Warnings: Mad scientist self-searching, angst, mild body hate, etc.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto is brilliant. I write fanfics. Enough said.
Notes: Hello everyone. I swear this story started off as a small little zap of inspiration, and it promptly exploded into dozens of chapters. Well, it's truly a monster now. Tobirama deserves some more lovin'. Any unknown characters are my brain children.
A big thanks to my beta, DimiGex for catching all those pesky things I overlook. You've been truly lovely :)
Updates will be about every other week, give or take a day or two.
Catching Lightning in A Bottle
Prologue
The saw scraped through the bone with a terrible, shuddering moan that echoed through the isolated bowels of the Kenshin Compound. The motion felt smooth, a precise juxtaposition to the grinding drag the saw made; it cut easily, making way to shove aside the blood and musculature protected underneath. Though the organs sat still, they seemed to pulse under Hideyoshi's fingertips as each bone gave way to another piece of the puzzle.
Humans were weak.
Fragile.
Hideyoshi leaned away from the medical table in his personal lab and stared up at the glowing halogen lights. It'd been hours since he'd started. Exhaustion flooded him, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. Not when he was so close to finding what he needed. Wiping the sweat that had gathered against the exposed alabaster skin of his forehead, Hideyoshi paused for another moment to dab at the bubbling blood oozing from the human's peeled skin with a clean swab before returning to his work.
Remarkable, considering the body had been dead for almost three hours.
By now lividity would usually have set in; the blood should have settled towards the lowest point in the body. There, it normally clotted, gravity making the typical bruising effect on the skin. To have such a fresh sample felt strange. The other bodies Hideyoshi worked with normally had to travel back from the front lines of his staged assault on various villages. The process could take up to three weeks. This body was fresh. Annoying really. Newly deceased bodies were always so much messier.
Even the dead caused problems for him.
The body splayed out, skin ripped back and pinned down like a flower opening to reveal its precious nectar. Like the hundreds of other bodies before it, vacant eyes, glassy in death, stared blindly as they waited for their cremation.
Yet, this body never stopped oozing, to stop groaning and jerking. Dead or alive, it didn't matter. He kept sawing, kept ripping and cutting, pushing and pulling until the body sat still. Others might call it crazy, but despite being deceased Hideyoshi could always feel the life still lingering within.
People were so easily broken, so easily crushed.
He pulled the ribs aside, tossing the useless bones blindly into a silver bin at the end of the table and revealing the beautiful gems he sought. Spider webs of veins crisscrossed the organs in a tantalizing display of purple, maroon, and white, a truly delectable dance of flesh. Even dead, the body pulsated with the promise of life and hope.
At least… for Hideyoshi.
Nothing in the world left an impression the way flesh could, the tender succulent parts of the body people took for granted. Maybe it was the simplicity of it all, but there was something truly captivating about death. The organs and veins rang with spirit, with chakra. How precious, how singular it was.
Oh, how he missed it.
That was his deadly secret. His flesh slowly rotted within, everything precious and necessary for life crumbling in pitiful decay. The disintegration hadn't manifested on the surface yet, but only through his sheer force of will.
Seals and other countermeasures could only hold back so much. Despite looking every bit the firm young man he should have been, time ran out faster than he wanted, ticking precariously forward in a deadly dance of patience.
No one could know.
Perhaps he hadn't even realized how much the decay had already set into his mind until he moved elbow deep inside that tender, succulent flesh to reach all of the little prizes within. Everything felt warm, moist, and suddenly there was a blistering contrast to the cold decomposition inside his body, and Hideyoshi mourned, painfully aware of what he'd already lost.
Then again, that was the real problem: only destroyed, torn, and bleeding—only then would he be whole again. In the moment a life ended he lived. And he couldn't change that. No one could.
Flesh. Blood.
Not the arteries or ventricles. Not the frozen heart, still warm through the thin, bloody surgical gloves. No.
What he sought after was much finer than those parts, impossibly more delicate. Chakra.
