peripheries

riddle child

"It is almost time to leave."

Hashirama sighed.

"I know. I just … one more moment."

Tobirama huffed, crossed his arms, but said nothing. Far to the east, the sky was tinged a dusty pink. In the semi-dark that still clung to everything, he heard more than he saw the clacking of stone against stone as Hashirama placed two pebbles on the twin mounds in front of him. A moment later, there was a quick spark, and then the faint smell of incense wafted through the air.

"I don't think Itama would have wanted this," Hashirama said quietly after a while.

Tobirama snorted.

"None of us want this."

His brother sighed, bent his heads before the graves.

"Some do though, I think. The way I see it, there have been opportunities for peace before... But we let them slip."

"We're just playing the hand fate dealt us."

Hashirama was silent for a while, then said quietly, "But what if we are choosing the wrong cards to play?"

Tobirama didn't reply, and after a while Hashirama rose from his kneeling position.

"Let's go. Father will be waiting."

"Hashirama," Tobirama said, caught his brother by the elbow as he passed him by. "You know I stand with you. Always."

They considered each other for a moment, then Hashirama gave a little smile.

"Thank you, brother."

He descended the hill. Tobirama gave a quick bow in front of the graves, gently dragged his fingers over their stones. He picked up the topmost pebble of the smaller mound, clasped it. For a moment, he could feel a faint trace of his own chakra reverberating through the stone, and the sigil carved into the coarse underside flashed once before fading slowly. He smiled, laid the rock back down, then followed his brother into the trees.

They quickly caught up to the contingent vaulting through the trees at a clipped pace, and fell into step beside their father who was heading the group.

"Remember," Butsuma said, "this is Yamanaka borderland we are defending; we are contesting the territory. The Hagoromo are likely to have run to the Uchiha for help, so don't be surprised if it gets hot up there. Defeat is unacceptable."

"What about a stalemate?" Hashirama asked.

Tobirama tensed, held his breath. Butsuma's mien darkened.

"A stalemate," he ground out through clenched teeth, "is not what we are going for."

He glanced at his eldest, then abruptly addressed Tobirama.

"I trust you have said your goodbyes to Kawarama and Itama?"

Tobirama nodded, but before he could reply Hashirama butted in.

"Father," he said, "don't you think you're too close to this? You make it seem like us clashing with the Uchiha is personal."

Abruptly, Butsuma came to a stop. Standing straight, he loomed over his son, gaze turned sharp as he stared him down. Hashirama never wavered.

"You were with Tobirama, weren't you? You, too, have taken leave of your brothers."

Hashirama nodded.

"Then I want you to remember this. The Uchiha took your family. They took your cousins, your brothers, they took your mother. They will keep taking and taking if we let them, because they are greedy. If it seems like my feud with those devil spawn is personal –" His voice turned frigid. "Then that's because it is."

Hashirama was silent for the rest of the trip. They sped across the lands, through what remained of the night and into day. They traversed the Yamanaka territory, on the other side of which the enemy was already waiting, prepared to throw themselves into battle.

When they finally clashed, it was with such speed and violence that Tobirama just barely had the time to drop one of his specially prepared kunai before he charged after his father down the hill and into the fray.

Almost immediately, he lost sight of his brother as Hashirama veered off to the side to engage Madara in a violent duel.

Butsuma himself cut through the enemies with a fervour that bordered on manic, his chokuto carving the air in a flurry of silver crescents. Mere moments into the fight, he and Uchiha Tajima clashed, and Tobirama could hear his father's furious roars even over the chaos raging all around him.

Time seemed to slip by like water as movement and noise increasingly blurred together, and formed one continuous stream of moving, slashing, evading. Ducking beneath the heavy club one of the Hagoromo aimed at his head, Tobirama buried a kunai in the man's unprotected armpit and sent him stumbling, and in the same movement deflected a punch to the face from an Uchiha who was backing up the first attacker. Tobirama leaped and twisted, kicked off the man's chest and pushed back, spitting out a compressed lance of water as he sailed through the air. The Uchiha dodged, and even as Tobirama touched down onto the blood-soaked ground, he retaliated with a volley of shuriken. The metal never hit home.

A patch of pink flashed into Tobirama's vision, there was the wet squelch of metal digging into flesh, and then a body stumbled back and fell into his chest. Before his enemy, surprise written all over his features, could react, Tobirama grabbed the staggered woman and flashed them both to the marked kunai he had dropped earlier.

