Research on the Sharingan wasn't going great.
Haruka had spent the two weeks following the "Hashirama and Madara incident" working in her lab, trying to make sense of the scrolls Elder Genryu had given her. She had the time because even if missions kept coming, their squad was benched. Tajima didn't make a show of it, but he was clearly punishing Madara by putting them on patrol duty for an indefinite period.
Patrol was the most boring thing to do for a shinobi. You had to keep going around the territory's perimeter, in silence while keeping your senses alert because if anything got past you, the consequences were unfathomable. But most of the time, nothing happens, and you just spend your time walking around. Madara hated it with a passion. He liked action and fighting, anything but patrol. And Tajima knew it.
Izuna, Hikaku and Haruka were just collateral damage. The first two anyway, as she had pretexted being busy at the clinic and was allowed to bail on them if she could find someone to cover for her. Her newest friend, Natsuki was more than happy to oblige. She was newly promoted and had yet to be assigned to a squad, and so she became a spare in their team. It was also kind of funny seeing her get all red every time Madara praised her. He was always one to appreciate a skilled fighter, but seemed totally oblivious to her small crush on him. Hikaku and Izuna were not, and enjoyed taking advantage of the situation to have some entertainment during their long shifts.
The scrolls were helpful. One of them was clearly the work of someone trying to come up with a way to create an artificial Sharingan. Clearly a genius of some sorts. She wished she could have explained to him the principles of genetics and human reproduction, because his work was heading nowhere, but the poor bastard was already dead. His scroll was the most helpful as it contained sketches of what he had observed, and the results of some of the molecular testing he had done. Some of the stuff he described couldn't be seen with the naked eye and so she wondered if he had access to a microscope of sorts.
One thing she came to know was that, in this world, the levels of technological advancements were random and depended on the specificities of the country. If someone had the possibility to go around each country and gather the stuff they came up with, she was sure that they would have a decent modern day lab. But this was the shinobi world, and sightseeing wasn't exactly an option.
The most intriguing part was the description he gave of the optical nerve. Apparently if had some black dots on it. After going back to check the other scrolls, she found some mentions of this same phenomenon, and so she came up with some theories: Since the Sharingan required a constant supply of chakra, the black spots probably had something to do with that. If she was correct then it could mean one of two things. First, the chakra flow was slowly burning the cells of the optical nerve, because it wasn't made for such large quantities. Or, second, the heavy chakra flow was probably stimulating the creation of something that was clogging the nerve. And that was all she came up with in two weeks's worth of work. Now she was stuck. She had no way of knowing if these black dots came up post extraction, if they had anything to do with the blindness, or if any of her theories actually made sense.
Haruka was trying to get the frustration out of her mind by practicing chakra healing with Touko. Each one was seated in one of the island counters of the lab, with a fish in front of her. Haruka had found a way to use chakra to heal internal damage, but it was still at its early stages, and so far both of them just practiced trying to heal the internal scars on the lung tissue of the fish. It worked about half the time. And today it clearly wasn't working for her. In her anger, she kept losing control of the chakra she was emitting and was hurting more than she was helping. Finally she was done with it all, and so she let a heavy dose of chakra come out of her hand, and just cooked the fish right there. Her hands gripped the edge of the counter, and she sighed heavily.
Touko didn't look up from her work, just glanced at her from the corner of her eyes and said, "You are too impatient. You got used to the fast pace we were making progress at in the beginning. You forgot that it was just because we started from next to nothing. We were just getting things up to standard as you used to say. But now we are doing actual, new research. And that takes time. Don't try to rush it."
Haruka just sighed and said, "You are right. I need to cool down a little bit. I will just go into the forest to look for some new herbs we can use. The girls at the greenhouse are doing an amazing job, and our stocks are even ready for the winter. Let's give them something new to work on." Touko just nodded, agreeing to her plan.
But then Haruka noticed something. She had actually forgotten to interrupt the chakra flow in her hands, and when she looked at the counter, it was cracked all the way to the ground. While stopping the chakra, she exclaimed, " What the hell?"
Touko came to look, and after she explained what had happened, they both just stood there looking at her handiwork. Suddenly an image came to her mind. That night in the forest, when Hashirama was still weary of her, he had sent waves of chakra that cracked the ground underneath him. So non-transformed chakra can also affect the environment? And anybody can do that? Well not anybody, he clearly wasn't even trying at the time. It was more of a side effect to his huge release of chakra. But if she could work out how to use it on purpose, she might have a new ace up her sleeve. She just told Touko to let it slide for now, promised to ask the carpenter to come take a look, and left with her wicker basket to go into the woods.
