The Blessed Son
~~~
“We’re going to get you Mada’!”
“In your dreams otouto!”
Jerking his body to the right, Madara let out a laugh of triumph at skirting around the corner without the embarrassment of slipping and wiping out, which occurred last time and had gifted him with a bruise on his right hip that ached madly for days.
“They’re gaining on us, aniki!”
Ryuma tightened his grip on Madara’s just a tad firmer, his voice erupting with squealing giggles from its place beside the older boy’s right ear. “Faster, aniki, faster!”
Behind them were three racing bodies of various colors, a devilishly grinning Izuna leading the pack, the twins of Kaji and Kasai flanking his sides with ear splitting grins of their own.
The multitude of their small feet slapping readily against the floor announced their entrance into the small sitting room their mother often claimed as her own throughout the winter months, a shout of triumph escaping Madara and Ryuma’s mouths in perfect unison whilst they skidded to a grinding halt.
With a basket of yarn settled beside the crackling hearth, mother was needling away, the soft clicks of her needles meeting filling the once peaceful air coming to a halt while the young woman watched on with slight displeasure.
“What on earth is going on here,” Mother rested the near finished scarf within her lap, one brow arched in question.
“Look out!”
Before either boy could even attempt to answer the woman, three bodies slightly smaller than Madara’s own crashed into him with a shout, sending the eldest and youngest flying to the floor in a pile of arms and legs.
Laughter erupted from the five boys from their place on the floor, Ryuma able to wiggle free whilst Madara laid trapped at the bottom of the pile of bodies, Izuna laying prone atop him as Kasai and Kaji perched haphazardly on top of him, giggling like mad men.
Mother suddenly was standing above them all, having ventured over to their position in the chaos most likely, with a grinning Ryuma perched on one hip and her fist on the other, a look of fond exasperation worn on her unblemished face. “How many times do I have to tell you boys, no running in the house, hmm? You little rascals!”
In a blur of movement, her snake-like fingers were flying across Kasai’s exposed stomach, inciting a squeal of glee from the four year old whilst he tried to flee from their mother’s harmless assault. Knowing better than to wait and lay prey to their mother, Madara and Izuna began to squirm in earnest to free themselves from the pile, laughter from the five boys filling the air. Finally, after much struggle, Madara broke free, a shout of excitement escaping the eight year old as he crawled away from the carnage their mother wrought and to an excitedly clapping Ryuma, the three year old giggling madly at the situation unfolding before him.
“Wait for me!”
Izuna, after narrowly escaping the Uchiha matriarch’s clutches as the twins became her unwilling victims of tickling torture, scrambled over with a laugh of his own, raven locks messily tussled from the struggle.
After a few more moments passed, mother’s reign of terror came to an end with a victorious laugh, a twin settled on each of her hips, her painted smile warm and playful. “Oh how the mighty have fallen!”
“Mama, let go,” Kaji fruitlessly struggled against the dragon of a woman with little fervor, his giggles making him incapable of doing so.
“I don’t believe I will,” Mother practically threw the twins into the air, plopping each of them herself down on her shoulders with little effort. “You boys were supposed to be asleep ages ago! If your father sees that you’re still awake, he’ll tan all of your hides.”
From his place in Madara’s own lap, Ryuma gifted the woman with a smile. “But we’re not tired mama!”
“That I can see, but that doesn’t mean that I’m willing to allow you rascals to stay up any longer than you already have. Come along now.” She nodded towards the open doorway, kind but unrelenting.
A chorus of ‘awws’ filled the air whilst Madara and Izuna stood to their feet, the older brother placing Ryuma on his hips without a second thought. “But mama, papa will never know!”
“Oh, he’ll know alright, especially when he finds all of you running around the halls, making a mighty ruckus like you just were! Then the lot of you will whine and complain when he wakes you for early training as punishment, just like you do every time, and then I’ll have a handful of grumpy boys on my hands. It’s a no win-win situation for all of us in the end!”
The march to their shared room came to an end far too quickly for Madara’s taste, watching on in defeat whilst his mother set the twins on the ground and rolled the door to the side, gesturing them inward. “Now, accept your defeat, and crawl into bed. Your father should be home any minute now and you will need to be asleep before he does.”
With a cacophony of unwilling grumbles, the five boys scurried inside, Madara setting Ryuma on his futon before venturing over to his own beside Izuna.
