#strange Uchiha courting rituals

[crystallized-shadow]

Day 11 Pairing: Izuna/Kagami Word count: 1317 Prompt:  “Shut up and kiss me already.”

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

“Madara-sama?” Kagami mutters as he pokes his head into the older man’s office, hoping he’s alone.

“What do you want brat?” Madara asks without looking up from the document he’s reading in his thankfully empty office. Kagami hesitates for a second before he finally steps into the office and shuts the door behind him. This catches Madara’s attention and the clan head finally looks up. “What have you done now?”

“It’s not what I’ve done,” Kagami huffs as he flops into the chair in front of Madara’s desk, “but what I want to do.”

Madara regards the young before him for a moment, making Kagami fidget slightly. “What or who?” Madara questions, smirking when Kagami flushes a deep red. “Must be who, then.”

“I-I don’t know what you mean…” Kagami stammers, much to Madara’s amusement.

“The only person who doesn’t know you have the hots for Izuna is Izuna himself.”

“So, you’ll help me then?” Kagami asks hopefully and Madara rubs a hand over his face, muttering something about Izuna being too old to need his help with this shit, before he finally nods. “What do I do?”

“Prove you’re stronger than him,” Madara states with a shrug and Kagami frowns.

“But I’m not,” the younger Uchiha pouts.

“You just have to make him think you are,” Madara says, his smirk vicious, but Kagami finds himself listening intently to the plan.

It takes a week for Kagami to get everything ready, but he knows he needs to make each step look as natural as possible, so he doesn’t make his target suspicious. It certainly helps that no one would ever suspect sweet, innocent Kagami of using such an underhanded technique. When everything is in place, Kagami invites Izuna to spar with him on the older Uchiha’s day off; it wasn’t uncommon for the two Uchiha to spar as Izuna was the second-best fire user in their clan and Kagami still needed a lot of practice.

“Did you want to just practice your jutsu or actually spar?” Izuna asks as he and Kagami travel to one of the less used training fields; there was a mostly unspoken rule that anytime Madara, Izuna, Hashirama, or Tobirama wanted to spar they had to use the fields farthest from the village for safety reasons.

“I was hoping for sparring,” Kagami says with his usual grin, “I’ve got a few new jutsu I want to test out against you!”

“Oh really?” Izuna asks with a smirk, clearly interested in what the younger Uchiha has learned. The two make it to the field and take their stances across from each other.

“I’m going to win this time,” Kagami promises and Izuna chuckles at the brat’s confidence.

“If you’re so sure of yourself, let’s make this more interesting then.”

“Oh?” Kagami raises an eyebrow, schooling his expression to a curious grin instead of the victorious smirk threatening to ruin his plans; Madara was right, Izuna couldn’t help but raise the ante when he was sure he would win.

“Loser has to do whatever the winner says for the entire day.” Izuna declares and that was even better than what Kagami was hoping he would say.

Going with the plan, Kagami hesitates for a brief moment, like he’s suddenly doubting his skills before he finally smirks. “When I win, you’re dying Sensei’s hair pink.” He states, chuckling at the flicker of panic that crosses Izuna’s eyes; Izuna had already made that mistake once and it clearly wasn’t something he was keen on repeating.

“The first thing you’re going to do when I win is give Mads a haircut,” Izuna shoots back and Kagami winces at that, Madara would kill him if he tried to touch his hair.

The two stare at each for another moment and then in the blink of an eye they meet in the middle of the field, their swords clashing. Their swords stay locked in place for only a few seconds before Kagami easily pushes Izuna back, much to the older man’s surprise. Kagami doesn’t give Izuna a chance to ponder his sudden strength, he just continues to take swings at him.

Izuna is forced to stay on the defensive, either prying blows or dodging them all together. It hadn’t been that long since he’d last sparred with the younger man, so when had Kagami gotten this much stronger than him? Kagami’s next blow costs Izuna a couple of strands of his hair, but he is able to get some distance between them by forcing Kagami back with a decent sized fireball.

Kagami can’t help but grin as he easily dodges the jutsu, when Madara had said the drug would mess with Izuna’s chakra control he hadn’t realized it would be this effective. The younger Uchiha sends his own fireball back at Izuna, smirking at little when Izuna comes away singed. Getting behind Izuna before the other can react, Kagami manages to draw the first blood of the fight.

Izuna winces as he feels the blade cut his side, hastily kicking Kagami in the chest and then jumping back. Unsure why he’s having such a hard time fighting Kagami of all people, Izuna activates his Sharingan. Only to go rigid in shock when nothing happens. Izuna barely notices when a blade is pressed to his throat or when Kagami tells him to yield.

“Izuna,” Kagami mutters, his lips ghosting over the shell of the other man’s ear, “do you yield?” There is a long pause before the older Uchiha finally nods and Kagami lowers his sword with a grin. “I win then!” Silence meets his statement and he frowns, forcing Izuna to turn and face him. “Izuna?”

“Something’s wrong with my Sharingan,” Izuna mutters, still in shock, “I…I need to go talk to Aniki…”

“Your Sharingan?” Kagami repeats before his widen slightly and he chuckles.

“It’s not funny Kagami!” Izuna snaps, glaring at the younger Uchiha, “this is serious!”

“It’s only temporary,” Kagami promises, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, “I was very careful with the doses so you should be back to normal in a couple days.”

“Doses…” Izuna repeats as his eyes narrow, “Kagami did you drug me!?”

“If I say yes are you going to hit me?” Kagami quickly takes a step back when Izuna raises his sword again. “Don’t be mad, I really needed to win!”

That stops Izuna short, suddenly reminded of a very similar situation. “Kagami, do you like me?” Kagami flushes scarlet as his gapes at Izuna like a fish for several minutes, making Izuna sigh. “Did Aniki help you with his?”

“How did you know that?” Kagami mutters, wondering why Izuna would suddenly jump to that conclusion.

“Because I helped Tobirama do the very same thing to him,” Izuna admits with a sigh and Kagami’s eyes widen at that. He’d thought Tobirama and Madara had gotten together after…

“Wait, didn’t they get together after Madara-sama was nearly caught by bloodline hunters?” Kagami asks and Izuna winces, which tells him everything he needs to know. “You nearly got your brother killed!”

“I know that!” Izuna snaps, glaring at Kagami, “he wasn’t supposed to take a mission, but he was bored and took a mission without either of us knowing.”

“I can’t believe you helped drug our clan leader!” Kagami laughs, ignoring the way Izuna huffs and crosses his arms over his chest in a pout.

“I’m leaving!”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Kagami chides, grabbing Izuna’s arm and pulling him close. “I won,” Kagami purrs against Izuna’s ear, “you have to do whatever I say for the rest of the day. Unless of course you’d like me to tell the whole village you can’t keep your word?” Kagami gently tugs on Izuna’s earlobe with his teeth, grinning at the way Izuna’s breath hitches.

“Shut up and kiss me already.” Kagami is more than happy to follow that demand, claiming Izuna’s lips in a passionate kiss.

[cronquette]

:four: 

Disclaimers:

-Dedicated to Julia

-I do not own any of the Naruto franchise, I’m just making my SasuSaku dreams come to life.

-More personal notes will be situated at the end of the chapter

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost.”

― Erol Ozan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dewy grass left trails of freshness that wafted towards her nose, for it was sunrise when she had approached the village. It was massive, buildings wrung with wood and stoned grounds, stalls brimmed with fresh, rosy apples or exotic, blooming flowers flung themselves at her every second, catching her cocooned curiosity quickly. Her dress was modestly masked with a cloak, in case the spring cold would make itself known once more, and torment her small being with its ever freezing bite.

Her footfalls scraped slowly as she wandered through the streets, not paying heed to much of the crowds or clamour for she wanted to check her surroundings at the very least; it was not as if she had anything physically to hide. Her most prominent feature that would glimmer daintily in the sunlight, her glowing pink tresses, were now concealed from prying eyes. And her jewel, the captivating viridescent rhinestone, was tucked away safely in her skirt pocket, where her hand had been tucked in, lightly grasping it for fear that it would suddenly disappear. The only thing that would hold people’s gaze would be her foaming green irises, but she had held her head away in her hood that it would be impossible to observe such globes with practically no sunlight to hover over them. They practically glimmered under the sun’s speculation.

Her strides were slow, and her chest heaved slowly. She took in her sights, savouring her surroundings as she walked further, and further, through the roads. Marketing was certainly a thing she’d caught on straight away, for there were a myriad of sellers, creating clamour for people to take a peep at the things they held in possession. Many were farmers, she took a guess, as they had all sorts of crops and vegetables, fruits and whatnots sitting in their respective baskets, just anxiously waiting to be eaten. Others seemed to have sewn fine clothing, or smooth, meticulously crafted pottery, lathered in clean coats of polish to finish them nicely and make them look quite presentable.

The domesticality was all new to her, a culture she wasn’t very familiar with. Living in a coven all her life, food supplies either discreetly and swiftly delivered or fetched as soon as possible. Residing secretly was something she was used to, the exception of the ritual she had just experienced, along with attending all the others. She wasn’t suited for such open marketing, which proved her uselessness currently all the more when she realised there was not one silver coin in her pocket. Even packed with all her clothes, food to suffice for just a few days, and scrolls to help her study, she wasn’t able to purchase one single thing. It was fruitless to whine and beg, she wouldn't succumb to such vulgarity. Her mentor taught her that, and even so, there was no way she would lower her position as a witch before those humans. 

Even so, she couldn’t help but smile. Ino would enjoy this, she knew. The outdoors was just so suited for an out-going, confident girl such as the said blonde, and it was unfortunate she wouldn’t be accompanying the pinkette. The sun would be much entertained playing with golden locks, and accentuating such crystal eyes.

A new start was certainly refreshing, and she had a tingling feeling that it would be quite soon that she would be reaching new horizons and milestones

::

Wherever Sasuke traversed, a cold, sinister aura always accompanied him, But his firmness wasn’t able to intimidate everyone, so to say. There were, however, many who greatly feared him and the power he held. Those were mostly outside the palace walls, though. Within the elegant patterned pillars and marbled flooring, there was nothing short of being annoyed by the Uchiha. His servants, the dainty things they were, served him rightfully, not complaining unless amongst the company of themselves, and he paid no heed otherwise.

Hearsay was something not really familiar within the castle walls.

However, in the court, it was more than likely to be the everyday news.

Sasuke took his place at the old oak table, sitting comfortably at the head, his eyes steely piercing through the silence of the room. To his right, sat stiffly none other than Hyuuga Hiashi, in all his glory, arms crossed low around the biceps, his mouth achieving such a downturn it surfaced a memory of his own father doing such imposed actions. It made his brows knit deeper, before cooly turning to face frontwards.

“I take it you’re all well,” his words meant nothing; it was just procedure to stall a little before heading to the main topic, he had to remind himself. He’d seen many of his ancestors do so before him, and he wanted nothing more than to place his feet in their steps. A cold stand of wind shook the omnipresent tension this room always carried when such meetings took place.

Silent nods prodded him to continue, and so the raven folded his hands, leaning his elbows pointed on the table as his palms stood in front of him. He sharply inhaled: this conference would last an hour (as always), and so bringing different subjects to light at the right time was always something laying dormant at the back of his mind. He decided to start with the one that probed the nightmares that shook the living daylights out of him.

“Witches. And Warlocks. Those creatures still hang free,” He licked his lips in such a tantalisingly slow way it made one gulp.

“Why?”

His Adam's apple bobbed as the last word came out. His voice was a dagger, slicing the peace of the government before him in one single blow.

“Pardon me, your majesty,”

It was one of the further participants at the table who spoke, nevertheless, his voice wrung firmly, and his eyes, though pale like milk, shone with tenacity that they were quite nice to be held in.

“Those creatures may be vulgar, but they hold some sort of intelligence, sire. They’re hard to catch, and they certainly do not want to be found. I suspect they dwell in an abandoned part of Konoha’s vast forests, but it would be a matter of searches to see. Alas, you and I both know these follow ups have been taken before, and everytime, the result has always been futile.”

