Chapter 1
Madara woke to his 100th life with a choked gasp, his eyesight blurred as blood tears welled from his newly awakened rinnegan. No matter how many times he wakes from another death, it never gets easier nor less painful. This is his curse now, one he chose willingly. He wipes his tears with his blanket, resting his head back down on the pillow and closing his eyes. It was during his 20th life that he learned to do this. Every life has minute details that can vastly change the trajectory of the timeline. Never again will he do a 19th life, never again will he allow Zetsu to choose to target the Senju over the Uchiha. Never again will he allow Tobirama to take Izuna’s place, never again will he allow Hashirama to become what Madara had become in his first life.
The Indra in him once believed that Asura was the stronger one when it came to grief, he was wrong, Asura didn’t live long after Indra died. Hashirama did more than take his own life to be with his brother in death, he took everyone else’s along with them. Within a matter of hours, all of the Elemental Continent was nothing more barren, cold, and lifeless wasteland, with no sign of anything but the chakera beasts surviving.
No, there will never again be a 19th life.
He woke up on his 9th birthday, something that started happening since his 30th life. Before that, he woke just shy of a few months before that fateful battle that Izuna lost to Tobirama. It was his 34th life when he started suspecting he wasn't alone, too many things started changing too early to be his doing, it wasn't till his 39th life that he realized who it was. Although in hindsight, it couldn’t have been anybody else, the man is known to do the impossible.
After thoroughly checking over his new life’s memories, nothing much has changed, his older siblings have long been erased from all timelines since he doesn’t know when, it's only thanks to his rinnegan that he even remembers that he and Izuna were the last remaining children of five sons, but now, whenever he does this routine of checking the timeline’s memories, there are no other sons of Uchiha Tajima but him and Izuna. All the while, Senju’s two youngest still get to exist, if his math is correct, Tobirama will turn six next year and thus be given his first mission, so Kawarama will turn 3 and Itama would be just a few months old. Hashirama is eight.
He smiled ruefully, it was 45th life when he stopped trying to build a friendship with his soul brother, he never changes, Hashirama is constant in all lifetimes, at first he saw it as blessing, a reprieve from turbulent changes and mechanisms but after awhile he realized, for man who is the same every time he returns, Madara knows nothing about the man who shares Indra’s brother’s soul and chakra imprint. His eyes are deader than a fish’s and his smile is faker than a whore’s moans. Long ago, Madara believed that Hashirama was an emotional wreck and Tobirama was a perpetual ice block. It couldn’t be farther from the truth.
He can have full blown conversations with Tobirama with nothing but a smirk and an eyebrow raise, he cannot say the same for Hashirama who lives his life as if he was a doll just waiting for his string to be pulled and fill the silence with pre recorded messages. He knows more about Tobirama and the younger Senju heirs (their likes, dislikes, hobbies) than he does about Hashirama who sometimes, after living past the time of when they were supposed to die, seems to forget he has more siblings than just Tobirama.
It’s a tragedy.
The sun rose in the east as it always did.
Madara did not sleep all night, today marks the first day of his insomnia.
Madara spent the next few weeks trying to pretend he was same 9 year old boy from before he woke up, its kinda sad how good he is at it, no one even questions why and how he’s become so good fighting and ninjutsu, and as always thanks to his far more advanced senses, he can feel a small seed of jealousy sprout in his brother’s heart.
Great, now he’s talking like a Senju.
He shakes his head as he decides to spread his senses. It's one of those days when almost everyone is in the compound, so sneaking out might not be the best idea but he can sense his looping companion move out and head to their usual meeting spot. Since he’s aware that he’s the only one who is a sensor in the clan, he sends out two short bursts of chakera spikes. He feels two pulses back.
He puts down the brush and stares at the seal he was working on, it was a seal that he and Tobirama were working on before Zetsu decided he was far too impatient to get his plan moving and killed them outright. Thanks to the rinnegan, he has already written all the future books and studies that he’s recorded over the loops. Tobirama’s clone jutsu have become super essential for his continued survival over his lifetimes. They don’t need to sleep or eat so they can work day and night, and get alot of shit done.
Thankfully he convinced his father to give him his own study, a bit away from the hustle and bustle of the main house. So with a quick check with both his chakra sense and his sharingan to ensure no one was around, he created a clone and gave it a few instructions to clean up and turn away anyone who shows up.
Even Izuna, especially Izuna.
With a quick travel through his own version of Hiraishin. It will never match seamlessly as Tobirama’s Hiraishin whose very own body and soul mutated through its many lifetimes of uses into its own Bloodline Limit, crazy how chakra works like that.
Speaking of Tobirama, he can spy the tiny six year old from where he placed his marker on. Madara smiled as he realized that once again, Tobirama wasn’t alone. The albino brought his two younger brothers, both strapped to his small body. The older one was on his back and the baby was on his front, Madara has no illusions that Tobi already knows he’s here but they have a ritual by now, a sort of security that they can use in case they get found out by their clans, though with both of them being sensors and the two younger Senju would never rat out their brother who they love and adore, it's been a good few loops since they’ve been caught.
