one_long_mission | [open] a way to beat the cold

Itachi, however, was not the one responsible for destroying what future may have been.
The one responsible was currently muttering about the impossibility of this, strings of words too fast to be made out in any way as he went to the wall that was covered with books and scrolls, pulling some out to look at the in all haste.

He was looking for any recorded attempts, but it was to no availé. After all, should events have been changed, nothing would remain of what had been before.
But just how could he turn back time like this? If there was a way... if only there was.
His sons did not deserve what he had inflicted on them.

Recorded attempts at a peaceful village? It had never before been tried.
Recorded attempts at time travel jutsu? Even in the future, no one had any clue how that worked. Which was made Itachi's presence here quite the mystery.

Itachi let out a long sigh, bracketed by heavy coughing.

"In what time I am here... I will try to teach them... what it means to respect the power granted an Uchiha..." The brothers, perhaps, he could trust with knowledge of the eternal mangekyo sharingan, They cared deeply about each other, and he already knew Madara cared deeply about the future. "Put some of their future... back together..."

Tajima gave a scowl, helplessness and all-consuming anger consuming his entire being.
There was nothing he could do against this... nothing but allow him what he wished. There were no records of any time-travelling jutsu aside from the Senju clan's few specific individuals, and those were simply space travel.

"Fine, then." he conceded. "It appears I will have to assign Ren to care for you." since after all, he did wish to keep track of this sharingan's progress and have an eye on all of them.

At the mention of Ren, Itachi gasped. His own anger having subsided, he remembered that Renji had been hit in the scuffle Izuna had created.

"First... He should tend to his son... The boys... in the hut you offered me... They were angry, kunai went flying... Renji was hurt..."

He didn't ask for permission to be dismissed, he simply turned on his heels and headed back there. There was a heaviness in his breath, a deep gasping for air as he tried to hurry. His body was failing him, just as he had failed his ancestors.

But there were bigger problems...

They were almost to the hut when a cry went out from the guards at the wall. "Senju!! They're marching this way! Grab your weapons!!"

Tajima had given a hiss. Now they also had a hurt medic? "Tch. This cannot get worse." Little did he know, it did... After they had gone to get Ren, the shout reached their ears.

Tajima felt his heart sink, but immediately directed his clan. "Women and children, go to the hiding places and don't come out until we fetch you! All those able to fight, get your weapons! They can't advance further!"
How far were the Senju? How had they been found? They could not let them find their settlement!

"You!" he growled at Itachi. "Even if it is the last thing you do, take my sons to safety! You are to go with the women into a cave nearby. Hide your chakra at any and all cost!" This was their land, they had at least this advantage...
Without waiting for a response from Itachi, he took off back to his home, to don his armor and get his gunbai.

There was no way Itachi could argue with Tajima. He'd lived through war once, he knew what was to come, even though he would have given anything to put a stop to it. He would stand between them... he would... except, he had been entrusted with the two children - not by a clan head, but by a father who feared for their lives.

When he went inside, he found Izuna already awake and clinging to his brother. "He won't wake up! What'd he do?! He won't wake up!!!"

Renji didn't wake up either, but the elder medic was already rushing to his side.

"He exhausted... his chakra..." the sharingan told him that. "Must have... used his new eyes..."

Izuna mumbled something about being in their mother's arms, still angry, but realizing that it was his wish that made his brother pass out. Itachi didn't waste time on that. He was too busy trying to gather Madara in his arms, straining, stumbling as he desperately tried to lift him.

"Not... not safe... Under attack... Your father said... take you to where... women hide... cave... Where?"

Ren gave a choked noise as he inspected his son. It was bad news. What he would need to take care of the wounds he had somehow suffered were things he could not access. There was no way he could risk going to his clinic. Not with the Senju almost at their door.
"Renji..." things were looking bad for the Uchiha. He knew. Renji would be unable to aid him with healing those that would come back wounded... if they came back at all.

There was a strangled sob as he got to his feet, hugging his son. He could have reminded Izuna that he was a warrior... but no. Tajima had clearly said to hide them... perhaps he thought both were still unconscious. "I will show you.. the way."
And thus, their flight began, under the screams and battle preparations of the clan.

Not many males were fleeing. Those incapacitated or too young were the only ones that were departing in haste, leaving everything behind.
Tajima did not look when he rushed by everyone, gunbai in one hand, a katana at his side and tanto at his back. The battlegrounds were as if his own backyard. The fate of his clan rested on this battle.
His shout, rallying his clan behind him, rang akin to a warcry throughout the village. "Be ready now, or join in alter! We are headed out!"

Itachi just nodded. He didn't have breath to answer.

