Archive of Our Own ^beta

For a being of fire and air he had always been drawn to the water. As a very small hatchling his parents had to work very hard to keep him away from any water source. It became easier on them as the rest of his siblings slowly started to hatch and he became more concerned with looking after them. Still, Madara never did forget his love of water. He became nearly as adept at swimming as he did at flying. Koi ponds were a favorite when he was small enough and he took a great deal of joy in sneaking into his human kind gardens, then graduating to rivers and deep lakes. Still, they were never enough. Even the deepest of their lakes felt off to him.

Something was missing. Something important. When he told his parents about it they smiled sadly and curled around him, bathing him in their affectionate warmth.

"You're an old soul, Mada. Reborn for a reason. One of these days you'll find your answers." His father rumbled softly.

Mother was a bit sadder, worried for her hatchling. "I pray you won't have to travel far to find them. Just promise me that you'll come home."

He didn't think she had to worry. He had a duty to his family. How could she think he would leave that unfulfilled?

It was only when he was older, old enough that even the last of his clutch mates was ready to leave the nest, that he finally understood and set out from his rivers and lakes with a promise to return by the years end.

Something was pulling him East. Far over the mountains his clan and their human kin had called home for so many centuries. He stuck to the rivers where he could, swimming when they were deep enough, flying over the rushing waters when they weren't. Through lands he had never known, until suddenly he saw something familiar.

First a bend in the river where the water calmed enough to skip stones, which he promptly attempted. He failed horribly and gave up after a while. Then a bit farther on, off to the north a bit, a cliff face torn apart in places in unnatural ways. How it was familiar he couldn't say, but he knew it. Knew the curves and the jagged edges, the melted texture. Knew there was a place, deeper in, just big enough for two humans to curl together comfortably near a spring.

Drawn by the strange pull in his heart he landed near the cliff before shifting forms and carefully picking his way over shattered rock. Something about the way the rock was shattered made his heart twist, but he pushed it aside. He needed to see if the... The memory? Was it a memory? How?

He needed to know if it was real, he needed to see if the hallow really existed. He picked his way over the battle marked landscape. This wasn't a dragon battle. Those were the marks of his human kin's attacks. The warped and twisted cliff face carried the marks of one of the most powerful members their clan had ever produced. The one his parents had named him for.

So, this was the place of the last battle between the Senju and the Uchiha. Before the Senju second in command managed to convince both clans that the war wouldn't end peacefully while they lived so close together. No one was sure how he did it, but he convinced the leaders of both clans to leave their ancestral lands. Their old lands were considered sacred still and thus others were kept from claiming it, but very few of their people ventured there. Dragons had long memories after all and his parents had lived through those last years of war. They spoke sadly of their human kin and the losses they had suffered and, perhaps surprisingly, they spoke of the Senju Second respectfully. Rumor had it that he had vanished from the clan not terribly long after they all moved several miles from their old homes. A falling out with his brother rumors said. Clan Head Madara had seemed pained when he learned of it and he was said to have never uttered the name of the Senju Head, his childhood friend, again.

Lost in thoughts of clan long dead and history centuries past he nearly passed the grotto. Would have, had the sun not hit just right to catch on a sparkle of water.

He stepped inside the hallow carefully. Water filled the back where it sloped gently. It would be deep enough for him to wash in this form, and warm enough for a soak due to the vents that ran through the land. Kneeling at the edge he ran his fingers through the clear water, it was just as warm as he knew it would be. And his memory was right. There was just enough room out of the water for two to curl together for warmth and comfort.

A flash of red eyes appeared in his mind, soft and sad and full of understanding. A deep voice he couldn't quite make out seemed to rumble around him and sent a sharp stab of sorrow through him. He jerked his hand from the water and stumbled, bolting out into the sun desperate for it's warmth.

Shivering he stared at the cliff side, emotions warring within. Those eyes would be haunting his dreams, there was no way they wouldn't. The sorrow in them was like a physical blow to his heart. Guilt and sorrow mixed with absolute confusion and even fear spread through him.

He had to keep moving. Now more than ever before he felt the pull. East, towards the Great Sea. To the undersea kingdom of Ryujin himself. If he would see one of his inland kin, far removed perhaps but one who loved the waters and the wilds. He would find his answers there. He had to. Feeling to shaken to fly he ran. He didn't stop running until he came to the next river.

***

Crossing over into the Senju land should have felt eerie. The land of their old enemies shouldn't have been so welcoming. Caution had him try to take to the trees rather than the river's edge. But the first time he touched the trees he felt something reaching out to him and quickly withdrew.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Uchiha. More than just the trees remember."

