Kindling

Tobirama said nothing as the Senju children bolted, turning to face the Uchiha patrol and a grim faced Hikaku and taking a deep breath to ready his weapons; he was already tired from the long mission he had been diverted off of to save the kids from the Uchiha patrol (oh sure he knew Madara had no love of child killers but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be a slip in the rush of battle) and he had lost his sword already, down to kunai and tanto and chakra (and couldn’t even use the strongest of his chakra techniques, he would never use the blood call on these Uchiha – Yashiro though…) and there was no way he could win here but he would fight anyway. (It seemed oddly fitting somehow that he should die like this, paying decoy as children he loved raced for safety, he had no regrets.) (Hikaku looked at the proud tilt of the Demon’s chin as he sent kids to safety at his own expense and felt something like admiration stir in him – it was that that stayed his hand from the killing blow when they finally brought the Demon down, prisoner would better; Hikaku….had a talk he needed to have with his clan head.)

Tobirama ducked his head and blinked hard to get the sweat from his lashes (he hadn’t expected to be taken prisoner but bore it as well as he could, saying nothing when they took what was left of his clothing and armor with jeers about ‘fancy women’s clothes’ that left Tobirama wrong footed – didn’t they see his eyes? His skin? His hair? His eyes?) wishing futilely that he could move out of the sun but there was nowhere to go and it was beating down directly on him; he couldn’t move farther away from the too-hot back of the prison block or he would hit the end of his chain that had been staked by the door. (he said nothing when they took everything including his sun creams, he didn’t say anything when they clasped the chakra binders around his throat and wrists but he bit his tongue bloody as his Sensor’s perception was shut down hard and the migraine started from the pain and the strain of relying on his poor eyesight without the help of his chakra sense, he didn’t say anything as the chakra slowly drained from the seals tattooed over his body and the chronic pain they addressed roared back but he might have maybe whimpered once in the dead of night)

The sun was searing and Tobirama knew he was already well into danger, skin already horribly burned and blistering, dressed as he was in nothing but his mission pants and those so shredded from the mission before that he might as well have been wearing shorts, and without his chakra in the tattoo seals he was completely without protection (Izuna was sneering at him. Tobirama just knew it even though he couldn’t see the brat’s face, at this point he had something of a seventh sense for Izuna sneering and after all Tobirama had been here nearly two weeks and fought the Uchiha for years before that. Izuna opened his mouth and Tobirama closed his eyes, letting the brat’s words just wash over him rather than listening until “-outside!” wait, what? Outside? Like an unruly dog?....ok yeah that made sense, Izuna wanted to humiliate him, fine, but Tobirama was more concerned with the other bit, outside? That was…bad, very bad. But protesting had just made Izuna smirk and asking for his creams just brought sneering comments about the ‘White Demon thinks it need to be pretty?’ ‘well he won’t be so white any more will he after a bit outside!’ and ‘like it matters, take more than a little lotion to make you pretty, freak’ and Tobirama knew he shouldn’t let it hurt but….it did. More importantly how could they really think it was a vanity thing? Tobirama was so clearly albino he didn’t understand how- unless…unless they knew and just didn’t care. And Madara must not have ordered that Tobirama stay inside either and must have just let Izuna do whatever he wanted, after all the albino was fairly sure that the Uchiha wouldn’t go against the clan head and if not…then Madara truly didn’t care. Oh.) and without protection….

Time blurred and Tobirama had just enough presence of mind to curl in a ball to hide his face from the sun, already nearly blinded by the glare without his chakra to protect his eyes but it wasn’t long before he could hardly remember why he was doing that, and the hallucinations started not long after; imaginary Hashirama and Touka and Father and then voices near him, hallucinations gaining sound as imaginary Uchiha moved around him and then Madara was right in front of him and touched his face and – Tobirama seized at the movement, touch too much for his overloaded nerves and he sunk into welcome darkness.

Madara knocked on Tobirama’s door and waited for a long moment, frowning when there was no response, was Tobirama asleep? Madara knocked again and called out the pale shinobi wondering if Tobirama was absorbed in a book or something; he had told Izuna to give Tobirama a few books yesterday so maybe – after all their conversations had indicated that Tobirama was a scholar just behind being a shinobi and was happier when learning something new (it had been a…revelation, Madara hadn’t really planned on making tea with their captive a regular thing but Tobirama was just so lovely to be around he hadn’t been able to resist; Madara had so few people with intellects that challenged him and add to that Tobirama’s courtesy and quiet dignity and Madara just never had a chance and tea with his captive had become the best part of his days recently in addition to being the key he needed to force a ceasefire). There was no response to the knock or call and frowning Madara gave up and pushed the door open, worry curling in his gut when the room was empty; where could he be? It was well known that Madara had tea with Tobirama in the afternoons so where… ”Izuna!” The Uchiha called, turning to look for his brother.

