My brother has agreed to refurbish my computer, so there may be a break of a week or two in updates while that happens.
Bondage
It's a long, hard run north and east up into Lightning, but this is the best time of year for it, with the snows long melted and the autumn rains not yet falling, and Homusubi immediately volunteered his Squad for it upon hearing through Outguard gossip about Katsuma's indiscretion. They're not the fastest Squad –that's a tie between Madara's and Taka's– and they don't have the deepest chakra reserves either, but Homusubi is proud of his Squad's versatility and steadiness, and that perhaps is what persuades Tajima-sama to agree. After all, this situation does not require Madara's strength or Taka's speed: Katsuma is a kinsman and a part of the Trading Branch, so where he will be is known to the clan.
Karasuo will have to carry Katsuma on their run back, having as he does the deepest reserves and therefore the best stamina, but that can't be helped. Katsuma's reserves aren't terrible, but he's not Outguard trained so despite his skill in shaping fiery songbirds over a campfire he doesn't have the practice in sustained physical enhancement. It's not as easy as many people think it is; yes, an unrefined push of chakra does boost the body, but only in the short term. As the hours press onwards, such rough methods attack the muscles and nerves, diminishing function and forcing the runner to use ever-more chakra to maintain speed, causing ever-more damage to the body's tissues. A properly controlled method accounts for the body's chakra tolerances, enabling greater stamina over a long distance, a more prolonged running period and a shorter recovery time afterwards, despite a lower top speed.
Not everybody can be Madara, whose chakra tolerance is as remarkable as his reserves are deep. The clan knows better than to even try to compete with him there; Izuna comes close in terms of balance, but everybody else falls short in tolerance, reserves or both.
Being Squad Leader means setting the pace, and in light of the long distance –several days' run, mostly uphill, with breaks to sleep– Homusubi is setting it a little lower than usual. One night's sleep is not enough for a full recovery, so better to tax the body a little less on the first day and make up the time later. Also they have a lot of mountain passes to climb, and adjusting to the changes in altitude also requires care; having anybody sicken and need a few days' rest to regain their equilibrium would force a greater delay than simply taking their time. Thankfully Shino is eighteen; he would not have put himself forward to Tajima-sama had his Squad's youngest member been a green fourteen or fifteen. Shino however has been a warrior for almost four years and on his Squad for two; they are well-trained, well-practiced and know to speak up immediately when they are having difficulties.
Homusubi has always made a point of ensuring his Squad know that they must speak up; if they do not tell him they are struggling, how can he or Naka-Spider act to resolve matters?
It is not Shino who limits the Squad's pace though; that, in all honesty, is Homusubi himself, along with Tomamu. Both genjutsu specialists, although Tomamu is more investigation-focused and Hobusubi himself is more centred on tactical and operational planning, as befitting his role as one of Tajima-sama's senior lieutenants, and both having reserves less deep than their more ninjutsu-focused colleagues.
Naka-Spider and Shino are both more taijutsu-orientated, but that just means they have truly optimised their bodies' chakra tolerances and fine-tuned their internal control to a greater degree than most. His Mentor is unusual is also being a wire specialist, as that requires a strong focus on external chakra shaping, but Naka-Spider has always made a point of being highly capable, versatile and unpleasantly surprising to all possible opponents; she has a true talent for pinpoint chakra control and a strong ability in abstract modelling, which she wields brilliantly and precisely. Witness her genjutsu, which while not her specialty is still to a higher standard than most non-Uchiha could ever aspire to.
Karasuo, who has no Lineage but belongs to a respected smithing family, is their ninjutsu specialist. Homusubi knows he started his Outguard career under Katsukane –who is Madara's Mentor now– then when Madara himself entered the field was put on the Outguard Heir's Squad as ballast and backstop, an additional shield against That Tree Lunatic.
Karasuo had the good luck to survive that experience; many did not. In the eight years since then he spent time on a few other Squads before ending up with Homusubi, where he has been for the past three years. The man is a solid and reliable subordinate; Homusubi is pleased to have him.
If it wasn't for what awaits them at the end of the run, this could almost be called a break. The return journey will doubtless be far less pleasant than the outward one.
