Summary: Kagami and Tobirama, on a mission to recruit new allies.
A carp broke the surface of the stream that ran southward along the road. It jumped in a bold arch, maws wide to snatch a curious dragonfly that had dared fly too low. A flash of silver scales behind a splash of rainbow droplets and it was gone, with nothing but the ghost echoes persisting in the two travelers' ears to indicate that it had been there.
Tobirama's gaze followed the silver shape as it faded underwater, contemplating the resourcefulness of nature's predators.
Kagami did not look. His eyes were focused on the distant past, lost among the dust of the road.
"You've been very quiet," commented Tobirama as he continued to walk.
Unlike Kagami's, his footfalls were naturally silent. Years of experience transforming the acquired into the innate.
The young Uchiha blinked as though coming out of a trance. His master had stopped briefly to wonder at the carp and yet he stood a couple of paces in front of him. The boy tightened the strap of the cloth bag tied across his chest and caught up with him.
"Sorry, sensei." The title came easily now. "It's just— Azuchi Castle— have you been there before?"
The word before gained new meaning when it was an Uchiha who employed it.
Azuchi was the fortress of the Niwa, a noble family with ties to the daimyou that claimed control of the Land of Fire. The festivals that they held twice a year — once at the start of harvest season and the other close to the start of the new year — were renowned throughout the civilised nations, attracting thousands from all over.
Historically, the Niwa had favoured the services of the Hagoromo ninja clan and their allies, including the Senju. Thanks to these shinobi in their employment, the Niwa lords had resisted the spread of the neighbouring Western Coallition of Generals of the Desert and kept their rule over quite a large portion of land — miles and miles as far as the eye could see with several peaceful farming towns in between.
Their territory also included the grounds that the Uchiha had once called home. Rather than start a war with the reputed clan for trespassing that would cost both sides much unnecessary bloodshed, however, the Niwa had tacitly given them the freedom to occupy that land without charge, as long as they did not interfere with the lords' business. It also had not hurt the Uchiha's case that they were capable warriors properly motivated to defend their home when the Niwa were struggling to defend their borders.
The Hagoromo clan had a reputation for being particularly mindful of their secrets, including the location of their home. Even the Senju did not know how to contact them, having to rely on a liaison who stayed on a semi-permanent basis at the Senju camp to carry messages between them and their allies.
As such, Hashirama and Madara had no means by which to contact them now in order to extend an invitation to join the newly-formed Senju-Uchiha alliance. Tobirama and Kagami's job, then, was to locate a Hagoromo in the court of the Niwa who might carry their message to the head of that clan.
Kagami had not said anything when the mission to visit the castle had first been assigned to them, but Tobirama would not be surprised if his student was already familiar with the place.
"I have been there once before," Tobirama answered. "The castle was not my final destination, but some of the servants there let me spend the night with a roof over my head while I travelled."
Neither Tobirama's past travels nor the servants of the Niwa were particularly agreeable subjects to Kagami, though. He avoided thinking about what else those past missions might have entailed.
With not a cloud in the sky to keep the midday sun from shining bright above, a wide river on one side of the road and an open prairy on the other, there was no way for bandits or enemies to sneak up on the two unseen. Tobirama still reached out with his senses in as wide a circle as possible without pausing to mold chakra and concentrate on the task, while he waited for the boy to reply.
Kagami said nothing.
"Is there something you're not telling me, Kagami?" he prompted. The question was unnecessary. Something had to be on his mind. This much silence was uncommon.
For the first time since setting out, Kagami's eyes left the earth-packed road at his feet to take in the river. There were rapids up ahead, the deceptive round peaks of black lychen-spotted rocks peeking from under the water and the rising mist of a waterfall after that. They were nowhere near enough to hear more than a whisper of the rushing water, but the sound of its roar on a new moon's night filled Kagami's ears nonetheless.
"I've been there before," he replied. "It was the last time that my clan had business with the Niwa. Lord Madara took over the clan leadership shortly after and decided to focus in a different direction."
The hairs on the back of Tobirama's neck prickled when the boy mentioned Madara — his brother's dearest friend — but he could hardly blame Kagami for showing the proper respect to his clan head. Loyalty was an admirable trait and, despite the many failings that Tobirama could point out about the man, even he could not accuse Madara of doing wrong by his clan. The Senju had nothing to say in regards to that.
