Chapter 36: Izuma

Hijiri was taking a stroll in the village, enjoying the fresh air and nodding to the saluting passerbyes. He had freed himself from the daily paperwork thanks to a shadow clone.

At one moment he was stopped by a young Uchiha: "Advisor Hijiri, I bring an invitation for tea from my lord."

Hijiri thought 'It should be an invitation from Madara. I wonder what he wants.'

(Hijiri): "Please, make way"

The two walked for a bit and arrived at a house on the outskirts of the Uchiha compound. Hijiri entered and instead of Madara, he saw Izuna sitting in seiza in front of a table.

Hijiri took off his shoes, stepped on the tatami, and sat in seiza in front of Izuma: "Izuna! I didn't know you had returned. How are you?"

Izuna smiled while pouring two cups of tea: "I am well. The trip outside has been enlightening."

Hijiri took a cup and drank right after Izuna: "Enlightening? In what way?"

(Izuna): "The Uchiha will always be suppressed inside the village. To avoid that we will need overwhelming power."

These words started ringing an alarm bell inside his head. He started preparing for battle but something felt strange.

(Izuna): "I'm sorry, Hijiri. Your death will be the foundation of the rise of my clan."

Said this, Izuna took out and threw three kunai. Hijiri managed clumsily to evade two, but the third hit him in the shoulder.

Hijiri realized that a battle right now wouldn't be the best idea, especially given the strange feeling he had and the fact that they were inside the village.

So he started running as fast as he could toward the outside of the village while trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

Hijiri realized that he wasn't able to feel and mold his chakra. A doubt assaulted him. He took out the kunai from his shoulder and sniffed it: poison.

There should have been more in the tea.

His shoulder already started being affected by another potent poison that started traveling along the blood vessels, eating all the muscles along the way.

Unfortunately, that wasn't all. With his chakra out of control, the senjutsu chakra, which he always kept to feed to the byakugan and to make his body more accustomed to it, started going berserk.

Every part of the body hit by the senjutsu chakra started to swell and grow in size while hardening. 

When Hijiri exited the village, the poison and the senjutsu chakra met each other and they started fighting for supremacy.

Hijiri, while in pain muttered: "Where the heck has Izuna found this poison that can even fight senjutsu chakra? No, I can't continue to run. I need to resolve this mess."

Hijiri sat down under a tree and started trying to control his chakra. In the beginning, the result was abysmal but, eventually, the effect of the first poison waned and he was able to mobilize a part of it.

Hijiri gritted his teeth: "You two troublesome fellows, stop causing trouble and let yourself be sealed."

He fused two Four Symbols Seals to create an Eight Trigrams Seal. Then he used an enormous amount of chakra to guide the two colliding forces inside the seal. Only then did his body return mostly to normal.

"HIJIRIII!!"

A furious shout was heard from the village.

"Wait this doesn't sound like Izuma, it's more like… Madara?"

An enormous full-body Susanoo started stomping out of the village, uncaring of the damage done.

Arrived outside the village, the furious Madara looked at the still-sitting Hijiri: "Hijiri, you will pay for what you've done! Now DIE!"

The Susanoo wielded an enormous blue katana and slashed down towards Hijiri.

Hijiri, still exhausted from the internal battle between poison and senjutsu chakra, didn't have the strength to react.

"Wood Style: Wood Palms"

Two wooden palms emerged in front of Hijiri and blocked the sword between them. The shockwave from the two techniques blew Hijiri and the surrounding trees away.

"Hashirama, do you want to put yourself between me and my revenge?"

Hashirama having just arrived said: "Revenge? Explain what happened, I'm sure there is a misunderstanding between you and Hijiri. And is that a Susanoo? It has never been that big."

"This is the power that my brother Izuma left me to avenge him. This is the Perfect Susanoo!"

"Avenge him?"

"Yes! Hijiri killed him! Izuna told me before he died and gave me its eyes! Now get out of the way while I… WHERE IS HE?"

While Madara and Hashirama talked, Hijiri was able to sneak away unnoticed and ran way into the forest.

Madara unleashed his fury on the poor forest but was unable to bring out Hijiri.

In the meantime, Hijiri was having problems with his chakra. The two conflicting forces in his chakra pool continued to clash messing up at times his chakra control.

'My techniques are mostly based on my top-notch chakra control. If I meet an enemy in this situation the consequences could be dire.'

Hijiri pondered for a while, then with a grimace, he took a decision.

'Even if this technique is not complete, it should allow me to survive this ordeal. I wonder though what the consequences will be.'

Hijiri put down a 1mx1m concealing barrier with himself as the fulcrum. Until he didn't move he would be able to hide from the sense of any ninja unless they entered the barrier itself.

Then he started forming hand seals.

"Eternal life technique: Stasis"

At that moment every cell of Hijiri's body along with his consciousness entered a dormant state. Slowly he became like a stone statue, immortalized in a cross-sitting position with his hands forming a seal.