Credits to Kishimoto Masashi for the characters.

Chapter 2: Lightning Country

An explosion rocked the earth, toppling the numerous colossal rock formations jutting out from the mountainous country to crest in the clouds. Tobirama dove out of the way as a lightning ninjutsu blitzed through the rising dust, ricocheting off a falling boulder and landing smoothly for a split second before he was on the move once more.

Behind him, another explosion shook the ground with massive tremors. Eyes slicing left, Tobirama side stepped shuriken while simultaneously throwing his own. The solid thunk of metal meeting flesh assured him he'd met his mark, but shuriken wouldn't stop these shinobi. Slow them maybe, but not stop them.

His informant had been followed and subsequently killed by the ambushers mere hours after he'd breached the border between Fire and Lightning, stealing into the country where the hidden village of Kumo resided. There had around thirty nukenin shinobi –– the weakest he'd taken care of first, then the brashest ones that had come at him with much overconfidence. Three full days after his informant had been killed, he'd had little chance given to return to Fire Country. They had been smart about it, blocking off the routes back to the Land of Fire and destroying the land around it. He was known for hiraishin, and they had managed to rid of the hiraishin marks he'd placed as a precaution. The marks were permanent, but only so long as the object he placed it on existed. He was running dangerously low on chakra, and exhaustion was creeping over him.

There were thirteen left, nine jōnin level shinobi and two chūnin level, all a mixture of missing-nin from different villages. The last two were the ones he was most concerned about. Two former Kumo shinobi with startlingly massive amounts of chakra — chakra that he immediately recognized. Only one person he knew contained that deleterious blood-red chakra — Mito, who was the nine-tailed fox's jinchūriki.

"Don't try and run, Senju!"

Tobirama glanced briefly at where the jeering voice called from, narrowing his eyes. Through the cloud of dust and debris, he pinpointed the presence on his right.

"You're outnumbered, Senju."

On his left, the brother of the other. The infamous Gold and Silver brothers, Kinkaku and Ginkaku, had led the ambush. And behind him were the last eleven rogue shinobi. He certainly was outnumbered, but he'd been in worse odds before.

A sudden roar of heat and flames rushed towards him. Tobirama flashed through a few hand signs as he jumped out of the way of a falling rock, boosting off of some large pieces of falling debris for more momentum, and twisted around to face his pursuer on the left in midair.

Suiton: Suijinheki!

The enormous ball of flames rivalling an Uchiha's hit the water wall in an explosion of blistering heat and steam, further obscuring both Tobirama's and his pursuer's vision. Vision mattered little when he was one of the greatest chakra sensors alive.

Tobirama landed against one of the enormous rock formations that littered Lightning Country, the concentrated chakra in his hands and feet securing him on the nearly vertical surface dozens of feet in the air. He peered through the thick veil of dust and steam, assessing his current situation with ruthless calculating calm.

He was limited on the jutsus he could use considering his low levels of chakra. Hiraishin didn't take as much chakra as it did shadow clones, but it would eventually add up with how much he'd been using the convenient teleportation jutsu. It didn't happen often, when he lost so much chakra in only three days. The troublesome chakra absorbing jutsu combined with a specialized barrier technique cleverly used by a pair of missing-nin hailing from Iwa had trapped him and drained an enormous amount of chakra before he'd broken the barrier jutsu and killed the Iwa nukenin. He'd been able to recover some while evading his pursuers, but the pesky sensors in the group were able to find him after half a day. His injuries weren't too debilitating…though the gash he'd just received from one of the missing-nin on his left upper arm was a bit concerning considering the arm and shoulder were going numb, and the injury from the kunai that had managed to puncture his thigh during the ambush was oozing blood through the bandages. He'd only had time to put the wounds in wrappings, but other than that, he only had scratches and bruises.

His weapons were limited as well. He mentally calculated his remaining arsenal, palming the overused, dulled kunai in his hand. Four shuriken, two kunai, eight tags (three of which were exploding tags), and three scrolls. His sword had been broken by several of Ginkaku's monstrous swings of the Shichiseiken sword, and his armor cracked by a doton blow from the Bashōsen, a mystical fan that could produce any nature transformation the user wished to, which Kinkaku wielded.

