12: Deal

Izumi adjusted the ninja headband on her forehead, patted her shinobi tool pouches to check that everything was where it should be, and then nodded with satisfaction—she was ready.

Three agreed days had already passed since her fight with Sukuna, and her body had almost fully recovered thanks to the benefits of chakra and the Uchiha clan's medical remedies.

For an ordinary person, injuries of the magnitude she’d received during that battle would have required months of bed rest. For ninjas, however, all it took was basic medical treatment, adequate rest, and the use of their chakra to recover in record time and be ready to resume their shinobi duties within just a few days.

It was not for nothing that they were feared in this world as the fiercest soldiers and assassins that exist; their resilience and recovery ability should not be underestimated.

“Onee-san?” The somewhat sleepy voice of her younger sister made Izumi pause her departure for a moment. Turning, she saw the girl coming out of her room, rubbing her eyes with clear lingering drowsiness; after all, the sun had not yet risen.

Had she made too much noise while getting ready? She hadn’t expected to wake her.

"You should go back to bed; it’s still too early for you to be awake, Satsuki."

“Where are you going? Aren’t we going to train today, too?” Satsuki didn’t go back to bed right away; instead, she looked at her sister, dressed and ready, with a frown and a hint of worry in her eyes. Her sister had just recovered—was she really going back to her ninja duties so soon?

For the girl, these three days of having her sister at home had been fantastic. She seemed to be in a much more pleasant mood than usual, even giving brief warm smiles from time to time and willing to practice with her, something she appreciated a lot even if it was only verbal advice due to her injuries.

She hoped this would last longer. With the start of the ninja academy just a few months away, she wanted to make her family proud by getting the best grades at the beginning of the school year, and what better way to achieve that than by having her own sister train her?

But it seemed that little fantasy was about to be ruined. Satsuki knew that once her sister started going on missions again, the time she could spend with her would be greatly reduced. That had been the case ever since Izumi became a genin, where even days would pass without her hearing anything from her.

Now that she was a chunin, didn't that mean she'd spend even less time at home?

She didn’t like it at all.

Seeing the irritation in her gaze, Izumi smiled slightly and gestured with her hand to catch her attention. The younger Uchiha snapped out of her thoughts at this and, with quick steps, hurried towards her older sister.

Her rush came to an abrupt stop when a pair of slim, agile fingers suddenly flicked her forehead, almost making her stumble backward.

“Sorry, Satsuki. I’ve got things to take care of. I promise we’ll do it next time, okay?”

“But onee-san!” She couldn’t help but pout as she rubbed her forehead in annoyance.

In the end, Satsuki couldn’t get her sister to stay any longer and could only watch as she left the house toward an unknown destination.

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Not long after leaving the Uchiha clan complex, Izumi headed to the place where she had fought Sukuna. The still-dark sky made her wonder if maybe it was too early. Sukuna had told her “first thing in the morning,” and for the Uchiha girl, that meant before the first ray of sunlight touched the horizon. But for the younger boy, it could very well mean something else.

However, the doubt about whether she was too early quickly faded when she reached her destination. The place was still somewhat disheveled, with signs of their fight scattered here and there, but what caught her attention was the boy sitting cross-legged on a large rock in the center of the area.

“You’re early, but I’m not complaining. I don’t like waiting either,” Sukuna said, standing up and jumping to the ground to stand in front of her.

"Punctuality is important," Izumi responded naturally. As a member of a traditional clan like the Uchiha clan, even if she wasn’t on the best terms with them at the moment, the education they instilled in her from a young age as the clan head’s eldest daughter was still somewhat ingrained in her, with punctuality being one of those things.

"Well, since we're both here, let's not beat around the bush. I want to see how much control you have over your yin energy." Sukuna knew that, as a member of the Uchiha clan, Izumi should have greater control over spiritual energy than the average person. After all, that clan had an innate predisposition to the yin element due to their dōjutsu, making it natural for most of its members to practice abilities like genjutsu to a higher degree than other ninjas.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked, unsure of how exactly to demonstrate her control, and Sukuna responded, having already thought about it beforehand.

"Hit me with the strongest concentration of yin energy you can, as if you were trying to trap me in a genjutsu with all your strength."

