Mama's Boy
Summary: Two mothers, two sons, four friends, four brothers, two rescues and two asshole fathers. What could POSSIBLY go wrong? And how much had gone RIGHT?
She should have seen it coming.
The woman grit her teeth, berating herself for being so blind or for being so willing to be ignorant and blind to the truth of the situation she had found herself in, even as she tried to fight the shooting pain and the unbearable cramps that were trying to drag her to the ground.
Her husband had been looking into a marriage with the current Uzumaki princess, younger than her by a whole seven years, beautiful and versatile and dainty where a true Hatake woman was wild and free and almost savage. But most of all, the Uzumaki princess was subservient, would be submissive to her new husband and master in all things and that, stacked with the alliance and the help it would be in war efforts, was more than enough to convince Senju Butsuma to simply assassinate his own pregnant wife and blame it on the Uchiha while he got himself a new bride to warm his bed.
Kira hated herself for the fact that her second child might pay the price for her own foolishness.
The Senju Butsuma had sent out with her as she traveled to see her brothers, barely eight months pregnant, for her eldest sibling's wedding were all die-hard loyalists who followed Butsuma's word like gospel. She had thought that would mean they would be good protection. It was, after all, Butsuma's child they were guarding as well as his wife. Instead, as soon as they were reasonably close to the border with the Uchiha by which they must travel to reach Hatake lands, they had attacked her. Out of the twenty shinobi party following her, she'd managed to take out eight before her water broke and the cramps set in.
Now, as a particularly hard one shot up her spine, she could not stop herself from tumbling to the floor, just barely managing to catch herself so she would not hurt her unborn baby as she hit the ground.
The swines laughed at her and the Hatake woman grit her teeth, clutching onto her katana with shaking, stiff hands. Her breathing was coming out in short puffs of breath, her body naturally reacting to a pain no woman could ignore, no matter how good of a shinobi she might be or how many times she may have given birth. Kira knew she could not get up. She had reached her limit and the little one was close. It would come into the world either to a dead mother or to a knife. Frustrated tears grew in her eyes as her heart broke for her darling that will never see the light of day.
Kira refused to close her eyes when a katana was raised, the metal catching the light of the moon-
Only for the swordsman to cry out as something struck him in the back and he fell to the ground, coughing up blood before his pierced heart gave out and he died bleeding out on the forest floor. Two more fell to similar methods before the Senju gathered together in a tight circle, protecting their backs.
A glint of a katana and a flash of demonic red and then there was someone there, in between all of their backs, weapon swirling and blood flying. Her would-be murderers had to disband, searching for space, for cover, trying to keep track of their enemy when the first fireball lit the dark forest, catching three that had been too close at once. Their dying screams should not have been such a pleasant melody to her ears and the stench of burning human flesh should have repulsed her, especially with her strong Hatake nose.
Instead, the killing intent so potent and heavy that it drowned out the sound of a live battle, even if only one as small as this, and the feel of molten hot chakra was a relief and a comfort for it was familiar ... Only more intense than she had ever felt it before.
"Uchiha!" One of the remaining Senjus called in warning before he was cut down, the unknown Uchiha swift and light on their feet as though they were dancing. And that, too, was somewhat familiar. Kira only wished she could focus more on the fight than the labor pains and her own breathing, especially as more than once, one of Butsuma's men had made an attempt to get to her to at least complete their mission even if it was to cost them their lives. But the Uchiha never let them get close, red eyes tracking all movements and oppressive killing intent seeming to keep the Senju scrambled and frightened enough to not be at their best.
"D-demon!" Came one last, horrified scream before a throat was slit and a surprisingly small katana stopped glinting in the moonlight, back in its sheathe. Kira blinked through the pain and through her sweat matted bangs clinging to her forehead and eyes, trying to find the shinobi who had saved her. She looked up but flinched in surprise when a small - far too small - hand came from much lower and touched her face.
Shocked, Hatake Kira met the eyes of an Uchiha child. "Lady Senju, if you would let me, I will help you with your labor."
"You are far too young to know anything about this, child," she protested automatically rather than consciously, stunned by the offer. The boy, if she was not wrong, huffed, sounding offended.
