Misunderstanding

Hashirama Senju burst through the door, the heavy wooden panels creaking painfully as they shook.

Utsusemi looked up in shock. "Hashirama? What happened? What's wrong with you?"

She could hardly believe her eyes. The usually bold and cheerful Senju clan head now had tears streaking his face and a vacant look in his eyes.

Hashirama Senju lunged at her like an abandoned puppy, his strong arms clamping around her thigh as he pressed his forehead to her knee and sobbed.

Utsusemi could even smell the distinctive, fresh woody scent on him.

"What on earth happened to you last night? That bastard Madara isn't coming to ask for your hand, is he?" His voice trembled, thick with tears, as his fingers twisted the hem of her skirt.

"Please don't go! Don't marry someone else! Don't leave me! The Senju's betrothal gifts will definitely be more generous than the Uchiha Clan's... You can take your pick of the Ninjutsu scrolls our clan just developed, and there's the villa on the upper reaches of the Naka River, too..."

Utsusemi stared at him, dumbfounded. Was this man, with tears and snot streaming down his face, really the Senju clan head renowned for his dignity and magnanimity?

Was he the "God of Shinobi" whose name struck fear into his enemies on the battlefield?

The man his clansmen relied on like a father and an older brother?

The rosy image Utsusemi had held of him for so long came crashing down.

Uh, what?

Looking at the human pendant hanging from her leg like a koala, she suddenly understood what Tobirama had really meant when he said, "My big brother has two faces."

"Did an Explosive Tag blow your brains out?" she finally found her voice, her tone a mixture of disgust and panic.

She lifted her leg and tried to shake the heavy "pendant" off.

But it was no use. Hashirama clung to her leg, refusing to budge no matter how she struggled.

She simply couldn't shake this stubborn pest off!

"Madara and I are just friends. Why would I marry anyone? Why would he come to ask for my hand? Ridiculous!" Utsusemi retorted with a cold laugh.

Her slender fingers pried in vain at his arms, which were like iron pincers. Even using all her strength, she couldn't make his hands so much as tremble.

She was startled to realize that when the God of Shinobi lost control of his emotions, even her monstrous strength was no match for him.

Hashirama Senju stopped sniffling. Suspicion flickered in his reddened eyes, and his fingertip jabbed toward the side of her neck. "Then these..."

His voice suddenly turned shrill. "How do you explain the red marks?"

"Hm?" Utsusemi tilted her head away from his scorching touch and pulled open her collar herself, fully exposing the faint red marks.

The movement made Tobirama, who had just stepped through the doorway, immediately turn around, his ears reddening beneath his silver hair.

He cursed under his breath. "Damn it..."

As a sensory ninja, he could clearly sense his brother's Chakra surging violently like raging waves in a storm.

"My hair ornament pressed against me." She unrolled a sealing scroll, and a twelve-petaled golden peony gleamed in the morning light. "You saw me wear it out last night. I couldn't sleep well in an unfamiliar bed..."

Before she had finished speaking, the silver-haired second-in-command of the Senju appeared beside her with the Body Flicker Technique, carefully examining the pressure marks on her neck and the gold-wire pattern on the ornament in her hand.

He assessed them calmly. "The spacing of the marks matches the gold wire on the ornament exactly. There are no abrasions around the edges. They were indeed caused by prolonged pressure."

Hashirama Senju's gaze softened a little, and his tense shoulders relaxed.

But then he fixed his eyes on the indigo ink faintly visible on the inside of her wrist. "This indigo ink... it's a mark used specifically for Uchiha contracts."

The ink mark, which was hard to wash away, stood out starkly. He had only ever seen that particular shade of ink on the ceasefire agreement submitted by the Uchiha Clan.

It was made with a secret medicinal solution and could only be removed with a specific solvent, symbolizing the binding force of a blood oath.

What document did they sign last night? A marriage contract?

The corners of Utsusemi's lips curled up as her fingers idly smoothed the wrinkles in her sleeve.

She raised an index finger, the tassel on her sandalwood hairpin swaying gently with the movement. "A new agreement. Unlike the formulas for the daily-use essential oils I supplied to the Senju..."

Utsusemi deliberately drew out her words, watching the two ninja hold their breath without realizing it. "What I gave the Uchiha... was the secret formula for making glass and porcelain."

"The formula for the porcelain and glassware you entrusted the Senju Tribe to sell last time?" Tobirama suddenly interjected, recalling the exquisite wares that had fetched high prices among nobles of various countries and sparked a buying frenzy.

"That's right! The formula for those very things." When he saw her nod without revealing any emotion, surprise flashed in the white-haired ninja's eyes.

Chakra flowed unconsciously to the soles of his feet as he prepared to leave with the Body Flicker Technique and pass on the information. "So... the Uchiha are preparing to withdraw from the system of war commissions? And turn to civilian industries?"

"The growing pains of a transition are better than generations killing one another." Utsusemi tilted her head, and her hair fell across her face. "Children won't have to become orphans anymore... The average ninja's lifespan..."

Her words suddenly caught in her throat, an unspoken number lingering there. "It shouldn't stop at thirty."

Her Tenseigan glimmered with a faint blue light, reflecting the two ninja's tense forms. "A lifetime of seventy years..."

Utsusemi smiled brightly, dazzling as the morning sun. "I want to see what you both look like with a full head of white hair."

Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju exchanged a glance, their hands, long accustomed to gripping Kunai, trembling slightly.

Hashirama's lips quivered. He wanted to say something, and his breathing grew heavier.

Tobirama Senju saw his brother's arms tremble and immediately tensed his shoulders in alarm. He isn't planning to give Utsusemi another bear hug, is he?

He was about to speak up and stop him, but Utsusemi reached out and grabbed his fur collar.

Her fingers brushed over the snowy white fur as she teased, "You were born with white hair, so you don't count."

"Wait!" Hashirama's breathing steadied as he calmed down. With a trembling finger, he pointed at the clothes she was wearing, which looked suspiciously like Uchiha clan attire. "These... Could these be...?"

Utsusemi rolled her eyes irritably. "Yesterday was Izuna's coming-of-age ceremony. I attended the banquet as a guest, but my furisode got dirty from gold powder and plum wine splashing everywhere..."

She recalled how Izuna had looked, all sweet words and attentive care, saying "Utsusemi is the prettiest" while finding ways to get her to drink a third jar of the special brew.

She couldn't help gritting her teeth, and her voice came out through them. "So Madara lent me these Uchiha clothes, and even made a point of choosing ones without the clan crest."

She suddenly paused and narrowed her eyes. "As Madara's 'best friend,' don't tell me you don't even know his only brother's birthday?"

She covered her mouth in feigned horror, a sly gleam flashing in her eyes. "We had an amazing banquet last night. Guess who didn't get an invitation?"

Her finger suddenly swung toward Hashirama, pointing at him. "You, Hashirama Senju!"

The words struck Hashirama dead center like Lightning Release. He finally let go of her leg, visibly sinking into gloom.

He slowly shrank into a mushroom-shaped crouch in the corner, a tangible dark cloud floating over his head.

"I'm such a failure as a best friend... Izuna is already eighteen... And I..." As Hashirama sank deeper into despair, clusters of little grayish-brown mushrooms began sprouting around his feet.

A damp silence spread rapidly as he shrank smaller and smaller, almost merging with the shadows in the corner.

Mushrooms popped up one by one from his body and the ground, as dreary as though the world had completely forgotten them.