It seemed that poison was out as they had been trying to incapacitate him rather than kill him. A paralyzing agent, perhaps? He couldn't stop to check the wound now. His death was worth quite an amount, but his capture even more. None had invented as many useful jutsus as he, and he was the brother and advisor of the Hokage — his creations were worth more than the sacrifices of the missing-nin he'd killed, and his intimate knowledge of Konoha, the greatest shinobi village that existed to this day, was an immense treasure trove that many would kill to have.

He narrowed his eyes, noticing several chakra signatures making a beeline towards him. He'd take care of the two sensors first, then the female medic nin who took up position behind everyone and healed them with an anomalous medical ninjutsu that could be used from a distance away — it was useful, but he'd observed her using it only in spurts, likely unable to keep up with the entirety of the injuries. They were all weary from tracking him as well, and several were wounded from his traps and attacks. Two limped, one favored her side, one had lost an arm in a trap, and another's senses were severely dulled from an exploding tag nearly in the face. Those ones would be next, then he'd only have five left.

The Gold and Silver brothers would be the most difficult to deal with. Not only did they wield the treasured tools of the Sage of Six Paths, but the nine-tails's troublesome chakra had already healed the wounds Tobirama had inflicted, and neither seemed drained after the three-day chase. Tobirama's own substantial chakra reserves and formidable stamina, thanks to his Senju blood, had served him well these past three days whereas any other shinobi with normal chakra and stamina would have collapsed from exhaustion. His reserves would only last another half day, but even that was pushing it.

There was no use on dwelling on it. He pinpointed the first chakra signature that met him, launching himself from the rock with so much force that the rock where he stepped imploded into a giant crater.

The sensor knew he was coming, but he was no match for the sheer chakra-enhanced power and speed coming at him. The dulled kunai ripped through flesh and muscle, crushing rib cage and piercing through the man's heart. One sensor down. Tobirama didn't waste a moment, kicking off another rock formation to alter his trajectory and hurling the corpse at another foe.

The dead shinobi was batted aside, but it was enough of a distraction for Tobirama to fling shuriken he'd swiped off of the corpse. The missing-nin — jōnin level — easily parried the throwing weapons, but by the time he had done so, Tobirama was already heading to lower ground, zeroed in on the second sensor.

Just before he reached, he made a sharp turn to avoid the deadly miniature tornado produced from the Bashōsen, just barely grazing by him, but he was forced to halt his turn short as the glowing golden Kōjinkō rope lashed out, missing by mere millimeters. The violent suction of the vortex ripped away the remaining cloth of his right shirt sleeve and shoulder plates, brutally slicing up his uninjured arm in a brief, agonizing moment until he teleported to the bloody kunai he'd thrown several feet away an instant before the tornado had hit. The hiraishin marking on the tattered wrapping glowed faintly blue, having marked it and all of his weapons as a precaution.

Tobirama grunted in some pain as his momentum and the effects of the wind pressure had him sliding back a few steps. If that wind jutsu had hit him full-on, he would have been torn into pieces, and if he hadn't been as fast as he was, his arm would have been ripped off. As it was, his arm was a bloody mess of multiple deep lacerations. He twitched his fingers, curling them experimentally and ignoring the searing pain shooting up the limb. Still useable at least. But in that instant he'd been hit by the Bashōsen's wind chakra transformation, he had known something was amiss...

Ginkaku dropped with an earth-shaking landing before Tobirama, Bashōsen in hand and Benihisago gourd under his other arm. Kinkaku touched down by his brother a second later, brandishing the Shichiseiken and the Kōjinkō wrapped around his burly left arm. The remaining nukenin encircled Tobirama, tensed in readiness. Effortlessly calm even while he breathed heavily from his exertions, Tobirama eyed Kinkaku briefly, wary of the brothers' attempts at trying to strike him with the Kōjinkō. There must be something that the rope contained since they had been so insistent on using it since the ambush.

"No more running, Senju. We've got him now, Kinkaku," Ginkaku, the younger brother, said with a smirk of triumph on his face. His thick silver mane of hair, dark skin, and black horn accessories gave him a feral appearance, and not to mention the whisker-like marks on his cheeks. He was shorter than Kinkaku by a few inches but no less heavily muscled.

