Chapter Text
Tobirama feels the most intense pain he’s ever felt as Madara’s flame catches his left side, burning his entire arm and up his neck. Ignoring it, he dives to the side and begins fighting the other Kumo shinobi. Any mistake here would mean his death and he can’t have that right now.
He and Madara had been on a recon mission to get an idea on the size of the new village Kumogokure. They had been over confident and had stupidly been ambushed by a group of fifteen Kumo shinobi.
The pain in his arm is blinding and distracting, but he can’t let it slow him down because he is fighting for his life. You endured worse, he tells himself, just remember all those trainings Butsuma made you go through.
It gets down to three Kumo shinobi and when it’s obvious they’re at a disadvantage, they try fleeing, likely intending to alert their village of the reconnaissance by Konoha. They can’t have that but in this state, Tobirama will only hinder Madara’s progress.
“You coming?” Madara yells back at him as he starts to pursue the enemy shinobi.
“I’m badly injured, if you can handle them you go while I bandage up. I can sense no other enemy nearby.”
Madara nods and takes off.
Finally alone, Tobirama sinks to the ground and takes a look at his arm, hissing as he does. He can feel shock trying to set in and he has to use iryojutsu to stabilize his nervous system so he can begin to treat the burn.
The first thing he needs to do is remove the burned clothing from the burn, a really painful endeavour. The next is to remove the dead tissue. The burn is excruciating and he almost blacks out multiple times.
He can immediately tell this is beyond his ability to heal. It’s unlikely he will be able to heal his skin in one sitting like this and out in the open with no access to more resources and other healers - without anija. The burn is 4th degree without a doubt. Healing internal bleeding would be easier than this.
There is so much skin damage, even Hashirama would probably have trouble fully healing this. If he could. Deciding to let go of those thoughts - he’ll worry for what will become of his body after he’s safely back in Konoha - he focuses on cooling the skin so he can wrap it to prevent infection. He knows that leaving his skin like this is to invite infection and while he is almost passing out from the pain, having an infection and a fever on top of it would slim his chances of actually making it back home.
His skin is too damaged as it is even with his efforts and he grimaces thinking he will likely have to constantly be healing himself until he reaches Konoha and can seek medical help.
The problem is that they are still on a mission and he can’t be distracted by this kind of pain, so he temporarily blocks the pain receptors in his arm. Thankfully, it’s his left arm and he’s right handed so he will likely be able to fight if necessary without using his arm.
By the time Madara gets back Tobirama is putting a clean shirt back on.
“Shit Tobirama! What happened?” Madara looks horrified at the bandages covering his entire arm and up his neck.
Tobirama doesn’t - not even for a moment - think of telling Madara the truth. He would never get over the guilt. And while Madara may be Hashirama’s best friend, Tobirama has started to consider the other man a friend as well. He has no intention of hurting his friend with the knowledge.
“Took a katana all the way up. I’ve healed as much as I can, but I'm low on chakra so I’ll have to wait until we are back in the village to get further healing in the hospital.”
“Well shit.” He looks very concerned and it would be funny how out of depth he seems if it didn’t reflect Tobirama’s own internal worries. “Okay mission over. We are going back now.”
“No, I can continue the mission,” Tobirama tries to argue.
“You think I’m going to risk your safety with an injury like that? This mission isn’t that time sensitive, another team can take over. We are going back.”
Tobirama sighs, “I suppose you’re right,” he says, trying to sound displeased and failing. He wants to cry in relief and his sentiment leaks a bit in his voice and in the way his body sags.
He may not feel the pain right now because it’s numbed, but he knows he needs treatment immediately to heal as much as possible.
It’s a three day trip back and by the end of day two Tobirama can’t hide the effects of the burn. He might not be feeling pain, but infection has, without a doubt, set in despite his best efforts, and he’s too busy burning chakra running as fast as he can and healing his arm a little more at a time that he can’t fight the infection. It’s too intense and comes on too fast.
It comes to a point where despite not telling Madara of it, he is unable to wake up on their last day of travel. He has a horrible fever when Madara checks him up and is not responding to external stimuli.
Madara thinks briefly of checking the injury himself, but if it’s infected he doesn’t want to risk uncovering it and possibly introducing more bacteria or whatever to it. So he just runs as fast as he can to the hospital with a limp Tobirama on his back.
As soon as he reaches the hospital he tells them of the cut Tobirama received and they give him a strange look before sending him off and disappearing with Tobirama inside a room to start assessing his injuries.