Spinning her around by the shoulders, he snapped, "What are you doing here?", harshly enough that his voice belied the way his stomach had dropped, or how his heart was hammering away in his chest at the sight of her raised fist, chakra curling around her knuckles like a coat of water.

Sakura was staring at him with wides eyes, mouth open as if the words had been lost half-way through articulating them. She blinked when he shook her, then slowly reached out, ran the tip of her finger across his cheek. She took a breath and it looked as if she might say something, but suddenly lightning crackled through the sky and heralded the arrival of a new enemy.

Beneath his hands, she jumped violently.

"Fuck," Tobirama swore, and, even in the knowledge that his attack would not hit, tossed out two kunai at the Uchiha who had come after them. One buried itself to the hilt in the soft grass as the man twisted out of the way, but the other one clipped a Hagoromo further down the hill and caused him to stumble and fall.

Quick as lightning, the Uchiha unleashed a second barrage of deadly shuriken. It was only due to Tobirama's quick reflexes that he was able to vault past Sakura in time, sword raised, and deflect the metal projectiles sent their way. His enemy forced him into a quick combat bout which, ultimately, Tobirama won. Using the high ground to his advantage, he chipped away at his opponent's defences and, when the moment came, dove low and severed his dominant leg. A quick kick to the head was all it took for the man to go tumbling down the hill. Tobirama, clear for the moment, whirled around.

Sakura had not moved. She was staring at him, pale as death and shaking.

"You need to go," he urged.

Sakura didn't reply, but she took his hand without protest when he reached for her. For a moment, their eyes met, and Tobirama could only wonder at the haunted look on her face. And then she was gone, his fingers grasping thin air, and, without time to ponder her sudden disappearance, Tobirama whirled around and threw himself back in the fight.

In the end, they won, if only by a margin. Butsuma, limping heavily and leaning on Tobirama for support, seemed pleased nevertheless.

"I'll be surprised if Tajima keeps his arm after that blow you landed, Tobirama," he rasped, chuckled, then coughed and spit out a lump of blood. "Your swordsmanship might just be on par with mine."

Before he could reply, Hashirama butted in.

"I'll be surprised if you keep that leg of yours, father," he snapped, frowning heavily. "You seem to have missed that we and the Uchiha are matched evenly. Can we ever win?"

Butsuma turned cold eyes on his eldest.

"We can," he said icily, "And we will. The next time we meet in battle, Tajima will fall. And as long as you keep fighting for this family, Hashirama, we have nothing to fear."

"But there doesn't need to be a next time!" Hashirama protested. "You could end this feud, if you were just willing to talk to them! I know they would listen!"

"Hashirama!" Butsuma bellowed. In the branches above, a flock of sparrows took flight. "You will never speak to me in this manner again. There has been too much blood shed between both clans. That can never be overlooked. You know it's true."

He looked between his sons.

"Or have you already forgotten your brothers? Remember, always, who is responsible for their deaths. And then again try and talk to me about peace."

He snorted, mouth twisted in an ugly snarl, then stood up straighter and turned to address the rest of his clan who had witnessed the exchange with stony faces.

"We're heading home!"

"I don't understand why you have to go back. It's just two kunai. Why would you trek halfway across the map for them?"

"Because," Tobirama replied patiently, "Carving the seals into the hilt takes up more time than it takes you to do your hair in the mornings."

Hashirama spluttered indignantly.

"That is a lie! Besides, you have ten of those knives. What's two less?"

"Correction," Tobirama said, strapped on his armguard. "I used to have ten. Now I have eight." He raised one eyebrow at his brother. "Which is two less than I would like to have. So, I am going back to retrieve them. It'll be quicker to just go and get them. I left some marks on the way back."

Hashirama grumbled, then frowned.

"You know, father really isn't doing well. I healed him, but still think the wound might have become infected… What if anything happens while you're gone?"

"He seemed fine last time I checked on him," Tobirama said, and pulled taut the last strap of his armour. "I could hear him yelling at you all the way across the estate."

"Yeah, well," Hashirama grumbled. "He just won't see reason."

Tobirama shrugged. "I don't think he ever will."

"But," his brother replied, and turned brown eyes on him. "You understand my reasoning, right? You're with me on this." A pause. "Tobirama!"

Tobirama slipped on his shoes, fixed his sword to his belt.

