Been a while, lol, have some Tobi!

Tobirama walked alone through the forest, his heavy footsteps leaving no trace on the surface of the snow. Wet, fat snowflakes fell from the sky, sticking to his heavy winter haori. Despite this, the snowfall was relatively light compared to the previous week, over which several feet of snow had piled up. His brothers had taken the opportunity to lead mock battles with their cousins, building icy fortifications and throwing hardpacked snowballs at each other in the brief respite from combat granted by the weather. Soon, the first storms of the season would calm down and the Clan would begin the winter campaigns against their neighbors, maintaining their hard won borders and cementing the old alliances.

The Uchiha would be doing the same, he imagined.

He sighed, his breath warming the scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and the lower half of his face, the brown fabric soft against his skin. His hands were wrapped in somewhat thin gloves, the negative effect on his dexterity a necessary annoyance. Though he was no longer conscious of the cold, his body would still succumb to it if he didn't take the right precautions. It was still vexing, though. Was there a way to maintain one's body heat even in the dead of winter?

If so, then maybe Midori-sensei wouldn't need to leave for warmer skies every year. She never went back to the summoning realm, but she did leave when the weather started to turn, since her incredible size made it impossible to fly without the proper thermal winds. She always came back with interesting stories and trinkets, though, so it wasn't so bad. He only wished he could go with her. With her gone, he was forced to interact with his kin more than he preferred. He could only socialize so much before he snapped.

Thus, his solitary walk in the snow. No doubt, his brothers were being educated in the use of the mokuton in a winter environment. Not something Tobirama could join them for. Even his shed, his one refuge, was barred from him, serving its original purpose as a storage unit and filled to the brim with vital winter supplies.

The elders didn't want him in there, lest one of his experiments ruin its contents, which, they had a point, but it was only one time! He wasn't so stupid as to make the same mistake twice!

He stopped, forcing himself to take a deep breath, exhaling with perhaps more force than necessary to dispel his anger. He had no reason to be angry. The elders were justified in denying not only him, but anyone access to the storage while it was full of vital winter supplies. He wasn't the only one. It was fine.

It wasn't, but he needed it to be and so it was.

He continued his walk, wandering aimlessly with no destination in mind. So long as he was back by nightfall, he could go where he wished—a difficult feat, when he had nowhere he wished to go. What was the point? If he found something which interested him, he would inevitably have to abandon it at the end of the day, leaving himself frustrated and his family on edge as a result. It was better to avoid anything which might catch his attention, lest he lose track of time or become invested in a project he could never feasibly finish. He had too many of those as it was, occupying his mind and distracting him from the things he could do with the time and resources available to him.

With a start he realized there was a human being not twenty yards ahead. The range of his sensing was usually at least a kilometer, but it must have shrunk while he was distracted by his thoughts. Unacceptable.

Now aware of the other person, he quickly expanded his range to check for any others who might be in the area. There were none, but the reality that there might have been had him angrily berating himself for his carelessness. Twenty yards was not so far. If the person he sensed had been so minded, they could have killed him in the time it took him to realize they were there.

Except, they wouldn't, because the person was Kyou.

Immediately, the tension left him and the reaction filled him with shame. This wasn't someone he had to fear, she'd proven that time and time again, but she was still an Uchiha, his ancestral enemy. If anything, he should be taking this opportunity to end her life, ridding his Clan of a formidable opponent, should she ever change her stance on combat violence. He couldn't bring himself to even entertain the thought, though, not after she'd saved his brother's life not once, but twice. Had Itama been caught by any other Uchiha, he would have died. Of that, he was certain. But, because it was Kyou, he was alive—far less trusting and approaching his training with a ferocity that both delighted and concerned their parents, but alive. The fire his encounter with Kyou's Higan lit inside him would no doubt save his life in the future, as well.

If she wasn't an Uchiha—.

Tobirama shook his head to dismiss that thought. 'What ifs' were useless. She was an Uchiha, and that was that. If anything, she was only able to save Itama, at all, because she was one. Otherwise—.