"I have assisted okaa-san with my twin baby brothers. I know what to do."
She really should have refused but another bout of pain from the cramps made her scream. The boy didn't flinch, only gave her his hand to hold on to as she braved through the pain. Maybe he did know what he was doing. "Y-you'll need some light to see."
Red eyes stared at her, glowing and gleaming in the dark dimly, and she wanted to berate herself for forgetting about the Sharingan, but the boy nodded. "A fire will provide you some warmth, Lady Senju. Please don't kill me as I cast the jutsu." He was smart to put some space between them before he started setting up a camp fire and lighting it with a well controlled katon. Kira nearly bit her tongue off when she got a good look at his appearance. She knew those features, even if she was more used to seeing them a bit more delicate, feminine, with smaller teartroughs, especially as a child.
She remembered, long ago, when she had first seen her during her first visit to the capital with her father. A young noble girl, petite and never having touched a single weapon in her life, black hair and even blacker eyes, pale skin and noble features. She had not sneered at Kira for her shaggy hair nor did she call her a boy, despite her looking like one. She had taken Kira's hand and had led her away from all the boring adults, teaching her how to read and in exchange asking questions about a shinobi's life. Years later, that same noble girl had grown up into a force to be reckoned with, the source of her Uchiha-like looks revealed in a scandalous affair the Daimyo had with and Uchiha woman and stealing her child. That child, once a pampered princess, was now a dragoness no one would dare face on the battlefield. More fierce than her husband and twice as infamous, Lady Uchiha was a force of nature.
"Concentrate on your breathing, Lady Senju." The boy's voice broke her out of her memories and she focused back on him, on his intense red eyes, and felt no fear despite him technically being an enemy.
"H-Hatake," she corrected even as she tried to remember the proper breathing she had learned when birthing her first child. "You're Ryukyu's eldest ... "
"Madara," the boy replied, even as he took out a canteen of water and washed his hands before grabbing some blankets from a storage scroll and then prepared a kunai he cauterized in the camp fire. "I need you to push on three, Lady Hatake."
"You didn't even check if I was open enough," she argued, recalling that the midwife had made a big deal about that. But the boy, Ryukyu's son, Madara, only shook his head.
"Unnecessary. You've been in cramps for the past hour and I can feel the little one is almost out already. This will be quick, Lady Hatake. Now, one, two, three and push." And young Madara was right. Her second son was born much faster and easier than her first, now swaddled in the blanket Madara had so graciously gifted to him. The boy seemed to indeed know what he was doing, easily rocking her son as Kira tried to get her breathing in order and stop the shaking in her limbs. She was exhausted. Madara paused long enough to take another blanket out of the same scroll and cover her in it before presenting her with her son.
Pale skin, silver-almost white hair, sharp eyes ... A true Hatake baby, having almost all of his mother's features and none of Butsuma's that she can see right now. Her little boy, a miracle to have been saved and born at all ... Kira looked up to her old friend's eldest son, looked at the lives he had taken, and mourned his loss of innocence. "Thank you, Madara-chan. A boy like you should not have had to witness all of this, let alone partake in it. Six is much too young-"
"Five," it was Madara who corrected this time, looking away from Kira's horrified face. A child of five with the Sharingan?! Madara saw her expression and smiled bitterly, sorrow and longing on his young face. "Child-hunters killed my baby brothers last month. Otou-san deemed me ready for missions since I already have the Sharingan."
"That is much too young," she protested, feeling anger and sorrow battling for dominance. Ryukyu's son should not be out and about in the woods in the dead of the night by himself! "Surely your mother-"
"My Kaa-chan died a year ago." Kaa-chan, not okaa-san.
Kira felt tears prickling her eyes. "Madara-chan, I am so sorry. Ryukyu had been a close friend. She was wonderful."
Madara nodded, smiled sadly, before shaking his head. "You should not upset yourself. Your baby can sense it. It's why he's so fussy."
