The Moon's Shadow

On her way to the Uchiha Clan Compound that night, Utsusemi tentatively suggested letting Tobirama Senju take part in researching how to break the curse, only for Izuna to strongly object.

The young man drove a Kunai into the tatami and flatly refused. "Let that white-haired Senju touch my body? You might as well prepare my coffin now!"

Madara Uchiha pressed a hand to his younger brother's trembling shoulder, wariness flickering in his scarlet Sharingan. "We'll never trust Tobirama... It's too risky."

He spoke with a hint of weariness. "Utsusemi, you should understand that this partnership is built on your strength and your transformation plan."

Utsusemi sighed helplessly. "But we can't find the caster, and we can't find a medium to break the curse. Are we supposed to let Izuna suffer forever?"

Madara Uchiha patted Utsusemi's head reassuringly. "We've found a lead."

His touch was so gentle that it was at odds with his image as a decisive and ruthless clan leader.

"In the past three months, seven clan members have suffered gaps in their memories. Three of them were responsible for maintaining the barrier around the compound." He leaned closer. "In theory, they could never betray the clan, unless..."

Utsusemi looked thoughtful. "Unless they were being controlled without even knowing it."

She remembered the Tenseigan's mental sphere. Those puppets had even smiled blissfully while under its control.

"Then the caster who cursed the Uchiha Clan not only cursed your bloodline and made blood relatives kill one another, but has also been secretly controlling members of the clan."

"Actually, there's an even more frightening possibility..." Utsusemi turned her bone-china teacup. "If the caster can monitor you in real time through the clan members under their control..."

Madara Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan suddenly spun, and the tatami cracked into a web beneath his rampaging Chakra.

Izuna Uchiha suddenly broke free of his brother's hand, his voice coming through clenched teeth beneath his bloodstained bandages. "Half a year ago... Homura Uchiha, who was in charge of the intelligence department—his wife tearfully told the council of elders that her husband had become a different person..."

The young man turned his heavily bandaged face toward Utsusemi. "We all thought it was a mental abnormality caused by Yin Release Chakra."

Utsusemi's Chakra immediately enveloped Izuna's eyes, a halo of Yin-Yang Release mingling with its green glow.

She noticed that Madara's nails had dug deep into his palm, and blood was dripping onto the carpet bearing the clan crest.

Madara Uchiha's voice was terrifyingly calm, like a sea frozen still before a storm. "If it's as you suspect... all this killing among ourselves for the past thousand years..."

Utsusemi nodded slightly. "I'm afraid so. I suspect they have only one goal..."

Madara Uchiha's gaze stabbed toward Utsusemi like a blade. Though Izuna could not see, he gripped her wrist tightly.

Utsusemi laid her right hand over his, and Izuna turned his hand to grip hers firmly.

"The Rinnegan!" Her Tenseigan shimmered with flowing light as it met the Mangekyō Sharingan. "The Sage of Six Paths' Rinnegan should be their ultimate goal."

"Only the legendary sage's eyes, said to have created and destroyed worlds, would be worth a clan of sorcerers spending a thousand years manipulating the Uchiha."

Madara Uchiha's Chakra erupted in an instant, like raging waves.

Utsusemi caught his wrist. "Calm down. We have to plan this carefully. Only by dragging out the mastermind can we break Izuna's curse."

Madara Uchiha's fingers trembled slightly in her palm, the scarlet in his Sharingan slowly fading to black. "Utsusemi... you can always see through to the cruelest truth."

He lowered his head, the ends of his hair falling over half his face. Only his Adam's apple moved up and down in the shadows. "But why are you... helping us so selflessly?"

"Because you deserve to be saved." Utsusemi tilted her head, and the words came as softly as a sigh. "Just as you're willing... to help me."

Izuna Uchiha's fingers slipped between Utsusemi's in a spasm. "Liar!"

The young man's voice was terribly hoarse as he buried his face against the back of Utsusemi's hand. "You clearly... defeated the Uchiha. You could have followed the rules of the ninja and forced us to ally with the Senju... Why..."

The bloodstained bandages came loose between Utsusemi's fingers, revealing empty eye sockets. "Why are you so gentle?"

"Peace shouldn't be built on the suffering of people important to us." Utsusemi rested her chin lightly on Izuna's tousled hair, catching the mingled scent of herbs and rust.

She gazed at the Mangekyō flickering in the shadows, where pain deeper than the night churned. "If I sacrificed you for an ideal that hasn't yet taken shape, how would that be any different from the world I hate?"

She gave a faint smile. "People always say we must be changed by the world, that only the fittest survive."

Utsusemi smiled resolutely. "But I refuse! I won't adapt to the world. The world will change because of me, and I'll make it adapt to me!"

The transmigrator's memories burned in her chest. She did not want to forget who she had been at the beginning. She refused to be assimilated by this chaotic age!

To forget the path she had taken to get here, to forget the education she had received.

She could accept dying far from home, but she would never allow her soul to be completely assimilated!

Madara Uchiha's hands hovered hesitantly over their shoulders before finally settling lightly on them, heavy with tenderness.

He drew his arms together, pulling the two trembling bodies in his embrace closer against his chest, wanting to forge his warmth into armor against the world.

In this hell woven of lies and blood, their intermingled breaths and heartbeats became the last Pure Land he had left.