((It's been a few years since the last chapter, so here's everyone's current ages: Madara: 17 and Hashirama: 18, Izuna: 16 and Tobirama: 17, Kyou: 13 and Itama: 14. The poem Kyou recites is 'River Snow' by Liu Zongyuan. Brief, nongraphic mention of menstruation. Art by libraesious on Fiverr.))
There was a weight on Madara's shoulders, a stiffness in his gait as he walked through the Uchiha village. It was still strange to see men many decades his elders bowing to him in greeting, the last year since his inauguration as Clan Heir nowhere near enough time to adjust to the new layers of respect and responsibility being placed on him. He was increasingly invited to homes and given gifts, old women chatting him up while their granddaughters stood awkwardly at their sides. He could see several mothers eyeing him even as he walked just a little bit faster on his way through the gates. His hackles lowered as he escaped into the forest, his body relaxing minutely once he was free from the stares and expectations of his Clan. Still, the weight he was carrying did not lessen. As much as he might wish to, he did not have the freedom to run and play in the forest, anymore. Unlike the person he was looking for.
There was no sign of human activity in the forest—there never was, so close to the village—but he followed a trail nonetheless, familiar flowers and scratches on tree bark marking the way. This was a path he walked with surprising regularity. He had hazy childhood memories of the pond in the clearing ahead, most of them supplanted by the crystal clear memories of battle branded into his mind by his sharingan.
Madara stepped out past the tree line and into the clearing, dismissing his melancholy thoughts before they could take root and affect his mood. Looking out onto the pond, he had to resist the urge to activate his sharingan and capture a pleasant memory for posterity. He'd promised not to use it on the technique on display, though, so he had to content himself with the knowledge that he was one of the few people who had even seen it.
The water in the pond was being suspended in the air, fish and other small animals swimming through it without pause or complaint. Sunlight passed through the faintly glowing liquid and cast the entire clearing in rippling shadows. In the middle of it all a figure sat cross legged atop a pillar of water. Eyes closed and hands pressed together in the sign of the Dog, they seemed unaware of Madara's presence, but he knew better. Already, the water in the air was returning to its natural place within the confines of the pond, moving gently so as not to disturb the animals inside. He walked slowly over to the shore, watching his cousin's face carefully. Brown eyes opened, sunlight illuminating a thousand different shades of gold. A genuine smile pulled at a long scar which started at the corner of an eye and ran down over high cheekbones and across a wide mouth to end just above a narrow chin. Distant memories of another kinsman with a similar scar set in a similar face rose in Madara's mind, but he ignored them.
Kyou hated being reminded of Shuji. Even more than Hitomi.
"Mada-nii, what brings you out here?"
The childish nickname didn't match the hoarse voice that said it. Kyou had grown a lot in last few years and would likely be one of the tallest in the Clan. Madara had surpassed Kyou with his last growth spurt, though, and he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy being able to look down at his precocious cousin.
"The council has decided that I am to put together my own team," he said with no small bit of pride. He didn't need to conceal his emotions here. "You're on it."
Kyou raised one dark eyebrow, tugging at the scar that started beside it. "Oh, I am, am I? I don't get a choice?"
Madara shrugged. "I don't see why you would say no. It's the only way you'll get to beat up your lover, after all."
Kyou's tanned skin turned a mottled red as a blush spread across her face. "Shut up!"
Anyone with eyes could see way Kyou looked at Tobirama, but something told Madara he was the only one who recognized its true significance. It was more than just hatred for the Senju or a rivalry with the only other suiton user of any skill that drove his little cousin to fight with the boy their clan was starting to call the Pale Demon. And he would need to be blind not to notice how Tobirama rushed to meet her every time.
In another, perfect world, they would be meeting in wedding talks. Alas, they had to make do with a battlefield.
It was hard not to pity Kyou, living the way she did—.
"Like you're one to talk. Just try and tell me this isn't just another scheme to get Hashirama alone—ah! Hey!"
She did make it easier, though.
He smiled down at her where he'd wrapped an arm around her neck, her long dark hair a mess as she tried in vain to escape his hold. "Now, now, Kyou-kun. I don't know what you're talking about."
