Chapter Text
The constant cycle of Indra and Asura's reincarnation had always been tiring for Hagoromo in more ways than one.
Again and again, he saw his sons come together. Again and again, he saw them form a bond that few but they were able to understand. Again and again, he saw Indra falling in hatred and turning away. Again and again, he saw his sons at odds.
After their first fight, Hagoromo had made sure that Indra was the one would die at Asura's hand, and not the other way around. Hamura had once asked him if it did not show some bias. But Hagoromo remembers how broken Indra had been after he had first killed Asura. Indra's curse for hatred had always been born out of love. As some humans were prone to say, hatred was never really the opposite of love.
Indra had loved Hagoromo. Had loved Asura. It was the feeling that perhaps they had not loved him in the same way that had turned Indra away from them all. That had begun the curse of hatred.
But when Indra had succeeded in killing Asura, the devastation had been much worse. It was something Hagoromo never wished to see again. Asura, Hagoromo knew, would always love Indra with all his heart, but his younger son was stronger in that than his older son.
So Hagoromo made sure that it was never Indra who remained as the survivor after it had happened the first time.
This time, though, this reincarnation of Indra broke that cycle. For the second time, after so many cycles, Indra was once more alive while Asura was not. Indra was alive, and the destruction that he was now set upon was something Hagoromo was desperate to salvage.
With eyes of his blood brother and the cells of his soul brother, Uchiha Madara was a husk of a man. Izanagi may have helped him survive, but it had also led him to spiral into madness. Had led him straight towards Zetsu. Had led him to kidnap and manipulate a child of his own blood. His own clan.
So, when Uchiha Madara took his last breath, he was certain that he was going to be revived by the pawn he was leaving behind. He took his last breath, not knowing that the pawn hoped that the revival wouldn't be needed. He took his last breath, not knowing that he, too, was a pawn. He took his last breath, not knowing that his soul father was watching over him with biting grief in his heart.
Oh, how Hagoromo had hoped that things would be different this time around. His sons had had brothers of their own. Had had similar losses. Had been powerful in their own right from the start and had respected each other for the same. Had never been jealous of what others could do. Even with bitter clan feuds, they had shared a dream. A dream that did come about, even in a bitter way.
Because Indra once again lost a brother. Indra once again fell to his grief. Indra once again turned his blessed eye towards all he loved dear with the intent to burn it all.
Sighing, Hagoromo walks out of the cave and looks upon the stars. This time around, the end results had been more hopeful than ever before. Konoha, Hagoromo acknowledges, was all he could have dreamed of. Konoha, even with a third set of war waging all around them, was still a beacon of hope. Even with lost souls and bitter ideals.
Frowning, Hagoromo goes through the ritual that he does every time after a set of his sons' reincarnations perish once more. Clinical and grieving, he hates this part. Hates how he has to assess everything all so as to attempt to perhaps make things easier for the next generation.
Once or twice, he had even decided to allow his sons to have access to memories from their past lives. They often worked well until Indra would feel sidelined once more. Thrice, he had let only Asura access his memories, and every time it would backfire spectacularly. Because Asura would go around trying to find Indra, not realising that his unknowing brother would find his skills to be too much.
This time around, Hagaromo acknowledges that, while Uchiha Madara had gone down the worst route possible, Senju Hashirama had somehow done the opposite. Even though Kurama's imprisonment had enraged Hagoromo, he is now well aware that the vessels were helping curb Zetsu's plans in the most spectacular fashion.
This time around, Senju Hashirama, Hagoromo thinks bitterly, had thrived because, for all that he had loved Madara like a brother, that love was not solely for Madara. While Asura would have let Indra trample him to death with Kurama, Hashirama had not let Madara do so.
Because Hashirama had another sibling waiting for him at home.
Hagoromo blinks at the twinkling stars, thankful that it was a night of a new moon, with mother's prison nowhere in sight.
What had been different this time around?
This was far from the first time that Asura or Indra had blood brothers. Had blood siblings. The bond between Hashirama and Tobirama was a typical one. By all accounts, Madara had perhaps been closer, been more loving, to Izuna.
