Land of Rain
Rain poured from the sky like a waterfall. It seemed as if nothing remained between heaven and earth but the sound of rain.
Tsunade and Kizashi Mokume hurried through the downpour, but an ominous premonition had already risen in Tsunade's heart. Everything was unfolding just as it had when Dan Katō died.
Please, Iori. Survive. I beg you, survive! Tsunade silently began to pray.
But no matter how much Tsunade prayed, reality remained merciless. She didn't want to see what had already happened.
At their destination, Tsunade spotted Uchiha Iori's body at once. One of his arms had been severed, his chest had caved in, and he was covered in blood from head to toe.
He lay on the ground, clinging to life as he waited for Tsunade to arrive.
Tsunade rushed over and knelt beside Iori, looking at his injuries. For some reason, the blood was especially bright red this time, and her hemophobia flared up again.
She knelt beside Iori, her hands trembling helplessly. She tried to grasp his hand, but could only watch it slip from her grasp again and again.
"Don't cry. You're not that fragile." Iori spoke weakly. He wanted to raise his hand and touch Tsunade's cheek, but his body no longer had the strength to do so.
Watching him try, Tsunade felt strength return to her body. She lifted Iori's hand and pressed the back of it against her cheek.
"I'm sorry... Cough, I still haven't become Hokage... Cough, cough... and now I'm going to die." Iori spoke haltingly. Blood had entered his windpipe through the wound, making his words falter.
"No, I'll save you." Tsunade took a deep breath and found she was back in control of her body. The symptoms of her hemophobia were fading.
"Summoning Technique!" Tsunade summoned Katsuyu and used her Medical Ninjutsu in tandem with the slug's. She had never been so completely focused. Her Mystical Palm Technique had surpassed anything she'd managed before.
But Iori's injuries were simply too severe. Even a medical genius couldn't do anything about the damage to his organs.
"Sorry. It looks like I still won't survive." Iori smiled weakly.
"I'm sorry. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have given you the necklace. It's cursed... It's cursed..." Tsunade wept uncontrollably, regretting that she had put him to the test.
Even if it had all been fake, what did that change? She still couldn't see clearly. And if it had been real, wouldn't she have caused her lover's death all over again?
"Take the necklace back, Tsunade," Iori said weakly.
"Even though it's shameless of me to say this, I still want to ask you: please inherit my dream and become Hokage."
"You're proof that I once lived. Please, live well—with my share of life, too."
After he finished speaking, Iori's hand went limp. His breathing stopped forever, and the god of death carried his soul away.
"Why? Why..." Tsunade sobbed. At last, she had overcome her hemophobia, but the price was losing her lover all over again.
She slowly took the necklace from around Iori's neck and put it back around her own.
"Iori, I'll live well with your share, too. You said I was proof that you'd lived." Tsunade clutched the necklace and spoke through her grief.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sound of shattering glass rang out again and again. Tsunade was stunned.
The genjutsu began to fade, and at last she could think about the flaws in the illusion.
Why had she spoken so naturally with Iori? Why had she only gone to places she remembered, while the places she barely remembered had always been avoided?
Why were all her other memories so vague, except for those of her time with Iori?
And why hadn't her hemophobia flared up earlier, even though she'd seen blood before?
Another Uchiha Iori slowly emerged nearby. He seemed not to exist in this world.
The rain pouring from the sky and the dust kicked up around him passed straight through his body, as if he were a ghost.
"Is this a genjutsu?" Tsunade's voice was low. She didn't want to accept reality. Her time with Iori had felt far too real and wonderful.
"That's right. This is a genjutsu I created myself. It's our first meeting—or perhaps I should say, our reunion, Tsunade." Iori sighed.
The Uchiha Iori in the illusion had been Iori himself. He had split off part of his soul and placed it inside the genjutsu to ensure he could control the illusion.
So he had experienced everything in the illusion just as intensely. The two of them were both him.
"Bastard, are you making a fool of me?" Tsunade shouted angrily, gathering chakra in her fist and punching at Iori. It was her signature technique, the Strength of a Hundred Technique.
As Tsunade's primary combat technique, it could shatter the ground with ease. She had once nearly beaten Jiraiya, a fellow Sannin, to death with it.
"I didn't mean it that way. This genjutsu works both ways. The Uchiha Iori in there was also me—a part of me."
Iori had long since become familiar with Tsunade's attack patterns in the illusion. He deftly dodged and then answered.
"Why did you do this? Why did you use yourself in Dan's place?" Tsunade asked, confused. Now that she knew everything in the past had been an illusion, she found it hard to face Iori.
"Of course, it was so I could control the pace of your treatment. My goal was to cure your hemophobia. If I didn't treat it completely, it might flare up again later."
Iori certainly wasn't going to reveal all his thoughts. He couldn't exactly say that he'd also been hoping to get close to her.
Tsunade was skeptical, but couldn't prove him wrong. All she could do was say, "Since I'm cured, undo the genjutsu."
"I'm already undoing it. I've just never used this technique on anyone before, not since I developed it, so I'm not very practiced." Iori replied.
He had based the technique on his Mangekyo ability, drawing inspiration from the Uchiha Clan's forbidden technique, Izanami, and the legendary genjutsu Infinite Tsukuyomi.
The technique worked by using ocular power to construct a world that was almost indistinguishable from reality. The target's subconscious contributed to the world's authenticity, making it impossible to see through without comparable mental strength.
If Iori hadn't split off part of himself and entered the genjutsu, the course of the illusion would have been entirely under Tsunade's control. She would have remained trapped forever in the ideal life she had imagined.
In the distance, the world continued to shatter, and the breaking had almost reached Tsunade and Iori.
At that moment, Tsunade couldn't help taking a step forward. "Then how do you see this world? Was everything we experienced completely false?"
"That depends on how you see it. I can only promise you that the Uchiha Iori who was with you was also me, and that his feelings were completely sincere. His blessing was, too."
"Only by fully entering this world could I control how it unfolded. Everything he showed you was the real me."
As soon as Iori finished speaking, the world shattered completely.
Tsunade opened her eyes and found herself sitting on a bed. Iori was seated in the chair opposite her, while Shizune and Yakushi Nonō watched her with concern.
"Lady Tsunade, you're awake! Are you all right?" Shizune asked excitedly. The genjutsu hadn't lasted very long, but to them it had felt like an eternity.
"I'm fine. Who is he?" Tsunade asked, looking at Iori with a complicated expression. She didn't know how to face him.
Had it been a dream, or a glimpse of another possibility? She couldn't tell.