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dreamingofsunshineSo, teeny Takako (Like five or so) ends up fleeing to the Uchiha after Butsuma realises she's Madara's soulmate. Madara is maybe fifteen, so after he's met Hashirama.
Takako was dropped just outside the Senju compound border patrols by Tobirama, who spent a wild eyed moment trying to heal the cut on her throat before telling her to run.
Looking pained, he clarified "Run for the Uchiha."
He turned back to the compound where their older brother (still too young, not strong enough) was fighting their father, and Takako sprinted for the border of Senju territory.
She was weak from bloodloss, and the wound on her neck where (not her father, never her father) had tried to cut her throat was only partially healed. She ran onward regardless.
Before she reached Uchiha territory she stripped off the outer layer of her clothing, burying the coat with the Senju mon under a tree. It wouldn't do to be killed on sight.
Several hours later, she staggered towards the chakra of an Uchiha patrol. Vision going blurry at the edges, she leaned against a tree as the pair of Uchiha shunshined into sight.
"This is Uchiha territory, what are you doing here girl?" The older one demanded, sharingan spinning.
"Requesting sanctuary to protect my Uchiha soulmate." Both men's eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Who's your soulmate kid?" The younger one asked, smiling gently at her as her vision tunnelled.
"Uchiha Madara" She gasped, feeling her head spin as she passed out.
-
Hikaku had been on patrol with his uncle when they'd found the blood-soaked little girl claiming to be Madara's soulmate. It was well known that Madara had one, and that they had not yet been found, but this...
She was so small and pale, even before she passed out. He sprinted for the compound as his uncle continued their patrol, it really wouldn't do to have the clan heir die because Hikaku couldn't get his soulmate to a healer fast enough. Even if she was wrong or lying, it was best to get her to the compound, and soulmate bonds were easy to test for.
It fitted. Just before they'd left for patrol there had been some kind of commotion in the main house about a soulmate wound. But how could this girl have been hurt, surely she wouldn't be on a battlefield?
He passed the gates, calling for someone to accompany him to the main house. She wasn't Uchiha yet, and he wasn't about to ignore protocol about outsiders in the compound just because she was a tiny unconscious girl.
-
Madara had spent the last several years safe in the knowledge that his soulmate was safe. They had never had major injures. They got scratches and bruises, maybe an occasional fall, but they were safe. Likely a non-combatant.
The half-cut throat was a shock. He'd been having tea with his brother when the sharp pain interrupted him, and Izuna gaped in horror at the red line drawn across his throat. He could tell instantly that it was both life threatening and intended to be lethal. Suddenly his soulmate's non-combatant status was no comfort at all.
They waited, Madara's hand occasionally brushing the mark, for Madara's death. His brother held him, horror and grief overcoming them both. The minutes ticked on, and Madara was still not dead, although he was steadily weakening.
Then, a cool sensation over the cut.
He looked at Izuna, hope filling him. "They're being healed!"
Some of the helpless terror left him as Izuna dissolved into relieved sobbing.
Now his death was not imminent, he called for someone to fetch his father to explain the situation to the clan.
His father and brother sat vigil with him through the night, as there was no further healing for the barely healed injury, and he felt weaker and weaker.
In the early hours of the morning, Hikaku was escorted in, carrying a small, limp body.
"Madara-sama, we found her at the border. She claims to be your soulmate."
"Bring her here." he barked.
Hikaku hurriedly laid the bloody girl on the futon beside Madara as his father pulled out a kunai. Madara snatched it out of his hand before he could scratch his tiny, delicate soulmate, and scored a line on the back of his hand.
He watched in satisfaction as a matching mark bloomed on the girl's hand. In the background he could hear his father shouting for someone to fetch the healer, as he stared at the tiny girl. He'd had some awful injuries, had this tiny girl shared them all?
He was hustled out of the room by the clan healer, but sank down outside the door to stand guard.
-
When Takako woke up, she was in a clean yukata, with bandages round her neck. She was lying on a futon in a well lit room, feeling well rested. She could feel chakra signatures all around her, but only one was close.
