"What did you do?"
If anyone asks Izuna, his voice did not at all squeak and it wasn't high-pitched and anyone who says otherwise is lying. Especially Tobirama. No one should listen him.
"Move!"
Izuna doesn't move—and no, it's not because he's a contradictory bastard and anything Madara says should be ignored. Izuna's brother has no common sense and really shouldn't be listened to at all.
"Why?" Izuna asks, glaring at Tobirama. "I'm perfectly happy right where I am."
"Because I'm the expert," Tobirama says, appearing in a flash of light and shoving Izuna, "and I said so, now move!"
It's not because Tobirama tells him to that Izuna moves, but the massive thing with teeth that's snarling and as tall as Izuna stands—which should not at all be possible.
"What are you the expert in?" Izuna hollers as he leaps up to the trees, following after Izuna.
They pause in the treetops, peering down into the darkness of the forest and listening to the loud rumbling growls of the creature below them. Izuna finds his heartrate slowly decreasing now that he's not being chased by some creature made of darkness and teeth and, look, Izuna's dealt with a lot, okay? He's a ninja. He's fought things that people can only imagine and- and he has the Sharingan! He actively goes and creates nightmare creatures.
But the thing down on the forest floor is something much worse than anything Izuna's created out. Possibly because it's real.
Beside him, Tobirama isn't looking down at the darkness, but is breathing in that steady controlled manner that usually indicates he's actively reaching with his chakra sense to find something.
Because Izuna is, on occasion, a bastard, he elbows Tobirama firmly in the ribs. "So?" He demands loudly—no need to keep his voice down after all, as the creature already knows where they are. "What the fuck are you an expert in?"
Tobirama treats him with a rather dry look that Izuna definitely doesn't deserve, thank you very much. "My brother's idiocy."
Which, well, yes they're both experts in their brothers' idiocy by virtue of being their siblings. But that doesn't explain whatever the thing down below is and-
"Oh shit," Izuna says, leaning down with only chakra keeping him connecting to the tree branch. "It's fucking climbing."
He looks wide-eyed at Tobirama. "What does this have to do with your brother?"
Tobirama sighs, long-suffering, which honestly. Mood. Hashirama isn't even Izuna's brother and sometimes he just wants to get away—or maybe it's because he's not Hashirama's brother? It's hard to say.
"My brother's garden," he says, and Izuna snorts at the word 'garden' because, really, there's a reason why Konoha's started calling this place the Forest of Death', "being artificially created by the Wood Release leads to an abundance of natural chakra pooling here. This has a run-on effect on the life here—plant and animal. Including," Tobirama gestures downward to where the creature is climbing the tree, growling growing louder, "creating new animal life."
"Do you have any idea what it is?" Izuna asks. He wonders whether he can kill it with a fire ninjutsu and take it out. It'd probably be for the best, in all honesty. So long as he does it before Hashirama finds out there's some new creature in the forest, he'll get away with it too and there won't be any consequences.
Unfortunately for everyone, the last time Hashirama learnt there was a new animal in the Forest of Death, he declared it in need of protection and now there are summon-size tigers roaming the forest who are possibly capable of chakra use.
Tobirama hums. "I have a feeling it's nothing like we've even seen before. Did you see the way it seemed to have moss covering it rather than fur? Or even grass, I couldn't quite tell."
At that, Izuna blinks. "I was more focussed on the whole teeth and trying to kill us thing." He considers Tobirama's words and then realises what Tobirama is really getting at. "Wait, are you telling me that thing is created from plants? Is that even possible? Is it some kind of sentient plant?"
"Well, I can't say I stopped to ask it," Tobirama says dryly. "So I can only postulate what it might be and what it might be capable of."
"Right, any idea on how to go about killing it? You were here before me; I'm assuming that you had some encounter with it that led to it chasing you."
Izuna turns to look at Tobirama, and is delighted to see the sour expression Tobirama wears. He looks like the world's just taken a shit in front of him and has asked him to clean it up.
"It seems impervious to ninjutsu," Tobirama says and, if he was anyone else, Izuna would say he sounds like he's sulking.
"Did you fail to kill it?" Izuna asks delighted. And then-
"IMPERVIOUS TO NINJUTSU?"
The creature roars and leaps forward, and then Izuna and Tobirama are leaping into another tree with the creature following them, snarling and growling.
"Yes," Tobirama says. "It shook of both a water bullet and a water dragon, and powered through an earth wall. It seems to be like an extension of the Wood Release, though incapable of complex thoughts."
