Little White Lines

A New Player

After three days of ceaseless downpour, the skies finally cleared enough for the Senju brothers to make their way home. Barely an hour from their compound, however, the two encountered a small band of Uchiha shinobi, just as Aroka had predicted and, true to her word, they had Izuna at their head.

Glancing at each other, the brothers nodded.

Hashirama charged at Izuna, pulling him away from the rest of his men whom Tobirama didn't hesitate to engage. Though they were outnumbered, the brothers knew that they vastly outclassed the Uchihas, even without their weapons. Izuna knew this as well, but running away wouldn't reflect well on his clan, so he needed to rely on strategy instead of strength.

The young Uchiha knew something was wrong the minute the battle began: Hashirama had been the one to move to confront him, not Tobirama. There was simply no way the younger Senju would have passed up an opportunity to fight him.

Something was up, he just didn't know what.

Narrowly dodging a blow to the back, Izuna leapt up and spit a fireball at Hashirama before charging in after it. He unsheathed his sword and swiped at his chest, knowing that his best chance at getting out alive was to stick to short-range combat and to keep his opponent from gaining the distance he would need for an offensive jutsu. Without a sword, Hashirama would have a bit more difficulty dealing with close combat than usual, Izuna just had to take advantage of that.

Tobirama, a short distance away, had his hands full dealing with the remaining three Uchiha. From the looks of it, all three were experienced, higher level shinobi whose abilities he couldn't take lightly.

The largest of the trio attacked first, spitting out a stream of fire directly towards the Senju and following it with a barrage of shuriken.

Darting to the right, Tobirama caught a punch from another Uchiha before twisting away and clasping his hands together. Ribbons of water materialized and spun themselves into a large dragon which launched itself at the first man, unaffected by the weapons thrown at it, while Tobirama turned his attention to the other two.

Charging at the same time, the Uchihas split and attacked from opposite sides. One of them threw a dozen flaming stones while the other blew out a single blazing fireball. Both moved at lightning speed and collided almost instantly, causing a blinding explosion.

A mixture of dust and mist clouded the air for a brief moment before a gust of wind swept them away. The Uchihas' eyes darted around the area, an intense red, searching frantically for the source of the wind. Suddenly, their movements ceased and they collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from where icicles had impaled their bodies. Tobirama pulled his eyes away from his fallen enemies and turned his attention towards the other altercation happening not ten meters away.

Hashirama took another step back just in time to dodge Izuna's sword. He caught the butt of the handle and twisted it in an attempt to disarm him, but the Uchiha only spun with it before aiming a kick at his stomach. Leaping backwards once again, Hashirama racked his brain for a subtle way to get out of this situation before he could no longer avoid a real battle, but just as the thought crossed his mind, something was thrown onto the ground in front of him.

Both men jumped back right as the object exploded and thick black smoke clouded their eyes.

Realizing he only had a moment before Izuna's sharingan saw through the smoke, Hashirama leapt out of the clearing and onto a tall branch, and noticing that his brother had the same idea, continued retreating deeper into the forest.

"That was some quick thinking back there." Hashirama grinned at his brother, offering a thumbs up. "I was starting to get worried about how that would end."