The past few months has been a series of successes as far as Hashirama Senju was concerned. Not only has the peace treaty between the Uchiha clan and his own been upheld without incident, but he was even rekindling his friendship with Madara who was, admittedly, still rather hostile around him. However, this seemed to be changing slowly as the two had been talking about joining forces to build the village they'd always dreamed of as children: a place where clans could put aside their differences and live together peacefully, where children no longer had to grow up surrounded by blood and death. That was the kind of world they wanted build. And they did.
The village, though still under construction, was moving along smoothly, looking more and more like it was meant to each day. The progress was overseen by the Senju and Uchiha brothers, the four of whom together held so much authority that it was almost frightening. Tensions were clear and present among the opposing clansmen yet none dared to misstep while their leaders remained allied, thus fortunately they had yet to see any significant conflict.
"Aroka!" Hashirama beamed as he entered the seer's chakra-laden room, rushing to give her a hug. "We missed you!"
"Don't lump me together with you, idiot." Madara shot irritably as he followed close behind, crossing his arms and taking a seat in front of the desk.
"I missed you too." Aroka laughed, returning the hug. "And you, Madara."
The four leaders had made a habit of dropping by the Imada compound as of late, despite the small village being nearly two days' journey from the growing Konohagakure, as they had named it. Though they visited often, every two weeks or so, they never all came, it was only ever two of them; usually Hashirama and Madara or Tobirama and Izuna, seeing as both sides agreed to have "equal opportunities" to consult the seer. Well, consult might not be the right word. Hashirama usually just liked to chat about the village's progress while Tobirama and Izuna were always too preoccupied with trying to glare each other to death to get any business done.
"Aroka! The village is going great! We decided where all the clan compounds are going to be and the academy building was just finished and we're going to build a tower at the center of the place and it's wonderful!"
"How exciting." Aroka smiled, tilting her head in amusement. Hashirama always became a bit too excited when it came to the village. "How much longer do you think it'll take to complete?"
"Not long, I hope! If all goes well Konoha should be finished in just a month or so!" he beamed.
"So soon? Impressive…"
"Hey, you should come and take a look! I'm sure you'll love it, there's a cliff right next to it and waterfall nearby, it's such a beautiful place!"
"Oh, I wouldn't want to disturb the builders. Maybe I'll visit when everything's complete." she smiled before turning to the silent Uchiha. "Say, how's Izuna been? He seemed quite tired last time he came by."
"He has been helping with the village in addition to his usual role in clan affairs. He's adjusting to the pressure." Madara explained stoically.
"Oh dear... he should be getting more rest." she frowned, resting her head on her hands. "Poor boy."
"He's older than you."
"Such a good kid." she shook her head, ignoring the comment. "Tell him he needs to take better care of himself if he already has so much to worry about, ok?"
Madara only gave her a strange look.
"But anyways, do you two have anything to ask me or did you come all this way just to chat?" she chuckled, tilting her head.
"Hey! Can't we come by to say hi to our friend? We aren't always looking for favors, you know." Hashirama pouted.
"Ok, ok." she laughed lightheartedly. "My bad for assuming."
"But we do need one this time." he admitted, prompting her to raise an eyebrow in amusement. "The new village is going to need a leader and our clans can't seem agree on who it should be. Personally, I think it should be Madara but we thought we'd better ask you."
Aroka hummed and tapped her chin.
"Well I can't just tell you what to do, that's not how it works."
"But you've told us what to do before!"
"For important things, things with big enough consequences. If I were to tell you what to do in every situation you would never have to think for yourself."
"But this could be important! What if the village doesn't like who we pick?"
"One side is going to be unhappy no matter who gets the title, you don't need to be a seer to know that."
"But Arokaaaa!"
"No buts! I'm happy to help with certain things but you'll have to make this decision for yourselves." she said finally, leaving no room for argument. "Now it's getting late, as always you two are welcome to stay the night if you'd like. I, for one, am going to sleep."
Taking this as their cue to leave, the two shinobi bid their farewells and excused themselves. Rather worn from the long days of travelling, the pair silently agreed to take her up on her offer, after all, Tobirama and Izuna could run the village for a while longer.
Right?
"Uchiha, I thought I told you to address the Sarutobi's issue with their new compound."
"I don't take orders from the likes of you, I already have enough to do."
"Clearly it hasn't gotten through your thick skull yet, but responsibilities don't just go away because you're incompetent."
"Bold words from someone who never does anything but shout orders."
"My clansmen know how to listen to their superiors, I can't say the same for you."
"Maybe one day you'll have the skills to back up that ego of yours."
"I already have the skills to cut your head off, want to test it out?"
"I would be scared if that came from anyone even remotely worth my time."
The two young leaders glared daggers as each other as they stood in the middle of the unfinished village, both only barely containing their vast hatred for the other. Around them, builders from both clans went out of their way to keep their distance, creating a ten-meter circle around the two where none dared to step.
To no one's surprise, this wasn't at all an uncommon sight, not when their older counterparts were gone anyways. The younger leaders definitely had it out for each other and it was honestly a wonder how a fight hadn't broken out yet.
