Brothers
Mito placed her brush elegantly in the bottle of metallic ink, raising her eyebrow at her husband Hashirama, who was pacing across his greenhouse like an anxious squirrel. It had been amusing for the first several hours, but it was quickly becoming a distraction.
"Hashirama."
The poor man startled, whirling on her like a surprised puppy. "Yes, Mito?"
She glanced down at her calligraphy, a lovely breeze blowing through the seals she hung from her hair and into the open door of the greenhouse, cooling the warm space. It was a beautiful day. It was a pity her husband couldn't enjoy it. "Tobirama is fine." She told him firmly. "You made sure of that. You said so yourself, he barely has a mark on him."
Hashirama deflated, looking down at his sandaled feet. "I know...." He whined. "But I'm still worried! I haven't seen him that hurt since fathe--" He pursed his lips quickly, wincing. Mito reclaimed her brush and began working on the next line of her text, waiting patiently. A few moments later Hashirama sighed. "I just want to make sure he's okay, that's all."
"I know you do, dear." Mito softened her voice, wishing not for the last time that both of those silly boys would be willing to go to the Village of Whirlpools with her and get some therapy. "But Tobirama was starting to get annoyed with your hovering, wasn't he? Isn't that proof enough that he's alright?"
Hashirama chuckled tensely. "Yeah, he's well enough to kick me out but he'd do that on his death bed anyway--"
"I'll take that as a compliment and ignore how little faith you have that I know my own limits." Hashirama perked up like a sunflower at dawn, scampering forward and pulling his disgruntled little brother into a hug. "Stop that you fool! I'm fine, your fine, and you should be listening to Mito!" Tobirama was wearing a loose pair of blue sweatpants and had forgone a shirt due the bandages still wrapped around his stomach. He didn't have his red makeup on, the scars on his face looking like what they were instead of a choice. He was also damp enough that Mito was fairly certain he had taken a shower, which explained why he'd kicked her overly loving husband out of his space.
Which he did again, shoving his brother off of him and into a large empty pot, not missing a beat through all the flailing to turn to Mito and say: "I'm sorry about him. Again."
Mito chuckled, also ignoring her crying husband as he pulled himself out of his own pot. "I've told you Tobirama, you don't have to apologize to me. I know the man I married."
Tobirama stepped toward the small table Mito had moved into the doorway to get away from a petulant kick from Hashirama. "I know. That's why I'm so sorry."
Hashirama whined loudly. "That's not fair! You two are so mean..."
Tobirama whirled on his older brother with a small scowl. "Stop whining, you moron, you have work to do! Now what's in the scroll?"
A recently un-potted Hashirama turned wide eyes up toward his brother. A moment of silence.
"Oh my gods, did you not even look at it?? I almost died bringing that back to you along with news of a possible traitor in the clan and you haven't even opened it?!?!"
Mito hid a chuckle behind her hand, re-inking her brush to the tune of Tobirama's yelling. Her poor husband, who had brought this on himself, scrambled up over to his desk and pulled the scroll out of the drawer he'd stuffed it in in a vague attempt to calm his brother. "See Tobi? I was just waiting for you! Yeah! I was waiting for you but I also wanted to make sure you were okay..."
Tobirama whacked his brother upside the head and snatched the scroll away from him with a frustrated swiftness. He stalked away from Hashirama's plant-filled desk, opening the scroll while said man cried and rubbed the top of his head. If Mito didn't know him so well by this point, she would assume that Tobirama was the head of the Senju clan, and not her dork of a husband. The albino ninja perused the contents of near cause of his death, his brother slinking up behind him in quite sheepishness.
Mito made the final brush stroke of the piece as the two brothers, who had sobered up considerably in the few minutes they'd been reading, finally put the scroll down. "It was what we hoped, at least." Tobirama sighed.
Hashirama nodded along with him. "Yeah. If these market prices are as predicted this will be a big problem for us. This'll win Madara over for sure!"
Tobirama rolled his eyes but didn't deter him. Mito began to gently fan the last few brush strokes of her work to get it dry faster. Neither of the brothers particularly enjoyed thinking about economics and socio-political bullshit, but as leader and second in command of a partially sovereign territory they were forced to on a regular basis. When they'd heard rumors of other ninja clans dropping the prices for their services on the other side of Fire country, Hashirama had contacted Miss Itto immediately (rest her soul) and requested an official Fire country outlook on future mercenary and ninja price predictions. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if it hadn't been for the drought they'd had that year, leaving ninja work as the major source of the Senju's money flow. But what Hashirama had really been after was important information to give to Madara in a bid to officially make him an ally. After all, the Uchiha clan had gone through drought too, so if ninja income really did drop, they would be in just as much trouble as the Senju.
Mito admired her finished piece. Rumors always portrayed the two brothers as not caring much for each other; Tobirama was always yelling openly at his brother and Hashirama was always sending his brother on "selfish" missions like this. But what the rumor mill failed to pick up was that they cared for each other so much that these things didn't matter to them. Hashirama genuinely didn't take Tobirama's scolding to heart (even when he maybe should) and Tobirama was all for Hashirama's dream of peace between the clans in Fire country (even if he had his reservations).
Mito lifted the parchment from her table and held it up in the light. The piece had been inspired by her husband: "United We Will Stand."
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Izuna Uchiha kept his breath soft as he crept through the underbrush. His mission was of great importance as it would solidify the peace of the Uchiha clan for many weeks, and Izuna would be damned if he fucked this up! He flattened himself against the south wall of the main Uchiha compound, taking the time to mute his chakra before he got any closer to his target. He slipped up to the open window and risked peeking inside.
