Chapter 10
Hashirama regained awareness to the sight and taste of blood. Looking around he saw his fathers men, the ones who had raped his sister, as they lay battered, broken and bleeding out. One man was missing an arm. Did…. Did he rip that off? He thinks he did. That's right, that man had thought to taunt Hashirama into making a mistake, he talked about what it was like to touch his sister. That was the moment he had lost it, the rest of the fight had been a blur at that point. He remembered thinking that hand had touched his precious little sister and he had just ripped the whole arm off.
He honestly hadn’t realized he could do something like that. But he couldn’t help but feel proud as he looked down at the one armed man, his throat cut by Hashirama’s blade. Looking around he saw another man with his guts spilling out, he hoped it had taken a few minutes for him to bleed out. He imagined his desperation, and though he knew it didn’t last as long as Tobirama's ordeal had lasted, it made him happy to know he suffered until his death.
He saw another man with blood still sluggishly flowing from his numerous cuts along his body, all long and deep, made from his katana. He wasn’t dead yet, Hashirama had to fix that, picking his sword from the ground and stepping over the closest body he walked over and slit his throat, listening to the gurgle as blood flowed from it. Looking back at the body he just stepped over he realized the man was missing a chunk of his neck. Well he thought, I guess that explains why I have blood in my mouth.
The final man was at the edge of the field, face down with a kunai embedded into his back. He looked dead. But Hashirama figured he had better make sure, so he walked over and stabbed his blade down into his heart.
He was finished. They were all dead. All that was left was Arata. But him, Hashirama was going to ambush him in his home. The way Tobirama had been ambushed by him. He would know what it was to feel helpless as someone bigger than him cornered him. Then once he was begging, then Hashirama would give him the freedom of death.
Originally Hashirama hadn’t planned to kill him. He hadn’t wanted to push the whole clan into distrusting him by killing an elder. But now that he was leaving the clan he had no problem killing him.
Hashirama wiped his blade on the shirt of the man at his feet to clean the blood off it and then turned to face his silent clan. None of them had ever seen him like this, Hashirama preferred to lead with a smile and a kind word. He had been trying to show his clan things could be different under his rule than they had been with Butsuma, that things could be better.
It was all for nothing now. He was leaving this broken clan behind. With that in mind he addressed his clan.
“I know I told you all that there would be changes and if you disagreed you could leave. But the elders have decided because of this I am unfit to lead. So I will be leaving. Any of you that wish to come with me are welcome, the rest? Good luck. The Uchiha have sent a request for a ceasefire. I will leave that in the elders hands to decide how to handle that. I will be leaving at first light tomorrow, anyone who chooses to leave with me can meet me there.”
With that Hashirama walked to Touka and the two of them walked together back to the clan heads house. He had a lot of packing to do.
“Are we going to the Hatake?” Touka asked, it was the first time he had talked to her since announcing his plans yesterday.
“I think that's our only option. I know my grandmother will welcome us, but I will send her a hawk tonight letting her know we are coming so at least we won't surprise her.”
“Do you think anyone will come with us?”
“Honestly, no. That may change in time once they realize how bad off they are without their three strongest fighters. But I will deal with that another day. For now I want to wash up and pack up everything I will need, and anything Tobirama may have left here and want, and then I have an elder to kill.”
“Arata?”
“Yes, I cant leave until he’s dead and no longer a threat to Tobirama.”
“Want any help?”
“No I want to finish this on my own, but thank you.”
“Any time. Man, I wish Tobirama had been able to see you today. She will never believe me when I tell her how viciously you fought. You did the Hatake clan proud.”
“Haha, you are probably right. She would always admonish me to take fights seriously. But if there was ever a time to do so it was today. I don't regret anything I did.”
“It was. I’m proud of you baby cousin. I didn’t know you had it in you. You stood up to Butsuma, you stood up to the elders and you did the right thing.” With that Touka patted him on the shoulder and walked towards the door. “I better get packing, I have a lot of weapons that need to be sealed in scrolls tonight. I’m not leaving a single one behind”
Hashirama let out a laugh. Yeah that sounded right. He had no idea what Tobirama left behind that she might want. He was going to have to search the whole house looking for her armor and sword. Butsuma must have hidden them to prevent him from realizing Tobirama hadn’t left on a mission like he claimed.
With a sigh he got up. He had a lot to do tonight. And he really did need to bathe.
*************
Tobirama froze. She felt the trees pulse with chakra. She hadn’t been actively sensing, but she could always feel to about the Naka river. For the trees to be pulsing like that something must be wrong with Hashirama. Dropping to the floor she pressed her hand to the ground and stretched her sensing all the way to the Senju compound. She was shocked when she felt an overwhelming amount of killing intent rolling off her brother.
What was happening? Was he okay? Should she go to him? But what could she do, it would take her a whole day to get there, she could maybe shave off a couple of hours if she really pushed herself but she would still be too late to do anything.
That was when she felt smaller pulses of killer intent. Oh. She recognized that chakra too. Well she recognized most of her clan but those five she would never forget their signatures. They were fighting. What was Hashirama doing? He couldn’t fight their own men. Not over her.
