Naruto Immersive Replay, The Curse of the Sharingan

With the crisp sound of the short sword being sheathed, your eyelashes trembled slightly. It's hard to imagine what it would be like for Tobirama Senju to marry a wife; he would probably treat marriage as an experimental project.

The scabbard suddenly pressed against Mito's chin, forcing her to look up. Your golden vertical pupils contracted slightly, reflecting her face. "You've been quite free lately?"

An eerie silence filled the carriage, while outside came the sound of Shikaga Rin reprimanding the ninjas; the boy's clear voice made the silence inside the carriage even more pronounced.

Do you have someone you like?

You close your eyes and lean back in the carriage, the black curse mark on your neck faintly visible. "A boring question."

"You really never had feelings for me?" Mito suddenly leaned closer, her red hair brushing against your shoulder. "Everyone knows how possessive Uchiha Madara is of you. Rei-xi's gaze towards you is practically drooling. And then there's that adopted son from the Land of Wind!"

Your hand precisely covered Mito's mouth, the calluses from years of wielding a knife caressing her soft lips. This realization inexplicably irritated you. Staring into Mito's wide eyes, you suddenly leaned forward:

"You're making me very suspicious."

"What do you suspect!" Mito broke free, her ears turning bright red.

She frantically straightened the crooked clan emblem, not noticing that her collar had opened even wider, revealing the still-healing wounds from the seal's backlash on her collarbone.

Mito broke free, the red-haired man bristling like an enraged cat. "What's wrong with me, as an ally, looking into this?!"

"Oh?" You crossed your arms, the shadows of the trees flashing past the window moving across your face. "Then why are you blushing?"

"I'm hot!" Mito fanned himself vigorously with a round fan, the strong wind scattering the documents on the desk.

You look at the distant, rolling mountains and think, "I don't believe it."

Mito Uzumaki took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She couldn't tell you that the reason she brought up Tobirama Senju was because of the secret letter she received three days ago.

The white-haired second-in-command of the Thousand Hands subtly inquired about your recent situation in the letter, revealing an unusual concern between the lines.

As the leader of the newly established nation, Mito must weigh the various factions.

Madara Uchiha's obsession with you is well-known, and if Tobirama Senju also has feelings for you... this would be a political variable that cannot be ignored.

“I was just thinking,” Mito adjusted her tone, trying to sound nonchalant, “that as allies, we should understand each other, after all…”

She paused for a moment, then said, "After the establishment of the country, marriage will also become a political consideration."

Your gaze suddenly turned cold. "You want to use me for a political marriage?"

"No!" Mito quickly denied, then realized she was overreacting and softened her voice, "I mean, we all need to consider these things. For example, as the clan leader, I might also need to..."

She didn't finish speaking, but her meaning was already clear. Your expression softened slightly, and a complex emotion flashed in your eyes.

"I will not become anyone's political pawn." Your voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable firmness. "Whether it's Madara, or..." Your fingers traced the Flying Thunder God Kunai again, without uttering the name.

Mito keenly noticed this detail, recalling that Shikaga Rin had once told her privately that there was a strange tacit understanding between you and Senju Tobirama, as if you had established some kind of connection that outsiders could not understand in the midst of life-and-death battles.

“I understand,” Mito finally said, putting the scroll into his sleeve. “It’s just…sometimes emotions and politics are hard to completely separate.”

You withdrew your hand, creating distance again. "We're almost at the new territory," you said, pointing to a distant island that was faintly visible. "That will become your country."

Mito looked in the direction you were pointing, her eyes filled with longing. "Our country," she corrected you. "Without your and Kaga Rin's help, I couldn't have gotten this far."

You didn't respond, but Mito noticed that the corners of your tense lips softened slightly.

Just then, Lu Helin knocked on the car frame, "A reconnaissance team of the Senju clan has been spotted ahead. Should we avoid them?"

Mito jumped up as if granted a pardon, slamming the car door shut. "I'll handle it!" Her fleeing figure startled a flock of sparrows by the roadside.

