There's a Senju in the compound.
Togakushi doesn't know why, because no one ever tells him anything, but the man's presence here is impossible to miss, the way he'd waltzed right up to the gates like this place isn't hidden up sheer cliffs and behind waterfall mist. Everyone's been gossiping enough about him that even he's heard it.
Senju Tobirama is here, on behalf of some place called Konoha.
Probably, he should be scared for his life. If that man is high ranking enough to show up and negotiate with the clan head he must be no joke, but Togakushi stopped fearing death a long time ago. The idea of staying here forever is what really bothers him.
It's been a long time since he's had an opportunity this good -- years of escape attempts have made even moving around the compound a pain on some days, and even as he lounges and pretends to observe the rock garden -- that hides half a dozen pitfall traps and some even more painful things -- he can feel the eyes of passerby focus on him and catalog his location. He's not guarded, per-se, but at this point the consequences of another escape attempt have been made clear to him. His next attempt must succeed, or he will never have the chance to make one again.
His plan is simple, in theory. All he has to do is find the Senju and make him realize he's an Uchiha. Not that Togakushi has ever had any luck with that.
Togakushi dons his most sullen expression, slumps his shoulders, and starts to meander his way towards the clan head's house.
He arrives just in time to find the clan head's daughter leading the Senju into the clan head’s house. He's paler than Togakushi remembers Senju being, and he's got a symbol etched into his happuri that he doesn't recognize. Hopefully that doesn't mean there's a different Senju clan out there, but if there was that would be just his luck.
She's smiling and fluttering her eyelashes and hanging close to the Senju's elbow, so she's probably trying to flirt or manipulate him into something, but his face stays impassive as he scans the small crowd that's gathered outside. Togakushi stares at him as hard as he can, even tries to force chakra to his eyes like it might suddenly jumpstart the sharingan, even though that's never worked to do anything but give him a headache.
The Senju's eyes don't linger on him as he walks past -- no wonder, since somehow Togakushi looks like everyone else here. Briefly, the thought of attacking him flashes through his mind -- it might ruin whatever deal is going on here, and even though it would probably end up with him dead, at least it would be in service to his clan -- but no; not when he can't guarantee that it would be anything but a waste. Instead he listens to the chatter around him -- "-- village of shinobi?--" "--can't expect us to go all the way to fire country --" "--heard they have a deal with Uzu --" "--Tsune-hime looks like she likes him--".
They seem wary but interested, but no one else seems to have any more of a clue than he does. He's sure that tonight the clan head will call everyone together to talk about it, and Togakushi will be excluded, as usual -- he's still considered a child, because he hasn't shown any sign of the stupid Kankaku clan ability to see smell, and he never will. Though even if they didn't, it would be stupid to trust him with anything at this point, since he's already tried to pretend he's had a change of heart about his loyalty twice, now.
No one in their right mind is going to let him talk to an outsider, not on purpose. Togakushi will have to find another way.
With no idea of the timetable he's working under, he turns on his heel and goes back to his room. It's a glorified storage shed, only a step up from a prison cell. More importantly it's central to the entire compound, because four walls are about the only privacy he's allowed anymore. Even now, three pairs of eyes watch him as he pulls open the door to the shed he lives in.
"Toga-kun!" One of them calls out, voice dripping sarcasm, "You know you'll never move out of there if you keep skipping out on training. Why don't you come spar with us?"
Togakushi doesn't even bother to grace them with a response, slamming the door closed behind him. He's always told himself that he can make them pay on the day he gets out of here. He can focus on that, first.
They took away everything he owned with an uchiwa on it after the first escape attempt, and he knows for a fact that he'll be punished if he tries to sew it onto anything else, but he has a kendogi in indigo, and he has a set of shinobi blacks with a high collar. No one here dresses like they do at home, all willing to show off every expression that crosses their dumb faces. This is no battle coat, but to a Senju -- if that's what that man really is -- it will be recognizable enough. And if it's not, and he has to resort to a genjutsu that makes it look like he has a set of working sharingan, he will.
There's an auntie who sells dumplings out of her house just across the way from the clan head's home, and it seems like half the clan is congregating on her engawa to see the news as it happens. He buys his dinner and sits with them, still in the crowd but far enough apart that no one strikes up a conversation with him. Not that many people try these day.
