One month later…
Her eyes were closed and she breathed in deeply.
"Go!" Madara commanded and she jumped into the air over his head running toward the targets hanging from the trees in the underground forest.
"3" Hashirama called out.
"5"
"1 and 6"
"7"
"2 and 4" He called out the last numbers.
Thunk. Thunk.
Shizuka's last kunai hit their targets spot on. She landed next to Hashirama at the end of her training field they had set up for her.
"Good job, not a one of them missed." Madara complimented her.
"You even got the one behind the tree over there!" Hashirama grinned a her. The one he was referring too had been the only one she had missed the last week of her training.
She smiled at them. It had only been a month but she had been training almost non stop and she felt like her effort was paying off. She had read the scroll on chakra control several times and was working on focusing her chakra into her hands to infuse them with extra strength. There had been a few mishaps, she had infused her hand with chakra and hit a boulder only to break her hand painful when the chakra faded away, instead of helping her force her way through the boulder with her fist. It still needed work but she was determined to get it right.
Shizuka knew from the scroll that in theory if she could infuse her hands with chakra she could eventually over time quite literally punch a hole in a mountain and possibly level it. She just needed to maintain the infused chakra long enough without thought to complete the motion.
Madara had already told her she had perfect chakra control, she just needed to find a way to stabilize it once it flooded to the area of her body she wanted it to go to. He showed her how to walk up the side of a tree using her chakra, by pushing the chakra to her feet. He told her in order to do that she had to have perfect chakra control. She just needed to maintain it for the higher level jutsus, and that is what she was working on. Follow through and maintaining the chakra fusion.
Madara went and changed the targets locations for her next run while she sat and tried to force her chakra into her hand. Her hand glowed green then fizzled out. She took a deep breath and tried again. Focusing her chakra and guiding it to her hand she envisioned it flowing like water from her reserves over her veins, down her arm to her fingertips. She made a fist and hit the ground...The whole floor shook and she fell into a new crater beside her, made by her fist.
"Wow." Hashirama said staring at the small crater.
"I did it." She whispered, then loudly, "I did it!"
"Do it again." Madara had finished setting the target's up and had come over to look at the crater.
"Outside, I don't want to destroy the cave." She got up and dusted her pants off heading for the entrance.
They stood outside a little bit from the cave and she concentrated on the flow of chakra moving around her body, guided the flow through her arm over her hand to her fingers, she made a fist and slammed it into the ground, the ground around her dainty hand erupted in an explosion of rock and dust.
Madara and Hashirama had jumped away from her just in time and turned to see their pink haired friend standing at the bottom center of the biggest crater they had ever seen.
"Holy crap, we can't piss her off anymore Hashi, we'll have to behave from now on." Madara grinned at Shizuka.
"Magnificent and scary." Hashirama exclaimed.
"Did you see that?" She was grinning from ear to ear, "I did it!" She jumped up and down dancing where she stood.
"Good job, now more target practice, that isn't a move you can practice here anymore, you'll bring down the cave, not to mention changing the landscape of the forest will bring people here faster than ants on dango." Madara warned her.
"That is amazing!" Hashirama was already at her side hugging her till she squeaked.
She just laughed and crawled out of the crater with him and they went back into the cave for more target practice.
Shizuka hit the called out targets quickly and accurately three more times before Madara called for a break. She couldn't help but skip to them by the fire that night with sheer glee. She was so proud of herself. Madara handed her a bowl of rabbit stew that Hashirama had made, taking his own bowl and sitting down on the second bench by the fire.
In the last month, while she practiced her aim and read the scrolls Madara had brought her , her boys had been hard at work making three more benches, a food pantry and kitchen. Right now they were working on the living room/bedroom. She would never complain but she hoped it would be up soon, the nights were getting so cold she almost set her bedding on fire one night because she had rolled over in her sleep trying to get warmer.
Hashirama had arrived that morning with Madara and they immediately started planning out the dimensions of the room and cutting planks from the trees they had cut down previously in preparation. They had the layout lined with planks and were planning to get at least three walls up by the end of the week. The futon platforms had been made and were stuffed with three oversized futons that touched on the sides to look much like one big long wide bed. While they each slept on their own futon, there weren't any spaces or borders in between the futons much to Madara's annoyance when he woke with Hashirama draped over him like a blanket one day.
The three walls were going to go around the futons grouping and lead into the kitchen walls, separated by a small hallway. It was very simple and was coming along nicely. She was proud of her boys.
Shizuka was drawn back from her thoughts by Hashirama sitting down on her bench beside her with his own bowl of stew, spooning it into his mouth as if it wasn't boiling hot and burning the skin off the roof of his mouth with every bite. How he did that she would never know. She had to eat hers slowly so it could cool. Madara was like Hashirama, he could eat things at an impossibly hot temperature, it amazed her.
"I will be gone for a few days but when I come back I think we should work on your Earth jutsu." Madara said in between bites.
"Okay, I wanted to work on my Water jutsu too. Would it be best if I concentrate on them one at a time? If I work on learning a jutsu to mastery and then move onto another?" She asked them.
"I think that is a good idea, that way you aren't over stretching yourself. Focus on one thing at a time." Hahsirama said.
"I agree. We will work on your Earth style wall first, then you can work on a Water technique after." Madara said.
She nodded, yes that made sense, she didn't want to spread herself too thin and accomplish nothing and wear herself out in the process.
"Where are you going for three days Mada?" She asked him. She had grown used to them showing up at odd times or not showing for a few days here and there unexpectedly over the last month.
"Clan stuff." He said finishing his bowl and setting it in the dirty dish basket by the door of the cave.
"I will be gone as well, for my clan meetings, but I will come back as soon as I can." Hashirama promised. He set his bowl in the basket on top of Madara's and then went to his bag her left by his futon. He had spent the night with her in their cave last night.
