Title: Barn owl and snow leopard

Author: Tuliharja

Summary: "Did you know barn owls mate for life?" One-shot, MadaTobi, TobiMada.

Disclaimer: NARUTO belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm merely writing fan fiction about it. I don't either own the cover art of this.

Author's note: Thanks you IAmTheQueenOfMe for betaing this.

-:Barn owl and snow leopard:-

There was a cry of a bird in the sky, making Tobirama lift his gaze for a moment up to the sky. Eyes adjusting, he could see high in the air a bird flying. The bird seemed to be a hunting bird, yet he was quite sure it didn't belong to anyone, that it was wild.

Shaking his head, Tobirama focused once again the task at hand. Getting to Madara and telling him tomorrow's meeting would be delayed because his idiotic brother's lack of ability when it came to handling paperwork. The papers had piled up so much. Many already needed Hashirama's immediate attention. As these thoughts circled inside Tobirama's head he felt a small tingle on his spine, when something silently passed him.

Blinking his eyes, the Senju stopped and watched ahead of himself where he could see an owl flying toward a man. The man's hand was stretched out front of him, still as a statue's. The man was fully unmoving when the bird landed to his gloved hand. What caught Tobirama by surprise and puzzled him was that the bird that had passed him was an owl. He hadn't ever seen someone using owl for falconry. Tobirama noticed then that the man was Madara.

Tobirama knew only little bit about falconry and birds, but it was enough. He could tell apart most of the usual birds and knew like everyone knew that owls were night creatures and that they rarely used for falconry. That's why there were different types of hawks and eagles for falconry. Those birds were designed for such activity, while owls were meant to be wild birds. But there Madara was, feeding the owl with a peaceful-look upon his face. If Tobirama squinted his eyes, he could almost see what could be mistaken for a smile on the Uchiha's lips. Yet Tobirama merely brushed that off as he hadn't seen Madara smile. The closest thing resembling smile was smug grin upon his features when he had come up a new way to piss off him majorly. It seemed Madara got most of his kicks these days for tormenting Tobirama.

Shaking his head, Tobirama started to walk once again. It would be best if he delivered the message to Madara and just went home to rest. It had been a long day and tomorrow would be equally long.

So, what if Madara seemed so content and actually charming while brushing that owl's feathers? Tobirama almost slapped himself when he thought that, yet kept his composure as he walked up to the other man.

It seemed the man was spellbound by the bird as the white-haired man was only few steps away from Madara he still hadn't acknowledged Tobirama's existence in any way. Clearing his throat lightly to not disturb the owl (Tobirama didn't want it to freak out and possibly claw his eyes out), he shifted his weight from other leg to another one, hoping that he had gotten Madara's attention.

Finally, the Uchiha turned his dark gaze to Tobirama, entangling him in his stare. Many remarks ran through Tobirama's head yet at the same time he felt the need to ask one burning question. How Madara had picked up an owl.

It seemed just illogical and the owl seemed like it belonged somewhere, where was snow and ice, the color of it's soft plumage lending itself to that idea. The owl was medium sized owl. Tobirama had seen in his life some huge owls and even amazingly small ones. All in all, the owl wasn't all that impressive. It seemed almost too tame and mundane for a such man as Madara.

"Did you know barn owls mate for life?" Madara asked quietly, surprising Tobirama.

Tobirama froze. The younger didn't know how to reply back to that as it had sounded just so out of place. But then again, Tobirama couldn't help but feel like everything was more mystical ever since dusk had fallen a few minutes prior. Perhaps it was just that. Everything was semi-dark and shrouded in shadows, but Madara's and the owl's profiles were golden hued thanks to the sun's last rays of the day.

"If the other one should get killed, though, they might form a new bond with some other owl," Madara carried on quiet tone. "Uchihas are a bit same. Expect if our partner would get killed, we more than likely would go into revenge trip." His single visible eye never left Tobirama.