At first, she was looking seriously for the plants, but she dropped it after she realized that she couldn't get the image of the cracked counter out of her mind. She had clearly found something, and wasn't willing to let it go. Her lack of results in the other department was getting to her. She needed a win to boost her moral. And so she decided to set the plant searching aside, and focus on the new jutsu.
The only thing she knew so far was that it had something to do with releasing chakra that hadn't undergone any of the five basic transformations. She tried to realease some out of her palm but it didn't come out in form of a strong shock wave like Hashirama's. it was more like a puff of blue smoke that dissipated into the air. So maybe that part wasn't for mere mortals like her.
She tried another approach. The cracks had appeared right were her hands had clutched the counter, so maybe chakra didn't react well to matter. She picked a large tree bark and tried to infuse a continuous stream of chakra into it. At first she tried to send waves of chakra of various intensities but the result was the opposite of what she was looking for. Small concentrations stimulated the regeneration, while highly concentrated chakra burnt the wood a bit. Clearly, the principles of medical ninjutsu didn't apply here.
Just when she was starting to get frustrated again, her fingers tightened around the tree bark and it actually cracked. She was dumbfounded for a while but then it hit her. Could it be? She went to the nearest tree, gathered a huge amount of chakra into her fist but didn't let it get out until she punched as hard as she could. She watched mouth wide open as the tree cracked from the place she made contact and then actually broke into two parts and fell on the ground with a loud bang. The non-transformed chakra was no longer just fading into the air, it was actually enhancing the strength of her hits like a hundred times more than it should be. And after doing a quick scan of her body, she discovered that she didn't lose much chakra as most of it had never left her balled fist to begin with. She could throw a lot more of these punches before she felt a significant difference.
The key was to only release, a small quantity of highly condensed chakra, at the moment of the impact, not before, not after. The counter and the tree bark had only cracked when she had added the pressure caused by her fingers to the concentrated chakra layer covering her palm. This was the perfect technique for someone like her, who struggled with ninjutsu due to her small chakra reserves. It was one of her sore points, because even if she had perfect control over her chakra and that her reserves were slowly growing, regular ninjutsu techniques still required big quantities of chakra, and she was out of it after no more than three jutsus at a time. Madara and Izuna didn't seem to have that problem, because they had inherited the Uchiha's strong chakra and used it with ease. Maybe the fact that her soul wasn't really an Uchiha's soul had something to do with it.
Haruka repeated the process a couple of times on trees, and then on some rocks. She even tried to use kicks instead of punches and it still worked. If she practiced this more, maybe she would stop being a hindrance to her squad. Madara, Izuna and Hikaku were all monsters, and even if they knew that she could hold her own in a taijutsu battle and with weapons, her lack of skill in ninjutsu and genjutsu made them feel responsible for her and quite overprotective. They always told her that her role as a medic was invaluable and that clearly Tajima thought that she had what it takes to be a great kunoichi, but she was used to being one of the best and she didn't like her current status as the runt of the group.
Satisfied with her discovery, she gathered her basket, and happily skipped out of the ruins she had created. She started looking for herbs and didn't notice until she was nearing the river that separated them from the Senju territories. She kind of was curious to see where Madara and Hashirama had been having their affair, and slowly made her way to the place Izuna had described. It was a beautiful creak; with many small grey rocks bordering both sides of the river. They contrasted beautifully with the fallen leaves of early autumn.
As soon as she stepped in, she noticed that someone else was there. A boy with silky brown hair cut in a hideous bowl cut, which was only rivaled in its bad taste by his sense of fashion. He had on a dark kimono shirt, a short light green jacket with darker green linings, a white scarf around his neck, traditional pinstriped kimono pants, and a dark green sash around his waist. She knew that this wasn't his fault per say, as this was the casual attire of all Senju, both men and women. The Uchiha's casual clothing's material may not be as fancy, but they won with a large margin when it came to good taste. And just wait until she gets more influence in the clan. Her first order of business will be to make the seamstresses get to work. She's far too busy to keep designing and embroidering her yukatas like now. It might not be too far in the future, as some of the younger girls of the clan had started to imitate her style.
Back to reality.
