Archive of Our Own

Moon Fish and Qilin

Izuna has been hunting for months, following whispers of a legend. All of the stories have led him here; to a pool of water in a cave at the North Pole. 

Now he’s exhausted, and he’s swaying on his feet as he stumbles into the cave. The last of the daylight is streaming in from a hole in the top and snow is crunching under his feet. He’s a bounty hunter, usually tackling regular criminals and not tracking down creatures of legend for profit. 

For survival, he tells himself. He needs the coin to eat. That’s if anyone will allow him to purchase anything. He’s the disgraced prince of the Fire Nation, and not many want to sell to him. Izuna is a public pariah, but he’s good at his job, and he’s been promised his weight in gold should he secure the legendary Moon Fish for an anonymous and mysterious benefactor. 

A very rich, anonymous and mysterious benefactor, a Fire Nation war mongrel if it’s anyone’s guess.

(Kakazu the heart collector, the whispers say.)

He stumbles to the water’s edge in search of his prey, and as he gets there the sun goes down and the fire inside him grows colder… and hovering on the edge of the pool, so far from home… 

He sees the moon fish. 

(And then he falls in.) 

o🌙o

Tobirama has been living as a fish for a long, long time. He was human most of the time once, but those days are gone. When the world turned to peace, Tobirama knew that his presence in it, his time, was past. 

He retreated to the coldest waters on the planet, shedding his skin and his humanity with it. It doesn’t matter who he was, the brother of the heir to the Earth Kingdom, the son of the Earth Kingdom’s king. Those are people he no longer is. 

(“If there are any insurgents, they’ll challenge your claim with the legend of my life. The circumstances of my birth. The story of the moon prince. Hashirama, I won’t let them do that to you,” Tobirama promises. It’s the day before the Fire Lord comes to sign the peace treaty. 

“Madara would never—” Hashirama says. 

Tobirama cuts him off, shaking his head. “He may not, but his second brother is in line for the throne, and he’s in support of continued war, a war some of our own people do not want to stop. They only need a reason, and I won’t be that reason.” 

“I don’t understand, you want peace and harmony as well, right? You would never—”

“I don’t have to,” Tobirama smiles. “I’ll come find you, one day, when all this is over.” 

…and then he vanishes into the night.)

He might be avoiding people, but it seems there is one that is not avoiding him. 

He sheds his scales and skin with the water and slides onto the shore. His clothing never seems to be bothered by the transformation, though it needs moonlight on the water to happen, and as it is, he is dressed in blue wool with white fur mittens and a fur collar. 

There’s a man in his pool, probably drowning and dressed in black leather with matching midnight hair. 

Yin and yang, he thinks. Perhaps it is fate. 

He cannot know while the man lies in the freezing water, and so Tobirama hauls him up to the edge of the pool. He’s lithe in tone but his clothes weigh him down and he must be freezing. 

Tobirama pushes his head to the side. A natural water bender; he’s able to use his skill to draw the water from the man’s lungs and allow him to breathe. Still the man is freezing and remains unconscious. 

There is snow all around them, and yet Tobirama can hardly feel the cold. He strips the man entirely of his soaked leather and the dark silk underneath. Tobirama’s boots, pants, coat, mittens… they are all over layers, they will help to warm up his guest. Left only in his silks, Tobirama makes sure his charge is warm enough to live, and then he retreats to meditate in the snow. 

He has no fire in his blood, has nothing to burn, either the man will live or he will not. Tobirama has given him the best chance he has. 

o🌙o

Izuna wakes up freezing and restrained. His hands are stuck or tied, he thrashes for a moment, building fire in his lungs—

“Stop,” somebody says, “you’re safe, it's just your clothes were wet and now they are frozen.”

Izuna pauses. “Who are you?” 

“My name is Tobirama,” he says, and it’s familiar somehow, but Izuna can’t place it. 

“Another bounty hunter?” Izuna growls, but he’s noticed the man is next to naked in the snow, and that seems unlikely. His hair and clothes are as white as the snow. 

“A healer, and the one who lives here,” Tobirama replies. 

There is only one creature to live here though—

“You are the Moon Fish,” Izuna says, shocked, because he brought a basket to carry a fish and not a sling to carry a man. 

