Compass of thy Soul
Reality has defied Tobirama's expectations so many times already today that he should probably take a few moments to seriously reconsider his assumptions regarding the Uchiha clan. He expected to be killed in front of his brother, yet was not. After being unceremoniously carted up to the Uchiha compound like so much baggage he expected to be housed in a cell, or at least an isolated building reserved for 'guests' to the clan where he would be constantly under guard. Except that Madara does not do that either. Upon being set back on his feet beside the gatehouse –so that Madara can crouch down to greet two eager toddlers; his daughters?– Tobirama is firmly herded into the heart of the Uchiha compound and towards the finest building at its centre.
The Clan Head's home. Well, this way he will certainly be extremely accessible to Madara should Izuna happen to die in Senju hands; perhaps that is the point. However there is also the matter of the little girls Madara is now carrying and the three older children who hurry into view in the front hall as Madara announces their arrival from the genkan.
Carefully putting on a pair of guest slippers, Tobirama judges the older girl to be maybe thirteen, the younger one to be ten or eleven and the boy to be eight at the most. The older girl is wearing a printed cotton kimono, but the younger two are both in regular indigo clothing such as the Uchhia warriors wear, complete with pale arm- and leg-wraps.
"Madara-nii!" The oldest girl hugs her clan head around the ribs, then pulls back to stare curiously at Tobirama. "Is this Senju-san?"
"Why is he here, Madara-nii?" The boy asks warily, hovering back in front of the other girl, feet planted defensively.
"Is this why my futon's in Izuna-nii's room now, Madara-nii?" The younger girl asks, her eyes bright and fearless. They could be siblings or simply distant cousins; Uchiha all resemble each-other more closely than the Senju do, being a bloodline clan and marrying internally far more often than externally. Even their chakra is similar, all carrying a distinctive flavour of fire, feathers and something complex and faintly aromatic, almost like incense; distinguishing one from the other by chakra alone takes a lot of practice and on the battlefield Tobirama honestly relies mostly on their relative strength to do so. Madara in particular is highly distinctive.
"Yes, Benten-chan; it's why there're new seals on the shōji as well," Madara says calmly, handing the two toddlers in his arms over to Kita then stepping out of the genkan and ruffling all three older children's hair in turn. "Midori, Minakata, what brings you two here?"
"Naka and I have cleaned your coat, Madara-nii," the older girl –Midori, evidently– says innocently, batting her eyelashes at her Clan Head. "I was just delivering it." And being nosy, evidently. Madara's hostage exchange plan was clearly known to the Uchiha clan beforehand.
"Okaasan sent me over with a message, Madara-nii," the boy –Minakata– says solemnly.
"What's the message then?" Madara asks, reaching out, grabbing Tobirama's arm and dragging him further into the building, Minakata keeping pace as they walk into a large and well-appointed central reception room, leaving the girls behind in the entrance hall with Kita.
"Okaasan says you can gamble with your own life and your brother's life, but if anything happens to me, Yasa-chan or Shiro-chan as a result of your foolishness she will murder you with a smile on her face and make Hikaku-nii Outguard Head," Minakata says cheerfully. Tobirama twitches uncomfortably at the blatantly insubordinate words, but Madara seems to be more resigned than anything else.
"Oba-san would too," he mutters, briefly rolling his eyes to the ceiling with a sigh. "Kita-san's got Senju-san sorted out, Minakata-kun," he adds in normal tones, looking the boy firmly in the eye. "He's not going anywhere or doing anything without her say-so."
"Okaasan says Tajima-sama betrothed Kita-nee to you because she's got the cool head you desperately need," Minakata comments innocently. "Is that true?"
Tobirama tries to pretend he isn't hearing any of this.
Madara snorts, blatantly amused and not even slightly offended. "Go home and tell your Okaasan to leave diplomatic matters to me and your Kita-nee and to mind her own business."
"Yes Madara-sama!" The boy chirps, bowing and darting past them. "Bye Kita-nee!"
"Goodbye Minakata-kun!"
"My aunt's late husband was one of my father's most trusted," Madara adds, glancing at Tobirama, "and one of mine, until the kunoichi you gave your armour to killed him last year."
Ah. Tobirama thinks he vaguely remembers the man in question; he mostly fights Izuna, but he's crossed blades and jutsu with various others of the Uchiha elite on occasion. Briefly.
"Toto? Who dis?"
Tobirama looks down at the toddler tugging on Madara's trouser leg just above his knee. The messy-haired toddler stares up at him, utterly fearless.
"This is Tobirama-san, Toshiko. He's our guest here for the next few weeks." Madara glares at him, daring him to disagree, but Tobirama sees no need to distress a small child with the realities of war.
"Bira-jī-san?" Toshiko asks.
"Tobirama-san is younger than I am, Toshiko," Madara drawls, eyes alight with amusement. Tobirama however finds a degree of comfort in the familiar misunderstanding; the Senju certainly have a wider range of colouring than the Uchiha, whose hair is all in shades of dark brown and black, but there is nobody else in the Senju with hair as ivory-pale as his.
"But he has old hair!"
"He has Hatake hair, bean-sprout," Kita says, walking into the room with the other girl in her arms. "Tobirama-san's mother was a Hatake, and all Hatake have light hair."
"Oh." Toshiko considers this. "Sorry, Bira-oji. I'm Toshi, pleased to meet you!"
"An' I'm Azami!" The other little girl chirps, wiggling until Kita sets her down on the floor and then dashing over to stare at him more closely. Her hair is less generally messy and more outright spiky. "You have a funny shirt."
Tobirama has noticed that the usual Uchiha mode of dress is nothing like the Senju one. Both these little girls are wearing long-sleeved kimono shirts and loose trousers, like all Uchiha shinobi wear on the battlefield under their wraps, armour and coats, except in a cheery floral print rather than plain indigo like the older children. Small Senju children usually wear striped hakama and close-fitting shirts under haori, the girls included.
"It's not funny, Azami; it's just not an Uchiha shirt," Madara says firmly. "Like how the Aburame messenger was dressed differently."
Azami considers this, sucking on her fingers.
"You dressed like a Hatake, Bira-oji?" Toshiko asks innocently. Tobirama considers what he knows of his mother's clan; they do indeed dress fairly similarly to the Senju in terms of style, if with different clan colours and warmer layers to account for climate differences.