He dismissed that thought, too, choosing, instead, to focus on Kyou.

She was sitting on the bank of the frozen river, almost exactly where they used to meet as children. He'd never once returned there after their encounter on the battlefield, but Itama had many times, in the beginning, hoping to find his friend, but to no avail. Even from so far away, Tobirama could sense her frustration. She was doing something strange with her chakra and he huffed a small laugh as he remembered the last time she struggled on the riverbank. Looking back, it was painfully obvious that they belonged to rival Clans. She was aware of it from the beginning, no doubt, but she didn't let it stop her from seeking them out.

Her anger spiked and was accompanied by a loud, wordless screech, the sound echoing through the winter landscape and sending several animals running for cover. She must have failed, then. He remembered being on the receiving end of that anger, once, and he took a moment to be grateful he wasn't the source of her troubles, this time. Then again, he'd also solved them, before.

That thought had him walking forward, again, his body moving as his mind ran itself in circles trying to understand the decision he'd just made. It was stupid. Illogical. Dangerous. But he was doing it anyway.

He stepped out past the treeline, his steps still perfectly silent despite the fresh snow. Across the river, Kyou's blurry silhouette was a spot of darkness against the white of winter, her clothing, hair, and coloring standing in stark contrast to the season. She was…doing something…jumping, she was jumping around in a circle, cursing under her breath with language Tobirama would be beaten for even thinking. She took no care for the snow beneath her feet, kicking at it angrily and grunting unintelligibly when the powdery frost didn't put up any resistance.

This was an Uchiha? The people his entire Clan claimed to be heartless, hate fueled monsters corrupted by a curse beyond their control?

Certainly, Kyou seemed rather hate fueled at the moment, her fists pounding into the trunk of a defenseless tree with neither mercy nor quarter, but he'd experienced similar anger, had he not? When his seals failed or his experiments exploded, wasn't he, too, filled with objectless rage? While Kyou was always angry in some fashion, she rarely acted on it like she was now, and even so her targets were trees and snow, not the Senju.

Of course, that might change, now that she'd noticed him.

"What the fuck? Tobi?"

Ah, he hadn't missed her eloquence.

He said nothing, but he didn't need to, Kyou filling the silence between them with words that in no way matched how her chakra jumped with anxiety and…was that…fear?

"Well, I'll be," she laughed. She was probably wearing a smile, though he was too far away to see it, even vaguely. "Finally decided to take your vengeance, huh? It sure took you long enough."

He blinked, the way Hashirama said made even the elders feel like idiots, and something in Kyou's chakra stuttered.

She didn't say anything and they stood there, on opposite sides of the river, in silence. He could feel her gaze on him, though he couldn't see her eyes, and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"What?"

Again, something changed in her chakra, alerting him to her every shift in mood. With some relief, he noted that she was no longer afraid—he kicked himself mentally for that reaction—and was instead…embarrassed…and a little ashamed?

"Aha," she laughed again, this time the falseness of it clearly audible, ringing strangely in the bitterly cold air. "Nothing, nothing."

Once again, they both fell silent, awkward in a way they never were on the battlefield. Then, it was a matter of life and death and there was no time to muse over why one did or didn't speak, or over why their chakra kept leaping from one emotion to the next. It was bad enough his brothers' mood fluctuated so wildly, did she really have to be the only Uchiha to do it, too?

"Um," she began, hesitation in both her voice and chakra. "Did you need something?"

"You were screaming."

That…wasn't what he meant to say. It was true, though, and it got her chuckling again, albeit with embarrassment.

"Ah, right, sorry about that. I'll try to be more quiet?"

She trailed off, probably realizing how ridiculous she sounded. Tobirama scoffed into his scarf, the sound setting off her apparently volatile temper.

"Well, its not like I knew you were there," she insisted, chakra roiling with shame and anger in equal measure. "Sorry for screaming in what I assumed was solitude, you jerk."

The laugh that left him surprised him with its sincerity and he cleared his throat to dispel the choes of it from his throat.

"What were you working on? Was it another suiton jutsu?"