His target, clan head Madara Uchiha, was where he always was at this time in the afternoon; hunched behind the large oaken desk in his office, working on paperwork until it was time for patrols in the early evening. The humid air and bright sun had worked in Izuna's favor, the shoji behind Madara open to the garden in the middle the compound, the water in the koi pond making a pleasing noise as it sloshed lightly in the breeze. Izuna stifled a laugh behind his hands. *This is gonna be so good!*
He ducked under the window and made his way stealthily around the outside of the compound, using chakra to muffle the sound of his footsteps. He made his way around until he found himself in the garden behind Madara, hiding in a bush on the other side of the koi pond and staring at his illustrious leader's back. Izuna reached into his black robes, pulling a spool of ninja wire out of one of his blood red inside pockets (what? black and red was cool color scheme!). He infused the tiniest amount of his chakra into the wire and prepared himself to move. Once his presence was known there was no going back. He had one shot at this.
Izuna took a breath to ready himself, then he moved. He stood up fast, letting his chakra be known and throwing the ninja wire at the same time, registering his chakra's attachment to the back of Madara's fully black robe as he yelled "get koi-ed, motherfucker!" and pulled *hard*. Madara barely had a moment to sense that there wasn't a real threat in the compound before he was being yanked back, flipping over his chair as he unceremoniously flew into the koi pond.
Mission success! Izuna whooped loudly, taking all of a second to admire his big brother's soaking wet figure before turning around and booking it into the forest west of the compound. He heard Madara splash around for another second before his booming voice echoed out "IZUNA!" Izuna laughed giddily as he sensed his brother's chakra following after him, eyes bright as he shifted his brain's gears for a game of tag. He did a heel turn and started heading south toward the river. The trees were denser down there, a better obstacle course for them to play in. Madara was still roaring and spitting out curses behind him but Izuna didn't mind, if anything he reveled in it. He knew his brother would never hurt him, the worst he would do was try and dunk Izuna right back. Of course, Izuna was not planning on letting that happen, not his brother's life!
He whooped again as he hit the denser part of the forest, ducking into the lower branches where Madara would have trouble fitting. Madara came crashing in a few seconds behind him, getting predictably slowed down by the wild branches and leaves snagging in his hair. Izuna kept moving, chest filled with bubbling happiness as he approached the river. He had to be careful as he crossed, as it would be the perfect place for Madara to get his revenge, so he spread his chakra out along the banks to try and sense his brother's fiery energy. He didn't sense anything, so he quickly leapt across the river before his brother caught up--
"Get tackled, motherfucker!" Izuna startled in mid-air as Madara came roaring from the shore just out of Izuna's sensing range and leapt straight at him, grabbing him by the waist and sending them both careening into the river.
The two crawled out of the river nearly a half an hour later, both thoroughly soaked and satisfied that they had dunked each other enough to last a decade. Izuna was still laughing, gasping it out in water-logged glee and delighted to find that Madara was laughing too. There were no words between them as they dripped back to the Uchiha compound, entering through the back so the nosy elders wouldn't start calling them a disgrace to the Uchiha name again.
Hikaku was waiting for them in Madara's abandoned office, two towels in his hands and a fondly annoyed look on his face. "Everyone in town heard that, you know."
Madara took the offered towel with a glower that was a little too close to a smile. "Blame Izuna." He pulled the towel through his wild ass hair. "*I* was not planning on going swimming today."
Izuna giggled as he took his own towel, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I regret nothing and would do it again!"
Hikaku face palmed at the same time Madara's laugh boomed through the garden again. The poor commander shook his head at the brother's antics and turned to the desk. "There are a few signatures here that need to be done, but the rest can wait till tomorrow. If you could Madara?"
Madara sighed loudly but acquiesced, taking the offered quill and scratching his name on a few documents. Izuna took the time to take his hair out of its ponytail and ruffle his towel through it with a grin. *That was so worth it!* He hadn't played with his big brother in almost a month and the clan had been starting to notice the building energy in their youngest prince. And, unfortunately for the clan, when Izuna got antsy chaos levels went up exponentially. But now that he'd gotten some of his energy out the clan could relax for a few weeks.
Madara threw his quill back into the ink well and stood up. "Thanks a lot, Hikaku. Promoting you was the best decision I ever made." Oblivious to Hikaku's pleased blush he turned to Izuna. "Now let's get changed before someone--"
Running footsteps interrupted Madara's attempt at keeping the family pride as all three ninja turned on a dime to face the office door. A border scout burst into the room seconds later.
"The Senju are requesting a meeting at the northernmost part of our border!" The scout announced, breathing heavily and looking more than a little freaked out.
Both Madara and Izuna tensed. Things with the Senju were.... complicated. On one hand, there families had been fighting for generations and there was enough blood spilt over border struggles to fill an ocean. On the other hand, Madara and Hashirama still considered themselves friends, despite them only having met in battle for the past decade and a half. And Izuna considered Tobirama his greatest equal, feeling a weird connection to the guy that he was pretty sure wasn't mutual.
Madara looked at Izuna.
Izuna looked at Madara.
Then both of them relaxed into something calm and dangerous, Madara addressing the scout. "Go tell the Senju we'll be there."
The scout hurried away as Izuna smiled viciously. "I wonder what those sillies want?" Hikaku quietly left the room to prepare as Madara grinned back at his brother. "We'll find out."