"I am, yes." The fur collar he wears is certainly a more usual Hatake accessory. It was his mother's after all.
Toshiko nods seriously. "Wanna come see the garden, Bira-oji?"
Tobirama hesitates, glancing at Madara. He does enjoy the company of children and would never dream of harming either of these little girls, but it is vanishingly unlikely that any Uchiha will take his word on it. Also, after being escorted up here with his chakra sealed, he is feeling a little chilled despite the spring weather being generally warm.
"Tobirama-san doesn't have a coat, Toshi-chan," Kita says easily, "so he can't go out in the garden."
"Can't he borrow toto's spare coat?" Azami asks, looking from Tobirama to her parents as though trying to interpret the subtext ongoing in this otherwise innocuous conversation.
"Don't you think he deserves his own coat, Azami-chan?" Kita asks lightly.
"You gonna make Bira-oji a coat, kaka?" Toshiko asks, eyes wide and bouncing on her toes.
Tobirama is sure he is missing at least half this conversation. Is there something significant about having a coat?
"Wife," Madara says warningly, but there's no real edge to it.
"He needs a coat, husband," Kita repeats, mischief bubbling subtly in her chakra.
"Bira-oji needs a coat, toto! He'll get cold outside!" Azami agrees firmly.
Madara briefly covers his face with a hand and mutters something incoherent and faintly plaintive about women being the death of him. It's a shockingly human side to a man Tobirama has only previously seen doing everything in his power to obliterate Hashirama and any other Senju who gets in his way, utterly confident in his power and devastatingly perceptive of others' weaknesses. "Fine, your kaasan can make Tobirama-san a coat, and when he has it you can show him the garden. But you are not to complain if it takes Kaasan a long time." He folds his arms, making stern eye-contact with both little girls in turn. "Your kaasan has lots to do and a proper coat takes time to make."
"Yes toto," the toddlers chorus seriously, bobbing little bows.
"Good girls. Do you have your bento?"
"Naka-nee has them, toto!"
"Well then you'd better go and get them if you want to eat lunch with us, hadn't you?"
"Yes toto!" The girls dash out of the room; there is a scuffling in the genkan as they put their sandals on before scrambling out of the door.
"I mean it about the coat, Tobirama-san," Kita says mildly. "You will freeze without one, especially with that seal. I'll fetch a winter kimono you can wear over your everyday clothes for the time being." She walks across the room.
"Whose kimono are you stealing, wife?" Madara asks wryly.
"Your father's, husband," she replies, smiling over her shoulder before opening one of the shōji and leaving the room.
Tobirama feels uncomfortably as though he is intruding on a private moment. Spending time with his brother and Mito is never like this.
"You will be sleeping in here," Madara says, crossing the room and opening another shōji. "Kita has sealed it so that nobody can open the doors while you are inside and to blur your sensing ability."
It is a relief to have a room that locks on the inside rather than a cell that locks on the outside. However... "Why are you so determined to obscure my senses, Madara?" Tobirama asks, walking into the room and turning round to face the Uchiha Head; not being able to sense what is going on around him makes it difficult for him to settle, as he is used to being able to see beyond what his eyes offer and to lose that is uncomfortable. He is already twitchy at having his range so dramatically reduced –that the Uchiha compound's masking seals are no less impenetrable at close range does not help– and the prospect of more limitations is unnerving.
Madara raises an eyebrow. "Forgive me for wanting privacy with my wife in my own home, Senju," he says dryly.
Tobirama feels his face redden at the implications; that is not something he's really given much thought to before this moment. Through his chakra senses people are bright and sexless blurs and he's never seriously considered what proximity between them might mean.
Damn Madara! Now it is going to haunt him!
Kita arrives in time to distract from the awkwardness, handing Tobirama a rusty brown padded kimono with a red and darker brown hexagonal tortoiseshell pattern. "Here. Come to the kitchen once you've changed; I'm making tea."
Madara follows his wife out of the room, closing the shōji firmly behind him; Tobirama feels the locking seal engage. Cradling the folded kimono against his chest, he turns to look at the room properly: it is well-sized, with elegant and elaborate paintings and carvings on the walls and fusuma separating it from the rooms on either side, as well as above the shōji leading into the central space and to the engawa opposite. There is more elaborate panelling on the ceiling overhead, the tatami on the floor are well-kept and a single, rather fine futon is rolled up in one corner of the room. There is also a plain clothing rack, a wash basin and towel, an empty bookcase –implying there are books elsewhere he could borrow perhaps?– and a rather battered low desk set off to one side.
Tobirama is used to chairs and tables and raised bed frames with proper mattresses, but Uchiha clearly do things more traditionally. It's a beautiful room and much finer than he was expecting. He shivers; he really is cold without his chakra. Making himself sick would be foolish, so he carefully removes his collar and unfolds the kimono, pulling it on over his shirt and trousers and adjusting it carefully before tying it closed with the sash provided. It's been a while since he wore a kimono; the Senju generally don't bother except at civilian festivals or when spying for missions, but if this belonged to Tajima then the Uchiha clearly consider them everyday wear when off the battlefield.
He is probably going to end up borrowing more traditional clothing while he is here; he can't exactly wear the same shirt and trousers for three weeks straight. His dignity and sense of smell won't allow it. His mother's clan are all trackers and hunters as much as warriors and while he does primarily trace people by their chakra, that is not the only means he uses. Not that he talks about it much; who would he discuss it with? His brother certainly does not share this sensitivity. Tobirama had to learn from his mother's snow leopard summons.
He hopes Hashirama will be responsible about the paperwork even without him there to remind his brother to get things done. And that Mito won't mind taking on some of the more diplomatic letter-writing; if he'd known this was Madara's plan he could have arranged matters suitably to account for his absence, but it came as a complete surprise and his brother jumping immediately at the opportunity means he didn't even get a chance to give Tōka the names of the people best qualified to see to the different things he is responsible for. Something to clarify later, most definitely.
With Izuna's injury to fuss over and Mito and Tōka keeping an eye on things, Hashirama shouldn't manage to do anything too irreversibly foolish in the next three weeks…
Madara cradles his teacup and breathes. Izuna is still alive, his chakra pulsing like a heartbeat in the seal on Madara's shoulder. Hashirama agreed to the hostage exchange and promised to look after his little brother, so it is very likely that he will get Izuna back at the end of the three weeks. His little brother is not going to die. The Uchiha clan is going to have peace, real peace.