His muscles were a far cry from what they once were. It was taking all he had just to hold the boy, but he pushed himself up. There was a fleeting thought, in the back of his mind, that if he ever did get home, he would ask Lee to help him exercise with weights. So petty a thought, really... so little, so late. Especially when he fell. Almost immediately.

Izuna helped catch his brother while Itachi weaved signs for a shadow clone. There was a tsk from the medic (giving up half your chakra for a duplicate just as useless...) but Itachi's clones were physically superior. He engineered them that way.

It was only with the help of a clone that they took off again.

"Izuna... go... go protect... those who can't... protect themselves..." he insisted, knowing if they waited for him, they could likely be captured or killed. "I'll... catch up..."

Further away, the clash had begun, the Uchiha making their best efforts to protect their settlement, nearby.
Tajima knew that once they were done with this battle, regardless of winning or retreating, they would need to move... but then, losing? No. Retreat was no option. Their enemies would follow and rip the settlement apart.

It was his clan. His settlement. His territory. Never before had an invaded settlement made it when their enemies located it.
The fact it was their surrounding lands gave them the advantage of knowing the terrain, but no other clan had won even from that... and to make matters worse--

Eyes widened as their first body hit the ground. "Don't chase those that flee!" he called out. "They've trapped the area!!" This was a nightmare. After felling a few enemies himself, the head of the Senju finally came to meet him, his blade sullied in blood... blood of what number of Uchiha, he did not know.
The battle that followed was nothing short of epic. So amazing it was that even those around stopped to watch the two, one weaving inbetween trees, the other masterful at dodging, both equally determined. The Uchiha side issued a collective gasp as Tajima froze, a blade piercing his shoulder...

...and then, it was a log, and the Clan leader dropped from a tree unto his assailant, the Senju having, however, read the move and rammed a shoulder into him.
A part of his armor gave out, the chestplate swayed... and then he found a blade piercing an inch above his heart, pinning him to the ground.

Could his life truly end like this? What if he found their women? What of their children? His heirs were with them, but ho could they fight with ranks so diminished?
He did not want to leave his clan just yet....
His eyes slid to the left. More Uchiha fell to Senju, sharingan fading into black as life left them, and then... then he felt it.

Butsuma froze as the sharingan shifted to something that looked even more vile, and was forced to abandon his weapon as black chakra gathered around the man, as if some protective ribcage.
How far were their enemies even if he had been fighting their leader? What had their orders been? They could still be advancing towards their settlement. "S-Senju..." Tajima hissed, unable to take the risk of moving. He could only move his head, pinned there like a decorative butterfly, the mangekyo instinctively draining his chakra to protect him.
His body was in pain, but to protect his clan... he would do anything.

With Izuna helping his clone carry Madara to safety, Itachi staggered in the other direction, toward the combat. He wore no armor, carried no real weapons. He was nothing but a target, but he had to go. He had to try...

He scanned the battlefield for chakra, and found more than he'd bargained for.

"Susano'o..." he gasped. Tajima had awakened his mangekyo as well. And there were other familiar chakra signatures. The boy, Hashirama, the peacemaker, was also among them. "I need... to find him... I need to..."

As the attacks came from all directions (an easy Uchiha to pick off), Itachi's mangekyo swirled to life. The ribs of his own Susano'o repelled their swords and deflected their kunai. Tajima's, even though it was still a loose collection of chakra, was frightening enough. Itachi's, with fully formed bones, musculature and even armor... It was terrifying. Nearby Senju immediately started to retreat.

Itachi kept walking, even as it gave way to swaying and staggering. His vision was growing fainter by the second.

"Ha..hashi... Hashirama!" he cried out. "Do... do your people... really want to do this?!"

Tajima could feel his chakra being depleted at an alarming rate, his body burning, just as brightly as his will to live. He could see the fleeing Senju. Was the tide changing..?
Regardless, he had to hold on. He had one last task... to accomplish. He reached at his back, coughing up blood, gripping his tanto.
Before the enemy could... he needed to take out his own eyes...

The black chakra receded, and with his enemy more or less at his mercy, Butsuma placed a hand upon his blade's handle and tilted it towards himself, feeling a rib straining. The Uchiha's eyes had faded to black. Had this been his last stand, then?
Spotting the other abominable mass of chakra nearby, he took out a wakizashi, intent on ending the other's life. There was only a pause as he heard the other Uchiha shouting his son't name across the battlefield.

Indeed, this technique was powerful, but the Senju were quickly beginning to see the toll it took on the Uchiha's bodies. The clan head was coughing up blood, and this other one... he looked like he was barely holding onto life!

