---
[Time: 4:08 AM – Kagami's Lab Room, Lower Level]
The air stank of ozone and burnt chalk.
Kagami crouched over a new prototype core—a triple-layered chakra condenser etched with microscopic spirals. He had been working non-stop for six hours, refining an algorithm for pattern-locked filtration using his own chakra signature as the base.
He hadn't even blinked in four minutes.
"Variable-phase release… slow pulse… now."
He adjusted the tuning seal with tweezers, then ran a thread of chakra through it.
The core lit.
Didn't explode.
Didn't crack.
It pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
He stared, wide-eyed, as a steady ripple of pale blue chakra shimmered across the webbed container. It was filtering.
Not aggressively.
Not perfectly.
But successfully.
He didn't smile. Just lowered his hands slowly.
> "Success log: Prototype #66. Name: Hikari Filter."
---
[Time: 5:03 AM – Grandmother's Room]
Yuki stirred as Kagami adjusted her blanket. He had already brewed her herbal mixture—this time infused with trace amounts of Hikari-filtered chakra vapor.
She blinked.
"Is it morning already?"
"Yes. You were wheezing at 3:40 AM, so I adjusted your chest elevation. Your pulse was irregular until 4:17."
"…You never sleep, do you?"
Kagami paused. "I… don't require much."
"You're just like your grandfather," she murmured. "Stubborn… brilliant…"
He looked down. "I'll make tea."
---
[Time: 6:40 AM – Kitchen]
Obito stumbled in, yawning.
"Why do your eyes look like death?"
Kagami sipped tea. "I solved the condensation issue."
"…So you've been up all night again?"
"Correct."
Obito dropped into a chair. "You're going to die young if you keep that up."
Kagami looked at him with a calm, flat stare. "Then I'll die productive."
"You're impossible."
"You're messy."
Obito reached over and ruffled his hair. "Still love you, though."
Kagami didn't flinch. But he leaned ever so slightly into the touch.
---
[Time: 8:12 AM – Uchiha Compound Gate]
Kagami was delivering a sealed report to a clan elder—analyzed seal decay in the outer training ring. Along the way, he overheard a few Jonin whispering:
"Border movement near the Land of Rain…"
"Cloud scouts seen three clicks from the Hot Springs pass…"
Kagami slowed his walk.
A month ago, the border was calm.
Now, people were talking like something was shifting.
He didn't like that.
---
[Time: 9:26 AM – Hidden Basement Vault, Clan Archive]
He had authorization. Barely.
Inside the vault were records of high-tier jutsu designs—many authored by past clan greats.
But the one he focused on was a transcription written in Tobirama Senju's own handwriting—deposited into the Uchiha Archive after a failed peace negotiation attempt in the years following the First Shinobi War.
Kagami knelt and read.
> "To stabilize a nation, one must stabilize the flow of information, chakra, and blood. The first falters, the second twists, and the third rebels."
Tobirama. Second Hokage. Brother of the First. Teacher of the Third.
Feared by many Uchiha. Respected by few.
Kagami respected him.
He copied three pages into his notes. Especially the chakra-lattice diagrams that hadn't been successfully replicated since Tobirama's death.
---
[Time: 12:01 PM – Rooftop Lunch]
He barely ate.
Most of his focus was on drawing a sigil onto the lunchbox lid—a new glyph based on Tobirama's chakra anchor theory.
By 12:30 PM, a small raven landed beside him. Its leg carried a sealed note.
Not for him. For Obito.
From Minato Namikaze.
---
[Time: 1:05 PM – Training Field with Obito]
"Looks like the Yellow Flash wants me on a long-term recon in the southern border," Obito said, flipping the note toward Kagami.
Kagami's eyes darkened.
"How long?"
"Few weeks, maybe more. Intel gathering. Could be nothing."
Kagami didn't speak.
Obito put a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be okay here, yeah?"
"…Of course."
But his grip on the paper was trembling.
Obito saw it.
"…I'll bring back something cool. Frog scroll. You like those, right?"
Kagami blinked slowly. "They're inefficient. But acceptable."
---
[Time: 3:42 PM – Medical Wing, Civilian Clinic]
Kagami didn't trust others with Yuki's care.
So while she rested, he checked on civilian patients—offering diagnosis slips and correcting one mistyped treatment dosage without asking permission.
"Who's that boy?" the nurse asked.
"The Uchiha who writes chakra formulas on his sleeves," another whispered.
Kagami didn't care.
He left a list of corrections on the desk and walked out.
---
[Time: 5:25 PM – Kitchen]
He cooked again. Obito was packing in the next room.
Kagami stared at the rice as it boiled.
Then at the eel strips.
Then back at the rice.
He had calculated every ingredient.
But something was missing.
Salt?
No.
Time.
He wanted more time.
---
[Time: 7:00 PM – Dinner Together]
Obito slurped noodles obnoxiously.
Kagami raised one brow. "You are revolting."
"And proud."
Yuki giggled faintly. Her color was a little better tonight.
Kagami noticed.
Said nothing.
Just stored it in memory.
---
[Time: 9:42 PM – Bedroom]
Obito's bag was packed.
Scrolls, rations, kunai.
"I'll be careful."
"I know."
"I'll be back."
"I know."
"…You gonna say anything nice?"
Kagami stared.
Then walked forward, hugged him tightly.
Obito blinked.
"…Okay. That's better."
Then, from the corner of Kagami's lips, almost inaudible:
"Don't die."
---
[Time: 11:17 PM – Kagami's Room]
The house was quiet.
He sat on the floor.
Sketching new seal variations based on Tobirama's feedback loops.
Outside, a bird cawed sharply.
He paused.
Listened.
No footsteps.
But something in the air had shifted.
As if… a tension was rising.
He went to the window.
Looked at the stars.
Then whispered:
> "If war is coming… I need to be ready."