Negotiations of Civility
Shisui was no slouch when it came to stealth.
The Sharingan with its nigh invincible genjutsu didn’t hurt in that department, but even before it awoke, he’d always excelled in covering his tracks, moving around unnoticed, and noticing when people were following him.
Even in the elite ranks of the ANBU, where the recruitment criteria was heavily weighted on candidates’ ability to hide their presence, he had been most commonly picked out for the most sensitive missions. Because he never got caught.
He recognized, intellectually, that as the Hokage, this guy would be on a whole other level of anything he had ever met before. But he hadn’t been able to appreciate exactly how good the Nidaime was until the man was suddenly upon them.
Killing intent spiked sharply, almost needle-like in its accuracy as the future Hokage blurred through the air with a drawn sword. Team Ro scattered quickly, giving the unstoppable force space. Hound didn’t move, likely standing his ground to keep the attention on him. Knee-jerk gratitude sparked in Shisui, who would take any second he could scrounge up to avoid facing the man head-on.
For now, he followed Itachi’s retreat, and put himself between him and the Senju.
The likelihood of him being able to beat the man by himself was laughable, he’d acknowledge. But if worse came to worst, he’d always have-
An extra jolt of chakra, and his eyes burned fever-warm, a sharp itch built up across the surface of his eyes and then faded out, as the pupils reformed. At his five o’clock, Itachi didn’t scoff, but his chakra twinged with enough fervor to get his displeasure across.
It didn’t need to come to that, however, as Cat had somehow managed to outpace even the Nidaime Hokage.
The wooden bear-trap would have plunged its many sharpened teeth around Tobirama’s neck and cleanly beheaded him, if it were not for Hound calling for him to stop. But instead, he faltered, and Tobirama escaped the wooden trap, reappeared carefully situated equidistant in the triangle Team Ro had formed.
Shisui fully expected him to continue on with his attempted killing spree, and kept himself prepared to cast the jutsu that would save them all in this worst-case scenario. But instead, the man just stood there. Eyes carefully fixed on Cat.
Right. Mokuton was a rare jutsu of the Senju clan. Now they were going to be murdered for bloodline theft on top of… whatever reason Tobirama had for suddenly appearing out of the woods to slaughter them.
He had probably overheard the briefing Hound was walking them through, right before he had made his presence known. Decided that they were acting too suspicious to go unchecked. Or maybe this was his signal that he would not be helping them.
The time it was taking for him to gather more context of the situation stretched on. All of them remained locked in place, any movement threatening to break the tenuous equilibrium built up here. Until the killing intent eased off, like a downpour that had been turned off by a tap. Shisui had to come to terms with the fact that Nidaime had elected to hear them out.
He hadn’t even fully grasped that until Hound spoke up. “So, we have a request for you.”
Now, Shisui knew the guy had had close contact with a lot of very powerful people. Hokages, jinchuurikis, Sannin and Sannin-level shinobi. But the nonchalant way he said it still sent a ripple of fear down Shisui’s spine.
The Nidaime didn’t look at all offended, though. Wasn’t he supposed to be from sixty years ago? His standards for sensibilities should be much higher than this.
Granted, the future Hokage’s own manners weren’t quite up to snuff – if saying that wasn’t treason. He didn’t answer Hound at all for several seconds, instead looking carefully at each one of them. Shisui’s spine straightened out when the man’s eyes landed on him, dissipating the chakra he’d been molding for his last-resort jutsu. They were out of the danger zone of negotiations, it seemed, and pulling out a Sharingan technique around a person so famously averse to the Uchiha was a bad way to keep the peace.
“You appear to be too well trained and equipped to be this lost,” Tobirama finally announced.
Lost? How’d he figure that out?
There was probably a million tiny details that had led up to the Nidaime’s conclusion, and Shisui wasn’t really going to make him explain his step-by-step reasoning when the truth was that he was right.
“Maa, I guess there wasn’t any getting past you, huh?” Hound replied carefully. “The truth is that we’ve been derailed. This wasn’t part of the plan.”
Tobirama didn’t emote much. Nor did his chakra give any of his inner thoughts away. And yet somehow, how unimpressed he was with that statement got through perfectly. Yikes, if Shisui felt this bad about not meeting the man’s expectations, who knew what Hound was going through.
“How big is the organization you all hail from?” Tobirama asked next.
He was likely vetting them. The fabled curiosity Hound was trying to convince them of might just be surfacing here, though he scarcely dared believe it.
“It’s- well, it’s complicated,” Hound chose to say, clearly taking point here. “But as for now, there’s only the four of us.”
Bad move. Now Tobirama would kill them all without any fear of repercussions.
Tobirama’s face hardened. “‘Complicated’ isn’t an acceptable answer.”
Now, how best to explain this conundrum? They’d known that they would have to tell someone about the nature of their arrival here, if they were to get help in rebuilding the seal and returning, but Shisui had yet to find a clear and concise summary of the truly impossible situation they were in.
“We were caught in a space-time fuinjutsu that appears to have heavily displaced us from our original starting point,” Hound rattled off. “And you’re the best fuinjutsu user in the area, so it was between this or attempting to hire the Uzumaki to help return us.”
Well, sure, if you wanted to put it like that.