Chakra networks were the smallest form of veins intricately woven through all of the major organs of the human body. They were the clusters of porcelain tunnels connecting a regular human to a greater power within, nearly invisible to the naked eye.
It was a power he wanted.
Yet, no matter which part he cut and inspected, no matter how deep he looked and how carefully he carved, Hideyoshi could never find the answer he sought. The one answer he never realized he searched for these last several years. How? How to get everything that had been stolen from his steely fingers? How to stop the disease eating him alive from the inside out? How to be alive when he already felt dead inside?
Ripping the organs out with a sucking spurt and a moment of resistance, then everything rested in his hands.
This time he had it. The answer had to be here.
Specks of blood splattered across his mask, marring the ghostly skin that had hidden from the sun. More sweat beaded, still Hideyoshi cut and sawed and pulled, until the body wasn't a body at all.
Feelings made them weak.
He didn't have time to deal with weakness.
Two Weeks Before
Closing her eyes for the briefest of moments, Mitsuki took a final calming breath—deeper and deeper until it felt like her lungs were going to burst with the scent of mud and smoke on the wind—before pulling down her dark mask and letting the air whoosh out all at once.
Then, she jumped.
Branches rushed by as her body fell towards the forest floor, speeding towards her fast enough to make her eyes water in the crisp air. At the last second, she arced her body, bowing up with her core to catch the back of her knees on a sturdy branch and sling her forwards into the air. As the next branch raced closer, she stepped out, landing with a graceful step. Then gone, shooting off to another thick branch in the direction of the budding village. The familiar warm burn of chakra rolled through her muscles, pushing higher, further, and faster with the same exhilarating rush she had become accustomed to since she was a little girl, dancing along her blacked out skin in tingles. A portion of her mind eased despite the delicacy of the mission. It was a soft power that flickered along her skin and rippled through her like a best friend.
Chakra.
Humming with life, Mitsuki shot forward, jumping stealthily along the thickest branches without a sound. With the break of rain, the air hung heavy all around, pulling her down to the earth as she leapt through the canopy. The sharp winter air bit at any exposed skin, growing stronger when the trees became sparse. Eyeing the growing village ahead, she sent a burst of energy to her feet, launching herself higher like a catapult, until the air chilled and suddenly Mitsuki felt the world fall away in blissful weightlessness.
Infiltrate, retrieve, and retreat.
The mission was simple and straightforward.
At least, it should have been all of those things if not for one specific fact. This was the newest village in the ninja world; the only one of it's kind. A powerhouse.
With the cold air pushing against her face as she hovered, Mitsuki closed her eyes for a moment, allowing a second of clarity before the world shifted. Slowly her gut rose, the momentum changing and flipping.
Then she fell. Spinning down towards the third story building, she waited for the right moment to open her body and halt her momentum. Like a cat, she stretched out and instantly balled up tight, shifting her weight to cushion her landing. The moment her feet touched the terracotta tiles she leapt along roofs, pushing deeper and deeper towards the heart of the village. Under the moonlight peeking through storm clouds, her gear blended with the dark, matching the rainy night and letting her disappear into the shadows.
A heavy feeling disrupted the peaceful village. An ominous crackling of energy brewed like something coming, a storm simmering over the horizon. Her feet were light and any trace of her presence undetectable as Mitsuki leapt from shadow to shadow, chakra carefully under control.
It'd been a long time since she'd infiltrated a village—if this place could even be considered as one since it had only popped up a few days ago—and even longer since creeping inside unseen in such a fortified place. It'd been even longer still since she'd gone alone on a mission.
Mitsuki rolled her shoulders, keeping her chakra held tightly within every inch of her skin.
It felt good.
Riotous laughter sounded up ahead and she paused, sinking back into the welcoming shadows of a smoking chimney. Absentmindedly her fingers brushed against the weapon pouch on her leg, touching the sharp metal kunai and shuriken hidden within.
Pulling one might alert someone sensitive to the pressing warning of danger, but if she didn't and they turned, she would have to dodge and flee.
What to do? What to do?
