Hashirama
Being Normal
I was hammered in like five seconds. There was no other way to go about it. When Mito said 'funkadelic', I thought, you know, a beer or two, maybe a bong, something normal, something human. But she had me on basically every different type of mix of liquor her and the rest of them could THINK of.
"I JUST WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT!" A song blared. "AND PARTY EVERYDAY!"
But I had to admit that I was feeling pretty good. And the house was packed full of people just as hammered as I was within like another five seconds. It was like the whole damn town had heard about it. Which is why, I was wearing hat and sunglasses and stayed in the kitchen as much as possible. Mito stayed with me.
"I can understand if there are some people you don't want to run into, really, I get it."
But she didn't really get it. How could I explain to her that it was the whole damn TOWN I didn't want to run into.
"We could go for some more privacy if that'd make you feel better." She said.
I nodded and we walked by the table with all the booze on it and she snagged a liquor bottle on our way toward the stairs. Koharu whistled at us as we walked up the stairs and Homura and Onoki frowned.
"Come on, really?!" Onoki asked. "I've been trying to win her over for almost a year now!"
Homura shook his head.
"He wasn't even trying either."
Mito stuck her tongue out at them and grabbed my hand, pulling me further up the steps.
"So, how are you feeling?"
"Like these stairs are going to kill me." I joked.
She laughed.
"I think the stairs should give you a break at this point." She said.
I smirked. She opened the door to the first room we walked past and pushed it open. I walked toward the mirror and pulled the sunglasses off my face.
"I look like I'm dying." I said, poking at my bruises.
"Leave it alone." She said, slapping my hand away.
Then, mischievous grin crossing her face, she grabbed my sunglasses and began examining them. My reaction time was way too slow to stop her. Everything was moving pretty slow, actually.
"So are you gonna tell me why you seem so protective over these sunglasses?"
"Protective?" I repeated. "I'm n-not..."
She gave me a serious look.
"I'm not an idiot, Hashi."
I blinked, oddly not remembering why I hadn't told her the truth before.
"Uhm... Madara gave them to me."
"That Madara kid again? Who is he?" She asked me.
"He's a new friend."
She gave me a wry look.
"You little booger." She said, shoving me playfully. "I thought you said you didn't have any new friends."
But my balance was so bad that I stumbled backwards more steps than I should've and collapsed onto the bed in the room, knocking the liquor bottle over on my shoes in the process.
"Sorry." I said sheepishly.
She set the sunglasses back on the dresser and walked over to me.
"So, is he the same guy that you think beat you up?" She asked me.
I shook my head back and forth hard. Too hard. Suddenly, everything was spinning.
"N-No." I told her. "It... It was probably his little brother."
She gave me a weird look.
"Huh?" She asked.
"His little brother's probably hates me. Like... Like everyone else."
She smiled, flopping down onto the bed next to me.
"Oh, Hashi... Not everyone hates you."
I turned my head on the silk, black and red sheets, and looked at her.
"Y-You're doing a good job at lying to me."
She grinned.
"I'm serious... For one, I don't hate you." She said, tapping my nose. "Actually, I really, really like you."
"Yeah?"
"Well, I'd like you better if you could tell me what those assholes that did this to you look like."
I blinked and answered unquestioningly.
"Green." I said to her. "They were all in...green."
I saw something pass over her eyes before she looked back up at the ceiling. I wasn't sure what it was but when she turned back to me, she was grinning again.
"...I always had a really bad crush on you, you know?" She confessed.
It felt random to me so I didn't know what to say. I mean, just imagine someone on the street walking up to you and saying that. I know it's out of context but still.
"Groovy." I replied.
She poked me playfully.
"I'm serious, Hashi." She said, rolling over so that she was closer to me. "Ever since we were little kids."
Watching her, I couldn't really find a reason to think she was lying. Why should she?
"Did you ever feel like that toward me?"
And that was a lot to handle. I immediately started struggling with how to answer. I knew what she wanted me to say, what my step mother wanted me to say, hell, what God in heaven probably wanted me to say... But it was so, so freaking different from what I really wanted to say.
She reached over, touching my face softly.
"Did you?" She repeated.
I found myself nodding and offering her a smile.
I was supposed to change, so I had to immerse myself in that change, and close my eyes and ears to any other thoughts or it'd never work. I...couldn't be what I wanted anymore.
She propped herself up on her forearm and then reached for me, turning my head at the perfect angle for her lips to meet mine. Which they did. I tried to lay there, raise my hands, stroke her hair, run my fingertips down to her waist, hold her against me. But every single second that passed felt...wrong.
"Why are you so stiff?" She asked, leaning up.
I just felt so damn awkward about the whole thing. All I could do was sit up and shrug.
"Am I doing something wrong?" She asked.
"No, it's just... I just feel kind of dizzy." I mumbled.
"Well, let's help you feel less dizzy."
Her hands slipped under my shirt. The shirt she picked out for me, a dark purple button down with green stripes. As she unbuttoned it and pulled it off me, her hands went for the bright yellow t-shirt I was wearing underneath with a dark green smiley face on it. When she pulled that off and over my head and my chest was bare, her lips went back for mine. And she grabbed my hands. I wasn't sure what she wanted me to do with them until she pulled my hands under her shirt and onto what was underneath.
A guy's wildest dream, really, having permission to touch a chick's boobs. For some guys, even a once in a lifetime opportunity. And as I kept my hands there, I tried to keep reminding myself that. Concentrating on the hardening of her nipples under my fingertips, and the hurried breath. Going over it again and again in my head. Telling myself that I had to let it happen. That I had to try. But even as her hands lowered to my dark green board shorts, zipping them down, I couldn't help but compare every single motion she made to the ones I'd already made earlier... With Madara. And once I thought about him for a second, I couldn't help but keep thinking about him. And my body begged for his hands and not hers. And I found my hands peeling back from her chest and...pulling away from her.
Her eyes rose to mine. I looked away.
"I just... I just don't really feel..."
But as I spoke, her hand was still where it was going, in my shorts, and as she felt what was there, or more specifically what wasn't, she gave me a look I couldn't decipher.
"Hashi... I thought you said you felt that way about me, too."
I scratched my hair, still unable to look her in the eyes.
"Wait a second..." she whispered. "Don't tell me that..."
I played with my fingers. My brain couldn't go over what she might be thinking. What she might be about to accuse me of. I felt a really strong urge to cover my ears but I sat there as she went on.
"I mean, when everyone all over town was saying it, I told them they were fucking insane. But..." She grabbed my chin, turning it toward her. "You're really a faggot, aren't you?"