Quick to settle beneath the covers, Izuna piped up from his bed, an innocent almost shy smile on his face, “Mama, can you tell us a story?”
“A story? Was my lullaby earlier not enough for you?”
“Stories help us go to sleep even better than lullabies, mama!” Kasai gifted the woman with a tiring grin, the exhaustion of the day slowly creeping up on the young boy.
Let out an exaggerated sigh of surrender, mother settled herself into a seiza between Madara and Izuna’s futons, promptly pulling their comforters up to their chins. “Fine, fine, a story it is! Now, what kind of story do you want to hear?”
“Ooo, ooo, the one about the Blessed One!”
Mother chuckled at all of their enthusiasm, shifting her body just enough to rest on her right hip, brushing stray locks from Izuna’s face, “Let me see, how does that story go again? Ah, yes.”
“In the days of the Sage of Six Paths, there were two sons, one who had incurred the Sage’s favor and the one who bore the first Sharingan. Angered by the Sage’s favoritism towards his brother, our progenitor abandoned his home and everything he knew in hopes of finding solace and support elsewhere. Day and night the brother journeyed, searching high and low for a place to declare as his own until one day, with a wary soul and worn feet, he found settlement amongst a set of mountains. It was there that he was warmly welcomed by the small settlers, and they provided the brother with food, shelter, clothes, and company for the first time in months. The one who welcomed him with the greatest fervor was the clan head’s lone daughter and what an oddity she was, with hair white as freshly fallen snow and eyes red as wine, skin marked in crimson tattoos that stood out beautifully against her pale skin. As practitioners of the ancient religion, the clan believed the daughter to have been touched by Amaterasu herself, viewing her as a Blessed One amongst their small community. Wowed by not only her appearance but also by her wit and charm, the brother chose to settle in the village and spent many of his days with the daughter, learning and exploring the vast mountainside the valley below. A year had passed by the time he gathered the courage to ask her father for her hand in marriage, in which the clan head readily agreed. So in time, the brother and the Blessed daughter fell in love and married, bringing forth five sons of their own. Following their sons’ births, the brother ventured downwards into the valley below in search of wild game and berries, only to be met with his brother and his followers. Upon meeting one another, a great battle occurred, and in hopes of sparing the village and his newfound family, the brother led his attackers away from the mountains and fled further into the continent. Afraid of his brother following him home, the brother never returned to his family and was forced to begin anew in the Land of Fire, in turn creating the Uchiha clan of which we are a part of today. However, even with his new people and clan, the brother yearned greatly for the Blessed Woman from the mountains and died facing the great twin mountains in hope of her watching down upon him. It is said that those born with the features of the Blessed Woman are her reincarnations and that they are searching for her beloved husband in hopes of one day reuniting with him once again. As legend has it, their eternal love for one another is why the sharingan is tied to our emotions, especially to that of love, and why our chakra affinity happens to be katon, for our love burns deeply for those we love.”
Tiny snores echoed across the room as the story came to a close, the twins, Ryuma and Izuna now peacefully slumbering in their futons whilst Madara laid with heavy eyes.
“Mama?”
Brushing away his messy waves from his eyes, mother watched on in fond curiosity. “What is it, my dearest?”
“Do you think,” Yawning quietly, the eight year old snuggled further into the covers, keeping just one eye open. “-I’ll be able to find someone to be my Blessed one day?”
A smile that Madara was unable to decipher grew on the beautiful woman’s face, her hand coming to cup his cheek. “Oh, how great is the fire of an Uchiha’s soul, for it shines brighter than the heavens and its blaze is more scorching than the magma that serves as the veins of this world. The Uchiha feel deeper than any other, our love is stronger than any storm imaginable, and all cower at the symbol of such emotion, the Sharingan.”
“-But now, oh now I see that could be anything farther from the truth because there was never any hope for whatever we call this sorry excuse for an arranged marriage because there never was any to begin with! Because you are incapable of love-!”
“As long as you possess our clan’s dojutsu, Madara, you will find your Blessed, that I am sure of,” Her index finger came to gently tap the space between his eyes, a weird reminiscent like sadness filling her dark irises. “Just remember, my little spitfire, to treat your Blessed as if they are Amaterasu herself, for you only have one lifetime.”