"I'll see you in the morning, Hashirama."

Hashirama's face fell.

"Say goodbye to Kawarama and Itama before you leave," he murmured, already turning away. "For luck."

At his brother's petulant expression, Tobirama almost smiled and couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"As if I'd ever go without them."

"What do you want me to tell father?"

He thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"Nothing. I should be back soon. He won't even notice I'm gone."

And so, without anyone but Hashirama being the wiser, he snuck back to where the border skirmish had taken place, flashing from one gently pulsing teleportation seal to the next.

Once he reached the battle ground, Tobirama saw that the bodies of the fallen had vanished, as had most of the weapons, but when he closed his eyes and focused he could feel a faint pulse just to his left, and another straight ahead, high up on the hill. Slowly, he paced over and tugged the knife from the ground. The blood that stained it had long since dried and, wiping the crumbling dirt off the blade with his sleeve, he approached the hill.

He was almost at the top when he blinked, and suddenly someone was kneeling where before there had been nothing but air.

If not for her sudden manner of appearing, Sakura's hair, tied into an unkempt braid and shimmering a pale pinkish-white in the moonlight, would have been a dead give-away.

Heart in his throat, Tobirama pushed up the hill and approached her, wary at first but concerned when he noticed the two metal stars embedded in her shoulder. She tugged them free with a low hiss, and pressed her hand to the now gushing wound. It flared green with chakra, and the flickering light made her look like a gaunt spectre.

She looked up and met his gaze. Tobirama hesitated for a moment, then knelt down in front of her, hands half-raised.

"Are you alright," he asked quietly.

Sakura never replied, just stared at him for the longest time before slowly leaning back, away from him. He almost scoffed.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he huffed, and held up his palms to show they were empty.

The glow emanating from her fingers slowly receded, and in the almost-darkness that remained, she now squinted at him and asked, "Then why?"

"Technically speaking I'm not even here for you," Tobirama replied calmly, "but you need help. I can provide it. If you'll let me."

She scowled, looked set to reject his offer, so he quickly interrupted.

"You owe me a pouch."

Sakura blinked, swayed on her knees and for a moment he thought she would faint.

"But – you're too old. The boy –"

"I am the boy," Tobirama said quietly, relaxing a fraction when he saw she wasn't going to run or drop unconscious. "I gave you that pouch years ago, when I was twelve. I'm sixteen now."

She stared at him, and eventually buried her face in her hands and whispered, in a voice so quiet he almost missed it, "That can't be true. It can't be possible."

"That's what I thought as well, in the beginning," he replied. "But I have been thinking about it, and from the way you appear and then vanish again without a trace, I believe you were telling the truth when you said that you have been somehow misplaced."

"I never –," she began, but he waved away her protest.

"I myself have developed a technique that lets me transport across space –"

Here, he flickered over to the kunai that was still stuck in the ground some yards to her left. Picking up the weapon, he wiped it clean as he wandered back over to Sakura, unable to help a little grin when he saw her wide eyes.

"So it is not so far a stretch to imagine others would come up with similar methods. But you obviously don't know what's happening – correct me if I'm wrong."

A shrug. Tobirama nodded and continued.

"So either this was a jutsu of your own doing and it went horribly wrong, or someone else made a mistake. In any case, I know you can't control where you will jump to next. And, because you always look the same –"

Here, he hesitated.

"Although it could just be a genjutsu… I think it probable that you spoke the truth when you said you are crossing time, as well."

She never reacted, and it rankled.

"Say something," he all but snapped.

"I –," Sakura whispered. "I never said anything about being misplaced."

She was pale as a sheet.

"I know it sounds impossible," Tobirama said. "But I have gone over it again and again, and there is no conclusive argument to at least disprove your claim. Also, you asked me before if I looked like my father. You must have met my future me."

Scratching a basic diagram into the dirt with his kunai, he pointed at two areas where the seals interlaced.

"See? It all makes sense if I look at it that way. So in theory, the evidence suggests it to be possible, provided the initial burst of energy used to power the technique was large enough."

Sakura now looked less faint and more thoughtful, and to Tobirama the fact that she didn't declare him mad straight away was more confirmation than anything else. Crossing his arms, he stared down at the sealing array he had sketched out, the faults in its arrangement glaringly obvious.

