Hashirama

Choice: Him or Me?

So, they sent me on my merry way to the richer side of town to find 'Orange Sweater' at like 3 in the morning by myself. Any normal person would at least think 'hey, this sounds dangerous, what is this Orange Sweater guy like anyway?' but you know me. Actually, I was pretty pumped because the entire thing was my idea. Taking Madara and Izuna's place and solving this little dispute with this other guy would be like hitting two birds with one stone, it would get Madara out of that situation and turn the group back into a 'Vigilante Justice League' or whatever...

Anyway, even though I felt like something freaky deaky was going on, I waited. For like freaking NINE YEARS.

"Where the heck is this guy?"

I wasn't even hiding after waiting so long. They told me the guy would be near the train tracks at a construction site. I was walking around under the only lamppost over there, next to a bulldozer, in plain site kicking the hockey mask they'd given me around in the dirt because, trust me, after waiting almost three hours for someone in a day-glo sweater you won't give even half of a damn anymore.

Then something creaked behind me. I tilted my head straight up to see someone standing in the seat of the bulldozer then before I could do anything the person jumped off the seat and into the dirt behind me.

"Don't move."

But that person really didn't know me.

I was running for my freaking life before the words even got out of his mouth. My feet slapped across the dirt and then, as I jumped over a fallen stepladder, a gunshot rang out, I tripped over my own two feet and turned around screaming. Literally, like a little girl.

"H-Hey, man! C-Chill out! Calm down!" I shouted.

And then strangely, the person froze. And I froze.

It's a weird moment... When you can kind of see the past in someone. As I was lying under another lamppost, and they were standing under the first lamppost, the lamps were like stage lights. We were on stage. The stage of life. And fate... It was honestly fate... That enabled me to see the truth in that person. See the personality in that person, as their hand rose attempting to flick phantom hair over their shoulder and they stood, swishing their hips in that way while they slowly zipped down the black face mask.

"...Hashirama?"

I knew that it was...

"Mito."

We stared at each other. Like I said, it was like stage lights. My turn to talk, say my lines. Or THE line. The most important one of the show.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" I exclaimed.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" She exclaimed.

Then we paused for a second and pointed at each other simultaneously.

"YOU'RE ORANGE SWEATER?!" I asked

At the same time she yelled.

"YOU'RE A GREEN GUY?!"

Then we paused.

"Green guy?" I asked at the same time she asked "Orange Sweater?"

I put my hands put.

"Alright, alright, let's take turns talking. First, let me talk."

"Why should you talk first?" She asked, then she sighed, shaking her head. "Look, talking is getting us nowhere. I have an important appointment with an asshole and you were about to fuck it up by getting in the way!"

"What?!"

"Dude, I was about to blow your asshole out through your dick!" She shouted at me.

"Hey, it's a free country, I didn't know you were going to be here! I'm looking for someone too!" Then I gave her a funny look. "Someone with your description."

She shook her head.

"That doesn't matter. Who I'm waiting for isn't you. I know that."

But I knew full and well who I was looking for was definitely her. And suddenly, as I thought that things began to fall into place... Everything... It had been right in front of my eyes the whole time. The way, when I was running for my life away from Izuna and the rest, I ran into her... Her...and she had been stuffing something into her bag. Had it been the orange sweater?

"But this means I was right all along then... You are an accomplice to them." She said, cocking her head.

And then I started going back over it all in my brain, her consistent poking around my room, being so interested in my life and house, trying so steadfastly to be around me all the time, and even her solid interest in who had attacked me to the point that she practically begged me for the answer.

"Wait a second..." I said slowly. "You... You were only hanging around me to spy on me? I-I thought you liked me."

She had pulled the gun down to her sweater and was wiping the barrel clean, probably as a nervous tick and she looked at me, shaking her head.

"I did like you... Did... When we were children."

And even then... She had lied... That was what was bugging me when I saw Mr. Uzumaki's photo. She couldn't have been going to West Konoha to deliver a package...because he didn't live there! And when she was leaving, she gave the same excuse again! The same exact one... How could I have been so stupid!?

"But things change, Hashirama." She said, aiming the gun at me.

"So, what? You're going to kill me?"

She rolled her eyes, lowering it.

"I'm not a murderer." She said. "And as I said before, you're not my target."

But she was my target. And I needed to keep her talking, in order to change her, stop her, keep Izuna and Madara safe.

"Well then humor me, tell me why you're doing this." I said.

She sighed, shrugging widely.

"I told you already, Hashi. What's the point of people who sit on the sidelines trying to brainwash people into only caring about their own happiness when there are wars going on all around them and people dying and bleeding on the battlefield?" she asked.

"What the heck does breaking into people's houses have to do with that?"

"Robin Hood." She said simply.

I blinked at her.

"Sorry... I don't speak crazy."

She rolled her eyes and turned banging her gun against the lightpost.

"Robin Hood!" She shouted. "The masked man who stole all the gold and wealth from the riches and spread them out among the poor!"

"Oh yeahhhh..."

"I'm not saying I condone communism." She said. "But it's a damn good place to start, taking from the bastards sitting on everyone's neck and siphoning everything off of them. You want to know the real reason I had to move away from you all that time ago?"

"Not really."

But she continued speaking anyway, she was on a roll. Seriously, women when they're on a roll. Broken record, I tell you.

"Because my mother didn't have enough money to keep the house! Yeah, stealing a TV here and a radio there won't contribute to peace for an entire nation. But we'll sell these objects, gain money under us, gain a following, and we'll start a campaign, and we'll force peace onto this country whether it wants it or not!" She declared. "Fuck flowers. Fuck peace signs and marches. Fuck sit-ins!"

And strangely, I was reminded of my Martin Luther King vs. Malcolm X conversation with Madara.

"Fuck ALL of that wayward bullshit! It works in theories but not in practice! And if you really want to know something Hashirama, the nice guy ALWAYS finishes last in the story. ALWAYS."

I stared at her for a long time, watching her as she flicked her long, vibrant red hair over her shoulder, which had been pinned up under the face mask. I thought about being in her father's room with her, and the way she'd been so forward and all over me, getting me drunk, probably trying to get me relaxed enough so that she could get my clothes off and go through my pockets. Trying to find any kind of evidence. In the end, Mito... A girl I really used to admire became nothing but a rat.

"So... I guess I'm the nice guy in the story then, huh? The one you just used?"

She tore her away from me, shaking her head.

"Casualties are necessary."

"So, I was a casualty?"

"You're a faggot anyway!" She yelled at me.

Strangely, I felt more passion as she yelled that sentence at me than in her entire monologue.

"You should be glad I won't be taking it to heart." She told me.

Then she balled her fists.

"All that matters to me right now is that bastard with his fancy kung-fu moves who broke Onoki's nose and treated all of us like we were freaking vermin..."

Kung-fu moves? I had to blink twice to make sure I'd heard her right.

"He's done making a fool out of me...out of all of us. And I'm not bringing useless fire this time. I've come to win. He's gonna be surprised to see what I'm really capable of."

Well, that basically sealed it. There's only one person I know who consistently makes a fool out of people.

Silence rang out. She sighed, beginning to zip her hood back up.

"Just go home, Hashirama. I don't have anything else to say to you."

"I do." I told her. "What you're doing... I don't think this is the right way to go about it."

