Konohagakure.
The Uchiha Clan Compound.
Sitting cross-legged, Tobirama frowned as he scribbled across a sheet of paper with a pen in hand.
As one of the greatest researchers in the shinobi world, Tobirama possessed a meticulous and systematic way of thinking.
Making mistakes was not what frightened him...
What frightened him was making mistakes and refusing to correct them.
Just like scientific research. If an experiment failed and you refused to identify the interfering variables, blindly pressing forward would only waste enormous amounts of resources...
At that moment, Tobirama was analyzing exactly what had gone wrong in his interactions with Shio.
Inside him, Izuna covered his face and sighed.
'Seisui really is that bastard's descendant...'
For the moment, Izuna had chosen to mentally distance himself from the situation.
This was the first time he had ever seen a man get slapped by a woman and then, upon returning home, immediately pull out a stack of draft paper and begin conducting a relentless logical review of the incident.
Was this a relationship or a research project?
"Losses incurred," "chain risks," "core blind spots in self-perception," and "follow-up damage control"...
These were the major categories Tobirama had written down.
"Shio possesses the potential to become a lesser replacement for Mito. My mistake may have awakened that potential, but it also ruined the relationship between us..."
"The resulting chain risk is that Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Hiruko may mistakenly conclude that I have deficiencies in emotional intelligence. I need to eliminate that misunderstanding to avoid affecting future research cooperation."
Tobirama pondered silently.
After a moment of thought, he spoke to Izuna.
"I understand where my problem lies now."
"Go on, let's hear it."
Izuna maintained a straight face. If Seisui's identity were not so special, he would not have wanted to waste another word on a fool who quantified emotions like this.
Love could not be separated from material realities and rationality.
But if every aspect of it was rigidly defined and calculated, what was the point?
At that stage, it would be more satisfying to go exchange sword strikes with Senju Tobirama instead...
"First, I brought my Kusagakure mindset into Konoha."
"In Kusagakure, survival and safety are the primary concerns. Emotions are neither valued nor encouraged; they must be suppressed. Exchanges of benefit come first."
"But Konoha is different. Here, people's basic survival and safety are already secured. As a result, they seek fulfillment elsewhere—through emotions, through their personal ninja way..."
"Our perspectives were misaligned, which caused Shio to feel that I didn't respect her."
Izuna stared at him in astonishment.
Wait a second...
He had been fully prepared to criticize "Seisui" for being stubborn and dense again.
Yet somehow, the kid had actually analyzed something meaningful?
And it even made sense...
"I once believed that as long as shinobi suppressed their emotions and followed strict rules, all problems would disappear. My mistake was viewing things too statically."
"Villages develop, and people develop as well. Naturally, their needs become more varied. That's normal."
Tobirama let out a sigh.
Izuna put away his desire to mock him and nodded seriously.
This was not empty praise.
The kid genuinely seemed to possess Hokage-level thinking.
He was capable of identifying problems from a macro perspective.
There were also things Tobirama had not said aloud to Izuna, though he understood them perfectly himself.
A large part of the misunderstanding between him and Shio stemmed from his long years as Hokage and as the de facto head of the Senju Clan.
Occupying a position of authority for so long had ingrained fixed patterns of thought into him.
Everyone's actions should revolve around the Hokage's policies.
Everyone's emotions should yield to the greater good and should not become a source of complaint.
In a sense, Tobirama was just like Isshin and Tenzō—an old relic from the Warring States Era.
The old-school Warring States mentality of treating people as genderless tools could never understand the feelings of a young girl. It was the mindset of a traditional patriarch through and through...
Tobirama was one of the shinobi world's greatest researchers, politicians, and strategists.
Inside his mind existed a rational framework built around goals, conditions, variables, and outcomes. To him, every matter in the world could be broken down, calculated, and optimized through that model.
But the feelings of a young girl were precisely the sort of thing that ignored logic, disregarded costs and benefits, and operated entirely on emotion.
They simply could not be processed within his framework.
And that was why the previous Tobirama had been incapable of empathizing with them.
'Is this what people call emotions?'
'Something that transcends reason... the very source of the Uchiha Clan's strength.'
Closing his eyes, Tobirama put himself in Shio's place and tried to experience what she had felt.
He was an Uchiha now...
Learning to accept emotions and understand them was also a necessary part of his training.
Pure rationality was not conducive to the Sharingan.
'I can't rely on Izuna's Mangekyō forever. Although the burden of Yata Spirit Invocation is minimal, it's still not a permanent dōjutsu...'
'I need a Mangekyō of my own. I need my own unique ability.'
Just thinking about it gave Tobirama a headache.
He could use secret techniques to stimulate his soul and forcibly awaken the three-tomoe Sharingan, but what about the Mangekyō?
Self-hypnosis clearly wasn't going to work...
"Izuna, weren't you a Warring States shinobi too?"
"Then why do you understand love?"
Tobirama had discovered a blind spot.