“Perhaps,” Tobirama shrugs. “But you’ll hardly be taking me in for a bounty in your sorry state even if I am. Now that I know you are a fire bender though, I would trouble you to dry your clothing when you are able, and also to heat the pot for tea.”

“I’m not your glorified cook, I don’t need to help you heat your tea, you overgrown fish,” Izuna rolls his eyes. He’s holding onto his leather vest now in one hand, a ball of flame in the other, it’s tricky work, requiring patience he usually doesn't have. 

“The tea is for you,” Tobirama calmly states. From somewhere in the snow he has dug up a clay pot and a cup. In his hands is a package of herbs. The water he manipulates without moving, and Izuna startles, nearly burning his vest. He’s never seen anything like it. 

“How can you bend the water without movement? That shouldn’t be possible!” He cries, accusatory. 

“No, I moved my lungs and my ribs and my nose, I breathed, and the water moved with me,” Tobirama says. 

There’s a bounty on this man, but it’s a bounty of coin, and what he can do, well, that’s a bounty of technique. 

“Can you do that with fire?” He asks, turning back to the task at hand. 

“I cannot,” Tobirama shakes his head. “I am not the avatar, she alone can bend more than one element.” 

“Ug,” Izuna groans, but he catches the smirk on the edge of the other man’s lips. He understood what Izuna meant. 

“Yes, although you would have to stay long enough for me to teach you, and I would object to you trying to put me in a basket and take me back to civilization,” Tobirama cautiously states. 

The basket sits off to the side, but within Izuna’s reach. “It was supposed to be a lot of money, and I no longer have much. You’re probably not fit to be in society anyway.” 

“Too rude?” Tobirama teases. 

“Too cold,” Izuna shrugs, “you’d probably melt.” 

Izuna strips himself of Tobirama’s outer clothes, not caring for his own nudity beyond the freezing air. His leathers are not ideal for these conditions and his power is weaker here where it is cold and dark, but he makes do. Clothing dry and body warm enough to survive, he reaches out to take the pot from Tobirama’s hands. He’s more showy about his bending than the moon fish, but hot tea isn’t something he’s willing to turn down yet. 

“How did you get here?” Tobirama asks, and Izuna isn’t sure where to begin. 

(“No Izuna, I will not have any talk of war, you’re as bad as our Father,” Madara claims, and it stings a little. “We can’t just lay siege to the Earth kingdom until both sides fall. The Senju hold strong, and I know Hashirama…” 

“Peace is ridiculous if you think we can have it, they’ll betray us, all we’ve built, they’ll stab us in the back if we don’t wipe them out first,” Izuna growls. 

“I am fire lord here, and if you cannot see the greatness that we could become side-by-side with the other kingdoms with us, and not against us, then you have lived here too long and let your mind be poisoned by our late father and elders.” 

“But the assasination attempts on our brothers—”

“None of them came to fruition. You cannot punish a kingdom and its king for something they haven’t done,” Madara sighs. The lines are thick on his face, he’s weary. 

“Yes I can!” Izuna yells, and it’s childish and full of vindictiveness but he doesn’t care. 

“Then you can get out, and you can come back when you’ve learned that peace is a gift!” Madara yells back, voice booming deep in the heart of their stone palace. His younger siblings look on, shocked. 

Madara allows him to say goodbye.) 

“I was banished from the Fire Nation for petitioning the Fire Lord for war against the earth kingdom,” Izuna sighs. 

Tobirama nods, likely he knows there must be more, but he doesn’t ask. 

“So I started hunting bounties, mostly along the borders, mostly in Earth Country, some in the colonies, never one near the poles. Took one in fire once, nearly got caught, but they’re looking for a prince in black silks and red armor, not a bounty hunter clad in leather.”

“How did you cross the icy desert? On foot?” Tobirama interrupts. 

“No, I had a snow-sail when I started, but it was smashed in a storm, and then I was on foot.” 

Tobirama hums a sound deep in his chest, and pushes his hair out of his eyes, mittens sitting in his lap. 

“Have you ever considered…” 

—downing the tea? Izuna’s halfway there, even though he’s trying to drink slowly so he doesn’t shock his body after the scare of freezing. 

“What?” He asks.