"I forgot, I brought you these scrolls on water release jutsu Shizuka, some of them are very advanced but I thought you could read them and there are two scrolls on medical jutsu in there as well." Hashirama hands her a small stack of scrolls.
"Thank you Hashi!" She takes the scrolls from him with an excited face. She can't wait to read them. "I will have plenty of time to read them in the next few days while you two are handling clan affairs."
"Just promise to be careful Shizuka, stay in the barrier and don't use your new found monstrous strength until we get back." Madara teased her.
"Yes, please be safe while we are gone." Hashirama smiled kindly at her.
"I will." She promised. They left soon after, both hugging her and telling her they would be back soon.
After they had gone she turned and looked around the cavern. She was still struck every once in a while by the surrounding beauty. She looked over at the basket of dirty dishes, later she thought. Now that her boys were gone she wanted to take a bath. Walking over to the clothes hamper Hashirama had brought her two weeks ago she pulled out a black kimono and red sash, some tabbed wooden sandals with black toes dividers and two black and red hair ornaments. She admired the hair ornaments in her hand before she placed them on top of the pile of clothes. The boys were so good to her. Madara had gifted her the outfit last week and said he couldn't wait to see her in it. She would wear it again for him when he got back from wherever it was he was going.
As she made her preparations she hadn't noticed the masked chakra signature at the entrance to the cave. She was tired from training all day with her boys and admittedly low on her own chakra. Her chakra reserves were growing with training but they were nowhere near as large as her friends. She wore out easily and they would have to take little breaks throughout the day, but that didn't deter her one bit, she was determined to get stronger.
Stepping up to the free falling waterfall pool she untied her training kimono and let it slide off her shoulders and down her back to puddle in a heap at her feet. She tugged the loose end of her chest wraps and let them unwind and fall to the floor with her kimono as she stepped out of her pants. She took the time to unwrap her wrists and ankles instead of cutting them, setting them on top of her pile of training clothes. She would wash them in the river tomorrow with the dishes.
Wide eyes watched her from the entrance of her cave a deep flush of red rushing to the boy's cheeks as he watched the beautiful fairy disrobe for her bath. Izuna gripped the cave wall with his hands and leaned forward toward the woman before his eyes, he couldn't look away even if he had wanted to, and he didn't.
He watched as she lowered herself into the water, he bit his lip as she reached up and drew the pin from her hair. Long pink tresses cascaded down her back and floated in the water around her. Her back was to him now but he had seen her undress herself, could she not sense him? He wondered as he continued to watch her.
Shizuka sighed as the warm water surrounded her cool body. Winter had come in like a lion which had caused her to draw water from the pool under the waterfall instead of going outside to the river. To her very delighted surprise the water was warm, not hot but warm enough to be pleasing. Madara said that it must run into a hot spring somewhere in it's travels to their cave to be warm. She didn't care how it happened, she loved it. It was her favorite spot in the cavern, in the world.
She brought water up to her face and scrubbed. Her muscles relaxed under the warmth and she rested her head back against the floor of the cave. Madara and Hashirama had made her an extra tall bench to set into the pool so she could sit and have the floor of the cavern as a head rest, it was perfect. A sigh escaped her as she thought of how lucky she was to have those two. A yawn surprised her and she knew she had to get out soon, she was so tired. She didn't want to fall asleep in the pool alone and drown.
Slowly and carefully, so she didn't slip, she climbed out of the pool and reached for her waiting towel. She wrapped it around herself and shook out the clothes she would put on. Toweling her body off she wrapped her hair up in it so it wouldn't drip and slipped on the black kimono and tied it with the red sash.
Izuna had sucked in a quick breath when the fairy had gotten out of the water and wrapped herself in a fluffy towel. Was she a water fairy? He thought to himself. He watched as she wrapped herself in a black kimono of good quality and a red sash of fine silk. Are fairies wealthy? He didn't know but he knew that the clothes she wore were expensive. She unwrapped her hair from the towel and combed it out, braided it into a thin braid down her back and pinned it with two sticks wrapped around the crown of her head...she looked like a queen. Izuna swallowed, what would she do if she found out he had watched her bathe? He took one last look at her then backed out the entrance of the cave and back into the forest by the river.
Izuna had been looking for his brother earlier and thought he had sensed his chakra by the river. He had gone to the river but it had been farther downstream and he had found nothing. He had then gone to the village thinking Madara might be visiting a friend there but he was nowhere to be seen. He was about to go home when he sensed his brother's chakra again briefly, then it had faded again.
He hadn't seen his brother leave the cave but he sensed his chakra around the forest near it. Izuna saw the genjutsu, had activated his sharingan and broke the seals. He saw the cave then, and entered to find a beautiful water fairy getting ready to take a bath. Had his brother been watching her too? Did he know her? Izuna had so many questions, he had to find out, but how? His brother had become very secretive lately, Madara was always secretive but not so much with him. About two months ago, that had changed. Ever since that one night his brother stayed out all night coming home at dawn to pack a bag to train in the woods alone for three days...it was weird and Izuna was determined to find out why. Was she the secret? This pink haired water fairy...if she was, Izuna admitted, he didn't blame his brother one bit.
Sakura set a pot of water over the fire to boil for tea. She wanted to take a look at the scrolls Hashi had brought her. She knew she should go to bed soon and she would but she just wanted a quick peak.
Madara ran to his room once he got home and grabbed a few of the scrolls he had set aside for Shizuka on Earth style jutsu. Hashirama had given her some water style scrolls tonight and he wasn't going to be shown up by that bowl cut haired smiling dolt. Madara ran out his window and back toward the cave. He would just drop them off to her and say goodnight.
