revelations
It was the day after the mission.
Tobirama had gone straight to his room to sit at his desk and reflect, locking himself in his room from dinner to this morning’s breakfast. That means their father had made dinner and Hashirama probably attempted to make breakfast. He rested an elbow on the desk and his cheek in the palm of his hand, and decided to train. Expanding his sensory abilities was child’s play, but reeling them in was extremely. It was like trying to pack a pail of loose sand into a teacup or two. Sure, you probably could do it with some effort and chakra, but it would be very tedious, unless you were a master at… putting sand in teacups. That was something Tobirama could not do.
However, his struggles in reeling in his natural sensing output paid off. When a natural sensor (such as Tobirama) pulled all of their senses in, focusing on themselves, they were able to focus and feel the chakra move within their body. Which was what Tobirama was doing right now. From some of his missions— usually the ones in Kirigakure— he’d seen shinobi use seals with one hand. The young albino took great interest in this, as the practicality of using one-handed seals was too great to not study.
The possibilities seemed to be endless. With one hand he could summon a water dragon, while in his other hand he wielded a blade. Perhaps he could reinvent some of his newer and prototype jutsu and seals so that they could be activated with only one hand. It was ingenious. The question was: how did it work?
Tobirama was the most skilled Suiton user the Senju had ever seen, and he had frequently reeled in his sensory abilities to try and figure out why. Because of his soul-searching, he knew exactly how to control water with minimal effort. Now the key was to figure out how to do jutsu with one hand. Water release came so natural to him that he often had trouble first learning jutsu oriented toward other chakra natures. If Tobirama couldn’t figure the jutsu out, he’d convert it to a Suiton and practice until he better understood the purpose and use of the jutsu.
Later— when the albino had figured out how to reel his sensing in— Tobirama had figured out that his chakra flowed like the water in the Naka. It was a strong current of chakra that streamed through the boy, rushing quickly and precisely. His chakra, though it flowed like rivers, had a distinct ocean-like feel— rooted deep and lapping at the outer world in waves. Because his chakra was so akin to that of water, Tobirama theorized that this was why Suiton was as easy as breathing. And, by this point, Tobirama was getting off track once more, forgetting about the one-handed seal issue for a moment.
All of his brothers were gifted with Doton or Fuuton, not including the fabled Mokuton that seemed to reside in all of the brothers except Kawarama, because Kawarama… Touka leaned more toward Doton and Katon herself. Tobirama seemed to be the odd one out. Even his mother had not been Suiton-oriented. It had bugged Tobirama to no end, until Butsuma and his sons had met the Uzumaki at the shoreline to negotiate an alliance. They had such comforting wave-like Suiton chakra, save for the special someone who had caught his Anija’s eye, and she, unfortunately, was Fuuton-oriented.
The Uzumaki’s eldest child, Mito, had become smitten with Hashirama’s naïve sunshine-like presence. Hashirama had fallen head over heels for Mito. Literally. He saw her once and tripped, getting the beach’s hot sand in his mouth and hair. Tobirama and Itama and Kawarama had laughed at him, with their father shaking his head. (He was smiling, just a little bit. No one had noticed except for Tobirama. It was his job to notice these things.)
Before negotiations had even started with the Uzumaki, Hashirama had flirted with Mito. Her father— the literal Uzumaki Clan Head, the King of the Uzumaki— looked to be confused, as were his children, save for his eldest. Mito, in turn, asked Butsuma for permission to court his eldest son, which was a culture-shock. The Senju courting rituals said that a male must court a female, and treat her to gifts and dates and such. The Uzumaki courting rituals were not constrained by gender roles nor gender itself, so whomever proposed the Courting must be the one giving gifts.
Mito’s father had explained this to Butsuma, awaiting the other clan head’s answer, assuring the Senju clan head that the alliance need not be dissolved should he decline. Before Butsuma could even state a decision, Hashirama got on his knees begging his father to say yes, tears in his eyes. Butsuma had no choice. Hashirama cried tears of joy when his father had said yes, and Mito looked to be even more smitten. It was gross.
