Chapter Text
He had no idea what was happening.
He was just about to test his new invention on Izuna when curly-haired appeared out of thin air and side-tackled him into a hug (more like an impromptu cuddling session) with a loud yell. Fortunately, Izuna seemed just as bewildered by this and did not try to attack as they lay prone on the battlefield. The blob of dark blue and curls shifted their head to look at Tobirama’s face- there was not a doubt in the pale-haired Senju’s mind that this was an Uchiha Child.
“You can’t use that! You’ll kill him,” shouted the tiny child who was an eighth of Tobirama’s size. The pale-haired Senju resisted the urge to pinch the kid’s puffy cheeks, “No speedy jutsu!”
Tobirama felt his mind blank as he blinked again, this time at the child on top of him. (He had never seen an Uchiha with curly hair before.) Usually, Tobirama debuted the products of his research on his Jutsu Guinea Pig™. How did this tiny thing know about his newest creation?
(Did the Senju have a leak? No, that wasn’t possible. Only Hashirama knew of his creations before they were introduced to the world.)
“Kagami,” Izuna nearly shrieked, holding his weapon in front of himself, “What are you doing!?”
“Saving you, meanie!” The dark blue child- Kagami, stuck his tongue out at Izuna. Notably, they gave no effort to explain themself besides that.
Tobirama slowly lifted himself off of his back, securing Kagami to his chest as he did so but otherwise made no move. He did not know what to do in this situation. (Battles of violence should stay within the social borders of violence! Whatever this was, it wasn’t violence and what was the expected role Tobirama was supposed to play now?) This was not covered in the Senju Clan Heir training.
Tobirama didn’t really know what to do in the scenario and he wasn’t about to murder someone so young. He did not intend to become a child murderer- not now nor ever. Could he throw the child at Izuna? They were of the same clan, Izuna would know what to do with the tiny ball of innocent energy. Kagami shoved their hands in his fur collar, firmly holding on.
(Kagami reminded him of his Snow Leopard summons and their cubs, wow.)
The pale-haired Senju didn’t notice it before but now that he was semi-rebooted he noticed that Kagami had the darkest-shaded Doujutsu he had ever seen. Tobirama wondered what might cause such a stark difference. It was a deep red with an even darker purple blended in behind the black design of the Sharingan. For some reason, Tobirama couldn’t sense any unusual spikes in chakra usage from the child and none of his anti-genjutsu seals glowed.
Then, Tobirama panicked. Doujutsu degrades the more use it gets depending on the level, that much the Senju knew, and Tobirama had no clue if the same could be said for whatever level this child- Kagami’s eyes were.
“Hey,” Tobirama quietly said, gently rapping his knuckles on the outside of one of Kagami’s twig arms to gain their attention, “Turn off your eyes, they’re straining.”
Kagami blinked for several moments before their eyes turned to a darker coal-black. (Good, now there was one less thing to worry about.) The dark blue child beamed at Tobirama with a radiance that rivaled Hashirama’s exuberance. Kagami’s hands shifted to petting the ends of Tobirama’s fur. The tiny child was not rough in their petting, Kagami didn’t abrasively shift the fur of Tobirama’s collar. (Which was nice, no need to worry too much about grooming it again.) Rather Kagami was firm and seemed to know their way around touching such textiles.
“Your eyes are soft-lookin’, even your pupils are fuzzy!”
(Why child, that was because his eyes did not focus correctly.)
“Let go of the child, Demon!” Snarled Izuna, his eyes a much brighter cherry red than Kagami’s.
Tobirama peered at his Jutsu Guinea Pig™. The Uchiha Clan Heir was only withholding from attacking because of the tiny little thing in his arms, Tobirama knew. Still, Tobirama made no action to move. Kagami still had their hands in his fur collar and the pale-haired Senju would rather not it have bald patches. It was his favourite after all.
Kagami also made no action to move away from the White Demon, instead, they nattered on, ignoring Izuna altogether. (That was amusing.)
“Your fur is soft too!” Exclaimed the child Tobirama had no idea what to do with nor how to interact with at all. “It looks like your hair, see it’s white too!”
Tobirama felt the chakra signatures closest to them start to come down from the battle high. Ah, more people must be noticing his predicament. Maybe another of the Uchiha could explain to him what was happening right now because Izuna seemed to be useless in that manner. (Tobirama was pretty sure this was what Hashirama called a ‘Social Faux-Pas’.)
Hashirama stood a little ways away observing yet did not interfere. Tobirama wanted to drag him by the ear and force him to finish this bizarre script that the pale-haired Senju was definitely not privy to. The Mokuton user was better at socializing, why couldn’t this child have interfered with the Clan Head’s fight? Izuna sputtered, eyes not deactivating on the battleground.
Oh yeah, Kagami stopped him from apparently murdering Izuna with his new technique.
Tobirama felt strangely robbed that he couldn’t debut it. Oh well, There was always next time.
(Perhaps he could debut in a skirmish against the Otsutsuki Clan?)
“You’d be a good sensei.” Kagami nodded to themself as if they were confirming his own words. (Hold up, what?) Tobirama blinked at the statement. The child was idly playing with Tobirama’s fingers now and he did not have the heart to stop him nor the brain power considering how Tobirama kept buffering.
An explanation would be nice right about now.
(Touka would know what to do, she usually did.)