The next day, they left before the sun was up. She spent her day in the clinic, replenishing her stocks, too worried to do anything that required something other than mindless repetition. She left early, and came back home to wait for her brothers. When dinner was done, and she had nothing left to do, she started pacing around. They came back earlier than usual. Obviously whatever had happened didn't take long. When they came into the living room, she noticed that there were only two of them. Tajima wasn't there. What was more shocking was that she was met with red eyes, which had one tomoe in them. Madara had awakened his Sharingan. She had a bad feeling in her stomach. "Where is dad?"
Madara just shrugged before going to his room. "In his office. He skipped today's work to come with us. Needs to catch up. Probably won't be back this evening. No dinner for me tonight." And with that he went to his room.
Izuna had also quietly slipped into the room they shared. She followed him there, Sharingan ablaze. He was taking of his top armor, one Madara had gotten him with his own money, when she interrupted him. He looked startled and a bit scared when she faced him with her Sharingan, but she didn't care. "Start talking! Now!" He clearly had wanted to confide in someone for a while now, as this was all the encouragement he needed to start spilling the tea.
Apparently the little brat hadn't listened to her, and decided to follow Madara secretly when he went to train in the forest. That's when he discovered what was really happening. Madara wasn't training alone; he was meeting with a friend. A friend that just happened to be Senju freaking Hashirama. It had started in mid-spring, probably after her meeting with him, and lasted all summer. Fate had had it that these too had actually never met in the battle field before. Funnily enough, both were the sons of the clan heads and also their heirs. An unlikely friendship started and, even if they both had their suspicions about the others last name, they started hanging out regularly.
When Izuna had followed him, he saw them training together and talking about god only knows what. He had stuck around to spy on them, too curious to leave. He was enraged that his prefect older-brother would actually befriend someone who was clearly a Senju, and was preparing to confront them when he noticed something. A chakra signature that he knew by heart now. He stayed hidden and searched around for a while but he found him eventually without being spotted first: Senju Tobirama, Hashirama's younger brother and his nemesis. The Senju was also clearly spying on his brother, but made no sign of intent on confronting them like Izuna.
For once in his life, Izuna didn't rush into things and actually went to tell Tajima about what he saw. They both accosted Madara when he came back yesterday and confronted him. He finally admitted to everything. If it was any other clan member Tajima would have branded them a traitor, but he knew his eldest well enough to get that it really was an innocent friendship. But he saw there an opportunity to spy on the Senju, and so ordered Madara to try and get information from his friend, and to kill him if he failed, cease fire be damned. They went with him as back up, because Tajima knew his rival well enough to know that Tobirama being there was no accident. And sure enough, Senju Butsuma and Tobirama were there too ready to do the same thing Tajima and Izuna were planning.
The surprise came from both Madara and Hashirama. They both had the idea to warn the other using skipping stones and hoped to leave it at that, but they ended in a three-way dead lock anyway. Madara, trying to deescalate the situation, told his father that he couldn't beat Hashirama and that it was better to retreat. He decided that their friendship ended there, and even Hashirama's pleas weren't enough to shake his resolution. It was the pain of ending their friendship that awakened Madara's Sharingan. When they were back in the compound Tajima just congratulated Madara and ordered them never to bring this up again.
When Izuna finished his story, they were both sitting side by side, backs to the wall facing the sliding screen door that led to the garden. They just sat there in silence digesting the happenings of the day. Finally she said, "I want to kick you for spying on him and for snitching to dad. But you saved his life by doing so. If the two of you weren't there, who knows if Nii-san could have gotten out of there fast enough."
Izuna winced at her words, but then said, " Yeah, those Senju bastards were waiting to ambush him. Nii-san was too naïve on this one."
She gave him a blank look. "I know that you are not dumb enough to be oblivious to the fact that you wanted to do the exact same thing to Senju Hashirama."
If she had slapped him instead of saying that, she would have gotten the same results. He stammered. "But that's not the same thing! They are the Senju! They killed so many Uchiha. Even the kids. They killed three of our brothers."
She just got up and said, "I'm not saying that they didn't. I'm saying that we do the exact same thing too. Nobody knows why, how it started or even when. We just do horrible things to each other and call the others monsters to justify our actions and make ourselves feel better. I mean, do you even know why you hate Senju Tobirama? My guess is that you just do because dad pointed at him once and told to go fight with him." Izuna's brain seemed frozen by this point. She opened the door leading to the living room and said before leaving, "And before you say that Madara-nii is naïve, remember that Senju Hashirama also tried to warn his Uchiha friend. Maybe his trust was deserved."
