Waterfall * Return to the village

"Speaking of which," Sarutobi Sasuke swallowed the dry rations in his mouth, pointed to the stream of water flowing down the cliff face, its silvery shimmering water particularly striking in the night, "I really didn't expect a fight to create a waterfall."

"That's right," Shimura Mu, sitting next to him, chimed in. "When I was awakened by Lord Katsuyu, the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was this waterfall. I thought I was in the Yomi, and I thought to myself, 'The scenery in the Yomi is quite unique.'"

"What kind of look is that?" Sarutobi Sasuke chuckled. "The Yomi has something like that? The Yomi should be the Sanzu River, right?"

"Even the Sanzu River isn't as beautiful as this waterfall," Shimura Mu said. "If you ask me, this battle is quite memorable; we should name this waterfall when we get back."

These words immediately enlivened the atmosphere around the campfire.

"Naming it? I know how!" A Ninja from the Yamanaka Clan raised his uninjured hand. "How about Madara Waterfall? Madara and Hashirama, one character each."

The Senju Clan member waved his hand. "Your name won't do. It sounds like 'half a room,' like a house that's only half-built. If you ask me, it should be called 'Pillar-Spotted Waterfall,' with 'pillar' in the first character."

"Why is the Pillar in front?!" The young Uchiha Clan protested. "Don't you know how long Lord Madara has been carrying the load? Madara-Pillar Waterfall, Madara in front!"

Sasuke, Sasuke for trouble, suggested a terrible idea. "Hey~ Tobirama -Lord Tobirama and Lord Izuna put in a lot of effort too, shouldn't their names be added as well?"

"That's right! Lord Tobirama saved my life! He deserves a place in this story!"

"That monster was killed by Lord Izuna! If we're going to name it that, he'd be the undisputed king!"

Hashirama chuckled and Hashirama in, "Hey~ that's a good point, how about we call it Izuna Waterfall?"

"That won't do! Lord Hashirama, you can't absolve yourself of this!"

Hashirama nearly spat out his soup upon hearing this. "No, what do you mean by 'distancing yourself'? Does that even make sense? I genuinely think Izuna Waterfall sounds nice; it even has the character 'spring' in its name."

"That makes sense..."

That's true.

"How about we go with the Quanbanzhufei Waterfall then!"

The Aburame Pin to the side looked at the group speechlessly, "What kind of name is this? If you really name something like this, our Foreign Minister will definitely fly into a rage when he wakes up."

"Stop, stop," Inuzuka Dobin crossed his arms in a pause gesture, "Can you Senju and Uchiha please calm down for a bit? Putting aside the names, did any of you actually see how that waterfall was created?"

"Hiss... How am I supposed to find out?"

"Yes, the battlefield was too chaotic at the time. Lord Hashirama and Lord Madara were attacking everywhere, and we all hid far away. Who knows how this waterfall came about."

"Speaking of which," another Inuzuka Clan Ninja said, picking his teeth with a twig, his tone light with the relief of someone who had just survived a disaster, "Lord Hashirama, your destructive power... you actually turned the basin into a canyon."

Hashirama could only manage an awkward laugh, completely at a loss for words.

"That's right." Sarutobi Sasuke looked up at what had once been a mountain in the distance. "That mountain over there, a whole chunk of its peak was sheared off. You wouldn't believe it, I was right there. When that blue light swept over, it was almost—" He gestured with his finger to a distance of less than an inch, "—this close. Several strands of my hair were singed."

"That's nothing." A rogue ninja rolled up his sleeve, revealing a bandage on his forearm. "I was grazed by shards of rock sent flying by Wood Release fist."

"How dare you say that?"

"Why should I be embarrassed? It just means I'm close to the battlefield!"

"Since you're so close to the battlefield, why don't you go up and take the hits?"

"I took it! I lay on the ground for half an hour after that one hit!"

Laughter broke out again around the campfire.

They sat around the campfire, the pain from their wounds still lingering, the blood on their bandages not yet dried, but the fact that they had dry rations to eat, hot soup nearby, and that their companions and themselves were still alive was good enough.