Hashirama sits in his bonsai shed, staring morosely at his miniature trees in their trays by the windows. They don't need anything; they were trimmed last week and he watered all of them first thing this morning. They are comfortable, hydrated and if he pulls his chakra most of the way in and listens carefully, he can hear their soft, contented murmur, a subtle counterpoint to the more vigorous fully-grown trees outside.
There isn't anything he needs to do. Nothing. There's no paperwork he's been avoiding –nobody expects him to do paperwork anymore– no missions he could be taking –Tokonoma-ji explained gently that he better serves the clan by staying close to home to grow trees at the moment– and he's grown as many trees today as the Uzumaki have requested for the next batch of their ongoing order, which is all the trees that stretch of ground can bear. In a week's time they'll be cut down and the stumps shredded and mixed with water for mulch, to feed the ground a little before the next batch.
He's got nothing to do. Mito-chan doesn't even need him to run down to the coast to buy more shiokara!
Hashirama slumps forwards, forehead resting on his workbench. He hates having nothing to do. He can't go and spend time with Tobi –Tobi's not here anymore– he can't hunt down Tōka for a spar –she's buried in paperwork– Hattōma's away on a mission and so are Koenma, Hajitomi, Aijiro, Kōshima and Tatema, Kūrinma won't spar with him anymore –apparently he hits too hard– and he spent half of yesterday with Rinzōma, so can't go bother him again today.
Niōma and Ryūsha are still on medical leave after having their backs broken by the Deathblow back in the spring, and while they're allowed to train now Ōka-ba has made it very clear that they need to take it easy, and Hashirama has been informed he's not allowed to spar with either of them until they've made a complete recovery.
Kamoi might be around, but he is helping Mokoshi recover from his own broken back, so he probably won't want to spar either.
Which leaves Hashirama in his bonsai shed, alone with his thoughts.
Will I be a good father?
Hashirama sighs heavily, forehead still resting on his workbench and careful to keep his chakra under his skin as much as possible, so as not to upset the bonsai. He hates that this is where his mind goes every time he's not busy. Not that it's not very exciting that Mito-chan is having a baby! It is! She's really happy about it and he's really happy for her! And it is exciting that he's going to have a child! Babies are adorable! But…
His father… wasn't a very good father. He can see that now, with how Tobirama was treated and looking back, his father did things when he and Tobirama and Tama and Wara were small that… weren't good. And there's Keika-nee too, and the other older brothers he found out about from her at Obon.
He'd thought Harima, Ranma and Misuma had been cousins some degree removed; finding out they had been his big brothers had really hurt. He'd helped Keika-nee and Sunami-oba sweep the graves –and his mother's grave, he'd thought Kikuno-kaa-san was his mother, that had hurt too– and listened while they told him stories.
Stories they hadn't been able to tell him while his father was alive, because his father hadn't wanted to hear anybody talk about his first wife and dead older sons and had hurt people who tried to. Father hadn't wanted to hear about Kikuno-kaa-san or Tama or Wara either, now that Hashirama thought about it; he and Tobi and Tōka had only ever discussed them in private.
That wasn't good. That wasn't being a good father. Hashirama hadn't known who his mother was. He'd never swept her grave or burned incense or anything! Because he hadn't known! He'd done those things for Kikuno-kaa-san –and he was still doing them for her, because she did raise him and she was Tobi's mother and should get incense even though Tobi wasn't here to burn it right now– but not for his own mother. For Senju Kaika, whom he apparently looks a lot like and behaves a lot like.
It's uncomfortable, finding out your mother isn't who you thought she was. He'd always wondered why he and Tobi didn't look that much alike, and it turns out it's because they've only got one parent in common. It also explains why Kawarama didn't look much like him either; Itama had looked a bit more like him, but that had been mostly in the ways they'd both looked like their father.
He still loves Kikuno-kaa-san; she's the mother he remembers. But he loves his birth mother too now, in a way that aches inside because there's nothing there to hold onto except stories from his big sister and grandma. He knows so little, and that awareness of absence just makes the wistful emptiness in his chest more pronounced.
It really hurts, that his father never mentioned her to him. Never talked about her. Never acknowledged she'd even existed. Keika-nee says it's because he loved her so much that remembering her always hurt him, but Hashirama still thinks that's an excuse. Losing Tama and Wara really hurt! Remembering them and realising that they never got to grow up hurts! They never got to fall in love or marry and he's never going to know what they think about Tobi's surprise marriage! He can't tell them they're going to be uncles and see what faces they make! They're never going to get to meet Mito-chan's baby! That all hurts! But that doesn't make it okay to pretend they never existed!
