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Assistant: Title: Red Bangles, Black Anklets
        Author: AvaCelt AvaCelt 
        Chapter: 21/27 
        Summary: In a world of warring clans and roaming beasts, a small island struggles to survive. Thousands of miles away, the Hokage loves another man so deeply, he almost forgets his duty. Deep within a jungle, a tailed beast rises. In another world, the island would die, its children scattered throughout the elemental nations, a beast shackled to its descendants for the rest of eternity. In this one, Mito Uzumaki decides to fight back. [Founders Era AU, Alternate History Rewrite, eventual Mito/Madara & Hashirama/Kakuzu, one-sided Hashirama/Madara, ongoing]
        Contents: Chapter 21: Kinetic
    

    

        
          
          
            If war hadn't ruined his life and the lives of other members of his clan, if he'd been born into a peaceful world instead of the Hell that was the greater continent, would Madara have had the privilege of marrying someone? Would he have grown up to be a different man? In another world, another place, would he have been happy?
          
        

      
        
          
          (See the end of the chapter for  notes.)
          
      
  

  
  
    
    
    Two Months Until the Kage Summit  
Mito entered the barrack's war room with gentle clicks of her steel-toed leather boots. Her armor made small clangs as they collided with the heavy gold bangles around her wrists.“Commander,” Nijima nodded lightly.Mito looked at the room full of her closest soldiers. Nijima stood closest to the entrance, decked in in the corrugated steel armor of Uzushio's army, general of the troops set to man the beaches. Her uncle Genki was the farthest, standing tall and grim next to a bookshelf, his lieutenant's sigil polished and prim on the left side of his breastplate. Then there was Ugaki, her second captain on the sea, and the man who would direct the remainder of her navy.She'd lied to the three little children and sent them away on errands.“It's agreed to the deal,” she stated. “The Kraken will keep it to its promise until we're finished. Then it will inherit what's left.”“I'll ask again,” Genki cut in harshly, “is this the only way?”The beast chuckled inside Mito's head, but she kept her face expressionless. “They'll be coming to annihilate the island. Using the 9-Tails to trap and destroy them while the island is occupied with invaders is the only way to ensure mutual destruction. They'll be coming to burn and salt the land. I'm going to let the beast boil them alive before they can.”“And the ritual?” Genki barked. “You still haven't decided when you'll break the seals! If you break them too late, then the Mizukage will stomp out the slave revolts before he comes here. You'll have to catch him when he's away from the archipelago. That way, the revolts will cripple the navy and standing army while he's busy with us.”A ghost of a smile graced Mito's ruined face. “Don't worry – I know the perfect time.”Over the weeks, the petals of Hashirama's orchid followed Kakuzu's unearthly stench. In Konoha, Hashirama told only Tobirama, Touka, and Susumu Yamanaka the truth, that he'd walked away from killing the rogue ninja. Of course, he kept to himself as to why, but that was what the orchids were for.They stalked the Taki native because Hashirama had trouble understanding why he'd let the man live instead of putting him out of his misery. After all, it wasn't as if Kakuzu was doing himself any favors. Hashirama's flowers only told him where the man went, not what he was doing and who he was doing in, but Hashirama wasn't a fool, and neither was his network of spies, so every other day was yet another report recounting the fallen Taki shinobi's antics, and every day there was something, sometimes a man without a heart, sometimes a theft, and sometimes a disembowelment with no rhyme nor reason.But Hashirama understood a few things – he knew murder and he knew vengeance. He tracked the murders and the stolen hearts. He traced the bounties in his own bingo book, and didn't lift a finger even though the man had killed almost two hundred people in just a month.Perhaps it was penance for not killing him when he had the chance. In a way, Hashirama knew it was all his fault. Few men could survive in the presence of a god, and he'd made a serious miscalculation in thinking Kakuzu would be able to handle the reality of having fought him and lived to tell the tale. Others had been executed on the spot for failing to best Hashirama, but Hashirama found that to be an act of mercy. Kakuzu had been kept alive and tortured. There could