Jerking around to the voice he was surprised to see a woman sitting on a fallen tree. Surprised, because he couldn't sense her at all.

Her lips were as red as his own scales and her grin was full of sharp teeth and promised violence. And yet she wasn't threatening him.

"Uchiha Madara. It's been so very long since I last saw you. We were both human then."

He felt his jaw click shut as he jerked back a bit. Her grin faded into a rueful smile.

"Ah. You don't remember me. I suppose you went about your change the natural way then. Many of us didn't have that option."

She waved him to a stone across from her. He knew it was a gamble but he was curious. His human clan could reincarnate into dragons if their will was strong enough, if their love of family deep enough. Funny how he had never thought that he was once one of his human kin. He pushed the thought away when it pulled his mind back to that cave. Much better to focus on the Senju spirit infront of him. He hadn't even realized the Senju could also become spirits. His parents had never spoken of that little fact.

"Do you have a name, Spirit?"

She laughed, sharp and bitter, meeting his eyes and holding him captive with the rage he saw in her. And the grief.

"I was once Senju Touka, tho there a few now who recognize me, and I've been waiting for you."

If he had been human that would have been terrifying. As it was he had never been so grateful that he had scales, and wings.

She snorted at him when she saw the look on his face, and her rage faded just a bit.

"Well, at least someone found peace in this new age. Your taking the slow path must have been a good thing. Of the Senju you once knew there are two others that remember. And those of us that didn't have a choice have stewed in bitterness and sorrow for many long years. We are waiting for the one you seek."

Madara tensed, frowning.

"You know the man with red eyes?"

The spirit woman frowned again, then sighed deeply before standing and fading.

"Take to the air Uchiha. Follow the river until it meets another. You'll be out of Senju lands and safe amongst the trees again. The river will be your guide."

She was gone, or at least no longer visible, and the tree she had been sitting on seemed to have decayed another decade. And yet, a flower was now growing out of the crumbling wood. Deep red and striped with purple. It was beautiful for all that it was unnatural.

He thought about discarding her advice, spirits were tricky things after all. But she sounded so wistful when she talked about the one she waited for. Like his parents when they spoke of their long dead kin. Always hoping that some day they to would be reborn to a dragon clutch, no matter how rare it was.

Still, if he intended to follow her advice it ment back tracking to a clearing. Her warning about things other than trees remembering him was ringing in his ears as the memory of the tree reaching out to him played in his minds eye. He shivered. He wanted out of these lands as soon as possible. And he'd let his human kin know to keep out as well. Just as soon as he found his answers and went home.

"Right. No touching the trees."

***

A days flight had led him to the merging rivers, which were deep enough and wide enough for him to swim. He was glad for the chance to rest his wings, feeling unusually tired for such a flight. He decided to keep swimming until nightfall when he noticed the water was starting to get a bit salty, then he made camp on the river bank. A small fire and a few fish roasting on sticks to keep any potential passerbys from looking to closely, also because he was feeling a bit hungry and it was easier to eat his fill in human form.

He should have felt lonely so far from home, or shaken from his earlier encounter. Instead he could hear the distant sound of waves pounding against the shore and a sense of calm wrapped around him. Part of him had wanted to push on once he realized what the strange sound was. But another part told him to wait, to rest. He needed to be prepared for anything that might happen along that shore or beneath those waves.

He drifted into jumbled dreams while curled near his fire, full of red eyes that remained the same, no matter the scene. Soft and sad, waiting for something but never asking. But finally he could make out the voice and what it was saying. A dozen times to a dozen different faces, and his words were always the same:

"Go to your family, you're needed there. You'll find me when you're ready and not a moment sooner."

He woke at dawn, his fire having burned out in the night. Sitting on the other side of the coals was his clutch mate. His little brother, the first of them to leave the nest and go off to explore.

"Izuna. What are you doing here?"

His brother examined him closely and Madara wanted to roll his eyes. It hadn't been that long since they'd seen one another so it wasn't as if he had changed.

"You went into Senju land. Not just the old lands, but their current holding."

Madara shrugged, not willing to deny it or offer any defense. It was the fastest way to check if the vision/memories were real, and the rivers there actually lead to the sea and not to lakes or underground.

Izuna sighed and leaned against a boulder.

"Why? What are you looking for?"

"Who, not what."

His brother froze, a shiver going through him and Madara realized that he must have similar memories as well. Was this the first life time they had shared as brothers, he wondered, or were any of the dozen faces in his dreams another life where they had been family?

"Madara... If they haven't been born as dragons you won't probably won't find them. Let them live on in your dreams, they deserve to live a life free of the past if they're reborn."

