Chapter Text
Tobirama was born with chakra boiling in the chambers of his heart , the world to his mind open and immense. He was Born with eyes as red as the sharingan and hair as white as the winter snow, born with too much power coiled in a tiny and frail body .
The midwife holds the boy out to Butsuma Senju, allows him to see his son and Butsuma looks.
He looks and sees but doesn’t say a word.
“Butsuma-sama,” the midwife starts when the silence had gone on too long.
“Defective,” Butsuma says. “Cursed!” He Turns to the side and spits “ an abomination!” .
He does not take the boy or reach out to hold him.
“An albino, butsuma sama he’s not ….” the midwife says softly.
“ give it to it’s mother !“ Butsuma says.
The woman takes the child back to his mother and butsuma leaves .
He will allow it to live and use the thing that came out of his useless Hatake wife for hashirama’s good .
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Lady Hatake glances at her son with wide amazed eyes, cradling his head in her pale hands.
“Oh cub .“She whispers “ fear not ,I will protect you “
And tobirama senju lives.
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Tobirama grows up .
He is smart. soIncredibly intelligent. He Learns to read at the age of three and starts training at four.
And He has a bother .
A brother who'd thunder down the hallways of the clan house, with Tobirama on his shoulders, a brother who talks and talks and talks and fills the room with joy and laughter.
Hashirama who spoils him and feels like sunflowers and a bright-spring breeze .
Hashirama who treats the boy with all the affection and love that everyone other than their mother refuses to give him .
His brother brings him joy , he is all smiles and laughter and soft eyes. Tobirama pales in comparison to him . He is quiet and frail and a demon .He is the moon to his brother's sun, dull and cold and he could never measure up to his sibling’s warmth in any way .
And Yet tobirama is never jealous. No .Tobirama loves his brother .
Butsuma-sama tells him that is a tool and that he is to be his brother’s sword and shield and tobirama doesn’t mind .
because he loves hashirama more than life itself and so he decides at a very young age to be anything his brother needs him to be .
——
Lady Hatake ,their mother , is withering away under the strain of another pregnancy.
Kawarama is barely a year old And tobirama is afraid.
Their beautiful mother, confined to a miserable life in a clan not her own, with a cruel man for a husband is now plagued with constant illness .
Butsuma has taken all of her freedom after giving birth to a demon son .
(Going as far as banishing her summons) the man Has taken all the life out of her and tobirama can feel her Roses-rain water and pine chakra fading away .
She never has the strength to say much anymore, she stays in bed ,white hair sprawled over feverish skin .
but whenever she does speak she tells tobirama of love, of kindness, grace and honour and she holds him close .
“I love you tobira “she says .”I love you so much .“
___
He hears the clansmen and the servants whisper behind his mother's back .
The Lady Hatake and her abomination of a second son. a frightening thing with Eyes as red as those detestable uchiharas .
a child that is not human, a demon wearing men’s flesh.
They say the illness her punishment say for striking a deal with the devil ,for Defilying in her body and for bringing evil to the land of fire .
Tibirama starts sleeping in his mother’s bed ,and he cries into her shoulder when everyone else sleeps.
He Grieves for the both of them.
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Lady Hatake dies giving birth to senju itama .
Senju Butsuma does not care .
Senju Kawarama is too young to understand .
Senju Hashirama is inconsolable.
And senju Tobirama straps his little brother to his body and never cries again .
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His mother is gone and the little protection she offered to both Hashirama and Tobirama is gone with her.
They try to separate him from his brothers .
He has to train harder now and learn to kill .
There would be no more laughter, no more games. No more hugs or stealing honey from the main kitchen late at night with his Anija .
His brothers were to be raised by the servants and strangers, while he trained, until they too were old enough to train and enter the battle.
Tobirama refuses to accept it.
They would not take his brothers from him.
Children who would never get to know their mother, never know of her kind smile and warm hugs ,and humility and love .
And when hashirama is sent on a mission to iron Butsuma beats him for it . He beats him for weeks and weeks and no one dares to interfere .
Hashirama comes home and their clan head makes the mistake of striking tobirama across the face at the Dinner table.
He hits him hard enough to draw blood, and Hashirama goes mad with anger .
That night hashirama manifests the mokuton .it pleases butsuma to end and from then on he leaves tobiram’s brothers alone .
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Tobirama raises his brothers .
He makes sure they eat and sleep and play and he helps bathe them and brush their hair .
Tobirama trains . Writes . Plans . Bleeds And creates to mends wounds and keep his loved ones safe .
But tobirama also kills .
He becomes an omen of death with his white skin, white hair, and red eyes.
He shows no mircy on the battlefield or on his assassination missions and he becomes the monster his clansmen tell him he is .
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At the age of nine Tobirama follows hashirama to the river and there he sees a boy .
But it is not just any boy .
It’s uchiha madara .
( camellia , burning wood,sunshine and the sea )
It’s the uchiha heir-and his anija has his arm flung over the boy’s shoulder.
Tobirama’s heart sinks .
Terror flooods his veins , that boy could turn around and push a kunai into his brother’s heart In a instant .
So Tobirama runs .
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“You’re supposed to be on my side !!” Hashirama yells .
“I am anija “ tobirama says .”always “
“No ! Get out tobirama ! “ his brother pushes him to the floor “I don’t want to talk to you !!“ he sneers .
Tobirama does as he’s told .
And Hashirama will never really forget this betrayal .not for many ,many years .
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Hashirama says he’s craving a certain type of tea and tobirama makes a detour on his next mission and heads to the land of tea .
Hashirama forgets to sharpen his weapons and tobirama gifts him a hiraishin kunai.
Hashirama talks about his dream of peace and tobirama plans for it .
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He’s away on a mission when his father sends Kawarama into battle .
Tobirama had been training his younger brothers for years and Kawarama had become a shinobi with outstanding talent .
but he was still just a child.
When the remains of Kawarama's mangled body are retrieved, he is buried along side their mother , in a coffin etched with the Senju symbol on it.
Their father tells them that that Kawarama had died as a true shinobi .
Hashirama is angry ,Itama is sobbing and
Tobirama Kisses kawarama ‘s coffin and wishes he too could be buried along with him.
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“Anija “ he says . Pushing a bowl of rice towards his brother “ you need to eat “ .
Hashirama does not face or answer him .
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It was bright, clear, almost uncomfortably warm summer day when the Uchiha corner his little brother at the borders .
Tobirama feels every minute of it .
He yells for hashirama .he yells for his butsuma and he runs .
He flairs his chakra in distress and prayes to every god up above to save his baby brother. Hashirama is close by but he’s not close enough and neither is tobirama .
For long minutes his brother’s forest-verven tangerine chakra is full of pain ,panic and blood freezing fear and tobirama hopes .
gods ! how he so desperately hopes .
And then its suddenly over and his brother’s chakra is completely gone.
Tobirama comes to a stop .
His feet fail him and he falls to the ground.
Hashirama finds him a week later and brings him back to the compound.
He had missed the funeral.
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Senju butsuma is murdered exactly a month after his younger son’s death .
He is attacked and decapitated in his own home .
The white demon misses that funeral as well .
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