He let her go just in time for her to send herself flying backward, the force of her push too much now that he was no longer holding her. She crashed into the snow and Madara allowed himself a bit of joy from her grumbling. Still, the mention of his one time friend's name sent an ache through him. Kyou could never call Tobirama her own so long as they stood by their clans, but there was always the possibility that one or both of them would defect—a small one, but still. Madara's affections, on the other hand...
It was a bitter reality he had long come to accept. Meeting Hashirama on the battlefield was all he could realistically expect. Maybe, one day, there would be peace, and he would be able to call him his friend. Any more than that was impossible.
His cousin brushed snow from her hair and sniffed angrily, glaring at his through thick dark eyelashes. It really was a shame. If it wasn't for her parents, Kyou could have been a beautiful woman trained in the arts of the kunoichi. Instead, she was a frontline fighter, her hands rough from training and her face...
Well, perhaps that was for the better. It wasn't as though Kyou was still being forced to fight for a succession she wasn't even eligible for. She could reveal herself to the elders at any time and take a place among the women. Of course, if she did that, then, as the only daughter of the main house, she would immediately be betrothed to Madara. While he could readily admit that she would be the best wife he could possibly ask for, given she was already aware of his preferences, he would rather not bind her in such a way.
When he realized the truth, he resolved to keep it to himself, if only to spare Kyou from becoming his bride.
Not that she was very appreciative.
"You jerk," she hissed as she stomped back to his side, clothing soaked through from the snow. "If I get sick I'm spreading it to you."
He smiled at her. "Please do. I could use a rest."
Despite her grumbling, she fell into step beside him as they headed back to the village. Most people, his brother included, were careful to keep themselves as step behind him out of deference for his position as heir, but not Kyou. Rank, tradition—these things meant nothing to her.
"Who else is on the team? Beside Zuzu, of course."
"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "What makes you think Izuna is on it?"
The look she gave him had him struggling to contain his laughter. Only Kyou would look at him like that. "Are you telling me he isn't?"
"He is."
"See, I knew it. Why try to deny it?"
She didn't understand. That was fine. She didn't have to. As long as she continued to treat him like this, like he was just her Mada-nii, not the heir to a clan with a legacy to uphold.
The guards at the gate spared them a glance before looking away. Ever since the death of her father, her support in the clan had dwindled. Where she once stood as his greatest rival, she was now just another Uchiha. Though she technically could have joined Madara's family given her position as a member of the main house, she seemed content to live simply with her grandmother. That was probably for the best, given his mother's strange hatred for the other child.
"So?"
"So, what?"
Kyou pouted at him, the expression pulling at her scar. "So, who else is on the team?"
"No one."
She gave him that look again, like he was the greatest idiot to ever be born to the Uchiha, and he laughed.
"How is that a team," she groused, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff. "We usually stick together, anyway, since nobody else is at our level."
"Such modesty."
"You know it's true. As the children of the main family, we always end up fighting Hashirama and his brothers. I don't see how making it a formal team will change things."
She wasn't entirely wrong. She and Tobirama had their own understanding, and he almost always ended up going head to head with Hashirama. That left Itama for Izuna to handle. Over the years, they had fallen into a routine which they picked up every campaign season. His choice of team would be no different, except...
"It's not just for fighting the Senju," he told her seriously. "We'll be taking our own missions now, too."
Her brown eyes widened. "What? I haven't come of age, though. I'm not allowed to leave the village, yet."
True. Under normal circumstances, an Uchiha was not allowed to leave the village without adult supervision until they came of age at fifteen. Kyou was significantly younger than him and Izuna, but she was leagues above the rest of the clan when it came to skill. She may no longer be at the forefront of the elders' minds, but she was still an unmatched genius. Her jutsuless control of her suiton alone set her on an entirely different level from even her precious Tobirama, the Senju genius still dependent on hand signs.
"I know," Madara said with a sigh. "It's not usually done, but an exception is being made for you—."
"Again?" She made a big show of her discontent, slouching over as though her spine had lost its strength. "Ugh! Why is it always me? Everyone's gonna hate me again!"
