#tobirama just sucks at communicating

[queenkoalas-corner-of-hell]

Well it’s been a while since I’ve been here but here’s what going on with the fics.

MRaaG (Mate Reject and a Gamma) is update priority #1, Kakashi is just being a pain and keeps going mopey when I don’t want him to be. I also want some more art done before I post.

NHfME (No Hiding from Master Earthbenders) is on the back burner but it’ll be a Toph chapter, in this house we love her, and the next will be either Katara or Aang depending on how things go pacing wise.

UB (Useful Blades) remains an unpublished wip until I’m done updating MRaaG and NHfME. I was thinking about intersex Tobirama and did a crap ton of polls. (I think I posted the results?) but long story short things are mixed to hell and back. A lot of nonintersex readers seem to actually be interested in it, I think there’s a craving for real world things ya know? But the amount of intersex individuals was tiny in polling turn out. Like, five, of you. Which I’m grateful for any honestly. But I got 4 silent no don’ts and one really emphatic yes please. Number wise, it’s yes; numbers for the intersex community is a no (which holds a crap ton more weight), but it’s that yes and the talks I’ve had with writers and editors that have to weed through garbage that makes me keep going back to the idea. I want a sensitivity reader that would be interested in this but I have doubts I’ll find one.

I think the biggest issue is both my public stuff is omegaverse which is considered the reigning king of fanfic kink. Which honestly sucks. Cause like, copious fluids aside, the world concept is versatile. I like the ease of established concepts to carry a narrative I want to make. I like a good smut but it ain’t good unless there’s established feelings. Which MRaaG is aiming at, gentle romance with some steam (eventually). NhfME doesn’t have nor will it ever have smut, its about healing. UB is a healing story + romance. Sure I could make it omegaverse but it wouldn’t serve anything I don’t already have planned out.

[avversiera-writes]

overstepping, part 1 of 2 - tobirama senju/reader

Summary: In which Tobirama does not know how to express his concerns properly. And it turns to a mess, and then some. Smut ensues. 

Author’s Note: it’s the same timeline/au as you never said goodbye and also apparently in this au of mine, Hashirama had stepped down as Hokage due to his gambling addiction and not bc he died…that’s fine with me tho. Available in AO3 as well.

PART TWO

You are absolutely so proud of Tobirama for being the new Hokage. Nothing compares to the feeling of seeing your new husband achieving the position that he deserves–although he could balk and snipe that he does not want it. You do have the feeling that he is a little happy about it, because he is in a position of cementing his brother’s dreams to last more than a lifetime. 

 However, there are moments when you absolutely loathe your husband’s new powerful position. Because it means that he can do stuff like this. Stuff like, overstepping the command system best left to Jounins like you (although he did have a hand in creating the said system, which adds to your endless chagrin). Not that he couldn’t, but the fact that he actually could, that his word is above all laws can be frustrating to you to no end. 

“Excuse me?” You almost snap, but your self-control reminds you that the Hokage is your husband.  

You gather yourself and look at Sarutobi Hiruzen pointedly. “Can you please repeat that?” You ask, but it is more of a defense mechanism so that you can have enough time to rear in your temper. 

Hiruzen had the nerve–the nerve! As if he and his genius sensei do not agree with each other–to look sheepish. “Lord Nidaime Hokage has re-assigned this mission and has ordered that I take over. He orders that you be relieved of this mission.”

 You stare at Hiruzen, speechless. Orders. Oh yeah, because your husband is the Hokage. 

“But…this is my mission,” you said, your mind supplying the only reasonable argument you can scramble. 

Hiruzen gives you an apologetic look. 

You are literally about to take off when he has stopped you with orders from the Hokage to step down and give this mission up. 

Dammit, Tobirama, you think. Who do you think you are?

You look at the faces of your students who are freshly Chuunins. They stare back at you, completely clueless and painfully wide-eyed that it makes your heart clench. They are about to head outside Konohagakure, and you won’t even be there to advise them before throwing them to the sharks of the battlefield, where they could get killed. You know that they need you, and that you have spent weeks training them to be ready and to polish their teamwork with you. What would come out of this mission with this sudden arrangement? They are just children, for Kami’s sake. 

It is not that you doubt Hiruzen’s ability. Your husband has trained his students to be good shinobis to the bone, but this situation does not sit right with you. You have seen how strong Hiruzen and his team are, and are more than ready to handle leading missions by themselves. 

You exhale. “Alright, go, I won’t keep you waiting,” you grit out. 

Hiruzen nods and he turns to your young team, and they flee. 

~

You stand over the graves of your students, failure and shame hanging over your shoulders. You have failed them. They were just newly Chuunins. You were supposed to be there for them. One small mistake in the battlefield, such as overlooked traps, had caused their lives. Hiruzen had shown up, still recovering from the third degree burns he had acquired from the mission. He looks on glumly and you let out a slow breath. 

You want to blame Hiruzen, but you know better, having been a seasoned Jounin at this point. 

Another set of footsteps approach the two of you, and Hiruzen leaves quietly. 

“It’s not your fault,” Tobirama tells you in that matter of fact way. As if that would comfort you.

You clench your fist, and your teeth, but your grief gets the better of you. You turned to him and slapped him. 

“That’s for pulling me out of my mission,” you spat. You almost feel bad seeing the flash of hurt on his face, but the way he composed his features made you angrier. 

You ball your hand into a fist and you aim a punch towards his chest. He staggers back, completely off-guard. “And that’s for getting them killed.”

Tobirama stares at you, his red eyes as cold as ever, or not–they are brimming with unsaid words, though you can’t find it in yourself to remember why you even married this man right now. 

“Stop this,” he says quietly. 

You think he almost reaches for your arm, but it could have been your imagination. 

You shoot him a glare, and then you turn to walk away. 

~

The second time it happened, you were livid . So much so that no ANBU guarding the Hokage can hold you down. You had managed to snag a high-level mission, but you were hoping that you were already away before it could get to the Hokage. Of course, it was naivety on your part that nothing gets past your husband. 

It has been months since you have taken up a mission outside the Land of Fire, missions that you are definitely capable of. 

Just when you thought you could actually hop back into your shinobi career. 

You burst through the doors of the Hokage’s office, rage rolling off of you in waves that no ordinary shinobi can get closer to. Good thing your husband is the Hokage. 

“Lord Nidaime,” you grit your teeth. “You did not want to yell in the office, where there are ears listening in. “I am asking you to give me this mission–my mission– back, not as your wife, but as a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.” 

Tobirama gazes at you coolly, which furthers fuel your anger. “No, you cannot go. Have you forgotten what had happened the last time you had a similar mission? It was a simple reconnaissance mission and you failed,” he deadpans.

Taken aback by the way he is addressing you, you step forward. You can feel the hidden ANBU tense, but you pay them no care. If they so much as try to stop you, well, they can spend the rest of the year on a hospital bed.

“I have you know, I would’ve failed that mission all over again, if it meant saving my squad,” you spat. You cross your arms. 

He leans back on his chair and does the same. “Please, I do not want to do this right now.”

“Lord Nidaime!” You shout this time. 

Instead of going off the rails and shaking your fist at him, you take your thumb and your forefinger to pinch the bridge of your nose. “Tobirama,” you say, softer this time. 

“You cannot go,” he says in a much quieter tone. 

It is like Tobirama knows no other words, although you know that he has an extensive vernacular of words. However, you also know that he prefers to only write down and use his words, instead of speaking them. Tobirama is concise and sharp, but has a tendency to be scathing when his buttons are being pushed. Much like you do often in your earlier days in your relationship, but you like to think that you are molding him into a softer direction.

You press your lips together. “This is not over.” 

Tobirama watches you as you leave, and it is missed by your own eyes how he immediately reaches up to run his hand on the fur that rests on his shoulder, as if it is an object to steel himself into a calmer composure. He is frustrated at himself towards how he is handling this. When it comes to you, the lines between work and personal life seem like a jumbled mess, no matter how much he tries to keep an order. He is usually good at this, but the outrage you feel towards him is out of his depth. He is best at keeping his emotions at bay, but after that mission that almost killed you, he finds that he cannot let you out of his sight.

~

That night, Tobirama does not come home until past midnight. It was fine with you, since you are alright with spending time by yourself. You are all used to that by now. It is not like Tobirama requires your presence around the clock. 

 However it was easier to spend time without him when you had missions and you were actually doing your job as a Jounin. Right now, you have done nothing but be a housewife, and it irks you. You used to be Tobirama’s equal in everything, but now, you feel like the two of you aren’t even on the same page.

~

“Lady…Nidaime Hokage’s wife?” A shinobi calls you as you make your way towards the Hokage’s office.

You start at the new title used to address you and almost cursed. However, you knew self-control. Perhaps, too much. 

“You do not have to call me that,” you tell them, a little exasperated. 

The shinobi approaches you carefully, their arms stacked with scrolls and other documents. “Lord Nidaime’s office has been closed all day…well, we know he’s in there, but when he gets like this…” 

You sigh, understanding the shinobi very well. “Leave those outside the door. I’ll take care of it.” 

Tobirama has bouts of manic passion that renders him inaccessible for days. Sometimes, even for weeks. It was worse during Hashirama’s time as Hokage, wherein for days he does not eat nor sleep, and now, it seems like he is doomed to repeat the same routines. You sigh outside the doors to his office. You know it’s locked, but it is not beyond your ability to break in, having been familiar to the way he seals his things. Not that he likes the idea of you knowing that since it invaded his privacy. 

 In your left hand was a newly prepared lunch, completed with his favorite tea brewed in the proper temperature. You would know that he wouldn’t even dare drink it if it wasn’t up to his taste. 

The bastard. 

With your free hand, you dispel the seals locking his office and you enter, expecting to see him buried by work and whatever it is he’s working on. However, he is only taking a nap, and you almost smile at the sight. You notice that he has lost a little bit of weight, probably due to days where he forgoes food altogether; as someone who knows better to take care of himself, he does a shit job of it. 

For a moment, all is forgotten. Weeks of dispute, you put behind. You are still his wife. These things, you know you can worry about. 

You set the lunch carefully on the available space on his desk and cleared some paperwork you deem trivial at the moment and arranged them to his left. 

You think about waking him up, but then your gaze lands on the paper in front of him, where he is scrawling a formula messily. You recognize the markings of some kind of summoning jutsu, but the rest is covered up by his arm. Which he is currently resting on. 

 You pull the paper from under him to get a closer look because the more you study it, the stranger this summoning jutsu looks like, but then he snaps awake. 

“What are you doing?” He says in that snippy tone of his. 

 “What are you doing?” You question back.

He blinks and he looks down on his work. “I was…” He takes the paper and attempts to hide it from you. “Writing.”

You sigh for the nth time that day, and push the boxed lunch towards him. “Eat. And stop scaring your subordinates.” 

Tobirama just stares at you, guarded. “Did you see what was on the paper?” 

You roll your eyes. “No, I didn’t. Why? Is it illegal?” You raise an eyebrow. 

Tobirama looks down, his lips pressed into an unimpressed line. “I’m working.”

“I can see that,” you fight the urge to roll your eyes, and you push the lunch forward. “Eat.”

Tobirama looks like he is about to say another retort, when he looks at his now semi-cleared desk. “Where are the documents on my desk?” 

 “I put them on a pile to your left.”

“Why? I was working on them.” Tobirama sounds offended. “They aren’t done.” 

“I know that, but you can easily find it to your left.” You gesture to its direction. “They’re just stacked.”

“But I had it like that for a reason.” 

“Tobi…,” you start. You hate to see him like this, and you know you caught him in one of his worst moods. It is not easy when he gets like this. 

 Well, nothing is ever easy with Tobirama. 

“Get out,” Tobirama snaps, sounding overwhelmed. “I am working.” 

Tobirama does not even make eye contact, and that is how you know that you will not be able to budge him. Not when he is busy working on whatever it is he’s hiding or just when you apparently disturbed his chaotic system of processing documents.  

“Eat,” you tell him again, but it probably went over his head. 

PART 2

//

buy me a coffee !

[captnjacksparrow]

Hi, I love your blog and I read it every day... ❤️

I have a question, do you think that Sakura, Hinata or someone from the village knew or suspected the true feelings of Naruto and Sasuke?👀

That's right, in the manga, when Naruto is talking to Sakura about Sai, Naruto gets nervous or something like that, however the face that he puts in the manga is as if he was putting it to the test.

I don't know maybe I'm just hallucinating but I want to know your opinion. I'm sorry if you don't understand, my language is Spanish.

🍅🍅🍥🍥

Aahhh!!! Insanely interesting ask, Anon. I love this one!!!!

I think no one suspects their feelings between them but they know Naruto and Sasuke feels ‘something’ about each other to the point when something happens to one of them, the other would react in an intense manner. 

I mean, Kishi cannot put a scene , say Sakura, doubting their feelings for each other otherwise it would stir up a lot of trouble, that is, it would confirm something’s really going on between the two. (Which is not ‘typical’ of Shounen. Sigh!!!)

However, Kishi does things in his own way by making it as a joke or a casual thing. And I am going to include everyone from the Narutoverse, not just someone from Konoha.

PEOPLE WHO MILDLY ‘SHIPS’ NARUTO AND SASUKE IN NARUTOVERSE

Alright, people, Here ‘Ship’ means not in a romantical sense. But in a platonic or friendly sense.

HAKU

When I watched this series for the first time, I always wondered ‘What made Haku think that attacking Naruto would make Sasuke fall into the trap?’. 

Then I realized Sasuke was carrying Naruto around to protect him from Haku’s senbon attacks at any cost, which made Sasuke expose his weakness and Haku just fount it and used it against him. 

OROCHIMARU

Some other shippers claim ‘Forest of the Death’ Arc belonged to Ms.Pinky. But Orochimaru and Kabuto’s analysis proves it otherwise. But what did he found there?

Designing a lengthy password which Naruto cannot remember to lure Orochimaru out.

When Naruto came to save Sasuke, he panicked and asked Naruto to ‘Run Away’ and gave up the scroll.

Fought back Orochimaru after seeing Naruto got knocked out.

Kabuto found that Sasuke was overusing Sharingan even to the point of enduring Cursed Seal’s pain to protect Naruto.

KABUTO

“Hardly behaving as a man”... LOL. 

OROCHIMARU AGAIN

This whole battle is to provoke Naruto using Sasuke’s name. And when Orochimaru used the word, ‘My Sasuke-kun’... Naruto just got deranged to the point of sprouting 4 Tails. 

KAKASHI

Sasuke is Naruto’s strength. Kakashi said it. It’s canon, Guys.

KIBA

It’s surprising that Kiba also knows that Naruto gets Hot-Headed when it comes to Sasuke. 

KABUTO AGAIN

Gosh!!!! These Orochimaru and Kabuto duo maybe absolute trash. But they do know something about Naruto and Sasuke.

PAIN

LOL.... How did Nagato know about Naruto chasing Sasuke??? Is this some International news? 

ITACHI

I always wondered as to why Itachi posed this particular question to him? A question which forces Naruto to choose an option. An impossible option which Itachi chose and endured a lot of pain for. Naruto protecting the village is obvious. Why did he ask Naruto about Sasuke? What did he saw?

The answer is in part 1. When Itachi visited the village after Hiruzen’s death, he ‘planned’ to kidnap Naruto. When Sasuke came in between, Itachi just beat the crap out of him. 

But Naruto was so furious to draw Kyuubi Chakra to protect Sasuke. Itachi noticed this very well and hence came to this conclusion. That’s why Itachi didn’t pay any attention to Sasuke. LOL. Which made Sasuke go crazy.

KARIN

This doesn’t need any explanation, does it??? Probably Sasuke might’ve reacted to his name and Karin noticed it. Who knows? Anyways, it’s interesting that a person outside of Konoha could able to connect Sasuke with Naruto, meaning, Karin could able to see something’s going on between them.

KURAMA

ROFL..... There’s no one better in this world to ask Naruto, this particular question, other than Kurama.

KURAMA AGAIN

“What kind of flavour did that Sasuke’s lips have?”.... Gosh!!! This is such an useless scene. Most importantly, Naruto is getting Nose Bleed here. 

ITACHI AGAIN

No doubt, Itachi is the No.1 shipper of SNS. He knew Naruto can change Sasuke.