"What would you know?"

I shrugged.

"Well... I'm not really one for Fairy Tales. I'm more of a philosophy geek, myself. But being that, I know something you don't."

She paused in pulling her hood up, and stared at me.

"In the true legend, Robin Hood was killed...in the end."

There was a cool feel in the air. A chilly wind and the smell of morning dew. The edges of the earth had begun to turn light blue. Birds had already been making enough ruckus all on their own.

"Philosophy, huh?" She asked. "Interesting... Well, being a Fairy Tale lover, I know something you don't."

I raised my eyebrows.

"The 'peace-maker' is nothing more than the charred soil for the true soldier to walk on." She told me. "Do you get it Hashirama? You're not the hero, here. You're just the catalyst before the real bomb really sets off!"

I smirked at her.

"And here I was thinking you had something less dramatic to say."

She sighed, rolling her eyes and putting her hands on her hips.

"Why are you playing around with me? This isn't a game."

I slowly rose my arm and pointed at her.

"Because I know that's not the real Mito talking... It's just a card she's dealing. So, I'm going to keep playing along as long as you keep it up."

She gazed at me for a second, like she was considering it. Her gun lowered further and she moved to put it in her back pocket. But then I felt a slight warming on my back, the sun coming, the impending brightness of pink and orange and yellow. But maybe, if I had turned then, I would've realized it was more like a warning. A warning from the pit of my soul.

But I didn't, and I reacted only to her. Her eyes flicked up from mine, and her expression which had been calm and rather tender from my words became tensed and guarded. And then...

"Hashi!"

I turned. Coming face to face with the sunrise I thought I was feeling, the birds going over that sky horizon, and a cloud of dust rushing up behind someone skidding down the hill into the construction site as fast as they could. I knew who the person was, not because of the nickname they used or the way they spoke or anything obvious like that, it was just the urgency in their stride, the swagger with their step, the emotion in the tone. I knew... I knew...

I heard a gun cock, and my eyes flitted back to Mito. She had her arm outstretched. She'd pulled the gun back out. And I knew then, too, that I was too late. I didn't have enough time to tell her the truth. That I really was the person she had to meet. And that, if we were both there for a specific reason, there to meet a specific person, then we weren't each other's enemy. It was Danzo... Somehow, he set us up.

"Hashirama!"

But there wasn't enough time.

"Madara, STOP!" I shouted.

I ran toward him. Turning slightly to Mito as I did while she pointed, walking toward him, who she thought was her target, and Madara... He had his hockey mask on. Unlike with me, she wouldn't even hesitate. Wouldn't see a reason to. And he was still running toward me, we were close to reaching each other, his arm was outstretched, trying to get a hold of me.

"Mito, NOOO!"

Two gun shots blared through the air. Nearby birds flapped their wings, diving toward the escaping moon. I jumped. Madara fell back and hit the ground. I could feel something... An awful pain inside me. Like I couldn't walk. Like I couldn't breathe. My sunglasses, the one's he'd given me, fell onto the concrete and shattered. And then there was blood... So much of it.

Madara

Sing To Me

My eyes were barely open. And my ears were ringing. But I was alive. I was pretty sure it had all ended there. I was only looking at Hashirama. And I saw the urgency on his face, saw his pleading for me to stop and turn back but I needed to be there with him, needed to be beside him, so I pushed through that aching feeling I'd had that something was wrong. It wasn't until he'd ran toward me and she pointed the gun that I saw.

Two gun shots aimed at me.

It was too late for me to do anything. I was on the ground...

I honestly thought it had all ended there. So I was surprised when my eyes came back into focus. My mask had twisted on my face with the fall so I pulled it back, and off of my head. I felt an enormous weight on my torso and looked down at Hashirama who was lying over me.

Then it suddenly made sense... Hashirama had pushed me out of the way.

"Mada... Mada... Are you okay?"

I sat up slowly, feeling a strange warmth underneath me.

"I think I am." I replied.

I moved my arm, which was trapped between our bodies and my eyes widened... Widened as I looked at the thick running red substance on my jacket sleeve.

"Hashi?"

I sat all the way up, rolling Hashirama over onto his back where it was plainly visible.

Two gun shots aimed at me...but struck in him.

"...Hashi..."

The bright yellow t-shirt he was wearing quickly began to stain with red. And it was then, that everything began to sound around me. That static white noise disappeared. And I could hear her screaming as Hashirama's body began to uncontrollably shake and shudder.

"OH MY GOD... Hashirama... HASHIRAMA?!" Orange Sweater exclaimed.

I tossed my mask on the ground next to a shattered pair of sunglasses and...

"OH MY GOD, I'm so sorry! Oh my god!"

Christ...

I quickly took my jacket off and pressed it down against his stomach, trying to stop the bleeding and stop his convulsions.

"Oh my god, my god, my god..." She continued screaming.

I turned on her, lashing out.

"WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?!"

But she was a shaking, sobbing mess and dropped her gun and tripped over her own feet as she ran away.

"I'm gonna go get help. I'm gonna go get help!" She called.

You better, you fucking asshole. This is all YOUR fault anyway! If I get my hands on you...

Hashirama was staring up at the sky, blinking rapidly.

"Come on, Hashi..." I said to him after a while. "Who knows if we can trust her? We have to get you up and over somewhere closer to a phone booth or something."

But he was silent.

"Hashi, come on... I'm serious."

He continued blinking up past me.

"Hashi, stop playing around!"

"Madara..." He said slowly. "I... I can't feel my legs."

I looked down at where he was shot. Where the bullets stuck to the right of his lower abdomen, my fists tightened, pressing down on his wound harder, despite the fact that my jacket was soaking up quickly with all of his blood.

It probably hit... His spine...

"This... This hurts so bad..."

And I can't carry him... He'll bleed even more that way.

I felt beads of sweat begin to form on my neck as I realized the complexity of the situation.

"It's going to be okay." I said to him, trying to keep my voice calm and think fast at the same time. "You'll be fine, okay? Just..."

I glanced around quickly at the deserted construction site around us. On the distant horizon, I could see some dust kicking up, where that idiot girl was running toward town. I looked in the opposite direction from where she'd gone.

Maybe there's a closer house that way...

"Okay... Okay..." I said, nodding as I formed a plan. "Hashi... Stay here and try to hold this on yourself. I'll try to get to the nearest house and get someone to come back for you."

His eyes quickly flicked down from their spot on the sky.

"No, Mada... Please..." His eyes began to water slightly. "Don't leave me."

I could feel my breathing rate speeding up.

"What the hell do you mean!? We need someone to help you!" I shouted at him.

But I knew the reason he wanted me to stay, deep inside I knew, it was likely because... He was scared that he wouldn't live until I came back. I felt my calmness going out of the window and I began to lash out at him.

"Why did you do this, huh?" I asked, squeezing the jacket. "Goddamn it, Hashirama! Why the FUCK did you do this!?"

I closed my eyes.

"I... I promised someone... I would... protect you with my life." He said.

His voice was getting raspy, sounding almost...monotone.

Why... Why... Why... That was my job. I said I would... If either of us were ever in danger, I would... So... Why?!

"Madara..." Hashirama said.

"Stop talking." I said. "You need to concentrate on staying okay."

