#hour 7

Madara stood alone in the middle of a gentle stream, poling a canoe downstream. The fog was so thick that he couldn't see where he was travelling.

Madara was dreaming.

He was sure not just because the moon above was red, but also his reflection in the water had white hair and purple eyes. Three eyes, even.

"I can't go back the the daimyo's court, not after what happened the last time, so I'm afraid you'll have to take on the more visible role during this mission." Tobirama-sama's tone is brisk and matter of fact, without judgement or disgust at being assigned to work with an Uchiha for the first time, but there's the faintest hint of an apology in his voice.

"It won't be the first time for me, and I don't mind of course," Hikaku gestures to the kimono he's wearing, tilting his head to let the tiny bells on his kanzashi chime. "But might I ask what happened? Just in case it affects our current circumstances."

"I attracted too much attention and the man who insisted on courting me was more persistent than I expected." Tobirama-sama grimaces at the memory, and it's more emotion than Hikaku ever saw from him on the battlefield - even when he was injured. "I had to kill myself off."

Testing his newest invention, Tobirama had eventually moved further away from the Senju settlement, pushing to find the limits of its range. It was during this that an unprecedented opportunity had presented itself—Uchiha Madara was rapidly moving towards his location. Who better to pit himself against to test both the endurance, and whether or not the Sharingan could spot it? Tobirama could not really think of anyone else, except perhaps Uchiha Izuna, although the younger Uchiha was, at least by Tobirama’s estimate, a fraction or two below Madara in skill.

Tobirama waited until Madara burst into the clearing, then he set off in a panicked rush. Minus the actual panic. And with the addition of an injury to his leg that he didn’t actually have. Feigning being hurt and exhausted, he made sure to not move any faster than that Madara quickly gained on him. Then, as if he had come to the realization that he would not manage to outpace the Uchiha, he stopped on a branch, leaning heavily on one leg, brandishing a kunai in one hand, and moving the other through a long series of hand seals. Madara crashed into him before he could finish the jutsu.