Madara threw open the door of the prison block in a black rage, staking Tobirama outside like an animal; “I don’t understand why you’re so angry Mada, he’s a prisoner and a Senju” Izuna said petulantly, freezing in surprise when Madara spun to face him, nearly shaking with rage “You had no reason to do this, he has been a model prisoner and not done a damned thing to warrant this, you just did it because you were acting like an ass, like a spoiled child. I put him under your care because I trusted you to treat him with dignity and as he deserved; I trusted Izuna, that you would set your personal feelings aside and act as you should as the heir of a noble clan and instead I find you acting like a useless, cruel civilian and I have never been so disappointed in you in my life. Nor did I think I ever would. Kami let’s not even mention the mess that will happen if Hashirama finds out that we mistreated his brother! Or did you forget that we live in a forest!” enraged Madara spun back around and paced towards the back door, trying to get his temper under control before he saw Tobirama. The other nin would no doubt be suffering from the heat at this point and Madara had spent enough time with him by now to know that Tobirama had a tendency to assume that everything was his fault and Madara didn’t want to make him feel any worse if it could be avoided.

At the door Madara took a deep breath and gathered himself, carefully calming down before he opened the door and – it was blazingly hot and bright in the yard and it took Madara’s eyes a moment to adjust as he scanned the yard and then froze, feeling like his heart had stopped at the crumpled form at the end of a long chain staked near the door. “Izuna” Madara breathed through numb lips “go get the healers, run” Madara’s voice must have been enough to stop Izuna arguing or asking any questions as the younger Uchiha immediately raced off as Madara slowly approached Tobirama, his stomach lurching sickeningly at the extent of the horrific burns covering him. Carefully Madara knelt next to him and tried to figure out somewhere he could touch the slender shinobi without hurting him while murmuring soothingly to the younger man; kami, how had this happened? How had he gotten so badly burned in so short a time and he was clearly dealing with heat stroke on top of it, what had happened?

Madara saw Tobirama shift slightly and realized that with his head tucked like it was it had been protected from the sun- clever Tobirama!- and as gently as he could Madara touched one pale cheek only to start swearing when the silted eyes rolled up and Tobirama passed out. A moment later the healers converged and Madara was pushed back glancing to make sure Izuna got a good look at what his petty cruelty had done. The younger Uchiha blanched and staggered back and Madara grabbed his arm, toeing him after the healer and their stretcher, unwilling to let Izuna get away from the consequence of his actions.

The healers were grim faced and several moved around Tobirama in a constant flurry of motion as they tried to reduce the burning and bring down his core body temperature until Jiro pulled away and came over to them, the head Uchiha healer aggravatedly shoving a strand of hair back into his samurai knot and his dark eyes grim when they landed on Izuna. “Where you aware that Tobirama Senju was an albino when you forced him to kneel in the sun for three hours?” Jiro asked, his voice hard as his face as the bottom dropped out of Madara’s stomach “because if you were then I am going to have to ask the clan head to censure you for wanton cruelty at the very least.” “Albino?” Izuna croaked, white as a sheet as Madara swayed a little “Yes albino, oh for fuck sake Izuna, did you really believe that dumb rumor that the red eyes were something he gave himself to taunt the Uchiha? There’s no way to do that and have it last, especially without any fucking chakra! And how did you miss the sun lotion?”

“Sun lotion? I thought – he asked for it earlier but we thought he was just being vain” Izuna said weakly, withering under the cold angry look Jiro sent him and Madara had to agree. He hadn’t thought about whether or not Tobirama was albino (wasn’t his mother Hatake after all?) but now that he did, it seemed blindingly obvious that Tobirama was; which took being sent outside from cruel and petty to deadly. “Is he going to be ok?” Madara asked the healer, ignoring Izuna; Jiro sighed and rubbed at his face, “The burns we can heal- Uchiha are good with burns- the heat stroke….there’s a lot of damage and honestly he wasn’t in good shape before its’…bad. Really bad, there’s damage that was healed poorly from when he was he was a very young child and a lot of it has scarred in and I don’t – I don’t know how much we can do about it.” Madara swallowed hard, the implications about that settling heavily on him “I think you better give me a more full run down than that Jiro” Madara said firmly, waving away a pale but resistant Izuna when the healers quietly refused to let him come closer to Tobirama with the rest of them and aching for the unconscious albino.