"You don't... have to do this!" he shouted, blood splattered on his lips. "None of us... none of us have to do this! We're... NOT... that different! Senju! Uchiha... We... we can be brothers... We can... we can stop the... the killing..."

He fell to his knees. The pain in his chest was unrelenting. It hurt to breathe through the blood in his lungs, let alone shout. He couldn't hold Susano'o, not as severely limited as his chakra already was. But he kept talking, glancing in the direction of the two clan heads. (Or at least where he thought they were... it was very, very hard to tell now.)

"No more... fathers... have to lose their sons... or... or sons... lose their fathers..."

Tajima knew he was never meant to see his sons grown now. It was without remorse that, as countless clanmembers did before him, he gouged out an eye. He could hear the desperate voice, but he knew it was hopeless...

Butsuma wa coming down on him with the wakizashi, and he hastily directed the short blade to his other eyes, but then... then, he could see the knife point, and a small, young hand stopping his strike in a steely grip. The wakizashi had gone through him. From the angle, it had gone through him, and so very near his heart, and yet... yet he had not budged, and held the tanto's handle back even as he suffered.

It was then that the words hit Butsuma, as he stared down.
"No more... fathers... have to lose their sons... or... or sons... lose their fathers..."
"Tobirama...." he did not have to ask why... He stared at the scene, feeling his blood going cold. His son. His son had jumped--no, teleported somehow to save an enemy...

On the battlefield, the fighting stopped as the blood the young Senju coughed mingled onto the Uchiha leader's...

Hashirama, who had been running to stand in front of the now very, vulnerable Itachi, nearly fainted at the sight of his own brother sacrificing himself.

"T..tobi?" he squeaked.

As soft as it was, it echoed in the deafening silence.

"...someone... do something." Butsuma did not even want to try moving at this point. "Do something! I don't care who!" his voice did not even sound like his own. One hand was still on the handle of the katana that he had driven through his enemy, and in his other... the weapon that had slid too magnificently into his son.

"Why isn't anyone moving!?" he yelled into the still battlefield.
With his single eye, Tajima could see the tremor of life within the young Senju, thinking that the same could certainly be seen in himself.
"..these. may be my last words.." he could feel a little hand claiming his, its grip somehow reassuring, as if... telling him to hold on, and maybe telling him that if he did pass away, he wouldn't be alone. "...as.. the Head of.. the Uchiha clan I..." he coughed again, wheezing. "...I demand... that you bring... parchment.."

Hurriedly, Butsuma produced a scroll, trembling.
Having let go of the tanto, he reached over, dipping fingers in his own blood, and drew a symbol that looked like a leaf, then signed his name. He could do nothing more than draw that symbol. He did not expect to have long to be awake.
"..peace... treaty.." Tajima's voice was weak, but he had to see this. "....please..."

No one was moving, but that didn't mean the message wasn't getting through. Somewhere, in the cave, the clone turned toward the medic.

"Go. Now... They need help." it whispered before disappearing completely. Itachi couldn't hold it for much longer.

There was nothing else he could do, unfortunately, except put his arms around Hashirama and comfort him. There would be no more bloodshed after this, no more war, no more fighting. There would be peace... at long last, peace...

It was as if time had stopped.
A peace treaty. Minutes ago, the Senju were winning. The Uchiha could be slain, and now everything had turned and twisted but somehow ended up like this.

It was not a pretty situation, but it was perhaps the best that could have happened.
Tobirama could feel his body growing cold, clinging to consciousness. He saw his father also sign the document, and then... then he settled in and felt his eyes slip closed.

Renji arrived minutes later, a strangled cry escaping as he crouched by Tajima.
"Save them, please.." Butsuma pleaded.
"I... I can't." the medic knew no one that could do such a feat, particularly not himself. "I can't save both."
"..then.." Tajima breathed out the words. "...save him." and then, his body relaxed, eyelids slipping closed.

The next Uchiha heir had not been chosen, but still the treaty would hold. He could not even argue.
Ren cursed himself. He cursed his own physical weakness for being unable to fight. If he had been able to fight, he could have been on the battlefield with the man he had always seen as a brother.

...but he had been too late in coming here, and the clan head's last instruction were to save this boy.
Ren could only hope for a miracle as he began pouring chakra to numb the area where the sword stuck through the young boy. If only Renji had been there as well.
"...don't you Senju have medics?" he couldn't believe this situation.

None of them dared move, except for Hashirama. The last words of the man he'd grown up fearing the most were an order to his own medic to heal Tobirama instead of himself.

"I'm learning..." he meekly rose his hand. His medical jutsu wasn't anything to brag about yet, not really. He was still very young, spent more time daydreaming than practicing. But his dreams had just become reality. And that meant, he had to as well.

