Two Hundred and Fifty.
Madara is on the way home from the park with his foster kids when Sekitei stops to look at a shop window. Madara stops walking and turns to see what caught her attention. They are standing in front of a toy shop, and Seikitei is looking at a doll sitting in the window.
"Uncle Madara, is that a real person?" asks Sekitei, pointing to the doll. "She's very tiny."
"No, kid," says Madara. "That's a doll. She's not real, I think she's made of some kind of plastic or rubber." Madara doesn't know much about toys at all. He never owned any himself. "She's a toy."
"A toy?" says Sazanka. "We have toys in our Academy Class, for when it rains or we all get bored."
"She's pretty," says Sekitei, staring at the doll.
"What's that?" asks Yatsude, pointing at a toy unicorn standing beside the doll.
"It's a unicorn," says Sekitei. "I've ridden a real one."
"Are there more toys inside?" asks Yatsude. "Can we go inside?"
Madara, who has never been in a toy shop in his life, is probably more curious to see inside it than the kids are. "Alright," he says. "Let's have a look." Then, without really meaning to, he adds, "I'll let you all choose one toy each, okay?"
"Yay!" the twins jump up and down with excitement and rush inside.
Sekitei tears her eyes away from the doll sitting in the window and follows them inside. Lucy leads Tachibana up the stairs just like she is supposed to. The dog's training is coming along well. Madara follows behind them with Ajisai. She can hold herself upright now and likes to sit on Madara's hip so she can look around at everything. Madara ties the sling in a way that will allow her to do just that, and now Ajisai sits happily tucked under Madara's arm.
Once inside the toy shop, Madara and his charges fall silent. Not one of them has been inside a toy shop before, so none of them knew what to expect. Puppets hang from the ceiling. Stuffed animals sit on tables and in baskets. Toy boats float on top of a fake sea. A city made of tiny, colourful bricks takes up an entire corner. A farm filled with wooden animals sits on a table beside the colourful bricks. There are dolls and doll's houses in another corner. A display of toy weapons and colourful costumes. A shelf full of puzzles. And many things Madara is sure didn't exist when he was a kid.
The twins and Sekitei walk around the shop in a daze, almost tripping over things in their wide-eyed wonder. Tachibana runs his hand over things, trying to figure out what they are. Ajisai just stares at all the bright colours. Madara can't help staring a bit himself. When he was a child he would never have dreamed there were this many toys in the whole world. He played with sticks and rocks. Some of the girls in the clan had rag dolls, and one kid had a rubber ball - that was all the exposure to toys he had until the village was built.
Ajisai points to a stuffed bunny and makes an excited noise. Madara heads over to the stuffed animals and picks up the bunny. Ajisai grabs the bunny and hugs it close with her - now chubby - little arms.
"Well that was easy," says Madara, patting her hair. "Now we wait for your siblings to choose."
The whole time, the shopkeeper has been watching them with interest. Now, he says something. "Usually I don't allow animals in my shop, but I'll make an exception for a guide dog."
"What's this?" asks Tachibana, holding up a toy boat about the length of his forearm. It is a model fishing boat with two triangular sails. The boat is painted bright blue, but Tachibana cannot see that.
"That's a toy boat, boy," says the shopkeeper. "Have you ever been in a boat?"
"What's a boat?" asks Tachibana.
"It's a vessel for carrying people on water," says Madara. "I'll take you on one someday so you can get an idea of what they are about."
"Can I have this, please?" asks Tachibana, holding out the boat.
"Certainly," says Madara, pleased that the boy actually found something he likes. "Now we just need to wait for those three to chose something."
Those three in question are looking at the colourful bricks. The twins turn to Madara and Sazanka says, "Uncle Madara, can we have some of these bricks?"
Yatsude adds, "There are some in our classroom, and they are so much fun!"
"I sell those in boxes," says the shop keeper. "You'll need a decent sized box to keep them from fighting over it." The shopkeeper emerges from behind the counter to show Madara and the twins the boxes. In the end, Madara gets two medium sized boxes. He figures all of the kids will end up playing with the stuff. One box comes with little yellow brick people.
While the twins were choosing their toys, Sekitei wandered over to the window. She is staring at the doll. The doll has shiny black hair that almost looks real, big brown eyes, a sweet smile and is dressed in a colourful kimono.
"How much is that doll?" asks Madara, seeing in Sekitei's eyes just how much she wants it.
