Chapter Text
This was perhaps the fourteenth alien ship that Tobirama had been on in his five years of life across the galaxy. Not that he was entirely sure it was five years. Something along those lines.
It had not always been an easy trip. The first year had been particularly harrowing. He might actually have been in custody of more groups of aliens, he wasn't sure when that first year was comprised of so much running and explosions and panic.
Once the worst of his upset at being kidnapped into space was over and he'd actually realized what had happened to him, Tobirama had settled into life amongst the stars rather smoothly.
He was learning a great deal of things he never would have on Earth. Hells, he would have likely never even left the Elemental Nations in his lifetime if not for this. Technology, language, biology, and powers beyond initial comprehension were a whole new world to explore. Literally.
Was it distressing being taken away from everything you'd ever known and thrust into a world of alien tongues, technology, and beings you could rarely grasp? Yes, quite. But once he'd accepted that he could not quite speak their common language - he'd tried and it had failed every time - he'd accepted that no one would be getting him home. Learning to read and understand a language with no one teaching him and more importantly no one teaching him which was universal language and which was individual dialect was next to impossible.
Fortunately to Tobirama, having achieved a mastery of seals at fourteen and invented over a hundred personal jutsu before the age of eighteen when he was abducted, he was very intelligent and quick to learn. “Next to impossible” merely meant feasible. He'd yet to find a means with which to speak the universal tongue and no one seemed to think him even intelligent enough to understand language at all. But he taught himself. Slowly. Painstakingly. His understanding was shaky thanks to every species having variations to it with their biology but he could understand the majority of intentions.
And Tobirama began to learn. Learn when they were studying him. Learn when they wanted him to fight or kill. Learn to watch how they interacted with their strange smooth walls and floors. Their ‘ships’. He often couldn't navigate the ships he hijacked, but the vast majority seemed to be thoroughly safety proofed and hard to fuck up.
He learned the universal language written far better than he did spoken and used it to look into the databases each ship had. He learned what he could from each one.
By now, there was still a faint urge to discover all that he could in order to go home. But Tobirama knew fairly soon into his forays that navigating a ship back to Earth would require knowing where Earth was. And when he finally found out, it was to find that it was quarantined, and no ship could get close without being noticed by aliens very dedicated to keeping outsiders away.
Not unless it was very specially modified- and none of the ships he'd been on since his abduction were that level of specialized. He'd been kidnapped by the fastest, most delicate of slavers who excelled at picking up exotic specimens for highly select clients.
Tobirama had destroyed them and their fancy ship as soon as he'd stopped throwing up and fainting from the drugs they'd used on him, metabolized with a handy few jutsu he'd invented. So that was no longer an option.
A shame. But… he was fine with this. Bouncing between different ‘captors’ gave him plenty of opportunities to study aliens in more depth. What they did, how they worked, how they spoke, how they interpreted security measures… there was a lot to learn.
He stayed with each ‘captor’ as long as he could at this point, reluctant to learn new schedules and species before he'd quite finished adapting to the previous. But as soon as the immobilizing drugs, scalpels, lasers, or electric shocks came out Tobirama was gone. There was no alien security system yet that could keep him imprisoned. And if he destroyed a few things or killed a few aliens on the way out, well, they should not have been so eager to earn his wrath when they knew very well how dangerous a ‘deathworlder’ human could be.
Some were better than others. Some fed him well. Some merely studied him beyond clear glass panes. Some set him free in specifically engineered ‘ecosystems’ that almost mirrored Earth but not quite. But they all ended the same in attempts to cut him open or ‘tame’ him. So Tobirama always ended up breaking out and wreaking havoc along the way.
This most recent ship had been rather tame at first. Dark, due to the seemingly light-sensitive nature of the predominant species, and Tobirama could appreciate it. Too many ships were bright and sterile. Hell on his sensitive eyes and skin. Some bright enough to give him burns.
They'd stuck him in a small plastic capsule of sorts. He'd been there for a month. He relieved himself in a small closet reserved for it. They dropped food in twice a day, often some new mystery thing he had to subtly test to ensure wouldn't poison him. He was rather dangerously dehydrated, but a few small suiton and he could drink enough to not die. It wouldn't last for long, not with the way his chakra reserves were dipping lower and lower, but he could subsist on it and the miniscule water in the food until he was in a better situation.
