Kindling

It was objectively a smart plan, the enemy shinobi came with enough allies that he actually managed to get close enough to slap the seal on Tobirama, but he forgot to take into account the after; and he didn’t have enough shinobi for that, not nearly enough.

Madara raced into the clearing followed closely by Hashirama and Touka just in time to see the seal flash as it activated on the narrow back; a second later something shifted and Tobirama’s fingers flashed, blood fountained out of the enemies corpses and they crumbled into desiccated husks, Madara gaped – he had never seen Tobirama do that before. Power boiled out of him as he flicked his fingers to disperse the blood twisting in a sphere in front of him, “Tobirama…” Hashirama breathed, horrified “you promised that you wouldn’t use that” the was a pause (what the fuck? Hashirama didn’t want his brother to do everything he could to protect himself? if Izuna..) and the Tobirama turned to them; there was something different, something, something strange shifted and removed (and Madara had always thought that the younger Senju was distant but, wow, now it was really clear how much affection he had for the people around him when it was gone) as he raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“I used to most efficient method available, it’s not like I used it on an ally – I never promised not to use in on bloodline thieves. Which they were, I recognize the chakra, my guess is that they wanted to control me into taking children from the village to them – or to assassinate you, two hard to say.” He peered at his arm with an interested expression on his face “Interesting, I’ve never seen a seal like this. I’m going to ask Mito about it.” and then he was gone in a flash of shattering light, leaving Madara and Hashirama to stare after him, baffled.

Mito frowned at them, a tense look on her face, “It not hurting him, I mean… it- as far as I can tell all his memories are complete, if somewhat fuzzy in places; he hasn’t forgotten anything and it hasn’t changed who he is- he can still care for people- but it just erased the emotion behind the memories.” Hashirama stared at her uncomprehendingly, she sighed aggravatedly and Madara broke in “He remembers everything he just doesn’t care anymore.” She nodded and sighed again, looking tired “He still can care, it hasn’t messed with his capacity to care, and he knows he used to care but he just…. doesn’t anymore.” Hashirama swallowed hard “So is he a loose canon if he doesn’t care? He killed those men in a way he promised me he would never kill people anymore” Madara shot him a disgusted look “No, didn’t you listen to what she said? He sill has morals and cares, just not about youidiot. And why the fuck did you ever tell him he wasn’t allowed to defend himself in any way necessary?” Hashirama gapped at him and Madara shook his head “Never mind. Mito, any idea how to get the seal off him? I can’t imagine he wants to keep it.” Mito shot him a thoughtful look “You do know him well” Madara started “yes he wants to take it off, I’ll need some time to sort it out though. Until then we have Give-no-Fucks!Tobirama.” Madara smirked a little at the idea of that and nodded to Mito, slipping out the window. 

He hesitated when his feet hit the path, he should go home, he probably should be tired, but…. he swallowed, glancing towards the hospital; it would be ok to stop and see Izuna, it would be fine, he would just stop for a minute and then go home (he wasn’t going to go home).

The next few days were odd; it turned out that Mito’s description of Tobirama under the seal was unnervingly accurate, he justdidn’t give a fuck, Hashirama whined and wailed and all his younger brother did was regard him with slightly baffled distaste, eventually he just started walking out when Hashirama got going (Madara loved it, he had hated to see the way the older Senju took advantage of the albino, so seeing a Tobirama that just didn’t put up with it? glorious) and ignoring him when his brother pestered him to much (he hoped Hashirama was learning, but he wasn’t betting on it). It also made it very clear how much Tobirama had been doing for the village now that he had little interest in pushing himself to exhaustion over it, oh he still did all his work to exacting standards but it was very clear how much of it he had been pushing himself to do out of love for his brother (Madara worried about what would happen in their relationship when the seal came off) now that he didn’t care (Touka loved it, she had no problem with relearning how to be friends- even if she missed her little cousin a bit she was over the moon to see him stand up to Hashirama).

Honestly it was more than a little galling, if Izuna was just awake (Madara would give almost anything for that) he knew his little brother would be every bit as frustrated as he was; Izuna and Tobirama would probably never get along (if he ever woke up) but to the Uchiha- and Madara hadn’t thought the Senju so different, though maybe it was less a Senju thing and more a Hashirama thing- family was everything, so the see such clear evidence of Hashirama’s disregard for that which he should hold most dear? It hurt. a lot. And that wasn’t even counting in Madara’s….. regard for Tobirama himself (how was he supposed to hate the younger Senju? After everything, after seeing Tobirama’s fury when he realized someone had poisoned his blade, after seeing the albino trying to force Izuna’s body to reject the poison, after seeing a nonlethal wound where there could have been a lethal one, after watching him destroy the strange thing that had engineered the poison, after seeing the sympathy in his eyes when he covered for Madara on the days the Uchiha couldn’t bring himself to leave Izuna). Madara looked at his brother’s hand tucked in his own larger ones and huffed a tiredly amused sigh “I think you would find it entertaining, I can just see you sitting with Touka laughing your head off as he ignores Hashi, it is rather brilliant brother. I…. it’s odd though, he’s still nice to me, which doesn’t make much sense given that he pity’s me for you-“

“No I don’t.” Madara jumped at the sudden voice from the window, and twisted to look (not really alarmed though, Tobirama’s voice was hard to mistake he knew it so well now); the pale Senju was perched on the sill watching him with his sharp red eyes and Madara ducked his head, hiding in hair and robe to cover the faint blush, he was so reactive to this man, it was really frustrating. “I’ve never in my life been nice because I pitied someone- I don’t know that I’ve ever pitied any one at all really- just as Hashirama.” Said the albino as he slipped off his perch and over to stand next to Madara retching out to do a scan of Izuna as he did so, his charka a cool rush over Madara’s senses. “Then what are you so nice to me?” he asked bewilderedly, Tobirama sent him a glance out of the corner of his eyes before refocusing on Izuna, “Is it so hard to believe that I like you?” Madara scoffed but the Senju just kept talking over him “You’re smart- though you tend to hide it with your temper- and you care, far more than any other man I’ve ever met. Also, your chakra is addictive.” Madara gaped a him, forgetting to hide his burning cheeks for once  “What?” he rasped and Tobirama sighed and turned to him, reaching out which gentle fingers to brush Madara’s fringe back “You are very admirable, the seal doesn’t erase any of that Madara. It was easy to relearn caring for you. Now come on, Izuna will not be waking up today. I’ll take you home, you need sleep.”