The sound of beating wings and a familiar, sharp cry made Itama turn his head towards the noise, his heterochromic eyes gleamed with excitement when he recognizes the bird of prey, a white colored red-tail hawk by the name of Toboe, hovering outside his window.
One second, he was meditating (dozing off) on his futon, and the next, he was by the window and extending an arm for the hawk to perch on. Toboe obeyed the unspoken command, looking mighty regal while at it.
If Itama had not been viciously trained by Dara since he was nine-years-old, he would've winced when the exceptionally sharp talons dug deep into his flesh and drew blood. But because he was far too used to pain, he only smiled lovingly.
"Hello there, Toboe. Shishou truly takes good care of his birds. What soft and beautiful feathers you have," Itama cooed, stroking the hawk's breast feathers and smiling when Toboe puffed out his chest at the praise.
When he found a small note wrapped around Toboe's left leg, so tiny that he almost missed it if he had not specifically looked for it, he gently retrieves it. Resting a hip against the side of the wooden desk Hashi-nii had made for him, Itama skillfully unraveled the note with one hand, not at all surprised to see a small storage seal drawn onto the paper.
Toboe, after all, wouldn't be able to carry anything bulky into the Senju compound without drawing eyes to it. Dara, ever the paranoid shinobi, would always cover his tracks in a very thorough manner (though why he uses a white hawk as a messenger made no sense to Itama. The bird was highly conspicuous).
This particular seal, though seemingly harmless, was anything but.
It was keyed to only Dara's and Itama's chakra signature. If anyone else tries their luck, it would self-destruct (as expected of his shishou, the collateral damage was vicious). Itama had seen the aftermath of that particular incident, causing his wariness to double whenever he sees Tobi-nii or Uzumaki-hime with their sealing supplies.
Anyway, without further ado, he places the small seal on his table and inserted a sliver of his chakra into the paper. Two envelopes and a simple box were unsealed. Itama gently maneuvers Toboe onto his shoulder - ignoring the way Toboe immediately began to preen his two-toned hair - and reached first for the envelope that had his name on it.
Inside was a letter (if it could be called that). Written in a familiar, neat, and cursive script.
Tama,
Hand the other envelope to your iceberg of a brother. If you dare take a peek, I'll break all your bones.
The box is yours. Belated happy birthday, brat. Use it well.
Dara
P.S. Heard you've been naughty. I do hope that you've gotten rid of all the evidence - I would be disappointed otherwise, do. shi. rou. to.
"I wouldn't make sure an amateurish mistake anymore, shishou!" Itama whined, but the corners of his eyes were crinkled in fondness. Having known his shishou for so long, it was always amusing to see how prickly Dara was on the outside, but awkwardly sweet on the inside.
After sliding the other envelope into his pocket with plans of passing it to its intended after dinner, slightly curious about its contents but not suicidal enough to peek (shishou has, in fact, broken a total of 184 of Itama's bones in one sitting before), Itama turned his attention to the inconspicuous box.
Filled with anticipation, he lifted the lid and peered eagerly into the box. Inside was a pair of gloves, an exact copy of Dara's, but dark green in color. Itama hugged the present to his chest and ran circles around his room, squealing his joy. His shishou was the best!
He has always been complaining about how envious he was of Dara's handmade, long-lasting gloves. Itama's own pair would constantly become unusable after a week of wearing them (they were hard to keep intact after punching through so many obstacles).
As expected, his gift was meticulously made with kevlar fabric on the palms' side and smooth leather on the outside. On the inside, silk threads were knitted in specific patterns to form the inner layer of the glove; as if they were many tiny seals (far too complex for him to figure out) woven covertly.
He knows that he should get a seal master like his awesome Tobi-nii to look at it before wearing anything potentially dangerous, but Itama trusts his shishou with his life.
With a grin that stretches from ear to ear, he slipped them onto his hands, marveling at how they hugged his fingers comfortably. The size was perfect.
Just as he was about to hide the box inside his wardrobe, the door to his room was boisterously slammed open. The culprit dashed inside and grabbed his glove-clad hands, tears in his eyes and full-on pouty lips being shoved into Itama's face.
"Itamaaaaaa~!" Kawarama cried, looking amusingly pathetic as he sobbed with snot and tears running down his face. What a sight. Itama bit his bottom lip, furiously resisting the urge to laugh.
"W-what is it, Kawa-nii?" His voice wobbled, pitched higher than he would've liked thanks to the laughter that was bubbling in his chest. He cleared his throat and gave a comforting smile to cover his slip.
Kawarama - bless his oblivious heart - sniffled and remained clueless to Itama's sadistic joy at seeing his brother's miserable, crying face. It was not as if he dislikes his brother that he takes delight in seeing such a sight - no, it was actually the opposite.