"What was your mission back then?"
It would be inconvenient if Kagami had left a bad impression on the residents that they would presently encounter.
Kagami knew that if he were to focus on Tobirama's question he would find a deeper purpose to it. The truth was just within reach, but for the moment his mind was too full of that awful, incessant roar of the waterfall to focus. Shivers ran down his spine as he felt a phantom of those icy waters trickle from his hair to the back of his neck and underneath his shirt.
Kagami answered, nonetheless. Over the few weeks that they had known each other, Tobirama had somehow gained that much of his trust.
"Just reconnaissance and saving a comrade. An Uchiha kunoichi who was taken there as a captive."
"And how did it end?"
"We never even saw the Niwa. There was a Senju team there at the time who intercepted us." Kagami turned to Tobirama, looking at him in the eye. He did not want to miss anything about the man's following reaction. "We killed one of them."
That awful noise in Kagami's ears mingled now with distant clangs of steel and the cries of those unlucky enough to find themselves in the way of a blade. The Senju had not been the only casualty that night and, right now, Kagami wanted Tobirama to know a little of what that had felt like.
They continued walking.
Tobirama kept his expression schooled as he pulled memories from the back of his mind to try to form a picture.
Madara had not yet been the leader of the Uchiha at the time, Kagami had said. That meant that those events had taken place during Butsuma's time.
Tobirama's father had refused to die before his old rival Tajima. Out of spite alone, he had withstood eight long and painful months with one lung collapsed and the other stricken with acute pneumonia, just to get his wish. The treatments had been excrutiating; by the end, the doctors had not even bothered to remove the tube from his chest, letting the nauseating built up fluids drain directly into a bowl.
While Hashirama was out constantly fighting in the bloodiest battles, Tobirama had split his time between the front lines and home, ensuring that the clan elders and Butsuma's advisors, left to their devices, did not destroy the clan before Hashirama could take over. As such, he had read the reports from most of the missions that had happened during that period. Most importantly, he had thoroughly examined the records of all of their casualties.
One Senju dead in the vicinity of Azuchi. He remembered that. The mission had been minor, just a supply run. Fighting enemy ninjas had never been considered a possibility. From the captain's report, they had been as surprised as the Uchiha at the encounter.
Kagami's kunoichi must have already been at the castle when the Senju arrived, before the Uchiha made their move.
Tobirama also remembered reading that at least one Uchiha had been confirmed killed in action. The researcher in him had regretted the lost opportunity to lift the veil on the secrets of the sharingan. The Senju captain had asked to be given custody of the body, but the Niwa had expressly forbidden it, threatening to cut ties with their clan unless the Senju left without it.
Knowing this, Tobirama could ask if the dead had been a friend of Kagami's or if he had been close to the kunoichi who, according to everything he had read and been told, had been tortured in every way imaginable. His student was still young, unstable, prone to thoughts of revenge.
"Such is the life of ninja. But the past is the past. What's dead is dead and we move on. Yes?"
Kagami lowered his head, chin against his chest. He had to, so he would not flinch. Tobirama was a wall. Whatever Kagami tried to direct at him always ricocheted back at him.
His brothers had been shinobi and nothing would bring them back. Dead was dead indeed.
"Yes, that's right."
It would have to be reassurance enough for the Senju, although Kagami himself was not convinced.
The pointed rooftops of the castle peeked from behind the treetops of a thick forest up ahead, the thick dark green branches unable to fully hide the fierceness of the guardian red and gold dragons depicted on the eaves, baring their teeth at nothing.
At their current pace, Tobirama and Kagami would be there within the hour.
Azuchi was well protected. Kagami remembered that much from his last time there. The walls around it were tall and thick, more than enough to keep out anyone who was not trained in the arts of chakra. Those that were found guards stationed throughout the grounds, strategically located so as to not allow any blind spots in their grid.
The tight security was the reason why Kagami's team had been selected to go to Azuchi before. As children, they could walk through the front door, claim to be beggars out looking for refuge and not raise any questions.
Two guards stood in Tobirama and Kagami's path, well before they approached the castle itself.
