Work Text:
May Your Life Be Long
Tobirama first saw her at the river, wading through the water with far too big clothes. She seemed tiny and vulnerable standing inside the roaring stream.
Somehow she looked vaguely familiar.
As if feeling his eyes on him, the child raised her head and met his gaze with hers.
Tobirama could see the three black dots contrasting against the crimson in her eyes.
Uchiha.
The child’s expression was clear and carefree. She extended her hand towards him. A lotus was lying on the flat of her palm, and Tobirama could see her lips move, forming soundless words.
Tobirama narrowed his eyes and walked towards the riverside, only a second before the ground exploded behind him.
He whirled around and stared at the crater that marked the spot he had been standing on only one breath before.
If he had stayed there…
His head snapped back towards the river.
The lotus flower was gently drifting on the water.
The child, however, was gone.
The second time he saw her was on the battlefield.
He was covered in blood, grime, and sweat, having fought for hours on end.
She was suddenly there; standing behind him in her blue dress, smiling her serene smile and looking at him with an expression of sad serenity.
Her lips moved again.
This time he could read the words. “Beware of the traitor.”
Traitor, what traitor?
Tobirama narrowed his eyes and turned around – just in time to see the Senju covering him aiming his kunai at his back.
He quickly knocked him out.
Traitor indeed.
Tobirama turned around.
The child was gone again.
A pure white chrysanthemum bloomed on the crimson field.
The third time he saw her, Tobirama was dangling down a cliff, exhausted and low on chakra.
She was standing on the ledge, looking down at him with gentle eyes. “Let go.”
Tobirama did not know why, but he obeyed.
He fell rapidly towards the ground and cursed himself for listening to an obscure Uchiha child. But then his feet met something soft, and he realized he had landed in a net of vines.
She had saved him again.
Tobirama was getting increasingly curious about this strange child that appeared and disappeared at will and spoke without a sound.
A soft scent of lavender lulled him into a deep sleep.
Tobirama was no longer surprised when she appeared for the fourth time right in front of him.
“Have you come to aid me again?” he inquired, “Am I in mortal peril once more?”
She remained quiet, and Tobirama stepped closer to get a better look at the small child. “You are an Uchiha.”
She tilted her head.
“I am your enemy,” he continued, carefully scrutinizing her expression, “and yet you continue to appear in front of me. Tell me, child, why should I not just cut you down where you stand?”
The girl smiled and shook her head. There was something sad and eternal about that smile.
Her tiny arm rose, and she pointed towards the cliff Hashirama was standing on.
Tobirama followed the pointed finger and saw his brother deeply engaged with at least fifteen enemies.
An almost invisible mist was slowly creeping up the cliff and edging towards Hashirama.
Tobirama’s eyes narrowed, and he cursed. “Hashirama, get down! That fog is poisonous!”
Hashirama immediately flickered down, and Tobirama looked towards the spot the child had been seconds before.
She had left again.
He bent down and gently closed his hands around the sweet pea she had left behind.
Tobirama did not see her again for a long time.
It was when he traced his fingers over the cool stone that she appeared again, stepping out of a storm of cherry blossoms.
Tobirama turned his face towards the young child.
Unlike him, she had not aged a single day. She was just as young as she had been on the day he had seen her for the first time.
Her spinning eyes rested on the gravestone, a sorrowful expression on her face.
“My brother was a good man,” Tobirama began quietly, “a bit foolish perhaps, but he had his heart in the right place.”
The child remained quiet, attentively listening to his words.
“He had a dream and vision. I believed in him. He wanted to make this world a better place.”
A soft breeze swept over the clearing. Cherry blossoms danced in the wind and finally rested on Hashirama’s grave, covering the stone like scented snow.
Tobirama froze when a gentle presence brushed against his mind. “I know,” a voice whispered. It sounded childish and yet ethereal. “I also want peace.”
Tobirama suddenly realized that she was growing more and more translucent.
He instinctively stretched his hand out to prevent her from scattering, but he was powerless.
His fingers only grasped empty air.
The young child gifted him with a last smile. “Farewell, Senju Tobirama. May your… life be… long.” Her voice was barely audible now and grew fainter with every word she spoke. “I never… once… regretted… dying… by… your… hands.”
Then she was gone.
Tobirama stared at the Red Spider Lily she had left behind and suddenly remembered why she had seemed so familiar before.
He remembered the battlefield, the terrified screams of the adolescent Uchiha soldiers, and the water jutsu that had claimed their lives.
But most of all he remembered the look of peaceful resignation on a young girl’s face as she had submitted to the raging waves.
Tobirama smiled bitterly and gently cradled the fragile flower in his hands.
“Rest in peace, child. May your death be happier than your life.”