"There are still a few kinks I can't be certain about, though," he murmured, and frowned at the placeholders which denoted both her place of origin and the location she was originally bound for. How those two could be linked up to the temporal seals – provided she even was skipping years – he had absolutely no idea.

Sakura's quiet voice brought him out of his musings.

"So what now?" she asked, staring at the array forlornly.

From the way her brows contracted, he could tell it made even less sense to her than it did to him.

Tobirama considered her for a moment, then rose to his feet and brushed the dirt off his fingers.

"I can see to it that you are fed, and cared for," he said, and looked down at her when she immediately snapped, "Why?"

Her eyes were narrowed, and the side of her neck was smeared with blood. The two shuriken she had removed earlier were lying next to her on the grass, discarded. Tobirama hesitated.

Eventually he said, "Because you have been on the run for some time now. Rest will do you good. I can provide you with it."

When she seemed unconvinced, he added, "Also… you kind of took those shuriken for me. For that alone, I owe you."

Sakura sighed, closed her eyes for a moment.

"Rest," she murmured. "What I wouldn't give for a bath and a good night's sleep."

He let her think it over, then offered his hand, and pulled her up when she took it after a moment's hesitation.

Standing in front of her like this, his eyes were almost level with hers.

"I will bring us to my clan's estate. But I won't be able to make it in one jump," he informed her. "Hold on tight, and if you get sick, please turn away from me."

Pulling her close against his side, he left her with barely enough time to ask "Jump?" before he channelled his chakra and they flashed away, only to reappear on a bough high up in the trees, a good two miles away. Tobirama looked down at his feet, at the slight shimmer of his transportation seal as it faded back into the bark.

"Huh," the woman at his side breathed, and he glanced at her.

"Are you alright?" he probed, already prepared to leap away. She only nodded.

"What's your name?" she asked, still looking a bit queasy.

He stared at her, searching her face for any signs of deception. There were none.

"Tobirama," he replied eventually, and sighed when she only blinked at him in confusion.

"Okay… I'm Sakura," she offered when he said nothing else.

A tinge of annoyance shot through him, and he glared at her. "I know." And, in a warning tone, added, "Do not play any games with me."

When she didn't reply he merely shook his head and, honing in on the next seal burned into a tree some three miles away, its chakra trace pulsing faintly in the distance, he flashed once more.

She seemed fine, so he dared to make the next jumps back to back in quick succession, before landing them both on the mossy ground and gesturing for Sakura to follow him. Glancing back at her, he noted she was only wearing one boot. When he raised his brows, Sakura merely shrugged.

"Trust me," she murmured, "this isn't the weirdest thing that has happened to me today."

Tobirama led the way and she followed quietly, and only hesitated once they stepped out of the forest and the compound lay sprawled before them.

"Is this your home?" She asked, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

Tobirama nodded.

"Yes. My family's estate. You are welcome to stay, if you wish."

"It's been a while since I've been among so many people," Sakura confessed, eyeing the archway which loomed in the distance and the guards posted in front. "I'm not sure how I feel about it."

"We don't have to go in," Tobirama offered easily. "But I thought you'd appreciate a bath and a meal."

Sakura hedged for another moment, shifting her weight left to right, before she finally took a deep breath and nodded. Tobirama led her down the road, past the guards who looked at her suspiciously. He waved them away.

"I found her picking through the remnants of a battlefield," he explained, pointing at the side of her neck where the blood had by now dried into dark stains. "She is injured, and needs our help."

Ko, who was one of the men at the gates, narrowed his eyes.

"She could be dangerous. I will have to inform your father about this."

Tobirama stared at his cousin until he started to fidget.

Then he said, "You can do that in the morning. Until then, I will not let her out of my sight, so there is no reason for you to worry."

Ko shook his head.

Tobirama glared at him, then grasped Sakura's sleeve and started pulling her down the path, deeper into the maze of buildings that was home.

"Who lives here?" she asked as she looked around.

He shrugged.

"My family. Everyone here is a blood-relation of mine."

When he heard her quiet, "Everyone?", followed by a, "Holy shit," he couldn't help but smile.

They reached the bathhouse, a tiny but well-kept shack, which was empty at this time of night.

"Go straight in. Take as much time as you need," he told her and, before she could utter as much as thank you, added, "You smell."

She pushed past him then, muttering under her breath, and slid the door shut behind her a tad harsher than seemed necessary.