“Do you suggest that we abandon our searches entirely, Neji?” he gritted out with venom spitting from his teeth.

“I do not suggest as such, my Lord. However, there is only so much you can do; you’re not yet King of this land, you are Crowned Prince. The level of your status has merely succeeded upwards. There are still elders who have more power over you,” he fussed haughty, for his own clan leader was one of the few. The temptation to stomp over to his chair and rip his throat with the Uchiha’s bare hands was so enticing, but he had self control. He knew it was not the time to play like animals.

But Neji was truly a jackass.

“Hyuuga,” the domineering, stygian orbed male nodded to Hiashi, receiving his stern attention. The silence between them spoke louder than anything, for the elder knew exactly what the prince desired. And although it was something that was made to sleep for the moment, everyone in that room wanted nothing more than those chakra-wielding things to die. A common trait shared by all the civilians and warriors. Those of flesh and bone.

“You ask me to send out troops to find passages to where they lay, Sasuke,” he bit out gruffly. He cleared his throat, almost as if to show he had still a sort of superiority towards him.

“I can do so, but the most I can send is two troops of twenty. It’s a fleeting risk, however, all the more scarce that they will have to split halves in order to scatter north, south, east and west,” he answered. Sasuke refused to release the relieving breath he was holding, and instead flared his nose, as if to contemplate the proposition. It wasn’t much: ten of their men each searching thousands of acres, How long it would take to know of their return infuriated him beyond measure, but then again, less members meant more freedom.

They could move better in less numbers, so that was something that he could hold himself onto. Apparently, it was enough to convince him.

“I’ll take that chance,” his voice was hoarse from not trying to rush his words, an attempt to not sound desperate, for even in a room full of eyes his pride was bound to be torn like a ravaging pack of lions.

A small nod from the Hyuuga was all that he needed to know. Another search was going to be sent.

“Is that all you want to discuss with us, my Lord?” the aforementioned narrowed his eyes at the man who spoke. The lackadaisical, smart annoyance had his arms crossed behind his head, leaning comfortably on the back of his chair as if he had a care in the world. It wouldn’t surprise him if he didn’t. The audacity of the Nara didn’t disturb the Uchiha as much as before, so it only gave him so much as a twitch to his left eye.

“No, but most of the topics I am to discuss aren’t as much of importance. Feel free to sleep through the rest of this conference,” he spoke the last sentence sarcastically.

“May I but in before I snore then, your Highness?” he sighed.

The dark haired male shrugged, as if to say do as you wish.

“Some girl entered the village today,” he chided, “strange gal. Doesn’t look like she’s from here. We ought to keep an eye on her.” he proceeded to yawn, and leant back further, he looked as if to fall off his chair.

“Her appearance, Nara?” the young Hyuuga male inquired.

From his observation, she wasn’t very memorable, having been concealed through a cloak. The only thing that caught his eye was her eyes: the bright, emerald orbs they were.

Interesting.

::

It didn’t take long for Sakura to tire herself out through gallivanting aimlessly, padding her way through stones and pebbles on the ground, the sky’s heat accentuating through every hour, and the board weighted pack on her shoulders smally growing heavier by the minute. She wiped the swelling beads of perspiration that scurried down her forehead with the back of her hand, and released a breath of exasperation.

This village was immense in land expanse, and she hadn’t even gotten through to the heart of it, the place that made her mind twist with fascination-- the palace itself. In all its splendour, the building stood proudly in the heat, almost glimmering with pride: she could see it. But it seemed today was not one of which she could journey so far. She’d seen carriages steadily rocking bye, the horses trotting with such elegance she was entranced so much she stopped just to see them going by.

Oh, what a place this was.

She’d brought with her many of the scrolls containing the recounts of some of her predecessors’ experience, those--of course-- who’d made it out alive, and she pondered whether her experience would be deemed just as exhilarating. Or, gruesome enough to know she’d be burnt alive at the stake. She really didn’t know.

She then had encountered a bakery, blooming with warmth and delicious treats stacked at the window sill, enticing all who laid eyes on them. The pinkette frowned in despair as she knew she would not be able to purchase such a delicacy. Her stomach even whined at how imbecilic she was for not even bringing any coins to spare.

As she was about to move along, a voice caught her attention.

“Excuse me Miss, I can’t help but see how you’re looking at the pastries in our shop. Would you like to buy something?”

Unlike the Haruno, this girl wasn’t wearing a dimple, and so her chestnut locks gleamed hazelnut-like as she made her way towards her. Said strands were neatly folded round the top of her head to create two buns, only a ragged fringe framing her face. She dressed simply, with very few (maybe two) rosy petticoats that rivaled Sakura’s own hair. Not that it mattered-- it wasn’t as if she could see it anyway. She wore a slightly darker shade for her bodice, the tone drifting to a crimson, and her flat stomacher was an off-white, almost cream colour. She was a civilian, no doubt, but she seemed more dressed up than what would be necessary.

“Your shop?”

“Ah, it does seem like I’m not best suited for the occasion in this,” she picked up the thick skirts as a way of gesturing to her outfit, “however my family does own the bakery. You’re not from here, are you? I’m Tenten, a pleasure to meet you!”

Her beam was so bright and fulfilling it made the rosette pop a grin as well, taking her hand and shaking it firmly.

“Sakura, nice to meet you too,” she smiled softly.

“And I would love to buy something from your shop, it’s just that I don’t have any money on me right now. I’m very gratified at the offer, though.”

The brunette shook her head with a laugh, before grabbing the Haruno’s wrist and practically dragging her into the store. They were instantly met with the cozy smell of bread and sweet aromas, and the warmth of ovens burning with fervour.

“Oh, har har! Since you’re new around here, I’ll let you have a pastry for free! Your choice: pick one and it’s on the house,” she gestured to the room. The room was tantalisingly dizzying her with spells of temptation, and this girl was a civilian!

The pinkette smiled weakly and bit out a childish, nervous giggle. Not eating for a while seemed to take a toll on her. 

“I couldn’t. Really, Tenten, I appreciate the offer, but I must get going-”

“But you’re new, Sakura! I bet you don’t even have a place to stay.” she wagged an accusatory finger at the aforementioned. The latter grew pale at the revelation, trying to scatter ideas through her head and pick out the most logical option. However, there was none. It really was inevitable. She didn’t know what to do or say, but opening and closing her mouth frantically in an attempt to let out words was an amusing sight to display.

“Aha!” The brunette smirked. She then proceeded to run behind a counter, and with a flimsy towel, she meticulously pulled out a small, hand-sized meat pie, with slow strings of steam wafting upwards. She pushed her hands towards the Haruno’s petite frame, and instantly caught a whiff. She swallowed, before acquiescing.

The inside of her mouth burst with flavour as she took a bite. Her tongue tingled as she chewed pensively, still captured in the eyes of a certain baker’s daughter.

“I-It’s good,” she commented.

She ended up eating another one after.

::

Shikamaru was always observant, his skills made prominent for the Uchiha’s gain, and although it was a trapping situation, he didn’t mind. His life always bore him no matter what he did, the most he spent doing was making out the shapes of clouds in his spare time. That, and help soothe the load of paperwork that had been flung on his shoulders.

As of this moment, the conference had come to a close, and he was free to roam as much as he desired. 

Instead, he sat at a small bar stall, a metal mug of beer filled to the brim with golden alcoholic liquid, topped off with frothy substances bursting atop. One pint of the drink, and above all, his tobacco pipe puffed with intoxicating reels of smoke, making the man beside him choke in disgust.

“God, Shikamaru, do you have to smoke that crap?! It stinks!”

He would have scoffed at the said Uzumaki, who vexibly stalked him to this den after claiming that he needed some sort of relief off of all his errands as ‘Teme’s Right-Hand man’, and wanted some company. He still had no clue how the blonde was able to get away with that filthy nickname. But it wasn’t his place to judge their relationship, as the topic itself was something so obscure it confused even the two men in the involved party. And the Nara really didn’t appreciate getting himself into puzzling situations that twisted his brain unless he was forced to, or it was a pastime he participated in.

“If you don’t like it, you can leave, Naruto.” he sighed, as he took a swig at the beer in front of him, gasping as the bitter drink swelled down his throat. It was a bitter-sweet feeling, but he was used to it. It burned, but he relished in the pain.

“No way! I’m staying, ‘ttebayo. Oi, bartender! I’d like a pint sized mug of whiskey if you will!” she exclaimed, slamming his fisted hand on the sticky countertop. No one made enough effort to properly clean the wooden table, but no one complained.

Shikamaru shook his head, punching the blonde’s bicep rather harshly:

“I’m not taking care of a drunk you.”

He swatted his hand in the air as if dismissing him lightly, his nose wrinkling in laughter. As his drink was carefully handed to him, he recklessly bumped it towards the beer on the counter, slightly tipping the liquids together in an attempt to make some sort of toast.

“I’ll be careful, promise.”

The Nara was tempted to mutter something along the lines of ‘tis what you said last time’, but he held his tongue and instead sucked in yet another breath of tobacco, his mind slightly clouding in a sort of dizzy utopia. He heard a breathy exhale from his left before a slightly slurred sentence arrived, leaving his brows furrowed in calculation.

“Hey, heard from Sasuke that there’s a new girl in town. Do you know where she is, now?”

“What, are you willing to scare yet another one of the female species that resides in Konoha?”

The Uzumaki sputtered, leaving a smirk to cross the brunet’s features.

“Go to hell, Shikamaru!”

“And no, I just wanna meet her.” he lipped, pouting like a child. He was obviously highly offended, and that added to the other man’s pride.

In the end the two downed their drinks forcefully, not wasting one drop and yet attempting hard to sustain themselves from succumbing to the drunkenness. However their walking patterns seemed quite unsturdy and Naruto was easily daydreaming, so it wasn’t a good sign. In the end, they tossed their cash to the bartender carelessly, and stumbled around the village in search of a certain lady.

::

They found her, and quite simply too. The Nara remembered she was last seen, and where he found her, at the bakery he most frequented, since their baked goods were better than the others, it was a good travelling pace of exercise, and it was conjoined with a neighbouring weaponry store next door which they also owned. So, easily, they found her, although that was just going to be a place of questioning her whereabouts.

The bell chimed as the wooden door opened.

“Tenten,” Shikamaru respectfully regarded, a clumsy Naruto staggering behind. The shop was warm and cozy, and instantly scents of sweet and savoury adorned his senses.

“Tenten! Nice to see ya, we were wondering if you’ve got any information about where the new girl is-”

The brunet stopped in confusion at the sudden halt of breath from the Uzumaki. Something that he didn’t do often. Something in his opinion that he should do often. But that wasn’t the point.

He found the blonde gaping ahead of him, all sense of inebriation perished as his eyes glistened with a look of familiarity at whatever was behind him. Instantly, he turned around.

A small girl sat at the furthest table, shoulders squared and eyes wide with the same look of intensity as the male beside him. Her mouth hung lowly, as she was blinking frantically, as if they were an illusion she was trying to escape from. Her rosy brows knitted as she tried to find the words to say, but the whole room rushed cold as the two apparently came to the same sort of conclusion of words.

“Sakura-chan?!”

“Naruto?!”

--------------------------

Hi! Merry Christmas, or whatever you celebrate around this time. Can you believe it? 2020 is finally over, my God. My friends and I are deciding to go on a zoom call and play rick astley’s never gonna give you up as the end credits of this year. Seriously, it all goes downhill from here fnhdbkjdf. One of my friends is already stomping on 2021, don’t get me started lol.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please comment/review, as I really like to know that people still read my story, especially on ffnet and ao3. To those who have done so before, thank you so much! Every comment/review makes my entire day.

since my beta reader had something come up, until you read this, Julia! XD

Yours truly,

-Avis

[emilx311]

So, enough of you asked about it I decided to write it. It did not go according to plan at all! It was supposed to be funny and fluffy with ridiculous Uchiha and then I started writing and we got well....this. Hope you all enjoy anyways. Also, the twigs used later on in the chapter are from Mokuton plants. The Uchiha gather them after battles from things Hashirama has grown to use for some religious rituals. 

