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chapter eleven.

the poet waits quietly
to paint the unsaid.

———

Tobirama was literal seconds from wringing the throat of those around him. He told himself Aoi would be fine, that she wouldn't die because she was strong and despite how much he hated him, Madara had trained her and he admitted that Madara was strong. Though no matter what happened he would never tell the Uchiha that, it would blow his ego straight to the sky and crumble Tobirama's too smithereens. 

Tobirama bit his lip, trying his damnedest to ignore his brothers chaotic rambling, refusing to listen as Hashirama's voiced thoughts became more and more pessimistic. He refused to let himself get drawn into Hashirama's mutters as they turned from him reassuring himself that both Aoi and Orochimaru were alive to how they were being tortured slowly and gruesomely. Forced into giving information they didn't have, thrown away when they weren't needed anymore.

Tobirama hopped over a twisted branch of a tree, staring in wonderment at the sight of an Iwa shinobi staked through, his limbs twisted grotesquely; mockingly even, to match that of a dancer. 

A ballerina, Tobirama realized as he looked at the odd composition of the corpse; it was something Aoi always spoke about, something she had shown them.

Hashirama stopped beside him, staring in horror at the corpse, his brown eyes flickered over to Madara as he landed next to him. Said man's expression didn't change at the sight of the corpse, instead, he simply turned towards the path of twisted and charred trees; "We're on the right path, we have to keep going," Madara faltered for a second, a look of something passing over his face, "Aoi can only use so much chakra."

Hashirama clenched his fists, "Madara, what have you been teaching her?"

Madara stood tall and silent, his hair blowing gently in the forest breeze. 

Hashirama turned around, eyes narrowed fiercely as he glared at Madara, "As your Hokage, I demand you tell me what you've been teaching her!"

A sigh escaped the raven-haired man, he looked up at the sky for a moment before he answered, "I taught her what she needed to learn."

Silence followed his words, and Hashirama turned away with a scowl still etched on his face; Aoi had been a sweet little girl, innocent to the world and it's ever harsh ways. Then Madara had found her and now, now she was corrupt, desecrating the corpses of the people she killed, mocking them like their deaths were not but a joke to her.

"We don't have time for this," Tobirama said, his red eyes darting between the two males, "We can continue this pissing contest later, when Aoi and Orochimaru are safe."

The two Kage level men nodded and turned to follow Tobirama as he took off, moving higher into the tree's to avoid the warped tree limbs and corpses. To avoid the mutilated works that Aoi had created.

The three men pretended not to remember her drawings of art, beautiful bodies twisting in the movement of dance. They pretended not to see the resemblance in the bodies pinned to the trees, because surely Aoi wasn't twisted enough to make art from the people she killed.

Tobirama breathed out, expanding his chakra outwards trying to find the unique chakra that belonged to Aoi. His blood ran cold when he felt it, the faint flicker of her chakra that was slowly fading like a flame battling against harsh winds. 

She was fading and fast.

Hashirama raced past Tobirama, his brown hair flying upwards in the breeze he was creating. The brown-haired man was going faster now, pushing extensive amounts of chakra into his feet just so he could reach the girl with candy-floss hair.   

Aoi meant a lot to Tsunade after all, it wasn't because he himself was attached because Hashirama certainly wasn't attached to the random civilian born girl that had befriended his granddaughter. Tobirama wasn't attached either, he wasn't at all attached the girl who looked more and more like him with each passing day. Madara wasn't attached either, he certainly didn't care about the girl he trained after each of her academy sessions, he wasn't attached to the girl who worked herself to exhaustion every training period and still went for dinner with him.

The three of them were not attached to Haruno Aoi, but they all knew if something happened to her they would be devastated.

The three men broke through the dense trees into a clearing. In the very middle was an unconscious Aoi and Orochimaru. Aoi's body was draped over Orochimaru's in a protective way, blood ran from the side of her head but that seemed like the only severe injury she had sustained apart from chakra exhaustion of course.

Scattered around them were multiple bodies, each pierced by either wood or kunai and only three were left alive. Wood had enveloped them from the waist down, effectively trapping them in place.

Madara was by Orochimaru and Aoi's side within seconds while Tobirama and Hashirama stood before the three living Iwa shinobi.

It took a total of three minutes to gather everything they needed in the clearing and leave. Three minutes simply because of how sturdy the wood Aoi had created was. And so the three shinobi left with the two children in their arms and the three missing-nin unconscious on their backs.

They made it back to the village in under ten minutes. What happened when they got back, filled them with disgust and contempt for the Haruno family.