Chapter 5
???’s POV
My head throbs. The pain pulsing steadily with my heartbeat.
(I don’t think anything has ever hurt this much before.)
My body aches, bone-deep and burning, like I used every ounce of chakra I had, like I had when I was a child. My ribs especially, like they had been crushed, pulverized even.
(What happened?)
It’s hard to breathe, even connected to my tree, and it’s hard to think.
(Where am I?)
Memories pour up from the roots, from the grass and the leaves-
-from the corpses.
Senju Hashirama’s POV
(-laughter-)
(-screaming-)
(-pain-)
(-love-)
I drop the tsutsu gata-
(-fear-)
(-hate-)
(-protect them all-)
(-you are alone-)
“Dude, are you okay?”
(-injured-)
(-healed-)
(-injured-)
(-healed-)
(-injured-)
(-he-)
“Hashirama?” Madara grabs my shoulder, cutting off the flow of thoughts from the tree, from the girl-
(No.)
“Her name is Hotaru.” Kakashi and Obito drop their cups, “Your name is-”
“What the fuck?!” Kakashi yelps, Obito moves in a blur, abruptly looming over Madara, pointing a kunai at my throat faster than the eye can track. “Tobi, no!”
Another slap from the ceiling above us, and Obito pauses.
“ANBU doesn’t like having their names known, Hashirama,” Toneri states calmly, stirring his tea with level-headedness the rest of the room does not have. “You might want to keep your mouth shut, this once.”
“But ANBU hasn’t been formed yet, Konohagakure hasn’t been formed yet.” Images, thoughts, and knowledge flash through my mind, words and names and events and times on the tip of my tongue, images, and faces and designs just behind my eyes. “They don’t need codenames here, they haven’t been born yet-”
“Our clans aren’t allies. Why would we know each other well enough to do what we did?” Obito hisses at me, I pause, the memory springing forth vividly. “Stay quiet, Senju. Or I’ll rip your blabbing tongue out-”
Hotaru slaps the floor so hard that the ceiling cracks.
Obito snarls wordlessly but says nothing more as he stalks back to his seat, and Kakashi pats his back solemnly. I stare at them, sitting together, side-by-side, trusting each other explicitly-
Hope blooms, undying and unbound, inside my chest.
(Not only can it happen - it will happen! The proof is right in front of me!)
It’s hard to not cry, but I manage.
Uchiha Madara’s POV
(Konohagakura? ‘The Village Hidden in the Leaves’? Seriously? We are in the middle of Fire Country! Oh, for Gods’ sake, did we let Hashirama name it? Fuuuck!)
I sigh heavily through my nose but otherwise don’t react to Tobi’s threats against Hashirama or to Hotaru’s threat.
(At least we know her name… It suits her rather well… It’s pretty, too-fuck!)
Toneri looks over at me with a tiny, knowing smirk.
Heat floods my face, and I scowl at him darkly.
“Hotaru isn’t fond of giving out her name for fairly obvious reasons,” Toneri states,
“Huh?” Hashirama makes a questioning noise, “But it’s such a sweet name and…oh.”
“Yeah.” Tobi deadpans, “And she’s a spitfire, ankle-biterproblem-child.”
“That was one time, Tobi,” Hound states, and I can hear his smile. “Not to mention she was three.”
“She was a demon is what she was!” Tobi whines, throwing an arm over his forehead dramatically, I snort before I can help it, “She mauled me, I was stripped to the bone, it was a bloodbath-!”
“She barely broke the skin.” Hound corrects, sounding both wildly amused and completely exhausted. “You didn’t even need a band-aid.”
“-It was the most grievous wound I’d ever endured!” Tobi flings himself across Hound’s lap, getting more dramatic by the second-
A branch forms from the floor and the rest of the room goes still - but Tobi is so busy writhing and wriggling in Hound's lap that he doesn’t see it.
CRACK
“FUCK, MY DICK!” Hotaru cracks the branch vertically against Tobi’s torso, and she does, indeed, catch it against his groin.
We all wince and ground our own crotches as we wheeze with laughter at him. Tobi curls up in the fetal position, crying loudly about traitorous baby cousins - judging on the tear in his shirt, his stomach and chest probably hurt more than his groin, but his played up the dramatics.
Hatake Kakashi’s POV
Toneri was very well-behaved while being interrogated, he even managed to play host while doing so. It was mildly unnerving.
But Hotaru was injured, possibly amnesiac, and hopefully asleep upstairs, so we couldn’t question her. So we drilled him over and over and over for a few hours.
Then the boys went home, and Toneri asked if we wanted to continue or if he was allowed to go to his house for the night so we could pick back up when the boys returned. We agreed that when the boys returned would be a good idea.
The boys bring their dadsand their brothers with them, but they look so, so tired.
“Could not make them-”
“No.” Madara, Hashirama, Ibiko, and Izuna all state, looking exhausted, I sigh heavily, but Tobi lets out a growl-
I glare at him, and he settles in front of the stairs in a possessive crouch.
“By the Kami, she might be young, but she is a goddamn adult-”
“I take it you’re both her older brothers?” Tajima Uchiha asks amusedly, eyeing my rather distinctive white hair, and the Sharingan that Tobi refuses to not use to intimidate the Senju kids - unfortunately for all of us, the Uchiha brats just get encouraged and Madara and I have to go haul them off before he starts tossing them.