“You have rejected my courting gifts, you have insulted and assumed every step, you have not come to me with your discontent regarding our courting but to my brother when it is truly none of his business,” With the calm before a storm, Tobirama refused to break eye contact with Madara’s crimson-obsidian eyes, voice steady as the earth beneath their feet. “I have accepted your terms, your rules, your culture, your barbed words, your hatred for me. So, what have you done but do the opposite?”
“They will be your soulmate, a rarity amongst those on this earth, the fan to your flame, your other half.”
“You are no better than I in the end, Uchiha. The only difference between us is that I am willing to accept the monster that I am.”
The rain that day had done nothing to cool Madara’s raging temper, each raindrop sizzling angrily against his magma hot skin whilst the Senju standing before him cut the two of them apart with the skill of a surgeon. His words cut deep, their meaning searing Madara’s bones without mercy, his heart crying out in agony whilst his mind imploded on itself. Everything had become too loud yet too quiet, senses going haywire all while this facade of an arranged marriage was cracked open like a roasted chestnut, his faults laid out before him and damning. He had tried to escape, to withhold the explosion of emotions and harsh memories growing within him, but in one shove and an accompanying shout, Madara had ruined what little was left to salvage between him and his intended.
“What did you do?!”
In a blur, Tobirama had somehow ended on the ground, slouched against the gateway, snowy locks growing dark with crimson, a smear of fresh scarlet blood marring the wood behind him. Madara had been unable to move, to breath, to speak, to do anything whilst he numbly watched Izuna hurry to the bleeding teen’s side–he had caused this. Tobirama’s head lolled about without coordination as Izuna asked if he was alright, clearly in a daze of some sort, yet before either Uchiha could move to stop him, the teen was lifting a shaky hand and was gone in a flurry of leaves. Neither Izuna or Madara had known what to do as they stood in the middle of the storm, both sopping wet and minds reeling, unable to say a word or think a thought. They both remained quiet for the rest of the evening, even after dragging one another inside, both too shocked to speak until finally, at breakfast the next morning, right before stuffing a small mouthful of rice into his mouth, Hikaku had broken the silence between them.
In his typical deadly calm demeanor, Hikaku placed his bowl on the chabudai before him with a sigh, body primed and voice stern. “Alright, what did you two do now, and don’t try to convince me everything is fine. You two are never this quiet unless something bad happened, so spill it already.”
Much to Madara’s chagrin, Izuna beat him to the punch.
“During the storm yesterday, Senju Tobirama paid us a visit.” Clearly distraught both physically and emotionally, the nineteen year old refused to make eye contact with either of them. “It didn’t go well.”
“What do you mean ‘it didn’t go well’,” Hikaku shifted his gaze back and forth before it ultimately came to settle on Madara’s hunched form, concerned realization dripping thickly off his person. “Madara?”
Growing agitated, Izuna piped once more as Madara choked on the lump caught in his throat, emotions fluctuating dangerously within his chest. “He didn’t do anything, it was that Senju Demon-!”
Their cousin paid the teen no mind, his dark and heavy gaze never leaving Madara for a second. “Madara, did something between you and Tobirama-sama?”
“It is as Izuna said,” The lump in his throat promptly grew in great proportion as answered his cousin’s query. “The Senju paid us a visit and it didn't go well.”
“There is more to it and you know it. No, what happened between you two and Tobirama-sama?” Hikaku’s face contorted into an unrelenting glare.
*Bang, bang*
Before either brother could gather the strength or will to even broach the truth of yesterday’s fallout, two loud bangs echoed from the front of the house, a shout of rage following close behind.
“I know you’re in there, Uchiha! Come out and face me!”
The three Uchiha males sat at the table stupefied, the voice of an enraged Senju Touka reverberating throughout the home. Madara and Hikaku shifted their questioning gazes to a fearful looking Izuna, the teen promptly throwing a defensive glare their way, a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead. “What are you two looking at me for?!”
“I’m going to give you till the count of five to come out here and face me like a man, Uchiha, peace treaty be damned!”
Growing annoyed with the noise the female Senju was generating because how dare she demand things of any of them, Madara stood to his feet and stalked out of the dining room, Hikaku calling after him.
“Madara, wait-!”
"One, two, three-!"
He waited for no one, wasting no time to march up to the sliding door and sliding it open with a resounding crack, temper flaring dangerously the moment his obsidian irises met Touka’s fiery pools of rich soil. “What do you want, Senju witch-?!”
