Unforgivable

(Takes place during Chapter 2: An Alternative Ending.)

(POV: Tobirama)

Unforgivable.

(Uchiha Izuna's chakra was a swirling mass of wonder-gratitude-determination. It wouldn't stay that way for long.)

He had done the unforgivable.

(Had gone in for the kill. Missed - but also not-)

(Time caught up to them. Izuna's chakra stuttered, swarming into a mass of shock and disbelief. Then it twisted around itself into pain pain pain. Tobirama didn't try to block out any of the guilt-horror-nausea. He didn't block the dwindling flare of sorrow and regret, either. He couldn't fix this.)

"Madara!"

(He could feel Hashirama's fear and horror. The betrayal. The unsaid how could you?)

He shrunk into himself. Tobirama wouldn't have, but-

(He didn't stop in time. His fault. His fault. His fault.)

Nothing he could do would save the man in front of him. Uchiha Madara was dying.

The Uchiha most inclined to accept peace and fulfill Hashirama's dream was going to die and it was his fault.

Tobirama watched Izuna dash away for his clansmen, carrying the dying man his brother called friend, and did nothing. There was too much blood. Tobirama tried to swallow past the horror but couldn't.

Tobirama didn't move as the Uchiha brothers' chakras spun through sorrow, despair, and emptiness, before cycling into nausea.

He didn't move as the flickering ember of chakra went out and Uchiha Izuna's chakra twisted, or when Izuna turned to come back to the battlefield, his chakra a haze of pain.

He didn't move when Hashirama stepped in front of him, his older brother's chakra sunk into depths of sorrow he hadn't felt since Kawarama and Itama.

"You have your peace, Senju."

Izuna's voice was ragged and the words cut deep. Even broken swords have jagged edges.

It wasn't peace. It would never be peace, either. He had ruined it. He had killed the one Uchiha his brother never wanted to see in pain.

(And Izuna - the man Tobirama fought regularly felt broken and dull. The man Tobirama thought wouldn't stop until only one clan was left standing had stopped to mourn his brother. There was nothing but pain in his chakra, the pain of losing a brother that Tobirama knew and wouldn't wish on anyone, and it was all his fault.)

"Now leave."

Nausea. Despair. Guilt. Numbness.

Tobirama had gone for the kill. He would have made Madara live through losing a brother if he had succeeded. A mistake that he will never be able to fix.

Tobirama's fault.

Uchiha Izuna turned away, taking his blood-soaked clothes with him.

Tobirama didn't move.

Hashirama didn't move either.

Time passed in a numb haze of too much, make it stop.

From across the clearing, Uchiha Izuna stood from his dead brother's side.

He turned around.

"I have one requirement... For peace, Madara will be avenged."

Izuna's chakra was a roiling mass of anger, sorrow, and pain, backed by the unyielding steel of an implacable will. There would be no changing his mind - The Uchiha needed someone to die. But why would-

Tobirama felt his chakra freeze when Hashirama spoke up.

"A trade, then."

He panicked.

"Brother-"

Hashirama held up a hand to stop him, then stepped forward. Izuna's chakra shifted between determination and cold fury. Tobirama stomach dropped.

"We accept."

His brother was giving up and Tobirama couldn't breathe-

"We do not-"

"Tobi."

His brother's voice was quiet. Please understand, he seemed to say.

"We accept."

Hashirama's chakra was a mass of sorrow and regret, and the resignation Tobirama felt there ate at him until he wanted to scream. Hashirama couldn't- Peace was his dream, not Tobirama's-

Tobirama felt himself go numb as he looked to his brother's would-be executioner. Red Sharingan eyes spun wildly even as Uchiha Izuna's chakra calmed into grim acceptance, with a slight tinge of loathing.

Tobirama felt sick. he couldn't let Hashirama do this. This was his fault, not Hashirama's.

He didn't think as he cast a genjutsu on his brother and took a step forward.

He wouldn't let Hashirama die for his mistake.

Uchiha Izuna readied his sword, the acceptance in his chakra twisting between satisfaction and unease.

Tobirama almost didn't see her as Izuna struck. Touka. She was moving to intercept Izuna and it would ruin the trade.

(He would have failed again and he couldn't do that to Hashirama-)

"Touka!"

He felt the sword cut into his neck. Then it was pulled away by his furious cousin. He felt lightheaded as he turned to face the Uchiha.

(He could feel blood running down his front.)

Even through the haze, he could feel that Izuna's chakra was full of vindication and loathing as the poison from Touka's dagger took effect. There was fury there, too. But self-directed fury. He radiated a sense of tricked-shouldn't have believed the liars.

Izuna was wrong. It hadn't been a trick. Tobirama tried to tell Touka through the blood in his throat that it was okay. It was either him or Hashirama and he wasn't going to let his brother die.

(She wasn't listening. She just kept trying to press bandages on his neck. It wasn't going to work. He could feel his focus slipping too far for medical Jutsu and she hadn't ever learned any.)

Tobirama let his chakra sense wane into a murky haze.

The Uchiha clan was furious behind Izuna and he could feel Hashirama breaking the genjutsu next to him. His brother would break it only to see his dream of peace completely crumble.

(Tobirama had failed again.)

Then he felt Izuna's chakra flare.

"Amaterasu."

Black flames.

Black flames everywhere.

Tobirama fell.