Hour 3: Seeing You (In My Dreams)

Hour 3: Seeing You (In My Dreams)

Summary:

Madara has always wanted to see his brother again.

He never expected it to happen like this.

Author: @phlebaswrites Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Fandom: Naruto Relationship: Uchiha Izuna & Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Hikaku/Uchiha Madara Word Count: 1,029 (Complete) Warning: Canonical Character Death

Madara grips the shinai in his hand tightly, too tightly in fact, but he can't seem to let go.

He used to spar with Izuna like this, but that was when they were children, true children, long before they began to handle live steel.

Before Hashirama, and the dreams that came with him.

But his hands are the ones Madara sees every day, bearing the callouses of gunbai and kusarigama, and the hair which cuts across his face is long. Most of all though, he looks at Izuna through the red wash of the Sharingan… and his brother is blind.

Because his eyes are in Madara's face.

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Hour 6: Monsoon

Summary: With an unseasonably late monsoon sweeping through the compound, the Uchiha are too busy to light the bonfire at the end of Obon that would light their ancestors' path back to the Pure Lands. One unfortunate accident later, and the bonfire is late for sure.

But Izuna has some concerns about the ghosts of his ancestors getting lost - or, worse, staying here with him. While he's alive.

Author: Dawen Rating: General Fandom: Naruto Relationship: Uchiha Izuna & Family Other Tags: Warring Clans Era (Naruto), Canon Compliant, Uchiha Clan-Centric, Obon, Ghosts, Natural Disasters, Rescue Mission, Angst with a Happy Ending, Kid Izuna, in which two clan civilians are Rescued from a Flood, paying proper homage to your ancestors, calamities which seem so much more severe when you're like ten Word Count: 1,853

Izuna took a moment to wring his hair out, water flowing in a steady stream to puddle on the engawa before dripping through the cracks between the boards. The urgent tasks were done – elders and young children taken up to the healing ward, which was built on high ground specifically so that the injured wouldn’t need to be rescued during monsoons. Their food stores were secured. Most of their livestock had been taken from the pastures; the chickens had fled to their coops, which teams of shinobi had raised to be a bit higher when the rain started. Izuna’s job, checking on the civilians under evacuation and offering help to anyone who could benefit from a touch of chakra to get through a waterfall’s worth of rain, was nearly done. He’d just finished checking this house; the family had already evacuated.

One last family to check on. With a sigh, he braced himself and ran into the rain again, suppressing a flinch at the heavy drum of incessant water on his armor.

Read the rest on AO3.

And remember: To be continued, under next year’s Lamplight…

Hour #4: Uchiha Madara and the Potato Wizard

Summary:

Madara accidentally signed a magical contract and had to receive match-making services. Of course, he tried his best to get out of it.

Author: greenchair (@greencuttingmat) Rating: Teen And Up Fandom: Naruto, Romantic Killer Relationship: Madara/Hashirama, Madara/Hikaku, Madara/Tobirama, Madara/Izuna, Hashirama/Mito [the only real couple in this fic is Hashirama/Mito], Hashirama/Mito/Madara, Madara/Obito Characters: Madara, Riri, Hashirama, Hikaku, Tobirama, Mito Other Tags: crack, no romantic relationship, one sided Madara/Hikaku, Madara is forever single, no beta we died like Shisui, because, Izuna Lives Word Count: 5,949

Notes:

This is the potato wizard that Madara saw.

The summer heat was almost unbearable that Madara had tied up his hair. Regardless how much he wanted to hide in a hole, Madara kept a steady pace of reading and replying to reports so that the ink won't dry out before he finished the stack. It was a steep learning curve for everyone involved in this new Uchiha-Senju alliance.

Izuna and a whole cohort of Uchiha witnessed the power Hashirama demonstrated as both Uchiha and Senju were commissioned by the Daimyo to chase Kyuubi away from the capital and had a little bit of breakdown, realizing Hashirama was holding back against them. Then the clan was split between manic despair and fanatic worship. The peace proposal went through the next time Hashirama suggested. While Izuna and Hikaku had managed to fight for a term beneficiary to Uchiha, the truth was Uchiha had surrendered to the Senju. Madara's last sibling didn't die at the hand of Senju, but was it worth it?

Fortunately, Hashirama wanted to realize their childhood dream, so they asked the Daimyo for rights to land and peace between the clans instead of gold and rice, and somehow they were here.

Madara would have to make this work. He learnt to talk with people, instead of talking to them and to work with Senju instead of fighting them.

So far, it has been going well. Izuna was alive; children were kept away from the battlefield; and Hashirama danced with him every few days. If only the elders would stop nagging him about getting married. Madara didn't plan to be tied down without long-term peace being achieved. He would not be seeing his children leaving for the Pure Land before him and in pieces.

Madara unrolled the scroll that he was reading till it was fully opened and placed it on the table. He took a look at his brush to make sure that he was using the brush inked with black and signed.

The texture was a bit <i>off</i>. Reflectively his Sharingan turned on and Madara finally saw through the very advanced genjutsu. Swop he attempted to grab the paper on top of the scroll but with a puff, it disappeared in smoke. Fuck! There were intruders and what would the energy do with his signature? Madara caught a glimpse of what he did sign - a matchmaking agreement?

At the periphery of his eyes, there was something purple. Immediately Madara threw a handful of kunai in that direction. The thing attempted to doge, but it was pinned onto the wall at its purple cape.

"Who summoned you?" Madara asked, laying chakra in his word to force the thing to answer truthfully. He has never heard about a summon like this. It may be a secret weapon of their enemy. And Uchiha and the newly established alliance had made a lot of enemies.