By the sounds of things, the group of people – men judging by the low pitches of their voices in the dark – were headed in her general direction, jovial for such a bitter frost. Warmth seeped out where her back brushed the wall, reminding her of how cruel the cold could be. She didn't dare move. Her fingers twitched over her ninja pouch, waiting for the men to draw closer. Only ninja and refugees resided in the village now until there was enough room and security to house the civilians.
Everyone was a threat.
In the streets down below, another group of ninja left the warmth to trek back through the last frost, passing the others down below. They wandered by after brief comradery, slipping into a makeshift restaurant.
She waited, counting seconds as the door shut, hand still hovering over her weapons.
With a deep breath, Mitsuki closed her eyes and expanded her mind as she had been taught as a little girl to sense out the surroundings, stretching her focus and awareness from her body to the world around. A pulse shot out like a ripple, traveling through buildings and lighting people and voices. Vibrations like echos tickled across walls, faces, and sounds. It was a queer sensation, as if she could see the actual strum of chakra within those nearby. Each person resonated a little differently, almost like different fingerprints pushing against her mind. The air felt damp, frigid under the cold winter moon and it felt heavy like mud on her mental eye. Faint traces of smoke and something crisp lingered. Nothing fresh. Nothing dangerous.
The rain started trickling down again. As her energy rang back it appeared to sparkle, lighting every surface and Mitsuki couldn't stop the shiver that ran through her.
Time to move. Mitsuki crouched down, allowing her chakra collect in her feet once more. Keeping it tight and close, she repressed as much energy as she could against any watchful eyes. It gathered like a storm.
When the door swung shut behind the men, Mitsuki's eyes snapped open again. The rain streamed down like shards of ice. She pushed onward, towards the main tower in the heart of the village. Men armed with swords, maces, and sharp metal that glinted in the low light passed by in twos and fours. She leapt and soared from roof to roof, slinking through the shadows as if they were her home. By the time their heads swivelled around in a lazy glance, her shadow vanished, long gone with steps lighter than a ghost.
At the very back center of the village, a tall tower stood high above the surrounding buildings and tents. It rose in front of the vast mountainside framing the back of the village like a beacon to everyone around.
Get in. Get out. Find the information fast and run.
Moving stealthily, Mitsuki took a running start from the roof of the building she stood on, and launched herself over the walkway where two guards stood on watch. She caught herself silently against the outer wall, chakra stretching out of her fingers like glue to keep her from falling.
The vault should be in the lowest levels of the building with the highest security until a new location could be built for them. At least, her contact outside of the village promised that. There the Senju and Uchiha leaders held all their important documents, vital plans, and—most importantly—clan secrets. All she had to do hope Koneko was right.
Scaling the side of the wall with chakra stuck to her fingers and shoes was easy thanks to the darkness. Even those who looked around glanced over her small form against the black sky.
Without the face of the moon watching her, getting inside was child's play.
Peeking around the corner of an upper story window she spotted two men hovering over a desk, speaking in low voices. Flinching back, she waited a second, taking the two in to see if they had sensed her, but mercifully their eyes never wandered over to the window she peeked through. Whatever they were pondering must have completely drawn their focus.
They had to be Hashirama and Tobirama, the two fearsome Senju leading the charge into peace and prosperity. No one else would be in the main headquarter tower in the top office at this time of night. Assuming all of the rumour and talk she'd heard around the Elemental Nations was true, the tall man with long brown hair and dark eyes facing her had to be Hashirama Senju, the older of the two. While long brown hair seemed fairly common, the stark white hair of the man next to him was far from it. Even amongst the Senju, Tobirama stood out as a foreign threat.
Whatever you do, avoid the two Senju brothers if you can. If you see them, get out.
Cursing her luck under her breath, Mitsuki dropped her head back against the wall with the faintest thud. Well, too late now. She hadn't even made it inside yet.
How often were the two of them really going to be outside of the tower though? Considering the size and location, this had to be where the two brothers planned to make the head of operations for the village. The odds of both of them and the leader of the Uchiha being far enough away were practically little to none.
