Starting With Saplings

A response to the Uchiha’s message was sent back by the Senju clan with a human escort.

They insisted on staying outside to await a reply, as if not fully aware of the rounds of consultation and talks that went into managing every contact they had with the Senju outside the battlefield. He knew that similar measures were taken within the Senju ranks, having been told as much through both spies and friends, who had thought little of addressing the bloody trenches carved between their families.

The swift response, and demands that the Uchiha follow in suit worried Madara. Were they hoping for some slip up? That he would fail to noice some trap, if they tried to press in on him with deadlines?

He would not be turned around with little details, nor would he let them force his hand.

The men who had come as the security detail would simply have to wait outside through the night, until the Uchiha had gone through their proper channels for whatever defense they had of their clan head flagrantly tresspassing.

The letter that sparked this postal war had been addressed from the Uchiha Clan, speaking as a whole on their best interests. Singling out the clan head, yes, but calling upon the entire clan to respond in a manner they deemed most fit.

The response was no such thing. It was directly from Hashirama, with no pretense behind it being anyone else. Addressed specifically to him.

To be more accurate, it said:

Inform Uchiha Madara that I have done no such thing. This is the work of an impostor attempting to seed further discord between us. Finding this impostor is imperative, beyond other matters. If you would wish to lend us aid, I would be most overjoyed.

Of course this was the angle he was taking with this crisis. Madara wasn't going to fully dismiss the fact that the entire thing might be staged to strongarm the Uchiha into signing that damned peace treaty the man had been working towards. It wasn't completely impossible, given who Senju Hashirama was.

But it explained the human escort and demands for a quick response some more. He wanted confirmation if the story was being believed soon.

The question Madara would have to ask his clan was whether they did believe him.

Consulting the elders led to mixed opinions. “The Mokuton is a weak kekkei genkai,” Lady Hinata sniffed. “Word would have spread of another holder in a single generation.”

“Not if they guarded the secret close, like we have done with our rarer gifts,” Lady Kohaku returned. She was the only holder of the Mangekyo Sharingan of her generation, with one eye permanently blinded from her use of the Izanami technique; the reason why she was the one to live, when all others perished.

“But then they would not be asking to help search for it,” Madara pointed out. “The offer is still out, and some response must be formulated for it.”

“It's clearly not genuine,” Izuna argued, arms crossed, “Why must we humor them on that attempt at trickery at all?”

"I don't recall you being invited to these meetings at all, much less allowed to give input,“ Madara replied, turning the full force of his frown at his little brother.

Izuna scrunched up his face at him, as if holding back the urge to stick out his tongue. He really never grew up.

“But this wouldn't be the first report of someone impersonating major shinobi clans these past few days,” Madara said, finding himself advocating for Hashirama against his will. “There were the reports about the Hatake-”

“The one that disrupted our trade with the farmers nearby, yes, I remember,” Lord Hiruzen replied, much more concerned on the food supply issue than the newest spike in tensions between the eternally distrustful clans. “Highly doubtful the same person was involved, but the cases may most definitely be related.”

“So we do investigate?” Madara checked, because that was where the general opinion seemed to be leaning.

“Yes,” Lady Kohaku decided to make the call, and no one disagreed with her. “But not with the Senju. We shall lead our own, and they can do whatever they please.”

It seemed like a waste of resources to him, both clans following the same leads and possibly stepping on each others' toes or connecting dots the other wouldn't think to. But in generations, the Senju and the Uchiha had been at each others' throats. Cooperation simply didn't come naturally to them.

“Izuna, you will lead it,” he explained. Izuna's shoulders straightened, and he dropped into a bow. He knew when it was time to take things seriously.

“With what men?” he asked.

“See who's free from resource management. More than a three-man unit won't be necessary. Information-oriented ones that work well with civilians would be best,” Madara listed off. “I have other work to do, and cannot oversee the entire mission from your side.”

