Chapter 10

Madara finds her planting small flowers behind the Uchiha training ground, and recalls her telling him a couple years back that the Uchiha compound doesn't have enough plants.

"It is in our blood to breathe fire and burn things down," she had said. "It is time we give life back to mother earth."

"I've heard," Madara starts, "of news of your retirement." Now that he is closer, he recognizes the flowers. A daffodil, is it?

"Have you now?" Amusement laces her voice. He is the Hokage advisor after all.

"I think everyone in Konoha has heard of it." Came the dry reply. Madara takes his place next to her to dig up the soil and place a flower into it. "I have been busy the past week so I haven't had the time to congratulate you. Congratulations, Isamu. You've earned it."

"Thank you." She whispers. There is something different about her voice, Madara notes. It is lighter, like a feather that has finally been lifted by the wind. More carefree. He decides that he likes it better.

"What will you be doing?" He heard that she had refused the administrative work in the Hokage Tower.

"Planting trees and flowers, mostly." Isamu waters the flowers.

"Trees, too?" The Hokage advisor raises his eyebrows. "For the rest of your life?"

The girl shrugs, a small smile on her face. "I would think so."———

"Woah, you're pretty."

Isamu is aware of the little spy that had been standing there for the past four minutes, watching her tend her plants. She turns around to see the boy blush beet red to his roots.

"I-um," he squeaked. "I didn't mean to say that out loud!"

"Thank you." She tilts her head in question. "Are you looking for someone?"

"Uchiha Kagami, do you know him?" The boy asks, his cheeks still red.

A familiar chakra presence aggressively flares into the area. "I'm here, Hiruzen."

Hiruzen leans to whisper to Kagami. "If all Uchiha women look like her, it is no wonder why sensei keeps talking about one! This lady is seriously pretty."

Kagami scowls. "Shut up. Stop staring at her, you creep."

Hiruzen waves her goodbye when the back collar of his shirt is dragged away by his friend, and Isamu hides a smile.———

"I have no idea what I'm doing." Itama grumbles, his head in his hands, surrounded by mountains and mountains of unanswered scrolls and unsigned paperwork.

Isamu visits him in the Hokage office. Hashirama and Madara are off to a meeting in Kumogakure- their village leader had requested their presence. The peace treaty with Kumogakure is rocky, and the two are determined to hold on to it like a lifeline.

"You know how I feel now, don't you?" Isamu pats his shoulder in what she hopes would be a consoling manner. With Tobirama and Izuna as clan heads and Isamu retired, Itama is the only person left.

"It's your fault." Her friend glares at her. "If only you hadn't retired."

"No," Isamu disagrees. "It's Hashirama's fault. He needs to make more friends."———

"Do you enjoy it?" Izuna asks, lounging around the goal post while she waters the trees.

Isamu knows he is not asking about the plants, the trees or the flowers.

"Yes," she replies. "While it lasts."———

The Uchiha elders say she would make the perfect candidate.

"She will not," Izuna massages his temples as if it would relieve the migraine threatening to split his head apart, "marry me, Aiki-sama."

"Isamu will sire worthy children." Aiki hisses. "With her blood and yours, your progeny will be indomitable. The Uchiha bloodline of the clan head will superior and people will whisper our name in fear."

Izuna slams his hands onto the table, it looks like he has had enough. "No." He grits his teeth. "And you will stop this nonsense at once."

The five Uchiha elders swivel their heads towards him in an amalgamation of surprise and indignation. The audacity- he is decades younger than them. Izuna ignores their blasphemous stares; he has far more pressing matters to attend to. The elders take the cue and leave the room, gathering what remaining shattered dignity they have left along with them.

Izuna scoffs, glaring at the door that they've just left through with great disdain. "Sometimes I wonder why we still have elders."

Isamu shrugs dispassionately. She's never liked them anyway.

"Let's just hope your... progeny does not have your temper."———

Her retirement has been good. But all good things must come to an end.

She wakes up before anyone in the village does. The massive chakra is unmistakable. Maliciously unmistakable. Isamu has time to grab her weapon pouch, in the top shelf of her dresser, and her village headband before she is out the door and to the Hokage Tower.

Then she feels Itama's chakra rousing from his sleep. He knows it too.———

The clan heads gather in the Hokage's office.

"What is that monstrous chakra?" The Inuzuka scowls.

"Tailed beast." Itama answers, sparing Isamu a glance. "And it's heading towards Konoha, fast too."

"Kyuubi." Isamu identifies. Its chakra is more powerful than the ones they have countered in the past.

"The Kumo bastard planned this." Itama snarls. "They took Hashirama away." Hashirama became known for his ability to tame tailed beasts, his reputation spreading across the land like wildfire.

"What are we going to do?" Akimichi Kino asks Itama. With Hashirama and Madara still out of the village, the teen is next in command.