Read it on AO3 or below the cut. Also, donate to my Ko-fi

Tobirama had been rather nervous about returning to his new clan compound with his husband. Madara had taken his drunken marriage and Tobirama’s subsequent reveal of his true identity and motivations amazingly well, but he’d had little hope the rest of the Uchiha would be as open-minded. He’d been fully prepared to deal with anger, suspicion, and even hate being tossed his way. The reality he was currently encountering was vastly different from his expectations. Really, Tobirama reflected, he should probably just stop expecting things when it came to the Uchiha.

He’d entered the compound at Madara’s side with the clan head’s arm wrapped around his waist. He held himself loosely and kept his head up high, as though he had every right to be there. No matter how the Uchiha reacted he refused to act ashamed. He had done nothing wrong (okay, agreeing to marry a drunk man after plying him with drinks was maybe a bit wrong, but Madara had been fine with it once he sobered up so the rest of the Uchiha could deal). He’d been braced for cutting words, demanding questions about who he was, hell, he’d half-expected at least one person to try to physically pull him away from their clan head. There was none of that.

There was shock and confusion from the Uchiha within view of the gate, certainly, but there was also awe, admiration, and even a faint amount of jealousy directed towards Madara. Said clan head was practically radiating smugness as he clutched the albino to himself even more tightly, sending a firm message of ‘mine’ to his gaping clansmen.

Tobirama was confused by the seemingly defensive gesture. No one had made any hostile moves or suggestions. Hell, no one had even said anything insulting or indicative of concern. The Uchiha in no way seemed about to attack them, but maybe Madara knew something he didn’t? Either way, he did feel safer closer to the one Uchiha he trusted not to harm him in any way, so he allowed the gesture without complaint.

“Hey, Aniki, I heard you were about to get home! How was the tri-WHAT THE HELL!” An Uchiha who must be Izuna shrieked upon catching sight of Tobirama, or more specifically the arm around Tobirama’s waist. He flailed for a moment before managing to gather himself. “Who’s this aniki and where did you find such a lovely creature?” He demanded. Tobirama blinked, slightly taken aback. He’d been expecting demands to get away from Izuna’s brother not…flirting. Also, lovely? He wasn’t, he knew very well that his colouring was strange and off-putting

“Hello to you too Otouto” Madara replied dryly, before smirking, full of pride. “This is Tobirama, my husband” he said tugging the albino even more firmly into his side. The Uchiha, who had almost recovered from their surprise, were back to gaping. Tobirama wanted to join them. He had expected Madara to break the news slowly, perhaps even hide it entirely for a time, not just announce it casually in public. He couldn’t help blushing at all the renewed stares he was getting.

“WHAT! ANIKI NO FAIR!” Izuna quacked, “you just snatched him up?!?! Without letting the rest of the clan have a chance to court him?” Izuna was panting by the end of his rant while Tobirama wasn’t doing much of anything, frozen with shock and disbelief as he was. That was the Uchiha’s issue with this? Not that his elder brother and clan head had married and brought home an unknown person after a short-term mission, not that he could be a soy, not that he might be there to hurt them, not even that he might be from an enemy clan (which he was even), no, he had an issue with the fact the rest of the clan hadn’t had a chance to marry him themselves. Tobirama had always known the Uchiha were rather irrational (see kidnapping people with red eyes), but now he was fairly convinced that they were all just insane.

“Too bad, so sad brat! I’m the clan head which means I get first priority and he said yes when I asked. We went to the temple that night, before you start getting any ideas, so out marriage is signed, sealed, and witnessed by the Gods” Madara taunted his brother. Izuna grumbled a bit before finally giving in.

“Still unfair, but fine, whatever. Congratulations on your marriage and all that. May it be long and blessed, yada yada” he said. He sounded flippant, but Madara could see the sincerity in his brother’s eyes. He was just opening his mouth to thank Izuna when Tobirama finally managed to shake off his shock.

“What the hell?” Came out of his mouth without him really meaning to. The surrounding Uchiha blinked and looked at him in questioningly.

“Tobi?” Madara asked his husband, concerned.

“None of you have any issues with this? At all?” He glanced around, the Uchiha all looked confused. “your clan head came back and declared he’d married some random person none of you have ever met and you’re all just okay with it???” His disbelief was clearly audible. The Uchiha had to admit their clan head’s new spouse had a point (pretty, blessed, and smart…Madara-sama was so lucky!), but he was missing a rather vital point.

“Of course, you’re one of Amaterasu’s blessed! She works her will through you. If you were to do anything to Madara then he deserved it for angering her” Izuna explained blithely. Tobirama opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally deciding not to bother with that, for now. It was working in his favour, and he would have the rest of his life to try and pound some sense into his new clan.

“Oh…” was all he said for the moment, truly surprised. “I knew the Uchiha collected those with red eyes for religious reasons, but I had no idea you held them, us, in such high regard” he confessed, careful not to use the word kidnap. The Uchiha as a whole seemed rater taken aback by that. It was Madara who finally spoke up, asking the question the whole clan was wondering about.

“If you didn’t think we took them to treasure them why did you think we went to all the trouble, and what did you think happened to them here” the clan head wondered. Tobirama pinked a bit.

“Other than religious reasons, no clue. As far as anyone outside the Uchiha are concerned they basically vanish off the face of the earth once they pass the compound door” the albino shrugged helplessly. Having some tact, no matter what his brothers said, he avoided mentioning the theories other clans had about how the red-eyed were treated. Kept as concubines was one of the nicer suggestions he’d heard after all. He was pleased to see that quite a few of the Uchiha, including Madara and Izuna, were looking a bit sheepish. A few seemed to be able to tell from his face some of the things he was not saying.

“It might help if the, what do you refer to us as, blessed? It might help if the blessed were permitted to visit or at least write their families and friends” he mentioned. He carefully modulated his tone so that he didn’t sound accusatory, just hesitant and helpful. He even lowered his eyes and leaned towards Madara in order to sell the act. Thankfully, the clan looked thoughtful instead of angry that he’s suggested something contrary to their traditions.

At that point there was a commotion at the end of the street. Tobirama turned to see six men and women hurrying towards them. Based on their ages and attire he assumed they were the Uchiha elders. The groan the Uchiha brothers gave upon seeing them all but confirmed that theory. Hashirama and Kawarama acted similarly when confronted by the Senju elders (he and Itama were bothered by them far less often since they were not next in line or clan head). Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself mentally for the unpleasantness ahead. Madara, probably feeling similarly, lets go of his waist only to grab his hand. Tobirama’s not sure who the gesture is for, but appreciates it none the less.

“Madara-sama!” The first elder cries, finally reaching them, “what have you done?!?” Madara stiffens.

“I have gotten wed” Madara replies honestly, daring them to find fault in him for it. Sadly, for them and their continued health, it seems they do.

“You have wed without consulting the counsel first? And to a male, who cannot provide you with heirs to lead the clan upon their passing!” The same elder exclaims, looking at Tobirama like he is less than the dirt beneath his feet. Madara’s chakra churns angrily while Izuna and the other Uchiha around are all but gaping in disbelief that the elder would dare say something like that. Even a couple of the other elders seem taken aback.

“Excuse me?” Madara bites out stiffly, but the elder doesn’t seem to notice the warning signs (or the way those nearby are trying to subtly inch away from him).

“You are the clan head; you have responsibilities to the clan. That you would ignore those for some pretty face is inconceivable! Your father must be rolling over in his grave! Stop this foolishness Madara-sama, set the whore aside and take a bride who can contribute something to the clan!” Izuna facepalms at the sheet stupidity of what this supposed “wise advisor” was saying and decides to intervene, if only to spare his aniki’s blood pressure.

“They wed in front of the Gods as is proper, which I’m sure you already knew, so my brother can hardly just ignore him and declare someone else his spouse. Multiple marriages are not permitted by the Gods. But since this is another thing you must already know; you must mean that my brother should ger rid of his new bride entirely.” It was a trap, that much was clear even if Tobirama didn’t know what Izuna was trying to do. However, if seems the elder is too blinded by rage and his own importance to see the danger.

“yes, exactly! He and his taint must be removed entirely from the clan and especially from Madara-sama himself!” The elder seemed ecstatic that Izuna was listening to him, however the Uchiha heir looked like the cat that got the canary.

“So, you would have the clan anger Amaterasu-sama by killing one of her chosen vessels and denying him the rights and place due to him by birth, an action that would, of course, call the Goddess’ wrath down upon us?” Izuna kept his enquiry toneless. The elder, who had been beaming at Izuna, suddenly froze as what Izuna had said seemed to sink in. The other elders had gone pale at the beginning of their heir’s question and were sneaking glances at Tobirama’s face. He glared at them defiantly. Clearly, whoever had alerted them to the situation had neglected to mention a few details, not that that was going to help them if Madara’s expression was anything to go by.

“Amaterasu-sama? Why would she care about-“ the elder cut himself off as he truly looked at Tobirama for the first time and blanched. It was clear he’d finally realized how badly he’d fucked up.

“please, Madara-sama, I didn’t know” the elder tried to defend himself, but Tobirama would tell that even he knew it was in vain.

“Silence!” Madara bellowed, allowing all the anger that had been in his chakra to show on his face. “You have disrespected my chosen bride, questioned my leadership and my devotion to this clan. You have also insulted and threated the life of a being kissed by Amaterasu-sama herself. You have committed blasphemy and treason and the penalty for those is death. Is there any here who find this sentence unfair?” He paused to look around at all those gathered nearby. They were all silent and he saw many shaking their heads at the question. “Good, Izuna” Madara nodded to his brother who quickly and cleanly beheaded the man. Tobirama shook slightly.

“You didn’t have to do that. He was simply worried about you marrying someone unknown and the future of the clan” Tobirama murmured to his husband. Madara was unrepentant, but surprisingly, it was another elder who answered, this one garbed as a miko.

“Madara-sama did exactly what he should have. To insult one of her blessed is to insult Amaterasu-sama herself. Had he allowed the one to do so to live her anger at the insult may have spread to the whole clan. Madara-sama was fulfilling the Uchiha’s duty to protect those she has blessed and the clan head’s duty to protect his clan” she stated calmly. Those around her nodded.

“Uchiha are all crazy” managed to escape from Tobirama’s mouth as he took in the scene. He winced as soon as it registered that he’d spoken aloud and was about to apologize for his words when the miko began to chuckle.

“perhaps so” she agreed, “but a life without any crazy would be rather boring, don’t you think?” Tobirama snorted and couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“Perhaps so” he admitted. Besides, it wasn’t like the Senju were totally sane either (they had produced Hashirama after all).

“So, does anyone else wish to protest the gift Amaterasu-sama has seen fit to bestow upon Madara-sama?” The miko asked. The clan was silent. “So be it, on behalf of the Gods I welcome Tobirama-sama to the Uchiha clan as the spouse and partner of Madara-sama, may their union and leadership be long and fruitful!” Tobirama was surprised how loudly the Uchiha cheered at her declaration, and at how genuine their happiness and welcome seemed. He was also surprised how touched by this he was.

“Thank you” he said quietly but sincerely, blushing fiercely. Madara pulled him back into his side, wrapping his arm securely around his husband once again. He’d hoped to have more time to talk with those members of the clan he trusted most and figure out how to present things to the clan as a whole, but he was also unlikely to get a better opening than this.

“Since everyone is here, I have something else to announce” Madara started, getting the attention of the clan. “When Amaterasu-sama blessed me with Tobirama she also graced me with a revelation. She wishes for our war with the Senju to end, for us to make peace with them. I have been hesitant to accept Hashirama’s offers, but with Amaterasu-sama’s approval I will proceed with an alliance”. There was a moment of deep, dead, silence as the clan processed his declaration, red and black eyes widening in surprise. No one seemed to know how to react.

“Uh” one of the other elders finally spoke up hesitantly, “I mean no disrespect Madara-sama, but are you quite sure you properly understood Amaterasu-sama’s message? That she did not bless you with Tobirama-sama as a sign of our approaching victory?” She asked.

“No, she made her wishes very clear” Madara responded. Most of the clan still seemed unsure about how to react, whispering to each other and eyeing the corpse still on the ground. They were all tired of war, but could they truly make peace with the clan that had killed so many of their kin?

