CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

Tsukuyomi

"So for weeks Madara and Hashirama just met at the river?" Sayuri asked, fascinated by the story she had never heard before.

Tobirama was reading a letter from one of the Fire Country's great lords as he continued. "They would skip pebbles and talk about Konoha. Back then, it was just a clearing beneath a cliff." He flipped the page. "I saw no harm in it but my father made me follow them and take care of Madara should the need arise. I knew Madara was an Uchiha, but I wasn't sure that Hashirama did."

"How could he not know?" Sayuri asked. Everywhere she went in Konoha they knew that she was an Uchiha the moment their eyes laid upon her. Madara was no exception. He was the fearsome stereotype of their clan. But as a child... "That was still in the Warring Era, was it not?"

"It was," Tobirama agreed. "But it didn't occur to him that Madara had been an enemy. Their goals had been too similar."

That Sayuri found a bit hard to believe. From the few moments she shared with Madara — including the ones where she was older, when he was teaching her about the Mangekyo — she knew that he was passionate, but it was in a different sense entirely than Hashirama. "And yet you didn't like Madara."

Tobirama smiled thinly. "It wasn't because of that I didn't like Madara. He was dangerous, yes, but that was an attribute to respect. Not one to hate."

She raised an eyebrow. "So why did you hate him?" She could remember Tobirama with all his glares and curt words towards the former Uchiha head. The obvious loathing in his eyes. The constant frowning. The apologetic laugh Hashirama would have to appease the two opposing forces with.

"It's complicated," he said without taking his eyes off the text. "It was predominantly because of Izuna, his —"

He stopped. Sayuri and he felt the presence at the exact same moment. Sayuri stood up, frowning, and went to the door. She looked down the corridor. It was so late into the night that it could have technically been called the early morning and the entire building was usually vacated at that hour. The corridors were cold without the sun, and only the rocks to protect it from the outside. But there was a different chill in the air. She heard footsteps. Tobirama went behind her and looked down the hallway. His eyes narrowed. "Kaname?"

And then she heard him falling. She ran towards the sound and saw Kaname — tall, muscular, angry, dark haired, piercing eyed, tattooed Kaname — crumble into a ball and writhing before all his muscles failed him and he went still completely. She rolled him over, laid him flat on his back and tried to pick up his chakra signals but it was...distorted. It was all over the place. There was no central location, no clear stream. It was fuzzy and —

"Genjutsu." Sayuri frowned.

Tobirama's eyes roamed over Kaname's still body. "A strong one. There are markings of a fight. This could have only been done with another Sharingan." He hunched down and held two fingers to Kaname's throat, then his wrist. "His vitals are fine, but I suspect he will be comatose."

Sayuri was still trying to read his chakra levels. "What should we do?" She didn't panic. He wasn't going to die; the concern was with who had done it to him. "Tobirama, he's feverish," she said. She laid his head on her lap. Sweat was beading from his forehead, and his eyes raced beneath the lids. She had never felt true sympathy for the Uchiha before but seeing him like that…

"Can you release him from the genjutsu?"

"Tobirama, I can't even tell what had happened —"

"Use your Sharingan."

She peered down at him with one red, one white Sharingan. Tobirama frowned. "The other one."

The Mangekyo. The shift to the other kekkei genkai burned the back of her eyes. It felt like she was ripping off a layer of skin over a healing wound but with it, she saw with a clarity that she had been without for months: she could see each dust on Kaname's eyelash, each sweat from the pores, each miniscule hair on his head. She saw flutters in stillness and even the air displace before Tobirama moved.

Tobirama looked around, checking the perimeters before he continued. "Concentrate your chakra towards his. Merge it."

Sayuri had no idea how he knew the things he did but the moment she did it, she was dragged into another world: a world of red and black and white; where up was down and down was up; east was west and west was east; heavens became hell, and no other existed. She gasped and jerked back into reality to see Tobirama dragging Kaname into his office. He held out his hand to her and she almost fell into him as she grabbed it. He locked the door behind him. "What happened?"