be no worse punishment. Every moment Kakuzu took another breath was yet another reminder that Hashirama was the cause for his punishment. Hashirama knew that it; he accepted it.And yet, something ached inside in his chest. Hashirama didn't know what, but it haunted his every waking moment. Kakuzu's gray and stitched skin left imprints on his brain, and his awful stench seemed to have followed Hashirama all the way back the Konoha. He oftentimes felt the weight of the man's words crawl underneath his skin, like a beetle scurrying across the floor.And so, Hashirama pondered and pondered, while miles away, Kakuzu went on killing.The dark sky threatened rain, but still the wedding took place beneath a canopy of palm fronds, and within an altar laid with pink and black stones.Madara had attended few weddings in his lifetime. The last one was his cousin Kaname's, and that marriage had ended the way most did within the Uchiha clan, with Kaname's husband dead and Kaname widowed before the age of thirty. The unfortunate reality of an Uchiha's life dictated that weddings were mostly useless. Mating was encouraged, of course, but emotional ties outside of visceral clan loyalty was frowned upon, foolish even to an extent. Madara had been away strategizing with Hashirama about their new-found village while Kaname's husband had succumbed to his war wounds and died of gangrene.But war and strife didn't seem to stop the people of Uzushio, and so on his last night on the island, he attended a wedding between an Uzushio native who worked the mountain with him and a refugee from Wave. A small portion of the beach was decked out with hand-made crafts, while the bride and groom were decked in their best clothes, which were as plain as Madara imagined they would be.But they beamed as they held hands, and Madara was glad that he'd helped build the small altar. It'd been easy work, but it'd been peaceful, and the fruit of his labor was now on full display. The bride and groom held hands, repeated after the priest, and then shared their sake dish as a mark of their union. They'd followed Wave's customs – the land one of them would never return to.Madara turned away just as his eyes began to get misty. He still didn't know where the ache came from, and what it was for. He didn't desire sexual relations like others did, and had little patience for the softer things the world had to offer, but there was that ache again – that longing for something different, something so close and yet so unknowable. He didn't particularly hate the feeling, but he didn't enjoy experiencing it in public with fifty other refugees and natives clapping and throwing hand-plucked flower petals at the newlyweds.And he didn't enjoy knowing that it had something to do with the scarred woman who always seemed to be close by, one Mito Uzumaki, the one who was standing on the outskirts of the crowd and throwing full, bright pink blossoms at the laughing couple instead of the hand-plucked magenta petals.She was still hideous enough to haunt his dreams, but also steady and strong enough to leave an impression on his waking days. On this cold, dark night, the flickering bonfire illuminating the beach and its tiny wedding also highlighted the contours of her ruined face and staggering height. She loomed over most of the people on the island, even without her armor, but she wasn't a cancerous miasma like Hashirama. If anything, she haunted the island much like his family's ghosts haunted their clan's temple.And tonight, she haunted this wedding with her blessings. Very few seemed to shocked that the commander of their armed forces was on the fringes of the crowd tossing whole flowers at the kissing couple. She was a monster as much as she was the living embodiment of divine grace. Her presence was accepted – desired, even.When the drum beats began for the ritual dance, the couple bent their knees in respect. The Gimp Queen dropped to her knees as well, and Madara watched as she caressed both their faces before hugging them. When the sitars and bells began, she rose with the help of the couple as the crowd began to move with the music.And she danced with them, albeit differently, with the weight on her good leg instead of her contorted one. Jugs of beer flowed through the crowd while the smell of roasting fish mixed with the salty sea air. It was a wedding, a real, honest wedding, and Madara had never attended one that was soaked with such warmth and happiness in his entire life. When the tears came again, he walked away for good.She didn't follow him, of course. She'd lifted the suppressants on his eyes and chakra, and he'd repaid her by keeping his power and his