His father was a very bad father. Hashirama isn't sure how he can be a good father when he doesn't know what a good father is supposed to do. He can not do the things his father did that he didn't like when he was small! That he can manage! But, what about the things his father maybe should have done but didn't? What about the holes he is only just starting to realise are there, the absences that should probably have had things in? What goes in those places?
What is he supposed to do?
What do good fathers do?
Hashirama lightly bangs his forehead on his workbench. He doesn't know, and that's the worst bit. He'd thought that fathers were just… like that. When Madara had talked about his father, he had made it sound like his father was strict and unreasonable as well, so Hashirama had assumed everybody's fathers were like this. But… thinking about it, Tokonoma-ji isn't like that with Tōka-nee and Tokyōma-kun, or at least he isn't in public. He praises them, even if they don't get everything right. Even though Tokyōma's not a warrior and still stutters sometimes, Tokonoma-ji still says nice things about what Tokyōma is doing. He even said nice things even before Tokyōma started learning fuuinjutsu and helping to find documents for the treaty…
Zōden-ji still makes a big fuss of his littlest daughter, even though she's thirteen now and a warrior, and Zafu-ji is taking as few missions as he can afford, just so as to run around the compound after nine-year-old Norenma and let two-and-a-half-year-old Fūka climb all over him. Is that what fathers are supposed to do?
Tobi's old subordinate Chigi spends all his spare money on nice things for his three children, and admires all the things they bring to show him, even if it's just beetles or flowers and he's busy doing something else like sparring. Is that what fathers are supposed to do too?
He doesn't know anymore. Father never did any of those things.
He wants to talk to Tobi about this. Did Tobi know? About Kikuno-kaa-san not being Hashirama's mother, and about their older brothers and the other things? What does Tobi think fathers are supposed to do?
Obaachan says Tobi's adopted a little Uchiha boy, so Tobi's being a father right now. That means Tobi will be thinking about all these things, and he'll probably have answers to Hashirama's questions. He'll have to try and get an invitation to tea, so he can ask Tobi personally. Tobi's really good at explaining things and he always thinks about all the details, so he'll have a good answer and then Hashirama will know what fathers are supposed to do, so he can do them for Mito-chan's baby.
He'll go find Obaachan and ask her if he can visit Tobi soon, seeing as she's the one Tobi is sorting out the weekly visits through. He's sure Tobi will want to see him!
Well, he hopes Tobi wants to see him. He very much wants to see Tobi and make sure he's really as okay as everybody says he is. Tobi often pretends he's okay when he isn't, and thinking back about all the things he did and the things his little brother didn't say, Hashirama's had to recognise that Tobi's very good at fooling people.
"Are you Hirokizuka-san?"
Uchiha Hirokizuka glances up from her sorting of back-prints at being addressed, and grins sharply when her gaze lands on the leopard standing just outside her workshop's shōji. "Yes I am, and I believe you are Tōnari-san?" Tobirama-sama's summons are all discrete individuals, and to an artist's eye they are easily distinguished.
"I am indeed!" The Leopard preens, visibly delighted to be recognised. "My summoner mentioned you wanted to paint me."
"Very much; you and any of the others who are willing; you are all different after all, and that should be appreciated."
The Leopard looks even more delighted, ears perked forward and tail swaying slightly. "Well I can't speak for my sister, but the younger ones will likely be very interested. Where would you like me to sit?"
Hirokizuka waves a hand at the garden beyond her workshop, small but well-tended with cunningly shaped evergreens, pruned trees and meticulously-placed rocks among thick moss. "Wherever you're comfortable; I'd like to sketch you in motion, if I may, to get a feel for your musculature and dynamic range. Then after that we can have tea and I can make some more detailed static drawings, if that's fine with you."
"Oh that all sounds very pleasant," Tōnari-san assures her, turning back to glance at her surroundings. "You have a very lovely garden, Hirokizuka-san."