"Some...world," she panted. Her chest rose unsteadily. Her mind still raced away from the illusion even as she saw Tobirama in front of her, his red eyes still as ice. "I...I don't know." She tried again, her hand out reached to him as if physical contact would stabilize her. It didn't.

When she was sucked back into the world she found Kaname curled up in the very same position but he was moving his legs mechanically. It only led him to crawl in a circle. He mumbled something she could not understand.

She felt the vileness of the world attack her. Something is wrong, very wrong, she thought but even that was deafening and she had to crouch down and cover her ears for a moment. The world spun, black and white stars beneath her eyelids. It made her physically ill. She didn't know what she was doing only that she was breathless as she reached out towards him and memories that did not belong to her flashed before her —

Then Sayuri was back again. Her eyes fluttered shut before flashing open once again as her breath caught in her chest. Tobirama caught her as she fell over. "Sayu!"

Her mind flickered from reality to memory. Tobirama holding her. Kyoko in front of her. His arm around her. Kyoko on the ground. His other hand extended towards Kaname. Kyoko shouting. Tobirama's hands dug into her side, keeping her upright. Kyoko renouncing him. Kyoko stabbing him, Kaname. Kyoko disintegrating, her face twisted as she howled before —

Sayu.

She screamed.

Her fingers clawed to the side of her head as her mind tore the two worlds apart. She smashed her head against a mental wall she could not escape that kept her in the in-between. She screamed as her mind ripped reality from illusion. A surge of chakra raced up her body and she felt the two separate, inducing a pain that was nearly blinding. Separating the two visions was ripping each cell of her brain apart as it tried to stay in one world but was torn from the other but in an instant the pain was gone and she gave over into darkness then...nothing.

The last thing she saw before she fell into numbness was Kaname gasping, crying out Kyoko's name.

xxx

Tomoyouki had no idea why Tobirama called him in. He only knew that the young Hokage better had a damn good reason or else he would have quit the council — no, retire — and leave the young shinobi to their little village.

"I know that you are some nocturnal creature, but you better — uh." Tomoyouki stopped. Was he still asleep? He was standing with his eyes closed, ignorant of his surroundings and what laid in front of him, after all. "Tobirama."

The Hokage crossed his arms. His eyes opened, but just barely. "Yes?"

"You got two Uchihas on the floor. Did you know that?"

His jaw tightened. "I do."

"I think I know that one. On the right. The girl."

Tobirama sighed, and closed his eyes again. "Tomoyouki, have you seen this genjutsu before? Before Sayuri fainted, she said it was some world. But the only time I'd ever seen a genjutsu as powerful as this one was —"

"Uchiha Ishikawa, eighteen years ago." Madara's grandfather. How Tobirama remembered something that happened when he was three, Tomoyouki will never know but he knew never to underestimate the boy's mental capabilities. "He drove two of our clansman insane before they became as dumb as lettuce."

Tobirama stiffened. "You don't think that Sayuri —"

"No, no," Tomoyouki said immediately. He knelt down, making a lot of tired noises as he did so, and touched her head. The chakra flow was normal. "This one is fine. Just a little shock. The other one…" He frowned. "Isn't this Kyoko's brat? No, his son — brat junior?"

"He was working under me."

"I remember," the old man said gruffly. It was strange to see the usual twisted face so relax and calm in sleep. He looked less like a pest that way. "You named this idiot the head of your security group." Tomoyouki would also never understand why Tobirama made that move when he knew that Tobirama was fiercely protective of his little Uchiha and Brat Junior had, on more than one occasion, provoked her but it wasn't Tomoyuki's place to question Tobirama's judgement. The boy had seen war, and would not be where he was if he trusted the wrong people.

"Do you think he was targeted by someone of his clan?" Tobirama asked. His hands balled in a fist. His eyes went to Sayuri in a movement that looked instinctive. The slight gesture did not go unnoticed. Tomoyouki's mouth cracked into a grin.

