Time Heals All Wounds
Summary: The day Tobirama died happens earlier, during Hashirama's time as Hokage when they are at war with almost every new village but years after Madara's death. Only he didn't die. He somehow ended up in a time not his own and met a familiar face he though gone forever. Can he get back? And what of his new friend?
Madara could not remember the last time his whole family had gathered around the dinning table to have dinner together but it would seem his and Tobirama's sorry state and the albino's mere presence was enough to gather everyone again after years of no family dinners, no matter how much his mother had tried to enforce them at one point before giving up. As it was, he would really rather it go back to the usual than deal with this bullshit.
Kiachi and Shotaro were glaring at Tobirama like he had murdered their puppy, not that father would have ever allowed them to have a puppy in the first place. Utaha Ren was a business man who only cared about his own reputation and image. Everything else was pretty much worthless in his eyes, as far as Madara knew. Hao, who had seen them when they had arrived, was still glaring at Madara like he had been doing every day until the teen had moved out and his twin, Yoh, looked between suspicious and curious of the two of them since they arrived. He still glared at Madara if he happened to look in his direction and the teen rolled his eyes.
His older sisters, Miyako, the one who had tried to proposition him that once and Mio, the eldest of eight siblings, were too busy ogling Tobirama to pay any sort of attention to Madara, for which he was grateful for as they were quite possibly the most annoying though he found it a bit disgusting the way there were almost literal hearts in their eyes as they sighed over his friend. His youngest brother, Shishi, who will be starting middle school this coming year and was only a year younger than the twins, had decided to ignore them all and was busy playing something on his gameboy. Once again, Madara was grateful. There was enough flaring going on around the table.
He purposefully ignored the expectant looks his father was sending him. He said nothing and just enjoyed his mother's cooking after over a year without. He wondered if he could take his mother and Tobirama out for the whole day when his birthday came around. He would really rather not spend it here, surrounded by people who have no love lost for him. He hoped none of his cousins try to pin him down for some 'bonding time', especially not now while he was still reeling from what had happened today.
What he had done.
He and Tobirama will have a lot to talk about after they both get some rest and settle after the events of the day. And they will need some time to settle. It is not every day that what is essentially a random teenager saves what is sure to be a powerful and experienced shinobi against two others who were even more powerful. Madara wasn't even sure what or how he had done it all. He had not been thinking. He had seen Tobirama wounded and his body moved on its own, as if it knew perfectly well what he needed to do, how to move, where to aim to get maximum efficiency and ultimate results. The fighting he could have perhaps even explained away, saying he had fallen into some weird trance or something. There were scientific papers being written all over the world about what people under trance or hypnosis can do, after all. It wouldn't be too far from the realm of possibility that trauma can cause such a trance. The explosion in the store would have been more than enough.
What he can't explain, however, was the fact that he had, apparently, used a jutsu, a ninjutsu to be precise. A futon.
When he had no idea how to mold chakra or the required hand signs - hand seals? Tobirama called them hand seals the few times they had talked about his life as a ninja - and he had still managed it somehow.
Not to mention he had used that strange pot thing. He still wasn't sure what it was but it had alarm bells roaring in his mind and his instincts kept shouting danger at him until it was safely sealed away. Say what you will but shit like that doesn't happen every day to just anyone.
He doesn't blame his friend. Tobirama hadn't even known how he had ended up in a completely different era, let alone that he had apparently accidentally brought his enemies with him in his last ditch effort to survive. He will probably start questioning that part of the whole ordeal before they go to bed tonight and Madara will be sure to question him about it in the morning. For now, he actually had to focus on not choking on his food when his father finally broke the silence, addressing the Senju specifically with a suspicious yet impassive glare in place. His typical expression towards outsiders, really, no matter how long he knew them. (You either get used to it or you don't; his father didn't have very many people he could call friends.)
"So," the Utaha patriarch began, drawing everyone's attention to him at the head of the table. Tobirama looked up last, as though deciding to humor him and grace him with his attention - Madara tried not to snicker at the very likely possibility that the impression was deliberate on Tobirama's part; he was sass incarnate - giving his father an even more deadpan and impassive look than the older man was managing. If the air wasn't so tense and he didn't just want to run out of the house and as far away from his family, he would have found this very interesting and would have probably even gotten popcorn. He knew his friend was secretly a real drama queen, no matter how many times the other denied it by saying his elder brother inherited all the drama in their family. "I hear you live with my boy." It wasn't a question. Madara and his mother both scowled at his rude behavior.
"For the last month or so, yes." Tobirama, at least, was mockingly polite, something Madara had never heard before meeting the albino. Ren waited patiently for a whole minute, clearly expecting a further explanation why a complete stranger to the family was staying with his estranged son but Tobirama had just returned to his meal, all polite and unobtrusive and yet managing to be an asshole in one go. Madara hid a smirk behind a sip of his tea. He had always preferred tea over whatever juice or energy drinks his siblings drank.
Finally, Ren grew annoyed when it became clear he'll get nowhere with his terse comment. "I've never even heard of you before. How did you come to live with Madara in whatever shoe box he had squirreled himself away in?"
"It was actually a very nice little house, before the gas leak damaged half of his neighborhood, really," the shinobi shot back casually and Madara thought he'll die restraining silent laughter. The sass. 'And tou-san thought I was bad.' Honestly, one had to get used to Tobirama's levels of sass. He was the sass master.
Judging from the way Ren's eye twitched in irritation, Tobirama's sassy goals were being achieved. "You have yet to address my other concerns. All I know about you is that you are some strange man that's suddenly hanging around one of my sons while being rude to others. I'm sure you can understand how any parent might react in much the same way if they were in my position."