Izuna was nearing the compound when he saw his brother jumping through the trees heading toward the forest he had just left. What is he doing? Izuna masked his chakra further and followed his brother.
Shizuka poured herself a cup of tea and sat on her futon opening the first water jutsu scroll when she heard someone coming.
Madara was muttering to himself, why was the genjutsu broken and the seals had been reset. Shizuka didn't know how to use sealing jutsu yet, it wasn't her. Had Hashirama come back too? That would explain the lack of the genjutsu.
Shizuka set the scroll down and used her chakra to climb up the nearest tree. She knew she couldn't take on a full fledged shinobi but maybe it would buy her time to run out the entrance before they could kill her.
Izuna watched Madara remove the seals he had put back in place after he had left and enter the cave, he didn't want to risk detection so he stood there waiting for his brother to return. Izuna wasn't better than Madara at many things but masking his chakra was one of them.
Madara neared the cavern opening and flared his chakra so she would know it was him and walked in. She smiled at him. He walked to her quickly and hugged her.
Madara asked Shizuka who else had been there after he had left and she said no one had.
"I just came back to give you these Earth scrolls and to say good night." He handed her the bag with the scrolls in it .
"I'll see you in three days, you look beautiful by the way, I knew that would look nice on you." He whispered in her ear as he drew away from their hug.
"Thank you Madara. I hope to see you soon, be safe." Shizuka leaned forward and kissed Madara on the cheek.
Madara coughed. Shizuka waved goodbye as he rounded the corner to the main part of the cave corridor.
Izuna saw his brother come out of the cave and stand in the entrance casting a complicated genjutsu over the area and wondered why he would do that, what was he hiding in the cave? Izuna didn't have time to wonder then though as Madara quickly took to the trees and ran for home, Izuna followed at a good distance.
Tobirama made his way down the hall to his older brother's room. It was time for him to get some answers. He wanted to know where his brother was constantly sneaking off to. He had noticed his brother had started acting odd, he had hoped Hashirama would come to him and tell him what was going on. Tobirama decided he had been more than patient and wanted to know where his brother had been going.
About an hour ago Tobirama had felt his older brother's chakra signature return home, he had been gone all day and all night He all but stomped up to his brother's bedroom door and banged on it.
"Yes Tobi?" Hashirama asked him biting his lip in worry. He knew Tobirama had been curious as to where it was he had been spending his time, he knew he had noticed him leaving more and sending more nights away. It was only a matter of time before his combative brother cornered and questioned him.
"Where were you , and why didn't you come home last night?" Tobirama demanded of his brother.
"Um, come in and we can talk." Hashirama motioned him to come into his room. Tobi rama stepped inside and he shut the door.
"Well?" Tobirama crossed his arms over his chest and raised his left eyebrow at his brother.
"I met a new friend and I have been training with them." Hashirama told his brother truthfully.
"What clan are they from?" Tobirama asked right away.
"I don't know, we purposely didn't ask one another, it doesn't matter to us what clan we are from, they don't know what clan I am from. We are just friends, we talk and have fun with one another. It's nice." Hashirama stammered, how could he possibly explain this to his brother who was suspicious of everyone he met.
"How do you know they aren't a spy or an assassin pretending to be your friend so they can kill you?" Tobirama asked Hashirama.
"They aren't, I just know, they are a good person. Look, I'm happy Tobi, just let it go, please, I have been meeting them for years now and I have always come back, if they were an assassin they have had plenty of time to kill me." Hashirama argued.
Tobirama glared at his brother even though he had a good point. Hashirama was just too trusting for his own good. Tobirama frowned, they had lost two brothers to war already, he didn't want to lose another.
"Fine!" Tobirama hissed and stomped out of Hashirama's room.
Hashirama watched his brother storm back to his room, he had a bad feeling about this.
Shizuka stayed in the cave like she had promised she would, practicing her aim with the targets Madara had made her, practicing her chakra into her hands for healing purposes and re-reading the water and earth jutsu scrolls.
After the first day alone she laid down on her futon to sleep thinking she would like to give the Earth Style jutsu a try. In one of the Earth style jutsu scrolls Madara had given her she had read about the stone Wall jutsu. It seemed simple enough and very useful. It was exactly what it sounded like, a wall made out of stone and the hand signs seemed simple, Left Hand = Tora / Right Hand = Sideways Ee holding left hand. The more Shizuka thought of it the more excited she got.
She woke on the second day ready to try the stone Wall Jutsu. Stretching after a light breakfast of rice and fried egg she was ready. She re-read the scroll one more time just to make sure she remembered the hand signs correctly.
Shizuka took a deep breath focusing her chakra to her hands and mouth, drawing the energy of the Earth through her feet with her chakra and compressing it in her mouth, "Tora, Ee!"
A small bit of cracked stone rose in front of her and slammed back down. She grinned, it was working! Okay again she thought. Maybe focus more chakra to her feet to draw the energy from the Earth and then balance the flow through her body. Deep breath and, "Tora, Ee!"
A huge wall of stone erupted from the Earth in front of her creating a wall, but instead of it standing after it rose, it too fell back down into the Earth. She frowned. How to get it to remain in place after she summoned it up from the Earth, maybe if she cut off her flow of chakra but compressed it right after the cut off to stop the wall from sliding back down?
"Tora, Ee!" The wall of stone rose from the depths of the Earth, hovered and, cutting off the ends of the chakra flow, compressing it and bam, the wall remained standing in front of her! "Aww man!" It crumbled. She stomped her foot in aggravation.
"I'll just need to keep at it." She smiled to herself, she would master this is the next two days and show Madara and Hashirama when they came back!