"Evacuation." Comes his immediate reply. "Clan heads will make sure your civilians are safe. The mountains on the south of Konoha are only a mile or two away."

It is something of a common knowledge that clan heads no longer join the battlefield anymore. Times have changed and so do their priorities; they now lie with their citizens, not victory.

Any available shinobi will guard Konoha and will be positioned at all points. Izuna volunteered the Uchiha shinobi to guard the North, where it is most likely to first be hit. Nara Shidai will handle the formations and tactical strategy.

In the end, it is Itama and Isamu who will travel out of Konoha to face the Kyuubi. They are the only two people left in Konoha to have faced a tailed beast and lived to tell the tale.

"No." Tobirama narrows his eyes. "That's too dangerous."

Itama shakes his head. "It's got to be us and no one else. It will be plain suicide for anyone else. If you're not familiar with bijuu chakra, you can- and will- suffocate from its energy."

"I'll go." Tobirama and Izuna speak at the same time.

"No," Isamu shakes her head. "You have a duty to your people."

And so the emergency meeting comes to an end and the village alarm blares, its sound echoing off walls and deep forest trees. Everybody leaves to take their position.———

"Promise me you'll return alive." Izuna pleads, his voice barely above a whisper. He scans her face, desperate for any sign of affirmation.

She gives him a long look, before walking forward to wrap her arms around him. Izuna clings onto her as if she were a lifeline. "I promise."

Isamu is never good at keeping promises anyway.———

"Welcome back." Itama helps her tighten the headband to her head. "Are you ready?" He asks, choking terror rising up his throat. But beneath the fear is the hardness that can only be found in the bravest of shinobi, Isamu recognizes, in those who are willing to risk everything.

"More so than you think." An easy reply. She knows the time has come.———

Together, the two of them do their best to ward off the Kyuubi. It has been a total of five days and nine hours; and still ongoing. They have done this before with seven other tailed beasts. It should be easy, a muscle memory, like gliding along trees or unsheathing their favorite katana.

But alas, they are without Senju Hashirama. The God of Shinobi, the tailed beast tamer. Itama and Isamu do their best, but sometimes, their best is not enough.———They rise and fall.

So do the Sun and the moon.

They grasp onto each breath like a lifeline, like a blessing that has been casted into an abyss. They grasp and grasp, until they can grasp no longer.———Itama is the first to go.

An attack straight to his heart. Isamu has saved him twice but God is not on her side this time round. She doesn't have time to mourn for her friend.

She keeps on fighting, but her Mangekyo sharingan shifts and changes shape. Her eyes bleed deep red and a trail of blood runs down her cheek.

The Sun is high in the sky, and Isamu wants it to burn and scorch her to her very bones.———

Isamu recognizes the field of daffodils, blood tainted daffodils, ugly red in the midst of pure yellow, so scandalously out of place that it looks like God is playing a cruel joke on her. They are now dangerously close to Konoha. She thinks of her family, her friends, her students and her little godson.

This is as far as she can let the Kyuubi go.

"Susano'o."

She summons the god of seas and storms and irrevocably, utterly drowns in his ichor.———

The sealing is complete. The once invincible tailed beast is now snugly stored in her storage scroll.

It took seven days and two of Konoha's most capable shinobi.

There is no one but the moon, the pale buttery light amongst the dark canvas, to witness their victory.———

In the end, it is not a fatal wound that kills her nor is it blood loss. It is simply her dear old friend paying her a visit for the last time: chakra exhaustion.

Ah... her healer was right, what are the odds? But it doesn't matter anymore. She does not think of regrets for she does not have any. She does not think of dreams for she has lived them. She no longer fears what is to come, and in her mind, only sees a familiar face, a face she has not stopped thinking of since the day they parted.

'I've done a good job, haven't I, Kenji?' She thinks with contentment. 'I can now meet you without any regrets.'

Isamu closes her eyes.

This time, with finality.

———

Her body lays on the ground, surrounded by daffodils. Rebirth, they whisper. New beginnings, they whisper.

This is Uchiha Isamu, a girl who was given a chance of rebirth and with that fought for a new beginning. Her name will go down in history as one of the most powerful shinobi of their time. She will be known as a hero, a savior, a pacifist.

For some, she will be known as a friend, a teacher and a family. Those close to her will know that she has died with a smile on her face.

This is Uchiha Isamu. A brave child. She has indeed lived up to her name, as she simply had all along.———

And that is the story of Uchiha Isamu. A girl who, against all odds, found something worth living for and worth dying for.

———

.....

How do you measure a life's worth?

Isamu smiles........

——-Finale

—————Author's note:Congratulations on reaching the end, dear readers! There might be one more chapter, more like an extra.Thank you for coming along Isamu's journey with me. It has been a hell of a ride.

Any thoughts? I'd love to hear them.

Kono31 March 2022