Uchiha Hana

8. The Mission

Hana nodded, trying to return to her book but not before she saw a poof of smoke and Hiruzen appeared before her. He seemed a bit afraid of Mizuchi, who only snorted at the Sarutobi boy. "Relax, Saru twig," Mizuchi had the habit of making up nicknames, "I'm not going to eat you."

Hiruzen nodded before he turned to Hana, "We're slated for a mission."

  Hana nodded before she gave Mizuchi leave and with a poof of smoke, he disappeared into the scroll. Hana placed the scroll in her pouch before she followed Hiruzen to the Hokage Tower. Hashirama was already waiting for them with Tobirama and their other half of the team. "The Feudal Lord wants this missive to be delivered to the border," Hashirama handed Tobirama the scroll, "it shouldn't be that difficult of a mission."

  Tobirama nodded as the genin bowed before leaving. Hana trotted obediently at her sensei's footsteps while he briefed them in the plan. They set off at a steady pace through Konoha and doubled back two times to throw off their scent. Hana kept up easily despite her age, and they managed not to incur any skirmishes until they reached the border. A few missing nin attacked them but Team Tobirama dispatched them easily.

  They made camp after delivering the scroll. Making a fire was still too risky and Tobirama took first watch so that his still growing genin could sleep. Hana rolled out her sleeping mat with her other teammates. As soon as their heads touched the pillows, they all fell asleep excluding Hana. Hiruzen snores like there was no tomorrow and Hana privately thought that he might as well have put a signal Fire if there were enemy nin around.

   Hana just stared into the starry sky before she heard Tobirama's low voice. "You should sleep," He rumbled, "you especially are still a child. We can't have you hinder the group if you don't get enough rest."

  Hana felt the comment bite her, but she did her best to push it away. No matter what she did, perhaps it wasn't enough to impress him. "How did you know I wasn't sleeping?" She asked.

  "I'm a sensory shinobi," Tobirama replied coolly, "I could feel your chakra getting disturbed."

   "Oh." Hana looked at the solemn man. After a moment, she spoke, "It's just...it's my first night away from home and my first mission."

Tobirama have her a sidelong glance. Sometimes he forgot how young she really was. Hana Uchiha was nine years old.

  She fidgeted a little with the blanket before she continued, "I miss my uncle."

  Tobirama stiffened a bit.

   "I suppose you are very close with him," Tobirama said, his eyes looking at the girl.

   "Of course," Hana replied, "I think of him as nothing less than my own father."

  To Hana, Uchiha Madara was the father she never had.

   Tobirama exhaled a bit as he asked slowly, "Do you know about your father?"

   Silence.

   Then.

  "Uncle said he died in war with momma," Hana said, "I was really young when he died, so I don't remember him much.. or at all....All that uncle tells me is that he loved me more than life itself. But if he did—" Hana's voice dropped, her fingers digging into her mattress, "then he should have stayed with me. He shouldn't have died and left both me and uncle by ourselves."

  Tobirama didn't say anything, only stared into the sky.

"Do you know who your father's killer is?" Tobirama asked slowly.

   Hana pressed her lips together, shaking her head. "I'm sure my uncle would have avenged him either way. I don't think it's nice to ask though—"

  "But if you knew who your father's killer was..." Tobirama's voice dropped down, "what would you do?"

   Hana blinked, "I...I never really thought about that. But it's useless anyways, right? He's probably dead or far away by now—"

   Tobirama dropped his gaze to his hands.

   He could be closer than you think.

   "But why are you so asking this anyways?" Hana blinked.

   "It's nothing," Tobirama said coolly, "just curious."

   Hana looked at Tobirama for a moment before she rolled back into her mattress, staring at the sky.

   "Tobirama-sensei?"

  "Hmmm?"

   "The sky is really pretty."

    A moment of silence.

   Then.

   "Yes," Tobirama said, his eyes fixed on the constellations, "yes it is."

  And Hana went to sleep, her eyes still seeing the beautiful stars in her dreams.

*******

So you have some background on Mizuchi there...I don't know, I might have this book lead up to the Singularity or so, but that is to be determined. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that part and please vote and comment if you do.

As you can see, Tobirama is keeping some secrets for himself but eventually, it will all come out. And when that happens, we'll, let's just say that shit's going to go down.