“Madara-sama” the miko finally spoke up once again, “would you allow me to read the portents to verify Amaterasu-sama’s will?” She inquired. Madara inclined his head to her in acceptance.

The miko led them towards a temple near the middle of the compound. Outside, a few feet away from the entrance, was a circle of stones filled with ashes. Quickly and efficiently, with the air of someone who had done this many times before, she took some firewood from another miko and built a small pyre in the pit. Absently, Tobirama noticed that most of the clan had followed them here. He wasn’t sure how to feel about this, except to hope that it would work out in his and Madara’s favour.

Once the pyre had been built the elder intoned a prayer to Amaterasu for guidance and then lit it on fire using the traditional Uchiha fireball, though a very small one. The elder waited a few moments, ensuring that the flames had caught to her satisfaction before she nodded. This must have been a signal of some sort for the other miko from earlier came forward once again and handed the older miko a small bundle. As she lifted it high and allowed the contents to fall into the flame Tobirama saw that it was a mixture of herbs and small twigs.

When the herbs and twigs hit the flame, they caused it to flare in size and shoot off several sparks. Thick smoke drifted mostly upwards except for a small tendril that seemed to almost curl around Tobirama and Madara. The elder was nodding thoughtfully as the fire burnt quickly down to embers. When there were only ashes left, Tobirama was shocked to see that one of the small twigs had remained untouched and was now sticking straight up out of the ground in the center of the circle.

“It seems Madara-sama was correct about the Goddess’ will” the miko mused. “Amaterasu-sama calls for us to make peace with the Senju” she announces grandly. The Uchiha once again erupt into noise as Madara puffs up smugly and Tobirama looks on in bewilderment.

[daraanna]

“Arranged Love”- Part One „Porcelain doll”

Rating: T

It’s my first fic which I translated to english so please be gentle to me >.<

The life of the successor to the imperial throne has never been easy. Every day he was awakened before twelve and dressed by his servants. Then he had to go to the audience with the father-emperor and drink tea with the mother-empress. A conversation with his sister and boring meeting with advisers. While he have to make decisions which he didn’t understand. Then he has training and finally free time. In the evening he would normally go on a sparring with Mitsuki but since his friend got married two months ago, he rarely visited the castle. In addition, he was preparing to take over the title of Lord Otokagure after his father. Still he didn’t miss him very much... His friend was very eccentric and now since he get married he always talk about his very intimate experiences with his wife and Kami both of them had really sick ideas ... Now he spent time with Shikadai-the son of the emperor's adviser and Inojin- son of the Lord  from the east who was practice to become court painter. Unfortunately, both the beloved by Nara clan shogi game and drawing didn’t interest him very much. And now he couldn’t even afford to see the dance show of beautiful dancers because the entire country was mourning after the death of the Great Shogun from the Uchiha clan - a longtime friend of the emperor. Boruto have  seen him several times in his life but the man made a great impression on him. It's hard to believe that someone like him died in battle. However, the month of national mourning is a huge exaggeration! He was bored with flirting with servants. They were pretty but ordinary also they often wanted something more than have a little bit fun He couldn’t afford to have an illegitimate child. His mother would be devastated . He didn’t want to get married so early too... No matter what Mitsuki said about pleasures of love making. The whole concept of marriage seemed to him very troublesome. Maybe he started to talk like Shikadai, but he really don’t want to change his life. Unfortunately, fate have completely different plans for him.

Next morning at audience with his father, he heard something terrible.

“I found a wife for you “the Emperor's words were as warm as always, but it did not make him feel any better” your wedding will be held in a castle temple in two weeks.”

"What?!" - after a long moment of shock, he said, " With who? I don’t even know her!”

"Your wife will be the daughter of the last Shogun. You know her. You spent a lot of time together as a children, when that bastard still visited me with the whole family ..."

At these words he recalled a silhouette of a little girl with short hair, dressed in a simple Yukata and pants, who for some reason chasing him with a stick everywhere... He still remembered his shock, when his mother told him that this strange boy is a girl and shouldn’t beat her. The vision of spending the rest of his life with this freak was too tragic. However, despite his insistent requests, his father didn’t change his mind. Furious, he left the emperor's chamber without waiting for permission.

                                       ...........................................

Two weeks passed too fast and there was no hope that he would be rescued from this situation. Mitsuki's advice for the wedding night definitely didn’t help. He had no intention to touch this ugly samurai-wannabe woman. The constant reminders of Shikadai how troublesome will be his duty  as a married successor to the throne, they pissed him off even more. When his mother came to wake him instead of the servants on the wedding day, he began to consider whether there will be more honorable to finish himself. Despite it, he allowed for all the preparations. Both the empress and his sister supervised his dressing from time to time discussing whether the given part of the outfit fits or they can improve something. To his surprise at the end of all this, even his father came to visit him. After a moment of silence, he uttered one sentence.

“Boruto ... Please, be good to her, she has really gone through a lot lately.”

And as if nothing happened, he come out.

Shortly after, he was in front of the temple door, moments later his bride joined him. She was dressed in multi-layered richly decorated kimono and her hair was carefully collected in a complicated hairstyle. He began to wonder how long it took to prepare all this, since he was dressed for three hours. Then his eyes fell on her face and for a moment he ran out of breath. Despite all his prejudices and childhood memories, he undoubtedly had a young woman in front of him and she was extremely beautiful. She has black shiny hair and onyx eyes, gentle facial features. Her skin was covered with white paint and lips with dark red lipstick.  It makes her looks like porcelain doll not living human. Her face showed no emotion, and her movements were stiff and slow. When she was at his height, she bowed and greeted him with some polite phrase, but her voice was too quiet to understand the meaning of her words. In addition, the noises coming from the temple made it even more difficult.

The ceremony seemed to last indefinitely. His thoughts rattled like crazy. Twice he forgot what he should say and almost choked with ritual sake. He had thousands of questions that could not be answered, and worse, his eyes were not able to peel off from her, but she never looked at him. Her attention was always blinded before her, which increasingly convinced him that he was not dealing with a human being. All the time the expression on her face remained unchanged until they were alone in his bedroom, when at the sight of a single futon, for a moment he could see something between disgust and fear on her face. She went to sit on the edge of the bed and her movements became even stiffer if  it possible. When he approached her, he could see her hands shaking as she tried to solve her obi.

“You don’t have to ... “ he finally said to her and she froze” I mean ... We do not have to do it.  We barely got to know each other.”

For the first time, he felt her eyes on her and immediately fear to look her way.

“That is tradition.” It was hard to tell if her voice was calm or sad.

“Yes, but you know, nobody can check it out ... They can’t make us to do it too... So maybe let's talk instead? "he looked in her direction, meeting with her curious look.

“You know, find out something about each other and stuff'tebassa...”

“What would you like to know? Dear husband...?” she replied but her voice collapsed at the end.

“I do not know ... Maybe what is your hobby”

Silence.

The situation got embarrassing, but it’s not like he ask about  anything difficult ...

“Embroider?” why it sounded like she was not sure?

“Sounds terribly boring. “ He looked at her to meet only the back of her head. So he avoids him again. “I like horse riding and fighting with swords ... And Geisha's performances and flirt with the servan...” Before he could bite his tongue, he felt her angry look. Well, it is not wise to tell his wife about others girls. Her eyes filled with a strong disgust for a moment, but then she looked away again. It's amazing how many emotions can be expressed through the look itself. He felt shivers on his back.

“Excuse me, but I'm tired ... Can I go to get ready to sleep ...?”

“Yes ... The bath should be ready” he answered, getting up from the floor.

He turned to the food table next the door. He realized that he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so he quickly absorbed the treats prepared by the service. When he ate, he began to consider the strange situation in which he was. Once again, recalling childhood memories, he came to the conclusion that maybe they had swapped his fiancée? After all, people don’t change that much. Although this woman wasn’t at all the perfect plan to spend the rest of his life. He didn’t know how to get along with her, and her aura reminded him about her father. He was shivering again ... At least she was pretty ... When he finished eating dessert, he went to the lower floor to take a bath in hot springs.

                                      .........................................

After returning to the room, he found his wife sleeping on the left bedside and for a moment remembered the of Inojins’ story about time, when he saw how his mother could change nasty women to beauty one with make-up. As quietly as he could, he slipped into his place and laid on his back, feeling some fear to look left. Maybe it was the answer to all of this? Perhaps the beauty of his bride was made by careful make-up artist's work? Turning to his wife, he closed one eye as if it would protect it from something. However, the picture in front of him surprised him again. Of course her skin was not porcelain-white, but it was very pale, certainly brighter than his. The shape of the face did not change, however, after removing many layers of wedding clothes, it seemed more slender. Her ebony hair, now bound together in a loose ponytail, wrapped her figure. Few strands shaded her forehead. Her eyelashes were long and thick and her lips, without red lipstick was pastel pink and full.  They looked very kissable...

He swallowed.

"I will get crazy with her," he sighed, extending his hand toward her. Gently, he brushed her hair back behind her ear, looking at her again. Her body language was completely different than it was when she was awake. Her muscles were relaxed. He could even see the shadow of a smile on her lips.  She looked charming and innocent, so much younger than in make-up... Now he remembered that in fact, he was a year older than her. Talking to her earlier had the impression of dealing with someone from the generation his parents. He felt a strange feeling in his chest. He didn’t know what she was dreaming about at the moment, but she certainly took it better than reality.

The reality she will spend by his side. Wanting to free himself from these thoughts, he turned to the other side and try to fall asleep.

When he woke up the next morning, he found only an empty space next to him...

 So.... Uh.... I hope I translate it a little bit better than google tlanslator... or at least not worse than it...

These fic was inspired by great  fanfic Sunrise written by  Amraklove

prequel                                                                                                   next part>

[raendown]

You may blame @1stsana for inspiring this one. I regret nothing.

A sequel to Love Done Right!

Pairing: HashiramaIzuna Word count: 5801 Summary: After watching his brother's - unintentional - success, Hashirama sets out to catch an Uchiha of his very own.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

In Keeping With Tradition

Using every iota of the stealth abilities that he had carefully honed over the past four days, Hashirama peeked his head around the corner to observe his target, noting happily that Izuna appeared to be in a cheerful mood this morning. Hashirama’s day was always brighter when he had a chance to see Izuna’s handsome smile. Without evening realizing it he was already mimicking the expression from the shadows where he hid, mentally running over his plan one more time.

That hours long discussion he’d been forced to have with Madara had paid off in more than one way and his friend wasn’t the only one who had come away with some fascinating new information to implement. Now that he knew about the – admittedly strange – courtship rituals of the Uchiha, Hashirama knew the perfect way to finally bring something important to Izuna’s attention. Namely: the fact that Hashirama was madly in love with him.

It wasn’t as though he hadn’t tried to say so before. Many a plan had gone awry or even unnoticed over the last few months and now it all made sense why. How was Izuna supposed to know that Hashirama cared for him that way when Hashirama treated him so gently? If violence was expected to get his point across, well, there were perks to being blessed with high level healing skills and massive chakra reserves.

Seeing his target approach, Hashirama hummed tunelessly under his breath as he slipped around the corner and stepped out in to the sunlight at just the right moment, timing his movements perfectly to ‘accidentally’ cause the unsuspecting Izuna to walk straight in to his chest.

“Whoops!” he chirped. “My apologies, Izuna, but I didn’t see you there.”

“That’s fine,” Izuna said, looking up at him with a friendly smile. Hashirama beamed.

“So kind! You’re exactly the sort of person we need to keep peace in the village!”

Well known for his tendency to hug everyone that stood still for more than ten seconds, Hashirama shamelessly took advantage of his own reputation to sweep his arms around Izuna’s trim form and draw the man in to a tight embrace. A very tight embrace, in fact. Hoping against hope that this, of all things, would get his point across, Hashirama constricted his arms just passed the point where he usually reminded himself to be careful of other people’s breakability.

