Izuna
Utsusemi returned to the villa early that morning. Itama sat on his knees beneath the veranda. "Big brother and the others came by twice this morning. I told them you were catching up on sleep, Sister."
He couldn't help asking, "Sister, are you... especially happy today?"
Itama tilted his head in puzzlement. Utsusemi stopped and looked at the clear blue sky. "I just got a good night's sleep."
Itama watched her. The light flowing in her Tenseigan descended gently from the illusory clouds into reality.
Utsusemi had finally accepted this world. She was no longer floating in the air, lingering in the Spacetime Tower where time had stopped.
Utsusemi stood at the edge of fifty mu of wasteland. Flower Release vines plowed through the dormant soil, cultivating all fifty mu in moments.
She crouched between the furrows and used Flower Release to plant the Spacetime Tower's seeds for the season.
Utsusemi looked over the neat furrows. The energy field left by Flower Release would drive away pests.
When the flowers bloomed, she would remove the protection and let butterflies and bees pollinate them.
Hired Water Release ninja could control the water supply, and Itama could occasionally use Flower Release to weed the fields. At the autumn harvest, these fields would give her a satisfying answer.
Utsusemi's brow furrowed deeply as she pulled out a disinfectant wipe. She rubbed it over every speck of mud on her shoes, stopping only when they were completely clean.
Utsusemi avoided Itama's dirt-stained fingers. "I'll leave the watering to the Senju."
She unfurled a contract scroll. "Deduct the cost from the installments."
"Leave it to me, Sister," Itama promised confidently, staring at the contract.
Utsusemi took the remaining silver coins out of the Spacetime Tower and tucked them into her ninja tool pouch, then turned toward the stone-paved road to town.
The money from the pawnshop owner carried the bustle of ordinary life with it. She wandered through a nearby neutral town, playing with a few silver coins in her hand.
Suddenly, she heard three crisp taps behind her.
Her Tenseigan's 360-degree vision showed her a black-clad youth behind her, with black hair cascading like a waterfall and strikingly handsome, elegant features.
He was lightly tapping a wooden post by the road with the handle of a Kunai. His dark eyes reflected the silver chain that appeared and disappeared at her wrist, an ornament she had made using modern techniques.
"Miss, your silver coins." The youth leaned against the wall beneath a tavern's eaves, maintaining just the right distance. "The pattern is unusual. Is it a noble's currency?"
Although Utsusemi could see the stranger with his abundant Chakra without turning around,
she turned anyway, out of courtesy, and looked at the youth.
With the handle of his Kunai, he lifted a silver coin that had accidentally fallen into a foul drain. Utsusemi had been unwilling to dirty her hands and had simply abandoned it.
His beautiful almond-shaped eyes shimmered in the sunlight as he gazed at her. Smiling, the youth said, "The way the Chakra flows... it resembles craftsmanship I saw in the Land of Lightning."
He tossed the silver coin into the air and caught it on his Kunai as it fell. "But craftsmen don't carve cherry blossoms on currency, and commoners don't abandon coins that fall into dirty water."
Utsusemi touched the bulging money pouch at her waist. Some of the coins inside had been made after the currency the owner had given her, with different patterns added as well.
"Sir, approaching me so boldly without even giving your name—could it be that your ancestors were scavengers?"
Utsusemi toyed with the pouch at her waist. "You treasure even a coin that has fallen into filthy water. Are you particularly fond of dirty things, sir?"
"You jest, Princess." The silver coin, tossed high into the air, reflected a dazzling light in the sun. "I simply... pay special attention to things that shine."
Utsusemi gathered her hair with an air of feigned composure, letting the silver chain made with modern techniques slip out at her wrist. The two Chinese characters for "get rich quick" appeared and disappeared as she moved.
The youth's gaze lingered on the chain for half a second before he chuckled. "My name is Izuna. Your ornament is quite distinctive too, miss."
He pointed at Utsusemi's bracelet. "This blessing... is it a new kind of protective charm from the Katō family, the Senju's vassals?"
"A silver coin that fell into filthy water isn't worth Utsusemi picking up." Utsusemi's pearl clip-on earrings swayed. "But I've heard that a true craftsman will carefully polish even silverware soaked in mud."
She sneered. "Tell me, sir, which is more worth preserving: a noble lady's reserve, or... the discerning eyes that can see through filth?"
Izuna's gaze lingered on her sachet, then shifted to her well-cared-for hands. "Your Chakra control is exquisite, Princess."
"The Ninjutsu sealed in the silver coin... is it in the Uzumaki style?" The youth simply wrapped the coin in a handkerchief and placed it back in her palm.
"A silver coin sunk in the mire will shine more brilliantly when tempered by Chakra." Izuna turned to leave. "What you look down upon is the most precious proof of a trial."
"That stubbornness really is interesting." Utsusemi watched Izuna walk away and folded the handkerchief into the shape of a butterfly.
Looking after Izuna, she recalled the battlefield that had changed her life. The mingled stench of rotting flesh and rust had penetrated her mask, burrowing into her nostrils like maggots.
Ever since then, even fingerprints on the rim of a teacup had made her wipe it over and over.
She realized that her fear of filth was nothing more than an escape from having stood by and watched people die on the battlefield.
What she had fled was not the stench of corpses, but herself, closing her eyes out of fear.
Utsusemi opened the handkerchief. The silver coin, still stained with a little grime, no longer disgusted her so much.
For the first time, she smelled something other than the stench of decay. Her obsession with cleanliness seemed to have been cured.