-.-
When Tobirama wakes up his brother is sitting by his side. He looks gaunt, like he hasn’t slept in days.
“Anija?” He rasps.
Hashirama’s head jerks up, “Tobira! Oh thank the sage you woke up! I was starting to fear you wouldn’t.” Then he’s up and pouring a cup of water. “Here, drink this.”
Tobirama takes a drink and feels such relief, he hadn’t even realized he was parched until he had that first sip.
“What happened?”
“What happened is you got the worst burn I’ve ever seen. We did our best to heal it but it’s going to be a bad scar. I’m so sorry I couldn't do more. The fever almost killed you.”
Tobirama looks down at his lap in shame. “I”m so sorry I worried you. Does…..Does Madara know?”
“No. I don’t why you lied to him about the injury, but you wrote the laws on medical info being shared. All I shared with him was that you hadn’t woken up yet. He’s been climbing the walls wanting to come visit. Why didn’t you tell him? He might have had some sort of burn cream on him.”
“He did it.” Tobirama whispers.
“What?” Hashirama asks, “what did you say? Did you just say he did it? I’ll fucking kill him.” Hashirama goes to stand up, but Tobirama’s cry of pain as he tries to stop him, pauses him in his tracks.
“He doesn’t know. I got caught in his grand fireball jutsu. He has no idea he got me and I want to keep it that way. The guilt would eat him alive. I don’t want him to know.”
Hashirama sits back down with a heavy sigh. “I understand that, but geeze. How do you plan to keep this a secret forever? The burns go up your neck! And almost down to your hand. Your entire arm is covered.”
“I’ll just stick to turtlenecks.”
“And what about the summer? Going to the hot springs?”
“I will wear turtlenecks all year round. And I don’t love the hot springs as much as you do. It’s no great loss. If I feel the need to go then I can when I’m out of the village.”
“What about when Madara finds out you can’t go on missions for at least a year. Honestly, this burn is so bad you may have to retire all together. Your range of movement could be forever ruined.”
“I can go on missions with one arm. Other shinobi have. But I’m confident I’ll regain movement. And we can just say I’m needed for administrative work. Maybe we can finally get the academy going. Maybe I could even be a teacher for a bit.”
“I think you should just tell him. I get why you’re worried. But lying is never a good thing. The truth almost always comes out.”
“Well then I’ll keep it to myself as long as I can. You can let Madara visit me. My burn is fully covered and as long as everyone knows not to say anything I will just keep it to myself. I’m sure it will calm him if he can see that I will be fine.”
“Tobirama. You will not be fine! This will affect the rest of your life! I’m not kidding when I say you may never be able to use your arm again. I don’t even know when you will be able to bend it. The scar damage alone could prevent it. I feel like you aren’t taking this seriously!” Hashirama shouts, despair in his eyes.
Tobirama looks him right in the eyes. “Anija. Have you ever seen an injury stop me? Do you remember all the things father did? I never even let those things slow me down. I’ll find a way to heal the scar tissue until I can move my arm like normal. How many iryojutsu do we have that I developed? I’ll figure it out.”
Hashirama sighs, “I hope you are right. I’ll tell Madara he can visit you. Though I don’t know how you’re going to explain the fact that you will have to remain bandaged for months.”
“I’ll hide it. Can you bring me a turtleneck before you get him? I’ll tell him the cut caused extensive nerve damage. It’s true enough. It will explain how long I’ll be here. I imagine I’m only feeling this good due to some nerve blockers?”
Hashirama frowns at him again, but nods, “Yeah and now that you’re up they are going to stop using that and you’ll have to learn to manage the pain and start more healing,”
Tobirama nods, “makes sense. Well let Madara come up while I’m feeling alright and then hopefully I can convince him to stay away until I’m healed enough to leave.”
“Whatever you say,” but Tobirama can see the heavy judgement in Hashirama’s eyes, still he leaves to get Tobirama his shirt and then go find Madara.
He knows his plan has a lot of risk, and the chances of being caught are high, but he has hope that he will be able to pull this off.
To be honest, Madara really isn’t the most observant person unless he’s on a mission. So he thinks his odds of pulling this off with him are pretty high. Izuna though….. Izuna might figure it out. So he’ll have to shut him up before he shares his thoughts with Madara.
Hashirama comes with his shirt giving Tobirama enough time to get it one before Madara comes slamming into the room.