He takes care to eat slowly, but even so he's down to his last dumpling by the time the clan head's door opens again. He can't tell from anyone's faces how whatever deal they're making went, but he doesn't really care about any of that anyways.
As soon as Tsune starts leading the Senju away, Togakushi leaps up from his seat and follows. He keeps pace with them from a street away, eyes fixed on his prize like a stalking tiger. The man notices right away but his eyes slide off of Togakushi without a care, without considering him a threat at all. Togakushi stands at the corner of the road, watching where they disappear into another house, unable to get any closer.
For a moment after he's gone, the helpless anger that usually chokes him is swamped by a swell of sadness so tangled it makes his stomach ache.
The Senju's eyes were red. Togakushi really wishes he could go home.
Then he shakes the feeling off, crushes it deep down inside himself with the ease of long years of practice. He needs another plan then.
The Senju will have people with him everywhere he goes in the compound. If it were just that then Togakushi would still try to approach him, because they'd be meant more for keeping the outsider in check then members of the clan away. But they're suspicious of him too, so if he gets the chance it will only be once, and it won't be for very long.
He'll need to be up early, he decides as he turns away.
He can feel the usual prickle of eyes on his back as he turns to go back to his storage closet and ignores them as usual. He knows things a Senju will want to know. He knows things a Senju will have to believe, and the Senju can't kill him without ruining whatever deal he's here to make. There will finally be someone who believes him, so who fucking cares how it goes afterwards.
He jams the latch of the door closed with so much force that it comes loose again and he has to turn and fumble with it in frustration. He lights a candle with a flick of fire jutsu then turns and --
He screams, shoulders colliding with the door as he jumps backwards, because the Senju is in his room, leaned against the back wall, arms crossed and head tilted like he hasn't a care in the world. He looks at the knife Togakushi draws from his sleeve with nothing more than a raised eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. The desperate need to not fuck this up keeps Togakushi from throwing it at him.
"Well, Uchiha?" He says, "I assume you have something to report?"
"…Report. Report?!" Togakushi's voice hitches up, but the Senju only rolls his eyes and slaps his hand to the wall. Some seal blooms under his palm to spread across the wood and for a moment even the ringing in Togakushi’s ears goes silent. The feeling is only enough to make him pause for a moment before he goes on, "What the hell would I have to report to a Senju?"
Red eyes blink once -- something about that makes the back of Togakushi's brain itch. There's something important about that, probably sharingan related or something, but the thoughts get shoved away to deal with the more important issue that is the Senju saying, "On the knowledge you've gained while undercover here, one would assume."
He has the look of a man patiently waiting to hear about how his plans have been ruined, which Togakushi is more than happy to oblige.
"There is no undercover." Togakushi snarls, "There is only a clan full of idiots who mistook me for one of their own and dragged me two countries away for it!"
They'd thought him to be the result of bloodline theft, and back then he'd been too weak to do anything but bite and scream as they'd carried him away. When their stupid 'essence-sight' bloodline had never shown up he'd been deemed a failed attempt, and when the sharingan he was supposed to have never showed up either, he had no way to prove to them that he wasn't a delusional brainwashing victim.Tobirama Senju doesn't need to know all that, so Togakushi doesn’t say it.
The Senju tilts his head to the side and says, "That seems like an exceptionally good in for a long term undercover mission, even if unwilling."
Togakushi growls and throws his knife with enough force to stick into the wall, just next to Tobirama’s shoulder but the shinobi in front of him doesn't so much as flinch.
"Fine, sure, whatever." His tone probably matches the horrible broken smile he can feel twisting on his face. "I probably do know stuff that would be useful to you, but I want something in return."
The Senju gestures with one hand as if to say go on. Togakushi feels his smile sharpen and brittle.
"When you get out of here, take me with you. Bring me back to the Uchiha. I'll tell you everything I know."
"Deal." The man agrees, a furrow forming between his eyebrows. He agrees too easily, Togakushi should have bartered for more, but he doesn't care about anything else. There must be some catch, some condition -- he's a Senju agreeing to help an Uchiha. "I will come to retrieve you three days after I depart officially so as not to arouse suspicion. Do not do so yourself before then. Be packed and ready to go in this room by that morning."