After the laughter subsided, someone else spoke up, "But seriously, what the hell is that thing?"

The speaker was Ninja from the Shimura Clan. The Kakkō cast flickering shadows on his face. "Attacks of Lord Hashirama and Lord Madara's caliber didn't even leave a decent wound on him. If it weren't for Lord Izuna's rainbow light, none of us would be sitting here right now."

"Lord Izuna..." The Inuzuka Clan Ninja threw a branch into the fire, repeating the name thoughtfully. "Eh? Speaking of which... where's Lord Izuna? I haven't seen him at all?"

"I had Tobirama take him back to the village first," Hashirama said.

The murmurs around the campfire subsided slightly. Haeharu pressed on, "Is he badly injured?"

Hashirama just smiled and said, "It will be resolved."

Just then, someone whispered, "Lord Madara is here."

The sounds around the campfire naturally subsided. Not out of fear, but because everyone, upon seeing Ban's expression, unconsciously stopped talking.

Ban walked over from outside the camp; he had just returned from a patrol with his men.

Ban's hair had been loose since the battle, and he hadn't thought about tying it up in the past few days. It covered half of his face, and his black hair fell to both sides of his shoulders, becoming a little messy in the wind.

The once magnificent dark navy blue ceremonial robe was now covered in dust and dried, blackened bloodstains, making it impossible to tell whether it was his own or someone else's.

Bandages were faintly visible on the chest.

His brows were furrowed, his lips were pressed into a straight line, and his dark eyes gleamed coldly in the Kakkō.

He looked like he had transformed back into the intimidating Madara Uchiha.

None of those present were afraid of him, because everyone knew he was all talk and no action, and that he was probably just upset because he was worried about his younger brother.

Hashirama, indicating that he could sit down.

Madara didn't sit down. He walked to Hashirama's side and asked in a hoarse voice, "Where's Tobirama?"

Hashirama looked up at him. "We're already trying to find a solution."

Madara frowned. "Does he really have a way? Izuna, he..."

"Hey, don't worry." Hashirama stood up and patted Madara on the shoulder. "We all hope Izuna is alright. Tobirama feels the same way. Just trust my brother."

Ban didn't speak, but sighed softly, then sat down in the empty spot, gazing at the campfire, lost in thought.

Hashirama sat down beside him and continued eating.

The people around the campfire continued to talk in hushed tones, reviewing the battle and discussing how to boast about their "heroic deeds" to their families and children when they returned to the village, but they all consciously lowered their voices.

Ban didn't pay them any attention.

His mind was still replaying what happened that day after he finished directing the battlefield cleanup despite his injuries.

At the time, he was just talking and giving orders, but Hashirama still hurriedly found someone to replace him and dragged him away to have bandages wrapped around his neck.

After wrapping the bandages, Madara was a little worried about what the person who had just taken over Izuna's body had said, so he went to the blanket where Izuna was placed.

He reached out and gently pried open Izuna's left eyelid with his fingertips.

Then Ban stopped moving.

The pupil of that eye had turned grayish-white, like the color of burnt-out ashes, lifelessly embedded in its socket.

What made his scalp tingle even more was that the surface of his eyeball was covered with countless proliferating blood vessels.

It looked as if someone had sewn a net over the eyeballs with fine red thread.

In some places, the wounds were broken, and dark red blood stained the eye sockets, mixed with grayish-white tissue fluid, making them look like a bloody mess, which was quite frightening.

Ban's heart skipped a beat, and then he reacted.

With his other hand, he supported the back of Izuna's head, pressing his thumb against her temple to stabilize her head. Then, he used his index finger to probe into her eye socket, hooking the bottom of her eyeball with Chakra and gently flicking it outward.

The grayish-white eyeball slid out of its socket and fell into his palm.

Looking at the sticky, bloody eye in his hand, Ban felt a little nauseous. Moreover, the man had said that the eye was probably unusable, so after much deliberation, he decided to destroy it.

Just as he was pondering how to allow his brother's eyes to leave this world with dignity, Tobirama stopped him. "Wait."

Tobirama came to his side.

