Mito Uzumaki lay the tiny infant in Izu's arms. "It's a healthy boy... Kaiya asked that his name be Futoshi Uchiha."
Gazing at Izu and the infant sadly, she placed her hand on the head of the two year old boy who sat next to his father looking up suspiciously at the small squirming bundle.
"Can I see her now?" Izu asked inspecting the fingers of the infant in his arms. "Before you take her away?"
"In just a moment." Mito replied. "They are cleaning her up."
Wiping tears from her own eyes, Eiko nodded "thank you" to her friend and took the infant from her son. "I'll watch the baby and Toshito. Go say good bye to your sister."
In the last five years, not only had the first war raged on, but tragedy had struck the village, not once but multiple times.
After Lord Hashirama Senju's suspicious death, the anonymous backer, code named Eye of the Moon, slipped back into oblivion. Tobirama took over as the second hokage and sent the tactical team to successfully assassinate the first raikage and the second mizukage in an attempt to cripple both nations.
The second hokage then went onto expand the black operatives unit, adding a torture and interrogation force and an analysis team. Tobirama's ideals were much darker and more paranoid than his brother's, which alienated many of those who were deeply loyal to Hashirama. Soon he began to use the ANBU units to spy on their own comrades, in particular the Uchiha clan with whom Tobirama had always had a tenuous relationship.
Despite Tobirama's demands that Izu stay on and continue to lead and train the black ops teams, Izu was among those who refused to be a part of this expansion. He retired to his lab and married Ichioku, passing the mantel onto his students. They had a son, Toshito Uchiha, before Ichioku was killed with her brother, Sashin, at the third kage summit, where the second hokage was almost assassinated too.
Now Izu's sister, Kaiya, who later fell in love and married her long time rival, Sashin Uchiha, just passed away giving birth to their first son, leaving Futoshi an orphan after only being hours old.
Since both Akihito and Isa were getting up in age, Izu agreed to take the boy and raise him with his own young son. And over the years, the three became almost inseparable to the point that eventually no one really remembered which boy was Izu's actual biological son.
It was not until Tobirama was finally killed in an ambush by the Kinkaku Force, right after naming Hiruzen Sarutobi the third hokage, that the first war ended. By this point, Izu had fully isolated himself and his family from the life of a working ninja. His house and lab lay on the outskirts of the village within the Uchiha compound and he only entered the main village to visit the Hyuga compound and the hospital from time to time.
News from his old life only filtered back to him through Kagami who appeared at his front stoop from time to time. Kagami always brought his wife and infant with him under the pretext of visiting cousins, but he really came for Izu's advice as his old sensei.
"Lord Third has given almost complete control of large sections of the black ops over to Danzo." Kagami offered one day as they stood alone together out on Izu's patio. "And Danzo has not changed a bit since the time that we worked under you."
Izu raised an eyebrow. Hashirama's initial plan had come to fruition. But he was certain that the first hokage was not fully aware of how devious Danzo could be. He was also not sure Hiruzen Sarutobi had the disposition necessary to control Danzo. "Danzo came to my lab again, not long ago. At the time I wasn't sure what he wanted... but I knew he was fishing for something."
"Your experiments helped enhance Danzo's powers in the past... he's looking for more of that." Kagami replied. "He must be desperate if he dared come to you."
Izu scoffed, "Danzo has been snooping around my lab for years. He is resourceful. He'll find another way now that he has the hokage under his thumb. I'm more worried about you. You need to be careful. Between the growing hostility that Lord Tobirama left between the village and our clan... and whatever fate hands the village under Lord Third and Danzo, you are going to be stuck in the middle, Kagami."
Kagami nodded. "It would be helpful if you came back. You are the only one who Danzo ever listened to... even when he disagreed."
Izu shook his head. "Danzo never listened to me. He just patiently waited for me to get out of his way."
Eiko sat on the banks of the river watching as Izu patiently showed Toshito and Futoshi how to fish. The two young boys were now eleven and nine. They truly looked like brothers and Uchiha, with thick shaggy dark hair and quizzical black eyes.