Leaving these two alone was a recipe for disaster, and their conflicts weren't limited to the village either.
"So, um…" Aroka glanced nervously between the two men that sat in front of her, both of whom were so focused on mentally strangling the other that they didn't seem to notice her at all. "...can I help you with anything…?"
Neither Tobirama nor Izuna gave any hint of having heard her, instead they did what they do best: glare.
Aroka sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Stop it!" she demanded, successfully capturing both of their attentions. "I can't deal with this anymore! Tobirama, out!"
The said man frowned sharply.
"What?"
"Since you two don't know how to act properly around each other, I'm going to speak to you one at a time. So Tobirama, shoo." she waved dismissively.
Clearly disgruntled about being ordered around, the Senju nonetheless stood and strode out of the room, shutting the door behind him rather forcefully.
Now with only Izuna left, Aroka sighed and leaned against her hand.
"Why do you two always do this?" she mumbled tiredly.
"Sorry about that..." Izuna apologized, almost sounding embarrassed. "You know we don't get along."
"That doesn't mean you can't at least pretend to tolerate each other for the few hours you're here. How am I supposed to help you when you completely ignore me?" she huffed.
Izuna scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
"I didn't mean to, I hope you're not upset…"
"Oh Izuna, you're so cute." she chuckled amusedly. "Of course I'm not upset. Tobirama can be an ass but you need to learn to play nice, alright?"
He averted his eyes and nodded slowly.
"Good! Now back to why you're here, is there anything you want to ask me?" she leaned forward, resting her chin atop her clasped hands.
"Well, my brother seems to think our clan is growing restless, he's having second thoughts about the treaty." he admitted, fidgeting a bit.
"It is a pretty drastic change; he's probably going to need some time to adjust."
"I'm concerned he's going to do something that might inadvertently hurt our clan."
Aroka blinked slowly, tilting her head.
"You're concerned the treaty isn't in your best interest." she stated knowingly.
His downcast eyes confirmed her suspicion.
"Izuna, I know there's a lot of bad blood between your clans and I know it's not something you can just forget about, but the treaty can ensure that future generations don't have to live with your pain and anger. They won't have to grow up like you and your brother did, all that blood and fighting, they can just be the way kids are meant to be. If not for yourself, think of the next generation; wouldn't you want your children to live in a better world?"
He remained silent for a moment, eyes still glued to the table.
"You sure know how to convince someone." he sighed, cracking a slight smile.
"Talking is what I do best!" she grinned. "So don't worry about your brother for now and at least try and get along with Tobirama, ok?
"No promises..."
"Izuna."
"Fine, I'll try."
"Great! Now go call him in for me, will you?"
Izuna sighed unenthusiastically but stood up nonetheless, stepping out of the room. A few moments later, Tobirama emerged and took the same seat in front of her.
"What was that?" he demanded.
"What was what?"
"What did you tell him?"
"Nosy, aren't we?"
"Aroka."
"Tobirama."
He narrowed his eyes sharply, glaring as if it might intimidate her.
"You know, this whole alliance thing isn't going to work if you don't tone down the little rivalry you two have going on." Aroka pointed out nonchalantly.
"Easy for you to say." he scoffed.
"If you want a better future then you have to let the past be the past. Regardless of what happened then, there's nothing you can do to change it, all we can do is work for a better tomorrow."
"I didn't come here for a lecture."
"Well that's all you're getting until you learn to play nice with Izuna. In fact, don't come back until you two can sit in the same room without trying to strangle each other." she crossed her arms.
"What?"
"That means get out. Go on, shoo." she waved him away. "Mila! Please walk our guests to the door!"
The said woman slid the door open and bowed politely, motioning for him to come with her.
Tobirama scoffed and after sending Aroka one last glare, indignantly stepped out of the room.
"Did you really have to kick them out, Miss? They travelled a long way to come here." Mila asked sympathetically once she'd returned to her usual spot.
"It's for their own good. If they don't start getting along soon it'll cause unnecessary conflict in the future." Aroka stated.
"We could have let them stay the night like usual…"
"Then they'd be in separate rooms, you can't learn to get along with someone like that, can you?"
Mila sighed with concern.
"Will they ever be able to get along...?" she wondered aloud.
"Only one way to tell!"
"That damn Uchiha! How am I supposed to tolerate someone as worthless as him?!" Tobirama fumed as his brother watched in amusement. "And speaking of worthless, I told you that woman wasn't worth our time! The alliance is already established, what else could we possibly need her for?"
"Sounds like you're just upset she didn't want to talk to you." Hashirama commented suggestively.
Turns out, that didn't do much to calm him down.
"I'm not going back there ever again." Izuna declared, lying face down on his bed.
"And why is that?" Madara questioned halfheartedly.
"Aroka's trying to make me get along with that Senju idiot. Like hell I will." he scoffed, planting his face deeper into the pillow.
"That's it?" Madara snickered. "In that case just do what I do and pretend you tolerate him."
"...but you aren't very convincing…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing!"
