A few moments later
CHIRRRRRR!
The shrill cry of concentrated lightning gathered at Charlotte's fingertips shattered the silence that had settled over the forest.
Without expression.
Without the slightest hesitation.
The little girl's right hand shot forward in a brutally direct thrust, piercing straight through the left side of her father's chest.
KREEK!
The crack of James's breastbone rang clearly through the forest as the lightning-clad strike tore through his body and burst out from his back.
High-voltage electricity surged through his internal organs, unleashing unimaginable agony as portions of his lung tissue were destroyed in an instant.
Fragments of flesh, droplets of fresh blood, and splinters of bone scattered in every direction, staining the forest floor blanketed with fallen leaves.
"Uaghhh!"
A thick mouthful of dark crimson blood burst from James's lips.
His legs trembled violently, struggling to support a body rapidly weakening from the catastrophic damage inflicted upon his respiratory system.
With the strength he had left, James lifted his right hand and gripped Charlotte's shoulder, using his daughter's body to keep himself from collapsing onto the ground.
It was then that he felt the small shoulder beneath his hand begin trembling uncontrollably.
"Father... I..."
The moment he heard that hoarse voice, James's heart stirred violently.
His plan had succeeded.
The instant James ceased to be perceived as a threat, the fragile balance supporting Void Mind collapsed.
The personality's dominance had finally fractured from within.
Charlotte's true consciousness was slowly reclaiming control of her body.
But the price paid for that success was far too cruel for a ten-year-old child.
James raised his eyes.
The Sharingan patterns within Charlotte's gaze gradually faded, revealing a pair of normal eyes now overflowing with tears.
Crystal droplets streamed endlessly down her pale cheeks.
The little girl's entire body shook violently.
Her voice faltered as she spoke through uneven breaths.
"This... this can't be real..."
"Please... please hold on, Father..."
"Charlotte... Charlotte is sorry..."
The hysterical sobs she had been holding back finally burst out.
"Waaaah... Father!"
James's consciousness drifted in and out as blood continued to pour from his wound.
Charlotte's right hand, still embedded within her father's chest cavity, trembled uncontrollably.
The lightning that had once enveloped her arm had completely vanished, leaving behind a horrifying reality.
James's blood coated her entire hand up to her wrist.
It was a nightmare no child should ever be forced to witness.
A ten-year-old girl staring at her own hand drenched in the blood of the father she loved most.
Charlotte could not even bring herself to pull her hand free.
Her body remained frozen.
As though every ability to think and move had been stolen by a guilt so overwhelming that it threatened to shatter her sanity.
Meanwhile, James forced himself to activate his Mangekyō Sharingan one final time.
His eyelids felt heavy.
His vision blurred.
Yet he still managed to lift the corners of his lips into a gentle, reassuring smile upon a face growing paler with every passing second.
With his throat thick with blood, he forced out a few words.
"It's all right, my dear. This isn't your fault. Now... go to sleep... Everything will be all right when you wake up."
Charlotte immediately shook her head in panic.
Her sobs only grew more desperate.
"No, Father! This is my fault!"
"My dear..."
"Please don't say that, Father... please don't..." Charlotte looked at him with utterly shattered eyes.
"This is my fault. The other side of me truly wanted to kill you, Father."
"..."
"My hand... I was the one moving it. I felt it myself!"
"No, Charlotte..." James tried to soothe her. "That wasn't the real you."
"It was me, Father!"
Charlotte's voice rose through her tears.
"Just before this attack hit you, I consciously redirected my hand away from your heart."
"..."
"But in the end..."
"..."
"I still chose to tear through your chest!"
"..."
"I still intended to hurt you!"
James fell silent.
For the first time since the battle had begun, he found himself without words.
Charlotte lowered her head.
Her small body continued trembling uncontrollably.
"Waaaah... Father...!"
James's consciousness had reached its lowest point.
His daughter's desperate confession struck his mental defenses far harder than the grievous wound ravaging his body.
The agony that had been burning through his chest was slowly fading, replaced by a deeply unsettling numbness.
That was not a good sign.
Quite the opposite.
