The Price of the Fire Stealer and the Undercurrent

Uchiha Sou struggled in the endless darkness and a tearing headache for who knows how long.

His consciousness was like a shipwreck, repeatedly trying to surface from the icy sea, only to be dragged back into the abyss by an invisible, massive force. Vague shouts, the clashing of blades, and a low, warning hum emanating from the very foundation of the world seemed to echo in his ears.

In the end, it was a gentle yet resilient flow of Chakra, like a trickling stream, that continuously nourished his nearly withered meridians and sea of consciousness, slowly pulling him back from the depths of his coma into reality.

He opened his eyes with great difficulty, his vision remaining blurry for a long time before gradually clearing. What came into view was a familiar ceiling—his residence within the Uchiha compound. Outside the window, it was already late at night, with only the sporadic chirping of insects.

As he moved slightly, a violent headache and the tearing soreness of his muscles struck him, forcing a muffled groan from his throat.

"You're awake?" A voice that sounded slightly weary yet filled with concern rang out.

Uchiha Sou turned his head to see Izuna Uchiha sitting in a chair not far away, his complexion still somewhat pale; clearly, his own injuries had not yet fully healed. A medical ninja was packing up instruments, having apparently just finished a round of treatment.

"Izuna...-sama..." Tsang's voice was as hoarse and dry as a broken gong.

"Don't move, you've overexerted yourself." Izuna signaled for him to lie still, looking at him with a complex expression. "The Medical Corps said your body felt completely hollowed out, your Chakra meridians were torn in multiple places, and your mental energy was on the verge of exhaustion. What on earth did you do?"

Tsang's heart skipped a beat. He certainly couldn't reveal the truth, so he could only force himself to fabricate, "At the time... seeing Madara-sama in danger, in my desperation... my Sharingan seemed to... overload... I wanted to see that shadow that was launching the sneak attack clearly..." This explanation was half-truth and half-lie, yet it remained logical.

Izuna stared at him for a moment, as if trying to discern something from his eyes. But at this moment, Tsang's eyes held only exhaustion and weakness, and his Sharingan remained closed.

"Don't risk your life like that again." Izuna finally sighed, his tone softening. "You did well. Although you couldn't prevent my brother from being injured, if not for your timely warning (he misinterpreted Tsang's interference with Causality as a warning from the Sharingan), the consequences would have been unthinkable. My brother specifically asked me to look after you."

Tsang was slightly stunned; Madara asked Izuna to look after him? This was unexpected.

"Madara-sama, he..."

"My brother's injuries are severe, especially the vicious runes on that blade, which are extremely troublesome and require time to slowly purge the poison. But his will is strong; his life is no longer in danger." Izuna's tone carried deep worry and a trace of lingering fear, which then transformed into cold hatred. "Tobirama Senju... this debt, I will make him pay in blood!"

Tsang nodded silently. The chain of hatred had been reinforced by another link.

"Rest well. The clan will not treat a meritorious hero poorly." Izuna stood up, left some medicine and food, gave a few instructions to the medical ninja, and then departed.

The room returned to silence.

Uchiha Sou lay on the bed, feeling the weakness of his body and the needle-like residual pain in his brain, slowly closing his eyes to look inward.

The situation was worse than he had imagined. His Chakra meridians were like parched, cracked earth, and his sea of mental energy was nearly bottomed out. The price for forcibly interfering with "Causality" was far beyond expectations. Not only that, he could clearly feel that his faint "affinity" with the surrounding natural energy had also weakened, as if the world had closed a door on him that hadn't been very open to begin with.

A warning... was this the warning and rejection from the will of the world? Because he tried to forcibly change the fate of "important characters"?

But at the same time, he had a vague feeling. In the process of exhausting everything, being on the verge of death, and then being pulled back, he seemed to have had an extremely brief, fragmented touch with the "essence" of his special ability. It was as if, in the absolute void, he had caught a fleeting glimpse of the countless tiny threads that composed "Causality."

He couldn't understand it, couldn't memorize it, yet it left behind an indescribable "intuition."

He attempted, just as he had for the past year, to "resonate" with the fluctuation of "life" in an extremely faint manner.

The process was even more difficult than before, like struggling through solidified concrete. The effect was also negligible, almost imperceptible.

However, just as he was about to give up, he was suddenly struck by an inspiration. Instead of "imitating" or "attracting," he tried to "soothe" the natural energy surrounding him—which seemed to harbor "hostility" toward him—with an extremely restrained, almost "supplicating" posture.

Like a child who had broken a precious object, he cautiously tried to make amends.

Miraculously, that intense feeling of rejection actually weakened by a fraction! Although his "affinity" had not recovered, at least the warning that felt like needles on his back seemed to have temporarily eased.

He understood. The use of this power required a price and would arouse the vigilance of the world. But it seemed... it could be "soothed" or "compensated" in some way?

This provided a tiny yet crucial revelation for his future path.

In the days that followed, Uchiha Sou rested and recovered. The clan provided decent resources, and his body slowly healed under the Uchiha constitution and the effects of the medicine. However, he deliberately slowed the recovery rate of his Chakra and mental energy, appearing weaker than he actually was to avoid excessive attention.

