Under the moonlight—
The girl's face was half hidden in shadow, with only the blood-red glow of her Sharingan flashing from time to time.
With that appearance, combined with Tomie's slightly twisted tone and expression, any ordinary shinobi would probably have already been thinking about how to make a run for it...
The problem was—
The man standing before her was named Senju Tobirama.
The number of Uchiha he had fought was several times greater than the number of missions Tomie had ever completed.
Although the Second Hokage had stumbled during the Shio incident, he still felt completely confident when it came to Tomie.
He didn't understand women.
But he understood the Uchiha.
Tomie was a woman—but first and foremost, she was an Uchiha.
Besides, even when it came to matters of emotion, Tobirama had already analyzed them through the lens of an engineer, reducing everything to data until he had sorted out the underlying logic.
"..."
Tobirama calmly met Tomie's gaze.
At that moment, Izuna awakened from his slumber and watched Tomie's reaction with unwavering concentration.
In truth, this had already become an experiment.
For an Uchiha woman like Tomie, whose emotions were obvious at a single glance—
After giving it considerable thought, Tobirama and Izuna had concluded that there was no way to resolve this peacefully...
Because Tobirama was never going to be with her.
So it had evolved into a research project:
Use logic and reason to persuade an Uchiha who has fallen into an extreme emotional state, then attempt to guide them into awakening a special dōjutsu.
"Take it slowly. Don't rush things..." Izuna reminded Tobirama.
"Start by explaining things clearly and lowering the emotional intensity. Only after that should you try to see if it's possible to deliberately trigger the Mangekyō..."
"I know!" Tobirama replied.
Izuna relaxed slightly.
"Tomie, I do care about you as a comrade. If one day we faced an enemy, I would stand beside you and fight with you without hesitation. That much is beyond question."
Tobirama spoke.
Tomie's eyes lit up.
Izuna secretly gave him a thumbs-up.
The kid's finally learning...
He actually knows how to build things up first!
But then Tobirama continued, "However, I don't have romantic feelings for you. If I had to describe how I felt before we got to know each other, it was mostly sympathy and guilt—not affection."
"Your grandfather died at Uchiha Izuna's hands, and your father died at Senju Tobirama's hands. At this point, there's no reason to keep hiding it. My background is... rather unusual."
"My paternal grandfather is Senju Tobirama, and my maternal grandfather is Uchiha Izuna. My parents couldn't endure being separated for long periods, so they left the village. That's also why I ended up being trafficked to Kusagakure."
Izuna's face immediately darkened.
He had stressed this who knew how many times already...
He was the paternal grandfather!
Tomie's eyes flew wide open.
What?!
She spent quite a while digesting everything Tobirama had just told her.
In her mind, she pieced together the image of a pair of star-crossed lovers...
The hostility between Izuna and Tobirama was something every Uchiha—and practically anyone in the shinobi world with even a bit of education—knew about.
After estimating Seisui's parents' ages, Tomie's face filled with astonishment.
That really had been a forbidden romance!
One had been Senju Tobirama's son.
The other had been Uchiha Izuna's daughter.
If those two had gotten together, neither the Uchiha nor the Hokage faction could possibly have accepted it in the atmosphere Konoha had back then.
"The Second Hokage would have seen it as undermining his efforts to keep the Uchiha under control, while the Uchiha would have viewed it as a shameless betrayal..."
Tomie became completely absorbed in the twisted story she had constructed, momentarily forgetting herself.
Tobirama and Izuna looked at her helplessly.
No...
Could you maybe focus on the important part?
Only after a while did Tomie finally realize what truly mattered.
Both Tobirama and Izuna were directly connected to the blood feud involving her father and grandfather!
But after thinking it over, Tomie suddenly smiled brightly.
"Didn't you tell me before? That if my father and grandfather were brought back to life and saw what the Uchiha and the village are like now, they'd tell me to let go of that hatred."
"I thought about those words for a long time after I went home... and I think you were right."
"There's no need to disturb them in the Pure Land with the Impure World Reincarnation. After all, Uchiha Izuna and Senju Tobirama are both dead. And even if we take ten thousand steps back, although you're their descendant, Seisui... you're actually the victim."
"If it weren't for those two bastards, how could you have ended up stranded in Kusagakure and suffered through such a miserable childhood?"
