Huff...

Lin Zhen suddenly opened his eyes and let out a breath of murky air from his throat.

"Where am I?"

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a wave of fear filled him.

He realized he couldn’t move. Aside from the difficulty of breathing, he couldn’t even twitch a finger, as if he were a corpse.

Then, an emotionless voice sounded beside him.

【Return Task: Dawn!】

【Complete the return task to return...】

“!?”

Lin Zhen was stunned.

The content of the voice left him bewildered.

Return task? Dawn? What the hell are those?!

At that moment, he heard footsteps approaching.

“Help me! Come quickly!”

Lin Zhen wanted to cry for help, but found that no sound came from his throat.

His eyes were covered by a piece of white cloth; or rather, as he lay flat, his entire body was covered by it.

It completely obscured his head!

“Eh?”

From the direction of the footsteps came a light exclamation.

Soon, a figure appeared before Lin Zhen and swiftly pulled away the white cloth covering him.

Thinking he was saved, Lin Zhen secretly breathed a sigh of relief and then looked at the figure who unveiled the cloth, his mind suddenly freezing.

Kakashi?!

With his silver hair and black mask, Lin Zhen could not be mistaken; the one who revealed the cloth was none other than a character he recognized from anime, Hatake Kakashi!

At that moment, Kakashi, after glancing at Lin Zhen, shouted, “Medical team, there’s another survivor here!”

Immediately, a commotion of footsteps echoed from afar, and soon several medical personnel in scrubs surrounded Lin Zhen.

"How is this possible? I checked; he clearly had no vital signs."

"Maybe he was in a state of suspended animation."

"This kind of situation is rare!"

The medical personnel whispered among themselves while helping Lin Zhen sit up and began examining his body.

As he sat up, Lin Zhen's field of vision finally opened up a bit.

What came into view was a huge morgue.

The room was neatly arranged with hundreds of gurneys, and without exception, each gurney had a corpse covered with a white cloth lying on it.

Many medical personnel were busy among them.

Some even had a glass jar nearby containing a pair of soaking eyeballs...

Since his body was still numb, Lin Zhen felt an overwhelming fear inside, but his face showed no expression, and even his gaze was murky.

Seeing Lin Zhen's dazed expression, Kakashi, dressed in dark attire, asked the medical ninja who was checking Lin Zhen’s body, “How is he?”

“Vital signs are stabilizing, but his mental state seems...”

Saying this, the medical ninja shook his head and sighed.

Kakashi looked at Lin Zhen with a complex expression and instructed the medical ninja beside him, “Take him to the hospital for treatment. I’ll report to Lord Hokage.”

...

Hospital.

Lying on the hospital bed, Lin Zhen still looked dazed.

However, he could feel his body gradually recovering, and the slight movement of his fingers was the best proof.

At the same time, images flashed chaotically in his mind.

“Uchiha Shinji...”

Based on these chaotic images that resembled a carousel, as well as the scene he had just witnessed in the morgue, he gradually understood his current situation.

It seemed he had crossed over into the body of an eight-year-old boy named ‘Uchiha Shinji.’

The time was the night of the Uchiha clan's massacre.

But he didn’t understand how he had woken up in the world of Hokage after having a lazy sleep and ended up in the body of a corpse in the morgue.

Undoubtedly, the real Uchiha Shinji was already dead, killed by Uchiha Itachi!

“What was that voice earlier...”

The strange voice he heard when he woke up in the morgue also troubled him greatly.

In short, his mind was a mess.

The confusion from absorbing Uchiha Shinji's residual memories, the shock from the accidental crossing, and the anxiety about the future and fear of the unknown all filled him, making it impossible for him to calm down and sort everything out.

Hiss...

Suddenly, he inhaled sharply.

Just now, he absorbed the last memory fragment of Uchiha Shinji's life.

It was the moment when Uchiha Itachi lunged with his blade.

Perhaps due to fear, the images in Uchiha Shinji's memory had completely deformed; everything else in the scene was blurred and twisted, but the cold, blood-red Sharingan in Uchiha Itachi's eyes was incredibly clear.

“This feeling... it’s like really being stabbed!”

Lin Zhen's back broke out in a cold sweat.

Just by merging a fragment of Uchiha Shinji's memories, he was inevitably subjected to a tremendous mental shock.

Before he could recover his senses, he noticed his vision suddenly became hazy.

His ink-black eyes were instantly stained red, and then one by one, the tomoe appeared, presenting the three-tomoe Sharingan.

But that wasn't all!

Then the three tomoe spun, the ink dot in his blood-red eyes spread out, transforming into three ink circles that intertwined in a triangular pattern.

Once it was all completed, the ink circles dissipated, and the blood-red faded.

The eyes in his sockets returned to their ordinary ink color, and that brief moment seemed like just a fleeting illusion.

“Kaleidoscope Sharingan!”

Lin Zhen was taken aback.

Although the change in his eyes was brief, he knew it was not an illusion; he had indeed awakened the rumored Kaleidoscope Sharingan of the Uchiha clan.

The Sharingan was activated by the intense emotions of Uchiha Shinji just before his death.

However, he died too quickly; the Sharingan reached the three-tomoe state and extinguished with his life. After that, Lin Zhen crossed over, and the new soul stimulated the Sharingan, allowing the two to succeed each other, completing the final awakening of the Kaleidoscope.

“I didn't expect this guy to be a genius!”

After realizing this, Lin Zhen felt an overwhelming sense of admiration.

He knew that intense emotions like unwillingness, hatred, and love could stimulate the Uchiha clan to awaken the Sharingan.

But the fact that Uchiha Shinji could awaken to the three-tomoe state in that brief instant before dying and even touch upon the Kaleidoscope part was surprising to him.

After all, the last person to achieve such a level was Uchiha Obito, who single-handedly triggered the Fourth Great Ninja War.

And under Uchiha Itachi's deliberate provocation, Uchiha Sasuke, who was trapped in Tsukuyomi and witnessed his parents' death, merely awakened the single tomoe Sharingan.

So, Uchiha Shinji, who left no record in the original timeline, was actually one of the few Uchiha clan members with the potential to awaken the Kaleidoscope Sharingan.

“Am I going to be Uchiha Shinji from now on...?”

Lin Zhen felt somewhat melancholic.

He had taken over Uchiha Shinji's body and memories, and it seemed that in the future, he could only live on as Uchiha Shinji.

【The dimension is under invasion...】

【Countdown: 9】

Suddenly, that mysterious voice echoed in his ear again...