Layers of Schemes

Under the laboratory lights, Utsusemi examined the pair of Sharingan that had lost their luster.

Yin-Yang Release chakra enveloped the eyeballs, and under the microscope, she could see the nerve endings slowly regenerating.

The discovery should have been cause for joy, but the subsequent degeneration of the Sharingan was baffling.

Utsusemi rubbed her aching temples. The densely packed records of failure in her experiment log grated on her nerves.

Then, on one occasion, she added Flower Release energy to the cell culture, and the results were surprisingly good.

The instant the Flower Release energy entered the petri dish, the atrophied optic nerve in the microscope's field of view unfurled like moss moistened by spring rain.

The unexpected breakthrough delighted Utsusemi, but then the Flower Release energy proved insufficient to sustain it.

She stared at the cell culture medium as it dimmed once more and sank into thought.

Since the power of Flower Release fell short, Wood Release Cells might be a viable solution...

But how could she make the request tactfully?

Simply saying, "Please give me your cells!" would not only be abrupt but might also put him on guard.

She recalled the suffocating hug Hashirama had given her at the birthday party.

And the bloody scratches she had left on Tobirama during that struggle.

The smell of blood in her memory grew vivid. She had spent a long time scrubbing the remnants of blood and flesh from beneath her nails.

An idea struck her. If she could get Hashirama to hug her again, even Tobirama would not grow suspicious, because he too had been a victim.

Criminal psychology told her that a victim would not suspect another victim who had undergone the same experience.

She made false nails specifically for storing cells, with miniature sealing arrays concealed beneath the nail tips and hidden under thick nail polish and decals.

Wearing the hollow false nails, Utsusemi went to Hashirama's office. "Hashirama, look! This is the proposal I made for the future village."

She presented her carefully prepared plan for building the village, slowly unrolling the scroll across the table.

The light she had hoped to see appeared in Hashirama Senju's eyes. "This design is incredible!"

The man who was usually as steady as a mountain was gesticulating wildly. "What's this?"

"It's the plan for a school." Utsusemi smiled as she showed him the accompanying picture books. "They're from the same series as the one I gave Itama last time. We can distribute them to all the children."

Hashirama Senju's outstretched arms froze a few inches from her shoulders. In the end, he only loosely gathered the ends of her hair. "You... always come up with the most thorough plans..."

"We can also provide the children with free, nutritious lunches." Though her plan had suffered a setback, Utsusemi's lips involuntarily curved upward when she heard Hashirama's sincere praise.

Hashirama Senju suddenly stepped back half a pace. "You should go to class..."

His voice was hoarse. "Tobirama will be angry if you're late."

Utsusemi hurriedly gathered her documents. "I was accidentally late last time, and Tobirama made snide remarks at me for the entire lesson."

Focused on putting the proposal away, she did not notice Hashirama's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed some burning sensation, or the veins bulging at his brow and pulsing at his temples.

After treating Izuna at dusk, she suddenly remembered that since the ceasefire,

the two close friends who had exchanged stones at the Naka River had never again had a long, intimate conversation, too busy with clan affairs.

Utsusemi mentioned it casually. "I heard a new restaurant opened in town with a view of a waterfall. They grill beef on volcanic stone slabs brought from the Land of Lightning..."

Madara Uchiha's hand paused as he polished the Gunbai, and a flicker passed through his Mangekyō, which reflected the evening glow.

When she suggested the meeting to Madara after finishing his evening treatment, she found that he had already prepared sacred sake bearing the Uchiha fan crest.

Utsusemi told Hashirama the good news. He crushed the scroll he was reviewing with his bare hand, and his incoherent thanks came amid the flying wood fragments.

"I knew it! He could skip stones across the Naka River back then, so he'll definitely understand your plans now!" He excitedly grasped Utsusemi's hand. "Thank you so much, Utsusemi!"

"You're welcome." Utsusemi looked at Hashirama, who was excited but had not lost control. "I told you I'd do everything I could to support your dream."

Looking at Hashirama, his face flushed and his heart racing,

Utsusemi put on her familiar gentle smile. Hashirama has improved. He still hasn't lost control, even now?

On the third day, in a private room at the restaurant Shuiyunjian, amid the hazy aroma of sake,

Hashirama gestured excitedly. "Remember skipping stones under the waterfall when we were twelve? Madara's stone skipped twenty-seven times!"

Madara Uchiha gave a soft snort and turned his sake cup without answering, but the smile on his lips betrayed how relaxed he was.

Utsusemi unrolled a scroll. "Please take a look at my 'village-based, skills-transition' plan."

On the unfurled scroll, ink lines outlined a refreshingly novel plan for industry.

Medical-nin would transition into a medical research team, those specializing in Earth Release would be responsible for terraced-field reclamation projects, and there would also be hydroelectric equipment on the Naka River.

Hashirama Senju grasped the wrist of the hand she wrote with and blurted out, "Wait!"

He pointed at the irrigation system diagram. "We can use Wood Release here!"

Before his words had even faded, he froze. The three looked at one another for a moment, then suddenly burst into hearty laughter.

As the discussion went deeper, Madara remained silent but recorded every detail with his Sharingan.

Hashirama's gaze, meanwhile, never left Utsusemi's face.

His wholly absorbed stare even made Utsusemi temporarily forget her plan to obtain Wood Release Cells.

As the sky darkened, Madara stood among the pansies outside the restaurant and spoke. "Utsusemi."

He looked at the faint bluish shadows beneath her eyes. "You don't need to come tonight."