Sure she had planned their deaths, but she also had no intention of ever being a part of their clan again. This was going to damage the clan's trust in him. Why wasn’t Touka stopping him! She was just standing there with the rest of the clan, presumably watching them fight.
She sat there tracking the fight, with relief filling her body as she felt every one of those men die, even if she dreaded what it meant for her former clan. She felt the fear they had facing her brother, and she relished in it. Tobirama only wished she had been the one to kill them.
That was how Madara found her, crouching on the floor with her eyes closed.
“Did something happen?” He asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.
“He killed them.”
“Who killed who?”
“Hashirama. He killed them. How did he even know it was them? I didn’t give any names in my letter to him.”
“You might not have but my father did. We agreed that if it was us we would want to know. I understand why you wanted to keep it from him, but he had to know. He had to have the chance to fix things. And it sounds like he did, finally he is behaving the way a brother should.”
Tobirama opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Hashirama is a great brother!”
“I am not doubting he loves you, but if he was half the brother you deserved he would have either killed every person that ever treated you wrong, or he would have taken you to the Hatake a long time ago.”
She was getting angry now. “How dare you, you have no idea what you are talking about. He did everything he could. You have no idea what it was like growing up in that house.”
“It shouldn’t matter, he is your older brother, it's his job to protect you, a job he failed.”
Tobirama snarled at him. “You have no right. You don't know what it was like, you had a father that loved you, one who would keep you safe.”
She was gearing up to say more, maybe even yell at him but she was stopped from saying more by his hand tightening on her and speaking.
“I’m sorry I’m not trying to upset you, I came here to comfort you, not make things worse.”
With those words he pulled her to him, crushing her face into his chest. “They are all gone now, you are safe. More than that I will never let anyone hurt you.” He paused for a moment. “I know this isn’t the right time, and it’s probably too early for you, but I have to say it. I love you Tobirama. I want you to be mine forever. I want to raise this baby with you. I am sure now that all of those men have been dealt with, Hashirama is going to ask you to come back and live with him. So I wanna ask you first. Stay with me. Become an Uchiha in name, be mine.”
Tobirama didn’t know what to say. She never expected this. Sure she had fantasized about it, thought about what it would be like to marry Madara, to have him be a father to her baby. That's all it was though. A fantasy. He was going to be clan head one day. He couldn’t possibly want that with her, right? Yet here he was, saying he wanted exactly that.
She pulled her head off his chest to look him in the eyes. “You really mean that? It’s not nice to toy with pregnant people's emotions, you know. I don’t think I could survive it if you take it back after I say yes. So please really think about it.”
Madara smiled down at her. “I don't need to think about it any more, I have never meant anything more in my life.” He moved his hand up to her hair running his fingers through it before lightly gripping it and pulling her mouth to his.
Tobirama felt giddy. This had to be a dream, and she just prayed she wouldn’t wake up any time soon.
Mouth still pressed against his she answered. “I want to be an Uchiha, I want to be yours. I love you.”
*********
The next couple of days passed by in a blur. Madara had told Tajima and Izuna of his intention to marry Tobirama and as he expected they weren’t surprised and were very supportive. Izuna had taken to calling Tobirama imouto. Something she smiles about every time, though she always tries to hide it.
Madara loved it. His loved ones were all together and they were on the verge of peace with the Senju.
Or that's what he thought, until his father called him to his office that morning.
“I got a letter from Hatake Akari this morning.”
Madara let his confusion show. “Isn’t that what we were waiting for? Why do you look so serious?”
“Senju Hashirama has defected. He renounced his title of clan head and joined the Hatake. She asks that we bring a delegation to their clan compound to discuss a more formal alliance.”
“He did what? Why would he do that?!”
“Apparently they came to a moral disagreement and he left, taking with him the third in command, Senju Touka. According to the letter, Hashirama will not stand between the Uchiha and the Senju should we return to conflict.”
“This is crazy, I cant believe he would abandon his clan, I mean I agree with his decision but I didn’t think he would come to it. Did it say when they wanted this meeting to take place?”
“She asked that the meeting take place in two weeks. They also ask that Tobirama joins us.”
“No. What if they try to make her stay? They can't have her, she said she chose me.”
Tajima laughed, “do you really think they could force her to leave? I’ve seen the way she looks at you, she’s not going to leave you. Not even to be with her brother again.”
Madara nodded, he knew this. He shouldn’t have doubted her. He was just so afraid of losing her. She had become his whole world.
“What are you going to tell her?”
“I’m going to tell her yes, and then we’re going to go meet with the elders. I think it's time I announce your engagement to them, and also that as of tomorrow you are the new clan head.”
“What? You can't be serious. I’m not ready yet.”
“You are, I’m getting old, it's time for you to step up. Besides I’m going to be a grandpa soon, I’ll have to focus on the baby.” With that Tajima stands up and pats him on the shoulder. “Why don't we go meet the elders first. I’ll write her back later.”