Tobirama sat down on the steps and waited. To pass the time, he pulled out the two kunai he had retrieved and inspected them for damage.

It did not take long for his father to show up, accompanied by one of the gatekeepers. Butsuma's already formidable scowl was rendered even more impressive by the fact that he had just been woken up in the middle of the night.

"Tobirama," he snapped as he limped up, leaning heavily on his crutch. "What is the meaning of this?"

So Tobirama explained. By the time he finished, Butsuma was pinching the bridge of his nose.

"So you're saying the reason I was woken was because you decided to bring home a stray?"

"Senju-sama," the guard began, stammered, but Butsuma waved him off.

"No, no, you did well. You were –" He stopped, racked by a sudden coughing fit. Recovering, he dragged his hand across his face and scowled. "You were right to get me."

Then he fixed glassy eyes on his son. "You are certain she will not be a threat?"

"Not to me she won't," Tobirama shrugged. "I am faster than she is."

His father was still scowling, but the expression was rendered less impressive by the pallor of his skin and the slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. He twisted his mouth.

"Very well. But keep a close eye on her. And I want to see her first thing in the morning. And afterwards –" He glared at his son. "We'll have a discussion about why you were out in the first place."

Tobirama bowed, and his father took his leave, the irregular fall of his steps and wheezing breath the only sounds in the otherwise quiet night. At Tobirama's nasty glare, the guard shambled off as well. Some time later, Sakura re-emerged from the bath, hugging her one boot to her chest, wet hair loose and hanging about her face. It was longer than he would have guessed initially.

"Thank you," she said, smiling shyly, and tucked a strand behind her ear. "That was really nice."

He only nodded, then led her down the empty streets into the main building.

"I heard someone talk while I was in the bath," Sakura breathed after a moment. "Is everything alright? I didn't get you into trouble?"

"My father. He wants to talk to you in the morning."

"Oh…"

He glanced at her, and maybe it was the light of the lanterns, but she seemed to pale. She was silent for the rest of the way, fiddling with her boot as he led the way into the main house.

Rooting around the kitchen, Tobirama scrounged up some leftovers for Sakura to eat, and then dug up a few blankets for her to sleep on. The room he assigned her was little more than an empty closet, but Sakura seemed pleased nonetheless. She gave him a small smile.

"Thank you… I wish I could repay you in some way."

He shook his head.

"No, really," Sakura pressed. "I – Earlier, when I was in the bath… I heard you talking to someone. Your father?" He nodded. Sakura took a breath. "I don't mean to pry, really I don't, but – the way he sounded … this could get worse if untreated. I can help, maybe." Her eyes were shining now. "I'm a healer."

"I know." Tobirama hesitated. "I – maybe we can talk about it some more tomorrow. For now, try to get some rest. I'll be in the room just across the hall should you need anything. Don't try to leave."

She shook her head.

"I promise I won't."

Tobirama gave her a long look before nodding. He closed the door, and waited. Through the thin screen he could hear Sakura shuffle around, then give a tired sigh. Soon, her breathing evened out.

Retreating into the room opposite, a communal study, Tobirama sank to his knees on one of the pillows laid out there and, fists resting loosely on his knees, closed his eyes. He could feel her presence flickering across the hall, and somehow it felt – antsy. He wondered what she would be able to tell him come morning.

Musing on this strange woman and her even stranger story, Tobirama fell into a light meditation.

Only to be jerked out of it rudely some time later when her presence, which had finally calmed and had been ebbing and flowing at a more steady pace, suddenly vanished.

He was up and across the corridor in a flash, throwing open the screen that led into the room she had been in.

It was empty.

The thin covers were pulled straight, had not been turned back, and when he touched them they were still warm to the touch. There was a dent in the pillow, damp where her hair had fanned across the fabric. It rose and evened out even as he watched in what little light the lantern at his back provided.

Next to the futon lay a single boot, set down neatly, as if waiting for its counterpart to join.

Tobirama kicked it across the room.

He awoke that morning with a particular feeling. He did not feel sick. Restless, more like. It was what drove him to buckle up his armour and slip out of the house at the crack of dawn, past Hashirama's room. From behind the door he could make out quiet snoring.

He drifted down the corridor past the rooms of his father, and of Kawarama and Itama, and he dragged his feet only a little as he passed.

They never went in there anymore.

