The brutal battle in the valley had ultimately ended in mutual devastation.
Despite the Uchiha Clan's overwhelming advantage of having two Mangekyō Sharingan, they had failed to crush the Senju. At the crucial moment, Hashirama Senju had achieved an incomprehensible breakthrough in Wood Style, as if aided by heaven and earth. He had held off the Uchiha brothers' fiercest assault by sheer force, giving the Senju Clan a chance to catch their breath and retreat.
Both sides had paid a heavy price. The bodies and blood left on the battlefield spoke of war's cruelty.
At the Uchiha Clan Compound, the atmosphere had not eased now that Madara and Izumi had grown stronger. If anything, it had grown even more oppressive.
Madara's old wounds on his shoulder and abdomen had yet to heal. On top of that, forcing his Mangekyō into action and fighting fiercely had drained him. His face was an unhealthy shade of pale, but the obsession and coldness in his eyes had only deepened. He had shut himself away in the council hall and saw almost no one but Izumi. Clearly, he was absorbing the power of his Mangekyō and planning the next reprisal, one that would be even more deadly.
Izumi's condition was somewhat better, but the wound in her right chest was severe. The Chakra clinging to the specially made Kunai had even interfered with its healing, so she needed prolonged treatment and rest. The Violet Susanoo Skeleton around her had long since disappeared, but the hatred burning in her newly awakened Mangekyō was no less intense than Madara's.
After their initial fervor, the ordinary Uchiha gradually began to calm down. In its place came a deeper unease. Even two Mangekyō Sharingan had failed to bring down the Senju. The power Hashirama Senju had displayed at the end, like that of a forest god, filled them with genuine fear. The shadow of war pressed more heavily on every clan member than before.
Uchiha Cang silently carried out his duties, joining patrols and training, and occasionally taking on less dangerous missions. He had grown more reserved, burying all his doubts and shock deep inside.
But he had not stopped watching and thinking.
He repeatedly recalled the strange sensation he had felt in the final moment on the battlefield—the subtle fluctuation that had seemed to tilt the whole world slightly, quietly infusing Hashirama Senju with a certain "vitality."
That wasn't an illusion, he became increasingly certain.
Combined with Hashirama Senju's almost unreasonable breakthrough in the middle of battle, a terrifying conjecture gradually took shape in his mind: some great will beyond the shinobi clans, perhaps even beyond shinobi themselves, seemed to be secretly favoring Hashirama Senju—or rather, favoring the powers of "life" and "fusion," while rejecting the extreme powers of the Uchiha, rooted in "the mind" and "emotion," especially negative emotions.
This favoritism did not take the form of direct intervention. It was more like a shift in "fortune," a partiality that offered a little "inspiration" or "push" at a crucial moment.
Why? Uchiha Cang felt a profound injustice and a chill.
If the world's rules were already tilted, what meaning did the Uchiha's struggle and hatred have? Was their destruction not already inevitable?
The thought nearly suffocated him.
But he quickly forced himself to calm down.
No. If "Causality" can be interfered with—even by some great being—that proves it isn't absolutely immovable. His gaze turned inward once more. My power may be weak, but its very nature might let me touch one of the world's deepest rules.
He thought back to his countless failed attempts to "set" things internally: make his Chakra a little purer, make a wound heal a fraction faster. Those exercises had not been entirely useless. At the very least, they had brought his Chakra control to an astonishing level of precision, and his body seemed to heal just a little faster than those of his clansmen.
Before, he had believed it was a psychological effect or the result of hard training. Now, he had a different idea.
If the scales of the world's "Causality" can be shifted by an invisible hand, then can I... use myself as a fulcrum and nudge my own scales, however slightly?
The thought made his heart race.
He stopped trying to "set" a specific outcome, such as making a wound heal one percent faster. Instead, he began experimenting with something more abstract, something closer to the "fluctuation" itself.
He sat cross-legged, concentrating intensely as he sensed everything within himself: the flow of his blood, the circulation of Chakra, his cellular metabolism... Then he tried to use his mind and Dojutsu Power to "imitate"—or perhaps "resonate with"—the subtle fluctuation he had felt when the world tilted toward "life."
He tried to infuse the intention of "life," however faintly, into the healing of his wounds or the refinement of his Chakra.
The process was immensely difficult, even more abstract and futile than before. He often sat motionless all night, only managing to catch the faintest, vaguest feeling, without producing any practical effect.
