Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 49

"Read it." Tobirama simply said, his tone dismissive and Sasuke knew he won't get anything more from the man.

Tobirama walked to the window in his room, his hands held behind his back while he gazed at the village he had sworn to protect with stern and stoic eyes.

...

Sasuke unfurled the scroll upon his lap, his eyes moving from left to right with each skip through of a sentence. With each word his eyes widened, his face showing an expression of pure disbelief when he ended reading it completely.

He glanced up at Tobirama, now understanding why he had handed him the scroll to read in the first place.

"You can't be serious!" his incredulous voice asked the man who didn't even move a muscle to show he was paying any heed to his friend's words. Though Sasuke knew better.

"Kumogakure no sato is proposing to settle the skirmishes upon our borders once and for all by having a meeting between myself and the Raikage. It is only logical to make a move such as this…" his recital of words etched upon the scroll was cut off by an irate Sasuke.

"It's a trap you dumb ass!" Sasuke growled, his temper finally kicking in while Tobirama turned to glance him with a raised eyebrow with his left eye and turned back to watch the village almost instantly.

He was the only one who he would let these actions slide, for he had been with him for far too long to remember and he owed him his life from the countless times he had come through for him.

This was why he had been the only one who he would go for counsel upon that matter. He trusted him enough to be blunt and honest with it, and to have a safeguard for any rash decisions he himself might be prone to make in a situation as precarious as this.

That was completely unacceptable to a man who prided in perfection above all else, thus why, here he was.

"Tobirama…" Sasuke hissed in a low whisper, catching his shoulder to turn him forcefully for meeting his gaze, when the words died down within his throat.

The man's eyes weren't the lifeless or emotionless ones he had remembered seeing for as long as he could remember, they looked so tired and defeated as if he had accepted an unavoidable fate, a grim one at that.

"This is a trap, you know it then-" Tobirama caught his hand and pulled it off his shoulder only to give a tired shake off his head.

"I know it's a trap Sasuke…" he finally drawled out, he hadn't been a Kage for so long to pick on berries. The scent of a trap was clear as a day to him as well.

Sasuke was speechless, he couldn't for the life of him wonder why the hell he was even considering going to this facade of a peace meeting in the first place then.

Tobirama turned around, Sasuke was about to continue his rant when he saw the man's hands behind his back closely this time. His knuckles were clenched, nerves fleshed out upon his skin from the pure pressure he was exerting while holding himself back from doing something reckless to take out his temper.

Sasuke put a hand upon his shoulder yet again, this time one of understanding and compassion with none of the anger, while his eyes contained a worried shine within them for his old friend.

"What's the matter Tobirama? What aren't you telling me?" he finally asked and saw Tobirama's emotional mask finally crack. His eyes narrowed in on him, the pure cold fury contained within them not lost to him.

But he knew it wasn't directed at him and didn't even so much as flinch when a pulse of pure chakra coated around the Kage and cracked up the ground beneath them.

The whole tower experienced the pure hatred and killing intent that Tobirama let lose when he raised his fist up and any other man would have been running for cover right at that moment had they been in Sasuke's shoes.

But Sasuke wasn't any man. The Kage brought his fist down, the arm passing by Sasuke harmlessly and made contact with the table behind him.

The wood buckled, before splinters cracked up and the scrolls were raised up in the air by a feet from the pure shock-wave his fist created upon impact.

"They have them…" he whispered a but loudly, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead as his nerves were riled up which was quite unlike him. He didn't shout, and Sasuke had never seen him shout in all the years he had known him.

But this was as close as he had seen Tobirama ever come to nearly as close as shouting, the matter was quite serious from the way he was holding himself back, albeit only slightly.

"They have Misa and Roku, they have my children Sasuke. They have my Tsuna's parents with them…" he finally drawled out in all his pure and unadulterated righteous fury while Sasuke's eyes widened in horror.

But he couldn't for the life of him think how they had gotten their hands on them. After all they weren't field shinobi, instead were medic nins by profession and preferred to work at the hospital rather than on the battlefield to be able to stay close to family while still helping people as much as they could.

"They had gone to Suna, for some rare herb picking, needed urgently for a surgery at the hospital." Tobirama answered, picking upon his thoughts in a moment. Sasuke pursed his lips, his eyes going from understanding to one of contemplation within a second.

He ran the scenarios through his head, when one thing didn't quite click in place.

"Then the scroll…" he asked and Tobirama nodded at his acute deduction, he would have asked about the same thing himself, had he been the one standing in his place.

"Was found on the borders of Suna and Konoha. With these…" he pulled out two leaf headbands and one from Kumo, while Sasuke understood everything now.

It was a missive to draw him out, this in itself was an act of war which could be taken as a straight threat to the Kage, and to Konoha if this should ever be heard by the shinobi council.

"What are you going to do then?" Sasuke finally asked the million dollar question and Tobirama fell down on his chair tiredly, his chakra disappearing along with the small wash of killing intent disappearing from existence.