Kagami smiled a little as he made that connection. Tobirama really could not fool anyone into thinking that he had yet to go through adolescence. He saw the new arrivals as more of an opportunity than an inconvenience, though. If one of them was a Hagoromo, then Tobirama and he could deliver their message right there, without need to get closer to that place that was the setting of his nightmares.
The guards' gestures betrayed their lack of training, though. These were peasants who had been decked in ill-suited armour and told to make their poleaxes look tall and threatening. They would sooner collapse under their own weight than present any real danger to so much as a genin.
Tobirama apparently agreed. He stated their purpose and let one of the guards escort them through the gates.
The closer that they got to the castle, the less natural the scenery appeared to be. Signs of human influence were everywhere, from an artificial pond, trimmed in polished stone blocks, to the flowering bushes of all colours that fringed the road. They went on a gradient from yellow, to orange, to red, to pink and violet, too carefully arranged to have been planted there by chance. Old granite lanterns of varying styles were set along the path at regular intervals.
One tree in particular drew Kagami's attention: a maple tree whose top branches had been trimmed to force it to grow in breadth rather than height. Kagami could still hear his younger brother's stupefaction when they had seen it for the first time.
"Why would they do that? You can't climb a tree that low! Where's the fun in that?"
Kagami bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut. The past is the past. What's dead is dead. Let it go, he told himself.
"Is the lord of the castle here?" Tobirama asked their escort. Kagami happily latched on to his voice to drown out the ones from his unwanted memories.
Surprised at being addressed by one who had such a threatening presence, it was all that the guard could do not to drop his poleaxe. Even a peasant without training was capable of recognising danger.
"Y— yes. We— before— my companion and I— we sent a message ahead that you were here, Sir."
And so it was.
Lord Niwa, head of his family and sixth of his name, was waiting for them at the top of the steps that led to the entrance proper of the grand castle, standing in the shade of the lowest level of roof eaves. He was an old man, fat, but he wore his thinning black hair carefully coiffed, while dressing in layers of gold-threaded silk.
Around him and occupying the steps before him like a buffer, the real guards stood, heavily armed, gazes split between the newcomers and the large man who waited next to their lord. The captain of the guard wore gold trimmed black armour and a matching helmet and mask that obscured his features. His sword was twice the size of the others.
There were no unprepared peasants here, at the heart of the fortress. Just samurai and ninjas — some wearing the markings of the Hagoromo clan, Tobirama was glad to see.
The usual pleasantries were exchanged:
"If you're bringing trouble to this door, ninja-san, you can turn around right now and be on your way!"
"No trouble, Lord Niwa. We are not here for you, but rather to see one of the men under your command. One of the Hagoromo, to be more exact."
Tobirama's gaze landed on those who were easily identified as part of that clan, but he noticed a few others react in the same way throughout the crowd, even among the servants. They were everywhere.
"And what for? I won't have you settling your personal differences on my front yard!" the lord said. As a sensor, Tobirama could pick up on his irritation for not being the focal point of the visit.
Tobirama offered no apologies.
"No differences exist. We are here to speak and deliver a message only."
The gold ring on Lord Niwa's hand caught the glint of the sun as the man pointed a finger at the Senju.
"Very well. I will allow one of you inside. The boy stays out here with my men while you come and do your speaking."
Tobirama bowed. Before making his way up the steps, he left Kagami with one final murmured warning:
"Remember: we are here to make allies. Don't cause any trouble."
Under normal circumstances, the orders would have presented no problems to Kagami. He knew how to be funny and charming and approachable when he wanted to. It would not have been hard for him to start a casual conversation with one of the sentries while he waited, perhaps finding out a little bit more of what the Niwa's current dealings were in the process.
As it was, déjà vu was flooding and all five of his senses conspired to persuade him that he was six years old again and back in that awful mission that had cost the lives of his two brothers.
To the left, there was the tall flag pole with the Niwa name written in black over yellow cloth, the same one that he was supposed to climb — that he had climbed — to enter the left wing of the barracks complex through one of the windows. The glass had been repaired since and bars that had not existed before had been added.
Back then, thick ropes had hung down the side of the castle, coarse from exposure to the elements. Additional banners were hung when particularly honoured guests came to stay. They had been a convenient way out of the building for Kagami's team, allowing them to protract the use of chakra-based techniques which would have alerted any resident sensors until the very final stretch of their escape.