“…have you ever considered that this wasn’t a retrieval bounty, and that somebody wanted you gone? It’s really isolated out here, and for a fire bender even more so. You’re very important too, you have dragons singing in your blood. I can feel it.” 

Wait—what? 

Okay, it’s not so far-fetched that politically he could be a target, for really any kingdom, although he doesn’t wield as much power as he once did. It’s possible. 

“What do you mean by dragons singing in my blood? That’s Madara’s thing.” Izuna says. 

Tobirama shrugs, “I’m a water bender, and you are mostly made of water. I have a good sense for these things. I was blessed when I was born, and I have spent a long, long, time in these spiritual waters where the moon only touches the surface.

It’s a lot to take in all at once. 

“You must be tired,” Tobirama says, pulling a large set of furs from under the snow. “I only have one bed, but you are welcome to share it tonight so you don’t freeze to death. Tomorrow I can teach you to breathe or I can help build you a snow-sail of ice.” 

Izuna only nods, there are no words, and he doesn’t want to freeze to death either. 

o🌙o

Tobirama doesn’t know if Izuna will stay, but at very first light he tucks the furs around Izuna’s chin and goes out to hunt. There are no fish in his waters but there are animals that come this far north that are suitable. He usually chooses to fast as long as he can, but Izuna’s strength is waning and even Tobirama in this form will need something better than the moonlight that he usually is sustained on. 

He even has an easy way to cook the meat and blubber. Food source poquered, he wanders back to an awake Izuna. 

“I want to learn,” are the first words out of his mouth. 

“Good,” Tobirama smirks, “You can start with breakfast.” 

It doesn't take long for Tobirama to organize breakfast. A chunk of blubber, carved with Tobirama’s bone knife, sits between them. 

“All things are best when in balance,” Tobirama says. “You imagine your fire at your fingertips, well, now you have to imagine it burning in the air like a candle. Focus. Cook the meat with only your lungs to direct it. Your breath, in and out, your energy at your lips.” 

It takes Izuna three days to understand it, but he does. 

“Ha!” He cries, as the food begins to heat and sizzle, his hands still in his lap. “I understand, the air is what catches on fire and if I pretend I’m moving my hands in my mind, and focus really hard, I can breathe and direct the heat where I want!”

He’s not good at it yet, and he may never be, but it’s far more patience from Izuna than Tobirama had expected. 

For three whole days he ate nothing and drank tea only when prompted. Tobirama is slightly concerned about his dedication. 

“And now that it’s cooked you must eat it, and regain your strength,” Tobirama has scarcely moved in those three days. Burying the new food source and meditating; eating preserves from his buried stock. 

Izuna is now so hungry that he doesn’t waste time, biting down and chewing quickly.

“This is gross,” he says, but he doesn’t stop eating, he’s been starving and no matter how disgusting this is, it’s edible and nutritious. 

“It’s not my favourite,” Tobirama agrees. “But you have cooked it yourself, and learned something from a water bender, and that is something to be proud of.” 

o🌙o

The blubber, fried by his own fire, makes Izuna miss home all the more. All the spicy, crunchy food and all of his warm family competing over it. 

(Madara tries to look dignified, but fails once he realizes that he’ll have to fight a younger brother for snacks. )

This food is not like that at all, it’s icky and fatty and oily and thick, and he doesn’t like it much at all. 

“Is this the only thing you've ever eaten? Is this what you live on?” Izuna asks. 

Tobirama shakes his head, this time his hands are tucked into his mittens and he has his own pot of tea. Izuna warms it without him asking, trying his newfound trick of regulating his breathing. He probably can’t do more than simple heat yet, but maybe one day he can do more. 

“I was born in the Earth Kingdom, lots of tea, my brothers liked sweets,” Tobirama sighs, he looks a little sad, melancholic perhaps. 

“Tobirama… I know that name,” Izuna thinks. It sounds so familiar. “You were somebody, weren’t you?” 

“I still am, but here I am forgotten and at peace,” Tobirama nods. “It’s a sacrifice I would make again.”

“You were willingly banished then?” Izuna asks, and this is such a lonely and desolate place, he doesn’t understand why anyone would choose this. 

“Yes, the rumours surrounding my birth and appearance were great and terrible, and the possibility of the Earth King losing his bid for peace because the scales were uneven, because I was born in that territory, politically, was enough for me to decide to leave. The world is a better place now,” Tobirama smiles softly to himself. 

