Somewhere during mid-autumn, the Senju and the Uchiha had gotten into a skirmish. Like usual, when the wounded were brought back, Touko's clinic was swamped and this time they hadn't had the time to get outside help and the two other medics of the clan were out on missions. Those two weren't exactly doctors, they were just regular shinobi forced to learn under Touko when the clan had lacked doctors, but they didn't like it, so they avoided being at the clinic whenever they could. Haruka had to help, even if she official had only started training for a month and a half. She went around taking some of the most urgent cases, and somewhere between the third and fourth patient the onlookers had stopped doubting her and let her do her job.
When she finally got to Uchiha Kakeru, she was already tired and so she just silently put the bone sticking out of his leg back in its place, after cleaning it, and put a cast. He started protesting that he needed to go back to the battle and didn't need the cast when she had clearly fixed his leg. Now, it was a long afternoon, and she had put up with the doubts of a lot of people until now and their unreasonable demands, so it wasn't her fault when her Sharingan activated on its own and she put a scalpel to the neck of the man, threatening that she would gut him in his sleep if he so much as put one foot outside the bed in the next month. Thankfully, Madara was there, waiting for a small gash on his arm to be treated, and, being more used to his sister's terrifying mood swings and not so empty threats, had helped deescalate the situation.
All in all, it was a busy but productive time and she felt great about the progress they had achieved so far.
She was displeased however when in the middle of the afternoon, Tajima summoned her to the administrative building, in the middle of one of her experiments. She swallowed back her grievances when she noticed the grave and agitated ambiance in the room. Madara, Hikaku and Izuna were already there and so Tajima started. "I have decided that from now on the four of you will form a squad under the leadership of Madara. I never assigned any of you to a squad because I was already planning on forming this one in four months, but the situation has changed. The four of you have surpassed the level expected of beginners a long time ago anyway. So go and get ready, you leave in a couple of hours to go and support the shinobi up north, near the mines. The situation is almost cleared but they will need reinforcements to patrol while they rest. We are already stretched thin and you are the only team I can send without endangering our positions."
The four of them nodded seriously. They knew it was coming. The situation was escalating quickly. What situation exactly? Well, do you remember the skirmish where Kakeru had broken his leg? That wasn't exactly a skirmish. It was a full blown war. The cause of it was their new neighbors: The Senju.
It all started right after the Chinoki extermination. Bloods were still boiling on both sides. And, so when two merchant groups with their guards, one Uchiha and one Senju, met in one of the villages near the capital, smack in the middle of the distance that separated both compounds, hell broke loose. The fight destroyed more than half of the village. This wasn't an isolated incident, and the daimyo had had enough. So he came up with an idea. He summoned the Senju, who he had close ties with, and firmly suggested/ordered that they move to the new compound he was gifting them. That compound was conveniently in the south, right next to the Uchiha compound. There was still more than half a day's worth of travel between them and the two territories had a river providing a clear separation, but it was still enough to make everybody on edge.
All the other important shinobi clans received the gift of new compounds from the daimyo, all conveniently located in the south. The daimyo clearly had been planning this for a while now. The message was clear: I have given you a playground were you can fight to the death as you please, but stay there and don't come near the capital again.
That autumn, instead of things dying down like they used to, they escalated gravely and the fighting between all the new neighbors never stopped. Sometimes a squad would sense someone coming and rush to fight, only to discover that it was an ally and turn back around. Somewhere along the line, all the clan heads agreed that from now on the shinobi would wear their clan's crest in a prominent position, instead of keeping it discreet, to avoid confusions. There was a tacit understanding that no one should try and usurp another clan's crest, as the small advantage it would create wasn't worth the disturbance of the delicate system they had found.
Things had started to die down in the winter. The harsh weather wasn't having it and forced everybody to stick to their compounds. It wasn't all bad as the reduced distance allowed the allied clans to visit each other and form stronger bonds. They had even celebrated a wedding between an Uchiha shinobi and a Hagoromo kunoichi who already knew each other but only got to romance when they became neighbors.