She started to pull herself upright and was immediately accosted by a frantic Uchiha Madara.
"Don't push yourself!" A hand was placed behind her back to support her. "You're chakra exhausted!"
She tried to smile reassuringly at him. "I've had it before, I'm fine, really." He didn't look reassured, scowling at her.
"Hmm. Drink some water."
She obligingly sipped from the cup he thrust at her.
"Name."
"Huh?" Takako was bewildered.
"What's your name? Where are you from?"
"I'm Takako." She took a deep breath. "I'm Hashirama's younger sister." His eyes widened in shock. "My father found out I was your soulmate and tried to kill me. My brothers were fighting him when I left."
Madara was still visibly reeling from that series of revelations when Izuna entered bearing bowls of soup.
"I hoped you'd be awake, the healer said you might be." Izuna smiled at her. "Are you feeling better?"
Takako nodded, accepting the bowl of soup.
"Have you heard any news from Senju lands?" Madara asked his brother.
"One of the sensors said there was some huge fight at their compound last night?" He turned to Takako. "So what's your name?"
"She's Senju Takako, daughter of the Senju clan head." Madara cut in before she could respond.
"Huh..." Izuna sat down, staring at her.
How to best title and thread this
Date: 2019-01-06 05:00 pm (UTC)~flails~
Someone better than me start a threaded discussion so I can jump on with all this enthusiasm. XD
no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 08:05 pm (UTC)TEENY FIVE-YEAR-OLD TAKAKO: "my father found out i was your soulmate and tried to kill me"
izuna, who does not care at ALL for the senju--this would only serve as fuel to hate them MORE. his brother's soulmate! a five-years-old noncombatant! nearly killed by her own father for being the soulmate of an uchiha! whether or not the uchiha would have done the same is irrelevant because it /wasn't/ them. izuna, fervently, to madara: "look at what they do to their own children! how can you think of wanting to make peace with them?!" how quickly the senju would stamp out even their own! how quickly the senju would turn on each other, for the crime of having a soulmate of an opposing clan! how could they ever make peace with a clan to whom family means NOTHING? izuna is very vengeance-oriented and would 100% think that killing takako's father, the senju clan head, is not only a perfectly viable option but a great deal more necessary than they already thought it was
whereas, of course, this only fuels hashirama's desire for peace--that such a thing happened at all only serves to highlight how senseless their conflict is. how could they hate the uchiha clan so much that his father would willingly strike down his youngest child for having an uchiha soulmate? how could killing an enemy be worth killing your own child?
they're both valid take-aways from this and madara, i think, would be conflicted between them--the conflict between the senju and the uchiha only destroys; it does not make things better; but at the same time, /what the fuck is wrong with the senju?/ it makes madara feel marginally better that there was dissent about takako's father's actions, seeing as hashirama and tobirama are FIGHTING the man, but he certainly isn't going to hand takako back over to them any time soon. or ever. the physical reality of ensuring takako's safety takes precedence over ideological conflicts, though; madara and izuna would both be very fussy, i think, about takako's wellbeing--not only because THE NECK WOUND WAS LITERALLY INTENDED TO KILL HER, but also because she's apparently familiar with chakra exhaustion! why is a five-year-old noncombatant familiar with that?! they'd be so WORRIED about her having been mistreated and so eager to Treat Her As She Should Be Treated
i cannot imagine takako having a negative reception by the uchiha clan. she's a tiny child who was nearly killed by her own father and ran to the uchiha for sanctuary. her soulmate is MADARA, who--while sort of an odd duck--is well-known for being protective of his People (like, you know, izuna). madara fussing about izuna is different from madara fussing about takako, though, because izuna is a combatant and also only a few years younger; takako is a FIVE-YEAR-OLD NONCOMBATANT. madara is the epitome of the meme "i've only known takako for a day and a half, but if anything happened to her, i would kill everyone in this room and then myself."