She couldn't give up and run away. If she ran every time she saw them, she'd never get in.
This could be the only chance she got…
So she stayed, crouching low on the overhanging roof outside the propped open window, feeling the icy rain that continued to sprinkle down and soak through her clothes. Her mind flickered through countless different ways she might be able to slip by without being detected. She thought, and she watched.
Hashirama was the most powerful Senju alive, being one of the founders of the village by historically finding a way to come to terms with Senju's enemy Madara Uchiha. Stories stretched across all of the elemental nations of the two clan's wars lasting for centuries, killing and slaying each other with malicious cruelty. The battles were legendary. Terrain levelled. Great warriors were squashed with a flick of a wrist. Children slaughtered.
Mitsuki remembered the loose sketches written down from the village bingo book back home, warning even little children to fear the face of Hashirama and Tobirama Senju as respective heads of their clan.
With Tobirama, one of the most brilliant and acute sensory ninjas, the Senju brothers were extremely powerful. He was the brain behind Hashirama's brawn and spirit. He was the mastermind that concocted structure, order, rules, and theories no one else had even imagined, inventing jutsu that completely restructured how battles were fought everywhere. Shadow clones, replacement jutsus, masking chakra, all of that came from the terrifying brain of Tobirama. The two were dangerous. Deadly. The last few days she'd been in the makeshift village, she'd spent over half of her time ducking corners and slipping along alleys to keep out of their sight whenever she hard people greeting them as they went down the street.
Tobirama became the real problem here. It would take half a second for Tobirama to mold his chakra and sense her.
You'll find what you need in that village. Go there and be safe.
Resting back against the wall underneath the open window, Mitsuki closed her eyes to listen for a moment, trying to determine if she should call things off or push her luck in getting inside. This was the closest she'd ever been to the two, and despite her lingering curiosity, it might be suicide to hang around.
Through the soft patter of rain coming down in spurts, it took a moment for her ears to adjust to the low tones of their voice. "...carefully to make sure everything is run fairly. The wrong person could cause too much power for one clan."
"If the elders aren't someone the clan deems important or strong enough, they will think that we are taking advantage of them and there will be unrest. With the Sarutobi and Akamichi Clan's both here, we will have to meet with people individually to decide the best course."
"That will take too long. After the citizens vote, there needs to be a plan."
"Picking an elder from them will strengthen ties between the clans. But there has to be a way to assure their loyalty."
Mitsuki breathed softly, straining to listen, as a lull in the conversation made the trickle of water loud as seagulls. They were picking elders for the village. Whom they chose would determined where the power lay, and which direction the village would take. It was a crucial decision.
Her curiosity peaked, gluing her into place even though the rest of her screamed to get away.
One of them spoke, but it was too far away for her to hear. Glancing inside the window again, she saw that Hashirama had wandered over towards the other side of the room where a map of the surrounding area hung on the wall. Bold Kanji labelled it as a map of the entire Fire Nation, drawn with various light watercolour washes to mark territories.
Subconsciously she leaned closer, straining to hear the softly spoken words.
No.
It wasn't worth risking her mission to sate her curiosity. Pulling back from the window, she shuffled towards the edge of the roof hanging she knelt on to look for another window she could slip through. One waited off to the left. Without another thought, she dropped down, leaving like a breath of air.
Inside, Tobirama paused, his brothers rant on how this was a time of peace and unity between clans shifted towards the back of his mind as he glanced out the propped open window. Outside rain pittered down, but he could have sworn he felt something shift in the part of his brain that kept him alive.
"Tobi? What's is it?"
Arms folded, Tobirama reached out with a burst of chakra, hardly even trying as every chakra signature within the entire village appeared in the extra dimension he'd learned to see in, but no one was there. It must have been a ghost of a sound.
Tobirama shook his head, easing his stern gaze and refocusing on his concerned brother. "Nothing." His eyes flickered back to the window. "It was only the rain."
