.
.
He's standing in front of the refrigerator.
Hashi watches as Madara opens the door, his eyes widening slightly at the sudden burst of bright light and cold air. He closes the fridge again, then opens it. Closes it. Opens it. Then he moves to the freezer and does the same thing. She watches as he picks up a tray of ice cubes wonderingly.
"Isn't it amazing?" Hashi says, and Madara turns. "To harness all the seasons of nature? They even have something called a 'microwave.' Oh, and look at this!" Hashi says, as Madara tilts his head and closes the freezer. She runs across the room.
Light suddenly fills the entire room, flooding the kitchen. Madara jumps back, his Sharingan reflexively activated. "What the devil-"
"It's an electric light!" Hashi says.
"Impossible. It is nighttime, the sun has already set-"
"They harness energy called 'electricity' and they have these man-made lamps they can turn on and off at will. Isn't that amazing?"
Madara gazes up at the fluorescent light, wonderingly.
She had brought him back to life in the ruins of the battlefield. He was dying, the power of the Ten-Tailed Beast forcibly ripped from him, when Hashi knelt beside him and heard his confession. "War buddies, huh?" Madara said. His lips were chapped and his eyes were losing focus. He smiled. "Well. I guess...that's okay...by..."
He sighed softly, closing his eyes.
It happened almost as a reflex: head bowed, her hand resting on Madara's chest, her chakra flowed into his body, the internal flame of his chakra roaring back to life. Even now, Madara can feel her chakra flowing inside him - a yellow warmth, which mixes and strengthens his own.
"This is even better," Hashi says, and she grabs his hand. Madara's eyes widen as she yanks him forward, pulling him into a small room.
"This is the bathroom," she says, and she flips on the light switch. The room fills with electric sunlight, the ceramic tiles gleaming like something from heaven. He can see a porcelain bowl sequestered at the edge of the room.
"This is called a toilet," Hashi says. She lifts the lid.
"Do we dip our hands in the water?" Madara asks. Hashi grins at him and pushes down a small lever.
The sound makes Madara jump back. Water gets sucked down the drain like a violent whirlpool. Hashi laughs. "Isn't this amazing? You do your daily ablutions and then flush it all away-"
"Impossible. You mean to tell me-"
"You pee here!" Hashi says, triumphant, and Madara stares, awestruck at the wonders of this modern age.
xXx
.
There is a small electric fan propped up on a nightstand by the window. Madara crouches in front of it, staring into the white blades, which whirl at a rapid pace. The wind it generates is warm and it feels nice against his hair and skin.
"Did you know they have something called 'air conditioning?'" Hashi says. She's just taken a shower - a wonderous, man-made waterfall, which one can control with the turning of a knob-like lever - and she's drying her hair with a towel. She's also wearing modern pajamas, which look little more than a white-robed shitagi, but is actually what she calls a "T-shirt." She towels her hair, thoughtfully. "I couldn't figure out how to install it, though, and the fan seemed to be sufficient."
Madara glances back at her. Her legs are bare. He frowns. "Why am I not surprised you've taken to walking around without pants?"
Hashi glances down. "Oh. I'm wearing shorts."
Madara frowns. "'Shorts'?"
"Um. They're like pants but cut off at the thighs," Hashi says. She lifts up her T-shirt, showing him. "Wanna see something else?"
"What?" Madara says, and she opens the closet, pulling out a pair of boots and a flak jacket.
"Their standard shinobi uniform," Hashi says, tossing it to him. Madara catches the flak jacket expertly. He turns it over in his hands. "They call this 'body armor,'" Hashi says. "They're lighter than our plate metal, but they're stronger than anything we could ever forge. And look at these shoes," Hashi says, handing him a pair of boots. "The soles are made of something called 'rubber.' They cushion more and they keep you from slipping. Remember how we'd have to use chakra to keep our stances from sliding? The shinobi of this time don't have to do things like that anymore."
Madara scoffs. "It is no wonder it was so easy to beat them," Madara says. Hashi tilts her head. "When I was first summoned," Madara says. "I alone went against the shinobi alliance. It was laughable."
"Certainly the shinobi of this time don't know much hardship," Hashi says. She combs her hair, thoughtfully. "But still. Many lived through war. Many lost loved ones. They suffer equally, even if their challenges aren't as difficult as ours."
Madara sighs. "Once again with your empathy and compassion. You could at least take some satisfaction in knowing this generation is much softer than ours."
"Mm. True," Hashi says. "But that was the goal of our village, no?"
There is an amiable silence. Madara watches as Hashi sits next to him, drawing her knees to her chest and pointing the fan in her direction.
"How is it that you're able to afford these things?" Madara says. "Surely these are luxuries - we've only been resurrected for a few weeks."
"Oh! I've been working as a jounin. I've already done a handful of missions."