During this period, the atmosphere within the clan remained tense and oppressive. Madara's severe injury meant the Uchiha clan had temporarily lost its sharpest fangs and had to shift into a full strategic defense. Izuna shouldered the heavy burden; he became busier, his eyes sharper and more weary, as he had to handle clan affairs, guard against a Senju counterattack, and worry about his brother's injuries.

Details regarding the ambush were strictly sealed, but the news that "Tsang gave a warning at the critical moment and saved Madara-sama" circulated in a small circle among the upper echelons, making his status within the clan somewhat subtle—a mix of admiration and scrutiny.

Uchiha Sou took this in stride, maintaining his low profile.

He spent most of his time in his room, slowly recovering while continuing his "meditation," which appeared meaningless to outsiders—attempting to establish a connection with himself and the surrounding environment through a new, "soothing" and "inward-seeking" method.

The effect was despairingly slow, but he could feel that every successful "soothing" would loosen the invisible shackles of rejection by a tiny bit, and his control over the "Causality" within himself seemed to become a negligible fraction more precise.

On the other side, in the Senju compound.

Under the stimulation of pain, Hashirama Senju's perception and fusion with natural energy became deeper. Although he still could not maintain Sage Mode for long, he could already proactively attract natural energy into his body, significantly enhancing the power of his Ninjutsu and accelerating the healing of his wounds. The forest continued to expand under the nourishment of his power, almost becoming a natural barrier and a sacred training ground for the Senju clan.

The world's "favoritism" was reflected in him to the fullest extent.

Tobirama Senju, meanwhile, had completely turned into a workaholic. The death of his assistant Lianglu and the exposure of the unfinished Flying Thunder God were huge blows to him, and they completely ignited his obsession. He stayed in the laboratory almost without sleep or rest, surrounded by piles of calculation papers and the wreckage of failed experiments. The theory of the Flying Thunder God was continuously perfected by him, and the "Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags" based on that failed attempt were also crazily optimized, pursuing the ultimate efficiency in lethality. His temperament became colder, and only calculation and destruction remained in his eyes.

He would occasionally recall that strange deflection of the final strike during the ambush. No matter how he calculated, he could not perfectly replicate the scene at that time, and he always felt a sense of frustration that it was a "defeat not of his own making." He attributed this to the unknown, bizarre ability of the Mangekyo Sharingan, and his determination to annihilate the Uchiha became even firmer.

Time passed, and a rare, months-long period of true peace appeared on the border.

Both sides were licking their deep wounds and accumulating strength.

Everyone knew that beneath this calm lay an even more terrifying, impending storm.

Uchiha Sou's injuries had finally mostly healed, but his strength recovery was slow, still maintaining the level of an ordinary Jonin. He was happy with this, as it allowed him to better hide himself.

That night, he once again attempted to conduct a deeper level of "inward-seeking" practice.

This time, he did not focus on "life," but instead sank his consciousness into the vague impression of the "Causality" threads he had felt in that fleeting glimpse before falling into a coma.

He tried to "weave" with his spirit—not weaving external objects, but weaving the tiny "causes" within himself that represented "recovery," "cohesion," and "resilience."

The process was more difficult than any previous practice, and the consumption of mental energy was immense.

Just as he felt he could no longer sustain it—

Snap!

A sound so faint it seemed to resonate from the depths of his soul.

He felt a tiny meridian within his body, one that had long obstructed the full flow of his Chakra due to blockages from excessive overexertion, suddenly break through at this very moment, all thanks to his persistent, targeted "weaving" and "setting"!

Though it was only an insignificant spot, the change it brought was immediate! The fluidity of his Chakra circulation increased by a notch, and his refining speed accelerated noticeably!

Success! For the first time, he had clearly and proactively "set" and realized a minute "Causality" within himself!

Before the immense joy could even surge into his heart, that familiar sense of rejection from the world struck again—faint, yet unmistakable!

Uchiha Sou immediately ceased his practice and turned to "appeasement."

This time, he had a clear goal: to confine the "disturbance" caused by this "tampering" with his own recovery process to his internal state, using his mental intent to transmit a signal to the surrounding world that this was "limited to this" and "carried no malice."

The sense of rejection slowly ebbed, eventually settling into calm.

Uchiha Sou slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath; cold sweat had already soaked his back.

It was a risk, but it had its rewards.

He had found a clearer, yet far more dangerous path—to precisely and limitedly modify the "Causality" within himself, and to pay the price of "appeasement" for it.

This path was like walking a tightrope over a bottomless abyss, but he had no other choice.

He looked out the window at the cold moonlight.

He knew that when Uchiha Madara's injuries fully healed, when Tobirama Senju completed his forbidden jutsu, and when Hashirama Senju fully mastered that power of nature...

The true storm of destruction would descend.

And he, before that moment, had to possess enough strength—at the very least, the qualification to struggle for survival in the storm and quietly weave that sliver of "Causality" that belonged to him.

The night was still long, and his path of Fire Stealing had only just begun.