There was once a young man named Urashima Taro who was known as the best fisherman in his village. One day, as he was preparing for a fishing trip, he came across a turtle. A group of children were tormenting the turtle. So Urashima Taro chased the children away, and saved the turtle.

For the third lunch, the Second Mizukage served them a concoction of local spices that left Hashirama's tongue tingling, but not in a bad way. The meat itself tasted a little like beef and melted in his mouth. It was delightful, Hashirama decided, and said to his host, a most excellent beef soup. Gengetsu dabbed his mouth, then his pristinely kept moustache with a napkin. It wasn't beef, he said. It was turtle.

"It was caught just this morning from the lovely village of Irenui, and sent here, as show of support for our negotiation. Pity about the monster attacks."

Mito shifted slightly, ostensibly to indicate that her cup should be re-filled. The gesture in someone less refined would be equivalent to waving a hand in his face and yelling. Hashirama asked for elaboration anyway, and the Mizukage hemmed and hewed. He was enjoying this, but Hashirama didn't mind, truthfully. Soon enough he'd lay his cards on the table.

"Pardon me for exaggerating. In truth there was no significant damage incurred. Oh yes, the village stood, and only one boat has been lost so far… but you know men of the sea, Hokage-dono. Superstitious lot. It's a world of its own there in the sea, fogs and sudden changes in the wind and current, and everything. Why, even experienced sailors could lose their way. But they insisted there was a monster. I had no choice but to send one of my men."

Gengetsu proposed a melancholic toast to the brave soul, and Hashirama tossed back his cup with him. Tongue well-lubricated, Gengetsu continued, "You are a remarkable man, Hokage-dono, a god among men, and dare I say, though my predecessor would not have, among shinobi. You alone wee able to subdued the demonic beasts who have plagued our civilisations for so long. And it was very magnanimous of you, gifting the little village in the continent… where was it…"

"Taki," Hashirama supplied, wondering if he should mention the Rokubi he gave to the previous Mizukage for safekeeping. "Ah, I beg your pardon, but how is the jinchūriki for the Rokubi doing?"

Hashirama searched his memory for the boy's name – it was a boy, he remembered that much – but Gengetsu shrugged, the way Hashirama imagined he shrugged the hat off his predecessor. "Well enough," Gengetsu said enigmatically. "You must understand, as a great leader of men to another, that I do not make requests easily."

"No," said Hashirama. Sincerely, he did not understand. But the Hokage would, or the god of shinobi, and Hashirama supposed he was that man for the moment. "Nor will you sign treaties carelessly. For the sake of your people."

"Say rather that it is not in our nature as shinobi. I will, however, consider. I am, after all, a very considerate man. It is a rather pretty dream, isn't it? Peace between all nations in our lifetime. Such a lofty idea must at least merit some consideration."

—

With the adults gone to the negotiation for the whole day, the children seemed to have found solace in playing cards. Kagami was embroiled in an intense poker game with the Mizukage's guards, and one boy Hashirama hadn't seen. Danzō was watching from under the protective shades of coconut trees, as though to make up for his teammate's slack, and Saika was nowhere in sight.

But even as Hashirama's panic piqued, Kagami yelled; he had lost. The Kiri boy grinned, showing off sharp, filed teeth – like a shark. When he looked back Saika was standing at attention.

Hashirama smiled. "Saika-chan! There you are. Have you been waiting long? Are you tired?"

Her expression twitched, but Hashirama's daughter demurred, "No, Hokage-sama."

Hashirama just about pouted, but the Mizukage spoke, "The boy will come with you. Think of him as – "

"Hostage?" Mito said quietly. "Sacrifice? That is, after all, in the name. Jinchūriki."

If Gengetsu was surprised by her audacity, he didn't show it. He was gazing at Saika long enough that Hashirama felt his skin crawl. "This must be your daughter. Pretty girl, like her mother. Although she doesn't look much like you, Hokage-dono." Gengetsu flashed a shark smile, nodding to Hashirama. "But I'm sure she takes after you in other ways."

Hashirama shifted as though to hide Saika behind his body. "Thank you. We'll take our leave now, to prepare. Tomorrow we shall leave for Irenui."

Gengetsu's wave was either shooing a mosquitoe or a lazy assent. Either way, the Konoha party were left to their own devices. The boys – Kagami did enough for two – fairly bounced all the way back. Poor boys, Hashirama thought with a smile, they must have been bored out of their minds, having to sit for the negotiation without sitting in it. The children went ahead to check for ambushes and damages. Hashirama wasn't worried; he had left clones for that. Thus when Mito and Hashirama arrived, Kagami was already goading Danzo into a spar. The latter held his chin high, but he seemed seconds away from giving into his desires.

