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"What the fuck is wrong with your sister." Madara bursts into his best friend's office, slamming the door shut behind him."Would you like to rephrase that question?" Hashirama folds his hands neatly on his desk but Madara isn't fooled - those fingers are a hairsbreadth away from calling up the Mokuton. "Or would you like to take this conversation outside?""You're right, I worded that badly." Madara imagines someone asking him the same question about Izuna and winces. A katon to the face would be only the first of their problems.At the same time, he's not sure he wants to expose the full extent of his fumbling attempts to court Tobirama, especially since Hashirama has a full portion of an older brother's protectiveness. He needs information though, and with Izuna unable to do more than confirm the bet they made, his options for that are limited.So he takes a deep breath and steels himself for a fight. "She didn't believe me when I said she was beautiful.""Madara!" Always one for the unexpected however, Hashirama's face fills with delight instead of fury. "You think she's beautiful!""I do, yes, but that's not the point!" Madara steps aside to evade the lunge which is sure to become a hug unless he moves quickly. "Why doesn't she believe me?""Yes, that... " Hashirama collapses back into his seat, drooping like an unwatered plant. "She wouldn't, of course."The reaction tells Madara it wasn't just that one night, being taken by surprise, but is instead something deeper."Explain." He drags a chair over and positions it in front of the door, sitting in it to show he's not going anywhere until he gets some answers."When she was born, the elders assumed she would be... a girl. A woman whom they could use to make a marriage alliance, to strengthen the ties between us and some other clan." Hashirama rubs his palms over his face, clearly unhappy to be dredging up all this history. "My father though, he trained her like he trained all his children.""He made her into a warrior." An outstanding one too, someone Madara can't help but admire. "She was already a match to Izuna when she ambushed us at the river.""She took to it better than most, better than I ever did." Unspoken is the fact that their shared dreams held Hashirama back from being as ruthless as he could have been, possibly ought to have been. "She made herself into a sword, the better to defend our clan.""Some people didn't like it." It's a guess, but Madara can already see the pattern emerging."Many people didn't like it." Hashirama grimaces. "There was a lot of talk about how unwomanly she was, too much like a man, uninterested in making herself attractive. Some people were threatened by her strength and took it as an opportunity to criticise her, and it got worse as she grew. At the same time...""They needed her." Remembering the war, the number of times Tobirama was the one to turn the tides of battle in favour of the Senju, Madara knows it was true. "You couldn't do without her.""In more than one way." Hashirama smiles at him sadly. "Her mind has always been as sharp as her kunai and they resented her influence with me, in council and on the battlefield.""So they chose to undermine her in the only way they could." Madara would like to stab all these people but knows it would solve nothing."She's always been my baby sister, the only one of my siblings to live to adulthood, and I couldn't protect her from words which hurt as much as any blade." Hashirama's hands clench into fists, a silent sign that the desire for violence is a shared one. "Said by people who wielded more power within our clan than either of us did, at least then.""And now?" Madara raises his eyebrows pointedly. "Are they still with you?""Some are," Hashirama acknowledges. "Most of my clan thinks well of her, but there are still a few whose views have not changed. They keep their mouths shut around me, but I know them too well to be deceived by silence.""And so she believes them over you." Madara grits his teeth at the thought. "Or me.""No, but... Madara. She thinks I love her too well to see her clearly." Hashirama bites his lip, trying to hide the grin that's spreading on his face, but it doesn't work. "You don't have that problem.""I don't." Madara blinks at his best friend. "I don't.""If you can convince her...." Hashirama eyes him hopefully. "Then maybe...""Maybe she'll believe me after all." This is going to be much more of an uphill climb than Madara hoped, steeper by far and barred by thorns, but he doesn't feel deterred at all.Tobirama's affection is a prize worth any effort.Besides, with Hashirama as his ally instead of an enemy, how can he fail?