Characters: Hashirama, Mito
Summary: Maybe Hashirama can find a reason to stay in Uzushiogakure.
Pairings: Hashirama x Mito; HashiMito
Author's Note: All hail the progenitor of all Naruto couples. Feedback would be appreciated.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Hashirama sighs, staring out at the sea from beyond the low, white walls. Tobirama wasn't joking when he said the Uzumaki clan head was a shrewd negotiator. What a headache.
He hates to admit it, but he misses home, more than anything. He desperately needs aid in order to build up his new Hi no Kuni, but it's becoming increasingly clear to the young Senju head that the air he so looked for from Uzu may well not come at all. The Uzumaki simply aren't eager to fight.
All his negotiations and entreaties are going nowhere.
"Hello." The voice Hashirama hears is light and plainly feminine, just a little rough around the edges, but hardly unpleasant to hear. It's coming from above him; he cranes his head around.
There's a woman sitting on the wall, long legs stretched out on the summit, who wasn't there a moment before. She's, Hashirama guesses, quite tall, when judging by how long her legs stretch out on the wall, dressed in an off-white silk furisode draping over her long, lithe body. She is possessed of extremely fair skin and a strange, diamond-shaped tattoo on the middle of her forehead. She has slightly slanted turquoise eyes and vivid scarlet hair done up in odango. The many strands falling loose become a fiery nimbus in the crimson sunset light.
To say that she's pretty doesn't do her justice and, Hashirama, though mostly consumed by his work, is hardly indifferent to a lovely woman.
Cautiously, Hashirama bows his head in greeting; judging by the richness of her clothes, she's probably someone important. "Hello. I didn't hear you coming."
"That's what happens when you pay attention when your sensei is teaching you stealth." Her lips curl up, showing the ends of white teeth, in a smile reminiscent of a mischievous, inscrutable sphinx. The expression of her face is filled with secret humor yet enigmatic. "You get to sneak up on village leaders."
"I was preoccupied," Hashirama defends himself, though he manages to smile.
She leans back on her arms, the suggestion of a knowing laugh bubbling up from her lips but not fully escaping, half-stifled. "Obviously. My name's Mito, by the way, since obviously I know who you are." Turquoise eyes open innocently. "I take it you've been finding negotiations with Takumi-sama to be somewhat circular?"
It's impossible to keep the slightest hint of irritation out of his face as Hashirama answers. "As you say, Mito-san, 'obviously'."
She smiles, and then looks him directly in the eye. Hashirama is a little surprised by this; there are few who do that, knowing who he is.
Mito tilts her head to the side slightly, holding her firm mouth open slightly in an eyes-narrowed, speculative fashion. "Grandfather—" Hashirama's eyebrows raise "—is naturally stubborn, and suspicious of foreigners, and more than a little disdainful of youth. But he respects you." She slides fluidly down from the wall. A sphinx-like, chin-tilted smile is bestowed upon Hashirama. "And so do I."
Hashirama raises an eyebrow as she walks away. Maybe he can bring himself to stay in Uzushiogakure a little longer.
The young, scarlet-haired woman, tall and lissome, plucks up her ivory skirt in her hands as she walks away on the soft sand, towards one of the wooden pathways back into the city. White legs, slender and firm, are exposed halfway up to the knee.
She's barefoot.