Chapter 3
Paperwork was pure evil. It multiplied instead of decreasing no matter how much he did. He couldn’t burn it, the actual paper was sealed against fire, lightning, and fauna (aka some random paper ninja complained about Hashirama, Madara, and Izuna’s crimes against bureaucracy to Mito who fixed the problem after a few choice words to the trio.) And he had to wait until the evening to take out his aggression on a tree, Hashirama or actual plant he really doesn’t care which at this point, due to the amount of work that had to be completed by the end of the day.
Madara had just made a pot of the tea that Hashirama swore had calming properties, when Izuna burst through the door looking like a Yamanaka with a crush was after him. “What the fu-?!?”
“Aniki! Help!”
The sheer amount of flailing was putting the love-struck Yamanaka theory into more and more likely territory. The one in question was a more forceful type when professing ‘everlasting love’ towards Izuna. Madara tried to arrange his face into one that showed how unimpressed he was instead of his amusement. He also raised an eyebrow as he remembered how that just added to the expression when the younger Senju nuisance did so.
Izuna sputtered. “What even is that face! What is it supposed to mean?!?” He shook his head quickly. “Aniki! I need you to come with me!”
Sensing a way to get rid of his anger he interrupted, “If this is about that Yamanaka, I told you I already talked with the clan head about it.”
There it was. The teakettle noise. A truly wonderful pleasure to a big brother’s ears.
“NOIT’SNOTABOUTTHEYAMANAKA!!!!!”
“Is somebody else after you this time? Please tell me it’s not an Inuzuka. Or worse, a Hyuuga. Why is it always you anyway? I don’t have to get involved in anybody else’s love lives.”
Madara was impressed with himself. This had to be a record. He didn’t think he had ever teased his brother into wordless flailing so quickly before.
It took a few minutes and a lot of dodging on Madara’s part before Izuna got his vocal chords under conscious control again. He drank the whole pot of Madara’s fresh made calming tea, took a few deep breaths, and tried to explain the situation again.
“Aniki. Something is wrong with Tobirama. I refuse to go into the office by myself.”
Madara nodded. If this were any other day, he’d grab the older Senju, but with the mood that Hashirama was in this morning, it didn’t seem like a good idea.
“Wrong how?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Hell, I don’t even believe me and I was there.”
A bit more squabbling and Madara followed Izuna into the shared office space of the two younger brothers.
Izuna was right. Madara would not have believed it.
Tobirama, instead of doing his paperwork like normal, was vibrating in place while staring out of the window when they stepped into the room. Madara’s first thought was that the younger man had drank too much coffee or tea. As soon as they were noticed, the man sprinted towards them.
Izuna dodged, having enough of touchy-feely Senju’s that morning. Madara, however was not prepared.
He was grudgingly used to being glomped by a Senju, but not this Senju!
Tobirama grinned up at him, eyes sparkling, and opened his mouth before Madara roughly removed the apparent human octopus off of his person. The man gave the most ridiculous pout at the brothers before grinning again. Neither Uchiha had time to get their bearings before the Senju opened his mouth to enthusiastically spew an overwhelming amount of Science babble. Madara was lost about a minute in to the rant, while poor Izuna didn’t even last 15 seconds.