"I think it might be the stench in the air," she mumbled, more to herself, still reeling from the knowledge that Uchiha Ryukyu was gone. How had her dear friend even died? How she wished she had seen her one last time! For all that they had married into - and that Ryukyu was somehow also half-born into - warring clans, they had never stopped being friends. There had been times, before they each gave birth to their first sons, when they would exchange messages when on missions and meet in whatever town or village was halfway there for them both, just to drink tea and gossip about their idiot husbands and the even more idiotic clan elders. They never shared with anyone the information they may have slipped during those conversations. It had not been about that.
Madara gave a negative sounding hum, once again snapping her out of her thoughts. "No, he can sense it in your chakra and it's upsetting him. Isn't that right, little one?" He offered her baby a finger and Kira watched in amazement how, even though he had not once opened his eyes, her son unerringly caught it and held on. Madara's chakra washed over them both, warm and protective, and the baby stopped fussing. "He's a strong little sensor, this one."
"How could you possibly tell that?" The boy had been just born! Prematurely, at that! Madara looked up and smiled.
"Because I am one myself and I can feel how his chakra is reaching out to sense the world around him. It's rather impressive that his range can cover the entire clearing already." Which, while not a large space normally, was huge for an hour old baby. Kira stared down at her son, not sure what to think. Sensors were rare. She'd only ever met a couple. In many ways, they were invaluable. "You can't stay here," Madara said after a long moment of just playing with the baby and comforting him with his chakra signature.
"I'm not exactly fit for travel," she pointed out, noticing the way her eyes were threatening to fall shut but she refused to fall asleep now. She had a cub to protect.
"The Hatake Compound shouldn't be that far away. I can feel all of the lightning in the air about seven miles south from here." Kira swallowed at the accuracy of the estimation. Madara had a pretty large range, too, for his age. Might have something to do with his enormous chakra. She wouldn't need to be a sensor to feel him. "How quickly can they get here if I flare my chakra?"
"Kiba, my second eldest brother, has a summon that jumps through shadows. He can be here in seconds."
"Does he care for you enough to abandon a hunt?" Kira bristled at that question, unable to help herself.
"He is Hatake and my elder brother!" Which was more than answer enough. The Uchiha may be all about love but the Hatake were about devotion. Kiba would not go on a hunt if he were to know of her state.
Which was exactly what Madara was counting on to make his escape. He could get into a lot of trouble if word ever got out that he had saved Senju Butsuma's wife and second son. Kira said nothing as she watched her friend's son flare his chakra so hard people must have felt it all the way on the other side of Hi no Kuni before checking on mother and son one last time and then disappearing into the woods like he had appeared, a sudden shadow. He would make speedy progress, as he can see in this lightning, unlike the rest of them.
Kiba and his summon, a large gray wolf, appeared a couple of minutes later, just as Kira was starting to lose the battle against her exhaustion.
The next day, she had the grim satisfaction of watching Butsuma 'fret' over her and her son's condition, obviously dismayed under his act that he could not get the alliance with the stronger Uzumaki Clan that he had been hoping for. Hashirama at least seemed besotted by his baby brother.
"What's his name?" Her son asked, looking up from where the little baby was sleeping on a wolf pelt like a true Hatake, Kira's own snow white arctic fox summon keeping a watchful eye over him.
"Tobirama."
00000
Years passed and her boys grew and they had two more little brothers to love and grow up with. And while Kawarama and Itama were definitely a blend of Senju and Hatake characteristics - Itama especially, with half his hair white and the other brown - her little Tobirama took after her in all things except stature and face-shape. Those, he got from the tree-like Senju side of his parentage and yet he was more Hatake than many of his clansmen could handle.
He was intelligent, quick, loyal, devoted and, perhaps, taught to love like an Uchiha in the memory of a friend long dead and the son she left behind. Kira was careful with that last one, making sure Tobirama did not express it in any way that might tip the other Senju off, but the Senju as a whole did not recognize the type of love and devotion the Uchiha and the Hatake can feel.
Tobirama always stuck out, but he never seemed to mind. His brothers loved him and he adored his snow leopard summons and his books and experiments were more than enough to keep him content. Butsuma had a tendency to be harsher on him than their other boys - probably because he was a reminder of a political move and a stronger alliance foiled -but Tobirama seemed to prefer it that way, which Kira understood. That was that Uchiha-love/Hatake-devotion she had taught him rearing its head, preferring to take the punishment meant for his loved ones onto himself than letting them get hurt.