She had recognized the boy the moment she saw him, even without his armor, head band, and snot and tears. Senju Hashirama. He too, had noticed her presence instantly, his head snapping happily to where she was, before his face filled with disappointment. He was clearly waiting for someone else. She had her idea on who it was.
She thought it was better to leave it at that, and was planning on retracing her footsteps as fast as she could, but he had other plans. After scrutinizing her for a while, he seemed to recognize her. He gave her a grin as bright as the sun, bolted into the water surface, and used the walking-on-water technique to run towards her side of the river. He started talking almost instantaneously. "I recognize you! You're that healer from the other night! I was expecting someone else, but I'm so happy to see you too. I never got to properly thank you for saving my brother's life." And then he took a step back and gave her a 90 degrees bow saying, "Thank you, so much! I can never pay you back enough for your help! Please, if there is anything that I can do, don't hesitate."
She was a bit left behind by the speed of the events, but finally managed to say, "You're welcome? There is no need to bow really. I helped because I felt like it. Wasn't expecting anything in return."
He finally straightened back, and gave her a smile. "You're weird!"
Let's get one thing straight. She had been called weird a lot of times, during both of her lives by various people. She brushed it off on account of people not understanding her genius. But coming from a screw loose like the one she had in front of her, that was pushing it a little bit. She angrily retorted. "You are one to talk, you over-excited idiot!".
Like if his earlier attitude wasn't eccentric enough, the guy actually fell dramatically to the ground, hugged his knees, a heavy cloud of sadness hovering all over him. He looked like she had just announced that she was going to put down his puppy. He started, with a tearful voice. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry I upset you. I just meant that you were different for the doctors I am used too.".
She didn't know what to do with his roller coaster of a mood. But she kind of snapped at him, when he had been extremely polite to her all the time, and she thought it would be better to just brush it off. "It's nothing. No need to mope around like that. We were just talking. You're going to make me feel bad if you keep it up. You're such a cry baby."
She was about to put a comforting hand on his shoulders when he peered at her with a slightly mocking smile. "And you are just as gullible as Madara."
What? She didn't realize what was going on until he was back on his feet laughing merrily.
Refusing to admit that a brat like him could play her, a seventeen years old assassin, with over a decade of experience, she turned around preparing to leave but not before stomping heavily on his foot to stop his laughing. He howled in pain, and she almost got away when a hand grabbed her elbow. "Wait, I'm sorry. Please don't leave. I have some things I want to talk to you about."
She turned around and was met with an earnest gaze. It reminded her of the look Madara had when he wanted to talk about serious stuff.
This boy was, for better or worse, Madara's friend. And as far as she knew, the only other person who was as serious about peace as Madara and she were. Sighing, she made up her mind.
Thanks to having been on patrol duty a lot, she knew that the Uchiha wouldn't be there for another hour and half. But she needed to ask. "How much time do we have before the Senju patrol is here? And are you sure that Tobirama isn't creeping around you this time?".
He beamed at her. "Actually Senju patrols don't come this far. We prefer smaller perimeters. Easier to comb through. And don't worry about Tobirama, he was sent on a mission far away for a week. That's why I could sneak out for the past few days." In another world, it would have probably been funny to witness a guy who was sneaking around his barely seven years old brother. Especially when he was supposed to be the eldest.
They settle down near the river, both rolling their pants to soak their feet because the weather was still nice enough to do so. After a bit of silence, she got them started. "So I assume that Itama is ok."
That brought a fond smile on his lips. "Yes. I did as you said and took him back as fast as I could to the compound. But I didn't forget to grab one of my gambling buddies on my way. He's a Senju healer, and owes me a lot of money, so I agreed to let it go if he didn't ask what happened, and just said that he was the one who took care of Itama. After that, our head medic took a look at him and re-cleaned his wounds. But we didn't have to touch up your work. It was perfect. I insisted on taking care of him myself, and took all the precautions you said about the water and the soups and the decoctions to stop infections. He gave us a scare that night when his temperature went up and wouldn't go down for a while. But he made it. It took him a month and a half to recuperate, but he's back on his feet now. And back on missions too."
When he finished, his tone was somber, and he was glaring holes at the river. "I'm glad that he is ok" was all she could say. She knew that it was bound to happen, and so did he. Hashirama smiled sheepishly before adding, "The bad news is that Tobirama is too smart for his own good, and figured that something was wrong with the story I told. Especially when I asked around about Uchiha healers. Long story short, both he and Itama know that it was you helped us that night. But don't worry, they promised not to tell anyone. We don't want to get you into trouble."