"Really, now?"
Hashi grins. "The civilians outside the shinobi world didn't even know we were in a war! There's still S-class missions, all of them fairly easy. I already made a year's worth in a few weeks."
"I see. Impressive."
"They're willing to work with you, too," Hashi says. "Naruto-kun already explained to them how you were being manipulated."
"Naruto - you mean the Uzumaki brat whose voice hasn't yet broken."
"Mm." Hashi nods, smiling at the fan. "For all your crimes, they've decided ultimately it wasn't your fault. That young man you mentored, Obito, was it? He's been granted amnesty, too."
"I thought he died," Madara says. Hashi grins.
"I gave him some of my chakra, too."
"And so I see you were healing everybody." Madara sighs. "How troublesome." Hashi grins and rubs her neck.
"Hashirama," Madara begins, and then hesitates. "Why did you bring me back? We were dying. And the others had already won the war."
Hashi seems to ponder his question. She smiles, looking out the window. "I thought you deserved a second chance."
"And the leaders of the shinobi alliance allowed it?"
"Well I am stronger than them," Hashi says. Madara raises his eyebrows. She smiles. "Your chakra was fading. I infused it with my own and brought you here. Jutsus aside, we're both relics, completely out of our element. I convinced them to let me be your keeper."
Madara looks at her doubtfully.
xXx
.
The apartment they're staying in is a small one - simply furnished, and provided by Tsunade-Hime herself. "Oh, Tsunade-dono, this really isn't necessary," Hashi said, but Tsunade waved her hand.
"I couldn't just let you wander the streets, that'd be unconscionable."
"At least allow me to pay for rent," Hashi said, but Tsunade grunted and waved her hand.
Now they walk down the street outside their apartment, heading toward the village square. The sun is setting, and everything is cast in a soft orange light.
"Uchiha?" The merchant looks at Hashi and Madara, completely unaware of who they are. He scratches his chin, thinking. "Ah, I think the Uchiha quarter is that way. But you're not going to find anything," the merchant says. "Most of that stuff's already torn down."
"Thank you," Hashi says. She glances at Madara, who doesn't say anything.
They walk past the Uchiha ghetto, at the crumbling walls and the faded Uchiha crest painted on the brick. They stop and stand at the base of the wall.
"So it was my fault my fears about the Uchiha came to pass," Madara says, finally. "A regrettable outcome of this whole mess. To think in the end, I was just being manipulated...I couldn't have imagined."
"You couldn't have known. You did what you believed was right-"
"-and apparently I was being controlled by some entity biding its time centuries before me. It is humiliating."
"It's the reason why this generation has decided to give you amnesty," Hashi says. Madara glares.
"Because they felt sorry for me."
Hashi smiles apologetically. "Well..."
"Uchiha Madara does not need their pity," Madara says. He picks up a rock, then tosses it at the brick. It crumbles easily.
Hashi gives him a cursory overview of the village - the Nara and the Hyuuga, the Akimichi and the Yamanaka - showing him roughly where the clans congregate, and where they stand amongst the civilians of the city.
"Why are there no Senju?" Madara asks. Hashi shrugs.
"You killed more than half of them at the Valley of the End," Hashi says.
"I don't remember the Senju being so few in numbers," Madara says. "What about the Senju of your family? I understand your children would bear the name of your husband, but what of your useless little brother? Surely he had more than girls."
"I'm not sure when Tobirama's bloodline ended, I think they faded out after a few generations. And I never had any children," Hashi says. Madara's mouth thins.
"That is unfortunate. How did your husband take it?" Madara says. Hashi shakes her head.
"I never married," Hashi says. Madara blinks.
"I thought you were engaged to Uzumaki Makoto?"
"I broke off the engagement after you died." Hashi smiles at him. "I was grieving," she says, gently. "It didn't feel right, getting married. Tobirama married Uzumaki Mito instead."
They both fall silent, neither one of them saying anything.
"What about you? I heard from Uchiha Obito that you kept yourself alive by lashing yourself to the Gedo Mazou."
"Hmph. A temporary measure that proved largely unnecessary."
"You lived in a cave for hundreds of years, alone with only the Zetsus for company." Hashi shakes her head. "I can't imagine it. It seems so lonely." Madara shrugs.
"I was never burdened by your type of useless extroversion." His eyes slide upward. "It must have been tough on you. Never having had a family."
Hashi laughs. "I had a family," Hashi says. "I had Tobirama and my sister-in-law, and all my little nephews and nieces! I taught them how to fight and how to mold chakra."
"Corrupting the youth around you, I see."
"Well I never was a proper lady."
They walk. There's a food stall selling rice balls, and wordlessly Hashi goes and buys one for herself and another for Madara. She hands Madara the rice ball and they eat silently, walking down the street and looking at the different stalls.