Does Tobirama know how he went from being a living corpse fighting in the Fourth War to fighting a very much alive Uchiha Izuna in his own very much alive body?
No.
But that doesn't really matter now does it. What matters is stopping that Zetsu from destroying his brothers dreams (and the world) again. And unfortunately he needs Izuna's help, whether the Uchiha wants to or not.
Meanwhile, Izuna is fairly certain the Senju has lost his damn mind, but who's he to argue with crazy?
Chapter 1
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Between one breath and the next he’d gone from having chakra rods rammed through his body by Madara, shielding one of the living shinobi with his Edo Tensei body, to stepping out of Hiraishin sword driving forward. And he would swear to the Shinigami themself that it was Izuna’s chakra in front of him. Izuna who Madara would never allow to be desecrated by Edo Tensei.
Not only that, but he could sense Hashirama and Madara’s monster chakras clashing nearby, nearly drowning out the chakra signatures of their surrounding clan members, clan members that had no right being here.
Where was here?
There were leaves rustling nearby, nearly drowned out by the sounds of battle, but that wasn’t right. There shouldn’t be leaves anymore. The Juubi had left nothing in its wake beyond scorched, cracked earth.
All these realizations passed in nanoseconds, and he desperately shifted his weight to try and change the sword’s trajectory. Izuna can’t die today. He was successful, at least mostly as the sword scored Izuna’s side instead of running him through. It wasn’t a fatal wound, nor was it bad enough to take him out of the battle unfortunately.
He jumped back to avoid Izuna’s sword, he gave himself distance, trying to focus solely on Izuna and this fight. Trying to ignore how all of this should be impossible, there would be time to go over everything later right now he had to not die. And it was annoyingly difficult considering it had been over thirty years since he’d last fought the Uchiha.
But he fell into the familiar rhythm fairly quickly, the most notable difference is avoiding killing blows. It wouldn’t do to kill Izuna now, especially if he truly was in the past, if he could prevent Madara’s spiral into madness…
Well maybe the village and the world wouldn’t fall apart.
Unfortunately, after so long fighting on the battlefield of the Fourth War, he was highly tuned in to sudden shifts in chakra, particularly voids in his sensing field. It was the only way he was able to detect Zetsu, as their entire being seemed to be a dark, cold, void. Tobirama couldn’t be sure if they’re presence was consuming the surrounding chakra or not, but it always left him feeling a little sick.
As it was, the moment that void appeared at the edge of the battlefield everything else ceased to exist. Tobirama stilled and turned to face what he subconsciously perceived to be the bigger threat, that proved to be a mistake.
Something else he’d have to reacquaint himself with is feeling pain again.
His breath stuttered as Izuna’s sword pierced his side, through the weak portion of his armor. It wasn’t fatal but that didn’t make the feeling of warm blood staining his side feel any less strange, the pain dim any more.
He grit his teeth and grabbed Izuna’s arm, hand slipping beneath his sleeve to touch bare skin. Thankfully, the Uchiha seemed to be in shock over having his blow land, to the point that he was glancing in the same direction Tobirama had turned. That gave Tobirama the time he needed to place a Hiraishin marker on his arm.
“The hell?!” Izuna yelped, “Get off!”
The Uchiha kicked him away, pulling his sword back with him, and yeah that one hurt.