Then he stopped with a false gasp of surprise when several cracking noises rent the air. When he set Izuna back on his feet and stepped away the younger man looked more dazed than in pain. Considering the stories his brother had told him about the first few days of Madara’s unusual courtship, Hashirama chose to take that as a good sign. Besides, dazed was much easier for him to watch than seeing his loved ones in pain.

Izuna looked up at him with wide eyes and Hashirama politely waited for him to say something.

“You…you broke my ribs…”

“Ah. So I did. Shall I heal them for you as well?”

“Okay?” If it were possible for a human to physically have stars in their eyes, Izuna would have sprouted a few in that moment.

Doing his best to remain calm and not show too much of how smug he was feeling, Hashirama gathered healing chakra to his hands and motioned for Izuna to follow him in to the empty room they very conveniently happened to be standing outside of. As soon as they were alone with the door shut behind them, Hashirama fixed Izuna with a look he would deny having at all, let along having practiced in the mirror: his come hither look.

“I’ll need you to open your robes so I can get to the injury,” he said quietly.

“Nnggg?” Izuna swallowed visibly, sending tingles rushing through Hashirama’s limbs. “A-alright.”

Strictly speaking, having direct contact with the wound wasn’t exactly necessary. It would have been just as easy for him to heal the cracked ribs from outside of the other’s robes since chakra healing was done mostly with the inner senses. He wasn’t about to mention that, however, as Izuna loosened his obi and gingerly pulled both arms out of his sleeves, leaving the upper half of his traditional Uchiha robe hanging from the waist.

Just as Hashirama began to question whether he could hold himself together in the face of so much exposed skin, he remembered that he was doing this in an effort to convince Izuna to see him as a potential partner and it made him wonder why he wasn’t being more blatant about his desires. What was the point in this if the younger man didn’t get the proper hints? With that in mind Hashirama resisted his first instinct to hide the hungry expression which fell over his face, allowing the other man to see the way he licked his lips absently and openly admired the toned chest revealed to him. As pretty as Izuna was fully dressed, he made an even better sight half out of his clothing.

Embarrassingly, both of them released quiet squeaking noises when their skin brushed together, although Hashirama managed to keep his wits about him together enough to press one palm flat to his patient’s chest for a diagnostic scan. Izuna merely stood there while his face slowly turned red. As suspected, he turned out to have several cracked ribs which Hashirama was more than happy to set about healing straight away. He was also more than happy to shamelessly caress the area under his hand as he worked. Pandering to the Uchiha courtship rituals was all well and good considering who he was trying to flirt with but that didn’t mean he couldn’t slip in a few of his own moves as well.

Once Izuna’s ribs were all set back to how they should be, uncracked and no longer causing pain, Hashirama very slowly retracted his hand, fingertips lingering in the grooves of a very impressive set of abs.

“All better,” he announced brightly. “I suppose I don’t know my own strength sometimes.”

“Uh-huh…”

“I’m meant to be somewhere right now so I should get going. Have a good rest of your day Izu-kun!”

Giving a wave and a smile, Hashirama stepped to one side and walked away as casually as he was able to with such heady waves of adrenaline rushing through his veins. He knew that dazed look; it was the same look Madara had worn after his friend had those first couple of encounters with Tobirama which began their relationship.

Amazing, all it had taken was breaking his ribs and suddenly it seemed Izuna could see him in the way he’d been hoping to be seen for quite some time now. Uchiha were odd – and yet, so loveable.

The next few days were strange. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened and yet in a way that was sort of what made them so strange. From what he knew of the Uchiha after his conversation with Madara, Hashirama rather thought Izuna might have come to see him by now. Even if he were not entirely certain that he wished to pursue someone like Hashirama, even were he not bearing the ‘first courting gift’, it seemed peculiar that he didn’t show any interest in exploring the option. In fact, it felt as though Izuna were avoiding him.

It took perhaps three days for Hashirama to decide that this simply wouldn’t do. How was he supposed to convince Izuna to date him if the younger man wouldn’t even spend five minutes around him outside of clan meetings or council business?

Trying to remember that he also wouldn’t want to make Izuna uncomfortable if his advances were truly unwanted, Hashirama leapt on the first work related excuse he could find which would take him to Izuna’s private office several days after the rib-cracking incident. He did notice the squirming which started up the moment he stepped in to the room but it was a little hard to tell if it was because he was making Izuna uncomfortable or if Izuna was trying to, say, hold in sudden romantic feelings he was unsure of.

“Izu-kun���–the man in question twitched noticeably at the nickname–“someone sent your copy of the security proposals to me. I thought you might want this back since you mentioned there were still a few adjustments you wished to make.”

“A-ah. Thank you Hokage-sama.”

“No need to be so formal! We’re all friends here; you can call me Hashirama!”

“Oh. Thanks. Uh, again.”

Beaming, Hashirama turned to leave but stopped as though some new thought had only just occurred to him. It hadn’t, he’d been thinking about this all morning but there was no need to scare off his intended by admitting that.

“We should get to know each other better if you still feel the need to be so formal. Are you busy this afternoon? I have some free time just after lunch and it might be fun to have a spar, wouldn’t you say?” Achieving just the right mix of suggestive leer and innocent smile was hard but he managed, thrilled to see how well it distracted the other man.

“Sure. Yeah. Okay.”

“Excellent! It’s a date!”

Izuna twitched again at his choice of words but Hashirama was already gone, tottering down the hall with a smile and humming a cheerful tune. The day had only barely begun and already it was shaping up to be a good one. His schedule was entirely free of meetings, his brother was tucked away in a corner somewhere with Madara where they couldn’t yell at him to stay focused, and after lunch he was going to go hunt himself a husband.

With such important plans dangling before him like a particularly tempting treat, noon seemed to take forever to arrive. Hashirama distracted his thoughts by throwing himself in to the work on his desk, for once not even needing one of his loved ones to stand over him like the slave drivers they all were. A quarter of an hour before his usual lunch break was scheduled he reached for something else to work on only to find that he’d finished it all without even meaning to. Once he realized what he’d done he had to bend his head and chuckle at the thought of how Tobirama was going to react when he came in tomorrow, most likely prepared to whine about how nothing ever got done in his absence, only to find that it had all gotten done.

After the laughter faded he was left with little to do but twiddle his thumbs unless he wanted to actually get ahead with budget proposals that didn’t require attention until next week or draft a few letters that wouldn’t need sending for several more days. None of that really sounded appealing, though, so after checking to make sure the coast was clear he slipped out of his office early and made his way down to the lower floors where Mito sat primly behind a desk, calmly explaining to a tired looking man why his mission report form was unacceptable.

“How’s the most beautiful, wonderful–”

“What do you need, Hashirama?” She didn’t even bother to look away from the man she was reprimanding, staring him down with a calm expression which obviously terrified more than if she had peeled back her lips and bared her teeth like an animal.

“Can’t a man just visit his precious people without having a reason to?”

“You have that expression you always make when you want something. Just tell me what it is and I can decide whether or not I feel generous today.”

Popping up from behind a nearby filing cabinet, Touka cackled. “More like than you think. She’s been having a lot of fun scaring all the chūnin coming back in from border patrols.” His cousin directed a smirk at the woman now primly handing a pen over to her shaking victim. “I should ask you to cover me for desk duty more often.” Hashirama frowned at her as she popped back down behind the filing cabinet.

“What are you doing back there?”

“Do you really want to know?” she asked, peeking out once more. That was when he noticed she had chakra wire bundled in her hands and a handful of what looked like Tobirama’s explosive tags sticking out of her pocket, the ones that were still labelled as ‘experimental, not for common usage’.

“Um…no. No I don’t think I do. Just don’t let Brother know that I saw you doing something, okay?” She nodded perfunctorily and Hashirama did his best to forget the vicious light in her eyes as she went back to whatever nefarious deed she was up to. Instead he turned to Mito and gave her his best smile.

She sent the chūnin away with a dismissive wave of her hand before turning to Hashirama. “What do you want?”

“I might have told someone that I had a bit of free time after lunch when I’m really supposed to be in my office for public hours. What would it take to convince you to cover my desk duty for a bit?” He fidgeted, watching her eyes narrow suspiciously before widening with a tiny smile.

“Do I get three guesses who it is you’d like to spend some time with?”

Hashirama nearly wriggled on the spot with excitement and that was all the answer she needed.

“Finally worked up the courage to do something about Izuna, hm? Good for you. If that’s the case then I would be more than happy to sit in your office and play ‘interim hokage’ for a few hours; anything to stop the mooning and the secret pining.”

“Hey!” Hashirama pouted. “I do not moon or pine.”

“Yeah you do!” Touka’s voice called out from behind the cabinet. When she stood up her entire torso was strung with chakra wire, explosive tags all woven through at strategic intervals to give her a rather forbidding look. Hashirama twisted his mouth to one side and shook his head.

“Right, whatever you’re up to, I don’t want to be a part of it when you get in trouble. I should probably go. Thanks Mito! You’re amazing!”

“I know,” her voice trailed after him. Hashirama chortled to himself as he trotted off back upstairs.

Amazingly, his lucky day only continued to get better. The moment he sat down in his chair Tobirama stumbled in through the door just a few seconds too late to catch him away from his desk. Madara came trailing behind him with a black eye and a lovesick expression which he quickly covered up upon spotting his best friend.

The three of them stared at each other in silence until Tobirama cleared his throat. Twice. If he didn’t know any better Hashirama would almost say his sibling was acting a little awkward.

“What are you doing here, Anija?” he asked. Hashirama blinked in confusion.

“Um…this is my office?”

“It’s lunch time. You always sneak out as soon as it’s time for lunch.”

Madara inched behind his partner, eyeing the desk intently for whatever reason, and said nothing.

“Oh is it?” Hashirama asked innocently. “I hadn’t noticed. Well then I should go head out. For lunch. And no other reason at all. Just a normal lunch.”

“Sounds good,” Tobirama mumbled. He too was eyeing the desk.

For the second time in less than ten minutes, Hashirama decided that he would much rather not know anything about what was going on. Maybe these two were planning on setting up a prank in his office but if that bought him a little extra time with Izuna then he was willing to deal with whatever happened later. He made his exit almost unnoticed by the two lovers, who seemed to suddenly be standing a lot closer together now, and the moment he closed the door behind himself he felt the shivery feeling of seal wards dropping down around the room.

It was definitely safer not to know. Mito could sort them out when she came upstairs.

Deliberately setting those two out of his mind – as well as Touka and her brand of madness – Hashirama set a course towards Izuna’s office once again with a purposeful stride. He hoped that Izuna was looking forward to this as much as he was. As long as his luck held out for just a little while longer then by the end of their spar he would have landed himself an Uchiha. And he would have done so on purpose, which he could rub in his brother’s face as an extra bonus.

Noon had already emptied the hallways before him as he strolled down a floor and peeked his head around a doorframe to find Izuna with his butt resting against the edge of his desk, staring out the window while he chewed on a thumbnail. Papers were strewn across his desk in every which direction, three pens hidden among the mess, and his free hand was rolling a small wooden ball around the circle of his palm. Hashirama recognized it as the ball he’d stolen from his older brother’s desk and only fiddled with when there was something particularly troubling on his mind. With any luck their spar would be enough to distract him and lift away any fragments of bad mood which might have crept up in the shot time since they had last seen each other.

“Knock knock!” Hashirama stifled a giggle at seeing Izuna jump, spinning around to stare at him with wide eyes.

“Oh Hoka-er-Hashirama! My apologies, I didn’t hear you coming. Aren’t you early?”

“Mn. Tobi and Maddy needed my office for something and I didn’t ask. That just means I have more time to spend with you! If you’re not too busy to take lunch right now?”

“Nnngggg.”

Hashirama wasn’t sure what that noise was supposed to mean. Izuna looked both distressed and embarrassed and he wasn’t really sure how he was meant to interpret that, let alone react to it. Luckily he was spared the trouble; Izuna murmured something about getting nothing done anyway and waved for him to lead the way.