At that moment, Tomie's emotions were remarkably steady, and her reasoning was surprisingly coherent.
In the shinobi world, making children pay for their parents' debts was considered perfectly natural—but every situation still had to be judged on its own merits.
In Tomie's eyes, Seisui's parents had suffered immensely because of those two old fossils from the Warring States Era. They couldn't even make their relationship public, and after fleeing the village, Seisui had nearly died in Kusagakure...
As for Seisui himself, he was completely innocent.
"So, Seisui, you don't need to blame yourself for the grudges of people who died long ago. I don't mind."
Tomie smiled gently.
At that moment, she believed Tobirama had been hung up on the grievances between their families' previous generations, and that was why he had kept acting distant toward her these past days, always looking as though he was ready to cut ties at any moment.
"Just as I expected..."
"I told you Tomie might not care about any of that. That's simply how the Uchiha love, and what she said actually makes sense. Tobirama and I really did hold you back..."
Izuna let out a sigh.
"But be careful, Seisui. Phase Two is about to begin!"
Tomie's expectations had become completely misaligned.
Once that kind of emotional mismatch appeared, it was the easiest time for someone's emotions to spiral.
"Wait here for a moment..."
Tobirama glanced at Tomie, turned around, returned to Root, and came back carrying several thick notebooks.
Tomie blinked in confusion, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks.
What are those...?
His diary?
Or... love letters...?
If they're love letters... why are they so thick?!
"Take a look," Tobirama said, handing the notebooks to her.
In the darkness of the night, only Tomie's exceptionally powerful Sharingan allowed her to make out the blurred writing.
But seeing the words wasn't enough.
The real problem was understanding them.
They were Tobirama's research notes!
Izuna's mouth fell open in surprise. Tobirama had never discussed this plan with him!
Whoa... rejecting someone with scientific research notes?
Now that's something you don't see every day!
"I-I don't understand any of this... What does it mean?" After a long while, Tomie finally lifted her head from the sea of mathematical symbols, looking embarrassed.
Even an Uchiha's visual prowess couldn't see through such intricate mathematical formulas.
"It means... we're not people who belong to the same world."
Tobirama spoke softly.
"When two people are together, they should at least share some common interests, shouldn't they? What I love is researching ninjutsu. Every research project represents countless possibilities, and every attempt has the potential to bring about a revolutionary breakthrough."
"Behind every completed technique lies the culmination of countless failed attempts. I love the feeling of building success upon failure."
Tomie stared blankly at Tobirama.
"To put it bluntly, I don't have romantic feelings for you. What I do feel is sympathy, because both of us were affected by Tobirama and Izuna."
"Especially since you don't even understand what I'm passionate about."
Tobirama looked straight into Tomie's eyes, as though deliberately provoking her—or perhaps questioning himself.
"I don't really understand the concept of love. According to conventional thinking, it's a process where two people merge together, possess one another, and become each other's emotional support."
"But I don't need any particular person to support me. Whenever I encounter a problem, I find a way to solve it myself. If I can't, I ask my comrades for help. My comrades don't restrict the rest of my life—they respect my boundaries."
"But a lover is different..."
"In my view, a lover only demands my private space and encroaches upon my freedom of will."
"I think you're exactly the kind of person who would do that," Tobirama said as he carefully studied Tomie.
"I can't imagine spending my life with a woman I can't even have a meaningful conversation with, allowing her to interfere with the life I love, while pretending to be happy and playing house in the name of romance."
"That would be an enormous waste of my life."
Tomie stood there completely dumbfounded as she listened to Tobirama.
Izuna covered his face and grumbled inwardly, Why does that sound exactly like something my brother used to say?
Brother... where did that come from...?
The inheritance really went sideways...
Back then, Izuna had repeatedly tried to persuade Madara to find a wife and have children.
But Madara's answer had been almost identical to Tobirama's.
Whenever he needed emotional support, he could simply talk with Izuna or chat with Hashirama while fighting him. His physical desires were completely overshadowed by his ambitions, and even if they weren't, getting married wasn't the only solution.
The combination of those two factors left Madara completely uninterested in romance or marriage. He considered both nothing more than burdens and unnecessary trouble.
Still, every now and then, Madara would turn around and urge Izuna to settle down early and have a child for him to play with...
Every time, Izuna found himself completely speechless.