They have a script to follow, stepping back and turning to face where the Uchiha compound was located, he moved down the Naka river, ensuring that it looks like he went into a straight line to the border and fell in. A recreation of the first time they met when they learned they were both looping.
Sorta.
That lifetime was an odd series of events that they never quite understood how it all worked out in the end.
Madara struggled against the tide of the river, he has to make this believable for anyone who decides to look through his memories, not that many enemies will get the chance. It didn’t take long for him to feel the pull and drag of being fished out of the water. He wasn’t acting when he began to spit and cough out river water from his mouth and nose, that part is never fun.
“Monstew!” he heard a child cry. Brat.
“That’s not a monster, Kawarama” he heard an older child reply, it never gets old to hear that adorable lisp from his companion. “That's a boy.”
His lungs burned as they can now breathe air.
“Maybe.”
“What was that brat?”
“Ah! Talk! It Talk!”
“So it would seem. You ok? Hurt anywhere?”
He felt small hands pat him down. Ever the medic.
“Other than my bruised ego, I’m fine.”
“If you can joke then you can strip.”
“Excuse me!”
Even after all these lifetimes, all the years they’ve known each other, the many things they’ve seen, Madara still flails and gets embarrassed when Tobirama does things like this.
In his usual clinical and detached way he said, “you are wet and cold, you fell into the river, was down under for who knows how long, and it's the middle of winter. Take off your clothes and go sit by the fire.”
“You don’t even know who I am!”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“What?- No!”
“Kill my brothers?”
“No!”
“Kidnap and hold us hostage?”
“No!”
“Steal from us?”
“N-no, don’t people usually start with the least destructive question and work their way to the worst ones?”
The albino shrugged.
“I’m not most people.”
Madara stared at the silver haired Senju. In the end he did as instructed and stripped down to his underwear. Sat down by the fire where a few fish were being cooked. Took him a few seconds to realize he was sitting right next to where Tobirama settled little Itama. The baby’s eyes were wide, filled with that baby innocence. Not that he would believe that for a second, he knows how much that child can be a little demon when he puts his mind to it. There have been far too many times that Madara woke up to fake rainbow feathers braided into his hair. Or his shampoo switched with cherry blossom pink dye. Or the time all his kunai were switched with rubber versions. Madara glared at the baby that just babbled and drooled at him, he will never forgive the time that child painted his monument face with clown makeup.
“What are you looking at, you little demon child.”
“Geez, Itama’s just a baby, he can't hurt you yet.”
“ Yet.” He stressed. He finally looked away from the chimera and noticed that the fire was dying down.
With a flick of a single sign, the campfire flared to life once more. “I’m Madara, and -uh thanks for saving me.”
“It's no big deal, - Tobirama.”
Madara scrunched at the name, well more at the naming theme of the siblings.
“Space between doors, space between floors, space between roof tiles, what is up with Your names.”
Tobirama rolled his bright red eyes. “It makes sense to us, my family are architects and masons, of course at some point someone is going to get in their head to theme the names.”
Madara shook his head, the Senju are many things outside of shinobi work, which include architecture and masonry, but they are also farmers and some of the best vintners in all of fire country. Because of how good they are at using every natural resources at their disposal, some branches of Senju are weavers that make fabric out of bamboo fiber and Cotton shrubs instead of animal furs or silk. Of all the themes they could use, they chose to name them with parts of a house. Madara noticed Tobirama's grumpy scowl, Tobirama’s probably just salty that no matter how you shorten his name, it's cutesy and childish, or even a girl's name if they go by Bira. For a brief moment he wonders if it would be worth being tossed back into the river if he calls Tobirama by that nickname… Nope, the dark glare and accompanying chilly wind definitely made him rethink that thought. Tobes is off the table for now. Especially with no shirt on. At least Tora is a name that makes him go all shy and blush-y instead throwing out a water dragon.
Madara made sure to keep the conversation going, even getting around to hold the panda demon child in his lap after both he and his clothes dried. The day was relaxing, Tobi doesn’t even try to hide the fact he isn’t a child, though, considering what he knows of the albino’s homelife, it's not like anyone would even notice a change in the six year old.
Hashirama certainly never noticed before.
Neither Madara nor Tobi could tell what goes on in that man’s head, none of his other incarnations are like him, nor was Asura. That is a mystery that just doesn’t want to get solved.
At the same time, he and the albino perked up and looked towards the late afternoon sun. Their time was up. Madara reluctantly gave back the little ones when Tobirama handed his brothers so he can easily pack up what he brought with him, it’ll be awhile before he sees them all again. Probably not till the summer. He just wants to hold them and never let go. Tobirama is the only thing tethering his sanity together now, he hates this part of the loops, the first meeting, and sequential mission meetings, the slow pacing they take so as not to alert Zetsu too early that something’s off.
He watched them disappear into the forest leading to the Senju compound. They are so small, so very small.
His heart aches with phantom pain of his lost brothers, the ones no one but him remembers. Those two troublemakers are Tobirama's world, and Tobi is his Center. Taijima and Batsuma have yet to start up the child hunting squads but he will make sure it doesn't last very long.