He kneels down without looking away, the hand he'd used to gesture before brushing over the ground, and another seal blooms from his fingers, this one monstrously more complicated. The Senju doesn't hesitate a moment before grabbing the edge of the futon Togakushi sleeps on and dragging it over to cover the mark.
That's it? Togakushi thinks. Is it that easy?
It can't be, but he doesn't dare voice it, not when agreement can still be taken back.
It's fine, he tells himself, I'll let him take me to Fire country before I kill him and bolt. And until then, he really doesn't mind spilling every secret about this clan that he has -- after all the faster negotiations end, the faster the Senju can go.
When he starts to run out of words, the Senju says, "That should be sufficient. I will be here, make sure you are prepared."
He touches the wall again, the seal he'd placed there disappears, and then the man himself is gone with only a wisp of smoke in his place.
What kind of technique is that! Togakushi jolts so hard that he stumbles and falls on his own ass. Not a transformation, there's no animal trying to crawl away, not a body substitution or a flicker, there's nowhere for him to have gone. Not a clone, the man just stood there and had a full conversation with him!
He pinches himself too. Frustratingly, he can't fully rule out a genjutsu, but that really didn't feel like one.
Tentatively, Togakushi reaches out and lifts the edge of his futon. The seal is still there. He lets it drop.
Well, fine. The Senju is clearly going to try something, at least.
It takes Tobirama Senju four more days to finish doing whatever it is he was here for, though it’s impossible to say how pleased he is with how negotiations went, with a face as blank as his. W
The clan keeps gathering to have discussions long after he's gone. No one invites Togakushi, or tells him anything, but he listens anyway. Suddenly the conversation has turned into 'funding from fire' and 'joining kirigakure' and it sounds like the Senju was here to hire the clan for some kind of expensive clan-wide undercover mission.
Not that Togakushi actually cares that much, but he usually skulks around and eavesdrops. It would be more suspicious if he didn't.
Besides that, the days drag by, like they usually do. When he's not earning himself glares, Togakushi entertains himself by imagining how he might hunt down and kill the Senju if he doesn't show back up, and then how he might kill as many people here as he can before going down in a blaze of glory.
Though this isn't actually his last chance. As far as he can tell the Senju never told anyone about his planned escape, so he'll still have a chance to make one even if he doesn't show up. So, Togakushi imagines his escape, and then imagines turning around and bringing the whole force of the Uchiha clan to bear on these backwater idiots who are too stupid to even understand that they've committed bloodline theft. There's a lot of fire in those fantasies.
He does pack, as promised. It's not like he owns much, and he hasn't been allowed to own a backpack since his second escape attempt, so Togakushi has plenty of practice in folding down all of his belongings to fit into a tied off blanket. He ends up using it as an extra thick pillow as he dozes, unable to fall fully asleep as the final night passes him by.
Despite that, he's still taken completely by surprise when a hand clamps down over his mouth. Another one pins his arms to his chest and his attempted shout and retaliatory strike are stopped in their tracks.
Tobirama Senju, who is somehow, suddenly, in his room, asks, "Are you prepared to leave?"
Togakushi blinks, then blinks harder to make sure the sight in front of him is real. When it stays he nods, wordless despite the fact that the hand has left his face. He's been ready to leave since the day he got here.
"Get up." The Senju commands. "Get your things."
Heart shivering with anticipation, Togakushi rolls to his feet, blanket-pack in his arms. The moment he's off of his futon, Tobirama pulls it to the side and places his hand down on the seal he left, until the ink flakes away and nothing is left behind.
He nods to himself, satisfied, then puts that same hand on Togakushi's arm. He can't help but stiffen under the touch.
"We're going." He says instead of any acknowledgement. "It will be uncomfortable."
Before Togakushi can ask one of his very relevant questions, most pressingly 'how', the world is pulled out from beneath his feet. There is a moment where it feels like he is falling, faster than someone should be able to move without having their skin pulled off of their bones. Then the feeling stops with such force and suddenness that all of his internal organs lurch in protest. He hunches over and heaves out the remains of yesterday's dinner on a forest floor that is decidedly not his tiny little storage shed room.
"Hmm." Tobirama Senju hums as Togakushi continues to retch. "If you suffer from motion sickness then it will be better to get all of the jumps over with at once."