They were both shinobi from the Warring States Era and both had once held high-ranking positions within their clans.
So how was it that this guy understood it while he didn't?
Izuna chuckled.
"Tell me, what is love?"
Tobirama frowned.
Izuna spoke softly, almost as if talking to himself.
"It's not merely romance between a man and a woman, nor is it moonlit poetry and flowers. At its core, love is an ultimate bond built upon exclusivity and profound mutual understanding..."
"Many shinobi have their own peculiar hobbies. Take Senju Tobirama, for example. I've always believed that his obsession with forbidden techniques and experiments was partly a way to relieve stress."
"Love is really just a pressure-release valve. Once two people form a bond, trust one another, and share life and death together, they gain a place where they can freely unload the burdens they cannot resolve on their own."
Izuna spoke quietly.
"And if it goes a step beyond that, then it's something truly remarkable."
"When two people share the same ideals and passions, when their souls resonate with one another, and they're willing to face every hardship side by side in pursuit of a common dream..."
"That's the kind of love I've always been searching for."
"Unfortunately, despite all the women I've met, although many trusted me and many earned my trust, none have ever reached that level."
Tobirama nodded thoughtfully.
If there had been a woman who genuinely understood research, shared countless topics of conversation with him, was attractive, powerful, and had a good personality...
Would he really have remained single all those years?
The root problem was that Mito and Hashirama had simply introduced him to the wrong marriage candidates!
Izuna's words also left Tobirama with mixed feelings.
This bastard had actually figured out that experiments were his way of relieving stress?
"What you're saying sounds suspiciously like you're just making excuses for your own womanizing."
"But I can understand it to some extent. The Uchiha's nature has always been the pursuit of extremes."
Tobirama nodded thoughtfully.
Izuna's eyes immediately lit up.
"Well said, Seisui!"
Even his own brother, Uchiha Madara, had never understood why he kept pursuing so many women...
Wasn't it simply because he hadn't found the one who understood him best?
"But your definition of love..."
"Why does it sound a little strange to me?"
Tobirama frowned.
"By your logic, if sharing the same ninja way constitutes true love, then did Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama count?"
Tobirama wasn't trying to be provocative.
It was simply that when he searched through his mental database using Izuna's criteria, those two were the closest match.
And every time he thought about Madara and Hashirama, Tobirama, as Hashirama's younger brother, couldn't help himself.
He would never forget it.
Back when Madara was defeated, all Tobirama had done was suggest killing him immediately.
The murderous look Hashirama had given him in response...
Tobirama had no doubt whatsoever that if he had actually gone through with it, Hashirama would not have shown him the slightest mercy.
There was a real possibility he would have seriously injured him.
Then there were all those battles between the Senju and Uchiha, where Hashirama and Madara would be trying to kill each other one moment while clearly worrying about each other the next.
Tobirama had never understood it.
It was bizarre!
"Well..."
Even Izuna struggled with that question.
There had once been a time when he suggested that Madara exploit Hashirama's feelings and use them as bait to lure the Senju into an ambush.
The look Madara had given him then was the fiercest expression Izuna had ever seen in his life.
After thinking for a long time, Izuna finally replied with difficulty: "You need to understand that love is ultimately just a type of bond. My brother and Hashirama surpassed that narrow concept long ago. The word itself isn't enough to describe what existed between them."
"If you're hoping to find a bond like the one between Hashirama and my brother, I'd advise against it."
"My brother was the most emotionally intense person I've ever known. But precisely because of that, deep affection also breeds deep suspicion. He was always worried that the people he trusted most might not truly be walking the same path as him..."
"As for why he and Hashirama eventually became enemies, I don't know the exact reason. But I can guess the framework behind it."
Izuna's gaze grew distant.
"When you trust someone deeply, you naturally want to receive the same trust in return. That trust often magnifies a person's insecurities—especially for an Uchiha."
"Hashirama and my brother genuinely trusted each other. That's true. But they were trying to forge a path no one had ever walked before, and clashes of ideology were inevitable."
"But to my brother, those clashes could easily be interpreted as changes in that trust. Once he felt that what he gave and what he received were no longer equal, intense hatred naturally followed."
For a moment, Izuna seemed to transform into a poet.
"Feelings higher than the heavens can just as easily become hatred deeper than the sea..."
"I call it a sea of hatred born from a sky of love."
Tobirama stared at Izuna in astonishment.
He had always believed emotions were meaningless things that ought to be suppressed...
Yet in Izuna's hands, emotions seemed to have been developed into an entire academic discipline, complete with its own theoretical framework.
Meanwhile, Izuna looked at "Seisui" and was equally stunned by his ability to systematically analyze and categorize everything.
It was as if Senju Newton had encountered Uchiha Shakespeare...
"Amazing..."
For the first time, Tobirama openly praised Izuna.
"You're pretty amazing yourself..."
Izuna let out a sigh.