"Thank you." She worked hard on it, placing every stone and shrub, carefully pruning the bushes to ensure it did not look contrived; trying to convey a sense of natural wildness despite the inevitably contained artifice of the small space. Grabbing her sketchpad, ink and finest brushes as the Leopard turns and ambles across the moss, Hirokizuka stands, crosses the boards and settles just inside the threshold to set about capturing what she can of the raw grace and delicate ferocity of her beautiful guest. Which tea should she serve? She will have to make inquiries as to her guest's tastes.
She loves drawing new things. Maybe now they have the ceasefire she'll be able to travel more? She'd like that.
But first: doing her newest model justice.
The Land of Demons isn't really anything like what you'd expect with a name like that; it doesn't have any demons at all, just a few ancient volcanoes and various other rather strange-looking rock formations in amongst the lush vegetation. However the High Priestess takes her duty to her country and ancestors seriously, so they are the largest buyer of the Uchiha Clan's finest fuuinjutsu-quality ink.
The sort they make from chakra-grown trees, not that they ever tell anybody that part. Scavenged from battlefields off clan land and carefully coppiced when there are battlefields on clan land, they make the finest and most smoothly chakra-conductive charcoal when hand-burned rather than piled up in heaps under earth like the normal cooking and smithing charcoal.
A precious clan secret; Tomoe has joked about how Tajima-sama is probably going to plant it in the Senju's minds that growing trees on Uchiha land would be a fine show of law-abiding generosity. Right now however Tomoe and their parents are off negotiating the price to be paid for this year's inksticks, leaving Kitami and her five-week-old baby Chihiro to enjoy the comfort of the ryokan they are staying in. High Priestess Kokūzō is paying for it –she takes her hosting duties very seriously– so it is vastly nicer than anywhere else they stay during the year, except for home.
Kitami is basking in the tranquillity of the garden, brilliant red acers contrasting the lush colour of the local evergreens as the soothing rush of water down the little stream fills her ears, when a chunky black tomcat with one ear torn to ribbons bounds down a tree by the far wall and saunters towards her with purpose.
"O-Neko-san?"
The Cat climbs the steps onto the engawa, sits down facing her and produces a letter from nowhere with a flourish, which he pushes towards her over the boards.
"Ah, a thousand thanks to O-Neko-san," Kitami says politely, bowing; the Uchiha are bound to all Cats, although most of them really don't care about that kind of thing. However for a Cat to bring a letter implies this is some kind of Clan emergency that the Cats feel is important enough to merit their assistance; no doubt this local gentleman has been co-opted by a more closely Uchiha-aligned cat to perform this delivery.
Indeed, the tomcat is already leaving, presumably to claim whatever bribe he was promised for his time.
Picking up the letter, Kitami feels a thrill of trepidation up her spine: it is addressed to her. "Uchiha Kitami, daughter of Uchiha Karashi," is scribed in Tajima-sama's clear yet idiosyncratic calligraphy on the front. Whatever is going on that the Outguard Head is writing to her personally, when she does not fall under his authority? Have the treaty proceedings failed early? Is there some other threat? This is the second time this year that they have received a Cat-delivered letter; the last one contained news of her father and siblings' deaths.
Against her chest, her baby stirs and whimpers. Kitama closes her eyes and breathes, soothing her chakra and reminding herself that the Drowning Breath is now very thoroughly confined; he will not be killing Uchiha ever again. Even if the treaty proceedings have been abruptly ended, she and her family are safe; the Senju have no other sensors so skilled. This is likely to just be a polite notification, not a disaster; if it were truly a disaster one of the Uchiha's committed Cats or else a Squad of warriors would have delivered it, so as to answer questions and expedite their safe departure.
Opening the letter, she scans it quickly; no death kanji, thankfully, but certain characters leap unpleasantly to the eye.
Diplomatic incident. Katsuma. Misrepresentation. Consequences.
What has her furiously grieving older brother done?! Clutching the paper, Kitami drags her eyes back to the beginning and sets about meticulously reading each and every kanji, despite how some of them wobble before her eyes. By the time she's halfway through Chihiro is fussing again; when she finally finishes she sets the letter down and stares blankly at the trimmed bushes across the garden, absently rocking her baby.
This is awful. What does she do?
Talk to her spouse, first of all; beg advice from her in-laws as well. What else can she do, when this letter is nothing more than a courtesy telling her of what will be? All she can do now is decide for herself how to respond to it.
Hiromi-ba warned her in the spring that grief can blind a person to the obvious and make them do terrible and self-destructive things they do not even recognise are damaging until much later, but Kitami still struggles to believe her Aniki would be so foolish. What had he expected would happen? Had he thought at all?