It was a yellow rat that was as round as a potato, with small round ears and grass-like limbs. It was wearing a purple pointy hat and a cape with yellow stars, holding a yellow star on a stick with two leaves on one hand, and the paper with his signature on the other hand.

Madara shunshined in to grab the paper but the creature shoved it into its cloak. In a hurry, its stick dropped onto the ground.

Madara narrowed his eyes. He picked up the flimsy stick. It didn't feel any special, without any power.

Madara pressed the star on the top of the stick onto the rat. "Return my signature and I will give you a quick death."

"Wait!" It said, voice shaking.

"I am listening," Madara said. His Sharingan spun slowly.

"I am Riri, a wizard! Well, you see, eh, the birthing rate of the Land of Fire is declining and ah, it's a problem for us in the magic land because, er, we rely on the innocence of human children as an energy source... And, ah, we are having shortages."

Madara had never heard about this, but there were many realms outside of the Shinobi land. "And?" Madara thought he should split the rat open and make it into jerky.

"Our office aimed to improve the birthing rate of the nation! Starting with people like you! Who had a big dream and would stay single without any help!" It sounded more confident as he continued.

"We didn't need your interference. The birth rate would pick up since there is peace now. Now return my signature!"

"Not until I help you get your true love." It held onto the star pressed onto its chest.

"Ridiculous. I don't need your help."

"Your father at your age already had four children. And you and your little brother? Zero!"

That thing had done its research and now Madara had even more reason to kill it.

Riri sensed its impending doom, and before Madara shoved the stick right through it, it disappeared along with the stick in smoke.

Read the rest on AO3.

hashirama & butsuma grave ficlet

I was in a hashirama mood over the weekend, kinda wanted an epilogue ish thing for a fic I'm not gonna write

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"Honourable father," Hashirama greets as he lights the incense and sticks it standing in the tray before the name tablet. He claps his hands together and bows. 

"Hope you're well," he says conversationally as he settles into his seat on the floor cushion to watch the stick of incense burn down. "I tried to get Tobirama to come with me, but he… actually I think it's better if I don't repeat what he said." 

The rising smoke curls around the name tablet. SENJU BUTSUMA the gold lettering declares. 

"You've got three granddaughters now. They're in Uzushio right now— Mito's mother insisted they visit once Mito and the baby were fit to travel, and she adores them so much she won't let them come back just yet— that's why it's just me."

"The village with the Uchiha is going well. Hikaku-san has really settled in and he's a great clan head. Mission death rate is down even more than anticipated with their three-man team system. Illness-related death is record-low as well. Income per capita doubled and peace is. Really good. It's really, really good. There are some things here and there I'd change if I could but overall it's more than I ever dreamed."

His fingers fiddle with the hem of his sleeve, a habit which had gotten him scolded in childhood, which only reappears here in the ancestral shrine.

"I wish you could have seen it," Hashirama concludes as the red ember of the incense stick burns out.

"You always were an angry man, so no doubt you would have found something to be unhappy about, but I still wish you could have seen what all your son's useless dreaming amounted to." 

He stands.

"Anyways, I can't stay," he explains apologetically. "Village to run, clan to lead, all that. It's busy work. I'll be back next year hopefully." 

He bows and steps backwards out of the shrine. 

"Until then, father," he says, and he closes the doors. 

Hour #8: the Botan Dōrō

Summary:

Izuna visited Tobirama at night, with a red botanical lantern in his hand.

Author: greenchair (@greencuttingmat) Rating: Teen And Up Fandom: Naruto Relationship: Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Izuna Other Tags: Major Character Death, non-con, Ghost Bride, ghost wedding, ghost, Izuna was already dead, forced marriage, hence the non-con, ghost, Japanese mythology Word Count: 1,958

The cicadas cried through the night. They screamed for love and the end of their life. Inside the house, Tobirama was calmly writing letters to the Daimyo. The summer this year was particularly harsh, and he foresaw a freezing winter, so he would like to <s>beg</s> haggle for a better deal. He would prefer to finish the letter quickly and then get some sleep before tomorrow's battle with the Uchiha. He would need all of his focus to fight Izuna.

Suddenly, from the periphery of his sight, he saw a light shining behind the shoji door to the garden.

"Excuse me," said a man with a voice so familiar and yet so impossible to be here. They had never met in their on the grounds of either clan. It would have been too treacherous, too bold.

<i>What were the guards doing?</i>

Tobirama pulled out a kunai, but he didn't open the door. He didn't feel any killing intent, or anything at all from the other person. <i> Was it a genjutsu?</i>

"If you won't open the door, I will come in myself." The other person announced.

Tobirama created a bunshin to stand in his place while he hid in the ceiling.

The door slid open and the person outside walked in. His steps were silent as if he was tiptoeing. His heels were covered by his long mantle. The mantle was not buttoned, just closed from the wrong side. And his face was shadowed by the light of the large lantern, as red as the spring peony.

It was Izuna.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Don't hide, Tobirama. What are you afraid of?" He said, walking right onto the kunai. Tobirama's clone would have moved away, but it was frozen in place.

Red blood bled like a wave and soaked his mantle. It was where Tobirama had last stabbed him.

Izuna smiled and looked right into the eyes of the real Tobirama.

And then Tobirama felt warm like he was sunbathing. He blinked. In front of his eyes were his brushes. He had fallen asleep on his desk and the evening sun casted shadows into the room.

There was no Izuna.

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a comic about fix-it fanfics