"Isn't genjutsu useless against you?" Izumi couldn’t help but ask, recalling this fact. She was very curious about why genjutsu seemed ineffective against Sukuna.

"Useless or not, I can still see the yin energy used in a genjutsu, and that's all I need." Sukuna, of course, didn't explain too much—he was here to teach, not to reveal his secrets.

"Very well." Deciding not to argue further about it, Izumi focused, closed her eyes, and formed a hand seal to help her reinforce her concentration. Normally, she didn’t need to make such gestures, as genjutsu was one of her specialties, and under normal circumstances, a simple glance or small movement was enough to trap her opponent in an illusion, without the need for hand seals. However, that didn’t mean they were useless; in fact, hand seals helped ninjas increase control and stability when manipulating chakra, or in this case, pure yin energy.

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Seeing her begin to prepare and sensing how the surrounding atmosphere was affected by the elevation of her chakra, Sukuna grew serious and paid full attention to how Izumi's spiritual energy began to rise, eventually flowing out of her body in a great wave that tried with all its might to reach him, seeking to enter his body and alter his perception of reality.

Normally, a ninja wouldn’t be able to see spiritual energy on its own unless it was mixed with physical energy to create chakra, which was visible to anyone when unleashed in large and concentrated amounts outside the body. But for Sukuna, seeing Izumi's spiritual energy was as clear as seeing chakra itself.

That’s why he easily prevented it from entering his body by flexing his own chakra within him, simply letting it clash against his exterior.

"Alright, that’s enough." With his words, Izumi exhaled deeply and withdrew all her yin energy back into her body, a drop of sweat falling from her forehead from the effort.

"Your control is better than I expected. That’ll make things easier for us—maybe it’ll even take less time than I thought." Sukuna hadn’t been able to gauge Izumi’s control over yin energy before, since from the beginning of their fight, he had made it clear that her genjutsu was useless against him, so she had stopped trying to use it. But now, with this demonstration, he could see what he was working with and give his evaluation.

Hearing him, Izumi nodded with satisfaction; the faster she could master this new jutsu, the better. After all, she hadn’t forgotten that she was now a chunin and would soon need to start accepting missions, or that the Hokage himself could assign her missions at any time. Therefore, the amount of free time she would have in the coming days was still something she couldn’t calculate exactly until she became fully accustomed to her new ninja rank.

Of course, it wasn’t that she was against this. In the end, if she wanted to keep progressing toward her goal, she needed to become a jounin as quickly as possible. That way, her ability to influence and mediate between her clan and the village would be greater.

Thinking about this and with Sukuna's words in mind, she couldn’t help but speak, a slight hesitation in her voice.

"If you really think it’ll take less time, then... maybe you could teach me something else too?"

"Oh? Wow, you’re really a greedy girl, aren’t you? I offer you a branch, and instead, you want the whole tree. How bold," Sukuna snorted with amusement. Izumi’s face flushed slightly at his words, but she didn’t back down so easily.

Power, that was what she needed most if she wanted the ability to influence as she sought. Only by having enough power could she make the clan back down, make the village safer, and change the world.

So far, she had learned all the jutsus available in the village, except, for obvious reasons, those that were forbidden. She had even stolen jutsus and techniques from other villages thanks to her Sharingan when she faced other ninjas on missions.

Her chakra control had also advanced to the point of being almost perfect, and her mastery of her main element, fire, was also at its peak.

Her mastery of the Sharingan wasn’t lacking either. Currently, there wasn’t much she could improve on besides letting time do its work on her body and waiting for maturity to increase her physical attributes as well as her natural chakra reserves.

To put it in simple terms, she had hit a bottleneck where her strength was stagnating until she could achieve a breakthrough in some area, and she hadn’t known how to overcome it until she met and fought against Sukuna.

With simple mastery, she could easily surpass any possible dōjutsu user besides the Uchiha, at least if what Sukuna said about the jutsu also working with the Byakugan was true—and she had no reason to doubt his word on that.

But such a jutsu alone wasn’t enough to break the stagnation she was in. Sure, it would give her an advantage against certain types of enemies, but not against all of her potential enemies.