I stared at her. She started at me.
And then suddenly, the door broke open. Startled, Mito jumped away from me. The person stumbled in and then looked around.
"Oh, shit... I thought this was... This isn't the bathroom?"
Of all people to walk in on one of the worst moments of my life, of course it would be him. Damn liar. He knew this wasn't the bathroom. Mito and I both stared at our intruder and then looked at each other. Very quickly, Mito's eyes fell away from mine. She stood up. I stayed seated.
"I want you to change, Hashirama." She said to me, before walking past him and slamming the door closed behind her.
I lowered my head again. It was then that I understood the expression on her face from before. It was a look of pure disgust...
I was disgusting to her. I was a disgusting to everyone. What I wanted. What I thought. What I felt. It was all so unorthodox, I might as well have been spending my time fucking giraffes and penguins.
"...Are you okay?"
I looked up at him, standing there wearing a white golf polo with blue jeans and his classic bright blue Nike Blazers.
"Hashirama?"
And it was then, as I realized that deep inside, I was much happier to see him than I had been about anything else that day, that I understood. I was a queer. And I couldn't change. I'd never change. And because of that... I was going to suffer... And my family would suffer... And he would suffer... Forever.
I gripped my hair. My memories started to force themselves back on me like I was having some kind of mental back-up. The looks and glares people gave me at school, the words on my locker, the 'suggestions' teachers gave to separate me from the rest of the class...
I squeezed my eyes shut. Gym teachers not allowing me in the locker room, F's on my homework for no reason at all, my stuff constantly getting stolen...
And I could've stopped all that. I could've if I'd just...with Mito... But instead... I was stuck. Stuck in a world where I could be jumped and beaten at a moment's notice and my brothers' would be in danger because of me and my stepmother could slap me and give me that look... That look they all give me.
But when I realized that I was stuck. And that it couldn't lie to myself anymore. I couldn't smile and grin and tell a joke and pretend it didn't bother me. I couldn't escape. There was...a sort of snap inside me. The breath I drew in was hoarse and shaky. And, as the everything hung over me only feeling heavier and heavier, my eyes ached and wetness collected there and spilled down my cheeks in waves...creating spots like raindrops on my board shorts.
"Hey... Hashi..."
"I really tried, Mada." I told him.
It wasn't until I spoke that I realized how I sounded.
"What the hell are you cryin' for?"
Normally, you'd expect someone crying rivers to sound all thick and blubbery but... I couldn't hear anything in my voice except hollow emptiness.
He stood over me and rose his hand, pulling my hair back off of my forehead.
"I... I couldn't do it." I said, finally looking up at him.
He looked down at me for a moment, just watching me, hand in my hair. And then he knelt on the bed next to me, leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, lips soaking in my tears.
"Mada, q-quit it... Y-You're gonna make everything worse-er..."
He nudged my head back.
"Are you drunk?" He asked me, grabbing my chin.
I pulled away from him.
"T-That's not the puh-point..."
He rolled his eyes.
"So the fact that there's enough alcohol in you to start a car has nothing to do with why you're crying?"
I lowered my head again. Another tear fell from my eyelash. I watched as it splashed on my shorts and tried to collected my words better.
"I tried to like her, I really did but..." I swallowed, looking back up at him. "Madara... Maybe there really is something wrong with me..."
I hadn't finished speaking for a second before he moved back against me, pressing his lips onto my mouth. I was startled but much, much too excited to stop him. Excited... Excited like the way Mito wanted. What she was looking for in my shorts and didn't find... Suddenly it was there. And with hardly any effort on Madara's part. There wasn't any way I could stop it.
"There's nothing wrong with you." He whispered.
I shuddered, feeling his breath against my ear. But it didn't change what I thought I knew. What I thought he wanted from me.
"...Then why did you leave me?" I asked him.
"I don't know..." He mumbled.
"You don't know?" I repeated.
He sighed, standing up.
"Yeah, okay? I... I was just being an idiot." He shook his head. "I thought if I left you alone and just went back with the guys, it'd turn everything back to the way it was before. No harm done."
No harm done? I guess he's never rolled down eight sets of stairs.
"But it was bogus. The whole time I was thinking that, I didn't realize it would only really protect me and not you. Actually... I didn't even think about you when I made that decision. And it ended up with you getting picked on and stuff... Just 'cause I was selfish."
It was a real triple decker head turner to see a guy like him admitting to being selfish. Honestly, I thought I drank myself all the way down to queer hell.
He slid his hands into his pockets and eyed the carpet.
"I came here to tell you that... I'm... I'm really, really sorry, Hashi." He said quietly. "I wanted to tell you that... And I wanted that to be it, but..."
His ears turned bright red, giving me a fond memory.
"But seeing that Mito chick all over you..." He hesitated. "It made me realize... I can't let that be the end of it. I want to see you again. Because I..."
The redness on his ears began to stretch toward his cheeks.
"I really, really like you."
By that point, I was like 'Yup, I definitely died and went to queer hell'. I mean, that's insane. There wasn't any way on Earth Madara Uchiha would ever admit that he had a thing for me.
It was silent for a beat. I stared at him, feeling the vibration from the blasting music below my feet.
But he was still looking at the floor, and his cheeks and ears were still red and he was still awkwardly standing there with his hands in his pockets. And it made me feel, deep inside me almost all the way to the pit of my being, that he was telling the truth.
"I forgive you." I said to him.
But there was no need to confab about that, I had forgiven him the moment that he'd done it. What I was really interested in was something deeper.
"But...are you sure?" I asked him.
I was hoping he clearly understood everything that he was agreeing to.
"...Are you sure you actually like me enough to handle all of this?" I asked.
He was silent for a moment. It seemed like he was trying to think of how to respond.
"It's...hell out there, Madara." I went on. "Hell outside of these doors if you really decide to do what you're thinking... Everyone... Everyone's going to think you're a freak."
He lifted his head.
"I don't care about any of that." He said.
I stared at him. He stared back at me.
"You don't understand Hashirama... I..." He rubbed his hands on his jeans. "I... I can't live without you."
He ran his hands through his hair then, shifting his weight from one foot to the other in a pacing sort of way.
"Back then... When we were at the beach and...you kissed me..."
"You called me a queer." I said, nodding. "I remember."
"Yeah but...no. No, okay?"
He sighed, finally choosing to look at me directly.
"I just said that because... I don't know... I didn't really know how to react but..." His expression turned open and honest, like all the way back then. "I was really thinking that I... I never wanted to kiss anyone else ever again... Except you."
