Work Text:
It's quiet by the river.
There is a natural stillness in the air. The soft sounds of animal life echo from the forest. Birds chirp from beyond the water, rustling and active in the early days of spring. There is a steady and persistent humming in the background, insects and the like, drawn to the source of fresh water like all other living beings.
Tobirama can sense each and every one of them. They are little pinpricks sparking against her senses, a tapestry of life.
Izuna is on the shoreline.
She is sitting against the rocky ground. She is close enough to the water that she is able to reach out and touch it. Her legs are drawn up against her body, thighs against her chest. Her cheek rests upon one of her knees and her forearm against the other. Her hand dangles out in front of her, tracing an idle path through the gently swaying water.
She is unarmed.
It is an opportunity. Tobirama calculates such things with instinctive practicality, even now. Izuna is unarmed. She is distracted. She is curled up and lax. Tobirama could remove the threat of the Uchiha leadership in this very moment.
Tobirama lets the thought pass, like water over smooth river rock.
Izuna turns her head toward Tobirama's approach. She must have heard her, even with shinobi-light steps.
"It begins?" Izuna asks softly.
"Soon," Tobirama answers. "Our sentries say they will arrive with the next two hours."
"Leave me be for two more hours then, Senju," Izuna replies.
Outwardly, Izuna is calm. Her words are soft and careful. She is quiet, as she is more and more often.
To the rest of the Senju - to Konoha? She appears a broken down version of herself. Gone is the woman who Tobirama fought for her life against. In her place is a retired kunoichi, weighed down heavily by the burden of leadership.
Izuna's chakra is an inferno.
It is a constant presence at the edge of Tobirama's senses. It is a roaring, festering rage. It is ancient and terrifying and filled with hatred for each and every living being within Konoha. It is a beast snapping at the bars of its prison, testing their might.
The creature sealed within Izuna writhes, unrefined malice seeping into Izuna's very being.
Izuna does not even twitch. Tobirama supposes she is used to it.
"You should not be out here alone," Tobirama tries.
Though Izuna holds a precarious place in Konoha following Madara's revolt and subsequent death, she is still critical to the continuation of Senju and Uchiha peace. With Madara gone, Izuna now leads the Uchiha clan. Izuna holds the Kyubi within her very body, a sacrifice willingly made to balance Madara's betrayal.
A balance in the eyes of Konoha, at least. To the Uchiha, the Kyubi is a powerful bargaining ship fallen straight into their hands.
Izuna hums. "Do you think me defenseless, Tobirama?"
A loaded question if there ever was one. Tobirama doubts that Izuna has ever been truly defenseless. Even as she is now, decommissioned and living the life of a poitician, she could still hold her own in combat. Even without the Kyubi.
"An assassination attempt during the first Kage summit would not bring good luck," Tobirama says diplomatically.
"Do you consider, perhaps, that I do not want to be in that meeting hall any longer than strictly necessary?"
"It is your duty," Tobirama says.
She knows the moment the words have left her mouth that they are wrong.
Izuna bristles. Her hackles raise. Her lips twitch into a frown, lips drawing back to show her teeth.
"Do not speak to me of duty, Senju," Izuna says, voice deep with severity, "I have always done what is necessary. Forgive me for not being eager to be a prize on display."
"No," Tobirama backtracks, "you are a founder of Konoha. You are an example."
Izuna scoffs. "My brother founded Konoha, not me."
"Madara is not here."
This was, perhaps, an even worse thing to say. Tobirama laments her inability to simply speak to this woman.
"Do you not think I know that, Senju?" Izuna snaps. "Do you think I somehow missed that my last surviving family left me, then used our eyes to betray our village?"
Tobirama blinks. Our village, she said. Tobirama is not accustomed to Izuna voicing her allegiance to Konoha quite so openly.
"Madara is not here," Tobirama replies, speaking quickly, "You are. That is all I meant."
Izuna's chakra churns with anger, with revulsion, with a grief buried so deep within her it will never fully heal. Her ocular chakra pathways writhe. They seek a means of control without outlet.
There is no sharingan to activate. Izuna's eyes are long since removed. A sacrifice of a different variety, what seems like a lifetime ago.
Izuna's breath catches on the exhale. She breathes in deeply, forcefully. She turns away from Tobirama, resting her forehead against her knees. She calms herself. She lets go of her own anger, until it is but a spluttering stream next to the all encompassing rage of the fox.
"You're an ass," she tells Tobirama softly.
Her hand is relaxed and open where it sits poised atop the water. Her fingers do not move of her own volition, only swaying gently against the current.
"Sorry," Tobirama replies, chastised. There is no point in antagonizing the Kyubi jinchuriki.
There is no point in antagonizing Izuna. Not when Konoha has put her through so much already.
Tobirama lets Izuna settle herself in silence. Since Tobirama cannot be trusted to speak without shoving her foot in her mouth, she opts for saying nothing at all. She sits down on the river bank next to Izuna without a word.