Once in the living room, she picked up a plate. She was happy that she thought about making Inarizushi today. Madara was going to need all the comfort food he could get. She filled the plate, made her way to his room and entered without asking for permission. She knew that Madara was like "One". He was the type of person who refused to let people in when they actually needed them the most. She had to force him to talk to her, or who knows what dark places his mind would go to. He was lying on the ground facing the ceiling, Sharingan still active. She put the plate down and joined him in his position. She started. "Do you know how to deactivate it or do you want me to show you?"
He just continued to stare at the ceiling, not tempted by the food, and said, "No, thanks. I'm good. I'm just getting used to it."
So he wasn't opposed to talking. That was a good start.
"Izuna told me what happened. All of it."
He answered evenly, "He wasn't supposed to." They fell into silence once again. Madara's hand crept to the plate between them and he picked up some of its content and started munching on it. This didn't feel like the right time to point out that he might choke on his food in his position, and she knew CPR anyway. So she started again.
"I'm not going to ask if you're alright because you clearly aren't. What I want to know is what you plan on doing next."
"About what?" he asked.
Frankly she didn't know either. "About everything. About your friendship. About what to do when you face him in the battlefield. Now that both your fathers know about the others skill level, you don't need to be a genius to figure out that they are going to pair you up in every fight until there is a clear winner."
Madara sat up and so did she. He looked at her, trying to feign indifference and said, "Nothing. He's a Senju, and I'm an Uchiha. We are destined to fight each other as heirs and as clan heads in the future. It was good while it lasted, but from now, he's just another enemy. That's what my Sharingan means."
Bullshit. If she knew one thing, is that destiny is not written in advance. Or she would still be a shadow that fed on the blood of innocents to satisfy greedy politicians. But she had no way to explain that to him now. And so she chose a different angle. "What were you talking about with Senju freaking Hashirama anyway? I've only met him once but I can't imagine the two of you having anything in common." Hook.
His breath hitched in his throat. "You met Hashirama? When? How?"
She gave him a pointed look. "You are not the only one in the business of keeping secrets you know. I will tell you mine if you tell me yours." Line.
He scrutinized her for a while trying to see if it was worth it but finally curiosity got the better of him. "Ok, but you start." Sinker.
She gave a devious smile and said, "Well, do you remember our first official mission as a team? When I said I met some Senju who were giving emergency treatment to some kid and I had to wait until they left, to go back. That wasn't exactly true. There was only one Senju other than the wounded. It was Hashirama. And the medic who treated his brother was me. Long story short, I came across him while he was weeping, thinking that his brother was dead, and I decided to lend a helping hand. The blood that you noticed on my sleeve that day was from the surgeries I performed on him."
Madara's mouth was gaping. "You did what ? Why? You knew that they were Senju. I know that I did too, but there was still reasonable doubt in my case." She just gave him a dry look.
"I will tell you the same thing I told Hashirama when he asked: he's just a kid living in a world run by stupid adults. He shouldn't have to pay for it with his life."
Madara was taken aback by her answer. He stared at his lap before answering, "We talked about just that. Kids dying in a world run by stupid people. We talked about peace and dreamed about how to achieve it."
Damn. Where she came from, not a lot of nine years old kids thought about peace unless it involved some stupid essay they had to do for English class. She was curious. "And did you come up with something?"
He seemed to be lost in thought, maybe not even aware that he was answering her, but a hint of a nostalgic smile on his lips. "We said we would build a village. A safe place where kids could train before being sent on missions, according to their level. There, we could protect our siblings and all the people we cared about. Can you imagine that, the Senju and the Uchiha living together? How idiotic is that?"
She only needed to think about it for a second before she answered, "Actually yes, I can see it. It won't be simple and a lot of change needs to happen before we can even begin to bring it up, but it's not impossible. After all, the lion and the tiger are different, and they probably don't like each other very much, but they still share the savannah."
Madara was clearly interested in what she had to say and so he asked. "So do you believe in peace? That we can live in a world with no fighting?"
That was a more complicated question. She had lived in a world where peace was present in most of the globe. But as someone who had lived in the shadows all her life, she knew that it was only a mirror, a beautiful packaging that hid a rotten inside. A lot of the fighting was done under wraps, by people like her, while politicians smiled and shook hands. But it was still better than the rampant killing that was going on in here. Sure, the Organization had deviated from its original purpose, and that's why she ended it, but for the first ten years or so after the start of her career, she had been proud of the work they were doing so that others could leave in peace.
