Final part!
OoO
As soon as Yukari was taken from him, he knew something was wrong.
Not just when she was forced to leave hours ago, but when she told him she never loved him nearly nine months ago. He had come to know her as well as he knew his own brother, and it wasn't just knowing her that made him think something was wrong, but how she acted and he could sense a change in her. Hashirama tried telling him it was probably the pregnancy that was affecting her, but Tobirama knew better. He knew there was something else, there had to be.
Or maybe he just didn't want to believe what she said to be true.
He loved her more than anything else. He never thought he could care for a person so much, let alone an Uchiha woman. She wasn't even an Uchiha to him anymore – she was his family. And he took care of his family. He knew when his family was upset or there was something amiss. His senses had never failed him, though now he was beginning to doubt that. Maybe he was too involved. His reaction towards her hours ago proved that she still had his heart, and he still had hers. That only left one more mystery to him.
Why was she with Madara?
When he saw them together, he could see how tense and uncomfortable Yukari was. She didn't love him, but she pretended to. Why would she do that? He knew Yukari didn't back down from her beliefs, so something had to have happened for her to leave him for the Uchiha Madara. Could it really have been Izuna? Could she have felt guilty for being with the man who killed her lover? He tried to put himself in her shoes, to understand how she was feeling, and none of it made sense.
And then there was her pregnancy to consider.
At first he thought it was some kind of hoax, that she was lying, but when he saw her with Madara and Hashirama a month after she had left him, her baby bump said otherwise. She was indeed carrying a child. His child.
He fisted the fabric around his chest, feeling a tight, heavy pain in his chest. That could have been his child, his family. He still believed it could be. He loved her so much that he would care for Madara's child. For a while he didn't even think it to be Madara's child. She was so far along that he thought it was his. But after seeing how Madara acted around her and made sure she was alright in public, despite her discomfort around him, he began to think otherwise, and that she spoke the truth before. Madara wouldn't care for a Senju and Uchiha child, especially his child. He would have killed the child before it was born, and killed Yukari as well.
Still, he couldn't decide. His gut told him something was wrong, but when the facts were laid out in front of him they were indisputable. He didn't know what to believe anymore. Maybe Hashirama was right – maybe it was time for him to move on and forget her. No matter how hard he tried though, he couldn't shake her. His mind was her home.
His door flew open, and he shot up, coming face-to-face with a beaming Hashirama. "I have news, little brother!"
Tobirama rolled his eyes and sighed. "What news?"
Hashirama continued to smile and leaned against the door frame. "Yukari had her baby."
A flutter of joy flooded Tobirama's body. She had had her child. It was soon, he thought, but he felt happy nonetheless. That is, until he realized that it was not his child, but Madara's child as well. Still, he stood and looked sadly to his brother. "Is she okay?"
"From what Mito heard from a midwife, she's fine, and so is the baby."
He didn't want to ask, but he found his lips moving for him. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
Hashirama placed a hand on Tobirama's shoulder, and for a moment Tobirama thought Hashirama was hiding something. He knew when his brother was lying, but as soon as it was there it was gone. He gave Tobirama's shoulder a slight squeeze and a sad smile. "It's a boy."
Tobirama's smile grew. "A healthy baby boy."
With a chuckle, Hashirama wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "You can come see for yourself. Mito and I are heading over there now, and you should come as well. I think she'll be happy to see you."
He wanted to say no, but he found himself following his older brother. This was a perfect excuse to see Yukari, and, her new son.
OoO
Tears dripped down Yukari's cheeks and onto the small bundle she held in her arms. He was perfect in every way. He was the most beautiful, perfect child she had ever seen. She supposed every mother thought that about her child, but she truly thought that her newborn son was the most perfect thing in the world. Never had she felt such a love in her life. She loved him more than her own life, and from the first moment she set eyes on him, she knew all the pain she had just been through, and all the pain of the last nine months, was worth it. And that she would do it all over again. She would do anything to protect her son.
