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14 | Anguish

Things only got worse after he told Hashirama what happened in Kirigakure, or rather, who was involved in the incident. This was the very reason why he didn't want to tell the older about it, but he had no choice-he had to tell Hashirama not only because he's the Hokage, but also because the person involved was his old friend (and apparently, past lover, too, although Tobirama doesn't want to accept it, yet.)

In retrospect, he thought that Hashirama would eventually come around. Tobirama has never liked that Uchiha, ever since he discovered that he was the boy his brother was meeting up with by the river when they were kids. How could he ever forget the many times Hashirama received a good beating from their late father due to disobeying his orders to kill the Uchiha kid? Or those times when their fellow clansmen doubted Hashirama's abilities and judgment as the clan leader because he didn't ran out of reasons not to fight the head of the Uchiha clan when they clash in numerous battles? And now, even when the said Uchiha has left and things should have been better, it still affects Hashirama and he self-destructs as days go by.

It's a cycle now, Tobirama has come to realize. Hashirama would wake up very early in the morning, way earlier than before (it's like he didn't sleep at all), that when Tobirama wakes up, the older has already gone to his office. After having breakfast with Mito, Tobirama would come to the Hokage Tower, only to find Hashirama drowning himself with paper works (which are not even due until three months from now). Tobirama has already asked Toka if they could do something about it-prevent his brother from overworking, that is, as he's already ran out of ideas to distract him-but everything they've tried so far was ineffective.

Lunch is the first meal Hashirama would have for the day, but not with Mito and Tobirama's effort, too. The two would come by at noon so that the three of them could eat together.

When Tobirama comes again in the afternoon, Hashirama would already be gone in his office. (It was only a week later when he discovered where Hashirama goes to-at the top of the Hokage Rock. And Tobirama would let him. He wouldn't interrupt whatever it is that Hashirama does on that cliff.) Two hours away from midnight, Hashirama would return home, heading straight to his room after saying good night to him and Mito.

This toxic routine has been going on for weeks now, and it's wearing Hashirama out.

Tobirama's research is still ongoing. Its progress sped up ever since Mito joined him. But now that all of this is happening, he's even more determined to complete the jutsu as soon as possible.

At this point, they still don't know how Hashirama's memories of Madara got sealed, or who the person who did it was. But once those memories return, Tobirama thinks maybe Hashirama will finally remember the reason why the Uchiha left.

No matter how Tobirama looks at it, Madara still betrayed Hashirama and their village, for sending that threat that he would attack the village, and also for killing the Mizukage who was a potential ally. Once Hashirama remembers, Tobirama hopes that he would finally realize that Madara is only causing him pain and suffering, that Madara is a threat, a killing machine that could one day destroy the very village he helped to build.

"He killed the men we sent," Tobirama informs Hashirama and the clan heads as they're currently having a meeting. The news about the possible war and the Mizukage's assassination has already been reported in an emergency meeting they held on the same day of Tobirama's return from Kirigakure.

In the previous meeting, Madara Uchiha was declared a rogue shinobi and their verdict was to send men after him to bring him back to Konoha for a trial. This was only after Hashirama pleaded that they should hear Madara's side first and insisted to order a further investigation at the same time. Three days after, news arrived that other villages had also sent their own shinobi to hunt the Uchiha down.