His blood had fully soaked up the jacket by that point, I grabbed my shirt, pulling it off over my head and using that to press down on him instead.

"Mada..."

I slowly looked into his eyes, hands shaking. His lips twitched, his attempt at a smile.

"...Could you...sing for me again?"

The shaking slowly extended from my hands to my entire arms.

"Hashi, No. You have to-"

"P-Please..."

My heart was beating so fast I thought it would break out of my chest. I looked around at the deafening silence around me and nodded. Something... Anything to fill this void.

I licked my lips, tried to steady my breathing and draw my voice forward.

[ Y-You and I must make a pact... ]

[ We must bring salvation back. ]

[ Where there is love... I'll be there. ]

Hashirama moved his hands and put them over mine, which were soaking in his blood. My t-shirt was filling up fast.

[ I'll be there... I'll be there. ]

He grabbed my hands, taking them off of his stomach and raising them to his face. I followed his finger tips, cradling his head and pulling him into my lap.

[ Whenever you need me... ]

His eyes shined up at me with the sunrise reflecting in them, like with the sunset back at the beach, causing them to sparkle again.

"I-I'll...b-be..."

I couldn't keep singing... It was like my voice ran away or something. And my teeth stuck together and I bent over him, hugging him to me and slowly touching my forehead to his. Very quickly, my hands, underneath his head, were filled with the warm, salty wetness that was dropping like a waterfall onto his cheeks.

"W-What t-the hell are y-you...cryin' for?" He asked me.

I slowly opened my eyes, the corners of Hashirama's lips were struggling, twitching, to keep themselves in his characteristic smile. By then, my entire body was shaking. His face, normally that warm brown hue, was so pale... I closed my eyes again.

Jesus...

"M-Madara..."

Don't do this to me.

"...I...I love you, Madara."

I could barely breathe, my own tears... Tears I swore I'd never create... They were choking me.

"S-Shut up." I whispered. "You can tell me that...tomorrow. When we're in my bed together, sleeping."

"P-Please..."

I knew what he wanted from me. I knew what he wanted to hear but...

"You're going to be fine, Hashi... They'll come. They'll come, okay?"

"M-M-Mada..." He stammered.

I could barely keep holding onto him I was shaking so hard and my tears were running and I couldn't breathe but I knew what he wanted... I knew what he wanted...

"Hashirama... I love you, too." I whispered to him. "I could never... n-never... love anything or anyone more than I love you right now. So just stay with me... Hang on. Please."

I lowered my head over his and our lips touched, pressing. I could feel him feebly pressing back for a while. And I thought it would all really be fine. But then, the pressure he was sustaining faltered. His lips fell from mine. And, I... I rose my head.

"Hashirama?"

His head was propped on my lap so I let my hands travel further down his chest, to his body, tapping him.

"Hashi... Hey... Hashi?"

I tapped him harder, almost shaking him.

"Hashi, stop playing around. It's not funny."

I lowered my hands to where the two bullets went, where my shirt was, which had also already soaked up and pressed down on it. I pressed harder, shaking him a bit, but his lips, which I'd just kissed, were beginning to turn blue. And his skin was pale. And his eyes were closed and... I leaned back over his face, squeezing him into my hug, pulling him as close as possible...

"Hashirama..." I begged, but he was still silent. "God, No... No, no, please..."

I rocked back and forth, pressing my face into his soft hair.

"Somebody HELP ME!"

My voice rang out. But there wasn't a reply. Just the stupid sun rising, blinding my eyes, causing me to have nothing to look up to. I could only look down, down at what was in my arms. With his beautiful brown hair waving in the wind slightly, and beautiful lips and skin and...

"SOMEBODY PLEASE! PLEASE HELP ME!"

I might've screamed for hours, or minutes, or however long... I just know by the time I could even hear a whisper of an ambulance in the distance, my voice was gone. I could barely whisper. But I tried to speak anyway.

"Hashi... You're gonna be fine, okay? You're going to be fine."

But he was cold. He was so cold. Goddamn it he was so fucking cold...

"I promise we'll stay together forever, okay? F-Forever... So just...wait. Please..."

And it might've been the wind chill against my bare chest, or the stiffly cold body in my arms, or the fact that my muscles were worn from shaking so much... But by the time Orange Sweater returned with that ambulance and they came to pull him from my arms, with one of the paramedic's already calling the morgue, I felt my blood inside of me change... And... I also went cold.

Flat Line

My fingers went around and around the cold object.

The bells... I can still hear them. So loud. Like at Tsubasa's...

My fingers shook, holding the hard black thing.

And... Why did they chose 'Amazing Grace' as the song to play?

But my eyes didn't produce tears, they couldn't. Never again.

I'd already changed, pulling my black slacks and my black shirt and tie off and replacing them with khaki's. His khakis. And a deep, forest green t-shirt also with my cameo patterned Vans. I had also pulled my light, white washed jean jacket on, too. Someone, probably his step mother, had dropped it on our porch after it looked like she ran over it multiple times with a car and spray painted the words "die" on it. Somehow, my mother was able to get the stains out. Not that it mattered to me at all.

Blame me. Go ahead. It is my fault anyway...

I pressed my lips to the tip of gun. And grabbed my hockey mask. And pushed the door to my room open.

My feet hit the solid brown oak wooden steps echoing as I tapped down them and walked past the living room. I paused. Izuna and my mother sat in the living room. They were both sitting in separate chairs, still wearing their funeral outfits.

With Izuna, I could see fire in his eyes, the fire that opposed my ice. He nodded at me slowly. We didn't need words. I could feel him saying it...

Get them. And when you've got them. Don't hold back.

"If anyone comes to the door-" I began.

My mother held her hands up.

"I won't answer it. I know."

We stared at each other. She motioned toward the door.

"Go do what you need to."

I fitted the hockey mask on my face, touched my pockets to be sure I had what I need, snagged one of my mother's match boxes and cigarettes off the counter and pushed the door open, walking about into the frigid night. The world...only seemed to get colder since the sun died. I turned on my front lawn, cutting across the grass at an angle when something moved in the bushes, I froze, hand edging toward my gun, ready for whatever popped into my way.

Wait... Is that...?

I straightened up and slid my hands into my pockets.

Never mind, he's harmless.

An albino looking boy with whitish gray hair and pinkish eyes walked toward me. He was also still wearing his funeral clothes. He glanced down at the gun in my hand and nodded.

"So you're going to do this. With the way you looked at the ceremony, I had a feeling you would..." His hand dipped into his pocket, surfacing with a photo.

"I would go with you but I'm sure you want to do this yourself. And even though I hate your guts for mixing him in with your gang bullshit, I..."

He slowly placed the photograph in my hand.

"...I know you loved my brother."

I looked down at the photograph, feeling a slight twinge in my heart where there hadn't been one for almost a full four days since the encounter at the construction site.

"Show them no mercy."

The photograph was a recent one, a school photo, of Hashirama. And he was playing, as usual. During school photo's you're supposed to look prim and proper and he did, he was actually wearing a collared shirt for once, but he had his hand up with his middle finger going all the while grinning at the camera like an angel and I found I wanted to smile. He was so full of life. If there was any picture to describe what kind of person he was, that was it. Someone who could tell someone to fuck off with a smile on their face.

I tucked it into my back pocket and nodded at him.

"That's the plan."