But when spring came, the fight started as violently as ever. There were two clear sides: The Uchiha and their allies, and the Senju and their allies. Sadly the later ones were starting to outnumber them as the Hyuuga had joined their ranks. When she had gone on patrol once to learn the trade with Tajima, they had stumbled across one of their delegation preparing to cross into Senju territory. At first she had thought they were blind. They had these weird faded-purple eyes that looked plain creepy. There was no fight as the two groups just ignored each other. When they were faraway, Tajima explained to her that they were the very opposite of blind. Their eyes were a kekkei genkai, that helped them see kilometers away and through matter if they wanted to. He also advised she avoid close contact with them if she were to fight them, because she lacked the training that could counter their special brand of taijutsu.
All in all, the fights were everywhere,and the shinobi were dispatched all over the territory when they weren't on missions, especially when the Senju had discovered the mines the Chinoki were hiding and were trying to snatch them or at least some of their shipments. The Uchiha defended themselves and also tried to steal some the food shipments the Senju were receiving. Somewhere along the line, one of Senju Butsuma's kids, Senju Kawarama, had died. She didn't know what to think when Tajima had smiled sadistically, stating that finally his rival had tasted what it felt like to lose a kid too. She understood that the two clan's couldn't stand each other for various reasons, but what was there to be happy about in the death of a kid?
That's how they found themselves on their way to support the shinobi protecting the mines. When they arrived the fight was already finished. The Senju reinforcements hadn't come in time and the Uchiha had won. They had even done a round around the perimeter of the territory to make sure that none of the Senju were left. As she took care of some of their wounds with the medicine she had packed in her cross body pack, a group of five Uchiha shinobi kept snickering about how some kid with weird two toned hair had started crying when they encircled him. Their squad took the patrolling responsibility over, even if there was nothing left to do. The Senju would have probably already left with their wounded and dead. Madara decided that it was safe for each of them to cover a quarter of the ground, because they were only four and it was still a large place. They would meet back up there in three hours, and they were supposed to come get help if they spotted anything suspicious.
She was jumping from branch to branch for thirty minutes when she heard the sound of loud sobbing. She did her best to hide her presence, but kept going towards the sound, curious. She finally reached a small clearing with a rock in the middle. Right next to it where two boys that cut a sorry figure. The first one, the one who was doing the sobbing, looked around Madara's age. A bad bowl haircut, not even hidden by his large headband with the Senju crest on it, framed what would be a handsome face if he had the chance to grow up (which was not likely with his unprofessional shinobi attitude right now). His tanned skin went great with the olive colored fitted armor he was wearing. Touko wasn't kidding when she said that they had money to spare. In his embrace lay a younger boy, with two toned hair. The poor bastard who the other five Uchiha had encircled undoubtedly. He looked positively dead. She frowned when she took notice of his wounds. Her honorable clansmen had clearly angled them so that he would have a slow painful death instead of a quick one. She took note of their names and decided that from now on, no anesthetic for them when they came to her clinic. That would teach them about pain.
She had already decided to let them go. Enough tragedies for one night. But as she turned around to leave something caught her eye. The dead boy's fingers twitched. It was barely there, but she clearly saw it. The one who, by all appearances was his elder brother, hadn't noticed, to busy snoting up the place. Now, she was in a dilemma. She was an Uchiha. The clan head's daughter too. She should be killing Senju not helping them. But he was a kid. And he probably wouldn't make it back if treatment was delayed any longer. But if anyone knew that she helped him, she didn't want to think about the consequences. But then he might not make it anyway, and there was no telling if his brother wouldn't try to kill her first. Cursing internally, she scanned their surroundings to make sure no one was coming and she kept remind her self that good deeds brought on good karma; she had gotten an entire second life for one good deed after all. And then she jumped into the clearing.
To his credit, her feet hadn't even touched the ground, when the older boy had snapped into position kunai in hand, his brother's body carefully protected behind him. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. He eyed her with anger and wariness, eyes still wet with tears, but something told her not to underestimate him, he wasn't as simple as he looked. And from the clear hatred in his eyes it was clear that he only needed her black hair and eyes, pale skin and blue mantle with a high collar, to guess what she was. No need for the crest in the back. Sure enough, he started emitting strong chakra waves that cracked even the ground underneath his feet. She had never even heard about something like this. Just what the hell had she walked into?