It took a couple of false starts but eventually he was able to pull Izuna in to conversation as they strolled leisurely towards the training grounds, weaving their way around the masses of civilians and shinobi all milling about and trying to decide where to scavenge their midday meal. Mostly they talked about inconsequential things – or at least they might have seemed inconsequential to one of them. Knowing what he did of the Uchiha courting rituals, Hashirama was certain that his companion saw nothing suspicious in his casual questions about favorite flowers or which of the new festivals he most enjoyed of the ones they had established for the citizens of their village.

Several streets passed the rushing hubbub they both paused for a moment to observe Touka when she appeared from nowhere to march on by, covered head to toe in weaponry and explosives. She seemed to be heading towards the Uchiha district and Hashirama wondered if her plans today weren’t all that different from his own. At least Tobirama wouldn’t scold her too hard if she cited courting methods as an excuse for pyrotechnics. He silently wished her good luck before continuing on.

By the time they had wandered slowly all the way to the training fields Izuna looked much less tense, even smiling and tossing around a few jokes. Seeing him like this was a relief; it wasn’t like him to look so down unless there was some truly serious issue bothering him but whatever that issue was, Hashirama knew it would ruin the mood he was going for to ask about it. If Izuna brought it up he would be more than happen to talk about it and maybe help find a solution. Until then he was more excited to put his plans in to action.

“Rules?” he politely offered the honors to his companion after they had both stretched out their muscles.  

“Taijutsu only? We’ve never sparred before; probably best not to start with anything flashy. You can wipe the floor with Aniki so I’m hardly enthusiastic about my own chances here.” Izuna flashed a grin, hands reaching for his blades by habit before deliberately swinging down at his sides.

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Hashirama protested. “You’re the only person who’s ever managed to give Tobirama any difficulty on the field and it’s no easy feat besting him in a spar. Especially if you take away my jutsu. That’s sort of necessary to pin him, he’s pretty slippery.”

“He is that.” Izuna chuckled in agreement, no doubt thinking of the many friendly spars he’d had with Tobirama since they made peace, spars which generally ended up with one or both of them gasping on the ground in exhaustion after reaching a stalemate.

“Shall we?”

Both of them were grinning widely as they fell in to stance, Hashirama crooking the fingers of one hand in teasing invitation for his opponent to make the first move. Izuna huffed at him but came forward with his body already twisting in the motions of what would have been a vicious kick had it connected.

Deskwork has apparently taken its toll on Hashirama more than he’d thought as of late. He only just barely managed to block the first few blows before finally responding with a few of his own, quickly falling back in to rhythms so familiar they were practically engraved in his very sense of being. Arms raised to block punches without thought and legs swept out to attack shins before he had consciously noticed they had been left unguarded.

Together the two of them danced back and forth across the grass, each striving for the upper hand, eyes narrowed and sharply watching for a weakness in defense. Dirt showered up with each kick aimed for neck or knee and several times one or the other was forced to bend in interesting ways to avoid painful bruising. It took nearly a full eight minutes before Hashirama finally found his stride, quite a large chunk of time for such a heavily physical activity, but once he did it was hard to contain the thrill running through him. He always missed this during the periods when he couldn’t get away from his desk enough to train properly and seeing Izuna all worked up and sweaty was just icing on the cake.

When he spotted his opening at last he went for it without hesitation, snapping his fist forward and venting a triumphant “Ha!” at the feeling of his opponent’s nose crumbling under the blow. Izuna’s head snapped backwards and he reeled a few steps before coming to a complete stop, standing utterly still in the middle of a spar with his limbs loose and his nose bleeding.

He looked rather like how Tobirama had described the expression Madara had worn when the two of them first got embroiled in the most fortuitous mess of their lives.

“You broke my nose,” Izuna slurred through the blood and ruined cartilage. Hashirama hummed, incredibly proud of himself and trying not to be too cocky about it just yet.

“So I did.”

“My nose. You broke my nose.”

“I seem to be breaking a lot of your bones today,” Hashirama mused pointedly. “Allow me to heal that for you again.”

Although he was certain he wasn’t meant to see it, the surge of triumph running through his veins was dampened immediately by the way Izuna physically flinched away from the hand he raised, already coating itself with healing chakra. He did his best to pretend he hadn’t seen it, hoping it was little more than the involuntary reaction of a twitchy shinobi.

Neither of them spoke while he reconstructed Izuna’s nose as quickly as he could. Each time Hashirama tried to catch the man’s eyes they quickly looked off in another direction, staring at the trees surrounding them in a manner much too casual to be as innocent as he was trying to appear. Clearly Izuna was avoiding looking at him, although it wasn’t clear why, and Hashirama felt a stone in his gut as he realized that perhaps his offer of courtship was about to be rejected. Had he already been considered and dismissed? Was that what had been bothering Izuna today, the conundrum of how to let him down easily?

It took effort not to curl down to the ground in a miserable ball of sadness at the very thought and the only thing which kept him standing was the attention he was paying to healing what he had broken. Whether or not he hadn’t also broken their budding friendship remained to be seen but he rather hoped not. If Izuna didn’t wish to have him as a partner then Hashirama very much hoped that they could still be friends.

Finally he allowed the glow around his hand to taper off, retracting his chakra from Izuna’s nasal cavities and making one last medical scan before declaring the job done.

“All fixed,” he announced, trying to maintain his cheer. He could do this; he could face rejection bravely. “Does anything still hurt?”

“No,” Izuna mumbled, rocking back on his heels but making no other move to put more distance between them. Hashirama shuffled his weight, peeking up from under his bangs to try one last time to catch the other’s eyes.

Their gazes finally met only for Izuna to flush immediately and look away with a pained expression.

“I see. Ah, if you’re not feeling up to, um, anything else then I would not take offense to ending our, um, exercise. You don’t have to…spar with me anymore.” If he tried very hard, Hashirama wondered if he might physically be able to shove his entire foot in to his mouth. Even the blades of grass at their feet could tell he was speaking about something else. Izuna rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Well, it isn’t that I don’t want to, er, spar. Or something. Just…you already have a…sparring partner. So...”

“Eh?” Hashirama blinked, tilting his head to one side.

“You…have a…and I’m not really okay with, er, sparring with someone else’s…partner.”

“Oooooohhhhhhhh!”

Hashirama very nearly laughed with the dizziness as relief swept through him, leaving his knees weak. But he finally understood what the problem was and it was a wonder he hadn’t thought to explain beforehand. Truly his brother was on to something every time Tobirama called him an oblivious dingus.

“You’re worried about Mito!” he said. Izuna flushed deeper, rubbing harder at the back of his neck.

“Well…yeah? You’re married. So I’m flattered, I really am, and I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested but–”

“Have you ever heard of polyamory?”

Izuna blinked, frowning a little. “No?”

“Ah. It’s not really something I think of as out of the ordinary because it’s so common in our clan. Actually, Brother’s kind of an odd man out for not being polyamorous. We often enter relationships with multiple partners and it’s not uncommon for more than one of those relationships to culminate in marriage. I do have a wife but…I would also like a husband.” When Izuna’s head snapped up to stare at him with wide eyes, Hashirama offered him a shy smile, hoping his meaning had been clear.

“You…like a harem!?”

“What? No!” Now he did laugh, amused. “I’m in a relationship with Mito. I would also like to be in a relationship with you. My wife is not polyamorous but she understands that I am and she respects the fact that my heart will love other people as well as her.”

“Oh. That’s not something I’ve ever heard of before.”

Fiddling his hands together, Hashirama ventured, “Is it something you think you could be okay with? As I understand it, it isn’t a common practice among the other clans.”

Nerves filled him again while he waited for Izuna to answer, forcing himself to stay quiet and allow the other some time to think. Despite his usual excitability he was capable of reining himself in and being patient when the situation was important – and this situation was incredibly important to him. Izuna’s good opinion of him could be riding on the line.

“Did you break my nose on purpose?”

“Uh…” Hashirama blinked. That wasn’t what he had been expecting after such a long silence. “Yes? That’s how Tobi caught Madara’s attention so I thought maybe it would work for you too.”

Without warning Izuna’s face split with a wide smile, cheeks flushing. “It was an amazing punch,” he breathed, wonder in his eyes and his voice.

“Thank you?”

“No, thank you,” he insisted. Hashirama laughed.

“You’re welcome, I suppose. Should I give you some time to think about all of this, then? I don’t mind waiting if you need me t-oh!”

His words were cut off as he gave a startled cry, not at all expecting the body which impacted his own so suddenly. A head tucked itself under his chin and Hashirama felt his toes fluttering with delight over the difference in their heights. Izuna was just the perfect size for Hashirama to hold the man close and curl around him.

The two of them stood quietly for a long time, in no hurry to end their embrace. Hashirama buried his nose in Izuna’s hair, not bothering with trying to be discreet as he inhaled a deep lungful of smoke, weapon oil, and the barest hint of sesame. Whatever small fragments of nervousness had been left in him faded away to dust as though he never had a thing to worry about. A hug this tight and this long could hardly mean anything bad for his chances at a positive answer.

“Do you like gyoza?” Izuna’s voice mumbled in to his chest.

“Of course! Who doesn’t?”

“I’ll think about maybe bringing you some gyoza tomorrow, then. I, er, hope you like it extra crispy.”

Hashirama swallowed thickly. “You cook it and I will eat it. Promise.” He felt Izuna nod and burrow closer in to him, both of them shivering just a little.

When Izuna’s head shifted he had to lift his own away to allow the man to peek up at him, almost swooning when he caught sight of the shyly pleased smile waiting for him. Hashirama lifted one of his hands from where it was wrapped tightly around Izuna’s waist to instead caress the beautiful line of his jaw, admiring the softness of his skin.

He watched in awe as the man in his arms took a deep breath before pushing himself up on to his toes, eyes fluttering shut and fingers clenching in the shirt they were gripping.

Their first kiss started gentle and slow, a demure exploration. Since one of them was an Uchiha, however, it wasn’t much of a surprise that things rapidly took a more passionate turn. Before long they had their hands in each other’s hair, tongues sliding together and teeth nipping at each other’s lips. Hashirama wasn’t entirely sure what inspired him to bite down hard enough to draw blood but he very happily swallowed Izuna’s moan of appreciation.

When they broke apart they were both panting and flushed, clutching on to each other like lifelines. After dipping down for one more quick kiss, Hashirama tilted his head to the side to brush his lips against the shell of Izuna’s ear.

“I look forward to any gifts you may see fit to give me,” he said. Izuna quivered against him and drew a shaky breath. “And you can rest assured that I have already put quite a bit of thought in to potential gifts ideas which I might give to you in return.”

“Guh,” Izuna whimpered and Hashirama smirked, pleased with himself.

All of his worrying had been for naught and knowing that everything had turned out just as he hoped it would left him both giddy and impatient. Tobirama could drag things out ‘properly’ all he liked but Hashirama very much intended to bow to Uchiha courting traditions. Married within two weeks didn’t sound too bad to him.

Especially not if it would get Izuna in to his bed that quick. That was definitely a stage in their relationship he was excited to reach.

“Should I allow you to get back to the office?” he asked reluctantly. “You didn’t look like you were able to get much done and it seems that was sort of my fault for distracting you.” A nervous titter escaped him and he offered a sheepish smile, oscillating between emotions as rapidly as he always did. Then his chest gave a happy rumble when Izuna leaned up to press another kiss to the corner of his mouth.

“Absolutely not. Work can wait just a little bit longer. You promised me a spar and – I mean yeah I was nervous about certain stuff but I’ve also been looking forward to it. Maybe you’ll break my nose again!”

“Can I just mention how weird it is that you Uchiha enjoy having your bones broken?” Not that said weirdness stopped Hashirama from being entirely smitten and very willing to participate.

“But it’s so romantic!” Izuna insisted.

Hashirama shook his head, still smiling. “Well then. Let’s see if I can break anything else before we go back to the office.”

When the man almost swooned in his arms the only thing Hashirama could think was that he was so in love he felt his seams might burst open. Izuna was the perfect size with the perfect temperament, the cutest face on top of the cutest butt. The sooner they could be married the sooner Hashirama could stake his claim on that pert little bottom and he could hardly wait to see his family grow. Mito was already excited to have someone else around the house as well.