He hesitated again, seeming to try to pull strength to say the next thing. Admit whatever it was...
"I... I love you."
With that confession, I felt my own cheeks warming. And I also found myself wondering when I had that moment, that epiphany, that realization that... I really just wanted to be with Madara and no one else. On the inside, I started smiling...because, I never felt that moment. Since the second I met him, I'd known that, for me, there was just something about him... Something about him that I couldn't get enough of. Even before it was romantically affectionate, it was there. I'd always known I loved him...even before I knew him.
He walked toward me and slowly extended his hand to me.
"If...you love me back, then let's ride this out...together."
His expression looked uncertain. Like he thought I could've easily have shined him off. If he was thinking that, he really was an idiot. Because... There was no way. My hand was reaching for his the moment he extended it.
When he grabbed it steadily, I put my arms around him hugging him, and he folded into my chest, curling up like an innocent, harmless kitten.
When I let him go, he grabbed my shirt and threw it over his shoulder.
"Wait." I said.
I walked over to the dresser, finding the sunglasses he gave me and enjoying the soft smile playing at his lips as I fitted them over my hair. But as I paused next to the dresser, a framed photograph caught my attention. I picked it up, raising it to Madara.
It was a picture of a red haired man with his hands on the shoulders of a little girl, clearly Mito. But the man.
"Is that Mr. Uzumaki like ten years ago?" Madara asked.
It sure was. All this time, her Dad was our freaking asshole Civics teacher. Something bugged me about that. But I didn't have time to think about what it was. All I could really think about was how that meant I'd just kissed Madara on our teacher's bed...
I looked up at Madara, it looked like he was thinking the same thing.
"Fate's a bitch." I said at the same time he said "Let's get the fuck out of here."
He opened the door.
The music was still playing and everything, some KISS song, and people were dancing and drinking but the moment our shoes hit the steps, the moment our essence filled the room, the moment their eyes reached ours. It was like a bomb went off.
Honestly, I don't think Hiroshima and Nagasaki could look much different.
It might've been the fact that my shirt was off, or our interlocked hands, or maybe something more subtle, like our eyes, our expressions, the looks we gave people daring them to walk up and say anything so we could promptly bash their faces into the wall that kept them at bay and just whispering and staring.
Whispering and staring used to bother me more than being beaten. But with Madara next to me... It was nothing more than side distraction. He was the main attraction.
Mito and Onoki and the rest stood near the door, their disgusted expressions might stay with me until the day I die but it didn't stop me from staring Mito down where she blocked the door until she moved to the side and let us leave. Even though earlier, when I had been crying I really wanted to apologize to her, I didn't even slightly feel that way then. The only thing I was even remotely sorry for was wasting her time. I wasn't really feeling much empathy or concern for anything. I could feel myself changing. My positions realigning. My thoughts transferring.
"Madara." I said.
He looked over at me as we walked, with our hands in each other. The wind blew across my face whipping any leftover tear residue.
"Remember when I said I can't 'practice what I preach'?"
He nodded.
"Everything's changing now... Everyone's becoming people like that. People that can't...stick to what they really want to believe in."
Like Mito and the rest.
"So, I'm going to be the positivity. The love everyone can find a home in. The sun everyone can look up to."
He gazed at me for a long moment and then shrugged.
"Alright. I'll join you."
I smiled.
"You do realize that means you're going to be a hippie, right?"
He shrugged again.
"Eh, with you homeless and me a social pariah, it's a wonder we aren't already hippies."
I blinked.
"Wait, homeless?" I asked him. "Since when am I-"
He shook his head.
"Don't ask. Just know that you're sleeping over my house."
"What happened?" I asked, eyebrows raising.
"You're just never going to be able to go home again."
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" I exclaimed as Madara laughed at me.
"Your binder happened." He replied.
I thought for a moment then shook my head, slowly raising my hand to scratch my hair sheepishly.
"Yeahhhh...everything makes sense now."
"I don't even know why you thought 'under your pillow' was a good hiding place."
"Hey, how was I supposed to know!?" I yelled as he laughed.
Madara
And Later That Night...
They snuck up on me. Probably because with his hand in mine and his head leaning on my shoulder the way it was, I was almost completely oblivious to the world around me. But when his hand tightened, I sensed his emotion and, like some weird soul connection or something, both of our heads turned around at the same time.
...And we came face to face with the barrel of a gun.
Honestly, I'm so motherfucking tired of people pointing motherfucking weapons in my MOTHERFUCKING FACE!
My hand twitched, I was reaching, about to snatch the gun away and kick the shit out whoever was holding it but two people jumped on me from the side, pulling me to the ground. Hashirama's shirts slipped from my fingers and fluttered to the dirt.
"Sit on him! Come on!" One of them shouted as my back slammed against the concrete.
The person holding the gun turned and pointed it at Hashirama. But what the hell was I saying person for, I knew exactly who it was.
"Fuck! Danzo!" I shouted.
"Miss us?" asked the one sitting on my chest.
He rose his hockey mask to show me his face but it was clear as day it was Kagami meaning the one holding my hands down was Hiruzen.
"How the FUCK could I miss you when it's been barely a FUCKING week!?"
"Dude, wash your mouth out." Kagami joked.
"Get the FUCK off me!"
"Don't worry, Madara. We're not here to make any trouble."
But my eyes weren't on jokester Kagami and oblivious Hiruzen. They were on Danzo, who had lifted his mask up and wasn't taking his eyes off Hashirama. I didn't like the look in his eyes.
"What's your damage?" Hashirama asked him.
"What's your damage?" He replied.
Hashirama shrugged.
"Well, I'm just trying to get home. But it seems like you have a problem with that."
Danzo glared at him.
"I'm just trying to get my team back together. But it seems like you have a problem with that."
Hashirama glanced at me.
Shit... I still haven't told him. We have to get the upper hand in this situation fast...
"If there's anything I have a problem with it's using kids to do your dirty work."
My ears perked at that.
Kids?
"I'm not blind. I can tell those two over there are the same ones from this morning that was with the kid."
Danzo stared at him for a moment and shrugged.
"I don't know who you're talking about."
Hashirama turned his eyes to Kagami and Hiruzen.
"I know you guys do." He said. "You remember what I said, don't you?"
Their eyes lifted from mine. They looked at Hashirama.
"Who's more likely to hurt him?"
While they were looking up, Hashirama's eyes briefly flicked down to mine and he gave me a meaningful look. I was almost just as distracted by what he was saying as they were, to the point I almost didn't notice a perfect opportunity to kick ass when I had one.
