AN: Once again, I apologize. I lost my notes for this story and then my motivation went with it. Once again, there may be grammatical errors in this one. I tried to catch them all, but I seem to miss a few (or more) every chapter.

I hope everyone is fairing well out there. :)

The night following the examination of Sakura's seal, Tobirama was startled awake by the sounds of crackling and popping. Groggily, he pushed himself out of his bedroll while automatically and simultaneously reaching for his kunai and searching for the source of the noise. Aside from the distant crackling, the room was quiet, but the smell of burning wood filled the area and a warm orange glow reflected off the walls. A fire? Suddenly alert, he rushed to the window to confirm his suspicions. A myriad of thoughts ran through his mind. Did Sakura finally choose to show her real colours? No, he doubted that. He felt her chakra upstairs. Likely she had been roused by the same noise as he had been. Would the Uchiha be so bold as to directly attack the Senju Clan at their residence? Surely, he would have picked up on their chakra signatures long before this if that was the case. He had long ago conditioned himself to wake up to an approach of one of them. The Uzumaki? That did not make sense either. An accident? Possible.

Outside, the clan was waking up and he could hear voices starting to rise up shouting "Fire!" He wasted no time leaping outside and running towards the danger, not caring that he was still in his night clothes. Before him a large fire had swallowed up two of the outer residences. Great tongues of flame lanced up into the night air as numerous sparks danced and flickered. A nearby building caught a spark and a flame started to spread along the roof. The damp from the previous day's rain was doing little to slow its spread. Fellow shinobi had already started to evacuate the area and those with an aptitude for water jutsu were doing their best to prevent the blaze from spreading. They had the intelligence to be able to handle the situation without his or Hashirama's guidance for now. In the back of his mind, he sensed both Sakura and his brother's chakra signatures rapidly approaching behind him. It would not be long now until the Clan Leader took control of the remaining logistics of handling panicking civilians. His brother's jutsu would be of no use here.

As he approached the scene, he started to gather up his chakra, pulling the water directly out of the air, with the intention to use water jutsu to put out the flames. Few, if any, had his prowess with water style and all required a water source unlike himself. Even in an area as dry and hot as this, he could find water in the air. Therefore, he was best suited to tackle the main fire and the least likely to add to the already extensive damage of the village.

The heat was intense as he advanced. Sweat started to gather on the back of his neck. A sensation he ignored in favour of assessing the best way to go about attacking the fire. His analysing lasted for less than an instant. His hands flashed through hand signs as he took in a large gulp of air and he started to expel water from his mouth towards the hungry flames. Hissing filled the night as more smoke rose up. The fire was trying to keep burning despite the onslaught of his jutsu.

He heard his brother come up somewhere behind him to his left. He could hear him ordering a report from one of the surrounding shinobi. His brother easily took over the situation, commanding the civilians to hold back while also directing the shinobi to battle the blaze in any way they could or help with the wounded. Tobirama caught a glimpse of pink in the corner of his eye. Sakura. She had rushed forward stupidly into the flaming area, reaching towards a crying child to pull them to safety. Thankfully, he noted that she remained unharmed.

After a few moments, he stopped his offensive to gasp in some much-needed air. A hand landed roughly on his shoulder. He spared a brief glance at his grim looking brother, the owner of the hand. Few dared to touch him outside of his brother. Hashirama's dark eyes looked him over once before turning to the flames. His hand tightened on his shoulder as he asked,

"What do you sense?"

Tobirama's mouth formed a thin line.

"I sense nothing out of place, brother," he paused, looking towards where he knew Sakura was located, "This strikes me as nothing more than an accident, but…"

The older Senju followed his gaze to Sakura as he released his shoulder, letting his hand fall back to his side. He continued Tobirama's train of thought, "it seems too much of a coincidence with the timing of her arrival. I agree, but who else knows of her presence being anything abnormal aside from us and the Uzumaki?"

The younger brother shrugged, unsure. He would need to assess the buildings after the fire was put out to see if he could determine where it had begun. Perhaps then they would know if foul play was involved. While his intuition told him that there was more to it, he knew that it was more than likely an accident and his paranoia was acting up. However, he did recall the Uzumaki mentioning the suspicious border activity of the Uchiha upon their arrival several days ago. If this had been what they had been planning, how did he not pick up on their chakra? Pushing his speculations aside, he started to go through the motions of his jutsu again as his brother murmured,

"She has not been here long enough for word to have spread far about her nor has she given any reason to cause people to speculate on her as of yet…"

Unable to talk while using the water technique, Tobirama spared a glance back towards his brother, hoping he caught his enquiry.