"Go ahead and touch her. Stroke her face. Pet her hair. I won't tell," Tomyouki said with a mighty laugh. When he saw Tobirama's jaw clench, he laughed loud enough to wake the village. "Don't you go making that face at me, I can see your jawline well enough. Your teeth are going to be ground into powder if you'll keep at it like that whenever someone calls out you and this little lady." Tomoyouki stood up. "Thanks for showing me the effect of Ishikawa's genjutsu. When you find the name of the jutsu, remember to tell me. I'd be interested to know. In fact, if you found out who did the genjutsu, that would even be better. Now, an old man has gotta sleep…"

"Wait." Tobirama stood up after him. "I need you to take them."

The old man made a face. His hazel eyes moved from the Hokage to the two bodies and then back to the pale young man that stood in front of him imposingly. "You're not serious. You're playing with the wrong old man, Tobirama."

"I need you to take these two away into safety until I know who attacked Kaname."

Tomoyouki frowned. "I could see the logic behind that but…"

"But what? Your back is too old to lift the two?"

"I can barely lift the small one," Tomoyouki incorrectly stated. "Can't you leave them there?"

"They know that Sayuri will be here."

"They. The omnipresent they." Tomoyouki sighed and scratched his head and what remained of his hair. "Fine, I'll take these two out of Konoha's way. But what should I do with the little lady when she wakes up?"

"I will come to you." Tomoyouki could see the boy hokage's urge to look back at his lover but he knew for the sake of appearing as The Hokage, he did not. "The priority lies with finding out who is the culprit. I need you to do this for me, and later we will have a cup of tea."

Tomoyouki smiled. "A cup of tea, huh?"

Tobirama looked at him grimly.

A cup of tea. Back when they were still a squad, it meant only one thing: Regroup. One strategy. One attack. And someone would be going down. Not once had it been Tobirama and even as Tomoyouki's eyes inspected the tall weakening man, Tomoyouki had no doubt in the young Hokage's success.

xxx

Hideharu woke up to silkscreens filtering out the morning light. In front of him was a banner: except it was more of a board than banner. Encrusted on steel was the Uchiha symbol made of ruby and and pearl on a field of obsidian. It was ridiculously heavy, but his mother had thought that their wealth could not have been greater symbolized than through gems and sparkly things.

His lady mother said a great deal of things. Family. Blood. Power. Duty. Behind it all: Uchiha.

Hideharu always had great pride in the fact that he was born from such a fearsome clan, let alone the heir of such a powerful union. His father, Uchiha Naru and his mother Kyoko were one of the most powerful duos the Uchiha clan claimed to have. His father died young, he had been told. His eyes taken from him. But Kyoko was not weakened — she was the woman who changed the role of her gender for the next fifty years in the clan. There had been strong women, but Kyoko was the first legendary one. She broke the mold of mothers and wives and made path for true kunoichi. Not whisperers, seducers, but fighters.

And she was nowhere to be found.

When his wife, the mother of all his children, passed away, Kyoko retook the position of matriarchy for his children. She surely left an impact — a scar on all of them, but none more than Kaname.

And along with his mother, his son was nowhere to be found. Kaname was a man grown now, that was true, but he had been disappearing more often than not. If the rumours were true then Kaname had found himself a place in the government. Hideharu did not know if that was a good thing or not. It is better than squandering his abilities with the police force, he thought.

With a sigh Hideharu got up. He hated to go to council meetings where he would have to sit down with egotistic idiots. All they ever did was complain and make strategies — but for what? The Uchiha clan was in no position to rise against Konoha. Perhaps a year ago when Hashirama had been the leader and disctracted with fighting the war was still a priority. But not now.