"You're right, Ginkaku," Kinkaku said. He looked nearly exactly like his brother but for his golden mane and broader lineaments. "He won't be able to fight back much longer…"

Tobirama pierced the brothers with a cold look. So he'd been right.

"Paralysis, eh," he said. He couldn't feel his left arm, couldn't tell if he could move his fingers. The numbness would gradually spread to encase his entire body, rendering him immobilized for an easy capture. The loss of his left arm hardly mattered since he could still produce significant jutsus with a one-handed seal, but the paralysis drug was affecting his mobility...he normally would have been able to evade the vortex without sustaining any lasting injuries, but his mangled arm was a testament to just how precarious a plight he was in.

Ginkaku's smirk widened. "No one has ever lasted this long against us before...you managed to kill over half of us in only three days. Impressive, isn't he, Kinkaku?"

"He is, Ginkaku," Kinkaku replied with his own smirk, dragging his eyes over Tobirama's frame. "Very impressive."

Tobirama scowled at the leers from the brothers. Well, no matter. They'd fallen into his trap. Though he'd originally planned on eliminating the shinobi one by one in order to preserve his chakra in between each battle and observe the rogue shinobi's goals and skills from various villages, this plan was much faster if messier. Raising his bloody arm, he formed the seal of confrontation, concentrating his chakra for a split second before anyone could move. The four tags he'd placed while under cover of the dust and steam glowed, activating the barrier jutsu and entrapping all of the shinobi within — including Tobirama. It was a decently strong barrier, but the Gold and Silver brothers would be able to break out of it eventually. It was not meant to entrap them for long — just long enough for him to put his plan into motion.

Reaching into the pouch at his waist, he pulled out another tag. Kinkaku's eyes widened, recognizing the inks of an explosive tag.

"Get him, Ginkaku!" Kinkaku roared, racing towards Tobirama.

"Let's go, Kinkaku!" Ginkaku snarled, matching his brother's dead sprint with the other missing-nin following their two leaders close behind.

The brothers were not wrong — it was an exploding tag, but one that Tobirama had modified himself for the use of a completely different technique. He let it flutter from his fingers, and just before a large hand could swipe at him, he vanished.

The brothers bellowed in fury as Tobirama reappeared an instant later outside of the barrier a good distance away on top of a smaller rock formation. One of his remaining two kunai was embedded in the rock next to his foot, one he'd planted right before killing the sensor, the faint glow of the hiraishin mark fading. A sharp burst of chakra detonated the exploding tag.

Gojō Kibaku Fuda.

The effect was instantaneous. A near infinite series of explosions as the tag summoned more tags, and each tag after that summoned even more. The thunderous explosions were contained in the barrier only for a few minutes before it burst, unable to hold back the sheer number of powerful explosions. Black smoke billowed out, the scent of burning flesh and land prominent as the damaged terrain permeated in deafening cacophony.

Tobirama remained still, waiting. Four...seven...ten...eleven chakra signatures disappeared as the explosions went on. His entire left side was numb now, and his right arm was growing cold from the blood loss. The din seemed to echo in his mind, eyelids lowering halfway down as black spots speckled his slightly blurred vision. The exhaustion was getting to him...as well as the blood loss and chakra overuse.

An inhuman roar snapped his attention back to where the explosions were beginning to die down. Without warning, two red and black blurs shot out from the smoke, the leaps so powerful that it took them right to where Tobirama stood in an instant.

Tobirama immediately moved to evade, but his left leg and arm were useless at this point, slowing him down by mere milliseconds. Yanking two scrolls from his pack, he tossed them down the side of the rock formation and braced himself. He was hit with such impact that the rock tower he was on cracked beneath him and crumbled into rubble. Tobirama's breath was knocked clean out of him, his ribs audibly snapping as the heavier weight landed on him when he hit the ground a hundred feet below. His armor was done for, shattered from the impact. Blood gurgled in his throat, spilling from his lips lest he choke on his own blood. Tobirama blacked out for an excruciating minute, the scent of burnt flesh and heat filling his nostrils, burning hands holding him down.