Ah. He hadn't thought of that. Would the others in her age group really hate her for...who was he kidding? Even he would have been bitter if someone had been given an exception like that when he was thirteen.
"I'm sorry, Kyou. I didn't mean to cause you any trouble."
She shook her head and dismissed his apology. "Too late, now, right? Besides," the grin she gave him was not a happy expression. "What can they do about it? It's not my fault I'm better than them."
Well. There wasn't much he could say to that.
"So, do we have a mission, yet, or are you just letting me know in advance?"
Madara shook his head to clear it. Kyou's arrogance never ceased to amaze—never mind that it was mostly warranted.
"We do," he confirmed. "Izuna will meet us in the council hall so we can receive it together."
She really did collapse then, pretending to swoon with the most dramatic of gasps. Madara caught her.
"How could you do this to me," she moaned, one hand draped across her forehead like a maiden in shock. "Those old fogies are gonna make my life hell. They're gonna shove their granddaughters at me and beg me to make honest mothers out of them!"
Madara almost dropped her as a genuine guffaw left him. The whispers of people watching them had him struggling to rein in his laughter, his image as the heir crumbling beneath Kyou's feet.
Kyou stood back up with sudden rigidity, a long, slender finger pointing right between Madara's eyes.
"That's probably why you picked me, huh? You want them to pick on someone else for a change!"
He couldn't hold it back anymore. His laughter rang through the snow covered village, all sense of decorum abandoned.
😈😈😈
Kyou stepped into the one room shack she'd lived in her entire life with a sigh. The mission she and her cousins received was simple. They were to escort a group of merchants through the Land of Fire, protecting them from bandits and other shinobi. Easy.
"Kyou-chan, is that you?"
"It's me, baa-chan."
Kyou walked over to the bed she now slept in alone and sat beside her grandmother. The old woman had aged considerably since the death of her son. There were new lines crossing her face and her eyes no longer functioned as well as they used to. Still, her hands were hard at work, repairing Kyou's clothing like it was second nature.
"You know I can do that, right?"
Baa-chan huffed. "Not as well as you should."
Oof.
"I'm not that bad," she protested weakly. No matter how good her stitching was, it was no match for baa-chan's even, near mechanical work. She had tried to use her sharingan to copy the skill for herself, but her grandmother's was always better, for some reason. Probably grandma magic.
"Tell me," the old woman said without looking up from her sewing. "There's something on your mind."
Kyou laughed. "Can't hide anything from you, can I, baa-chan?" It was actually kind of scary. "Madara put me on his team. We're going on a mission tomorrow, and it might last a couple months."
Baa-chan hummed quietly in acknowledgement, turning the fabric in her hands.
"I'm too young to be leaving the village," Kyou continued, falling backward to lay on the bed. "People are gonna get mad."
Her grandmother hummed again.
"I mean, it's not like I'm not excited. I hate being stuck here as much as the next kid."
Like all Uchiha children, she was stuck in the village unless a fight was happening. Adult supervision was a must, since their cursed eyes were so valuable on the black market. That meant they were all stuck with each other until they turned fifteen.
The amount of rampant hormones in this village...blegh.
Hers were no exception.
"Baa-chan, what am I gonna do?" She rolled over to one side and curled up against her grandmother's side. "What if my cycle comes while I'm on the mission? How will I explain that?"
A wizened hand pat Kyou's head. "Don't worry about it. It it's only a few months, then there's a tea you can drink to halt your cycle temporariy."
Kyou sat up. "Really?" Why the fuck hadn't she been offered some before now?
In her first life, her menstrual cycle had been irregular and never lasted long when it came. This time, she was bedridden during her first period. Her grandmother had to lie through her teeth about some terrible stomach bug to get the geezers off her back about the fights she was missing. Ever since then, once a month, like evil clockwork, her cycle came back and left her weak and in pain. Oh, how many enemies had tried to cripple her like this? Alas! It was her own body doing her in! Such a cruel fate! Not even her bastardized healing could do anything for it. She was sorely tempted just to permanently halt the entire process. It wasn't like she had any traits worth passing down to a next generation, anyway.
"Really. But, Kyou," her grandmother turned rheumy eyes her way. "You can't use it for more than two months in a row. If you do, you risk permanent damage."
