A thick blanket of snow decorates the garden of the Senju main house. The morning sun sparkles in the snow as Nayuki takes in the scene in front of the window. 'It's the perfect weather for building a snowman. Maybe the boys will like to play outside with me…', she muses to herself.
It's been three days since Nayuki returned and most of the time she spends with her sons for the time being. Amused Nayuki thinks of the last days. Hashirama and Tobirama seem to have made it their mission to follow her like lost puppies. Wherever she went, they followed her. She can see Bustumas growing restlessness. He wants the boys to train, which both ignored for the days since her return. She sighs as she hears them running down the stairs. One day more or less without training won't change too much and tomorrow they will return to their training regime.
At the same time she stops her musing, the boys enter the kitchen with broad smiles on their faces. Their smiles seem to widen even more as they spot the delicious breakfast she prepared for them. While the older boys dig into their meals Nayuki goes to collect their younger brothers from their room. When she enters the room Kawarama already stands in his crib smiling at his mother. "Kaa-chan", he squeals at her happily. Itama on the other hand still sleeps. Without disturbing his sleep, Nayuki takes them into her arms and rejoins Hashirama and Tobirama in the kitchen.
Silently she takes a seat next to Hashirama and begins to feed Kawarama a bit of the miso soup she prepared for them. With gusto Kawarama clears his tiny bowl of soup, before he turns his face to a bowl of steamed rice. His wide eyes are practically begging his mother to feed him of the rice too. A giggle escapes Nayuki as she eyes Kawaramas begging eyes. It doesn't take long to satisfy the little rascal and his older brothers finish their meals about the same time. Only Itama still enjoys his sleep as his brothers begin to play with one another. Swiftly Nayuki enjoys her own breakfast – as few as it is. Even if they found a supplier now, they can't just waste food. They need to be careful with their new won supplies.
Just as Nayuki finishes the dishes, a wailing sound alarms her of Itamas waking. Taking the baby food she prepared earlier, she feeds her youngest too. It doesn't take long for Hashirama, Tobirama and Kawarama to return to her side after hearing their youngest brother. While Hashirama and Tobirama run into the kitchen with ease their baby brother has small difficulties. He wobbles into the kitchen smiling like a loon. It seems like Kawarama tries to show off to her. 'How cute', Nayuki squeals in her thoughts.
When all of them are seated in front of her, she clears her throat. Their attention fixes itself upon her immediately. "Boys, how would you like to go outside and build a snowman?", she asks them seriously. A wide grin spreads on Hashiramas face and Tobirama looks confused. "What is a snowman?", he finally asks. Disbelieving Nayuki looks at Tobirama, "You have never built a snowman? Well then, I'll show you how it's done. We just need to wait for Hanabi, so that she can take care of Itama…"
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After a short explanation on how to build a snowman, Nayuki, Hashirama and Tobirama begin to roll around snowballs. Kawarama runs around between his family members. His interest lies with the cold and white substance he can throw around. It doesn't take the family long to create three different sized snow balls. Nayuki explains that the biggest ball is the base while the smallest ball is on the top. Together they put the balls into their perspective places. Hashirama looks at the construct of snow and decides that it still needs eyes.
"As eyes and for the mouth we can use small stones. And for the arms I'd suggest to use some twigs", Nayuki tells the boys. Immediately Hashirama and Tobirama run off to find the needed materials. Nayuki turns to Kawarama who is rolling in the snow around a small hill he built. She has to laugh seeing the two year old behaving like that. Sometimes she wonders why the boy still has some problems with walking, but she decided that he's just not as fast in taking up new skills or a bit lazy. However, playing with snow seems to motivate him a lot as he even starts to run around to collect different things to decorate his little snow hill. Now that she thinks about it, she has never seen him running around as fast as he is now.
Nayuki closes her eyes and enjoys the peaceful moment to its fullest. Slowly she takes deep breaths and expands her sensor range. She feels for her sons and watches over them. Soon she can feel them running back to her and Kawarama. Hashirama and Tobirama bring enough small stones to give the snowman a nice smile. The twigs they found get positioned as arms and a small piece of wood becomes the nose. As they look at their snowman Hashirama decides to get some extra materials.
As he returns to the group he carries a scarf, a Senju headband and a tanto with him. He places all those things at their respective places and exclaims, "Now that's what I call a classical Senju shinobi!" Nayuki, Tobirama and even little Kawarama break into fits of laughter at Hashiramas exclamation.
Shortly after they choose to get back inside – not before having had a short snow ball war, in which Hashirama and Tobirama teamed up on their kaa-san, fought bravely and won, of course – because the cold gets to them. Nayuki even decides that they deserve sweet tea and cookies as prize for their won battle. The promise of hot tea and some cookies lets the boys hurry inside fast.
