You know how in fics Tobirama is typically the competent person who basically sets up the foundations of village (the academy, zoning laws, plumbing, etc)? Well what if Hikaku became the competent person since Tobi is not exactly the best with humaning. It's not a one to one replacement but Hikaku literally has the one braincell of all the founders were supposed to share (Tobi's was replaced with a ping pong tree sponge long ago) and decided to actually compile information on how to build a village. He doesn't get dramatic over paperwork like Hashirama does, doesn't flail every time someone flusters him like Madara, and in general acts like a very calm person.
It's all these factors that draw Tobirama in. I mean, the only people Tobi has basically been exposed to are so far from the norm that they're on Mars, which makes normal Hikaku an outlier. And how does Tobi meet Hikaku? Well, likely Hikaku was organizing scrolls for meetings or something and Tobi bumped into him, essentially the start of every cliche romance story.
HSFHSJFHEI you're SO FUCKING RIGHT. Eldritch Tobirama kinda sucks ass at paperwork and organization. It hasn't come up yet, but... he kind of struggles to read. Albinos tend to have poor vision. And the ocean doesn't read. So like, he knows what things say, but he doesn't usually actually read them. Somehow NOBODY has noticed this because he's still capable of understanding what's written. Mito is running experiments on him when she finds out
Hikaku really is the big brain cell amongst the founders, huh? I'm cackling about it. Tobirama probably helps by accident purely because he's VERY curious about what humans need to build a city so he's always like, interogating people on it. Hikaku is the only one who can give him straight answers on how shit is supposed to work. Then Tobirama draws these absolutely obscure and ominous "blueprints" that have to be translated back to something normal people can fucking read. They're very helpful and useful! Just... kind of gives you a nosebleed if you try to read the original copy
Hikaku is begging Mito for a Tobirama to normal dictionary. She's just like "Don't you think I'd be using one if I had one by now"
I think Hikaku saw Tobirama during the peace talks where he was ominously hovering behind his brothers and was like "Wow he's pretty. No, bad Hikaku, that's a spirit." But then during the creation of the village Hikaku ended up the Main Braincell by default so he interacted with all the founders a LOT. Including a very curious and clueless Tobirama who eventually starts showing him these really good city planning blueprints that give you an instant migraine to look at.
Tobirama is a FAST learner, when he cares to learn something. And this village is Hashirama and Itama's dream so he has plenty of motivation to learn how cities and buildings work. Just... takes him a bit to get there. And Hikaku is now the Founding Brain Cell along with the resident Eldritch Blueprint Translator, somehow.
Tobirama’s clear intelligence and enthusiasm were what made Hikaku go from "can't be horny for the ocean" to "i wanna seduce that"












