The child shrieks bloody murder when Tobirama's hand finds his ankle.
The little Uchiha squirms and struggles in his grip, wings beating uselessly as Tobirama hauls him up and out of his hiding spot. Though Tobirama is prepared for it, the child stubbornly does not shift from his human form, even as his shouts give way to harsh panting, having already exhausted himself from how he got here in the first place.
"You can't --" The little Uchiha gasps and wriggles again, but his struggles are even weaker now, and his breath is coming in ragged sobs. There are tear tracks in the mud and blood that's smeared over the boy's face and matted into his hair, but he has no more tears left now. "You can't have them. I'll kill you, you can't have them!"
Red eyes glare up at him with what Tobirama can only assume in a newly formed sharingan, though even now he doesn't examine them too closely to make certain. Instead Tobirama directs his eyes downwards, where there is something pink and fleshy and still slowly oozing blood cradled carefully in the boy's hands. And there is the reason he's stubbornly staying human -- a bird would have trouble safely carrying a pair of sharingan no matter the size.
Black wings move to try and hide what Tobirama has just seen, and the boy snarls and kicks with all his might, to no avail. He looks like he's been bonded to a crow or a raven, and still a fledgling one at that, which is lucky, because his talons are more of an annoyance than an actual threat. Tobirama is surprised that such a young child can keep enough of a handle on his instincts to keep himself from shifting, regardless.
"Calm yourself." He says, and his voice makes the Uchiha freeze like a prey animal. "I don't want your eyes, nor the eyes you carry. I only want you to answer some questions."
It's not the truth, but it's not a lie. Tobirama would like to experiment on a sharingan if he ever thought he could get a pair and get away with it, but he had already decided when he detected the chakra signature of a child in shivery terror-distress that he was going to leave them alive -- his thoughts and instincts being in rare agreement -- which means there will be a witness, so he will have no such chance today.
The boy scowls, but he stops struggling -- though that may be because he's starting to get lightheaded from being held upside-down. It's close enough to acquiescence that Tobirama offers, "If you tell me your name, I'll let you down. If you tell me why you're out here alone, I'll heal your wounds."
The little Uchiha cocks his head. Logically, Tobirama knows that it's a bird instinct, but it makes something acid twist deep in his chest. Because he's an Uchiha, but he's so small, and did Itama try to shield himself with his wings when he was caught out and alone?
"I'm Kagami." He says, throat bobbing. "And you're the Senju Ghost, so you're going to kill me no matter what I tell you."
Kagami yelps as Tobirama rights him and drops him on his feet. His legs shake and wobble and he falls to the ground before he can manage a single step.
"I'm not going to kill you. In fact, I intend to return you home alive. And unharmed, if you'll let me."
Kagami's scowl only deepens, shoulders curling down as if to hide what he's holding even further. He has an admirably brave face for a child, but his jaw still trembles.
"…I was helping with a mission." Kagami admits after a long moment where Tobirama makes no move but to watch him.
"I didn't think the Uchiha sent out children your age."
They don't. They never have, not even when it was common practice for the Senju; probably because there was too much risk of this very situation. If Tobirama did want to steal his eyes, it would be trivial.
The boy's lip quivers.
"It was supposed to be easy, so when they saw I followed they decided I could come with them anyways. And then --"
His voice cracks, and he screws his eyes shut as the single tomoe starts spinning faster and fresh tears leak out. Tobirama does not need to hear more, he can guess it well enough. A mission that was supposed to be easy was not, there was an ambush where there should have been no conflict. He only wonders if Kagami was forced to pluck the eyes he's holding onto from the skull himself.
He sobs near silently, shoulders shaking and breath coming in hoarse croaks. With the ease of long years of practice, Tobirama completely ignores his instincts to crowd the boy in an attempt at offering comfort. He forces himself instead to be more deliberate with his movements, first crouching down next to Kagami, and when he doesn't respond to that, slowly going through the signs to call a diagnostic jutsu to glow green at the tips of his fingers.
