Chapter 1: The Main Cast

There was a bouncing sound echoing through the hall, the same repetitive sound which could be heard throughout the walls. Tobirama looked up from his scrolls, his chakra pricking out as it tentatively spread out. He touched onto something cool and sharp, like the wisping tendril of a cool draft but it cut like a well sharpened knife. He got up and slid his door open peering down the hall to his left, he saw the faint shadow of a small girl bouncing a ball by herself. Squinting his eyes slightly he called out, "Have you got nothing to do, Shiva?" The bouncing stopped and the sound of scampering feet was heard instead. He watched her draw nearer and nearer towards him, she stopped short of a metre away from him, looking up with inquisitive eyes, still holding onto her ball. She gave him a smile and shook her head.

He glanced down the hall and noticed that her maid was not searching for her, neither was her private tutor. Either she had finished managed to escape the both of them, or she had convinced them to give her free time. Looking back down at his sister he slid his door a little more open, "Well...I'll keep you company then", he said. Shiva nodded and stepped into his room, still clutching onto her ball, the hems of her sleeve rustling against the wood as she peered around. Carefully stepping over the several books scattered along the floor, she sat down next his table placing her ball in her lap. Taking one last look down the hall Tobirama closed his door, carefully maneuvering around Shiva he sat back down. She had opened one of his scrolls and started reading through it, her eyes flickering along the characters, every bit of information she absorbed like a sponge.

Tobirama nodded in appreciation of the scroll she had picked up to read, and set back down on making his notes. Shiva never once looked up from the scroll and Tobirama's brush rarely left the paper, a companionable silence was shared between the siblings. Tobirama admitted that he enjoyed his sister's companionship at times more than his older brother's. Hashirama often didn't know the meaning of silence or was unable to keep his mouth shut at all. Shiva on the other hand was a quiet individual who either said nothing or very little. In the end, Tobirama enjoyed both his older brother's and younger sister's companionship. It was just there were times where he preferred his sister more, and he made no attempt to hide it. Shiva in the end finally finished the scroll, rolling it back up and placing it gently on the table. Her eyes now wandering onto what her brother was writing. Tobirama moved a little to allow more room for his sister to watch.

Her eyes followed his brush, watching the fluctuations of each brush stroke, drawn out into thick heavy strokes, or thin delicate lines. Tobirama's handwriting was considerably better than Hashirama's, where Tobirama's characters looked like an elegant swan drifting across paper, Hashirama's was like a thunderous bull stampeding across the paper. Tobirama continued writing until the paper ran out and his shoulders and back was sore from sitting the same position for too long. He leaned back and stretched his back, listening to the satisfying cracks of his bones popping. Shiva still looking at the paper, tugged at her brother's sleeve.

"What?" He said, a slight yawn coming out of his mouth.

She pointed to a character, "You wrote this wrong".

Tobirama looked at the paper for one moment before groaning out loud in frustration, grabbing his brush he messily crossed the word and rewrote the correct character above the mistake. "Thanks", he muttered. Getting up and sliding his door to the outdoor patio, his eyes squinting at the sudden light he looked around. The sun was setting now, casting long shadows over the compound. Shadows dancing and the warmth of the sun soon fading away. The day was disappearing, and the night was arriving, a dangerous time. And Hashirama had yet to make an appearance back at the compound. Just where was that buffoon dawdling around right after…

Glancing at his younger sister, her resemblance to Itama was uncanny. But then again they were twins, and Itama's loss had cut her the most. The memory was still fresh, watching Hashirama clutch onto Itama, crying out until his voice was hoarse, and Shiva's blank expression but her eyes spoke more emotion than she could even express. Tobirama gritted his teeth and clenched his fist tightly, "Come on Shiva", holding out his hand. Shiva immediately got up, grabbing onto her ball in one hand taking her brother's hand in the other. "We'll wait at the gate for aniki, alright", he said.

"Okay", she said. They walked into the main part of their compound, her eyes caught onto a hobbling man with crutches, his left leg was blown off from a tag-bomb. Another man was lending him his shoulder as they both shuffled into a medical ward, she scrunched her nose slightly, she could smell the antiseptic and blood from where she was walking. Children and women had already gone back into their own homes leaving Tobirama and Shiva surrounded by shinobi. Continuing their way, they stopped short of a few metres from the gate. The two guards stationed there gave the siblings a nod.

"What are you brats doing out so late?" Janko said, eyeing the two siblings.