Itama and Kawarama seemed to understand their second older brother and his strange behavior, the way he showed his affection and the way he acted. They accepted it.
The more they grew, the more Hashirama did not.
Kira hated watching how her white haired, pale and red eyed son forged himself to fit the mold of Butsuma's perfect soldier just so Hashirama could remain as bright and happy as he was. Tobirama trained harder than any one of his brothers, studied more, did everything to divert the attention away from his siblings. Hashirama, the better Tobirama became at hiding how much that way of life exhausted him, the more he compared him to their father. And that only hurt Tobirama more and he hid more behind masks he had constructed with years of practice. By the time he was eight and it was put to the test, it was perfect and many, Hashirama among them despite knowing better, had come to believe him cold and unfeeling.
Kira loved all of her children equally, she truly did, but some days she just wanted to wrap Tobirama up in his old baby blanket - the first one he had been oh so expertly swatted in by his five year old midwife and that he was always ready to start a war over, no matter how old he might get - and hide him from the world while at the same time she wanted to slap Hashirama silly for hurting his brother so.
And then came the day that truly tested the bond between the brothers, when the message came that Kawarama, her poor, poor seven year old Kawarama, had been attacked by an Uchiha patrol squad while on a mission and was, without a doubt, dead. Tobirama, whose reach was by that point the whole of Hi no Kuni and beyond the borders even, could not find him. Butsuma proclaimed him KIA and buried an empty coffin without even sending out a search and retrieval party.
Hashirama raged.
Tobirama took the slap for him and diffused his father's temper as best as he can.
Hashirama didn't apologize and instead ran off into the woods.
Tobirama kept track of him with his senses even as he comforted Itama.
Kira just ... sort of drifted from place to place in the following days, feeling uprooted, as though the foundations under her feet had crumbled. Her youngest son, dead, gone. It felt like a nightmare.
A nightmare that just kept on going, it would seem, as not two months later, the remains of Itama's armor were found with four downed Hagoromo soldiers. Hagoromo always traveled in groups of five. Hashirama had been the first to the scene but it had been far too late. Tobirama had felt the exact moment that his last younger brother's chakra had disappeared, cut off. They had no body to bury now, either.
Hashirama mourned alone, at the Naka, the very boarder to Uchiha territory. Tobirama fretted. Kira felt herself waning away. Hashirama disappeared almost every day for hours at a time. Butsuma got suspicious. Tobirama got sent to spy on him. Butsuma found out he was playing with an Uchiha boy, one of Tajima's no less. Kira barely had it in her to wonder if it could be the boy she had met only once, the last remains of her old friend.
Butsuma set up an ambush.
So did Uchiha Tajima.
Kira raged when she heard about how Tajima had nearly killed her Tobirama and raged more at the broken heart of her eldest son, the first thing in months that broke her out of the sorry state she had driven herself into while mourning her children. She nearly gauged her husband's eyes out when the news reached them, a messenger barging into his Clan Head's and his family's living room in a panic, forgetting proper decorum in his haste.
"There's a boy outside the gates," the panicked man said, looking horrified and ready to faint. "An Uchiha boy."
"Then kill him," Butsuma casually replied even as he pried Kira's fingers from his clothing.
"He carries the great gunbai, Butsuma-sama," the man replied urgently and Kira's and Butsuma's eyes widened. "He carries the gunbai and he demands Lady Senju come and meet him. Says he has something of her's that he aught to return. Says it's time for a peace treaty."
"Who does he think he is to demand anything on my lands?!" Butsuma thundered but not a second later, a wave of unbearable killing intent washed over the lands and half the Compound falls to their knees, the other half staggering under the weight of it. And for all that Tobirama should, by all logic and reason, be the most affected, he seems as unbothered as Kira and looks rather confused by everyone's reaction.
Kira is out of the house and at the gates in a second. For that killing intent is familiar.