It meant that parts of his damaged tissue were beginning to die.
Without the healing pill provided by the System, his natural regenerative abilities would never be able to close a wound this severe.
James could not afford to delay any longer.
He had to put Charlotte to sleep now, before the trauma she had suffered developed into permanent psychological damage.
The issue of her memories could be dealt with later, once his body had recovered.
As he gazed into the pure eyes of his daughter, now finally freed from the influence of the Sharingan, James began channeling his energy.
"Go to sleep, my dear... Think of all this as nothing more than a nightmare."
"I... waah...! Fa... ther..."
Then...
Slowly, Charlotte's eyelids began to grow heavier, as though molten lead had been poured over them.
Her sobs gradually weakened as her consciousness sank deeper and deeper into darkness.
The strength left her small body.
Before she could collapse onto the ground, James used the last remaining strength in his right arm to catch her.
With careful movements, he lowered Charlotte onto a patch of forest grass as gently as he could.
Only after he was certain that his daughter had fallen into a deep sleep did James release a long, ragged breath.
His chest cavity was ruined.
A horrifying hole still gaped open in the left side of his chest.
If Charlotte's final act of resistance had not redirected the attack away from his heart at the very last second—as she had just confessed—James knew he would have been a corpse by now.
He had gambled on the possibility that he could survive even if his heart were destroyed.
That was why he had taken the risk.
Yet the reality was that the damage to his lungs alone had nearly torn his consciousness from his body.
That reckless gamble had come dangerously close to destroying everything.
Not only himself.
But also the family he had spent years trying to protect.
James had been truly fortunate in the final moment.
As his fading consciousness struggled to remain anchored, the image of his wife suddenly surfaced within his mind.
"Irene..." James murmured with a bitter smile. "In the end, I still failed to become a good father to our children."
He lowered his gaze for a moment.
His breathing was heavy.
"I nearly destroyed our daughter's future with a trauma she might carry for the rest of her life. You would probably hate me if you knew what kind of disaster I created today..."
James forced his legs to move.
Every step felt unbearably heavy.
He staggered toward a large tree standing not far from the clearing.
Once he reached it, he slowly allowed himself to sink down, resting his blood-soaked back against the sturdy trunk.
"I'm tired."
Dark crimson blood continued to seep from the gaping wound in his chest, soaking through his black shirt until most of the fabric had changed color.
The edges of his vision were beginning to darken.
His consciousness was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
Yet his resolve and responsibility as the head of the family forced him to remain awake, even if only by the smallest thread of awareness.
"System."
[Yes, Host.]
"Take out... a healing pill."
[Command accepted. Retrieving item from storage.]
Instantly, a high-grade healing pill appeared within his trembling hand.
Gathering what little strength he still possessed, James slowly raised his arm and placed the pill into his mouth.
The medicine dissolved almost immediately, mixing with the blood pooled in his throat before sliding down into his stomach.
The effects of the miraculous medicine activated nearly at once.
Without delay.
A brilliant green radiance of life erupted from James's body, releasing waves of extraordinarily potent vitality.
The pill's restorative power immediately concentrated on the left side of his chest, where the damage was most severe.
Visible to the naked eye, torn muscle tissue began knitting itself back together.
Severed blood vessels slowly reconnected.
His shattered lung regenerated at an astonishing pace.
Even the structure of his broken breastbone gradually rebuilt itself, piece by piece, repairing the fatal damage that had nearly claimed his life only moments before.
Within only a few minutes, the gaping hole in James's chest closed completely without leaving behind a single physical scar. The only remnant was a faint purple bruise that would likely fade on its own within a few days.
Yet the healing process did not stop there.
The dense green energy continued flowing throughout his body before spreading into his left arm, which had previously suffered severe fractures. Crushed bones gradually returned to their proper positions. Crack after crack fused seamlessly together, while muscle fibers torn apart by shattered bone slowly regenerated until they were completely restored.
Once he confirmed that all of his physical injuries had healed, James ignored the exhaustion still weighing heavily upon both his body and mind.
He immediately rose to his feet.
His steps carried him back toward Charlotte, who remained unconscious upon the bed of forest grass.
