Work Text:
"I've been waiting nearly twenty years for you to be free again, and if you think you can escape the promises you made to me...!"
Tobirama winces at the shouting. A shinobi should show no emotion, no matter the circumstances, or so Tobirama has always been taught, but he defies anyone to remain impassive when the head of their rival clan is shrieking at their father like a betrayed lover.
Which, apparently, Tajima-sama is.
Tobirama always knew that the Senju coming of age ritual was stupid, and he's been trying to figure out a way to get around it for years, but to imagine otousan had done that...
Well.
There are some pieces of information no one needs.
"This is a surprise to you, huh." Izuna sits down next to him on the fallen tree trunk. "You didn't know the history of your own clan?"
"Not from this perspective, no." Tajima-sama's shriek isn't all that comprehensible, but Tobirama can hear something about marriage and oaths which is more than enough for him to know that he should really stop listening if he wants to retain his sanity.
"I'd been wondering when you were going to try and seduce me actually, given the way your brother's been paying determined court to nii-san." Izuna's blade glints in the light of the setting sun and Tobirama isn't fool enough to think it's a coincidence.
"He won't stop talking about his gift from the divine, that's true." Looking at the way Anija is hanging all over Madara-san, Tobirama suspects that marriage might actually occur before chichiue's. "And you don’t have to threaten me - I’m perfectly happy to marry you even if I haven’t bedded you yet. It’s about time I became an adult anyway."
"Good." Izuna slides his katana home in its sheath and smiles sunnily, but the expression is still vaguely menacing. "I was getting sick of all the pining."
"There was pining?" Tobirama eyes his rival with interest.
"So much pining." Izuna waves at their parents to indicate what now seems like a fairly good proof of pining, yes. "You don't think my father always charges straight for yours without a reason, do you? Of course it was a broken heart!"
Oh dear.
"Excuse me, I think the elders in my clan need to know about this." Tobirama hesitates but, given the evidence of how the Senju requirement for adulthood has rebounded upon them, the question must be asked. "By any chance do they have, uh, partners? Waiting for them?"
"Yes." Izuna seems annoyed that he would think otherwise. "I told you - so much pining."
Oh gods.
Tobirama needs to speak to the elders right now.
"Alright then." He stands up, resigned to his fate. "Since it looks like chichiue and Anija are busy, I guess it’s up to me."
"Good luck!" Izuna's voice is sadistically cheerful, but Tobirama determinedly ignores it as he walks away.
When his father told him he had to eat an Uchiha in order to become a real Senju, he'd desperately hoped that there was a way to avoid cannibalism. Given the method all his relatives seem to have taken in order to escape that fate, however, he's starting to wonder if cannibalism shouldn't have been the solution.
But that's a thought for another day - right now, he has a marriage to arrange.
In fact, he has several.