Still baffled, Tobirama could only stare at Madara. Was the other one perhaps flirting with him? Or was he trying to make some sort of point that Tobirama didn't get? He really was bad in things like these, since he couldn't ever tell if someone was flirting with him or not. He just didn't have that reading ability that his brother seemed to possess, much to Hashirama's luck. Otherwise Hashirama would had long ago gotten beat up so badly, he wouldn't have woken up. His big brother was, after all, an idiot. Big and goofy, yet still the same lovable idiot. Scratch that, he was just an idiot. Tobirama thought through all of that, yet at the same time he still wondered what Madara was getting at.

Apparently Tobirama's confusion was obvious, since the Uchiha let out a noise that sounded frustrated.

"What did you come here for, Senju?" Madara finally asked, causing the owl to let out small hissing sound.

"Tomorrow's morning meeting will be delayed by two hours, so my brother can finish his piling paperwork," Tobirama answered right to way. Simple and clear questions were easy ones to handle and understand. Not riddles or random facts about owls that seemingly didn't have any point.

Slowly, Madara nodded his head as he petted a bit more his owl.

"Does…does your owl have mate?"

As soon as the question left Tobirama's lips he felt like an utter idiot. He could have very well just turned around and left since he had delivered the message already. But of course, he didn't. Madara's odd words had lit up Tobirama's endless curiosity toward everything. He knew it was a bad thing being too curious, yet he couldn't help himself. This Uchiha in front of him was the Pandora's box that hold many mysteries. Mysteries that Tobirama was interested to figure out. If not for his selfish reasons, which he didn't have any of, obviously, but for the sake of everybody else.

Madara's words and the way his thoughts worked could cause lot of unseen problems. Most of those problems, surprisingly, did concern Tobirama as somehow when Madara was around him they ended up in a heated argument. Tobirama wasn't proud of that, since he liked to think he was the calmer and collected one of the two.

"No," Madara answer after a while before he then went silent again. Letting out a small hum, the Uchiha looked his owl. "But I'm sure he would like very much to have one. It's just that…many think he is an evil omen, even though that isn't true. He is just…a bit moody, that's all."

By now Tobirama was fairly sure Madara wasn't talking about the owl and that he more than likely was flirting with him. The very thought sends light flush to Tobirama's pale cheeks as he quickly crossed his arms front of himself. He knew his nonverbal behavior was telling Madara to get lost, but he only did so because he felt embarrassed over the fact that he had just now noticed that Madara Uchiha had been flirting with him. But since Tobirama wasn't an expert what came to flirting and romance, or generally understanding Madara's mood swings, he had thought Madara disliked him. But it appeared it was fully the opposite. Tobirama wasn't shutting the idea away as he gave Madara long look. The Uchiha was a bit shorter than him, was good-looking and he knew Madara was more loyal than anyone else. In fact, now that Tobirama thought it, Madara was extremely family-oriented person as he always made to sure listen Hashirama's ramblings, support his brother and even amuse Mito when needed.

But still…

"Why the owl?" Tobirama asked, tilting his head ever so slightly.

Blinking his eyes slowly, Madara glanced his owl before Tobirama.

"I wanted to be challenged, after I had few hawks and eagles, owls seemed interesting. Owls require a special kind of treatment and lots of patience."

"Just like courting Senju."

This time, to Tobirama's small sadistic joy, it was Madara's turn to flush slightly. The older man merely mumbled something underneath his breath, before sending his owl on the flight once again. He then turned his look toward the direction the owl had flew. Otherwise he stood still like a statue once again.

"Madara," Tobirama said, tasting the sound of the other man's name first time in his life without malice. "Snow leopards don't usually seek another partner, after they have mated."

Blinking his only visible eye slowly, Madara only stared Tobirama for a while. After a moment, a slow smile spread across his features.

"In that case, this barn owl better mate quickly with the snow leopard, eh?" The other one merely asked as the actual barn owl flew right next to Tobirama and landed again on of Madara's gloved hand. By the time the owl had positioned itself snugly, Tobirama was scarlet red from his face and it wasn't because the last ray of the sun hit his face.