The Senju stood firm in her spot in the doorway, a nasty snarl marring her typically stoic facial features as she brutally cut him off mid-question. “Where is he, Uchiha?!”
Madara glared at the threatening kunoichi with eyes sharp as kunai, the earthquake of emotions with him growing more violent with every passing moment. “I have no idea what you are speaking of, blasted woman!”
“Don’t you dare act as if you’re stupider than you already are, you Uchiha bastard,” Moving to place her face only inches from his own, a growl as aggressive as that of a mother bear protecting her cubs ripped out of her throat. “Where is my cousin, where is Tobirama?!”
“Your beloved baby cousin isn’t here, hasn’t been since last evening when he barged on our property and promptly lost his mind. Not that it was surprising if you truly think about it, seeing how animalistic he can be at times with his bloodlust and all.” Izuna, having joined Madara in the doorway at some point in time, gave the Senju kunoichi a leveling stare, practically daring her to try and do something to his aniki all while a concerned Hikaku came to stand behind him.
Touka let loose another menacing growl, hands curling into tight fists as she moved to attack the younger Uchiha brother. “You have no right, I’ll-!”
“You’ll do nothing, Senju witch!” Madara forced himself between the two, readying himself to put the bitch in her place, not caring that she was Hashirama’s cousin or not. “Now get off my property before I-!”
“Before you do what, Madara-sama?"
The ice cold voice of Hashirama’s curse of a wife froze the Uchiha clan head mid sentence, Madara’s head snapping over to the side to see the damned Uzumaki demon strategically standing there, primly dressed and poise set to perfection. A look of indifference sat on her face but oh he knew better; the quieter and more polite Mito was, the more dangerous she became.
Stepping forward to settle beside Touka with grace, the Uzumaki princess’s once stoic face split into a warm, endearing grin of imminent danger whilst she gifted them with a bow of apology. “Please forgive my cousin’s brashness Madara-sama, Izuna-sama, Hikaku-sama. She does not mean to cause any misgivings between our families-.”
“Like hell I don’t-!”
Mito ignored the haughty kunoichi with the skill of a well-practiced politician, placing a dainty but daring hand on the woman’s forearm. “-we are simply in search of Tobirama and hoped you had seen him recently. He never returned home last night and when we went in search of him at his lab, we found quite a disturbing scene.”
Madara’s body stilled as if he had been caught in a Nara’s cursed shadow paralysis jutsu, mind sent reeling as his heart began to beat incessantly against his ribcage. A disturbing scene-?!
Hikaku, who had remained quiet until that moment, spoke up from his place behind Izuna. “Is Tobirama-sama alright, Mito-sama?”
“See now, that is our dilemma, we do not know if he is or not,” Worry graced the Uzumaki’s features, her earrings swaying from the faint breeze in the air. “When we arrived at Tobirama’s lab, we found blood and broken glass but he was nowhere to be found. It seems he may have been in a struggle with someone but the likeliness of this is extremely, seeing how heavily warded the space is.”
“Can you not sense him anywhere in the village?” The youngest of the three Uchiha placed a grounding hand on Madara’s shoulder, Hikaku shifted his gaze between the redhead and the Uchiha clan head, as if to gauge his reaction to the situation at hand. Mito Uzumaki was known for three things; her spotless etiquette, her mastery in fuinjutsu, and her impressive sensor abilities. If she was unable to sense Tobirama, that could only mean-.
His heartbeat only seemed to intensify as the woman responded with a shake of head in the negative, deep violet-almost-black irises peering up at the men in concern. “I have not been able to sense him all morning. He has either hidden his chakra signature or-.”
“Someone has cut him off from his chakra,” Izuna finished unhappily, his glare set on the two women never fading. “And you think that we’re behind it, don’t you?”
Releasing a growl of indignation, Hikaku settled a glare of his own on the nineteen year old.
“Izuna!”
Yet the teen would not have it, pointing an accusatory finger towards the Uzumaki. “Oh please, they wouldn’t be here unless they suspected we were a part of this madness!”
“Izuna-sama, please do your best to not misunderstand us nor our queries, we are simply attempting to retrace Tobirama’s steps to better understand where he may have gone,” Mito slid her hands within the sleeves of her kimono, face darkening with seriousness. “The only reason why we are even here is due to the fact that we have found a faint yet present hint of his chakra on the gateway of your property.”