The rest of her day was spent practicing, by the end of the day she could maintain the wall for 6 hours. It was progress but from what she had read in the scroll it was supposed to stay there until it was knocked down or pushed back into the earth by a reverse jutsu. She yawned, her chakra was low and she needed to rest. A smile graced her face as she sat by her fire stirring her soup for dinner. "A good night's rest and I will try again tomorrow!" She could do this.
Tomorrow came and she popped out of her futon with excitement, she was going to master it today she decided. Standing by the edge of the underground forest she concentrated her chakra into her feet, this time she cut and sealed the compressed chakra immediately after the summons before the wall even stopped. Progress.
While she ate her lunch she went over all the things she had tried so far, which ones worked better than others and she came to the conclusion, she needed another hand sign. Hum...After tiger and sideways boar, she would add an upright boar, to help secure it in place...worth a shot.
A deep breath, "Tora Ee, Ee straight up!" A wall shot out of the ground faster than any of the others before it and stood standing solid in front of her. She smiled as she touched the wall. Her other walls had, had small cracks in it, this one was smooth, the other walls had been lopsided, this one was perfectly straight. Now, to see how long it stood before crumbling back down to the Earth. She grabbed a few of the scrolls from her boys and hopped into a tree to read while she monitored her new wall.
By dinner time she re-read all of her scrolls again, caught two fish, gathered more firewood, taken a bath in the free falling pool and drawn out a floor plan for their house, SHE, was going to make with her newly mastered jutsu. She smiled, her boys were going to be so surprised!
She had fallen asleep still smiling , looking at her wall that was still up, dreaming about super strength from infusing her chakra into different parts of her body. Tomorrow, she would try to out her super strength abilities from infused chakra.
Shizuka smiled and stretched her arms out in front of her cracking her knuckles. Time to work on her perfect chakra control. Walking outside as promised she stood beside a large rock and pursed her lips. She closed her eyes and focused her chakra into her right hand making a fist. Opening her eyes she shot her fist out and hit the rock controlling the chakra infused into her hand maintaining the balance of control. She lifted the boulder up over her head. "Woohoo!"
She spent the remaining of the day focusing her hakra into different parts of her body and maintaining the control and levels of chakra in each body part. She had destroyed 5 boulders and ripped out two trees. She couldn't do much more because she had promised to stay within the genjutsu Madara had put up for her protection but she was still satisfied with her progress. She couldn't wait to show her night she slept well, she was proud of her accomplishments and her boys would be back tomorrow or the next day.
It was just after dawn on the fourth day when Madara had returned home and collapsed on his bed. He would take a nap and then go check on Shizuka. He had missed her and Hashirama. The war was getting more and more strained as the hostility between the clans grew. No clans clashed more than the Senju and Uchiha, and they had been the focal point of the last scouting mission he had gone on with his father and brother. Fortunately they hadn't run into any of the Senju but they did see signs of a large number of Senju gathering in the woods to the north on lands known to be protected by the Senju clan. There would be a war council meeting that night he would have to attend but he wanted to see Shizuka first.
Hashirama made his way to the cave. He had hoped Madara had been there to lower his genjutsu but knew he could release it if he had to...it was just more work for him to do it than Madara. As he approached he took in the forest and the river, everything looked the same, he hoped Shizuka was well and was really looking forward to seeing her. It had been a long three days of council meetings and talk of war. The Uchiha had been more aggressive lately attacking smaller parties of Senju traveling to and from nearby Senju protected lands forcing them to group together in villages to the North by the main compound. Some of the elders wanted to strike back in full force, to gather the whole clan and finish the war for good but others advocated for peace and compromise, saying too many would be lost in all out war with the uchiha who were just as strong as the Senju. The same arguments went back and forth, the same voices talking over one another. It gave him a headache.
Hashirama stood just outside of the genjutsu frowning...he had gotten rather good at dispelling genjutsu, he had to or he would be dead. He was better at releasing it than he let Madara know but he still wasn't as good as say a sharingan user and he was pretty sure Madara was an Uchiha by now. Hashirama focused on the invisible protection genjutsu, his chakra surged, "Release." and it broke. He walked over the stones marking the genjutsu buried and put up a few extra seals of protection and headed to the mouth of the cave almost skipping.
"Shizuka!" He called out to her as he entered looking around.
"Hashi! You're back!" She jumped down from her tree that she had been reading in to greet him with a hug. "How are you? I missed you."
"I missed you too! I'm good, tired but glad to see you, is that a stone wall? Did you summon a stone wall?" He gaped at the wall.
"Sure did!" She jumped in the air once and clapped her hands pleased with his smile and astonishment.
"Amazing! And no cracks!" He was so proud of her.
"It took me almost three days!" She smiled.
"Show me." He grinned at her.
"Okay!" She stepped over to the wall she had summoned previously and focused her chakra and bam! A stone wall the same size rose from the ground perpendicular to the other.
"Congratulations! You're a genius!" Hashirama was dancing where he stood laughing.
"It takes a lot of chakra out of me, I can only do two or three then I have to rest for the rest of the day, is that normal?" She asked.
"The more you train the less chakra it will take, it will be more fluid and your strength will grow with your chakra reserves. So keep training and you will tire less. That is amazing, has Madara seen it yet?" Hashirama asked her.
"I haven't seen him yet, he might not be back, I am so excited to show him!" She smiled fondly at the two walls. She would make a third one to match the others later and that could be added to their house.
"I brought you something." Hashirama turned and took a small package out of his pack and gave it to her.
"Oh? Thank you Hashi." She took the package and unwrapped the paper and tie, inside the paper was a delicate necklace of gold chain, with a teardrop glass pendant of a Sakura blossom frozen in time, it was beautiful.
"Oh Hashi, how beautiful. Thank you so much." She smiled at him.
"Allow me to put it on you?" He asked her and picked it up in his hands at her nod.