"Waiting for our stupid brother to return", Tobirama replied nonchalantly, his voice cool and level. Shiva nodded as she looked up at the man, she followed the line of his scar on his face, noting the depth of the cut and length. It reached right down from his left temple crossing over the bridge of his nose ending on the right cheek. She surmised the wound had probably came from a short-sword or tanto.

Janko looked out beyond the gate, "It's not too dark right now, however if it gets any darker we might have a problem", he said. There was underlying darkness in his tone that neither of the siblings missed, Tobirama stiffened slightly and Shiva held onto his hand a little tighter. Worry clouded her features as she thinned her lips.

Tobirama's chakra pricked out again this time he felt the familiar warmth of Hashirama's chakra, it was firm and solid and there was often this sensation of age and knowledge. Tobirama internally scoffed but he could recognise his older brother's chakra anywhere, the same way he could tell his younger sister's. He relaxed a little, Shiva also sensing her brother's chakra relaxed as she waited patiently.

From the shadows Hashirama stepped out onto the main path with a goofy smile, a stark contrast when he had left at noon. Pulling Shiva along Tobirama walked up to Hashirama with a stern expression, "What's up with that stupid smile, aniki?" He said frowning, this idiot had been out for the whole afternoon without telling anyone where the hell he was and comes back with a moronic smile.

Hashirama wilted in a split second, "Ha ha...Good to see you too, Tobirama", he said with a wonky smile.

Shiva merely smiled, "How was your afternoon Hashirama-nii?" Letting go of Tobirama's hand and taking Hashirama's instead.

Hashirama's smile returned in a split second, grabbing Shiva by the waist and hoisting her up high the air, "Shiva, in the end you are the light of my day!" He said crying out loud swinging her around. Laughing boisterously as he continued to spin her around.

"Put her down Hashirama! What if you drop her?!" Tobirama yelled as he snatched Shiva from Hashirama, setting her down on the floor. But by that point, Shiva was thoroughly ruffled, her eyes spinning as she tumbled around trying to stand up properly. "You idiot", Tobirama snapped at Hashirama, helping Shiva get back on her feet, holding onto her arm as she slowly regained her sense of gravity back.

Hashirama deflated but watching his two siblings his smile returned, his mind tracing back to the conversation with Madara. They were opposites, but in the end the same. They understood loss and they would do anything to protect what they had left, his younger brother and younger sister he would protect even if it would cost him his life. The three siblings bantered for the moment but with a sharp prick of chakra Shiva looked up sharply as she felt the familiar presence which commanded obedience. Tobirama immediately stood still, straightening his back and Hashirama dusted off the leaves from his clothes.

Butsuma sauntered up to his three remaining children with a stern expression. Glancing at his eldest then to his youngest, his eyes narrowing slightly. "I would like all three of you, to come to my office for a talk regarding the next couple of days. Right now". He gave a nod to Janko, who promptly closed the gates, sealing the gate with tags.

Dinner went rather quietly, none of them really in the mood to talk. Even for Hashirama, best known for his non-stop yapping. Shiva had only eat her portion of rice with some pickles but she hadn't touched her fish, not feeling the mood for meat. Hashirama slowly chewed his food, glancing at his sister and brother. Honestly, he didn't know what father wanted to call them for, there were hundreds of possibilities but to think he called them up for behaviour and manners was a little surprising. Until father told them who visiting them tomorrow.

"If your not eating your fish, I'll have it", Tobirama said, breaking the silence. The fish was freshly caught from the river this afternoon. And if she as not eating, he certainly wasn't letting it go to waste.

"Hard to believe he would come along with his father", Shiva said, handing her plate of fish to Tobirama. The clan head of the Jabami Clan, Jabami Shugou was arriving tomorrow to discuss trading between the clan and other political issues with Butsuma.

The Jabami Clan was a coastline clan, not really a shinobi clan although they had their soldiers. More of a trading clan with their export being fish and pearls, after all they were a clan which bordered with the sea. They were best known for their incredible boat making, they created the best warships and the fastest ships that no ship ever made anywhere else could overtake

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he hates our guts", Hashirama exasperated. He remembered the Shugou's son; Touko, similar age with himself. A rather mischievous brat was what he would've like to say, but he was downright devious. He clearly recalled when all four siblings were left alone with him, when a simple game of tag had turned into a a rather brutal fistfight between the Senju siblings and Touko. Kawarama lost a tooth that day, however Touko had a fractured arm and a second degree frostbite covering the entirety of his none broken arm.