Tobirama stretches her legs out, crossing them within the water. The current is cool against her skin. It is a bit too soon to be swimming, but in the next few months the weather will be ripe for it.
"He's going to give them all away, isn't he?" Izuna asks, after a long moment of shared silence.
Tobirama knows exactly who she means.
Madara's betrayal has weakened Konoha, both literally and diplomatically. His possession of the Kyubi? That could cause outright war, if Konoha does not handle the aftermath ever so precisely.
Half the battle is already done. They have repaired the worst of the damage to the village and its surrounding defenses. They have found a suitable sacrifice for the Kyubi and she has proven her ability to contain it.
Now, they must reassure the surrounding shinobi nations. They must be made aware of Konoha's ongoing power, yet not fear that they will use it aggressively.
Holding an otherworldly beast captive in a human container does not exactly reassure the masses.
"He will try," Tobirama agrees, "We must do our best to stop him."
"I don't think stopping your brother is in the realm of possibility, Tobirama," Izuna says, "Not when he has his heart set on this."
An apology lodges in Tobirama's throat. She is unwilling to allow it to be spoken aloud. If she does, it will be twisted into something she does not intend.
"You do not need to come," Tobirama offers, "not if you truly do not wish to."
"Sweet of you, Senju," Izuna says dismissively, "but I'm not missing this meeting simply because I'll hate everyone in the room. I'm the Uchiha Clan Head. It is my responsibility."
Though she has become startlingly less aggressive since hosting the Kyubi, Izuna has not been docile. She stepped into Madara's vacated position in the Uchiha clan without hesitation. She has endured backlash and judgement many times over, yet maintained grace and dignity. Her gender and lack of sharingan have both made her ascent to power an entirely uphill battle.
She leads her clan justly. She is a good person. Tobirama wishes she wasn't, sometimes. It would make Tobirama feel much less guilty about it all.
"You'll hate everyone in the room?" Tobirama asks, hoping for a bit of levity.
Izuna catches on. She smiles, charming and toothy and entirely fake.
"You most of all, Tobirama," Izuna assures her.
The apology at the back of her tongue becomes all the more insistent. Tobirama swallows.
"I do not hate you, Izuna," Tobirama says, voice stilted.
It is difficult to hate Izuna. Not after Tobirama has so thoroughly defeated her, only for Izuna to persevere past Tobirama's wildest imaginings. She survived Tobirama's hiraishin. She survived the extraction of her sharingan. She survived the subsequent infection and illness. She survived the first days of Konoha. She thrives, even now, despite her clear and present despair.
Izuna's face is turned toward Tobirama once more. She cannot see her. Though Izuna's eyes were recovered from Madara's body, Izuna has refused any offer to restore her sight. Tobirama cannot fathom why, but Izuna seems at peace with her decision.
Tobirama has no doubt that she is being critically assessed, even with Izuna's lack of vision.
"I thought you hated all us Uchiha," Izuna accuses. "That's what the rumor is, anyway."
There are many rumors about Tobirama. Most of them are unpleasant. She tries not to pay too much attention to them, but this one in particular is vexing.
"I admire you," Tobirama says firmly.
"You what?"
"You show resolve and strength, even when you have had so much taken from you. Even when..." Tobirama hesitates.
Her gaze flickers down to Izuna's side. She thinks, if she looks carefully, she can still see when Izuna favors the other side of her body. The side opposite to where Tobirama lodged her blade, nearly killing Izuna outright.
""Even when I took so much from you," Tobirama says, swallowing back her guilt.
"That sounds suspiciously like an apology, Senju."
Izuna does not want an apology. Tobirama would not want one either, if she were in Izuna's shoes. They were two combatants on the battlefield. Tobirama would be doing Izuna a disservice to act as if she should have held back.
Tobirama panics, just a little. She should not have apologized.
"Get your hearing checked, Uchiha," Tobirama snaps back, flustered.
A laugh bubbles up from Izuna's throat. She snorts entirely indelicately, caught off guard by Tobirama's response.
Her nose is scrunched with mirth. It looks more human than Tobirama has seen her in a long time, if ever. She is not the rage-filled enemy across the battlefield. She is not an unnaturally calm sacrifice, maintaining her burden for the good of the many.
For a moment, she is human.
"You're awful," Izuna says fondly.
"I know."
Izuna hums. Her mirth fades away quickly, but a smile still lingers on her lips. Her hair shifts against her shoulders as she moves, adjusting so that she is more comfortable. It falls down her back in long black waves. For once, it is undone from her ponytail.
"Tobirama?" Izuna asks.
Tobirama blinks. She has been staring.
"Yes?"
Izuna lifts her hand that drifts against the stream. She dislodges it from its perch and reaches out toward Tobirama.
Her fingers catch on Tobirama's, where she leans against the rocky ground. Tobirama turns her hand over obligingly. Izuna threads their fingers together.
"Wait with me?" Izuna asks.
"For as long as you need."