"HEY!" Danzo shouted, attracting their attention. "He's just trying to distract-"
But I'd already forced my hands out of Hiruzen's grip, whose strength mostly lay in his head and not his arms, grabbed him under the shoulders and pulled him over me, into Kagami who was sitting on my chest. The result was a substantial headache and as Hiruzen backed off of me, holding his head, I grabbed Kagami around the neck and leaned backwards, forcing him into a headlock.
"Touch me and he won't breathe again." I said, eyes dead set on Hiruzen's.
He paused, unsure, as Kagami flopped around, trying to get away from me.
"Think about it." Hashirama went on, looking at Hiruzen.
Hiruzen slowly turned his eyes to Danzo.
"...We didn't need to use Izuna, you know." He told him.
Izuna?! What are they talking about...?
"But you used him on purpose. You knew he was angry enough to really hurt someone... Did you plan it like this all along?"
"Shut up!" Danzo shouted. "Just do what I say I know what I'm doing!"
"I want to protect Izuna... And Madara, I'd never try to-"
"That's because you're a freaking faggot!" Danzo interrupted.
He finally lowered his gun, slipping it into his back pocket.
"And I don't need anything to deal with someone like you."
As he started for Hashirama, I could only really smile.
No one really knows this except me and maybe his younger brother's but...
Danzo grabbed his arms and I could already see the muscles in Hashirama's arms beginning to flex and pull up out of his grip.
Hashirama's even stronger than I am.
He pulled back from Danzo easily and then, as Danzo tried to grab his waist and tackle him to the ground, Hashirama dodged him and tripped him, side-stepping his fall to the ground.
"What happened to Izuna?" Hashirama asked, directing his attention to Hiruzen again.
I shoved Kagami, who still hadn't been able to get out of my hold, off me and got up as he responded.
"He was pissed after everything and... He ended up robbing a store. We didn't get into all that so we waited for him outside but they had a camera with him on footage."
"Where is my brother?" I asked, walking toward him.
Hiruzen put his hands up, backing away from me.
"He's fine. He's at home. He quit after Danzo came. He said he didn't want to do it anymore and because you peeled out too, he doesn't have to."
Hashirama cocked his head.
"But what about the cameras?"
"That's where I come in, asshole." Danzo said, getting to his feet.
We all turned to him, reluctantly for the most part.
He's like a child we have to entertain...
"I have the footage of your kid brother being an idiot." Danzo said. "And he should go to jail for what he did."
I walked toward him, really, really ready to finally just crack his goddamn head open.
"We're officers, Madara. Not freaking criminals." Danzo said. "So I should do the right thing."
"I'm done doing these fucking deals with you Danzo." I told him. "You can kiss my ass."
"I know you're done." Danzo said, then his eyes flicked toward Hashirama. "But you wouldn't want an innocent kid like that getting locked up just because his big brother's getting plowed by a faggot."
My reaction was immediate. I was really going to punch his lights out but very surprisingly...
Danzo's stumbled back, tripping over his brown and white checkered Vans and hitting his back on the cobbled sidewalk after Hashirama pretty much right jabbed the hell out of him.
Hashirama turned to me, rolling his eyes and shaking his fist out.
"Are you ready to go?" he asked me, picking his shirts up.
The smile that stretched across my face probably won't ever be able to be matched in life.
This guy...
"Hell yeah." I replied.
Kagami and Hiruzen made their way over to Danzo as we walked away.
"Shit!" Kagami said, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a snicker. "Dude, you got fucked up!"
Danzo held his eye, which was probably going to turn into a pretty mean shiner later, and sat up.
"You have until one in the morning, you piece of shit!" He shouted. "One in the morning!"
Yeah, whatever... Kiss my ass.
Hashirama was looking at me closely.
"Are you going?"
"Of course not." I replied. "Danzo's all talk. He knows full and well that if he outs Izuna, he'll be calling in a world of ass kicking I'll give him."
Hashirama nodded saying nothing.
"And anyway, weren't you just talking about being all positivity and shit?" I asked.
He grinned.
"That was positivity. If I had let you get a hold of him, God knows what you would've done..."
-Thirty Minutes Later-
Hashirama was sitting on my bed next to me watching my guitar closely. My fingers went across the strings, playing a slow, serene sounding song after he practically begged me to remember my promise. My lips parted, I thought I'd feel embarrassed about singing in front of him but as I watched his eyes, I realized there was nothing I could really keep from him anymore.
[ Imagine there's no countries.
It's isn't hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for. ]
Strangely, as I said that, I thought of Tsubasa. And the way Hashirama touched his sunglasses made me feel that he had to.
[ And no religions too. ]
Hashirama ran his hand through his hair.
[ Imagine all the people. ]
He sang, eyes slowly rising to mine.
[ Living life in peace. ]
[ You may say I'm a dreamer. ]
[ But I'm not the only one. ]
I watched the smile cut at his lips.
[ I hope someday you'll join us. ]
[ And the world will be as one. ]
He reached over sliding his hand into my hair and pulling himself closer to me.
"You sing like an angel."
"Where's the punchline?" I asked him.
He shook his head.
"I could die listening to your voice."
I rolled my eyes.
"Each performance costs twenty bucks. I take cash and credit."
He laughed as I got up and walked near the door where I usually stashed my guitar. We were silent for a while. He got up and nudged a hockey mask on the floor with his foot.
"So, I'm still kind of confused, you created the whole Vigilante Misfit thing, right?" He asked me.
"Pretty much."
"So... What the hell is Danzo jiving about?" He asked, cracking my old toy box open.
"He thinks it's his now, because I basically stepped down."
I'd explained the entire thing to Hashirama while we walked home. From beginning to end. I was so tired to keeping things from him.
"So he's a power hungry kind of guy, huh?"
"He's an idiot." I corrected.
Hashirama laughed.
"Yeah, because power hungry would be too similar to you, right?"
I gave him a look.
"What the hell does that mean?" I asked him.
"That if you didn't pick me over them, you'd be the kind of guy that would want to have the world in their hands." He said, showing me his palm and then squashing it. "You're naturally like that."
Yeah, right... If anything, that's my father...
"And what about you?" I asked, walking up to him. "If you picked that Mito chick over me, you wouldn't be all positivity and shit now, would you?"
He cocked his head.
"Probably not. I'd probably be doing something similar to what you're doing. Throwing everyone and anyone under the bus for my own sense of justice and freedom." He poked me. "I guess that means we're really good for each other."
"Or that life style was what our destinies truly were and we're really bad for each other." I pointed out.