His brother's way of thinking reminded him of someone who loved cats but didn't want to raise one himself, so he encouraged someone else to get one instead, just so he could come over and play with it.
"You..."
Tomie parted her lips, unconsciously tightening her grip on the research notebook.
"Then why have you been so close to Uzumaki Shio? Is it because she can understand what's written in these notebooks?!"
"See? Even though we're not in a relationship, you're already trying to restrict my freedom."
A calm certainty flashed through Tobirama's eyes.
"My reasoning was correct..."
"Uzumaki Shio and I are nothing more than colleagues. I need her expertise in fūinjutsu to advance the project I'm working on."
"If I were with you, I'd have to waste time explaining everything—or even deliberately keeping my distance to avoid misunderstandings. That would only delay the village's projects, and the losses caused by that would be impossible to measure."
Tobirama slowly stepped forward until he stopped an arm's length away from Tomie.
"Ordinarily, I shouldn't interfere in someone else's fate. But because of the bond between us, I couldn't stop myself from reaching out, and that caused you to misunderstand. For that, I owe you an apology."
"Since things have already come to this, let me say a little more."
"You're an Uchiha jōnin with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan. You're not a child anymore."
"I wasn't the only one who treated your illness. In truth, all I did was provide the initial idea and take the lead. The ones who made the final decisions and confirmed the treatment plan were everyone in the village who wanted to see you live."
"But your perspective is so narrow that all you can see is me. That's disappointing."
Tobirama spoke softly.
"Look at what you've become. Don't you think you're being rather selfish? Others helped you out of goodwill, yet you went a step further and demanded that they take on the obligation of loving you. But what do you intend to offer in return?"
Tomie opened her mouth, but Tobirama gestured for her to remain silent.
"You have nothing to offer, because you have nothing in your hands to bargain with."
"But this isn't one of the other hidden villages. In Konoha, the village allows everyone to have a quiet place of their own. That is the Will of Fire."
"But that doesn't mean you can make demands without limit..."
Tobirama kept firing off one statement after another, unleashing his full firepower!
It wasn't that he didn't know this would provoke Tomie...
But provoking her was precisely the point today!
Unlike Shio, who had done it without realizing it, Tobirama was acting deliberately today—though he had also mixed in some of his sincere personal beliefs.
This was exactly what he had thought back when Mito and Hashirama kept pressuring him to marry.
Not everyone could find a partner who respected them, complemented them, and understood personal boundaries...
So why did they keep pestering him about it?!
Had there been a beautiful, powerful woman who understood scientific research and also knew not to disturb him...
Tobirama didn't consider himself an idiot. Wouldn't he have married her long ago?
But there was no such woman, so just as with the pursuit of truth, he shouldn't settle for less...
As Tomie listened, her face grew increasingly pale, while a stifling knot of resentment continued building inside her chest.
She truly wanted to spit blood all over Tobirama's face right now!
The problem was that Tobirama, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and the others had done an excellent job, while Shio had provided more than enough life force.
After the surgery and subsequent recovery, Tomie was now in excellent health, so she couldn't even cough up blood...
Seeing Tomie's expression grow worse and worse, Tobirama was about to continue.
Izuna finally couldn't take it anymore and urgently shouted, "Switch with me! Shut up already—you're about to go too far..."
Tobirama reluctantly closed his mouth.
He had only been using half the standard employed by Uchiha elders during the Warring States Period when they laid psychological traps for the younger generation.
Izuna took control of Tobirama's body and adopted a comparatively gentler tone.
"What I said just now may have gone a little too far..."
"But you and I truly aren't right for each other. I'm not someone who's good at moving forward hand in hand with another person or supporting them along the way. I was born in Kusagakure, and the environment I grew up in left me with problems in my personality. Staying away from me would be for the best."
"Find a partner who can accept you and is willing to grow alongside you. You have my blessing."
"As for me, just let me be alone. I don't want to hurt anyone."
Izuna tried to retrieve the notes from Tomie's hands, only to discover that she was gripping them tightly and refused to give them back.
Izuna shook his head helplessly.
"Then consider them a gift... I hope everything goes well for you in the future, and that you find both someone you love and a career you care about."
This time, Izuna decisively turned around and headed back toward Root.
Tomie remained standing there alone, completely dazed.
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