In Which Izuna's Fatal Injury Happened A Few Weeks Later, Which Causes Some …Complications During Shikako and Sasuke's Unintentional Journey to the Past

Izuna loved his brother, truly he did.

But he didn't want to die in bed.

Fighting the Senju- even if he didn't manage to land a killing blow, even if he did no more than take their attention from the youngest of the clan- at least it would be a clean ending.

He'd held on this long for Madara's sake, stretching the hours he had left into days, taking breath after labored breath. Madara had stayed by his side, ignoring all other duties. Perhaps that was why the Senju had made the latest push, taking advantage of Madara's absence from the field.

Izuna barely managed to get the undercoat on- the full plate or even the light plate would be beyond him. But his sword was sharp. It would be enough. He could dull some of the pain, for a short time. Once that failed, he could lean on his sword. He could go out to meet the Senju who'd dared attack their home- attacked their home because he was weak, because his injury had left Tobirama unopposed and distracted the strongest Uchicha still on the field, because the rout that battle had turned into had cost countless of his clansmen- and Izuna could die with honor.

He tasted blood again even as he made his first steps outside the compound. But he would last long enough.

Izuna knew Madara would blame himself for leaving, for going off to fight the greater force of the Senju who'd attacked the compound- as necessary as it was, as briefly as it had been intended to be. Izuna knew Madara would, at some later date, probably also blame Izuna, for going out to meet the hunting squads and throwing away the last days of his life for no more than a distraction.

…Izuna still didn't want to die in bed.

Sasuke had meant to lead the Senju off the trail of a helpless Uchiha, not straight towards another one. This one was collapsed face-down on the forest ground. He looked heavier than the kid, too.

"Damn it," Sasuke muttered.

He didn't know what exactly the Senju squad would do if they just… lost sight of him completely, but hopefully they wouldn't backtrack and try to find the smaller, easier prey. Worst case scenario… Sasuke lugged this guy back to camp, the Senju followed, he and Shikako were forced to kill them all, and then the universe imploded because the timestream broke.

Eh, Shikako had probably considered that when they went to interfere with the ambush anyway.

Sasuke made a shadow clone- picking this guy up and hauling them through the trees at speed was clearly going to be a two-person job.

Shikako raised an eyebrow when Sasuke brought the other Uchiha back to camp.

"Shut up," he muttered back. She was wearing one of his shirts- good idea- and he reached up to tangle her hair. The kid was one thing, but Sasuke didn't want this guy waking up and noticing something off about his teammate's braid.

He set the fellow down… and stopped.

Okay, that was a creepy resemblance. And actually… this guy didn't look very well at all.

"Izuna-sama!" the kid gasped. "He's injured really bad! He's not supposed to be off bedrest!"

"That just means we'll have to do our best to look after him, Kagutsuchi-kun," Shikako said reassuringly. "I'll check his injuries, see if he's aggravated anything."

The kid- Kagutsuchi- swallowed, then scooted closer to Shikako in order to peer intently at Izuna.

Shikako caught his eye, and tilted her head to the kid. Right, distraction time.

"He shouldn't be moved," Sasuke said bluntly, looking straight at the kid with the sharingan on. "Which means I need you to help me do a quick perimeter check around the clearing and set some traps. It's safer if we go in pairs. You up for that?"

Kagutsuchi swallowed, and nodded shyly.

He thought Shikako might have noticed him memorizing the sight of a living Uchiha clan child with his sharingan. But she didn't mention it.

"I don't- I don't have any of my supplies." Kagutsuchi said.

Shit. Most of Sasuke's supplies were either in Shikako's hammerspace or "Konoha standard"- meaning not something that could be mistaken for period-appropriate Uchiha trap supplies. Well, they'd manage.

"That happens," Sasuke said evenly. "I'll show you how to make do with what we can find in the forest and a little ninja wire." He handed the boy the small hatchet he hadn't gotten around to returning to Shikako after they'd made camp. "A true shinobi doesn't need much more in order to make himself dangerous."

He showed Kagutsuchi how to slice branches into a needle-fine point with chakra alone- or a hatchet, for those still working on chakra control. Kagutsuchi nodded and gripped the hatchet tighter, eyes wide and trusting as he looked up at Sasuke. If Sasuke was swallowing a little more than normal as he walked the boy though the steps of Basic Trapmaking With Limited Supplies, that was just because he was thirsty.

The first thing Shikako did with Izuna-was slap a knockout tag on him.

Look, she really didn't need him waking up and interrupting his own treatment, okay? It was bad enough they were throwing this non-interference thing to the wind, but she couldn't tell Sasuke she wouldn't try to save his clanmate. And she didn't think she could bring herself to not heal a guy who looked exactly like Sasuke.

She took off the weird bulky coat thing Izuna was wearing and winced at the injury. It wasn't a fresh wound, but it was… bad. Frankly, she was surprised he'd lasted this long, especially considering his obvious case of infection.

The infection was the main problem, really. Someone had clearly tried to stitch this guy back together (a part of her was mildly interested to see that this world had had stitching of injuries at one point), but there was also a cracked rib that had pierced a lung. Likely related to the force of the blow that had cut his side- maybe the pain of it had made him lose chakra enhancement.

Shikako guided the rib into place. She didn't quite manage to actually heal the rib- look, she was still not 100% on bone healing, okay?- but the lungs were more important anyway, and she was fine at lungs. So there.

Then Shikako force-fed him some antibiotics (Shadow Jutsu could be targeted to the voluntary muscles of the throat, it just took close proximity and a lot of unnecessary concentration) and, after some intensive wound debridement, spent a lot more chakra than she wanted to in order to use those pills as a catalysis to clear the infection away completely. She really doubted Izuna was going to trust her enough to keep up a steady regimen of Mysterious Healing Pills.

But he was going to have to accept a light application of Mysterious Healing Paste (thankfully easily hidden by new semi-period-appropriate bandages), because the problem with cutting away a lot of dead infected flesh is that the person then has …less flesh than they started out with. Which can be Not Good.

And flat-out regrowing a large amount of skin and tissue that wasn't her own was stupidly chakra prohibitive. Like, "had to use a soldier pill just to get through some basic tissue regrowth" prohibitive. There was a reason these things were done slowly by teams of medics, and it wasn't just the strain on the patient.

By the time Shikako had finished, most of the skin still wasn't regrown on those areas that had needed debriding, but you know what? That was fine. Newly-healed pink skin would be suspicious anyway. The Uchiha dealt with burns a lot, right? They were probably at least okay when it came to letting skin heal on its own.

By the end of it, Shikako was low on chakra, jittery from soldier pill after-affects, and feeling a little paranoid about the presence of the knockout tag. And when Izuna would wake up and realize she wasn't an Uchiha. Also that.

She waved Sasuke and the kid back, then discreetly took off the tag. Izuna wouldn't wake up for- at least two or three minutes, at the earliest. Plenty of time.

Kagutsuchi even came over closer to Izuna to peer worriedly at his face, which should at least ensure the adult Uchiha will wake up to the sight of an actual clanmember and will hopefully not react badly.

(At minute three, Shikako felt a monstrous chakra signature like a wildfire in the peak of summer, coming straight their way.

"Incoming!" she barked, shooting straight to her feet.)