Kagami flinches hard when Tobirama places his hand on the top of his head, but he's so lost to himself that he only curls up further rather than snap at him. He's not too hurt, thankfully, just the minor bruising and scratching that comes from running through undergrowth. More troubling is the boy's chakra level, which is low and only draining further the longer his sharingan stays active.
But maybe that's not an entirely bad thing. Kagami's head stays hunched. Tobirama pulls his hands away to retrieve a length of extra arm wrap long enough to serve as a makeshift washcloth and make the single sign it takes to call enough water to get it damp.
"You'll have to have a hand free to clean yourself." Tobirama says, but Kagami only stares, not having truly registered what was said. That's probably as close as permission as Tobirama is going to get, so he moves to start cleaning away as much mud and blood as he's able to, and closing the wounds once he's done. As he works, Kagami's blinking grows more sluggish, exhaustion and draining chakra alike finally catching up to him, until they drift closed and don't open again, the burn of the sharingan in his chakra stuttering to stillness.
It's closer to unconsciousness than sleep, but that suits Tobirama just as well. Like this, there is no worry of retaliation as he moves to wipe blood and tears from Kagami's face, or heal the scratches on his hands that are still stubbornly cradling someone else's eyes.
Gently as he can, Tobirama pulls them from Kagami's grip. They're… Warm. Still pulsing with chakra, still alive even though their owner has probably been cooling for hours now. Tobirama quashes the urge to look closer, and quashes harder the stupid, useless instinct to sniff. He instead retrieves the small bag he keeps soldier pills in, empties its contents into one of his seals and puts the eyes in their place, pulling the drawstring tight and placing the entire thing back into Kagami's hands, looping it over his wrists for good measure.
Then he lifts the boy up, one hand behind his knees, one on his back, until his head rests mostly on the ruff of fur Tobirama wears and his body is braced on one shoulder. If he were able to move at top speed, he could be close enough to the Uchiha compound to drop Kagami off in just a few hours. As it is… Less than a day, but not by much. This far out the trees are too short to safely run on while carrying a child, so Tobirama does all that's left to do, and starts walking.
The twitching starts sooner than expected. It's typical, with chakra exhaustion patients, and probably there are nightmares involved too, if the warbling chirps Kagami occasionally makes are any indication.
Tobirama ignores any tightness in his chest and walks on. Even if there was something he could do to help, whether he should is a different question. Kagami, rightly, does not trust him. Any lullaby he might know has been scrubbed and faded from his memories in favor of days of training, and it would be a Senju song besides. He might calm if Tobirama groomed him -- preened his feathers, combed through his hair, Itama always asked for it after he cried-- but Tobirama isn't even distant family, so that may be more distressing than anything else.
With his mind so distracted Tobirama nearly misses when the twitching becomes a more conscious movement. He had decided to leave Kagami with whatever weapons he had on him so as not to have to hold him down and search him, but now that's led to this.
Tobirama grabs the wrist that now holds a kunai before it can land a blow, and redirects Kagami's kick to the bulkiest part of his armor. The child doesn't have enough chakra left in him for it to do any damage even if it hadn't landed there.
Tobirama twists Kagami around, pulls the knife from his fingers, and drops him to the forest floor. He stumbles and turns, unwilling to give Tobirama his back. His eyes are wide and red, again, and his other hand fumbles with the bag, as if trying to make sure the eyes he's carrying are actually inside.
Tobirama raises an eyebrow -- the thought process behind the maneuver was good, but the execution left something to be desired. If he had been faster or more stealthy about it, there was a chance Kagami might have even wounded him. But the boy says nothing. He takes a shaky step backwards before his eyes roll back and his legs give out, chakra exhaustion claiming him once again.
Tobirama catches him before he can hit the ground, picks him up, and lets him attempt to stab him two more times in the same manner as he continues the walk home.