“Kind of?” I admit,
“Neither of us can hold that title, don’t fool yourself, Hound.” Tobi grumbles, then yelps sharply, “Keep biting me, bratling, and you’ll find that sibling toss has-”
Madara snatches that twin away from Tobi quickly as a threatening branch sprouts at head height.
“Ooh, you’ve done it now.” Kawarama states sing-song like, “Firefly’s gonna kick your-”
The wooden teacup in his hand blooms silently.
“Remember that no-cussing-in-front-of-the-kids rule? Yeah, that’s one of the longest-standing ones.” Toneri deadpans, settling in the same spot he did yesterday, one of the cups grows legs and walks to him, “Oh good! You remember-”
He suddenly cuts off, his hands held out, the cup easily in his grasp, but his fingers not curling around them.
“Oh no.” He murmurs quietly, “Oh no no no-”
“How badly did you mess up that first meeting?” Butsuma asks dryly,
“She threw a god through my house, but I didn’t know what they were fighting about, so I got offended and decided to fight her and, um,” He pauses, hesitating heavily as everyone else (Tobi included, surprisingly) “She threw a mountain at me.”
“You lived. Either you talk fast or she thinks you’re a good pet spy.” I deadpan easily grabbing the ‘spare’ tea set out of the ‘normal humans’ cupboard, and Tobi lets out a derisive-sounding snort. “Hey, it worked for you, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, that lasted how many hours?” He snarks back, I give him a look as I set the tea set on the table. “I’m just saying, babygirl’s aim sucks - how the hell did she make it through the Academy?”
“She didn’t.” I deadpan, and the entire room pauses as I turn back to the sink with the empty teapot.
The silence lasts long enough for me to make the Matcha and set it on the table.
“What?” Tobi asks, killing intent rolling off him in waves as I settle down next to Toneri.
“Hotaru was placed in ANBU by her biological mother despite never being trained for Shinobi activities or having any handling over her chakra besides Mokuton.” I smile at the room, but my own killing intent is getting hard to control. “You all got your asses handed to you by an untrained civilian.”
Madara’s hair is like a bush, Tobirama looks like a frightened cat, Hashirama looks like a goddammed demon, and Izuna looks completely calm, but his killing intent is so palpable that his chakra is visible to the naked eye.
(Good to know that Tsunade fucked up even by her own family’s standard’s.)
“Now,” I take a long drink from my cup, “What do we want to start with today?”
“How about the fact that she’s somehow related to both our families, but refuses to settle on either side of the river?” Taijima asks,
“She’s in danger, here.” Butsuma grumbles, sharing a look with the still-enraged Hashirama, “People are talking about traitors and spies. They think she-”
“She refuses to fight - that’s why she refuses to move.” Toneri looks mad now, but Tobi and I share a look as the twins try to wiggle over to him again. “She has every right-”
“She can move off the river.” We decide, in sync, Toneri snarls at us, “Still on the border, still between you both, but off the river.”
“The Council-” Butsuma stresses,
“Can shove off.” Hashirama snarls, chakra flaring in agitation, Kawarama places a hand on his shoulder as he and Itama grab the twins. “I’m fine.”
“Complete bull, anija.” Kawarama states, but turns away from him in order to deal with the wiggling Uchiha twin he ‘captured’, “Oi, this isn’t your room! You can’t just run circles wherever you want, Ryu - and this Tobi fella ain’t one of the climbing toys Tadpole builds for us. Give the guy a break.”
Ryu giggles loudly and climbs on Kawarama instead, with the other twin - Rin? Riku? Rito? - does the same to Itama.
“Thanks, you two.” Ibiko almost falls over against the table in exhaustion, “I forgot how hard it is with them in the morning-”
“How frequently do you send them to terrorize this poor girl instead of me or Izuna or Dad?” Madara asks, looking disappointed and annoyed with his younger brother,
“Trust me, she does not mind.” Tobi and I state in sync, and I can’t help but compare the hyperactive twins to, well…
(Sasuke and Naruto aren’t twins and never were, but god damn, is there a similarity here.)
“She has younger siblings too?” Ibiko, Kawarama, Itama, and the twins ask, excited and surprised and completely in sync.
I wilt and share a look with Tobi.
“This is gonna be exactly like your heathen brats.” Tobi agrees with my unspoken complaining, “And you deserve it for dragging me out here. Hotaru was on her way, dammit, and now we have to deal with them too.”
“Ah, this again? Tobi, she needed help.” I dismiss,
“Not that she’ll admit it.” Toneri agrees, I point to him enuesiastically, “But yeah, she needs some help.”
“Wait, you’re making it sound different now.” Kawarama states, I turn to Toneri, who shrugs at him passionlessly. “No, no, back up. What does Firefly need help with!?”
“We’re hunting a monster, and the investigation has stalled - that’s all she wants you-” He points at Kawarama, Ibiko, Itama, and the twins in turn, “-to know for now. So as long as you five are in the room, I can’t speak a word of what she needs help with.”
The five of them share a look.
Hotaru winds up cracking the ceiling again, but the five boys don’t move the spot that the piled themselves one inch outside of the door as Toneri spills all the details again, but with even more explicit detail this time. Maps get dragged out and everything.
(I may have had to take a moment to giggle in the corner because of the boy in the doorway, but that’s irrelevant.)
Tobi decides he likes Toneri in that instant, I can tell.
(The fact that Butsuma and Taijima come to some form of agreement doesn’t hurt, either.)