Kindling

The third time Mito was called to serve tea for Tobirama she was unsurprised to see yet another seemingly minor meeting taking place in the tea room, yet another meeting that looked on the surface like a demeaning place to have a former princess act as a servant and yet gave her information she could never get on her own; and if Tobirama wasn’t totally aware of what he was doing she would eat her slipper. What was surprising was that just as the meeting with the merchant was wrapping up Tobirama’s head tipped and without looking he called to the door (not loudly, the younger Senju heir never played at being anything other than a powerful shinobi even when it made everyone else uncomfortable) “Come in brother, my meeting is done.” The merchant opened his mouth, met the cool red stare and though better of what ever he was going to say, bowing and rushing past the tall, handsome oldest son of Butsuma on his way out. Hashirama smiled, large and sunny and like nothing Mito had never seen, “Little brother! You must stop scaring the civilians before they refuse to trade with us completely!” he said brightly, throwing himself to the floor to sit next to his brother, who was giving him a long-suffering look (they were… so different here, watchful yes, and somehow more hurt even as they relaxed slightly) “Hashirama” said the younger chastising before dismissing her with a wave.

 Madara frowned as he watched over his clansmen training in one of the main courtyards, it wouldn’t do to have the army of conscripts unable to fight after all, and it wasn’t like they could access more than the faintest trickle of chakra anyway; Madara brushed a finger over the seal inked on his forehead with a bitter grimace, the knowledge that the sharingan was locked away behind it sitting bitter on his tongue as it always did. He didn’t forget the cold words of the younger Senju as the brush moved over Madara’s skin “If you want it off all you have to do is say please”the room was cold and dim, the only light a flickering fire in a corner, besides him Izuna struggled inside the wooden restraints, voice silent from a seal on his throat after the first time he insulted Butsuma. The demon drew back, his face every bit as cold and taunting as his words and Madara snarled “The day I beg you for anything is the day I die, freak” he hissed bitterly, anger and fear writhing inside him; in retrospect he probably shouldn’t have said what he had, but… he had been upset and afraid and Izuna had been right next to him and would have been easy to kill for his words so Madara had tried to hit first, to get them focused on him. Tobirama had seemed unmoved by his words and - a loud yelp pulled Madara out of his thoughts just in time to see a large guard- one of the half of the Amatchi that had sided with the Senju in the war- grab Kagami’s arm, shaking the small boy with an expression that was half anger half glee, Madara lunged forward- he knew that man’s reputation and wouldn’t let that happen to Kagami- only to be stopped by an arm around his waist, he snarled, turning on the Hatake that was holding him with fury in his eyes. “Watch” she hissed and he turned back and- a flash of blue white and red and the man crumbled slowly to the ground, Tobirama Senju standing in front of him a slightly displeased look on his face “I did warn him” he said slightly absently before looking around at all of them with a cold look in his eyes “I do not like having to repeat myself.”

Hashirama never knew what it was to hate until he was held his shivering silent scared brother as close as he could after he returned for the second time, until he learned how to wrap his chakra around Tobirama so the younger boy could stand being in the room with Kagura- though having to do it for too long still left him pale and feverish-, until he saw the way their Father spoke about Tobirama as little better than a pet, until he forced his brother to stop washing his hands over and over and over until they were bloody and raw after Tobirama returned from the labs Father had set up; it infuriated Hashirama to see the way Father used Tobirama’s brilliance against him, forcing his youngest to use his inarguable brilliance to create terrible, terrible weapons to unleash on the other clans. The first to fall to Butsuma with a weapon that Tobirama created were the Yamata no Orochi, proud and faithful and brilliant but small and they refused to bow; Father wiped out half of their clan with a chakra bomb and his army killed over half of what was left, the fact that the whole clan wasn’t wiped out was only because Hashirama told Father that they might make useful lab assistants for Tobirama. It had saved some of them, but not enough and the only consolation was that making another bomb was all but impossible as it had used an heirloom from their stepmother, she had been furious when she found out that he had used it on a clan as small as the Yamata no Orochi and refused to see or speak him for a month; Butsuma used the seal on Tobirama twice in that time and almost killed him the second time when he activated the third mark, that was when Hashirama knew that their Father had created a kill switch on his youngest living son.

Hashirama had slept next to his brother for days, awaking at the slightest chakra fluctuation to pour as much power into Tobirama as he could, the albino had lived but only just and Hashirama could never forget that. The day their stepmother let Father see her again was also the day that Tobirama pulled him aside and told him quietly that their father had been working on a way to give himself a bloodline, (had talked about finding a sharingan and was only dissuaded by Tobirama asking if that meant that he though the Uchiha were more powerful- that was what had led to Father using the third mark) so it was only a matter of time before he had something strong enough that he went after the Uchiha, so they needed to talk about a way to keep the whole clan from  being killed; to keep Madara and Izuna from being killed (it was also the first time Hashirama had realized what Madara meant to his little brother, realized that it was Madara’s chakra that Hashirama had felt his brother reach for sometimes when Hashirama couldn’t help enough, he had bee so relived to know Tobirama had that. Right up until he realized that their Father would never spare the Uchiha unless they could trick him and Tobirama might lose the safety Madara was to him- Hashirama refused to let his little brother lose anything more). And when they met the Hatake on the battlefield, the two of them had entered the fight early and devastatingly, pinning the clan leader to the ground as Hashirama leaned down to her “bow,” he had whispered “bow and live another day until you can run free. Bow and hide your teeth in wait or everyone will die” she had listened (gods know why, Hashirama had not been very convincing) and the Hatake had lived. And later, when they were better at hiding, at planning, at saving while letting everyone think they were killers, the Uchiha survived as well.