but also it's TAKAKO, who is not an ordinary child, so the uchiha would see scenes such as:
madara, fussing about who to leave takako in the care of: i don't trust [uchiha 1] to watch you properly, but they ARE a better combatant than [uchiha 2], but [uchiha 2] is better with kids? maybe i should leave them both here. but maybe i should--
takako, patting him on the arm reassuringly: i'll be fine on my own.
madara: you make seals! you NEED someone to watch you! i don't want to get partway through the job and suddenly find that you've blown yourself up!
takako: i won't stop you from completing the job.
madara: THAT'S NOT MY CONCERN HERE!
i'm rambling but the takeaway here is that i adore this idea???? thank you for posting this here???
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 12:51 pm (UTC)He'd be so fucking thrown by this five year old who's just, convinced everything's fine.
Kako: Attempts to reassure madara about her safety by demonstrating that she can recover from impalement with zero issue
Madara: Mangekyo and nervous breakdown
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 01:04 pm (UTC)Uchiha: WTF did you do to this kid
Senju: No, she's literally always been like this, seriously
I feel like reborn again kako would try to avoid falling into a pattern of letting her brothers get used to protecting her. So the senju probably have stories to share about toddler Kako and twelve year old powerhouse Hashirama being convinced that she can look after herself, bc hashirama is so weak to younger siblings.
The Senju and Uchiha clans uniting over trying to protect Kako
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 05:30 pm (UTC)twelve-year-old hashirama convinced that toddler kako can look after herself. that's literally hilarious but also.
hashirama, to tobirama: no, you don't understand. look at her eyes! she has seen things we cannot comprehend. [beat] and she's giving me ideas for conflict resolution!
tobirama: she's two. you are not taking advice from a two-year-old.
hashirama: she's a very smart two-year-old!
hashirama is... able to suspend his belief, i think, in a way that tobirama isn't. he reads people intuitively, rather than basing his beliefs on what can be observed and proven, and he's GOOD at it. takako says that she can take care of herself? hashirama takes a long look at her, then sits back, crosses his arms, and nods, like yeah, i believe her. tobirama is constantly exasperated and keeps picking takako up to take her away from hashirama, who is CLEARLY enabling a toddler's belief of their own invincibility
... and then, of course, tobirama will catch himself describing one of his inventions to toddler takako as if she can actually understand what he's saying, and he BSODs for a moment because what is he doing
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 05:53 pm (UTC)I can imagine Kako being a good deal more careful about age-inappropriate behaviour around Tobirama, because he's the kind of person who would notice.
Hashiramara would, at most, enthuse about his adorable precocious little sister.
So Hashi actually has a more accurate picture of her abilities. Kako is much, much better at strategy than Hashirama, she regularly trounces him at shogi. He absolutely takes strategy advice from his five year old sister. Tobirama's face when he found out that THAT was why Hashirama's tactical ideas had improved was amazing.
Hashirama and Tobirama turning up at the Uchiha compound to give her some of her stuff and give Tajima and Madara a care and feeding of Kako lecture.
"We can look after a five year old you neglectful twits" (not in those words obviously)
But then:
"-need to make sure she's sleeping, sometimes she gets up to write seals and she needs sleep, do you have a seal master to check she's not doing anything dangerously experimental with them?"
"She tries things that haven't been tested on herself sometimes if you leave her unsupervised, and she tends to ignore injuries"
"She's very clever, are any of your elders very good at shogi? We think she's getting a bit bored beating us"
Madara and Tajima 0_0 : How long has she been doing this?
Hashirama: "She started giving me advice on conflict resolution when she was two" *grin* "She's so precocious."
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 08:02 pm (UTC)"Not for the weak. Some of us just have things to do," Kako interrupted, crossing her arms adorably.
"Right, and when she's in one of her 'things to do' moods, she will electrify the door to her room, so gloves are a must."
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 08:37 pm (UTC)"Did you bring any of her stuff?"
"Oh no, she just pulls that out of thin air when she needs it"
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 04:09 am (UTC)Tobirama's head slowly turns to pin him with a long glare and then he just sighs and drops his head into his hands.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 10:47 am (UTC)"Hashirama, did you get your five year old sister to do your paperwork for you?"