But he did not give up. He knew this might be a true path to understanding and using his own power—a path that might let him glimpse, or even oppose, the "favoritism" of the world's rules.
A few days later, by chance, he was assigned to escort medical ninja to the quarters for the seriously wounded.
The room reeked of medicine and blood, and groans of pain rang without pause. Many Uchiha ninja badly wounded in the battle in the valley lay there, most of them in grave condition. The medical ninja were rushed off their feet, and both Chakra and medicine were in critically short supply.
Uchiha Cang watched it all in silence. His gaze passed over the ruined bodies and desperate faces. The brutal truth of war lay bare before him.
In one corner, he spotted a familiar figure—the clan member whose arm he had helped bandage beside the training ground that day. Now, the man had a huge wound running through his abdomen. It had been treated, but the flesh around it had turned black, clearly infected by some stubborn poison or Chakra residue. His life force flickered like a candle in the wind. The medical ninja had already shaken their heads and were preparing to give up.
The man seemed to recognize Cang. A faint plea and longing for life showed in his unfocused eyes.
Uchiha Cang felt something stir within him.
As if in a trance, he stepped forward and quietly said to the busy medical ninja, "Let me try."
The medical ninja glanced at him in puzzlement. Recognizing him as a talented young ninja from the clan, they still did not think he could do anything. Weary, they simply moved aside.
Cang crouched down and looked into the clan member's desperate, yearning eyes.
He formed no hand signs and used none of his knowledge of Medical Ninjutsu—he knew nothing of it.
He simply took a deep breath and activated his Double Tomoe Sharingan, not to perceive anything, but to focus his mind and summon that special sensation as fully as he could.
He held his hand lightly above the man's blackened wound.
He recalled the world's fluctuation toward "life" that he had sensed that day, and the vague intention he had caught during his countless tedious exercises.
He cast aside every distraction and poured all his focus and faint Dojutsu Power into a simple thought:
"May the power of 'life'... bless this place."
There was no specific measure, only a pure desire directed toward "the revival of life."
He felt his mental energy draining rapidly, and waves of pain shot through his eyes.
Time passed, and just as he was about to give out and the medical ninja beside him was beginning to look impatient—
A miracle happened.
The stubborn, blackened necrotic tissue around the man's wound seemed to twitch ever so slightly! A barely perceptible trace of healthy pink crept in from the edge, painstakingly little by little. His fading life force truly seemed to steady by the tiniest fraction, no longer slipping away!
He was still nowhere near recovered, but he had undoubtedly been dragged one small step back from the brink of death!
"W-what is this?!" The medical ninja beside him stared in disbelief at the scene before them. They hurried over to examine the wound, their face full of shock and confusion. "The poison... it seems to have been suppressed a little? And his life force... How is this possible?"
A faint light returned to the dying man's eyes, and a hoarse, grateful sound came from his throat.
Uchiha Cang slowly withdrew his hand and deactivated his Sharingan. A wave of dizziness and exhaustion swept over him, and he could barely stay on his feet.
But a storm raged within him!
He had succeeded!
The effect was so slight it could be ignored, and the cost so great it was almost unbearable, but he had truly done it! Not through Medical Ninjutsu, but by means of something almost like a "prayer." He had shifted "Causality" by a tiny degree and won that man a chance to live!
This proved he was on the right path! This power truly could touch the world's most fundamental rules!
Yet just as joy welled up inside him, an inexplicable, almost imperceptible sense of rejection and warning quietly emerged. It was as if some great will had cast an indifferent glance at his attempt to "steal" vitality and interfere with the established course of events.
The feeling vanished in an instant, but it left him feeling as though he had fallen into an icy pit.
Was the world's favoritism reflected not only in its protection of the Senju, but also in its wariness of those who tried to "rewrite" fate?
Uchiha Cang watched as the medical ninja began treating the man again with renewed urgency, then quietly left the room.
Sunlight fell on him, but he felt no warmth.
The path of power had revealed itself, but its end seemed filled with unknown dangers and the gaze of something from a higher dimension.
He clenched his fist.
Even so, he would keep going.
He would find his own path in this biased world, a path that would let him survive—and perhaps even change something.
His gaze turned once more toward the center of the clan compound. There, the Mangekyō, a symbol of destruction and hatred, was gathering strength in the shadows.
The next storm would not be long in coming.
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