OBITO

Well, Obito was right about one thing... Naruto’s death can bring powers to Sasuke. But he was wrong about underestimating both of them, that is, they will fight on Obito’s accord. 

OROCHIMARU AGAIN

One of my favorite underrated SNS scene. There is no mention of Pink Trash or anyone else. Well, he lived with him for 3 years. He is the only person who can read Sasuke’s expression perfectly. 

TOBIRAMA

Gosh!!!!! This!!!!! This is just an alien level shipping. Tobirama, a person who rarely compliments, but when he does, it must be damn excellent. Like he was so happy to see Minato was so fast in performing Hiraishin no Jutsu, a jutsu he invented. He openly admitted his admiration 3 times. 

When he complimented the ‘Level of Unison’ achieved by two 16 year old boys, which takes YEARS to achieve is so heartwarming. Because, only we, the audience, knew that Naruto and Sasuke fought together for the last time way back when they were 12 in Land of Waves arc. Even then they could team up together without any direct communication. 

Damn!!!!

OROCHIMARU AGAIN

This is another underrated scene and Orochimaru scores for SNS. We saw Naruto was crying rivers when Obito sucked everyones’s chakra. Sasuke’s face seems to be in a bad mood. 

Orochimaru really is the Mood Finder of Sasuke.

PEOPLE OF KONOHA

Damn!!!! This is my all time favourite!!!!!! 

This is when Ebisu Sensei, fondly remembers how Naruto has grown from a Deadlast (in Episode 1) to an Hero (End of Pain Arc). During one of his memories, People of Konoha appreciates Naruto for stopping Gara from Invading Konoha and Bring Tsunade as Fifth Hokage. When it comes to retrieving Sasuke, this panel appears.

Even people of Konoha themselves knows that Naruto will be depressed if Sasuke is not there in Konoha with him. 

I mean, for every achievements Naruto made, the villagers praised him. When Jiraiya was dead, the villagers felt, ‘Naruto will not lose heart, He’ll keep on going, like always’. But when it comes to Sasuke, the villagers implicitly felt that Naruto will be depressed. 

Kishi is showing us that everyone in Narutoverse understands the feelings between Naruto and Sasuke, but he didn’t drew the extent as to how far it goes. He just left it ambiguous. 

But one thing is sure,

‘Everyone knows that they both are connected somehow and both of them have certain influence on each other which no other person has in Narutoverse and they know that one will suffer without the other.’

[graveyard-tales]

Have this idea I’ve been thinking about before sleep. One of those time travel aus. This one with Tobirama and Madara going back in time to when they’re about 13/15. Only they’re in their adult bodies so they’re double. (They didn’t come back the age they died but in their early 30s) Don’t know what name Tobirama goes by but Madara temporarily goes by Obito to his clan in the beginning. 

When Madara comes back he is feeling sorry for himself because his plan for world domination or w/e sucked ass. But feeling a version of himself that hasn’t been so twisted, feeling his little brother alive, feeling Hashirama who is still that weird, hopeful kid, he realizes he has a chance to do things differently and to maybe actually make changes for the better. And then he feels Tobirama’s chakra and is like “maybe revenge is still the answer actually”. 

He thinks he feels the Tobirama he remembers during the fourth war but when he appears it’s just a little 13 yr old that he doesn’t even break a sweat taking down. Madara is going to kill him. He made to kill Sasuke, his own kin, this child means nothing to him. Only when he looks into Tobirama’s soft face and poorly concealed terror and feels the shaking hands gripping his arms, he pauses. Because this isn’t the man who killed his brother, spat and bore his teeth at Madara at every turn and later ruled Konoha. This is a child whose tough act is raw and does nothing to hide how scared he is of the death that awaits him. 

It was all for the children. In the beginning. Because he and Hashirama were tired of seeing their young kin buried. Didn’t want to lose the only brother they had left.  And somewhere along the line they had all lost that. And isn’t this his second chance to do better. To build and mold the dream into something viable. This time around he can protect his brother. This time around he has the power to stop the war long before his brother is cut down. Long before this child before him becomes the cold, lethal weapon he lived and died as. 

So he lets him go with a “remember it was an Uchiha that spared your life” or something and watch bby Tobira run off on shaky legs. 

Only to turn around to see that there is the Tobirama he knows and loathes. (I think Tobirama using his younger self as bait is exactly the fucky kind of thing he’d do.) They don’t even talk, they just start fighting immediately. Madara wins because he’s always been stronger than Tobirama but with Tobirama’s experience and intelligence, (and the fact he’s not inhibited by the Edo Tensei) he certainly doesn’t make it easy for him. Madara has Tobirama pinned and Tobirama questions why Madara didn’t kill the younger version of him and Madara answers truthfully. That this time he’s going to do things right this time and if that means keeping Tobirama as a brat alive then so be it. He then goes on about how he can just kill Tobirama and every inch of him is begging him to but he can’t think of a better punishment than forcing Tobirama to actually work with him to build a better Konoha. 

He also cuts Tobirama’s throat. Not severely but enough that it bleeds and thanks to Tobirama’s low chakra (their fight takes a while) he can’t fully heal it and he’s left with a scar. Just a little reminder that he could kill Tobirama but he chose not to. A more violent version of what he did with little Tobirama essentially. 

Tobirama is like, you’re literally insane but I guess if I have no other choice. So they start planning how to end the war with as little blood shed as possible. First part is to implement themselves back in their clan. 

How does Tobirama do it??? Idk! I’ve only been thinking about this for two nights. 

Madara presents himself as a child born outside the clan who is finding his way back, having heard stories from his mother before she died while he was still a child. He weaves a sob story about how young he was and having to learn to live on his own and it’s only as an adult that he yearns to find community among his clan. Or something. He goes by Obito almost as a joke to himself. And as a little reminder to himself how fucky that whole situation was. 

Thought about Madara and Tobirama flexing their power and just taking over their respective clans. But forcing their own people in submission probably isn’t a good start toward sustainable peace. If I put actually thought into this idea in terms of plot instead of just the relationship between the characters. I would have to figure that out but fuck that rn. 

Also lil Tobirama and lil Madara, when they find out who these adults are, are like ummmmmm, I kind of grow up to be an asshole. Like, they’re happy they’re so powerful but kind of disappointed they’re both like that™.

Aaaaaand that’s all I have for that idea. Other then the fact that as time goes on Tobirama and Madara start fucking and then fall in love or w/e. So this is a slow burn mdtb idea that I’ll probably never write but I will be thinking about this constantly. 

[evapourate-rn]

dudeeee tobirama sucks-???

like he's literally racist against the uchiha, he's caused most of the problems in the village (the village and peace he was against anyways) and he's just an ass who doesnt care about anyone ??

fix ur priorities

um ok wow- idk if im meant to like,,,,,respond,,,, but im gonna do it anyways because this it the third anon ask thingy i’ve gotten about him :( 

kinda feels like this a joke lmao ‘he's just an ass who doesnt care about anyone’ is not a statement anyone would take seriously.

this got kinda long so its all under the cut thingy in case u dont wanna read it :)

God there’s a lot to cover-

First of all, do we even consider different clans different races? Racism is prejudice against different races/ethnic groups, but all of them are from Japan so-?

Let’s act like they are different races, just for a moment. The Senju and Uchiha are descended from biological brothers, so Tobirama is in the same racial group as the Uchiha. Let’s ignore that too, just for you. 

In Japan (because Naruto is an anime, from Japan, and doesn’t have the same societal norms as the West), the police are actually quite close to communities. The common belief that Tobirama made the Uchiha in charge of the police force to create bias against the Uchiha is simply wrong. He grew up witnessing the Uchiha, in battle and in peace, and he figured out that, with only a few Uchiha unlocking the sharingan, it may have been best to have them as the villages last line of defense. Tobirama had a brain and he used it my guy.

He’s caused most of the problems in the village i-

Tobirama had been dead for..what? 60 years by Naruto’s time? I agree that Konoha had issues, but he was literally in the afterlife. If you disagree this much with how the village was run, look at Hiruzen !! uno, the leader of the village at that time-

did u see that? or should i zoom in?

damn it’s almost like Tobirama....wasn’t responsible for that-

have u eVEN read the manga- or watched the anime- Tobirama is (to my recollection) the first one to say anything about peace.

he’s wanted peace since he was a bby.

just an ass who doesnt care about anyone

-the whole scene where he, even if he didn’t have to, talked to sasuke and explained the whole ‘curse of hatred’ thing (dont deny its existence, even obito said it)

- if he hated everyone why would he try achieve political stability

i have more points but im busyyyy so i might follow up later lmao

[ayyyez]

Is it too late to request some serotonin in the form of soft fluffy comfort hcs for Kakashi and Tobirama, and maybe Genma if you feel like it? I know he's not on your list tho so absolutely don't worry about it if you don't want to ❤️❤️❤️

a/n: Katie I gotchu bby! I can do Genma any day after all our convos about him and I’ll try to make them extra long ❤️ warnings: none 

Genma Shiranui

Probably the most likely out of the bunch to actually know how to comfort another human. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not an expert but he tries and it’s a soft sight to see. 

Genma can come off as more the sweet talking, happy go lucky guy but he actually does pay attention and observe you. So he can tell almost right away when something isn’t right. 

If you’ve just come home he will great you like normal and wait. If you act like things are fine he will observe you. He wants to see whether he needs to push for you to talk or just kind of hold you. He’s good at holding you. 

If you try to go about your usual routine he will play dumb. “Hey, you sit down I’ll do this for you.” You can tell instantly he’s up to something but with your own issues you let it go and let him take over. Later he will come and talk to you. 

But let’s say whatever is going on is big and you just sort of explode? Will let you scream, cry, whatever you need. The whole time he has a hurt look on his face. It’s not that you hurt him, not at all, it’s that he HATES seeing you hurt. 

Either scenario his words will be absolute. No funny business, no sweet talk or rambling. Just plain “Everything will be okay.” or “It’s not your fault.” If none of these work it will just be the “I love you, okay?” Now that is something he doesn’t say lightly. 

The aftermath is a lot softer and sweeter. Takes you to the couch or your bed. Sits with you, arms around you. Feels a lump in his throat, he’s itching to say something but he doesn’t know what. He thinks he should be doing more but honestly, he is doing a lot.

Stroking your hair, your back, pulling you closer every so often. Just squeezing you in general to communicate “I’m here.” He’s awkward but he loves you so he tries. 

When the breakdown and cool down and you’ve talked it out, he will be a little more light hearted. Will try to make you laugh or smile. His smooth talking delivery is awkward and off but that in itself is funny (in the moment anyway you can tease him about that later). 

He becomes a bit restless like he needs to be doing something. You need water? Food? Should he cook? Burns something because he’s a little shaken up and he can hear his mother scolding him in his head lol. 

All of a sudden gets really talkative. He is trying to distract you and stop your mind lingering on whatever has brought you down. It will sometimes turn into a deep and meaningful conversation that allows him to open up more since everything is raw and vulnerable. 

He will still have you either in his arms or be touching you in someway. It’s his way of comforting you and letting you know he is there. He isn’t going anywhere. Bless this man, honestly. 

Kakashi Hatake

I guess it depends on what age Kakashi is. Younger Kakashi, comfort is all physical because he has no idea how to talk about feelings. It’s all long, drawn out hugs that feel like he would die if he let you go. Sometimes it does feel that way to him. 

Also younger Kakashi would spend the night which in itself is a big deal. He wasn’t big on attachments and generally would run the second things got intimate, emotional or otherwise. 

But older Kakashi is wiser and far more versed in talking to people. He still struggles with the whole aspect of comfort but he has a better understanding of talking your emotions out. 

Won’t even feign ignorance to your different mood. Will straight up ask you “What is it?” or “Is something wrong?” He will not let it go either so you can’t even pretend to act like something isn’t wrong. 

He won’t be aggressive about but he will calmly ask you again or just start explaining to you the importance of not bottling your emotions (as if he is one to talk but I digress). 

It eventually pushes you one way or another and you let everything out. It actually breaks his heart to see you in pain but he can’t worry about him because it’s you he is concerned with. 

Kakashi begins with the logic of the matter. He doesn’t belittle whatever you are going through but helps explain the logic and that it’s normal for you to feel this way. Acknowledges your feelings in the matter. 

Once the logic is out of the way he gets a little softer. The physical sides of his comforting will roll out here. Especially if you are really down. He will put an arm around you and pull you against him. His grip is secure, with no signs of letting go. 

Doesn’t really talk much after that. Like when he was younger his instincts to just hold you close take over. Let’s you judge how long to stay like that. If you give him no indication of wanting to move he will at least suggest moving to the bed to be more comfortable. 

Lies down so you are facing each other (even if you don’t want to look at him) he will look at you. Arms still around you. Will stay up the whole time even if you fall asleep to watch over you. Won’t let you go. 

Will whisper things to you when you sleep like “I’m sorry.” or “I’m here.” He hopes this will help you on some level. And maybe he is saying them because he feels he should do more. Presses a kiss to your forehead when you definitely are asleep.

When you do wake up he will press more soft kisses to you forehead, just below your eye (especially if you cried and they be puffy) and one to your lips. It’s enough to distract you for a moment and concentrate on how warm it is in his arms. 

Tobirama Senju 

Look. This man just sucks at comforting. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t try to ease your worries. He’s just not going to scoop you up right away and plaster you with affection. He’s not that man. He can still be soft though.

If he tries to comfort you then you KNOW this man loves you. Similar to Kakashi, if he notices you are off then he will ask you about it. “Is everything alright?” If you lie to him he will be a little salty but will forgive you for it. It’s not like he hasn’t done the same thing. 

He won’t prod straight away but will watch you with keen eyes. You can feel his gaze on you the whole time. If you don’t seem to improve then he will ask (demand) again that you tell him. “What is going on?” 

The look in his eyes, ah it’s a mix of concern but also a little hurt- like don’tyoutrustme? Damnit Tobirama why you have to take things so personally lol. 

So you confess whatever is on your mind or whatever happened to leave you in need of comfort. He listens keenly the whole time and waits for you to finish. A few tense second goes by and he just goes “Hmm.” He isn’t dismissing you okay, he is looking for the right thing to say. 

His words are always deliberate. (well mostly he is a drama queen.) Will hit you with his summary of the situation, to make sure he understands correctly then hits you with the logic. He’s a logical man most of the time. 

But the logic doesn’t cut it. Even if it makes you feel a little better, something more is required. And he is just lost because what else can he do? Thinks long and hard but like he is so damn awkward at intimacy he kind of just goes “It’s been a long day we should go get some rest, come on.” 

Now this is Tobirama code for I don’t know wtf to do but I don’t want to just dismiss this so let’s go cuddle. Well technically he thinks sleep not cuddle but every night Tobirama falls asleep clinging to you so it’s sort of the same thing. 

The second you get into bed he comes up behind you and puts his arm around you. Presses his body against his back. This serves two purposes: to give you comfort and so that you can’t see his face. He is a little flustered by cuddling up against you so quickly so just let it be. 

His hand seeks out yours and he pulls it against your body to tighten the embrace. Won’t initiate conversation but will talk if you do. Honestly does hope this makes you feel better. One of his more softer, less selfish moments tbh. 

[domesticsns]

Some hot NSFW?

 (Warning: NSFW-Explicit/ God forgive me for I have sinned/ )

Sasuke has been working nights for a while on the high profiled case with Tobirama. So it is pretty hard working the night because when Sasuke gets home, Naruto had to go to work and when Naruto gets home Sasuke has to go to work and sometimes they even miss each other completely or barley have an hour or two to talk. 

Now the first week it was fine, it wasn’t going to last forever. They both knew that, they’re not useless on their own. But after it dragged on to a second week and then a third and now it is almost a month. Things were getting lonely.  

So as Sasuke made his way home just when Naruto was about to leave to teach his morning classes.

“Welcome home,” Naruto says as he walked up to his husband, kissing him on his lips before holding his face in his hands, his thumbs stroking Sasuke’s cheekbones. Sasuke looked paler than usual, but Naruto wasn’t sure if it was because he hadn’t seen the son in a while or if he was exhausted. 

“You’re leaving already?” Sasuke asked looking disappointed. “I thought your first class was at ten on wednesdays.” 

