Beneath the Skin

"Let's just start by teaching you the basics!" Hashirama knelt on one knee, bringing himself level with Utsusemi, and turned his shock into a teacher's composure. "Now close your eyes."

"Chakra is like the network of lines in your palm. First, find the warmest cluster of energy near your heart, then slowly feel your way along your blood vessels..."

Utsusemi obediently closed her eyes. The instant her eyelids met, something strange happened!

Beneath her tightly shut eyelids, the radiance of the Tenseigan did not fade. Instead, it trembled violently like a restless nebula.

Yet through her closed eyelids, Utsusemi's vision was remarkably clear.

The Chakra networks inside the Senju brothers were visible in minute detail to her "eyes."

Hashirama Senju's Chakra was like a great river nourishing all things, vast and reassuringly embracing.

Tobirama Senju's power was like precisely calculated liquid metal, each movement following a strict geometric path.

Itama Senju's Chakra was like a stream leaping through the forest, clear and full of life.

These powers flowed through their meridians like a rigorously disciplined honor guard.

And what about inside her own body?

It was a raging, burning, boiling starry sky!

Her Chakra was a roaring flood crashing against its banks, a surging wave thundering in fury.

Wild and chaotic enough to destroy heaven and earth, it was not even energy on the same dimensional scale!

A chilling realization rose in her heart: she was not from this planet, and ordinary reasoning could not be used to judge her.

She completed the lesson in silence and, after Tobirama's repeated guidance nearly drove him mad, finally mastered the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

Her hands moved as if tying knots, forming one seal per second to produce four Shadow Clones. She solemnly ordered them, "Only carry out noncombat tasks."

One Shadow Clone appeared beside a stone table at the edge of the training ground, where a mountain of Senju clan account books lay before her.

The sheer speed of her mental calculations made even Tobirama, who was known for his efficiency, raise an eyebrow.

Another Shadow Clone floated lightly into the kitchen beside the training ground, where steaming syrup on the chopping board instantly "grew."

The lifelike sugar painting of an orange cat was so exquisite that Itama, watching nearby, exclaimed, "Wow!"

The third Shadow Clone moved her fingers slightly, and Chakra Threads wrapped precisely around a broom, a rag, and a bucket.

As if controlled by a master puppeteer, the three tools worked independently yet in coordination. They cleaned in three dimensions with extraordinary efficiency.

The fourth Shadow Clone sat quietly beneath the veranda, holding a brick-thick book whose cover bore square characters neither of the two could recognize, and read intently.

All the clones performed their respective duties with precision and efficiency, as perfectly as the most sophisticated instruments working in concert.

In the empty center of the training ground, however, the original's situation made that perfection look utterly absurd.

Without the distraction and pressure of controlling Ninjutsu, she should have been able to focus better on her Taijutsu practice.

But in fact, she was like a baby encountering her own body for the first time.

She awkwardly moved the arm and leg on the same side together as she tried the basic movements Tobirama had just demonstrated.

Her left foot rose, her right foot followed, her knees were stiff, and her waist could not twist to generate force...

The result was a foregone conclusion: her left foot tripped over her right, and she fell hard into the dirt once again.

The Shadow Clones continued their respective high-level tasks, showing no reaction to the original's comical "performance."

The Senju brothers silently abandoned the Taijutsu training. An absolute beginner had to start with the most basic exercises.

To temper her physique and control over her strength, Hashirama insisted she complete three hundred weighted squats, though they had little effect.

The dull thud of the weight stone hitting the ground kept echoing across the training ground.

At the count of two hundred, Utsusemi lightly set down the stone and loudly questioned the futility of this training.

Though her cheeks were flushed from exertion, her breathing was as steady as ever.

The Senju brothers exchanged a glance, shock appearing in both their eyes.

"These readings..." Tobirama stared at the clipboard with a deep frown, his fingers repeatedly tracing the obviously abnormal values.

"Heart rate, breathing rate, lactic acid buildup... Every indicator is quite stable. After such high-intensity training, her body showed no fluctuation at all?"

He closed the clipboard and announced, "That's the end of today's Taijutsu training."

"Hmm..." The silver-blue light in Utsusemi's eyes abruptly went out like a candle flame snuffed in an instant.

The figure who had been standing steadily a moment earlier lost all support and animation the instant his words fell, pitching forward without breaking her fall.

"Sister!" Itama cried out.

Hashirama Senju flashed to her side, and the instrument emitted a rapid alarm that pierced the eardrums!

A bizarre scene unfolded.

The moment her body touched the ground, a soft but resilient net of flowers instantly spread beneath her.

It caught her falling body securely, keeping her from suffering the slightest bump.

Her chest rose and fell steadily, and she slept with a peaceful expression.

Only the wildly jumping readings on the instrument's screen revealed the truth.

Her brain activity had plunged almost to a dormant state, and her neural reflex signals had nearly vanished!

Tobirama Senju gripped the instrument's scalding casing tightly, the glaring red light from the screen reflecting off his ashen face.

The readings clearly showed it: Chakra activity and cellular activity were stable. But neural conduction was nearly zero!

Consciousness... deep dormancy!

This was a... whose inner power continued to operate on its own while it slept.

A shell that guarded itself, powerful beyond belief.

An oppressive silence filled the training ground, broken only by the monitoring instrument's sharp beeps mingling with Itama's increasingly heavy breathing.

Itama stood with his head lowered as though immobilized by a jutsu, his thoughts racing furiously beneath his statue-like stillness.

Faced with his older brothers' searching gazes, he erected an invisible barrier of stubborn silence.

That contract was like invisible armor, shielding him from the encroachment of Genjutsu while sealing away secrets that might slip from his lips.

He knew full well that his brothers would not truly cross the line, but if things really came to a standoff,

whether he followed Sister Utsusemi across the sea to a foreign land or remained in the Spacetime Tower forever in a child's body, he had long since resolved himself to those escape routes.

Days of observation had made Itama realize clearly that he could no longer help Utsusemi with her training.

Whether or not he would take up arms against Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju in the future, absorbing their knowledge now was the way to survive.

Hashirama Senju brushed past Utsusemi's grit-stained cheek and looked up to exchange a glance with Tobirama, his brows knotting.

"So... Tobirama, what exactly are we looking at? A... celestial maiden from outside time, who claims she can 'split the moon and bring down the stars' and has mastered Time-Space Ninjutsu?"

Hashirama Senju's gaze swept over the clean training ground, the series of sugar paintings, and the obscure square characters in the notebook before finally returning to the sleeping figure in his arms.

"Inside this body... what kind of being is there?"