Although it took them a few minutes to work up the will to detangle their limbs, the two men did eventually separate and put enough space between them to take stance once more, trading expressions of childish glee at the chance to beat each other up to the best of their ability. What could be more romantic – or more fun?

Before they began Hashirama closed his eyes for a moment and slowly filled his lungs. Then he opened then and took in the sight of Izuna awaiting him so eagerly and thought to himself that he couldn’t wait to keep seeing this for the rest of his life.

Even if he had to break every bone in the poor man’s body just to have it.

[raendown]

Chapter: 2/8 Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 1074 Summary: After having his eyes opened in a sudden - and violent - manner, Madara immediately begins his wooing of one Senju Tobirama.

It turns out, however, that Uchiha courting rituals are rather…unique.

Madara would say it’s going well. Tobirama would say something entirely different.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Love Done Right: Chapter 2

On most days Tobirama was able to feel a large amount of pride for everything his brother had managed to accomplish, although he preferred not to say so out loud and encourage Hashirama’s head to grow any bigger. When they were younger he’d never truly believed that peace was possible but now here they were living every day side by side with more than a dozen other clans, shinobi and civilian alike, and this village his brother had wrought was doing better than surviving; it was flourishing.

And then there were the days like today when all the overwhelming miniscule details that raising a village took were enough to make him forget his familial pride and replace it with irritable exhaustion. He’d been kept up until well past the witching hour last night by a meeting with the Sanitation Committee about whether or not all public buildings should be required to have working bathroom facilities or if public cesspits would be enough. Honestly, it was as though they wanted disease to run rampant through the settlement.

So tired was he that Tobirama had very nearly fallen asleep on top of the small paperwork mountain on his desk in the Hokage Tower when he felt something brush up against the side of his face. He reacted on instinct, shooting out one hand to immobilize the offending appendage and twisting it so he could snap his other hand around and down to produce a satisfying crack that reverberated throughout the room. Only when his foggy brain vaguely recognized the startled shout did he blink open his eyes to check who the hell was touching him in his sleep.

Madara stood in front of his desk, now cradling his broken arm close to his chest with the other, and he was staring down at Tobirama with the same vapid, astonished expression as he had a couple of days ago when he’d taken a hard punch during their spar. Tobirama eyed him with suspicion.

“What the hell, Uchiha? Do you always go around fondling people in their sleep?”

“Fondling!?” Madara spluttered and turned red – in anger, Tobirama assumed, that anyone would dare to suggest he would touch someone he so openly despised in that manner. He seemed the prudish type, really. “I would never! We’re not quite there, yet. Are we!?”

“Quite where? No, never mind. Tell me what the hell you came in here for and then get the hell back out of here. I was very close to getting some actual rest for the first time in too many days to count.”

“Right! Yes! I came in here for a purpose. Yes. Stop looking at me like that, Senju, I’ve not gone mad!”

Yawning, Tobirama rolled his eyes even though they were close. “Could have fooled me,” he slurred.

“Don’t think I’ll allow you to speak to me any way you want now! I still demand respect!”

“Mhm. I very much respect the fact that you appear to have incorrectly fastened your trousers this morning, if that’s what you mean.” Tobirama chuckled as Madara flushed an even darker shade of red and spun around to afford himself a small amount of privacy while he fixed his clothes as best he could with only one hand.

When he turned back to face Tobirama he lifted one finger and opened his mouth, worked his jaw silently for a few moments, then turned around and promptly left the room without a single word, presumably to seek healing for his arm.

Tobirama watched him go with a small amount of confusion but a great amount of relief. At least now he could return to his nap, hopefully without any further disturbances.

What a strange man. Thank kami he was Hashirama’s problem.

-

It took somewhat over an hour for Hashirama to finish healing the break in his arm, asking questions the entire time and whining when he wasn’t provided with any satisfying answers. Madara did try to warn him off with a few scowls but the buffoon had absolutely no propriety. Honestly, a man’s courtship should not be subject to so many questions unless he opened the topic himself; did Hashirama not understand what a private matter this was?

Madara was ready to burst with anxiety by the time he returned home to speak with Izuna. He found his sibling lounging on the couch with a book, which was hastily put away as soon as the younger caught sight of the expression on his face.

“Well? Did you talk to him?”                                                                                                      

“Not really but he did break my arm. He wasn’t even fully awake and he broke my arm! How did I not know there was such a perfect man hiding under my nose this entire time?”

“Wow,” Izuna said. “Things are more serious than I thought! You’d better get a move on or someone else is going to snatch him up. Do you have any plans?”

Forcing his face back in to a less sappy expression, Madara sniffed haughtily. “Of course I have a plan. You know the courting rituals as well as I do. I was thinking about taking things a little slower, sort of easing in to it considering our past history, but he’s more eager than I thought. Of course, I’ll need to do things properly. The elders would have a heart attack if I offered him anything but the traditional courting gifts.”

“Obviously. So, tomorrow then?”

“Yes. Do you think he’ll–?”

“Aniki, as much as I hate to say this about my own rival, there isn’t anyone else I’ve ever met who I think could be as worthy of you as he is. He’ll be impressed. Remember mother telling us about when she received the first courting gift?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Snorting, Izuna brushed a bit of imaginary lint off the front of his shirt. “Of course I’m right. Between the two of us I’m the smart one so just listen to me and everything will turn out alright.”

He never saw the pillow coming towards his face but he did manage to dodge the small fireball and retaliate with one of his own. Madara had time to thank the heavens that his clan had spent the extra funds to fireproof the majority of their new homes here in the village, then after that he had little time to think as he chased his sibling around wielding threats and flames in equal measure.

[raendown]

I am weak and I wrote more for the Uchiha Courting Rituals au. 

Pairing: MadaTobi, HashiIzu, HashiMito, ToukaAndHerHarem Word count: 2675 Summary: Wedding bells chime in the nearby future but who are they chiming for?

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

As Many As It Takes

Less than decade ago if someone had asked Tobirama to sit down in the company of even just one Uchiha without reaching for a weapon he would have laughed in their face. Now he sat calmly in a room with six different men and women all from a clan he had once considered his mortal enemies, all of them intermingled with the members of his own family, calmly enjoying his shochu and very carefully planning out how he would later seduce Madara in to calming the fuck down.

Seductions, he had found, were his most effective weapon against Madara’s rage. Evidently his partner found it very difficult to remain angry with his cock halfway down another man’s throat.

Taking another fortifying sip, Tobirama reflected that life was strange and the Uchiha were stranger. There wasn’t a single person in here wearing the Uchiha fan who wasn’t currently bearing some sort of injury with loving pride. However they had come to the conclusion generations ago that violence should be connected to romance, he at least applauded them for being so straight forward. His own dating history was rocky and sparse due entirely to the fact that social subtleties just weren’t his forte. At least with Madara the only flirting he needed was a swift punch with loving intentions.

It was very likely, however, that he would soon be witness to violence sans the loving intentions. He knew exactly why they had all been gathered here tonight and it was only in part to congratulate Touka on her successful hunting endeavors. Truthfully they were here to reveal a secret to the only person here who still didn’t know, the only person here whose reaction they had all been slightly wary of.

Rightfully fearful of his brother’s reaction to learning he’d entered a courtship of his own, Izuna had pulled a few strings and recommended Madara for a diplomatic mission repairing current relationships with Kirigakure which had kept him away from home for a full three weeks. In that time Izuna and Hashirama had gone through the entirety of the lightning fast Uchiha courtship and come out the other side ready to be married – and that was when they hit a small snag, the same snag Touka had hit upon in her own adventures. Marriages in the Uchiha clan required the permission of their clan Head. With Madara out of the village there could be no marriages performed.

Tobirama rather carefully avoided mentioning the slight tyrannical overtones that suggested to him. Keeping peace was a delicate balance and he could only get on his knees so many times in one day to calm his beloved down.

His thoughts were interrupted then by the thundering of a fist against wood: Touka rapping her knuckles on the table in the center of the room. A large portion of the room immediately looked up at her with worship in their eyes, something Tobirama knew he would have to get used to seeing at family gatherings yet still struck him as a bit overwhelming. One was all he needed, thanks.

Nevertheless, he politely gave the desired attention to his cousin.

“Alright. We all know why we’re here. And most of us know the other reason we’re here but I’m obviously more important so listen up. Group wedding. Two weeks. Madara, I need those marriage licenses.”

“Ugh, do you know how much paperwork that’s going to be?” Madara crossed his arms and settled closer in to his partner’s side. Feeling generous at the moment, Tobirama wound one arm around his shoulders and held him protectively, fortifying him against the coming administrative duties that came with being clan Head.

“Don’t care,” Touka replied with a grin. The candles providing light in the room gave her face an eerie cast as the shadows danced between her teeth.

At her feet, a dark haired woman in Uchiha robes let out a dreamy sigh and rested her head against Touka’s leg. From next to both of them there came a light growl which made Touka look down with an inquisitive expression that quickly turned in to a smug grin. Leaning over, she petted her hand across the top of the Hikaku’s head.

“Now, now. Be good and maybe we can spar before bed,” she murmured. Like a steel trap the man’s jaw snapped shut, his face immediately falling in to a startled expression which almost seemed to question how he had gotten here. Noticing the raised eyebrows from her family, Touka laughed. “They’re still learning how to share.”

Fascinated by how well the Uchiha traditions suited her own personality, Touka wasted no time following in the footsteps of her two cousins, marching herself straight in to the Uchiha district and committing violence against several members of their clan. Although her partners might appear to have been chosen on a whim, in truth she had carefully considered each and every one of them, attaching herself only to the strongest of the ones she had actually spoken to and whose company she already knew she enjoyed.

Of the four she had chosen to court there were two men, one woman, and one person whose gender appeared to shift fluidly towards whatever felt right to them at the time. Upon learning that they would all be expected to share the same wife there immediately sprang up an informal hierarchy among them, at the top of which sat a very tired looking Hikaku. His entire face looked slightly misaligned from all the hits he had taken in the name of love and it was hard to tell if he was up on cloud nine from it all or if he was regretting his decision to fight his way to the top of the heap so harshly.

Tobirama had never seen a man face palm while wearing a reverent expression before but Hikaku was getting pretty good at that. He was also getting rather good at watching Touka with stars in his eyes even as his hands absently wrangled one of the others in to better behavior.

“So yeah. Get it done, Uchiha. I have lovers to love and – oh shit, yeah. Cousin, can you extend my house? I need room for all these yahoos.” Touka gestured broadly to the four sitting around her. Still pressed against his own partner’s side, Madara snorted.

“In my own time,” he grumbled half to himself. She snorted back at him.

“Well make your own time fast.”

“Extending your house won’t be a problem,” Hashirama said from where he was sitting primly next to Izuna. Their bodies were carefully placed to allow for the proximity which came with sitting together on the same couch yet keeping their posture straight enough that they couldn’t be accused of having sat together on purpose.

Touka nodded with as much grace as she was capable of. “Good. Well. Here’s to me and my – what did Izuna call it? My harem! Here’s to me and my harem!”

She raised her glass with another cock grin, her free hand absently tracing the ear of the woman cuddled up to her leg again. Uchiha, as it turned out, had a startling tendency towards cat-like behaviors such as butting their heads against their partners. If Tobirama weren’t so fond of cats himself he would never have made the connection but once he had it had explained a great many things. And he had, of course, immediately passed this observation around to the others of his family who had embroiled themselves in the clutches of the fire-breathing maniacs.

Case in point: as soon as Madara had taken a sip from his glass of shochu he went right back to fiddling with the tie of Tobirama’s obi, batting at the dangling bit of fabric without seeming to consciously realize he was doing so.

Once everyone had taken a drink as a toast, Touka gave her eldest cousin a smug leer.

“Anyway, didn’t someone else also have some news they would like to share?” She cackled at the way he flushed and Mito hid a smile behind one hand. Hashirama cleared his throat awkwardly, glancing over at his best friend, then handed his cup off to Mito and very carefully laid one hand on Izuna’s knee.

Madara tensed, eyes narrowing immediately. Hashirama swallowed nervously but forged on with a brave face.