What hint? Tobirama had left nothing in his messy retreat, nothing aside from-.
Shit.
As if a predator was moving in for the kill, the Uzumaki demon stared at Madara with bloodthirsty eyes, just waiting to feast on its prey, which just so happened to be him. “Now, answer me this Madara-sama, why is my otouto’s blood smeared on your gateway?”
“What?!”
Hikaku’s outcry of indignation forced the clan head to wilt before the small group, his gaze never leaving Mito’s.
“What happened wasn’t our fault! Your cousin trespassed onto our property, rambling like a mad man about aniki being incapable of love and accused him of putting their arranged marriage in jeopardy!” Izuna was practically frothing at the mouth now, hands clenched into fists of fury. “Madara told him to leave and when the Demon refused, he-!”
Never had Tobirama refused to leave. No, his ever self-sabotaging temper had gotten the better of him and hurt an already hurting individual. Madara realized this as he absentmindedly listened to Izuna and Hikaku bickered, his dark eyes never leaving Mito’s own, and much to his horror, he came to realize something even more troubling. In his anger, he had never taken the time to think as to why Tobirama had been upset or why he had spoken like that, too riled up by Izuna and the unexpected show of crippling emotion from the teen to fully grasp how dire the situation had been. For the first time, Tobirama had truly shown his emotions and what had Madara done in return? Oh, he belittled him, accused him of wanting child murder, of trying to dissolve the peace treaty and in turn destroy the village that he himself had greatly contributed to, and top it all off, Madara had assaulted him without a shred of reason other than he lost control of his emotions like some young child.
“You are no better, Uchiha.”
At times, the truth hurts and kami, it hurt now more than ever and Madara deserved to feel every bit of that pain. Because Tobirama had, whether he deserved it or not.
“-was Tobirama bleeding when he left this yard?! Answer me!”
At the feeling of hand roughly grabbing his collar, Madara was abruptly forced from his thoughts and back into the present, right into the snarling visage of Senju Touka. “Are you stupider than you look, bastard?! What did you do to Tobi?!”
No more lies, no more skirting around the issues at hand, no more ignoring how broken his and Tobirama’s arranged marriage already was because of their mistakened ignorance. It was to face the music.
“I shoved him,” the effect of his words was immediate, various reactions coming forth from the four people standing in his vicinity. “To accuse an Uchiha of being incapable of loving another, it is equivalent to saying that they are a heartless monster and it is one of the greatest insults an Uchiha can endure. I lost hold of my temper, but I hadn’t realized just how hard I had pushed him or that I pushed him at all until I saw the blood from the back of his head smeared on the gateway.”
He turned his attention back to Mito, his heart heavy and his consciousness even heavier. “He shunshinned away before we could do anything to help him.”
The dragon of woman watched him with calculating eyes, flakes of righteous anger swimming about in her dark irises, before finally, much too little relief to Madara, she sighed in reluctant defeat.
“None of that matters now, what does matter is that Tobirama's chakra has become undetectable and he is nowhere to be found and injured. If Tobirama hit his head hard enough to bleed, we also need to assume he is concussed but coherent enough to be capable of shunshinning to his lab,” She shifted her attention to Touka, fresh worry flooding her facial features. “He must have landed on one of his lab tables, meaning he most likely has additional injuries aside from his concussion. The pool of blood we found on the floor of his lab was small but still worrying; he could be bleeding out somewhere as we speak.”
“You never mentioned that there was a pool of it,” Izuna cried out, clearly disturbed by the events unfolding before them.
Touka was swift to give the boy a mocking sneer. “Sucks to have important information withheld from you, doesn’t it Uchiha?”
“Enough! Arguing amongst ourselves is not going to assist us in locating Tobirama-sama!” Hikaku’s shot a stern glare that was searing hot, just daring for one of them to object, and after seeing that neither had something to say, he set his sights on the tree brain’s wife. “Mito-sama, you said you’ve been retracing Tobirama-sama’s steps up to his lab, correct? Is it possible he shunshinned elsewhere in the village, a place he felt safe enough to recover in or perhaps someone to stay with?”