“Yes, but it is also thursday. And I start at eight on thursdays.” Naruto placed another soft kiss at Sasuke’s face that was ever so slightly pouting. 

“How long before you don’t have to work nights anymore?” Naruto asked, lowering his arms and wrapping them around Sasuke’s waist. 

“I don’t know. I hope just a few more weeks.” Sasuke wrapped his arms around Naruto and pulled him in for a hug. 

“I miss you, idiot...” He whispers in Naruto’s ear.

“Oh has the night shift finally broken down Mr Tough Guy.” Naruto teased, “Mr. I don’t need anyone, I am a loner, I am an ave-” 

Sasuke wrapped his hand over Naruto’s mouth, pushing him up against the wall. 

“Don’t push it,” Sasuke said as he looked into Naruto’s eyes. His beautiful blue eyes that brought the sky and ocean to shame. How he had missed just staring at them and getting lost inside of them. 

There was something rather pathetic about the whole ordeal. Having been with Naruto for over ten years and still missing being around him so much. Sasuke was starting to get afraid of how much the man meant to him. Enough to make him feel like shit to not hear about his day, or role his eyes at a lame joke, to just hold him in his arms and kiss his cheek. It drove him nuts and he felt weak to admit it. If it was one thing he couldn’t stand it was people revoling their lives around their significant others and yet here he was ready to just quit everything just to be able to hug the man in front of him and see him more that a couple of hours. 

Sasuke lowered his hand from Naruto’s mouth and leaned in, resting his head on his spouse’s shoulder, his arm weakly wrapped around Naruto, pulling him closer. 

“Aaha..Babe..Maybe not...” Naruto sounded flustered and it wasn’t a secret why. Sasuke could feel exactly why. The reason was poking him as he didn’t let go. 

“Really, from a hug?” Sasuke teased Naruto. 

“Hey shut up bastard, it just that I love you. I can’t help that!” Naruto’s loud voice almost sounded like shouting in Sasuke’s ear, but it was something he has gotten used to. Naruto was always so loud. 

“I can help that,” Sasuke lowered his hand towards Naruto’s crotchi, cupping his erection as he let his tongue slide over the shell of Naruto’s ear. 

“W-what..Really? Here? now?” Naruto breathe hitched when his husband suddenly kneeled down and looked up at him. Sasuke’s hands were undoing Naruto’s belt. 

“Only if you want to?” He says, obviously knowing the answer to it. He unbuttoned Naruto’s pants, unzipped it and pulled it down. He arched a brow, looking up at Naruto. 

“Really?” He said indicating to the orange briefs with the fishcake pattern on it. “I thought I threw those out.” 

“But you didn’t.” Naruto said with a cute smile on his face, “Come on. Naruto...Naruto. ” Naruto pointed at the pattorn. 

“This is so not sexy,” Sasuke noted, pulling them down. 

“You rather have me wear those tighty whities?” Naruto joked. 

“I rather have you wear nothing at all.” Sasuke look up as he let his hand stroke Naruto’s hard one, getting a soft moan from his husband. He was very sensitive and he could feel the dick already throbbing his hand. It wouldn’t take much to have Naruto cum, he must have been pretty touch-starved down there since he barely got to see his husband. 

Three weeks was a pretty long time for someone who had the sex drive of a teenager. The longest Naruto had ever been without was five months, but that was just to see how long it took for Sasuke to crave sex and he ended up not even getting the answer because he just couldn’t take it anymore. 

Sasuke licked up the shaft towards the tip, before taking it in his mouth. He licked over it a couple of times before sucking it softly, hearing his husband’s soft moans. Naruto ran his hand over Sasuke’s hair, pushing his bangs away to see his face. The view alone made Naruto’s cock twitch. 

Sasuke moved his head, taking in more of Naruto’s cock. He left his hand around the shaft while his other moved down towards the balls, cupping them and massaging them softly. He hear his husband getting louder in his moans already. It was as he expected, it didn’t take much to get him to cum. 

Wanting to at least give a satisfying orgasme. Sasuke switched to licking and sucking for a bit to tease Naruto before obliging to his pleads of release and bobbing his head over Naruto’s cock. 

“Fuck...Sasuke! Keep going!” He could hear Naruto moan, nearing his orgasme. His hand that was first stroking Sasuke’s hair had now a tight grip around the back, pulling it slightly. His eyes locked with Sasuke and by that mere sight he came faster than expected, taking Naruto by surprise, not giving him much time to at least warn his husband as he came hard. He could see his cum dropping ff Sasuke’s chin and mouth. Some was in his mouth, while the rest got on the lower half of his face. He looked at his sticky fingers before looking up at Naruto. 

Naruto’s cheeks heated up not sure what part he was feeling more embarrassed about. Cumming so quickly and unexpected or cuming on Sasuke’s face leaving him with an image he was going to cherish for a while before the next sexy act replaced it. 

It wasn’t the first time he came inside Sasuke’s mouth, it would probably not be the last time either. But usually he was in more control of his body and there was way better communication. 

“I’m so sorry...” Naruto looked at his husband swallow before wiping the cum off his face with his sleeve. He looked up, some was still on his chin. There was a small grin as Sasuke whispers: “That kind of turned me on.” 

Naruto’s face turned a shade of red darker and at that very moment he wanted to do nothing more than to pin his husband against the wall and fuck. But he was already running late for his class, he was supposed to leave ten minutes ago. He pulled his briefs and pants up, closing them before he squatted down in front of Sasuke, wiping the little but of cum off his chin before kissing him deeply, tasting himself in Sasuke’s mouth. 

“I gotta go, babe.” Naruto said in a low voice.

“Okay...” Sasuke said, looking away. He clearly did not like the thought of Naruto leaving, but unfortunately being an adult meant having a job and a job came with responsibilities. 

“When will you come home?” Sasuke asked. 

“Five.” Naruto said, “Don’t be pouting-” 

“I am not pouting!” Sasuke folded his arms, turning his entire head away from Naruto now. 

“Fine, you’re not pouting.” Naruto says kissing Sasuke’s forehead getting a soft expression out of Sasuke’s face.

“I love you.”  Naruto said hearing a soft, “I love you too..” back from Sasuke.

[naruto-v2]

History of Naruto

Warring Clans era, pre-hidden villages

Huge drop in intermarriages between different clans and a more careful selection of having children. Feudal lords/daimyo ( a large land owner) and other warlords who were not ninja would hire various clans of ninja to fight for them. These clans had no allegiance specifically to any feudal lord or country except what allegiance they might have by way of being hired repeatedly by a lord and having a good relationship.  the clan is everything, here’s no national loyalty. In this era, the clan leader is responsible for his (let’s be real, his) kinsmen. He chooses the jobs to take, he chooses who fights, he oversees training, he ensures payment, he invests, he arranges marriages. Older people would train their own children or bring them out to missions with them to gain experience.

The clan and its continuance was the priority over individual lives. In this landscape, some people over time developed the ability to mold chakra better and better. They started out little better than ordinary soldiers in the real world, taking jobs for hire (mercenaries) but by the Founders Era, shinobi had become so much more powerful than civilians (especially with ninjutsu) that even children were able to be effective soldiers. The power breakthroughs started coming faster and faster, amping up the arms race and resulting in unprecedented bloodshed, which led Hashirama and others to seek a better way.

Why Child soldiers?

People are dying at a rapid rate, resources are in high demand, clan wars raid and take all the assests (Land, resources, money, women and children), leaving many clans devastates. Still, there are so many different clans fighting for the limited number of jobs. To survive, the clans need to maximize their workforce and the children need the experience early on. 

Village Era

Villages start popping up all over the place to ensure common wealth and propper security. Rather than hundreds and thousands of competing clan loyalties, you now have something like a dozen or two hidden villages–a big drop. As a sort of shinobi union, they have more pull in setting prices and preventing people from skipping payment. Clan leaders have all the power within their clan. Clans own a piece of the village, paying taxes based on its population and size of land, minus how much it contributes to the village. You pay taxes to the clan or to the village. 

Year -1: Izuna dies at age 24.

Year 0: Early planning stages of the village. The Uchiha, being poorer than the Senju, having lost so many people, have started to give up hope. The majority of them are children, so many are starting to deflect to the other side.  Hashirama, of course, lets them in, with Tobirama’s condition that they are watched closely.

Year 1/Village founded between Uchiha, Senju, Yamanaka, and Akimichi: Hashi is 28, Tobi is 26, Mada is 29, Mito is 24. Hashi is elected hokage later in this year. 

Year 2: Hashi takes office at the start of the year, marrying an Uchiha to establish the peace. The Academy is opened and there is a restriction placed that only children above 13 can enter the battlefields. Tobi disagrees with Hashi’s peaceful yet weak methods. He spreads rumors that Uchiha get strong by killing their own members and taking their eyes, as Madara had done, and other terrible lies that poses them in a bad light.

Year 3: Madara warns Hashirama that Tobirama may be up to something but Hashirama dismisses it as Madara is merely overreacting.

Year 4: Hashi organizes the first Five Kage Summit and the they reach the consent that each nation should get at least one Kyuubi to balance the power. Hashi gets an alliance with the Uzumaki and adopts their symbol as part the Konoha symbol in return for one of their members to become a jinjuriki. 

Year 5: Madara leaves in a state of despair at age 34 after Hashirama is assasinated at night by Tobi and his followers. (He was too trusting, poor guy.) Tobi kills his Uchiha wife to eliminate any evidence and pins the blame on Madara, stating that he was jealous of the position. Tobi, 31, becomes Hokage. He is extremely cruel to the Uchiha and somehow creates a bitterness with Sand Village. He had an alliance with the Water and the Cloud. Later that year, he marries an Uzumaki, the host of the Kyuubi, a weapon to ensure Konoha’s dominance. 

Year 7: Tobi is extremely utilitarian so tons of new jutsu inventions, massive funds towards the military and weapon research. All the other countries are afraid of this development as by the time word gets out, Konoha is rumored to have the strongest army. He starts a war with many other countries to increase Missions for money. Sand and Stone quickly build a pledge of loyalty to Tobi. Communication sucks at this point and Tobi is monitoring any message pigeons. He builds a trade network and decreases the age for shinobi from his brother’s idiotic 15 years old to 12 years old. He increases the fighting classes in academies, thinks if you can’t fight, you are worthless. Racist towards uchihas and chakra cripled people.

Year 8: Hyuuga clan alliance 

Year 20: Tobi dies at age 46 after being hokage for 15 years. Shokkou Nara at 25 years old, Tobi’s disciple and supporter, becomes Hokage and continues Tobi’s ideals. He creates a council to help him manage the growing city. 

2nd great war due to land disputes, Konoha is trying to take back its fertile land from sand, who in desperation invents the puppet technique. After Tobi, Fire had increased greatly, but not enough. With the massive and powerful army Tobi has created, Konoha wins, putting Sand into a terrible economic status. The nation increases so much that Sokkou creates a council to help direct the nation and grants all the daimyos control over their village as long as they abide by the pledge of loyalty.

Year 41: When Sokkou, a ruthless and land hungry man, kills all of Hinata Hyuuga’s family, Konoha is raided by her and other rebels she gathered. She is a strong headed woman who does not tolerate violence and helps reform Konoha security and defense measures. She rebuilds an alliance with Stone and shinobi are directly financed by the state in order to assist in both common good projects (eg imagine all the infrastructure mud and water (Brick) release can do or Akimichis moving stuff) and helping those who cannot currently afford what they need (especially after constant war which is at least partly your fault, ninja). Non-ninjas are still not represented but are safer in the city so they stay. External affairs are rocky, still tensions with Sand and surrounding Countries for having stolen their land. The era of internal reform.

Year 68: Hinata retires at age 69 and puts Senju Ariko 20 in her place

Year 72: Trade flourishes, chunin is reformed to ban killing and to unite the allied countries, age of prosperity and peace, strong diplomatic ties. The era of Prosperity

Year 78: Senju Arik, 31, falls in love with Daimyo's son.

Year 79: Her actions are discovered and this nearly causes a civil war as the other daimyos feel that she has been favoring him and giving him more benefits/security. She stops seeing him but it's not enough to quell the increasing tensions between the daimyos and the capital city. Shinobi are angry as some Daimyos start giving out less missions to Hidden Leaf Village as a way of protest. When she is assassinated by an enemy, peace returns. The council, made up of her best friends, installed her adviser, Masanori Kazamatsuri as the next Hokage. She enforces rights and protections for the civilians as she had a brother who was born with a failed chakra system. This empowers the civilians to speak their concerns. She accepts their proposal for a separate academy for non ninjas so that there is less discrimination in school and they can focus on academics/skills for a civilian job. Having the insane belief that there will be peace fo a long time, she does not keep up a strong military and defense, causing other countries to take advantage and raid the country. In addition, she is terrible with politics and the economy falls into depression. Daimyo’s are once again directing their missions to more competent villages and swearing alliance to other hidden villages. Many people start moving to other hidden villages.

Year 85: After massive protesting from the citizens, Masanori is taken off the Hokage position. Hiruzen takes the Hokage position at age 25 with Danzo as his adviser. Due to the last Hokage, there is only a fractional population of when Konoha was at its height of prosperity. He rebuilds the military and defense, creating the Anbu to take care of underground missions. 

lowers the war age drastically in order to get more soldiers on the front line. He explained that it was good to build bonds early, and difficult missions will be forestalled until 13. His view is extremely nationalistic. 

Year 90: Just as he cleaned up all the issues and leveled the economy, rebuilding alliances and trade, they are hit with a drought. With the loss of the economy’s greatest profit, agriculture, Hiruzen drastically lowers the age for graduating academy. He foresees a tumultuous time ahead and gathers three top students, including his son, from the Academy and places them under him. They later become the powerful sannin. 

Year 93: The Third Great Shinobi War starts

Year 99: 6 year old Kushina gets the kyuubi from Kiki, who dies due to Suna’s new poisonous techniques. Late into the year, war ends with a treaty between Sand and Fire. 

Year 112: Orochimaru is chased out of the village for being discovered experimenting on people. 

Year 113: Hiruzen, facing criticism for his own son doing such cruel things, retires at age 53 after being hokage for 28 years. Minato, age 19 becomes the youngest Hokage after performing amazing feats in war. 

Year 117: Kyuubi attack. Minato dies at age 24 after being hokage for 5 years. Kushina dies at 24. Naruto is born. Minato’s right hand man and previous teammate Toushirou at age 24 (The black haired guy on Team Jiraiya) takes the position. He believed that the best course of action is to confine Naruto into an apartment that is surrounded by strong genjutsu to hide it from others. He is very trusting of Danzo, an important council member, and allows Danzo to form the root. Due to Itachi’s reports, he believes that the Uchiha will harm Konoha. He allows Danzo to order their massacre for the benefit of peace. He assigns a personal anbu caretaker with her life on the line if she disobeys to take care of Naruto and visits him every month. He saw how Orochimaru had deflected, Kakashi was traumatized, and Gai had attachment issues, connecting to their young age of graduation so he increased genin to 13, chunin to 15 (most pass at 17), and jonin to 18(most pass at 20). Genin had 3 tiers:

Tier 1: D-C- start leaving the village with an older group

Tier 2: D-C-B - out of village with a jonin allowed

Tier 3: mostly B rank missions 

He added lesson plans to all the three man teams, revolutionizing the school system.

Year 132: Hiruzen dies by Orochimaru’s hands. Toushirou dies defeating Rasa. As due to a monarchy, Kankuro becomes the next hokage as he had been trained in politics by his father since his childhood. The council realizes that big things are happening, what with Asuma dying earlier that year, kyuubi attacks all over the place. The other viable candidates all seem to have grudges against Naruto, but he is necessary to the village’s military power so the council orders Jiraya to take the position. He declines, stating that he is crucial to gathering information. He takes Naruto to bring Tsunade, Naruto’s grandmother, back as she will protect Naruto. She becomes the next Hokage.

2 year skip: Kankuro works to reform Gaara’s image but many people are still afraid of him.

[raendown]

A commission for @chinchilasarereallysoft that I had a lot of fun writing!

Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 4149 Rated: G Summary: A child lost to the sea in more ways that one, a creature of water curious about humanity, and a human who finds beauty in the water. Can meetings still be chance if you sought them out yourself?