Though, as per Uzumaki tradition, an occasional gift would be given to the direct family of the person being courted, as a sign of goodwill and such. Meaning Mito sometimes gave gifts to everyone. So Kawarama Itama, Butsuma, and Tobirama himself. Rarely Touka. Mito preferred to give these gifts in person, but usually sent them with a messenger, who, Tobirama had found out, had delivered Mito’s Future Familial Goodwill presents yesterday. Mito did not know about Kawarama. Mito got Kawarama a gift. Kawarama would not be able to see the gift. Kawarama was dead. Kawarama was dead. Kawarama was de—
Tobirama idly flipped a storage seal in his hands. He had yet to open it, but it was his gift from Mito. Usually the family would rant and rave about their gifts at the dinner table— Touka as well, she was over for the day as she had also gotten a gift— but Tobirama was not there at dinner. He didn’t think the family would talk about their presents without them, as they didn’t like eating without everyone present. So how could Tobirama even stomach food if Kawarama was not there? When Kawarama was dead. Kawarama was—
Tobirama unsealed the scroll. Inside were books about Suiton jutsu, the history and religion of the Uzumaki clan, weapons, and Uzumaki sealing techniques. Mito never missed in her gifts, despite barely visiting the compound. Hashirama must talk about his brothers a lot in the hundreds of letters he sends every month. Maybe Tobirama should start figuring out his teleportation sealwork so Mito and his idiotic Anija could stop abusing their clan’s poor messenger boys (messenger people in the Uzumaki’s case) from their endless letter-sending.
On the subject of teleportation…
And thus, Tobirama fell into another research binge, completely forgetting about reminiscing and the one handed seal investigation. And, as Tobirama forgot to release his sensing abilities from their constraints, he didn’t realize Hashirama and Itama were approaching until his elder brother kicked open his door.
“Otouto! What did you get from Mito?!” Hashirama chirped.
“Shit…!” Tobirama startled, jumping a bit and whipping his head to face the now-broken door. “Anija, I sincerely hope you mean to fix that!”
The albino re-extended his sensing ability, silently cursing himself for forgetting to do that earlier.
“If he won’t, then I wi—” Itama suddenly cut himself off, looking at the albino with disbelief. “Oh my— Aniki…?”
Tobirama looked at his younger brother, confused. “Is everything alright—”
“Tobi… is there anything you want to tell us?” Hashirama carefully asked, excitement and amusement bubbling up in his chakra.
The albino Senju tilted his head, feigning confusion as he calculated the possibility of his brothers finding out about the Edo Tensei. “What do you mean…?”
“Do you have-- how do I say this… some sort of connection to the plants?”
Tobirama tensed. How did Hashirama know? He hadn’t told anyone about his recently discovered abilities. He wasn’t planning on telling anyone. His hands trembled. First the emotional turmoil of thinking of reviving Kawarama saving the Hyūga boy from child-killers, then he let his guard down while going into his potentially dangerous research, and then he has to deal with a confrontation from his brothers, who would no doubt be very upset at him for hiding his Mokuton! They might not even talk to him for days, like last time when—
“Do you… have Mokuton like us?” Itama’s eyes widened, a smile growing on his lips, which threw Tobirama off. “You do!”
“How could you even tell…?” Tobirama confessed, confused out of his mind. “I only found out yesterday…”
Hashirama snickered. Itama covered his mouth, shoulders shaking. Tobirama quirked a brow, unamused. Just as he was about to ask what the hell was so funny—
“Mokuton resonance… but… Hah—! You have,” Hashirama wheezed. “A flower on your head.”
Tobirama sighed, tension leaving his body at his Anija’s childishness. “That’s it? Really? You both thought I had developed Mokuton before considering I fell in a garden or something? Perhaps the wind had blown a flower into my hair? You two weren’t wrong, but basing—”
“No, no, I… Well,” Itama snickered. “It looks like it’s… ha, it’s…”
Hashirama swiftly ran to another room, noisily searching for something before running back to Tobirama’s room holding a small mirror.
Tobirama rolled his eyes, quickly accepting the mirror as more apprehension drained from his mind. When his red eyes glanced at his reflection, he was shocked at what he saw. A little flower had bloomed. On his head! From his head?! What the…
This was so embarrassing.
Itama and Hashirama broke out into laughter, holding their sides and pointing at the flower.
“I’m taking it out!” Tobirama yelled, face red as he sprinted over to Hashirama’s room, where a bigger mirror was.
“Nooo!” Hashirama protested, chasing after his brother, Itama on his heels. “We like the flower! It’s so cuuute!”
Tobirama plucked the growing flower out of his hair (head? scalp?) with some difficulty and saw that he held an iris sibirica in his hand. Hashirama burst through the door, throwing himself at Tobirama’s knees and wailing at the loss of the little flower. Itama began reciting ancient Senju funeral rites, a sad, very fake expression on his face.
“Stop it right now!” Tobirama scolded, face burning with embarrassment. “This’ll never happen again!”
Hashirama looked up at Tobirama from the ground, lip wobbling as he still mourned the loss of the iris. But then the brunette’s eyes widened, and the snickering began once more. Itama burst out laughing.
Tobirama turned to the mirror, growling when he saw that a ulex europaeus had bloomed in the iris sibirica’s stead.
“You’re done for,” Tobirama snarled, readying a shadow clone.
“Bring it, Flower Boy!” Itama taunted, grinning while falling into a traditional Senju healer’s battle stance. “You’re no match for Tree Man and… and uh… Vine Guy!”
