Finding Yuki and Yukiko curled up together grooming each other outside the Uzukage's office honestly isn't terribly surprising. Mito pauses momentarily, eyeing the newly arrived Yuki and then eyeing him. He smiles innocently. Yukiko gets to her paws and Tobirama turns his attention back to his summons.
"Tobi-" He may have a death wish since this is the second time he's reverse-summoned Yukiko mid-sentence but whatever. He has a feeling having his leopards about will make the coming meeting only more tense and volatile. Ahh, the cons of being a rogue shinobi running about causing chaos. Matatabi is insulted she no longer has a snow leopard to ride and, as punishment, climbs Tobirama to perch imperiously on his shoulders. Mito looks faintly concerned but only in a distant, sort of morbidly curious, way. Does Mito have children in this universe? The signs are pointing to no but you never know. Without Hashirama's clingy family-goes-abou-everything (except peace, of course) attitude, Mito might have just stuck her kids with some poor, babysitting genin and called it a day.
...Tobirama hopes her and Hashirama's kids still exist in this universe. He'd never tell the gremlins (or his brother) but he's been missing them. He's been missing his team as well, actually. Maybe for his next mission (after visiting his Wave children, who know he's in the area and would definitely track him down and make him sit through the hellish torture that is dinner with civilian parents if he didn't), he should kidnap his team from whatever poor sap(s) got stuck with them this time around.
"Well," Mito says, turning primly back to the door. "Shall we?" Tobirama checks Shukaku, who's dozing a bit, then Matatabi, who still looks disgruntled about no longer having a snow leopard escort. He sighs but nods. Putting this off isn't going to help anyone, long or short term.
"I suppose we shall." Mito nods firmly as if to solidify the agreement and swings the door open. Politely, of course. She steps inside and Tobirama follows suit without a word. The Uzukage is sitting at their desk, going through the motions of signing off on forms even though they all know their attention couldn't be further. There are two jounin standing in the corners behind the Uzukage but he can't see any sign of ANBU. Have ANBU not been implemented that? He'll have to fix that. Once he's dealt with this, of course. Maybe he'll send a scroll back with another unfortunate genin... the idea has merit. In the middle of the room, demanding attention as usual, stands Uchiha Madara, looking like a particularly angry dracaena. He's about as short as one as well.
"Uzukage-sama, Uchiha-sama." Despite the veneer of politeness, Tobirama can sense the strong passive aggressive vibes when Mito greets Madara. This version of him probably hated Madara, going on what little he knows of his universe and the parallels he can draw to his own universe. He should probably fake some hatred.
"Uzukage-sama, Madara-kun," he greets pleasantly. Madara chokes, the Uzukage and their guards stare blatantly, and even Mito twitches at his unexpected friendliness. He revels in the surprise and suspicion it draws, even when Matatabi's clawed fingers dig warningly into his hair.
"What the fuck?!" Madara screeches, smartly. He's turning a rather alarming shade of red. Then, spluttering, he points at Shukaku, who offers up bleary confusion.
"The fuck is that?!" He hisses. Tobirama assumes it's to cover up the man's previous blunder but he still presses his lips flatly together, tightening his grip on Shukaku ever so slightly.
Dryly, "children." Madara glares darkly and Tobirama shifts slightly, pulling up to his full height. Matatabi braces herself, a quiet growl escaping her. Madara huffs, collapsing into the chair behind him.
"Didn't take you for the nurturing sort," Madara says derisively. Tobirama bristles indignantly but the Uzukage speaks up before he can.
"Tobirama-san, Madara-san, please get along," they say, eyes hard. "Tobirama-san has come to us with an issue that we believe solving would be beneficial and for that, he needs to stay in Uzushio. Once we have done all we can to suppress or fix the issue, we can talk about moving Tobirama-san to Konoha." Madara snaps around to glare at the Uzukage.
"Are you implying Konohagakure doesn't have the resources to deal with any issues our nuke-nin might have-" Tobirama cuts off Madara's self-centered tirade with a scoff.
"That implies I'll even let you. I can figure it out on my own if need be, neither of you have any claim to me and if you had the manpower to take me prisoner, you would have already done so." Shukaku presses tighter into his side, hands tightening where they are twisted into the fabric of his shirt. Mito shoots him a warning glance that he brushes off. Madara gives a frustrated snarl.
"You have children-"
"Do not." Madara twitches at the wave of KI, Shukaku makes a small noise and burrows his face into Tobirama's side. Protective rage bubbles up inside of him, his chakra shifting restlessly in response. Matatabi pulling sharply at a lock of his hair, leaning over.
"The leech," she hisses at him, voice too low for anyone but him to hear. He freezes mid-breath, KI cutting off as suddenly at it had begun, the other shinobi left reeling and on edge. The anger still burn, makes his next exhale tight with his restraint. He reaches and, in a flash of gold light and a burn that mean he wasted too much chakra on the hiraishin, he appears in the room that had been set up for him. He cannot sense it with both Shukaku and Matatabi so near, not to mention the way their emotions are making their chakra roil, but he assumes the shinobi that had been there will be on the move. The news will spread quickly, he doesn't have time.
"Matatabi," he says and he knows his voice is too sharp, has an edge from the anger, but he can't help it. He can only hope she won't hold it against him.
"I can lend you chakra," she says without him having to explain. "So that we can get out of here after that disastrous display, but you better not make a habit of it."
"Thank you," he says tersely, slapping a barrier seal on the wall for a little extra time. It won't hold long, particularly not against Uzumaki, but they should have enough time. Hopefully. Dark, fiery chakra, drained carefully of most of it's corrosiveness, burns through his chakra points. The pain, slight though it is, distracts him from the still smoldering anger.
"Better get us out of here in one piece, human," Matatabi hisses, the defensiveness and distrust that had mostly left her firmly back in place. Tobirama doesn't waste breath responding. He simply flings his senses as far out as they will go, straining this skill he hasn't pushed the limits of in many, many years. He snakes the faintest, most distant hiraishin marker he can. The door rattles. He gathers his chakra, siphoning as much chakra as Matatabi will let him. The barrier seal cracks. He activates the jutsu just as the barrier shatters, the door with it. He disappears, his last look of Uzushio of an unfamiliar Uzumaki jounin and Madara, alight with something he has to fight the instinctual (artificial) anger to recognize as desperation.
He arrives in the Land of Rivers, twisting so Shukaku and Matatabi land on top of him when he crashes to the ground. His Wave students will have to wait, he thinks, and promptly looses consciousness.