"Oh, is that all?" Izuna asks, doing his best to keep his voice light even though he really just wants to scream. "We're basically versing something that Hashirama created and is just as good as him against ninjutsu."
"Correct. Except it lacks his weakness, in that it is not overly emotional and prone to hysterics."
At any other point at time, Izuna would snigger at that, but considering that he's being chased through the Forest of Death with Tobirama at his side by some weird plant-animal creature made of natural chakra, he's not feeling much like laughing.
"Well that's just great," he says, and he really understands Tobirama's sour expression now. "Shall we find out how well it reacts to fire?"
"Don't burn down the forest, no matter how beneficial it would be," Tobirama tells him with a sigh. "I do not wish to deal with my brother's crying and if I foist him off to Madara, then you will be the one who has to deal with it."
Damn, there goes one of Izuna's plans then. "Fine," he says. "I'll do things your way."
Coming to a stop, Izuna spins around to face the creature and sends a fireball flying at it. And watches, in horror, as the creature slams through the fire without stopping and comes out unharmed.
With a yelp, Izuna dodges a blow that breaks the thick branch he was standing on, and quickly races to catch up with Tobirama. "What the fuck," he hisses. "How are we meant to destroy it?"
"I'll let you know when I've figured it out," Tobirama says. "I was hoping that escaping to the trees would work, but now I'm worried about it getting out into the village."
Oh shit. Izuna hadn't thought about that. That means they really should deal with the fucking creature—hopefully in a permanent manner too. "It's got to have some weakness," he says, though not with much hope.
"You'd hope so," Tobirama says. Izuna glances at him and is pleased to see that Tobirama is looking rather thoughtful. With any luck, Tobirama can figure out the weakness and then Izuna can light the thing on fire and dance around its corpse.
The creature makes another leap at them, which they easily dodge, dropping down to the forest floor. Of course, the creature doesn't seem to care and it drops after them, smashing branches as it does.
When it lands, it does so with a loud thump—and it yelps too.
Wide-eyed, Izuna glances at Tobirama who nods at him, clearly having seen the same thing he did. It looked like the blunt force did more damage than their ninjutsu was able to. "How do you feel about physically attacking it?"
It's a completely outrageous suggestion. Absolutely insane.
Izuna barks a laugh, grinning. "Sounds like fun," he says, because he never claimed to be sane. Besides, he's a ninja. Fighting against enemies—whether they're plant-animals or other ninjas—and testing himself is always fun. Izuna grew up on bloody battlefields, and he hasn't quite lost the joy of testing himself against something unknown and trusting in his own skills. With Tobirama here as an ally and his backup, he also knows that he'll survive whatever happens.
Charging forward, Izuna dodges the snapping teeth and kicks out with one leg, knocking the creature off balance. It huffs, stumbling, but doesn't seem injured from the blow at all. Skipping back a pace, Izuna takes a second to pull out a kunai. He doesn't want to test his hands against the creature's hide, and if he somehow manages to break a finger by attacking this creature, he'll never hear the end of it—from Tobirama and his brother, even though Madara's broken his fingers doing way dumber things like, say, punching a rock.
While Izuna's getting a weapon, Tobirama takes to the forefront for the offence. He gives his back to Izuna, chakra-strengthened blows raining down on the creature, which recoils—though not for long.
Izuna pulses his chakra, twice, and switches with Tobirama easily.
Honestly, it's not even that hard of a fight ignoring how the creature seems somewhat indestructible. Its limited to using its claws and teeth, though it is swift.
The kunai, however, quickly proves to have been one of Izuna's better ideas, as with the blade sharpened and strengthened by chakra, the creature quickly gains a myriad of cuts and wounds. It also doesn't bleed—which just means its probably more plant than animal to be honest.
Tobirama's chakra pulses three times from behind him, and Izuna shifts as Tobirama joins him in the attack, a kunai of his own in hand.
Now that they know what the creature is weak against, it doesn't take long before it falls. Turns out that even animal-plants—plant-animals?—can't survive after their head is cut off.
"Well," Izuna says, looking at it. "I suppose that's done." He glances at Tobirama. "What's the plan now?"
Tobirama sighs. "Honestly, I'm going to pretend none of this ever happened."
Izuna snorts, "You can try," he says. "But you're also going to be back here in… thirty minutes because you're curious about what the fuck it is."
"Please," Tobirama says with a sniff, "it would be an hour, at the very least."
"Keep telling yourself that," Izuna says, not bothering to fight back his smile. "In the meantime, want to go get lunch?"
Tobirama glances at the animal-plant, pulls out a storage scrolls and seals it away. "Sure," he decides. "I could eat."