Chaos herself's note:

Hey there!

I'm back with another chapter. And withut further ado I leave you to it.

Enjyo and have fun reading!

Chaos

...

Chapter 4: Black Sun

The heat was unmeasurably scorching so close to the roaring flames of the raging black sun; Touka was sweating just from the mere presence of the tamed inferno and her net-undershirt clung to her as if it was about to melt into her flesh. She gritted her teeth and wound up. Seeing Amaterasu up close, nay, feeling its blaze on her pale skin and her hot breath burning in her lungs the Kunoichi had to admit she could understand why the Uchiha prayed to the sungoddess.

At least she had been able to peel Madara off his battle armour and weapons so he was down to his bared torso and Mangekyo Sharingan only. It had been a gamble to plunge right into the heart of evil but Touka rather did it here than close to her quarters...and it was definitely worth it. Her hammer came down as hard as she could; although she had to be extra careful.

Above the howling noise of angry flames a loud metallic clank, clank, clank was ringing repeatedly through the whole Uchiha district. White hot sparks were spraying on contact.

She huffed and lowered the heavy hammer to the ground for a second; the heat was draining her energies faster and she felt the strain in her arms already. Her gaze flickered over to Madara and his face, too, was slightly twisted with concentration and rills of sweat while he was controlling Amaterasu and manning both tongs and fan for hours. An angry hiss flared up when glowing white hot metal was dipped into a trough of water and the liquid instantly vapourized to thick clouds of steam.

It was pure luck Touka had got her hands on a lump of Chakra ore; and she just couldn't let the chance slide to forge it into the exquisite blades it deserved to be.

Thus, after quarreling with herself for a good while she had swallowed her pride and hate and had gone to find the right man to provide the necessary degree of hot fire to accomplish the huge feat. Surprisingly, Madara had agreed without further ado and they had got to work shortly.

Maybe he was just as bored with Hashirama-sama gone for weeks and weeks; maybe they both used the same military tactics of keeping the enemy busy while keeping a close eye on them and ruffling their feathers without breaching the truce.

Once the block of hot metal was back on the anvil Touka hefted the sledge-hammer again and wound up; and she had to repeatedly refrain herself from imagining it was Madara's head laying on the anvil and waiting for her to squash it like an overripe watermelon beneath the head of her sledge, though.

It was an extremely tedious and strenuous and taxing procedure to work and fold the material into the thousand times thousand ultrathin layers that traditionally made up the raw blades, which Shinobi and Kunoichi used every day without ever considering how they came to be; they had to be very careful the metal neither got too hot nor too cold nor struck at a wrong angle once or else the whole work was irreversibly ruined.

But the two of them were doing well so far.

Inwardly Touka smirked at the irony of the Uchiha helping blacksmithing the very weapon she intended to execute him with later; it did good to see her archfiend flashing brief signs of exhaustion, too. If he was aware of this he didn't show, and neither did she.

Her continuous hard hammer blows came with an accompanying pant now and rivulets of sweat were running down her spine and cleft between her breasts but Madara was in no better condition holding pliers and campfire-sized Amaterasu steady in place.

"What in Rikudou Sennin's name are you two up to here?"

Like always Tobirama appeared out of the blue even if he wasn't using the tightly bandaged Hiraishin seal on Touka's belly right now. She lowered the sledge-hammer with a relieving 'thud' and stretched her sore arms and back while Madara tightly closed his eyes and shut off the mini-inferno to get a good swig of water from his flask.

"Preparing for war," Touka provided catching her breath and blinked at Tobirama, who gave her disheveled appearance a quick once-over and turned to glare at the likewise half-clad Uchiha for more intel. Madara hadn't commented on the flash of skin beneath her net-undershirt when they both relieved themselves of too many layers of armour to efficiently work under the extreme heat of the black sun; and the Kunoichi didn't care either way.

"Let's continue another time," he stated a bit hoarsely and cleared his throat with another sip. "I'll make sure to keep this pot boiling." Touka nodded curtly at that, dried off her skin with a towel and adjusted her hairtie before slipping her black turtleneck back on and carefully re-dressing her battle armour.