James knelt beside his daughter.
His gaze settled upon her sleeping face, while a complicated expression lingered across his own.
The mental burden he had endured today had left wounds far deeper than any physical injury ever could.
His eyes slowly drifted toward Charlotte's arms and training clothes, both stained with his blood.
Every trace of visual evidence needed to disappear.
Otherwise, suspicion would inevitably arise once they returned home.
Before cleaning away the physical evidence, however, James raised a hand and brought his fingers close to Charlotte's face.
Carefully, he opened her eyelids with his thumb and forefinger.
His Mangekyō Sharingan immediately spun into its intricate pattern.
Subtle yet powerful chakra flowed outward.
James released a high-level Genjutsu specifically designed to lock away, isolate, and manipulate Charlotte's memories of today's bloody events.
Several moments later, the pattern within his eyes slowly faded.
James withdrew his hand from her face.
"This should be enough..." he whispered softly.
His gaze remained fixed upon his daughter.
"Unless an extraordinarily powerful external trigger appears one day to break this seal, everything that happened today will remain locked away in the deepest corner of her mind."
"Any memory leakage that might occur in the future should manifest only as vague childhood nightmares—fragmented, distorted, and impossible to fully understand."
After finishing that task, James raised one hand.
Droplets of pure water immediately condensed within the air.
Using highly precise water manipulation, he cleansed the blood still clinging to Charlotte's fingers, arms, and skin.
The crimson stains marring her training clothes gradually lifted away before disappearing completely.
Several minutes later, every trace of blood had vanished.
Not a single mark remained.
James then lowered his gaze to himself.
The shirt he wore still bore a massive hole through the left side of the chest.
His trousers were likewise stained with dried blood.
His appearance was far too conspicuous.
Without wasting any time, James created a shadow clone and left it behind to guard Charlotte.
Meanwhile, he entered the Kamui dimension to change clothes and remove every remaining trace of blood from his body.
After some time had passed, James emerged once more.
His appearance was now neat and immaculate.
There was no longer anything about him that could arouse suspicion.
Only then did he bend down and carefully lift Charlotte into his arms with the utmost gentleness.
James's expression darkened once more.
He knew today's incident was not truly over.
Quite the opposite.
There were countless complications and uncertainties waiting in the future.
Especially because the nature of Uchiha power was heavily influenced by emotional fluctuations and the mental state of its wielder.
If that trait was combined with the extraordinary talent Charlotte had inherited from the Dmitry bloodline, the potential for future instability could not simply be ignored.
James could only hope that none of those fears would ever become a terrible reality.
"Let's go home, my dear..."
Before leaving, James turned toward his shadow clone.
"Erase every trace of the battle from this place."
The clone silently nodded.
Once he was certain that nothing had been overlooked, James activated Kamui.
The space surrounding him immediately distorted.
A transparent spatial vortex formed and began spinning faster and faster, swallowing both James and Charlotte into its dimensional depths.
Sshrt!
A moment later, the same vortex appeared once again at the corner of the Wieser estate's open training grounds.
James stepped out without making the slightest sound.
Charlotte remained fast asleep in his arms.
As he surveyed the training field that had been devastated by the aftermath of their earlier battle, James slowly brought his fingers together.
A single hand seal formed perfectly.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!
Puft! Puft! Puft!
Ten shadow clones of James materialized instantly to his left and right.
"Clean up everything in this area," James ordered in a low yet firm voice.
"Erase every trace of the battle. Restore the fallen trees, repair the damaged ground, and remove any lingering chakra signatures. Make certain that not a single clue remains—not even within the mountain forest beyond."
The ten clones nodded in unison, immediately understanding the instructions given by their original.
James watched them for a moment.
Then he offered a faint smile filled with quiet trust before turning away.
Charlotte remained fast asleep in his arms as he walked toward the main residence.
The warmth and tranquility of the Wieser family's home stood in stark contrast to the chaos and bloodshed that had unfolded only hours earlier.
With careful steps, James crossed the threshold carrying his sleeping daughter.
For now...
The nightmare was over.
At least, that was what he hoped.