There were constantly rotating scientists watching him. He couldn't sense them, not when none of the species out here had chakra of all things, but he could observe them in turn. He kept it subtle.
He was getting bored. There was hardly room to pace a circuit around his little capsule and they gave him nothing to do. He'd been in crueler places but he'd certainly been in kinder. Or at least more stimulating ones; even if he disliked when they sent creatures at him to fight, it was still something to do.
He couldn't stretch very far or do any exercises. Honestly, he might break free simply for something to occupy himself. Test their security and response times, as well as what they would do to him for it.
Until something pinged in his chakra.
Tobirama sat up from his bored slouch, trying to not look like he'd startled as hard as he did. He puzzled over it for a few minutes. What was that? He rarely sensed anything these days. Frightening at first, used to the whole of Fire Country spiraling out beneath his awareness, but comforting now. No more stress headaches and migraines born from overstimulation. Nothing in space had chakra for him to sense, not the aliens or even the plants he'd come across. Nothing.
It probably would have been actually damaging, if he wasn't capable of sensing the traces his own chakra left on things. He theorized it was due to the isolation that his sensitivity had grown even more impossible.
It kept him from going insane as any born sensor did when deprived of their sensing. So Tobirama had tried to not think about it too much.
Except there it was again- as if dipping into his range. Tobirama hadn't realized he still had a range. It made him twitch when that sensation returned.
Slowly, he unfurled, testing a mental muscle he hadn't had to use in years. It stretched slowly. Stiffly. It hurt, almost, and he realized his range was highly limited due to how restricted it had been.
There. A chakra signature. Not a trace or a sign, but an actual signature.
Hotwindburningstars. Tobirama sat with puzzlement, feeling that chakra, before it noticed his poking.
It startled, the owner's hackles going up. Then carefully prodding back. Gently. Clumsily.
Not a born sensor, he didn't think, but a learned one.
Tobirama poked back, curiosity radiating through him.
The chakra was stunned for a good long minute. Until-
Rage.
Tobirama drew back in surprise, overwhelmed at such strong feelings when he'd been alone for so long. He rubbed his forehead with a hiss.
The alien who was watching him - smooth skinned and loosely resembling a deshelled shrimp - looked up from its holopad with curiosity, noting down his reaction. Tobirama did not show any further signs of discomfort so it returned to its screens.
Tobirama tucked his chakra in as best as it would go, confined to his capsule and the traces of his own chakra left behind from his month in captivity. He'd gotten into the habit of leaving behind traces whenever possible. A self-soothing behavior he wished he could stop if only to hide the weakness it implied.
Not too long after he'd decided the foreign chakra signature might be interesting and he should reach out for it again, the ship's alarm system went off.
The scientist trilled in confusion and looked around. “What is that?” It said, to itself because they thought Tobirama non-sapient.
Tobirama sat up in his capsule and waited curiously. Perhaps he wouldn't have to break out of this ship. Perhaps someone else would ‘capture’ him as spoils.
It took almost an hour before something brushed against his chakra. A staticflickeringplasma signature different from the last.
Tobirama's range was about twenty feet, he thought, when he restricted it as close as it could go. Staticflickeringplasma rushed to greet him, cautious, warm and gentle. Tobirama met it warily after the previous interaction.
It soothed him softly before suddenly the door of the laboratory was busted in. A giant mass of bristles dove in. Within moments the scientist was set on fire, black flames eating away at it while hotwindburningstars filled the room with anger and righteous fury. Staticflickeringplasma eased him patiently, encouraging him to not worry, not fear.
Not a born sensor either. But a very skilled learned one.
Chakra receded when no one else was in the room, just the one scientist left on shift that day. They were studying Tobirama’s reactions to different foods and which ones he would eat and which he would deny. It was a very long, boring process that involved observing him loosely over extended periods of time. So quite often he only had one observer.
