Prologue
Most days, he would listen to his fathers every whim, follow every command without hesitation (well, there was always a degree of hesitation; he’s just learnt to squash it up and hide it).
Today, however, was decidedly not like most days.
Kneeling in front of his father, hands folded on his lap looking the man straight in the eyes, he answered, “Anija was training by the river.”
In his defense, it wasn't a complete lie, Hashirama was training, just....with another boy with a chakra signature alarmingly similar to their rival clan, Uchiha's, one. Oh and their training was learning how to skip rocks even further. Now that he thought about it there was no reason for him to be risking his own life for Hashirama's absolutely reckless actions.
Butsuma, thankfully, didn’t ask for any more detail, it was a predictable move –he never did care for what his oldest son did, always far more interested in seeing how far he could push Tobirama’s natural abilities instead.
“Follow him.” He ordered. “The river is close to those feral-” Butsuma cut himself off. Shooting one glance out the window, eyes narrowing in disdain at his other two sons sitting under a tree and playing with wooden toys, he turned around, retreating into his own room.
Tobirama stayed rooted to his spot for a few seconds, debating the pros and cons of following his father and confessing that he lied –the cons, quite annoyingly, outweighed the pros. He took a measured breath, an almost giddy feeling started blooming in his chest, he had lied to his father, he’d looked the man straight in the eyes and held a damaging, degrading, secret from him.
The feeling was drowned almost immediately by the wave of annoyance flooding through him, the hard part would be keeping it long enough to not murder Hashirama for impossibly daunting task he had been given. Resigning himself to his miserable fate of keeping his older brother alive, Tobirama stood up and went to change into more suitable domestic clothing, before meeting up with his brothers outside.
/…/
As soon as he stepped into the garden, Hashirama practically attacked him –knocking him to the floor as he wailed overdramatically directly into his ear- “Sage’s sake, get off me you cow!”
After a few seconds of what Tobirama could only describe as desperately trying, and failing, to get Hashirama’s much larger body off his own, Itama rushed over too, giggling as he watched Tobirama fling insult after insult at his brother.
“Anija fell over” Itama informed him, pointing at his own knee. Only then did Hashirama finally decide to get off, uselessly cradling his knee as Tobirama finally got up again.
“Honestly, you are so dramatic –this is hardly fitting for the future clan head” He sighed as he walked over to his, debatably, most annoying brother. He kneeled down, glancing at the scrape, a mere scrape, that he wouldn’t have noticed unless Hashirama pointed at it.
“It hurts!” Hashirama sobbed, an incomprehensible amount of tears cascading down his cheeks.
“Brother will help!” Itama reassured, just as Tobirama said “Die then.”
An awkward, but familiar, silence fell between the three, all of them shooting betrayed looks to one another before they descended into yelling once again.
“You told me to die-!”
“It is an expression-!”
“You’re ruining my hair-!”
“My hair is clearly better-!”
“It’s a bowl cut Anija, even Tobi’s is better!”
“What does that mean you little-“
“Take that back! Bowl cuts suit me!”
“They don’t suit anyone!”
“They suit bowls”
“Shut up Anija”
“I’m your older broth-!”
“Silence!” Their meaningless argument immediately ceased, though Tobirama wasn’t going to let the comment about his hair go anytime soon, and they all stood up, standing in a line and keeping their heads down as their father marched towards them in measured steps.
“Go inside” He gestured to Itama, the youngest of the three gladly scurrying back inside, Tobirama held back a sigh –children could be so cruel.
Their father immediately turns his gaze towards Hashirama, who, bless him, was standing slightly in front of him in a last ditch effort to keep their fathers attention on him instead of Tobirama. Not that he wanted him to. Or appreciated it. Because he absolutely did not.
“You were training by the river.” Butsuma stated, and Tobirama honestly had to commend his brother on not showing an ounce of surprise, though his eyes did dart to meet his own in well hidden panic. “Show me your improvement.” Butsuma stepped back, allowing the two of them ample space to spar.
Tobirama wordlessly got into position, instinctively finding all the faults in Hashirama’s stance and how to exploit them. Father would be furious if Hashirama once again showed no improvement, and there was no doubt he would be taking it out on them for the rest of the week. Perhaps if he let Hashirama get a few hits on him instead of just dodging every time it would be enough to please their father.
/…/
Fortunately, their father had been called to attend some ‘important’ business (he wasn’t fooling anyone, they all knew he was going to bother another vulnerable woman) so their spar was cut short. Unfortunately, this also gave Hashirama the perfect opportunity to be….well, himself.
“I wasn’t training!” He whispered, even though no one would’ve heard him had he started wailing. “I know you know!” He said, dramatically clutching his shoulders and shaking him, which was not in the slightest bit necessary.
“Father would have disowned you if he found out.” Tobirama whispered back, not entirely sure why he was being so quiet. “Why were you meeting up with some Ninja?!” He snarled back, eyes narrowing.
“He isn’t bad!” Hashirama hastily promised him, waving his hands in front of his face defensively. “We-We have the same dream, brother.”
Tobirama wanted to stay mad, he wanted to continue questioning him but –Hashirama looked so happy, happy in a way he hadn’t seen him since Kawarama’s death, and what sort of brother would he be if he indirectly ripped the dopey smile off his face.
A bad one, probably.
Groaning at his inability to do anything that harms his brother, he simply nodded along as Hashirama talked his ear off about his dream of peace, trying his hardest to visualize a place he would never be able to see in his lifetime.