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Ice Bound And On Fire

Ice cracked and parted above his head as Tobirama surfaced, freezing water dripping from the strands of hair that hung in his face no matter how he tried to shake them away. The moon was out. Perhaps his resting cycle was simply attuned to the planetary body that pulled at his ocean, he mused; the moon always seemed to be up each time he chose to crest the waves. Shouting in the distance brought one of his long finned eats swivelling around but his eyes closed without turning to look. He knew what he would find. Humans had been finding their way deeper and deeper in to his waters over the past decade or so and the blighted creatures were very rarely anything but cruel at worst or ignorant at best. 

Only a handful of the legged ones had ever escaped such judgment from him and of those few most had been small, clearly young among their kind, pressed in to service by their elders and victim to abuse if they failed to do as they were told. Tobirama had been curious about humans once upon a time, spent hours and days silently travelling alongside the massive crafts of wood and metal that bore the legged ones through his ocean, unstoppable by even the tallest waves. Now he understood that curiosity was a dangerous thing when it came to the land species. His queries were better spent exploring the sea and her creatures where only his own kind had the capability of ever truly threatening him. 

Today, however, it seemed the universe was determined to intrude upon him in ways he had promised himself he would not allow. 

A sharp high cry of dismay cut the air, followed quickly but the shattering splash of something heavy breaking through the ice, but when Tobirama twisted his upper half to look all he could see was the shadow of fully grown humans standing against the side of their vessel and looking down towards the water. A frown wrinkled the soft scales on his forehead. What garbage were they poluting his home with this time? 

When he dove his gills opened instinctively and the flap at the back of his throat snapped shut to block the second opening in his trachea. Breathing was always so much easier underwater when he didn’t get distracted and try to suck in through his mouth. Sometimes it was so inconvenient having a body only half built for a part of the world he could never truly live in but he could admit that his curiosity would have driven him to find a way to breathe above water even if he hadn’t been born with the proper anatomy. He was like that. And it was a good thing too, as it turned out, since his first reaction to seeing what the humans had dumped in his sea would have been a gasp that would undoubtedly have been wildly uncomfortable.

His second reaction was a growl that bared his teeth, powerful tail lashing out and propelling him through the water with all the force and speed of a marlin strike. Unlike his warmer water cousins, however, rather than attack the small creature invading his waters Tobirama reached out both arms to curl around the human. Then he twisted for the surface and prayed that he had been in time. Humans were notoriously poor at breathing underwater; their young could only be more so considering their fewer years of experience in the world. 

Together they broke through the waves a second time and relief swept through Tobirama’s cold blood to feel the tiny body in his arms hack with wretched-sounded coughs, the way his ineffective body heaved a sure sign of continued life. Young of any kind were precious. Most of his encounters with humans may have gone poorly in one way or another but that had done nothing to tarnish his belief that young were always innocent. A pup did not hate until it was taught to do so. 

When at last the human was able to breathe properly it became apparent that his body temperature was somehow insufficient, every limb shaking enough to disturb the water already choppy around them. His mouth opened but all that came out was the same garbled nonsense with too much tongue that all humans seemed to communicate with. Always too reliant on their hard palettes. Tobirama clicked gently in a manner that had always helped to sooth the eggs Hashirama’s mate laid for him. Instead of calming the young human looked back at him with terror in his eyes and began to thrash with obvious panic, completely the opposite reaction he’d been hoping for. 

Blowing out an exasperated whistle, Tobirama turned north and began moving away from the ship still looming between them and the stars. First he would get this pup safe. Calm could come after safety and warmth. Then he would see about wracking his brain for the trick Hashirama had shown him once for trading languages with the legged ones.

--

Rubbing his hands together and stamping his feet, Madara watched the air misting in front of his face with a reluctant smile. The cold was a bitch against his skin but coming up here where it felt as though one were standing on top of the whole world was always worth it. Nothing had ever been more beautiful to him than the sight of endless pure white, ice and snow and titanic glaciers as far as the eye could see, bordered only by the icy depths of black water. If only his body could learn to acclimate properly he might almost consider searching out one of the tribes that somehow survived in this climate and beg to learn their ways.

Any plans of that sort would have to wait until after he had found his son, however. Kagami was the precious jewel of his life. Very few would dare to spirit away the only son of someone like him so it hadn’t been all that difficult chasing rumors and gathering evidence until he knew which name to follow. The difficulty had been in tracking them when his crew refused to cross that of the infamous Hidden Sound. Making his way here in a single man craft had not been easy but Madara was nothing if not determined in his mission to feel Kagami safe in his arms again. 

The half-smile faded quickly as thoughts of his lost son came filtering back through this temporary moment of ease, rare and appreciated as much as he knew he needed to focus on the task ahead. Any enjoyment he found in the beautiful northern environment was put aside this time when he looked around him. What horizon was not made up of endless ocean looked empty in every direction and Madara’s fingers curled anxiously against the tiller, tighter and tighter each time his eyes flickered back and forth without anything new to see. Still nothing but ice and snow.

Landscapes that should have given him only the pleasure of admiration twisted his gut with worry every league he travelled with no sign of life, no marks of passage, let alone the sight of the one he’d come looking for. Things had begun to look hopeless days ago and yet here he was forging onwards. Just the thought of giving up made it hard to look at his own reflection - but he’d always been a stubborn bastard anyway. Lots of people had agreed on that over the years. 

He would have liked to send a hearty ‘I told you so’ to every one of them a moment later. Or rather he would have liked to if he weren’t busy gripping the tiller so hard it was almost a miracle the wood didn’t crack under his fingers. 

That voice. He would know that little voice anywhere.

“Stop!” he heard his son cry. “Stop, I give up! No more, please!” 

Rage swept through his body. If he’d had a direction to focus himself at that moment Madara would have torn his own ship apart and drained the very oceans beneath them to reach his boy and crush whatever horrors were being inflicted upon him. His vengeance was muzzled by the fault of his useless human ears, too insensitive to figure out which direction that echoing cry had originated from. It took a great effort to stifle the urge to call back and reassure his son but he clamped his teeth together and held back, unwilling to give up the element of surprise.

Desperately snapping his head from side to side, Madara tried to take in to account how far voices could travel in this terrain and relate that to all the places in visual range that might be able to hide at least one child and one adult body. Since that automatically excluded most of the flat ice he was left with blessedly few of the smaller glaciers that could have open pockets concealed on their far sides. All that was left was for him to choose one to investigate. Doing so was hard with his child’s cries ringing in his ears, knowing that every moment he delayed meant another moment of pain for Kagami, but his instincts had always been good. Madara closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When they snapped open again he spun the tiller in the direction that felt right in a way he'd never been able to explain. 

“No-o-o! Stop!” Kagami hollered again, followed by a series of strange clicks and glottal moans. 

“Be strong,” Madara breathed through clenched teeth. “I’m coming, I promise.” 

His vessel cut silently through the water in a way any full sized ship could never have done. It was, he reflected, perhaps a good thing after all that his crew had refused this journey. That left him with no one to hush but himself as he steered his little cog at a sharp angle around the glacier he had chosen to investigate. Every fiber of muscle in his body tensed for action, ready for any sight that might greet him around the bend. Words could not describe the shock that left him loose and motionless as he took in the sight of his son for the first time after weeks apart. 

Kagami shrieked again and kicked his little feet, unrestrained but for the massive pile of furs nearly drowning him in a comfy looking nest, arms clutching one layer of covers around his shoulders while his body rolled and writhed to muffle his helpless giggles. At the edge of the surprisingly stable outcropping a man’s naked torso rose out of freezing waters to reach across and tickle the exposed kicking feet. When he smiled the teeth exposed were much too sharp to be human but the joy in his face was enough to translate between any species. Skin so pale he could have laid down in the snow and disappeared was broken only by spiraling patterns of what almost looked to be red scales, hair like a crown of frost around his brows dripping with water, whoever this creature was he seemed entirely unbothered by the arctic temperatures of his environment. 

Frozen in place by the realization that his son was not in danger after all, Madara was captivated. 

“Stop!” he heard Kagami cry out again. When the next round of muffled giggling had passed he fluttered his feet and opened his mouth to let out a series of clicks that only appeared to amuse his inhuman playmate. 

The creature trilled and whistled and finished with a groaning sound as deep as the ocean surrounding them. He looked oddly proud when Kagami laughed in response, like he’d told some great joke without saying any words. 

“I’m not a fish!” the boy said. “They’re called feet, not fins.” 

His companion shook out his hair, spraying fat droplets in all directions, but the screech of protest as Kagami ducked for cover was not what held Madara’s attention. Without so much water weighing it down all that snowy hair fell in different shapes to reveal elongated ears ending in thin membranes like fins. 

A mermaid. His son had found a mermaid. 

The idea that this creature could have been the one to take Kagami away did not even warrant consideration. Madara had never been blessed to meet any beasts of legend before, let alone piss any of them off, and it was hard to imagine a creature so obviously comfortable in the high north of the world swimming his way down to tropical waters just to spirit away a random human child. No, clearly however they met was a story he would need to hear. 

Before he could begin to worry about catching their attention the creature went stiff and between one moment and the next he was hauling himself out of the water to spread his body out in front of Kagami, lips pulled back to release out a dangerous sounding hiss. Madara swallowed thickly. This thing couldn’t have known the human child behind him for long and yet here he was protecting him from some unknown threat. Half fish or not, Madara couldn’t help the warm feeling gathering in his belly - a feeling that was absolutely not helped at all by the powerful muscles in that thick, glorious tail . The patterns he’d observed creeping up the beast’s waist spiraled all the way down like battle scars and he wanted to trace every single one of them. 

“Dad!” Scrambling to free himself from his mountain of furs, Kagami beamed and waved as best he could. “You found me! Dad! Over here Dad!”

“I can see you,” Madara rumbled while his concentration whipped back and forth confusedly between the beautiful sight of all those vicious teeth and the son he’d travelled half the world to find. Eventually, because he was a good father damn it, he settled for locking eyes with the tiny figure still wrestling with endless fur. He looked unharmed, thank the gods. 

“Look, I made a friend! Tobi’s really nice, I promise.”

Gradually the hissing stopped as ‘Tobi’ seemed to understand the welcoming tone in his ward’s voice. Without taking his eyes off the potential threat before them he clicked and whistled, to which Kagami clucked his tongue and made the same peculiar groaning sounds from before. They were communicating. Somehow his son had learned to speak the language of the sea. Madara had never seen anything so incredible before - and as someone who had sailed as much of the world as he had that was saying quite something. 

“Will he let me come aboard or is he going to attack me?” he called. 

“Oh Tobi won’t hurt you! Hug! I want a hug!” Something warbled in his voice, smile crumbling ever so slightly. “It...it’s been a really long time. I missed you, Dad.” 

“I missed you too,” Madara choked out. 

As gently as he could he steered the cog in until it was just close enough for him to reach out and toss a loop of rope around a thick jagged spire of ice, mooring himself to the glacier. Without bothering to even pause and make certain the vessel would stay Madara was clambering off and slipping his way across until he could stop just before where the pair of them sat. 

Tobi’s form reared up in a way a beast without legs should not have been able to, a testament to just how powerful that tail of his was, and only the fact that he was such a good parent kept Madara’s eyes on the boy leaping down from his pile of furs to throw himself bodily forward. For a moment the entire rest of the world ceased to exist. Cold wind pulled at them, a creature straight out of legend hovering on guard less than an arm's length away, and all Madara cared about was the tiny arms that threw themselves around his neck and the solid weight against his chest as he lifted Kagami in to the tightest hug he could safely give. It was quite some time before he could bring himself to let go again. 

When he did it seemed only polite to thank the one who seemed so intent on protecting his most precious person. Peering to one side, he found deep red eyes looking back with naked curiosity buried under the wary caution. They were, he couldn’t help but notice, very pretty eyes. Kagami squirmed until he was set down but he stayed pressed against his father’s leg where Madara could lean down and murmur to him without breaking eye contact. 

“Can you ask him if he understands me?”

“I understand you just fine.” 

Madara’s heart nearly stopped in his chest and it was honestly hard to tell if that reaction was all shock from discovering this creature knew human speech or if part of it was just because he wasn’t expecting a face that pretty to produce a voice that deep. One scaled brow rose up in judgment and he decided it was definitely both. Even the strange way that sharp jawline worked to form the words wasn’t enough to deter his stupid libido; sharp teeth gnashed together as Tobi almost seemed to chew each syllable out, tongue dancing just out of side and oh so tantalizing. Izuna always did say he had poor taste but this? This took the cake. 

“Thank you, Tobi,” he forced out. “You protected my son from the ones who tried to hurt him.” Bowing slightly at the waist in a gesture of respect he had granted to few in his life, Madara hoped the words carried as much weight as he meant them to. He certainly didn’t expect a watery snort in reply. 

“Your youngling may insist upon butchering my name but I am not required to accept the same from you. I am Tobirama and you, I am told, are Dad.”

“Dad isn’t my name! That’s just - it’s what a child calls their father! My name is Madara.” 

While he was still spluttering and grumbling down at the top of his son’s head with embarrassment Tobirama carefully loosened the muscles holding him up, coiling his tail beneath him like a cushion so he could remain upright more comfortably. Madara was very glad to have such a perfect distraction at his side to keep him centered otherwise a display like that would have no doubt left him a little tight in the trousers. Were all mermaids this pretty?

He didn’t realize that question had been murmured out loud until Tobirama made a glottal hum. 

“I do not know what pretty is by human standards. By my own species I am known to be quite attractive, in part for my rare coloring and in part for the symmetricity of my markings.” He flashed his teeth again and Madara bit his tongue to hold in a whimper. 

“Dad.” Kagami tugged on the edge of his thick jacket. “I think he’s pretty too. And really nice. Can we stay here with Tobi, please? He said it was nice to make a nest for me since he doesn’t have any pups of his own. I dunno what dogs have to do with that but I like it here! The cold isn’t so bad! Can we pleeeaaase stay?”

“Uh…well…um....” As much as he wouldn’t actually mind living up here in the cold north with no idiots around to bother them, Madara wasn’t so sure the local fauna would appreciate their presence. Specifically he wasn’t so certain that just because Tobirama had willingly cared for a child, probably out of some pack instinct or the like, that didn’t mean he wanted a fully grown human tromping around his territory with all the destructive tendencies built in to their species' rather unfortunate nature. He couldn't imagine any legendary creatures like Tobirama to have had many positive interactions with humans. 

Madara knew more than most how stupid his kind could be. 

Guilt withered the already meager height of his stance as he watched Kagami’s lower lip wobble pleadingly. The poor thing was only eight years old, barely versed in the ways of the world. How was he meant to explain that this simply wasn’t the place for them? 

“I don’t think we’re allowed to stay here,” he said eventually. “We don’t have shelter or food or tools, nothing. How would we live?” Logic had never been his best friend but it was worth a shot now. 

“Tobi said he would show me how to hunt when I get bigger!”

Madara chanced another peek over only to find Tobirama unravelling himself with the distinctly uncomfortable face of someone whose secrets had been outed by another. Dorsal and pelvic fins fluttering, he used his arms to guide the sinuous length of his body over the side of their little platform and slipped beneath the surface of the ocean with barely a ripple. Kagami went stiff with a cry of dismay but his new friend was back in view only moments later. In view, of course, meant that his head rose out of the water until just below the eyes, white hair plastered to his skull. Hovering as he was he looked almost like a chink of ice broken away from some larger structure and set adrift. A lonely image, really. 

Crawling out from underneath his father’s arm, Kagami scampered towards the edge and knelt to reach out with one short arm. “Don’t go,” he whined. 

It took several minutes of coaxing for Tobirama’s face to come fully back in to view and when it did Madara’s cheeks immediately flared with enough heat to match the pretty blush dancing across pale cheeks. He couldn’t help it. Whatever had embarrassed Tobirama could only be praised if feeling so left him looking quite so attractive.

“Now, now, let’s leave him be for a minute.” Unable to deal with a sight playing such havoc on his heart, Madara stepped forward to place a hand on his boy’s shoulder. “This is his part of the world and we come from another. If he needs to go back to his life then it’s not for us to stop him, alright?”

“If shelter is what you need I would not be opposed to sharing my den,” Tobirama finally spoke again. His words froze Madara in place. 

“Y-your den?”