The mass of bristles revealed itself to be a humanoid alien that looked… surprisingly human, except for the near black red skin, claws, curled fangs, and horns poking out of the long spikey hair. A picture perfect image of an oni.
The oni alien turned to look at him and hotwindburningstars revealed itself to belong to this one as it carefully packed itself away. Another alien entered the room, hair much silkier and of a leaner build than the first. This one radiated staticflickeringplasma that kept trying to urge Tobirama to remain calm.
Until they both got a look at him and they startled heavily, shock and horror in their chakra.
Tobirama tilted his head at them. Bright red glowing eyes stared back from both of them. They truly looked remarkably human. Perhaps a bit inhuman, but he'd seen kekkei genkai that made stranger humans.
Cautiously, he poked at their shocked chakra. They startled again. The bigger one clearly swore as the smaller one bolted to the console that controlled his capsule.
Ah yes. It seemed he would have some new captors now.
…these ones had chakra. And maybe it was just his isolation, but they seemed to feel… so much. They felt every emotion at max capacity. Fear and confusion and wariness of him.
They seemed to have realized he was a human, if their reactions said anything. The larger began to shout something about humans and why the people on this ship were stupid enough to have one. The leaner one just muttered back at them until the capsule was opened.
Both aliens stared warily as the door opened. Tobirama stepped out. On to the next adventure it seemed.
Madara first felt it while they passed a suspicious ship at a dockyard. It was a risky port to make, but Hikaku had demanded it and Madara wasn't prone to telling his second in command no. It usually resulted in unpleasant ramifications he wanted nothing to do with.
The brush of chakra startled him at first. Enough to stop in place, wondering which of his crew needed his attention with something. And clearly it was one of the uchiha or they wouldn't be able to contact him via chakra. But why bother with chakra when they had comms?
There were no good reasons for it, so Madara moved out of the way of foot traffic and found a wall to lean on. He waited, opening his chakra and expanding it. It was a strain but worth it in an emergency.
There it was again. A slight brush, foreign and completely unfamiliar. Madara frowned in confusion as he focused. Who was this? He didn't know of any uchiha in this sector. An otsutsuki, maybe? But uchiha were rare enough. The otsutsuki were near extinct. It would be incredibly rare to come across a random chakra signature out in the middle of a bustling port that catered to less than legal clientele.
“Madara?” Izuna settled next to him, chakra wide and casting out to find what had Madara so unsettled.
“Someone's connecting to me, but I don't know who.” Madara told him immediately. “I don't recognize them.”
“Where are they coming from?” Izuna tilted his head sharply, eyes narrowed.
Madara pointed as best he could. The signature was distant, faint. Stretched thin as if exhausted or sickly.
Izuna nodded and went on the prowl. Madara stayed to try to entice that signature to actually connect. Words couldn't be transferred through chakra. But intent and meaning certainly could.
Izuna arrived back just when he finally got the impression of confusion and surprise from it.
“Closest thing that was is a prawn ship.” Izuna reported grimly. “A slaver ship.”
Either the chakra signature he was feeling was an uchiha or an otsutsuki. Either way, that was his endangered species or their near extinct cousins. As awful as they were, they didn't deserve to be enslaved.
Madara also had many, many grudges against slavers and their many attempts to capture his species over the centuries. He bared his fangs in a snarl as fury filled him only to realize a second too late that the chakra signature was still reaching curiously for him, only to snap back in instant fright when he allowed his anger to get the best of him.
Madara cursed as the chakra disappeared. No matter how far he reached he couldn't feel it again. Too far away. Which meant the imprisoned uchiha likely had an impressive range and was now frightened and hiding.
When he confessed to a displeased Izuna, he didn't even try to avoid the chastising slash of claws at his arm.
“You idiot.” Izuna growled. “Let me calm them down when we investigate, you'll just mess it up if they sense you again.”
Because it was guaranteed that they'd investigate. That was the entire purpose of Madara’s ship. To investigate hints of his species or cousin species scattered across the galaxy. For the most part the otsutsuki were let be, thanks to their planet draining and their willingness to use it on those who angered them. But the uchiha were not so protected. They only had their own vicious reputation for recovering stolen clans and destroying those who took them. Not as intimidating as risking your whole home planet's lifeblood.