"Senju! " the garbled, growling voice that did not belong to a human snarled right in his face.

Tobirama's own flesh began to burn from the sheer heat emanating from the body above him. He managed to pry his eyes open, grimacing to see that the Gold and Silver brothers were still alive and cloaked in the nine-tails's scorching crimson chakra which had likely saved them from the explosions. Their human forms were nearly burned away into black with how blazingly hot the nine-tails's chakra was, skin melting into flesh and muscle and then to charred black, the red chakra visibly bubbling on the surface. The explosions had damaged them, one with an arm hanging and leg limply and half of the other's face and side deformed. Tobirama could see their wounds slowly healing as the nine-tails's chakra bled over them.

"You almost killed us," the other growled, crouching down to hover over Tobirama's face. He was slightly smaller than the other. Ginkaku.

Kinkaku straddled him, clawed fingers digging painfully into his shoulder — likely his left one, too, not that he could feel it. The pain in his shoulder hardly registered considering he was certain a rib or six had punctured something vital inside him and he was in so much agony he could hardly think let alone try and get away.

"Wake up, Senju. We're going to make sure you regret these past three days, aren't we, Kinkaku? "

"We're going to make sure he regrets ever meeting us, Ginkaku," Kinkaku snarled before gripping Tobirama's warped breastplate and ripping away the remaining armor and whatever protection Tobirama had left.

"Ngh," Tobirama grimaced at being handled so roughly, forcing himself to feel past the blinding pain. He couldn't die here. He needed to return home, back to Konoha, his students, his brother...Madara. His right hand shot up, gripping the heated arm that was slowly beginning to lose the red chakra as the brothers began to regain their more human forms.

"Stubborn," Kinkaku said in a less demonic-like voice, easily shaking off Tobirama's weakened grip. He seemed pleased by Tobirama's attempt to struggle, sharp teeth bared in a feral grin.

Ginkaku snatched both of Tobirama's wrists, pinning them above his head. Tobirama bit back his gasp of searing agony from the hard yank. Kinkaku tore the rest of Tobirama's ragged shirt away like paper, revealing deep black, red, and purple bruises littering his torso from where his ribs had broken. Blood seeped from numerous lacerations obtained from the sharp, broken rocks around him, painting his pale skin crimson. He winced when Kinkaku trailed a callused clawed finger over the bloodied flesh, excruciatingly sensitive from the beating it had taken.

"You look good in red, Senju," Kinkaku growled, voice deepening with — lust? Two nearly identical heated eyes slid down his bared torso, lean and hard with strong shoulders and pectoral muscles tapering into a svelte waist and hips as a result of his speed-based fighting techniques, his body tuned to near perfection from a lifetime of combat and intense training.

"Don't...touch me," Tobirama managed to spit out before the blood gathering in his throat became too much and he began hacking, distantly wondering which organs had been punctured.

Just as Ginkaku spread a rough hand along his tensed abdominal muscles, stroking down the smooth, pale skin marred by wounds, Kinkaku's weight was suddenly lifted off him. Tobirama glimpsed a black blur hit both Kinkaku and Ginkaku with enough brutal force to send them flying through several rock towers.

Tobirama blinked, having ceased coughing out blood, watching the bristling black form above him with distant curiosity as if he were in a dream.

"Don't you dare touch him again!"

The familiar voice of the enraged bellow had Tobirama blinking again, this time in surprise.

"...Ma...ra…" he tried to speak, but ended up curling into himself as his body automatically convulsed in attempt to rid of the remaining blood in his throat, mouth tasting like iron, like he'd swallowed a gallon of blood. His chest felt as if someone were brutally slamming a red-hot iron club into him with every ragged breath, ears roaring with blood and mind roiling with intense pain.

Madara immediately knelt next to Tobirama, touching him with a gentleness that none would ever believe the Uchiha leader to possess. The fingers caressing his cheek was comforting, touch feather-light as if Madara feared hurting Tobirama more.