She raised her hands in the air, the universal sign for "I come in peace", calmly looked him in the eye and said, "I'm a medic. I might be able to help your brother if you let me examine him". His expression faltered for a bit, clearly taken aback by her proposition. But he went back to his original stance fast, and opened his mouth to speak. She cut him off before he could drag her into some meaningless dialogue and got to the point. "Look, right now, every second counts. Your brother is dying as we speak, probably already gone. You can either let me look at him or tell me to leave. And don't even think about attacking or I will let out a scream that will both pierce your eardrums and drag the rest of my squad here. And they won't leave behind even a body to bury. You can watch me as I examine him. Both of us will be on our guard all the time anyway." Her little speech had seemed to work. The boy only resisted for a second, before turning back to look at his brother, and then back at her, lowering his weapon. "Please"
She instantly went to kneel besides the younger kid, his brother on the other side of him. After adjusting his position, she tried to take his pulse. She had to wait for longer than she wanted to but finally, she felt a tremor on the tips of her fingers. A heartbeat. Sighing with relief, she started undoing his armor. Freaking rich kids. The older one looked at her questioningly. She answered, "He still has a heartbeat. Barely, but it's still there, so we have a chance. I need access to his chest to try and restart it." That was all she needed to say before fast and nimble fingers undid the top of the armor and used a kunai to cut the black shirt open. She was impressed by his reactivity, but they didn't have time.
The Defibrillator technique, as she called it in her head, only needed three signs. Hawk like eyes kept following her every movement, as a shiny white layer coated her palms and she put them on the dying boy's chest. And then she shocked him twice. His little chest jerked violently, and from the corner of her eyes she was aware of the brother's tightening grip on his kunai, but she paid him no mind. Taking his pulse again, she still found nothing. Third time was the charm. By the time her hand went back to his neck, his heart had already started pumping blood again, and the rhythm was slowly improving. She gave herself a little sheer. "And we have a heartbeat!" The older boy seemed taken aback, his fingers went to his brother's throat, and he stammered. "How is this possible? It clearly wasn't there when I first got here ! What did you do?" She was already getting her tools out of her bag when she answered, amused. "The Uchiha have their secrets too, you know. It's a Raiton technique. But don't try to do this at home, kid, you might end up frying someone." He nodded seriously at that. She stifled a laugh.
A heartbeat meant blood circulation, and in this case meant blood coming out of the kid's body faster. She counted five wounds each administered with an intent to prolong the suffering. And to make things more difficult, it was dark and she couldn't see well. So she did the only thing she could think of: she activated her Sharingan. There was an audible gasp next to her, and the older boy was on his guard again, but she went to work without so much as glancing at him. She started working on cleaning the wounds and taking out the shards left behind, and even had to scoop up the blood puddling in places it shouldn't have. This clearly was no place for a surgery and the risk for infection was high, so she kept pouring alcohol and all the disinfectors she had on her on the wounds before either sewing them shut when medical chakra didn't reach the depths of the wound, or using Touko's technique, to stimulate the cell growth.
At one point, she had to extract half of a broken kunai from his stomach. Watching the brother who was shaking with anger, she said, "Their cruelty is working for us. It means that they gave him more time. Someone less idiotic would have finished the job before leaving." That seemed to snap him out of it. After that, the procedure was much more straight forward and so she relaxed but continued working. Noticing the elder brother's pensive state, she couldn't help but saying, "So you're that confident you can take me down, huh? You relax your stance around all your enemies like that or you're just underestimating me?"
He looked at her all flustered and embraced. "No, no, not at all! I'm not underestimating you! It's just that you're not the enemy. I mean yes, you are. One of them. But you're not! What I'm trying to say is… is… well, you're helping,right? So it's ok?" She looked up from her work and stared him down for a while, while he was visibly sweating. She enjoyed making him squirm for a while and then burst out laughing, while she continued to work. The boy didn't seem to get it at first. But then his head dramatically fell down, a heavy cloud of sadness on him, while he muttered under his breath. But he seemed to snap back quickly and even laugh at himself for a bit. It was sincere but clearly strained. He peered at her and softly asked, "Why are you helping us anyway?"
She thought about it for a while and finally answered, "If he was an adult I would have walked right by. But he's just a kid living in a world run by stupid people. He shouldn't have to pay for it with his life." That seemed to take him by surprise. His eyes shone as he looked at her. But then he said, "You seem to be around his age, why do you speak like an old lady?"
She looked at him baffled and then just laughed it off. " I seem to forget that detail sometimes. I'm something of an old soul if you will." He didn't seem to get it, but as she finished the last stitch, she interrupted him before he could say anything else. "Why are you here anyway? I was told that all the Senju were either killed or retreated. How did they miss you?"
