My Contract to You

  “What are you trying to learn?” Tobirama asked the next morning as he held Naruto on his lap.

  “The Rasengan!” Naruto explained.  “It’s so cool!”

  “The Rasengan?” Tobirama took a bite out of the toast that he was holding.  “I haven’t heard of that one before.”

  “The Fourth Hokage invented the Rasengan, Nidaime.” Jiraiya explained.  “That would be why.”

  Tobirama nodded calmly, holding Naruto.  The Nidaime was honestly curious about the Sage – why would someone like Jiraiya have such an interest in a child like Naruto?  Almost as if the long-haired male had read his mind, Jiraiya spoke, directing his voice towards the Senju.

  “I would like to speak to you in private, Nidaime.” The Sannin stated, getting to his feet and walking off, expecting Tobirama to follow him.  “It’s about Naruto.”

  Tobirama nodded, kissing Naruto’s cheek before pushing the Uzumaki off his lap.  He stood up and followed Jiraiya.

  “What is this about?” Tobirama asked once they had gotten farther enough away from Naruto.

  “There is a group called the Akatsuki after Naruto.” Jiraiya explained.  “They’re after the nine-tailed fox within Naruto.”

  “So this is your interest in Naruto.” Tobirama mused.  “You’re trying to train him to be strong enough to stand up to an attack upon him.”

  Jiraiya nodded.  “If we look at it this way, it’s a good thing that you’re here – he’ll be protected constantly by one of the strongest ninja to have ever lived.”

  “Yes.  I won’t let any harm befall Naruto.”

  “Let’s go back – we need to find this woman as soon as we can.”

  “Yes…”

  As Tobirama followed the Sage, he felt anger boil inside of him – so someone wanted to harm his Naruto?  Over the Nidaime’s dead body!

  -XX-

  Naruto couldn’t help but be annoyed with Jiraiya.  Though Tobirama had left him alone first, the Senju had to go and do something for Naruto while the Sage had only left to go off womanizing. 

  A knock on the door of his hotel room only frustrated Naruto even more.

  “Pervy Sage!” Naruto called, annoyance in his voice.  He opened the door, expecting to see his mentor standing there.  “Did she – Sasuke?!”

  Sasuke wasn’t the one who was standing before Naruto, but another Uchiha certainly was.  If only Naruto had known that this Uchiha was deadlier than anyone he had ever met – except for perhaps Tobirama and Jiraiya – but neither of them were here right now…

  -XX-

  “Thank you.” Tobirama smiled, taking his item from the vendor.

  Everything had felt fine for a few minutes after Tobirama had left the vendor, but he soon enough for a terrible feeling in his stomach – Naruto.

  -XX-

  Back with the Uzumaki, Naruto was terrified.  Two creeps were trying to kidnap him, and Naruto knew it.

  “Tobi!” Naruto screamed once the shark-looking nin had grabbed his arm.  He struggled in the elder’s grip, but it was doing no good – the other was just too strong.

  “May I chop off his legs?” The shark-nin smirked, reaching behind him and grabbing what Naruto could only assume was a sword wrapped in bandages.

  “…” The Uchiha didn’t reply – he only focused on staring at Naruto with an expressionless gaze. 

  “Tobi!” Naruto cried again, trying to get free.

  “Put him down!” Tobirama’s angry voice shouted from across the hallway.

  Naruto was dropped, and taking advantage of the confusion, he ran to the Nidaime.  The two kidnappers turned to face Tobirama, and almost instantly, Naruto could feel the killer intentions radiating from the Senju.

  “An Uchiha…” Tobirama snarled, shaking.  “I’ll kill you…”

  At the blink of an eye, Tobirama had finished performing hand-signs, and Naruto was shocked to find  that the whole corridor had been flooded almost instantly with water shooting towards the two men in identical cloaks.

  “Nidaime-sama, stop!”

  Tobirama snarled as Jiraiya’s voice sounded from behind them.

  “This isn’t your fight!”

  Confused by the Sage’s words, Tobirama stopped and instead studied the situation.  A new, unfamiliar chakra was approaching from the stairs rapidly.

  “Who is the Uchiha?” Tobirama snarled, a hint of bitterness behind his angry tone.

  “That’s Uchiha Itachi, and the man next to him is Hoshigaki Kisame.” Jiraiya explained.

  “And the newcomer…?”

  “…Uchiha Sasuke…”

  Naruto had never seen the normally calm and quiet man so worked up before.  It was rather frightening.

  “Uchiha scum.” Tobirama spat.  His whole body quivered as he fought his natural instincts – the Uchiha and Senju had always been enemies, and that would never change.

  Naruto stared at Kisame and Itachi fearfully.  He could see that the two men were causing Tobirama a lot of pain – he had never seen the Nidaime worked up before.  He gulped and continued to stare, but he was soon enough caught off-guard by a familiar voice shouting.

  “Itachi!”

  Naruto looked behind the two men to find Sasuke standing behind them.  The young Uchiha’s eyes were wide and full of hatred, and he was quivering in what Naruto was sure was hatred.

  “Izuna?!”

  Naruto frowned at Tobirama’s startled cry and turned to look at the Senju.  Tobirama’s eyes were also wide and tears were beginning to well.  The man soon shook his head, grinding his teeth.

  “…No…” Tobirama whispered to himself.  “…That’s not Izuna…  Izuna died a long time ago…”

  Tobirama was so caught up in his confusion that he didn’t notice the two Uchiha had begun to clash with each other – he didn’t even notice Sasuke’s horrible screams as Itachi pinned his brother against the wall, torturing him with Tsukuyomi.  The only thing that snapped Tobirama out of his memories was suddenly feeling that Naruto was in danger.

  “No!” Tobirama shouted, jumping in between Naruto and Kisame’s sword.  He grabbed hold of the huge blade, pushing it away from the Uzumaki.

  “Tobi!” Naruto screamed as he saw his guardian’s hands – shredded and covered in blood.

  Tobirama flinched at the pain, but he wasn’t going to go down so easily – not when Naruto’s life was in danger.

  Tobirama formed hand-signs amongst his pain, flooding the hallway once again.  It didn’t take him long to chase away to the men with the toad-sage’s help.

  Naruto was found by Sasuke’s side.  Tobirama was shocked to see how much Sasuke and his old lover, Izuna, looked alike – they could have been directly related by the resemblance! 

  “Give him here.” Tobirama instructed to Naruto, reaching out for the unconscious Uchiha.  “I’ll try and help him.”

  True to his words, Tobirama – begrudgingly – tried to heal the injuries that weren’t too serious – he couldn’t heal serious injuries just yet.  Fighting against the Uchiha clan his entire life had really messed up his interactions with the Sharingan-wielders.

  -XX-

  It had taken a while but, soon enough, Tobirama had explained that Sasuke would be fine.  They had given the Uchiha to another Leaf Shinobi who had shown up – Might Guy.  Naruto was upset and worried about his friend, but once Tobirama had reassured him that Sasuke would be okay, Naruto had clung once again to the Senju.  Tobirama couldn’t help but feel strangely smug about that.

  Hours had passed by.  Tobirama just wanted to be left alone.  He had locked himself in the motel room’s bathroom, crying for Izuna. 

  It broke Naruto’s heart, but he had no idea what he could do to help – he didn’t know who Izuna was, and Tobirama refused to talk about him.  All he could do was stand outside the door and listen to the Senju’s heartbroken wails.