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When Hashirama stormed into Tobirama’s office, Tobirama had a good idea of why the man came. The uncontrolled agitation in the man’s chakra knocked the breath out of Tobirama, but he still levelled Hashirama’s stare with his sure one when his older brother slapped a stack of papers on the table – Tobirama’s eye caught the applicant’s surname on the uppermost Academy registration form, that of a notable civilian family.
“Tobirama, what were you thinking?” Hashirama asked him, more exasperated than angry. Tobirama could work with that.
“A lot more than you seem to be,” was his curt response. Before Hashirama opened his mouth again, he asked, “Can I explain myself?”
“Sure,” his brother sighed and dropped himself down into the chair he moved over from its corner of the room to face Tobirama over the table. “Sure,” he repeated. “Go on.”
“I guess you understand why this was a legal option,” Tobirama began, “so I don’t have to explain that, do I?”
Hashirama nodded. “Yeah. Honestly, smart of you to pass this under everyone’s eyes and not get caught; no one considered the implications of using the word ‘family’ instead of ‘clan’,” grudging respect coloured Hashirama’d voice and a part of Tobirama’s heart that would always look for his older brother’s acknowledgement bounced happily.
Tobirama smiled and despite keeping his teeth hidden, the sharpness came across. “I assure you, some considered the implications.” The Nara and Aburame clan heads had approached Tobirama post-council to confirm their suspicions. Of course, both were smart enough to realise the obvious benefits of keeping their mouths shut and letting the law founding the Academy pass as was. “But they found themselves agreeing with them, for three main reasons:
“Firstly, it will allow children of a shinobi-civilian pair wherein the shinobi took the civilian’s name and not otherwise,” a rare occurrence – but still one, “to attend the Academy without issue.”
When Hashirama piped up, “That could’ve been solved in some other way than endangering the civilian populace.”
“You’re right, though I don’t agree with the other part,” Tobirama responded lightning-quick. “That’s why it isn’t the only reason.
“The second reason is so that the child’s family – his parents – would be the ones deciding whether he goes to the Academy, not the clan. Again, minor and corollary compared to the last reason, which is that the civilians deserve this opportunity.
“Haven’t you realised that most shinobi clans descend formed from civilian families? Why should we stifle the creation of new clans so needlessly? Why should we treat civilians as incapable? If they have the chakra reserves, the right force of will and the support of their family, there oughtn’t be any reason why they shouldn’t be able to become a shinobi like any clan child.”
Hashirama used Tobirama’s pause to interrupt him, though not needlessly or irrationally. “I understand your logic, but I still don’t think it’s right.” He sighed. Hashirama looked like he’d aged a decade in the last week, and it was an especially hectic one all things considered, but Tobirama thought there was something else. He would ask Mito later; it probably had to do with Madara (didn’t it always?), and so Hashirama’ wouldn’t tell Tobirama what was on his mind. “We can’t really roll this decision back, can we?”
“If we want to be reasonable, then no,” Tobirama stated simply. It was a simple truth, yet all the more so frustrating one, that ‘changing one’s mind about something’ as Hokage – and everything, always, went to get its final stamp of approval to the Hokage’s desk – simply wasn’t an option. The clans would try to use what they perceived as the Hokage’s momentary weakness to their advantage and the civilians would remember that they lived in what amounted to a rule of one person, who could at any time decide to do something that would destroy their very livelihoods, and maybe living in a shinobi village wasn’t really worth it.
“I can see you have more to say on the topic,” Hashirama smiled at Tobirama encouragingly.
“If this brings any comfort to you: even if a civilian child went to the Academy for all the wrong reasons, ones that wouldn’t stand when faced with the reality of being a shinobi, he or she could retire after enough years of service to have paid back their education. And it’s not like we would value their life less than a clan child’s either, and they would die before they could do so, what with assigning missions based on capability,” Tobirama said and added, “Admittedly, death is an occupational risk for us shinobi. But who knows, in the meanwhile that child might’ve found that good reason that would get them through a close encounter with death or maybe will have found itself under the wing of a more capable mentor, if they hadn’t already found a place for growth in their team.”
“Not an unlikely case,” Hashirama agreed, after a pause. At last, Tobirama thought; his brother’s total approval was what he needed, after all, to survive those who would want to disagree with him as the main proposer of the idea for a Ninja Academy as well as its founder.
“I expect it will be no time before we’ll have the perfect case study,” Tobirama added dryly, looking at the pile of civilian Academy applications on his table. “But I’m really not the one who files this paperwork, so...”
“Aww, but you love paperwork so much, Tobi!” The murderous look Tobirama sent his brother ended his teasing easily enough, so Hashirama’s next words weren’t yet more falsehoods. “Dinner at seven, as always,” Hashirama said in lieu of a goodbye, the Academy applications under an arm.