Of course, he is going to have to deal with having Senju Tobirama in his house for the better part of a month, but he can do that. He would do anything for Izuna.
Madara doesn't believe that Hashirama would do anything for his little brother though, not after what he saw and heard today. Or rather, what he didn't see or hear. Hashirama didn't ask Madara to take care of his little brother, or ask for a way to keep track of Tobirama's health. He didn't even ask Tobirama to agree, he just agreed on his behalf and then wordlessly threatened him when Tobirama protested.
Madara is not impressed. He made friends with Hashirama in the first place because they both wanted peace for their younger brothers. When did his friend forget who their dream of peace was for? Is Hashirama still holding onto childish grudges over Tobirama commanding most of Butsuma's attention back when they were younger?
His wife watches him contentedly over her own cup, the slightly smaller match to the one he is using. The spouse-cups he bought her almost half a lifetime ago and that they have drunk tea out of together ever since.
"Must you make a coat for him, Kita?"
She nods. "Everybody shinobi-trained unconsciously uses their chakra to regulate their body temperature a little Madara, even if they're not fire natured. Without a coat he'll chill, and then we'll have a sick Senju to nurse."
That does not appeal. "You are going to lend him more of Otōsama's clothes, aren't you." It's not a question; Madara can even see the practicality of it, despite the Senju being rather more solidly built than his father was and slightly taller besides. It's not like Tobirama has anything else to wear; he didn't know he would get traded to another clan for three weeks before leaving his house this morning, unlike Izuna who has several changes of clothing in an umbrella bag hidden in the folds of the blanket wrapped around him.
"That is the least controversial option," his wife points out gently.
"I'm not sure putting the Senju crest on the back of a coat he's going to wear around the compound is a good plan though," Madara replies, letting her point stand. "Considering how many we've lost, it may be a little too confrontational."
"I can print it on the lining," Kita replies, "and leave the outside plain. Or put some other symbol on the outside; his name, perhaps? Or the Hatake clan mon, so that he can honour both his parents and simply reverse the coat after returning to the Senju."
"I would prefer a plain or minimally patterned coat, with just the Senju mon on the inside," Tobirama says, walking into the dining room in Madara's father's winter kimono over his usual outfit, which looks a bit different to what Madara is used to since the Senju isn't wearing his armoured greaves; his trouser legs are loose around his ankles just under the kimono hem.
"You do not honour your Hatake heritage?" Kita asks mildly.
"My mother died when I was seven, and the Hatake broke off their alliance with the Senju shortly after," Tobirama replies evenly. "I have not met or been introduced to any Hatake relatives, so would not know where to begin."
"My apologies then." Kita sets out one of the guest teacups and fills it; Tobirama cautiously lowers himself to the tatami on the far side of the iori from his Uchiha hosts, but does accept the offered tea.
Madara decides this is a good moment to clarify a few basic facts. "Toshi and Azami both sleep here in the clan hall, as does Benten. They will all be in and out of the building and garden every day, as will various other Uchiha children depending on the day and what their parents or guardians are doing at the time. They may be curious about you, but many of the older children will also be angry so you may prefer to stay in your room." The Senju have orphaned a lot of Uchiha children and Tobirama has participated in quite a bit of that, both indirectly through Senju strategy choices and personally. "There are books and scrolls for leisure reading you can borrow from my study, and paper and ink can be found if you would like to write or draw. You cannot leave the clan compound, but provided there is not too much of an outcry over your presence in the coming days I will grant you the freedom to wander as you wish." He pauses; what else... "I will arrange for an escort, so nobody thinks they can get away with attacking you." Probably one of the children; he did notice the ripple of fondness in Tobirama's chakra when the girls addressed him and there is nobody in the clan who would attack a child.
Tobirama bows his head politely. "I have no complaints about my accommodation," he murmurs. He may have intended to say something else, but at that moment the girls return clutching their bento boxes and Kita gets out the food she has prepared as well; Tobirama hesitates to accept the meal, but it being served from a common dish and Azami being allowed to lick the spoon evidently settles his paranoia.
Madara is a little insulted that the Senju thinks they would use poison like that. He's a hostage for Izuna's wellbeing! Yes, it's possible that he personally may not be the most gracious of hosts, but Tobirama is a guest for now and guests are to be treated civilly.
He doesn't mention it though; the girls are at the age where they repeat everything and he wants to keep some of the ugliness of the world outside the clan compound from them a little longer.
There being three weeks of ceasefire means that her husband is ridiculously busy, as it's suddenly a perfect time for making goods' deliveries –in part because with Tobirama in their compound, the Senju will have a lot more trouble tracking them down– and arranging those is now the Outguard Head's responsibility. Madara is therefore in meetings with Uchiha craftspeople and Outguard squads, discussing markets and prices and consulting letters from various interested parties, so Kita keeps herself busy elsewhere. She measures Tobirama for his coat and ensures he has a range of suitable clothing to choose from, visits Naka to check she can make use of Mama's old dye troughs, pays to have a print sheet cut, takes the time to check in on all her other younger siblings –who are doing fairly well overall, although she does get cried on by Tekari, who is having a rough day– and stops by the stores to take out the materials she will need for her planned coat.
Materials she pays for out of the Outguard Head's funds, seeing as this is technically a diplomatic expense rather than something being made for a specific clansman. She also considers the possibility of having a letter sent to the Senju so they can hand over some of Tobirama's own clothing; she gets the impression he is not used to Uchiha-style clothing and having more of his own things would probably help him feel more like a guest and less like a prisoner.
She'll present the idea to her husband over dinner.
A few days later Kita has printed her fabric and sets about cutting and assembling all the pieces for quilting. She's dyed the coat lining a similar plain medium blue to match Tobirama's armour, the Senju mon painted large and black across the shoulders over the central seam, and the outside is the usual Uchiha indigo with a resist-printed frothy wave pattern wandering freely all over in white. Her plan is to quilt the outer layer along the pattern, reinforcing the curves, and the lining with a simpler geometric diamond motif which harks back to the usual Senju scale armour. The coat will also lack the high Uchiha collar, so that Tobirama can wear his fur wrap over it instead.
