The ice cold that had once even seemed to have been too much for him suddenly seemed so insignificant. So meager. He did not remember how he’d come to be here. All he remembered was the cold.That cold was rapidly being drowned in a burning heat coming from his gullet like a deathly fever. There was a purpose...a reason...but he could not fathom that, just as he could no longer fathom the footprints that danced around him or the black mark darkening his neck that suddenly faded into his skin unseen. It became less and less of a interest to him as something else began to take its place. Fury.

Fire frothed within his gullet in a poisonous sea. He did not feel like himself and yet he’d felt more himself than ever before. Whatever insignificant emotions and thoughts he had begun to have was swallowed and burned before he could even know what they were.

Fog settled over his thoughts when he tried to reach back for them, but this gave him no cause for concern. There was something more important he should be doing, right? His red eyes stabbed into the stretches of the village looking into one direction in particular. There. That’s where he was. That’s where he always was. 

That problem held a name. That problem held position. That problem held importance. That problem would be missed. However, many solutions would be achieved with the ending of this problem, and for that he was willing to solve it. Tobirama had done so for less.

The timing was critical. The situation invaluable. It must be without witnesses and without a finger. It must be quick and it must be precise. One wrong move and a battle would begin. It would be a battle he could not win, but one he would not fail from. The safety of this village was worth far more than his own or this scoundrel’s life. The safety of his brother even more.

Darkness peppered through the empty moon-soaked fields changing the landscape to shades of blue and black. It was there he saw him before a board of tattered planks and haphazard paint. A poor excuse for a grave. Tobirama had known where they were, having come of his own accord several times before. This was not the first time his enemy had wandered out here in the haze of the late nights to stand before this marker.