When he came upstairs with the Heat water, he found Uchiha Hikari asleep by the window. She was evidently still too weak after just emerging from the seal.
With a soft tap, Qingwu set the Heat water on the washstand.
The afternoon sunlight fell across her face, her lashes casting faint shadows beneath her eyes. She still clutched a half-eaten sugar cake—she must have been too tired even to adjust her position.
"What a cute little girl. But do you really feel that safe around me? You just fell asleep like that?"
"Aren't you afraid I'll sell you off?"
Qingwu walked over with quiet steps, draped the thin blanket he had brought over her shoulders, and slipped the sugar cake out of her hand onto a plate.
He sat at the table and used the Byakugan to examine the Cursed Seal inside Uchiha Hikari's body.
That chakra was a little steadier than it had been at the Ramen Shop, like ice softened in warm water.
It no longer carried that sharp aggression.
Qingwu recalled how she had looked when she asked, "Is there a bed?" and suddenly understood—perhaps, more than any complicated Sealing Jutsu, restful sleep, Heat food, and these small comforts of the "normal world" were what could soothe her best right now.
The way she curled up made her lack of security obvious at a glance. Thinking of it that way...
Perhaps she had willingly allowed herself to be sealed back then, constantly forced to slaughter as a weapon and used as a tool.
People outside her clan had feared and hated her.
Even her fellow Uchiha had called her a monster and feared her.
It had left her utterly exhausted inside.
So when the Senju and Sarutobi clans targeted her...
She had chosen not to resist.
And