-FLAT LINE-

I can't stop hearing the sound. The flat sound. The monotone line. It's so loud in my ears...

It didn't take long to find those losers. Even in the dullest circumstances, Kagami and Hiruzen are like two peas in a pod, they're usually, if not always, in the same vicinity. And that day, I knew they would both be in Hiruzen's grandfather's house. Grandfather because his parents were both in jail for nothing more than being suspected communists. As I neared his house, I pulled my mask off, hooking it on my pants.

"Oh, good afternoon Madara." His grandfather said as he watered the plants in front. "The boys are inside, go right on up."

"Kagami and Hiruzen are the only ones in?" I asked.

He nodded, then he looked at his watch, as I knew he would, and shook his head.

"Goodness, it looks like it's time for work again."

He put the pot on the ledge and pulled his keys from his pocket. He was already dressed down in his garbage man uniform.

The uniform of shame, really...

"These cans won't pick up themselves, am I right?"

"No sir." I replied.

"Well, do me a favor and water the rest of the violets for me. I think it makes Hiruzen happy to see them grow in spring."

I watched him walk off toward his Pontiac and roll down the driveway. I pushed the door open, automatically met with sounds of playful laughter and joking around coming from the kitchen.

"I can't wait until we get older and become cops." It sounded like Kagami. "So I can get a whole bunch of guys in a line and just be like 'doosh-doosh-doosh'. Like all day."

Hiruzen laughed.

"Whatever, Kagami, most officers don't use their gun even one time over five years."

"Oh, I'll find a reason to use it!" He said. "Action, dude. What's life without action?"

"A life where you actually live!"

I walked around to their small dining room which was bathed in darkness and zipped my backpack down, putting everything inside except the one key thing I needed and my gun.

"Hey, by the way, can you look at my balls and see if one's smaller than the other?"

"What?! No way!"

"It's not even like queer or anything, like 100% manly, dude. Just look and tell me."

I could hear Hiruzen muttering to himself.

"You're lucky no one else in here..."

"Hurry up, I gotta pee really bad."

I edged out of the living room, sneaking up behind them as Kagami began to drop his shorts.

"Now, I really don't want to do it!" Hiruzen exclaimed.

I jumped over Kagami pulling the handcuffs around his neck tightly and forcing him against me.

"Move and he dies." I said, pointing the gun at his head with my other hand.

Kagami was so shocked, he went dead silent. Or maybe I was choking him. I wasn't courteous enough to find out.

My eyes flicked over to the broken water heater Hiruzen always had in the corner of his small kitchen. I motioned to Hiruzen to go over there, which he obeyed and nodded.

"Sit down."

He slowly sat down, back against the water heater, I pushed Kagami on the ground too, pointing the gun at them.

"Don't move." I reminded them.

I wove the handcuff chain in between one of the loops of the heater and cuffed one of their wrists each.

Kagami smirked.

"I didn't know you were into kinky shit." He said.

"With what you were just about to do, it seems like you're more into that than I am." I said.

Kagami grinned.

"Well, I have my limitations. Beginning and ending with dicks up my ass." He replied.

I allowed him a smile.

"Funny." I said.

Then my grin disappeared.

"What do you know?" I asked them.

They both stared at me, then glanced at each other.

"What do you mean?" Hiruzen asked.

"I don't have time for games. You know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm talking about. The quicker you answer me, the quicker you can get back to life, okay?"

I pointed my gun right between Hiruzen's eyes as I spoke.

"I don't want to have to use force. But if you don't comply. I won't hesitate."

"Madara, you know we're sworn to secrecy on-"

I pulled the gun back, whipping it across his face and shearing off a slice of skin there. Hiruzen's scream rang out as his free hand jumped to his head.

"What the hell, man!?" Kagami exclaimed. "Just chill out!"

"I don't want to hear excuses. Either you tell me what I want to know or you don't live to see tomorrow."

"No, Mada... Please don't leave me."

I blinked, shaking the memories out of my head and looking at them seriously.

This is perhaps the worst possible day to fuck with me, assholes.

I put the gun on the table, lifting the package of cigarettes and striking a match.

"I'm listening."

"Hashirama came to Madara to strike a deal." Kagami said quickly. "That's it."

"That's all you know?" I clarified.

His eyes flicked to the left.

"...Yes." He told me.

Hiruzen's eyes were tearing up as he held his face.

"That's going to scar up pretty bad." I told him. "But you know what's going to scar up worse?"

I picked the gun back up and shoved it between Kagami's legs.

"Having only one testicle instead of a smaller one."

Kagami gave me a look, a look that probably meant 'I think you're bullshitting' and smirked.

"You know, in some circumstances, that's actually a better deal."

I ignored him, turning to Hiruzen.

"Kagami just lied to me." I said. "I know you're smart enough to realize when it's time to tell the truth. If you don't tell me what you really know..."

I cocked the gun. Kagami seemed to get anxious, shifting nervously.

"You have five seconds." I told them. "Five..."

Hiruzen's eyes widened but he didn't open his mouth.

"Four..."

"Come on, Mada... It's not even that big of a deal." Kagami said, trying to move but failing.

"Three..."

My eyes shifted up to his. He began edging on hysteria.

"Chill out, man, please!" He yelled.

"Two..."

"I'm you fucking COUSIN, man!" He shouted at me. "You'd shoot me over a FUCKING FAGGOT?!"

"Mada... P-Please..."

A gun shot rang out. Kagami screamed so loud and long his voice got hoarse and he began to choke because of a lack of breath. He struggled to draw air back into his lungs as he kicked his legs back and forth hard and grabbed his thigh with his free hand.

"F-Fuck!" He shouted. "FUUUUUUUUCK!"

I lifted the gun, looking at the gregariously bleeding hole in his thigh.

"Sorry, I shot a bit earlier than I meant to." I said, shrugging. "But at least it wasn't your balls."

Kagami's hair matted against his face with the sweat and tears beginning to frame it.

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

I shoved the gun at his face.

"Keep insulting my intelligence and it'll be worse." I said to him. "You fucking idiot, always playing around and treating everything like a goddamn game. This is real life, you piece of shit."

I tapped the gun against his cheek as he sobbed, shaking and moaning.

"And right now I'm your fucking God, so if you value your life, asshole, talk."

"Danzo...planned it." Kagami said.

He sucked in a deep choking breathe and bit his lips, looking at me with those dark, red rimmed eyes. It seemed like he was getting more serious than I'd ever seen him in my entire life.

"H-He planned that Hashirama would come and he planned to send to him to see Orange Sweater."

"So he set it up with Orange Sweater?"

Hiruzen nodded.

"We already know who Orange Sweater is." Hiruzen said, wiping his own tears. "During that fight where you kicked all of their asses near those rich houses, there was a video recorder going. Danzo noticed it and later, we broke into one of house and got a copy of that tape to use against her as blackmail."

Her?

"And Danzo called her up and said one of us was ready to out her to the public and get them all sent to jail unless she did what he said."

So, in the end, even that person became a puppet.

"And then what did he plan?" I asked. "Did he plan for Orange Sweater and Hashirama to kill each other?"

Hiruzen held his free hand up.

"I don't know what he planned. That's all we know. That they went to meet each other. If Orange Sweater shot him, that wasn't our plan. That was her."

No...

I stood up.