Twin furious roars along with bursts of crimson chakra rumbled through the destroyed terrain. Madara stiffened, and that was when Tobirama finally noticed, in his pained daze, the Mangekyō Sharingan spinning in simmering rage in Madara's eyes. Without looking up, Madara carefully brushed back crimson-soaked hair that had once been silvery white. Tobirama turned his head slightly towards the touch as Madara's midnight curtain of hair spilled around him, closing his eyes in a brief reprieve.

"Idiot…" Tobirama managed to say without gagging on the blood, the single admonishment conveying his exasperation at seeing Madara here after specifically leaving his students and brother with instructions to prevent Madara from following him. Again.

The responding smirk didn't quite reach Madara's eyes as he took in the extent of Tobirama's wounds. "As if I wouldn't have gone after you...even if you're always running just out of my reach…"

Tobirama looked away, a flash of guilt rising. It wasn't as if he disliked Madara's advances...It was—

The earth suddenly shook when two malevolent presences made themselves known, bursting from the rubble and rushing towards Madara and Tobirama on their hands and feet like they had truly become savage beasts. Upon reaching them, they straightened to their full heights, red chakra flickering about them, mimicking the fox's appearance with long, pointed ears, crimson eyes, and lengthened claws and fangs. Three chakra tails aggressively whipped back in forth from behind each brother.

"Uchiha," Ginkaku hissed.

"That one is ours," Kinkaku growled. "Don't interfere."

Madara blinked once, and the simmering rage was suddenly a blazing inferno. Tobirama forcibly pushed back his pain, cursing his paralyzed limbs while Madara slowly straightened to his feet, reaching for the handle of his gunbai.

"You worthless maggots," Madara said in a low and dangerous tone, not bothering to turn and face the Gold and Silver brothers fully. The furious chakra surrounding him was enough to exhibit his displeasure. "How dare you even think of Senju Tobirama as yours."

He turned abruptly, and the brothers took a step back at the raw fury turned upon them. They snarled, crouching into combat stances, seeming smart enough to not look directly into Madara's eyes.

Dark blue chakra flickered, building and growing from Madara. The Gold and Silver brothers tensed as the enormous armored Susanoo came to life in a mass of blazing chakra and furor, the immense pressure of it blowing away the dust and loose gravel. The brothers crossed their arms over their faces to defend from the debris, sliding back a few steps from the intense chakra.

It was an impressive sight even when Tobirama was currently encased inside it.

"So that's the rumored Susanoo," Kinkaku said, a savage grin stealing across his features. "What an honor to battle Uchiha Madara and Senju Tobirama in one day, eh, Ginkaku."

"You're right, Kinkaku," Ginkaku said, matching his brother's grin. "Though the Senju doesn't seem like he'll be much of a fight now."

Red chakra ebbed, seven tails forming for each brother, their skin blackening and burning away. Tobirama had aided in battling the nine-tails and helped Hashirama subdue the tailed beasts. It was no small feat, Hashirama's mokuton jutsu being the unparalleled power to seal the beasts. Out of eight beasts, with Suna having the one-tails, Tobirama had managed to seal away two by himself while Hashirama and Madara had each sealed three.

But these pseudo jinchūriki would be troublesome. Tailed beasts by themselves he could admit were slightly easier to seal whereas jinchūriki made more concentrated attacks wielding both powerful chakra and human-sized bodies that held less mass to put a seal on. These brothers' battle prowess was exceptionally impressive and their teamwork impeccable. They knew how to utilize the nine-tail's chakra expertly, and the combination of their tools made them a deadly duo, though their tools seemed to have been scattered in the explosions.

Tobirama didn't have to tell Madara to be careful. Madara was a powerful shinobi in his own right.

Biting his lip to hold back a pained grunt, Tobirama shakily maneuvered himself to a sitting position with his scarcely usable right arm, flooding chakra throughout his system to numb the pain and pause the external blood flow. Madara tensed.

"Don't move, Tobirama. You'll make your injuries worse," Madara ordered without looking away from the brothers.

Tobirama spat out blood, scowling at his lover's back. "I can still fight. Besides, I can tell you ran all the way here with hardly a break...you're exhausted as well."