Exploring the Hokage tower, Mitsuki mapped out floors mentally as she moved through the building. The white walls and quiet halls were new to her; this was her first time making it past the guards after days of studying their movements. Several rooms branched off the main hallway. It appeared to be the only hallway on the floor, running around in a circle to every door on the level before coming to a single staircase leading up or down. That would be risky to move along since everyone had to take it, but other options were slim. This late at night she would simply have to hope that most people were sleeping.
Well, considering that she already knew that going up meant she would run into Hashirama and Tobirama, Mitsuki began her journey lower through the building.
She went around the various rooms on each floor, hiding behind doors and desks as guards and workers passed by, the entire time her blood thrumming in her veins.
Unsurprisingly, the tower was vast but the halls and rooms were strangely simplistic in their decor as she slunk around. Perhaps there hadn't been enough time to fully decorate as they focused on opening the village to citizens, but it gave the place an eerie feeling. Occasionally there would be an expensive vase upon a table and a carefully rendered poem illustrated above, but most areas were clear and barren. She took her time memorizing the layout, checking each room and making notes of when guards would pass.
Every room was important.
Most were desks, some with people and others without. She peeked through the doors, entering and sifting through paperwork at desks if no one was there or leaving as silent as the wind if someone was. All had some type of paperwork or plan for the growing village: missions, enemy movement, Intel, village reports, and financing.
Inside a room on the second floor, Mitsuki thumbed through a promising stack of papers about the new business of the village. Mitsuki scanned over each document when she could make it inside a room, looking for something of interest. Her eyes stopped as she saw that the temporary hospital ran out of night lock and were requesting a group go out and collect more from outside the village walls. That would take days, she mused in her head, solutions and possibilities running through her head. After scanning over the document again she folded it neatly and slipped in into her clothes, glancing around.
I could do that.
No one would notice it missing. By the look of things it hadn't even made it up to Hashirama or Madara, the Uchiha leader of the village, for approval.
A noise make her look up and she quickly put everything else back as it'd been before. Not a paper poked out of place.
Then, she vanished.
With the stealth and grace of an assassin learned in the arts of everything deadly and silent, Mitsuki slinked from door to door, checking for what she needed. But what she hoped for wasn't in any of the rooms. The information she required, the only thing important enough to risk execution upon discovery, wasn't here. Holding back her frustration, she kept searching room to room, kept memorizing, but it was hard to remain focused like a fine comb. All of these rooms she checked were useless.
She took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Patience," she whispered. As quiet as it had been, it sounded sinful in the still silence of the tower, making her skin itch in unease.
If nothing else, it was important for her to know the entire layout before she infiltrated somewhere more heavily guarded. Surely the Senju and Uchiha were smart enough to lock all of their top-secret information on clans and jutsus someplace safe.
Right.
Sucking in another breath, Mitsuki forced herself to settle. All she had to do was think through where she might hide drastically important information from prying eyes. Most likely they'd put things in a place deep below ground or hidden through secret doors concealed by jutsu; a place untraceable and out of the way of common foot-traffic.
Sensing out again the make sure no one came closer, Mitsuki weighed the chances that she could find such a heavily guarded place in one night. (With the most dangerous man in the entire village one story above her head and another completely unaccounted for.)
Should the worst happen, she could always break back in.
The thought tasted bitter.
Pulling the carefully drawn map from the folds of her clothing, she took a second to add in more details to the schematic of each floor and room. The map room had a low level fūinjutsu. Most of the other rooms appeared to be utilized as various office spaces. That leaves…
Trailing her finger over the building schematics she had, Mitsuki planned out the best way to get down the lower floors before hiding the sheet again and silently slipping from the room.
Slinking down the halls, she checked both ways and pushed deeper. Finally she got to the underground section of the building, likely the place where all of the most important and vital documents of the village were. After all, this was where Koneko told her to go. Before rounding the corner she checked to secure the area. With a little focus she couldn't sense anyone coming. So far so good, she thought with a grin. If she was correct supposable there was a secret door somewhere around here—Aha!