It was still Danzo's plan. Because Orange Sweater hadn't shot Hashirama. That girl seemed to not mind him at all despite the fact that he had been wearing green and standing right in front of her unarmed for God knows how long.

I pushed the cigarette back into my mouth.

But when I showed up, she reacted toward me like I was her target. All I need to know is who she was supposed to kill.

I blew the smoke out and pushed the gun back into Kagami's crotch.

"Is that the truth?"

He nodded hard, lifting his other bloody hand and grabbing my wrist with it.

"Yes, yes, it is. It really is, I swear."

"But you knew something big was going to happen, didn't you?" I asked him. "You had to know that Danzo planned to get rid of him somehow... And you agreed with that, right?"

They were both silent.

"Exactly." I said.

Which is why you're both guilty.

I pulled the photo of Hashirama out of my pocket.

"So you're just as at fault for his death as the one who pulled the trigger." I said to them. "Why don't you say your last words to him?"

Kagami looked at the picture, shaking his head.

"Oh God... Madara, please... You wouldn't really-" Kagami stammered, tears ensuing.

"What do you have to say to him?" I repeated.

"I... I don't know."

I cocked the gun.

"I-I'm sorry, okay?!" He started sobbing. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't know that was going to happen to him! I swear, I didn't know! I'm not a murderer... Please... I'm..."

I shifted, pulling my gun from between his legs as a dark, wet stain grew over his crotch.

"Gross..." I muttered, hopping up on the counter to clean the gun.

"I'm sorry, too." Hiruzen said quietly. "If I'd known I was assisting in his death, I wouldn't have let him go."

He wiped his face where the gash from his forehead had started to bleed down his face and into his eyebrows.

"If you think killing us will make up for it, then... Do it."

I scoffed.

Like I need your permission. Just save it...

I stretched, pulling a note out of my back pocket and pulling the phone on the counter closer to me. I dialed the numbers...

"Read this note when they answer." I told him.

"Hello, this is the local police station, what's your emergency?"

Hiruzen's eyes flicked over the sentences.

"My name is...Hiruzen Sarutobi and me and my friend, Kagami Uchiha, were accomplices in..." He swallowed. "W-Were accomplices in the murder of Hashirama Senju."

I blew the smoke out into the air again. Kagami's sobbing grew slightly louder as I jumped off the counter and walked over to the living room where my backpack was. I picked it up, rearranging everything as it was and paused by the door as Hiruzen said the last few words. But he struggled, I turned, giving him a look, prompting him to finish.

"We're both...very, very s-sick people...and we need to taken into custody for a l-long time." He finally said.

He hung up the phone.

"So...this is what you wanted." Hiruzen whispered. "To finish us off like this... It's really cruel."

I lifted my mask, fitting it back over my face and pulling the collar of my jean jacket up against the cold outside.

Yes... Because if they're captured as murder accomplices, they'll never be cops. For Hiruzen, with his parents, and Kagami with his sisters, they became two kids who wanted to be the justice they thought the world was missing. Justice that wouldn't run innocent teen girls out of a city and lock away two parents just because of political ideology. Justice that they lost along the way... They both... Hid themselves in a world of laughter, in Kagami's case, and feigned ignorance, in Hiruzen's case.

I glanced back at them one last time, with Kagami shaking in his own mess of blood and piss and Hiruzen looking down at his lap, eyes dead to the world.

But it's over now. Everything I started. It all ends tonight.

I slammed the door closed, feeling the wind immediately whip my hair back off of my face and jostle my cigarette as I casually walked over to the garden. My fingers curled around the handle of the water canteen as I picked it up, tilting it slightly over the blooming violets.

-FLAT LINE-

That noise. It's so loud every time I close my eyes. It's all I can hear. All day, every day.

"Did you finish your shower, honey?"

"Yes, Mommy."

"Good, because I won't be here to remind you to take it in the morning."

"I promise I did already, Mommy."

An older, tired looking woman leaned down and kissed the forehead of a boy with frizzy dark brown hair and tucked him into bed.

"Sleep well."

"I will."

She left the room then, content that her son would be fine. As he was every night when she left at exactly 11pm and went to work in the city. She closed the door softly, steadily walking toward the stairs where she stopped, jumping slightly as her eyes came upon another boy.

"Oh! This is a lovely surprise, Madara... Uh... How...did you get in the house?"

"Danzo tells me where he keeps the key. I wanted to see if he was feeling alright."

"...Alright? Why wouldn't he?"

"He was really good friends with Hashirama. Didn't you know?"

"Hashira... Oh... Oh, do you mean that poor boy who had the funeral today?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh wow... No... Well, Danzo has been acting rather strange lately." She shook her head then. "But he doesn't tell me much. You know boys. Well...go ahead, then."

"Thank You."

I stood, waiting until she opened and closed the door downstairs. Then I walked up...and pushed his bedroom door open. He sat there in bed, probably having heard the entire conversation I'd had with his mother, and his eyes were locked on his bedsheets.

We were both silent. I could hear the grandfather clock in the corner of his bedroom ticking...ticking...ticking...

"I knew you would come."

I walked over to his bed and sat up on the dresser next to it.

"Good. Then we don't have to waste any time." I said, pulling another cigarette out of the carton.

"Can you not smoke in here?"

I lit the cigarette anyway, blowing the smoke out all over his bed.

"You have more important things to worry about." I told him.

He glared at me.

"So what? You're gonna threaten me with that gun? Say you'll kill me if I don't tell the truth? I'm no snitch."

"I know you're not." I said. "Neither are Kagami and Hiruzen. That's why I chose you all."

I tipped the filter on his dresser.

"But that doesn't mean you can't be broken...like they were."

He lowered his head and sighed.

"So, you set up this whole meeting with Orange Sweater and Hashirama for what?" I asked. "Was it a fuck up on your part? Was it really supposed to be me and not Hashirama?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Why would I ask you to go?" He mumbled. "It was supposed to be him. He thought he was being smart... By doing all the talking and setting the conditions. But I called his thoughts."

He tapped his finger against his head.

"I knew what he was going to say before he even said it that fa-"

I hand twitched toward my gun next to me on the dresser. My eyes said it all.

Watch your fucking mouth, Danzo. I'll rip you to fucking shreds.

He looked at me wearily.

"...I-I knew he was going to volunteer to take your place. That was the only move he could make. So I planned for it."

"Okay, so what the hell did Orange Sweater have to do with all that?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" I repeated.

He glared at me. I lifted the gun, literally seconds away from jumping off the dresser and bashing him across the head with it.

"ALRIGHT! WAIT!" He put his hands out. "I was black mailing her!"

"Right. You had footage of her real identity and she wanted to get that. But what did that have to do with her being at the construction site at three in the morning?"

"I told her to go there."

"Okay." I said to him, nodding hard. "Now, we're getting somewhere. So you told her, right?"

"Yes."

"And you told her to kill him in exchange for the footage." I said, reaching for my gun.

"Yea- I mean, NO! No, I didn't!"

He stammered, inching away from me.

"I gave her plain instructions. I said that... The guy who was coming there at that time was the same guy who beat up all her friends and embarrassed her. I told her that he had the footage. So... If she wanted it, she had to..." He paused momentarily.

"What?" I asked, snapping my fingers at him. "I'm getting impatient."

