Prompt: TobiIzu & Mission Gone Wrong, if you fancy? Maybe some whump, something with capture and/or torture? :]
Cw: Aftermath of torture, eye trauma
Tobirama limps through the door with someone's robe in one hand. Izuna doesn't look up from where he's watching the pot of water boil.
The only reason Izuna had let him go retrieve it was because he hadn't been able to stop him. Logically, he knows that between the two of them, his wounds are worse; that they should be treated first; that Tobirama is more trained to deal with them than Izuna is. But logic has no bearing on the weight that sits, dark and heavy and burning in the center of his chest.
Tobirama works silently next to him, cutting the stolen clothes into long strips and boiling the fabric with all the efficiency of a battlefield medic.
"Let me see." He says as the last rag goes into the pot. Izuna wordlessly slides his own thin clothes off his shoulders as far as they will go before the dried blood sticking it to his skin stops it from going further. Tobirama is gentle with the first passes of warm water across his back, slowly pulling fabric apart from skin until the whole flayed mess is exposed.
Izuna didn't so much as flinch at his wounds being touched but he shudders at the chakra that flushes through his system. Even in healing, Tobirama's chakra is intense enough to make Izuna break into goosebumps. Tobirama ignores the reaction pulling his chakra back and forth in a way thats slightly nauseating in order to give Izuna as close to an approximation of stitches as can be done right this moment. The bandages, when he starts wrapping them around Izuna's chest, are already dry. No doubt that moron used suiton to do it, like he has the energy to spare.
Tobirama says nothing more as he secures the bandages and moves to start cleaning his own wounds. And not the important one, Izuna notes with disgust watching out of the corner of his eye.
"Tobirama." He forces himself to speak up. His voice is already rough from abuse, so there's no way to read any emotion into it being that way now. "Let me look at it. Everyone in my clan is trained on how to deal with-- with injuries like that."
"...If you want." Tobirama says after a moment. And so Izuna swallows harshly, and forces himself to turn and look.
One red eye watches him sharply. The other remains closed, lid fluttering uselessly over an empty socket.
Izuna's lips tighten into a thin line, but he doesn't let any more show than that. He grabs a rag from the rapidly cooling pot, rings out the excess moisture, and with only a enough hesitation to swallow dryly, reaches out to hold Tobirama's jaw steady with one hand as he starts wiping away the blood that has dried on the other side. It's smeared and blended in with the marking on his cheek -- less strikingly now than it had when it was fresh-- and matted into a good chunk of his hair. Izuna washes that out too, as best as he can, rust brown flaking off onto his hands as he works. Until all that's left to deal with is--
Tobirama's remaining eye meets his. There is no judgment there, nor is there any sympathy.
"If it's not still bleeding, there's not much to do, is there?" He says.
"Clean it." Izuna bites back immediately,"Disinfect the socket. Infection halves the chance that it will heal when we--"
Izuna nearly chokes as he cuts himself off, his barely healed wounds protesting at the sudden tautness of his spine. Tobirama won't be getting his eye back. There hadn't been enough left to recover when they'd found it.
Tobirama graciously ignores Izuna's slip up, choosing instead to reach up and do what Izuna couldn't bring himself to do and probe at the socket with his fingers. Izuna watches in sick fascination-- There's already cloth stuffed in there from where their captors had made a token attempt at stopping him from bleeding out, but it wasn't done cleanly or kindly. With the supplies they have, Izuna won't be able to do much better.
He swats away Tobirama's hand and forces himself to try, regardless. Tobirama bears the cleaning and repacking of his wound silently, the only indication he gives at how painful it must be is the twitching of his fingers where they rest in his lap. He even bows his head to allow Izuna to tie on a makeshift mockery of an eyepatch.
When that's done, Izuna's hands hover around Tobiramas' head for a long moment before he lets them drop. Fingers tighten into fists, his throat still tight with a mess of emotions that are worse than useless right now.
"What were you thinking?" Izuna rasps, when the silence becomes too much to bear. Tobirama meets his furious gaze coolly -- with one eye, which only makes Izuna's throat constrict tighter.