Well, she was just thinking—.
"Kyou."
She sighed. "I won't, baa-chan. I'll be careful. But, won't people be suspicious if we ask for it?"
Baa-chan chuckled. "Don't worry, Kyou-chan. Old women drink it, too. It keeps the aches at bay, especially in winter."
Ooh, nice.
"Thanks baa-chan!" Kyou wrapped her arms around her grandmother's narrow shoulders, breathing in the old woman's familiar scent. "You're the best."
She really was. After the incident with her mother, Kyou's grandmother had stepped up to be her official guardian. Even when Tajima tried to adopt her, baa-chan stood strong. Kyou didn't want to join that family, anyway. Aunty Atsuko was a bitch.
"Have you been practicing, Kyou?"
A blade of guilt pierced Kyou's heart. "Yes, baa-chan, of course I have!"
"Show me."
Ugh.
Kyou wracked her brain, desperately trying to remember the lines of the poem her grandmother had tasked her with memorizing.
"A thousand hills, yet no birds in flight,
Ten thousand paths, yet no footprints.
A lonely boat, an old man in a straw hat
Fishing alone in the cold river snow."
She smiled at her grandmother, eager for praise. The old woman huffed with reluctant approval.
"Well done. Take this with you," she set aside her sewing and pulled out a worn and tattered book, its paper cover fraying and twine binding recently retied. "I know it seems exciting now, but you will have more free time than you think on a first mission. You may as well get some studying done."
Kyou accepted the book with a fake smile and careful hands. "Thanks, baa-chan, I will."
"Kyou," her grandmother hesitated before continuing. "I know I can't convince you to leave this life behind. You already know you don't have to fight like this, so I can only conclude that you enjoy it. Even so," she spoke over Kyou's weak protests. "You're not a boy. You've never even considered being one, so I can only try and teach you the skills expected of a woman. I don't dare hope that I will live to see you married, but—."
Kyou set the book down and reached out to hold her grandmother's hands in her own. "I'm sorry," she said earnestly. "I'm a bad grandchild, aren't I?"
Baa-chan shook her head, but tears fell from her eyes, revealing her true feelings. "No, Kyou-chan. I'm the one who failed you. Over and over again, you suffered because I was too much of a coward to step up."
Kyou wanted to deny it, but she'd had the same though a million times growing up. She bit her lip before speaking.
"Baa-chan, what's your name?"
"Eh?"
"I know it's stupid," Kyou said hastily, face burning with humiliation. "I've known you my whole life but I don't know your name. But, I promise, I'll name a kid after you, so you don't have to worry—."
"Fuyumi."
"Huh?"
Baa-chan reached out and tucked a lock of dark hair behind Kyou's ear. "My name is Fuyumi. Any child you give that name had better be legitimate! I expect you to have a proper wedding with a good looking groom."
Kyou snorted through the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. "Of course! You think I'll settle for less?"
Baa—no, Fuyumi laughed, smoothing down her granddaughter's hair with a watery smile. "Don't you dare."
😈😈😈
The next morning dawned grey and bleak, just like every morning in winter. Kyou fell into step beside Izuna as Madara led them through the forest to the border town where they would rendezvous with their clients. Kyou was still amazed by how quickly shinobi could travel when nothing held them back. They would reach their destination in only a day, speeding past forests, rivers, and villages without so much as a glance. It was kind of a shame, but Kyou couldn't bring herself to be too upset.
She was finally outside that fucking village! And it wasn't to go fight in a war she hadn't started! Huzzah!
Still, it was a little weird to be doing...normal Naruto things after so many years. Going on a mission in a team of three, guarding a group of merchants as they travelled through hostile territory—this was normal! So blessedly normal! If Kyou closed her eyes, she could just picture Kakashi and Naruto and Sasuke—wait.
Sasuke...was her...cousin? Nephew? If Izuna died young and Madara had no kids, then the clan head was...her??? Was Sasuke descended from her???
Was she even alive in canon? Had Satan killed her alongside her brother in a world where Kyou had never been Julia? Had she grown up a normal girl and gotten married, her husband becoming the new head after Madara was exiled?