He looked at me for a second and then, very impulsively, stepped over and kissed me lightly on the lips. When he pulled back, it wasn't too far, just enough to whisper in my ear.
"There can't be anything bad about how this feels."
His hands came up and pulled my hair back off of my face. As my eyes lowered over his bare chest and his dark green shorts tied loosely and hanging just barely off of his hips, his ran down from my ear, inching along toward my lips.
"Let's do it." He whispered, breath raising almost every hair on my body.
Good God...
I found myself running on impulses, too. My hands rose, finding the loop in his shorts and pulling him to me. Then, with the front of his body pressed up against mine, my hands circled around to his back and lowered into his pants, grabbing handfuls of what was there.
I want to go as far as there is to go with him.
My tongue was already sliding out of my mouth as he prepared to kiss me. And he opened his mouth slightly, eager to let me have what I wanted.
I almost feel like I'll die if I don't.
We kissed with Hashirama's fingers periodically squeezing between us and touching all over the front of my jeans and my hands continuously taking the liberty of exploring his chest and squeezing his ass.
There's no way I can hold back now...
I pulled him back against me and walked him over to my bed where he collapsed onto it and I pressed him down in the sheets.
"Jesus, this is getting serious." He said with his classic smile.
I paused.
"We don't have to go too far." I told him
Yes we do. And I'm not going to stop either.
He smiled mock innocently.
"Good because I'm just so scared." He joked, then he nudged me. "Stop acting like such a virgin."
This motherfucker...
My expression exploded into disbelief.
"You asshole, you're a virgin!" I retorted.
"Yeah, but at least I don't act like one!"
See, this is why I don't ask him things.
I pushed him down further with deliberate force but my force turned tender as I continued kissing him in the bed. It wasn't long until I was almost shuddering with the feeling of his hands all over me. My tongue was eager, I tasted him over and over.
His hands which were playing at my jeans, slid upward to my chest and lifted my shirt off my head with ease. After he did, my fingers grazed his chest, going over every inch, every morsel of skin, every tender, pale portion there. From his neck, to his belt line. Oddly, he blushed slightly. I gave him a questioning look.
"Your hands are all over me." He said, laughing.
Because touching you drives me crazy...
I was surprised he hadn't commented on how hard I was probably feeling against him. Then again, he could've been twice as hard as I was and didn't notice.
"Just do whatever feels right." He clarified.
"A lot of things feel right!" I retorted.
"Dude, just pick one!"
I rolled my eyes and ducked my head, lowering my lips from his cheek to his neck and sucked there, creating little marks.
"Ahh... Oh wow..."
I lifted my head, smirking at him.
"You now have permission to make weird sounds in my bed."
He laughed.
"Your Mom still asking for the radio station?"
"Yes." I muttered.
"Stellar."
My lips continued traveling from his neck and when I found that softer area of skin, poking out and presenting itself, I couldn't help but part my lips over it and meet it with my tongue. His nipple promptly hardened and he shifted under me, taking in a big breath of air and sliding his hands up my back.
"Mmm..." he moaned.
That must feel really right to him.
I let my lips travel down further in slow little paces all the way down to his belt line. Just as I was about to get his shorts off, he stopped me.
"Wait... You first."
I raised my eyebrows.
"...Why?" I asked, motioned to the obvious bump in his shorts. "You're clearly ready."
He grabbed my arms pulling me back up and over him.
"Because I can hold out longer than you." He said, grinning.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
"Dude, you're leaking right now." He grabbed my crotch, touching where it was damp on my jeans.
I blushed vibrantly.
"That's not even..."
But he ignored me and rolled over, pushing me down and I reluctantly let him get me into the position he was in and get over top of me. Strangely, as he did, he became more serious than he had been that entire moment.
"Just let me do everything from here on out."
That's funny... Seeing as though he's taken a backseat in our relationship as of late.
He slid his fingers up my inner thighs and up to my zipper.
"You're the one with the 'control-freak' problem." I remarked.
He unbuttoned my jeans and zipped them down.
"Don't bite the hand that feeds you." He said, giving me a humorous look. "I could just let you suffer."
But he didn't. He took his time slowly pulling my jeans off and then lowered my underwear and I could literally feel every hair raising, every blood cell running, every beat of my heart as his lips inched closer to my incredibly hard and leaking chubby and finally made contact.
My hands flexed, I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I gripped the sheets and his spare hand, driving up the inner part of my thigh to help him keep balance, was driving me crazier than his tongue... His tongue... Going around and around it and then finally bearing down and sucking. I honestly would've came right then, literally only five seconds in, if I wasn't trying to hold out.
But my breathing rate was going crazy and the tremors going up and down my spine were constant. And then his eyes flicked up, and they were so deep and warm and brown and I couldn't help it...
I'm so in love with him.
That time it was unstoppable.
So ridiculously and stupidly fucking in love with him.
My lips parted, if anything came out, I couldn't tell. I wasn't really in charge of my vocals, or any other part of my body for that matter, so I wasn't able to stop it. But as Hashirama backed off, having caught most of what came out of me, he gave me a wide smile.
"I didn't know you were a screamer." He said.
I slowly brought my eyes down from where they were on the ceiling.
"It's not, like, bad or anything..." He told me. "It was actually...really cute."
Cute?
"Please..." I mumbled.
He laughed and then nudged me.
"It's my turn now but... I wanna do something different." He said.
I gave him a curious look as he got me to roll over and positioned his hands on my waist.
I know what this is...
"Wait... Is this the real reason why you let me go first?"
"Shhhh." He whispered. "Don't think too hard."
"You're such a friggin' jerk..." I muttered.
But I stopped complaining as he lowered my underwear in the back and went about taking his own shorts off. He leaned up on me and I felt his fingers pushing into my underwear. I didn't question him as he pressed his fingers inside, most likely as a widening technique, though I did mutter a few curse words.
He's lucky I'm not that power-hungry person anymore...
Even though I'd drop dead before being vulnerable in front of any person that way, literally bending over for them, I didn't blink twice before I did it for him.
He's lucky I feel this way about him...
And when his hips dug into me and he started thrusting into me, even though it felt uncomfortable and even tinging on painful at some points the fact that the hands on my waist were his and the hurried breath at my ear was his and the bare chest on my back was his filled my mind.
He's so lucky...
"Ahh... Mada... This feels great."
And even though it was clear as day to us and everyone in the whole damn world that we were into each other, that phrase still had me feeling hot in the face. His hands slid up my chest and his lips pressed against my upper neck. I put my hands over his, revealing in his moaning.