Sharingan hidden beneath a veil until it was his time to board the Kraken's ships, and leave forever. It was a wedding. Not Madara's wedding, not the Gimp Queen's wedding, but a wedding nonetheless. A wedding filled with love, music, and the kind of elation Madara was certain he'd never experience in his life ever again.But would he have, if war hadn't ruined his life and the lives of other members of his clan? If he'd been born into a peaceful world instead of the Hell that was the greater continent, would he have had the privilege of marrying someone with music following the ceremony? Would he have had the opportunity to dance the night away? Would he have grown up to be a different man, one that wasn't constantly curling into his pain and withering away in pettiness and spite?In another world, another place, would he have been happy?You can still be happy, Madara thought he heard someone say. He swiveled around, thinking he'd find Izuna's ghost, or maybe the crippled woman, or even a completely different wraith, but all Madara found was emptiness.But unlike before, he didn't feel complete and utter loneliness. Instead, he faced the water, the black sea that would soon be embraced by sheets of rain, the sea that no longer seemed like the void opening up to swallow him, but instead a path – a path home.The ache brought Hashirama to a village on the outskirts of the Kazekage's territory, far enough removed from Wind shinobi's gaze that Hashirama felt comfortable enough to drop the glamour and mingle with the sparse population. The village was bordered by sparse drylands on three sides, and the encroaching desert on the fourth. Since Kakuzu had come through River, the only way out was west into the desert, and then further south until the gulf and beyond. Kakuzu was leaving the continent. Hashirama had made the connection in the afternoon, and set out on a bird summon within the hour. Midnight had just struck when Hashirama's bird softly landed on the rough earth. He'd hiked the rest of the way to where Kakuzu's chakra thrummed softly, like the flickering luminescence of a firefly.He found the man sleeping inside a storehouse, huddled beneath layers of straw.Hashirama peered through the hole in the broken roof. Though there was little light illuminating the dirty storehouse, Hashirama mapped the chakra vibrating steadily below. The soft hum cast a warm glow over the slumbering man. Hashirama swallowed the dryness in his throat as he narrowed his focus on the gentle beating of his heart.His heart – Kakuzu was alive. Despite the grayness of his skin, his heart beat steadily in his chest and his chakra ebbed and flowed like water in a small stream. Even though Hashirama could see little else, he knew that the man below thought he was safe. Hashirama felt something felt tug inside his chest.He entered the storehouse through the roof, startling the latter from his sleep. Kakuzu leaped at him just as his feet touched the ground, but before Kakuzu's kunai could graze his skin, Hashirama zapped his spine with a stream of chakra that sent him tumbling to the ground. Kakuzu groaned. Hashirama frowned when he instinctively reached to gather Kakuzu in his arms. Kakuzu growled and tried to scamper away, but made little progress.Most men would have died from the overwhelming power of his chakra, especially targeted straight to the spine, but Kakuzu wasn't like most men.“I've come to make you an offer,” Hashirama forced himself to speak before his emotions spoke for him.“I don't want anything from you,” Kakuzu hissed from the ground, crawling back to his straw blankets and assorted gear. Hashirama's eyes followed the dirty figure.“You're my husband,” Hashirama stated softly, “come to Konoha – with me.”Kakuzu stared at him with his eerie green eyes, full of loathing, fear, and that tell-tale confusion that most tried to mask when in Hashirama's direct presence.But then, Kakuzu scoffed. “No.”Hashirama's face darkened. “No one will bother you,” he lied, because he'd certainly bother Kakuzu every chance he got. “You'll have a place to live, unlimited access to my personal accounts, and as many men as you can kill. I'll find you your victims, Kakuzu-san. You'll never want for anything ever again.”Kakuzu pondered the question in silence for several seconds while Hashirama tried to stifle the anxiety quickly bubbling in his chest. He hadn't planned for this. He hadn't planned for anything like this. There was a cage beneath a banyan tree that was supposed to be Madara's home, but Madara was dead, and Hashirama was married to a man who stank like corpses that had been left by the river to rot in the midday sun.And yet, despite the horror he faced, Hashirama wanted nothing more than to help the filthy creature in front of him.