“Yes! Ah. Um.” He squirmed in his seat, twisting up the brand new robe he was wearing. He’d been seated in the same place since before everyone arrived so no one had seen the back of it but Tobirama would have bet his favorite sword that there was a red and white fan stitched between the man’s shoulder blades. “We have some news for you, my friend. I-Izuna gifted me some new, um, clothing about a week ago. And I’m wearing them. And I was hoping that it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you to maybe – pleasedon’tkillme – write up a marriage license for us too?”

“Perhaps I’m going deaf but that sounded as though you were asking my permission to marry my little brother, Hashirama.” Madara’s face had gone dark and his tone foreboding. Across the room, Hikaku sighed and dropped his head between his knees, covering his head protectively with both arms just in case. The rest of Touka’s partners followed suit immediately while Hashirama continued to squirm.

“Yes? I mean. Yes. I mean! I don’t…need your permission?”

Izuna bit his lip to keep from laughing even as he laid his hand over top of Hashirama’s for support and gave it a light squeeze. “We sort of do, love.”

“What the hell! I thought we were friends, Hashirama! Then you go behind my back and seduce my baby brother!?”

“Uh…Madara?” Hashirama’s nervous expression fell away as he turned his head to give a pointed look at his own younger brother before turning back to his friend with one eyebrow raised. Madara flushed.

“Shut up! I thought you knew what I was doing the whole time so that’s different!”

“Aniki, come on,” Izuna said. “We’re in love! You wouldn’t really deny me the chance to marry for love, would you?” He paired the question with a shameless wobble of his lower lip. When it was mirrored with the same expression from Hashirama, every other person in the room came to the sudden realization of the monster they had allowed to be created right before their eyes.

Madara, on the other hand, retained his indignity through sheer habit.

“I – but – you – it’s not fair! And it isn’t right! You’re my baby brother and you’re not allowed to have sex. Baby brothers are never allowed to have sex!”

Beside him, Tobirama rolled his eyes and calmly reached out to snatch up one of the candles flickering away on the table beside him. Without so much as changing expression he shoved the flame straight at Madara’s face, jerking it away just in time to avoid burning him yet not in time to save his eyebrows.

A hush fell over the room as a whole, all eyes on Madara, who sat blinking in astonishment with one hand slowly rising up to feel around the area where his eyebrows had been only moments ago. It appeared to take a few moments for the truth to sink in that they were, in fact, no longer there. When it did he whipped his head around to stare at an unnaturally calm Tobirama.

“You just…did you…?”

“I think a group wedding for all of us might be nice,” Tobirama said, entirely ignoring his partner’s spluttering. “Just to get it all done and out of the way at once. Less planning. More efficient.”

“You just proposed.”

Now openly leaning in to Hashirama, Izuna snickered. “I sure hope it was on purpose this time.”

Touka eyed the candles closest to her and then eyed her four lovers. Each of them looked back up at her with brilliant grins, some of them still with patches of hair missing from where their own faces had been met with flame. Definitely a weird clan.

“Yes, yes,” Tobirama was saying. “Of course it was on purpose this time. Now. You don’t mind writing up a couple more marriage licenses, do you? Wouldn’t it be nice to be married at the same time as your brother?” He waited for Madara to nod dreamily and then turned to his own sibling with a look which said you’re welcome.

“Thank you,” Hashirama chirped in return.

“And congratulations,” Mito added.

Shaking his head, Tobirama tugged Madara back down in to the crook of his arm and stroked the back of his hair soothingly while he continued to murmur softly to himself in a dazed voice, successfully distracted from freaking out over Izuna and Hashirama. The pair of men in question both gave Tobirama a grateful look while Mito continued to struggle with holding in her amusement.

Touka drained the rest of her cup of shochu in one long pull before slamming it down on the closest table with a satisfied sigh.

“Alright, now that all that’s settled, me and mine should probably head out. I’m really digging this idea of a spar before bed. Whoever gets a good hit on me first gets first dibs on fucking me in to the mattress!”

None of her partners needed any more encouragement than that to scramble up on to their feet and make a break for Hashirama’s front door. Tobirama noted with mild interest that Hikaku made it through first, if only by tripping up his other male contender and using his longer legs to gain speed as soon as he was out on the front porch. Beyond enjoying the spectacle they made of their competitiveness, Tobirama tried not to think about the reason behind it, only waved goodbye as his cousin followed them all out.

“Should we go home as well?” he asked the great cat of a man curled up against his side. Madara’s muted ramblings paused and he tensed with indecision; should he go home with Tobirama and enjoy a pleasantly violent round of celebratory sex? Or should he stay here and guard his younger brother’s already questionable virtue simply on principle?

“I don’t know…” Madara scowled indecisively until Tobirama leaned over to whisper in his ear.

“What if I promise to tie you to the headboard when we get there?”

“Home – go – now!” No one saw fit to comment on the way Madara’s voice cracked on his words, although Tobirama did allow himself a smirk as he calmly rose from the couch to lead the way back to the Madara’s home, which he had all but officially moved in to at this point.

Izuna, Mito, and Hashirama all waved goodbye from their spots of the couch, Hashirama wearing a smile fit to outshine the sun. Just before he made it out the front door Tobirama was able to catch a glimpse of Izuna and Mito both leaning in to use their lover’s broad chest as a pillow and in the silence of his mind he offered his congratulations to them all for finding a family that would bring them happiness. It seemed to be going around lately.

Less than a decade ago he would have laughed in the face of anyone who dreamt up such wild things as a Senju marrying an Uchiha. Five years ago he would have scrunched up his nose is distaste and declared it plausible but not for him. Now every day of the rest of his life would be filled to the brim with more Uchiha than he ever would have thought himself able to handle – one of whom he would wake up to every morning. And by some crazy circumstance he could hardly wait.

Perhaps at some point he should get around to thanking his brother for standing by his own dreams and building the village, for laying down the foundations to make so much happiness possible. For now, however, he planned on being quite busy showing his appreciation to Madara first.

[raendown]

Chapter: 5/8 Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 1314 Summary: After having his eyes opened in a sudden - and violent - manner, Madara immediately begins his wooing of one Senju Tobirama.

It turns out, however, that Uchiha courting rituals are rather…unique.

Madara would say it’s going well. Tobirama would say something entirely different.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Love Done Right: Chapter 5

Out of all the places in the village that he could have been disturbed during his time off, inside his laboratory was probably the worst one. Tobirama glared towards the doorway where two different heads were poking in, neither of them welcome at the moment, and tried to mentally convince the both of them to turn around and leave. Unfortunately it didn’t work in the slightest and both men scurried inside with equally childlike expressions of glee. That Hashirama’s was much more innocent while Madara’s looked more like a weasel that had managed to sneak in to the henhouse only made it all the more worrisome.

After all the strange practical jokes this particular weasel had been pulling over the past little while, Tobirama was just a bit cautious about interacting with him. Yesterday he’d been offered some innocuous looking soup only to find it laced with ghost peppers. Three days before that he’d had to spar with Madara in the hallways of the Tower just to gain entry to his own brother’s office. At this point he was suspicious of every move the man made.

“What do you two want?” he asked bluntly.

“Don’t be so snide, we were only interested in what you’re doing,” Madara replied, just a little too easily for it to be believable. Tobirama eyed him distrustfully. Whatever his true intentions, clearly he thought a bit of sarcasm would hide them.

Possibly he had followed Hashirama as an excuse to snoop and make sure none of Tobirama’s research would be detrimental towards his clan – he always had been a little paranoid – but more likely he was only here to stir up a bit of trouble and make everyone around him miserable as usual. Honestly, how Hashirama didn’t see the idiot for the pointless nuisance that he was, Tobirama had no idea. It had been years since he’d given up trying to open his brother’s eyes to the truth.

“Hey, what’s this do?”

Tobirama’s head snapped to the side and he only just managed to pull his sibling away before he accidentally overturned a sealed tube of poison gas.

“Don’t touch anything,” he hissed. “The things in here are dangerous. You might have noticed the sign on the door asking that I not be disturbed?”

“Yeah but we were curious! There’s so many neat things in here!”

“Is this one dangerous?” Madara asked, his finger hovering just over a petri with something growing inside. It was only a culture of common yeast mold for experiments but Tobirama raised an eyebrow at him and told him in a flat voice that it was, in fact, deadly. The man edged away with a mildly anxious look.

“Brother, please,” Tobirama implored, setting aside the fragment he’d been holding over an open flame and rubbing at his temples. “How many times have I asked you not to disturb me while I am working in here?”

As his sibling began to whine and moan about how little time they had been spending together lately, Tobirama surreptitiously watched Madara while the man slowly made his way around the room. He seemed to be paying the objects around him a proper amount of respect now, at least, but it would have been better if he left altogether. For some reason every time they saw each other now Tobirama couldn’t stop noting how attractive he was and it was seriously impeding his ability to stay mad at the idiot.

Madara’s eyes lit up with something which looked a lot like delight when he came close enough to inspect the controlled flame over which Tobirama had been heating a vial of chemicals. His fingers twitched, drawing Tobirama’s attention as he tried not to reach out only to fail, hand inching forwards of its own volition.

Perfectly aware of the situation, Tobirama could have stopped what was about to happen. But since it was his lab and he had always believed in learning through one’s own mistakes he pointedly kept his silence. He watched Madara’s fingers reach for the flame and postulated that maybe he was drawn to it because of the Uchiha predilection for fire, even outside of their famed jutsu. Whatever the case, that didn’t help him when his non-lab-approved double wide sleeves draped across the knobs which controlled how much gas the flame was being fed and accidentally spun them.

The screech he let out when the fire jumped up to snatch at the fringe of his hair was probably the funniest sound Tobirama had ever heard in his life.

Madara leapt back with both hands patting at his face but when he lowered them to look around with wide eyes to confirm that he was alright Tobirama began to laugh even harder. His hair may have survived by sheer dumb luck but his eyebrows had not; they were entirely burnt off.

“Oh sweet kami, Madara! Are you alright!?” Hashirama hurried over to his friend, pulling him towards the sink in one corner and casting about for a rag he could wet to dab at the affected area. “Does it hurt? Can you see?”

“No I…he burnt off my eyebrows…”

Across the room, Tobirama very nearly fell out of his seat with laughter. Just this once it would have to be alright for him to allow himself to admire how cute Madara looked when he was dazed like that because this was definitely a moment he wanted to remember forever. Even with medical jutsu those eyebrows were going to take several days to grow back and Tobirama intended to enjoy every minute of it.

 -

 Madara set a personal record that evening by managing to hold his silence until nearly halfway through dinner when Izuna asked him how things were going with Tobirama lately. He’d been waiting for that question since he got home but hadn’t wanted to seem too eager by blurting it out himself. Even now a couple of weeks after this whole thing started he could barely think of anything else but Tobirama.

“He burned my eyebrows off today.” He was going for a sort of casual tone but failed mostly due to the way he grinned widely as he spoke. Izuna reached across the table to pound his shoulder in a congratulatory manner.

“Wow! It’s finally time, then! Things are going as they should at last!”

In all his life Madara had never felt shy about anything before yet he almost did now, lowering his head in a demurely pleased manner. Falling in love had rather quickly turned him in to a different person. No one had mentioned anything about his behavior as of yet but he’d already prepared a number of violent punishments to make an example out of whoever did first.

“So, are you going to do it tomorrow?” Izuna asked. “You’re already dragging your feet, Aniki, I’ve never seen anyone wait more than a week past the first gift to ask for their beau’s hand in marriage. I mean, do the Senju really stretch it out like this?”

“You know, it never occurred to me to ask. But he hasn’t told me we should slow down and if he wanted that then he wouldn’t have given me the signal, would he?”

“That’s true, I suppose.”

Both siblings nodded to themselves and Madara was grateful for the affirmation that he was on the right path.

“It’s decided then. Obviously I’ll need to tweak the final gift a little bit due to our different heritages. I’m not even certain any of the other clans have noticed that ours has different houses within the clan so I’m not sure he’d appreciate those crests but I’ve already figure out how to work around that.”

“You’re very good at this, Aniki. Much better than I would have thought you’d be.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean!?”

Laughing, Izuna abandoned his dinner and ran.