“How do you know!” Izuna wants to yell, but his voice comes out as a hoarse whisper. “You’ve never seen it.”

“It sounds like you’ve never truly seen it either, blinded by your bitterness.” 

Izuna doesn’t have anything to say to that, and so he sits and stews in his thoughts. He wants to yell, but he doesn’t actually know if it’s a better place or not, he’s either been in the walls of the palace or managing around for scrap bounties and seeing the ugliest sides of people. He’s never really looked around and noticed if Madara’s promise really did hold true, hell he’s never really seen the Fire Nation with his own eyes and ears and not what palace lectures taught. 

He wants to rebuke Tobirama, but he can’t, because he’s right. 

o🌙o

For twelve days and twelve nights, Tobirama teaches Izuna what he knows, and they come to an understanding. Izuna even comes out hunting, commenting on the barrenness of the land. It’s an empty and pale place, seemingly desolate even while knowing the Northern Water Tribe is not that far away. 

Tobirama thinks it suits him. 

They sleep curled around each other for warmth and whisper things in the darkness that are too difficult to say during the limited light of day. 

“Some days I wish I never left,” Izuna confesses. 

“Me too,” whispers Tobirama. 

Izuna speaks of his brothers, and Tobirama listens and they remind him of his own family. 

Tobirama offers that the moonlight is his saviour, and other things. “There’s a spirit here, deep in the heart of the earth, but close to the poles, sometimes I feel their spark against my fins.”

“What do you think it is?” Izuna asks. 

Tobirama’s breath is reflected against his own face. “Not what, but who, I cannot say, but it’s been louder since you arrived, blood of dragons.” 

“I don’t know what that even means,” Izuna admits. 

“Some days,” Tobirama whispers back, “neither do I.” 

The quiet is not to last, and on the day when Izuna finally manages to move his fire like a whip of water, spiraling and dancing, he tells Tobirama that it's time for him to move on. 

“I’ll miss your company,” Tobirama says, “even if it’s obnoxious and impolite.” 

Izuna doesn’t say anything back, because his pride is too strong or because he has no words to say, Tobirama does not know. 

“Come, dinner awaits, we can build you a snow-sailer tomorrow.” Tobirama promises. He doesn’t offer to go with him, as much as he would now like too. Surely the world has outgrown him by now. 

o🌙o

It’s a ruckus that wakes them in the night. Izuna jumps up quickly and drags Tobirama with him. He’s used to sleeping light while being on the run. He knows what he hears is no beast roaming the tundra. It’s people. 

“He’s got to be here somewhere,” one says, husky and deep. 

“Keep your voice quiet,” another hisses. “There’s good money in this if we can find the Moon Fish.” 

“They’re here for you,” Izuna whispers to Tobirama as they wait near the mouth of the cave, just out of sight. 

“Bonus if we can grab the banished prince—if he’s already dead the Fire Lord will no doubt pay for his body. We can say the cold and the Moon Fish got him.” 

Izuna points first at Tobirama and then at himself before pointing towards the lip of the cave. He knows they’ll have to fight their way out of this, and he’s hoping Tobirama is aware. 

Tobirama nods. He understands. 

They wait at the mouth of the cave for the first one to venture in. It’s a large man, a bounty hunter Izuna knows from the old failed Fire Nation colonial attempts to inhabit the Earth Kingdom. Hagoromo clan.

He’s large and wearing furs open over silks, bold, as if he was warm. Like Izuna, his powers might usually be weaker this far north, but the sun is blazing bright overhead in the middle of the day. 

They don’t wait for him to look around, Izuna lashing out with fire up high while a quick glance shows Tobirama whipping out water below. 

For such a large man, the Hagoromo is deceptively agile, flipping out of the way on a hand and yelling loudly to get the attention of his party. He’s a firebender like Izuna, and so Izuna takes him on first as Tobirama moves further away to survey his next opponents. 

A girl with long hair joins the Hagoromo as another three fighters split between Tobirama and Izuna. Izuna dodges more fire as he realizes that the girl wears the crest of the Hyuga clan. Damn, he thinks, not a bender, but likely a chi-blocker, some of the best too. 