"She had to disable him."

This goddamn bastard...

"Okay." I said airily. "So you set her up for that and set Hashirama up to go there as a ploy to 'disable' him."

"She was supposed to shoot him in the legs." He said.

"Madara... I-I can't feel my legs."

"If she fucked up and he died, that's not my fault! I didn't give her those instructions."

"This hurts so bad."

"It was all on her!"

"Madara..."

I stared at the cigarette burning between my fingers for a long time.

"Look... Madara... I didn't mean for this to happen." Danzo suddenly spoke up.

I put the cigarette down, being careful not to smudge it, and picked up my gun. Danzo's voice immediately began to slip into hysteria.

"No, I'm serious. I really, really didn't mean this."

I held the gun in my hands, turning it over and over again.

"He wasn't supposed to die. That wasn't the plan!"

I slowly looked up at him.

"But...disabling him so that he never walks again was the plan, right?"

Danzo stared at me, breathing heavily and licking his lips.

"You were going to leave! I had to do something! You were going to betray us!" He gripped his sheets. "Just like... Just like my father's comrades."

How idiotic...

"And it was all his fault! I couldn't let him destroy this!"

"You're so weak." I said, shaking my head at him. "You can't even realize when you're being eaten alive by someone else's will."

I slid off the dresser.

"You're not your father."

He stared at me, eyes widening slightly.

"But it's too late for you anyway." I said, raising the gun.

Then I pointed to the cord telephone next to his bed.

"Pick it up."

His eyes never left the gun and he obeyed lifting it.

"Call this number and read this."

I slowly pushed the note toward him and lifted it...lips trembling as he read it in his head.

"Hello, this is the local police station, what's your emergency?"

He was silent.

"Hello?"

I pressed the gun to his temple.

"Is anyone there?"

"My name... M-My name is Danzo...Shimura..."

As he spoke, I could hear it all within me, playing back like a tape.

Dolphin surfing... Train jumping... Boxing...

"And I-I'm r-responsible for Hashirama Senju's murder."

And even further before that. The first day we met. And he looked at me. And he tried to stop me from getting detention. But we both ended up in there anyway and got to talking. I knew... I knew that first conversation that he was different, that he was the one I'd spent my entire life looking for.

"...I confess...to his murder and I... I a-accept full responsibility."

And I thought I would spend my entire life with him.

"A-And... I-In a few m-minutes... I... I-I'm going to..."

But in the end, the cruel real world we live in... Wouldn't let it happen.

Like snapshots, my mind traced back over it all...

Tsubasa's shattered sunglasses... The red stained yellow t-shirt... His final words to me...

"I-I'm going to k-kill myself." Danzo finished.

I pointed to the phone, prompting him to hang it up, which he did. He'd gotten to the end of the note. I dropped the gun, allowing it to hook over my forefinger and the base of it pointed in his direction.

He slowly grabbed it, holding it in his hand. I put my hand over his, pushing the gun to his temple.

"Madara... C-Can I say something?"

He looked up at me, his entire face was dipping with tears. Which was strange to me, considering I'd never seen him cry.

"Hashirama... He... He said something to me before he left." Danzo whispered. "He said he wanted to save me, change me. And he said that same line... That I'm not my father. When he said that... When he left... I really regretted everything and I wanted to call him back but it was already... Already..."

"Are you telling me this because you think I'm going to take pity on you and try to 'change' you?" I asked him. "You're making a huge oversight... Hashirama and I have never seen eye to eye on ideology."

We may have been able to. We were close to being able to. And then you killed him.

His lips trembled wet with his running nose as he spoke.

"I just want you to know that...I-I'm r-really sorry."

"That's fine."

I wasn't sure if he thought by saying sorry, I was going to let him go. Or if he thought I would break down with tears at the humanity of it all and we'd sing old church spirituals and hug and be friends.

But I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't feel ANYthing. I couldn't feel anyTHING. There was literally nothing inside of me that could catch whatever sorry plea he was trying to throw.

It's over.

"Goodbye, Danzo."

I pressed his finger down over the trigger and the gun shot off. I'd begun to get used to guns going off so close to me, so the loud shock of it didn't make me cringe. But the blood splattered all over my clothes. Where there was already Kagami and Hiruzen's blood. And the gun was a mess. And his pillow and sheets were soaked with the thick stuff. And all it really reminded me of was...

"SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!"

I reached for my cigarette, taking a moment to smoke it again. I stared at the mess of a human spectacle in front of me, and then grabbed my backpack and walked out.

-FLAT LINE-

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. The sound of it. Why can't I get it out of my head?!

The woman inside the house was sobbing. Which she had been for a good amount of time. As she left the house and leaned up against her old station wagon she balled her fists, slamming her head against the car and screamed out.

"Why?! ...Why did it have to be this way?!"

She was at rage with herself.

"Why did our last conversation have to be a fight?!"

And rightly so.

"Why did I...Why did I slap him?"

She got into her car, backing down the driveway messily and narrowly avoiding multiple mailboxes and she drove out into the street, speeding.

In the window of one of the bedrooms, there were three beds. One was empty, one was occupied by a boy who was curled up into a ball with the sheets over his head and unmoving, only thing to be seen was a tuft of whitish hair. And the other was about to be occupied by a boy in a wheelchair, as a girl who had been carrying him on her back, let him off into the sheets.

"Sleep now, Itama." She whispered. "Everything's going to be fine."

The boy's face looked like it was going to be a permanent red. Like he'd been crying for days on end.

"I miss him so bad, Mito." The boy whimpered.

She leaned down and hugged him.

"I know... I know..."

As she hugged him, she glanced up and out of the window and jumped, slightly startled. But then her eyes hardened, slightly glazing over. And she nodded, understanding what needed to be done. She kissed him on the forehead.

"I'll be back in a second to read you that story, alright?"

He nodded slowly and lay down as she walked out.

I stood underneath the light of a phone booth a little ways down the street. I saw her walking in the distance, coming to meet me. And when she was there, right in front of me, unexpectedly, she broke down, tears rimming her eyes, and her hands shook and she grabbed her hair and said...

"Whatever you want to do, just do it." She said. "I... I hate myself enough already."

She shook her head hard.

"I'm living a lie. His brothers... They don't even know I'm the one who..."

"You were a puppet." I said to her.

She froze, looking up at me. Probably shocked with hope that I was going to take pity on her. But like with Danzo, I had no pity left for anything.

"But a puppet still has responsibility. For one, no puppet becomes one unknowingly."

"...What do you want with me?"

"The truth."

"You were there."

"I saw what I saw. But why were you there?"

"The leader of your 'Green Guy Group' had a tape of me. He said... He said the guy who made us all look so stupid that day had it and that if I wanted it to not get out, I would have to impair him."

So, that Danzo was telling the truth... Interesting.

"So why didn't you do it before I showed up?" I asked. "Why did you point the gun at me?"

"You were the one who kicked my friends asses weren't you?"

I nodded.

"...I knew Hashirama wasn't the guy I was there for." She said quietly. "I told him to get out of there, but..."

When he saw me... And she turned on me, he...

"He's just a stupid righteous guy, like that. So fucking stupid..."

And I was surprised to see there was something we agreed on.

"Your target was Hashirama all along." I revealed to her. "Danzo planned it so that you would impair him. He was the reason I stopped being a 'green guy', as you call it, and Danzo wanted me back."

