---
[Time: 1:06 PM – Uchiha Residential District, Kagami's Home]
The door creaked softly as Kagami entered. He removed his sandals without a sound, turned the lock, and set down his satchel of tools beside the door.
> "I'm back," he called gently.
A rustle from the futon room answered him.
His grandmother, Uchiha Mito, was curled under three layers of quilts. Her long gray hair was brushed and braided—probably by the neighbor woman who came every third day. The oil lamp beside her flickered softly.
She turned her head, eyes heavy with fatigue.
"Ember…"
Her voice was breathy, raspy, tired.
Kagami knelt at her side, brushing his hand over hers.
"You're warm," he murmured.
Her lips curved weakly. "Not in a good way."
He set his tools aside and gently unrolled a new parchment. A field sketch: her chakra system from last night's scan. Red lines marked areas where flow was disrupted—her lungs and heart especially.
He placed his hand an inch above her chest and activated a slow pulse of chakra. Pale white threads laced out, forming a light screen. The Hikari filter. This one was Version 3.2—refined to be reactive to her senescence-influenced chakra decay rate.
"You made it stronger again," she whispered.
"And more selective."
She gave a soft cough. "Still no cure?"
His eyes lowered. "Not yet."
He tucked her in tighter.
> "But I'll buy you more time," he said. "Even if I have to do it an hour at a time."
---
[Time: 2:22 PM – Kagami's Workshop (Rear Room)]
He sealed the inner door with three paper tags, then activated a soundproof barrier. Chakra sensors lined the walls. Several constructs powered by wind-release coils hummed softly.
He placed a small object on the table: a crystal fragment from the Archives marked "White-Light Core."
Next to it, he placed his own Hikari filter capsule.
Then, a third item: a long coil of silver-threaded mesh — the beginnings of his newest idea.
> "Second skin," he muttered.
A wearable layer that could stabilize chakra turbulence in patients—or mask one's own signature if needed.
He thought of Obito.
> If I can design this right, I can cloak his chakra output and hide him from sensor-nin… or enemies like the Hyuga.
His fingers flew.
Sketches. Formulas. Feedback loop runes. Chakra-dampening symbols drawn in violet ink—specially mixed with crushed lightning stones from the Kumo border.
For four straight hours, he did not rise. Not even to drink.
The seal-array began to take shape.
> White-light core… needs flux reduction...
…Layer the mesh with condensed water release lattice to balance fire-type bleed…
Pages filled. Ink smeared. His pen hand cramped.
But he didn't stop.
---
[Time: 5:37 PM – Sudden Interruption]
The emergency radio receiver on the wall clicked alive.
He hadn't turned it on.
> "Unit Echo transmitting Kusanagi border pulse. Message embeds: false windstorm. One tree falls. One survives. Repeat—one survives."
Kagami froze.
The message wasn't for civilians.
It was coded.
Obito's backup squad had a broadcast system keyed to match phrase sets with meanings.
"One tree falls. One survives."
> "He's alive," Kagami whispered.
His heart clenched. That meant he was injured. Separated from his team. Likely in hiding.
But alive.
Kagami rose with frightening calm.
He took his newest design, inked the final lines, and sealed it with chakra.
> "Hold on, brother," he whispered. "Just hold on."
---
[Time: 6:00 PM – Twilight, Rooftop, Kagami's Home]
He stood in the fading sunlight, unrolled the blueprints of the "second skin," and attached a coded slip to a carrier hawk already trained to find Anbu scouts near the Land of Grass.
He didn't say anything else.
Only watched the hawk take flight.
And as it vanished beyond the treetops, he muttered:
> "I wasn't built for war.
But I'll build what war fears."
Perfect — let's continue with Part 5 – Segment 4 of your Naruto fanfiction, focusing on:
Obito struggling with blood loss in enemy territory
Kagami facing the Uchiha Council, who suspect him of bypassing protocol
His grandmother's condition worsening
Completion of the "Second Skin" prototype in secret
[Time: 6:10 PM – Border Forests near Kusagakure]
Obito's Point of View
The trees loomed above, dark silhouettes beneath the roiling clouds.
Obito stumbled through the underbrush, clutching his right side.
Blood slicked his gloves. His breaths came shallow. A kunai was lodged under his ribs — not a kill shot, but angled in deep.
He didn't dare remove it.
> They were baiting us. The whole caravan was fake. Genjutsu over a hollow shell. As soon as Kento dispelled it… we were surrounded.
He leaned against a tree trunk, coughing. Something red and wet splattered the bark.
Only he made it out. Barely.
He checked the chakra flare capsule in his pouch — smashed. No way to call for extraction.
Only one message had gotten out: "One tree falls. One survives."
> Kagami heard it. I know he did.