They didn't tell each other 'thanks for the hard work' like they should have when the Kunoichi and Tobirama left the Uchiha district; after their brief talk weeks ago Madara and Touka simply dropped the formalities and mutually forewent appropriate courtesies altogether.


"What was that?" Tobirama demanded to know on their way back to her quarters; for whatever reasons he seemed a bit peeved.

"You asked me to keep a closer eye on the Uchiha, Tobirama-dono," Touka replied impassively and held out a tuft of blue aconite for him to take. He begrudgingly accepted the flower. "It's killing two birds with one stone if I can keep him distracted for hours like this and augment my repertoire," she added contented with her solution.

However, Tobirama only grumbled. "I understand you're going to do it again?" he stated more than asked while he followed Touka into her kitchen and watched her preparing a light snack. She answered nontheless. "Yes. Our business is not finished yet; and it's not the worst way to blow off steam, you know?"

He harrumphed, crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

So Touka continued calmly while nibbling on her Onigiri: "If you weren't so busy with your village administration one-man show right now I might have asked you to help me out here, Tobirama-dono... unfortunately at the moment the Uchiha is likely the only one to be able to give me what I need." Licking a crumb of rice from her lips she cast up her dark scrutinizing eyes at him.

Tobirama made a sour face as if he had bitten into one of the lemons sitting in a neat little gift basket he placed onto the worktop in passing. Another one. "I see," he somberly murmured and turned to leave. "Just be careful not to look too deeply into his Sharingan..."


Sure enough Kanoko had returned as soon as she was all healed up and back on her feet; Touka had expected no less from her little 'ally'. And after two, three repetitions of their last encounter the fawn demurely dared to bring her friends into her lair.

"Why don't you brats attend the school Tobirama-dono is so kindly organising for young Shinobi and Kunoichi instead of coming here all the time?" Touka suggested coldly when she chucked a primula auricula at the loudmouthed Yamanaka kid; the yellow flower zinged by her nose and the usually rather soft stem stuck to the bark of a tree like a pin. After that the three teenage Kunoichi were agreeably quiet.

Kanoko was the first to gather her courage again and softly reply in her usual sedate slur: "Class hasn't started yet...they can't seem to get the troublesome schedule and teaching material straight anytime soon. And no one has volunteered to teach either."

Touka arched a brow. "Why don't you ask your father or uncle or whoever to do it then? You Nara people are known for your smarts, aren't you?"

"Too troublesome, I guess..." the girl murmured under her breath and rubbed her pale neck.

"I think you would make a good instructor, Senju-sama," the little Akimichi roly-poly found her shy voice and swiftly ducked behind the hill of Touka's leftover Onigiri, which she continuously munched on, as if they could shield her from Touka's piercing glare.

"Oh? So you think it might be a good idea if I get to beat you into a pulp in Tai-Jutsu training or make you my living pincushions during warfare instruction or turn your little brains into a squishy puddle of mush during Gen-Jutsu lessons every day instead of once in a while?" the seasoned Kunoichi smirked mischievously and towered before the three girls and they visibly shrank back.

"Remember last time we four had a little bout? You, Nara-kun, were out like a light and couldn't move even one tiny sore phalanx of your body, you, Akimichi-kun, were puking your gut out until you looked about half your size and you, Yamanaka-kun, were wailing like a little baby for your mommy and I bet you're still recovering from your newly added arachnophobia," she recounted mercilessly and watched how each of them paled a healthy shade of green.

At least the three Kunoichi had shown a decent amount of teamwork; they would make a quite passable squad one day, Touka mused on a side note. And all of them had still returned after this particular experience... Maybe she should probe them further for masochistic tendencies?

At least she had quickly dissuaded them from this delusional idea effectively.

"Alright, girls. I don't care if you're ready but we're going to have another round of 'fun' now!" she proclaimed viciously, which elicited some anticipated agonized groans from the teenage trio.