A world changing meeting
Uchiha Madara's face remained red all the way to Naka River. Thinking 'stupid stupid… Why does she have to do it everytime? ' "Puff…" She forcefully breathed out. 'Hopefully the river would calm me.' With that thought in mind; she nearly trotted to river. When she reached the river, she realized her hope for solitude and calmness was for nil.
Unfortunately someone else was already there and to boast someone quite depressed. 'It seems today I'm in a roll.' She thought sarcastically. 'What next? Becoming a shoulder to cry on?' But curiosity gets best of her so she walks to the gloomy boy. A closer look reveals him to be the same boy she met a while ago; her self-proclaimed rival at rock skipping. What was his name again? She was sure it had something to do with door.
She greets him. "Yo…long time no see…umm" She ends it awkwardly. "It's Hashirama" He said.
She placed her hands on her hips. "Man…Sulking even before I show up…What's up?"
He asked with shaking voice "Mind if I ask you some… never mind"
_ "No need to be shy…I'm all ears..."
_ "Don't worry about…"
_ "Come on… just spit it out already…"
_ "Really… it's nothing…"
_ "we'll be here all day if you keep refusing so you might as well-"
_ "Don't worry about it…" He turned his face around; tears were running out of his eyes. "It really is nothing"
Madara felt her control snaps. She shouted while pointing a finger at him "Damn you! I'm trying to be considerate and understanding here! So hurry up and spill your guts"
He turned back to river and said "My little brother…was killed" Madara felt like someone had run her through by a lighting jutsu. She felt speechless.
He wiped his tears by his sleeve. "I always come here when I feel like this… All these emotions bottled up inside of me… I feel like the flow of the current can wash them all away…" He turned to Madara, his face tear stained. "Madara, Right? It's the same for you, isn't it?" She didn't answer; her face emotionless.
He continued while looking at river "You have… any siblings?"
Madara stooped to pick a stone. "I have four brothers…" She straightens; tossing the stone up and down in her hand. "Or rather, had four brothers…"
Hashirama looks at Madara; shocked into silence. Madara continues "That's what it means to be a shinobi…" She walks to shore. "Death is always knocking on our door… From what I can tell, the only way we can avoid that… is to be upfront and honest with the other side… perhaps even, I don't know, form an alliance with them…" She gets ready to throw the stone "But that's just wishful thinking… because we're all too proud… to allow ourselves to be that vulnerable…"
"I mean, who knows, maybe they don't hate as much as you think…"She throws the stone.
Hashirama asked "Do you really think… we'll never be able to be upfront and honest with other side?"
Stone begins skipping on water's surface. "Beats me… But every time I come here… I hope that someone will find a way." Stone reached the other side with a "plop".
"Looks like…This time I got one over…now you're not the only one… who got to the other side…"
Hashirama slowly stood up. Madara suddenly said "I can read you like an open book"
Hashirama said "wha…?"
Madara said "You have no sense of style…look at your haircut and those clothes… Don't get out much do you?"
Hashirama hunched. He got quite gloomy.
But Madara felt quite happy. After all, meeting with Hashirama had shown her that there is still some hope for future. Encountering someone who shared her vision of future made her anticipated peace more than ever.
Although, just to be clear about this; she didn't expect someone who would share her vision to be so different from her that this vision would be their only common point.
'It won't matter. If us who are clearly so different can reach a compromise, then no one can say they can't do it' she Thought.
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"Madara are you unwell?" her Mother asked.
Madara paused in middle of hungrily eating her food. She blinked in astonishment; wondering where that come from. "No, Mother. I'm quite well. Why do you ask?" She noticed that everyone was watching her and not eating.
Izuna was the one who answered "Nii-san, you are eating roe" Madara looked at her food. Indeed, she was consuming roe with great appetite. She didn't know what to say. She could taste foul taste of roe on her tongue. 'Why am I eating such a disgusting food?' She was at a loss.
Izuna continued "And weirder is that there is also inarizushi on table but you chose to have roe." He looked at Madara; eyes shining and face bright, expecting some sort of divine answer.
'He expect too much out of me.' She sweat dropped. 'What can be a good reason for me to treat roe as inarizushi?' She really didn't know. 'Better to quickly make some believable lie. I don't think [I met a boy] is the right answer on so many levels.'
She finally said "After everything that happened today and reflecting on my actions" she looked down; trying to look ashamed. Something that was quite hard when in reality she felt so happy. "I understood the errors of my way" 'more like sexism of uchiha clan' "And decided to eat roe for a week, so this lesson never gets erased from my memory." She said while trying to look penitent. 'Yeah, I'll never forget this lesson. That is spacing out anywhere anytime can take away your love. Roe for a week…' She could feel dark clouds gathering above her head.
Her Father grunted. "I see you took our words to heart" Madara looked up. A small hope was beginning to grow in her heart. Could Father stop my misery before it starts?
He looked at his wife "From today onward for a week, Madara's only food would be water and roe." Not only her hopes get crushed but her mood got even worse. 'Damn that Hashirama! It's entirely his fault"
Somewhere in opposite direction of uchiha base, Hashirama sneezed.
