Notes: Hashirama's dialogue is lifted entirely from Mangastream's translation of chapter 622.
Summary: Tobirama and Itama after Kawarama's death.

"I wonder... Can we reach a truce?... Or, better yet, even form a kinship?"

Hashirama's words caught both Itama and Tobirama by surprise. Their elder brother had been silent since they had left their father at Kawarama's burial. Not once had he expressed any kind of opinion about what the two of them had said about truces and what constituted proper shinobi conduct and now he spoke of kinship towards the enemy, of all things?

Even Tobirama, who had been advocating that shinobi stop seeking vengeance, found it hard to imagine. It was one thing to cease fighting, to form a truce where each party could live and let live; it was another thing altogether to take their enemies into their bosom and call them kin. How could anyone call someone who had taken their loved ones away kin?

Itama, the gentler soul of the four – the three –, who was still reeling from watching their brother Kawarama's remains be lowered into the ground, had a harder time accepting the idea. As far as he was concerned, it was offensive. Kawarama was kin! The Uchiha who killed him could never be called the same.

He jumped down from the tree stump where he sat.

"Itama?" Tobirama called, but his youngest brother did not even look at him. He just disappeared into the woods at a sad trod, heading back towards the Senju camp.

Tobirama turned to Hashirama next. He could imagine what might be going through Itama's head at the moment and was annoyed at his older brother for not being more careful about what he let slip. Itama not saying anything meant that he had taken his brother's words in the worst possible way.

"Brother, what were you thinking, talking about kin at a time like this?"

But Hashirama had withdrawn back into his thoughts. He was murmuring something to himself – "An actual kinship..." – so, shaking his head, Tobirama decided that out of his two siblings, Itama needed him the most. Hashirama could take care of himself. In any case, it was his fault that Itama was hurting again now, and after how hard it had been to get their baby brother to stop crying too...

Tobirama caught up with Itama close to where the forest gave way to the Senju camp. In the distance, he could just hear the sound of picks and shovels hitting rocks as the men finished covering the graves of their fallen clansmen, right next to Kawarama's.

"Itama...?"

His little brother's reaction was immediate. Itama stopped and turned around, revealing red, swollen eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. The sight had Tobirama cursing Hashirama's cluelessness all over again. For being the eldest and supposedly wisest of the brothers, he sure was lousy at measuring his words. One thoughtless comment and he had wrecked all their efforts to comfort Itama.

"You know what?" the youngest said in a shrill, nearly hysterical voice. "Hashi's right! We should just treat the Uchiha like family!"

Tobirama felt a shudder of apprehension that someone might be close enough to hear the treasonous declaration, but he knew that he could not tell Itama to quiet down now or it would only make things worse. He was not sure where his brother was going with such an outrageous claim, but he was clearly too emotional to listen to anything Tobirama might have to say. Hoping to indirectly suggest to him to lower his voice, he stepped closer and whispered Itama's name.

It did calm his little brother, up to a point, but it also caused a fresh surge of tears that made it harder to understand what Itama said next.

"Mother doesn't care about anything. She wasn't even there to say Kawa goodbye! Father just beats us up anyway, and you and Hashi just want to forget Kawa as soon as possible and 'move on'! So, yeah, treat the enemy like family! You're all just perfect for each other!"

By the time that Itama finished his rant, he was holding his head in his hands, trying to hold back the shameful tears that no shinobi ought to shed. The long sleeves of his jacket were wet and he took in large and noisy gulps of air.

Tobirama knew that he had to do something. He had been closest to Kawarama than Itama, so the accusation that he wanted to forget his brother had especially stung, but he knew that Itama did not truly mean it. Those words had been born out of a need to lash out and hurt others as much as he hurt himself, rather than any honest opinion he might have. Itama was suffering. Hashirama might be too busy dealing with his own issues to think about their littlest brother, but he was not Hashirama.

Resigning himself to the snot and tears, he pulled Itama close against his shoulder. Even as the younger boy resisted, trying to wring himself free of the hug and throwing feeble punches at his older brother's chest and arms, he did not give up. Tobirama barely felt the hits and it all paid off when rather than continue trying to get away, Itama gave in, gripping his shirt and pulling him closer.

He truly wailed then.

"We're not going to forget Kawarama, little brother," Tobirama whispered into his ear a few minutes later, when the other appeared to be calming down. "It doesn't matter what mother or father or anyone else does. We won't forget him. He was our brother and we will always stick together. You know that we only have each other."

It took a few minutes more, but Itama's breathing eventually evened out. He looked for a clean patch on his jacket to wipe his face with.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, but Tobirama did not need to hear any such thing.

"That's all right, little brother. Come on, let's go home. You need to wash your face," Tobirama proposed, hand on his shoulder ready to lead the way.

He had his doubts that Itama had taken his words to heart. The apology had come too easily, too immediately, and knowing how his little brother looked up to Hashirama, the very person whose comment had hurt him this once, Tobirama was sure that their older brother was the one that Itama really needed to hear reassurances from.

Itama nodded and leaned forward like he was going to start moving, but then halted and looked back the way they had come.

"What about Hashi? Should we leave him alone?"

Tobirama doubted that they had to worry about him. It had not escaped his notice how Hashirama had barely given any response when both his brothers had left him on his own. He was probably deep in his thoughts even now, trying to make sense of his own ideas.

"He will be fine. We can go look for him if he's not back in an hour."

"All right..." Itama agreed. "Tobi?"

The small boy stood, shoulders slumped, looking at the dirt in front of his feet.

"I miss Kawa."

Kawarama. He had been Tobirama's best friend, having been closest to him in age.

Hashirama had been too far along in his training to keep his brothers company most of the time. He went out on missions almost every week now and their father was especially demanding of him because of his skill with the Mokuton. Butsuma took him away on extraordinary training sessions whenever there was time.

And Itama, with four year's difference from Tobirama, was just too young. At the time that Tobirama was battling his first enemy shinobi, Itama had still been in diapers.

But with Kawarama, who had been born a mere two years after himself, Tobirama had shared everything. As much as he loved Hashirama and Itama, their relationships were too tainted by familiar obligations and responsibility. Kawarama had been the only one who could make him feel like there were no expectations on him, like he was free to be his own person.

"I miss him too, Itama," Tobirama replied and meant it.

Slinging an arm around Itama's shoulder and pulling him close, the two of them made their way home.