"Unless we have an unknown entity after Sakura or the Uchiha somehow got through your guard, which is unlikely, I doubt this is any more than an accident."

Having finished his comment, Hashirama looked calmer. Tobirama continued his sweeping motions with the water, listening to the flames and activities around him. The feeling that something was off continued to nag at him so he allowed his chakra senses to spread out a second time, going over each chakra signature more carefully than before, looking for anything out of place. The Senju clan members were easy to dismiss as were Sakura's and the Uzumaki's. However, there was one he did not catch before huddled nearby. Too small of a signature to be an adult or shinobi, but one unfamiliar to him nonetheless. He would have noticed an unfamiliar shinobi or adult, but perhaps a child might have slipped in past his senses. His negligence in his chakra scans due to watching Sakura could have provided the opportunity for a child to slip in the compound. But how could a child have gotten past the sentries? He cut his jutsu off, deciding that the flames had been curbed enough that they could be handled by the others for a short time. He waved a hand at his brother, motioning him to follow, with a quick mention about the chakra he had not picked up on before.

His brother's gaze turned sharp once again as they headed toward the foreign signature. Upon arrival, they found the soot covered child clinging onto Sakura's leg. Large watery black eyes looked up at them at their approach and, to Tobirama's surprise, he recognized the boy as the one Sakura had pulled from the building earlier. The boy could not have been older than five or six with his small malnourished frame and dark brown hair. Sakura finished healing a villager with minor burns and also turned towards them with a questioning gaze. Seeing their hard looks, she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. Unlike him, she was fully clothed and not in night attire. Lucky her.

"Lord Senjus, is there something I can help you with?"

She did not speak with defiance, but impatience was evident in her tone. The healer in her did not like being pulled away from people needing her attention it seemed. As Hashirama knelt to get a better look at the child, Tobirama stated,

"We need to speak with the boy."

Sakura frowned back at him, questioning.

"With Sota? Why?"

Hashirama started to cajole the child out from behind the pinkette, putting on his best friendly persona. It would be hard for the child to not fall for it. Tobirama left him to it, knowing that he would be useless at best and a hinderance at worst in this situation. Instead, he answered Sakura to her palpable surprise.

"Someone started that fire and the only foreigner among us is this child."

At his words, Sota burst into tears and hid again, rendering Hashirama's efforts useless. His cries cut off Sakura's response as he blurted out,

"I'm sorry! I didn't want to! I promise! They made me do it!"

Everyone frowned. Who would force a civilian child start a fire? His brother tried once more to coax the child out from hiding as Sakura knelt down too to look at the scared boy. Sota seemed to trust Sakura and leaned into the woman as she started to calm him down. He seemed to be warming up to his brother as well, but kept sending scared glances his way. Taking that as a sign to back off, Tobirama stepped back, prompting Hashirama to wave him away with an order to help with the fire again lest the child be too afraid to speak again with him around.

Frustrated, he left. Unfortunately, the fire had increased in size since he had departed to find the foreign chakra, but it had not spread much farther than when he had first come on scene. Taking in a deep breath, he once again began to fight it. Even with his water jutsu, it still took a few hours to put out the remaining flames. Three houses were lost to the blaze, but they were lucky to have not lost more than that. The civilians had calmed down for the most part and it seemed that no one had been injured aside from some burns or chakra exhaustion, which he himself was feeling the effects of despite having a slightly larger than normal chakra reserve. The lack of death was a small miracle. Tiredly, he made his rounds of the shinobi and civilians afterwards, ensuring that everything was orderly and the injured were being taken care of.

When he finished his self assigned task, he slowly dragged himself to where he sensed Hashirama and the others. He found them seated around one of the long tables in the food hall, watching Sota hungrily eat as they drank tea. Sakura and Hashirama sat beside each other opposite of the boy who chatted to them happily between bites. He wondered what had occurred to cause such a change in behaviour and ignored the twinge of annoyance that they had abandoned the fire. It was irrational to feel that way, he knew, especially when they needed to know who put the kid up to trying to burn the village down lest it happen again.

Sota, upon noticing him, clamed up and stared at the table as the others nodded in greeting to him. He knew he was intimidating as his red eyes and standoffish posture tended to frighten others, especially young children, but, instead of sympathy, the kid's reaction only caused his irritation to spike again. Between the mystery of Sakura's arrival, the Uzumaki quietly blaming him, and the fire, his patience had been practically worn out to nothing. Settling on sending a scowl in the boy's direction, he spied two empty chairs. One beside each adult in the hall. Carefully, he chose to sit in the empty chair beside Sakura, leaving the one beside his brother empty. Sakura leaned over to inspect him, sensing his exhaustion, but made no mention of it. Instead, she turned to Sota.