"You may look like me on the outside, but at your core, you're much more like Senju Tobirama."
"What happened between him and me has nothing to do with you. You're innocent, Seisui."
"I don't want to criticize him in front of a junior like you."
"You need to avoid repeating our mistakes... I wasn't rational enough and made poor decisions, while he was too rational and lacked human warmth, which led to a great deal of unnecessary friction and internal conflict."
"In short, don't go to extremes. Do as Hiruzen says—treat shinobi as living, breathing people. Fully consider the collective's evolving needs and strive to achieve the broadest possible consensus."
Izuna spoke with utmost seriousness.
"Above all, keep your emotions stable at all times!"
The corner of Tobirama's mouth twitched.
Was Izuna actually lecturing him about learning Hiruzen's Will of Fire?
And warning him not to go to extremes...
Did this guy really think he was an Uchiha now?
But after thinking about it, wasn't absolute rationality just another form of extremism?
There was no question that he knew how to be the head of the Senju Clan and the Hokage.
But how to be a young shinobi of Konohagakure was still something Tobirama needed to learn.
The two roles overlapped in some areas, but they were far from identical.
"I understand..."
Tobirama let out a long sigh.
The fact that Izuna had not taken the opportunity to disparage "Tobirama" left him feeling strangely unsettled.
Perhaps it really was time to let old grudges go...
Otherwise, wouldn't his own breadth of vision be inferior to this bastard's?
"As for Shio, just leave it alone for now. There'll be plenty of chances to explain things later."
"And if all else fails..." Izuna pondered for a moment.
"You can blame it on your bloodline. Just say that you've spent so much time studying Tobirama's research and writings that his way of thinking rubbed off on you, and you couldn't adjust your mindset right away."
"Which is the truth, isn't it?"
"Mito should understand. She knows exactly what Tobirama used to be like. You're practically identical."
Tobirama's eye twitched.
Wonderful.
So the one taking the blame for Uchiha Seisui's mistakes was Senju Tobirama?
"As for Tomie..." Izuna rubbed his temples.
That situation had already gone beyond the point where a simple explanation could solve anything.
The objective conditions were already in place.
It was like Izuna traveling back to the Warring States Era and opening his eyes to find a Flying Thunder God kunai already pressed against his chest...
What difference would understanding the situation make?
"Mhm."
"For now, just keep stalling."
"My advice is to start by blaming your bloodline, then clearly explain the misunderstanding and relationship between you and Shio. Make it absolutely clear that you have no interest in romance."
"If you try to be vague or evasive about it, an Uchiha's imagination will run wild and the situation will spiral out of control."
Suddenly, an idea flashed through Izuna's mind.
Truthfully, he had always looked down on the idea of manipulating his clansmen into awakening their eyes.
But Tomie had already stepped onto the board herself.
If he didn't guide things a little, it would almost be a waste.
"You can tell her your standards for a partner. Say that you only want someone who understands scientific research, and that until the shinobi world is at peace and the village prospers, you have no intention of entering a relationship with anyone."
Izuna coughed lightly.
Awakening the Mangekyō was an extremely difficult thing.
More often than not, the schemes of old Warring States veterans only produced fighters who were mentally unstable rather than truly powerful.
But Tomie was different.
Her talent had been verified by her bloodline disease.
The probability of her awakening the Mangekyō was quite high.
And Izuna knew very well that Mangekyō abilities were born from reflections of the heart.
If "Seisui" explicitly stated that his ideal partner had to understand research, then there was a chance it could give rise to a very unusual Mangekyō Sharingan...
Perhaps not one with overwhelming destructive power, but one of tremendous strategic value.
Of course, Izuna was merely placing a speculative piece on the board.
Whether it would succeed or not, he had no confidence.
Still, it was better than nothing.
Izuna knew exactly what "Seisui" had been researching lately...
The project of reducing the activity of Hashirama Cells and making them safe for practical use was extraordinarily difficult. They had already tried countless approaches, and almost none had produced viable results.
The rational methods had been exhausted.
So perhaps the mysterious power of the Mangekyō could provide the breakthrough they needed.
Though Izuna was technically one of the dead, he still worried about Konoha's future.
He had made a decision that went against his usual principles.
Just a tiny bit of guidance regarding a clan member's eye awakening...
"That'll have to do."
Tobirama rubbed his cheek. The handprint on it still hadn't fully swollen down.
When he had returned home earlier, Obito and Shisui had been furious upon seeing it. They had loudly declared that no matter who had done it, they would avenge their big brother.
But the moment they learned it had been Shio...
Neither of them said another word.
Forget it.
At the same time—
Filled with anger and grievance, Shio sought out Mito.
The moment she saw her, she immediately dropped to her knees in a deep bow.
"Mito-sama..."
"Please subject me to the harshest training possible!"
"I want power!"
Mito and the Nine-Tails exchanged a glance.
Each saw the same confusion in the other's eyes.
Wait...
Who did this?
That was way too fast!