He stepped closer to her reaching around the back of her neck while he stood in front of her and clasp the necklace around her neck. He trailed his finger over the gold chain to the smooth glass of the sakura blossom trapped in the glass pendant and looked at her smiling. "It looks beautiful on you, matches your hair, I knew it would." Hi finger rested on the pendant still but his other fingers lightly rested on her collarbone.
She blushed, "Thank you Hashi, I love it." She looked up at him through her lashes.
He bent his head and leaned forward but stopped as he felt Madara flare his chakra to let them know he was there and stepped back from her grimacing.
He was going to kiss me? She didn't know how she felt about that, but she didn't have time to wonder further as Madara stepped into the cavern holding a small bag that was dripping blood out of the bottom on the left side.
"Hashirama, Shizuka, good to see you. I caught two rabbits on the way here for lunch if you're hungry?" He smiled at his friends. War could wait, this was important to him too.
Shizuka smiled and went to hug him and take the rabbits to skin them. "Welcome home Mada." she kissed his cheek and turned away to set the rabbits by the fire and fill their pot with water.
Madara smiled at her and sat down on a bench by Hashirama. "How was your three days?" He asked him.
"Ugh, I don't want to even talk about it , even if I could." Hashirama frowned and grimaced like his head hurt from even mentioning it.
"That bad huh, me too. Young men wait while the old men bicker. I wish I could just do things my way sometimes and be done with it. I'm sick of the fighting." Madara said bitterly while he looked around the cavern.
"Shizuka! Did you summon those walls?" Madara stood up to inspect the walls. She had done a very good job...no cracks.
"Yes! I worked on it for almost three days straight and guess what else I worked on?" She smiled wickedly and they smiled back expectantly.
She bent over and picked up a decent sized rock the size of her hand, she focused her chakra to her fingers and palm and crushed the rock to dust grinning.
"You perfected it! You have perfect chakra control and complete mastery of it now!" Hashirama was clapping again.
"Hashi, does that mean she can heal now, or start to learn to? Like you?" Madara asked in wonder.
"I wondered that too, I really want to learn how to heal, can you teach me Hashi?" She asked eagerly.
"I think so, it is very difficult and even I have trouble with some injuries but I will teach you everything I know." He promised.
"Great! Let me make lunch first!" She went to skin break the bones and skin the rabbits for their stew.
Madara watched her smile as she skillfully cut and skinned the rabbits he had brought her." I have lost so many people I love in the wars, I don't want to lose her too. I wish there was a place, we could all go together, a place of peace without war, just for us."
"I agree, but not just for us, for anyone who wishes for peace, a village, one day, maybe you and I could start our own village, or all of us together. Me, you and Shizuka a village of peace." Hashirama watched Shizuka slice the rabbit meat into chunks and add them to the pot that would be their lunch. Peace would be nice.
"Where it wouldn't matter what your name was if you served the village and supported the vision of peace?" Madara asked for his friend's opinion.
"Yes. A shinobi village, we would need money, funding, but a shinobi village leaning toward peace and protection, not war and conquest. Where we could have a family and our children wouldn't be forced into war like us at such young ages." Hashirama thought of his younger brothers who had died their first time on the battlefield, such a waste.
"Indeed, that is a nice dream." Madara smiled ruefully at Shizuka cutting up winter carrots and adding them to the chunks of rabbit meat. A family of his own would be nice someday.
Shizuka looked up from her work and smiled as she saw both her boys, side by side, looking at her. She missed her parents and was sad sometimes but was thankful for this new family, her boys meant everything to her.
"Madara, let's promise, promise we will never let anything come between our friendship, our little family. You are...you are like a brother to me." Hashirama turned to his friend of many secret years and held his hand out palm up.
"I promise old friend, let nothing come between us, my brother." Madara laid his hand over Hashirama's palm down and they clasp one another hard and smiled looking to Shizuka, "and let's promise to always keep her safe."
"Agreed." Hashirama said firmly.
Two years later…
"Madara! Get your spikey haired, good for nothing, crack brained ass back here!" Shizuka yelled at him as he ran out of the cave.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were bathing! Shizuka stop!" He dodged just in time. Earth exploded where he was standing just moments ago. "Please! Calm down! You're being irrational!" He yelled at her angry now because she had really tried to hit him.
"Irrational? I'm being irrational?" Anger swelled in her chest and she screamed at him, "You saw me naked! You, you, Pervert!" She ran at him clutching the towel to her chest.
"Well, if it helps, you looked quite lovely there naked in the water and…" He gasped as she came down with her fist again. "Damn it woman! Stop and listen!" He flickered behind her and she ducked kicking up, catching him in the groin, he dropped like a rock.
She stood over him huffing but he was grinning up at her through the pain, it was an odd expression.
"What the hell are you smiling at?" She demanded.
"Um, there is a gap in your towel." He grinned wickedly at her and rolled out of the way before she could stomp on him with a chakra infused foot.
"Stay out of the cave until I come back to get you! I'm going to go finish my bath! Don't you dare come back inside !" She stomped off leaving little indents in the ground from her feet.
"It was worth it." He lay on the ground clutching his balls in pain but still grinning.
"What the hell did you do now?" Hashirama's face came into view over Madara's blocking out the view he had of the clouds moments ago.
"I saw her naked...bathing in the pool, in the cave." Madara couldn't stop grinning.
"Oh, that explains the craters, is it just me or has her temper got worse as we get older and she gets stronger?" Hashirama sighed and held a hand out to his friend.
"Oh she is much worse than she used to be, but I like it. A meek placid woman is a bore. Shizuka is firey and powerful, it's hot." Madara smirks.
"Yeah she is, she excels faster than you do Madara, the way she learns new jutsu, it is unheard of." Hashirama still marveled at Shizuka's ability to learn jutsu through scrolls. He couldn't do it. He was a more hands on, trial and error kind of genius.
