Touka storms past the line of waiting people straight into the Hokage's office. No one dares stop her- they know her temper and her skill with her naginata. Most of them know it intimately and have the mental or physical scars to prove it. There's already some one talking to Izuna when she enters, Madara's desk as suspiciously empty as it has been for the last week, and she ignores them in favor of marching up to the Uchiha's desk and slamming her hands down. To her eternal pleasure, Izuna looks properly cowed.

"What can I do for you today, Touka-sama?" He asks, voice a halfway point between suspicious and nervous. She bares her teeth at him in a mockery of a smile.

"You've been in contact with my little cousin," she hisses out. Izuna's eyes narrow and he waves his hand. Immediately, the two jounin in the corners leave, taking the complaining noble with them as they go.

"That's a mighty big accusation you're making," he warns, eyes narrowing.

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" She snaps in return. "I've known him for most of my life- for all of his. You think I can't tell when he's had his hand in something?" She straightens, looming over the Uchiha. "Do you honestly think I would believe that you or him," here she casts a hand towards Madara's empty desk, "could come up with the additions to the shinobi team? The changes in the way we teach our children?" Izuna stares at her for a moment, chakra bubbling enough for Touka to catch onto it, her own chakra rising in retaliation. Then his mouth twists and he sighs, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

"We really haven't been in contact with him," he says. When she goes to protest, he gives her a look and continues. "However, he ran into one of our old 'teams' and sent us back this, in the hands of a suitably confused chuunin." There's the familiar, quiet pop of a seal and he lifts a scroll up from under the table. She snatches it from him, scanning it. It's written in Tobirama's familiar style, if a bit messier than normal. The condescending air to parts and sketched ideas scream her cousin and she can't stop a slight smirk. This is definitely something Tobirama would have written, back before the shit storm that lead to him abandoning this village. It makes her hope that maybe, just maybe, Tobirama is getting better. He's letting go. He's learning to live without Hashirama. She pauses.

"...What in the world is ANBU?"


Madara regrets a lot of things. Some things are small- he regrets letting Izuna send him on a blind date that one time, or introducing Kagami to the rest of his hellion friends. Others are large- he regrets not going with Togakushi and Kuro on their last missions, regrets not giving into peace sooner, regardless of what Izuna had wanted.

Right now, he mostly regrets going after Tobirama. He's soaked to the bone and he's pretty sure there's seaweed in his hair, he lost his nice warm over clothes somewhere along the way, it's snowing and he's cold, damnit. He's also starting to think the people who claimed to have seen Tobirama are lying because despite moving quickly and going everywhere they tell him he hasn't even caught a glimpse of that sage-forsaken Senju.

A shinobi lands lightly on the snow in front of him, looking far too concerned. He buries his urge to wring the girl's neck and light her on fire.

"You, um...Madara-sama?" He gives her a dark look.

"What."

"You have a message from the Uzukage-sama," she explains, sticking out a scroll. He grabs it.

"I'll be, um, going now- alright, I've gotta ask, do you know you have a snow leopard following you around?" The question seems a bit desperate. Madara stares at her and then sighs, heavily.

"You know what? I don't care. Just- leave me alone." The shinobi hesitates, glancing at where he can only assume is his feline follower, but she dutifully disappears into sunshin. Madara opens the scroll he received, tired and annoyed. He's less so when he finished.

"Thank the sage for the Uzukage," he breaths, relieved beyond measure.