He squirmed in her arms, but only to settle himself down. She smiled, and a tear dropped down onto his cheek. She placed a hand on his small head of black hair. Her tears flowed harder as she grasped a single blonde lock between her thumb and index fingers. It was this though – this one little blonde lock of hair that sealed her fate and was the cause of her tears. Even though she thought he was perfect, and that he looked beautiful with his head of black hair complimented by a single blonde lock, that blonde lock sealed their fate.
Had he had a peachy lock of hair, like her own hair, they could have survived. But by some miracle, a cursed miracle, he had gained his true father's hair, and she knew that in time that single blonde lock would turn silver, just like his father's had. Still, despite their circumstances, she felt such love towards this child and loved his physical quirk.
She leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on his forehead. "You are so loved, Sanyu. I love you with all my being, and I know your father would love you just as much. He would think you are the most perfect thing, just as I do." She touched his cheek with her index finger, and the newborn opened his eyes. The sadness in her heart only grew and she could help the sobs as she looked down at him. He did not have the onyx eyes of Uchiha. Instead, he held onyx in his left eye, and his right was the same red as Tobirama.
When he closed his eyes and fell back asleep, she held him against her chest and sobbed. His quirks, his physical imperfections that Madara thought were a monstrosity, were, to her, a miracle and the most beautiful thing she had seen.
"Are you done?"
She held her child tighter to her chest as that deep voice hit her ears – a voice that was once kind to her now held a harshness and hatred that made her flinch. She glanced up at him and turned away. "You can't have him." Her voice cracked at the end, her emotions getting the better of her.
His glare intensified, and she found his sharingan upon her. "You know the deal, Yukari. Besides, you are in no condition and I don't want to go back on this. This child is not an Uchiha. It's a disgrace."
She met his sharingan with one of her own, her rage taking over her being. "You will not have him, Madara! You can't! He's my child! Sanyu is my son!"
Madara sneered at her and she found him at her bedside, bearing down on her. "You named him? How dare you!" her head went sideways, though she was quick to react as she felt her child taken from her and found Madara holding the bundle in his arms. "Please! Madara! I'm begging you! PLEASE!?"
His eyes went from her, to the newborn child he held in his arms. Her heart was in her mouth as she watched him. When he moved to leave, she grabbed his sleeve. "I can take him and leave, Madara. I don't care what you tell them – tell them I died after childbirth for all I care! But please, don't take him from me. I'll even give you my eyes!"
Her pleas reached him, for he turned and looked down at her pitiful shape. "And why should I? Why should I let you and this child live?"
She gritted her teeth and held her arms out for her child. "Izuna wouldn't want you to kill me. You know he would hate you if you killed me, no matter what I've done since he died. He would never forgive you if you killed me or this innocent newborn that is my own." Madara looked at her, his expression giving nothing away. "When Tobirama finds I have passed from birth complications, and my child from complications as well, it will tear him apart. That's what you want, isn't it?"
It was a minute that felt like an hour. Finally, Madara placed the child in her arms and stepped away from her. "You have an hour to get up and get out of here. I can fake your death, make it look like you and your child have died. But you must never return here or tell anyone where you come from, and that includes what clan you belong to. You are no longer an Uchiha. You can keep your eyes – I don't want anything that belonged to such a disgrace. And you are not to speak of anything that has transpired."
Tears of joy flooded down her face and smile came to her lips. She found him – the old Madara. She found the man she use to know. "Thank you, Madara-sama."
He glared menacingly at her. "Get out."
As soon as he left, no matter how difficult it was for her, she stood and slid into a pair of black sandals. She didn't bother grabbing any belongings, except her satchel and in it was some money to help her start out. Her newborn son was all she really needed.
When she left the room, Madara was waiting for her. "I'll get you to the outskirts so they can't trace your chakra. Anything else? You can never come back."
She thought for a moment and nodded. "Actually, two things."