He's a quick study. It's only a shame that he can't stay conscious.
Kagami seems to have actually truly exhausted himself by the time Tobirama decides to stop and rest for the night, no longer twitching from nightmares and instead a solid, unmoving weight in his arms.
Tobirama doesn't particularly want to stop, but he'll be going as deep into Uchiha territory as he's ever been tomorrow, and he knows that it's better to be well rested. Not that he'll be sleeping, but a few hours of meditation will do him some good, and it's probably for the best if he doesn't return Kagami to his clan in poor health.
He considers this as he brushes twigs and stones out of the way of his bedroll -- not for him but to lay Kagami on to try and give him a chance at proper sleep. If he wakes and tries to attack Tobirama again, he might not recover to an acceptable level by the time Tobirama can get him home.
Part of that reaction had been the situation, he knows, and part of it is probably due to his reputation, but hopefully waking up on the ground instead of his arms will alleviate some of the problem. As for the other…
If Kagami isn't already convinced that Tobirama means him no harm after having suffered no repercussions for trying to kill him three times now, there's likely nothing he can say to convince him. But, perhaps --
Tobirama knows he is not easy to read. He has trained himself to be that way by design, in order to both please his father and eke out whatever edge it might give him against an Uchiha. He has been told on more than on occasion that it makes him off-putting, usually in words less kind. Trying to force his face into doing anything will, he's told, only make it worse, but Tobirama happens to have another option.
He doesn't normally let his ears or his tail manifest in front of others. Try as he might to control them, their movements are tied more to his instincts than his will so they tend to be more… Expressive than he likes. (Hashirama still doesn't shut up about the time he caught Tobirama wagging his tail at the idea of getting his hands on a sealing textbook, and that was years ago). He's tried for years, but he still can't stop the thing from going off at the slightest provocation, and on top of that it's… Cute. It's small and curly and not at all fitting with the fierce reputation he's built by only letting his teeth and claws show.
His tail will be entirely too much, he decides, but children do tend to be a fan of his ears. With a low hum, he shifts them into place, prickling heat crawling from the base of his spine to his head, and suddenly, with a flick the whole forest becomes louder. The croaking of frogs becomes a choir of tones he couldn't hear before -- Tobirama supposes that he's just lucky that it's not cicada season.
But-- he flicks his ears again. They feel different from normal. One of them tends to fold in on itself if he doesn't hold it a certain way, but it's not, now. He reaches up to feel the soft skin of it, and sure enough, it holds its shape. Has it really been so long since he's allowed them to show that he's grown into them without noticing?
He frowns and prods at them for a few more minutes, even turns one inside out and back again, but there is no change. That's… Good, he decides tentatively. He's more free to use that part of himself now.
He shakes his head to try and dislodge the strange gloom that fell over him at the realization, and moves to sit himself on a nearby tree root that overlooks Kagami's sleeping spot. With his ears sharpened, he feels a bit more comfortable conserving chakra, relying on his ears rather than his sensing. It's a fairly restful break, as far as these things go, at least for the several hours that Kagami remains asleep.
Tobirama knows exactly when he wakes, because the boy's breath stutters and catches, then stops like he's holding it. He doesn't even try to pretend to remain asleep, and even with his eyes closed Tobirama can easily track the shuffle of movement as Kagami must be sitting up. There's a rustle of fabric, a quiet, relived sigh, then a long moment of silence. When Tobirama doesn't react, there's a muffled groan and the sound of shifting leaf litter as Kagami pushes himself to his feet.
Tobirama is reasonably certain he doesn't have another knife on him, but that only means there's no telling what he's willing to try, and if he lets it get that far, they'll only end up back where Tobirama worked so hard to pull them away from. He opens one eye to look at the boy -- against his will, the matching ear swivels to face him as well. Kagami's eyes -- still dark -- jump around only to settle on the top of his head, mouth hanging open.