Madara nodded to his brother and reached for his comm to contact the Tsukoyomi.
Infiltrating the ship was easy. Made easier by the fact that most of the prawns, when they caught sight of the infamous Fire Brothers on a warpath, instantly either ran or surrendered. They didn't seem to be particularly expecting anyone to break into their ship- which didn't make much sense. Who stole an uchiha and didn't expect to get their shit rocked?
They explored with near impunity until Izuna paused next to a closed, head tilted as he felt something.
“There.” His arm swiveled to point through the wall to the room beyond. “Not far. Confused. Wary. I'll try to keep them calm.”
Which meant he was on destruction duty. Madara cracked his knuckles and charged his limbs with the chakra native to his species.
A single kick and the door was destroyed. He launched his way inside. There was only one enemy present, a scientist if the lab coat and lack of weapons said anything. They went down in Ameterasu's flames.
Then Madara looked into the containment capsule in the center of the room and almost choked.
An otsutsuki, he thought at first. Then the threads didn't connect. Madara’s sharingan cataloged every detail through the reinforced glass.
Pale skin, but with red veins visible running underneath the surface. Rather than pale, colorless eyes or even lightly colored ones this creature's were red. Flush with blood vessels and constricting poorly in the light coming from the hallway. His hair was not the silvery blue-white of the uchihas’ cousins but a pale, colorless tone. No horns. No claws. No extra eyes or features Madara associated with his own kind or the otsutsuki.
There was only one thing that this creature could be.
“Fuck.” Madara let out loudly. “What the fuck were the prawn doing studying a human?”
“Stop yelling, you're going to frighten them again.” Izuna spat out as he raced to the controls. He tapped away at them at lightspeed, sharingan letting him operate it as fast as the computer's screens could process input. A major bonus that helped their small species stay as skilled as they were.
He pulled out a data stick, popping it in the console and downloading everything they had as he began to free the human. The last thing they needed was a pissed off deathworlder who was being kept in captivity when they could just… free them.
Sure, the uchiha technically counted as deathworlders as well, but everyone knew what the human homeworld had done to the otsutsuki thousands of years ago. They were the reason otsutsuki were near extinct.
“His chakra's not upset,” Izuna said warily as Madara turned to keep an eye on the hallway. “He seems more curious than anything. And overwhelmed. Like, really overwhelmed.”
Madara could feel the coollakestaticfilledriver of the human's chakra as well. He wasn't as skilled with sensing as Izuna, but he didn't need to be. The human's chakra wasn't giving off distress or anger. Just a great abundance of caution and mistrust.
It filled the room. Thick and heavy, making Madara feel like he was underwater. It made him itchy. Wanting to leave that presence. Most uchiha knew better than to blanket their chakra so heavily outside of specific displays.
“There we go.” Izuna said.
The containment capsule opened and the human instantly stepped outside. He - Madara was going by he, at least until proven otherwise - tilted his head oddly. His chakra shifted faintly. Curious. Wariness easing.
“We need to go.” Madara said, aware they didn't have long before someone else showed up.
They couldn't exactly report this ship for slavery, given the port they were in, so their best bet was to just get out and blow the whole damn thing.
Izuna gave a carefully closed-lipped smile at the human, making a beckoning gesture that was often universal. He didn't bother with words- just protected a sense of urgency and safety with his chakra.
The human's chakra tightened with interest. He blinked. Then made a strange motion with his head and took a few steps forward.
Madara twitched involuntarily at seeing a human approach his little brother. Izuna clawed his arm and he shook himself.
They left the laboratory. The human followed easily, not bothered by the speed they used. Madara sped up more and more waiting for him to level out but no, the human kept up. Impressive.
They came across a few more of the crew on their way out. Madara killed them with a slice of his sword. The heated setting burned easily through the armored security they met.
The human didn't falter. Barely blinked. His chakra made a strange waver - an instinctive retreat that didn't do anything - but there was no real reaction.