Her head hurt.
"Kyou, come here."
She jumped ahead and ran alongside Madara. "What's up?"
Her cousin didn't look at her, his gaze focused on the path ahead. "You're the youngest, so I need you to keep close to me, alright?"
She scoffed. "Come on, Mada-nii. It's just guard duty."
"Kyou, this is serious." His tone was sharper than she'd ever heard it and she immediately quieted down. "Hiring the Uchiha, even young ones like us, means that they expect some heavy interference as they travel. We need to be ready for anything."
"Fine. I don't think you need to be so worried, but I'll stick with you."
"Thank you, Kyou."
Hmph.
Whatever. Worst case scenario, she could bore him to death with baa-chan's poetry.
The border town was barely deserving of that name. It was little more than a cluster of shacks and what Kyou assumed was the caravan they were meant to guard almost took up more room than the town.
"Are you sure we're the only ones they hired?" She asked Madara as their group came to a halt in the trees. "I don't think we're enough to guard all that."
Her cousin's face was set in a grim expression. "They may have hired less expensive support with us being a feature purchase. It's happened before, when merchants couldn't afford a full protection detail."
She watched as his eyes swirled into the bloody red of the sharingan, his eyes scanning the town below. Suddenly, he stiffened, eyes going black.
"Anija, what's wrong?" Izuna placed a hand on the blade at his hip. "Is there someone down there?"
Madara raised his hand, calming his younger brother. "Let's not be hasty."
"You know we can just look and see it for ourselves, right?" He sent a withering glare Kyou's way and she had to raise her hands in defense. "Whoa! You know I'm right. I'm just saying that maybe you should tell us before we check and make reckless decisions, oh fearless leader."
He sighed, no doubt already regretting his decision to add her to his team. "There are Senju down there."
Oh. That was bad, actually. Man, and she was hoping she wouldn't have to kill anyone this time.
"Why?" Izuna's voice was tense, but he didn't go running off to kill anyone without his brother's permission. "What purpose could they have here."
"They might have been hired by someone else," Kyou offered slowly. "We don't know for sure that every carriage down there belongs to our client. These guys are foreign, too, so maybe they don't know about the war?"
Madara nodded along with her musings. "Yes, that sounds likely."
"So?" Izuna interjected, bringing them back to the real problem. "What do we do? We can't just ignore them!"
"We also can't just go picking fights," Kyou returned. She turned back to Madara. "Did you recognize them? Maybe we can set up a temporary truce. I know we're not supposed to fight in civilian spaces."
She could almost hear the grinding of his teeth. "It's Hashirama's team."
Of course it was. Who else would it be? Shit like this never happened in canon.
That meant it was her fault...whoops.
"Well, if it's Hashibaka, then we don't have to worry about a fight," she said, smiling crookedly up at her older cousins. "We can just go meet the client, say hi to the Senjus, and leave tomorrow. No problem."
Some of the tension left Madara's body, but he was still too tightly wound. She was a little nervous, too, if she was being perfectly honest. Hashirama usually meant Tobirama. She and Tobi still met on occasion to discuss jutsus, but it was becoming rarer as they got older. He was probably outgrowing her, but she didn't want to admit it, yet. This would be their first time meeting off a battlefield with witnesses. How was she supposed to behave? If they were fighting, all she had to do was beat him up—or try to, in most cases. Their conversations usually revolved around jutsus and chakra, but they couldn't just talk about classified techniques with their families watching.
Hrm.
She could only imagine how much harder it was for Madara, who hadn't spoken kindly to his literal soulmate since they were children.
She laid a hand on his arm. "Let's just go down. Worst case scenario, we fight. Best case, we go our separate ways. Either way, we know how to handle it."
"Wow. I never thought I'd live to see Kyou being a voice of reason."
She glared at Izuna and he stuck his tongue out at her. Brat. He was so much cuter when he was short.
Madara gave the signal and they leapt down to the town's edge. They activated their sharingans, carefully scanning the insides of the buildings with the magic of chakra powered x-ray vision. There were a lot of chakra signatures in the area, but three of them stood out. It was the Senju brothers. The path to the rendezvous point took them closer and closer to their rivals, and Kyou's hackles rose. There was no way Tobirama didn't know they were there. He was a master sensor. She'd never gotten the jump on him in all the years she'd known him.