Though Toshito was Izu's true son, Futoshi looked and acted more like him. He was often so quiet, one forgot he was there. Toshito, on the other hand, was loud, boisterous, and much more confident than he was skillful. But underneath it all, Toshito was far too kind hearted whereas Futoshi could be calculated and fiercely competitive, not caring who he embarrassed in the process.
Both boys finally started at the ninja academy a year ago. Toshito, just barely made it into the class though he was about to turn ten, whereas this was the second time Futoshi was accepted, since Izu refused to let him start the first two times that Lord Third nominated him for the class.
Eiko could tell that even though Futoshi was only blood related as a distant cousin, Izu was just as worried about him turning into Madara Uchiha as he was his biological son.
He breathed a sigh of relief when Toshito developed a sharingan in both eyes and only seemed to demonstrate the average skills of his mother. But he still held his breath as Futoshi had long surpassed his own mother and grandfather and seemed to be more like his distant cousin in ambition than anyone wanted to believe.
"You are still just a kid. You need to enjoy it and act like a kid, Futoshi." Izu attempted to suppress this by forcing Futoshi to do regular kid like activities instead of spending all of his time honing his ninjutsu, like he always did when left to his own device. So here they were today, out fishing much to Futoshi's dismay.
Eiko was not sure why she picked that day to go with them, but it was a clear spring day without a cloud in the sky so anyone would want to be outside in the nice weather.
"Izu! I'm going to go for a walk down the banks!" She called back towards her family as she strolled down the river, further away from the village. Izu only gave her a half nodded not taking his eyes off his two students, who continued to get themselves tangled up in the fishing lines.
She came upon some bushes with wild blue berries growing and decided to stop to pick some for her two grandsons. After she filled her apron with berries, she became aware that she was being watched. She continued to pick berries, activating her byakugan to subtly assess her situation. She was fully surround by at least ten ninja. They were Suna ninja. Eiko was fully aware that Konohagakure and Sunagakure were currently embroiled in another conflict, which had ended the decade of peace after the first war. So the fact that ten of them lay in the brush, watching her was an unsettling feeling. She had to keep them there and away from the children down the river with Izu.
Dropping her apron full of berries, Eiko spun to meet her first attacker knocking away his knife strike and pressing the butt of her palm into the center of his chest. It was a signature kill strike passed through the daughters of the main family. A gentle motion with just enough chakra forced into that one point to contort the chakra network around the large arteries behind the sternum, sending blood forcefully into his heart and causing cardiac muscle to rupture. As the ninja stumbled back to his death another two entered into her range. She stepped wide into her juuken stance, using the eight trigrams sixty four palms formation to target as many vital points as quickly as possible. But there were too many attackers and these were not ordinary ninja. They wore turban like cloths over their faces and they were highly skilled at working together as one, almost like her own clan. Only one more stepped into the trap, the rest found the range of her attack and kept outside of it.
Slowing back into her gentle fist stance, Eiko waited for the next attack. She had used up a significant amount of chakra just for her first two attacks.
The remaining six charged her at once. She found herself cover by attackers, until they had her restrained. Eiko let them capture her as she concentrated and opened her tenketsu as wide as possible expelling blasts of chakra from several different directions. Her attackers were sent flying as she collapsed to her knees exhausted.
Eiko could feel Mito realizing the danger through the binding seal. She would send help. But it may have been too late. Because now more of them came, finally overwhelming her. A bag was forced down over EIko's head and her arms bound behind her back as she was pushed roughly to the ground.
Her captors grabbed her legs dragging her behind them like a rag doll. Between the rough handling and the lack of air in the bag over her head, she felt herself close to passing out. Then abruptly she was dropped and she could hear some sort of struggle outside of the sack. It occurred so quickly, she wondered what had happened. Then she felt herself being picked up and carried.
Whoever picked her up, did so gently, so she was certain it was a friend. She called through the sack. "Hello? Who are you?"
She got no answer in return and only found herself adjusted like a doll, so that her bound arms were thrust around a neck and some shoulders. She could feel the tense muscles beneath her embrace, so she knew this was a man. She just wished she could take off the bag over her head to see exactly who had saved her.
Eventually, she found herself being placed down on the ground. The man helped untie her wrists and ankles and then removed the bag from her head. She sat up and turned to see who it was, but he had already disappeared that quickly.