“What makes you think I want to live underneath your thumb, Hashirama Senju?” Kakuzu groused from his place in the shadows. “What makes you think I want to live in your debt.”“It's not about debt,” Hashirama pleaded, “it's duty. I'm honor-bound as your husband to-” Kakuzu's sudden bark of laughter stopped Hashirama in his tracks, leaving him gaping like a fish.“Didn't you hear anything I said the last time you found me?” Kakuzu jeered. “It was a game, Hokage-sama. I am only your husband in name. Go home and annul the marriage.” Kakuzu's voice tightened. “Pretend I'm just another stain on your illustrious name.”That ache spread through Hashirama's blood and softened his face. “I can't do that, Kakuzu-san,” he lamented softly. “A man is set in his ways by the time we get to this age.” Hashirama swallowed the pain in his throat and looked forlornly at the crouched man hiding underneath his cover of shadows and filth. “I loved a man once, although it's safer to say that I'll love him forever, even though he's dead. I... I couldn't do anything for him, Kakuzu-san. It's my greatest regret that I couldn't do... anything. But I can do something for you. When I married you, I took the responsibility of looking after you. I should have killed you that day and given you the respect you deserve, but I didn't, and now we're here. I'm sorry Kakuzu-san; I can't just let you suffer like this.”“Then kill me,” Kakuzu groused from his place in the corner. “Fight me and kill me like you should have.”Hashirama twitched, the anger bubbling up to the surface again. “I can't do that, Kakuzu-san. You're hurt and struggling to make ends meet. I can't just sit by and watch you suffer!”“You're a peculiar creature, Hashirama Senju,” Kakuzu responded, oddly soft. “But that doesn't change my decision. I'm not interested in playing house with you, and if you try and force me back, you'll be carrying back my dead body in pieces because I'll never let you take me back alive.”Hashirama chuckled first, his breath coming in short, intermittent wheezes until he burst out into a cacophony of laughter.Kakuzu grimaced. “What's so funny?”Hashirama wiped the tears from his eyes and willed the anxiety and anger swirling in his chest to simmer down. “Then maybe I'll just have to convince you then, won't I? Very well, I accept your challenge.” He replied pleasantly.“What challenge?” Kakuzu barked, bearing his yellow teeth at Hashirama like some rabid dog. Hashirama noted the pattern in outbursts, kept them in the back of his mind as he gave Kakuzu the biggest smile he could muster.“Courtship, of course,” Hashirama gushed in response. Kakuzu's chakra flared an acrid red, killing intent rolling off of him in thick waves. Hashirama merely smiled and continued. “If this is the way you want to be courted, then so be it. I'll find you on every corner of this Earth, Kakuzu-san, and every time I do, I'll convince you just a little bit more that your place is beside me. If you want to live in the shadows, you can, but they'll be the shadows we share. If you want to come out to the world, then I'll support you. Whatever your choice, I'll be right beside you, as your man.”“You're insane,” Kakuzu deadpanned, “truly and utterly insane.”Hashirama thought he heard Madara's playful chuckle echo in the darkness.“Maybe so,” Hashirama responded indulgently, his heartstrings tugging inside his chest, “but for good cause, Kakuzu-san. This life is difficult to live through as a sane man. I commend anyone who does.”Kakuzu didn't add anything, so Hashirama took the opportunity to slide over a bag he had hanging loosely in his hand. Kakuzu peered at the bag for a minute before opening its contents.“There are twenty-four hour gambling halls in River,” Hashirama added softly as Kakuzu stared blankly at the fresh clothes, toiletries, and food inside the bag. “Your dossier said you quite enjoy card games. I enjoyed them immensely in my youth as well, but it has been some time since I've played in earnest.”“Gambling's a waste of money,” Kakuzu seethed, but didn't kick the bag back to Hashirama. “A man like you might enjoy a good gamble, Hashirama Senju, but not me – not anymore.”“Then indulge me,” Hashirama whispered softly. “Just a few games, so we can learn more about each other. Things that aren't printed in a dossier shared amongst the assassins and the elite. I want to know you, Kakuzu-san.”