He looked disheveled, with holes all over his body and his face and head were filthy.

It was so funny that it almost made him burst out laughing.

Tobirama ignored his gloating expression and said wearily, "Give me that eye. The new eye needs the residual pupil power from the old one to activate it; it says so in the manual."

Ban frowned. "Why should I believe you?"

"Now that I've received a farewell letter from another version of myself, I will take care of Uchiha Izuna. You can rest assured in this regard."

Madara stared into Tobirama's eyes, clearly not very inclined to believe him.

Hashirama had somehow gotten behind Madara.

He didn't say anything, but simply placed his hand on Ban's shoulder.

Madara didn't turn around. He stared at Tobirama for a long while before placing his eyeballs into Tobirama's outstretched palm.

He stood up and made way for him. "Don't let anything happen to him."

Tobirama carefully placed the eyeball into a jar and put it away. He bent down and helped Izuna up from the ground, letting him lean on his shoulder. With a flash of light from the Flying Thunder God technique, the two of them disappeared from the spot.

I wonder how Izuna is doing now.

Another day passed, and the seriously wounded in the camp gradually stabilized, while some of the wounded without leg injuries were able to walk around the edge of the camp, supporting each other.

Tobirama sent a message to Setsuna, instructing him to take charge of the escort and coordination for the camp's return journey.

The messenger repeated Tobirama's exact words, "Lord Tobirama said he needs to treat Uchiha Izuna, and only he can do it, so you, as the captain, have to help."

At that Setsuna, Setsuna was lying in the Medical Tent, her legs still wrapped in bandages. After a moment of silence, she said, "... Do I look like someone who can command other people?"

The messenger was a Senju, who couldn't help but chuckle upon hearing this, but quickly suppressed his laughter and said seriously, "Lord Tobirama said that you are, after all, the captain, and you must take responsibility."

He sighed Setsuna, thinking that if he had known this would happen, he wouldn't have taken the position. He was now being managed by his boss; he had only himself to blame.

He was helped to sit up by two medical-nin and leaned against a makeshift wooden frame. He held the camp map and return route map drawn by the scouts in his hand and began to assign tasks one by one.

To Setsuna's surprise, he didn't need to waste any words at all.

When he assigned the first team to dismantle the Medical Tent, the people chosen immediately started rolling up bandages without saying a word.

He arranged for a second team to carry the stretchers for the seriously wounded, and those people responded and went to move the stretchers.

He assigned several Jonin guard the sentry posts along the route. Those guys, who usually acted arrogantly in the village, just nodded, asked "How much should the sentry posts be spaced apart?", and then went to pick out people.

Setsuna initially thought they were only being obedient because of Tobirama.

But when a burly man from the Akimichi Clan passed by his stretcher, he deliberately stopped, took two Rice Balls from his robes, and placed them beside Setsuna. "Lord Setsuna, eat if you get hungry on the journey."

Then one after another, people came up to him and said, "You were really fierce when you rushed up that day," some people said to him, "Your apprentice Shūichi has been staying by your stretcher these past few days and won't leave," and some people didn't say anything, but just put a pot of freshly boiled water on his stretcher.

Even the little brat from the Land of Earth who had been slapped by him came over and bowed deeply to him before leaving.

Shūichi, that brat, watched all this with a strange expression. "Master, how did someone with such a terrible personality become so popular?"

Setsuna a flash, he slapped Xiu Yi on Shūichi back of the head and leisurely commanded, "Stop joking around, get to work."

"Knew--"

When the Ninjas who came from Konoha arrived to provide support, they were taken aback to see that the person in charge was lying on a stretcher with his legs wrapped in bandages.

Before the leader could voice his doubts, his elder, lying on the stretcher, spoke first, "Listen to him."

The leader glanced at Setsuna, then at his uncles, and went off to work, looking utterly pathetic.

The returning group departed at noon.

The stretchers carrying the seriously wounded were carried by groups of four, while the lightly wounded followed behind, using crutches made from tree branches. Children carried bandages and medical supplies in the middle of the procession.

Before that, Konoha had already taken care of everything.