Outside, the sun had not yet begun to rise. The air was still crisp, chilly with the last remnants of night, but already people were bustling about. He returned their greetings as they passed each other.

Inora crossed his path, and in the light of the lantern she carried, the grey streaks in her auburn hair shone like liquid gold.

"Tobirama," she said, bowed to him. Her leather armour made nary a sound. "I am sorry for your loss."

He accepted her condolences with a nod.

"Thank you, aunt… You have been gone for a long time. What brings you back now?"

She hesitated.

"I'm sure rumour has already reached you, but it is true. From what I can tell, governments are beginning to form across the country. The wealthier merchants seem to be establishing courts. Those with a lineage anyways. They might prove to hold some sway. If they push for a unification of the various families and manage to get over their petty squabbled, we could soon witness the founding of a trade federation."

Tobirama crossed his arms.

"You think it wise to play nice, then?"

Inora weighed her head thoughtfully.

"It might be, yes. Throwing our lot in with theirs could prove beneficial in the long run." She looked about. "Don't take this the wrong way, I love this compound. These houses are home. But compared to the Komora estate, we live in shacks."

"I have been noticing a draft lately, yes," Tobirama quipped. "Hashirama insisted on thatching the roof himself, since finances are low."

"Speaking of Hashirama," Inora said, lowered her voice. "How is he holding up? He's only twenty…"

"As well as can be expected," Tobirama sighed. "I'm sorry you missed the inauguration. And his speech. It really was… something."

His aunt winced. "That bad?"

"Depends," he shrugged. "He was a bit heavy with the metaphors. But… He's doing well, all things considered." He hesitated. "There have been fewer casualties."

"Oh." Inora looked impressed. "He must be a brilliant strategist. That is quite a feat."

Tobirama sighed. "I meant to say… the number of skirmished has gone down. Way down. We haven't clashed with the Uchiha even once over the past year." He frowned, rubbed his chin. "They have been playing nice for a while now."

"But you don't trust them," Inora inferred, and tilted her head to the side.

"Not as far as I can spit," he growled. "Hashirama seems to believe this armistice will last… I am not so sure. Father was right when he said that there is too much blood between our families." He glanced at the sky, over to the east where it was slowly starting to tinge pink. "But I am content to let him dream. Out of the two of us, Hashirama was always the idealist. He will change the way we work now, one way or the other."

"You think idealists are what's needed to achieve change?"

"They are," he said, one corner of his mouth curling up into a grin. "At least if one day you want to live in a house as nice as the Komoras'."

She swatted at him and he ducked, sidestepped her with a smile and left.

Until he reached the edge of the compound, he walked. Through the gate that opened the way, away from the estate. Past the guards, who stood up straighter when they saw him, bowed their heads, despite the dark shadows underneath their eyes.

He stopped by a large fir just beyond the first row if trees, beneath which he knew lay the remains of his family. Gently, he touched a knob in the bark, closed his eyes.

"It's been two years, father. Hashirama is doing well as our leader, even though he is taking us in a direction that you would never have approved…" He tipped his head. "I do believe you'd be proud of him."

He pulled a stick of incense from his pouch, stuck in into the soft ground between the roots and lit it. For a moment, he considered the smoke curling up from its tip.

And then he let loose and ran.

He flashed past trees, across the river, circled around and headed south. The Peak would be his destination for today, a lone sharp-edged cliff rising from the forest. He ran through what remained of the night and into dawn, reached the northern slopes of the cliffside within hours. The closer he drew, the more distinctly he could make out a familiar presence.

Frowning, Tobirama crested the top of the cliff. The sun was hanging low in the sky, already warming the eastern face of the rock, the one that fell away sharply and gave way to a sudden drop.

He peered over the edge.

Far below he could only just make out a figure, hunched over, shadowed by the gnarled trees.

He jumped, landed easily and with nary a sound before her.

Sakura lifted her head to gaze up at him. She seemed tired, ruffled, her ponytail drooping in tousled strands down her back.

"Have you been waiting here?" he asked when she didn't say anything, merely continued gazing up at him with that flat green gaze.

She looked away then.

"I'm not really waiting for much anymore."

She propped her chin up on her knees.

"You haven't showed up in a while," he pushed. "Where have you been?"

She shrugged.

Tobirama hesitated, then knelt down. Sakura's eyes roamed across his face.

"This is getting more and more difficult," she murmured. Her lips were dry and cracked. "You're always so different."