Kneeling quickly, she dug two fingers into a slight opening next to a decadent hand woven rug, hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it. With an experimental tug, the rug fluttered away, revealing a hidden handle for a trap door.
Perfect.
Resisting the urge to rip open the door, she focused closely again with her chakra.
Immediately images bounced through her mental eye. Four armed men were in the hall. Traps ran along the walls, some faintly glowing with dormant chakra. Two more guards stood within the vault like sentinels. Another two patrolled the expanse of hallways moving in either direction past the other guards.
The security looked heavier here, heavier than she anticipated.
Taking a steadying breath, she opened up the hatch, easing the heavy concrete slab aside by the handle until it rested silently against the floor. Faint light broke up the ominous darkness. The stairs below were narrow and steep, winding away like a turret, but the spaced torches along the wall lit the smooth stone well enough. Glancing around her one more time to make sure no silent alarms or jutsu were triggered, Mitsuki carefully slipped down into the hole and descended.
A strange feeling washed over her, like a hand pressing against her soul. Faint chakra hummed to life and Mitsuki studied the edges of the trap door again to find delicate writing for a jutsu.
An identifier.
Panicking, Mitsuki froze in place while the seal identified and processed her chakra signature. It would probably set off an alarm. A siren. Kami it was always a siren.
Yet … nothing happened.
Blinking open her eyes and wondering at what point she closed them, Mitsuki frowned as she felt the jutsu release her to continue onwards down into the lower vaults. That wasn't supposed to happen. Jutsu of that nature were always supposed to alert someone if anyone unauthorized stepped into an area. The last time she'd seen one was back in her own village to protect—
No.
Shaking her head, Mitsuki quickly refocused.
It was probably her seal. That was the only logical reason she might have been able to pass through. After all, that seal was the reason why she stood here, neck deep behind enemy lines, the reason that she risked everything to crawl into the bowels of the ninja world's strongest—only—village and steal from them.
Unless she found a way to break that seal, so many innocent people would die.
For once, Mitsuki simply thanked whichever star chose to watch over her tonight. With just as much care as before, she closed the stone slab back over her head and started the long trek down the winding stairs into the lower information vaults.
Up ahead she heard him: the patrolling guard walked towards the mouth of the staircase. The faint flicker of light stretched out his shadow as he came close into a flickering viper. Thankfully on the stairs it was too easy to lean back against the wall, blocking her own shadow from giving her away. Darkness cradled her like a best friend from dangers sharp eyes.
The second she did her back scraped lightly against the stone and the loose fabric of her shirt caught.
No, she panicked, heart thudding to a halt in her chest.
The guard went completely still, not even making the usual noises of a human.
Turning tail, Mitsuki bolted back up the stairs, sending chakra to her feet and muffling her steps as well as she could, but it hardly mattered now. Her cover was blown. Seconds after she moved someone came down the passage after her in vicious pursuit. Launching back up the winding steps, her heart pounded, everything sharp.
She hadn't even made it down to the lower levels yet. She barely walked down the stairs. She didn't even get a chance to see the floor layout. Nothing.
Cursing again, she shoved the stone slab above her head aside, not caring that it scraped against the floor. This time she passed through the jutsu without any hesitations, and to be safe, tossed a smoke bomb down below. It went off with a muffled boom, louder in the stone stairway than it should have been, but her cringe was all the time she could spare. Heaving herself the rest of the way out she kicked the stone slab back in place to trap all of the peppered smoke below, flinching at the cluttering crash it made. Moments later, it groaned as the ninja below converged on where she'd been.
But it was already too late: she was gone.
"Hashirama-dono!"
The two brothers started as three armed guards burst into Hashirama's office seconds after Mitsuki flashed away undetected. "Someone broke into the tower!" one shouted.
"What?" Hashirama gasped. Alarmed, he rushed over to them, asking questions, but Tobi already moved.
