Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 81

"-sensible things." which was translated as serious shinobi stuff by Mito.

"And we play shogi…" that surprised her quite a bit. So they enjoyed playing games.

"He always loses - it's fun."

...

Mito sweat dropped hearing that.

But Mito did grow a bit worried seeing this time he didn't only fall silent, but his eyes had glazed over in a manner she knew quite too well.

He had delved quite deeply in thought.

She knew him well enough to know his small quirks by now. And she prayed it wasn't about Sasuke, he had just come out of that regret filled shell passing yesterday.

"Mito, can I ask you something?"

His sudden question had surprised her, he could see that by the slight widening of those violet orbs of hers.

Why - he did not know.

But he had.

And he decided to leave it at that seeing the small vertical bob of her head showing her affirmative of interest.

"At Misa and Roku's funeral -" her whole body stiffened.

Was he thinking about that?

Well it was only natural, he hadn't been able to attend it after all…

And now, Kami damn it, she was getting depressed too - just thinking about that all over again made her feel like crying her eyes out.

"Did Naruto cry?"

She blinked at him.

Then she blinked again seeing his expectant gaze still lingering on her.

But after a second, making sure she had heard him right- she conjured up all her intelligence to make up a coherent thought.

Opening her lips, she closed them wordlessly.

She was confused. So she tried again -

And as intelligently as possible got out a -

"Huh?"

The blank look he gave her, made her feel quite stupid.

Coughing away the slight pink dusting upon her cheeks, she decided to reminisce that day once more in the deep recesses of her mind.

"He did … " seeing him so intrigued made her heart warm, at least he was moving on and not clinging to the past anymore.

But what was it that had him intrigued so much in this to make him ask her this.

So suddenly, in fact.

She clearly hadn't expected it, it was completely out of the blue.

Nonetheless-

"Explain."

His voice was strict, and she could see he was in no mood for arguments.

The man wanted an answer, and he wanted it now.

Closing her eyes, she played those memories as she had seen it once more and recited it out of her lips.

"When I walked over to him, since he was standing in the back - tears were flowing down his eyes -" she couldn't quite complete it. Seeing Tobirama had deem it fit to interrupt her at that point.

"Were his shoulders shaking? Voice cracking? Sobbing? Sniffling? Anything else to show if he was crying-" she caught his shoulders after that.

The man's rapid fire questions were quite frankly scaring the wits out of her.

"Tobirama what's this, why are you-" once more her statement was cut off in between, though the manner in which it was done was different this time.

"Answer the damn question."

His voice was suddenly icy cold, and it sent shivers down her back.

Her eyes widened owlishly, she could see the sternness in his eyes.

The man meant business, and right now he wanted answers and nothing else.

She looked away with a flash of pain in her eyes, but hid it as soon as it had come to pass.

"No, I only saw him tearing up. Nothing else."

Her whisper made him release his vice grip on her shoulders. She rubbed the pain off them gently, he hadn't hurt her - not physically at least.

He said nothing, once more delving into a deep thought about nothing in particular - or so it seemed to her.

Seeing as he wasn't paying any attention to her, she silently got up to leave-

But her arm was caught in an iron grip once more.

"Sit." as emotionless as ever, he made her sit down - forcefully .

As gently as he could, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to his side. Still maintaining a respectful distance in between, but close enough to make her feel a bit of comfort - well, as much as he could give to anyone.

"I apologize." just like that, Mito felt a contradiction.

For a moment, she felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. But at the same time, it felt as if it had increased several folds.

"It's alright." picking up on all her training over the years, she tried as hard as she could to maintain her composure and only whispered as much as was needed.

But knew she had failed when he wiped off the tears she didn't know she had been shedding off of her cheeks. He knew he wasn't the smartest of the bunch, but to think he had made the woman he saw as a companion, friend, a sister…

But even more so a mother who had always watched over him for many a decade - cry, while she clearly hadn't recovered from the grievances of her loss herself;

He felt as much pride as a squished cockroach in that moment, in being a man - but more so, for being the cause of such a reaction from her.

"I really am Mito -" his tone wasn't comforting, but he was trying his best seeing how he pulled her cheek to rest over his shoulder. "- now stop crying." in a commanding tone, he tried to comfort her.

She tearfully giggled at his pathetic attempt to console her.

He failed miserably from stopping the twitching corner of his lips hearing her laugh. And started rubbing her arm soothingly to at least do something that could be called emotionally right and not socially stunted.

But she felt a lot better now.

She didn't know why she had cried. There were so many reasons that she was sure his little harsh statement had only served as a trigger to open up her dams.

"Thank you." he stayed silent hearing her soft whisper followed by a sniffle.

Sometimes no words were better than all of the combined wisdom in the world, especially in his case when it came to these emotional matters.

"Why ask this so suddenly?" her sudden question broke the comfortable silence between them like a pin prick. And her curiosity grew a lot more feeling his shoulder stiffen ever so slightly underneath her cheek.

Whatever had Tobirama Senju riled up, must be something pretty damn important.

He thought about it for a moment, no scratch that, he didn't even need to think to answer this one.

He spoke the truth;

"I'd rather not say."

Hearing that, Mito let a long sigh snake past her lips. She felt so tired, and this hospital bed was quite a comfortable one indeed.

Emotional drain could be a tricky thing indeed.

She didn't quite feel like she had the energy to milk it out of him when he clearly didn't want to say anything.

Not like she knew what this was about in the first place.

But she did speak a few words before she let her eyes droop down.

"Tobirama, whatever it is you are hiding from me. I won't ask of you again - but it better not hurt any one of my children. If it does…" she let the sentence incomplete due to an involuntarily yawn that followed it.

The shaggy white haired man felt her breathing soften until she had curled up by his bedside and completely fallen asleep.

Letting his eyes linger outside the window towards the setting sun for a moment. He let the silence bring up those same visions from over a decade ago flood his brain. The same ones that had been plaguing his sleep every night, every day.

Ever since that dreadful night.

For all that was Kami, he just couldn't forget what really had happened that night and how oblivious everyone was to the truth.

To this day, he didn't know if hiding everything - like he and Sasuke had done, was the right thing to do, or not. But he had made his choice as a Kage, and he had to live with it now.

But still - it did nothing to lessen the increased burden his sister figure's words had left in his mind a moment ago.

"I hope so too Mito. I really do …" his voice replied to no one in particular while he himself lied back down with a long sigh. His free arm covering his eyes while his envy upon feeling her ever peaceful slumber increased quite a bit.

He needed a sleep like that too.

It had been years since he had let himself rest like that, after all…

...

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