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Inside all of them get some dry clothes. While they change, Hanabi prepares tea and the promised cookies. Sitting together the boys tell Hanabi about their adventure outside. Even Kawarama shouts out, "snow fun!" a few times. Hashirama tells her about how their snowman is now one of their kinsmen and will fight alongside them to protect the clan. The mood is cheerful until Hashirama asks his mother, totally out of context at that, why there has to be war all of the time.
Silence falls over the assembled group as Nayuki tries to find the right words and stares at her son in wonderment. All eyes land upon Nayuki as she thinks about how to explain her opinion to Hashirama. Hanabi is anxious about Nayukis answer. Knowing that she is a kunoichi who was brought up outside of the clan, she probably can't understand their motivations and could even start a quarrel with Butsuma-sama about this.
After staying silent for some minutes Nayuki start telling Hashirama, "You know that war is a never ending circle of hatred. One day out of greed, interest, hate or whatever a person was killed. This person however, has a family, who swears on revenge for their lost relative and kills the murderer. The murderer in turn has a family of his own too. The circle of revenge spins and with it hate begins to grow. As time goes by the hate doesn't stay focused on the actual murderers and will get projected upon their relative too. To ease the pain of loss, get justice upon the dead families begin to fight each other restlessly. It's an endless circle that won't stop, unless one day people begin to understand each other perfectly…. I personally believe that it's not in the human nature to want to harm another person, but more of an easy way out of things. No that's not right, killing someone is never easy… One day, I think that one day the time will come when even Uchiha and Senju stop their endless fighting. The will understand each other and life side by side. Then an era of peace will be born, but …. until then a lot of drastic changes will have to happen."
Nayuki realizes that she began rambling about her dream of real peace she stops and stares at her sons. She takes a moment and continues, "Boys, I want you to know the real source of strength. To become real strong you need something precious, something to protect. Those who fight to protect and not out of hate will find their real strength." Happily Hashirama swears to get strong only in order to protect his family, friends and the clan. Tobirama on the other hand seems confused, but complies none the less.
Hanabi looks at Nayuki in shock. How can this woman in front of her believe that one day Senju and Uchiha will stop fighting? More so, even life side by side?! The idea on its own is laughable. Never will there be a time when their clans will try to understand each other or possibly forgive one another. Although Hanabi doesn't agree with her matriarch, she keeps silent. How should she know what it's like to be one of those who have to face the enemy on the battlefield? So she keeps silent even if she disagrees…
Without anyone noticing it Butsuma stood outside the door and heard every word. He is angry. 'First she dares to use one of my important weapons to put it into what looks like a great waste of time and now she is telling my sons all these stupid lies? I can't argue with the true strength part, but the rest is outrageous.', Butsuma fumes to himself as he storms into the room. Taking a deep breath he reminds himself that for someone who grew up without their living situation, her ideas might seem possible. Deciding upon telling her about their views later on, he enters the room.
Originally he wanted to enjoy a relaxing afternoon with his family, but now he has to take make sure that she understands to not use their weapons for trivial things like the snow monstrosity in the backyard. Their weapons guaranty their survival to waste and damage them to play could cost lives.
As he sits down next to his wife he places the tanto on the table in front of them. Once again he takes a calming breath before addressing the matter at hand.
Hanabi is tense fearing the worst. Her stubborn leader must have heard Nayuki-himes ideals. Her eyes flicker from the tanto at the table to her leaders angry face and Nayuki-himes determined one. Her poor hime is probably going to infuse his already foul mood.
Nayuki herself is determined to defend her ideals. If necessary she'll shout at him but for now she'll wait for him to make the first. For a minute she eyes the tanto before her. 'He won't use it to punish us, but I find myself curious – what does he need a tanto for?'
As Butsuma finally addresses his wife he starts with the misuse of his tanto. "I believe that each and every one of you should be aware that weapons are no toys. So if you would be so kind to explain why my tanto was used to build this snow … "creature" I'd be happy to listen.", he orders softly.
The moment Nayuki steals herself to protect her sons, Hashirama admits on using it. "I apologize father. It was my idea. I wanted our snowman to be able to protect us – seeing as he is Senju kin…", he quips up in a quiet voice. Butsuma watches his son in disbelieve. 'Did he just call these construct of snow our kin?', he thinks silently to himself. His eldest has always been a bit different. Different is nothing bad, however, well, different. Nayuki has to giggle at Hashiramas explanation and adds, "Your tanto was protected by its sheath. After warming up we would have gotten it back inside…"
Butsuma can only watch the combined force of his wife and son defend their actions. He didn't even realize that his jaw dropped at their antics. Awkwardly he coughs, fixing both with a hard stare. "Alright, as long as you can see your fault, I'll be willing to forgive you. Tomorrow though, I want you to start training again. I believe you have spent enough time with you mother now. Nayuki, I want to talk to you later. We do have to make some things clear….", he tells them at last. Knowing that he'll want to talk about her ideals Nayuki answers with a sharp nod, before she snuggles into her husbands side. She decides for herself that if he can wait to talk to her for later, he can't be that mad. And if he's mad, it's not too late for her to give him a piece of her mind.