The boy she sees is painfully familiar in all the good ways. The older he got, the more Uchiha Madara resembled his mother and he stood with the same confidence as killing intent rolled off of him in waves, incapacitating any attackers without lifting a finger to hurt them. The Senju have forgotten the feeling of Uchiha Ryukyu's killing intent pushing them down to the ground and Madara's was even more oppressive, twice as aggressive and far heavier, for all the additional chakra he has on her. He is decked out in full Uchiha adult gear for all that he was still a child, wearing a deep purple mantle and the gunbai on his back that was larger than he was. His arms were crossed, his chin regally high and his stance strong and ready should anyone attack. His Sharingan tracked every movement but it was not the same as any other Sharingan that the Senju have seen so far.
There were no comas spinning around his pupil in the sea of red. Just a whole new design that none of them had ever seen before.
"Madara! What are you doing here!?" Hashirama, who had ran out after her with the rest of their remaining family, asked as soon as he saw his erstwhile friend. "I thought we'd only see each other on the battlefield."
"Shut up, Senju. I'm here to talk with Lady Hatake."
"There is no Lady Hatake, though," her older son replied with confusion. "This is the Senju Compound. Hatake don't live here."
"I said shut up, you bumbling buffoon!" Predictably, Hashirama fell into a depressive sulk at being snapped at by his best friend, to which Madara only rolled his eyes.
"What do you want with my mother, Uchiha?" Tobirama ignored the spectacle his brother was making of himself to glare at the enemy. He did his best not to flinch when those red eyes met his own. Kira wanted to reassure him that he had nothing to fear from this particular Uchiha, but Butsuma cut into their exchange before anything else could be said.
"Who are you to demand a peace treaty, brat? You still stink of your mother's milk and you think you can march up to my doorstep-"
"I am Uchiha Madara, Clan Head of the Uchiha by right of combat and of blood and I am not here to speak with idiot Senju," Madara cut him off in turn, sounding disgusted as he sneered at Kira's husband. "I am here to return something and to speak with the two percent of a brain that your clan seems to be sharing between you. And just to be sure I am perfectly clear, I mean the two Hatake in your midst."
Every eye turned to the only two white haired people in the Compound and Kira held her head high, resting a hand on her younger son's shoulder when he tensed. "And what would you have us do, Uchiha Madara-sama?"
"I have saved all four of your sons in some way at least once, Lady Hatake. I would appreciate it, as a starter, if you would keep your children under better care," the Uchiha replied before turning around slightly to wave at something in the distance. When he returned his focus on the two Hatake-in-Senju-clothing, he took out a scroll from a long sleeve and threw it at Tobirama, who caught it with ease of shinobi training. "Then, we can talk about a lasting ceasefire, as equals, between the Uchiha and the Senju."
"Really, Madara?" An excited Hashirama asked, sounding delighted.
"There will only be peace once the Uchiha are eradicated from this earth!" Butsuma snapped and Madara pointedly arched an eyebrow at him.
"You can take that attitude to the same place otou-san did and find yourself in your own dungeon or, worse yet, your own grave." The Senju as a whole stiffened at the threat and those who were active in the battlefield flinched at the truth behind the child's ability to fulfill it. "I am sick and tired of this war taking things from me. I have lost my kaa-chan, my okaa-san and three little brothers and I nearly lost two more. Yesterday, I nearly lost another one. I will not stand for this. Make your choice, Senju Butsuma, or you will find your Hatake wife finally reasonably and sensibly leading your clan."
"I thought Tajima had only five sons," Hashirama wondered to himself but went mostly unheard.
"You claim to come searching for peace but all you make are empty threats you cannot fulfill? Ha! You are outnumber by-"
"What did you wish to return that was ours, Uchiha Madara-san?" Tobirama cut in, making Butsuma and Hashirama whirl around to gawk at him. Tobirama had closed the scroll he had been reading through and seemed to be pleased with the stipulations presented so far. Her second son had always thought the adults to be stupid for being unable to draw an agreeable treaty and stick to it because of their pride. Kira was so proud.