"I have had to widen the genjutsu range of protection twice in the last two years because of her! We are running out of space!" Madara laughs.
"What are you laughing at Mada?" Shizuka narrows her eyes at him and nods to Hashirama, coming out of the cave.
"Nothing, nothing!" Madara fakes looking scared and holds up his hands.
"I'm going to the village today, you want to come with me?" She asked them and they nod.
She had gotten much better with her Ninjutsu, Taijutsu and Genjutsu with the help of her best friends over the years they had been together. She had mastered most of her Earth and Water releases as well as a number of high level genjutsu that Madara had helped her with, and they both agreed her Taijutsu was excellent with the added bonus of her monstrous chakra infused strength. Shizuka had surpassed Hashirama in healing jutsu just this year and could heal both faster than him while using less chakra to do so. They had been true to their word, they had helped her to become a very formidable shinobi.
The three friends entered the village in henges and headed for the market. Shizuka earned a small bit of money by making medicinal salves and selling them through the local hospital. She went into the village once a week to buy anything she needed but also to restock her salves and collect her money. She made her way to the small hospital and went inside as her friends headed on toward the market, she would meet them after.
"Good afternoon Hana chan!" The girl behind the medical counter greeted her kindly with the henge name she used to disguise herself in the village her parents had been murdered in. It had been two years but pink hair was rare.
"How are you Hiko?" Shizuka asked her politely.
"Very well thank you Hana chan. I have your profits here." The girl handed her a small but full purse.
"Thank you, here are the newly prepared salves for this week. See you next week Hiko, stay well."
"Bye Hana Chan!"
Shizuka left the hospital to find her boys in the market. The market was crowded that day and she had to stop several times and look around her in case she miss them in the crowd. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, both of them were so striking in appearance but in their henges they were very ordinary, which of course was the reason for the henge. It made them difficult to find though. She stepped up onto a bench nearby to get a better view over the heads of the mass of people.
"Are you lost?" A handsome man was smiling up at her. He had his long jet black hair tied back in a ponytail but it stuck out a little up top and in the front where it was slightly shorter, he had dark coal eyes like Madara, in fact, he looked very similar to Madara and she stared at him.
Realizing how rude she was being she flushed and stammered, "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Um, no I'm not lost but I lost my friends and can't find them, I thought I would be able to see them better if I was on this bench." She stepped down from the bench to stand beside him.
He was looking at her with his head cocked as if he was trying to place her, oh no, she thought, did he know she was in a henge? Did he know she was the outsider girl whose parents were murdered here two years ago?
She opened her mouth to tell him she needed to get going and apologize but a voice interrupted her.
"Hana, we must have missed you, come we have everything we need from the market, let's go home." Hashirama spoke firmly but kindly to her.
"Uh ok, um, it was nice to meet you." She turned to leave but the stranger spoke.
"Izuna, my name is Izuna Uchiha. It was very nice to meet you, Hana." He smiled at her and walked back into the crowds of people and disappeared.
"Uchiha." Hashirama muttered as he pulled on her arm.
"He looks like Madara doesn't he Hashi?" She whispered to her friend as they made their way through the crowds.
"Yes." Was all Hashirama said.
"Doesn't Madara have a younger brother?" She asked him.
"He had four but only one still living, yes." Hashirama said.
"Like you." She said.
"Yes." He said as they spotted Madara waiting for them impatiently by the outskirts of the village.
"What the hell took you so long?" Madara gruffed at them and they rolled their eyes.
They joked and teased one another all the way home to their cave.
That night Shizuka woke to a gasping noise coming from the entrance of the cave. She crawled out of her futon and made her way silently to the noise.
"Madara!" She bent low over her friend he was bleeding badly, blood flowing over his hand that was pressed to his side.
"Slashed, my side, the bastard, I was close by, came for you to heal me, please Shizuka, I'm sorry." He gasped out in between breaths. This was bad, Madara was tough, durable, was the blade poisoned? She hoped not, she had only begun learning about poisons and how to make antidotes.
She infused her hands and arms with chakra and lifted him gently carrying him to their small house and laying him on the planked floor of the kitchen in front of the coals that still glowed warmly. She stoked the fire and threw two logs on it for both warmth and light. With a kunai she cut his shirt away and moved his hand.
"Shit." It was a deep slash but the blade had been sharp and it was a clean cut.
She cleaned the wound with alcohol that made him scream and then patted it dry with gauze. Next she infused her hands with healing chakra running them over the length of the slash slowly healing muscle and skin alike till there was no cut, not scar, nothing.
She quickly scanned him with her chakra for other injuries and found he had two broken ribs and internal bleeding in his lungs, she took her time and healed them all.
"Thank you Shizuka, I appreciate it." Madara said.
"Who did this to you?" She asked him as she filled the kettle with water to boil for tea.
"A small group of Senju, I was taking out my newest falcon for night training and met them by accident. We both had our chakra suppressed and it was just bad luck we ran into each other. It was three to one and normally I like those odds just fine but I had drained my chakra earlier after the market training with my little brother and wasn't at my prime." He admitted.
"Did you kill them?" She asked him.
"No, I don't kill them unless I have to." Madara spoke quietly.
The past two years had been hard on her boys. The wars had only gotten worse. They never mentioned clan names, or specifics about their battles that could identify them but she knew, they were both from rich and prominent clans, therefore they were at war the most. They were not boys anymore she always had to remind herself. They were men. Men hardened by war and blood and loss ...and she thought, responsibility. She wasn't a fool. She read books on mathematics, history, science and politics, she knew what their lives must be like, she had an idea of what their places were in their clans though they never said. Her men.
"Will there ever be peace?' She asked him sadly, they had talked of it so many times, all three of them, a pipe dream.