Honestly he wished the fight had started because of childish reasons, well, because they were children. But it didn't. When Touko was seeking he had found Shiva first hiding underneath an uprooted tree. Instead of simply tapping her arm and calling her 'it', he grabbed onto her hair, dragged out from her hiding spot. Wrenching her hair so hard that some of her hair was torn out along with some skin of the scalp. Apparently Touko thought he had pulled her out softly, but how exactly was it softly when there was blood running down from the head?

Touko had run off by the time he realised there was blood, and left Shiva to her own devices. However instead of calling for help she merely decided to say nothing of, although hurt, she didn't want to cause trouble for her father who had brought them out with him specifically to have a break. When the brothers' had realised that no-one had come looking for them for quite some time, they left their respective hiding spots. When upon meeting with Touko, he reluctantly told them that he had dubbed Shiva as the seeker, laughing nervously that she was probably taking her time. Her brothers' had found her sitting on the sand banks trying to pull out the clumps of dried blood from her hair.

Following afterwards was a rather thorough interrogation and inspection of the wounds. It was Kawarama who pulled the first punch against Touko, sending him flying into a tree with Hashirama trying to hold him back.

"You bastard!" Kawarama yelled, trying to grapple his way out of Hashirama's hold, kicking his feet high in the air. "Why the hell would you tag my sister like that?! You dumbass!"

Hashirama gritted his teeth as he held his ground, pulling Kawarama back. Out of the siblings, Kawarama was physically the strongest, even Hashirama had trouble trying to hold him back.

"Does it even matter? It's just a little bit of blood!" Touko shouted back, rubbing his cheek.

This time Tobirama was the one who lashed out, kicking him straight in the chest. Touko felt a burst of air gush out from his mouth, he fell to the ground, heaving heavily. Hashirama widened his eyes and for a moment simply blinked. Even Kawarama had stopped struggling, his mouth agape with shock and surprise. Tobirama was the level-headed one out of them, he was never really one to lower himself into violence from anger.

Tobirama expression was unreadable, but it was so frighteningly cold and unmoving, even Itama took a small step back. "There shouldn't be any blood in first place", Tobirama hissed out, his eyes narrowing dangerously at Touko. Touko didn't say anything this time, but there was this festering look of despise, aimed directly at Shiva. Hashirama didn't miss it, neither did Itama.

The rest goes unsaid because it was pretty obvious what the outcome was. Touko fought a losing battle, and even tried pulling out some water jutsu's. Tobirama easily countered them and Shiva out of self defence sent out a burst of icy wind, freezing the water as well as his arm. They were lucky that nothing serious was taken out of the incident, Shugou being a rather soft-hearted guy for children and Butsuma still wanting to have trade with the Jabami. The Senju siblings at that point established themselves an enemy within their allied clan, and honestly they hoped to never see Touko again.

Shiva touched the part of her head which was once damaged, it had healed over and there was almost no physical scars behind. Her hair regrew back and it was like the incident never happened, that she felt thankful for. She feared that might have a bald spot there for the rest of her life.

"Ah it'll probably be fine. Maybe we will have a fresh start with Touko", Hashirama managed to say, scooping some rice into his bowl. His optimistic attitude had no limits, honestly it actually was kind of scary how he managed to stay so positive sometimes.

Tobirama scoffed, picking the bones from the fish. He still remembered Shiva's puffy eyes from unshed tears and her blood stained cheeks from the overflow of blood. Angry at Touko at the time, but afterwards he found himself frustrated at Shiva. Why didn't she say anything? Why didn't she try to defend herself? Why did she just allow herself to get hurt?

"That would be nice", Shiva commented, stacking her empty dishes. She said it rather absentmindedly, she didn't particularly feel anything towards Touko. She didn't feel any resentment nor did she want revenge. He had been just another pebble along the dirt path and something she believed that she would simple pass by.

Tobirama got up, "I'm going to study. Shiva, you want to join me?"

"What about me?" Hashirama whined stretching his legs. "You never asked me to study with you".

A strange grimace appeared on Tobirama's face, "You talk incessantly, you sleep midway while reading and you snore while you sleep. At least Shiva isn't a nuisance like you", Tobirama snapped, crossing his arms.

Hashirama deflated. "Do I really mean so little to you?"

"If you stop acting like such a drama queen my opinion of you will probably be raised a little", Tobirama said. Shiva bit back a laugh, but a small wonky smile persisted on her face.

~Insert disclaimer~

Fave, follow, review.

Peace out.

I almost forgot, there will most likely be romance. So yeah.