So far Tobirama seems happy to spend the days in his room borrowing books and scrolls to read, although this morning he asked for writing materials. Kita has provided him with plenty of paper, but made him swear an oath on the lives of his clan's children that he would not write seals before giving him brush and ink. He hadn't been at all offended by her insistence; evidently he considers such a precaution to be both logical and completely reasonable.
She hasn't yet asked him what he is writing. Possibly a letter to his family; there was a short letter in with the clothing that Hijiri brought up from the border yesterday. As expected, Tobirama looks much more comfortable in his own light blue kosode and trousers, although he is wearing a padded long-sleeved winter shirt underneath as well.
Kita is in two minds about stitching seals into the coat lining. On the one hand, she is so used to doing so that not doing so feels wrong. On the other, Tobirama probably doesn't want a strange seal master hiding things in his clothing. She taps the embroidery needle against her knee, staring sightlessly across the garden. Decisions, decisions…
She senses rather than sees Tobirama emerge onto the engawa and walk around the outside of the building, sitting a respectful distance away from her.
"Tobirama-san?"
"Yes, Kita-san?" He turns to make eye contact.
"Would you like seals stitched into your coat lining?" She won't know if she doesn't ask.
His whole posture shifts from neutral to deeply curious. "You can sew seals? How do you sew seals? What kind–" He cuts himself off. "My apologies, Kita-san, I did not mean to pry."
Kita smiles. "Tobirama-san, perhaps when there is a proper treaty between our clans you may visit again and we can have an in-depth conversation about sealing techniques."
"I would like that very much," he concedes, longing threading through his chakra very briefly. She makes a note of that; it is likely that the only other person he talks to seals about is Mito-san, provided the woman is willing to do so, and possibly his teacher if they are still alive.
Assuming, of course, that he had a teacher. She certainly didn't.
"In the meantime, my seals allow me to strengthen the threads of the coat, reducing everyday wear and tear, as well as to prevent mould and mildew." She is not offering any of the dexterity or calming seals; he is already a terror on the battlefield and doesn't need them. "I also have fire-dampening seals, but I suspect you won't need those in your sleeve cuffs."
"I am water-natured, so no," Tobirama agrees dryly, smiling just a little at her verbal peace offering. "The other seals however sound very practical. I take it Madara-san and Izuna-san have the same seals stitched into their coats?"
"Among others," Kita agrees lightly. "There is little else I can do to keep them safe, not being a warrior myself."
Tobirama lets the conversation end there, so Kita takes up her needle and thread and stitches sterilisation seals into the canvas panels where the armpits and lower back will be, then around the wrists and lower hems where stains build up. She knows Tobirama is watching her intently, but she is confident he will not discern the key to stitched seals without having the mental aspect explained to him –he will doubtless have noticed already the chakra infused in her thread– so snips off a fresh length of thread and moves on to the strengthening seals. Those have to be stitched on at regular intervals across each panel, forming a kind of network throughout the coat, so they take rather longer.
Not so terribly long as all that though really; once they're done she can layer in the padding and strategically quilt the layers together here and there, so they stay in place while she assembles the coat and does some of the seams. Stitching in the sleeves is best left until last.
"Do you make many coats?"
Kita glances up at Tobirama with a rueful smile. "I am not at all highly-placed in the Uchiha clan by birth, Tobirama-san," she confesses. "Making the clan coats is my family craft. However when I was twelve Tajima-sama caught me stitching seals into his nephew's clothing and summarily betrothed me to Madara-san."
"I see." He probably did see. "You seem very happy together."
"We are, but what we have we have built for ourselves." Tajima-sama does get to claim any of the credit, for all that she and Madara probably never would have exchanged anything more than polite discussions about coats if not for his interference. Well, unless she decided to be brave and proactive, but that's not how things happened so she will never know.
Conversation stalls again, but the silence isn't uncomfortable. Kita finishes half the seams and picks up her curved sashiko needle again; now for the tedious part. Well, maybe not so tedious as all that; she only has to do enough that the padding doesn't move around and with the new rolls of almost felted cotton padding that the clan has found a supplier for, it doesn't take nearly as much stitching to keep everything in place.
With a bit of luck, she will have this coat finished some time tomorrow.
Tobirama is still not entirely sure how he feels about Kita-san making him a coat. On the one hand, she is clearly very practiced at it and her quiet explanation of her background makes it clear she takes pride in her skills, but on the other she is the wife of the Uchiha Clan Head. Surely she has more important things to do with her time? Could she not have delegated the work? It is evident she doesn't make coats for the entire clan, so there must be others with the necessary skills, and the speed with which she assembled the garment suggests that doing so would not be a challenge for even an inexperienced craftsperson. Even considering the seals.
But she has made him a coat just as good as the ones her clansmen wear –if clearly without as many seals hidden in the lining– and put the Senju symbol across his upper back on the inside. The coat is even fully reversible, so he can wear it the other way around if he wishes. Not that he will do so here, but it remains an option available to him. She's even forgone the standard Uchiha high collar so he can attach his fur to the coat's neckline instead.
Tobirama is unsure of the appropriate protocol for thanking the wife of the clan head holding him hostage for personally making a useful item of clothing for him. He feels vaguely indebted, as though he should offer her something in recognition of her time and consideration. He also doesn't know enough about coats or her other duties to be able to accurately gauge what would make a suitably equal exchange, so he should get a second opinion first. Possibly even a third opinion; accidentally offending her would be most counterproductive.
Having a coat however leads to a drastic change in routine: at breakfast he is besieged by Madara's twin daughters insisting on showing him the garden, which somehow results in being given a bento large enough for himself, both of them and eleven-year-old Benten as well.
"Remember, Tobirama-san is our guest, so don't run off and leave him alone," Kita says firmly to Toshiko and Azami as he attempts to make eye-contact with Madara and find out what on earth the man is trying to do here. Madara studiously avoids looking up from his tea; clearly Tobirama will have to work matters out for himself. "Benten will join you for lunch after her naginata lesson and take over showing him around while you have your naps."
"Yes kaka," both little girls chorus seriously before grabbing Tobirama's free hand and coat hem and trying to drag him to the genkan.