Hagoromo thinks back to all that the Senju brothers had achieved in life, and a piece suddenly fell into place. Oh, Hashirama did love Tobirama, and Tobirama had loved Hashirama. It was never about the love, Hagoromo realised with slight bitterness.
The cycle that he had always wanted to break had indeed been broken.
For all of Senju Hashirama’s godlike powers, he had never felt alone. Hashirama had not sought out Madara, thinking no one understood him. Hashirama had befriended Madara because the two had understood each other as older brothers.
But the cycle of insecurity that Asura and Indra always fell into? That had been broken this time.
Because Senju Hashirama, even with his godlike powers, saw Senju Tobirama as an equal. Oh, there was love indeed and a desire to protect because Hashirama had offered his own life to spare Tobirama.
But Senju Tobirama, with his mastery over water, was considered no bit less formidable than his brother.
Equals. An incarnation of Asura's soul had finally found a brother he considered an equal, without any jealousy hindering the two.
Was that the key? Perhaps, with the help of his brother, Indra and Asura would learn to be the same for each other?
Hagoromo doesn't know how to make that true for Indra, but surely he could for Asura once more.
"Hamura?" Hagoromo whispers towards the sky and feels his brother materialise beside him.
"Brother."
"How soon will the cycle begin again?"
A pause.
"Sooner than you are thinking."
Hagoromo frowns to look at his brother. Somehow, his brother had also gained the domain of death. Gained the ability to guide departed souls. Just as Hagoromo was the Sage of Six Paths, Hamura was the Death Reaper.
"How soon?"
Another pause.
"I believe Indra will be reborn in just about a year."
Startled, Hagoromo looks at Hamura.
"So soon?"
Hamura sighs and then whispers. "Madara may have died today, but you forget, brother, that Hashirama has been dead for nearly half a century."
But of course, Hagoromo thinks bitterly. Uchiha Madara had lived for an unnaturally long time.
"Uchiha clan must be eager to welcome a new child."
"They always are," Hamura muses.
"Tell me," Hagoromo whispers. "Will Indra have any siblings this time around?"
"An older brother," Hamura looks at him sideways. "Though vastly different from Uchiha Izuna."
"Oh?"
"Uchiha Itachi," Hamura hums, "is a prodigy. And yet he despises the idea of fighting."
"Does he fight still?"
"He will, for that is his duty."
Hagoromo looks at his brother once more. Questions swirl in his mind regarding how this would affect Indra. A prodigy of a brother might make him doubt himself, similar to how Indra had raged with insecurity in his first life. Will he lash out again? Will this new Uchiha child love his brother like Madara had loved Izuna, or will he fall into jealousy like Indra had over Asura? More than that, though...
"And will Uchiha Itachi love his brother?" Hagoromo asks, unable to quell his worries for his son. At that, Hamura gives a small smile.
"More than the world. Enough to damn himself and then offer his own head."
That will have to do, Hagoromo thought, closing his eyes. For Indra, that will have to do.
"And Asura?"
Hagoromo witnesses his brother light up. Sees him gain a sparkle in his eyes that had only shown up two times before. Once, when one of Asura's descendants had found a way to summon him. Uzumaki, Hamura had told him, were fascinating. And next, when Senju Tobirama found a way to break Hamura's barriers and summon lost souls.
"His father," Hamura says in awe, "is close to finding a way to summon me."
"For what purpose?" Hagoromo asks worriedly. Hamura's face breaks into a grin.
"A contract," Hamura says in a rushed manner. "By agreeing to spend eternity in my stomach, they can seal anything they want without fail."
Hagoromo blinks. “Hamura's stomach” is but a convoluted way of saying a dimension exclusive to him. All Hamura ever stored in it were his material possessions.
"Anything," Hamura continues, eyeing Hagoromo slightly, "including a tailed beast."
Hagoromo's mind freezes.
"And you will allow that?" He asks incredulously, only for Hamura to shrug.
"The work is phenomenal, and it will certainly provide security against Zetsu's machinations."
