Red String of Fate

Chapter 8 - Heal the wound

They stared at each other for an intense minute, luckily the people that surrounded them had not noticed the tension between the two. Except Tadashi, that's why he forced back a headache.

"Hashirama-sama, if that man apologizes then all will be solved, no?" Tadashi spoke up, giving the young man on the ground a brief glare.

"Yes, you're right." Hashirama responded, clearly unfocused on the current situation. He wanted to walk forwards and give Madara a big hug, but what if Tobirama was right. What if it wasn't Madara?

But his heart screamed and yelled at him that this person was definitely Madara.

Madara broke the gaze first and looked away, feeling tears trying to break its way through the barrier and creep into his eyes, but he forced them in.

Pathetic, he thought to himself.

Hashirama walked over, past Madara and towards the tough man.

"Please sit down, everything can be solved with just a simple apology, right?" Hashirama laughed, smiling his stupid smile and gesturing the man back to his seat. The man instantly took his seat and looked at his shoes, as if staring hard enough was going to erase his presence away.

Hashirama turned to look at the young man on the ground and offered him a hand, smiling cheerfully. The man gratefully took the Hokage's hand and stood up, bowing to them.

"Sorry." The young man muttered, forcing the words through clenched teeth.

"It's alright." Tadashi quickly accepted the apology and went to fetch Madara back to his seat. Tadashi felt like crying inside, can his master stop making such a scene please?

Madara walked back over to his table and stood there hesitantly, should he ask if Hashirama wanted to have lunch with them? But Hashirama didn't know who he was, what if he turned down his offer?

"Continue eating your food! Don't let this small issue stop you." Hashirama called out as a reminder, his usual smiley expression worn on his face, the people who were staring at them immediately looked away, the room becoming increasingly noisy once again.

Madara still felt his heart pound as he walked over to his side of the table, but was stopped by Hashirama, who grabbed his left wrist.

He had looked like he was going to place a hand on Madara's shoulder at first, perhaps because he was shorter he was unable to.

"Kazuki-san, your wound." Hashirama said quietly. "Let me heal it for you."

Tadashi, who had good ears and was trying to not overhear what they were saying, could not help but overhear.

"Wound? Mada-" Tadashi quickly stopped, Madara threw him a hasty glare.

"K-Kazuki-san, are you alright?" Tadashi corrected with a stutter, Madara quickly turned back to look down at Hashirama, who gently raised his right arm.

"I'm fine." Madara quietly answered, feeling the warm green chakra escape Hashirama's hovering hand, the excruciating pain slowly faded as he watched the wound heal.

"It must've been painful." Hashirama muttered, Madara tensed up and didn't say a word, he didn't dare. Not right now.

Madara gazed down gently at Hashirama and saw the Senju's sad expression. He wondered if he was like this to everyone.

"Thank you." Madara spoke in a gentle whisper, Hashirama felt butterflies erupt in his stomach and he quickly removed his hand from the man's arm, as if touching hot iron.

"No worries, ahaha." Hashirama said with a short laugh and turned to Tadashi, feeling Madara's gaze still on him.

"Can I join you?" Hashirama asked with his usual cheerful demeanor.