12 Hours.]
"Dan-niisan!"
Shisui appeared, followed by a squad of the Shadow Architecture. They saw the destroyed courtyard and the gnarled wood.
"He was here, wasn't he?" Shisui asked, looking at the white blood. "The Ghost."
"He was," Dan said, wiping the blood from his eyes. "But he's not a ghost. He's just a man with a very clever trick. And now... I have his signature."
Dan looked at the Naka Shrine. He realized that the war wasn't going to wait for the Nine-Tails attack. Obito was now wary. Madara would be informed. The "Architecture" was no longer a secret to the true villains of this world.
"Shisui, tell Anko to move all research to Site B," Dan ordered. "And tell the clan that from now on, the Police Force doesn't just watch the streets. We watch the air. We watch the shadows. We watch the very space we breathe."
As he walked back to the compound, Dan entered the Mirror Space.
System, start a new sub-routine. Task: 'Kamui Counter-Measures'. I want a way to enter his dimension using my own Hiraishin marks.
[Task Assigned. Estimated Calculation Time: 2,000 Training Hours.]
"Fine," Dan muttered. "My clone doesn't sleep. Neither will his nightmares."