Uchiha Tajima suddenly covered his chest, where his heart was pounding violently.
"I can't die."
The words were squeezed out through his clenched teeth, carrying obvious fear.
"I haven't lived enough yet. I crossed into this world, not so I could become cannon fodder that pushes the plot forward. I still want to see Konoha established. I want to see the world in the future... I want to live."
Cold sweat broke out on Tajima's forehead.
He walked to the window and yanked open the paper screen. The night wind rushed in, but it could not dispel the panic in his heart.
"If this world really has 'heaven's will,' and if it needs me to die so Madara and Hashirama can achieve their destiny... then has it already started making arrangements?"
"My body is getting worse and worse. Is that a signal? Will the next great war be the day I die?"
The more Uchiha Tajima thought about it, the more frightened he became. He gripped the window frame tightly, his knuckles turning white.
"I don't want to die. I can't die. I'm still the clan leader. I can still give orders. I can still... I can still live for a few more years. Madara and Izuna are already strong enough. They don't need my death to stimulate them. Right, they definitely don't need it."
"I don't want to become material for them to awaken their eyes.....", Uchiha Tajima muttered to himself.
But even Uchiha Tajima himself did not believe this reasoning.
The original storyline was too clear.
From the very beginning, Tajima's purpose as a character had never been to be a "long-lived observer," but rather a "father figure who dies early."
His death shaped Madara's sense of responsibility and hatred in his early years, and indirectly pushed everything that came afterward forward.
"I don't want to become that symbol..."
Tajima's voice suddenly rose, carrying a hint of hysteria.
"I can't die! Do you hear me? I can't die!"
Uchiha Tajima repeated it over and over in the empty room, as if bargaining with some unseen existence.
"I've reformed things. I've worked hard. I've been warned. Now I've obediently followed the original plot."
"I gave you the war you wanted. I gave you the hatred you wanted. I even gave you the Sharingan you wanted. What else do you want my life for?! I haven't lived enough!"
The flame of the oil lamp swayed violently from his hurried breathing.
Tajima collapsed back into his chair, clutching his head with both hands, his body trembling slightly.
"I'm scared... I'm really scared. What if someone comes to kill me tomorrow? What if the next expedition is a trap? What if Black Zetsu, what if that mysterious person, what if some even higher existence... are all waiting for me to die..."
Uchiha Tajima raised his head, his eyes slightly red, and pleaded softly toward the empty air, "Please... let me live a few more years. Let me watch Madara and Izuna grow up a little more."
"Let me... at least grow old alone and die in my own bed, not on the battlefield. I don't want to be the chess piece that gets pushed to its death."
Only his heavy breathing remained in the room, along with occasional repetitions that were almost like muttering in his sleep.
"I can't die... I can't die... I haven't lived enough... I can't die..."
Outside the window, the night was deep.
The clan compound's lights were sparse in the distance, and the footsteps of patrol teams occasionally drifted over from far away.
No one knew that their clan leader was sitting alone in his room, almost breaking down under the torment of a thought about "death."
And in a higher place, Arisu quietly watched this scene, his gaze calm and emotionless.
"No matter what, Uchiha Tajima has to die. He is the material for Madara and Izuna to awaken their eyes. In the previous cycle, because Tajima was my grandson, Uchiha Madara never awakened the Mangekyo."
Arisu narrowed his eyes slightly.
The night was deep. In that unremarkable wooden house at the edge of the Uchiha clan compound, the lamp had not been lit.
Uchiha Katsu leaned against the wall, a short blade resting across his knees.
He had not truly used his Sharingan for a long time, and his chakra had been suppressed to nearly the level of an ordinary person.
But at this moment, a voice that only he could hear clearly sounded beside his ear.
"Go see Tajima."
"Tell him this: Madara and Izuna's Sharingan still need one final, thorough stimulation before they can truly stabilize at the Mangekyo Sharingan level and lay an unshakable foundation for going further in the future. And this stimulation must come from the death of their father.", Arisu spoke calmly.
Uchiha Katsu's fingers tightened slightly around the hilt of his blade.
"Use death to awaken their eyes?" Uchiha Katsu asked quietly to confirm.
"Yes." Arisu's voice did not fluctuate at all.
"You don't need to force him. Just deliver the message. Whether he does it or not is up to him. But he must also bear the consequences himself."
Uchiha Katsu was silent for several breaths.
To be honest, because he himself had also intentionally created casualties before controlling himself to awaken his eyes.
He had awakened his eyes after killing the person he loved.
In fact, he hated this method of awakening.
Uchiha Katsu finally stood up slowly.
"Understood."
Uchiha Katsu changed into an ordinary dark-colored traveler's outfit, completely sealed his Sharingan, suppressed his chakra fluctuations to the lowest level, then silently left the wooden house and headed toward the clan leader's room.
———
In the clan leader's room, the oil lamp was still lit.
Uchiha Tajima sat in his chair, both hands gripping the edge of the table tightly, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
He had already been pacing back and forth around the room for most of the night, repeatedly muttering "I can't die," his voice so hoarse that it was almost impossible to hear.
At this moment, extremely light footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.
Tajima suddenly raised his head, his Sharingan activating instantly. Three tomoe slowly rotated in the crimson eyes.
The instinct of a clan leader still made him enter a state of alert in an instant.
"Who?!"
The door was gently pushed open.
A familiar figure walked in.
It was none other than the mysterious traveler who had once beaten him until he vomited blood in the dense forest and then left him a warning, Uchiha Katsu.
Tajima's pupils suddenly contracted.
"It's you..."
"How dare you come back?!"
Uchiha Tajima's voice trembled, carrying both fear and anger.
Uchiha Katsu did not answer. He simply closed the door quietly, walked to the center of the room, and calmly looked at Tajima.
"I came to inform you of something."
Tajima's heart sank.
"What is it?", Uchiha Tajima asked in a deep voice.
Uchiha Katsu's voice was faint, but every word was clear, "Although Madara and Izuna's Sharingan have already reached the Three-Tomoe stage, they are still one step short."
"You are a transmigrator. You should understand what the Mangekyo Sharingan is, right?"
"If you want them to truly stand at the peak of this era and lay an unshakable foundation for the road ahead, what they need is one thorough stimulation from a close blood relative."
Katsu paused, his gaze without the slightest warmth.
"And this stimulation must be your death."
Tajima froze in place as if struck by lightning.
The next second, he sprang up from his chair. The chair toppled backward, making a huge noise.
"What did you say?!", Tajima's voice rose instantly, trembling hysterically.
"You want me to die?! Use my life to make them awaken their eyes?! Are you crazy?!"
Uchiha Katsu merely looked at him coldly, without the slightest expression.
"I'm not crazy. I'm simply telling you what must happen."