Her eyebrows rose.

"He planned everything perfectly. Even right down to how Hashirama would act. But he didn't predict that Hashirama would know you personally and you wouldn't fire."

He couldn't have predicted that.

She sighed, shaking her head.

"It all makes sense now. He knew he was the target... That's why he..."

"I promised someone that I would protect you with my life."

Jumped in the way.

But still... It was my fault mostly... If hadn't come, if I stayed away and didn't rush toward him so blindly, so carelessly, I wouldn't have been put in the line of fire and this girl, the one I'd already provoked by pointing out the fact that she was too cowardly to shoot anyone, wouldn't have tried to shoot me. I singlehandedly set up his death myself...right down to the creation of the vigilante group to begin with. He was destined to die... The moment he laid eyes on me.

And that was something I would be haunted by until the day I died. Mito continued muttering to herself, also tortured by her own thoughts.

"That idiot... And what I said to him..." Her lips trembled. "God, I was being a lunatic. I was just...talking... But I told him that he was nothing but the charred ground for a real hero to walk on. Imagine dying... And that's the last thing I said."

At least that wasn't the last thing he heard. In the end... He got to hear what he wanted.

"I could die listening to your voice."

I tried to shake the voices out of my head again.

Christ, Hashi...

"There's a reason we're standing at a phone booth." I said. "You need to call the police."

She looked down.

"Turn yourself in for the direct murder of Hashirama Senju. Give them the evidence, your gun, your testimony. And give yourself up for all the crimes you've committed so far."

Her tears began falling again, mixing in with her red hair.

I pulled the phone off the hook and the dial tone sounded as I pressed it into her hand.

"If you don't... I'll find you and this 'pass' I'm giving you will be revoked. And instead of needing a prison entrance, you'll need a morgue entrance... Like Danzo is currently getting."

Her eyes flicked up to mine as I said that. I knew what she wanted to ask. But I couldn't understand how she figured I was lying. Her eyes went over my body, my khakis and my shirt and my jacket all stained heavily in blood. As though her brain was comprehending what it all meant for the first time.

It's over.

"You... You really, really loved him, didn't you?"

I turned around, hiking my backpack further up my shoulder and walked away.

It didn't take long to get where I was going. The bit of brush behind the shack house we used to make up plans in. I pulled all my clothes off, or rather, his clothes. And tossed them into a pile on the ground. I pulled the spare clothes I'd packed in my backpack out and put them on. Then I found the lighter fluid we normally hid in the shack and poured it over the backpack where I stowed all the evidence I wanted to discard.

"Mada, I want to stay with you forever."

I lit the match from my cigarette carton and tossed it, revealing in the rush of warmth the sudden blaze brought.

"...You, promise?"

I watched it all burn until it was nothing more than ashes upon ashes and when I was certain I could leave it, completely positive, I turned away.

"Jesus, Madara... I'm so in love with you."

I pulled the hood of my black pullover up and stuffed my hands in my pockets, trudging off.

Love...? I thought I knew what that was. When I was with him, I was certain I did. But now... It's getting a lot less clear.

When I got home, Izuna and my mother were sitting in front of the television.

"BREAKING NEWS: The culprits behind the local murder of 15 year old Hashirama Senju have..."

They glanced at me as I walked by, we all shared glances, slight nods, and then I continued up the stairs, blocking the rest of the words like "suicide" and "injuries" and "suspicious circumstances" out.

In my bedroom, I'd torn a card in half. I felt part of my heart, part of my soul wrenching as I grabbed the pieces of the card and put it together, reading the phone number on it.

"...Hello?" The voice said.

Soon, it'll all be over.

"Father."

Back To The Tracks

I could hear the clock ticking over the television in the living room. The TV was off. As it had been for the past 12 hours.

I'm sick of listening to how the police claim they 'miraculously' discovered the group of murderers of an innocent tenth grader and the leaders behind two prominent 'chain gangs' all in one fell swoop.

My guitar leaned up against the couch. I'd been sleeping on the couch and my Mother brought it down to me. Probably as some kind of sick joke. But I couldn't even bare to stay in my own bedroom for more than five seconds, let alone sleep in there.

My bed... It smells like him.

At some points, even just walking past my room had my hands shaking.

"There can't be anything wrong about how this feels."

I got to my feet. Finally ready to do what I'd been planning all morning. I had absolutely nothing except the clothes on my back and the little that remained in my pockets. As the couch creaked, footsteps sounded in the hall. I walked on. The person stood in my path. The clock continued ticking.

"Madara."

"Yes, Mother?"

She was wearing a light blue and white sundress. An outfit I hadn't seen her wear in so long, I almost thought I was day dreaming. She looked down at me, brushing her dark brown hair over her shoulder as she addressed me.

"I understand." She told me. "...Why you're choosing to do what you are. Why you chose to do what you did. And I also understand why I'm the last person that should be allowed to tell you anything."

That's right.

"...Because I wasn't there. And none of this would have happened to you if I was there."

Exactly.

"So, I'll bear loosing you... Because I never had possession over you."

Not since you relinquished it after Taiga and Itsuya died.

"But that's you." She said, looking at me firmly. "You can go... And do whatever you want. It's your life to lead, your life to shape. But leave Izuna here."

The clock continued clicking. My ears ached and a reminiscent sound became present in my ears.

"Clear."

Buzz.

"Clear"

Buzz.

"I... I don't think he's coming back, Doc."

And then screaming. But that might've all been in my own head as far as I know.

"It's not your place to tell him what to do either." I said to her. "After all, you've already allowed him to become a criminal. If it wasn't for the sacrifices people made for him, you wouldn't even be able to claim your rights to him now."

"And you think your father is going to do any better with him!?"

Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock.

I turned around, not responding to her.

"Goodbye, Mother."

"Madara, please!" She shouted at me.

I grasped the door knob, turning it and the sunlight poured into the dark house.

"Don't take him from me, please!"

I stepped out.

"If you do, I... I don't know what I'll do... I don't know..." She began to sob.

Life... Is this way.

I closed the door firmly shut behind me.

It's a battle between changing and staying the same. And neither is right. Neither is wrong.

My feet slowly made their way down our driveway, looking at the chips in the concrete and stone, realizing that I'd never walk the same path again.

Both are just pointless. Because even if you don't change. The people around you will. So change... Is nothing more than an angelic devil.

I watched the birds fly... Remembering when that thought first came to my mind. When the ambulance came and took him to the nearest hospital.

"TRY IT AGAIN!" I had shouted.

The nurses scrambled, struggling to hold me back. And then the two operating doctors shook their heads over his body and one raised the sheet to cover his face and the other closed the door.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!"

"Calm down! It's over, kid! It's over!"

"LET ME GO!"

And then I had decided that I would say when it was over.

It didn't take me long to find my feet on the tracks. Wearing the same Adidas Campus. The same brown, rusty path we took, simply to try to find something in the world to escape to. And somehow, we became that escape for each other and then...

"Mito, NOOO!"

It was all over.

"Madara!"

I turned, shielding my eyes against the burning sunlight as a figure came running up to me in the distance. I sighed, cocking my head slightly as the black haired boy's footsteps sounded along the tracks until he stopped in front of me, backpack on his shoulders.