With Tobirama in charge, Hideharu would never be foolish enough to start an uprising. The young Hokage and his council of veteran shinobi — not to say that Tobirama himself was not seasoned — would flatten them. Hideharu had no doubt about it. With the Sarutobi, Nara, Shimura, Akimichi, Aburame, Inuzuka, Yamanaka clan on the Senju's side, the Uchihas stood no chance. Now with the Hyugas — a year after, at last — being brought into the fold Hideharu was not arrogant enough to believe that the Uchihas were as strong as they had been when they were simply clans fighting against clans. It was a clan against a village now. That's the point of Konoha.

Hideharu got up. He put on his clothing methodically, his eyes never more than half open. He felt tired. He had only been the head for four months but he was completely tired of listening to the same tedious problems over and over again. Perhaps the police force is a good idea...it'll keep our men occupied.

It was the same thing his mother —

His mother.

Where was his mother?

She was sixty two, but far from elderly. She did not sleep in. Every morning she did her rounds to check on the training of the younger children. Following that thought Hideharu thought about an ever present victim of Kyoko's "check up": Sayuri.

The girl was more valuable than Kyoko would ever let on, and she emphasized that enough to Kaname already. It just wasn't the fact that Sayuri had unlocked her Sharingan and Mangekyo; those stages were meaningless because she did not know how to fully wield it. She did not know how to copy and mimic jutsus, she didn't know what the power she was capable of and she was far from being able to utilize the kekkei genkai to create her own jutsu that can add to the feared reputation of the Uchiha clan as her predecessors had done before.

No, she was not a powerful ally. But she could make them one.

He wanted to create a union between Kaname and she. Animosity could easily be replaced by love; both were passionate emotions that bound two together. Kaname detested the idea, but when had he ever accepted? When he was supposed to marry Uchiha Yuuki, he hated her. She annoyed him, he complained. She was weak, not ambitious enough. The same happened to Uchiha Naori except this time the girl was a vixen. When Kyoko tried to take another approach and wed into an equally powerful dojutsu-famed clan, Hyuga Chiharu had been his fiancée for several weeks...until she married someone of the Naka clan because Kaname had not bowed to their customs. I am no branch member, father.

I don't want to think about all this so early in the morning. He sighed.

Hideharu went outside and breathed in the cool air. He focused chakra in his nasal cavity and smelled...no one.

Kaname is an adult. My mother is...my mother is Uchiha Kyoko. What do I have to worry for?

Everything. They did not get along as grandmother and grandchild should, even with the Uchiha factor considered. Kaname was dutiful and did as his grandmother bid him but a fury was always concealed and flaming beneath his cool exterior. Kyoko's constant belittling may have infuriated a child and adolescent Kaname but it could downright cause an adult to despise her.

The moment he left his family compound his council was waiting for him. They leaned against the walls with their eyes intent on the growing police building. It was nearly done now. The shape, the infrastructure, the banner: it was all there. Now just the people to fill them. "Will you be needing escorts today?"

Hideharu gave them a cold glance. "Have you men forgotten how I was appointed the Head?" If a shinobi could not protect himself, what was the point of him being assigned a duty to protect a clan? "I will do just fine by myself." He wasn't some royal personnel untrained in the art of shinobi, and he did not need something as unnecessary as escorts.

After all he did not need a tail of Uchihas to watch as he succumb to accepting each and every demand of the police force.

xxx

Tobirama would not consider himself a submissive person. He was dutiful, more than often deferential but never obsequious nor obedient. Yet when Tomoyouki sent word that Sayuri had awoken with news and he best come as soon as possible so that the Uchiha pair can leave by the approaching daybreak, he was very tempted to drop everything and follow Tomyouki's order of when and where and for how long.

But he knew better. He had to continue being the Hokage as if nothing was wrong. He had to entertain his council, accept missions, correspond with lords, approve the mission rankings, prepare strategies for a later meeting with his war and peace council, read up of Hyuga clan customs for a ceremony in which he would be expected to take part of, pay the merchants for the equipment that they had sent to the Academy through Sayuri's negotiation on a price that made him feel like a thief, give a briefing to four squads and he suspected that he will have to take Sayuri's role for the day and task and meet with all the Academy professionals.