Then Kagami turned to Saika, startling the poor girl. "You should come too, Saika-san. We'll take turns beating up Danzo." There was a slight crack in his voice even as he beamed.

Not today, thought Hashirama, and intervened for his daughter's sake. "I'm afraid I'll require Saika-chan's assistance for a touch longer. Have fun, you two. But don't take too long! We'll leave in a couple of hours."

"We will? But you said – "

Danzo elbowed Kagami into silence. "By your command, Hokage-sama."

Saika looked at Hashirama expectantly as the duo departed. Her face fell when he said, "You're free to go, darling. Alas, your mother and I still need to talk."

And talk they did not. Mito silently worked on her scrolls in the abandoned fortress the Konoha delegation was housed in while Hashirama puttered around the same room. It would have driven Mito insane in the early years of their marriage, just as it was a battle to pry Mito from the trenches of her mind. Hashirama paced and waited to think.

It wasn't that Hashirama didn't think on his own. Thoughts came, sometimes. His head crowded fast, so he sounded them out quickly enough for others to tear into. Mito favoured deliberation, incisive and meaningful for all that her words were fewer than his. But once in a while he would surprise her. This part thrilled him, that there were things about him his wife of a decade and more still didn't know, things still remaining to explore together. Moments that came rarer than in his time with Madara…

Moments that became rarer until they became annulled completely because Madara had willed it so. Years and a sword in the back had finally allowed him to make peace with Madara's rejection. Strength alone would not do; Madara had proven that. Vision could only fuel the fire for so long. And peace, if it ever was possible in this life, in this world, would one day be undone by its beneficiaries.

But there would have to be peace, first. He shook himself free of the well-worn worries, and grasped for a newer one. "That boy, Kagami. What's he like?" Tobirama had taken his students for his purposes, and traded him with his ducklings. Except the Akimichi had been sick, and Hashirama seized the opportunity to take his daughter along. They would all appreciate the experience: see diplomacy in action, and the other parts of the world that wasn't so green. Put guarding the Hokage on their resume. Although the part where Hashirama had refused to take any more official guards had given Tobirama conniptions.

"Kagami-kun? An Uchiha that Tobirama can bear to teach," Mito said distractedly. A strand of blood red hair had escaped its binding and fell on her eye. Annoying, but not more so than breaking her flow to remove it. This was what husbands were for, Hashirama thought fondly as he tucked the stray strand with the others.

He said, "Tobirama could bear to teach a sloth if there was a point to be made." Mito hated his peeking over her shoulder while she worked, and commenting, but he couldn't help it when she papered the floor with her stuff. And it was an mesmerising sight, the whimsical deliberation of her strokes. "That's a new design, isn't it? I don't recognise that logogram there – or is it supposed to be five dragons flying together?"

Mito peered up, dark eyes like a predator watching from behind camouflage. "The Daimyo will not be pleased. You were hired to rid his precious little coast line of Kiri-nin, not – is that Saika at the door?"

There was a small noise, then their daughter squeezed herself into the room. Fiddling with her long, red hair as Mito was wont to do when she was thinking, she said, "S-sorry. I was, I'm curious…"

"Of course, of course," Hashirama said indulgently, "What do you think, Saika-chan?"

"Um, well, what Okā-sama said. The Daimyo meant for Konoha to crush Kiri's forces on his coast. But instead you were brokering a peace deal, and now you meant to…" Here her eyes strayed to Mito. "To create a jinchūriki for the Mizukage, in exchange for peace."

Mito set down the brush. "Not create, no, that would give fūinjutsu more credit than it would ever deserve. Isolate, perhaps, give a form to the formless, ensconch the awesome into a closure within the little. Fūinjutsu, my dear, can only reduce. And so the jinchūriki is a primordial being and a human, together reduced to an imminent conflagration walking among us."

Hashirama cleared his throat. "Well, as I told the Mizukage, for the time being we'd merely observe. It might not be necessary at all. It might not even be a bijū."

Saika still looked unconvinced. "But would the Daimyo agree to a treaty he hadn't… agreed to beforehand?"

"I'm sure he would. The Daimyo is a reasonable man." He looked outside. There was still daylight. "Saika-chan, would you kindly call the boys inside? We're leaving…" Mito didn't seem to be ready yet. "That is, the boys and I will leave now while there's still light, and you and Okaa-sama will follow once you're ready."

Saika didn't reply. There was a mulish set to her jaw as she said, "With all due respect, Hokage-sama, I would like to request to come with you. Either Danzo-kun or Kagami-kun can stay with Okaa-sama."

It was rare enough that Saika took initiative on shinobi-related stuff that Hashirama was taken aback. She seemed to think this too. Flustered, she said, "I want to see a bijū in the wild… and Hokage-sama in action. I won't be a burden, I swear."