“Careful! There are other patients in the hospital!” Tobirama snaps.
Madar winces, “sorry. I just needed to see you. It’s been days and no one would tell me anything.” He then walks up to Tobirama and assesses him. “You don’t look too horrible. If the cut was so deep and beyond your ability to heal you should have said something! I could have at the very least given you stitches to help prevent the bleeding and infection. When you collapsed your whole arm was red with blood and the bandages looked like they were oozing! I was afraid of making it worse so I didn’t touch it. But next time tell me so I can help!”
“Sorry, I really did think I had it handled. I didn’t mean to make you worry. Next time I’ll be sure to tell you. Though it will be a bit before I’m mission ready again. I got a little nerve damage due to the time it took to get back and the infection didn’t help.”
“Shit Tobirama. Well I’ll help you get back up to full strength once you’re ready to train again,” Madara says with his crooked smile.
“Ah, I think it will be a while and he will need to take it easy for a while,” Hashirama interjects.
Madara frowns and opens his mouth to respond but Tobirama interrupts him. “Which really is perfect. I’ve been trying to get that academy plan passed but no one has wanted to take point on it. If I’m off missions for a while I’ll be able to take point and maybe get it up and running.”
“That’s actually a good idea. I did think the idea had merit. I just had no interest in helping found it, then by the time you get it started you should be good to start training and going on missions again.” Madara laughs.
Hashirama laughs with him though it’s obviously strained to Tobirama, “right, well how perfect that it’s working out so well for Tobirama to take on during his recovery.”
Tobirama’s eyes snap to Hashirama. “Yes, it is perfect timing. We will just have to see how long it takes to get it going.”
“It can’t take too long. I mean once the foundations are set you just need to get building plans set and teachers picked. It’s not like you have to do any of the teaching yourself.”
“Right. Well, we will see how long it takes.”
“How long will you have to be here? You seem much recovered from the fever you had from the infection.”
Tobirama hesitates for a moment. “I’ll have to be here another couple of weeks at least while we figure out how to heal the nerve damage.”
Madara nods seriously, “ah, that makes sense. You really should have told me it was so bad.”
“If it happens again, I’ll be sure to tell you,” Tobirama lies.
It’s mostly a lie because this will never happen again. It’s likely it will be a while before he can go on a mission again. And honestly Hashirama was right. This will likely be the end of his career. At least for the kind of missions he might take with Madara.
-.-
It’s been a full week already at the hospital. Tobirama enforced a strict no visitors policy, something he’s heard from Hashirama has irritated Touka, Madara, and Izuna. But for now they are respecting his privacy and not forcing the issue.
He would let them visit, but now that he’s off the nerve blockers he’s in so much pain so much of the time, and the pain medications he is taking sometimes make him loopy.
And while the burns are always covered, he’s worried he will tell Madara the truth of his injuries while he’s drugged.
That and honestly he didn’t want anyone to see him like this.
He spends a great deal of each day in agony because he doesn’t like the feeling of being on pain medication more than he has to.
The healing process is worse than the initial burn. He’s had to have a debridement and skin grafting treatment multiple times to get rid of dead tissue. And the daily cleaning is an awful experience as well.
He has his first surgery tomorrow, an escharotomy to relieve some of the constriction that prevents him from moving his arm and shoulder much.
He is definitely looking forward to regaining more mobility and being able to bend his elbow, but he’s not looking forward to the pain that will follow.
He clenches his teeth and fights tears trying to well up in his eyes.
He was due to get more pain meds several hours ago, but he had wanted to be clear minded for a while, he wanted to plan more. Hashirama had brought some of the paperwork he’d already started on the academy and he needed to look through it and add to it so that he had a good proposal to bring to the council.
It’s a decision he’s regretting right now because the pain is so horrible right now and he has to wait for a nurse to come check on him before he can get more.
He could use the bell to call one, but it felt wrong to disturb the nurses from what they are doing just because he changed his mind and was regretting his decision to postpone pain medication.
Why hadn't he been faster?
So much for being the fastest shinobi of his time if he can’t even avoid one little fireball jutsu.
It’s pathetic.
He’s pathetic.
His one failure had possibly ended his entire shinobi career.
He wants to scream. Just let out a gut wrenching roar of pain and anger.
How pathetic is it to spend years avoiding any serious injuries fighting Izuna one on one just to fall to a misaimed jutsu from an ally.
He squeezes his eyes shut to stop any tears from falling.