Tobirama’s eyes flicked back towards Shisui and Itachi.
“You wish for me to help you with a space-time fuinjutsu designed to take someone far away, with clear signs of treachery and bloodline thievery at play here? Forgive me if I do not simply take you for your word.”
Cat’s chakra writhed, venomous in a way it only was when people he cared about were being slighted, “Taichou isn’t a traitor or a bloodline thief.”
“Make no mistake, I’m calling those two clear Uchihas the traitors,” Tobirama informed Cat, once again pinning the Mokuton user under an analytical glare. “The way I see it, you’re the bloodline thief.”
“That wasn’t how it happened,” Itachi spoke up, even while Cat didn’t say anything in his own defense.
Tobirama angled his head towards Itachi, but the Uchiha heir didn’t elaborate further.
“I gather that you two were responsible for the disturbance at the Uchiha compound last night?”
“You found out about it this quickly?” Itachi asked, voice troubled. “A much tighter lid is kept on clan business currently. How closely have you been watching the compound?”
Tobirama sniffed, having the nerve to look offended at the idea. “I have more productive things to do than spend every waking moment observing their machinations. No, the Uchiha themselves did us the kindness of wrongfully accusing us of trespassing on their grounds.”
Shit. They’d clearly underestimated the sensing abilities of the Uchiha themselves. How long had it taken for them to notice there were (not quite) strangers in their midst?
There was no time period in history when the Uchiha allowed unknowns to be in their living space, without tearing them apart, so he had to assume they only discovered it after they had already made their escape. And when they made their escape, there had been-
Cat.
Right, that was why the Senju were getting involved with this.
Holy shit did they just accidentally reinvigorate a slowly cooling clan feud the reconciliation of which was meant to reshape shinobi’s place in politics and commerce?
While Shisui grappled with the enormity of such a miscalculation, it was Itachi who diplomatically answered, “Your clan’s involvement in this was not our intent, nor was making our presence known and of concern. We apologize for that. Of course we’re fully willing to take responsibility and clear this misunderstanding up.”
It was difficult to parse any other emotion from Tobirama they had gotten so far. But what showed on the man’s face now could only be disgust.
“You two are evidently Uchiha deserters,” he noted, and then waited for a contradiction, which Shisui couldn’t give without laying out the entire timeline of events and how the sociopolitical environment had changed so that it was actually acceptable that he put the village above his clan sometimes. By all means, in this time period he would only be seen as a deserter until they cleared the air with the clan elders themselves.
“If you want me to give this supposed fuinjutsu of yours a look, I will need your group to take fault for the break-in and not my clan,” Tobirama bargained.
“That’s reasonable,” Hound agreed immediately.
“I’m not agreeing to go along with this because I believe the story you gave me in its entirety,” Tobirama explained, in case they had somehow missed the fact that he had been making his doubts clear this whole time. “A close eye will be kept on you while we are cooperating, and you will find me much harder to get the better of than those Uchiha.”
Obviously. Tobirama was ready for them now. Shisui was sure the Uchiha wouldn’t have been fooled this easily if there had been prior warning. And this wasn’t just the clan loyalty speaking.
“But you’ll lend your expertise?” Shisui pressed, so that they would at least get proper confirmation.
He hadn’t spoken much during this standoff, he realized once the words were out. Guess the untimely arrival of the Nidaime had left him unsteadier than he realized.
Tobirama growled from the back of his throat, “Yes, but under heavy conditions.”
With the way Hound was about his hero-worship, Shisui was mildly worried that he was going to immediately agree with anything Tobirama imposed on them. Thankfully, their taichou wasn’t disconnected enough from mission protocol yet to not look out for his team’s best interests.
“And those conditions would be?”
“Twenty four hour surveillance. Carefully guarded the entire time. Limited contact with any person. Arrangements on the specifics of your holding will be discussed, but I refuse to take my eyes off you while I look at this seal.”
That was… about the usual fare for shinobi being sent over to a tenuous ally to help in some matter. No one in their right might would just let a known outsider near their base of operations.
They all exchanged glances and nodded.
Tobirama continued with his list of conditions, “I’ve stated before, but you will facilitate in clearing the Senju’s names from the mess you created at the Uchiha compound.”
Yeah, they’d already made their peace with that.
“I also have questions regarding the starting point you were launched from, and your individual origins. It’s a very peculiar collection of people you have here.”
Was this the fabled Tobirama curiosity at play? Shisui was grateful for Hound’s mask, because he could not deal with the man’s smug glee right now.
Itachi shifted slightly. “We will answer to the best of our abilities, but clan secrets will remain secrets.”
“I will ensure that none encroach that territory,” Tobirama said, but Shisui really didn’t believe him for some reason. Tobirama glanced towards Cat, “But recognize that as a Senju clan technique, we are entitled to hearing everything about that one.”
Cat didn’t reply immediately, turning to Hound, who answered for him. “Very well.”
Hound then addressed all of Team Ro. “Well?”
It was laughable to put this of all things to a team vote. What the hell else were their options, after all?
Shisui didn’t like it. Not twenty minutes ago he was charging at them with intent to kill. And they were moving past it?
Desperation drove them to it, maybe, but he’d be keeping a very close eye on the future Nidaime Hokage while they remained here.