If she wanted to take another step in her strength, she needed something more significant to increase her overall power.

"When we fought, I noticed how your physical abilities increased significantly after you activated the simple domain. I'd like to learn how you did it." In her calculation, Sukuna had become at least four times stronger, faster, and more resilient.

Something like that was exactly what she had been searching for to break the stagnation she found herself in. She hadn’t had a defined specialty until now, unlike other ninjas who focused their skills in a specific area. She was basically good at everything but excellent at nothing.

She had considered perfecting her path in genjutsu even further, but her encounter with Sukuna made her doubt that choice. Genjutsu was good, but when facing an opponent who could completely ignore it, it became practically useless, like a mirage that could crumble in an instant—it wasn’t the real power she sought.

That’s why she decided to change her focus and take advantage of the clear opportunity in front of her.

Perhaps before, she wouldn’t have thought of specializing in taijutsu, but as an Uchiha, it was still one of her strengths. Combined with the advantages her Sharingan gave her, taking the path of hand-to-hand combat was clearly the logical choice at this point.

At least until a better alternative presented itself.

Seeing her determined gaze, Sukuna stopped smiling and looked at her seriously.

"I don’t want you to misunderstand things. Letting you win was simply a courtesy, and teaching you the simple domain is just me keeping my word, but that’s all. If you think you can demand more, then you’re very mistaken." His anger was palpable in the atmosphere as an invisible pressure caused by his agitated chakra began to permeate the surrounding area.

Izumi felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and a chill ran down her spine when she saw the sharp look that suddenly appeared in his eyes. But even so, she didn’t back down and held her ground, meeting his gaze directly.

"I’m not demanding anything. I would just like to learn it. If you have any conditions, then tell me."

Sukuna looked at her without saying anything for several seconds, as if in deep contemplation. Then, he snapped his fingers, and a mysterious smile appeared on his face, at the same time the pressure his chakra had been exerting on the area disappeared.

“Maybe I have something in mind, but right now it’s too soon to say.”

At this, the Uchiha girl frowned.

“If you don’t tell me, then how will I know if I’ll be able to do it?”

Sukuna simply shrugged.

“You’ll know when the time comes; trust me.”

Izumi remained silent for a moment before relaxing her posture and nodding with clear resolve in her dark eyes.

"All right, I will trust you." Her acceptance without hesitation made Sukuna raise an eyebrow; he expected more doubt, more questions, but this… He couldn’t help but snort. This girl surely thought that because she had seen some glimpses of his thoughts in their previous confrontation, she already knew him or had some kind of strange closeness with him.

Ridiculous.

Even so, he wasn’t going to complain. He’d let her think whatever she wanted; it didn’t matter as long as she was useful to him in the end.

Besides, it wasn’t as if he was worried that Izumi would refuse to fulfill her part when the time came, because what he had in mind would benefit her as well, whether she knew it or not.

“Very well then, we have a deal.”

Izumi nodded in agreement with a slight smile at the corner of her lips.

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Note:

This chapter took longer to come out than it should have and is a bit shorter than I’d like. I apologize for that. I’ve been having some issues with my bank for a few days now, and the whole thing has been stressing me out a bit, but I think it’s being resolved (probably). I’m still waiting to see what happens, but things are looking good, so for now, I feel relieved.

I feel like there will soon be some small time skips here and there, not too big but just enough to start approaching some interesting events.

Regarding Izumi and taijutsu, as mentioned in the chapter, she doesn’t have a specific specialty yet besides being good at everything. Her Sharingan is strong but not a Mangekyo, and there’s no Tsukuyomi or Amaterasu in her arsenal (yet). Her fight with Sukuna has made her doubt the capability of genjutsu, and her path, without her knowing it, has strayed from what it would have originally been. Whether it will go better or worse for her, I suppose we’ll find out in the future.

And yes, there is no mention of what Sukuna talked about with Danzo in the previous chapter; I suppose we will get to that in the future.

Until then, I wish you good morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on where you are. leave your comments, critiques, and suggestions; you know I appreciate it very much.

Finally remember that You can already find the next chapter of this story on P)atreon ( p)atreon com/EmmaCruzader ) All the support received is appreciated ;D