Madara hummed thinking of the spirit he'd met. Who's human name was once Senju Touka.

"Some spirits didn't get to go down the natural path. Some were pushed into becoming more than what they were. He's still out there."

He smiled at his brothers terrified expression and reached out to grip his arm before standing.

"Don't touch the trees in the Senju lands. Old or new. And don't worry about me. I'll be home to visit before the year is up, I promised Mother."

He ruffled his brother's hair before stretching. Shifting and spreading his wings Madara took to the air again, to eager to take the time to navigate the rivers depths.

Within minutes he was landing on the beach, sand shifting under his talons and the salt air cool as it rushed over his scales. The ocean was beautiful, crystal clear waters that turned to a deep sparkling blue as they stretched out beyond even his considerable range. He thought he would be able to make a home on these shores and be all the happier for it.

Slowly he crossed the sandy beach a let the waves crash first over his talons, testing the feel of the water before moving deeper. He was up to his chest and still the water was so clear. His heart swelled at the sight. His lakes were never so clear, and the deeper the river the more mud and silt it churned up. This was so much more than he had ever dreamed.

He felt the tide pulling out, the warm water from the shoreline swirling around him and mixing with the cool waters from the deep. He held his ground as the water pulled back barely covering his ankles before rushing back towards the shore. It should have pulled at him but it didn't. Just gently swirled around him, teasing at his scales and fur.

And then suddenly he wasn't alone anymore.

Red eyes, so deep and old, warm and sad, eyes that had been haunting him since the day in the grotto. Longer, if his dreams were any indication. But the face they belonged to was very different from the man he had been half expecting. After all, he had been expecting a spirit like Touka, not the vision before him. All solid coils of gleaming white and blue scales with red marks swirling down his sides and slashed across his face.

Still, Madara knew this dragon as surely as he knew himself.

"Tobirama."

The tumbled off his lips as though he'd said it a million times over.

He lifted his arm up out of the water and gently traced along the mark on his cheek. His heart jolted when his touch was not only accepted but welcomed, Tobirama leaning into it. It warmed something deep inside him.

"I thought to find answers here, or a path to follow. I didn't think I would find you."

The other laughed, and the water swirled around them, lifting them and carrying them to the beach. As the water rushed away Tobirama took the form or a man, still pale skinned and face marked with red, short spiky hair and dressed in blue tunic.

Madara didn't even think about it before he assumed his human form, eager to hold the other.

"You found me in every life?"

"I have. And I have loved you in every one. And I have always let you go."

Madara nods, thinking of the dream memories and all the times this man, this beautiful dragon, the very sea itself, let him go. To return to the family he loved. To spend his lives with his kin. And yet, he always chose to be reincarnated. To continue the cycle, to meet Tobirama again and again and again. Falling in love each time though he never remembered before this life.

Centuries of waiting to live a life he could share with this being. He wanted it, more than anything. But he was also curious. Tobirama was the ocean itself. How had he come to be among the Senju? Why?

"Madara?"

"You were a Senju once. How?"

Tobirama smiled, amused and rueful and just a touch sheepishly.

"Ahh. I thought perhaps if I lived a human lifetime we could be together for a time. But not even I can control the flow of life, death a rebirth. You had been an Uchiha in the life before and I have never seen you repeat a family cycle. You were born in the same land as before so I chose a family that had a child that seemed interesting and I was born as their younger brother."

It was such a simple thing, no great plan, no attempt by the spirits of the world to stop the fighting of two stubborn clans. Just the ever changing yet ever loving heart of the sea which following the rivers and fell in love over and over with the same stubborn soul.

Gentle fingers brushed over Madara's hair.

"In all of your many lives, I have never asked you to join me. Because I could never ask you to give up all that you love for me. Even in the one human life I lived. Now, in this life, I can finally ask you to be mine."

Madara's heart swelled with affection, knowing that even now if he had to go back to his family, and he did, he promised, Tobirama would let him go without question. Would welcome him back over and over again. But this time... This time he could say yes. This time he could introduce the one he loved to his family. And perhaps he could help set a few spirits to rest, and the Senju lands were on the way back home. And Izuna was still sitting on bank of the river where Madara had left him just an hour before.

He had only promised to be home by years end. He didn't say how much before, and he looked forward to the expressions on his family's faces.

"Meeting you will ease Mother's heart, and Touka wants to see you again."

Red eyes went soft and a fiece love flashed in them. A single human lifetime was more than enough to build the bonds of family. And Madara's wasn't the only family that needed reunited. It would be a good journey, with good company and perhaps a few detours along the way. There were several rivers to explore and more than one lake he wanted to show his mate.

All in good time. They had plenty of it after all.