She wanted to say something to Madara, maybe advise him to turn off their sharingans, but the words caught in her throat when they reached the door to the inn. Madara pushed it open, taking point as they stepped into the building. It smelled like cooking chicken and sour wine, and the patrons went silent as the Uchiha stepped inside. Kyou barely resisted the urge to take a look at the first civilians she'd ever encountered in her second life. Instead, she followed behind Madara as he led them up a rickety flight of stairs and down a corridor. He stopped in front of a room and laid his hand on the door, his eyes still swirling red. Kyou's were, too, and she knew there were three troublesome people waiting in the room beyond.
This would be interesting, at the very least.
After taking a low, shuddering breath, Madara turned off his sharingan and signaled Kyou and Izuna to do the same. Only then did he push the door aside, revealing the room and its inhabitants.
Tobi caught Kyou's eyes first. This was partly because he was the source of her mounting anxiety, and also because he was the most eye catching person in the room. He'd grown a lot over the years, in height and muscle weight. What little baby fat he'd had as a child was gone now, revealing a sharp jawline which he decorated with his signature red stripes. She didn't know what they were, he refused to tell her when she asked, but she liked to think it was make up. The idea of Tobi getting up at the crack of dawn to paint himself all pretty made her smile. His blue armor also set him apart from the rest. It made him an easy target for the poor sighted Uchiha in combat, where everyone and their dog wore red.
The next person forced themselves into her line of sight, bouncing with poorly timed exuberance.
"Madara," Hashirama exclaimed, reaching for the leader of the Uchiha team like the last time they saw each other wasn't a battle to the death. "I told Tobi you wouldn't attack us!"
Madara stepped back, dodging his one time friend's embrace and placing himself in front of Kyou in the same movement. If the situation wasn't so tense, she would have pouted and teased him for protecting someone like her, but she kept her mouth shut. She was the baby in the family. Stepping in front of her wasn't just to protect her, but to signal to Hashirama that he was a threat she needed protecting from.
She couldn't see the oldest Senju's reaction, but she could hear it.
"Madara, what's the matter?" His voice was overladen with emotion, previous jubilation transformed to despair. "Isn't this great? We can be together without fighting!"
From her place behind her cousin, Kyou could see the way those words affected him. Stepping out from behind him, she found the person who most likely caused this mess.
Dressed in lavish blue fabric and wearing gold bangles on thick wrists, the merchant was a caricature of capitalist villainy. His chins had chins, and in a world where the most elite soldiers had to ration their food, that was the ultimate sign of corruption. He was kneeling beside a low, kotatsu-like table, a cup of steaming tea in his grubby, ring adorned hands.
"Let me guess," she said, shifting everyone's attention onto her. "You did a surface level google search for 'the strongest shinobi clans in the land of fire' saw Senju and Uchiha and did literally no further research."
An ugly blush spread across his face and the person kneeling beside him—a samurai? nah, couldn't be; everyone wore armor like that—placed their hand on the hilt of a sword.
"You can't speak to Tokimatsu-sama that way!"
She scoffed, tossing her unbound hair over her shoulder. "I can and I will. Only a fucking dumbass would hire shinobi from clans that have been warring since the days of the Great Sage, himself."
The samurai looking guy—complete with shaved topknot!—gripped his sword hilt so tightly his gauntlet creaked.
"I mean, seriously," she continued, sitting in the most disrespectful manner possible on the cushion across from the dumbass in question. She reached out and took the earthen teapot, pouring herself a cup with all the decorum her baa-chan had forced into her. "All you had to do was ask any ole passerby and they would have told you the Senju and Uchiha are ancestral enemies. We fight like rabbits fuck." She held the rim of the tea cup against her lips for a moment, putting on a show of nonchalance as she took in its weak scent. The flavor was no better, but she kept her expression painfully civil as she drank it in one go, like a burning hot shot. "So, either you're a complete dumbass, or you outsourced your hiring process to two people who have never met or exchanged information, which is also stupid."