Now that Madara was aware of her food, she couldn't swallow a mouthful of it without choking. Each time chopsticks delivered food to her mouth; she felt tears swelling up in her eyes. The entire ordeal was pure torture for her and even worse was that she couldn't excuse herself before her Father finished.
So there were two choices for her, she could eat slowly so at the end of her father's meal, her consummation of food would be lesser; the drawback was that she had to savor the food.
Other choice was to eat as quickly as possible so she would not understand its taste much; its drawback was that the probability of puking her guts out would increase dramatically.
She realized with a sinking feeling 'It is a lose-lose situation. No matter what I choose, it won't lead to anything good for me.' At that moment she could fully sympathize with those who wished to pull their hair out after making a grave mistake.
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"Nii-san" Izuna who have followed her into her room said. By the way her room was quite barren; with only a table at one side and a newly spread futon on other side, also there was no window in her room even though one of her room's wall lead to outside. Because a window would increase chance of expose of her secret.
"Yes, Izuna?" She inquired. She had already changed her clothes and was about to sleep.
Izuna placed a plate of inarizushi in front of her. He smiled shyly "I picked up some for you. I thought you would be hungry." He grinned feeling quite proud of himself and said "And no one noticed what I did so don't worry and eat it nii-san."
"Izuna" She was so moved, she was ready to cry. She grabbed his hands "you're my hero" Then she gives him a bone crushing hug.
"Nii-san" Izuna protests "I'm not a child anymore. I'm too old for hugs"
Madara totally didn't care about his opinion and continued to hug him, after all he was her hero; who got her inarizushi after that thing that doesn't even deserve to be counted as a food. "Izuna I'm luckiest big brother in the whole world" She finally release him after saying this.
"heh heh! I know" Izuna said with a big grin. Madara playfully punched his head and said "don't get cocky" then she shooed him out of room "Go back to your room. It's time to sleep."
Izuna pouted "Don't want to! I'm not sleepy yet"
"Izuna" She said sternly. Izuna pouted even harder, and then he brightens up. " If you allow me to sleep here, I would sleep"
Madara frowned "Izuna, don't be difficult"
"pleaseeeeeeeeee! Just this time" Madara said hopelessly "but you said that last time too" 'and many times before that' she thought. But at this point both Madara and Izuna knew who the true winner was.
"I'm going to bring my futon" Izuna said while sprinting out of the room.
Madara sighed but even so, she pulled her futon aside to make room for her brother's. Then she begins to eat inarizushi. 'humm, it is truly a heavenly food.' She thought. After eating all of it, she found herself carving more. 'It can't be helped. I should be thankful even this much reached my hands.' She went to kitchen to wash crime evidence.
When she entered her room; she saw Izuna had placed his futon beside hers and was laying there patiently. She blew out the candles and went to sleep in her futon. Hopefully he won't ask for bedtime story.
"Nii-san, are you awake?" He whispered. 'If I weren't, now I am' thought Madara. "yes, Izuna. Do you need anything?" 'Please let me sleep. I'm exhausted'
"A story! Please nii-san" Hope was evident in his voice.
'Do I look like a story book? I wonder.' Madara thought. Even so she wanted nothing more than ignoring him and sleeping, she with a tired sigh began to fabricate a story and narrative it for her brother. "Once upon a time….." 'I was so sleepy'
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That week was one of the longest weeks in her life. She wasn't sure if her brother's help and her meeting with Hashirama weren't there she could have survived the week. But from that week onward she never again got captured in any of maneuver.
And about Hashirama; after their second meeting, they began to meet periodically; though they never exchanged surnames. They discussed their visions for future and snuck in some play time, testing their skills and techniques against one another.
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Madara was laying on ground after receiving a punch from hashirama in one of their spar. She said "Your martial arts and grappling are solid… I'd say about on par with mine."
"On par with yours?" Hashirama who was still standing despite also receiving a puch said "Who's the one eating dirt?"
"heh?" Madara said while waiting for something to happen. She didn't have to wait for a long time. A rock hits Hashirama's head and he sprawls on the ground.
Madara said "That's what you get for opening that big mouth!"
After the spar, they were tired so they decided to take a break on a big boulder. While Madara was drinking water Hashirama begins to speak "The way I see it, permanent lasting changes is the key… But those are just pretty words, I have no clue where we should start…"
Madara said "You start by never wavering and standing firm by your convictions… Then you attain unmatched strength and power… no one follow a weakling…"
Hashirama seriously said "Good point… We'll just keep mastering jutsu on top of jutsu… Then it'll reach a point where even adults won't be able to ignore us anymore…"
"We start by focusing on our weak points… Though, now that I think about it, I don't have any weak point per se…" Madara jumped down of the boulder they were resting on.
Hashirama was surprised by Madara's sudden leave.
Madara went to a secluded area to do her business; of course with help of that embarrassing thing.
In middle of her work she suddenly stopped; sensing someone behind her.
"You really can't drain the-" Hashirama was saying. Obviously he had followed her.
Madara interrupted angrily "I told you I'm really sensitive to my surroundings" 'pervert, pervert…' was repeated in her mind.
"Looks like you have one weak point…" Hashirama was saying but Madara interrupted him again "Say another word and you'll swim in my urine!" This of course was a bluff.
It didn't take long for them to get close and soon they formed a tight bond.