A Wicked Game (Sequel to Expenses of Love)

Chapter 5

It was a deadly stare off. Hashirama sighed as he looked at the two adversaries. On one side he had Madara, and on the other side he had Tobirama. He had excused the meeting for the day due to these two. It surprised him that it was Madara and Tobirama out of all people to act so rashly and inappropriately more than anything. He was the eccentric one, not these two. It was definitely nothing he expected from his little brother or from Madara.

During the meeting, Madara had made some rather offensive remarks to Tobirama, though they hadn't been said outright. Personally, he thought it was more of how someone took it rather than how it was said. As the clan leaders once again gave their condolences for Yukari and asked Madara how he was doing, Madara had been telling them how hard it was and that he missed her every day, and that he was still shaken that he had lost his son as well. They all thought Madara was still mourning his wife.

Hashirama knew different though. The act he put on was starting to get on his nerves as well, even though Madara didn't know Yukari had told him everything. He could see right through him. This whole act was to hurt Tobirama, and it worked. He had to excuse a whole meeting because his brother was losing his cool.

After the clan leaders had filed out, Hashirama sat down between the two. Tobirama was fuming – his face was red and turned into an expression of pure hatred. He had never seen Tobirama look this angry, and frankly, it scared him. Madara seemed completely unphased, wearing an almost unnoticeable smirk on his face.

"Madara," he looked to his old friend, "you are my friend, despite everything that has transpired," he then looked to Tobirama, "and you are my little brother, Tobirama, and I love you. Now can please stop this?"

It was as if his words had been taken by the wind. In one ear and out the other. They didn't even look at him. Their gazes were fixated on each other. The air was deadly and tense – he thought he might be able to cut it with a knife. He let out another sigh and finally threw his hands up, giving up on mediation and decided to just let them go at it. "Fine then. Get whatever's on your chest off, the both of you."

Tobirama wasted no time jumping into action. "You stole her from me! I don't know what you did or what you said to make her leave, but I know it's your fault she left!"

Madara rolled his eyes and rested his chin lazily in his hand. "Yukari had her own mind. She chose to leave you – you were just too senseless to realize she was using you. You can't accept you were a toy to her or that she was in love with me from the start. For someone who is supposed to be quite clever and quick, you seem to not be able to accept the reality of things."

Tobirama's eyes narrowed towards Madara. "I knew her better than you ever did! Something was wrong, and I know you had something to do with it! I know you had something to do with her death!"

The thought crossed Hashirama's mind once again to excuse Madara and tell Tobirama the truth of it all – to tell Tobirama the whole truth of why Yukari left him. But he still just couldn't bring himself to do it. He saw the absolute terrified look on her face as she had told him everything. All the peace he had tried to keep – all the peace Yukari tried to keep – it would disappear. The guilt was killing him, and as every second passed with Madara in silence, he felt as if he would blurt it out at any moment.

Madara stood swiftly, his eyes blazing at Tobirama and raised his voice, "You knew her better than I, Tobirama? You think you knew her better? I grew up with Yukari. We learned to walk together, we trained together. I knew everything about her, and I know exactly how she felt regarding you," he walked towards Tobirama's side of the table, "Yukari loved Izuna with all heart. They married and had been married for 2 years until his murder. They had been trying for children, but anytime she became pregnant, she lost every child very early on."