t was impossible to say how many times she had woken up. Izumi found herself back at the banks of the Nakano River once again.
The setting sun stained the sky a deep crimson, geese cut through the twilight, and a group of ducks played in the water, their rhythmic quacking filling the air.
Having been "killed" countless times, Izumi's gaze had gradually grown hollow and numb. Under the relentless assault of continuous illusions, the line between reality and genjutsu had blurred into non-existence.
In the first Night of Extinction, she was killed by Itachi's Tsukuyomi within the Uchiha compound.
In the second, she tried to seek help from the Military Police Force, only to find the headquarters under siege, eventually falling to the blade of the tiger-masked man.
In the third, she attempted to call for help from the village proper, but she couldn't even leave the clan's territory before being intercepted and cut down by a squad of masked shinobi.
The cycles repeated. No matter how she struggled, no matter where she ran, Izumi was trapped. She could not escape the compound, nor could she escape the inevitable conclusion of that bloody night.
Desperate, she tried seeking help from within, searching for the truth. She ran to every corner of the district, even reaching the Clan Head's residence, only to witness the same nightmare: Itachi Uchiha slaughtering his kin, sparing neither the elderly nor the children.
She tried reaching the Police Force earlier, but time seemed rigged. No matter how fast she ran, she never arrived before the massacre. Either the tiger-masked man had already bathed the headquarters in blood, or Itachi had already finished his grim work in the district.
Everyone died. The shackles of fate were bolted tight. Even her mother...
The only thing that confused Izumi was the mysterious figure in the white, three-eyed fox mask. After appearing in her very first illusion, he had never shown himself again. Instead, it was always Itachi and the other masked slaughterer who haunted her cycles.
"That person... who is he..." After countless loops, Izumi finally realized that the key to this illusory world likely lay with that first stranger.
"What is his purpose in showing me this? Will the Uchiha... truly be wiped out?" Unknowingly, the "inevitability" of the Uchiha's downfall had been planted deep in her subconscious.
She just couldn't understand why. Why Itachi? How could it possibly be Itachi?
Summoning her courage once more, Izumi walked toward the district with a heavy, somber expression. She was determined to investigate the truth of that night and find a way to break this world.
However, as she cautiously entered the Uchiha district, she realized the sun had only just begun to set.
"Oh, if it isn't Izumi! You're back." Granny Kuna, holding her grandson Keiju's hand, walked toward her from a distance, waving with a smile.
"Izumi-neechan!" Little Keiju skipped toward her, throwing himself into a hug.
"Good evening, Granny Kuna... Keiju..." Izumi's voice cracked, and tears welled up in her eyes.
After her father died, she had moved back to the district with her mother and taken the Uchiha name. Over the past three years, she had been fully embraced by the clan. They treated her like family. Even though her grades at the Academy weren't stellar and she didn't plan on advancing to Chūnin, she received all the respect and stipends due to an awakened Uchiha.
"Izumi, why are your eyes so red?" Granny Kuna stepped forward, placing a motherly hand on her shoulder. "Is it just the start of your shinobi career? Are you not used to it yet? Come to our house for dinner tonight. I'll make something special to celebrate you becoming a ninja!"
"Yay! Come on, Izumi-neechan!" Keiju cheered, running circles around her.
"Thank you, Granny Kuna. I just..." Izumi wiped her eyes, feeling the warmth of their affection while simultaneously fearing that this, too, was just another loop of the nightmare.
Trembling with anxiety, Izumi followed them home. She spent the entire evening on high alert, her nerves stretched thin.
But from the moment Kuna finished cooking a lavish meal to the time they finished eating and played games with Keiju, nothing happened. When she finally said her goodbyes and headed home, the streets were lit with warm lamps. Children were playing, laughter drifted on the breeze, and adults chatted in small groups.
She reached her front door and opened it with a mix of dread and confusion.
"Izumi, you're back." Her mother, Hazuki Uchiha, walked out from the kitchen.
"Mom..." Seeing her mother alive was the final straw. Izumi could no longer suppress her emotions; she threw herself into her mother's arms and sobbed.
"Oh, you silly child." Hazuki assumed her daughter had simply had a rough day on a mission. she stroked Izumi's long hair, whispering gentle comforts.
"The Book of the Crimson Moon... it really is quite handy."
Under the cover of night, Menma leaned against the ridge of a rooftop within the Uchiha district, quietly observing Izumi from a distance. The moonlight cast a cold glow over his white, three-eyed fox mask, and the night wind ruffled his fur collar.
The mini-Nine-Tails poked her head out from his collar, clutching an open bamboo scroll, looking back and forth with wide eyes.
"Menma, there's nothing in this scroll?" The little fox flipped it over and over, puzzled by the lack of a single character on the bamboo slats.
"Because it is the Book of the Crimson Moon," Menma chuckled softly, taking the scroll back.
After the little fox had been revived in his mental space, Menma had terraformed her environment to give her a better home. In the process, he had accidentally discovered the Book of the Crimson Moon in the deepest reaches of his mind.
Through experimentation, he found that this wordless scroll condensed the essence of the "Limited Tsukuyomi world." It could be used as a tool to launch genjutsu comparable to the "Tsukuyomi" itself. Furthermore, by holding it, he could adjust the parameters of the illusory world, forcing victims to sink through layers of shifting realities.
Menma still hadn't found the limit of the scroll's power. Additionally, it granted him passive resistance to mental interference, making him immune to many common genjutsu and providing a shield against the Sharingan.
With the Book of the Crimson Moon, his weakness in the field of genjutsu was effectively patched, making his future encounters with Itachi much easier.
"You seem very focused on this girl, Menma." The little fox tilted her head, curious about this Uchiha girl she had never seen before.
"I'm just seeing if she has enough value for me to use." Menma truly hadn't met her in the Limited Tsukuyomi world.
Assuming that world was a "reverse" of this one, Izumi's father likely hadn't died on the night of the Nine-Tails attack there. Consequently, she probably never awakened the Sharingan, never moved back to the district, and likely never even knew Itachi.
There were still a few years until the Night of Extinction. In Menma's grand design, there were three Uchiha who could potentially be utilized.
Izumi was only the first.
"Her Sharingan truly is beautiful," Menma mused, recalling Obito's future assessment of her. He looked forward to seeing what those eyes would become.