Madara hears the whispers. They still when Madara passes, Tobirama by his side, but they start up soon after. They get quiet, at times, but they never stop. They revolve around Tobirama, Madara's name thrown around only a few times. He had approached a group about it, at one point. A trio of Uchiha women talking peacefully with a Senju couple, and Uzumaki, and a younger Shimura who, like Madara, seems to be there only to sate his curiosity. The Uzumaki had leveled him an amused look, which he ignored in favor of focusing on what the woman's companions were talking about.
"Tobirama killed Tajima," One Uchiha woman, Suzuki, says with a firm nod. "That's common knowledge but..."
"Tajima wasn't the only clan head to die by his hands," the Senju woman finishes with a twist of her lips. Not in disgust or anger or fear like one might think but rather a wry sort of amusement.
"Really?" Madara pushes, inquisitive. Besides him, the Shimura leans forward eagerly, eyes just about as wide at the boy could make them.
"Oh honey," the Uzumaki purrs, "Everyone knows Tobi killed Butsuma. He might think he's being sneaky about it but he's not that good at faking the effects of poison." Madara is... suitably stunned. At the same time, though, he can see where they're coming from, even if he can't agree.
"Tobirama wouldn't kill his father," Madara has to insist. The Senju man levels him a severely unimpressed look.
"Madara-sama, that man was as much those kids' father as a stranger on the street was. Probably less so, even." He sighs, shrugging. "Butsuma was a great leader and warrior but he wasn't a good man and he was a worse father."
The next time Madara visits Tobirama, those words stick in his mind. Would Tobirama have really killed his father? Is it really so surprising he'd go so far from for his peace? The albino watches him for only a few seconds before says, deceptively light, "afraid I'll drown you and blame it on the Kaguya?" Madara pales when he registers the words, blinking wide-eyed at his soulmate.
"You know?" Tobirama gives him the especially infuriating look that says his soulmate is calling him an idiot internally.
"Of course I know. I have ears and exceptional hearing on top of that," he says, dryer that Suna's desert.
"Stupid Senju," he grumbles, crossing his arms petulantly.
"I love you," Tobirama says, once more lightly than he should. As if it doesn't matter that this is the first time the albino has even vaguely implied he returns Madara's (rather obvious) feelings. In response, Madara chokes. And splutters and flails and turns redder than the sharingan. It's a very eloquent reply.
"I love you too, bastard," he manages, several hours later, when he's calm enough that he doesn't turn red every time he so much as looks at his soulmate.
"I know," Tobirama, the smug asshole, says.
(It's a full day later when Madara realized that nobody ever mentions drowning when they talk about Butsuma's death.)