"You can leave Danzō-kun with me. He's a bit more useful than the other," Mito said, already returning to her work. As though it was only a matter of giving Saika permission to play outside. Said girl was looking at him expectantly. He felt as though he was looking at a younger Tobirama, the same profile of solemnity, the same piercing red eyes glinting with burgeoning defiance. His heart broke just a little, but Hashirama swallowed bitterness and said yes.

-—

There were a few things the Mizukage, and then the survey by Tobirama's handpicked scouts, forgot to mention. Starting with the fact that Irenui did not belong to Kiri, or the Fire Country, or, as best he could tell, any feudal lord. The guards at the gate instead wore the town's emblem, a stylish representation of the old logogram for shellfish, which he remembered from Mito's lectures, before they decided fūinjutsu was not for Hashirama, that the ancient traded in shellfish. Wealth, then, was the true lord of the town.

It was also not a small fishing village – the sea, the ships, the sheer size of the town and its bustle, easily a hundred Konoha put together. As an ordinary father taking his perfectly ordinary children for an incredibly ordinary vacation, they avoided scrutiny of the few bored Kiri-nin along the way to the port.

A steamship was pulling onto the pier. The children watched with abandon unbecoming of shinobi. But not for children. And admittedly, even Hashirama paused at the sight.

"Look, Ho–tōsan," Kagami said, smoothly rolling his tongue over the slip. Mito was right, Hashirama mused, for an Uchiha Kagami was very excited to have Hashirama as his father. Stars in his eyes as he saw the sea for the first time. He gesticulated and spoke with abandon unbecoming of shinobi – which Hashirama supposed was the last thing they were supposed to be, in disguise. Kagami continued, "What kind of a boat is that? It doesn't have paddles, and it's puffing black smoke."

"That, my boy, is called a steamship. It's powered by… can you guess?"

Kagami shook his empathically, but Saika said, "Coals?" in a timid voice.

For her disguise she had chosen Hashirama's original hair colour. That, and without the whisker-like birthmarks on her cheeks, and some tweaks to bone structure made her look more like Hashirama than she ever would. Pity that she took this look just as Hashirama was abandoning it…

"Clever girl," said the man standing next to Hashirama with a snort. He seemed like a well-to-do fellow, wrapped in fine silk kimono. "Taking your kids for a vacation, eh? You got here just in time to see the monster."

"Ah, a monster?" Hashirama said in his best clueless and frightened voice. "Isn't it dangerous?"

The man shrugged and gestured to the sea. "See that island?" Hashirama nodded. It looked, at first glance, like a small, barren island in the middle of the sea. "Every year the Three-Tailed Demon Turtle came at this time of the year. Nobody knows why, but nobody also wants to know, if you get what I mean."

Hashirama just nodded. He thought it was what ordinary people would do, regardless of whether they knew or not. "Would you happen to know if there's a way to see it from up close? I…" The painfully earnest smile he put on was not quite faked. "I don't get to take my children out of our village a lot, and this might be their only chance in a lifetime to see a, a monster."

He could see condescension shutter over the man's eye – another foolish country bumpkin, eh. "Suppose I know of a boat about to set sail in that direction shortly. A fishing boat, mind you, might be too coarse for the little miss there."

Shades of whiskers appeared on Saika's cheeks, but Hashirama quickly intervened. "That's all right. Could you kindly refer us to this boat's owner?"

It turned out to be the other man. They quickly agreed to an exorbitant fee for the service rendered, but fortunately Hashirama's wallet could handle it.

There was still time before departure. Hashirama turned, and was met with disappointed children.

"Well, children – "

"But Hashirama-sama," said Kagami, "We are your guards. Tobirama-sensei entrusted your protection detail to us and not some ANBU. How will I be able to face him?"

Hashirama was beginning to see why Tobirama liked this Uchiha. "Thank you for your dedication, Kagami-kun. Tobirama would be proud. But you see this from my position, how will I be able to face my brother if I got his precious student hurt? But fear not, you will not be idle. Do you know why genin are assigned in teams of three?"

"To cover for each other?" Kagami said suspiciously. "At least that's what Tobirama-sensei said."

"Correct! Therefore I shall leave Saika-chan in your hands."

"And what shall I do, Hokage-sama?" Saika said. There was an odd glint in her eyes. Hashirama patted her head.

"You, my darling, will wait and tell your mother where I am, if she should arrive faster. I shouldn't take too long, but we shall see. Can you do that for me?"

Saika nodded. She looked at the sea, as though Hashirama had already left.

Beta-reading credit goes to roadkill2580. All remaining mistakes are my own.

Title comes from the practice in the late Shang Dynasty of using turtle shells for divination. These are also the earliest record of ancient Chinese writing, and proof that the Shang Dynasty existed.