Tobirama could see Madara's own scowl without having to look at Madara's face. Tobirama already knew without having to ask that Madara had likely run off after him the moment he'd failed to send a missive back to the village, and considering Tobirama had been on the run for three days, Madara had likely cut down the four-day trip to three, wasting massive amounts of chakra in the process. Closing his eyes briefly, Tobirama forced his right arm to raise, striking several pressure points in his torso and leg. He let out a slow breath, allowing his body to recenter itself. That would slow the paralyzing drug for a little while, but it left his entire left side useless.

Utilizing his bloody arm, he slammed his hand on the ground.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu!

The acrid stench of smoke followed the brief concentrated chakra of a summoning appearing. The smoke quickly cleared, revealing a massive feline beast nearly as tall as Tobirama and easily twice his length. Silky white fur with black stripes brushed against Tobirama's skin.

"It hast been a long time agone since thee summoned us, cub," the huge white tiger growled in its deep rumbling voice of thunder. Intelligent gold-hued eyes looked over Tobirama's form, the large, broad head lowering to sniff at Tobirama's injuries.

"Byakko," Tobirama greeted, keeping the pain from his voice. This summoning was revered as the king of all beasts, majestic in every way with its long white fur and elegant black stripes. Saber-like teeth filled its mouth, but its piercing gold eyes were more startling than the huge claws and fangs that could tear a person apart in an instant. Rumored to have lived over a thousand years, Byakko ruled the beasts of the western lands in its homeland as its righteous guardian. If its summoner showed any weakness, Byakko would turn against him without hesitation...though their situation was a bit peculiar as Byakko had instigated the contract with Tobirama when he was thirteen.

The feline raised its head, surveying the situation. "Thine Uchiha-cub displays such wrothful disturbance. The mortals therewith the nine-tails's chakra have caused Uchiha-cub's wroth and thine wounds, hath they not? "

"Yes," Tobirama rasped, managing to stand to his feet with Byakko's generous assistance, the beast's head nudging under his arm for support. Tobirama gripped long fur to steady himself, staining the pristine fur with blood. He disregarded Byakko's notion that Madara was his . Byakko's way of thinking differed from a human's after all… "Your assistance in defeating them would be appreciated.

"Thine wounds reek a poisonous odor, " Byakko mentioned, a low growl vibrating in its throat, unbothered by Tobirama bleeding all over. "Erelong cub's limbs shall cease to move."

"The beast king is right," Madara said, turning his head to look briefly at Tobirama and Byakko. "You're in no condition to fight."

"That may be true, but it doesn't mean I am down for the count," Tobirama said, causing both Madara and Byakko to glance at him in surprise.

Byakko rumbled in a way that suggested laughter, the curving of its heavy jowls implying a sharp-toothed grin.

"Clever cub. Twas always thee who would excogitate long afore a battle," Byakko growled approvingly, eyes gleaming with predatory interest. "Tis been long since we hath been involved in a sanguine venery such as this."

Madara sighed. "You're impossible, Tobirama."

"As are you, Madara," Tobirama countered, straightening his stance, pausing briefly only to let the wave a dizziness pass.

Madara barked out a hard laugh. "Fine, then. What's your plan?"

"We've waited long enough! " Ginkaku bellowed before Tobirama could speak.

"Let's go, Ginkaku! " Kinkaku roared, both racing towards the Susanoo barrier without hesitation.

"Just do as you always do," Tobirama said, raising his fingers in the seal of confrontation to concentrate his chakra.

"Fine by me," Madara said, a fierce grin encasing his features as he swung Susanoo's huge fist at the brothers, cracking the earth open and sending debris flying.

Tobirama narrowed his eyes, watching closely as Ginkaku leapt several feet away while Madara aimed another blow at Kinkaku.

"Go, Byakko," Tobirama murmured moments before Ginkaku touched down, the beast bursting from his side in a blur of white. Tobirama steadied himself on trembling legs as his summoning tore after Ginkaku with such speed and power that it left a cloud of dust behind it. The two slammed into each other in a brutal clash of savage claws and fangs, ferocious snarls ripping through the valley.

Sweat beaded against Tobirama's brow, his breaths becoming faster, each drag in and out like a dull blade sawing at his chest, pain pulsing in time to his heartbeat while he watched his summoning battle Ginkaku. His vision was blurring again – a sure sign that he would not last much longer in this battle. He would have to end it quickly.

