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6 | Embers

Letting out a long, suffering sigh, he says, "Madara... Why do I care about you?"

-----

"Oh."

"Tobirama? Is...everything alright?" Mito asks, poking her head from the bookshelf across the room.

Tobirama's facial expression softens. "Oh. I-uh. Nothing. I just remembered something," he says.

Mito nods then gets back to what she's doing. After a few minutes of shuffling, she finally finds what she's looking for. She goes over to the desk where Tobirama is sitting by.

"Is this the one, Tobirama?"

Tobirama tears his gaze away from the documents they've gathered in the archives during the past hour. Some of these papers are opened, Tobirama skims through their contents. He takes the scroll Mito gives him and examines it.

After a short while, he confirms, "Yes, this is it. Thank you, Mito."

"Is there anything else you need?"

The younger Senju carefully checks the documents—books and some more old scrolls—piled up on the table before he answers, "No. We're good to go."

Mito smiles. She helps him carry some of the materials as they exit the records room.

Work as the Hokage-in-charge is done for this day, but Tobirama still has something else to do.

-----

"We should hurry up the construction of the buildings, especially the houses. It's going to be winter soon," Hashirama hears the man say, sitting next to him by the bonfire. He couldn't see his face, but there's a sense of familiarity that Hashirama feels around him.

"Yes, definitely... And you," Hashirama shifts, facing the man now, "you should stop thinking about the village for once and enjoy yourself. We're in your clan festival, remember?" As he speaks, a loud instrumental music starts to play and the people around them cheers. Some of them draw nearer to the fire.

The man beside him contemplates for a few seconds, as if it's only now that he realizes where they really are, then he visibly eases up. He smiles.

"Come on. Let's get ourselves drunk before this night ends." Hashirama motions and he offers his hand but before the man could take it, the world around them stops—everyone stops moving, even the man in front of him—and he reaches his hands for him, but then suddenly the world spins.

When Hashirama opens his eyes again, the sun is high up in the sky. He's alone and sitting by the riverbank. He's been here countless times before, he could tell, although he couldn't really remember when and how.

He looks on the opposite side of the river and there he sees a child (perhaps he's not alone at all), also sitting by the riverbank. Said child is wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt and a pair of white pants. And his hair, Hashirama had never seen hair as spiky as that one.

The boy lifts his head up and their eyes meet. He looks at him curiously, but the boy only blankly stares at him, almost as if he's not really seeing Hashirama.

"What—" Hashirama begins, but the boy turns his head around. Someone's approaching.

And then a boy with a bowl-cut hair, wearing a light green jacket over dark kimono shirt, a pair of kimono pants, and a white scarf around his neck, appears at the scene.

‘What the hell? Is this a genjutsu?’ Hashirama asks himself, because that boy with a funny haircut—yes, he admits—was definitely him. Why is he seeing his younger self? And what the hell is he doing in this place?

More importantly, who is that other boy?

The younger him approaches the boy with the spiky hair. "It's been a while, Madara," he says and sits beside him. The current Hashirama's eyes widen.

Madara.

"Glad you're not dead," is the raven-haired boy's reply.

The younger Hashirama flashes a bright smile. "Likewise."

From afar, Hashirama watches as the two boys exchange playful banters, as if this is a normal day and what they're doing is the most natural thing in the world. They talk, they laugh, then they chase each other along the riverbank, then once the younger Hashirama catches the boy with the spiky hair, their childish game turns into a sparring session, with a lot of laughing and teasing. They just...they look so happy.

Hashirama still doesn't know who the boy is.

When he makes a move, the world suddenly spins again. A blinding light flashes and the next thing he knows, he's in his home office, sitting on his chair by the desk and someone is standing—or rather sitting—at the desk in front of him.

"Yes," the man says, looking at his eyes.

Hashirama's brows contort. "What?"

The man's face turns into a light pink. "...I would like to have dinner with you." Then he shifts his gaze to anywhere but Hashirama.

Hashirama feels a raging excitement in his heart, although he doesn't know why. He can feel himself smiling. There was a moment of silence before the man stands up and heads to the door.

"You know where to find me," the other man says over his shoulder with that annoyingly enchanting smirk, then he's gone.

Realization hits Hashirama one too late of a second later. He quickly stands up and goes after the man. He grabs his hand, making him turn around.

"Hashirama, what's wrong?"

Before he could speak, everything goes fast-forward and then he's at the Uchiha compound (from its appearance, it's hardly a compound; it's still under construction but there are few houses done). It was nighttime and Hashirama could tell that it's late because there's not a single soul in the streets.

"That...was a disaster," he hears himself say. He's aware that it's him, it's his body and yet he couldn't control what he does or what he says.

It's strange.

"It was," says the man walking with him. The man chuckles. He comes to a halt and Hashirama realizes that they arrived in front of a house.

"You're dating skills really suck," says the man playfully. He turns and faces Hashirama. "But I enjoyed every minute of it," the man continues. He smiles at him.

There's a warm sensation bubbling up in Hashirama's chest. "I suppose...we're doing that again?" he says.

The man nods, smiling. He takes a step closer and Hashirama cups the side of his face. The man closes his eyes. Hashirama looks at his lips, then there's that warm sensation in his chest again.

He closes his eyes as he leans down, but instead of warm lips, he's welcomed with nothing but coldness.

Then he wakes up.

-End of Chapter 6-