"Madara, I'm coming with you."

Birds cawed. I watched as he rubbed the sweat off of his forehead. He must've been following me for a long time.

"I'm not taking no for an answer." He went on. "You can't leave me with Mom. She's sick. She's just going to relapse."

He breathed heavily, leaning over and putting his hands on his knees.

"And you think Father's going to take better care of you?"

He paused, then shook his head hard.

"Daddy only cares about the company." He looked me fully in the eyes. "He loves you because when everyone else passed, he thought you could be the one to make the company really stellar."

Then he paused, shaking his head.

"No... Daddy... He always thought you would be the one. Even when we were little kids." Izuna confessed. "He knew that you weren't as shy as Itsuya or as simple minded as Taiga or as much of a pansy as Tsubasa or even as...as reckless as I am."

My mind shifted back to the memory of the last time I'd seen my Father and he said...

"Unlike the other boys, you're different. I can see it in your eyes. You're ambitious, Madara. You're goal-driven. You have purpose. ...Just like me."

"He knew you were the one with the brains and the strength to back it up." Izuna went on.

"I know you'll change your mind..."

I couldn't help but to smirk, just slightly.

It looks like my dog of a Father was right about me. I'm a complete generation Xerox of him after all.

"So where does that leave you?" I asked him.

"As your second." Izuna said quickly. "Daddy won't take care of me. He probably won't even put me in one of his big-shot, rich-boy schools... But I'll be with you."

He nodded, believing his words.

"Madara, I'm staying with you."

I slid my hands into the pockets of my light blue denim jeans, finding two things in either pocket, one was a book of matches, the other was a photograph. The collar of my black polo, which I'd popped, fluttered against my cheek as I looked down at the picture.

"...Ever since I lost him."

"Get this kid outta here, he's going nuts!"

"LET ME GO! STOP IT!"

"Listen to me, kid! Stop! Listen!"

"HASHI!"

"He's gone, alright? He flatlined... That's it. It's over."

"...Flat Line...?"

"But even before that." I said. "I...stopped caring."

He raised his eyebrows.

"Izuna... You might think I'm going on to be some kind of hero or something, but I'm not. I'm leaving because I'm a coward, just like our father..."

"I can be your escape... You don't have to be stuck where you are."

"And every single thing here. Every bird that flies over my head. Every sunrise. Every sunset. Every single thing here reminds me of him. And I can't even hear my own thoughts in my head anymore."

"Ahh... Mada... This feels great."

"It's just him... All the time." I admitted to him. "And there's... No room for you."

Izuna's eyes widened.

"I don't have the heart left to take care of you, Izuna."

"You're just still in mourning." Izuna protested. "After a few weeks, you'll-"

"Be gone." I interrupted him.

I stood aside allowing him to look past me toward where the train tracks led. On and on as far as the eye could see, into the horizon.

"The path I'm on...leads nowhere, Izuna." I told him. "And the brother that could protect you died in a construction site five days ago."

Izuna's bottom lip trembled. He gripped his fists, staring on at where I pointed.

"All that remains for me is the past." I explained to him. "But... You have a future."

He looked up at me, tears beginning to spill.

I pointed past him, toward the city of Konoha. Toward his life.

"Go back and enjoy it."

He stood there for a while, rubbing his soaking eyes. The sunshine reflected in them as he watched me, probably waiting for me to take what I said back. But I wouldn't.

"Goodbye, Izuna."

Slowly, he nodded. But we stared at each other for a moment longer. Realizing, most likely, that for the first time in our lives we wouldn't be together every second of every day. But we turned away from each other anyway, walking in opposite directions. It wasn't like my ears were straining or anything but I was almost certain he said...

"I'll come find you one day."

There will be nothing to find.

I was ready to let anything happen to the corpse walking around everyone saw as a body. My soul had already passed on. I walked on the metallic tracks for a while longer and paused, cutting the match on the board and creating a flame.

There's only one person to say goodbye to now.

I looked at the picture for a long time. Gazed at that smile. Felt a strong urge to feel his hair, graze his cheek, kiss his lips.

I held the flame to the photograph watching as it burned in my fingertips just as his body turned to ice in my arms. And I dropped it on the tracks.

"Goodbye... Hashi."

My Adidas continued on from that point. And they didn't pause. And I didn't turn back. But I was accompanied by a memory... Really, a memory of a memory... A premonition I'd had when I slept right after doing it with Hashirama. When I woke up, then it was like a dream I could only catch wisps of. But the longer I thought of it, the more it became clearer. I was standing or sitting or floating in a mess of whitish gold cloud-like space. And there was a voice. His voice. And he was speaking to me. And he said...

Hashirama's Soul: Forever Together

I'm dead but...it's actually, not too bad. You'd think dying would be this whole dramatic thing, right? Like your life flashing before your eyes and you remembering all the things you had to do and all the people you were supposed to meet and blah, blah, blah... Like, honestly, by the time you even reach the freaking pearly gates, that's the last thing on your mind. Speaking of the pearly gates, they aren't pearly. There aren't even gates. Everyone thinks going to limbo is like standing in line at the mall when they're giving out free samples and the lines backed up for miles like stand-still traffic with one line for the goodie two shoes and another line for the assholes.

'Cause I'm...you know, a queer and everything. I would've had to be in the other line in that circumstance. Just imagine it, right? You're standing there looking all small and frail and then some big dude is in front of you like "Yeah, I raped like five women" and some other crazy looking asshole is like "I cheated on all six of my wives" and then Hitler himself is standing next to you like "I killed six million freaking Jews... What are you in for?" And then you have to go about telling 'em that you gave head to this guy you loved and... Jesus, you can imagine, right? But luckily, it's not like those two lines and a front desk everyone thinks of where God stamps everyone either to heaven or hell. It's a lot more private.

When you meet him... Well... I probably shouldn't tell you all that but I do want you to know it's not bad. When you think of God, you think a court judge or the cool kid that picks what team everyone gets to be on in dodge ball at recess but... He talks to you alone and it's just you and him then you realize something. Life on Earth is literally a whole different dimension. It's almost like everything that ever happened in life is a completely different language. That's not to say all of the sins and stuff don't matter. They do. Just not in the same way everyone thinks. And God understands. He understands you more than you understand yourself. Honestly. There's nothing to fear about death at all. And God isn't ruthless or angry or even just depressed at you... I promise.

But before I forget, I want to thank you. Thanks...for being there with me at the end. Seeing the birds fly and the morning sky and your eyes while I died. Really... I can't even imagine having a luckier break. I would write you something in a will but the last I checked I was homeless, so...

Anyway... Here, I can meet you again. When you come here, if that's what you really want in your heart, I can meet you. But for now... I'm fine with just touring whatever world God makes up for me. Seas. Stars. Space. Sky. It's all here. So I'll wait. I'll wait forever. Because we swore to each other, right? That wherever there is to go... We'll go there...together.

THE END...

Author's Note: Yeah, I know. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Hahaha. Anyway, that's it for my HashixMada stories for a while. But I LOVED writing this one. I really kind of made it my own honestly. And it was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed it as well (save for that ending) and if you're wondering what else in the workshop, a WHOLE lot of NaruxSasu's, another canon ending for the actual story of Naruto and a requested story from one of my fans! So stick around! Love ya! ;)