And then there were little things he had to do. Speak to his own squad. Appear in the village so that they do not forget his face and make a ghost legend out of him. Be there before Tsunade fall asleep like he promised to. And eat. He needed to eat.

So as his list got ticked off and Tobirama finished more and more of the task, the letter that came in from Tomoyouki from a squirrel that crawled along Tobirama's window became easier to submit to. With only the reading, the sealing of the contract, the ranking and Tsunade to tuck in left to do — and eating, he thought, but he wasn't sure if he had missed one or two meals, but he did distinctly remember the meal at Mito's — Tobirama slipped out of his office.

Men and women were still walking about and all looked up and bowed their heads at him as they passed by. Some smiled in awe, others smiled shyly, and one or two smiled flirtatiously. It could be no later than seven.

Yet even in the Land of Fire where cold weather and snow was scarce, the nights did get longer in winter. Despite the amount of times he had written the date he did not realize that almost a year had passed since he became the Hokage. They were on the edge of the cold season, so close to what he hoped would be Konoha's first summer and a bountiful harvest to follow —

He was out of the mountains. There were squads practising in the training grounds surrounding the monuments but he decided to avoid all of them as he disguised his chakra and slipped into the shadows of the trees.

Tobirama knew that Tomoyouki would head somewhere far off, and underground. The old man always had an affinity for earth. It was one of the reasons why he and Hashirama got along so well. Tomyouki's instruction read for three and two quarter miles north of his office. There was an emphasis on strict north and a constant reminder of avoiding twist and turns. North, you must go north. Don't do tricks and spins, do you hear? the old man had wrote.

He was three miles out when he saw Sayuri.

The first thing he noticed was that she was changed into shinobi gear: a well-fitted dark suit, worn leather black gloves, tall sandals with the bandages wrapped high. In one glance, he detected a pouch for kunai and shuriken and metal wire but what caught his attention was her clan's crest at her hip. She looked every bit like a kunoichi, and every bit like an Uchiha.

Yet when she saw him, her face lit up and she was just Sayu.

She pulled a heavy black cloak over her clothing and held it together with yet another silver Uchiha pin. As she went to him she pulled the hood down and the face behind it was so familiar despite the startling clan garments. "You came," she said, almost a sigh.

"Tomoyouki told me that you will be leaving with Kaname."

Her eyes scanned the forest. No one. "The genjutsu is unlike anything I've ever seen or read about," she said quietly. "It has something to do with the Mangekyo, but I know nothing of it. We hope to find information in the old base my clan fortified up north but I don't know who we will run into."

"Is that why…" He let his assumption hang in the air as his eyes roamed her once again. She smiled and pushed apart the cloak to reveal her hand. Slipping off the leather glove, she waved her fingers at him. On the index of her right hand was a metal ring with the sign of Konoha encrusted in it deeply.

He smirked at that. It was a ring he had given her weeks ago to stamp his seal whenever she needed it. There was red wax still etched in the deep corners. "Well I'm glad to see that you're not abandoning all ties."

Sayuri laughed but it faded as she looked behind her. She pulled back up her hood. "Tomoyouki is readying Kaname for the journey but I don't know...what if he collapses?"

"Summon Kin," Tobirama suggested with a slight shrug. When she began to smile again, he straightened. "I'll assign you this mission: Rank A. You will deliver Kaname to the former Uchiha fortress. You will find any and all information on the Mangekyo. Help him, cure him if needs be. Under no circumstances should you engage or provoke combat and the most important aspect —"

"Not to lose my eyesight?" she interrupted with a small laugh. "The rest of it?"

"To come back." Tobirama felt the day's exhaustion slow him down once again. "Do you understand?"

"I'll try."

Tobirama looked at her, and then behind her where he heard two shinobi approaching them. Try? It wasn't good enough. "Take your time," he said with a hint of uncertainty. "There is no rush. Just be careful. Please."

