Spontaneous Enlightenment

Sahiro started meticulously reading everything again hoping to find another option. Natsume saw that he needed some more time, so she left the shrine and explored the future location of Konoha. Although it didn't quite have the splendor of a fully constructed village, there was a subtle peace to the forest that soothed her. She went to a pile of boulders near the cliff face and used chakra to melt away all the snow.

Natsume sat on the boulder and looked out at the future village with her imagination. Various civilians and shinobi living together in peace and harmony. She took a deep breath in, and the cold air cleared her mind. Before she knew it, she had entered a state of meditation. A tiny snake peaked its head out from her clothes and leaped onto the ground. It turned into a splatter of ink and a summoning formula appeared on the ground.

A woman wearing a shrine uniform and hair neatly tied up appeared. She looked at Natsume who had entered a state of enlightenment. She smirked and took one of her sharp nails to Natsume's neck. A small cut was made but Natsume didn't seem to feel it. Quickly the cut turned purple as the venom entered her body. However, instead of harming her, it seemed to send her deeper into meditation.

"Hmph." She didn't bother staying any longer and reverse summoned herself. All of this was unknown to Natsume. Her consciousness melded into her surroundings and she seemed to sense the existence of something beyond chakra. However, every time she got close to grasping it, it would slip away. Although it got away, she felt like each consecutive failure got her closer and closer to it.

After an unknown amount of time, she was awoken by Sahiro shaking her violently and calling out her name. She was lying in a makeshift hut, sweating from head to toe. Her body was chilled from the cold weather. However, she didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

"You're finally awake…" He heaved a sigh of relief seeing her open her eyes. She tried to speak but couldn't move her lips. "How long has this poison been bothering you? Was it that Shirogane clan?" The anger in his eyes was visible. However, Natsume wasn't sure if that was all he was angry about. She wondered why the poison would flare up again after she had seemingly removed it all. Perhaps there was a hidden danger in her body, and when she entered that strange state, it flared up.

Since she couldn't move or respond, Sahiro fed and watered her for a day before the poison was completely eliminated. Natsume thought she had only been meditating for a few hours until Sahiro mentioned that she was unconscious for three days. However, upon inspecting her body she didn't notice any permanent damage. If anything, she felt like her chakra pathways were even smoother than before. There was even an increase in her chakra capacity.

"Are you sure you are alright?" Sahiro asked her once more.

"Yes, it seems whatever that poison was didn't have the ability to kill. Perhaps it was just to paralyze me. Now that it's gone, I feel much stronger." She gripped her hand in a fist as she said that. "We should return. There is nothing left here to see."

"Tajima sent a message yesterday ordering us to return to the clan. It seems this was his original intention. With our eyes, it is safer to keep us away from the front until we are needed. He has instructed the clan to give us full access to the scroll archives. Apparently, it is tradition that those with Mangekyou Sharingan to master all Uchiha knowledge."

Natsume thought about it for a moment and nodded. It made sense. This would give her a chance to consolidate her strength and interact with baby Madara. The war wasn't going anywhere, and her mobility could be considered the highest in the current Shinobi world. It would take at least a decade before Senju Tobirame invented the Flying Raijin Jutsu. Her memories weren't clear on the exact time he created the Jutsu only that he first revealed it in the final battle between him and Izuna.

Thinking of Tobirame, Natsume sighed. If he were the one with the memories, he could probably reverse engineer every Jutsu just from seeing it. However, Natsume's ability was severely lacking in this craft. She wondered if after peace was attained, she could confide in him these various Jutsu and rely on him to develop the village beyond the original from her memories. Although he is the bane of Uchiha, his policies and ideologies were commendable.

Perhaps if she could prevent the hate from forming in Madara's heart, and prevent Izuna from dying, there could be true peace between the two clans. Without that hatred, he wouldn't push the clan to betraying him, and then wouldn't scheme to later destroy the clan, the village, and the shinobi world. She cut off the train of thoughts and focused on the present. There was still quite a lot to get through before that was even possible.

There was also the possibility that her existence had already caused the future to change. However, all changes would be dust under her foot if she was the strongest. This was the most obvious way to ensure all of her plans succeeded. Schemes and traps were useless under absolute strength. If she can't change the Uchiha's dismal future, she just wasn't strong enough.

Natsume thought once more about that strange energy she felt while meditating. She didn't quite understand it, but her instincts told her that it was very powerful. Whenever she got close to capturing it, she could feel the overwhelming strength behind it. It was a type of strength that could ruin her if she couldn't control it, but would be her strongest tool if she could.

'Could it be… Nature energy?' The thought suddenly occurred to her. Being able to sense Nature energy without the assistance of the animal sages was something only reserved for geniuses like Hashirama, so she didn't think of it right away. However, the sensation she experienced couldn't be explained any other way.

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