hanahaki!hashi, with a twist
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when madara entered konoha after a month long wandering, he was greeted by new trees. had they were nothing peculiar, he wouldn't pay them more attention. but these trees grew sideways, from the gates, from the walls, with trunks so bent and twisted they blocked paths everywhere they grew. the villagers around him were busy with their saws, cutting the misshapen trees and revealing its insides.
madara noted they lacked tree rings. a characteristic only found among the artificially grown.
"my sister is on leave, submit your reports downstairs," tobirama's voice greeted him as he entered the hokage's office. he was hidden behind a pile of paperwork.
madara hadn't said a word. not wanting to sour his mood by talking to the younger senju, he chose to gather information elsewhere.
"oh, this?" a scribe in the library gestured to a short, slender oak growing upside down from the ceiling. "the hokage came here, sneezed-bam! there's this tree. it's the first, about two weeks old."
two weeks. the phrase made his eyebrows furrowed. two weeks was the time he's supposed to return.
"do you think it's a kind of hanahaki?" another scribe piped in, "it's a mythical disease afflicting people whose love is unrequited-"
"where's hashirama now?" madara cut in.
half a day later, after following a trail of misshapen trees, madara arrived at a hill north of konoha. he didn't need sensing; the loud, repeated sneezing was enough to locate her. like they said, in a blink of an eye a groove of strange trees manifested afterwards.
"not again!" he heard her yelling. "not my soup! when is this gonna stop-oh." hashirama had turned around and spotted madara. "oh hi."
after salvaging whatever left from her toppled soup cauldron, they sat, chatted, and ate. "i don't know how it started..." hashirama stared at her now empty bowl. "i can't stop sneezing every half an hour."
"half an hour," madara repeated, leaning on one of the weird trees to rest. "how long do you think we've been talking?"
hashirama blinked.
upon sunrise, they returned to konoha. her sneezing was absent for the three following days-until madara was sent to another mission.
his team hadn't walked further than a hundred meter when the deafening sneeze tore the air, followed by the sudden appearance of misshapen trees. madara simply walk to the village gate, where its leader stood wiping her nose.
"i haven't given my proper farewell," madara said, taking hashirama's hand. he kissed her knuckle gently, smirking upon seeing her brother's appalled face.
"madara-"
"i'll see you in five days, alright?" he caressed her cheek.
blushing, hashirama nodded. "until later."
this time, she didn't sneeze misshapen forest again when he left the gates.