He touched the crystal sewn into his sleeve — a gift his brother had embedded weeks ago.
It glowed faintly, pulsing in sync with his heartbeat. Weak. Dimming.
Obito bit down on a growl of pain and moved again.
He needed shelter.
He needed time.
He needed Kagami.
---
[Time: 6:30 PM – Uchiha Main Estate, Council Hall]
Kagami stood silently in front of the curved stone dais.
Three elders sat in front of him. Behind them were eight others — various clan leaders and senior jonin. The firelight cast shadows across the high-vaulted chamber.
Uchiha Nao, the head elder, scowled down at him.
"You bypassed our protocols, Kagami," she said. "You submitted an intelligence design to the Hawk Relay Network without review. Not through your team commander. Not through the standard development council. Do you deny this?"
Kagami didn't blink.
"No."
Gasps echoed behind him.
A younger jonin leaned forward. "That channel is for field-ready prototypes only. You've never tested this so-called 'Second Skin.' If Obito activates it and it malfunctions—"
"He'll die anyway," Kagami cut in coldly. "He's wounded. Trapped. No flare capsule. That message wasn't an accident. He used the fallback code."
Nao's expression hardened.
"You're acting emotionally."
He raised his head slowly. "I don't have emotions."
Lies, but only partial.
"I calculated survivability rates. Without external support, his chance of survival is under 8%. With my tech, it rises to 39%. That was sufficient justification."
The chamber was silent for a long moment.
Then Nao whispered, "You've grown too bold."
Kagami's voice remained neutral.
"I'll take full punishment after my brother returns. Alive."
He turned without waiting for dismissal and walked out.
---
[Time: 7:50 PM – Uchiha District, Kagami's Home]
The lights were dim. The air was dry. Kagami moved fast, quietly.
He reentered his lab and sealed the door.
His grandmother lay still in the main room — her breathing shallow.
> Thirty-eight minutes of chakra stability left before collapse begins again.
He laid the Second Skin mesh onto a mannequin and began final rune etching.
> White-light stabilizer… powered by chakra bleed-off. Must regulate output every 3 seconds.
Reduce ambient signature to 15%. Should mask Obito's location from standard Byakugan tracking. Maybe even Jonin-class sensors.
He worked in silence.
Each seal stroke glowed dim blue before fading.
His hands didn't shake. But his eyes were darker than usual — the Sharingan still faint beneath the surface, but close.
When he blinked, chakra pathways appeared in his mind like latticework.
He murmured every line Tobirama Senju once described in scrolls and fragments.
> "Life is a thread. Ninjutsu only teaches us to pull or snap it. But science… teaches us to weave."
By 9:10 PM, the mesh was done.
He folded it into a compression seal and loaded it into a secondary hawk. This one was younger, less trained, but fast.
> Fly, you idiot, Kagami thought, releasing it. Find him. Find my brother.
---
[Time: 10:35 PM – Uchiha Home, Inner Room]
He returned to his grandmother's side.
She had worsened. Her skin was pale. Fingertips discolored.
Kagami took her pulse. Weak. Her chakra system had thinned to the point of visible collapse.
He opened a scroll.
Inside was a single-use stim capsule — illegally copied from the Hokage's emergency supply list.
He placed it on her chest.
> "You'll hate me for this," he whispered, "but I'm not letting you die tonight."
He pressed two fingers to her sternum and activated it.
The chakra burst lit the room like a lightning flash.
Her back arched. Then dropped.
She gasped. Color returned.
"Kagami—!?"
"I'm here."
He took her hand.
She blinked at him, eyes full of confusion.
"You weren't supposed to use that," she said, breathless.
"I didn't ask."
Then for the first time in years, she smiled.
"I hope Obito knows what kind of monster he raised you to be."
Kagami didn't smile back. Just held her fingers tighter.
"I'm only cheerful around him," he said.
And for a moment, the boy inside him returned.
---
[Time: 11:50 PM – Edge of Fire Country, Obito's Hiding Place]
Obito lay beneath an overhang of rock.
Rain fell in sheets beyond the brush.
His breathing was slow now. Weak.
Then — a flutter of feathers.
A small hawk landed beside him, wings slick with mist.
> Kagami, he thought.
The hawk dropped a tiny scroll. Obito pulled it open with shaking fingers.
Inside — a single instruction.
> "Wear it. Feed chakra once every 12 minutes. Signature masking will begin. DO NOT stop."
Obito laughed. Then coughed.
"Little brat…"
He pulled the mesh over his arm. It hissed softly — and began to glow with faint blue lines.
Within seconds, his presence blurred.
To Byakugan, he would be no more than a stone.
Obito passed out a moment later, fingers still clutching the mesh.
It would keep him hidden.
At least… long enough.