"That they were easily fooled, and that I don't have any visual prowess to be stolen. It seemed like a sensible trade to make."
One Izuna hadn't had a choice in. When they'd been captured and thrown in separate cells, it was only the luck of how they had been placed that allowed Tobirama to overhear their captor's conversation. Something he'd heard had made his eyes go wide, then calculating, and finally he'd locked gazes with Izuna, trying to convey something.
"Then they would be fools." He'd said suddenly, too loud to be meant as a secret. "Your eyes are darker than mine, they won't even bother with yours."
"What?!" Had been Izuna's response, somewhere between baffled and offended. He hadn't understood, not until after they'd dragged Tobirama away.
"Sensible?" Izuna hisses, "It was your eye!"
"Yes." Tobirama agrees, "And it wasn't one of yours."
Angry heat burns down Izuna's whole body. "I didn't ask you to do that. We could have--"
"Izuna." Tobirama cuts him off sharply, "I don't regret it. I will not regret it. I would make the same choice again."
Izuna's eyes burn, and it nothing to do with the sharingan. His fists curl into Tobirama's shirt to hold him still as he bows his head, the acid bitterness leaking out of him.
He and Tobirama are alike in too many of the same ways. Both are responsible for protecting those behind them, both of them take that duty far more seriously than they will ever admit. And because Tobirama made the choice that he did, Izuna has failed.
At least he'd made it hurt.
"Of course you can't get it to work." Izuna had spat in the man's face. "I bet you don't even have the chakra stores to activate it"
A half truth, built off the lie Tobirama had already spun. Meant to buy more time, but it worked even better. His incompetent interrogator snarled and stepped close enough for Izuna to get the tips of his fingers on one of the tools in his belt. He'd lost his guts, for that.
Tobirama's hands settle on his shoulders-- an awkward but earnest attempt at comfort. It doesn't make Izuna feel any better.
"...You should rest" He says when Izuna doesn't indicate he's even noticed, "I will.. Keep watch."
The sound that bubbles out of Izuna's mouth is too wretched sounding to be considered a laugh.
"That's not very funny." He means it, but despite his words, Izuna feels like he might burst into giggles.
"I wasn't trying to be," The Senju responds, deadpan. He pulls his hands back to himself, leaving Izuna feeling even less grounded. "I was only stating a potential plan. If you're worried about my capabilities, know that my sensory abilities are unaffected."
A giggle does force its way out of him now, though Izuna cuts himself off with a snort before it becomes too obvious.
"Not what I meant " He waves off as soon as he trusts himself to speak again, "I really just think you should be more worried about this. Are you in shock?"
Tobirama glares at him, no less sharp for having only one eye to do it with. "And what's worrying going to do? All that can be done is move forward."
Maybe Izuna shouldn't be surprised; Tobirama would probably say the same if he had lost a limb. Izuna sighs and slumps forward, until his face is pressed into Tobirama's shoulder. The Senju curiously allows it.
"And how." Izuna asks, muffled, "Do you move forward from that."
It's mostly rhetorical, but Tobirama of course already has an answer. He's a practical man, and he's had days of captivity to think on it.
"Well." He starts, as if gathering his thoughts, "There are craftsmen in your clan capable of making chakra conducting glass, yes?"
Izuna tilts his head up to squint at the Senju, unsure of where this is going. "...Yes."
Tobirama nods.
"With the correct seals, I think a glass eye could connect directly into my nervous system. I don't think I could replicate sight as we know it, but I wasn't intending to. The possibilities of such a thing are larger than that."
...Of course he would.
Izuna stares for a long moment, then breaks into giggles again. More genuine this time, but no less hysterical.
It's considered something of a sacrilege to replace a lost sharingan with a fake, and even those in their clan without the doujutsu follow suit. But Tobirama is not an Uchiha, and he hasn't lost a sharingan.
The Senju in question looks down at Izuna dubiously.
"Will that be a problem?"
"No." Izuna says at once, heart pounding harder, yet somehow easier. He may not have been able to stop the injury, but this much? He can do."There won't be. I'll make sure of it.”