"A moment, please. Ah, here it comes." There was a rumble of thunder, a sweeping wind and the groaning of trees as, out of the heavens themselves came a familiar summon no one had seen in years. The Senju as a whole went as pale as their second heir. Kira felt her heart throb in melancholy and longing as she gazed up at the black, red and gold dragon as its long, serpentine body twisted and turned as it descended to land heavily at the Uchiha's side. Sharp, gold-rimmed lightning blue eyes regarded the Senju with utmost distrust as the dragon, in all its glory, lowered it head for the boy to rest a hand on its cheek. "I hope you don't mind Ryujin. He's the only summon I have big enough to transport that which needs to be returned."
"B-but how!?" Butsuma stuttered out as he made several staggering steps back, eyes wide and cold sweat dripping down his forehead. "The dragon only serves Uchiha Ryukyu and she's nine years dead!"
"Well, I am her only son and kaa-chan did introduce me to Ryujin before her death, so I have made a contract with him many years ago. I just never summoned him to battle because a creature of wisdom has no place facing such idiocy." There was a round of sputtering all around. Tobirama was staring at both summoner and summon in awe. Madara then gestured for ... something at the dragon's head. Ryujin tilted his head until his ears, horns and mane practically hid Madara from sight before rightening his head back up.
Kira's knees gave out under her when she saw the two boys standing on either side of him, staring up in as much awe as their second older brother at the dragon that now settled itself to watch over his summoner, his first and only previous summoner's only son.
"Kawarama? Itama?"
"Tobi-nii!" The boys called out and Tobirama was off like an arrow, gathering his little brothers in his arms, uncaring of the 'enemy' literal steps away.
"H-how?"
"Madara-onii-chan saved us!" Kawarama replied excitedly. "He made the Uchiha let me go and took me back home with him and treated my wounds!"
"And he killed the Hagoromo that were hunting me and did the same!"
"But I felt your chakra signatures disappear. I couldn't find you at all." This time, Tobirama looked at the Uchiha for an answer even as Hashirama crashed into the three of them and hugged them right off the ground, crying in Itama's hair.
"An Uzumaki chakra suppressing seal," Madara replied, casually plucking said seals off of Kawarama's and Itama's clothing, letting their familiar chakra signatures wash over their family. A tear trickled down Tobirama's cheek. Madara subconsciously wiped it away even as he turned to look at Kira and the mother felt like there was a presence there, one that simply could not be, supporting the boy. "I have saved all four of your sons at least once, Hatake Kira. This war has taken much and has nearly taken even more. I have five brothers, only one of blood, to protect and I refuse to lose them to adult stupidity as my three blood ones. I have only heard great things about you and my own personal experience of your character does not suggest you to be someone willing to idly sit by while her children die. Will you, a wolf, bow to your idiot husband, a sickly weed, and his council of dying weeds? Or will you protect your cubs?"
"You sound exactly like your mother, Madara-chan," she marveled, even as she drew herself to her feet. If she didn't know better, she'd say there was a ghost of a hand helping her up, a fleeting presence that fled the second she tried to focus and latch on to it.
"When I was younger, I was teased to have been a mama's boy. I find it a compliment rather than an insult."
Kira laughed, took in her happy children before she turned around and firmly decked Butusma in the nose. The clan watching the proceedings flinched when they heard the crunching of bones and flinched again when Butsuma hit the ground with a loud, painful thud. He was out like a light.
She thinks Ryukyu would have approved.
"Tell me your plans, Uchiha-sama," she said formally when she turned to look at the Uchiha Clan Head, the youngest to date.
Madara and Hashirama exchanged grins and Tobirama groaned but reached out for a piece of paper and a brush he always seemed to have at hand, already figuring out the logistics for the slew of ideas the older boys enthusiastically offered. She noted how Madara and Tobirama seemed to agree and how they teamed up against Hashirama's overly enthusiastic or emotional responses.
Kira laughed even as her youngest sons finally came to get their welcome home hugs and kisses from her.
Madara and Tobirama were such mama's boys and they weren't even aware of how similar their relationship is to how her own with Ryukyu used to be.
A twinkling laugh in the wind, long since forgotten by its absence, brought a single tear down her cheek.
Ryukyu would have loved this, this new beginning that was built up of two mothers, four friends, two boys with big dreams and their brothers, possible only because of two (three) impossible rescues and only without two asshole fathers.
What could possibly go wrong?
And how much of it will end up going just right?
She looks forward to finding out.
OWARI