"What do you think I'm going to do?" he asked him as if he were stupid, and Sasuke caught his shoulders forcefully while looking at him with stern eyes.

"Tobirama you aren't thinking straight. Just think about this clearly, it's a trap. You are allowed only a single bodyguard while the Raikage will be there with god knows who and how many. For all we know…" he finally drawled out.

Making Tobirama's eyes narrow in dangerously on his trusted friend, as if challenging him to continue what he was about to say. But Sasuke was undeterred this time.

"For all we know, Misa and Roku are dead Tobirama." he finally let the truth out and Tobirama slapped his hand away harshly when his words sunk in. A pit of dread formed within his gut at the realization he was trying to hide from was being slapped straight onto his very being.

"But there is the chance that they are-" his words were cut off when a loud voice rang within his office.

SLAP!

Tobirama looked at Sasuke with a slight widening of his eyes, not at all believing what had just occurred. He rubbed his stinging red cheek in disbelief, while Sasuke pulled back his outstretched hand with a firm look etched within his eyes.

"The condition was met." Sasuke merely stated flatly, Tobirama's eyes widened ever so slightly in realization of the hidden meaning behind those words. He himself had given him permission to do so, if the man ever felt he was going to do something that wouldn't benefit anyone other than his own selfish desires.

If ever he was about to do anything reckless.

"You are being reckless old friend…" Sasuke spoke tiredly, crouching down on one knee and throwing his cigar aside. Clearly in no mood for it today. Tobirama let out a humorless chuckle when the realization set in on himself and Sasuke looked at him worriedly.

"I know." he finally stated, as if it were as clear as water and Sasuke was growing ever more worried for his friend by the minute.

"But this is something I have to do…" he spoke, his laughs ceasing only for the serious gaze to remain within his eyes. Sasuke was about to say something when he spoke something that made all his words rile out of his mind in the blink of an eye.

"I won't be able to face my family if I didn't, I won't be able to look Hashirama in the afterlife Sasuke. This time I have to be reckless." he finally spoke the truth, thowing all logic aside for what came before everything within his heart and Sasuke held his serious gaze with his own for but a moment.

Both exchanging much more than words could ever hope to achieve within a simple gaze of their eyes, and Sasuke knew in that moment that no matter what he said, he was going to go through with this.

"This is going for a personal vendetta Tobirama, and I don't like it, not one bit." Tobirama clenched his jaw shut tight to keep his rebuttal to himself, but it was a losing battle before Sasuke continued on to end his point.

"So be it." the elder Sarutobi finally got out, Tobirama looked at his friend surprised and shock etched clearly within his eyes.

"I'll accompany you to the summit myself. I don't trust anyone else to look after your old wrinkled self other than myself." he spoke firmly when Tobirama shook his head.

"I want you to act as the Kage in my stead should anything happen to me Sasuke…" his words were cut off when he saw the stern look his friend provided him with.

"You aren't going to die now, that is a fact. We have far too much to live for than to throw it all away by taking the easy way out and die on the people who look up to us.

Install a state of emergency, hand your powers over to the shinobi council until we return to make you take back this chair.

Tell them of the summit, but keep the abduction to yourself, they don't need to know about it quite as of yet. We will come back Tobirama, I don't feel like dying right now." he stated flatly, but those words moved Tobirama than any other could ever have. The spark of life returned within his eyes in a second.

His hand raised and clasped his old friend's hand firmly within a manly shake to test their strengths in an airborne arm wrestle, just like they used to have some in the old times. Their nerves bulged and muscles became defined while both let their lips twitch upwards in unison.

"Till the end then…" Tobirama spoke up, getting a firm nod from his friend

"Till the end old friend. But it is far from the end right now…" he spoke sternly to make his point clear as a bell and Tobirama gave him a firm nod in affirmative.

"We leave the day after tomorrow, I'll inform the council of this new update tomorrow." the Kage replied and Sasuke nodded his own affirmative and turned around to leave while popping in a new cigar upon his lips, now that all was out of the way.

"You do that, I'll inform my team of our absence then…" his voice muffled from the stick in his mouth, while it suddenly died out with a hiss of steam as soon as he lit it up, only to glance back an annoyed glare at an amused Tobirama who had his arms crossed with a raised eyebrow, that looked as playful as one you could get from the stone cold Senju.

"Those things will kill you one day…" he pointed out pointedly, and Sasuke chuckled with a humorous nod.

"But not as fast as you would, you accursed Senju…" he retorted back equally playfully, only to get a slight smirk from Tobirama.

"Now go, before I take you in for insubordination to your Kage…" Tobirama's dismissive voice retorted, not to let him have the last word in this time and Sasuke merely disappeared in a small flicker of flames a second later.

Tobirama's eyes landed upon a map of the elemental nations place within the glass of his desk and he couldn't help but think how many times he would be seeing this, when the inevitable was finally upon them.

When war was upon finally them…

...

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