On the way back, Hashirama was uncharacteristically quiet, until the moonlight illuminated the camellia in Utsusemi's hair.

Only then did he sigh softly. "So peace... really can take a tangible form."

As the two strolled along the Kaga River, Hashirama, who had been animated throughout, kept his emotions in check for once.

Moonlight reflected off the Kaga River as Utsusemi and Hashirama walked side by side along its course toward the Senju Clan Compound.

The once-ferocious piranhas had long since vanished because of the ceasefire, leaving only a few small, silvery fish swimming through the shallows.

"Your ideal is like the water of the Kaga River," Utsusemi said. "It will eventually flow into the sea of the Shinobi World."

Hashirama Senju stared blankly for a moment, his ears turning red, then thumped his chest even harder. "Of course!"

Utsusemi sat on a rock by the riverbank to admire the moon, and Hashirama followed suit, sitting on the bank three paces away.

A subtle distance remained between them, both doing their utmost to restrain the desires in their hearts.

Hashirama Senju's gaze drifted between the river and Utsusemi's profile. The tranquility gradually eased her taut nerves, and she gazed at the shifting light and shadows in the water as she thought.

"It's been a hundred days already... Izuna's treatment... how much longer will it continue?" Hashirama's sudden question made Utsusemi's lashes tremble slightly.

She gazed at the broken reflections in the water. If she could not find the sorcerer family that had cursed the Uchiha, she would probably have to continue treating Izuna until Madara died of old age.

"A very, very long time still..." Her voice was so soft it was almost drowned out by the sound of the flowing water.

"But if I move to the Uchiha Clan Compound, Madara is willing to sign an alliance and build the village immediately."

Hashirama Senju turned sharply, his pupils abruptly contracting in the darkness, the light in them sharp enough to cut the air.

The Tenseigan noticed his clenched fists and the veins bulging on his neck.

This is a chance!

She had to seize this fleeting opportunity!

"Although he can tolerate Itama staying at the Uchiha Clan Compound..." Utsusemi looked up at the bright moon.

"For Itama, it would be better to stay at the old house near the Senju Tribe. Moving would be no different from torture."

"No! Absolutely not, you absolutely cannot leave!" Hashirama's roar exploded like thunder, his chakra surging out of control and forming a shock wave visible to the naked eye.

When Utsusemi's face was forced into his heaving chest, she smelled the fresh scent of grass and trees on his collar.

In that suffocating embrace, now was the time!

The instant her false nails pierced his skin, the sampling was complete.

Utsusemi contentedly felt the cells stored in her nails, but Hashirama was too worked up and refused to let go no matter what.

His steely arms suddenly tightened, and Utsusemi heard a dangerous sound from her ribs.

Her feigned scratching turned into a real struggle, her sharp false nails tearing more than a dozen gruesome bloody gashes across Hashirama's chest.

Her short boots dragged two futile tracks of resistance through the mud, and the joint-lock techniques Tobirama had personally taught her fell apart before absolute strength.

When her feet left the ground and she was locked against that burning body, her cheek sinking deep into his chest muscle,

Utsusemi felt absurdly fortunate. Hashirama had improved; at least she could still breathe this time.

The gaps in Taijutsu and physique became an impassable chasm at that moment, and just as Six Paths Mode was about to activate,

the Tenseigan saw clearly that more than anger surged in Hashirama's eyes: there was also an obsession as thick as asphalt.

"Brother, stop!" The silver-haired young man slashed into the fray like a blade.

Tobirama Senju's erupting chakra uprooted Hashirama and flung him into the air.

He caught sight of Utsusemi sprawled on the ground, clutching her eyes.

"How many times have I told you!" Veins bulged at his temples as his knife-hand strike swept forward in cascading blue light.

He drove his out-of-control brother into the ground. "That's not a hug at all!"

Utsusemi pressed hard against her burning Tenseigan, the chakra boiling within her body flowing backward like lava.

At that moment, suppressing Six Paths Mode required an even more ironclad will than turning the battle around.

She staggered to her feet, deftly avoiding Tobirama's outstretched hand, her bloodstained fingertips already hidden in her sleeve.

"There's no need... I'll go back and rest." The runes of the Flying Thunder God Formula suddenly lit up in the air.

Before her words had fully faded, her figure had already begun to warp.

In the laboratory at the Spacetime Tower, the false nails gleamed coldly on the workbench.

Utsusemi expertly undid the sealing formula and fed the collected blood and minced-flesh samples into the analyzer.

The amount far exceeded her expectations.

The blue light of the display illuminated her satisfied smile. Her layers of schemes had not been in vain after all.

Damp mist spread along the riverbank, and the setting sun drew the brothers' shadows out long and thin.

Tobirama Senju gripped his brother's wrist, icy fury held in his voice. "If I'd arrived a moment later, brother, you...

Hashirama Senju gave his usual hearty laugh, but frost settled in his eyes, and the curve of his lips looked forcibly stretched into place. "Hahaha... I'll apologize to her later."

His smile was so false that it was like a stiff mask.

"What on earth happened?" Tobirama keenly noticed his brother's abnormal behavior, a flash of vigilance passing through his red eyes.

When he heard that Madara Uchiha had demanded Utsusemi stay at the Uchiha Clan Compound, the auras around the brothers abruptly froze, and even the air around them grew heavy.

Tobirama Senju looked in the direction Utsusemi had vanished using Flying Thunder God. Noticing that her shoulders had recently grown thinner than before, he felt an indescribable unease rise in his heart.