Tobirama lets them. He is fond of children and has a nephew the same age as Madara and Kita's little girls –speaking of Tsunama, he hopes somebody explains his absence to the boy in positive terms– so he doesn't mind indulging them. That they want to show him around the garden and possibly other parts of the Uchiha compound as well will be a pleasant change of pace from sitting indoors and reading variously flawed philosophy texts. He wonders who those were purchased by; one of them was so irritating he spent half a day writing a rebuttal of each and every point. His letter home he kept short; he did briefly try to write one with references to who should be charged with which of his duties in his absence, but it is evident that the Uchiha will read any letter before sending it and he does not wish to personally endanger any of his clansmen by informing a still-rival clan of their position in the Senju hierarchy.
Putting on his sandals, he catches each girl by the hand –the bento box handle is thankfully wide enough to rest comfortably across his palm and leave a few fingers free– and lets them lead him out into the garden.
An hour later Tobirama has been solemnly introduced to every tree, flower and shrub in the garden in no particular order, finishing up beside the koi pond. Toshiko briefly dashes around to the kitchen door for a bowl of food for the fish, so she can feed them as Azami points out individual koi to him by name:
"That's Kōhaku-san and Kōhaku-chan and that's Kōhiku-san and that's Tanchō-san and Showa-san and Showamaru-san and Asagi-chan! Over there's Chagoi-chan and Madara-chibi and Gin-san and Ōgon-chan and Ochiba-chan! Oh, and Bekko-san hiding over there as well!"
The names are easily remembered; they're all according to their colouring. "They're very beautiful," Tobirama says warmly. He's aware of a few nearby Uchiha watching from beyond the low garden wall; he'd be more concerned if they weren't watching, considering he is from a rival clan and within arm's reach of their Head's children.
"Do you have a koi pond, Bira-oji?"
"Not personally, but my sister has a koi pond." There had been no koi in the pond for a decade until Mito took charge of the gardens of the clan house, due to the depredations of local wildlife. Mito had solved the problem with seals; he wonders if that is how the Uchiha also ensure that foxes, cranes, tigers and boars leave their fish alone.
Nobody has interrupted them yet, which has interesting implications. He knows the seal on his back blocks him from accessing his chakra and there is clearly something to prevent him from leaving the Uchiha compound, but there could easily be additional clauses for other things. Not that Tobirama is inclined to push boundaries to find out for himself what they are; the trust shown in Kita's sealing is however rather telling. It says that the clan as a whole is familiar with her work and its efficacy, so trust it even without seeing a specific seal in action for themselves.
"Are her koi pretty colours?"
"Very pretty, but I don't think she has one like Asagi-chan."
Tobirama isn't sure his clan would trust his work to that extent. Then again, most of his seals are intended for his own use on the battlefield, while Kita seemed to have gone in the opposite direction and pioneered seals for use in more domestic and universal contexts. Her embroidered seals are certainly unlike anything he's ever seen before; not even the Uzumaki work in such a way. Mito has mentioned some of the more obscure Uzumaki sealing styles on occasion, but even if they have work that goes into clothing, it is still written rather than stitched.
"Now you've seen the garden, we can show you outside!" Toshiko says brightly.
"Shouldn't you take the bowl back to the house first?" Tobirama suggests.
Azami bounces to her feet again as Toshiko quickly carries the bowl back to the engawa. "Come see everything, Bira-oji!"
Tobirama catches her hand and allows himself be led out of the garden gate, letting Toshiko claim his other hand once she catches up. "Lead on then, Azami-chan."
He's not sure who or where the watcher Madara promised is, but several Uchiha have eyes on him right now and there are many more popping in and out of sight around him –he's determined now that the masking seals are on the compound's buildings, so he cannot sense anybody indoors or even sitting on an engawa– so he is sure they are there. He can't sense any overt hostility in the chakra he can feel, but that's not as clear an indicator as it might be.
"That's Hikaku-oji and Yori-oba's house! Yori-oba's having a baby! An' that's Baasan's house!" Both houses are very fine, so their owners will be high-ranking within the Uchiha clan. "That's Usu-chan's house an' that's Ikeda-kun's house an' that's Kagutsuchi-nii's house!" Not every house got pointed at, so Tobirama assumes that the inhabitants are not interesting to toddlers, or possibly just not familiar.
The houses are all much in the traditional samurai style, although past the central curve around the Uchiha clan hall those buildings give way to wide, single-storey farmhouses, storehouses and town-style two-storey buildings with workshop space underneath and sleeping space above, small clumps of buildings surrounded by vegetable gardens and the occasional orchard or field. The further he is dragged away from the clan hall –and westwards, towards the side of the compound furthest from the Senju– the more widely spaced the farmhouses and storehouses are and the more open space between the fields.
"An' that's where Sue-chan lives and that's E-nee's house–"
There are also far more children. Tobirama is honestly surprised; he'd not realised the Uchiha clan was quite so large. There are a few barns which are no more than a roof held up by pillars over a wooden floor and one of them is in use as a teaching space: a teenager with a false foot is leading a group of fifteen children barely out of toddlerhood through a stretching routine, complete with a nonsense song to go with the movements as they touch the floor between their feet, raise their hands above their head, lean to one side and the other and then bend over backwards, tiny chakra signatures bright and steady.
"–an' over there's where Baachan works most days with Shirushi-oba!"
The field adjacent to the impromptu dojo is full of mulberry trees, variously-aged women and a few teenage girls filling baskets with the leaves and carrying them into a nearby storehouse; Tobirama assumes –in part by the underlying susurrus audible even past the childish chorus– that they are keeping the Uchiha clan's silkworms fed. There are even a few older women reeling silk under the shelter of the storehouse's wide roof.
He's not seen many men; are they all away on missions? He knows Madara has been busy arranging a lot of those in light of the current ceasefire and he expects the Senju will be doing likewise, even though approving those is usually his responsibility.
There are more children –mostly older boys– running around under the trees between the fields, and in an orchard off to one side he can see a few pre-teen girls corralling infants and toddlers in the short spring grass; keeping them out from underfoot so their parents can work, no doubt.