"Jesus Christ..." he whispered.
I kept my body steady bent over the bed as he held me against him more firmly and pushed into quicker.
He's getting so excited.
I could feel when he was literally on the edge of it all. And it was almost like time stopped in that moment, in that moment when his lips nudged my ear and he whispered...
"Jesus, Madara... I'm so in love with you."
Good God...
I bit my lip and shut my eyes, then. Not even being able to stop myself slightly as I came again at the same time he did. He pulled himself back out of me and crawled onto the bed in front of me, collapsing into the sheets. Even though he didn't scream, he was still moaning stuff to himself. Mostly just "So Gnarly"es and "Fuck Yes"es. I crawled onto him and folded into his chest, completely content with the world as my cheek pressed against him.
Our breathing mixed together and he was completely still. I was almost certain he'd fallen asleep when he suddenly spoke up.
"Mada, I want to stay with you forever."
"That's a given." I said. "I'm not going anywhere."
"...You promise?"
I got up on my forearms, leaned over his face, and gazed at him, gazed at his warm, light brown skin tone and his brunette hair that he never combed but always fell perfectly over his dark brown eyes.
"With my life." I replied. "We'll stay together for all eternity...even after we die."
I watched him smile and slowly close his eyes and I lowered my lips, kissing him softly one last time.
I swear on that, Hashi. No matter what, we'll stay together forever.
Hashirama
It's My Duty
I was woken by a soft sound. Something moving. My eyes snapped open to find a woman standing in the doorway of Madara's room.
It was clearly his Mother. With both of us completely bare except for our underwear and with him sleeping on my chest, there was honestly nothing I could say. I mean, even blind people would be able to tell we were queer.
I sat up, tensing for whatever she could say. Imagining a situation similar to Hisa but she just said...
"You better not hurt him."
My arms retracted protectively around him, almost like an instinct and I shook my head.
"I'll protect him with my life."
She stared at me for a second, eyes flicking down to her son's sleeping face. And I wondered then, what she was thinking. That she must have really fucked up to have a queer son? But her expression didn't seem to hold anything like that. It seemed almost relieved. Like maybe she believed me. She quickly turned around and closed the door.
"Hmm?" Madara mumbled sleepily, alerted by the door.
I ran my hand through his hair, stroking it.
"It's just me." I whispered.
He nodded and readjusted himself on me.
It was then that I wondered if perhaps Madara's mother was so desperate not to run him away that she was at a point that she would basically accept anything he did. And I also wondered if it was the same with Izuna.
I hugged Madara to my body again, strangely still urging for closeness, and just stared at the ceiling for a while, listening to his soft breathing. It was almost like an out of body experience or something. I was a freaking virgin like three hours earlier and suddenly, I wasn't. I reached down and grabbed his ass playfully.
"Mada, guess what?"
He moved his head.
"You're still a virgin."
"Shuddup." He mumbled.
I brushed his hair off of his face and lowered my lips to his forehead.
"Go back to sleep." I whispered to him.
He didn't respond, showing that he probably hadn't been fully awake to begin with. I shifted slightly, rolling him over softly so that I could sit up and get out of his bed. I stretched, making my way to his bathroom.
As I pulled my underwear down in the front and positioned myself in front of the toilet, my eyes locked on the vial of lipstick lying on the sink counter.
"That looks familiar..." I muttered.
Suddenly, the door swung open.
"Oh! Oh crap, I didn't know! Don't kill me!"
I stared at him. He stared at me. The tinkle ringing out in the toilet slowly came to a stop.
"I...thought you were my brother." Izuna said.
I laughed, pulling my underwear back up.
"He'd really go bananas like that over an accident?"
He gave me a stale look.
"You don't know my brother."
I smiled. That really tripped me out. I was probably the only person to see him naked since his freaking mother. And it wasn't like his package was anything to hide, the weirdo.
I pulled the chain to full the toilet and turned back toward the door.
"...Hey." Izuna spoke up. "Uh..."
I paused, looking over my shoulder. He seemed to be having difficulty with what he wanted to say. I smiled, flicking the lipstick vial.
"Don't worry. I'm not mad or anything." I told him.
He balled his fists.
"It's not that... I wouldn't care if you're mad at me or if you hate me, honestly, I wouldn't care but... Danzo." He looked up. "You were right. He's going to try to hurt him."
"You mean the whole stealing thing you pulled?"
"I didn't know he was going to use it against him! I was just mad... I did a lot of stupid stuff..."
I noticed that he had a bruise on his bottom lip, one that hadn't been present before, even though I didn't recall hurting him.
"Is that what happened to your face?" I asked.
He shook his head.
"Me and Tobi into a fight at baseball..." He mumbled, shuffling his feet. "He figured I was the one who did all that stuff to you..."
Jesus, leave it to Tobirama to turn every good thing you were trying to do to shit. Izuna didn't look too bad though, meaning he held back at least a little bit. To be completely honest, even though they were both around the same height and weight I was pretty sure, in strength, Tobirama could wipe the floor with Izuna. Kind of the same way that if I were boxing champion, I'd probably be able to kick Madara's ass down the street and back, too.
"He says he hates me now and not just me, anybody with the last name Uchiha."
I smiled sheepishly.
"Eh... I'll talk to him-"
"No, listen." He said. "I don't care if he's mad. I don't care if anyone's mad, it's just..."
He slid his hands into the pockets of the pinstriped white and navy blue pants he wore and raised his hand to his bare chest, over his heart.
"I can't let Danzo hurt Madara because I was stupid." He told me.
His bottom lip trembled slightly.
"Wait, what do you mean?" I asked. "How could he hurt him?"
Izuna brought his arm up to wipe his eyes.
"Because he said he knows Madara won't do it. He says you made him soft. And he'll wait until the cops get me and then go crazy." Tears began sliding down his arm. "And when he does that, the cops will get him, too. That's all he wants."
I recalled Danzo yelling at me "by one in the morning!" And to the tune of Izuna's sobbing, I glanced in the bedroom at the bright red ticking clock above Madara's bed.
12:49
And like dominos, everything started to fall into plan for me.
"I don't want to go jail." Izuna whimpered.
I put my hand in his hair, smiling at him like I'd do to Itama.
"Cool it, you crybaby." I told him. "You're not going anywhere...except to bed. It's late."
I pushed him toward the other door, in the direction of his bedroom.
"I'll handle it." I told him.
He turned, giving me a weird look.
"You?" He asked. "But he hates you."
"Well, why didn't you tell Madara then?" I asked him.
He blinked and then cocked his head. The tears on his cheeks glistened as he turned his eyes to me.