You slowly unfold the map on the table, your fingertips tracing a location circled in vermilion, which is the coordinate of Tobirama's laboratory.

“Three months?” The intelligence scroll in Uchiha Kaku’s hand fell onto the low table with a thud. “From succession to the founding of the nation?” He subconsciously touched the old wound on his left arm.

That was the arm bone that was sealed and shredded by Vortex Kong last year, and it still aches faintly on rainy days.

The medicinal teacup, reeking of Uchiha herbs, hung suspended in mid-air, the rising steam blurring his twitching lips. "This style of doing things is just like..."

His gaze suddenly met that of the person in the main seat, and the remaining tea sloshed violently. "...like those exaggerated folk tales."

The elders in the room all held their breath for a moment. Everyone knew the name he hadn't finished saying: the female demon who used the Mangekyou Sharingan to control the daimyo a hundred years ago.

Leng Xi's fingers tightened slightly under the table; Showa's name remains a taboo in the Uchiha clan to this day.

The woman who almost single-handedly overturned the entire ninja world order, the ancestor who made the Uchiha clan both proud and fearful, and now, Mito Uzumaki is repeating history.

Ban sat in the main seat, his fingers rhythmically tapping the armrest.

His Sharingan gleamed a dangerous red in the shadows, his gaze sweeping over everyone present like a knife before finally settling on Leng Xi.

“I’m curious too,” Madara’s voice was deep and oppressive, “how did a weak woman who only knows sealing techniques manage to do that? Do you know who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes, Uchiha Reixi?”

Leng Xi felt a chill run down his spine. Ban's direct address of his name meant that he had become suspicious. He raised his head to meet the clan leader's gaze, maintaining a perfect calm on his face.

“Chief of the Hui tribe, I had no idea.” Leng Xi’s voice was calm and even.

Madara snorted coldly and stopped speaking, but the suspicion in his Sharingan eyes did not diminish in the slightest, and the atmosphere in the council hall became even more tense.

Madara's lips curled into a dangerous smile. He recognized the gold chakra stained Leng Xi's sleeve, its unique metallic sheen, a skill possessed by only one person in the entire ninja world.

The missing kunai on the banks of the Naga River, the mysterious appearance of vortex reinforcements on the border of the Land of Iron, and the golden barrier that has been frequently appearing in the eastern sea recently... all clues point to the woman who should have died in the fire in Canglan City.

"Pass on the order." Ban suddenly stood up, the hem of his robe sweeping over a teacup. "Triple the number of patrols along the southeastern border, and all caravans that have come into contact with the Whirlpool Clan..."

His kaleidoscope cast distorted patterns in the candlelight, and he was "detained and interrogated."

As everyone bowed to receive their orders, no one noticed that Leng Xi's left hand was resting on a scroll at her waist, where an encrypted list of supplies to arrive in the Land of Whirlpools the next day was recorded.

At the corner of the corridor, Liangying stopped Lengxi, "Are you crazy? Big brother was clearly already suspicious—"

"Shh." Leng Xi's Sharingan suddenly transformed into three tomoe, and a genjutsu barrier instantly enveloped the two of them. "Do you remember what Su said before he died?"

Liangying's pupils contracted sharply. The dying boy lip-read the same message to every Uchiha present: 'Please look after my sister's dream.'

The night dew soaked Tobirama Senju's white hair. As he pushed open the laboratory door, you were flipping through his research manuscripts by moonlight, your pale fingers hovering over the anatomical diagram of 'Kaleidoscope Sharingan nerve atrophy'.

There were seven or eight empty test tubes scattered around the operating table; they were the containers he had used to mix the sealing medicine the night before.

"You seem quite interested in the Sharingan." The sound of you closing the book was particularly crisp in the silence. "Is it just a hobby, or do you want to understand your opponent's weaknesses?"

Tobirama locked the door behind him, and the barrier runes in the corner of the laboratory lit up one by one, casting your shadows onto the wall, twisting and overlapping.

He went straight to the instrument cabinet and took out the manuscript of Volume 3 of "Ocular Bloodline Limits and Nerve Regeneration," which had not yet been archived. "Both are here."

