Splash—
A small creek flowed gently, producing the crisp sound of running water, mixed with hurried footsteps splashing through it.
Uchiha Yu—still wearing Madara's appearance—stood beside Tsunade, who had returned to her true face. The two of them turned to look toward the right.
A figure emerged from the forest and locked eyes with them—the "Uchiha War Weapon" who had just descended from the mountain.
Her complexion was weary, and the high-collared Uchiha clan garment she wore had been torn by thorns, revealing stretches of pale skin along her arms.
The centuries-old clothing, exposed to daylight for the first time in hundreds of years, had not immediately decayed—its craftsmanship was almost miraculous.
Compared to when she was first unearthed, she now looked far less composed, even a bit disheveled.
The scene froze in place.
"She really came?" Tsunade thought to herself, her expression tightening.
In that moment, she understood—Uchiha Yu had planned this from the very beginning.
Everything had been arranged by him.
Uchiha Yu only showed a hint of surprise, then withdrew his gaze and turned back to add more firewood to the flames.
Tsunade gave the girl a few extra glances before turning away, unwilling to meet her eyes.
She feared this living war-weapon might behave like she had atop the mountain earlier—slaughtering without a word.
The girl—Hikari—surveyed the two with vigilance.
After descending the mountain, she had no sense of direction. She first wandered toward the marshlands.
Finding only a dead end there, she doubled back. Near the creek, she caught the scent of cooked food and followed it here.
Thinking for a moment, Hikari's eyes shifted. She pursed her lips and turned, intending to leave.
But after only a few steps, her stomach growled loudly, hunger washing through her body.
It was an overwhelming weakness—an exhaustion born from centuries without food.
Tsunade had infused her with chakra, but she had used all that energy fighting the Edo Tensei Uchiha.
Right now, she was merely a girl whose bodily functions had returned to normal—but who had not eaten in hundreds of years. This accumulated hunger was too much to bear.
"It's already noon. Stay and eat with us."
Uchiha Yu suddenly spoke.
As he talked, he kept his back to Hikari while lifting a piece of beef from the pot into his mouth—showing that this wasn't a trap.
Receiving the invitation, Hikari's stored ninja instincts sounded alarms in her mind—
—but her legs moved on their own, stepping into the creek, carrying her toward the fire.
A ninja's willpower was immense, but Hikari had found no animals on her way here, nothing she could hunt for food.
Most of the nearby vegetation was also inedible.
If she didn't replenish her strength now, she might not even make it out of this valley.
The legendary Uchiha war-weapon, excavated from a sealed site… starving to death right after being freed?
The thought itself felt absurd.
So—she had to gamble.
Staring at the pot of clear, boiling, fragrant soup, Hikari swallowed hard, standing awkwardly beside the two, unsure what to do.
"Go ahead. Eat whatever you want."
Uchiha Yu handed her a bowl and chopsticks.
As he spoke, his gaze gradually softened, giving off a unique sense of warmth.
Even though he still looked exactly like Madara and carried that same overwhelming presence.
Inside the prison space, Tobirama muttered inwardly, "If Madara back then had ever shown such a gentle expression, he wouldn't have scared little kids to tears in the village."
Of course, he would never dare say that in front of his big brother—unless he wanted to be verbally shredded.
Standing by the campfire, Hikaru hesitated for a moment before finally choosing to reach out and accept the bowl and chopsticks.
She carefully observed Uchiha Yu and Tsunade, confirming that neither of them was disguised, and that their chakra felt different from the clansmen she had encountered before.
Hikaru slowly sat down on a rock.
She had no idea that the utensils had been prepared specifically for her in advance.
The three of them once again fell into silence.
Quietly eating the light hotpot.
Hikaru frowned slightly, clumsily picking up pieces of beef with her chopsticks. She swallowed the first piece, then the second, and then a third…
Her first impression was that the ingredients were fragrant and fresh—definitely not poisoned. This wasn't a trap.
