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Seven years old and Izuna Uchiha has never been more proud of himself than he is today!
Standing near the banks of the river, he brushes a stray strand of hair out of his face and leans against one of the trees. His dark eyes watch the river closely, scanning the other side for any and all activity that might happen.
It’s a well known fact to the adults of the clan that these rivers don’t see much action. Attacking the Senju from here could lose them land and access to water. It’s not worth the risk and even less worth the risk of polluting their only water source with the dredges of left over war.
So when Tajima agreed to send Izuna on a mission, one out to their river boarder was easy enough to make happen.
This is not something Izuna knows and as he leans back against his tree and listens intently for any movement across the bank, he feels like a true warrior!
Seven years old and on watch duty! Madara is going to be so impressed when he returns home and finds out he’s finally landed himself a mission. It’s going to be great.
His eyes narrow as he catches glimpse of something moving over past the water.
Izuna knows he isn’t allowed to attack. He’s been strictly informed that he is on watch only and is only allowed to defend himself should something happen and as of yet, nothing is happening.
He watches closely as a pale boy comes from the tree line and crouches by the water. The boys eyes dart to him, immediately sensing his presence there and Izuna’s hand curls around his blade, ready should the kid make a move.
“Come on Tobi,” a voice calls out and the white haired pale boy dunks his hand into the water filling his canteen before darting off back to the forest, the laughter of three voices following.
Izuna listens to their laughter until it disappears beyond his range and he lets himself relax.
Senju children.
He won’t let his guard down even around them, he can’t. It could be fatal if he did. Leaning back against his tree, Izuna looks calm and relaxed but his mind is reeling from the sight of them. It will be a long mission.
Two months of patrolling the river and there is no shortage of the white haired boy.
Izuna sees him almost every day he is there and slowly he starts to build intel on him. His name is Tobi, sometimes a smaller boy is with him and he calls him Tobirama. Other times two other voices follow the pair, almost always laughing and giggling.
Carefree.
Izuna wonders what that feels like, to be carefree.
Tobirama always looks his way before refilling his water and dipping back into the forest and Izuna wonders what their day is like. If they’re training, if they’re playing, if he’s just a good brother and spending time with his siblings.
It’s weird to want to know the enemy and he keeps it to himself.
Days turn to months and the seasons give way to winter.
Father tells him guard duty isn't mandatory, but Izuna likes going to the river. It feels helpful in a clan where he can't do mission on his own yet.
He enjoys the cold too and it gives him ample time to practice staying warm with his own chakra.
And today it's cold. Too cold.
His chakra heats his body keeping him nice and warm. The thick snow melts under his feet and he watches the river. This time of year it forms ice but never fully freezes. Izuna likes the sound of the ice slushing against the shore.
Dark eyes catch movement and it's harder to see the other boy he's grown accustomed to seeing till he's on the bank of the river. His white hair and pale skin seems lost against the white of the snow.
Izuna perks up a bit, surprised to see him out there.
He's quickly follow by another boy who darts out with hair slightly less white and skin a little more tanned.
"Do you think eldest brother will like what we're hunting?" he asks as the other fills his water. "I hope so. He gets so sad in the winter."
Izuna has questions and wants to ask but the river separates them, their clans separate them, and even if he was to walk across the water he could never actually ask.
Instead he watches them leave and he wonders a million things about them, their training, their relationships, their life.
The snow melts and soon enough it's spring which means training can resume and Izuna's eight now and can start taking real missions soon enough.
He does his best to take missions to the river as often as he can, still wanting to stay on duty there because his favorite past time is the other boy.
It's been a few weeks since his last time and he's eager to get back. Father had halted assignments there for a while, saying it was too dangerous after one of the Senju heirs had been captured and killed during a recent battle.
Izuna knows father hates when that happens, when kids are killed, and the clan mate who did it had paid severally for breaking the rules.