The black steel hooks remained nailed to the outside of the third storey, but here the guards had learnt their lesson too. The ropes were gone, not to be put in place until an event called for their use.
The innermost circle of walls, now behind him, were the same, as far as the Uchiha could tell. It had been a difficult task for three children to climb them while carrying the dead weight of an unconscious adult kunoichi, but they had managed. They would have been the last real obstacle in their path if the Senju had not been waiting on the other side.
All the sights were as familiar to Kagami as they would be if he had lived at the castle for the past four years. He had relived the events of that mission a thousand times in his nightmares, in vivid detail.
"Well, what do you know. The rumours must be true."
The gruff voice brought Kagami back to the present. The captain of the guard stood before him in impeccably polished black and gold armour, hands resting atop the pommel of his oversized sword. It must not have ever seen real battle.
"What rumours are those?" he asked.
"That the Uchiha and the Senju have kissed and made up. I never thought I'd see one of you standing so cozily next to one of them. Or maybe that thing stitched to your shirt is fake and you're just his little bitch?"
Kagami grit his teeth. Friends. He and his sensei were there to make friends, not scorch stupid wise-asses to a crisp.
He gave the man a thin smile.
"Oh no, it's true. There's a signed treaty and everything."
"Fuck!" The captain shook his head while he laughed full-bellied. The steel plates of his armour rattled as he could not help himself. "A little piece of paper and ink put an end to that feud? Even I don't believe that! If half of what they say about him is anything to go by, you should watch your back, boy. That Tobirama Senju is a strange one."
The man — samurai?, ninja?; he carried a katana so Kagami was not sure — took two steps forward. The Uchiha would have liked nothing better than to take two steps back, but held his ground instead.
The mask covering the captain's face was, like many others worn by those descended from wealthy families, specially designed to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies: a horned demon's head with a snarl that contorted itself up to a pair of red forked eyebrows disappearing under the heavy helmet. The brutal imagery and striking colours were part of a cheap tactic to compensate for lack of any actual individual threatening qualities. As such, they did not impress Kagami. The slivers of skin and real expression that were visible through the gaps were of much greater interest to him.
"There really is an alliance." Then, because he could not keep himself from needling back, even just a little, this man who was trying so hard to intimidate him: "But my sincerest thanks for worring about my safety."
Most of the soldiers occupying the courtyard were breaking formation and going back to their regular posts, boots loud as they ground gravel and sand underneath. Only a small contingent of six remained nearby to back up their commander as he kept watch over Kagami.
Thin lips whitened behind the mask as they pursed. The captain gestured towards a red gate marking the entrance of a path through the manicured gardens. Kagami reluctantly went with him, the six other soldiers following closely behind.
The stone slab pavement had been swept of leaves recently. While the flower bushes lining the road were delicate and beautiful, the cypresses that rose like a living wall on the other side were much more to Kagami's liking. Their leaves were dark and their trunks trimmed to vertical perfection, standing closely packed together in a forest that afforded very limited visibility. They had been the Uchiha's allies, keeping them hidden in that time long ago.
"How did you know about the truce?" Kagami asked.
It had been three months since the founding of their new, as of yet unnamed, village and both Senju and Uchiha had been too busy settling their differences to spread the news to the outside world. They had made it a point to keep their negotiations secret from the nobles and daimyous and especially from the rest of the ninja clans, lest they assume that the two largest players on the board had been defanged.
His and Tobirama's mission was one of the first efforts to reestablish lines of communication. Other teams had been sent to other clans with similar messages — to the Yuuhi, the Katou, the Aburame, the Gekkou… — but, for all intents and purposes, the reason why Uchiha and Senju had so abruptly stopped accepting missions should not have been known to the people of Azuchi Castle.
"Pshh. How does anyone know anything that goes on in this world?"
To illustrate his point, he took a leather flask from his belt and rattled the liquid inside it in Kagami's direction, an offer to partake which the Uchiha excused himself from.
"Suit yourself, boy," the captain said before removing his mask to take a swig. He exhaled afterwards like a contented horse.
