;-;

II.

ææææ

After the death of my two brothers I've started to train maniacally. Ladies of the clan commented my behavior, sent me disgusted looks and gave elders false information making me look like a disgrace to the clan. Old hags.. who even let them judge me. I was the daughter of the leader. Only he should be able to criticize me, or I thought so. Reality looked differently. No one spared me their opinions. Whenever someone saw me, I heard how unlady like I acted. My brothers were busy with their trainings and the war. I did spend some time with Tobirama but Hashirama was unavailable for most of his time. I had no one to take my mind of the situation I've found myself in.

Another summer passed and we all become one year older. Which meant for me getting married.

"Tomoko, sit down." Said my father who sat in front of me on a small carpet, "Feudal lord looks for a beautiful and smart wife for his youngest son. Clans offers their kins. Elders think, I think, that it's a perfect occasion to have an upper hand with Uchihas. They probably will give someone from the side house.. no one as worth as you. Unless the leader of Hyugga clan gives away his daughter, you should be the one accepted by the lord."

I didn't say a word. The silence and poisonous atmosphere was growing. Both of us waited for the other to break it and speak up. We watched closely each other's eyes trying to look for any clues of thoughts. All I saw, though, was emotionless gaze. Zero pity.

"I won't do that." I've finally spoken, "I've a goal to achieve and it's not being a wife of civilian." I didn't blink or change my expression. Not even a muscle moved.

Staring contests were my favorite thing since forever. To say that I had finally felt like myself after 10 years of being a good girl would be an understatement. That was the beginning. The return of Tsunade Senju.

When the man opened his mouth to speak, I cut him off by standing up, "That's the final decision. You won't change my mind. I will be the warrior. Marry of my cousins if you wish, but not me." I watched his reaction and to my disappointment I've noticed nothing. He didn't really care or had a plan of forcing me to do what he wanted me to do. I didn't think about that much, though. I turned around to walk out from the room when the killing intent directed at me stopped me. For a second I froze. It felt like a demon was hanging above you waiting to hear your scream.

One. Two. Three.

My muscles relaxed.

I've been in worse situation than THAT. I could ignore it without a problem and continue my escape. But I decided to do one last thing before leaving my father there alone.

I showed him how serious I am.

My killing intent flew across the room. And with that I was gone and the meeting was over. Or at least I though so..

"Tomoko. Meet me at the gates in an hour."I heard him calling but I didn't stop until he added, "Take Tobirama with yourself. We have to go somewhere."

"Mission?" I asked a little bit surprised while turning around to see him standing in front of his room.

The man nodded "I'll give you a chance. If you fail, Ill punish you myself." With that said he dismissed me with his hand.

On my way back home, I thought about my conversation with father. He wanted to see my skills and show me, if something went wrong, that I, in fact, am not a good candidate for a shinobi. I'm not stupid. He'll punish me for disobeying anyways, but this mission will decide how great the punishment will be.

That was my opportunity. And I couldn't screw that up.

As soon as I walked into my family house I went upstairs to prepare for a fight.

I had a red armor which I got from Hashirama when it became too small for him. Nothing fancy. Nothing comfortable. It took me 10 minutes to decide not to take it on the mission. I was a medic, in worst scenario I could heal myself if no other person needed my help. My taijutsu needed me feeling free. I couldn't be closed in the armor like in some kind of a box.

I've put instead my training cloths on. Black kimono trousers (hakama) and kimono-style white blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad black obi – fashion sense stays with you forever, I guess.

"Tobi, father calls us." I said while throwing him a small rise ball to eat, "we have a mission."

The boy got up from the grass. Apparently, he had a small break from the training. He put his armor on and nodded for me to lead the way.

"You're not changing?" he asked more surprised about my cloths than the fact I was going on a mission with him.

"I look prettier in this.." I said with a wink "don't you think?"

My brother rolled his eyes and decided not to make a small talk with me no matter how hard I tried to force him to have a conversation.

Father was already standing behind the gates. He checked us out and without any comment he moved to the forest. We took that as an order to follow him.

"Hashirama is going to meet with his friend as we discussed." He spoke to Tobi, "By now he should be near the lake. Tell your sister the plan and mask your chakra. Who knows what Uchiha plans."