A tiny smile curved on her mouth as she watched him from beneath her hood. He continued. "We have all the time in the world when you get back. But Sayu," he said but paused. He did not feel right about this. "Perhaps I should —"

"You're not coming," she interrupted. She looked behind her. The moon moved above them, lighting the path through the tiny rays that escaped the clutter of leaves adorning each branch of the hundred-feet tall trees. But it was Sayuri he saw, her blind eye that was the colour of the moon. "You are not coming," she repeated when he continued to look apprehensive.

She took a step towards him, closing the distance and tilting her head up as in for a kiss but she stopped short inches from him. It took him a painfully slow moment to realize that it was because she was too short and did not want to touch him first. He tried not to smile at that and suspected he failed.

Sayuri.

He bent down, careful to only allow his fingers to skim over the neck her cloak. He could feel her take a breath but the —

"I do have a knack for interrupting sweet moments, don't I?"

Tobirama moved back —

But Sayuri did not. Her hands moved to keep him still as she leaned up and pressed her mouth against his. Soft lips. Warm mouth. He felt himself slow down but it was in a completely different way than the prior exhaustion. It was him falling into an intimacy he had never felt before and simply the feeling of throwing everything out the window and focusing on Sayu —

She went back down on her feet. Tomoyouki gawked. Kaname dragged his eyes up, swaying. Sayuri took a deep breath. "I'll be back."

"Soon," Tobirama heard himself say. Sayuri. Timid Sayu. Quiet Sayu. Uncertain Sayu. But she was none of those things, not then. He was.

She let her hands fall from his shirt. Looking down at them as she pulled the glove back on, she said with a confidence that seemed too force, "It'll be a smooth trip. I have gone there half a hundred times."

With the might of the Uchiha clan behind — ahead, perhaps — of her, Sayu did not say but he knew she was thinking. "Be safe," he said again. It was all he could say. What else could he say?

Tomoyouki said it for him.

"Yes, yes. I love you. I love you too, Tobi. You are the love of my life, my reason for going on. Just you're making me nervous. You and this lettuce should leave before the rest of your clan come after you with bloody eyes and itching fingers."

Sayuri tore her eyes away from him to look at Tomoyouki. "What?"

"Lettuce?" Kaname had it in him enough to question.

"Go," Tomoyouki insisted. "We have given your clan almost twenty four hours. They know that Kyoko is missing. They know that Lettuce is missing. And I give them a couple more seconds until they realize you are missing and this man is too old to take on an entire clan."

"I never thought I would hear the day you'd say that, Tomoyouki," Tobirama admitted. Moors, rainy days, hidden suns, dulled and scratched blades — and blood. A lot of blood. And there would be a laughing Tomoyouki with the Senju sigil stitched into his armour prevailing over it all — that was the first image Tobirama had of the now old man. The old man standing in front of him with his back erect and shifty eyes was the very same, even if he claimed otherwise.

"Well there used to be a day where I would shred up lettuce and finish them up before breakfast."

Kaname stared. "By lettuce…"

"We should go," Sayuri said. She turned back to Tobirama. Wind flew behind her, ruffling the hood of her cloak. He reached forward, pulling them over her head. Her face was lost in its shadows but he could still see the silver glint of her one blind eye.

"Be safe."

She opened her mouth to say something before shaking her head. She held up her wrist. Bare and pale.

"Not cattle," she simply said before he understood her intent.

He placed his hands over her wrist. A black seal came alive, flourishing from nothing. "The moment you are within my range, I will come."

She covered her wrist her sleeve then pulled up the leather glove over it. "I know you will."

Tobirama knew that this was not the same girl who left with Kagami to retrieve the herb. Nor was she the same girl that went with Enoki to deliver Mito. She was a bit stronger, a bit more resilient.

But most of all, Sayuri was no longer wallowing. She was alive and had every intent to remain that way.

Thank you for reading! (: Reviews would be lovely.