"Wh--" Togakushi chokes out, and then he's falling and stopping again, and again, and again, until his head is spinning and his vision starts to spot and he can't tell where his own limbs are any more. He doesn't pass out. He wishes he passed out. Instead he has to deal with the sensation of his entire body rebelling against him, unable to do anything but curl up on the -- huh -- smooth wooden floor.
When he can finally open his eyes without wanting to die, he is greeted to an up close view of Tobirama Senju's feet. It takes several more minutes before he can turn his head without wanting to vomit again. The Senju looks down at him.
"When you can stand, I will take you to your clan head." He says.
"Urgh." Togakushi replies.
He has no sense for how long he lays there. The Senju is perfectly unaffected and goes about writing something as Togakushi watches from his uncomfortable angle. He makes an aborted attempt at sitting up and gives up about an inch off the floor when the dizziness returns. Tobirama eyes him.
"Where is this?" Togakushi asks instead of acknowledging that. Or -- any of it. "The Senju compound?"
"Konoha." Red eyes stare down at him and narrow when he doesn't react. "You'll see soon enough."
Right, sure. That's the place this guy was an ambassador for, wasn't it? Some village?
He looks away from the Senju and up at the ceiling beams, able to think enough now to frown. Why would a Senju bring him back to whatever place he was contracted to work instead of somewhere secure? He…
Okay, obviously he's more than capable of subduing and catching Togakushi if he tries to escape. And has some kind of contact with the Uchiha if he's able to arrange a meeting with his clan head so easily. Supposedly.
He glances over again to watch the Senju continue to work. Maybe he's some kind of traitor? Spy? That feels more correct. Someone with his coloration should work for the Uchiha.
That settled in his own mind, Togakushi takes a deep breath and carefully tries to push himself up again, with more success this time. He's able to hold his head between his knees, now. After several more minutes of this, he doesn't feel so much like death when he raises his head again. The Senju ignores him even after he takes another careful breath and pushes himself to his feet.
"So?" He has to ask. "Take me to my clan, then."
"Hm." The man side-eyes him but sets down his work and gestures for him to follow. Togkushi doesn't even have the energy to be angry at how easily Tobirama gives his back as he leads him out of the office and into a long wide hallway. Togakushi freezes before he can take his first step out. The entire building seems to be bustling with shinobi. Many of them have matching metal plates with that swirling symbol, but at the same time must all be from different clans based just off of the face markings alone. His head spins as he tries to take it all in, and Togakushi doesn't think it's from the technique the Senju used.
His eyes want to catch on everything, and inevitably they see, at the far end of the hall, the back of a woman's battle coat as she turns away to go about her business. Togakushi freezes, ache blooming at the hollow of his throat down to the bottom of his stomach. He hasn't seen the Uchiha clan mon in over half his life, but no one else here even spares it a second glance.
He thinks he might make a whining sound. Tobirama glances back at him again.
"Come on." The Senju commands. Ears ringing, Togakushi follows.
The rest of the village is even more overwhelming; bright and colorful and crowded and Togakushi can hardly take in one thing before being bombarded with another. As soon as he does the last one has slipped through his ears. It's lucky that Tobirama Senju stands out even from everyone else, Togakushi does not doubt that he would get lost here. Shinobi really live in a place like this?
But they must, they're everywhere, and they haven't walked for very long at all before they reach an open gate. The noren above flutters in the breeze have Uchiha fan stamped there, too. Tobirama Senju passes through easily, the gate guards who Togakushi doesn't recognize scrutinize him more than they do the Senju. The pain in his stomach flares -- he'd managed not to throw up before, but, what if nobody remembers him. What if they don't believe him, what if they don't care --
Someone is talking. Tobirama is looking at him. It's all static.
He nearly jumps out of his skin at the hand on his wrist but hardly resists as he's pulled along towards what is obviously the clan head's house, and the few people on the street are still acting like he's the strange one here.
Hah, what's he so afraid of, huh? Isn't this what he's wanted for so long? Togakushi forces himself to stand straight and tries not to face a face that's too off-putting. No need to make a bad second first impression. He thinks he probably fails pretty terribly.
