The fighting dies down

The Uchiha Clan Compound lay shrouded in the deathly silence of dawn. Even the Ninja Crows, usually calling, had fallen silent.

Madara Uchiha knelt on one knee before the stone monument, his palm pressed over fragments of the tatami mat Izuna had torn apart during his high fever.

He took a Yin-Yang Release tablet from his robes, and when the connection went through, Utsusemi's image appeared on the screen.

Behind her stood the arcade of a temporary shelter in the Land of Hot Water, half of it sheared away. Morning light streamed through the riddled roof.

A young attendant stood on tiptoe, handing out mixed-grain rice balls to the children waiting in line.

Pansies bloomed in a ceramic pot on the windowsill, swaying amid the smoke of battle in a striking contrast to the dilapidated scene outside.

"Madara..." Utsusemi's call was drowned out by a sudden rumble. She formed Hand Seals with one hand to stabilize the barrier.

As the image shook, the shock wave from a distant Ninjutsu explosion sent ceramic jars tumbling from the medicine cabinets.

The Mangekyō clearly saw the dark circles beneath Utsusemi's eyes as she asked, a little wearily, "Madara, what did you need me for?"

Utsusemi had maintained the barriers around six shelters for ten consecutive days, although all she had to do was feed Chakra into the barrier nodes.

Her daily routine otherwise only involved occasionally serving porridge and treating patients, but the nobles and merchants who kept pestering her were quite a nuisance.

Maintaining the barriers also meant she could not return to the Spacetime Tower, and the quality of her sleep was declining.

Madara Uchiha described every detail of how Tobirama had gravely wounded Izuna with the Flying Thunder God.

The spiral wound through his chest and abdomen, the lingering traces of Chakra imbued with spatial power, and the steadily worsening internal bleeding.

"Izuna's wound..." Madara's voice was low and urgent. "The Flying Thunder God's spatial power is eating away at his organs."

He undid the bloodstained bandages, exposing the spiral wound across his younger brother's chest and abdomen. Residual Chakra was spreading through his blood vessels like a venomous snake.

A fine layer of cold sweat broke out on Utsusemi's back. She had joined Tobirama's Flying Thunder God laboratory.

She had been certain that this Space-Time Ninjutsu would become a shield to protect the Senju brothers.

She had always imagined that one day she could use this Space-Time Ninjutsu to bring Tobirama out of a deadly situation if he were in danger.

But fate played a cruel trick: the painstakingly developed Space-Time Ninjutsu had become a blade aimed at a friend.

Her face was pale, and her Tenseigan caught sight of something unusual about Itama.

Itama Senju stood rooted to the spot, his eyes fixed on the tablet screen.

That afterimage, its blue clothing fluttering. His fists were clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, yet he did not notice.

Clan clothing embroidered with the Gunbai appeared on the screen. It was the Uchiha clan's clothing.

The remembered smell of blood suddenly surged back. Itama seemed to see five pairs of scarlet Sharingan light up again, the Gunbai on the backs of their clan clothing like talismans claiming lives.

"I'll leave this to you," Utsusemi said to Itama. "Madara, turn the camera toward Izuna."

Madara frowned in displeasure. "Can't you come in person?"

As the view shifted, the ghastly wound across Izuna's chest and abdomen filled the screen. The bleeding would not stop.

"Because of the war, I'm taking refuge in the Land of Hot Water. I can't make it to the Uchiha Clan Compound."

Utsusemi did not dare go to the Uchiha Clan Compound now. The Senju brothers had repeatedly warned her and sent her to take refuge at a hot-spring inn in the Land of Hot Water.

If she went to the Uchiha Clan Compound rashly, she would not only let down the Senju brothers, who had taken such pains to arrange things for her, but would also find herself in a moral dilemma of betraying their trust.

That was one thing; setting up barriers to shelter civilians and handing out porridge and grain to save the vulnerable,

and dealing with nobles and merchants and accepting employment to treat and save people, were another.

Utsusemi had taken part in developing the Flying Thunder God and already had a treatment plan in mind. "The immediate priority is to control the internal bleeding..."

She suddenly frowned. The spatial backlash required a specialized neutralizing agent. "Here's the formula for a purifying agent and the location where the ingredients can be extracted."

She deliberately gave him the farthest coordinates within the Tenseigan's visual range. "Send your summon to collect them."

"I'll start preparing it immediately... but it'll take time... eight hours... no... six hours."

Madara Uchiha abruptly thrust his hand through the projection, and sparks flew as his Chakra touched the coordinates in the Land of Hot Water.

"Don't be naive. If just anyone could master Space-Time Ninjutsu..."

"Izuna can't wait!" Madara's roar made the tablet's speakers buzz.

Utsusemi said calmly, "Send a snowy owl with blood samples! I need samples from both a healthy you and Izuna for an isotopic labeling comparison."

Madara Uchiha looked at his younger brother's increasingly ashen face, bit his finger, and summoned a Ninja Hawk.

A snowy owl's wings traced a silver arc across the night sky. Carrying a scroll containing sealed blood samples and medicinal ingredients, it vanished into the moonlight.

Ten hours later, the murmuring of the Naka River mingled with the beating of a Ninja Hawk's wings.

The medicine brought in the talons of the snowy owl with a packet of medicine tied to it flowed through Izuna's blood vessels.

As the medicine entered Izuna's veins, the disordered Chakra dissipated like morning mist.

Utsusemi was exhausted but gratified. "It looks like we succeeded this time."

Izuna's pulse gradually steadied. Utsusemi's specially prepared medicine began to take effect, purifying the Chakra wrapped around the wound.

"Izuna's treatment will take about ten days. In the meantime, he can be monitored remotely with the tablet." She watched Madara's Sharingan gradually soften and smiled in relief, hiding her trembling fingers behind the tablet.

Fortunately, the Flying Thunder God's edge had not severed the bonds of friendship this time.

"Utsusemi... thank you." Madara's gratitude deepened.

Utsusemi sighed softly, tapped the hang-up button on the screen, and closed the special tablet.

As she pushed open the wooden door, she noticed a familiar figure at the end of the corridor.

Itama was always like this, waiting quietly nearby like a shadow.

"Itama," she called softly.

Itama immediately looked up, still keeping a respectful distance. "Sister, are they Uchiha friends you know?"

His voice was very soft, but he deliberately emphasized "Uchiha."

"The two who helped me solve a problem that had troubled me for a long time." A nostalgic smile appeared on Utsusemi's lips.

Itama lowered his head, the loose hair over his forehead hiding the emotions in his eyes. "Those two who helped you so much... friends?"

He suddenly looked up. "So you treated them as a way of thanking them, Sister?"

"Something like that, I suppose?" Utsusemi gently stroked Itama's black-and-white hair.

Smooth on one side and sticking out on the other—what interesting hair.

"Don't worry. I only helped examine them remotely."

Itama watched Utsusemi's beautiful face without showing any reaction, noticing the quiet laugh she gave when she mentioned the two of them.

He lowered his eyes, hiding the gloom in them.

Even this one-of-a-kind Yin-Yang Release tablet had been given to those two, rather than to his eldest and second brothers.