Her chakra stuttered again in response to his question. "You remember that?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

Her chakra swirled into a mire of anger and sadness. "I don't know. Most people forget things from their childhood, I guess."

Most people. "Not you?"

Her laugh was bitter. "No. I can't. These stupid eyes won't let me."

Well…that was new information. Did the sharingan have an effect on memory? That ran contrary to the common theories held by his Clan. If it did, how did that account for—?

Ah. No. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid. There was no way he'd ever be able to answer any of those questions. Even if Kyou was willing to explain what she knew, the odds of her understanding it, herself, at her age were incredibly low.

He forced his mind to let go of its fixation on the sharingan, though he knew it would inevitably resurface at a later date. "Well, I remember. Specifically, that I helped you with the last one. Do you," her chakra was doing something again. "Need help, again?"

Before he'd even finished his sentence, she was in front of him, her face only inches from his own. At that distance, he could see the way her sharp eyes had widened, the rich brown sparkling with delight. She was smiling, all her teeth bared with the force of her joy.

"Yes! Oh, my God! Yes, a thousand times yes! You have no idea how long I've been struggling with this! I can't even use my sharingan—which, why the fuck was I cursed with these evil eyes if I can't use them to cheat when learning jutsus, huh? It's not fair!"

She continued to ramble excitedly, the details of just what she was trying to do passing through his ears like so much smoke. She was glowing, really glowing with the happiness his simple offer had given her. The anger that was always lurking in the shadows of her chakra was gone, drowned out by the light of her joy and anticipation. Whenever he offered to help his brothers, he was more often than not brushed off with fake smiles and promises of 'next time'. They didn't understand his explanations or were bored by his methodology, preferring to struggle through before finally reaching the very conclusion he'd tried to teach them. Kyou's exuberance…it was only because she hadn't sat through a lecture, yet, hadn't tried and failed to understand him and the way he saw the world. When she did, the light of her joy would be snuffed out, just like his brothers'.

No, she'd understood him once before, hadn't she? She was different from them, a genius, like him. Surely, she, of anyone, would understand. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she didn't.

"Slow down," he said, pushing her out of his space with a frown. "What are you trying to do?"

She bounced from one foot to the other, her excitement expressing itself physically. Would her disappointment do the same? "I told you, I'm trying to isolate my yin chakra. I use it automatically when I activate my sharingan, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it on my own. It's so frustrating!"

That was…novel. He'd never heard of any techniques that used only yin chakra. What applications could it possibly have?

Though he wanted to ask, he refrained. The rivalry between their Clans may not matter to Kyou, but he was honor bound to share anything he learned with his Clan, should it prove beneficial. If he didn't know what it was for, then he could delay his report until he inevitably figured it out.

"How have you tried to do it, thus far," he asked. "Have you used any specific training techniques or tools?"

She shook her head, long black hair falling into her face only to be pushed back with a sigh. "No. I don't have anything like that. It's just trial and error, really."

That made things more difficult. Two minutes in, and he was already invested, desperate to know what kinds of jutsus could be created using isolated yin chakra. Or yang chakra. Having never even considered such things, he was left to discuss it with the only person who had, but she knew as little as he did, it seemed.

How vexing.

"It would be easier if I could look at someone doing it with my sharingan," Kyou admitted blithely. "Then, I could see exactly how they were doing it. But I can't. My kaa-chan is the one with the technique, and I don't even want to think about the evil eyes of doom when I'm around her, you know? But, she doesn't know how to explain it, either, so I'm stuck flailing around until I magically strike gold."

Yes, that…that was limiting. "How did she explain it?"

She huffed, raising one hand with the forefinger extended and adopting an odd affectation to her voice. "Yin chakra is based in the spiritual realm, the imaginary and illusory welling from it. Genjutsus are the most common techniques which use it, but they aren't the only ones. To channel yin chakra, you must be in tune with the intangible, make real the conceptual, and solidify the abstract." She deflated, sticking out her tongue, a flash of pink against the warm brown of her skin. "Because that makes so much sense."