It took the Uzumaki a moment, but a dawning look of realization flooded both her and Touka’s face as their gazes shifted to one another before the two women turned to the three Uchiha. “In times when he had migraines, Tobirama prefers to spend time with my husband in his office at the Hokage Residence.”
“Says that the dolt’s earth chakra is grounding or some bullshit,” Touka pulled away, clearly making to leave. “Let’s hope he’s there, Mito-.”
“Wait!”
Madara moved before he even realized what he was moving, his gloved hand coming to take hold of the kunoichi’s arm in hopes of halting the woman for just a second. She originally spun around with disgust, but he must have looked quite pitiful for the sickening emotion lessened just a tad the moment she saw his face. “We’ll come with you. The more of us, the quicker we’ll be able to find Tobirama.”
“Hhmph, don’t act like you care about Tobirama now just because he might be in danger, because of your actions no less! You’ve treated him like utter dog shit from the moment that peace treaty was signed!” Never one to surrender in all the times Madara encountered the female Senju, Touka wasted no time on pouncing on the Uchiha’s tender faults. “Why on earth should we believe that you give a damn enough to help us find him after all that you’ve done?!”
“Because, he’s my Blessed One.”
Hikaku and Izuna’s necks should have let out a resounding crack with how fast their heads snapped towards his direction, mouths agape in a mix of emotions he didn’t have the time to decipher.
“And what in the fuck is a ‘Blessed One’,” Touka growled in question, shifting her body just enough to inform Madara he had successfully interrupted the kunoichis departure.
Face growing hot, Madara moved to explain, but found the words would not leave his mouth, embarrassed at having to explain something so intimate to an outsider, the cousin of his intended no less.
“A Blessed One is an individual that is believed by the Uchiha to be a child of Amaterasu herself, one of red eyes and snowy hair,” Much to his relief, Hikaku rose to the occasion as he often did when the clan head became flustered. “Tobirama-sama’s very appearance is why we pushed for the arranged marriage in the first place, for Madara-sama, our clan head, to be married to a child of our patron goddess is the greatest show of empowerment an Uchiha can ever obtain.”
“They are also believed to be one’s true soulmate, the yin to an Uchiha’s yang. Rare and highly coveted by all of our people.”
“If all of this is true, if Tobirama truly is a ‘Blessed One’ like you say he is.” Mito implored, curiosity killing the cat. “Then somewhere, hidden behind all of this callousness and brisk behavior, you believe him to be your soulmate, don’t you?”
Somewhere, deep down past all of the trauma and confusion and inter-clan mishaps between them, a part of him that represented the young child still within himself believed that the pale boy Madara saw staring back at him across the battlefield all those years ago was his soulmate.
“-It is said that those born with the features of the Blessed Woman are her reincarnations and that they are searching for her beloved husband in hopes of one day reuniting with him once again.”
The hopeful awe that had filled the chest of that young child, the sudden inability to take a breath because the boy standing before him was everything Madara could have ever wanted, had been overshadowed by the bloodsoaked fields and countless years of needless war amongst their peoples. Life had been cruel to place them on the opposite sides of conflict, having them born as inherited enemies and tied to one another by a thin, red string of fated lovers.
“Yes.”
Though it was no answer of extravagance, the single word that fell from his stiff lips had the weight of a million.
Much to the Uchiha’s surprise, for he had been expecting a dismissive scoff at the least from the Uzumaki, a soft, genuine smile of understanding grew on her painted lips. “Then let us all be on our way, shall we?”
Before any of them could speak, a burst of leaves had been left in the redhead’s wake, and before doing the same, Touka gifted Madara with a glare of warning. “If we find my cousin dead, no peace treaty will stop me from removing your head from your shoulders. Got it?”
“Crystal,” Madara slumped forward with emotional exhaustion, this much outward expression wearing on his bones.
“Smart answer, dumbass.”
With that, Touka was gone, leaving the three young men in her wake.
“You really meant that, didn’t you,” Madara didn’t have the energy to face Izuna head on. “The whole thing about Tobirama being your soulmate?”
Refusing to touch yet another emotional can of worms, Madara readied himself to shunshin. “We shouldn’t keep the Senju and Uzumaki waiting. Either join us or stay behind, it’s your choice.”
Not wanting to wait and see what his brother would choose, Madara performed the hand signs needed and thrust his chakra forward, shunshinning himself one step closer to finding his missing husband.
~~~