Tobirama ran closer to me. He gave me the look, analyzing my confused face, and started "Hashirama befriended some Uchiha. Our plan is to kill him if our brother fails to do that." He watched my reaction closely well knowing that I didn't like what I heard, "Father expects some complications, so we should watch out. If you notice anything, inform us."

"Why can't we let them be friends? I don't think that the Uchiha boy knows that Hashirama is the heir so no harm will be done."

"They are Uchiha." My father answered instead of my brother, " You can't trust them."

After 10minutes ran we've finally stopped.

I was hiding up in the trees, my father with Tobirama behind the high bush. My little twin closed his eyes, touched the ground with one finger and started to look for any signs of enemies.

The sound of hitting rocks against the water made my brother open his eyes.

He showed us with the hand signs "Two. Enemies. Big. And. Small. Chakra reserves. 50m. West."

Father looked at us. It was obvious now, when he move, we move.

Five.

Four.

"See you later then, Madara"

Two.

One.

Hashirama ran away from the place he met with his friend only to see our shadows that were flying in opposite direction thanthe one he planned to go.

The water splashed under the weight of five shinobies.

Father stood in front of us. I was on his right side and Tobi on his left side. We faced the boy of my age and the rival of Senjus clan head. The situation was tensed.

"Seems like we're on the same page, Butsuma Senju" said the man while holding his katana with one hand.

I scanned the area only to notice.. him. Uchiha Madara. I've stopped listing to the small exchange of words between oponents. His chakra was gagging me. The scenes from the war started to flash in my mind. The blood. The death. That man, who still was a child, took away so many lifes.

I could feel the blood boiling inside me. And then something snapped in me. Without waiting for father's signal, I ran across the lake with full speed, barely missing the punch of the Uchiha leader which was blocked in last second by my father.

Their fight started, but I didn't care. I had to attack the boy before me.

"Nii-san!"

"Tomoko!"

Two boys called, but I was blinded. I couldn't care less. I had a target I had to hit.

Madara dodged in time my fist. First attack, second. His red eyes looked at me. The surprise look long gone from his face. Now I was looking at the fighter and not scared boy. He went from defense to offence.

One thing I had to admit. He was good.

Kick. Punch. Miss. Miss. Punch. Kick. Dodge.

I was furious. I didn't hear anything. Until genius Hashirama showed up before Madara's body yelling my name with determination on his face.

He looked like Nawaki. I blinked.

My fist full of chakra was already moving. I had to stop it before it hit him. So I did the best second thing I could. I directed my fist to the ground.

The fissure grown bigger and bigger and finally the whole landscape was decimated. Water flew everywhere. The fights stopped. Everyone jumped in different directions and landed on trees.

The whole field was ruined. Adults observed what was happening before their eyes while taking their breaths.

"Tomoko-chan?" asked Hashirama who landed near me.

"Are you okay?" the worry visible in my voice, "Don't you know that you shouldn't interrupt the battle like that?! What if I didn.."

"Silence." My father stopped me from starting a fight with my silly brother, "That's all for now, I guess." He said to Tajima Uchiha whit the look that dared him to start another fight.

Both man pretended not to be faced with the ruined surrounding. They gave signals to kids to back off and retire.

"You have a powerful lady there." Uchiha leader commented with a smirk before he ran to his sons.

My father shorty after that silently joined us in our way back home.

Hashirama was highly upset, father annoyed and Tobirama tired.

No one spoke that day.

Everyone went to their rooms or places where they could relax.

The next day was meant to be full of arguments. Everyone wanted to be prepared.

ææææ

In the woods was a big village. The moon put the light on the streets and looked through the windows of some houses looking after people who slept and enjoyed their dreams which would never became the reality.

Two boys sat on the roof and watched the sky in silence. They were brothers.

Replaying the memories of the fight in their minds, that happened not that long ago, they tried to understand what went wrong. One came there to save his friend, other to save his brother by killing that friend.

In the end, the boy was saved but they went in different directions without a word. They had to talk about what happened, their friendship was under a big question mark.

In the end, boy didn't die and his brother still was mentally in a trap made by the Senju. How could he help him?

"Nii-san?" the smaller boy tried to catch the attention of the greatest brother he could ever imagine to have.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry. I'll not fail again to help you." He announce surely.

The older boy smiled, thinking that his little brother spoke of the attack of the blonde girl.

But the truth was, that the small boy just promised to finish the failed mission. He had to.

Soon.