The warrior seethed, but Kyou kept her gaze on the merchant, watching his beady eyes watching her. She was the youngest person in the room, but not the smallest—Itama was still a few inches shorter than her, last time she checked—and there was no way for this stranger to know her age. Still, she was visibly a young teen, and she took no care in her tone, words, or posture in front of a potential client. Even if he'd done everything right, she wouldn't have given him the time of day, but now that she knew he was stupid, she held nothing back.
"Kyou is right. Only a fool would have made such a mistake."
Tobirama's voice no longer cracked when he spoke, having long ago settled into a low timbre that sent shivers down her spine when it caught her off guard. To her surprise, the blue armored man took a seat at the table, his proper seiza somehow just as insulting as her lazy slouch. She smiled at him, meeting his red eyes for the first time since entering the room, and poured him a cup of tea. He accepted it but didn't drink.
"You certainly aren't acting like you're at war," the warrior hissed.
Tobi and Kyou exchanged glances.
"What would you have us do?" He asked, swirling the pathetic attempt at tea in his cup. "Fight? Kill you and everyone else in this town as we strive to eliminate each other?"
"Bold of you to assume there would still be a town at the end of it," Kyou snorted, happy to be bantering with her secret friend. And at someone else's expense, no less! "You and I alone would erase it from existence."
He hummed in agreement. "True."
"You dare threaten Tokimatsu-sama!"
The warrior drew his sword, but neither Tobirama nor Kyou reacted. Izuna had beaten them to it, eager to unleash some of the tension mounting in his body. The tip of his katana was buried in the warrior's cheek, a drop of blood rolling through stubble and dripping off his jaw.
"It's not a threat," he hissed through tightly clenched teeth. "It's a promise. One you are very lucky we have no intention of fulfilling."
Madara finally stepped in, a simple hand on his brother's arm sparing the pale and quaking samurai knockoff from the embarrassment of soiling his hakama. Izuna clicked his tongue and sheathed his blade, but the samurai's fell to the tatami floor with a dull clang.
"I apologize for my brothers' rudeness," Madara said, claiming Kyou as a sibling without so much as a glance in her direction. "But they are correct. We were unaware that you had hired the Senju for this mission and would not have accepted it ourselves if we were. This puts us in a very delicate situation."
"But Madara," Hashirama whined, taking a sloppy seat beside his brother. "This is perfect! We can go on a mission together!"
The idea did have its appeal. Kyou wouldn't mind hanging out with Tobi without the constant threat of discovery tainting every moment. Still, it was a fundamentally stupid idea.
Madara crossed his arms over his chest, never taking his eyes off their employer. "The Senju arrived first, so we will be taking our leave."
"Your clan already accepted the payment."
It was the first time the merchant had spoken, and Kyou was surprised to hear a firm, unwavering tone from that face.
"Having accepted the payment," he continued, taking another sip of his tea. "Will you now breach the contract? It was my understanding that the Uchiha took their honor very seriously."
Kyou snorted incredulously. "Oh, so you could figure that out, but not who our mortal enemies are?"
"Kyou."
Madara's soft call of her name shut her up before she could rip into the man again, but she let herself sneer at him. Just for good measure.
"Very well," her cousin said with a sigh. "But I must relay this information to our elders."
"Eh?" Hashirama again. "But they'll tell you to fight us! Or worse, leave!"
Kyou knew Hashirama wasn't an idiot. There was no way he could become such a legendary shinobi if he was. Still, she had to wonder at how his brain worked. What thought process produced a man like him?
"As will ours," Tobirama said curtly, clearly out of patience for his brother's antics.
"What? Tobi, you didn't?"
The pale man sighed heavily and Kyou smiled in sympathy. He didn't return the expression, but he did hold out his cup for more tea. Odd. She hadn't noticed him drinking it. She refilled it.
He turned to 'Tokimatsu'. "The Senju will also remain. I expect the Uchiha will conduct themselves properly."
Why did that feel like it was aimed at her?
"It's not us you should be worried about," she said with a smirk and a sidelong glance at his elder sibling.
He hummed and she just knew that vein in his forehead was pulsing beneath his hitai-ate. "Indeed."
This was going to be incredibly stressful.