Still, the sheer lack of adults is a little disconcerting. The people weeding the field to his right are both teenage boys, the short figure tipping a bucket over a fence to the sound of porcine squealing is wearing a kimono so is probably a young girl and the only adult male he can see is standing in a barren field with eight teenagers facing him in two staggered rows, their coats, leg-wraps and stances making it clear they are undergoing some kind of combat training. Possibly using genjutsu? It wouldn't be much good for building muscle memory, but illusions could be repurposed very effectively to demonstrate battle formations and impart other necessary information. Teaching a person to set traps in a genjutsu would work, for instance, and have the advantage that they can practice without using up materials or actually harming themselves or anybody else.
Tobirama will have to mention that to Tōka later. She's never been much for teaching, but she's the best in the clan at genjutsu and a lot of people do learn better by seeing and doing, which is not always practical to arrange in real life. Especially with wire; every Senju trap specialist adores Uchiha wire and will no more part with it than a dragon will relinquish their pearl.
Azami and Toshiko eventually lead him down a side-path along a field boundary, towards the smell of iron and smoke and the sound of hammering. Tobirama is really not convinced he's going to be welcomed into the Uchiha's forge district –which is clearly where they're headed– but it's not like he can tell them that. Or that saying so would necessarily dissuade them.
Sure enough, an Uchiha steps into the path ahead. "Who's this then?"
"Yae-oji!" the twins cheer, letting go of Tobirama's hands to rush the man and hug his legs.
"Ah, it's mischief and mayhem!" The leanly muscled man says warmly, bending over so he can ruffle their hair with scarred hands. "How are you both today?"
"We're showing Bira-oji everything, Yae-oji!" Azami says eagerly, grabbing his hand.
"Everything, hm?" Uchiha Yae asks, eyeing Tobirama sharply over the girls' heads. "Well, has he seen the pottery kilns yet?"
"No, Yae-oji, we came here first!"
"Bira-oji needs to meet Tekari-nii and Jōnen-nii!"
"Well both your niisans are very busy right now, but I know for a fact your otōsama is helping with the kilns today, so why don't you go and watch? I'm sure Tobirama-san will be interested."
An expert deflection; both girls twist around to look at Tobirama's face. "I didn't know your otōsama was interested in pottery," he says, perfectly willing to go along with the suggestion. Avoiding the Uchiha's smiths will keep tensions down, which will in turn help to keep his stay as uneventful as possible. "Would you show me?"
Both girls let go of Yae in order to charge back at him. "We'll show you!" Toshiko says eagerly.
"We're gonna see toto breathe fire! It's gonna be so awesome!" Azami agrees. Tobirama is promptly turned around and dragged along a different path leading back east, parallel to the one they were on earlier, both girls talking over each-other in their eagerness to tell him about their father's 'super-amazing' fire-breathing skills.
Fire ninjutsu for a kiln though? Won't that shatter the pots? Now he really is curious.
Madara has come to really enjoy pottery. Not the actual clay-handling part –he is, personally and objectively, genuinely terrible at that bit for all that it invokes gleeful childish feelings over getting to play with mud without getting into trouble– but dipping the pots in the glazes and the careful setting up of pots in the kiln, making sure everything is properly spaced and wrapping specific items in straw so the ash will colour the glaze during firing. There's a right way to do it, for all that it changes a little each time depending on what's going in and what the desired results are, and it's always a fun challenge.
He also enjoys firing the kiln, because a few years of meticulous experimentation have yielded results and the clan now has proper fire techniques for heating up the kilns without using any fuel at all: the specially modified jutsu, together with a temperature-measuring seal and Kita's bento-box keep-hot seal, lets them get it up to temperature, seal it up and have it stay exactly as hot as it needs to for as long as is necessary and then gradually cool down by opening vents. The raku-style stoneware only needs a few hours, but there's Uchiha porcelain as well now and that can take almost two weeks to fire properly, which requires a different technique and a differently-designed kiln as well since it has to get up to heat more slowly, while also getting much hotter.
He still flies his hawks –for all that his favourite lady is getting rather old now and his newer bird is something of a lazy layabout in comparison– but the kiln is a different sort of hobby, requiring careful thought and strategy and a surprising amount of chemistry know-how. Most of the pottery is fired with iron glazes, made by grinding down the leftover iron from smelting steel for blades, and different concentrations in the clay and the glaze –as well as different firing times and methods– result in different colours. From the delicate duck-egg blue and celadon green porcelain to the orange, brown, black and occasionally deep blue raku stoneware, there is a market for all of them and the tiny fan-shaped stamp on the underside of every item fills Madara with a deep sense of clan pride.
He is not the only person with the reserves necessary to fire the kilns, but he enjoys participating when he can and since he's taken advantage of the cease-fire to send a lot of the Outguard on missions, there aren't many other people with deep enough reserves in the compound right now. Well, not that don't have more important things to do with their chakra. Also, the ceasefire means the potters have decided to fire early, so as to have ceramics ready to sell for next week and possibly fit a second firing in two weeks time.
Peace is profitable. It is also restful, productive and enjoyable. He's abandoned his desk for a few hours to join in with loading the kiln and doesn't mind at all that he'll need to carefully brush dirt off his kimono afterwards.
The kiln is halfway loaded when his two little girls arrive on the scene, dragging Tobirama between them. "Toto!"
There are warm chuckles from the clansmen around him as he quickly extricates himself from the loading zone so the two three-and-three-quarter-year-olds won't trip anybody up dashing in for hugs. Madara scoops Azami off her feet, tossing her in the air –she squeals happily– before settling her on his shoulders so he can greet Toshi as well.
Tobirama hangs back, selecting a tree to loiter under as Madara is pelted with a happily haphazard account of their morning.
"–Yae-oji said you were firing the kiln and Bira-oji said he wanted to see an' so we're watching!"
"So you are," Madara agrees lightly; Kita's cousin Yae has done right keeping Tobirama away from the forges. Not that he doesn't trust his clansmen, but those Uchiha with the reserves for blade- and wire-smithing tend to have relatives in the Outguard and the Outguard is currently both depleted and largely made up of the relatively young; if he hadn't raised the entry age to sixteen he'd have twenty-five fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds making up a sixth of his forces. There are maybe twenty warriors over the age of thirty left; his father died at forty-two and there were fifteen men within a few years of his age in the Outguard when he did.
He'd really much rather have a smaller Outguard for the time being than have the deaths of the clan's precious children etched into his brain forever by his sharingan. It's bad enough losing the seventeen-year-olds.