Bandages covered one of his eyes. Other than that, he appeared much frailer than Kagami had expected, given the volume of armour on him. His neck was even thinner than Kagami's — and he was generally considered scrawny. The man's cheeks were sunken, bones protruding around his visible eye socket, accentuating the purple skin around his eyes with shadows deeper than the mask could have cast. His nose had been broken and badly set somewhere along the way, but the lines on his forehead were carved deep, speaking of an unusual longevity for someone of their occupation. He was also drenched with sweat, which he wiped from his brow with the same hand that held the flask.
The sun was strong and the dark, bulky armour hot.
The path reached a wooden bridge arching over the wide pond that Kagami had glimpsed on the way in. No sunlight penetrated the water, reflecting back on an obsidian surface dotted in the green, white and pink of lotus flowers.
Kagami froze, taken aback by sudden recollection. It was another one of those places featured prominently on his memories, those that he wanted to do everything that he could to pretend that did not exist. He decided to turn right to go along the pond and then back towards the castle — Tobirama was not a conversationalist; he would return before long — but before he could take a single step, the captain of the guard had gone ahead onto the bridge.
He reclined against the railing half-way in and took another long gulp from his flask, eyeing the container afterwards appreciatively.
The opaque surface of the lake filled Kagami with mistrust. The roaring waterfalls were playing back in his mind, memories mingling until it was impossible to break the events of that long ago mission apart from one another.
"I'm older than you two, so it's my job to keep you safe. Just promise me that you'll get out of this and I'll have no regrets!"
Kagami did not go onto the bridge. Waiting at the peak of the arch, the captain noticed his reluctance.
"What's the matter? Come on! You're not scared of a little water, are you?"
He loosed another one of those belly laughs. It echoed unpleasantly in the small clearing, rebounding insolently off the solemn cypresses. Its noise was jarring against the backdrop of the peaceful gardens.
Be friendly, Kagami reminded himself, fists clutching the fabric of his shorts. This was the second time he was insulted and he still could not respond as he would have liked.
"Actually, I was thinking that we should go back. My sensei will be done delivering his message any moment now."
"Oh, he can wait a little, can't he boys?" the captain raised his voice at the end to ask the six men who stood behind Kagami. When called out, they advanced, tightening the circle at the end of the bridge.
Suddenly, the Uchiha felt like he was being caged in.
"Get over here, boy. Just come and get your fill of this view. This lake is unlike any other you'll ever see. Our good Lord Niwa's grandfather had it made so that it was deep enough for his koi to grow unfettered. The oldest one is said to date back from that time. It's larger than a grown man: three meters long!"
"That's fascinating, but I prefer fish that can be put over a fire and eaten."
"This one would eat you, if it got past the tangle of lotus and seaweeds! It would be a damn shame too, with your pretty little eyes… it'd suck them right off your skull with its big maw and call them a treat. I reckon it would find them tasty. But not to worry — I'll make sure you don't fall in."
Don't fall in before what? the thought erupted. The man was too insistent, his gaze gaining new intent, and the six others were still stepping forward. It felt like they were trying to steer Kagami towards the bridge like a lost lamb into the pen. He did not like it.
"Thanks, but—"
Whatever excuse he had, he was spared from having to spout it, as the captain gave up on doing things the easy way.
"Fuck it, just grab him!"
Strong hands clamped around Kagami's arms and pushed him forward. They came abruptly enough to force him to step on the bridge, but the young Uchiha soon gained traction against the wooden floorboards.
His body had gone rigid. The water was right there, right under him in the gaps between the planks. But Kagami would not go far if he did fall in. A mesh of jaundiced lotus stalks, peeling their outer layers, was visible through the murky water. It was not hard for the imagination to add similarly decomposing bodies, pale and white-eyed, forever lost, trapped in their snare as Lord Niwa's prized koi fed and destroyed every last trace of them.
Meanwhile, the black-armoured captain had worked the top half of his flask free.
"It's a shame to waste good sake like this, but at the price that I'll be selling your eyes in the black market later this week? It's worth spoiling this much to preserve the investment." Yellow crooked teeth splayed themselves in a grin before Kagami. "That scarred Senju bastard can take the blame for this one, yeah? So come on, let's see the money. Show us those pretty red sharingan of yours, Uchiha."
Some of Kagami's fear actually dissipated at that peculiar form of goading. With his arms pinned, he would have drawn on the power of his ocular genjutsu to get himself out of the predicament anyway. The fact that he was invited to do so by his captors was just evidence that they did not know the first thing about ninja, other than which body parts to scavenge.