Itachi let go, and Hashirama ran toward the Uchiha clan head.

He poured healing chakra into the wound, and for a moment, he thought he might actually be able to save the man...

Even as he healed Tobirama, Ren proffered part of his knowledge to Hashirama, directing him into better ways to use the chakra he had. The boy was not all that skilled, but he did have heart, and if somehow he could keep the clan head hanging onto that thin thread... just long enough while he took the Senju out of mortal danger, then it would be worth it.

Ren instructed salves to be made, thankfully the forest around them was abundant in ingredients. It was a whole tense hour before Tobirama was finally out of danger, and he thought their work had been in vain when he took over from Hashirama. Tajima had grown a few shades paler, and had stopped breathing... but then as if by some miracle, without Ren giving up, sweating even as he tried for hours to feed the man life again, it paid off. He resorted to consuming a chakra pill when he felt it was all he could do, not caring for the side effects. He would save them both. It was his duty.

Butsuma held Hashirama close to him, even as he wept onto his son, asking for his forgiveness.
Hashirama, after all. had told him about peace so many times... and all these times he had hit him.

Peace. Senju helping Uchiha. Uchiha healing Senju. It was the most rewarding thing Itachi had ever seen.

It was about that moment that he realized he actually HAD seen it. He could see it. His eyes... He thought the Susano'o had all but blinded him, and suddenly, he could see more clearly than he had in a decade! There were tears on his cheeks, but he didn't care. He was going to die soon, but he didn't care. Senju and Uchiha both were staring at him, pointing in complete disbelief, but he didn't care. This moment - the long-estranged brothers as a family once more - was worth the cost of his life.

Eventually, Hashirama tugged on his father's sleeve.

"Papa... Look! The man I told you about. The one we found at the river. The Uchiha was the Sage of Six Paths!"

Just as the others looked up, Itachi collapsed.

"Niisan, niisan!" a voice broke though suddenly. "It's nearly closing time. Wake up." his brother had never slept for so long. The boy had to ask an attendant to move him, and he had stayed with him all this time. It was not only Itachi, but at least Sasuke had been able to take Madara out of the water too.
Madara at least finally did shift, but there was no waking just yet.

The attendant was concerned, and rightfully so. Clearly, they had been in the water too long and gotten quite overheated.

He helped move them to a cooler, air-conditioned room, but left them without clothes. He'd put a few ice packs around Madara's neck and gave Sasuke a basin of cool water that he could sponge on. It wasn't long before he started to stir.

Itachi, though, was still out cold. His breathing was very shallow, his pulse was fast and his color was definitely off. The fact that there was an oxygen tank with his clothes was a godsend, and the attendant went for it immediately, along with ice packs for all the vital, blood-rich areas. Of course, he did all of this after sending a fellow attendant to fetch a medic from the clinic across the street. You can never be too careful!

The boy was reminded of that time when his body grew older and he was scared for his brother. So very, very scared... but now he was scared for two people. His brother was not waking up, and even though Madara did stir, he had yet to open his eyes or be more responsive.

Thankfully, the medic did reassure him that in time they would both be up. Even though he was lauded for getting them out, he still thought he should have done all that sooner.
"...are you blaming yourself?" the medic inquired, pushing his glasses back up his nose, before patting the boy's hair. "I know that expression. You're too young to look like this."
"But... niisan.." he bit his lip.

"He will be all right."
"..and Madara..."
"Both your big brother and your friend will be all right. Their bodies are cooling down now." The voice that drifted to Itachi's ears may be somewhat familiar.

Edited 2014-01-25 16:17 (UTC)

It did take some time, long past closing time, before they woke up. (Madara first, Itachi... Quite a while later.) The attendant stayed with them, even though it meant getting hime late. There was a stern warning to not take any trips to the onsen for the next few days, especially for Itachi, as his temperature regulated itself again. But there was still no blame.

"Easy now..." The attendant helped Itachi sit up while the medic looked him over. "Almost gave yourself heatstroke there. If you're going to fall asleep like that, do it on a pallet upstairs."

"Niisan!" Sasuke hugged his brother, sniffling lightly. He had been scared, but with his brother awake, things were looking better. "Thank you so much, mister!"
"Renji. If you need me again, I have a clinic nearby." a pause. "...although it might be too far for you to usually get to any quickly." If Itachi could see, the man was the spitting image of the one he had seen in his dream.

Madara gave a light groan, rubbing his forehead. He was still feeling the side-effects, but that was normal.
"You both should get some more rest whenever you can. Since this place is closing down, how about borrowing some beds at my clinic?"

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(yes the medic is who you think of)

Renji!!

Yup~