“What few tools I have may not be what you are referring to but I can show you where to find materials to craft whatever you need. Food would not be an issue either; you are large enough to hunt the ways I have seen other humans do and I can show you which places will yield a good kill.” Tobirama looked away with a deliberately casual expression that fooled no one. “I suppose a bit of company might be pleasant - so long as you do not sing. My brother likes to sing. I despise it.” 

“Oh! Oh! I promise to never ever sing! That means we can stay, right Dad? Right? This is so awesome!” 

Madara swallowed hard but the lump in his throat refused to move. He wasn’t sure whether this beautiful man-creature meant for them to stay a short while or forever but either way he was inclined to take the offer. They had a ship. So long as they found a good supply of food there was nothing stopping them from staying for as long as they wished to and if the time came that they overstayed their welcome there was more than enough room on the cog for both of them to set sail for home. 

“I hope you won’t regret that offer once you get to know us a little better,” he murmured, one hand lingering near Kagami’s shoulder in case the boy’s enthusiasm made him slip. He was unprepared for Tobirama to turn back and level him with a considering stare. Even more unprepared for pretty lips to split open and bare their teeth in a feral grin. 

“Ah. I must say I’m looking forward to...getting to know you a little better.”

Then he winked. It was the wink that did it. With a squawk and a twitch Madara lost his footing, tumbled off the ice and in to the northern ocean with a splash he couldn’t hear over the bubbles and ice rushing by him. When he came up spluttering Tobirama was laughing with a peculiar clicking sound and Kagami knelt at the edge still with his arm outstretched again. 

“Good thing Tobi brought me all these furs,” he said. “Don’t worry, Dad, they’ll keep you warm until you dry off again!” 

What he couldn’t bring himself to say was that seeing Tobirama spasm with joy and feeling the small hand of his son clutch his own freezing fingers had already warmed his heart. 

[the-creative-lounge-blog]

O’Hatake Gift Exchange - Lounge Event

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

In honor of the holiday, we held a 30 minute-gift exchange within the Kakashi Lounge Discord Server. The event theme was “Lucky” and each participant provided additional prompts. After participants were matched, they had 3 days in which to spend 30 minutes to create a gift inspired by both the theme and prompts. The pressure was real but Loungers rose to the challenge and all of our gifts are linked below the cut! We hope that you enjoy them!

Socks and Shenanigans by @kakayamaforever

Rated: Mature; no archive warnings apply (NSFW)

Pairing: KakaYama

WC: 968

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: Shamrock, shenanigans One sentence prompt: "Don't forget this was your idea." Your favorite lucky charm: Lucky socks

Read: AO3

Oh, Will Wonders Ever Cease? by @sendryl

Rated: T; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaShisui

WC: 1869

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: rain, vulnerable One sentence prompt: "Sounds fake and made up." Your favorite lucky charm: birthstones

Read: AO3

Lucky Enough by @ohayohimawari

Rated: T; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaTobi (Tobirama)

WC: 869

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: white noise One sentence prompt: "The silence is drowning me." Your favorite lucky charm: walnut (the very first nut of the year you pick up is considered lucky, but only if you give it away)

Read: AO3

Who needs sleep when you can fight? by @hkandiu

Rated: T; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaIru

WC: 1060

Gift Prompts:

Give two keywords: sass, tanto One sentence prompt: “They’re so cute when they’re asleep.” Your favorite lucky charm: middle finger ring

Read: AO3

Does Family Kill Romance? by @dunloth

Rated: T and up

Pairing: KakaIru

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: romance, family One sentence prompt: "How did I get so lucky to have you?" Your favorite lucky charm: crystals

Read: Tumblr

Untitled by @shy-daredevil

Rated: T

Pairing: KakaIru

Gift prompts:

Two keywords: debt, abstinence One sentence prompt: "I don't like beer" Favorite lucky charm: some handwritten words from a special person in a page marker used in Icha Icha

View: Tumblr

A Well Deserved Rest by @escape-chan

Rated: G; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaKisa (Kisame)

WC: 574

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: Abnegate, trust One sentence prompt: "Well... sucks to be you, doesn't it? Your favorite lucky charm: Genuine smiles by literally anyone

Read: AO3

Work Shenanigans by @syusukewrites

Rated: T; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaYama

WC: 865

Gift prompts:

Two keywords: pranks, eggplant One sentence prompt: "You know that it's impossible to be 'lucky', right?" Favorite lucky charm: Lucky Sweatshirt

Read: AO3

Gone Away by @cyabae

Rated: M; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaObi

WC: 727

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: Longing, Trust One sentence prompt: "Please, just come home safe." Your favorite lucky charm: small dog totem with curled tail

Read: AO3

monsters stuck in your head by @withyourrhythm

Rated: G; no archive warnings apply

Pairings: Gen (Kakashi & Minato, Kakashi & Mei)

WC: 989

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: thunder, shy One sentence prompt: “I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.” Your favorite lucky charm: a small gemstone carved into a cat

Read: AO3

Untitled by @yabakuboi

Rated: M (slightly NSFW)

Pairing: KakaIru

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: training, ramen One sentence prompt: "It won't be easy but it will be worth it" Your favorite lucky charm: 23 or 9

Read: Tumblr

Lashes make everything better by @florchis

Rated: T; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaSaku

WC: 676

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: purple, dreams One sentence prompt: “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it.” Your favorite lucky charm: loose eyelash

Read: AO3

it's gonna get easier (with you, babe) by @mouseymightymarvellous

Rated: G; no archive warnings apply

Pairing: KakaSaku

WC: 1205

Gift prompts:

Give two keywords: sunlight, hands One sentence prompt: “You make it easier when life gets hard” Your favorite lucky charm: Number 7

Read: AO3

Want to join The Kakashi Lounge Discord server? You’re invited! You must be:

-At least 16 years old

-Able to play nice with others in a multishipping community

*You must complete an intro to be given access to the server!

The Kakashi Lounge

[twinkluvr67]

look i love itachi or whatever but you cannot deny that he still gave sasuke a fucking lifetime of trauma outside of just slaughtering his whole clan... like i know he wanted 2 protect sasuke and he couldn't bring himself to kill sasuke but honestly besides the fact that the massacre would've been enough trauma for sasuke anyways, seeing that it was HIS OWN BROTHER that did it and then his brother saying that he'd need to kill his best friend like.... and this was something that was more acceptable to know when i just thought he was a fucking run of the mill evil person and thought he actually killed shisui but after you learn that he never killed shisui and was actually distraught when he killed himself... it's just so horrifying that he would even tell sasuke that he'd have to kill his best friend... like what was the POIIINNTT. there has to be a reason for everything but honestly it just feels like he did that for NO REASON WHATSOEVER. and i knooow i KNOOWW itachi's reasoning was to make sasuke stronger but like.. sis... giving him a serious case of ptsd ain't gonna make ANYONE stronger... and itachi always always pushing sasuke away and always lying and always keeping him at a distance... this man does NOT understand communication and honestly i can't blame him considering he was in an organization that promoted secrecy but STILL... and honestly once sasuke SAW him and knew he was the person that killed everyone... that was IT bro, like sasuke wouldve been better off dead. obviously sasuke is always meant to be alive and always meant to be at naruto's side but you would think that itachi would fucking think "hmm this kid is gonna be really traumatized and i already killed everyone else, i should probably just kill him too" but nooo despite the brainwashing from birth he was still too sensitive to ever kill his baby brother and honestly at this point it's like... what's better? sasuke being dead or sasuke living a life with severe ptsd?

AND honestly like i don't even KNOW what to say about his age like... i know we make fun of him for being a bootlicker but it is so beyond, so incomprehensibly fucked up up and straight up heinous that this THIRTEEN year old was made to kill his whole clan... this literal child was brainwashed since he was young to always protect the leaf and GOD for itachi to be put in the middle of the village and the clan and to serve as a double agent.... none of this is just itachi's fault, it's the fault of the higher ups it's the fault of danzo its the fault of the adult uchihas it's the fault of tobirama for creating a system of distrust for the uchihas and a tension between the clan and the village... and i know itachi definitely can't be deflected of all blame because seriously fuck him but sasuke had POINTS when he said he was going to dismantle the system that let this atrocity occur in the first place...

beyond the massacre point tho is when itachi's character just becomes unacceptable because at this point he's with the akatsuki and he's AWAY from the village and yet he STILL has this fucking crazy desire to protect it... like how deep does brainwashing go that after being with people like the akatsuki you STILL hold affection for a corrupt government... itachi would've been a much more interesting character if he had been allowed to grow and change and realize how fucked up his childhood was and how awful the leaf actually is. but of course this could never happen because kishimoto's idea of villainy is going against the mold and refusing to conform and questioning the status quo and that's why the stark differences between sasuke and itachi is just so perfect, because it allows this man to perfectly illustrate his point and to spread his fucked up beliefs and the message "DON'T dismantle the government actually revolution is bad institutional oppression is GOOD" like...

in conclusion, itachi sucks but most of it is because kishimoto has a boner for genocide

[sennokami]

parallelism - ch.1

Summary: In another lifetime, where their lives lined up better and the timing was right, maybe he could have reciprocated the truth of Madara’s secret – to love him as he deserved to be loved. But they’d still been at war when he married Mito. That was how it always went: like their friendship had a leak that couldn’t be fixed and any goodness they had just spilled out. Their relationship was just a series of closing doors. Word count: 2,948 AN: This is available on ao3 in its entirety under the same title under the pseud selwyn. I also have a twitter, selwynsalt.

The office was dark and he was alone in the building. A single candle burned by his elbow as Hashirama stared at the elongated shadows on the far wall. There was more paperwork for him to do. It was never-ending.

In this silent secrecy, Hashirama allowed himself to unwind. Be honest.

He was just so tired… tired of building, of supporting, of holding together this beautiful, infinite dream by his fingertips. It felt lonely. He missed dinners with Tobirama. He missed drinking with his cousins. He missed a thousand things he’d taken for granted. Hell, he even missed arguing with his brother. All he wanted right now was to look up and see Tobirama in the doorway saying anija, stop slacking off, in his nagging, loving way.

His sudden bout of loneliness was unreasonable, of course.  His clan was waiting for him. His brother would be back in two days and he’d pick up right where he left off, pecking Hashirama until he couldn’t remember why he missed him.

This loneliness wasn’t because of them. The source wasn’t the loss of family or the lack of company, it was just… it was just…

The wind outside howled and wood creaked. Hashirama looked at his window even though his senses said there was nothing there. The sharp spike of hope inside his chest became painful.

The floors always creaked when Madara paced in the office. Up and down he’d go, thundering and stomping until the ceiling flaked on the shinobi downstairs, and Hashirama had to ask him to stop. That’d earn a snap from Madara. Hashirama would pretend to be hurt until he found the perfect thing to say and Madara would puff up in response until they both collapsed back into humor.

His absence felt like a hole in the world. It was in the exact outline of him and it was present in the way the air missed his voice and the trees always felt cold. He wanted to go back to when they laughed and argued in the same breath.

Nowadays, Madara was only angry. Always, always angry. His clever humor was gone. All the gentleness in him was gone or hidden. When they argued, it was for keeps and Madara no longer had compunctions about hitting below the belt. He knew how to turn words into knives and Hashirama couldn’t – wouldn’t – take it anymore from a man he called as close as kin.

Now there was just this silence – this awful, empty silence, devoid of warm fires and warmer smiles.

The darkness felt a little colder now. Hashirama closed his eyes.

“I love him like a brother,” he whispered to himself. He didn’t know when his attention wandered from his work. Suddenly weary, he buried his face in his hands. “I just don’t understand why he never felt the same way.”

Or maybe he did. Madara made no secret of his heart, not for one second of his life. When he was angry, he screamed his voice hoarse. When he grieved, his entire soul wept black and blue. Madara was so honest that it was uncomfortable. There was no hiding a man who wore his rawness like a wound.

It wasn’t difficult to see what was in front of him. Madara could be hard to read if you didn’t understand him but Hashirama knew better.

In another lifetime, where their lives lined up better and the timing was right, maybe he could have reciprocated the truth of Madara’s secret – to love him as he deserved to be loved. But they’d still been at war when he married Mito. That was how it always went: like their friendship had a leak that couldn’t be fixed and any goodness they had just spilled out. Their relationship was just a series of closing doors.

If he thought that telling Madara this would help then he would have done so long ago. But he wasn’t that naïve. Madara could move the world if he wanted to, he was so stubborn, and once he was set on a course of action, gods fell apart for him. Madara didn’t want to say anything and he was unwilling to listen. His anger would probably boil the oceans if Hashirama dared to tell him something that he didn’t want to hear and with the peace so fragile, could he really be selfish enough to force Madara to tell him what was wrong?

Maybe he had to. Madara would explode. He would rage. But Hashirama couldn’t watch his dearest friend destroy himself like this. He couldn’t stomach it anymore. He just wanted to help him – that was all he ever wanted.

-

It all started with Kagami’s arrival the next morning.

Nowadays, Madara sent Kagami when he wanted to communicate with the Hokage’s office. Hashirama got used to him and more importantly, he got better at suppressing his disappointment when the warm-fire-crackle chakra he sensed wasn't to be the one he wanted it to be. To his credit, Kagami was a sweet boy, respectful and diligent. He did his duties without complaint and he wasn’t afraid to meet Hashirama’s eyes.

Yet it still clawed at his soul to talk to Madara like this, exchanging cold letters like they were strangers.  Where had their conversations gone? They used to be able to talk for hours without growing tired of one another. He remembered the two of them hiking up their mountain, being so engrossed in their conversation that dusk surprised them.

Where was that easy spirit, that effortless communication? Most pressingly, when had he lost it? Sometimes he wished he could go back in time and advise his younger self to savor these conversations while they lasted. It’d never occurred to him that there would be one cold day in which they ceased.

“Here you go, Hokage-sama.” Kagami handed over a letter. Hashirama took it from him and barely repressed his disappointment over how thin it was. Kagami left after he nodded at him and Hashirama carefully unfolded the paper.

This wasn’t even a letter. It was just a scrap that Madara scratched out some words onto. Hashirama couldn’t even tell if he was angry or sad. This was a snub. This was an insult. Madara dismissed him, dismissed their village, and a small part of him wondered when things would finally fully fall apart.

Everything in order. Don’t interfere.

In order? Don’t interfere? When had their settlement become this… this begrudging collaboration between reluctant allies? They’d vowed to each other to work hand-in-hand as brothers and equals. When they clasped hands on the day of truce, that’d been more than just the end of a blood feud. It had been a promise.

This wasn’t even close.

Hashirama crumpled up the letter, his mind made up. Enough was enough. He had hoped that over time, given space to settle, that Madara would temper his wild heart and come back in from the cold. But that’d never been the case with him, right? Sometimes he had to be chased down until he got tired.

-

Hashirama cornered Madara in his house. He knew the instant that Madara’s eyes flashed that he was going to walk into a firestorm. For a moment, Hashirama was beset by doubt. Did he want to do this? Fighting with Madara was hard. Each time they clashed, Hashirama walked away from it feeling drained, exhausted, sucked empty. It hurt to raise his hand against his friend and it hurt even worse when Madara got that unbalanced gleam in his eyes that said he planned to give it as good as he got.

“Get out,” Madara hissed.

He steeled himself. Sometimes the things that hurt the most were also the most necessary. “No. This doesn’t continue any longer.”

“Excuse me?” There it was again – that dangerous glint. Upon closer examination, Madara didn’t look all that good. The bags under his eyes looked puffier while his cheeks were thinner. It wasn’t as bad as when he’d been eighteen and carved out by hunger, but it came frighteningly close. “This is my home, Senju. You’re unwelcome.”

Since when, he wanted to ask. Since when did I become unwelcome?

“You’re avoiding me,” Hashirama said instead. “You won’t even look me in the face anymore.”

Madara glared at him defiantly. “I wasn’t aware that I had to present myself every day,” he snarled. Hashirama immediately wanted to shake him and demand that he stop doing the thing he did where he interpreted everything he said in the worst possible light. It was the most infuriating part of talking to him. Madara never wanted to back down or deescalate. He only hit back harder.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Hashirama replied. It came out harder than he intended it to. “Why are you doing this – punishing me for something I didn’t even do?”

That did it. Madara rounded on him with his shoulders squared and his lips pinched thin. “That’s how you see this? Punishment? Don’t act so childish, Hashirama! This isn’t about you –“

“Yes, it is.” Hashirama stepped up to him. Madara took a step back. He wasn’t dumb enough to think that it was because of fear. “This is exactly about me. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be running away.”

“Running away -!” Madara’s chakra flared angrily. “You think I would ever run away from you? You?”

The contempt stung. Hashirama forged on. “I know. What you’re not telling me. I know.”

The air left the room. Madara went bloodless. For a split-second, Hashirama genuinely thought he would attack him. The tension stretched until it could no longer. The floorboards cracked as Madara’s anger erupted.

“Get out!” he screamed, throwing the nearest thing on hand. Hashirama ducked the vase. It exploded against the frame of the screen door, a hundred pieces skittering all over the floor.

“Madara, please –"

“You fucking come into my house,” he seethed, his teeth bared into a snarl, “you come in here and you mock me –"

“That wasn’t why!” Hashirama ducked the table that he threw. “Madara, just listen!”

“I have listened enough! Leave!”

His temper hit its limit. Hashirama clasped his hands and the wood of Madara’s home shortly followed. Roots wrapped around his arms to stop him from throwing any more things and when Madara thrashed, Hashirama squeezed tighter. He wouldn’t hurt him but he had enough of talking and being shouted over.

“Let me go –"

His finger twitched. Madara made an angry noise around the root that grew over his mouth. But he didn’t create the Susano’o or even burn anything, so Hashirama had to count himself lucky. He pushed him deeper into the house to finally get this out of the hallway.

“I didn’t come here to fight,” he began once they were seated. Madara was still restrained but he’d stopped struggling as soon as Hashirama put his foot down. He'd resorted to glaring at him through his thicket of hair. “I want you to just hear me out for once.”

Madara snorted.

His hard-won reprieve stretched out like taffy. Hashirama felt gummy-mouthed for a moment, a little surprised and yet not at all that Madara relented. They danced like this a lot, the two of them. Madara ran away and Hashirama followed. Madara fought and Hashirama won. Then Madara gave in.

He despaired at this cycle. Every time it started anew, he despaired a little more.

Madara’s home was the same. He comforted himself with that. This could still be fixed.

“The village needs both of us – and I need you, Madara. I can’t do it all alone.” He thought about this coming here. What he’d say – what he needed to say. For most people, he found the right words to turn aloof detachment into budding camaraderie. With Madara, it was always a guessing game. What comforted him today could incite him tomorrow.

“You can’t hide away like this anymore – barely talking to anyone, not even talking to me… our dream can’t survive if it’s only me. This needs to end.”

Madara was silent. The bright burn of his chakra died down to dim embers, still hot but no longer so dangerous. Hashirama let the Mokuton go. For a long time, Madara said nothing.

“Please, I –“

“…what did you mean when you said you knew?”

“What?”

“You said you knew.” Madara met his eyes. Hashirama didn’t flinch from the sight of his Sharingan. “What do you mean?”

His mind raced. He’d come here for a purpose – to finally do something about the growing chasm between them before it grew too wide to bridge. But to make up one’s mind was one thing. To do was another.

He looked at Madara. Something in his face said that he already knew what he meant. He was only asking for confirmation.

Hashirama grew a little gentler. Despite everything, he cared about Madara. There was no argument bad enough or silence long enough to make him stop caring. “I know about how you feel,” he said, trying to soften the blow as much as possible. “About me.”

Emotion flickered across Madara’s face. It disappeared quickly but Hashirama was used to catching his quicksilver thoughts.

“How long?” he rasped.

“…not that long,” he said. But he had to look away to say it. The child he knew had been bright and playful. For each other, they’d kept their claws sheathed. Only time and growing up taught Hashirama how to peer deeper into his soul and find the vast jagged peaks and valleys of his heart. Madara felt intensely about him, that’d been clear since he got his Sharingan. But the meaning of that intensity only became apparent to him when it was too late to do anything about it.

“Don’t lie to me,” Madara hissed. “How long?”

“Since we were boys,” Hashirama reluctantly admitted.

The bluster left Madara. He leaned back, somehow smaller, and Hashirama wanted to reach out and tell him it’s okay, this is fine, please don’t look like that.

He didn’t. He knew how Madara reacted to sympathy. It was too close to pity for his pride to take.

“That long?”

“Yes.”

Then a silence fell, an awkward do-nothing silence where Madara didn’t look at him and Hashirama wished he would. He wanted to take action. Reassure him, maybe. He liked reassuring Madara, liked the blazing hot surety in his eyes when he looked at him – when Madara looked at him that way, nothing felt impossible. He wanted that back.

“Madara –”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Madara said jerkily. He curled inward, his black hair slipping over his face, hiding him, hiding his angry, angry eyes, and Hashirama could practically hear iron barricades slamming up. Get out. No entry.

“Then what?” he demanded. He was loud enough to fill the room with his voice. “You’ll continue to ignore me? That’s your solution?”

A brief stab of insight told him that was exactly what Madara was hoping for. It was the same as Hashirama’s ploy: create time and distance and hope that’d make the problem go away. But they both knew better than that.

“I want to help,” he insisted, splaying his hands across his knees. He didn’t know how, couldn’t think of a single solution that wouldn’t make Madara snarl at him, but he wanted Madara to stop ripping this rift open between them. Hashirama wasn’t the only one suffering. He knew Madara was too.

“Help?” The air grew hot with sour bitterness. “You can’t help.”

“Can’t or you won’t let me?”

Madara straightened up at that, his temper stoked like fresh coals. “Don’t ask stupid questions,” he snapped, his voice so sharp that the tension nearly cracked. “You can’t do anything.”

“Why not?” That again. Hashirama felt like an echo playing back the same words. Why? Why?

Madara’s face screwed up. “What do you mean why not?” he hissed. Hashirama felt like a little kid again, poking his friend until he flushed and yelled. Except that this time he had no joke to pull the cord on Madara’s temper.

“Why can’t I help?” he said. “I want to. For both of us. The village needs us both –“

“Fuck the village!”

Madara lunged at him. It was a cat’s pounce, the powerful curl of leg muscles that propelled a lightning strike leap. Hashirama didn’t try to meaningfully stop him so Madara caught him by the chest in a hard tackle that sent them to the floor. He was aware of his neck, of his belly, but Madara didn’t go for any soft place.

He kissed him. It was mean, toothy and hot-breathed, and so violent that it felt like he was about to bite him instead.

Hashirama, too stunned to react, let him pin his wrists to the floor. He felt Madara settle down on top of him, too hot and heavy for this warm night, smelling like tobacco smoke and trembling like he was barely holding back from worse. Madara licked into his mouth, mauled his lips, kissed him until his lungs burned before he remembered to have mercy and when he did, he sat back on his haunches. His face was flushed, his eyes fever-bright, and his lips curled when he spoke.

“You think you know something?” Madara grabbed the front of his shirt. “You don’t. Not even by half.”

With a whoosh of air, Madara was suddenly up. He turned away dismissively, tossing his head. “Just go, Hashirama.”

Hashirama stood up slowly, his skull buzzing, lips bleeding from where Madara bit him. He stared at Madara’s retreating back, willing him to turn around and show him what he was thinking, but Madara refused to give in. So for once, Hashirama obeyed and left.

[redacted-undead]

Perhaps they wanted each other

Perhaps they simply needed time alone.

But what can you do when there are questions that need answering with no way to satisfy that curiosity?

An IzuTobi writing for @gayizuna

Night dissipating with the first light of early morning sun, a welcome sight to the travellers making their way home with exhaustion grasping at their very bones- yet no warmth could seep into the earth. A cold nip hanging in the air with frost littering the forest floor; not an animal stirred, nestled away in their dens and burrows to fight off the cold world above, patiently waiting for the seasons to change once more welcoming the warmth of spring. Since morning the previous day the two Konoha shinobi had been walking with every intention on reaching the gates to the village by sunrise; which true to their words they had managed albeit the fatigue felt with every step they continued to take. Passing a hand over his face with a long, drawn out yawn, Uchiha Izuna let go of a small laugh, keeping in step with his equally exhausted partner who refused to bring his gaze to the Uchiha. He hadn't the energy left to laugh, and the Senju knew the expression on the Uchiha's face would cause just that reaction. “Not long now, eh?” With a shake of his head, white hair falling over his tired eyes, Tobirama walked on. The return home from a mission as long as theirs was a welcome feeling; but what stunned him more- what he nor Izuna expected was how close they had grown on the journey. Of course, they had begrudgingly worked together since the village was created for the sake of pleasing their brothers, and appealing to their now real fantasy of a safe haven to live, but now they could call each other a friend; someone they could rely on and someone to spend time with. But that wasn't what was on either of their minds. In the distance the tall gates to the village drew closer, a much needed and very welcomed sight to them both; it would be bliss to return home and sleep in a decent bed rather than on the forest floor or in a rented inn. The village held a glow, different chakra signatures emanating from all the life that buzzed around, some recognisable and some new, strange even, yet it was still welcoming, still a homely feeling that they had grown accustomed to over the years they had lived in the Village Hidden In the Leaves. Over the past two months they had been away, the pair had grown closer than what they were accustomed to; gazes lingering too long, comforting touches that stayed a little longer than what they should have, their silences were punctuated by something unspoken that neither of them could quite fathom; something that had their minds reeling without a clear answer. The familiar chakra of their families reached them, a warm feeling settling between them; there was plenty of time to share words later, when rest was fulfilled and their thoughts once more made sense. They scarcely recalled even greeting their brothers. Dusty and still, the archives were in fact a boring place to work in, no matter how many times civilians complained about how they would love to learn the history of the clans within Konoha- they didn't have to decipher illegible nonsense from the Hyuuga clan, or wait for other clans to finally submit their clan history. The waiting time for such paperwork was atrocious . Letting go of a long, drawn out sigh, Izuna looked up at Tobirama, raising a dark eyebrow as the Senju seemed to squint over and over at the page before him, his expression was amusing, almost as if he'd bitten a lemon. A month had passed since they returned from their mission and life seemed to have fallen right back to where they had left off, although there were some exceptions. Gaze lingering for a moment longer over the other, the Uchiha smiled softly, clearing his throat. “You know, I heard through the grapevine that Konoha will be hosting its first ever festival...” Red eyes darted up from the page, looking at Izuna as if he'd just proposed they blow the village up before rolling his eyes. “I don't want to attend; there are other matters I'd rather attend to,” He replied bluntly, brushing off the implied invite as quickly as it came, leaving Izuna sucking his teeth slightly. The Senju scarcely participated in any events that occurred in Konoha, the Uchiha knew he was a bit of a recluse, this was unacceptable in his eyes; with a smug smile, he leaned forward, chin on his hands careful not to lean on the wet ink written on paper, before he could speak he was interrupted by Tobirama “I refused my brother, what makes you think you can change my mind?” “I can have more fun than your brother, Tobirama.” A grin hidden by the high collar of his tunic, Izuna watched as the other sat his pen down carefully, his mischievous black eyes bright as the Senju paused, seeming to consider the offer hanging in the air, several heavy moments passed them by before Tobirama spoke, his voice almost accusing; “Are you suggesting that you can prove to me that you are more fun than my dear brother?” Izuna leaned forward, his dark hair falling over his eyes and with a sly grin, a rather loud laugh he moved his hair away from his vision. “You'd have to be there for me to prove it, so of course you won't attend- you hate being wrong.” The Uchiha knew how to work Tobirama, how to draw him in with the prospect of competition and being proven wrong- something he knew the Senju detested with a deep passion. Not even a moment passed by before Tobirama's eyes narrowed, shaking his head, pressing his lips together with a deep sigh. “Fine. I will attend, if only to end this conversation, Izuna. I don't appreciate crowds.” Opening his mouth to speak again, Izuna was silenced by another box of scrolls being delivered. It had been how long and still clans were relinquishing archives? There had been a time when only Tobirama and himself were ever in the dusty place, now it seemed as if they couldn't have half an hour to themselves. Even outside of their work together there was very little time in the day and night for each other- if it wasn't Madara requiring assistance in the Uchiha clan meetings, then Tobirama was needed in the Hokage office, or at the the Academy. It caused a bitter sensation to crawl along Izuna’s spine; it had taken them so long to become friends and now they could hardly share two words together. It angered him even, though he’d never fully admit to that. The heavy wooden door slamming closed once more, Tobirama slumped forward across from Izuna, leaning to grab his brush again; yet neither of them seemed able to continue working anymore – they could catch up tomorrow, couldn't they? “Lunch?” Tobirama suggested and almost immediately – thankfully gracefully – Izuna got to his feet, patting down his tunic free from dust and nodding; it was an offer he certainly wouldn't pass on. How on earth Izuna managed to choke down that ramen, Tobirama was unsure. Having just ordered – Izuna ordered something so spicy the very thought caused Tobirama to cough – they sat in the booth together, invested fully into their conversation. “Through this ‘grapevine’, Izuna, what do you know about the festival? Hashirama gets a little too excited, sometimes.” A smug smile, very unhidden, came from Izuna as Tobirama rolled his eyes. He knew sooner or later the Senju would ask questions, he just had to plant the idea into his head and let the cogs spin, as it were. Leaning on his hands, folded neatly together, he shrugged slightly. “I don't know much, but from what I did hear it is to be a cultural festival; clans are to bring customs together and explore the other clans without fear or judgement – although I can't see that going too well.” It was simple, certain clans would forever fear the others; Uchiha were still feared for their eyes and avoided, although it wasn't as bad as when the village first came together. Perhaps opening up within the village would be a step towards unification they desired. “And the Uchiha plan to have a stall for their food,” he laughed as Tobirama grimaced, shaking his head and averting his gaze to the nearby wall. “I won't be trying that.” It was amusing how they easily fell back into tandem with each other, how easy it was to talk and laugh around the other. A steaming plate of dumplings was placed between them and the strong smell of spice and pork wafted in the air and their meals sat in front of them, the two shared their lunch; Izuna somehow successfully convincing Tobirama to try a dumpling dipped in Izuna's ramen. In the distance a soft buzz of life darted around the village; stalls were set up, decorated with lights, with tapestries, with items unique to each individual clan. Children already ran through the streets their laughter travelling through the village, the smell of freshly cooked food almost overwhelming. Within the Uchiha clan, preparations were still being attended to, none that Izuna could help with however. The Uchiha stood in his room with the window pushed as far wide as it could go, listening to the excitement building not so far away; he would have been lying to himself if he said he wasn't excited- it was something new and surely something he would enjoy immensely. Yet something tugged at him, he couldn't help but wonder if Tobirama would show up, if his friend would decide to stay at home instead of meeting up and experiencing the festival together. The thought caused his gut to twist uncomfortably. Turning his attention to the deep red kimono folded neatly across his bed, he decided it was best to actually get dressed, knowing that soon Madara would be impatient for them to leave. The entire idea of the village was still something Izuna was trying to adjust to; it was considerably easier as time passed and he discovered his place within the large community, and still there were times when he desired for his life to be much simpler once again, when he knew who not to trust and where his loyalties lay. But now they lay on a much grander scale and at times it could be daunting, knowing there was a whole village of civilians who may rely on his protection; more seemed to be at stake than when he was just at Madara's side. But his place in Konoha, his new life that he was adapting to, that in part was due to Tobirama. Dressed now, he leaned on the window frame staring towards the festival, the sun dipping just beyond the mountains, the sky melting from orange and red to a deep purple, tiny stars scattered across the horizon. Music drifted towards his home, a soft yet upbeat melody that Izuna was sure accompanied a song, lyrics he hadn't heard yet, perhaps he would tonight? A knock at his door startled him “Anija! I'm coming,” He managed to bite out, opening the door to greet his brother with a disgruntled expression that didn’t last as long as Madara mused about the events that may occur, hoping for success in their experimental festival. Izuna too, could only hope. Passing the ornate gates of the Uchiha compound, they stepped into the street chatting absently to one another, teasing in nature and then soft; as they always had been. Madara could often reassure Izuna and tonight was no exception by any standard. As they walked towards the festival Izuna piped up “Anija, what if this...goes wrong?” Stopping at a corner, the older brother raised an eyebrow “What if the clans don't get along, Madara?” Shrugging, Madara couldn't answer that for his younger sibling, but smiling, he placed a hand on his forearm. “I don't think that's what's on your mind, Izuna, you aren't normally concerned with such ‘menial’ things, was that not what you said?” Izuna's gaze sharply turned from his older brother who laughed at him, shaking his head. “What is it?” “Nothing, let's just go.” Crowded was an understatement; the streets swelled with people from every clan, loud chatting, singing and the occasional shout from a stall, chants of support from games being played. All at once the activity blossomed; those tending stalls beckoned people over, the inciting smell of food pulling others towards it, the promise of prizes from games, it was rather hard to concentrate on just on thing at a time. Sitting in a small beer garden and watching the world go by as he awaited the Uchiha to arrive, Tobirama contemplated why exactly it had been easy for Izuna to convince him to attend even after he had said no. Hashirama was no help, explaining what had happened he broke into a wide grin and started mooning over how much the two of them had changed towards each other, how he was right and couldn't wait to tell Madara – so he sat and waited for the arrival of his friend, something fluttering on his sternum in anticipation, something he was unsure of, was he excited to see Izuna? Or just excited to prove the Uchiha wrong? Either way it was confusing, and looking into his cup for a moment he lifted his head upon feeling a familiar chakra. “Anija, they're here,” he mumbled, standing up for the Uchiha to find them, rolling the blue sleeve of his kimono down his arm- it was rather troublesome. All sitting at the table, Hashirama had insisted they enjoy at least one meal with each other before parting ways, which he knew would happen, the younger siblings never seemed to hang around for very long when they were concerned. Tobirama rolled his eyes at Izuna as his older brother loudly asked where the menus were, chatting to Madara at the same level despite being hushed – excitement often caused Hashirama to be more present than normal. But it didn't seem to bother the civilians- all attention was focused on the evening ahead. Each time Madara and Hashirama got together, Tobirama and Izuna could melt into the background and leave them to be unrealistically sweet towards one another, leave them and not have to force themselves through yet another night of grimacing and pretending to agree. As soon as they could, Izuna grabbed Tobirama by the arm and lead him off and into the river of people. There was only one thing the Uchiha wanted to go out of his way to do, and smiling up at his friend, he drew near to the Uchiha stalls.“I wanted to show you what it was like for me to grow up.” Deep down, the Senju knew Izuna was allowing himself to open up much more than he had before, and with a nod he let him lead the way, their first stop being a food stall. Watching the other talk, the Senju couldn't help but feel drawn towards the Uchiha, how his eyes brightened mid-conversation, gesturing as he talked, he couldn't look away and a small smile found its way onto his features. He wasn't sure what Izuna was saying or had said, but he accepted the small bowl of soup he had been offered and was mildly shocked to find it wasn't a bowl of hell fire- it was surprisingly flavourful. Glancing at Izuna again, he nodded. “Before we learned to use fire jutsu, I used to eat that all the time, now I can barely taste it.” “I suppose an unfortunate side effect to fire jutsu?” Tobirama responded, placing the bowl down when he was finished and thanking the woman behind the stall; turning to find Izuna reaching out for him, a hand on his forearm as he pulled the taller Senju closer and onto the next stall. It seemed Izuna was determined to enlighten Tobirama, and he didn't mind at all. Hours passed quickly, flitting between almost every stall they came across. The two had learned much about each other's clans, but more about each other, which they had not expected, what foods they ate as children, how terrible Tobirama was at aiming a little ball into a small net, Izuna's sweet tooth; and they both learned how great wine was. Managing to break away from the main crowds, the two walked beside each other, their laughter ringing out into the night, tranquillity disrupted with the happiness radiating from them. Somehow, they had managed to navigate their way to the waterside, despite the tipsiness that threatened to send them into laughter once more. The music and voices faded into the background becoming a gentle lull, the moon reflecting on the water, rippling in the waves that lapped at the shore, above the stars twinkled, almost shimmering in the deep, purple sky. Surrounding them were little fireflies, lazily floating around, landing on their clothes as if the stars themselves had rained down. Finding a spot to sit down by the shore, Izuna exhaled silently, his eyes focused on Tobirama as he stretched out before folding his legs under himself, turning to look at Izuna with a small laugh. “Did you see your brother? He couldn't stand!” Nodding, Izuna found himself laughing, pausing a moment and looking towards the water. “At least he has Hashirama to help him,” he said almost sadly. The Senju beside him raised an eyebrow, facing his friend, concerned. “You're awfully pensive all of a sudden.” Passing his tongue over his lips, Izuna swallowed, silent for a moment before finding the words within himself, speaking carefully, choosing wisely. “..Do you think you'll ever find someone?” Taken aback by the sudden question, Tobirama raised an eyebrow, chuckling softly. “Why? Are you interested?” The Senju took a breath in, turning to face the water and nodding slightly. “Perhaps someday? Who is to say that I don't have someone in mind now? ..I simply refuse to act in case my intentions are perceived as wrong.” Attention returning to the Uchiha beside him, he adjusted his kimono and cleared his throat, watching him for a moment. The moonlight had turned his hair into a pale silver, his eyes bright and almost enchanting and a twist of his stomach, he sighed. “What about you?” Focused ahead, Izuna didn't answer, lost for words and no matter how many times he attempted to form words, nothing came and nothing seemed correct, seemed insignificant and unable to truly describe what it was he wanted to say. The water seemed to still completely – Tobirama had taught him how to swim on their mission, he was still afraid of water but it dissipated when his friend was at his side. He drew in a deep breath, the cold night air billowing out as he exhaled, facing his friend; uncomfortably warm, his head spinning, reeling with thoughts that he couldn't quite sort through, but in that moment Izuna turned his dark gaze to Tobirama. Stillness enveloped the two of them, time almost standing still, black eyes locking with red ones, an expression so soft, unable to break away from the gentle gaze, Tobirama's breath hitched and as if hypnotised he found himself leaning in towards Izuna, his heart pounding within his chest. “Anyone would be lucky..” Izuna breathed out, only to be silenced as their lips met; eyes wide and trembling, the kiss was soft and all they could do was melt into each other, eyes falling shut and shifting closer to each other, hands brushing. All the questions they had being answered finally, their interactions made sense. Parting, trying to catch the breath back that they had forgotten to take and attempt to calm their shaking limbs. The two hardly noticed as the sky was dyed with colour, blues, greens and reds and were aware the fireworks for the festival, a laugh escaping them, Izuna placed his hands on Tobirama's cheeks, the Senju covering the Uchiha's hands with his own as their foreheads pressed against the other; it was just the two of them and nothing else in that moment mattered, the happiness welling between them. “So may I ask you, Izuna, if my intentions are not wrong- will you be mine?” Izuna couldn't answer, for a brief moment his eyes shifting to red and closing, taking that as an answer, Tobirama leaned in once more; the fireworks behind them and yet it was only the two of them. Just the two of them in the whole village, despite the events occurring behind them. Perhaps they just wanted time alone. Perhaps they wanted each other. Hey Sage!

I hope you enjoyed this little fic as much as I've enjoyed being your friend. You're surrounded by people who love you dearly and love you for you and would never want or need you to change for anything. We will always be there for you, through both thick and thin and whenever we can we will help. Remember how amazing you are and how far you've come in life, how wonderful your art is and how talented you are, you've worked so hard and it shows! I honestly am so glad you're my friend, you're literally the best and I am so proud of you and I hope that we can be friends for a very long time!

[usratonkachi]

We need to talk about Itachi Uchiha.

Not an anti or pro post, I guess, just a personal analysis.

We need to talk about Itachi, but not the hero, not the shinobi, not the cold-blooded murderer, and certainly not the Itachi Of The Leaf™ bullshit.

We should talk more about Sasuke’s big brother, which is, for me, Itachi’s most important facet, that defines almost his whole self as a character. Ya’ll see, I can’t not agree with those who state he sucked as Sasuke’s brother because he wanted to manipulate him all the time by doing some really twisted shit, but my point here is not pointing fingers nor defend any actions. I just want to get off my mind some thoughts about him.

Itachi was only 4 years old when he witnessed the brutality of war with his own eyes (and his whole body if you remember that that was the first time he killed someone). The reason why this is the start of his story is very significant. We often forget that all Itachi knew about before Sasuke’s birth was war and “you have to be a great shinobi to survive this shit”. He knew death by his own hands, he knew blood, he knew a battlefield, and then he saw Sasuke, the very first pure thing he had ever seen, a new life, a new beginning. At this point, all Itachi wanted was to make the world a peaceful place, but now he had another goal: he had to protect Sasuke at all costs. And, as shocking as it may sound, he did it.

Itachi was a double agent while the whole Uchiha coup thing was going on. He didn’t know who he was anymore, as he admits himself to Kabuto later, who he related to when heard about his trajectory as a double agent. A person who always wandered about the concept of a ninja village, of a clan, of a community, didn’t know shit about anything any longer. The thing is: Danzou knew somehow about Itachi’s weakness. And he used it to make Itachi finally make up his mind, leading him into a result that would be advantageous to Konoha. Danzou threatened Sasuke’s life. He said clearly “you can join your clan and you all die, or you slaughter them yourself in order to save your little brother”. That was what made Itachi finally decide. All I can say about it is that he didn’t take Konoha’s or Uchiha’s side, he took Sasuke’s side. He even made sure Sasuke would be safe in the Village by threatning Danzou saying he would tell all Konoha’s secret to the other villages if Sasuke was hurt. I mean, the same guy who hated war and who was supposed to kill his entire clan for the sake of Konoha and the world was whilling to start another one in revenge. Where’s the “Itachi was one of the only Uchiha that didn’t succumb to the Hatred Curse™ (I don’t buy this Tobirama shit too)” thing now?

Anyway, that’s just a little proof of how much Sasuke was important to Itachi and how he had a huge impact on his life. He did love Sasuke very much, you see, but he loved him in a very twisted way, I can’t deny that. But what’s not twisted about shinobis’ lifes? We have to have (“have to have”, is this right?) in mind this is not like real life at all. Anyway, he manipulated Sasuke in every way possible to keep him alive. This word is very important: alive. Itachi’s personal mission was to keep Sasuke alive, and to achieve this goal, he used hatred. He made Sasuke hate him deeply to his core so that he would be stronger and survive to shinobi world, which he had seen many times its cruelty. At this point, all he managed to do was to keep on living despite his disease so that Sasuke would kill him and finally go back to Konoha as a hero. It’s not like he cared about his own life any longer (and I personally think he never really did). However, he didn’t count with Sasuke thinking and feeling for himself. We know he thought about the possibility that Tobi would try to manipulate him and all, but he underestimated Sasuke’s views about the world and will to make justice (no wonder, everyone in this show did this since the very beginning and the fandom does too, so bleh to all of you who don’t take my boy seriously). The thing is: Itachi was so used to see Sasuke as his little brother who needed to be protected that he didn’t see this coming (blind in so many ways poor Itachi lmao). But he didn’t care about what Sasuke could do anyway. And this is another thing very important that I want to emphasize: if Konoha was that important to Itachi, don’t ya’ll think he would try to brainwash Sasuke to save it in the first place, like Naruto did so many times before? It’s true that he trusted Naruto to do it (mehhh), but he didn’t think twice before saying “no matter what you do from now on, I will love you forever”. Even if Sasuke destroyed everything Itachi “protected” before, he would NEVER stop loving him or would judge him. Just like Sasuke forgave Itachi in the blink of an eye for everything. That’s how much they truly love and are kind of obsessed with each other.

Well, I didn’t mean to extend myself at this point but there’s one last thing. Itachi was always meant to be a sacrifice. He was a man who truly wished to make the world a better place and, yes, he was a cold-blooded murdered. He didn’t think twice before killing someone if he believed that was the right thing to do, and maybe he didn’t even think too much about how cruel it is to take someone else’s life. “That’s how you survive the shinobi world anyway”, he probably thought, still stuck on the 3rd Great Ninja War.

The difference is that Itachi sacrificed himself not mostly for peace, but for Sasuke. To make him survive anything bad that could ever happen to him. He broke Sasuke apart but did what he was meant to do since Sasuke was born: protected his little brother and delayed his death as much as he could while he was still alive.

And that’s why I’m not able to see Itachi as a hero or as someone so devoted to Konoha. For me, he was mostly devoted to Sasuke.

[puzzleshipper]

Sugar, we’re crashing (on the bed)

Rating:  Mature (M) 

Pairing: Madatobi

Summary: Madara would like people to stop oggling his husband. Thank you very much. (Tobirama, for his part, always enjoys the sex after Madara flips his shit at the unfortunate idiot that decied to oggle him.)

For: @shadow-spires @barricadeofnargles @pandafleur @loudexpertcreator 

Fic under the cut!

Enjoy!

Tobirama huffed as his back collided with the wall, the impact briefly stealing his breath. The rest was stolen by Madara, who quickly moved forward and deftly placed his knee between Tobirama's legs, eliciting a soft moan from the white haired man.  Calloused hands roughly grabbed his hips, while soft lips left butterfly kisses along his neck. Tobirama breathed in sharply and his hands came up to rest on Madara's shoulders by their own accord. Arching his head back, he shuddered as Madara slowly licked at his pulse point and then bit down sharply.

Tobirama tangled his fingers in Madara's hair and pulled him up for a kiss. Lips softly, chastely, touching. Madara lightly licked Tobirama's lower lip, before he took it between his teeth to tease it.

"I really don’t appreciate some fucking strangers ogling you like a piece of meat", Madara growled against his lips, before he kissed him deeply.

"Well," Tobirama panted after he broke the kiss to breathe, "after what happened, they will certainly avoid being in the same country as us"

Madara grinned victoriously "They'd better", before he pulled him in for another mind-blowing kiss.

Madara's hands slowly moved up and down his lover's chest, before quickly darting under his shirt. Tobirama could not stop the moan that Madara's skilled fingers on his skin wrung from him.

Another moan and that one was eagerly swallowed by Madara as he continued with his mission to 1. Drive his boyfriend out of his mind with pleasure and 2. Show off his incredible oral skills.

And just because everything with them turned into a competition and both were good at giving as good as they got, Tobirama deftly wrapped one of his legs around Madara’s waist. This had mixed results however as Madara smirked and slowly ground his hips, all the while staring intently in the other’s eyes, as they widened just slightly. Madara was also rather pleased at the strangled groan Tobirama just barely stopped. Tobirama’s hands had moved to the front of Madara’s shirt and he leaned forward

“I do believe you’re wearing –far– too many clothes, Madara”, he whispered.

“Oh? Am I?” Madara trailed his finger along Tobirama’s face from cheekbone to chin “Then I don’t suppose you’ll do anything about that?”

There was a spark of mischief in Tobirama’s red eyes and even before he had finished saying that, the shirt was gone. Madara blinked, looked at himself, then at Tobirama. Opened his mouth and “You look hot in that” tumbled out, instead of something a bit more different like ‘Oh, now you’re the one that’s overdressed, let me rectify that’, so Madara decided to just fuck it and kissed him deeply again. That plan worked well because within moments he had Tobirama thoroughly distracted and half naked. He was rather pleased with his actions.

“So,” Tobirama panted after they broke the kiss for air, “do I look less hot now?” he fluttered his eyelashes at him.

The bastard was smirking, so Madara just hooked his arm under the leg that was still touching the ground and lifted it to join the other on his waist. The startled hiss that Tobirama let out at being off-balanced, quickly turned into a groan, as Madara pressed flush to him and breathed “You look simply ravishing”.

There was a blush spreading on Tobirama’s face, his lips swollen from kisses, his eyes half-lidded and pupils blown, but staring at him with intent.

Madara shifted them a bit, so Tobirama was securely pressed against the wall and kissed again those soft lips, before he continued down his neck, leaving a trail of red bites.

Long, deft fingers slipped into Madara’s hair and pulled lightly, as Tobirama murmured his name.

Madara licked a nipple teasingly, then closed his lips around it and sucked, savoring the low moan that escaped from Tobirama’s lips. He felt him arch off the wall and press closer. The hands gripping his hair tugged him up to a searing kiss and Madara could not help but groan, as he felt Tobirama shift and what was he-oh, well, there go Madara’s pants on the floor, along with most of his thought process as Tobirama grinded against him hard. Madara’s breath stuttered and he gasped. Tobirama repeated the movement again. Both of them cried out and Madara was sure he wasn’t the only one currently seeing stars.

Blindly fumbling and attempting to get rid of Tobirama’s pants was a bit of a challenge, considering the other’s vice grip on his waist and the eagerness with which Tobirama was leaving bite marks and purpling bruises on his neck and chest. A few minutes later the pants were half off and Madara was just about to try and say something witty like “Your pants are in the way” or something of the sort, when Tobirama did a particularly inspired movement with his hips that derailed any kind of thought for a while.

The first thing Madara became aware of, when some blood returned back to his brain, instead of the other place it had been gathering, was that Tobirama had just wrapped his legs around his waist, this time sans the pants. He was good, Madara had to admit that. And then had to bite back a curse, as Tobirama resumed his game of “How many bites and bruises can I leave on Madara, so that brother won’t be able to speak to him without stuttering”. His personal record was around two weeks and it looked like he was going to improve that. When he felt the scrape of blunt fingernails on his shoulders and back Madara hissed and arched closer, pressing Tobirama flat on the wall, hands on his hips holding tight to keep him still. Tobirama was, of course, not pleased at having his delicate work interrupted.

He arched an eyebrow at Madara and licked his kiss-bruised lips, “Oh?” he smirked, eyes taking in Madara’s appearance – his flushed face, the wild look in his dark eyes, the absolutely disheveled hair, all the bite marks on his neck and chest.

“Am I more than you bargained for?” Tobirama purred teasingly.

“Even if you were, I wouldn’t give you up” Madara growled against his lips and kissed him heatedly.

In the part of his brain that wasn’t on fire, Tobirama dimly registered, that Madara’s hands had cupped his ass and that the wall was no longer supporting his back. He tightened his hold on Madara’s waist on reflex and was pleased at the groan the other man choked out. Tobirama opened his eyes. When had they fallen shut was a question for later. He saw that Madara was moving the two of them to somewhere, but there was delicious looking skin in biting distance and so he bit down. Madara yelped, startled and, really, he should have expected that, Tobirama smirked against his skin.

The next moment he was abruptly dropped on the bed, back hitting the softness of blankets and bedding. Madara stepped back, or well, tried to, because one does not simply dislodge Tobirama’s grip on something. So really, the resulting action just made them both cry out in pleasure. Madara was breathing heavily, his hands braced on either side of Tobirama, who had a self-satisfied smirk on his stupidly gorgeous flushed face.

“I,” Madara leaned forward, “am going to”, a quick kiss followed each word, “make you”, another kiss laced with pent up frustration, “scream my name.”

The last part was a low growl and Tobirama did not fight the shiver of anticipation that ran down his spine. Instead he smirked and quirked an eyebrow.

“A bold declaration” he purred, “Are you sure you can pull this off?” his fingers lightly trailed up and down Madara’s back.

“I, “ Madara bit out as he made another valiant attempt to dislodge the vice grip on his waist, “am more than capable and you know that!” he bristled.

“Do I? Really?” Tobirama looked at him with his best innocent expression.

Madara just rolled his eyes and shook his head, his hair moving with the motion.

“We have been married for two years now, you obstinate Senju!” he gave up trying to free himself and sighed “Fine, you get the lube then!”

Immediately producing the small container with lube Tobirama smirked “You mean this?”

Madara just gaped at him before he quickly snatched the lube, then he narrowed his eyes at him.

Tobirama could not stop the snicker that threatened to escape “You are always extremely entertaining when you’re riled up” his grin was entirely unrepentant.

Madara decided that the best way to wipe that grin off his face was to kiss it away.

“I know a few other ways to entertain you” he smirked after he broke the kiss for air.

“And what might those be?” Tobirama murmured against his lips and then pulled him in for another heated kiss. “I think I need a reminder.”

Tobirama gasped into the kiss when he felt a slick finger gently enter him. He stood still for a minute, letting Madara stretch him slowly, before he rocked impatiently to meet the next thrust. A particularly loud moan escaped from his lips as Madara curled his fingers and a wave of pleasure crashed over him. He met the next few thrusts eagerly, and let out a whine when Madara withdrew his fingers.

Madara looked at Tobirama sprawled under him and by the gods, he was gorgeous. Madara sometimes still had trouble believing that he had that stunning man all for himself. Yes, he was very infuriating and at least half of their conversations were mostly them bickering and insulting each other, but that was just how they communicated. That skilled, terrifying and incredibly talented man, he was worth everything to Madara. And, he was very impatient.

While Madara was busy admiring what a sight Tobirama made, Tobirama growled and dug his heels into Madara’s back to pull him closer. He moved his hand to Madara’s chest, boldly stroking the hard muscles, trailing his fingers lower and lower. Madara gasped and swore loudly when he felt a hand grasp his cock and stroke. He whimpered when the hand moved away but that didn’t last long. Deft fingers wrapped around his cock again and began coating it with lube. Madara moaned at the sensation and he was certain that if he was still standing then his legs would have buckled. “Impatient, are we?” he managed to stutter out after a few more strokes. Tobirama just gave him a look and said “While I’m in no hurry, I’d rather we returned to the matter at hand” and with that he gave his cock another firm stroke, making Madara swear and moan again.

Satisfied with his actions, Tobirama gave Madara a look that said “Do hurry up.”

To which Madara huffed out a strained laugh. “And what if I want to take my time?” he quirked an eyebrow, then leaned closer to Tobirama’s face and traced an ear with his lips. “Touch softly, slowly,” his hands moved along Tobirama’s body as he spoke his promises, making good on them. Tobirama shuddered under him, oh he was definitely not adverse to this either, but he needed more. He could barely hear what Madara was whispering in his ear, his attention focused on the other’s hands, which moved lower and lower, tracing strong muscles, stroking sensitive skin. Fingers brushing curly hair and closing around the base of his cock.

“Moan for me” Madara instructed and at the same time gave him a long stroke. Tobirama moaned at the much desired friction. Madara gave him a few languid strokes, enjoying the noises his lover made, and ignored the way they went straight to his own groin. Patience was a virtue he indulged in when it benefited him.

He also enjoyed the way Tobirama’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, the way his mouth opened as he gasped out a breath in surprise, when Madara slowly entered him.

Madara had a hard time keeping his breathing even, as he waited for Tobirama to adjust. He didn’t have to wait long, but every second grated, until Tobirama’s legs tightened their grip on his waist again. His eyes were still closed and Madara could see he was trembling slightly.

“Move” the impatient Senju growled when Madara continued to stay still for another minute. Just to be contrary Madara grinned and gave Tobirama’s delicious lips a peck. “If you don’t move in the next three milliseconds, I will flip us over and ride you.” Tobirama punctuated his threat by rolling his hips, making both of them cry out.

Madara was moving, slamming quickly in him, before his brain had contemplated the image. Maybe later? For round two. Now all he wanted was Tobirama under him and writhing in pleasure.

Tobirama eagerly met his thrusts, his hands fisting in silky long hair, lips twitching at the groan Madara gave. A witty remark got lost on the way, as Madara leaned forward and with that changed the angle in a way that was just right, and Tobirama saw stars.

“I did say I would make you scream my name” Madara grunted in his ear. That was when Tobirama noticed that, what do you know? He had. His throat certainly felt like it.

He screamed again with Madara’s next thrust, the long foreplay had already set him on edge, now all he needed was just a little, a little…

“Just a little bit-ah” Madara gasped out in his ear, hands braced on either side of him.

Tobirama was close, so close, he let out a wordless plea and his wish was granted when Madara’s hand closed around his cock, giving it rough, long strokes.

“Madara” he choked out, as he came, the strangled sound so close to his ear pushed Madara over the edge too and he came with a shout.

The next few minutes? Hours? Eternity? Were a bliss. A pleasure filled haze neither wanted to break.

When rational thought returned to Madara, he noticed he had collapsed on top of Tobirama and had his face buried in his neck. He breathed in deeply and, because he could, began nibbling on his lover’s oversensitive skin.

Tobirama’s whole body twitched and Madara hid a grin.

“I can feel you grinning, you asshole” he groaned, voice rough and still shaky.

“Mmm,” Madara hummed and gave him another small bite.

“Round two?” he asked hopefully after a few more minutes.

Immediately Tobirama flipped them around and pinned Madara to the bed.

Eyes bright and alight, he purred “I thought you’d never ask.”

Madara loved that man so damn much!

[domesticsns]

More Izuna being a little shit please🙏🙏

Izuna being a little shit is becoming my bread and water (jk nobody pays me) 

Izuna was in the shower one evening while Sasuke and Naruto were doing grocery shopping so he was alone in the apartment. He heard the door of the bathroom and he figured it was Sasuke because the two knew each other pretty well when they were kids, i mean sure they hadn’t been this close anymore but he figured maybe Sasuke being a bit more open. So he didn’t think too much about it. That is when the curtains were pulled open and Izuna blinked a couple of times seeing Tobirama Senju. 

And he is looking him up and down and goes, “You’re not Sasuke.” 

“I am the upgraded version,” Izuna snaps back, folding his arms. 

“Yes, you’re so much more compact.” Tobirama says staring looking down at Izuna’s crotch zone. 

“How would you know?” 

“We have showers at the precinct.” Tobirama answered calmly, moving his eyes up to meet Izuna’s. 

“Sasuke doesn’t use those. He finds communal showers disgusting. He rather showers at home in a bathroom he cleans thoroughly twice a week.” 

“Fair enough. You got me, I have no idea how it looks like now” Tobirama admits. “So you’re not as dumb as you seem.” 

“I went to university....Before dropping out and touring with a band over europe. They were the opening band of this other band...I forgot the name it was years ago. Lots of groupies...I got an STD for the first time...Threatable of course. Made me a lot more cautious.” 

“Chlamydia?”

“No Gonorrhoea.” Izuna says. “Always better than aids.” 

“Congratulations you did not get aids during hoe-phase that is lasting till...How old are you 34? 35?” 

“At heart I am twenty-one.” Izuna says with a little smile on his face. 

“Right...” Tobirama says, “So where is Sasuke?” 

“Grocery shopping, probably banging in the car since he is too shy to have sex in the house with me around. But it was apparently okay to suck Naruto off just proof a point to me...Whatever sometimes I don’t even get him and I was basically his translator when he couldn’t talk.” 

“He couldn’t talk?” Tobirama asked. 

“Oh he didn’t tell you? I thought he told everyone. After my aunt shot herself through the head right in front of him he didn’t speak for years. At most he got a few words out and that was like the biggest progress he had until he went to middle school. Man he bugged the hell out of my uncle. He hated it. He spend so much money on these speeches coaches and therapist and counselors . He got so fed up. Man he locked him up in a closet for a whole day. My dad had to get him out and tell my uncle it was borderline abuse. Which was ironic because my dad had a short fuse himself and once threw me across the room as a child and I cracked my skull...You can still feel it, u wanna feel it?” 

“No thank you, but your behaviour is starting to more sense to me.” Tobirama says. 

“Hmmm, so what ya here for?” 

“I got a lead, I wanted to move on it but seems he’s not here.” 

“What’s the deal with you two anyway?” Izuna asks. 

“We’re having a whole conversation while you’re naked.” Tobirama notes. 

“I am comfortable in my body.” Izuna states. 

“I admire that.” 

“Tell me, what’s the deal? You into him? You wanna fuck him? You’re crushing?” Izuna gasped, “Are you in love?” 

“He is a co-worker. I despise slightly less because he carried my brother’s dead body to me instead of leaving it in a forest to be eaten by wolves and told me his words.” 

“How intense...What where they?” Izuna asked, a little overstepping.

Tobirama looked up from his thoughts and whispers, “That he loved me.” 

“Oh..That story sounds a little familiar...Oh my god...Oh I should not tell you this.” Izuna says, pulling the curtains back so he was hidden. 

Tobirama pulls the curtains away again. 

“What?” 

“No, I am not going to say that. This was told to me in confidence after i gave Sasuke like two pot brownies.” 

“Oh certainly don’t want to be tray that confidence. I admire that. However, he did tell you that your outfit today...Looked really bad. Like you were some cheap whore.” 

“Did he say that!?” Izuna looks angry. 

“Yeah, he said more awful things about not having your shit together and being a burden.” 

“What exact did he say about my outfit!?” Izuna insisted. 

“You looked like a cheap whore...that exactly.” Tobirama says. 

“Oh...Uhu...As if he is dressed nice with those suits and the ties and-” 

“To be fair it is mandatory clothing.” 

“Oh yea, are you in the right headspace to  receive the news that will probably make you feel like shit and want to punch Sasuke in the face?” 

“I always want to punch him in the face....Also kinda want to choke him. Go on.” 

“So he was high he told me about the first kid saw dying for the first time and how stomach was slashed open-” 

“That how my youngest brother died...” Tobirama said. 

“Yes he also told me he lied about his last words when his brother, I assume it is you,asked. He made it up. He told him..Oh well you...That his last words were that he loved you, but truly his last words were screams of agony and the disbelieve of seeing his bowels hanging out from his stomach. He just couldn’t bring himself to say the that.” 

Tobirama goes quiet. 

“I know, I know. He can be a bitch. What exactly about my outfit looked like a whore? Did he say something specific?” 

“Uh...No..No he did not.” Tobirama said. 

“Hey, you okay?” Izuna puts his hand on Tobirama’s shoulder. 

“You’re making me wet.” 

“I make a lot of people wet...” 

“Not me, my clothes, idiot.” Tobirama takes a step away. “Anyway if you see him tell him...You know what don’t tell him I was here at all. I’ll handle it myself.” 

“Or...Or..and hear me out...You join me in the shower, we fuck, and we can enjoy the sheer pleasure of the knowledge that we did it in his shower which will piss him off.” 

“Fucking in the shower? Or us fucking in his shower?” 

“Us fucking in the shower.” Izuna says.  “Come on, you won’t regret it I am pretty good. Most of Sasuke’s moves. I taught him.” 

“I doubt that.” Tobirama says, thinking of the time he accidently caught the show of Naruto and Sasuke doing.

“I did work in two porns, they’re on the internet. I still get money when somebody presses the add.” 

“You’re not afraid your family will find out?” Tobirama asks. 

“I am not stupid...I had a wig on. Short black...Spikes in the end. I even used an alias... I said my name was Sasuke. So y’know if my family sees it they think it is him and they won’t say a word because if he does it..It is because of his traumas, but when I do it..I am an attention seeking whore.” 

“you have issues, boy.” Tobirama says, “I am going to be honest with you. I don’t really care about sex, but...” He looks Izuna up and down, “I guess why not. If it pisses Sasuke off I am in.” 

“And y’know, you get me.” Izuna said, indicating to his body. 

“Sure, it is not bad.” Tobirama says as he takes off his jacket. 

Oxoxoxox

Sasuke and Naruto come home from grocery shopping and they put the bags in the kitchen. 

“Izuna?...Zuzu? Where are you?” He knocks on the bathroom door. 

“Just a minute!” He hears Izuna shout. 

“Zuzu, you’ve been in there since we left, this is beyond freeloading.” He says and he opens the door and he pulls the curtains away and took a deep, deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppp, breath. And he looks at Tobirama and then he looks at Izuna. 

“When you’re done...I want you to clean this bathroom from top to bottom with bleach and I want you out of my house.” 

“Me?!” Izuna frowns.

“No, not you. You’re family we’re connected by blood. I have to deal with you.I am talking about number seven you slept with this week.”  He looks at Tobirama.

“We’re not sleeping we’re just fucking in the shower,” Izuna says, “So can we finish?” 

Sasuke walked out of the bathroom closing the door.

Naruto was in the kitchen and said, “Tobirama is in there with Izuna, isn’t he?” 

“How did you know?” Sasuke sighed. 

“The window to the fire escape is open.” 

“Clever.” Sasuke said. 

“You seem upset, for someone who is married...”  Naruto noted carefully. 

“I am not upset I am mad. That is my bathroom. I shower in there. He has his own bathroom, they should do it in his apartment.” 

“I feel like that...That’s not the reason why you’re upset.” 

“Yeah also...You expect someone to give you a heads up. That is my cousin and that my co-worker. It’s weird like if I would date his brother.” 

“I mean they already made out and Izuna did state he was interested in him. This should not be a surprise for a detective.” Naruto made a clear point. 

“It is just awkward.” Sasuke said.