Well if they get peace he won't have any more teenagers dying in his arms; with this cheering thought in mind Madara approaches Tobirama, who is watching the kiln being loaded with increasing levels of interest. He's clearly trying to put together what he's seeing with any pre-existing knowledge of pottery to work out what the Uchiha present are doing.
"Are those porcelain water jars and tea jars?" He asks once Madara is in earshot, nodding at the items being carefully placed in saggars –plain ceramic boxes– so that they fire evenly and are not affected by debris in the wider kiln.
Madara glances over. "Yes, and plum-blossom vases, incense boxes, incense burners, sake cups, rice bowls and serving dishes. All being well, they should come out with a bluish celadon glaze." If the iron content's higher than anticipated the glaze will be more olivine, but they will still be able to sell everything; just at slightly lower prices. The delicate aqua shade is simply the most highly prized at the daimyo's court at the moment and Kita has plans to 'gift' an incense box to the Minister of Ceramics. It will be less of a gift and more of an advertising ploy, so that he will show it off to fellow ministers and courtiers and thereby increase the demand for Uchiha porcelain.
Their stoneware is doing very well, but now the potters have worked out how to get the celadon glazes reasonably consistent and the clay formula just right to not shatter half of their work in each firing, it's time to advertise those achievements outside the clan and expand the market for Uchiha ceramics.
"And you fire them with ninjutsu?" Tobirama's expression right now is so intensely reminiscent of the many nin-neko that live around the compound –specifically the expression associated with eagerly swaying tails and pounceable cat toys– that Madara has to suppress a toothy smirk.
"Feel free to watch." Madara's good enough now to not need handseals and Tobirama's water-natured anyway, so it's not like he can copy the technique. Besides, the all-important temperature regulation aspect requires direct calibration rather than being part of the technique itself –for porcelain the kiln temperature has to be raised gradually over several hours– so it's not like he'll be able to copy it. Otherwise the technique is just an unusually hot firewhirl that is possibly more dangerous to the user than any enemy it might be aimed at; it's only safe because the kiln door gets closed on it as soon as the appropriate temperature is reached, at which point it extinguishes itself due to lack of air.
It does generally try to leave the kiln at that point though; the door-keeper needs shinobi reflexes.
Thus encouraged, Tobirama cautiously drifts closer; Madara heeds Azami's incautious wriggling and sets her back on her own feet before she can tumble off his shoulders.
"Come on, Bira-oji!" she chirps, grabbing the Senju's free hand, "Let's go see!"
"Not going, Toshi-chan?" Madara asks quietly as Tobirama lets himself be chivvied by a toddler.
"Stayin' with toto," the taller of his little girls mumbles, wrapping her arms around his neck. Kissing her forehead, Madara settles her properly on his hip than heads back over to the kiln, so as to be available to consult over everything being suitably distributed to allow for air flow and the inevitable temperature gradient.
His father would probably be terribly disapproving if he were here, scolding Madara for soiling his hands with a craft when he's the Head of the Uchiha's most prestigious lineage and the commander of the Outguard, but quite honestly Madara would sooner spend the rest of his life trying to work out how to shape mud into pots if it meant never seeing another battlefield.
Fighting is exhilarating and there is little as wonderful as matching wits against a strong opponent and testing himself with new techniques, but sparring is not much less fulfilling than a true fight and he is deathly tired of dreaming of the broken bodies of his kinsmen gasping their last in his arms.
The clan has two new Mangekyō users, not that anybody outside the Outguard knows it. Those with them have sworn the rest to secrecy, not wanting to deal with the political quagmire that would doubtless ensue. Madara is letting it rest for the time being; if it looks like they will get peace he will persuade them to make things official so that the new manifestations can be documented and they can have their own patchwork coats. Not that he was sworn to secrecy, of course; he doesn't need to be told to notice the difference in his subordinates.
They're both orphans lacking a recognised lineage and only Sahoro has living relatives –he's part of the family line that makes the clan's armour– so it's not like acknowledging them will make much of a difference beyond upsetting the clan's few remaining elders.
The most frustrating thing about watching the Uchiha clansmen load the kiln under Madara's expert eye is that Tobirama knows he doesn't know enough about pottery to be able to understand what he's seeing. He knows that pottery has to be fired to become water resistant, he knows that different types are fired at different temperatures and that certain glazes can come out dramatically differently in a single batch despite all going in the kiln together and that some batches just break, but it's not something he's studied. It never interested him.
Yet here he is, itching with curiosity because Madara clearly has studied it, as have several other Uchiha, and between them they've pinned down enough of the variables to garner predictable results. There are seals on that kiln, seals to ensure predictability and repeatability, and Tobirama is sure he's about to witness a leap forwards in ceramic chemistry and technology yet he doesn't know enough to be able to recognise what's going on or how it works.
All he sees is that Madara insists on examining the inside of the kiln and has the potters –both entirely civilian and possibly not even Uchiha by their faces, although the five variously-aged apprentices all have respectable chakra reserves and the clan look– rearrange certain sections for reasons he cannot fathom –Tobirama hates not knowing things– then a small amount of charcoal is taken inside, everybody steps well back and the Uchiha Clan Head sets Toshiko down and gently shoos her off to the side. Then Madara settles into a terribly familiar stance in the entrance –one Tobirama has seen countless times on the battlefield– his chakra spikes and he breathes a stream of bluish fire into the kiln.
Tobirama knows that the colour of a flame changes according both to what is being burned and its temperature. Blue fire is exceptionally hot. Madara has also clearly mastered a circular breathing technique, because the flame keeps going. For much longer than he's ever seen the man do in a fight.
The oldest apprentice is standing behind the door, entire body tense and poised, while one of the potters is around the corner of the kiln consulting one of the seals, on which two separate red lines are rising; one red line stabilises, but the other continues to climb ever higher. Madara is perfectly calm, blue fire streaming from his mouth into the kiln–
"Cut!"
The door slams shut as Madara leaps backwards in a blur of speed; even so, there is an instant when the almost-closed kiln door is haloed in flame. There is a seal on the back of the door –well, across the door and the frame actually– which flares slightly as the door closes, so presumably that's the locking mechanism.