"I don't know, I wish, I want there to be but. I don't think so. There is too much hate, too many have died." Madara took her hand. "I am just glad you are here, hidden and safe.
"I don't want to hide here forever Madara. I feel like a caged bird. I want to see the world, or at least travel to the more distant surrounding villages, go...somewhere do ...something." She sighed.
"It isn't safe, and you are a trained ninja, you would be drawn into the chaos. Do you know what your death would do to us? To me? No, you will stay here where it is safe." He told her...not for the first time.
It had been a year since she had thrown a fit at being locked away. She had argued with them both that she was trained enough to go to the villages on her own, that she could look out for and protect herself. They had tested her again and again and agreed her skill level was high enough that they felt comfortable for her to go to the nearest village no more than once a week. She had been delighted, but now...she wanted more. They knew it too.
Shizuka poured their tea and they sat in silence for a time each sipping from their own cup.
"I should go. Get some sleep Shizuka, I will see you in a week. I have a mission, I leave tomorrow night. I will see you when I get back. Be safe." Madara rose and set his cup on the counter.
"Be safe Mada. I worry when you are one, sometimes I wonder if each time I see you will be the last. I would never know what happened to you, either of you if you died. No one knows about me, there would be no one to tell me. What if you both died? I would be alone again. Hashirama stopped by earlier, he left on a mission too, he will be gone for three days." She looked up at him, worry clear in her eyes.
"What if." He hesitated. "What if you married one of us? Then, you would have the backing of our clan, and you wouldn't be alone if one of us died."
"I couldn't choose between you and Hashirama. Besides your clan heads would never agree to such a marriage, a clanless girl with no money, civilian born no less...no, it is impossible." She smiled at his thoughtfulness.
"It could be managed, eventually. If you wanted it." He was closer to her now. "If you want one of us." He bent his head to hers, so close. He stepped back. "Think about it. Neither Hashirama nor I would want you to be alone, and we are at war, you are right, the reality is one of us may die. Not easily mind you." He smiled at her.
She smacked him lightly on the chest and he caught her hand. "I will mention it to Hashi, you think about it okay?" He said and when she nodded, he left.
She placed her empty cup beside Madara's and went back to bed.
Madara ran through the trees back to the Uchiha compound. His brother met him at the gate.
"Madara, where have you been, I got worried. Your falcon came back an hour ago without you. Did you meet any trouble while you were out?" Izuna asked him as they walked to the main house.
"Yes, there were three Senju who attacked me, I lost my falcon in the fight, and used up a lot of chakra I needed to catch my breath, they were quite skilled." Madara told the half truth.
"Those Senju dogs! I hate them, I don't understand why we don't storm their compound and wipe them out then take their lands." Izuna said bitterly following his brother into his room.
"We couldn't wipe them out without getting wiped out ourselves. There is a reason we have been at war with them for so long. As much as we loathe to admit it, they are a formidable adversary." Madara pointed out to his brother, not for the first time.
"You leave tomorrow night for your mission in rain?" Izuna asked.
"Yes, I will be gone a week, can you check on my falcons while I'm gone?" Madara asked Izuna who nodded that he would.
"I'll see you in the morning Izuna, I need to get some rest for my mission." Madara said.
"Sure, can we have lunch together before you leave?" Izuna asked smiling.
"Of course." Madara smiled at his younger brother.
Izuna walked through the woods the next day after Madara had left, his chakra masked to avoid conflict, as he made his way to the river. Ever since that night two years ago he would come here periodically thinking of the water fairy and her possible relationship with his brother. Madara never told him about her so he thought , maybe they didn't have a relationship.
He knew his brother came here often in between missions and when he had free time but he never saw the fairy come out of the cave with his brother. His brother always went in, stayed for an hour or hours, sometimes the night or two but he always came out alone.
He had noticed the changes in his brother after that night, he was more patient, almost kinder and Izuna didn't want to ruin that for his brother. He wanted him to be happy, no matter how curious he was about the beautiful fairy.
Izuna could smell the water before he saw it. He walked out of the forest to the river's bank and sat on a large rock overlooking the moving water. He sat there quietly thinking over the last year and how the conflict between the Senju and the Uchiha had grown more violent. He hated them, they had taken his younger brothers from him, he was sure the stress of the wars had killed his mother, he wanted them all dead. He knew that if they were all dead his clan could be happy, that it would solve all of their problems.
So much blood, it wasn't enough. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. A small noise distracted him. A girl was coming out of the woods by the river downstream from him. It was the girl from the market that he had asked if she was lost. What was she doing out here by herself, didn't she know how dangerous it was? Where was her friend from yesterday? He watched her make her way toward him, she didn't seem to know he was there.
Izuna stood up and put his hands behind him in a relaxed fashion, he didn't want to scare her.
"Good afternoon." He called to her.
Shizuka froze. Was that Izuna? "Um Hi." She said timidly.
"Forgive me if I am rude but why are you out here alone, it is very dangerous for a young woman to walk the forest and river banks alone. Where is your friend from yesterday?" He asked her.
"Gone, he um doesn't live around here. I'm okay, I'm just going to gather mushrooms in the forest and small herbs." She had recently started coming out of the cave by herself in the afternoons to look for herbs and mushrooms. She never went far and she never met anyone. Until now.
"Allow me to go with you, to make sure you are not bothered and return to your home safely. I insist. If something should happen to you I would feel responsible for not offering." Izuna smiled a charming smile at her.
"Oh well, I am not going to be long, you really don't need to , thank you though I appreciate the offer." She tried to turn around and walk the other way but he was fast.
"Please, I won't be a bother I promise. I have seen too many civilians killed who were in the wrong place at the wrong time." He said sincerely.