Her eyes are white and concentrated on him, Izuna hadn’t even realized one of them had started taking up bounties, perhaps an outcast or a runaway branch member. Politics between the Fire Nation and this noble Earth clan had never been good. 

The rest appear to be firebenders, but Izuna can’t risk looking away to confirm anything beyond Tobirama being able to hold his own. 

They’re sorely outnumbered and he weaves around waves of fire as he sends his own back, the Hargormo’s grin vicious and getting wider with every hit the Hyuuga lands. 

Tobirama is three against one and the sun is high, for a moment he’s doing okay, and then Izuna’s Hagoromo turns to melt through a wall of ice that Tobirama has thrown up and Izuna gets a glimpse of the firebenders that are after Tobriama. 

The gold and silver brothers. 

Bounty hunters that can wield lighting. 

As soon as he thinks it he sees it, the moment where he’s secondary and one of them is calling lightning from the sky, Tobirama standing in a large pool of his own water, Izuna shooting fire at the brothers like a whip, forgetting about the Hyuuga at his back. 

And then he is screaming. 

(Madara comes back to the Fire Nation riding a dragon. Izuna’s never been exactly sure how he even came across a dragon when they were all supposed to be gone, but Madara has always done the impossible. 

“I have inherited all that we thought lost,” he tells his brothers in a celebratory feast. “With my friend Hashirama I have inherited the will of fire and the ability to dance with the dragons of old, the ones we thought were gone.” 

“Now, don’t go getting a big head!” Proclaims one of Izuna’s younger brothers. 

“He already has a big head—look at his hair,” yells another. 

Izuna wants to laugh too, but their father is only weeks in the grave and already his entire life is changing around him. All of it begins and ends with the new Fire Lord and his call for peace. 

And his stupid will of fire. 

What does that even mean? Izuna growls to himself.) 

Fire blazes around him and within him and flies from his mouth as he tries to reach Tobirama. He hadn’t even realized they were really friends, but Izuna needs to protect Tobirama. Izuna feels something for him that he hasn’t felt in a long time. 

He feels something within himself besides that he has never felt, and all of his anger, hatred and bitterness sheds like a snakeskin in the face of the profound loneliness of losing Tobirama now. 

He slept by his side. 

The fire rages and knocks the Hagoromo off his feet and into the nameless bounty hunter that Tobirama was fighting. 

He served him tea. 

He kicks out and throws fire from the soles of his feet into the Hyuuga, sending her flying. 

He saved Izuna’s life. 

He’s too late to reach the brothers, watching as Tobirama stands shakily for a moment, and then begins to fall to the snow. Izuna’s whole heart is screaming. 

The cave shatters and explodes into the air as lightning pours into the sky and Izuna is still too far away. From the ruins though, a light shines and a creature that Izuna has never seen rises from the rubble. 

It has the head of a dragon, decorated with white fur and a single iridescent horn. Scales travel along its body from neck to cloven hooves, and it has the body of a stag. It’s not supposed to be real, but it is, and it’s swooping towards Izuna. 

He’s not afraid, he knows this dance in his blood, knows that this is his second chance, and he reaches out to the creature’s flowing mane and grasps it like it’s his only solace. 

Together they fly towards Tobirama, Izuna’s legs reaching the ground while it feels like the earth is standing still. He’s so fast now. 

Izuna scoops Tobirama up into his arms even as the water bender looks worse for wear and holds tight, dragging him back into the snow. Even though the lightning did not dissuade the Gold and Silver brothers, they look weary and exhausted now, and Izuna feels refreshed. 

The creature he summoned sings with him and they begin to dance, weaving fire and knocking the lighting out of the brothers hands. They are no match, and soon the fiery breath of the beast directed at Izuna’s behest sends them flying back, unconscious. 

He doesn’t waste time trying to look for their snow sails. Izuna doesn’t want to be here when they wake up anyway. 

“I’m Izuna,” he says outloud, looking into the ruby eyes of the creature that came from the cave. 

Qilin, it sounds like a song in his ears that matches the beat of his heart as if it were a drum. 

“Will you help me carry us home, Qilin?” Izuna asks. 

Qilin nods and Izuna makes his way back to Tobirama, pulling him up and settling him on Qilin’s back before jumping up himself. 