She didn't take time to savor it; her starving body urged her to eat more, to replenish energy.
After extreme hunger, a bowl of thin porridge would have been ideal, but they didn't have that luxury now.
Fortunately, Uchiha Yu's broth this time was much lighter than before—easy on the stomach.
Half an hour later—
"Hah…"
Hikaru set down the bowl and chopsticks. She curled up by the fire, lowering her head like a wounded little animal. After a long silence, she finally whispered, voice dry from centuries without speaking:
"…Th-thank you."
She was full—very full. Enough that her long-unused voice came out rough.
Only then did Uchiha Yu ask, "Why were you alone in a place like this?"
He passed her a cup of water as he spoke.
A person's hand shortens when they take someone's things.
A person's mouth softens after eating someone's food.
Now Hikaru was stuck with both.
She accepted the cup. Her expression dimmed slightly. After confirming the water wasn't poisoned, she took a small sip and then asked:
"What about you two?"
Uchiha Yu didn't press her further. Instead, he explained:
"She and I are husband and wife. We make a living hunting, or by taking small missions from nearby minor villages."
"Husband and wife?"
Tsunade's brows furrowed sharply. She glared at Uchiha Yu, wanting to refute him—but found she couldn't speak.
She wasn't sure if this was his mental manipulation or the Tongue-Cut Curse Seal doing its job.
Inside the prison space, Hashirama's expression twisted. He clenched his fists, overwhelmed.
Wearing Madara's face while pretending to be my granddaughter's husband??
"…"
Even Tobirama couldn't watch this without wincing.
Hikaru looked around and said with a frown, "There… aren't any animals around here."
Tsunade nearly burst out laughing. Obviously, Uchiha Yu's lie was full of holes.
Uchiha Yu sighed regretfully:
"Oh, we were originally hunting a wild boar, but because my wife mishandled things, it escaped from our trap and ran into this gorge. We've been chasing it ever since and accidentally got lost in this forest."
He said this with a completely straight face, as if it had all actually happened.
Tsunade could only curse him silently in her heart.
What wild boar?
Her mistake?
If there really had been a boar, she would've smashed it into meat paste with one punch!
Even a three- or four-year-old Konoha brat wouldn't fall for such a ridiculous lie.
"I see…" Hikaru's brows relaxed. Holding the warm cup, she took another sip of water. Her guard loosened considerably as she continued:
"Thank you. To repay today's lunch… I'll help you with something. Preferably killing… killing someone. That's the only thing I'm really good at."
"Huh? She believed that??"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, staring at Hikaru in disbelief. She never expected that the Uchiha clan's so-called ultimate war weapon would be this easy to fool.
Uchiha Yu made it up on the spot—
And she just accepted it?
Tsunade, of course, had no idea that this "Uchiha clan war weapon," inexperienced as she was, could be easily tricked as long as no one showed her obvious hostility.
In the game's storyline, she was fooled by the villains' hateful words a couple of times and ended up working for them.
Uchiha Yu looked genuinely shocked and shook his head.
"Kill someone? No, no, no—we're just an ordinary pair of hunters living in the mountains. We don't kill people. But what about your home? If we leave the valley, we can take you back."
Hikaru blinked in surprise, then shook her head.
"K… kill prey. Killing prey is fine. My parents died a long time ago, so I… I don't have a home… I-I ended up here because I got lost."
As she spoke, her cheeks turned bright red. She wasn't used to lying.
But realistically speaking, Hikaru felt that saying she could kill people directly in front of grown-ups wasn't good at all.
"I see, sorry to hear that."
Uchiha Yu, wearing Madara's face, apologized. Then he looked at Tsunade beside him and sighed.
"If our daughter were still alive, she'd be about her age, wouldn't she?"
"???"
Tsunade's jaw dropped. Inside, she was screaming:
"You bastard—what daughter!? When did I ever have a daughter with you!? Stop giving yourself extra plotlines!!"
°°°
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