Kindling

Morning came too early as it always did, rising sun slanting straight into Tobirama’s eyes and making him whine in pain at the always sensitive hurt, Mito- slumped heavily- against his side stirred a little “Tobi?” he sighed and patted her red hair, “Time to get up Hime” he muttered, “I don’t know about you but I want something to eat before we are expected at the labs” she grumbled and burrowed deeper into his arm before withdrawing with a sigh and shoving her hair back. Tobirama snorted as he went to start coffee before getting in the shower; by the time he came out, redressed in the boring utilitarian clothing he wore to the labs, Mito was poking around in his kitchen clutching a cup of coffee like it was gold dust; he shook his head and shoved he towards the shower- she had long since started keeping clothing here- and turned to the task of making food with the spare basics in his kitchen, really it was a good thing he knew how to cook or they would have gone hungry a lot. The trip to the labs was silent not only from exhaustion but from the mounting tension in both of them, there was a looming feeling that this was going to be the day it all fell apart and Tobirama had long since learned to trust his gut with things like this, had he done so years ago  he might never have ended up locked in prison for five years by his former apprentice (he should have known better than to train Danzo, the man had only been a couple of years younger but had not had Tobirama’s brilliance and he had thought – had thought that Danzo wanted to know just to know, thought that Danzo cared about him. learning otherwise had hurt.).

“Do you think they’ll notice if I spend the day in your lab?” Mito asked him softly as the entered to building, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, “As long as you bring some of your work I don’t see why they should, it’s not like you need anything that special.” She nodded and smiled brightly, darting off to her area. Tobirama sighed, all humor draining from him as he faced his work, the seal-array had been left untouched as always but it’s incompletion taunted him; his curiosity and inability to leave a project unfinished had hurt things before- himself and others- but this was the worst thing he had ever been called upon to do and he was… trying not to let the lure of knowledge pull him off course (for so long knowledge had been his shield and his sword, the only protection he had when times were hard and his only solace when loneliness ate at him. but he had Mito now, he wasn’t alone for nowshe would be taken away for him, his heart sister, when they failed to do what the General wanted). It was an hour later when he heard Mito slip into the room on quiet feet, going to one of his tables to set up her own work and they worked companionably for hours before he heard booted feet in the corridor and forced his spine not to stiffen even as the door opened; he stayed there, focused on the array and refusing to acknowledge the increasingly shifty guards and the man with them (he took a deep satisfaction from knowing that they feared him, Mito had called him White Dragon but he had been called White Demon just as often and these men feared him; they knew how many he had killed when they went to bring him in).

“Senju.” The man in the suit barked officiously “Come over here.” Tobirama looked up lazily, standing the graceful slide of movement that he knew always frightened people and watching the short plain man with cold hard eyes; “Danzo, how… nice of you to visit me.” the man reddened at the slight in Tobirama’s voice as the albino had known he would, spluttering as Tobirama stepped off the array and over to the sink to was his hands. “You-!” to the Senju’s mild disappointment the younger man caught himself and forced his voice to calm, Tobirama had rather hoped to provoke him into a rage again, it was always satisfying and left him so embarrassed latter, very much worth the occasional beating he got from it. “The General wants to see your work” he spat officiously- an interesting combination- “how far have you made it to completing the gate?” Tobirama raised a cool eyebrow, unimpressed “I have kept the General appraised of my progress, there should be nothing knew that he needs to know from me in this project. But if you wish to see it go ahead, surely you can decipher it quite well, State Alchemist.” Danzo went red again but took the bait and stepped forward, stocking around the seal with a look of deep concentration that quickly shaded into confusion “This part is nonsense, you don’t need this balancing matrix to use a warp vector symbol!” Tobirama tipped his head to the side inquiringly “And why do you think I don’t?” “I don’t know it!” Tobirama smirked, just a little “Surely you don’t think I taught you everything I knew do you? I am a seal master; we never give all our secrets away.”

The naked fury on Danzo’s face was less satisfying than Tobirama expected, maybe he was growing up, had to happen sometime “Prove it!” Danzo snarled nastily, Tobirama couldn’t help his surprise at that “You want me to open an untested array so that you can prove that a symbol combination isn’t necessary?” he asked slowly, glancing at a tense Mito. Danzo smiled “Are you refusing?” he asked nastily and Tobirama frowned a little “No, but I know I taught you better than that, surly you see how bad an idea this is?” the guards shifted uncertainly and Danzo’s look got a little mad at the edges (how had he ever thought that this man was a good apprentice? That he cared) and he stomped around the seal-array to one of the guards, moving with unexpected speed to pull out his blacked out gun and point it as Mito as another guard stepped up to hold her still; Tobirama knew Mito was perfectly capable of defending herself, but only if she could mover her hands and surprise had left her vulnerable. “Are you threatening her?” he asked slowly, Danzo’s mean little smile didn’t fade “If you don’t activate that seal I’ll kill her, honestly the General is sick of how slowly her work is progressing, we have enough that we could pass it off to someone else anyway” fool, Mito was the best in her field as he was in his, killing her would be a waste- but the General had never cared about that very much had he?- “you’re on thin ice as well Demon, keep dragging your feet and you’ll find yourself back in a cadge like a rat with nowhere to hide - unless you enjoyed that freak?” Tobirama forced himself not to stiffen, he had to remain calm, but… his eyes tracked to Mito, her lips pressed together firmly as she looked at him.

“Very well” he murmured softly, turning to the seal and walking to the activation circle, kneeling there and pouring chakra into it like a waterfalls rush, standing slowly as the power rushed out of him; the seal shone as though filled with diamond dust, it’s power making the stone floor warp and flex. He looked up through the haze of power (Danzo was backing away, a look of deep trepidation on his face- good, forcing Tobirama to do this was insane, probably the blowback would kill all of them and take most of the building with it if Tobirama lost control) at Mito, meeting her eyes over it in apology- he couldn’t go back, and he knew she wouldn’t want to- but, she smiled a little and twisted suddenly, lunging into the array hands already twisting in signs and her soul chains spilling out to form a seal shape over her head before one snapped out and wrapped around Tobirama dragging him to the center with her. “Mito” he gasped, and she grinned, wild and raw “Fuck all of them, if we’re taking this building down I want to know where this sucker is going to spit us out.” He stared at her as power built before laughing a wild and letting his own power twist and writhe around them, he had an idea, a mad, mad, idea. but what did they have to lose? Why not try time travel?

(“hey, maybe well find your sweetheart Tobi, who knows where we’ll come out” “Fuck off Mito” “focus on him! think of your temporally displaced Great Love!” “FUCK OFF Mito”)