IZUNA

2

Nothing had changed and yet everything had. Everything was different now... except it wasn't. She saw the same world through different eyes. She was Izuna but Izuna wasn't her. She was neither and both at the same time.

One and the same.

And yet so different.

She was weak willed and meek.

Izuna was obedient but strong

Compliance was not surrender, however, and while she—-they—-Izuna obeyed Tajima she retained her own thoughts and opinions. (Never again would she let herself change for others in such a way.) She did not conform thoughtlessly to the way of the Uchiha like everyone else in her clan because she wasn't one.

And yet she was.

She was an Uchiha.

She was stuck between two worlds.

With one foot planted firmly in the perspective of an Uchiha and another planted in the perspective of an outsider she could see what others could not.

She could see the entire picture.

It's not to say she loved her clan any less—-no, Izuna loved her kin fiercely and would die infinite times over for them—-but she wouldn't destroy the entire world for them either. (She would destroy the world for Madara, however. For Madara, she would do anything.) But as much as she loved her kinsmen she loved also the notion of peace.

Peace had a complex simplicity.

It was paradoxical.

Everyone sought peace and yet brought war and chaos at the same time.

Why?

Hatred.

She despised hatred and what it did to a person.

It tainted and twisted good intentions into something dark and disgusting. Hatred changed a person for the worst and brought the worst out of them. Hatred bred more hatred just as violence beckoned violence.

The madness of the Uchiha clan was caused by the Curse of Hatred.

Her clan was ignorant to this in their arrogance but Izuna was not so blind. Not like her male counterpart. Even without having yet unlocked her sharingan she could see more clearly than her clansmen.

They were completed tainted by the touch of hatred.

She once considered the thought of purging them and their hatred from the world so that the future might change but immediately felt sick. How dangerous were these thoughts of violence and hopelessness that she might consider betraying her own family?

Izuna was horrified with herself.

Horrified and disgusted.

She loved her clan

But hatred—-

She almost played into the hands of hatred.

"All life is sacred." She told herself harshly, "All life is sacred. This world isn't a dream and the people here are so much more than characters from a story. They breathe, bleed and die just like you. Do not forget that you are as much her as you are Izuna. Don't forget your ideals."

Hatred isn't the answer.

Killing wasn't the way to find peace.

It shouldn't be.

It wouldn't be.

It couldn't be.

But she couldn't escape it.