This answer makes you raise an eyebrow slightly as you watch Tobirama Senju casually pile precious research materials next to the operating table, as if those secrets that could cause turmoil in the ninja world were nothing more than ordinary reading material.

A sachet pierced the air, and when the door opened, a strange fragrance mixed with the scent of herbs and rust wafted out. It was the Crimson Flame Spirit Grass, a rare medicinal herb that only grows in the craters of the Wind Country's volcanoes. The corpses of those who harvested it alone could fill three meteorite craters.

"I forgot to give it to you last time." Your fingertips tapped rhythmically on the metal tabletop.

The bloodstains inside the sachet had turned black. Tobirama sensed the medicinal herbs with his chakra, then suddenly looked up and asked, "You went to the Land of Water just for this?"

You tilted your head, a few strands of black hair falling onto the edge of the operating table. "I guess so."

The sound of the safe's gears turning was particularly clear in the room. When Senju Tobirama locked the sachet into the innermost compartment, you noticed that the positions of the other items inside the safe remained completely untouched.

Tobirama Senju possessed an almost pathological level of self-control, adhering to a strange etiquette even with the enemy's most confidential documents.

“The seal is stable.” As Tobirama turned around, the operating light suddenly turned on, the blinding white light making your heterochromatic eyes look eerily bright. “You risked coming to the Senju clan’s territory, you couldn’t have come just to deliver medicine.”

The gold chain appeared without warning. Tobirama only felt a chill on his ankle before being pulled to the ground.

With a dull thud as his knees slammed against the metal tabletop, he was forced into a half-kneeling position. The thinnest gold chain even wrapped around his throat, pressing just right against his trachea without actually suffocating him.

"Here's a warning for you." Your voice came from above.

When the icy fingertips touched his cheek, Tobirama's pupils contracted sharply. It wasn't a human temperature; it felt like the frozen earth at the deepest part of winter, carrying some ancient malice.

The intense burning pain spread along the nerves, but suddenly dissipated just before reaching the heart.

"cough...!"

The moment the chains were removed, Tobirama staggered and braced himself against the operating table. The laboratory mirror reflected his disheveled appearance: his white hair was disheveled, and spiderweb-like black lines appeared on the side of his neck before quickly disappearing into his flesh.

“What is this?” He pressed his cheek, which still stung.

The laboratory lights flickered suddenly, and your profile appeared exceptionally pale in the alternating light and shadow. "Make sure you don't kill the Uchiha." Your explanation was brief and curt.

"You mean I'm going to kill you?" Tobirama took a half step forward.

You turned your face away, the shadow of your cloak obscuring most of your expression. "...You don't have that ability yet."

The air froze for a moment. Tobirama recalled the battle report from the border a while ago: Uchiha Nagi had single-handedly defeated thirty elite members of the Kaguya clan, and the remaining Gold Release barrier on the battlefield had turned the entire forest into a metal sculpture.

Such a being is indeed beyond his current ability to kill.

"It's Izuna." Your voice suddenly lowered, and a dark light flashed in your golden vertical pupils.

Tobirama suddenly looked up. His initial intention in developing the Flying Thunder God Slash was indeed to counter Izuna Uchiha's Sharingan, but...

“Although the Flying Thunder God Technique was developed specifically for him,” he subconsciously reached for the special kunai behind his waist, “I never intended to kill him completely.”

This statement was exceptionally clear in the laboratory. You certainly believed in Tobirama Senju at this moment, but what about the future? The banks of the Naka River, destined to be stained with blood.

“Crimson Flame Spirit Grass,” you suddenly interrupted him, “to neutralize the rejection reaction of the Thousand Hands cells next time.”

When he looked up, the golden vertical pupil in his right eye contracted into a thin line. "Don't tell me you didn't. I know you've been hiding Hashirama's active tissue."

The temperature in the laboratory plummeted. This secret was unknown even to his older brother. Last year, when he treated Hashirama's serious injuries, he did secretly preserve three tubes of bone marrow stem cells, locking them in the Ice Release sealing cabinet at the bottom.