Sometimes, Hagoromo doesn't understand his brother. He isn’t sure he wants to. Even after so many centuries.
"If it suits you, brother," Hagoromo allows. "Clearly, Asura's father is a man of great intellect. But why does he want to do that?"
"His wife is Kurama's vessel."
Hagoromo turns to look at Hamura incredulously.
"Asura will be born to... The Yondaime Hokage?"
"His wife is the only one in Konoha to be of Asura's line."
Indeed. For Zetsu had been fast at work in decimating Asura's lines. In decimating the Senju in Madara's name and in drowning the Uzumaki through other villages. The deaths had burned Hagoromo's very soul.
"Is that all you wanted, brother?" Hamura breaks Hagoromo out of his musings. No. The sage had called the reaper for a very different reason.
"Where is Senju Tobirama’s soul?"
Hamura blinks at him blankly, and Hagoromo feels his cheek twitch.
"Plotting again, brother?"
"What else can I do?" Hagoromo mutters, but Hamura only stares at him. "I need to help them."
"They'll never grow if you continue to do this, brother."
"Asura did." Hagoromo sighs, and Hamura hums.
"Asura always does. Don't ask me to bend the world to your whims, though, brother. They are your sons. Not your pawns."
Hagoromo flinches at that.
"I am doing this for them."
"I know," Hamura sighs. The truth is that the reaper understood well enough how Hagoromo felt. He doesn't want his nephews to suffer any more than Hagoromo does. But often enough, they have had to stop each other from tearing apart the very fabric of reality to help the two brothers.
This time around, Hamura realises that it is his turn to make Hagoromo step back.
"Senju Tobirama's soul has already reincarnated. It has already built a new life," Hamura warns and Hagoromo stills.
"He can help Asura."
"Will you use him as a pawn then? A stranger's soul to help your son?"
"He was my son's brother," Hagoromo snaps. "He is family enough to me with that. Do you think Senju Tobirama, who broke down your very barriers, will be averse to regaining his memories? Especially if to help Hashirama?"
"You don't want him to help Hashirama. You want him to help Asura," Hamura argues, and Hagoromo scoffs.
"A bond of soul was made still, was it not? Tobirama is as much Hashirama's brother as Indra and Asura were to each other. If the bond between my sons can transcend lives, my can't the one between the Senju brothers?"
Hamura sighs at that.
"Tell me your plan, brother. Let's find a path that does not destroy someone's free will."
"Let Senju Tobirama remember," Hagoromo states. "Let him remember. He is dutiful enough that he will strive for peace. For Hashirama's sake, he will."
"He is dutiful still, I assure you," Hamura mutters. "Just him? Not Hashirama? Or Asura?"
Hagoromo breathes in and turns away to look at the sky again.
"It never helps."
Hagoromo can feel his brother's eyes on him before Hamura lets out a sigh.
"Tobirama's soul has a new life," Hamura breathes out. "It's full of pain, but there are still sparks of joy. I do not think taking that away will help in any way."
"I see," Hagoromo sighs, but looks up when Hamura continues.
"But... Your idea has merit." Hagoromo looks at Hamura for a moment. The gleam in his brother's eye is easy enough to recognise. Senju Tobirama had been one of Hamura's favourites. There is a reason Hagoromo knew that Hamura would be keeping track of that soul. Tobirama had fascinated Hamura like few ever did.
"What then?"
"If things get worse," Hamura allows. "Then, perhaps so. Together, you and I, we can keep an eye. And if the pros outweigh the cons..."
"Then he will remember."
"Then he will remember."
For the next year, the sage and the reaper saw perhaps a good future for Indra. But on the very day that Asura was born again, Hagoromo felt his heart break and weep. Felt it as another one of his blood enslaved Kurama for destruction. He raged as he saw yet another vibrant child of Asura's line die, all too save her son. He watched with slight awe as a bright-eyed man summoned Hamura himself to make sure that both Kurama and Asura were safe and yet together.
