.
At first, when he didn’t arrive home from his mission on schedule, they’d assumed he’d just run into some trouble. A particularly large group of bandits, an enemy scouting squad he’d had to avoid. An unexpected complication during the mission.
As days passed, though, and there was no sign of him, not even a missive sent ahead with a summons that he was going to be late, worry began to creep in.
His absence reached the two week mark, and Hashirama would no longer allow his counsel to waylay him. He may have duties as clan head, but his little brother was missing and they were finding no clues through the regular patrols and scouting parties.
Notes:
(See the end of the work for notes.)
Work Text:
Tobirama was missing.
At first, when he didn’t arrive home from his mission on schedule, they’d assumed he’d just run into some trouble. A particularly large group of bandits, an enemy scouting squad he’d had to avoid. An unexpected complication during the mission.
As days passed, though, and there was no sign of him, not even a missive sent ahead with a summons that he was going to be late, worry began to creep in.
His absence reached the two week mark, and Hashirama would no longer allow his counsel to waylay him. He may have duties as clan head, but his little brother was missing and they were finding no clues through the regular patrols and scouting parties.
The only reason he’d allowed himself to be stalled for this long was because the perimeter patrol had reported that the Uchiha were getting agitated. He didn’t want to risk leaving the clan headless in case of an attack. He didn’t think Madara would launch an attack on the clan compound — his friend was smarter than that — but there was always the possibility of his clan going behind his back, or overruling him.
An unlikely possibility; which was why he was leaving now.
Hashirama ran as quickly as he could to the town the job had taken place in. Asking around, he discovered that Tobirama had, in fact, made it there, and — upon asking the client — completed the mission successfully.
That meant that something had gone wrong on the way back, which was troubling. He hadn’t seen anything that stood out to him on the journey here, which meant he’d have to go slower on the way back, picking over everything with a fine-toothed comb.
He had no luck until he came to a spot that felt off. He was a shinobi, and as such had learned to trust his instincts. He stopped, observing more carefully. Something had caught his eye, registered as unnatural to his subconscious…
There. The too-smooth texture of covered tracks. A break in the foliage that was a little too clean, too sharp. And slightly farther in, hardly noticeable against the rough tree bark —
A kunai mark.
Maybe someone else would have missed it, but if there was anything Hashirama knew, it was trees. He ventured further off the road, into the forest. The trail was faint; very faint. Someone had evidently tried to cover their tracks. But here and there they’d missed things. And Hashirama was nothing if not observant when he tried to be.
He eventually reached a clearing, and whoever had covered up the trail had evidently thought that the stretch of forest between here and the road was sufficient cover, because they hadn’t bothered to clean up the actual battle site.
All the aftermath of a ninjutsu fight, with scattered rocks and cut trees and various burnt spots, and a lot — a lot — of water. Even after this long, it had not fully evaporated.