"He...told me to tell you."
"Exactly." I said, poking his forehead. "Something doesn't jive, does it?"
Izuna slowly shook his head, agreeing.
"It's obvious I'm the one he wants. So, I'll go."
"But if it's suspicious, then maybe we should wait." Izuna suggested.
"No, the only thing that's suspicious is why he's interested in me. The fact that he's trying to blackmail you is still in cold water." I explained to him. "So, the main reason I'm going is just to see if I can find a way to get him to leave you and Madara alone."
He used a nearby tissue to wipe his face completely dry.
"But how?"
"Uh... I'll figure it out when I get there." I said, shrugging. "Anyway, where the hell am I going anyway?"
"Danzo's house."
"Because I know the exact coordinates of where he lives..." I responded.
He gave me a funny look.
"You've been hanging around my brother too much."
I smiled, realizing that he was probably right and if I hadn't been consistently drowned in sarcasm every moment since I met Madara, I probably wouldn't have responded to him like that. I punched his shoulder thankfully after he described the directions for me.
"Thanks."
I turned but before I could leave the bathroom he advanced on me and grabbed me. I tensed, thinking he was on to doing something to hurt me but...
"I'm sorry."
It's a pretty weird thing when someone who literally beat the shit out of you less than 24 hours earlier turns around and hugs you. I found myself looking in the mirror and the look on his face, truly sincerely apologetic, made me even more set to try to right his wrongs.
"Don't bag it, dude." I told him.
I felt like it was mostly my fault anyway, like Danzo had said, none of it would've happened if I hadn't decided to come on to Madara. But as I found my bright yellow t-shirt and dark green shorts next to Madara's bed and pulled them on over my head, I couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. I mean, I knew I was walking into Danzo's hands. That much was obvious. But I wasn't afraid of him. If there was anything I was afraid of, it was Madara or anyone close to him getting something on their record because of that idiot.
I leaned over Madara after pulling my socks up to my knees and sliding on my black Vans Era's.
Surprisingly, he didn't stir. While I was talking to Izuna, he'd rolled over onto his back and was lying across his full sized bed like a bear shot with five tranquilizer darts. I watched him for a while, let my fingers slid into his jet black shoulder length hair, unruly but somehow smooth and soft at the same time. And then my fingers grazed his cheek and touched the edge of his lips...
"I'll be back soon..."
I turned then, leaving his room without looking back.
-However long it took me to find a house I've never been to in a neighborhood I've never been to at one in the freaking morning-
I knocked on the door, the sound echoed. The neighborhood looked pretty peaceful. Nice, dark green grass, kid's bikes and toys out on the lawn without people having to worry about someone stealing them, garage's opened, back doors unlocked, you know, the whole nine. The perfect sign of people living without a care. Still, it wasn't nearly as uppity as Madara's side of town. Where people didn't even realize they were well off.
Something sounded on the other side of the door, but it didn't open. After a couple minutes, I pulled the screen door back and turned the knob. The door swung open.
"...Uh... Hello?"
"Up here."
I looked up to see a boy on the second floor, right in front of the stairs, with dark brown hair and wearing nothing but light blue pajama pants bottoms.
"Hiruzen, right?" I asked.
He nodded, stepping aside as I walked up all the steps and over to him.
"So where is he?" I asked.
He pointed all the way down the hall to the only room with a light inside.
"In the office."
"Couldn't have been something more accessible? Like the kitchen?"
Hiruzen cracked a smile. We both walked down the hall and he grabbed the knob, pulling the door open for me.
"What a fry man!" A voice suddenly exclaimed.
My eyes set on another boy with dark wavy hair lying on the couch in the room with a magazine cracked open. And another boy, with light brown hair sitting in a swivel seat, leaning over him. Clearly Kagami and Danzo.
"Chick's got a body like a brick house, no fake." Kagami went on.
"Let me see." Danzo said, grabbing the magazine.
The page extended into a drop down portion and his eyes widened.
"Can you dig it?" Kagami asked.
"Right on, dude. This chick is choice..."
"Guys!" Hiruzen spoke up, calling their attention.
Their eyes snapped over to me and then they both, scrambling like ants when you kick their mound over, tried to hide the magazine and sit up right.
"Hey, it's our favorite grody guy!" Kagami said.
After sitting on whatever magazine they'd been pouring over, Danzo turned around in his chair. I couldn't help but laugh. They honestly couldn't get any more unprofessional...
"What do you want?" Danzo asked.
"You said one am, right?"
He clasped his hands together.
"So, you're serious?"
"As serious as that porno magazine you're trying to hide."
Hiruzen grinned.
"Anyway..." Danzo went on. "Did you bring Madara?"
"Nope, see, that's why I'm pressed for time..." I said, sliding my hands into my pockets. "He's currently sleeping in bed and it's gonna be pretty bad if he wakes up and I'm not next to him..."
I smiled at him.
"I mean, bad for you anyway."
"Now you're bragging about your weirdo queer stuff?" Danzo asked.
I shrugged.
"Hey, at least I don't have to spend my nights reading porno's." I said, then I smirked. "I actually get real action."
A disgusted look crossed Danzo's face and Kagami covered his ears.
"Ew, cram it, you sicko!" Kagami exclaimed.
"Are you serious about that?" Hiruzen inquired. "You and Madara?"
"Could this face lie to you?" I asked, showing them one of my best innocent looks.
"Alright, then spill it." Kagami said, suddenly interested. "What was it like?"
I laughed, genuinely surprised to get that question and also incredibly amused by it at the same time.
"It was SOOO far out." I told them. "Best experience of my life, no kidding."
"Really?" Hiruzen asked.
Kagami smirked.
"Come on, man. No way, I mean, first off, how would you even-"
"CAN EVERYBODY SHUT UP?!" Danzo exclaimed.
I continued grinning, glad I had him feeling uncomfortable around me. It was a perfect way to gain the upper hand. I walked up to Danzo.
"Okay, so let's wrap this up quick, since we all have activities we want to get back to." I said, purposely giving a long hard look at the magazine he was sitting on. "Why don't you give me the tape, let Izuna off the hook, and hang loose? I mean, no one wants any real trouble, right?"
I nodded at Kagami and Hiruzen. Hiruzen nodded along with me and Kagami shrugged, disinterestedly.
"He broke the law." Danzo said. "We're a crime reduction faction. Our job is protecting the innocent and preserving the peace."
I laughed.
"Well you sure as hell didn't protect my innocent and peaceful ass." I said, pointing to the remains of the black eye I had gotten.