A half hour later, Yukari found herself on the outskirts of the village in the dead of night. All she could think about was Tobirama and how much she loved him. She loved him so much it hurt her chest to think about him. All they had been through together, and all she had put him through. She hoped he knew that she still loved him. Maybe one day, one day when Madara was gone, she could return to this place and tell Tobirama everything. Deep down though, she knew that wouldn't happen. Deep down, she hoped he would find another and start a family, even though it hurt her to think such things. "Tobirama…"
There was a rustle in front of her, and she clutched Sanyu to tighter to her chest. From the bushes emerged two figures, exactly as she requested. "Kaoru! Misaki!"
The two women came towards her and gave her side hugs. "So this is the plan? It all worked out in your favor?" Kaoru, an Uzumaki woman with bright blue eyes and shoulder length bright red hair spoke, holding her own child to her chest. Yukari nodded. "He took my offer. I had to try."
Misaki, a Senju with light purple, mid-back length hair stepped forward, a bruise on her cheek and quite pregnant. Next to her was her three-year-old son. "So this is it then? We start new lives? Are you sure, Yukari?"
Yukari looked towards the village lights. She thought of Tobirama and all the memories they shared together, all the memories they had made. Then, she looked down at Sanyu. "It's not safe here. Madara will kill Sanyu and I if we stay, and I will not start a war by telling Tobirama. Kaoru, you have nothing left here. Your family has disowned you since you had a child out of wedlock," Kaoru nodded sadly, though Yukari knew very well it wasn't her fault she was taken advantage of, "And Misaki, your husband is abusive to you and your son. I see nothing left here."
They three women looked at each other, a silent understanding between them. Since none of them could go very fast, except Kaoru, they knew they would be spending the entire night walking to get to the next town. They were three misfits without a place to call home. Three misfits who were abused and wanting a new life. And as much as all of them wanted to return to the village they called home, they knew what awaited them back there was not worth staying another second.
OoO
It was exciting, for Tobirama at least. He didn't know why he was so excited to see Yukari and her newborn, but he was. When they arrived to her and Madara's home, the door was not immediately answered. When it was, a short woman with a sad, distant look on her face answered the door. "Hashirama-sama, I was just coming to get you and Mito-sama."
Tobirama looked between them. Hashirama looked down and smiled. "Well, good thing we came. What's going on?"
Tears came to the woman's eyes as she turned around. "This way, Hashirama-sama."
A sinking feeling filled Tobirama's stomach. Something didn't feel right in this house. Not only did it feel wrong, but he could smell it – death. Something was not right, and he could tell his brother and Mito thought the same thing.
They were stopped in front of a door, a door that reeked of blood. Was that normal? The alarmed look on Mito's face told him it was not. The woman opened the door, and they stepped inside. Hashirama was first, then Mito, and finally, when it came Tobirama's turn, Hashirama put his arm out, blocking his path. "What the hell? Let me-" As he pushed his brother's arm down, he saw what he was trying to keep him from.
An intense pain, one that felt more physical than emotional, spread from his chest to the rest of his body as he looked on at the scene before him. Madara was kneeling beside the futon, his head hung low, and beside him lay a body – a body Tobirama knew all too well. Only her face remained uncovered, and even then she didn't look peaceful – she looked exhausted. "No." He went to the foot of the futon and fell to his knees. "No…NO!" He gripped the sheets near her feet. He was not one to cry, and it took all his willpower to not shed a tear in front of Madara. She was gone. There was no life left in her body.
"She died not long after the birth. There was internal hemorrhaging, and the baby…" Tobirama squeezed his eyes shut. "The baby had a problem with his heart. Neither of them made it." Madara gripped her lifeless hand tightly between his, and Tobirama knew what the woman said to be true. He felt as if his heart had been ripped in half, and that didn't explain half of it. He felt loss in more than one way. "YUKARI!"
OoO
And now to decide if I should turn this into full story, and actually give you an beginning, a middle, and an end. Because it's not over right here, I promise. Thoughts?