Shooting towards the window, Tobirama leaned out, his sharp eyes scanning the dark rain splattered night. He knew it. That had to have been the intruder listening in on their conversation earlier. Pressing a finger to the window frame, his molded chakra shot out like a whip, crashing over buildings and people in the streets in an instant stream of information. He could sense them, ninja out patrolling the streets, guards standing watch, unknowing of the intruder. He could feel everyone within the vicinity of the village and beyond, but even as he felt the chakra and saw the people, there wasn't a single person he didn't recognize. No one ran. No one even panicked. Even the best ninja left small trails of chakra he could catch.
His grip on the window frame clenched, cracking the wood with a pop as he searched further.
They were already gone.
That's impossible.
"Did they steal anything? How far did they make it?" Hashirama demanded.
One of the guards shifted uncomfortably. "Nothing is missing so far. The intruder entered through the trap door towards the information vaults below before they were detected."
"There's no signs to how they broke in!"
"They didn't trigger any of the alarms. Somehow they passed through the jutsu set up on the trapdoor without setting off anything."
Hashirama frowned, turning towards his brother who stared out the window with a dark scowl twisting his features. "Brother?"
His mind drifted far away. The intruder snuck past the identifier Mito put up? That identifier logged all energy signatures. Anyone unauthorized that tried forcing their way in should have been knocked unconscious. The alarm would have warned everyone.
Perhaps that why he wasn't able to sense the person in the nearby area. If they could somehow manipulate their chakra regulation—or even completely suppress it—theoretically they would be able to slip through the jutsu without setting off the alarm. If not, then they would have to systematically study the seal, breaking it down and altering it to create the perfect counter or nullifier. That would take days. Multiple breaches in security.
There was only one way to check.
Curling his lip in a scowl, Tobirama glanced back towards the others in the room. He didn't have to answer. The sour expression said everything as he locked gazes with his brother.
Hashirama frowned and turned back towards his ninja, every inch the leader they expected him to be. "Go search the tower. See if anything has been stolen, or if anyone saw someone who didn't belong tonight. Don't cause a panic whatever you do. We want this to stay quiet until we can figure out what they were after, and make sure to be careful. They could have set traps or stolen something. Report back to me whatever you find. They aren't in the tower anymore, but they could have left some trace behind."
"One of you fetch Mito Uzumaki," Tobirama ordered. "Have her inspect the barrier jutsu and report her findings to me."
All three men nodded, giving a polite bow and responding, "Hai!"
Before they could leave, Tobirama grabbed the arm of the shorter man with dark shaggy hair and a bandage resting across the bridge of his nose. The man trembled. Looking down at the younger man, his deep baritone voice left no room for debate, "You're coming to search the village with me."
"Y-Yes Tobirama-sama…"
Meanwhile on the outskirts of the village, Mitsuki swung down from a branch with a splash of mud and frigid water in front of a small one-story house. It was a sad little thing, crafted quickly with some patches and other mismatched materials, but there was no doubt that it was entirely hers.
Rather than entering the front door, she slipped around towards the back to avoid alerting anyone else at such a late hour. Pushing up her window, she heaved her small form inside, creating a puddle of mud and rainwater on the wooden floor, but honestly, it wasn't the first time and it certainly wouldn't be the last. As she turned to close the window she reached out simultaneously with her senses, feeling the other two presences in the house.
Good. They were still asleep. Nothing but calm energy and soothing chakra cycles came back. Listening hard enough, she could even hear faint sounds of snores coming through the walls. At least the orphan children that had adopted her house hadn't noticed she'd left.
Not that they ever did.
It made her smile weakly thinking of the sleeping angels she looked after, wondering if more would come with the influx of villagers supposed to arrive within the next week or two.
Finally, more people would be coming to the village, giving her all of the distractions she needed to push further into the tower. Everyone would be too worried about housing locations, treaties between interested clans, and developing the financial marketplace and employment economy to worry about one little measly woman sneaking about.
Really, she shouldn't take anyone else in. The two kids were already more than enough when she knew she'd have to flee the moment she got what she needed.
It was a shame the guards caught her so early tonight. Now, she'd have to wait at least a week for them to lower their defenses again, that is, if this new village was structured anything like her old compound. Maybe with a little luck she'd be able to push into the central tower twice a week.