She is going to have to find out. Unfortunately however it is going to have to wait until next summer; he is half the continent away from her at present and she has a child to raise and commitments to keep. She cannot run home to shake her stupid brother until he sees sense; that would be irresponsible!
Maybe he will write to her. But even if he does not, there will likely be further letters from both Outguard and Homeguard Heads, keeping her updated of the decisions made, so that when she does return to clan lands in June she will have already made her choices and informed the relevant parties as to the changes that will need to be made come next summer. Last spring's changes were exhausting enough, and now they all have to be made again.
How could her brother do this to them? Can't he see that he's just making everything worse?
"I have no objections to travelling to Nisshu-kō on your behalf, Izuna-sama."
Her cousin once removed is always so stiff with his words, which is the height of irony when under that chilly formality he is a raging hothead just like his mother. Byakuya is however a brilliant and meticulously responsible Squad Leader, hence his being entrusted with Saburō; Izuna does however feel for her cousin Ryūmi, the Squad's next most senior warrior, and for Squad Mentor Ikoma.
"Thank you, Byakuya-nii." He's just a few weeks younger than Katsuma, so she's never called him 'uncle' despite his technically being part of her parents' generation; Urushino-ba married late and to a husband a decade younger than she.
Her cousin bows, his expression of blank disdain softened only by his evenly pleasant voice. "Anything for Izuna-sama."
"Well, not anything," she teases him gently; Byakuya's got very firm ideas about honour and propriety and duty, and won't compromise them for anybody. He is one of the Squad Leaders most given to the creative interpretation of orders –entirely independently of her and for very different reasons– and yet also one of the most effective at completing mission objectives, despite his chakra strength being middling at best.
He's strategic, tactical, incredibly fast and extremely intelligent; however he's held back by the fact he likes to pretend he's not ruled by his heart, which is why Mentor Ikoma is running herd on him and why he'll never, ever get a promotion to Squad Mentor himself.
In the words of her former lifetime: her cousin has no chill.
She loves him for it, honestly, even though as a pre-teen she once had to very carefully talk him down from hunting down Tobirama and murdering him. That was a very illuminating and productive talk though; Byakuya's Squad has a surprisingly low kill-count for his having been leading in the field for well over a decade and Izuna likes to think he seems happier for it.
"Anything Izuna-sama asks of me," her cousin insists, face still a haughty mask yet tone more clearly edged with tenderness; "it is never an imposition."
That is his way of telling her that he sees and deeply appreciates how she never asks him for things he's not comfortable giving. "Not even when I ask you to run cross-country for a full day, be polite to Hyūga and negotiate with merchants, so they hand over my purchases to a representative I did not forewarn them to expect rather than allow them to arrive here at their own pace and treat with me directly?"
"It is never an imposition."
It is true that she picked this particular cousin to ask because he is one of the few Uchiha who can genuinely get along with Hyūga half the time, but she also knows for a fact he dislikes Water Country merchants on principle. Mostly because half of them have one foot in piracy and he's not allowed to kill them; Byakuya is a man of very firm principles.
She bows. "My thanks to my honoured cousin."
"Hn."
"I will leave you to gather your Squad then." She's given him money to make her purchases, a letter for the merchants to assure them her cousin is indeed acting on her behalf, another letter –and a gift– for whichever Main House Hyūga he has to take tea with to be granted unhindered passage through their lands and of course filled out the proper paperwork to make this an official and fully above-board mission, which she is paying for out of her personal funds.
All to poke at her father, admittedly, but it's a worthy cause; she's doing this for the promise of long-term peaceful collaboration with her spouse's clan and that's well worth throwing money at. This way those vivid blue silks she ordered will arrive in a few days rather than next week and she can get on with her plan before her treasure's next tea with his relatives. According to Madara the arguing has already been ongoing for half a week; if it drags on much longer the Aburame may well call a recess, and after that it becomes ever more likely that her father and Tokonoma-san will decide that what they have agreed already is sufficient.
It's not sufficient. It's nowhere near sufficient. But the only way she can affect things is by changing her father's mind.
She will just have to be persuasive.
