The Moon is White

Chapter 25

Tobirama was visibly wiped of emotions, his expression frigid and glacial enough that even Kawarama felt safer traveling at a 10 meters distance away from him. His clansmen (bodyguards, the elders had insisted) followed Kawarama's example, all of them staying at a tentative distance while still keeping him inside a circle of protection.

Tobirama would've normally snorted derisively at the mere thought of anybody succeeding at an ambush while he was actively kneading chakra, but due to how terrible his current mood was, he unfortunately enough didn't have it in him.

While his body moved with tandem, following after the Uchiha delegation at a respectable distance (a few hours away from the Uchiha compound now) his mind was entirely elsewhere. His inner eye was steadily keeping track of Madara's chakra signature, unmoving for the past half an hour, and by the sense of things, was at rest next to Ryouta and an unknown tiny being- a newborn.

At the reminder of the small and very, very distinctly different yet familiar chakra signature, an involuntary scowl made its way to Tobirama's face, causing Kawarama to move another meter away. To be truthful, Tobirama reckons that nobody actually knows that he was able to backtrack a person's antecedents via their chakra signature.

In fact, Tobirama doubts that even Madara (who everyone knows is a certified genius) would be able to pull apart and study a person's chakra signature in depth, at the level Tobirama was able to.

What the masses were ignorant about was that when a child was born, their chakra signature would be a mixture of their parents'. The percentage of who they take after were more randomized, however (he was still researching about it).

Take Tobirama and his brothers for example.

Hashirama has over ninety percent of their father's chakra signature and little of their mother's. Tobirama has about seventy percent of their mother's. Kawarama has about thirty percent of their mother's. And Itama was a perfect blend of their parents'.

As for the Uchiha main family members, Madara has about twenty percent of Tajima's chakra signature. Izuna has a little more than Madara. Ryouta has the highest percentage out of the five brothers; ninety-five percent. Yakumi has sixty percent. And Takumi has forty percent.

If Tobirama's grandparents had still been alive and MIA, he would have been able to track them by using Butsuma's chakra signature as a pointer even if he has never met them before. This made Tobirama quite the tracker, but that was irrelevant.

What was relevant was that the newborn's chakra signature has Madara's in it, as high as ninety percent, in fact, proving that the baby to be definitely Madara's.

Just to be clear, Tobirama had also sensed the remaining ten percent exactly fifteen days ago, on the day Madara had left the Senju compound (Tobirama wasn't a stalker. He had been worried at Madara's abrupt departure). By the sense of things, Madara had been next to her the whole time she was giving birth. And then proceeded to continually cycle healing chakra into the newborn's body up until three days ago.

It was with a rotten realization that Madara had concealed his status as a husband - a married man - from both Tobirama and Itama. And Tobirama was positively irked at the shocking discovery. He knows he shouldn't take it personally since Madara has the right to keep his own secrets, and that Madara, as a clan head, was expected to have many heirs to secure his lineage.

But his hateful heart was not in agreement with his logical mind, causing his emotions to be all over the place.

Just the thought of Madara being with someone else made Tobirama physically ill. It was illogical. He knows it was. But he couldn't help it. Hence, he decided that it would be better to - later in private - congratulate Madara on becoming a father. That way, he could move on. That way, he could be genuinely happy for his best friend.