He stared at the ground heavily. "My squad met up with the survivors on their way back. We were too late to come as reinforcement. When they told me that Itama didn't make it, I defied orders and rushed in here to either help him or at least bring his body back home. I couldn't stand the thought of leaving him here alone." She understood his feelings but nonetheless. "And instead of just picking up the body and getting the hell out, you decided to hold the funeral here?"
He blushed when he realized she had witnessed his earlier breakdown, but then smiled sheepishly. "But it all worked out right? If we had left without your help, he would already be dead now."
Haruka sighed heavily while putting her bloodied tools back in the bag, and taking out her water container and a small folded paper that had powder in it. She mixed the powder in the water and then titled the kid named Itama's head and made him drink all of it slowly while saying, "You got lucky. If anyone other than me had stumbled upon you, you would be dead. And to answer the question you're going to ask: This is an immunity boosting drug that I came up with. It will help his body fight infections." It was no antibiotic, but beggars can't be choosers. And normally she would give the wounded other doses of it take two times a day for a week, but that was all she had on her right now.
When she finished, she packed everything, getting ready to leave. Her three hours were almost up. She hadn't done her job, and at any time someone might come here looking for her. They all needed to get out of the clearing fast. But not before she gave him the serious talk.
Looking at the boy, who was looking relieved while he held his brother's hand, she cleared her throat to get his attention back and prepared to burst his bubble.
"Make no mistake; he's not out of danger. A lot of things could still go wrong. Infections, the stitches not holding up, an internal bleeding that I might have missed… The possibilities are countless. My advice is to carry him back to your compound as quickly and as carefully as you can. Re-clean his wounds and change the bandages. Also, if you have any, give him your strongest anti-infection decoctions. If you have someone competent enough, I even suggest reopening the wounds and redoing all the work. But don't tempt the devil if you're not sure. He lost a lot of blood, no need to lose anymore. Which brings me to my main point: He might not make it through the night. His organs might fail at any moment so monitor him carefully for the next 24 hours. If he survives however, he will be in a lot of pain. Painkillers are allowed but don't go crazy on them either. Give him lots of water to drink, to replenish his blood. Also no solid foods for a month. Just nourishing soups. Or his stomach sutures might rupture. Nod if you got it all."
The poor boy was as white as a sheet when she finished, but he nodded nonetheless. Relieved, she turned around to leave.
"I have to go now, and so do you. They will be coming to look for me in a while." But she remembered something else, turned around and stuck her face inches away from his. "Listen to me carefully. This never happened. Make up what you want when you go back, but never, ever, bring me up to anyone. I personally will deny it tooth and nail. And nobody will believe you anyway. Do I have your word?" Again he nodded seriously. But then he gave her a bright smile. "My name is Hashirama. I owe you a lot. What's your name?"
Was he dumb or something?
She glared at him, before she turned around and started walking away: "None of your business. And I didn't need to know that." She took three more steps before she said without turning around. "However, if you think you owe me, just remember this: If you ever meet a boy who looks just like me in the battlefield, don't kill him ok? He kind of has an obsession with some kid named Tobirama these days and I don't put it past him to do something stupid." Madara could hold his own. He has killed adult Senju before, this kid didn't stand a chance in front of him. And with that she bolted out of the clearing and rushed back to the meeting point, in the base.
Thankfully, she made it back just as her brothers and the others were coming to get her. Questions started coming from everywhere and she chose to give them a version of the truth. "I ran into some Senju. They were back for the boy with the two toned hair you left for dead in the clearing. They had a healer with them and he was able to give him emergency treatment right there. Before I realized it, I was too close and I had to stay in my hiding spot until they left, or they would have noticed me. Couldn't even do my patrol. You guys should have finished the job swiftly instead of taking some sort of twisted pleasure. "
There, she had defected any blame and suspicion, while also earning the five bastards a scolding and maybe a demotion, depending on Tajima's mood. Madara was quick to hug her, and Izuna and Hikaku did the same while checking her for any injuries. Madara, ever so perceptive, finally caught something and said, "Why is there blood on your sleeves?"
Shit, there was? She hadn't noticed. But she was quick on her feet. "I must have gotten it while treating the guys earlier." That seemed to convince him. And so they finished their mission on a good note.
Deep down, she hoped Hashirama and Itama were safe, for some reason.