Tobirama tries to physically force the thoughts from his head, as much as he wants to he can’t fall to self pity.
Others will notice it and above all he has to hide the extent of his injuries and the cause.
But for right now, while he’s alone, he’s going to let himself break down.
-.-
A week after his surgery the hospital finally clears him to go home.
They send him with pain killers and orders to start physical therapy.
Hashirama tries to convince him to stay home and rest and recover for another week or two. But he just can’t. He’s going stir crazy.
So only three days after he is released home he’s attending a council meeting.
“I know this has been brought up before, but I’d like to put forward the idea of a combined shinobi and public academy. Where children are taught basic life skills until they reach the age eight when they can be tested for their chakra levels and they and their parents can decide if they will continue with civilian courses only or if they will start to include shinobi skills.”
Shikata shakes her head, “we’ve been through this before more than once. No one has been willing to take this on to make sure it's set up by shinobi standards. I think we should just keep the status quo of a civilian only academy and all shinobi skills be taught in clan.”
“I understand your objections, however I’m taking a break from mission work and would like to take this project on. I think giving civilians the chance to test for chakra levels and give them the potential to train can only be a good thing for the village. And this way we can make sure all children are given the same basic skill set. It doesn’t mean they won’t still train in the clan. Clan techniques of course will still only be learned in clan.”
Inosuke raises his hand, “if you’re willing to take this on then I give it my full support. I have no doubt that you will be able to handle this in a fair and equitable way.”
There are nods from most of the clan heads. Sarutobi Sasuke frowns and raises his hand, “what about your duties as interim clan head? You may still be called upon for missions just like the rest of us. Surely the workload will be too much to handle on your own.”
“I never said I would be handling this on my own. I intend to set up a team to work with me. After all I will need people who are good at blueprints to work with me to help set up the building the way I see it working best, I will need those who can assist in hiring teachers. I don’t believe that should be left just to me. Though I don’t believe I would hire with any bias it’s always best to prevent such concerns before they can be made. I am sure I will be able to balance my work as the temporary Senju clan head and getting the academy started. Does anyone else have any concerns?”
No one else raises their hand. “Then it’s agreed, Tobirama will take on the academy. Now, let's move on to merchants. We’ve had some trouble getting merchants to move into the village. I think the fact that the village is so new and the travel from villages or even the capital can be arduous at best are likely our biggest concern. Does anyone have any suggestions?”
Chozan raises his hand, “I think a monetary incentive would likely give many a reason to take the risk.”
Shimura Daiju raises his hand, “I don’t see why we should offer them anything special. We should simply boycott their products until they are forced to move to get their primary clientele back.”
Madara frowns before raising his voice, “and what pray tell will we do in the meantime when we don’t have the equipment we need? Don’t have the resources? I think the best option is to offer protection while they move. If we send teams to discuss the reasons they should move into the village we will likely be able to convince them with the promise of safety on the journey and even help moving wares.”
Tobirama raises his hand, “I second this proposition. I think this will be the best course of action. And the most likely to succeed.”
One by one the other clan heads nodded and raised their hands in agreement.
“Okay, next on the agenda is the mission ranking system.”
Tobirama kind of zones out after this. Not because he’s not interested, but Hashirama has his notes on this and the pain is starting to ebb in again. The healers had strictly forbidden him from using iryojutsu to numb his nerves because he needs to feel if things are changing so he can come in and get more treatment.
By the end of the meeting his arm was throbbing in agony and he could practically feel the heat radiating off it. He has to go in later today to get an allograft, which is basically a biological bandage, something Hashirama is able to help grow for him, onto the skin because the size of the burn is so extensive. He’ll have to get another one in 1-3 weeks, it just depends on how long it takes his body to reject the graft.
It should help decrease the pain for a little while, and also decrease the chance of renewed infection. Which he will be at until the wound heals, it will likely be months even with iryojutsu for it to be healed enough. And then in a couple more months they will do surgery again to try to get him better mobility in his elbow joint by repositioning some of the scar tissue so it will allow him to bend better.
He starts physical and occupational therapy next week. Something that one of the Senju healers is going to handle so he can do it in his own home and avoid being seen in the hospital more than necessary.
The healers all assume he just doesn’t want to worry the village, thinking one of their strongest shinobi is too injured to help protect them. No one knows the real reason is just a selfish desire to prevent his friend from the knowledge of where the burn came from.
-.-
To be continued...