Tobirama felt proud at his younger brother’s stance, realized that maybe with Itama’s newfound powers his father will have no choice but to let him be a medic— but this pride quickly disappeared at irritation from his brother’s taunts.
“You’ll never catch us, Flower Boy!” Hashirama cackled, picking up Itama and racing out of the room.
Butsuma had been standing in the entrance by the main door with Touka and her mother when suddenly, his eldest and youngest rushed by. Tobirama quickly followed the two boys, yelling and screaming and… was that a flower on his head?
Tobirama tried to make a shadow clone, but in his anger and desperation he had mixed up the chakra pattern necessary and created some small replica of him. Tobirama blanched, staing at the mini-him as it stared back at him. It had a tiny, matching ulex europaeus on its head and it looked at him with disappointment. He quickly released the miniature clone and went back to chasing Hashirama and Itama, who were now wheezing at the now gone “Tiny Tobi.”
Itama wheezed when Tobirama tripped on a vine he had grown, but quickly stopped laughing as he saw Tobirama stand up from his face-plant in a field full of angrily blooming tanacetum vulgare. Itama had never known flowers could grow so aggressively, but alas, you learn something new every day. Butsuma, still with Touka and her mother, watched from the front entrance of the house in something akin to horror as all 3 of his sons started spontaneously growing trees and plants and vines from the ground.
“Alas! Tree Man has defeated Flower Boy!” Hashirama announced, after trapping Tobirama in a tree. “And the day is saved!”
Tobirama winced, a little bit hurt that the day was “saved” from him, implying he was the bad guy. Hashirama was clearly oblivious to that implication, as he continued to do a little victory dance.
Itama, however, had caught the wince, and spun the leaves of a tree Hashirama grew extremely fast. The leaves were spinning so fast that they were razor sharp like shuriken, and he used them to tear through the branches that Tobirama was trapped in, much to Hashirama’s sadness.
“But alas!” Itama called, helping his Tobirama to his feet. “It seems that Tree Man has become corrupt! Flower Boy, will you help me overthrow him?!”
Tobirama’s eyes widened before he gave a curt nod, smiling. “Yes… Vine Guy, it seems we must put our differences aside and work together.”
Hashirama feigned anger as he dramatically stumbled back. “Vine Guy, how could you? I am the son of the Great Forest Sage!”
“The same Great Forest Sage that killed my father, the Great Moss Sage!” Itama yelled after, summoning vines. “And Flower Boy’s mother, the Great Petal Sage!”
“Can my name be something other than Flower Boy?” Tobirama deadpanned.
“Nope!” “No, sorry, Aniki!”
Tobirama sighed, moving to stand next to Itama and his vines. “Tree Man of the Great Forest Sage. Not only shall you face retribution for your father slaying my mother, but you shall also face retribution for your mother slaying my father. The, um…”
“The Great Ocean Sage!” Itama chimed.
“Yes. Him. Now you must perish!” Tobirama announced, lunging forward with Itama.
Hashirama quickly got tangled in a web of vines, and subsequently got a mouthful of flowers— still tanacetum vulgare— and thus he was defeated.
“Noooo!” Hashirama wailed, flopping to the ground and spitting out flowers. “I have failed you, father, the Great Forest Sage! Now this tree will bloom where I have perished!”
Itama laughed as he untangled his dramatically limp brother from the vines. Tobirama laughed along with them.
“That was… interesting?” Touka spoke, finding the acting a tad humorous.
Butsuma, Touka, and her mother stood outside, marveling at the newly sprouted nature. The Clan Head’s home was seen as a neat and sacred place. The mess of nature was… discerning to the small crowd, to say the least.
“…It was entertaining. But why did… um, Tree Man. He was attacked for something that his father did?” Touka’s mother politely asked, a bit confused.
“That does seem like an… insufficient reason to attack,” Butsuma added.
“It’s like our war on the Uchiha!” Hashirama blurted.
“That’s what I based it on,” Itama said, nodding sagely as he plucked the flower from Tobirama’s head.
It went too quiet too fast. Butsuma’s eyes narrowed at his sons as they realized what they had said, tensing.
“You both know nothing of—“
“Tou-sama,” Tobirama interrupted his father, standing in front of his brothers. “Shall I prepare lunch for us and our guests?”
Butsuma’s steely eyes moved to Tobirama, looking at him coldly for a long while. “…After dinner we will talk, Tobirama. Go.”
Tobirama nodded and quickly walked inside.
Once his adrenaline died down, the albino remembered the empty feeling in his chest. The blind happiness of acting childish had only made his feeling of failure worse. The Edo Tensei. Kawarama’s absence.
He began cooking, ignoring the feel of his father’s greatly angered chakra.