“I'll kill you, Hashirama Senju!” The latter spat in return, but the bag was pulled into the shadows, and Hashirama saw the tell-tale sign of Kakuzu rising to his full height before turning around with the bag full of clothes.Hashirama didn't bother averting his eyes. He watched as Kakuzu disrobed. Four distinct masks were woven into the latter's skin. He watched as the latter washed his skin with cleaning wipes Hashirama had pilfered from the Hokage Tower's storage closet, avoiding touching the masks. Then he put on the starched yukata that was one of Hashirama's own.Kakuzu stumbled out of the shadows with Hashirama's empty bag in one hand, and his own burlap sack in the other. He didn't bother commenting on the loose fit, or the fact that Hashirama was watching his every step. He merely pushed past Hashirama and exited through the rickety door.When Hashirama joined him outside, he found that Kakuzu had wrapped a strip of cloth around his head, hiding everything but his eyes and mouth. As Hashirama prepared his summoning scrolls, the latter filled his mouth with the tiffin full of food Hashirama had brought. By the time Hashirama summoned his bird, Kakuzu had finished off the food and was opening the canister of fresh water. He drained it in seconds before tossing the canister back into the bag.Hashirama found that he was mesmerized. Even when the summoned bird fluttered its majestic wings in the desert's night sky, Hashirama still couldn't tear his eyes from one Kakuzu Godar, and the uncanny green eyes that seemed to find a place in heart.And his attention remained steady, even as they flew across the border of Sand and into River, eyes locked on Kakuzu's hunched back as he sat as far away from Hashirama as he could, his knees drawn to his chest and his vibrant green eyes turned away from Hashirama's piercing gaze. Hashirama's gaze remained steady, even as they dropped from the sky and into the crowded red-light district of River's bustling eastern border, even as they entered a gambling hall filled with smoke and sweat, even as Kakuzu curled into himself and kept his gaze low.Hashirama gambled away enough money that he knew he'd hear an earful from his finance minister when he returned home, but he didn't gamble away his attention. His eyes followed the edges of Kakuzu's side profile. He memorized every exposed stitch and discolored patch of skin that hadn't been there before, not when they'd first met, not when Hashirama had challenged him to a fight when they were in their night clothes.And Kakuzu countered his gaze by further distancing himself. Even when Hashirama purposefully lost hands, the latter just barely stopped himself from snapping at Hashirama's poor form, and so Hashirama lost again and again, just so Kakuzu would pay attention to his hands, to his games, to him. If money made Kakuzu's world go around, then Hashirama had enough to fulfill the latter's desire forever, if need be.Hashirama also counted the spikes in rage when people got too close, when the waitstaff hovered too closely with their overflowing jugs of foamy beer, when the players got cheeky and poked fun at the losing gambler's demure wife, fools, all of them fools, unknowing, unthinking of the anger simmering beneath the folds of the green and black cotton.But Kakuzu never opened his mouth, just kept his head down and seethed, all while Hashirama let himself lose hand after hand until he was finished reading every curve of Kakuzu's body, and the ruined face underneath the head-covering he refused to remove.When they left the gambling house, Kakuzu fished Hashirama's haori out of his bag and pushed the fabric into Hashirama's hands.Hashirama merely smiled. “Keep it. Wherever you go, you'll have my protection. I won't dictate how you live your life, Kakuzu-san, but there will always a place for you in Konoha, if you ever decide to return to the greater continent. But until you do, I'll be your little bird.” Hashirama gave him a genuine smile. “Try not to forget about me, Kakuzu-san. I do quite enjoy your company.”Kakuzu didn't decline the benefit of having the most powerful man on the greater continent having his back, but he did stare, quiet and calculating. “Do you enjoy torturing people, Hashirama Senju?” He asked at last.