Samurai, then.
The captain's hands were jittering from excitement at the prospect of imminent fortune, so much so that he spilled part of the alcohol still in the flask.
Make allies, Tobirama's ghost voice came to Kagami again, interrupting his momentum, right as he was about to get started.
Fine, Kagami answered it, grudgingly switching tactics to hit the samurai with a less harmful kind of illusion.
The world turned silent. The tops of the cypresses bent down with darkened fingers, while a million tiny particles of water rose from the lake's surface like slow-motion liquid fireworks — perfect little round diamonds that reflected and encapsulated worlds inside them, each holding part of one of their siblings but each entirely their own.
A large koi fish with red and white patterns leapt high, adding to the spectacle with the droplets that rained from its skin as it flew above the bridge, fins splayed like wings, and disappeared into the black lake on the other side. The moment that it was entirely underwater again, several thuds were heard back in the real world.
All the samurai had fallen asleep.
One of them fell over the railing. His heavy armour threatened to drag him down towards the lake. Not in the mood to go fishing afterwards, Kagami quickly pulled him back to lay on the bridge.
With any luck, he and Tobirama would be well on the way home before the genjutsu faded and they woke up on their own. It would be difficult to explain to Lord Niwa that he had put them to sleep and still conform to the parameters of the mission not to antagonise his hosts in any way.
He gave the scene one last once over, to make sure that all seven of his would-be assassins were safe and sound — and that was when he saw it.
A spot of bright teal chakra on a body that otherwise glowed very dimly in shades of yellow. Not just any shade of teal either. It was the very particular hue of a hummingbird's feathers, the vibrant colour splash on the underside of dark wings: his older brother's teal.
"I'm sorry, Kagami, Tamazou. I won't be there to see you two grow up after all. But I will buy you as much time as I can."
The kunai was out of the weapons pouch and poised to cut out the eye that the captain of the guard had wrapped in bandages before Kagami became quite aware of what he was doing.
How could he let this bastard live?
"Are you sure we're brothers, Kagami? You're way too short to be a brother of mine."
"Lay one finger on my brothers. Go on, you bastard. I dare you. Try it."
"Well, it can't be helped. You're too soft. Looks like I'll have to stick by your side until the rest of time to make sure that you're all right, huh, Kagami?"
When Kagami opened his eyes, the weapon was on his hand and that lively warm chakra that he had missed so dearly right underneath.
He realised something then.
The flow of the captain's chakra system was irregular, not just because of Kagami's genjutsu, but because it was being syphoned towards Tsurugi's active sharingan.
No wonder the man was so thin. Keeping their doujutsu active could drain the chakra reserves of a fully-trained Uchiha in a matter of hours. Kagami could only imagine what it was doing to a stranger who had no training in the ninja arts.
It would consume him from the inside out, draining energy faster than the man could produce it. The captain was wise to keep it hidden under a blindfold, but it was only a matter of time until he became too weak and lost the battle anyway. No cloth could fully block out the light of the outside world. In time, the sharingan would exhaust him of every last dreg of life that he had to offer.
The kunai came down, gently cutting the bandages and exposing the crimson sharingan to the world.
The genjutsu's hold would not abate until at least one hour from then: not enough time for the stolen eye to finish doing its work, but long enough for it to make considerable progress. That was the whole point.
Still not making enemies, sensei. Not killing, not attacking, not even talking back, just like you wanted, Kagami thought.
He ran.
Past the lake and the cypresses and the flower bushes with their myriad colours and out through the red gate that led to the court before the castle's entrance.
Kagami found a secluded spot, where he would not draw the attention of guards who might wonder where their captain was if they spotted him and waited.
As expected, Tobirama emerged before long.
"Any difficulties?" the Senju asked.
Kagami shook his head.
"Are we done here?" His impatient shifting and acute watchfulness of his surroundings did not escape Tobirama's notice.
"The mission was a success. We can go. I'm sure you're looking forward to that."
"Yeah…" And just in time. Three guards disappeared down the path through the garden gate, out to look for their absent captain. "I'm ready to put this place behind my back. With any luck, it will be the last time I see it."
Tobirama nodded.
Without further ceremony, the pair set on the road back home, leaving the grounds of Azuchi Castle behind.