Hmm, it was very roundabout, but if he was understanding it right, then…

"It sounds like she's saying you need to use your imagination," he said with a quirk of his head. "'Make real the conceptual'—that just sounds like doing things, to me. All ideas are conceptual until you act on them, so, from what I can tell, you're supposed to practice doing something that brings ideas to fruition. Maybe writing? Or art? Maybe a new technique or—."

She was staring at him. They still stood close enough together that he could see her face somewhat clearly and her brown eyes were wide and fixed on his face. Ah. This was it. This was the part where—!

Tobirama stared into Kyou's eyes, subconsciously counting every shade of gold and brown radiating from dilated pupils as her hands on either side of his face pulled him down to her level and forced him to make intensely uncomfortable eye contact.

"You," she said lowly. "Are an absolute genius."

What.

"You're brilliant," she continued, oblivious to his inner turmoil as he continued to hold his face in place, looking up at him with an adoration that was mirrored all too clearly by her chakra. "I knew it, I knew you were the real thing! Two seconds! It took you two seconds to figure out the thing I've been struggling with for months! Ha!"

Tobirama pulled her hands away from him, gripping her wrists to keep her from repeating the action. "What are you doing?"

The glow of her chakra dampened slightly, an overcurrent of shame pushing down the happiness that threatened to blind him. She pulled her hands from his grasp, taking several steps back.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't—I just—You're so amazing! I spent all this time agonizing over something so simple and you just—." She sighed, a thread of darkness overtaking her chakra in the form of anger and despair. "See, this is why I wanted to give you my eyes. You'd use them so much better than I can."

He'd carefully avoided thinking about their last conversation, the implications of it still weighing too heavily on his mind to be discussed openly, even with her. A fist closed over his heart as he watched the light go out in her chakra, smothered by the sickeningly familiar shadow of self doubt.

"Why?" She looked up at him and he realized he'd spoken his thoughts aloud. "Why," he continued. "Do you think that way? You're just as much a genius as I am…" He trailed off as she shook her head, her long hair once again falling into her face, though she made no move to fix it.

"That's the thing," she said, tone subdued in a way Kyou should never be. "I'm not. I'm a cheater. My eyes came in sooner than anyone else's in history and they made everything easier, but I don't actually know things. I don't know why moving my chakra a certain way gets me certain results, I just know how to do it because my eyes watched someone else do it and memorized how they moved their chakra. I didn't put any work into it, so it doesn't mean anything to me. Hell, just the way you figured out that stupid riddle when I couldn't is perfect proof! You use your brain all the time, so it was easy for you. I've never had to use mine, ever, so it was super hard for me. We're not the same, Tobi. You don't want to be."

He…wasn't sure how to respond to that. As he feared, the brilliant joy that had filled her was gone, but it wasn't because she couldn't understand him. She'd understood him perfectly and somehow turned that understanding into a reason to berate herself, as though not only needing, but successfully receiving his help was something to be ashamed of.

"Stop that."

Her chakra froze as she looked up at him with surprise. "What—?"

"Stop," he repeated, letting all his annoyance show in his voice. "That's enough. Do you know how many people in the Senju Clan are studying yin chakra? None. I'm willing to guess you're out here in the cold because the Uchiha are the same. You're the only one thinking about this, with no one but yourself to turn to for answers." Midori-sensei's words spilled from his lips of their own accord, their meaning suddenly clear to him as he imparted the giant bird's wisdom onto someone else. "You can't expect to uncover truths when the only voice you hear is your own. Instead, you'll just reinforce the falsehoods you've accepted as truth."

The briar thorns wrapped around Kyou's chakra loosened their grip, ever so slightly, but their roots held firm.

"But I—."

"No," he reached out and placed a shaking hand on her mouth, stopping her protests before she could voice them. "That's enough. You're not stupid, Kyou."

She said something, but it was muffled by his fingers. A spark of mischief lit her chakra and he pulled his hand away with a grimace, the thin fabric of his glove moistened by her tongue. She laughed at him, the sound genuine and he let himself relax. Still, the remaining sadness in her chakra filled him with guilt.