Itama simply has a perverted preference for seeing the ghastly faces of the people he loves suffer from the stupidity they caused themselves. Probably influenced by Dara-shishou and his need to embarrass his own little brothers (Izuna the most, from what Itama makes out of Dara's sadistic ramblings).
Itama swears he was a good person. He simply has a tendency to laugh discreetly at the face of another person's misery, finding tremendous joy whenever someone else suffers (it was only fair they did since Itama suffers immensely from Dara's weekly training sessions from hell). That was all.
"Tobirama took away my stash!" The sixteen-year-old hiccuped unsightly, "You have to help me get it back, Itama! He only listens to you."
Itama, with great difficulty, focuses on Kawa-nii's words rather than his blotched and swollen, crying face. He then blinked when he fully processes the meaning behind his brother's request.
To the best of his knowledge, only Hashi-nii kept a secret stash of alcohol in his room (which Itama occasionally pinches and then pushes all responsibility to Tobi-nii whenever Hashi-nii discovers a few missing bottles). But that was besides the point.
The point was that Tobi-nii has a habit of threatening without real intentions behind them, but for him to actually do the deed... Kawa-nii must've completely pissed their older brother off.
"What did you do?" He asked curiously, already planning to use this as future blackmail material if opportunity calls for it.
Since young, Dara has been drilling such concepts into Itama's head; to keep every and all information on hand, no matter how insignificant it may seem at that point in time, until there was further use for it in the future.
"... N-nothing important," The scarred teen murmured while avoiding eye contact. Itama raises a doubtful brow at the obvious lie.
"Clearly it is. Tobi-nii wouldn't do something so drastic without a valid cause."
"You're playing favorites, Itama! I didn't do anything wrong - Tobirama overreacted! He not only took my stash, but he also made his water dragon eat me! Eat. Me. I am traumatized for life, Itama! For Life!"
Rolling his eyes at his brother's dramatics, Itama retrieves his hands and folded his arms over his chest. His voice was as dry as Dara's when unimpressed, "I'm not. And everyone knows that Tobi-nii is much too mature to do something so childish without prior provocation. That means the problem lies with you, Kawa-nii."
"Uuughhh! Stop being so logical, Itama..."
"Well?"
"...Ok, fine. I may or may not have accidentally misplaced his sword," Kawarama harrumphed, crossing his arms and stomping his feet childishly. Sometimes, Itama questions if he was the older brother in their relationship.
"Alright... I can see Tobi-nii getting angry with you if you did misplace his sword. Which one is it?"
"... The red one." Kawarama whispered miserably.
"How are you still alive?!" Itama gaped, disbelief was written all over his face.
Tobi-nii was highly possessive of his scrolls, books, and weapons. But that red one was especially special to the pale Senju. The particular katana that had been lovingly named Akabane had been a present from Dara-shishou.
From what shishou has told him, that katana was acquired from the Land of Iron - after the Uchiha had successfully assassinated a high ranking samurai, he took the man's sword as a trophy, before gifting it to Tobii-nii when the Senju lamented about the lack of good swords.
Presently, Tobi-nii wields some kind of lightning sword that Itama suspects was the latest invention of his. However, he still favors Akabane - whetting it almost obsessively after every mission. Itama suspects that that was because Tobi-nii likes likes Dara-shishou despite the man's constant denials.
He looked at the scarred teen with pity in his eyes.
Poor Kawa-nii would've had his hands seared and his head piked if he was anyone but Tobi-nii's younger brother. And if Kawa-nii continues to swagger around without apologizing for his blunder, Tobi-nii would continue to find new ways to torment him.
Not that Itama would clue his oblivious big brother on the right thing to do (for now). Tobi-nii has always been creative; and watching the ongoing process of how his favorite brother makes Kawa-nii flails stupidly about would be an extremely entertaining pastime.
"Forget retrieving your stash, Kawa-nii. Just be glad that you're still alive," Itama patted his brother's shoulder in mock sympathy.
"No!" Kawarama cried while stomping his feet, looking ready to throw a massive tantrum that could be on par with Hashi-nii's, "It's just a stupid katana, anyway. He can always get a new one! I don't know why he got so angry and threw all my herbs... He's so petty and mean... Why did he have to overreact when he's usually so emotionless, anyway?!"
He was just about to subtly ridicule his brother for his naiveness, but when he heard Kawa-nii call Tobi-nii petty, mean, and emotionless; Itama immediately narrowed his eyes, anger making him purse his lips.