"Tobirama-sama says that Madara-sama and Izuna-sama both agree that Tajima-sama is just being obstructive to be obstructive, but will agree to concessions so long as you work up to them. His current suggestion can be safely dismissed, so long as you can offer another potential compromise a step up from the present position that he can then dismiss in turn," Maki says, setting out the last of the scrolls Tobirama has smuggled out of the Uchiha Compound on Tokyōma's desk, "and then follow it up by a step on his side. Madara-sama and Izuna-sama both firmly believe that demilitarisation and branching out into other forms of income is the answer here –and that their father knows it too– but that Tajima-sama can't just come out and say that without weakening his bargaining position. So both sides have to work up to it by dismissing all other alternatives first, Tokonoma-sama."
"Tobirama-nii's not worried," Koenma chimes in helpfully. "He clearly thinks this will work, and that we can get a good deal out of it that won't leave us struggling to get by. Also he's already making use of his dowry; he's been approached by an Uchiha silk weaver who wants to sell their work outside the clan, so is offering them the start-up funds in exchange for a share of the profits and a few kimono at cost."
"Stupendously high profits," Maki interjects; "it's a damask weaver; the Uchiha apparently are expanding into the silk market and have been for some time now. Which also goes a way to explain Tobirama-sama's ridiculously fine and varied new wardrobe; Izuna-sama probably did not pay the full market price for most of it."
"Establishing alternative income streams," Tōka says from her desk of the far side of the large room where she has paused in sorting the clan's recent intelligence to listen to the report of Koenma and Maki's tea with Tobirama-kun. "High-yield alternative income streams; maybe we should talk to the Uzumaki again, see about establishing a mutually beneficial trade agreement of some kind in the longer term. Glass would sell well and we could grow hemp for rope-making; it's an easy crop and we could make paper from it as well."
Both are crops and products that the Uzumaki would buy from them. Tokonoma makes a quick note of the ideas; his daughter has been as much a gift since he took over the clan as his son, looking to the future as Tokyōma digs into the past. He's deeply grateful to both of them. "A good thought, daughter, but one to consider in more detail another day," he says firmly. "Tokyōma-kun, are these the scrolls you were trying to find?"
His son is already looking through the bounty that came out of the seal painted on the inside of Maki's bag. "Yes Otou-sama, some of these are the missing scrolls I wanted," he agrees, not looking up, "and Tobirama-nii's included his own map of the Archives and the blocked-off spaces he's sensed, which will really help a lot. There's some other stuff I didn't ask for, but I'm guessing those came out of the Archives too; most of them anyway. This one," he sets aside a newer scroll, "is five essays on seasonal variations in various crops over the past fifty years and the factors feeding and affecting various luxury goods markets, which is going to be really helpful in terms of ensuring we know what to ask our contacts about as we explore new markets."
Despite his confinement, Tobirama is still doing his best to help the clan; Tokonoma feels a little of the tightness in his chest fade. He has every faith in his children and his kin, but Tobirama has always been brilliant and Izuna's theft of that brilliance was truly a tactical coup for the Uchiha. If Tobirama were here –no, Tokonoma will not go there. No what-ifs. He is not here. But this is a gift and he will not squander it.
"We'll each read it through before sending it on to the communications collective," Tokonoma decides; "they can make the best use of it, but we should still know what it contains."
His children nod; Maki looks like she's planning on making a copy as well. If so, he won't stop her; that information is also relevant to her and Rinzōma.
"Anything else?" He asks the duo standing across from him in their finery.
"That's everything, Tokonoma-sama," Koenma says cheerfully as Maki slides the folded bag back into her obi.
Tokonoma nods to them both. "Dismissed then, both of you."
They bow and leave the office, less uncomfortable in their silks than he was half-expecting them to be. Tokonoma glances at his children, his son already fully engrossed in his reading with dust smudged on his sleeve-ends and his daughter returning to her stacks of letters and mission requests, then rises from his chair.
"I will make tea," he announces, collecting the individual pots from each table and loading them onto a tray, then heading out of the room and firmly closing the door behind him. Only then, in the relative privacy of the empty hallway, does he let himself rub his eyes with his free hand.
It's all very well to say that he just needs to offer a reasonable alternative to Tajima-sama, but the truth is... well the truth is that, legally speaking, the Uchiha Outguard Head –which Tokonoma has deduced is not quite the same as being the Uchiha Clan Head, although the Uchiha apparently do not have anybody occupying a position of absolute authority– is in fact being very reasonable in this particular demand.