"That'll do for now, Madara-sama," one of the potters says cheerfully, slapping his Clan Head's shoulder with a hand covered in dried mud; not that Madara seems to care, despite being dressed in a black and white lattice-print silk kimono rather than indigo cotton Uchiha work-wear. "The seals are fully charged, so we can take it from here."
"Let me know when it's time to unpack, so I can see the results for myself," Madara replies warmly, reaching down to ruffle Toshiko's hair as she trots back to his side.
"Of course, Madara-sama! We're thinking of firing up the stoneware kiln in five days' time; probably six firings over the course of the day, so if you want to come down and join in do feel free," the other potter says with a grin. "Show the kids how it's done."
"Provided I am not needed elsewhere, sensei," Madara agrees, nodding respectfully at the older man. "Now I will leave you to your work."
"Show's over kids!" the younger potter shouts, waving a hand at the gathered apprentices. "Back to work!" The crowd of muddy loiterers instantly disperses, most of them heading towards another suspended roof –this one over a dirt floor– where there are tables and wheels, wooden racks of drying pots and a very large mound of clay is taking up about a quarter of the space.
"Toto's so awesome!" Azami bubbles, tugging on Tobirama's hand to get his attention. "He's the best at fire techniques! Nobody else can do blue fire!"
"It was very impressive," Tobirama agrees; he suspects that blue fire would result in super-heated steam if it came into contact with water, which would be acutely unpleasant on the battlefield. He's not seen Madara use it before though; possibly it only works at close range, or requires some kind of preparatory step?
Azami beams at him, delighted by his acknowledgement, then drags him over to the edge of the paved area where Madara has retreated to talk to an armored Uchiha with a sharingan eye tattooed on his forehead. Tobirama isn't sure what underpins the Uchiha fascination with tattoos –at least a third of their warriors have them, which admittedly makes identifying them easier– and isn't sure how to ask. Something to do with their religious practices, maybe? He's seen tattooed monks before.
The man stops talking as Tobirama walks into earshot, eyeing him warily. Tobirama was honestly expecting more hostility from the clan in general, but all the Uchiha he's seen so far have either ignored him entirely or kept their distance, as though he is a feral dog they don't want to provoke into biting them. Well, not including the younger children to whom he is simply a new and interesting adult, or Madara and his wife, who are treating him somewhere between a familiar guest and a family pet. Possibly most like a cat, to be shut out of certain rooms but otherwise fed and allowed the freedom of his surroundings.
It is perhaps somewhat irritating that having his chakra bound and being treated like a cat is significantly better that he was expecting. Better than being locked in a cell or discreetly executed once they were back on Uchiha lands, certainly.
"Hi! I'm Azami! What's your name?"
The tattooed warrior with the goatee bead bows to the toddler with a smile. "I am Nagi of the Konjin lineage, Azami-chan. A pleasure to meet you." Tobirama has always assumed 'Nagi' to be a woman's name; he wonders what characters are used to spell it in this instance.
Tobirama also wonders what significance a named lineage has; some kind of internal Uchiha ranking system? A way to separate out specific family lines within the wider clan umbrella? Possibly a connection to the seven people who'd flanked Madara for his binding, one of them a small child and therefore not a suitable representative for anything unless there really is nobody else?
"An' this is Bira-oji!" Azami pauses. "Have you met Bira-oji before, Nagi-oji?"
"I have seen him many times before today, but we have not been introduced," Uchiha Nagi says with restrained precision.
"Don't you like Bira-oji?" Toshiko asks curiously.
There is a pause; Nagi glances at his Clan Head, whose expression and chakra are both uncharacteristically bland.
"The Uchiha clan is not on good terms with his clan," Nagi replies, face and chakra now firmly controlled, "and he gave the order to cut off my niece E-san's hands."
Both little girls spin around, aghast. "Bira-san!"
Tobirama feels a pang at the sudden formality. "She was attacking the people I was responsible for at the time," he explains carefully, "and I was afraid she would defeat them."
"E-nee is awesome," Azami declares, glaring at him over folded arms, "an' she could defeat you without hands!" The resemblance to her father is rather pronounced at this moment.
"I believe you," Tobirama agrees; right now he is no match for a fūinjutsu specialist, hands or no hands. Assuming E is the woman who was standing behind Izuna with the brush between her teeth, she certainly hasn't let losing her hands keep her from advancing her education there.
"Good." Azami nods firmly.
"You're not going to cut off anybody else's hands?" Toshiko asks warily.
"I am your parents' guest; attacking anybody in the Uchiha clan while that remains the case would be very rude of me." Never mind that he cannot access his chakra and doesn't even have a kunai to his name.
"Manners are very important, girls," Madara says, drawing his daughters' attention back to himself. "Tobirama-san is here because I hope that our clans may one day be friends, so there will be no more fighting. So we are all being polite to each-other, even though we have fought in the past."
"Yes toto." Azami hesitates. "Can you eat lunch with us, toto?"
"Where were you planning on eating lunch, flower?"
The girl brightens. "By the river! Benten-nee is meeting us there! She said so!"
"Then I will fetch my bento and also join you by the river," Madara agrees easily; Tobirama can't think of any occasion when his brother has put aside his plans for the day to indulge Tsunama. Or even delayed his plans for a few hours, so as to each lunch with his son at Tsunama's request. And his nephew has asked.
It's an uncomfortable thought, that Madara has in less than a week shown himself to be a more attentive parent than Hashirama has managed over his son's entire lifetime.
"Can I stay with you, toto?" Toshiko asks, taking her thumb out of her mouth.
"Of course you can, bean-sprout; would you like me to carry you?"
Toshiko brightens. "Can you run?"
"In my kimono?" Madara pulls a dramatically shocked face then smiles warmly at his daughter. "Fine, just for you then." He scoops up Toshiko and vanishes in a blur.
Azami pouts. "Can you do that, Bira-oji?"
"Not right now; I'm a guest." She thankfully accepts the deflection and sprints over to grab his hand.
"I'll show you the river, Bira-oji!"
Tobirama allows himself to be dragged off again, aware of Nagi-san's eyes drilling into the back of his head until they are out of sight. So there are Uchiha who are angry about him being here, who have personal grudges as well as a more general hatred for his clan. However they so far seem to be keeping that to themselves, mindful of their Clan Head's intentions.
He wonders how long that will last.