Written for Day 3 of MadaTobi Week: On the Battlefield
Haru shuddered as he pressed himself a little flatter to the ground, muddy with steam and blood, riddled with cracks from the excessive heat and gaping holes from the earth walls or projectiles torn upwards from it. Perhaps this wasn't the safest place to shelter. . .
He lifted his head again cautiously, finding that the jutsu he'd been dodging when he flung himself down had dissipated, and it seemed neither of the enemy nin were watching him.
Two. Two nin had between them practically decimated Haru's entire squad, and neither of them were even heavily injured. He wasn't positive they were injured at all. Haru shuddered, even as he climbed cautiously to his feet, moving towards the suiton user. He kept low - he had seen several of his comrades beheaded or shredded to pieces by blasts or blades using far more water than he would have imagined possible with no water source anywhere nearby.
Especially with the other nin throwing around huge bursts of flame, searing not only the earth but anyone too slow in escaping the roaring attacks. The wild flames that engulfed more than Haru had ever seen directed by a ninja and still kept under control, shifting and circling easily under his command.
Haru wished to fall victim to neither extreme.
His stomach turned with nerves, not helped by the smell of the battlefield - scorched meat, bloody earth, and choking ash.
He fingered his blade and took a risk, slipping closer and staying to the back of the suiton user. He hadn't been noticed yet - his target was focusing on the rain of kunai mingled with doton projectiles from several of Haru's companions in arms, making it easier to avoid his attention.
Haru's eyes narrowed and he crouched low, wanting to keep out of notice until the last possible moment - if he was going to have a chance at taking out the nin calling such powerful jutsu without even apparent strain Haru was going to need to take him while he was distracted. Fortunately his comrades were at least providing that much, even if they were making little headway.
Little matter, Haru would soon-
His eyes widened as he jerked backwards, shying away from a shrieking tongue of flame twisting up from the ground before him and shaping into the head of a dragon as it lunged. Haru dropped his sword and tried to flee but he was too slow, and in an instant the fiery dragon was on top of him as he screamed.
"Pay more attention, you idiot!" Madara bellowed, scowling.
Tobirama threw a sharp-edged smile over his shoulder as he raised a thick wall of water several times his own height. "You were there." he said, without bothering to look at the half-ash remains of the enemy nin who had been inches from stabbing him in the back. He spared a bare glance for the now-fading dragon katon that had taken out the threat, then turned back and released the water, sending it to crush the three remaining enemy nin to the ground. They didn't rise again.
Madara puffed up, narrowly restraining a squawk. "I-"
"You wouldn't have let anything happen to me." Tobirama said with entirely too much smugness. Madara did feel a flare of warmth in his chest at the confidence his lover showed in him, but scowled at the carelessness all the same. Yes, he had been there, been watching over his lover, and yes, Madara would protect him, always, but he could have been seriously hurt all the same.
Madara stomped over to him and grabbed him by the shoulder, dragging Tobirama around to face him again. "That's no excuse to be so careless!" he snapped, cuffing Tobirama lightly.
He disappeared.
With a puff of smoke, not the seamless blurring of his hiraishin. Madara blinked.
Tobirama sauntered onto the battlefield from the other side, and Madara opened his mouth, then closed it and squeezed his eyes closed for a moment in frustration. Fucking shadow clones. Drove him to distraction with their very existence - hell, more than one of Tobirama was both an enthralling and a terrifying thought - and then Tobirama used them to pull things like this. . .
"Tobirama!" Madara yelled, and Tobirama looked up at him. Madara growled, eyes narrowing.
Tobirama moved towards him, scanning the battlefield along the way. Madara huffed but was reminded of their position and called up his Sharingan, shifting to do the same from his own place amidst the destruction as he slowly walked towards Tobirama. They'd done a thorough job, however - none of the enemy nin stirred with the slightest breath or pulse of life, and Tobirama didn't seem to be finding any trace of life in them either.
Madara deactivated Sharingan with a repressed wince and turned his attention to Tobirama again - the real one this time. He scowled. Tobirama didn't appear to notice, which really did nothing to appease Madara's temper.
"You trust me to watch your back but not to know it wasn't even your back I was protecting?" Madara snapped, shoulders tense.
"I had assumed you were paying close enough attention to see when I implemented the clones." Tobirama said simply, and Madara flushed. He glared reflexively and Tobirama's eyes narrowed in response. "Perhaps I should have arrayed some manner of signal for you?" he said sharply.
"Maybe you should have!" Madara huffed back, crossing his arms.
"Are you really-"
"What if something had happened to you? The real you, the one I didn't even know wasn't on the battlefield with me?" Madara demanded, muscles knotting as he tensed even further. He could picture it all too easily.
"It's not as though I would expect you to keep up with me on the battlefield anyway." Tobirama said almost carelessly and Madara bristled. "Not at my speed." He eased a fraction. From that, anyway - no one was as fast as Tobirama, that was not so much an insult as a truth.
"I would at least know if you needed to be backed up!" Madara said angrily. "I had no idea-" He fell silent as Tobirama's hand landed on his shoulder, but jerked back an instant later, snarling.
Tobirama ignored the show of temper and kissed him hard, teeth clacking painfully for a moment before Madara instinctively softened into the touch. Tobirama's harsh grip at his neck gentled to a firm stroke, then a more comfortable clasp.
"Madara," Tobirama said as he pulled back, a little breathless and gone faintly pink across his cheekbones, "calm down." Their noses brushed and Tobirama's hand slid to Madara's hair. "You know I trust you," he nudged closer, resting his brow against Madara's, his happuri a warm, smooth point of pressure between them, "I created the clone and switched places with it when I was calling up that wave."
Madara frowned slightly, knowing the precise moment Tobirama meant, though he had formed a number of suiton waves - it had crushed three attackers, including one who had been taking annoying potshots at Madara as he fought, and fizzled out the oversized katon he had been building even higher in the process. He might even have realised what Tobirama was doing, given his familiarity with his lover's fighting style and the shadow clone jutsu, if he hadn't been mostly surrounded by a fiery wall of his own making at the time. It had required most of his focus to keep it under control and had complicated his sightlines besides.
"It was the best way to contain them, but I knew it would be leaving myself open, thus the clone." Tobirama said reasonably, petting his hair, and Madara grumbled low in his throat. He still didn't like it, not knowing where his loved ones were on a battlefield.
Tobirama kissed him again, fingers curling into his hair and tugging firmly. Madara growled softly, lashes fluttering as he closed his eyes, a shudder tickling down his spine from the mild sting. He wrapped an arm around his lover's waist, pulling him in hard. Their armour scraped and Tobirama hummed a little half-amused murmur, mouth softening permissively under Madara's as he deepened the kiss.
"Still not happy with you." Madara growled against Tobirama's mouth as their lips parted.
Tobirama chuckled, pulling Madara's hair again and making him groan. "Mada, are you ever?" he asked playfully.
Madara's lips curled. "Well. Perhaps sometimes." he grumbled through the faint smile he couldn't quite wipe away. "Pain in the ass." He sighed, rubbing his nose along his lover's cheek. Tobirama laughed softly again, lines crinkling around his eyes, and Madara's grip on him tightened. "Let's get back to the village." he said quietly, leaning into Tobirama just a little. He was reassuringly solid and steady.
Tobirama nodded, then nipped at his mouth. "We make our report in a timely fashion and then why don't we see how much of a pain in my ass you can be." he said teasingly.
Madara's brows rose. Tobirama smirked at him, and Madara growled, crushing him close for another rough kiss, feeling a possessive flare of pride when Tobirama only pressed into him with a soft sound of pleasure.