“Right...” Izuna nodded, “Wasn't exactly asking that of you, either. I had some people in mind who looked like they didn't have much going on, anyway.”

“Is that all you called us for?” Lady Hinata asked, frowning, “It is quite early in the morning, young man.”

“Yes,” Madara kept his words clipped, not caring for the unnecessary reminder that they still found him undeserving of filling the spot of the past Uchiha clan head.

He simply moved to the side and allowed them to return back to their quarters.

In the privacy of the vacated offices, he wrote down a return reply. This one, too, was addressed to directly Hashirama, and was coming from him alone, following in his sworn enemy's suit.

I have conversed with the clan's elders, and they do not believe that a wise course of action. We are looking into the matter on our own, and are taking your denial of involvement into account. There will be no violence starting from our side this time.

That didn't properly convey what all he wanted to tell Hashirama. He even debated warning him off about the Hatake sighting, but surely he would be aware of that, already, what with the rumors of his little brother's heritage.

Upon re-reading, it still did not sound quite right. He endeavored to write another draft.

When Kakashi had made that very dramatic statement, he hadn't exactly explained which Hokage they were going after. Or why he had seemed so excited about it.

He didn't hold his breath on it for much longer.

“Senju Tobirama is considered to be the Father of modern-day Ninjutsu,” he explained, his voice steady and toneless like it was a regular debrief. If one neglected the fact that he was speaking fifteen percent faster. “Almost all A-ranked Water and Earth jutsus come from him, along with miscellaneous other developments across fields of genjutsu, swordmastery, and seals.”

They were ANBU, they didn't neglect miniscule details like that.

“I believe we are all aware of this information already,” Itachi said. Disdain wasn't a tone he took with his betters, but that was definitely disdain in his voice right now. Shisui would commend him for it, but that made him shut down.

He consoled himself of that hurt by focusing on the recent revelation instead.

"I was just clarifying, in case anyone forgot,“ Kakashi said, and intentionally did not single out Tenzou of possibly not being told what the exact deal with Tobirama was. "Also, the part of his biography I just overviewed for you is the part that has happened already. Now that you two have given me a year, I can reliably lay out what jutsu he knows, and was fond of using.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Shisui said slowly, and it was a good thing his face was covered, because he couldn't even keep his voice completely clear of laughter, “You're obsessed with the Nidaime Hokage.”

“He had an interesting life,” Kakashi replied, but didn't sound too defensive about it. A dead super-genius widely regarded by most to have upended entire fields of study wasn't a bad role model by any means.

"So, how are we going about that, exactly?” Shisui checked, because their last run-in with people they recognized from their history books hadn't exactly gone down well.

Run-ins from people they didn't recognize from history books had gone down worse, really, but Senju Tobirama seemed more likely to rip their heads off where they stood. For the same reasons they had been allowed into the Uchiha clan compound with little resistance.

“We're going to have to come at this from an extremely unthreatening angle,” Kakashi said, “And approach the compound as if looking to hire shinobi for a mission.”

“Wouldn't it be suspect that we are also shinobi?” Tenzou asked, and he didn't emote very well, but his voice was as confused as it got.

“It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Especially with fuinjutsu masters,” Shisui said. He knew this part first-hand, especially with the recent shortage of fuinjutsu experts. There was always a demand for them, and not damn near enough in the business.

“Alright,” Tenzou agreed, and Kakashi continued with his plan.

“Weasel and Crow will have to make themselves scarce for this to go well.”

Totally understandable, really. Shisui didn't really feel like getting to know the man either. Very impressive of him having created the Body Flicker, so that Shisui could go on to perfect it, he would always be grateful for that, but he didn't really trust being in the man's presence before the feud between the Uchiha and the Senju was reconciled.

“What about you?” he asked, gesturing towards his left eye. “Isn't he some kind of uber-crazy sensor type? He could totally feel the Sharingan underneath that. Clans with kekkei genkai don't exactly mesh well with bloodline theives.”