Danzo had a really ugly black eye that I'd given him from before. It was something Madara and I were joking about earlier, after noticing that both of us had shiners on the same eye. This whole town is going to be chock full of black eyes by the time we find real peace...
"We preserve it how we can." Danzo said.
"Well, just tell me then. How was I a threat to the safety of the city of Konoha?" I asked.
He glared at me for a while. At first I thought he wasn't going to answer but then...
"Isn't it obvious?" He asked. "You're distracting one of our key members."
"Why can't you run it without him? I thought you were a big shot."
He sighed.
"Every team needs specific kinds of members. Even though I hate that self-deserving, arrogant, muscleheaded bastard, he's smart and reliable...and we're weak without him..."
Hiruzen's eyes widened showing me that Danzo had never admitted something like that before.
"Alright, tell ya what. I'm pretty smart and reliable, too. How about if you back off of Izuna and Madara, I'll take their places." I said. "I mean, I don't think strength is a problem either...considering your face."
Kagami snorted.
Danzo didn't even seem slightly phased by my insult though. He continued talking.
"Well, first you have to prove yourself to us." He said.
He reached over the desk, pushing a photograph toward me.
"This asshole has been breaking into houses on the richer side of town. Madara thought he had the guy pegged down but he's still out there. We call him..."
"Orange Sweater" They all said in unison.
"Find that bastard, confront him, and neutralize him, and you'll be on to take their spots." Danzo said.
It was obvious why they called the guy Orange Sweater. In the photo I was looking at you could literally see nothing else except for the sweater the person was wearing.
"I can dig it."
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Positive." I said, then I pointed at him. "And after that, I'll work on you."
He narrowed his eyes at my finger.
"What are you talking about?"
"I can tell that you put your heart and soul into this." I said. "This group that you have. And it's...probably because you think it's your destiny."
He was silent. From glancing around the office, with the type writer and the old styled paintings and quotes on the walls, and even the warm cooking fire place, I could tell it wasn't his. And I only had to look to the framed photographs on the desk to tell whose it probably was. Probably...the guy in the police uniform. With a police cap matching the one Danzo currently had on his head.
"It's cool to model after someone." I said to him, taking the photograph and turning around. "But when you do it for too long, you start to lose yourself...in the person that you think that model was."
While gripping the knob, I smiled.
"If you ask me, you look more like a teacher than a cop."
The looks on their faces were absolutely priceless. But I didn't mind it. It was my first step in being loyal to my words.
I popped my head back in the room.
"Oh, and sorry about the shiner by the way. Put some ice on it, it'll clear up."
"GET OUT!"
But at the end of the day, I was still a screw up. Really...
Madara
Premonition Again
I had a really jarring nightmare. It was one of those that had you waking up sweating and breathing hard and with tears on the cusps of your eyelids, but I don't cry so they didn't fall, and your hands shaking and the room feeling way more ominous and frightening than it did when you went to sleep. I curled into a ball, touching my sheets all over the place, reaching for him, aching for him.
"Hashi? Hashi, where are you?"
But my hands only touched cold sheets. Cold everywhere. Cold like the arctic. I even felt cold. As I lay there, curled, slowly the door creaked open.
"Hashirama?" I asked again.
The door opened fully and a black haired head poked in.
"No, it's me."
"...Izuna."
I watched as he shuffled into the room, head already bowed like he did something wrong. I looked at him. Knowing he had the information I wanted. Waiting for him to be the messenger.
"He left."
I continued waiting as Izuna searched for his words, tried to tell me.
"He went to Danzo to protect us."
I was already out of bed by the time he was finished speaking. I pulled the dark blue jeans I had been wearing up off the floor.
"He mainly went for me..." Izuna went on. "...But I don't get it..."
I found my shirt and shook it out, pulling it over my head, too.
"Why would he try to do something nice for me even after I beat him up?"
I walked around, looking for my socks, and dropping to my knees to find them under my bed.
"Why would he do something so nice?"
I rolled them out and pushed my feet into them.
"For someone he barely even knows?"
"Because, Izuna." I said, looking up at him. "That's him."
He's the sun... The warmth... The air... The ocean... Everything beautiful. Everything loving. Everything peaceful... He's...
"He's trying to be the positivity in the world." I explained. "So, he'll do anything for anyone...and think of himself last."
"But that's-"
"Exactly." I said, cutting him off as I found my black jacket. "It's how people like Danzo can use him."
I looked around my room, kicking things to the side until I found my vibrant blue Nikes.
"But that's where I come in." I said, stomping my feet into the shoes. "And anyone who touches him dies."
"But you don't even know where he is." Izuna protested. "They could've gone anywhere from Danzo's house."
"No, I know where he is." I said.
I reached for the hockey mask on the floor.
"There's only one place Danzo would send Hashirama if not back here." I said. "And that's to catch a criminal."
I looked at the mask in my hands.
"And there's only one criminal that Danzo finds interesting right now." I explained, finally lifting the mask and placing it over my face. "And that bastard is predictable. I know exactly where he is."
I'm coming for you, Orange Sweater...
"Wait, I'll come too." Izuna said, running out of the room with me.
I turned as I reached the staircase and stuck my hand out, pushing him away.
"You've done more than enough Izuna."
He looked down at his feet.
"I know I hurt Hashirama..." He muttered. "But I... I thought I was protecting you."
Stupid brat...
I reached over, giving him a quick one-armed hug and shoved him in the direction of his room.
"I'm the only one that can protect me." I told him. "So, just go to bed."
He played with his fingers fretfully. I sighed.
"I'll practice baseball with you tomorrow, okay?"
His face lit up.
"Really?"
"Yes. If you just cool out." I told him.
"Will Hashirama come with us?"
I didn't hesitate to nod.
"Most likely."
I expected his smile to diminish and him to storm off or some other act of prepubescent angst but instead, his smile grew wider.
"Alright! I'll look forward to it."
The little creep... When the hell did he start liking him?
I jogged down the stairs and stopped at the front door which Hashirama had left slightly open, probably because he didn't think he'd be long.
I looked back up at Izuna who was standing against the banister, watching me.
What is this?
I pushed the door open and stepped out into the crisp cold night. Even though it wasn't clear on the horizon, sunrise would be coming soon.
This feeling...
I would've gotten my motorcycle but my suddenly too controlling Mother friggin' sold it to 'save my dumb ass from going to jail'. So, I dashed out onto the sidewalk and sprinted down the road.
I feel like something's wrong...
Up Next: The next chapter will be the final chapter of this story. No hints this time. Sorry.