Summary: Tobirama and Kagami, master and student.
Challenge: Tobirama week: Day 5 - Hokage.
Notes: AUGH... I'M DONE!! This bunny simply does not want to be written!! I freaking lost count of the number of times I rewrote this, so I GIVE UP (for now)!!! Kept the first half and deleted the latter. It looks more like it's two separate drabbles, but fuck it, I've had it. -_- Right now, I just want to REST and then go look at what everyone else has done for the challenge!
Yay, the week is done!
Hokage
Ten-year-old Kagami Uchiha had been born the middle child of three. As was the case with all children of the clan then, his parents had pushed him and his brothers into the battlefield to fight the Senju early on. Both his younger and his older brother, however, had not lived to be as old as he, so now ten-year-old Kagami Uchiha was the only child left of three.
He had loved his brothers more dearly than anything and desired for nothing more than revenge on their killers. When the truce between Uchiha and Senju had his clan moving in to live with the murderers of his family, he had not kept quiet, but he was so young still, that his rants against their so-called new allies either fell on deaf ears or earned him the wrath of his elders. He was told that he was too young to know anything and therefore should stay silent. Soon after, he learned that he had been apprenticed to the younger brother of the Senju clan head, in some sort of effort to consolidate trust between the clans or whatever. He thought it an awful joke at first, but then, no one else was laughing.
Before heading out of the house on that first day of training, he had resolved to be as difficult as possible, to treat Tobirama Senju as the enemy and anything that came from him as worthless. He had been prepared to say so to Tobirama's face as soon as they met, if only the man's opening speech had not shocked him as much as it did.
Rather than act like they were entering an age of complete happiness where the past never happened and the sun never stopped shining, like the clan elders wanted him to believe, Tobirama had taken the opposite route:
"Both of my younger brothers died at the hands of your family. Kawarama first, then Itama soon after." Kagami was almost ashamed to admit that he could barely hold the man's intense stare. "One of the last things I told Itama was that he was going to get himself killed if he didn't give up on the grudges of our forefathers and kept fighting for useless reasons. We are ninjas and so we must keep our emotions in check and live by certain rules. You're still young, but I think you can understand what I'm saying, can't you?"
Kagami had not known what to say to that. It was the first time he had been made to think that the ninjas on the other side were people with families of their own. They had brothers and sisters they had been robbed of, just like him.
No physical training was had that day. Rather, Kagami and Tobirama had sat in the middle of the empty field, talking about anything and everything that came to mind: about the revenge Kagami had wanted to exact on the Senju and Tobirama's doubts about the Uchiha, about their shared grief of losing someone as close as a brother, about the inherent darkness of the ninja way and about how Tobirama did not believe that true peace could ever be achieved as long as there were ninjas, but that they should just try to make the most of what they had anyway.
Kagami had thought that, having spent his childhood fighting in the war, he was already a full-fledged ninja, with nothing left to learn. Now he realised how blind he had been. The past had made him afraid to trust that there could be peace, because trusting had never brought them anything good before. Tobirama taught him that, this time, things might turn out differently, if only they could be strong enough to hold on to that trust until all the reasons why they should not do so had been forgotten.
By the time the sun had set, Tobirama decided to cut their conversation short, so that Kagami would not be late for dinner with his parents. The boy could not care less about food, though, starved as he was for new ideas, for new ways to lead his life. His head was so full of thoughts that he felt like he would be unable to sleep.
He felt like he wanted to try it, to put the past behind, extend that trust and hope.
Against all odds, Tobirama had become his hero.
*
A casket was lowered to the earth. In it laid the body of Hashirama Senju.
The whole village was present for the ceremony, paying their respects to the man who had been the founder of Konoha and its First Hokage. Members of various ninja clans who, little more than a year ago, had been engaged in bloody confrontation now stood close together, mingling in the limited space of the cemetery, united in the colour of their garb and in the depth of their grief.
Hashirama would have been proud to see them, had this not been his funeral, Tobirama thought. For his part, as much as he shared the sentiment, he had more pressing matters to worry about than the burial of the dead.
Underneath the sorrow of the moment, a sense of anxiety was stirring among the population of Konoha that Tobirama, as the unofficial but undisputed candidate to the position of Second Hokage, could absolutely not afford to let bloom. He understood the feeling well, because he was experiencing it himself.
The dream of Konoha had been beautiful, a glimmer of pure light in a world made up of shades of darkness. Now, the man who had idealised it and in whom so many had placed their hopes and trust had fallen to the very shadow he had wanted to eliminate before he could see that dream fulfilled. What could the future possibly hold for the rest of them? How could they, simple mortals, succeed where their brave God of Shinobi had not?
Were all their hopes in vain? Would the old feuds and disputes be rekindled now that Hashirama was not there to act as the focus point to everyone's loyalties?
Tobirama worried. From now on, he would have to be the Second Hokage, rather than merely Tobirama Senju. All his energy would be harnessed for the benefit of the village. The weaknesses of Tobirama, his heartache and his personal troubles, could not interfere in any way with the dream that was Konoha. Strength was what was needed to keep the uncertainty of the future from crushing them all.
From his privileged position at the front of the gathering, he observed every individual on the crowd. Many were crying openly, many others approached him to extend their condolences on his loss. Whose hearts were in it and who was faking?, that was what he wanted to know. His gaze fell on many of the clan heads, but the Uchiha in particular received special scrutiny. After all, they had been reluctant about the truce with the Senju from the start. The Nara, the Shimura, the Aburame... There were so many possible threats. Who could be trusted and who could potentially turn their backs on the village?
Tobirama watched them all, but he failed to notice the young boy who stood at the edge of the crowd, watching him in return with a brother's pain colouring his eyes.
*