"No! She just got frustrated and wrote up a neat copy for me so you could actually read it? It's mostly her work anyway, she has really good ideas about infrastructure."
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 07:00 pm (UTC)"Yes, sir."
"This doesn't strike anyone as the exact opposite order of how it should be? It wasn't the five year old girl running around giving hugs?"
"Well, yes, it is a bit backwards, but you really wouldn't want to read a twenty page proposal from Hashirama. Men have gone crazy trying to read his handwriting."
"My only consolation is that no one spying on us would believe this."
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 07:39 pm (UTC)Imagine Tobirama visiting the Uchiha compound to talk to Takako about admin. Like, he wants to visit his sister too, but he needs her input on clan logistics.
Madara was 100% convinced this was a transparent ploy, but no, they sat and talked about trade, preservation seals and transportation of perishable goods for two hours.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 06:01 pm (UTC)*laughing for days*
It makes so much sense that Hashirama, whose brain works differently to everyone else, would be the one to see her for the Seriously Weird Child she is, and also not care. His baby sister is an old soul! That's just how it is.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 07:42 pm (UTC)Hashirama: I didn't make her! She wanted to help and she's good at it!
no subject
Date: 2019-01-08 11:03 pm (UTC)Izuna stared. "Wow. I think admitting a five year old was better than you at something actually caused your gums to bleed."
"Physically painful?" Madara mused. "That would explain those random headaches I was getting earlier this year."
Mikako variant
Date: 2019-01-07 12:57 pm (UTC)So she turns up at the Senju compound nearly dead and is healed by Hashirama, who's delighted to have found his brother's soulmate. Maybe Izuna sent her.
I honestly would not trust Butsuma in that situation at all though. I feel like he's the kind of asshole who might threaten to hurt Mikako anyway, even if it would harm Tobirama, because he could use it to coerce surrender from now-clanhead Madara.
I feel like this ends with Clanhead Madara and Clanhead Hashirama both having killed their fathers.
Re: Mikako variant
Date: 2019-01-12 04:09 am (UTC)Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-07 02:24 pm (UTC)Tobirama wasn't sure what to make of the girl who intercepted him as he tailed his brother. She was obviously an Uchiha, but she didn't attack, even when he drew his sword.
"Hello. You must be Hashirama's brother." Her relaxed stance was only making him more wary. Who was so confident in their abilities they didn't feel the need to be prepared when someone was pointing a sword at them?
He wasn't about to confirm anything for an enemy of his clan.
"My father told me to follow Madara, but he didn't say I should attack anyone." That was some rules lawyering, but probably indicated she didn't want to attack.
"We could agree not to attack each other unless we're told to? I think both of us just want to protect our brothers."
That sounded sensible, and he wasn't confident in his ability to beat this girl. He sheathed his sword and held out his hand, forgetting for a moment that he wasn't supposed to do that here.
But before he could retract his hand and try to cover for the behaviour he'd kept from before, the girl grasped his hand and shook it, smiling.
"Agreed." He said.
"Have you heard what they're talking about?" The girl pulled a tea set out of... hammerspace? And sat down to make tea. "They're talking about peace and a world where children don't have to die fighting each other."
The wistful tone mirrored his own feelings, but...
"I don't think this world can be a place where that happens." This world was brutal and awful and there was nothing he could do to fix it.
But he listened as the girl kept talking.
Re: Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-07 02:44 pm (UTC)His stomach had dropped when he realised the girl who'd saved from an Uchiha hunting squad was going to die by his brother's hand. Tobirama was so strong, and the girl (who was a healer and didn't look much like a fighter) had told him to keep her secret, so his brother didn't even know this was the girl who saved him.
But to his shock, the girl held her own for the duration of the skirmish. When they returned home he'd tearfully confessed that Mikako had saved his life, and Tobirama had looked thoughtful.