They made it outside the ship and Madara grinned as he readied his chakra bombs he'd placed while exploring the ship. He folded his fingers to focus and was nearly bowled over by the human's sudden sharp attentiveness. But he activated them.
Multiple explosions went off. Shouting began. Madara cackled as they ran off through the port to the Tsukoyomi.
“Port security is losing their minds. Should I prepare for liftoff?” Hikaku asked over the comms, sounding exasperated.
“Probably for the best. We're probably not going to want to stick around.” Madara grinned ferally.
Hikaku sighed again over the comms.
As soon as they arrived at the Tsukoyomi, human in tow and seemingly fine with following them at Izuna's gentle urging, the ship prepared to leave. The human slowed to look around the halls as the ramp went up behind them.
“Come on. We may as well get him to medical.” Madara said.
“We don't know if they're a he or not.” Izuna said immediately.
“He looks like a he.”
“Madara.”
“Well if he can correct me I'll call him something else.” Madara folded his arms. “But as it is, I don't think anyone's got human to universal translators running. And who's gonna teach him? The prawns who were studying him in a cage?”
“Madara.” Izuna said, filled with exasperation.
The human watched them bickering with an unidentifiable expression, but a tinge of something familiar and… nostalgic? In his chakra. Madara turned his head to squint at him.
“Fuck, he's nosy.” Madara said, pulling his chakra in now that they weren't in mission mode.
“They don't have any other way of communicating.” Izuna countered. “I'd be more worried if they were closed off entirely.”
“Who the hell had the great idea to steal a human?” Madara griped. “I thought Earth was still under quarantine. You'd think no one would be stupid enough to break it.”
“It's been two thousand years.” Izuna pointed out. “Someone was bound to eventually, I guess. You know there's rumors all over that some have tried for centuries.”
Madara rolled his eyes.
Their bickering lasted all the way to medical, the human following them with the heavy chakra not dissipating in the least. It remained controlled and even, curious and wary but nothing else. You'd think he'd be more concerned about strange people breaking him out of a laboratory where he'd been studied like an animal. Or at least a little nervous. But no. Calm beyond a light wariness.
Madara worried briefly if humans might be a low-emotion species. That would clash rather horribly with the uchiha being high-emotion. The clash would be unpleasant for both species involved. Suddenly, getting him somewhere quiet and isolated became a lot more important. Izuna agreed when he pointed it out.
Medical was run by a quiet woman by the name of Kochiko, who nonetheless commanded the space rather ruthlessly. She took one look at the human following behind them with his thick and heavy chakra and turned pale.
“What happened?”
Madara explained the situation as Izuna coaxed the suddenly much more wary human onto a table to be scanned. He didn't seem to want to sit down.
Kochiko steadied herself and readied her scanner.
“I can't guarantee that I'll know if anything is wrong.” She said. “We don't know anything about humans. They're apparently compatible with chakra, but to what extent I don't know. Who knows what their biology is like? We have almost no records of their planet much less their species.” She stared at the growing results with a simultaneously growing scowl. “I'll have to study this for a while.”
“I got files from the guys who were studying them.” Izuna offered the datastick to her. “I don't know what most of it is, but it should be helpful.”
Kochiko accepted it gratefully. “I can tell you right away that their eyes and skin are supremely sensitive to light- there's almost no natural protection there. Their chakra coils also appear similar enough to uchiha. They may be experiencing some chakra exhaustion, so we'll have to keep an eye on that. They also share a great deal similar to the otsutsuki and uchiha. Enough that I can cautiously guess that he may be male?” She scrolled through her holopad, face growing worried. “I don't know what much of this means, but either it's normal for humans or his body is under an intense amount of stress. I suggest finding him non-offensive foods and offer him hydration- maybe in the foods? He has a large concentration of water in his body but I don't know if his species drinks water or obtains it via their food.” She picked at her tusks worriedly.
Madara nudged Izuna briefly in victory. He'd been right. The human was a he.
Izuna scowled and pointed out under his breath that they still didn't know for sure if humans considered genders and sexes the same way.
Kochiko waved them out of medical. She requested someone for security, just in case the human got violent, so Izuna stayed behind while Madara had to go report to his command crew.
Damnit.