Tobirama is being haunted. Not by a ghost- no, his haunters are all alive and well. Sasuke, Naruto, and Haruno, who apparently is another teammate of the two, are following him. They're not trying to be particularly subtle about it, either. At least they're not hunting him, like Haruno did when he first met her. He has to admit, he's been having fun with it, this time. Any time all three are looking away, he disappears. He swaps out with a clone, at times. He leads them on wild goose chases through the village. Then, they stop. It's only after a week or so that Tobirama learns that they had switched to following Izuna, who had been significantly more annoyed with the trio.

"What's wrong with them?" He complains, flopping over Tobirama desk. Used to this, he just shifts his attention to the stack of paperwork without an Uchiha on top of it.

"You're as bad as your brother. Be more specific," he chides. Izuna twists just enough to glare at him with one eye.

"Sasuke and Naruto and Sakura-"

"Sakura?" He asks, blinking. "Haruno?" He gets a vague groan and half nod in response. He stills in his paperwork, humming curiously.

"Have they been following you around particularly badly?" Izuna finally lifts his head at that, looking a bit confused.

"How'd you know?" The Uchiha Heir asks, dragging himself off Tobirama's desk. He waves a hand, putting his brush away with the other.

"They did the same to me, all last week. It had been strange but they didn't seem to have any untoward intentions," he explains. Izuna frowns, tilting his head ever-so-slightly.

"Why are they following us around?" The Uchiha muses. "Madara and Hashirama are the leaders of the village so it would make more sense for them to follow them. Or to follow Touka and Hikaku, if they wanted information on Konoha security." Tobirama tilts his head in acquiescence. Then he furrows his brow, thinking of something else.

"That's assuming they don't already know about the measures we've made to secure Konoha," he says. "They have seals everywhere, both chakric and on paper. However, no one's ever reported seeing any of the trio lay the seals nor mentioned spotting the seals, as far as I know." Izuna nods once, the motion sharp as they begin to paint a picture of the three shinobi that, according to both Uchiha and Uzumaki birth records, shouldn't exist. "I, myself, only found the seals due to my sensing abilities." Izuna's lips twist into a harsh frown.

"Then what do they need us for? Or me, at least. You know more about the village infrastructure than any other shinobi so I can see you being useful to them but why me? And, beyond that, why follow us so obviously?" Tobirama rolls everything they know about the trio over in his mind, mouth working on soundless words as he tries out and discards theory after theory. The only thing that makes even a modicum of sense is...

"A test," he says slowly. "They were testing us for something."

"Testing what?" Izuna asks incredulously, "Our response to being followed?" Tobirama tilts his head in a slight nod.

"I would assume so. Given what we know, it's the only thing that fits. Sasuke and Naruto are likely the reason the village was built so easily and quickly or, in fact, that the village was built at all. Sakura is only improving upon the hospital, the academy, and our system for shinobi as a whole. The majority of the seals are for protection, whether it be through warding or through an alarm system, no matter that they created it without permission. I can't imagine they'd go through all that trouble simply to undermine the village." They sit for a moment in silence, minds turned towards the mystery of the three. Eventually Izuna speaks up, though it's only to say what they both already know.

"We're missing something," he says quietly. "The most important pieces of the puzzle."

iii

Team 7: lol what if we pranked Tobirama and Izuna
Tobirama & Izuna: What does it meeaaan?