Work Text:
Madara hears the shouting before he sees what's wrong, but he drops his spoon immediately. That tone in Hashirama's voice means nothing good - the cheese can wait.
He charges out of the dairy, and follows the yelling.
There's Hashirama screaming for help of course, and the sound of Tōka's wild cackle of laughter, but it's the sound of the bell clanging combined with the cows lowing that really tells him what's going on.
"IZUNA!" The roar bursts out of his mouth. "STOP!!!"
But, of course, his little demon of a brother doesn't.
The bell continues it's cheerful song, and the animals all follow it, a herd of every creature on the farm from the chickens and the sheep right up to the largest brown cow. And every single one of them in pursuit of Hashirama.
Madara squints.
Is that...?
It is!
"IZUNA! GET OFF THE COW RIGHT NOW OR THERE WILL BE NO CHEESE FOR YOU!"
It's a heinous threat, and every face turns to him. From Tobirama's grumbling huffs and Hikaku's bemused resignation, to Tōka's wide grin and Mito's sly amusement, they all wait to see what Izuna will do.
But Madara knows his brother.
He faces down the herd without fear, and the smallest of the calves comes up to lip at his hand inquisitively. "I mean it, Izuna. You started this when I was right in the middle of cheese making! If you don't stop, there will be no cheese for anyone."
Izuna climbs off the black and white cow, petting its soft nose sulkily. "I was only having fun."
"Fun for you, yes. Fun for Anija, not so much." Tobirama's scorn cuts like a knife, but Izuna is impervious.
"Aw, lighten up, Tobirama!" The bell chimes again, but more softly this time as Izuna begins to lead the animals back to their pens. "Hashirama could use a haircut."
Tobirama's expression softens. Minutely, but it does. He can never resist the wiles of Madara's younger brother. "I'll give him one tonight."
Hashirama's hands fly up to grab his hair protectively. "No! No haircuts!"
But Tobirama is just as determined as Izuna, if less chaotic, and Madara knows that his best friend will lose at least a handspan of hair tonight. So he watches with resignation as Tobirama leads Hashirama away, scolding affectionally all the while about needing a bath after a day working in the orchard followed by a mad chase around the barnyard.
"Why am I always the one to stop him?" It's a rhetorical question, addressed to the sky as Madara tilts his head back, but Mito answers him anyway.
"Because you're the only one that he listens to." She hides her smile behind her hand but Tōka is much less discrete.
"Because you threaten the food that goes in his belly!" She punches him in the arm and Madara rubs the spot. He'll have a bruise there for days.
As they all depart, he turns to head back to the dairy, already making a mental list of the things that he'll have to do after this, but is pulled up short by something tugging on his hair. It appears that the smallest of the cows, only a baby really, has decided that he's more interesting than the ringing of Izuna's bell.
It's trying to eat his hair.
Madara shoves at it ineffectually. “Get off me, you hairy beast! Go away! Shoo!”
But it's immovable.
There's only one thing to do.
"IZUNA! HELP!"
The faint and mischievous chime of the bell is his only answer.