The Uchiha Clan Shock
Much to Tajima’s shock, it had only been three or four hours since the confrontation on the river when a messenger bird arrived from the Senju Clan. Tajima immediately notified the elders, who called for a council meeting. Tajima had yet to devise a sufficient punishment for Madara but dragged him to the council meeting.
Tajima and Madara entered the council room; Madara was still afraid of his punishment for befriending Senju.
They had just sat down when the head of the Uchiha Council turned to Tajima. “Do you know why the Senju, of all people, would send us an official letter?”
‘An official correspondence came from Senju!’ Madara froze, his eyes widening and shocked, thinking, ‘What? What the hell was going on? What happened?’ He began to panic inside his head.
Tajima blanked a couple of times, then responded with a blank and confused expression, “No idea. Have you already opened the letter that you received? Maybe that will help explain why?”
The head of the Uchiha Council said, “Let’s open the letter.” He began reading it, then freezing and rereading it. The head of the council handed it to Tajima, who read it, reread it, and froze in place.
Tajima glanced over at Madara, then looked back at the letter, then back at Madara, and reluctantly handed it over to him.
Madara looked down at the letter he had been handed and began reading it. He glanced at it again and noticed it said the same thing. Madara stared at it, explaining that Hashirama was his fated mate; that would explain why he felt safe and at ease whenever he was near him. His heart froze when he read further that it had come to light when Hashirama entered early into his first heat since his fated mate had abandoned him. They verified within hours of learning, according to the letter. He was the worst faded mate ever; he caused Hashirama to present early, which stressed Hashirama’s body tremendously. He looked back up and reread it; it stated Hashirama’s first heat. Hashirama is an Omega which would mean he would present as an Alpha.
A council member interrupted Madara’s thoughts. “What exactly does the letter say?”
Tajima responded, “Well, the Senju discovered that Hashirama, the heir of the Senju, happens to be Madara’s fated mate. We need to confirm if this is true or not.”
Another council member yelled, “Tajima-sama can’t be serious. They’re probably lying to get us into a false sense of security and then attacking us!”
A second council member yelled, “What do you mean? Hashirama Senju is our heir’s fated mate? Let me have the letter. It must be a lie!”
Madara jumped in surprise, tightening his grip on the letter. Tajima extended his hand toward Madara, and Madara reluctantly handed the letter back to him.
As he hands the letter to a council member, Tajima says, “I would like everyone to read the letter, and then we shall verify the results using the Jutsu we developed to determine and verify a person’s fated mate.”
Upon receiving the letter, the council member began to read it and handed it over to the next member once he finished. It took about ten minutes for everyone to read the letter.
“Now that everyone has read it,” said the head of the council, “We should determine that what they are saying is that it is true that Hashirama is Madara’s fated mate.”
The head council member grabbed a scroll and began to cast the jutsu as writing appeared on the scroll.
Once all the writing had stopped on the scroll, the head council member grabbed it and looked down at it, “Okay, Hashirama is indeed Madara’s fated mate.”
“Why does it say he presented early because his fated mate abandoned him? Could you tell me what’s happening?” asked a third council member.
As Tajima spoke, he sighed, “Well, I discovered that Madara had been secretly meeting Hashirama. Since about nine months ago, Madara has become more frequent in getting out of the compound. Initially, I didn’t think anything about it, but it kept happening, so I had Izuna follow him, and I learned that he had met up with Hashirama secretly. When I discovered it, I planned on using it to our advantage to kill Butsuma’s heir. At the same time, Butsuma became aware of it, resulting in a confrontation at the river. Butsuma and I crossed blades. Izuna had accompanied me while Butsuma had brought his other son. Butsuma and I planned to harm or injure the other son, hoping that one would distract the other. Hashirama and Madara intervened and knocked away the weapons as a result. Madara then admitted he wished it were different, but it wasn’t said that their next meeting would be on the battlefield. The exact wording wasn’t said, but the gist of what was said.”
“Our heir has secretly been meeting Hashirama for months?” Another council member shrieked.
“Could you please explain why you failed to inform us when you knew Madara was meeting Hashirama secretly?” a third council member demanded.
“That’s enough,” yelled the head of the council, and then he turned to Madara. “Could you explain exactly what happened and why you were hanging out with a Senju?”
