.

.

"Izuna," Hashi says, and she slides into the chair across from him. "I'd like to apologize for whatever I've done to make you dislike me."

Izuna looks up stonily from his bowl of cereal. Hashi clasps her hands.

"I'm sorry about your brothers," Hashi says. "I know the five of you were close. They died by our hands. Forgive me."

Izuna looks back at his cereal. "It wasn't your fault." He spoons the cereal and shoves it in his mouth. "It was a proxy war. You were hired just like we were."

Hashi hesitates. "Then why-"

"Lots of reasons, I don't want to talk about it."

Later she rounds the corner toward Izuna's room, moving with purpose, until she physically blocks him in the hallway.

"Why don't you like me?" Hashi says.

Izuna scowls, tries to move, but is met with Hashi slamming her fist against the wall, a small crack forming through the plaster. "Answer me," Hashi says.

"What the hell do you want me to say to you? I tolerate you. Go away." Izuna tries to move again but Hashi steps in front of him. "Aggh!"

"I know Madara has tried to talk to you. What is it that I've done that makes you hate me so much?"

"Oh my god you are SO annoying!" Izuna says, and he makes a move to break away but Hashi careens in front of him. "Dammit!"

"Just give me one good reason why you don't like me. If it's something I can change, I'll do it. Otherwise I promise, I'll leave you alone."

"You want to know why I don't like you?" Izuna straightens. "I was there. I saw everything."

"Well I mean, Izuna-kun, you weren't there when we created the village-"

"I was there in spirit, and my brother spoke to me regularly." Izuna crosses his arms. Hashi steps back.

"You...you remember Madara's prayers?"

"I was his guardian spirit," Izuna says. "I suppose I wasn't entirely conscious at the time, but I remember everything now. Every time he lit a candle for me, he'd complain about the stupid bitch Senju who was ignoring him."

"Oh...geez..."

"He talked to me about you after your stupid battle, he broke down crying thinking of you when he was alone in that cave, did you know he had a fucking statue of you that he'd sit and talk to? Because I knew. Because I fucking saw him sitting there for fucking two hundred years while the rest of our ancestors were frolicking outside this mortal fucking plane."

"Huh."

"Yeah." Izuna straightens. "My brother suffered because of you. Just because you're together now doesn't mean I have to like you."

xXx

.

"Anata?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it true you used to have a statue of me?" Hashi asks. Madara coughs and nearly chokes on his cornflakes.

"What are you talking about? Where did you hear that?" Madara says.

"Izuna told me," Hashi says. "Did you know he still has memories as a spirit? He actually told me when I asked him why he didn't like me."

Madara furrows his brow. "What?"

Hashi counts on her fingers. "He told me you used to talk to it, that sometimes you'd pet its hair and kiss it, and-

"Anata?" Hashi says, because Madara's eyes are wide and his face is red. "What is it?" she says. Madara glares.

"I think I need to have a word with Izuna."