Tobirama does not sigh. This was exactly what he wanted.
"It's typically considered unwise to antagonize a much stronger opponent."
Kagami's answering pout makes him look his young age. The baby fat on his cheeks is more obvious without blood and tears marring it, and there are dark, downy feathers askew in his hair. Tobirama is quietly glad that he made peace with the similarity to Itama before even seeing his face.
"It's not like I could get away from you." He mumbles. His eyes remain stubbornly fixed on Tobirama despite the trembles of fear that have started in his hands. It's not bravery, he thinks. The compulsion to keep one's eye on a perceived threat is a very Uchiha trait.
"Likely not." Tobirama agrees, which makes Kagami's expression grow even more sour, "But I didn't, and still don't mean you any harm. Continuing to test it is to your own detriment."
Kagami is still too pale and exhausted to flush with anger, but his shoulders still curl up to his ears and his wings rise up to shield him.
"Not if you're lying." He says, and he crosses his arms. The bag Tobirama gave to him is looped around one wrist and carefully held in one hand.
Tobirama's ears flick in exasperation.
"And what makes you think that? I haven't tried so far, and I have had plenty of opportunity."
"You-- You're a Senju!" He practically shouts, though his voice is too rough to get very loud. Tobirama doubts Kagami would accept any water from him.
"I am." Tobirama agrees, "And yet you're still alive."
Kagami's face flickers through emotions too fast to be read, but his wings flap sharply in agitation before he demands, "But why?"
There we go.
Tobirama leans forward; he keeps his hands on his knees but Kagami still bristles at the movement, all of his feathers fluffing outwards.
"Our clans may be enemies, but you are still a child."
"But Senju kill kids!" Kagami interrupts. He doesn't refute his age, like most other children would do -- but maybe he's already been through enough to have learned that lesson.
Tobirama shakes his head. They don't kill children anymore, or at least that's Hashirama's plan. No Uchiha would believe that yet, though.
"I don't." He says instead. "I believe in forward progress. For all I know, the potential to end the war lies with you."
As it had with Hashirama and Madara, before their fathers intervened. Not likely, but not impossible. And not something Kagami comprehends if his continued silent staring is any indication.
Tobirama does sigh, now.
"Think about it. I'm going to return you home in the meantime. Stop trying to kill me while I take you there."
Kagami did have another weapon -- Tobirama moves, snatching the senbon from his fingers before he can think to do something like stab him through the throat with it and tosses the boy over his shoulder before he can so much as startle.
He does shout in surprise, which Tobirama does not appreciate with his now enhanced hearing, and he scrabbles for purchase on Tobirama's armor before finally going completely dead weight, having finally realized that if Tobirama is going to kill him, there's nothing he can do to stop it.
Like this, travel goes much faster, and in only a few more hours the sun is rising and Tobirama can sense a group of Uchiha patrolling the edge of their borders fast approaching.
"Uchiha-kun." He says, in the minutes before their paths cross. "Can you fly?"
"…What?" The little Uchiha rasps after a moment. "Uh. No."
"Glide, then?"
"…Kind of."
It will have to do.
Tobirama shows himself at the far end of a clearing and six pairs of sharingan swirl to life at the sight of him. The group halts as their captain flexes his wings -- very large, even for his clan -- to shield them, likely expecting a trap or ambush, but Tobirama does not hesitate. He pulls Kagami off of his shoulder, turns, and tosses him towards his clansmen, relying on their sharingan to recognize who he's thrown at them, and catch him if need be. He spins on his heel and leaps away before he can see how any of them react.
He's not followed, at least, and throwing a net of sensory chakra behind him reveals Kagami clinging tight to another one of his clansmen, chakra still a small shivering wisp of a thing, but safe, for now.
It will likely mean nothing, in the grand scheme of things. Tobirama truly does believe that Kagami being the key to peace is unlikely, but…
A child has lived where they might not have. He can be satisfied enough with that.