Taking a deep breath, Madara said, “Well, we met at the river. When I first met him, I had just left the compound for fresh air and was skipping stones in the river. He introduced himself first, but we did not exchange clan names. The next time I saw him was after his brother died. As we were talking, we just talked about how children have been killed in this war because of the actions of adults. We even discussed possibly creating a Shinobi Village and uniting our clans as adults. We tried to avoid any identifying information about our clans. We all wanted a place where we could be kids. We wanted a place free of clan matters, wars, or fighting. We’ve sparred a couple of times. And then my father became aware and told me to kill him. Since I could not do that, I carved the message into the rock and scrambled it into the rock. Initially, we skipped talking, and we just started skipping. In addition, Hashirama also carved a message on a rock, saying run, and our parents interceded before we left. Then I unlocked my Sharingan because of him.” Madara lowers his head, putting his hands in his lap once he finishes.
One council member said, “I’m glad you didn’t reveal any identifying clan information to Hashirama.”
A different council member said, “You have no time to be a kid, heir of your clan.”
The council keeps arguing, and a handful keeps yelling, and Madara sits there with his eyes down.
Tajima’s sister gets up from where she is sitting and walks over to Madara, pulling him into a hug.
Mamori looks down at her nephew, furious and remorseful for him. All the council wants to do is argue and yell about the possibility of the Senju deceiving them. Tajima would have stopped the council from arguing about it, and he would have comforted Madara, but Tajima had not been a good father since his wife died. Mamori knew that Madara was required to fight, including studying to become the next clan head. Although, before Tajima's wife died, Madara could play with Izuna, and before the death of his three younger siblings, except for Izuna, all three of his younger siblings were killed. However, after his wife died, he forced his children to train constantly, giving them only brief breaks, and they were forbidden to play.
She looks down at Madara again and says, “Show me,” in a voice barely above a whisper.
Madara looked up, turned his Sharingan on, and started crying, “I didn’t want my Sharingan. I want Hashirama back, but now Hashirama has presented early because I abandoned him. Everyone in the clan knows that if you present early, there is only a small chance that you will survive the presentation. I can’t lose him.”
His aunt Mamori looks down at him, pulling him into a tight hug. “You just found out your friend is Senju, but remember that the Senju have superior medical-nin and healers. Hashirama will be fine.”
Then Madara squeezed his aunt tight. Madara was terrified of losing Hashirama, so Madara could only hope that the Senju had developed a technique to help them survive if they presented early.
Madara seemed utterly zoned out, and Mamori rubbed his back before returning her attention to the meeting since she’ll probably need to explain what happened to him.
“The Senju must have a reason for informing us of this; maybe they want to use this to get close to our clan, kill our clan, and take Madara so that they can get the Sharingan.” A council member shrieked.
“The Senju must be trying to take advantage of us to steal our Kekkei Genkai?!” another council member demanded.
“Can you explain why you failed to inform us when you knew Hashirama was meeting Madara secretly?” the head council shouted.
“Madara, our heir, will not mate with Senju, even though he is Madara’s fated mate!” a fellow council member explains.
“We’re not breaking our clan’s sacred law regarding faded mates just because Madara’s faded mate happens to be a Senju!” shouted Tajima’s sister, Uchiha Mamori.
“That’s enough,” screamed Tajima in exasperation.
Tajima took a deep breath and continued, “No one is happy that Madara’s fated mate is a Senju, but we can’t change that fact. But our clan law is obvious: if a member of the Uchiha Clan has a fated mate from a clan that we are warring or fighting with, we are to make peace with them.”
“We’re not making peace with the Senju,” shouted most council members.
“It doesn’t matter. The Scrolls stated that Hashirama presented early, and we all know that if you present early, there is only a tiny chance that you will survive the presentation. Hashirama probably will not survive, so we have no reason to make peace with the Senju,” another council member added.
Madara half zone back into the meeting when he hears that ‘Hashirama will probably not survive,’ Madara shudders and clings to his aunt.
Mamori notices her nephew shuddering and says, “Do you forget that the Senju are well known for their medical Ninjas and have been able to survive stuff that would normally kill others?”
“That's right,” said the head of the council, “Thanks for your input Mamori-sama. Continuing from that thought, if we make peace with the Senju, we would get access to their medical ninjutsu and healers. I suggest that we respond and see during the first negotiation if we can gain anything by becoming allies with them.”
There were lots of murmurs in the council room. Some agreed that they would be able to get access to Medical Jutsu and the possibility of losing fewer lives in battle thanks to improved Medical ninjutsu. In addition, there is the possibility of an uninterrupted of the trade route. They also discussed if they made peace with the Senju. This would mean that the Senju would cease intercepting and interfering with their trade routes, and they'd be able to take more missions because they wouldn't have to be constantly prepared for the Senju attack. Ultimately, they decided to begin discussions with the Senju at the very least and sent a response asking for a meeting at the end of this week. Much to their surprise, the reply came, and just before sunset, they agreed and set a meeting location.