After that, they were silent for a while, until Hashirama put his thoughts in order and got to the point. "So you are Uchiha Haruka, Madara's little sister, right? How is he doing?".
She gave him a pointed look."Yes I am. And he's fine. But, I hope you get that he's not coming back here. No need to keep coming."
That seemed to sadden him a lot. She didn't know what he was going to say next, but frankly she didn't care. She had other plans for this discussion. "He told me about what the two of you were talking about. About peace. And your perfect little village."
Hashirama was taken aback. "He did? So does that mean he still cares? I thought that him awakening his Sharingan, meant he had scratched out our friendship, and with it our dreams and plans together."
Haruka turned to look at the river again. "That's more or less what it meant. On the friendship front not the dreams part. Nothing can make him give up his dreams of peace. But your friendship is over. Or a more appropriate term would be on pause. Until the right timing comes."
He didn't seem to understand. "The right timing? And when is that?"
Haruka just shrugged. "Who knows? That could be in ten years or in fifty. Maybe never. Right now, the two of you are just tools in the hands of your respective fathers. And even if you hate it, you have to take your roles seriously, and fight with all your might. Because if you don't, someone else will just pick up where you left. And that person might not share your convictions."
He seemed unwilling. "So I am just supposed to fight my friend. Kill him even?"
She knew what it felt like to be doing something you didn't want to do. Especially, when you could clearly see that it was wrong and meaningless. She had worked for years in the Organization, long after she stopped believing in it. But great endeavors require a lot of self-sacrifice. "Sadly, yes. What other options do you have? Your heart is in the right place, but you must first learn how to work the system before you start thinking about taking it down. To achieve peace, you need power and influence, and you will only get that if you prove to the shinobi around you that you are the best. And that is done on the battlefield."
He just sighed pensively. "I know that. But do you think it's possible? Achieving peace?"
Right there. That's where she wanted the conversation to go. Make no mistake, she didn't think of herself as some sort of messiah sent to deliver the world from its pains through her sermons. But as the only adult trapped in a child's body in this place, she knew that she had a role. She knew her capacities and she knew that she was no leader. That was Madara's thing. And maybe Hashirama's too. She knew next to nothing about the boy, and so didn't want to gamble much about his abilities and strengths as a visionary and a leader. But it takes two to tango. And he was the only partner they could find for Madara from the Senju side. So it wouldn't hurt to give him some pointers towards the road he should take, and hope for the best.
So she started. "You're lucky I have a fantastic memory, and so I can repeat to you the same speech I gave Madara. With a small twist of course. The two of you are not normal kids. You are the heirs to your respective clans. Somehow, against all odds, you were kindred spirits, and managed, for the duration of one idyllic summer, to befriend each other and see that the people on the other side are humans too, who share the same dreams, joys and pains as you. That's a good start . Maybe it's a sign of fate that the two of you are destined for great things. But it's over now. You're back in the cold and harsh reality. Now, you need to work on yourself. You need to become stronger and hone your skills, while keeping your values. Because unless you become the leader of the Senju, your dreams will remain just that: dreams. And after you become their leader, you will be responsible for all the lives in your clan so you will need to be careful, because your decisions will affect all of them. Then and only then, if your shared feelings survive the avalanche of violence that is coming towards them, will the two of you be able to someday create that village. Only if you are strong enough, both mentally and physically, to keep the world from stripping you of every last piece of hope, will you be able to achieve peace. And build that village where the Uchiha and Senju live together."
They were looking each other in the eye by this point. He was paying a great deal of attention to what she was saying. Good. So he is not as stupid as she initially thought. Her work here was done.
She got up, rolled down her pants, put on her sandals and smiled at him. "That's all I had to say. Good luck. I will be cheering for the both of you. Mainly Madara, but you'll get some of the splash too. But starting from tomorrow we'll go back to being the enemy. I hope it won't be forever though. I love gambling too, and I have a feeling that playing against you would be easy money." And with that she turned to leave.
After she took a couple of steps, she heard the sound of someone getting up from behind her and he yelled. "I promise that I will do whatever it takes to make our dreams come true."
As she was entering the forest, she smiled and raised her hand without turning back. "See you on the battlefield, Senju Hashirama."