"Hm, I do believe Utaha Sakura-san, your respected wife and Madara's mother, is in much the same position and I have not been accused of nefarious intentions by her." Said woman actually nearly choked on her own silent laughter and Madara thought he was going to die. Oh, he could already see that Tobirama was going to be his kaa-chan's favorite sleepover friend any of her kids had ever brought home. "However, because I do understand overprotective tendencies of nosy family members, I will gladly dissuade whatever notions you have of me being a threat to your son's well being. Madara is a very dear friend of mine and he had offered me aid where many others would have turned me away. That being said, I have no intention of being polite to those who would ridicule and bully him if given the chance. As for who I am, my name is Senju Tobirama and I am a chemistry college student."
Simple, polite, pointed, detailed only enough to sound convincing while not giving Ren enough information to look him up, as Madara had instructed him to keep it. His father may be an ass but he did look out for his children, if only to make sure they weren't seeing someone 'inadequate' or that might kidnap them for ransom or something. In his own way, he was being a decent family member, just not a decent father. It often felt like Ren was more of a distant cousin or uncle whom you see once or twice in your life but who watches out for you just enough to ensure his career isn't impacted by your blood relation.
"Senju? Interesting family name. I've never heard of it before," the eldest Utaha said in a very pointed and disapproving manner and Madara glared at his father. He could feel his temper brewing, knew it won't take much for it to reach its boiling point and then there was no doubt about whether this 'conversation' at the table during this 'family dinner' would devolve into a shouting match.
"That's because Tobirama's family isn't famous nor is it influential. They run a flower shop. Do you have a problem with flowers, otou-sama?"
Ren frowned at his acidic tone but before it could become an argument that will only upset his mother and cause more sneers from his siblings, Shishi beat them all to it with a curious question that threw them off guard.
"Are you a ghost?" The question was obviously aimed at Tobirama, given none of them had ever seen a man of his coloring before and Shishi was most used to seeing the dark haired Utaha. Tobirama with his pale skin, white hair and red eyes would be quite a change for someone so young.
"Shishi!" Their mother admonished but the boy just looked confused as to why he was being scolded.
"It's a trait from my mother's side," Tobirama surprised them even more when he answered in a gentle, patient tone. Madara remembered the stories Tobirama had told him of his team, a bunch of young teenagers now, and how obviously fond he was of them all. Madara knew that, in general, the shinobi loved children. Shishi was about his students' age. It was no surprise he'd be gentler towards him than his other siblings. Shishi probably didn't even know why one of his brothers was being treated this way and had just done as his other siblings do so as not to stand out. "She comes from a family with very peculiar coloring. One of my younger brothers had an even more interesting coloring than my own. One half of his hair was as white as my own while the other was as chestnut brown as my elder brother's."
"You have siblings, too?" Miyako perked up, leaning closer to Tobirama, a flirty smile already stretching freshly painted cherry colored lips. "Are they all as handsome as you?"
Madara winced, more so because he knew the younger Senjus' fates than because of the flirting. Predictably, Tobirama's entire demeanor became closed off, angry and icy. Senju Kawarama and Itama were a delicate subject that always brought on anger, regret and sorrow in his roommate. The teen had been surprised that Tobirama had even talked to him about them and how they had died in a pointless clan war wen they had been seven and ten respectively. Madara wasn't sure if he could have remained sane if a seven year old Shishi or ten year old Yoh and Hao were to have died when he himself was twelve. Or if anything were ever to happen to Shotaro, Kiachi, Miyako or Mio. No matter how they treated him, for him, water may be sweet but blood was thicker. He'd do anything for them even if he'd never get the same courtesy in return. Tobirama had never been able to understand how he lived away from his family if they were all alive. He came from a big clan and grew up knowing everyone, living with everyone. Madara's family situation seemed to baffled him.
"My Anija is married, I'm afraid, and my younger brothers died when they were young."
The icy tone of his voice froze the room and no one said anything. Madara subtly bumped their elbows together under the table to offer support and comfort as best he could and he could feel the Senju relax minutely under the touch.
"I am sorry for your loss, Tobirama-kun," his kaa-chan was, of course, the first and only one to say anything. The rest of the dinner was spent in an uncomfortable silence and Madara was all but dragged to his room as soon as both he and his roommate finished their meal. Not that he minded or begrudged the other for the hasty retreat. He just grabbed some leftovers for Kurama and allowed himself to be tugged along.
They prepared for bed in silence but it was much more comfortable than the one in the dinning room. The walls weren't thick enough to block out the sounds of his mother tearing everyone else a new one for treating a guest like that. Madara ignored it, instead helping Tobirama slip into the bathroom so they can brush their teeth and go to bed undisturbed. He made sure to lock and block his door when they were in before dropping on his bed in exhaustion. He groaned and buried his face in his hands. "I'm sorry for how they acted. They were being real dicks."
"It's fine," the shinobi replied after a long pause and guilt swept through Madara. "It's not your fault. You're not responsible for their actions or lack of manners. And if anyone should apologize, it's me for getting us into this mess but since you won't let me," he talked right over Madara's sputtered protests. "You don't get to say sorry, either. Though this just confirms what I've thought would be the case." Those red eyes focused on him and Madara's breath hitched at their intensity. "You are nothing like your family. And that's a good thing."
Somehow, that made Madara sleep like a babe that night, void of dreams or nightmares that could have centered around the events of the day.
And if his heart kept skipping beats for the next five minutes, Tobirama will never know of it.