Before you could respond, your figure began to blur, but before you completely disappeared, you suddenly looked back, and in that instant, Tobirama saw the pattern flowing in your eyes.

When he tried to probe with his chakra, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if it were being gnawed by sharp teeth.

The contract has taken effect.

Amidst the sound of rain, the laboratory door opened again, and Hashirama poked his head in: "Tobirama? Father is looking for you..."

When he turned around, his face had regained its usual calm. "I'll go right away."

No one noticed that his left hand, hidden in his sleeve, was gently pressing against his chest, where a heartbeat that wasn't his own was beating.

Chapter 55·Underworld

The sound of Shikaga Rin's footsteps startled the lark perched on the roof of the carriage. The young samurai braked sharply in front of the curtain, the corner of the letter he was holding between his fingers damp with morning dew.

"Shh! Don't make a sound—" Mito raised her index finger, the sandalwood pen clipped to her red hair teetering precariously.

The scroll of "Ten New Policies" spread out in front of her had annotations written in a hasty handwriting, like a secret battlefield report, with the ink still wet.

I don't know when you opened your eyes, your heterochromatic pupils gleaming faintly in the shadows.

Rin immediately knelt on one knee and presented the dew-covered letter, the Bagua emblem on the wax seal gleaming like mother-of-pearl in the sunlight.

"Wow~" Mito's arm suddenly wrapped around your shoulder from behind, her red hair falling and brushing against the letter. "You know people from the Hinata clan?" She tapped the sealing wax with her fingertip, then suddenly froze. "Wait, this handwriting..."

The rustling sound of the letter unfolding was exceptionally clear; Hatozaki's handwriting was so neat it was almost rigid, and every turn carried the restraint characteristic of the Hyuga clan.

[I'm extremely sorry, but I don't know whether to address you as Lady Nagi or Tanuki...]

“Hyuga Hatozaki?” Mito’s voice suddenly rose, her arm pressing heavily on your shoulder. “That little old fogey who dared to say in public that ‘women’s participation in politics is a path to chaos’ at the age of twelve?”

A blue flame ignited between your fingers on the letter. "It's his curse mark." You brushed the ashes from your sleeve.

"So you're seeking medical help, huh?" Mito deliberately drawled, twirling a strand of hair with her fingers. "But to make that arrogant, glaring brat bow his head..."

She suddenly leaned close to your ear and asked, "You don't mean you have something going on with him, do you?"

Shikaga Rin's scabbard suddenly slammed to the ground. "Foster Father, there's a chakra reaction in the woods ahead!"

His figure had already disappeared, and short bursts of fighting sounds came from the treetops thirty feet away. A moment later, he returned carrying an unconscious Hyuga ninja and casually tossed him aside by the roadside.

"The Hyuga clan's surveillance post, looks like this guy is really looking forward to your meeting with him," Mito Uzumaki teased, never one to shy away from stirring things up.

"Stop the car," you suddenly said. "We'll change our route and go to Hyuga Prefecture."

Mito was covered by a cloak thrown at her, and when she frantically tore the fabric away, she found that you had changed into a purple kimono embroidered with gold butterflies.

"Let's get this straight," Mito emphasized, clinging to the car window, "If he dares to say again that women shouldn't—"

"Then he will truly understand... why I am called Lord Tanuki."

The tea gradually cooled in the celadon cup. When Lu Helin added water for the third time, the white mist rising from the spout had become so thin as to be almost transparent.

"I have important matters to discuss with Lady Nagi, so please excuse us," Hatozaki suddenly spoke, his voice as soft as a feather brushing the surface of water.

He lightly tapped the table with his fingertips, and the Hyuga ninjas standing behind him immediately retreated silently to the door. As Mito rose, her red hair swept across the screen, bringing with it a scent of sandalwood mixed with sea breeze.

"Let's have a good chat~" Mito's voice rose slightly at the end.

Rin Kaga deliberately bumped his scabbard against the door frame; that was the warning signal you taught him.

"I want to break this curse completely."

He emphasized the word 'curse' very heavily, as if he were chewing on some kind of deadly poison.