The Uchiha compound isn't at all how he remembered it, but Togakushi doesn't know if that's because it's a different place entirely, or if it's because he’s tall enough to see over the hedges and fences he couldn't before. Did this village get built around the Uchiha, or did they move here? Tou-san would have never allowed either -- maybe. Probably. So, probably, tou-san isn't here anymore, and his home hasn't frozen in time. Obviously. Very obviously, since a man who calls himself Senju is letting himself into the Uchiha head's house without knocking.
"Hold on." Togakushi finally wheezes out. "Hold on, hold on."
Tobirama does hold on, though he doesn't seem very impressed at Togakushi for asking.
"I'm an Uchiha, but how did you know I am?"
How do I prove it, when I still don't have a sharingan?
"You were being very obvious about it." The Senju says. "And --" He adds after a moment of thought, "Your clan's chakra is very distinctive."
Is it? If it is, at least that something he actually has.
"So then, you'll vouch for me, right?"
Tobirama frowns in confusion.
"I assume Madara is adept enough at sensing to at least identify his own clansmen."
…He definitely just said Madara. Who isn't tou-san, or Kou-nii, or Kuro-nii. What happened?
"…Tobirama is that you?" A voice rings out from another room. Togakushi's entire body goes stiff, warmth pulling up to his face to leave his fingertips cold. "Who are you talking to?"
The source of the voice appears in the entryway a moment later. He's -- intimidating. Broad and made bigger by the mess of unbound hair, with deep bags under his eyes, and absolutely what Madara-nii-san would have looked like in about a decade and a half.
Madara frowns at the sight of him, eyebrows pulling together. There is no immediate recognition, but those eyes don't leave him as Tobirama begins to explain the circumstances.
"I encountered him on the mission to Mizu, with the Kankaku clan. He made a bid to get my attention, and given that he was obviously an Uchiha I sought him out. He claimed to be kidnapped and requested an extract, which I believe I managed to do without risking any future alliances."
"What future alliances? Why would we make friends with anyone who's been kidnapping Uchiha?!" Madara spits. He steps forward, expression still focused on Togakushi, like he's trying very hard to recall something.
Please. He thinks, please, please, it's me! But his throat is too tight with terror to beg out loud. Even if he doesn't recognize him as his brother, he'll let him stay as an Uchiha, right? He doesn't dare say a thing about it -- who would trust someone claiming to be a long lost sibling?
Madara in his face now, frown growing deeper with each passing moment. Tobirama is arguing something about opportunity cost. Togakushi isn't really listening anymore -- Madara has grabbed his chin to tilt it up. To get a better look at Togakushi's face as he activates his sharingan.
It's rude. It also, finally, is enough to make Togakushi tear up -- how many years has it been? How hard would he beg Kou-nii to let him just watch the tomoe in his eyes spin round and round?
Madara lets out a noise from the back of his throat, eyes spinning and spinning.
"You look just like him." He says, voice soft but toneless. "How can that be?"
Togakushi swallows convulsively, once, then twice until there's just enough room to croak around the lump in his throat.
"They passed me around a lot at first. Eventually someone found me who thought I looked like some water country clan, and they wouldn't believe me no matter how much I said I wasn't. " He takes a shaky breath. "I've been trying to come back home all this time, Mada-nii, I promise."
The grip on his chin tightens.
"Tobirama, go find Izuna and send him here."
Togakushi can't turn his head but hears a sigh, a rustle of cloth, then:
"Fine." A pause. "You will bring any plans you have of destroying the Kankaku to the council before enacting them."
Madara scoffs and waves a hand at Tobirama to send him away, which the man actually seems to listen to, and all this without letting Togakushi's face go or looking away from his eyes.
Once he's gone there's a nudge in the front of his brain, like someone knocking on a door that Togakushi didn't know he could answer. But it's Mada-nii, so he swallows again and he does. It's like his whole life has been painted in scenes on a long ribbon that's pulled past his eyes too fast to truly see. It is just about as disorienting as being teleported was, but he doesn't have to try and hold himself up this time. When he blinks the spots from his eyes, it's to find that he's been pulled into a hug, face pulled into Mada-nii's shoulder.
Oh, it's been a long time since anyone has done that, either.
Slowly, he lifts his shaking hands and wraps them around his brother's shoulders.
"This is real, right?" He says, muffled, "I'm finally home?"
Madara laughs, or maybe he sobs.
"It's real Toga-kun. Welcome home."