And so her answer reflected her experience. " I believe that violence and peace are like light and darkness. In order for one to exist the other needs to be there too. And so even if I don't think that a world with no fighting is possible, I think that we can make something close to that can happen. Humans are like bacteria, constantly looking for an environment where they can proliferate. That environment for humans is one that has peace in it. They will realize that soon enough and come up with ways to make it happen. What is left to be determined is on which terms it will happen. If our parents have anything to say about it, they will tell you that the other party needs to be exterminated. But building your future on a bloody graveyard full of innocents is no way to make peace happen. The better solution is the one you and Hashirama came up with. Working together, towards a shared goal. It won't be perfect, and human nature will make sure that a part of darkness comes up to dim that light. We probably won't live to see that dream take the shape we want it to, but slowly generation after generation the light will burn brighter, and the darkness will slowly start disappearing until it's only a small dot."
Madara thought about it for a while, but then he said, "Working together means trusting each other. But how can you do that? How can you know what the other party is thinking? Alliances can clearly go up in smoke in a matter of minutes, especially when greed and jealousy are involved." Haruka knew what he meant. The Chinoki incident. They had trusted them not once but twice, and the price they paid for that was Himiko's life. And those were their allies for decades. Imagine what could happen if they put their trust in the Senju who were their enemies for centuries.
She eventually said, "I have no idea. Unless we steal the Yamanaka's jutsus, the human mind will forever be out of our reach. The best we can do, I guess, is open dialogue. Clearly stating our grievances and positions, and taking into consideration the other party's too. But to do that you need to be sure that you are talking to a person who shares those same believes. And that's where trust comes in. Either you have it or you don't."
They fell into silence after that. She knew that he was probably wondering if Hashirama was worth his trust. But it was too early to tell. They were only kids, with dreams and hopes, fresh to the world and still not jaded by its harshness. The odds where, that by the time they became adults, they would become as cynical and bitter as Uchiha Tajima and Senju Butsuma. Those two had probably held the same dreams a couple decades earlier. And so she decided to tell him. "Look, you don't need to think about it too hard this evening. You have time ahead of you. For now, I think that it's good that you ended that star-crossed lovers thing you had going on with Hashirama. It was a good experience, and you got to see what it was like to get to know someone from the other side without prior bias. Maybe it's a sign of fate that you two are destined to do great things. But for now, you need to work on yourself. You need to become stronger and hone your skills, while keeping your values. Because unless you become the leader of the Uchiha, your dreams will remain just that: dreams. And after you become our leader, you will be responsible for all the lives in the clan. It's the harsh reality. So you will need to be careful, because your decisions will affect us all. It's ok if you still see Hashirama as your friend. But always remember that he is also the future head of the Senju clan. Only if your shared feelings can survive the avalanche of violence that is coming towards them, will the two of you be able to someday create that village."
That was all she wanted to say to him. She had been through this once. The Organization had been "Command 's" dream, for peace maintaining purposes. But she had watched as he naïvely followed them until he had lost control over it and became jaded by the world. She didn't want that to happen to Madara. It's better to be like Tajima, and to stop dreaming when it's too much, than to be like Command, and not be strong enough or able to see far enough to guide your dream in the right direction.
They sat in silence while munching on Inarizushi. She wondered if Izuna had eaten. She needed to go check on him. The poor boy was only six and they had left him alone for hours to stew on something that wasn't exactly his fault. So getting up she said, "And please give Izuna a break, ok? Maybe train with him or something tomorrow. He has been through enough already. I already talked to him and scolded him."
Madara gave a genuine laugh this time. "You seem to be doing a lot of talking tonight. But don't worry I was planning on it anyway. You know something, ever since you got hit on the head, you seem to have gotten a lot smarter and wiser. That sure did you some good."
She stuck out her tongue, but laughed too. "Yeah, I'm something of an old soul now."
He laughed but then seriously said, "Thank you. You gave me a lot to think about. It's nice to know that my dreams aren't that ridiculous. I was starting to give up completely, but now I think that I don't have to. It's not a bad idea, just bad timing."
She nodded at him, and then went to comfort Izuna, who was still sulking in his room. Maybe she could whip out some Onigiri real quick. It had worked on Madara after all.