“Of course not,” Hashirama responded pleasantly. “But I like to observe people. I watched you all night, just as you watched me. Did that make you uncomfortable?”Kakuzu shook his head, but his eyes remained narrow, focused. “You have no empathy for creatures lesser than you. You're less human than I suspected.”Hashirama flinched. His smile disappeared and was replaced by a dark frown. “I'm not sure I understand. I brought you supplies, clothes... Food. I'm not sure you understand what genuine kindness is, Kakuzu-san, if you think bringing you food and taking you out for a game of cards is torture.” Hashirama finished with a hiss.Kakuzu kept his distance and a critical eye. “You saw my body. I'm sure you've already received reports of what happened to me in that prison cell underneath the Mother Tree, but still, you brought me into a crowded space and let me be ogled and humiliated by the drunk and the relentless. You gave me food and water knowing full well every coin I've earned from a bounty has been spent on passage farther and farther away from Fire Country. You stalk me like I'm some exotic animal worthy of being hunted, instead of a rogue ninja. You won't even do me the decency of fighting me to the death, but you'll threaten to follow me across the ocean and keep track of my every step. That's not kindness, Hokage-sama. That's cruelty.”Hashirama saw red. In seconds, he had his hands gripped around Kakuzu's collar and his face just inches from his own. Kakuzu howled, slapping away at Hashirama's iron grip. His resistance was futile, however, especially once Hashirama had him pinned against the brick wall of a building. Kakuzu growled and tried to bite his fingers, tried to knee his groin and push back against his chest. He failed on every note. Hashirama yanked the face covering off Kakuzu's face and stared hard. When Hashirama was close enough to kiss him, Kakuzu breaths began coming in short gasps. Hashirama could feel his racing heartbeat even through the muscle and bone, the blood rushing into Kakuzu's ears as he became weaker and weaker until he was so weak that there were tears pooling around Kakuzu's bright green eyes, bloodshot with exhaustion, hatred, and fear.Fear – Kakuzu feared him.Hashirama let go of his collar and stumbled back. Kakuzu slid down the wall and threw up on the clothes Hashirama had gifted him.“I-” Hashirama started, wetting his dry lips as his own anxiety began to bubble in his chest again. His hands shook as he tried to find a rag to wipe away the vomit from Kakuzu's lips. His eyes darted around the empty alley for something, anything to comfort the wheezing man lying prone against the wall, but Hashirama had nothing, could give nothing.“Are you satisfied, Hokage-sama?” Kakuzu croaked as he brought his knees up to his chest, the vomit coating his hakama and sleeves. “Is this what excites you? Watching grown men grovel in their own bile?”Hashirama couldn't answer, not with his own heart threatening to burst out of his chest.“I hope you're happy, Hashirama Senju,” Kakuzu Godar whispered tiredly.Hashirama ran. He ran away from the stinking, filthy creature who was slumped against an alley wall, coated in bile and filth. He ran as far away as he could, so far that when he finally caught his breath, he was outside the town and in the forest, wheezing, collapsing, understanding.Don't you think you've helped enough, Hokage-sama? He heard Madara's voice echo in his head as he dropped to his knees and broke into a fit of sobs.The Kraken rose with the sun. By the time the morning sky transformed into a bright blue, the travelers were locked inside it's ships encased in protective bubbles, and then moving across the water. They'd arrive on the icy banks of Frost in four days.Madara didn't see the woman on the island again, not until he was far enough away that the island was merely a speck. Only then did he feel her chakra hum in the air, when the last of the seals that bound him to Uzushio finally broke, and he was free at last.He turned away from the island and faced the opposite direction. In his hand was a scroll holding his brother's armor and the rest of his family's relics that Mito Uzumaki had returned to him. 
  
  

    
      
        
        
          I'm back hehe. This past year's been a doozy. I got back into kdramas and wrote whole novels for obscure shows, just for fun, and even managed to review fic drafts that have been sitting in my files longer than the outline for this fic. I'm thirty years old now, and barely remember what happened in Naruto these days, but I didn't want to leave this story on hiatus for ten years because I forgot it was still incomplete LOL. Fear not. This one has an ending, and it WILL be published in its entirety, hopefully by the end of this year, and if not, the next. Thank you to all my readers. Hope you've all been enjoying the clownery thus far. As for our clowns in the story - for sure, I hope y'all have been enjoying Hashirama be weird, while Mito's scheming and Madara's finally finished with his Naruto-esque version of therapy. Also Kakuzu. I love Kakuzu. Hope y'all do too. 
  
    See you next month, and don't forget to leave a review! :D'
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
Assistant: