#werecrane!tobirama

[ithecrystaldragonheart]

The God and the Beast

Shinobi training had a big focus on discipline.

Discipline your body to push itself,discipline yourself to wake up and get ready even if you’ve only gotten two hours of sleep since the last mission and discipline your chakra to use it properly in jutsus.

Some special shinobi also had to learn to discipline their animal natures,either to repress it or use it in their missions and training.

Madara Uchiha was disciplined very strictly,at first it was simply because he was the son of the clan head but then it was because he had an animal side to tuck away until needed and then it was because he was quickly becoming one of the most powerful Uchiha in clan memory.

Of course he heard the stories of Uchiha like him that would lose their grip on humanity when they lost too much and would fly away and go crazy,only to be dragged back for fear of them being captured or killed in their vulnerable state.

Tajima had made sure he would never go like that.He remembered how even when his last brother died he had wanted to scream out of his skin and set the world on fire but his father told him he was an Uchiha and he would never survive war if he lost control in a fight or when in enemy territory.

That day when he had been forced to vow to fight his first friend he had kept it hidden until he stumbled into his room.

When he saw Izuna,his only precious little brother,collapse after being struck by Tobirama Senju all that discipline left his suddenly blank mind.

He had to get to him he had to get to him he had to get to him

A cry left his throat and only he knew that the hellish screech was meant to be “Izuna!” but even so it didn’t matter,nothing mattered,only Izuna who was right next to that damned Senju.

Madara Uchiha didn’t care that his clothes and armour would hurt his feathers, he didn’t care that he was technically still fighting the head of the Senju clan and he certainly didn’t care that this would be another image in many warriors’ nightmares to come.

Feathers like needles of midnight pierced through his skin and grew and grew until wings replaced his arms and talons pierced his footwear and merged with his hair.

His eyes glowed amber,some swore on their life it was red,and there were fangs where his teeth would be and feathers like black clan markings framed his face and the expression of pure rage that shaped it.

The man that many called a demon flew to his fallen brothers’ side with chakra-enhanced speed and people nearly stumbled to get out of his way because they knew if they were in it there would be no mercy.

Even Tobirama could be seen to shocked in the few milliseconds before he used hiraishin to move away.

Maybe even Izuna was shocked and a bit scared to be the focus of this creature,no this beast,that was his brother but also not.It wasn’t like he could move away so he just braced himself.

Madara had no plan and that became apparent when he just hovered over his brother and could only warn everyone else not to touch him,he certainly couldn’t use his feathers to tend to the wound.That thought didn’t cross his conscious mind and he only thought of keeping everyone else away.

It was a testament to his courage that Hashirama could bring himself to face his former friend and old opponent.

“Madara,let me heal your brother,he will certainly die if nothing is done.”

The feathered beast cawed at that but didn’t move to attack him,though he did puff up slightly when the man braved a few steps forward.

“Brother,you cannot accept his help and I will not allow him to touch me-”

No-one expected the harmless but firm whack that Madara gave him with his wing,almost like a mother telling their child to mind their manners.Izuna certainly didn’t expect it if his expression was anything to go by - some describe it as a spoiled child being told “No” for the first time.

In this form Madara was less concerned of his brother’s stubbornness and more about his well-being,which meant that he wasn’t afraid to scold him if he said something stupid,as opposed to the norm.

He was staring intently at the man with skin not unlike the fur of his chosen animal and smelled like he slept in a tree every night.

It was definitely unsettling how he tilted his head and let out near-silent coos of curiosity.

Hashirama was definitely weirded out that his former friend’s face looked at him with no anger or worn determination to fight him even if it never went anywhere just because he didn’t know what else they could do.

As if sensing that some of his clan would risk this opportunity to strike at the enemy he gestured for them to stand back,despite Tobirama’s obvious displeasure.

The man who some called a god risked moving closer to the beast by a few more steps.

An alert movement of the head but no clear aggression yet.

He walked slowly closer to the protective creature,ready to move back if he started getting antsy.

Hashirama kept up a string of commentary,telling him he was safe for now and that he would never be able to harm Izuna.

Said person tried protesting but was either ignored or shushed with feathers to his face and clearly felt very undignified in his current position and glared at the man with obvious resentment.

Finally Madara moved aside to allow Hashirama full access to his brother and stared at him with an odd amount of intrigue,as if he was familiar with the man but had none of the complicated feelings he should have - many people claimed that their animal halves were separate entities and were less complicated in their emotions,like not hiding their dislike of a person and normally reserved people clinging to people they liked.

Anyway it was an awkward session for Hashirama with the birdman staring at him intently without blinking and the patient trying to resist but he managed to get him out of danger of dying.

Then another unexpected thing happened:Madara cooed at him and tried nuzzling him.

Izuna had an expression of pure horror and he would’ve laughed if he wasn’t so shocked himself.He gently tried pushing him away because when Madara went back to normal he would kill him if he enabled this behavior and he didn’t want to go to an early grave.

It turned into a small struggle and his feathers were so sleek and he didn’t want to risk upsetting him by grabbing and unavoidably pulling them.

Fortunately some of the Uchiha decided that this scandal couldn’t go further and approached,Hashirama gladly moving away,a bit faster than strictly necessary.

Everyone decided to not talk about this,at least until behind closed doors.

Izuna however did not feel like sparing his brother and gave him all the details to his mortification and eternal shame.

When the peace talks eventually came neither brought up the incident and never would.

[ithecrystaldragonheart]

A Moment of Peace

“No.”

The two brothers scowled at each other,equally frustrated but for different reasons.

Hashirama had been on a mission when Tobirama apparently transformed for the first time and had immediately started asking what he was.If it weren’t for the fact that his little brother was controlling and repressing his animal a lot better than he had when he was two years older he would’ve just waited for the fur or even possibly scales to slip out.

At this point he was secretly starting to get concerned.Most of the gifted only started transforming when they were a year or two younger than his brother’s current age,coupled with the insistence on hiding it could mean something might have gone wrong or he triggered it prematurely.

He decided to change his tactic.

“I swear I won’t make fun of it or be disgusted.Please.” Hashirama pleaded in an unusually soft and reassuring tone.His guess seemed to have been right because his brother shifted from defensive to slightly uneasy.

“It’s not that important.Can you just let it go,anija?” he tried to act irritated and curt as usual but with the way he was tensing you could tell he was uncomfortable.

He pursed his lips but knew it wouldn’t do any good to keep going,even if he didn’t like that his little brother was hiding things from him.Especially after the Incident.

Of course he knew that Tobirama had only been following father’s orders and acted out of concern for him,that didn’t help the feeling of betrayal at the time.

It had diminished a bit after stopping that kunai from killing him,he could even swear that his brother maybe looked slightly ashamed afterwards.But why would he be,his concerns had been proven right and his brother had declared he would even fight his supposed friend to keep himself safe.

Despite that he remembers how he refused to leave his brother’s side for the rest of the day.Fangs and fur had materialized any time someone got close to them and he vaguely remembers even stubbornly sleeping on his brother’s futon that night.

There was a silence before Hashirama asked if they could spar.

~~~

There was something strange afoot.

It was not unusual for the brothers to go through the shoji that separated their halves of the room at night,it was one of the only times in the day they could spend time together that wasn’t sparring.

But it was almost always Hashirama that crossed the boundary to his brother’s supposed annoyance.

He had decided to give him some space,at least for today.He knew himself well enough to know he’d be back to badgering him in the next few days if not tomorrow.

Wait.Was that why his animal was a badger?If there was a deity that assigned appropriate animals to a shinobi they had a weird sense of humour.

Anyway,after some time the door slowly slid open and Tobirama stood at the doorway with unusual hesitance.

There was a few moments of deliberative silence.Hashirama wondered if he should invite him closer or let him make his own choice.His brother wondered if he should wait to for a gesture to come closer or should just suck it up and walk over.

Eventually the boy with the ridiculous bowl cut gave a tentative nod.Some of the tension left his brother’s expression only to come back when he sat down on the futon,facing away from Hashi.

After seemingly collecting himself he spoke. “I don’t know what I am exactly. When it started I...got scared and stopped it.”

This at least gave his anija confirmation that his concerns hadn’t been unnecessary.

It was uncommon but not unheard of for shinobi to get scared when they first transformed and repressed it,either because of shock or more unpleasant reasons.Aside from the Senju that seemed to depend more on the person’s character most clans usually had a set animal and if someone deviated it would be a cause for some investigation at least.

Now Hashirama wondered,had his brother simply been shocked to transform this early or were there more...complicated reasons.

“Could you show me?Just quickly.” he carefully inquired.His brother seemed to have expected that question but still stiffened.

There was no spoken response from him but he held out his arm.

Tobirama closed his eyes - whether it was to concentrate or because he didn’t want to see it and lose his nerve is something he’ll never confirm.

Hashirama watched as his brother squirmed and tiny bumps started forming on his skin.No cause for concern yet,the transformation was very uncomfortable in the early stages,something he knew all too well.

For a moment he dwelled on how he’d never see if his other two brothers had been born with this ability or even what animal they would’ve been.It was also an unfortunate truth that this was a reality for too many parents and siblings in this time.

He was pulled out of that especially unpleasant thought process when he saw what emerged from the bumps.

Feathers.

Even in the dark he could tell they were white or at least a very light grey.They were small and he didn’t get a good luck before they were pulled back into his brother’s skin.

His brother opened his eyes and seemed to be looking for something in his brother’s expression.

It was rare for a Senju with a bird as their animal to be found but it wasn’t like it was taboo or anything,at least not that Hashirama was aware of.

“Are you surprised by it?Our mother’s family was from the Land of Birds so maybe that’s where you got it from.” he suggested,trying to be helpful.He was surprised when his brother suddenly huffed in frustration.

“Don’t you get it?It reminds me too much of...of the Uchiha.” Tobirama explained with his voice losing strength on the last word as if it took too much energy to even utter it.

His anija’s expression didn’t darken exactly but it seemed to tighten a little bit.

The clan’s name had unspokenly been declared a sore topic after the Incident, there were too many conflicting feelings on it.He still remembered the feeling of shock when he found out his brother had been friends with a member of the clan that killed their brothers,even if he later found he was unaware of it.

While he did feel a bit guilty for betraying his brother’s trust he didn’t regret getting him away from them.

Maybe this was some kind of divine punishment,maybe the spirits didn’t like him being a tattletale and had in some form realised his worst fear.

“I’ve seen the Uchiha transform before and when I started getting feathers it made me think I was turning into one of them.I know it’s stupid but I just really don’t want to see these things if they make me feel like I’m betraying the clan.”

There was an odd expression on his anija’s face.Neither of them was used to Tobirama,himself especially,telling his feelings outright if he even wanted to show them at all.

When his father ordered him to show him he hadn’t shown any reaction ouright but he was sure he was thinking of the same thing.

He was scared of the looks his own clan would give him so he pushed everything down,even if it felt like he was waiting to burst.It had been so hard to pull the feathers back in after he showed Hashirama and he was afraid that he might not be able to hold back much longer.

He remembered how his brother had sprouted claws and fur at the drop of a boushi.An especially clear memory he recalled was of the fangs inside his mouth when he wolfed down dinner after an especially taxing day of training. Their father had not been pleased with his conduct and sentenced him to even worse training the following day.

Meanwhile Hashirama was surprised to say the least of his brother’s thought process.Sometimes he forgot that Tobirama was younger than him and still got scared.

In hindsight it was natural for him to be scared of his transformation if that’s what he associated it with.

He didn’t know what to say for a while.

“I’m not scared or disgusted by your feathers.It’s okay if you don’t want to show anyone else,but know that you can show them to me.” he tried,not sure of what else to offer.

He nodded in acknowledgement of his words but didn’t say if he agreed or not. Maybe he wasn’t even listening and just wanted to appease him.

Tobirama looked at him and back down again.

“Could I sit with you for a while?” he asked hesitantly.After their father expressly discouraged them from sharing a futon as they were apparently not children anymore they had only risked lying together before separating for the night.

There was no reluctance when his brother nodded.

They both knew this was an issue that would have to be addressed soon - Butsuma would not accept any excuse for training,maybe he was even planning on finally turning the tables on the Uchiha now that they had their own winged shinobi.

But for tonight they could just try not to think about that future that could easily come as early as tomorrow,they just tried to feel comforted that they at least had eachother.

Hashirama would make sure that it stayed that way.

[ithecrystaldragonheart]

Werebeast Shinobi AU

*A shinobi has the chance of developing a part-animal nature and in clans there are mostly dominant patterns

*The Uchiha are crows

-Izuna is normal along with Tajima and at least one of the two deceased brother was also unaffected,actually he dies too young to say definitively

-Madara has trouble suppressing it because he’s very powerful and constantly is aware of it right under his skin

*The Senju don’t have a set animal but are usually some kind of forest dweller

-Hashirama is a Japanese badger

-Tobirama is a crane and likely got it from their mother’s side of the family since they were originally from the Land of Birds

-Touka is normal but enjoys teasing the two about their quirks,especially Tobirama about the time she caught him swallowing a live frog

*The Hyuga are tigers with the head family often being white tigers

*The Uzumaki are koma-inu or lion dogs.You thought they were foxes didn’t you?

-The Namikaze are actually the foxes in this

*Yamanaka are boars

*Akimichi are butterflies

-They have traditional dances that utilize these wings and they even make prop ones for normal participants

*Nara are sika deer

*Aburame are different kinds of insects and traumatise most people that see them in that form because they’re fucking giant human/insect hybrids

*Sarutobi are monkeys

*Inuzuka are dogs and have learned to embrace it and combine it with their jutsus so even normal clan members can use it

*Hatake are wolves