She nodded and they walked into the forest together. She gathered mushrooms she saw growing in small little bunches like little old men leaning over with wide hats on under the trees humming to herself. There was a good amount of wolf's bane growing in a sunny patch she dug up and put in her basket, she would transplant it into her garden when she got back.
They moved slowly in silence for some time, him watching her and the forest in turn, she blushing and trying not to look at him.
"Do you live in the village?" He asked her when the silence was too much for him.
"I used to but I don't anymore." She said not looking at him.
"Anymore? Where do you live now?" He was curious.
"Um, elsewhere." She said vaguely.
"I understand, you don't know me, I'm sorry, that was a rude question." He smiled kindly at her.
:I'm sorry, I am not trying to be rude, of course you are curious, but you are a stranger, like you said." She smiled at him then.
They continued on in peaceful silence until he heard voices nearby. He motioned her behind a tree while he pulled out two kunai and waited. Two men came out of the thicket of the forest and stopped.
"Senju dogs!" Izuna yelled and jumped to them, they jumped to the trees throwing senbon at him as they kicked off of the trees coming back with swords drawn.
Izuna let loose a huge fireball at one of the incoming Senju and the man screamed as the flames engulfed him. The other Senju was on his back before Izuna could turn and he slammed his back up against a tree scanning the area for the girl to make sure she was ok but he couldn't see her behind the tree where he had left her. Had she run away scared?
The Senju on his back was trying to choke him , he grabbed him by the arm and flung him over his head, he heard a feminine scream. The girl.
She had jumped to the trees. A shinobi? Izuna's eyes went wide.
The Senju yelled, "Bitch!"
She turned on her heel in the tree and scoffed at him. Izuna saw two senbon sticking out of the man's neck.
"They are poisoned." She said calmly and hopped out of the tree.
Izuna drew his katana and pierced the Senju through his heart before the girl could walk to the man.
She gasped, "Why did you do that? I had already poisoned him."
She had poisoned him, but it wasn't a fatal poison, he wouldn't have died, but now, it was too late.
"You're, you're a shinobi! What clan are you from?" Izuna pointed his sword at her heart.
"I am not from a clan, lower your sword Izuna." She said calmly. "I do not wish to fight you, but I will, if you make me."
"You can not be a shinobi and not have a clan, what clan are you from?" He asked her again.
"I am civilian born, I am not from a clan." She repeated. "Nor am I affiliated with one."
"Who is your master?" He asked her more curious than suspicious. "The way you move, it reminds me of someone."
Of Course it did, your brother helped train me, she thought.
"I have no master. I learned from trial and error." She said in part truth.
Realization started to dawn on him. "You, live in the forest don't you?" He spoke carefully. "Are you in a henge?"
"Yes." She said. "I live in the forest and am in a henge. I sell medicinal salves in the village where we met. I don't cause trouble, I don't want any. This was unfortunate." She waved her hand over the two dead Senju.
"They deserved to die, they are Senju and they have killed many people I love, people of my clan. I am Izuna Uchiha...we are at war with the Senju." He told her.
"A war that will never end it seems." She spoke more harshly than she had meant to.
"The war will end when they are all dead. I tell my brother but he refuses to listen." He said it bitterly.
Shizuka watched him fume. So full of hatred. "Who is your brother?"
"Madara Uchiha." He said surprised she didn't know.
Her eyes went wide. "Oh, I thought, but of course. I should go." She walked to her basket she had discarded when the men had appeared and picked it up. "Thank You Izuna." and she started walking back toward the river.
Izuna followed her. "Where are you going, let me walk you home, what if there are more of them?" He protested.
"I am not an Uchiha, why would they harass me?" She pointed out.
"You are a young woman, alone in the forest, of course they will harass you, they are terrible horrible people, the whole clan," He had caught up to her and was walking beside her watching her face. "Will you take down your henge so I can see who you are ?"
"That isn't a good idea. I live in the woods for a reason Izuna." She smiled at him.
"You know who I am, you know my name and my clan." He argued.
"I am hiding from the people who killed my parents." She stopped and looked at him. "I can't risk anyone seeing. Those men, are the first besides you that I have seen in this forest that I didn't know in the last two years. It is dangerous." She started walking again.
"You're parents were murdered?" He asked her.
"Yes." She said.
"And you chose to live in the woods, did you not have any other family to turn to after your parent's deaths?" He had a big family, he knew there were those who didn't but it astounded him to find she had no one to turn to, that she was alone.
"I have my friends, they help me. I don't need anyone else." She thought of her conversation with Madara last night...what if they died and she never knew.
"I can cast a genjutsu, noone but me will see." Izuna wanted to know, was this the fairy from the cave, this mysterious girl.
"I don't know." She bit her lip and looked around as she made her way back to the river down a little ways from her usual entrance because of her tag along. She stood by the rock he had been sitting on earlier looking up and down the river.
"Please Hana?" He called her by her henge name.
He was Madara's little brother, he could be trusted right? She nodded. "Cast your genjutsu please."
Izuna smiled and cast his genjutsu around them. She saw it fall around them like smoke on the water. He waited watching her. She smiled slightly and released her henge.
Her pink hair was loose and long falling down her back, she wore a mid length black kimono with black pants and a blue sash similar to the one he had seen her put on after her bath two years ago. Bright green eyes met coal.
"My name is Shizuka, not Hana. You must not mention my name in the village or my likeness." and she sprinted away releasing his genjutsu and running into another genjutsu he knew covered the entrance to a cave...where she lived, pink hair glinting in the late afternoon sun.
"So, you're not a fairy, but a woman. A beautiful shinobi." He sat down on the rock and looked out over the river.
She stood within the genjutsu of her cave and river sanctuary looking out at Izuna sitting on the rock by the river. I hope I didn't make a mistake by showing him, Madara's little brother, she thought as she watched him.