The next battle with the Uchiha was even more of a shock. Tobi-niisan had finally decided his weird glowy sword was ready for combat, and pulled it out.
From where he was fighting Izuna, Itama could see her grin, and pull out a similar sword, this one bright green, from absolutely nowhere.
He and Izuna both gaped, distracted from their own battle as she called out "An elegant weapon, for a more civilised time".
That made no sense to Itama, but Tobirama almost stumbled and gaped like a fish. Being Tobirama, he recovered himself quickly, but he still looked more startled than Itama had ever seen.
"If you stike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." That was weird, that wasn't like Tobirama at all.
As the two settled into fighting with their weird glowy swords, Itama realised that he and Izuna had been staring in confusion and hurriedly returned to fighting, ignoring their siblings.
Re: Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-07 02:53 pm (UTC)The other thing was that their approaches were just... odd. Tobirama seemed to bring out all the latent weirdness in his sister.
The yellow electric rat thing she'd produced in response to his water dragon was undeniably effective, it was just... Bizarre. Where did she even come up with these ideas. How could Tobirama look so unphased by having a bright yellow rat shreiking "pika pika" thrown at him?
His sisters illusions were equally odd, from what his sharingan caught during his battles with Itama.
So far he'd seen (and been terrified by, he hadn't known he had a fear space) a star field with weird metal... things, a weird castle, and some sort of giant ship.
He wasn't even sure how to bring it up with his sister. What would he even ask? At least Itama seemed to share his bemusement.
Re: Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-12 04:15 am (UTC)Re: Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-12 04:35 pm (UTC)Re: Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-12 10:03 pm (UTC)Despite the oddness of their fights, it never occurred to Izuna that Mikako might not have been doing her level best to kill Tobirama. What kind of idiot would hold back against Tobirama? How powerful would you have to be to pull that off anyways? Well apparently there was a small, minor difference between Mikako wanting to politely kill someone out of duty to the clan and her not considering her life complete unless she'd torn out his throat with her teeth and eaten his still beating heart.
Izuna had been there the day things had changed and he still had no freaking idea what happened. They had done one of their weird genjutsu exchanges that left him with a headache just thinking about and all of the sudden Mikako stopped and made a T gesture with her hands.
"Time out. You don't support Harry/Ginny?"
"Obviously Harry and Hermione had been dosed with potions in book six. Maybe starting book five."
"You dare!"
Izuna literally had no idea what the heck the two just said. All he knew was that it was enough to make Mikako's mangekyou sharingan activate (!) and more fire and explosives than he knew existed started raining down on the Senju. Considering that he was an Uchiha and his older sister was Mikako, that was saying something.
Oh, Tobirama didn't take it lying down and walls of water emerged to counter the fire and they were soon shooting all the elements back and forth. Along with the screaming. Izuna didn't think half of what they were shouting were actual words, but whatever they were saying it definitely got both sides riled up. In the end Madara and Hashirama had to pull their respective siblings back from the battlefield while there still was a battlefield.
Afterwards Madara tried to give Mikako a speech about healthy levels of murderous rivalry. It was something that Izuna's brother was almost hilariously ill equipped to talk about. It didn't help that Madara interrupted his own speech twice to dispel genjutsu as particularly out of character statements slipped from his mouth. Or maybe that was because Mikako's shadow had decided to take on a life of its own and was showing images of Tobirama dying in horrible ways on the walls.
Mikako and Tobirama had fought three times since then, and the Uchiha were getting increasing pressure from third parties to make peace with the Senju if for no other reason than because they kept having to redraw the maps. It was rumored that last night Hashirama and Madara ran into each other on a mission and rather than fight they had gotten drunk together commiserating over their newly murder happy, landscape destroying siblings. Oh, Izuna didn't believe it, but it said something that he honestly considered it for a moment. (Maybe after a mission, but not during.)
Re: Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-12 10:50 pm (UTC)Re: Older Mikako
Date: 2019-01-07 05:58 pm (UTC)Also, imagine the crazy seals they'd make, when the village is formed and they actually get to work together for an extended period.