It sits weirdly in Izuna's stomach and he feels like he needs to see the white haired boy, needs to assure himself he wasn't the one who they managed to dispatch.
When his eyes finally land on the boy, sequestered this time in a tree at the banks of the river, he isn't prepared for the anger and hate that hits him in waves.
A dark haired boy sits near the water, skipping stones out across it while the littler of the four stands a few feet away. Izuna waits, eyes scanning the treeline for the fourth but he doesn't come. They spend an hour like that, the three boys talking softly to each other while one glares at Izuna and Izuna is stuck in place...
Watching, hating the truth he's starting to feel build under his skin and in his mind.
Something changes.
A faction in their clan kills another kid and they come to Tajima gloating about it, as if they don't know what will happen to them. Izuna watches as they're executed and he should feel for his family...for clan he's known his whole life.
Instead his mind is on the river boys, on the three left that he now knows are heirs. One more is gone, dead, killed by his own family. He reminds himself that he doesn't know them, that they're the enemy, that he shouldn't care.
Weirdly he does.
Being an Uchiha he can't not care. He wants to. He wants to push it all aside and fight the war he knows he should, but it's hard when he's spent a year watching a boy so much like himself across the river with siblings he knows he must care for.
He needs to go.
Calmly, he turns to father and he wants to ask for an assignment to the river banks but his words stop short when Tajima raises a hand.
"All assignments outside of the village are temporarily on hold to anyone but our most seasoned warriors," he tells the assembled clan. "The Senju will be out for revenge, I won't lose any of our children to them."
Izuna frowns.
He needs to know which one they killed and he needs to...to what? Apologize? He can't, he won't. It's not his place to and he would never go as far as to make contact with the Senju. It already feels like treason to think how he does.
Izuna is not a traitor. He won't accept that he is at all.
Pushing any thoughts of the river from his mind he nods.
There will be time later, other moments he's sure, and he can get his answers then. He won't leave and seek out the boy by the river.
Little does he know his brother will instead.
Madara isn't a traitor.
Izuna tells himself that over and over as he walks back from the river where he's just seen Madara doing the unthinkable. He doesn't want to tell father but of course father knows something is wrong the second he steps foot back home.
One pointed question and a hand on his shoulder has Izuna spilling his guts on the spot. He tells father about his own feelings, about how he watched the boy's at the river but never made contact but how Madara has.
He leaves out how he knows they're Senju, but father fills in the gaps in his story for him.
When Madara comes back him, Izuna's sitting solemnly next to father and they talk. The three of them talk of the Senju, of the river, of Madara's friend and what needs to be done.
Father isn't mean, he never is, but he makes it clear that neither one of them can be friends and that this needs to end now. It's dangerous, he says, and Izuna can't fathom why. If Madara is friends then maybe he can be too right? Maybe they can stop killing each other?
If that's what the Senju want then it could work. Right?
Tajima shakes his head and tells both of them that it can never happen. They go to bed, a plan in place, and Izuna steels his heart, pushing down emotions he knows he shouldn't have ever had.
The boy at the river is not but a dream, a wish of sorts, and he won't let himself get wrapped up in that dream again. Instead he takes his feelings and he warps them, turning them into acceptable feelings.
He won't ever get to know the boy as a friend, but he can know him as something else, as a rival on the battlefield. He can push and be pushed back and maybe one day one of them will defeat the other and that will be enough.
Tomorrow...tomorrow he'll see if the boy wants to fight him.
They clash at the river, blade meeting blade.
Tobirama...that's his name. Izuna thinks it's a good name, a strong name, and he'll remember it through all his years as they fight against each other.
He can tell by one look into Tobirama's red eyes that he's picked a good rival, one who will push him till he's the best warrior for his clan he can be.
When it's all said and done and they're leaving that river, Izuna spares one look back at his new rival. Friendship might have been preferable, but he'll take what he can get. Izuna even thinks it will be fun.