And Tajima knows it.
Upon arriving in the kitchen Tokonoma fills the very large tetsubin with water and sets it on the stove, then sets about measuring out the tea. He no longer has to persuade Tsuwabuki-san to let him make his own tea; a combination of Tōka's insistence on washing all the crockery in the clan hall after his brother died and his own claim that the preparation process helps him to think has convinced the various ladies who assist his mother and Sumi-san in running the house to allow him this freedom.
It does help him think; it is why he enjoys carving, the comfortable, familiar work with wood and knife allowing him the freedom to contemplate and consider.
The problem is that his ancestors have left him a crime as an inheritance, and that he is fairly sure that Tajima knows it. He only discovered it recently –when his determined son finally found a copy of the Senju's treaty with the Daimyo in the Archives– but since then it has tormented him by its very existence.
The Senju, legally and officially, are a nomadic shinobi clan. This means they live in temporary dwellings rather than permanent houses, they are all warriors or dependents of warriors and, because they do not actually reside in any specific nation, they pay only a very small tax to the Fire Daimyo for the privilege of wintering on his land.
The farmers and craftsmen of the vassal village are not legally part of the Senju clan, despite their shared bloodlines going back centuries and more and as many warriors coming from the vassals as from the warrior lineages; they are, legally and officially, a small independent farming village on the Fire Daimyo's land, and their taxes for the privilege of being his tenants are also relatively modest, all things considered.
Thus, when Tajima demands the Senju leave, he means the warriors only. And he has every right to do so, and the Fire Daimyo would support the measure. After all, the Senju are a nomadic clan. Tajima has no quarrel with the farming village the Senju are imposing upon; why would he? They are not attacking him; they are perfectly law-abiding tenants of their Daimyo.
Tokonoma is very sure that Tajima is well aware that the vassals as no less Senju by blood that the warrior clansmen. However he doesn't seem inclined to harass them for having the poor taste to be related to official Senju, which makes everything that much harder for Tokonoma.
The problem is that the Senju are not truly a nomadic clan. They are residing permanently on the Fire Daimyo's land, warriors and farmers alike. And the taxes for resident clans are markedly higher.
His ancestors have been defrauding the Fire Daimyo out of his lawful tax share for centuries, and it seems very possible that their actions may well finally be coming home to roost. If they admit to being a resident clan then they will owe the Daimyo a truly eye-watering sum of back-taxes and the entire clan will likely be convicted of various criminal charges, likely leading to the Senju ceasing to exist as a clan and probably as individuals as well; the Fire Daimyo likes to make examples of people who do this kind of thing, to stand as a proper deterrent to others.
However, if they continue the farce, then the clan may well have to split, the warriors moving elsewhere in the name of the peace treaty and leaving the vassals behind to fend for themselves. Just off the borders of Uchiha territory, where Uchiha Tajima will doubtless extend offers of protection and trade in exchange for fealty.
Splitting the clan will permanently diminish both halves: the warriors will no longer have a guaranteed supply of food, so missions will have to be balanced against foraging and a greater proportion of earnings will have to be set aside for acquiring staples, while the vassals will be vulnerable to banditry and also lose access to medical care, cash support in case of crop failures and will need to sell their crops on the open market rather than securing the relatively generous set rates within the clan.
If he does that, everybody will lose just as surely as they will if he chooses to confess to the Daimyo; it will just be a slower, more protracted death. But what can he offer Tajima, when the man's request is legally reasonable and appropriate?
This is all the reasons why he never wanted to be Clan Head. But it is too late for regrets; he must find a third way. Unless he wishes the negotiations to fail entirely, which he does not; that is just another way to lose, burying kinsmen one by one as Tajima presses his current field advantage.
… as a counter-offer, maybe he could suggest paired patrolling along the river? Senju and Uchiha in full view of each-other, each keeping to their own side, with the opportunity for it to become routine and therefore boring, complete with opportunities for inter-clan conversation? He'll talk it through with Sumi-san this evening, get her perspective.
It's something to suggest tomorrow, at least. Pouring the steaming water over the genmaicha in the teapots, Tokonoma really hopes it's enough to get the negotiations moving again.
If it isn't, he's going to have to pray for a miracle.