Qilin flies without wings, as if his hooves can touch and run on the clouds, and it takes Izuna’s breath away. 

“Ah, so this is who was beneath the waves,” Tobirama mutters as he wakes, understanding the situation very quickly. 

Perhaps it's a spirit thing, Izuna wonders. 

“Yes,” he answers. “I’m glad you are alright.” 

Tobirama leans back into Izuna wearily, perhaps he is not as okay as he sounds. 

“Where are we going?” He asks. 

Izuna answers simply, “home.” 

“Are you welcome there?” Tobirama asks again, and this time Izuna smiles. 

“I will be,” he says. “I’ve found the Will of Fire.” 

He’ll be welcome once again. 

o🌙o

Madara waits on the terrace of the palace. He’s waiting for something, but he isn’t sure what. It’s a feeling, a sense of something calling out to him. 

At first he wondered if it was just the sun calling to him as a firebender, but he knows that is not the case. The sun has risen high in the sky and still nothing comes, and still he waits. 

Two of his generals and a few of his advisors come to pull him away but he dismisses them and does not go. 

His brothers wander in and out, but he doesn’t eat or drink or follow them to bed when the sun finally starts to set. Still he stands and waits. 

Just as the blanket of night is beginning to cover the sky, he sees it. A spirit, a dragon-stag perhaps. Something magical and glowing like a star, but not malicious. 

The creature lands in his garden in front of the terrace and he blinks at the bright light. He can hardly believe his eyes when his brother Izuna slides off of the back of the beast, helping down another man with white hair who he feels he should know. 

Izuna is older, taller, and his hair is longer. He’s a man now, and not the spoiled brat who pushed Madara into turning him away. The man with the white hair is leaning on him like he’s injured and the dragon-stag is following them at a distance. 

Madara stays still while Izuna makes his way up the steps. 

“Brother,” he greets. 

“You were not to come back,” Madara says, and it’s strange to see Izuna in worn black leather, sporting scars no prince should have and with his hair down around his face. 

“I have found the Will of Fire,” Izuna says, there is no urgency in his tone, he is not worried about Madara. If anything he seems to be fussing at the man beside him, a man dressed in the clothes of the Northern Water Nation. “This is Tobirama, and this is Qilin.” 

Madara bows to Qilin first, “Thank you for taking care of my brother, foolish though he may be.” 

Qilin nods back but makes no move to leave. 

“I suppose you are all looking to stay?” Madara sighs. Politically, this is going to be a nightmare, but he can’t bring himself to care. 

“I wouldn’t want to impose—” Tobirama begins, and Madara remembers him now, remembers his voice. Even if the clothes are all wrong. 

“You’re Hashirama’s brother, right? Prince of the Earth Kingdom? It’s not an imposition.” Madara bows respectfully to him as well. 

Izuna looks surprised for a moment, but then he laughs, loud and sharp. It’s even more of a political disaster than Madara had first realized. 

“In any case, it’s only for a short time,” Izuna says. “Just until Tobirama has healed.”

“Oh?” Madara asks, and he’s disappointed. He wanted this Izuna back to stay. He’s missed him for far too long, and to see Izuna without the bitterness is an absolute treat. 

“Just for a little while, I think we’d like to see the world,” Izuna’s eyes drift from Madara to where Tobirama is resting on his shoulder. “We owe a visit to the heart collector.” 

“I’d like that,” Tobirama smiles, soft and just for Izuna and Madara feels a little like he’s interrupting. 

“Just for a little while, then we’ll be back.” Izuna says, and Tobirama shrugs as if it's as much as he expected. “I promise.” 

“Alright,” Madara whispers. “Qilin, perhaps you would like to stay in the garden, there is a shelter and a bed of flowers by the lake.” 

He leads Izuna and Tobirama to Izuna’s old room for the night, everything left exactly as it was like a small tribute to Izuna’s life in the palace. It’s there he bids them goodnight and delights as Izuna takes Tobirama’s hand to guide him into the room. His brother isn’t alone. 

“I’m just tired, I can fix it,” Tobirama says softly as Izuna bids Madara goodnight and closes the door. 

In the morning, when Madara wakes, they are all gone as if it were all a dream. 

But he knows they’ll be back. Someday. 

o🌙o