Sage, he loves Kawarama, he truly does, but his idiot of an older brother could be an insensitive, childish, bastard sometimes. Just because Tobi-nii appeared aloof did not mean he lacked emotions - he simply has trouble showing his affections.
(Furthermore, Tobi-nii was Itama's favorite brother. If Itama ever hears anyone talk shit about him, be they Hashii-nii or Kawa-nii, Itama would make sure they suffer. And he was even a hundred percent sure that Dara-shishou would help him plan his revenge.)
Itama immediately made plans to drop by Tobi-nii's room and assure his second older brother that Dara-shishou would understand that it was not his fault for losing his gift. Although Tobi-nii was a rational and clinical man, every time Dara came into the picture, the older Senju tends to lose quite the large number of brain cells.
As for this infuriating punk who was talking shit about his favorite brother... Itama was tempted to punch him. Alas, he has more important matters to attend to right now (he could always discipline Kawarama another time).
"If that is all... Leave. I'm busy." Itama waved his brother off, not wanting to actually kill Kawa-nii despite the latter's spoiled and rotten attitude. Again, Itama reminds himself that he dearly loves all his big brothers, no matter how dumb they acted at times.
"Eh? Busy with what? You're always sleeping in Tobirama's office or the infirmary. Hell, I even saw you napping with your eyes open in the council meeting just yesterday! Other than sleep, what else do you do? I've never seen you train, too."
... He really felt like punching his brother (even if it was true, he didn't have to say it in such a way! If Dara-shishou had overheard, Itama would get a few bones broken in the name of keeping his healing skills sharp!). But. Not now. He needed to check up on Tobi-nii. Prioritizing was an essential skill for any medic-nins.
"I'm busy every day; breathing," Itama stated drily, ignoring his brother's unattractive gaping at his ridiculous excuse. He blames Dara-shishou for that. The Uchiha was a bad influence.
Without another word, he pushes Kawarama out of his room, ignoring the teen's flailing, "I'm ignoring you until you do Tobi-nii right. And if I hear that you still haven't done so by the end of this week... I'll punch you!"
Kawarama instantly blanched at the very real threat to his life. The last person Itama had rained punches on, the bloke was left in the medical wing for a month, in a coma.
Although Itama was not as strong as his three older brothers in combat and his chakra reserves less than theirs, his chakra control was perfect. That meant that with the help of his (shishou's) technique of imbuing chakra into his muscles, it allowed for him to have monstrous strength.
Kawarama would've shrugged off the threat if Itama had been younger, but after mastering all of shishou's medical techniques and forming the Strength of a Hundred Seal, a punch of his could even topple a hill.
Who cares if he couldn't create a ridiculously titanic, many-handed wooden statue like Hashi-nii or a torrent of boiling water dragons like Tobi-nii or even a house-sized earth golem like Kawa-nii? Itama, with only a fist, could cause an earthquake that could potentially wipe the whole Senju compound (and more) off the map if he releases the years of accumulated chakra sealed on his forehead.
Hence, without prompt, Kawarama fled the scene after squeaking out a promise that he would do as Itama says.
With a roll of his heterochromic eyes, he turned to Toboe, who was preening his white feathers without a care in the world. What easy existence birds have.
"You're welcome to stay for however long you want, Toboe."
Itama stroked the hawk's head for a few moments before he left his room.
Perhaps Tobi-nii would cheer up after receiving a letter from Dara-shishou. He couldn't help but pat himself in the back for being such a good person.
A/N:
Doshirouto means 'big amateur'. To tell you the truth, I got this nickname from the manga "Seiyuu Ka-!" (*＾∀゜).
In my head-canon, the people born during the Warring Clans Period are definitely abnormal. Despite Itama saying that he has low chakra reserves and combat skills compared to his brothers... He should've compared himself to the more average shinobi, ya know? His feat might pale in comparison to his elder brothers, but to others... hahaha... Itama is definitely a monster.
Hashirama, Madara, Izuna, and Tobirama are the more extreme cases, but other than them, I believe that those who fought in the same battlefield as those four are nothing to sneeze at, too. That means; I wouldn't dare to underestimate their younger brothers. If they have had the chance to grow, I reckon that they would have turned into dangerous, renowned shinobi (｡-∀-)... Though I am very apologetic to Tsunade for letting Itama take her role as THE legendary medic.
Anyway, what do you guys think about Itama's POV? I tried to make him as angelic as possible, but that's hard with Madara influence over the kid (eh, how old is Itama again...? 15? Yeah, about there). Poor Tobirama is still angsting about his baby brother's loss of innocence.
P.S. Shameless advertising: I uploaded yet another time travel fic. You can go to my profile and check it out if you're interested (*´∀｀*).