“Assuming that the kekkei genkai in question is something that can be stolen,” Kakashi pointed out, boldly ignoring living proof of that being possible with the Mokuton currently standing beside them.

Maybe it wasn't possible in this time period, with the limitations on the equipment and understanding of how bodies worked in conjunction with inherited jutsus, and that was enough to stave off any worries.

“You better not be risking all our lives for a very stupid move,” he threatened.

“So who else is supposed to do it?” Kakashi replied, an edge on his voice. And... he had a point. If Kakashi having a stolen Sharingan was going to be a dealbreaker, then Tenzou most definitely couldn't do it. And Itachi and Shisui were already off the table. Which meant Kakashi clearly getting to fulfill a dream out of his wildest expectations was the most sensible thing they could do.

“Besides, I think out of us four, I have the most common ground with him,” Kakashi added.

Tenzou tilted his head slightly. “Because you both are highly regarded as geniuses?”

“I think prodigies piss each other off in close proximity,” Shisui pointed out.

“Oh?” Itachi asked, making Shisui double back and try to rephrase it. Of course the kid would never say it, but he didn't have a friend outside of Shisui, and they both bonded over being on the brainier side of their age range.

“When they're pitted against each other, I mean, cuz. Or have to one-up each other. It's not really the same thing when we're on the same team, working towards the same goal.”

There was an uncomfortable beat where he swore they were all looking at him as if he was full of shit, before Kakashi cleared his throat. “Uh, that was not what I was referring to. I was actually talking about our shared Hatake lineage.”

“The Nidaime Hokage is part-Hatake?” Shisui asked, this being genuinely new information to him. “Huh. Interesting for the time period. I thought you guys were still doing your wild-wolfman thing up in the mountains. Sorry, we don't get taught much history besides the broad strokes beyond the last three decades.”

He wasn't trying to be insensitive, but the silence from Taichou's part already said way more than was needed.

“Rumors of that are greatly exaggerated. To varying extents depending on the specifics of the rumor,” Kakashi finally said, and didn't elaborate further on what that meant. Instead going back to explain the relational tie between him and the Nidaime Hokage.

“He and the Shodaime were half-brothers, so he was a legitimate successor to the position of Senju clan head. The mother was from the Hatake clan — we were a little less... keen on writing things down, and were pretty scattered, compared to other clans, so the paper trail isn't all there, but her immediate family were the ones to help procure the land that Konoha would be built on, when it had to be expanded from the influx of new residents in the First Shinobi War. That offshoot of the clan would settle down, with one of her brothers being my great-grandfather.”

Shisui nodded along, “Huhhhh. You're related to a Hokage. Crazy.”

It was cooler than being related to the guy everyone knew for going mad and harnessing the power of a sentient ball of chakra to destroy the one foothold of peace he helped create.

“He was taught by a Hokage, too, which I think would have greater significance,” Tenzou pointed out. “Or would a blood relation be considered by most more important, even if too distant for any tangible benefit to come from it?”

“It differs from person to person, what they consider more important,” Kakashi replied, voice stiff at the reminder of the Yondaime Hokage. “And you shouldn't reference that. There's still a ban on it, no matter the time period.”

“Of course, I apologize,” Tenzou said quietly.

“Well!” Shisui said, trying to pull them back on track of the semi-acceptable solution Taichou had made, “Does anyone know where the Senju clan compund might be?”

None of them did. He knew just from looking at the eerie stillness that followed, none capable of admitting to not knowing.

“I'll find out from the civilians, then,” he decided, slipping into a Henge without need for a single handsign, and going to Body-Flicker towards the one solid gathering of civilians they had scouted.

Really, they'd all be so lost without him to keep them on track.

Embarrassingly, they didn't end up needing to figure out what process civilians took to charter a shinobi mission.

Because the Nidaime Hokage found them first himself.