She was inside a dark cave... more like a hole in the ground than an actual cave. But she was not alone. He had moved away but not too far. She could see his outline in the shadows just feet from her. She got up on her knees and squinted though she recognized the form almost immediately.
He still had not changed much. Though they were both in their late fifties now, Madara still appeared closer to Izu's age of thirty five and not much older than he looked when they were married. His hair remained stark black where Eiko's hair was graying slightly. Only the forming bags under his eyes gave away his true age. He turned away quickly as she moved to see him, grumbling over his shoulder, "Are you ok... Lady Eiko?"
"Madara. Thank you for saving me." Eiko stood up on her wobbling legs and attempted to move closer to him.
He asked more forcefully, "are you ok? Did they hurt?"
"Yes... I'm fine." She continued to struggle towards him though her head was still woozy. "How did you know to come? How did you know they had me?"
He turned back towards her and watched quietly as she approached him, but he made no offer to help her when she stumbled. She could tell from the look on his face that he had been watching her with Izu and their two grandsons at the river banks and that was how he knew to save her. He looked undecided, as though he was struggling with something in his mind, but he did not look angry or even hostile. There was more life in his face at that moment than she had seen in a long time, and when a resigned look fell over his eyes, it drew her even closer.
"You aren't dead then." Eiko stated bluntly to fill the silence. There were several rumors of Madara's death over the years. This last one had produced a body which Eiko witnessed with her own eyes. She hated to think what exactly disturbed his false grave and brought him back from the dead. "Everyone believed you were actually dead this last time. Why did you not stay dead?"
"So this how you greet the long lost husband who just saved your life, Lady Eiko?" Madara sneered at her, attempting to appear annoyed. But he finally closed the space between them, grabbing her around the waist to prevent her from falling forward and inspected her closely in the dim light.
She could feel his cool breath against her skin as he stared down at her in the dark. He moved his lips so they grazed her forehead, commenting offhandedly, "Even after all these years, you are still as beautiful as that night that I first laid eyes on you."
Eiko ignored Madara's comment, keeping her white eyes averted from his intense black eyes. "You did not come back to the village after Hashirama died... why now?"
Madara looked away and out of the cave mouth. "I've heard rumors that you spend a significant amount of time with that Uchiha family currently on the river banks."
"That is Akihito's son. He is the same age as our son would have been had he lived... I like spending time with him and his children." Eiko lied defensively. Madara's face remained unchanged and she could not tell if he believed her. She had a feeling he did not.
Pushing back away from him, she gave him a long hard look. "Though both Hashirama and Tobirama are gone, there are still those of us who remember you clearly -like Mito and myself. Don't think we will just let you meddle with the village."
"You seem to be under the false impression that Hashirama and Tobirama were the reason why I've never attempted to meddle in the issues between the Uchiha clan and the village." Madara moved closer again, so he was looking straight down at Eiko. She saw something human flash through his gaze then. He placed a hand on her cheek and stroked it softly. "I told you once that you will always be the one good part left of me. I wasn't saying that just to say it."
"You've said many things to me to me over the years. Most of them too terrible to repeat." Eiko replied defiantly, not allowing her racing heart to show on her face. But not pulling away from Madara's touch either.
"Some of it was true... most of it was not." Madara stated, hesitantly. He had been expecting her to shrink away from his touch and was taken aback when she did not.
Now Eiko narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, tears starting to fall from their edges. She demanded, "Why are you saying these things to me now?"
"I've known about the problems between my clan and the village for awhile now. I also know you have been keeping secrets from me... about our son. I won't promise to stay away forever, but I don't plan to do anything about it while you still live in the village." Madara replied. He looked at her as though it pained him to do so. "I can't do anything about it... because of you."
As his voice trailed off, he let his hand fall. But Eiko grabbed it, enveloping his large hand with her smaller hands. "Madara, it's not too late. You can still turn back."
He shook his head at her and his face hardened again. "You are the only one who believes that, Lady Eiko. Your heart really doesn't ever waiver, does it?"
"No it doesn't." Eiko replied, adamantly.
Madara turned away and walked towards the mouth of the cave. "I will make sure you make it back to the village safely and then I will leave again. Tell the Uzumaki that before she starts ringing alarm bells."