He saw the destruction wrought on the dream that Hashirama and Madara had envisioned together. Throughout it all, Hagoromo wondered just why Asura was meant to lead a life so hard.
Standing in a dingy room, a few days later, Hagoromo felt his ire rise as a woman called Asura's new incarnation a monster. Saw her look at his son with disdain.
Uzumaki Naruto, Hagoromo thinks, deserves much better, even if he had not been Asura reborn. It startled him, though, when Hamura appears beside him again.
"Brother?"
"How is little Naruto?" Hamura asks with a wild look in his eye.
Hagoromo knows that for this particular reincarnation of Asura, Hamura is much more invested. Hamura held the very soul of Naruto's father with him. Hamura had witnessed the boy's birth and had been one of the first to touch him, even for a sealing process. Hamura is very invested in the life of little Naruto and so had gone to see what might happen next.
"Hungry, I think."
"The boy's godfather came and left the village today."
"He won't raise the boy?" Hagoromo asks, and Hamura purses his lips.
"The Hokage thinks it will be dangerous. Given the boy's father."
"That is not what has you worked up," Hagoromo says slowly, and Hamura gives a broken laugh.
"The Yondaime's student begged the Sandaime to let him have the boy."
Hagoromo startles at that. Hatake Kakashi is someone who he always felt the world had failed in many ways. The cruelty of the world thrust upon the boy with much more guilt and grief. The child had been left with just his teacher, the teacher's wife, and an unborn child.
Many nights, Hagoromo had witnessed the Yondaime delicately stopping his student from rubbing his hands raw as if to wipe away the blood of his teammate. Had seen Kushina snatch Kakashi's hand away from the gifted Sharingan and put it on her round belly.
A child failed by the world indeed.
"And?"
"He was denied."
Hagoromo closes his eyes.
"I suppose you were right," Hamura continues.
"About what?"
"It's not just Asura and Indra whose bonds can transcend lives."
Slowly, Hagoromo opens his eyes, only to see Hamura hovering over Naruto, softly caressing the child.
"Hamura?"
"In a better world, Hatake Kakashi would have grown up as a brother to Namikaze Naruto. In this world, Hatake Kakashi cannot be anywhere near Uzumaki Naruto. And yet they will always be brothers because they once were before."
"In a better world indeed," Hagoromo says slowly.
"I thought about what you had said. The Hatake child... He's surrounded by death. By grief. And yet I hoped that he would still build a new life. Now, though, he has nothing but guilt and duty."
"It's him then?"
"I'd wondered what Senju Tobirama's soul would be like in a world of peace. And yet..."
Hagoromo feels his heart stutter, as improbable as that was. A year ago, when he had asked Hamura, he had been in the throes of grief. Had later acknowledged that Hamura was right that the new incarnation of Senju Tobirama deserved peace. Knowing that the new incarnation was a child that he had come to learn more and more about due to Uchiha Obito’s tragedies and the last days of Yondaime, only made him hesitate more.
"He might still build a worthy life," Hagoromo says firmly, and Hamura lets his thumb swipe over Naruto's cheek.
"He will. I do not intend to make Hatake Kakashi disappear."
Hagoromo pauses. The haunting light from mother's prison that lit up the room felt both like regret and salvation.
"Just unlock the memories, then? Can the two coexist?"
Hamura turns to look at Hagoromo with a soft grin.
"If anyone can, it will be them."
"Tobirama won't be happy."
"Perhaps that is what is needed."
“So mean, Tobirama!”
“Shut up, Bakashi!”
“He killed my brother!”
“Friend-killer!”
“Brother! I am going to be a father!”
“Kushina is pregnant.”
A nine-tailed fox stands at Konoha’s gates. A man’s black hair flies in the air as he heads to battle.
A nine-tailed fox stands at Konoha’s gates. A man’s white and red robes whip in the air as he heads to battle.
“Shodai-sama has passed.”
“Minato-kun is dead.”
“I am your brother, Tobirama!”
“Maybe you’ll be his sensei someday, Kakashi.”
In a devastated clearing, a previously unconscious Hatake Kakashi wakes up in the midst of his own carnage.