Chapter 3

"You did not use your sharingan during the mission." Izuna approaches to her one day in the middle of their training. Isamu had used her first mission pay to buy a low quality katana.

She continues her katana practice, the sharp blade slicing through air with controlled precision.

"Why didn't you use it? Even when Hokuto was dying, you refused to use it." The clan head's son walks forward, stepping in her line of vision.

"Answer me, damn it!"

Left, right, back, back, forward. Isamu repeats her steps and ingrains them into her head.

Without looking away from her blade, she side-steps a punch delivered to her gut and grabs Izuna's wrist, using his momentum to flip him to the ground. He snarls at her.

"Do Uchiha people mean nothing to you? Even if you aren't friends, you should've at least try to save his life." He charges at her once more, but Isamu has memorized all the stances by heart and knows what Izuna is trying to do before he knows it himself. She dodges the kick to her head and delivers a sharp kick to the back of his knees, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Do you even have feelings? You don't smile, you don't get angry, you don't cry. You're just as good as a dead person." He spits out.

He moves to stand and Isamu is impressed with how his pride is able to withstand the number of falls in such a short amount of time.

"You are not in a position to lecture me about camaraderie." She finally speaks. "Do you know how the Mangekyo sharingan is awakened?"

She doesn't wait for his reply. "Death of a loved one." She doesn't smile, but the tilt of her lips is close to one. "Humanity has always longed for power, and it is power that we will sacrifice anything for. It is the curse of the Uchiha clan to have to choose between love and power, and it is the curse of the Uchiha clan that power will always win."

She barely looks at Izuna before walking away. "If being dead means I do not have to trade one for the other, then dead I will gladly be."

Isamu does not think she is capable of love anymore, and that thought does not deter her. With or without the mangekyo, she will become powerful and she will live.———

She is nine years old when her next mission arrives. This time, it is straight to the battlefield.———

"I don't w-want you to go."

Isamu spares Kenji a glance. "But you are going too."

"That's different." He whispers. "I don't want you to get hurt."

She looks up at the sky full of stars, shimmering back at her in mock liveliness. "We will have each other's backs."

We will outlive this war.

Kenji smiles at her and there is something in his eyes that she recognizes but pushes it to the back of her head.

We will live to see the day peace is born.———

She dances around the battlefield like it is her second home. She breathes fire and moves earth at her will. The katana cuts and powers through anything in her way.

This time, she does not dare rest her eyes. They burn red through day and night. She takes down men twice her size without a second thought and breezes through the child soldiers without a second glance.———

Her blood runs cold when she recognizes the curly dark hair on the ground and comes to a stop just in time to block the killing strike aimed at Kenji's heart.

The enemy falters a little at the sight of her small frame and feminine features, but the grip of his kunai doesn't loosen when he sees her wildly spinning sharingan and a newly formed tomoe. The katana in her hand fights against the force of his kunai as she stares at her opponent. She would recognize the hair as white as snow and eyes as red as her clan anywhere.

"I won't go easy on you just because you're a little girl."

Tobirama is fast, but Isamu is not the strongest shinobi in her generation for nothing.

They exchange blows too quick for eyes to follow and it is not Isamu's goal to kill him. Her peace depends too much on this boy in front of her for her to act carelessly. ———

Isamu darts off carrying a heavily bleeding Kenji on her back with her broken right arm hanging limply by her side, caught in an earth jutsu. Hashirama carries an unconscious Tobirama caught in genjutsu to the direction of the Senju camp.———

"If we keep sending her off to war, the Senju will start to fear her name soon. You should be proud." She hears Tajima tell Hideki, her blood crusted fingernails drumming against her thigh.

She still hears the screams of dead men burning in fire and she still feels warm blood on her face in her every step. She had lost count over the number of lives she has taken impaled by her katana.

Hideki tells her she should be glad she is one of the seven people that survived in her generation, that three days on the battlefield is nothing. ———

Isamu has a two day break before she returns to the battlefield.

Out of all their friends, only Izuna and her are in a good enough condition to continue fighting while others rest in the field hospital.———

She stays on the field for two months. When she is not off killing the Senju and their ally, the Masahi, she trains.

Uchiha Takaki takes interest in her and teaches her advanced genjutsu and lightning jutsus. Isamu memorizes them with her sharingan and uses them the moment she steps out of camp.———

Lightning fizzles out when she pulls her hand out of a nameless Senju, dark red blood splattering onto her battle gear.

"I don't recall teaching you that." Takaki jumps down to her side, his sharingan taking in her chakra reserves.

"This is... chidori."

Sorry, Kakashi. You'll have to come up with a new jutsu.———

It is by coincidence that she sees a child with mismatched black and white hair cornered by three grown Uchiha soldiers, and it is without reason that her body moves on its own. She knocks out her own kind with the blunt end of her kunai.

"Itama!"

Isamu jumps out of the way before she has to face Hashirama once more.———

Her tenth birthday comes by, Hideki does not say a word but there is a new katana, its handle a beautiful navy, on her bed.

Kenji gifts her an elegant sakura hair pin that Isamu knows she cannot wear into the battlefield, but when he puts it on for her and his finger lingers on her hair, she feels something warm that she hasn't felt in years.

The next day, she puts on her battle armor and is sent off to fight against the Yukimaru. ———

It is four months later that she finally returns with countless more bodies to add to her tally. Takaki tells her about the whispers of an Uchiha girl who slashes her way through the battlefield and bends lightning at her own will.

Isamu finds it hilarious because she is nothing but a fake.———

Izuna finds her tending her training wounds on the South of the compound and tells her of his brother fraternizing with the enemy.

Isamu only nods because she already knows of it. She only nods because she is numb and tired of killing and cannot find herself to care about other people.

Konoha seems like a dream far, far away.———

Wars do not stop even when seasons change. She finds herself spending more time outside of the compound than inside.

She fights countless number of battles, killed countless numbers of enemies. Still, it is not enough.

Isamu is carried back to the field hospital by an Uchiha, four kunai lodged in her body. Kenji holds her hand until she regains consciousness and he cries tears of joy when she looks at him.

He presses a kiss to her forehead and tells her how grateful he is she woke up, how he cannot live without her.

And for the first time in ten years, Isamu has a dreamless sleep.———votes and reviews are love11 May 2021