Byakko clamped powerful jaws down on the back of Ginkaku's neck, thick muscles straining as the summoning twisted violently and flung Ginkaku towards him.

"Hie, cub! " Byakko roared.

Tobirama forced a surge of chakra in the scrolls he had thrown down the rock formation just before he'd been hit by Kinkaku, silently thanking Mito for teaching him her extensive knowledge of fūinjutsu.

The scrolls beneath the rubble nearby glowed brightly, the seals inked on them activating as Ginkaku flew towards them. Two fūinjutsu techniques combined to create an inescapable seal made for beings as powerful as the tailed beasts. He had altered them after Mito had taught him various sealing techniques in case another village attacked Konoha with their tailed beasts. He'd written the seals in the scrolls while on the run from his ambushers upon sensing the nine-tails's chakra from the brothers, waiting for the perfect opportunity to use them. They were still in the experimental stage, but what was the use of a new jutsu without trying it out in the middle of battle?

Ginkaku bellowed frantically upon seeing the glowing seals, tails shooting out to project him in another direction, but it was too late.

"Seal!" Tobirama commanded as the light enveloped the pseudo jinchūriki, cutting off the bestial roar abruptly.

"Ginkaku! " Kinkaku screamed upon seeing his brother vanish into the scrolls. His tails whipped out, smashing the ground beneath Madara's feet and unbalancing him. One shot up from underground, yanking Madara off the ground and hurling him away from the protective Susanoo, the massive chakra lifeform dispersing into the air — something that wouldn't have happened if Madara had not been drained from using chakra to travel here. Snarling, Kinkaku raced towards Tobirama and the scrolls at his feet.

His speed enhanced by the nine-tails chakra was too fast for even Byakko to apprehend, one of the limber tails stretching to snag the scrolls while he lunged and another spearing towards Tobirama. The tail was inches away from piercing through Tobirama's heart when Madara suddenly appeared, shoving Tobirama out of the way. Tobirama's eyes widened as he fell, heart lurching when the tail pierced straight through Madara's abdomen before being yanked out.

"Ghhkk!" Madara grunted, falling to the ground, clutching at the gaping hole to keep his guts from spilling out.

Kinkaku swiftly rolled to his feet, all nine tails whipping about him.

"Senju! " he snarled in his garbled, nearly unintelligible voice, crimson eyes filled with hate. "You will pay for this! "

With that, Kinkaku leapt up to a rock formation, speeding off into the distance with the scrolls in his clutches. Without his brother, Kinkaku would be no match for the combination of Madara, Tobirama, and the beast king even injured as they were. Using his chakra and the nine-tail's chakra so extensively had left him nearly burned out with no choice but to flee.

"Shall we pursue? " Byakko growled, tensed for chase. Its fur was coated in blood, dripping to the earth in small rivulets. Ginkaku had injured the summoning quite severely, large patches of fur torn off from deep gouges and half of the beast's face bloodied.

"No," Tobirama grunted when his ribs protested the hard fall. The Gold and Silver brothers were defeated for now and would likely come for him in the future if Kinkaku ever figured out how to release Ginkaku from the seal. Aside from that, Madara was growing paler by the second as blood pooled beneath him. "Please take us back to Konoha, Byakko."

Byakko bowed its massive head, something resembling concern in its eyes when it saw Tobirama's severely weakened state. "Aye, cub ."

Tobirama trusted that the beast king would get them home, dead or alive. Tobirama slumped by Madara, reaching out a trembling hand to grasp his lover's gloved hand. Madara coughed out a gush of blood, black eyes gazing intently at Tobirama while he squeezed Tobirama's hand in some assurance. Heart in his throat, Tobirama weakly gripped Madara's hand in return.

Tobirama had no strength to scold him for worrying when Madara was in nearly as bad shape as him. He couldn't stop his eyes from slipping shut, blackness encasing him as the excruciating pain finally began to fade, but he was content because of the warm, familiar presence beside him.

He was safe.

A/N: Please feel free to correct my attempts at stringing together archaic words lol.