"7,000 yen," says the shopkeeper. "Her clothing is handmade, her hair is synthetic and her face is hand painted. She's not really an everyday toy."
Madara considers that. He does not know much about toys, but he does know 7,000 yen is a lot for a doll that will probably go everywhere with Sekitei, get dirty and maybe even broken.
He sees the sad look on Sekitei's face. She knows, somehow, that that is too much. And yet, he did promise to get her something. "Sekitei," says Madara. "Do you want that doll?"
"Yes," says Sekitei, turning a slightly hopeful gaze on Madara.
Madara goes over to her and crouches down. "You'll have to take good care of her, and keep her clean and tidy," he says. "And not be rough with her or lose her. Can you do that?"
"Yes," says Sekitei gravely. "I will take extra good care of her - if I can have her."
"Alright then," says Madara, and stands up. "I'll take the doll as well."
Surprised, but obviously pleased, the shop keeper takes the doll out of the window display and hands her to Sekitei. Sekitei takes the doll and cradles it in her arms carefully, her eyes wide.
Madara pays for the toys, resolving to come back again some time if the brats behave themselves. The place is fascinating to him, and for there to be an entire shop dedicated to playthings for children is a sign that building the Leaf is having a positive effect on the lives of children. It means that Madara and Hashirama did a good thing by joining together and building this village. It means that maybe, just maybe, there is no need for the Infinite Tsukinome.
Two Hundred and Fifty days left until the end of the truce, and Madara is almost convinced to not cause the apocalypse. Damn the Leaf is efficient.
Once the toys are paid for, Madara herds his fosterlings out of the toy store. The twins bound down the stairs with their boxes of rainbow bricks, Tachibana and Lucy make their way down the stairs carefully with the model ship and Sekitei takes every step with care, cradling her doll like it's made of glass. Ajisai, who has one arm behind Madara, hanging on to his jacket, and one arm around her rabbit, giggles and bounces in excitement. Madara turns to look in the direction Ajisai is looking, and sees Naruto and Jiraiya coming towards them.
Naruto sees them. "Hi Uncle Madara!" he calls, waving.
"Walk away slowly and pretend you don't know him," Madara tells the kids and starts shooing them away from Naruto.
"Aw, come on, Uncle Madara!" says Naruto. "I just wanted to say hi, dattebayo."
"Why are we pretending not to know him?" asks Yatsude, confused. "I don't know this guy. Who is he?"
"He's Minato and Kushina's son," says Tachibana.
Excitement lights up the twins faces.
"And the man with him is Kimiko's Daddy," says Sekitei.
The twins bound over to inspect those two specimens of stupidity. Madara sighs.
"What's your names? How come we've never seen you around before? You even look like Minato! Wow your hair is fluffy!" the twins talk over each other, asking questions and making obvious statements.
Madara wonders if he will end up getting suckered into going to the Uzumaki house. It's beginning to feel as though he has been adopted by the Uzumaki Clan. Then again, he is looking after five of the Uzumaki clan's young.
While the twins are frollicing around Naruto and Jiraiya, Sekitei pulls on Madara's sleeve. He turns to her, and she holds up her doll. "Uncle Madara, how do you play with this? Does she do more than just be pretty?"
Madara's mind goes blank. ….crap. What do you do with dolls? Then Ajisai makes some baby noises and Madara remembers. Oh, that's right. "I think you dress it up the way you like to dress up Ajisai."
Sekitei considers this carefully. Then she smiles. "That sounds fun."
"What the hell?" says Tachibana, confused.
The twins stop bugging Naruto and Jiraiya to stare at Sekitei.
"That doesn't sound fun at all," says Yatsude.
"Yeah, what's wrong with you?" says Sazanka, screwing up his face.
Sekitei's face crumbles and her eyes start watering.
"Hush you boys," says Madara sternly. "There is nothing wrong with her. It is a girls' toy, and she is a girl - of course she thinks it's fun."
"I know!" says Naruto, grinning. "Why don't you all come over so Kimiko and Burifu can show Sekitei what dolls are for?"
And there it is. How to get out of it? "Maybe some other time," says Madara. "We'll arrange it later and make it a proper play date."
"That's a good idea," says Jiraiya, sounding a little relieved. "I'll talk to Kazama. Maybe we'll be able to get some other girls to join them as well. I'm not sure if Burifu really knows about dolls and Kimiko doesn't actually own any. Maybe Kakashi will lend us his kid." He gives Madara a look that seems to say I get you, man. I don't know how dolls work either.