She reached out as if to touch his cheek. He scowled and ducked his head.

"And still my one constant," Sakura continued, unperturbed. Her hand dropped back to the ground.

She considered him for a moment.

"You know, in the beginning I thought it was just my teammate gone mad." She closed her eyes. "Now I believe it's the gods' way of punishing me."

"I don't suppose the gods take any interest in mortal affairs," Tobirama replied. "You're almost as dramatic as my brother."

She never reacted, and he settled more comfortably on the mossy ground, crossed his legs.

"I haven't seen you in two years," he said, looked her over curiously. "How have you been?"

"Not very well," was the dry answer. She fiddled with the hem of her sleeve. "You promised to help me, you know? To sort out this mess."

"What mess?" He asked with a frown. "You mean the time-skipping?"

When she nodded, he let out a quiet snort.

"Impossible. Just because I think I understand how it works doesn't mean I'll be able to control it."

"But you are!" She protested, lifting her head. "I think you already have. You drew out the seal! Remember? Back on the hill! And you were so sure then–"

"Back then? I never – Sakura, you're imagining things. I was a child then. No one could ever –"

"I don't jump linear," she cut him off, half rising on her knees. Her eyes were bright and intent and her face suddenly very close to his.

"If you haven't already figured it out, Tobirama. I never know where I'll end up next. Sometimes you're younger, sometimes older. But you're always there." She curled her hands into fists, held his gaze fiercely. "Every. Single. Time.

"Back when I first jumped," she said, pressed one palm against her stomach, "somebody was there. I can't be sure of it was you, but – it must have been, Tobirama. It must have been you who placed the seal on me."

Eyes flickering between her face and the hand twisted into her black shirt, he frowned and asked, "What seal?"

She hesitated, plucked at the hem of her shirt.

"I think it is was keeps drawing me back to you. It must be. Because it's always – it's always you. Just you. Over and over and over."

She frowned, then her face softened into a smile.

"My master used to tell me that in life, you hold all the cards. What matters is which order you play them in. So of this doesn't make sense just now and you don't think you'll be able to figure something out –" She looked him in the eye. "Don't worry."

The way she looked at him, the way she spoke, that unshakeable smile. Just in that moment, she would have convinced anyone.

"You will be."

She lifted her shirt and vanished.

Climbing back up the cliff, he sat at the top and let the sun warm his face as he brooded. An hour or so passed before her presence re-appeared, and without thinking, he leapt forward, letting his momentum carry him over the edge of the cliff and down, down, until the sunlight disappeared and he slipped into the shadows of the forest that grew thickly at its base.

He came up right in front of Sakura, who was stumbling in her geta and trying to find her balance. Grasping her by the shoulders, he held her steady, and it took but one moment for him to see that she was a mess. He took a breath, ready to snap at her, to shake some sense into her, to make her not disappear in the middle of a conversation for once. But she was quicker.

"Oh," Sakura gasped when she met his gaze, eyes wide and glassy in her tearstained face. Something about her mouth twisted, and before he could utter a single word she threw herself forward in his arms and kissed him.

Tobirama froze.

"Make it stop," she sobbed against his lips, pressed her forehead to his. Her cheeks felt damp. "Please, just let me stay, let me –"

Suddenly, she tensed and pulled away, tears still slipping from her wide eyes which up close looked so impossibly green.

All he could do was stare at her.

"Ah," Sakura stammered, staggered back a few steps and stumbled, fell hard on her back. She was pale as a sheet. "You're not –"

And then she vanished into nothingness, and he was left alone once more.

His heart sprang back to life with a vengeance.

word count: 6,333

A/N: Thank you guys so much for your reviews! I'm experimenting with world building atm, which is why the chapters in this fic are longer than what I usually write. Tell me what you think? If you are unclear on any points, lemme know! I'd be happy to try and explain (as long as it's not spoilers you're asking for ;))

ramsesjames05 you might have figured it out by now, but I'll answer your question anyways. Sakura is always the same age, while Tobirama grows older. I've incorporated either direct mentions or hints in every section as to how old he is. Sometimes you can deduct his age by looking at his brothers. To make the maths easier: in my headcanon Hashirama is the eldest, Tobirama is two years younger, then Kawarama again two years younger, and Itama one year younger. So Hashirama is said to be 20 in this last section, which makes Tobirama 18. Hope this helps.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy reading,

planless