Continuum

Chapter 4

Whilst Obito was blissfully sleeping in the arms of a rather protective Uchiha, Senju Tobirama was hunched over his desk, eyes aching and head pounding as he signed document after document, read reports after reports, and wrote missive after missive. He was also trying his hardest to block out his brother's insufferable whining with little results.

Woefully, Tobirama thought back to three days ago.

After father's return from a skirmish against the Kaguya clan, he has been bedbound and unconscious thus far, having been inflicted with a debilitating injury that even Hashirama was unable to fully heal. With the absence of their clan head, Tobirama was the unlucky brother to have been selected to do their clan's important paperwork in lieu of their father.

Hashirama, who was the clan's heir and second-in-command, should have been the one to have their father's paperwork shoved onto him. However, that lucky dog had been spared of this miserable fate as he was tasked to welcome the Uzumaki delegation and work to extend their alliance contract with those redheads (although Hashirama had, unfortunately enough, tricked Tobirama into doing all of the prep work for him, further depriving him of free time. It angers him whenever he recalls that incident).

He resisted the urge to bite his brother's finger when Hashirama began poking at his tattooed cheeks, attempting to get some kind of response out of him.

Tobirama tries his best to remain unresponsive to the goading (because this was clearly intentional), knowing that the more he entertains his brother by reacting, the more Hashirama would continue to disturb him. He simply needed to wait until his brother was bored enough to leave.

In spite of knowing that, Tobirama still has a limit for tolerating his brother's tomfoolery, however. And now... Now wasn't a good time. He was currently sleep deprived, agitated due to the lack of exercise, and was burdened with the workload of three people.

And he swears that if Hashirama throws yet another fucking tantrum on his floor he would shave off all of Hashirama's hair and-

Tobirama took a deep breath in, held it for three seconds, then exhaled.

The younger Senju repeated this breathing technique a few more times, wanting to remain calm in the face of adversaries. It would do him no good to be goaded into yet another one of his brother's schemes. He would cooly and politely decline his brother's offer and return to his work.

Turning stiffly to his brother, ready to do as he plans, he was greeted by a pair of gleeful brown eyes. All of his calm vanished at the sight of Hashirama's 'cat that got the cream' expression.

"I'm throwing your sake stash, anija."

Hashirama immediately began squawking in protest, plastering himself to Tobirama's back and began wailing about how the younger Senju was being 'mean' and 'crueľ and 'where did my cute little Tobi go?' along with 'remember the time you used to toddle behind me like a duckling and-'

Tobirama loves his brother. He truly does. But Sage did he truly want to stitch Hashirama's lips together. Permanently. Or, at least, until he learns to never reminisce about all of Tobirama's childhood misadventures ever again.

"Anija. Stop." Tobirama removes his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. He made sure to discreetly cover his face so that his manipulative asshole of a brother could not see the physical proof of how full of blood his cheeks were.

"As soon as my dear otouto agrees to go swimming with me." Hashirama singsonged, a triumphed smile already etched onto his face.

Truthfully, Tobirama could've refused.