"Sota, this is Lord Tobirama. There is no need to be afraid of him."

Hashirama chimed in with a huge grin as well, "He looks mean, but he's secretly a softy! I swear!"

His scowl deepened as the kid gave a small smile and finally dragged his eyes away from staring at the table to look at him. Tobirama met his gaze evenly, watching the kid flinch, but resolutely not backing down this time. He broke eye contact first, turning to regard his brother on the other side of Sakura.

"Do we know who is behind this?"

Sakura stilled as Hashirama failed to keep eye contact. The Uchiha then. His eyes narrowed. Using your own clan's children for war was bad enough, but using a civilian child? He had not thought that they would stoop so low. Was Madara behind this or an offshoot in that cursed clan? As much as he despised the man, even he could not see the Uchiha Clan Head doing this. Sakura spoke first, breaking the tense silence.

"The Uchiha attacked their caravan. Sota is from a family of merchants that apparently trade with you." She looked up at him sadly and turned once more to the boy, "from my understanding, they are holding them as hostages and sent Sota here to do their dirty work as you were less likely to detect a civilian child."

Unfortunately, they were correct. No one had noticed the kid slipping inside the village. No one had thought to question the presence of an unfamiliar child, even if said child could pass off as a Senju at first glance. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. As he had thought countless times before and did not act upon, he could no longer afford to be lax in his duties. He would need to let Sakura have a little more of his trust than he liked to give as he had already given as much freedom to her as he was willing, but hadn't she earned some trust from him? She had done nothing to warrant his wariness continuing this long. In fact, she had even implied trusting him when she had asked him to check her back despite the impropriety of it. Perhaps he should stop treating her as a pseudo prisoner and leave her to it.

Hashirama broke his contemplation.

"We are going to send a small party to scout the area the merchants were last seen and, if possible, rescue them."

He watched the kid's eyes brighten. Damn his brother and his big heart. The clan was exhausted fighting that fire. He was exhausted. They could nil afford to send an already fatigued party after well rested Uchiha. He growled,

"And who, pray tell, are you planning on sending? The clan just spent half their chakra fighting that fire. Should the Uchiha plan to attack now, we would risk losing everything."

He could sense their chakra signatures within their distant village and a smaller cluster of them farther off. These were probably the ones holding the merchants as hostages as there were barely noticeable chakra signatures amongst them. They did not seem to be preparing to launch an assault, but that could easily change.

Hashirama set down the cup of tea he had been holding up until this point and stood up.

"Myself, Sakura, and –" The front entranceway opened and the two visiting Uzumaki entered the building, "-our guests have volunteered to help out."

The Uzumaki wanted to help? He looked up at the redheads in surprise. Ryo regarded him calmly, but the younger, Aki, had a glint of mistrust. Aki had trouble hiding it from him since they had found his chakra on the seal. The younger Uzumaki had lost trust in him, but Ryo, on the other hand, seemed the more logical of the two and had yet to jump to conclusions in regards to the seal.

The older Uzumaki waved off the enquiry he had been about to make.

"It is the least we can do to help out. You have been housing us for some time now and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Besides, Lord Tobirama, you will not have recovered your chakra enough to fight or act as a sensor, which are roles I can easily replace for this mission. The four of us used little chakra in this incident and this mission cannot wait if Hashirama is to be believed."

Aki then followed with, "We can also use this as a chance to observe Sakura some more."

He glared outright then, but Sakura brought his attention back towards her with an earnest gaze and soft-spoken words.

"I know that you don't trust me, Lord Tobirama, but I will never harm Lord Hashirama. I am a skilled medic-nin, yes, but I am also a trained fighter. I will not hold everyone back."

He wanted to argue, but looking at all of their unyielding gazes, he knew this was a moot point. They were going regardless if he tried to stop them or not. He sighed.

"And what of the child?"

Hashirama, seeing his brother's defeated acceptance, radiated joy.

"Well, Tobi, I figured you can look after him until we return! If all goes well, we can then escort him to meet his parents after the rescue."

Sealing the order was Sota's horrified glance at him and Hashirama's triumphant one.

He felt a headache spring up between his temples. Did they all forget that the kid was terrified of him and that he lacked any social graces to deal with one? Grumpily, he stood up and beckoned the kid to follow him with some parting words to the others. He needed to get changed into some proper attire and sort the kid out as the boy would be stuck with him for a few days.

"Try not to die out there."