Not likely, she mused.
Still, her old home was the only thing she really had to compare it to. A ninja village of this size and structure had never been accomplished before, by any of the nations. Clans typically didn't move in together if alliances were formed, and frankly with the rate that politics changed and battles broke out, it wasn't a surprise that people were generally wary about any alliance formed.
There'd never been a place like this village before.
With a sigh, Mitsuki rubbed at the stress creeping in her temples, throbbing and whispering sinful lullabies in her ear. Sleep. Close your eyes and sleep.
If only.
She stared at her own bed, looking at the soft blanket and welcoming pillow. A shuddering moan rippled deep within her bones at the sight—please, please, please—but there were other things that must be done first, always something else that kept her from climbing into bed.
Mitsuki slowly stripped from her uniform, fighting as the wet material clung to her skin and stuck on her emaciated form. In the faint glow of the night, she could see each of her ribs poking out, feel her spine and elbows catch and resist as she tugged.
Sleep, a slithering voice whispered. It pushed closer, stealing her breath and making her head swim.
Ripping off her shirt, Mitsuki gasped, staring down at her hands. They trembled, quivering from that same terrible something lingering in the back of her head. Furiously, she stripped off everything else, peeling away layers of black at a time and tossing it with her other clothes in the hamper in the corner.
All but ripping on a nightshirt, Mitsuki carefully pushed aside her tami mat in order to reach the hidden trap door holding all of the forbidden and dangerous items she possessed. The room temporarily pulsed with chakra as she cancelled the protective seal. While it wasn't the best hiding place, anyone who stumble across it might confuse it for extra storage. The seal itself would only make the inner contents appear to be regular blankets and other miscellaneous supplies. It was the perfect place to set her gloves and mask, keeping the dark fabric hidden in case anyone randomly searched her house. Hurriedly, she sealed it.
Taking a breath, she slowly turned to begin the ritual of chores she had to complete every night on this mission. She started with scrubbing away at any trace of mud and water along the floor with a towel and heavy bristled brush she kept in her room for this very occasion. Afterwards, she stretched, cracking her back and feelings the knobby bones pop back into place with a shuddering groan. Slowly she went through all of her stretches: toe touches, extensions, pulls, and twists. It was a long and slow process, making sure she could stay limber, pushing the boney husk of herself further to reach.
Finally, finally she sat down at a small wooden desk and pulled out a dark notebook. The worn and cracked leather cover faded over the years and use. Dozens of the pages were filled with compact words; jutsus, seals, hand signs, herbs, and even floor plans were neatly written throughout the book, right behind all of her ideas from a life long ago.
Painstakingly, Mitsuki sat and sketched out everything she discovered today on her small low table in the room. If she was ever going to get down into the lower halls, she would need to know everything about the main tower. Every room, every patrol, every doorway, she needed to know it all.
Hours later, when her vision started to blur and her hand cramped, she finally tried to get ready for bed. Thankfully it was still dark, hopefully because it was still night rather than the black storm clouds coating the sky. It didn't matter either way, but the hour did little to comfort her. As she laid down, she focused on the lullaby of sleep of the house and the soothing hiss in the back of her mind. She was tired. So very, very tired.
It didn't work.
The second she hit the pillow, her entire mind blazed, racing and churning, mulling over every move she'd made tonight and what the future would hold. Even with her eyes weary and her body loose, she stared out into the distance.
Sleep, that same viperous voice hissed, tugging dots over her eyes and her bones into the mattress. Close your eyes and sleep.
She listened, sinking low into the mattress and letting her tired eyes finally flicker shut for the night. Kami, it felt wonderful to lie down for a moment. Then, she waited with patient arms for the deadly lull of unconsciousness to pull her under.
Her brain still screamed, stopping sleep from coming.
And she did nothing but lay there, praying for once her body would be merciful.
For now, she'd play the game and live a cover life, all the while sneaking closer and closer to her prize.
This wasn't an ordinary mission after all.
She couldn't fail.