[132] More Than A Quarrel (2)

Chapter 132: More Than A Quarrel (2)

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Boom! Dudduddduh!

Hashirama fell on the land of Green Bit and bounced backward like a pebble skipping on water. The three pairs of wings on his back snapped, hurting quite a bit, as they were connected to his bones.

When the sliding stopped, he had enough time to get up and fight back, but he didn't bother. He lay there as his sister came flying, landing on top of him with her fist ready.

"Why are you like this?!" She said with a punch to his jaw.

"Always thinking you know the best!" This time it was a punch on his right cheek.

"What do you know about the dangers of this world, being born talented and having never faced any adversaries?!" His left cheek received a hit this time.

Like that, Tsunade yelled and punched him continuously for a long few minutes. The painful sounds of bones crunching, teeth breathing, and the flesh on his face splitting apart, filled the air, as did the splattering of blood.

Only when Tsunade took her frustration and rage out on him did she note that he hadn't replied once; he was just staring up at her with blank eyes.

Silence lingered in the area for a moment as Tsunade met his gaze for as long as she had been beating him.

"Why aren't you saying anything back?" Tsunade asked slowly, frowning, but he didn't reply either. He was too still. "No…"

Her eyes shook as she quickly reached out a hand to check his pulse. A look of relief appeared on her face as she felt his life.

"Why do you look relieved?" He said in a hoarse voice, looking up at her. "I took it for granted that you were gonna kill me. Given how much you were throwing hands."

"Shut up. You can just heal it off-"

"You have changed, sister." His face didn't show any expression, it was too deformed to do so. It wasn't healing either. Only his eyes were clear, darkened and filled with a strange look. "You'd have never said that before. Seeing the world of violence seemed to have nulled your senses. Even if I can heal, it does hurt a lot. Healing also hurts. Oh and, I don’t have enough chakra left to heal."

"You have the Seal of Hun-”

A wave of chakra erupted out of his body, spreading into the forest around them, and flourishing into decades of growth. All of a sudden, Hashirama's Seal of Hundred was empty.

"There. Not anymore." He said.

"What the hell are you doing?! Why are you being this stubborn?!" She grabbed him by the collar and yanked upwards, but that little motion caused a snap to resound from his neck that caused her to flinch.

"I'm not dead," he confirmed as she put him down gently. "I wouldn’t want to die like this – unless you plan to throw a Galaxy Impact on my face and kill me. Then, at least I can say I died by your hand."

"..."

"It hurts, sis."

"..."

Blood spilled from his face as his eyes met hers; she looked back with a panicked look on her face. Tsunade reached out again to feel his pulse; her jaws clenched and her lips shook when she felt it slowly but surely weaken.

"I think," he said. "I thought too highly of myself. How selfish. I thought you'd be by my side no matter what I did. Naturally, that’s a fool’s dream as you are a person of your own and have dreams of your own."

He sighed, and the sky roared, "I thought you'd hug me when we meet again. Well, I expected a punch or two too. But uh, this is new."

"..."

"Then again, it's better for me to die, I guess. Your marine subordinates will be able to vouch that you killed the criminal who oh so wrongly murdered a kind and pure Warlord. Hey, you might even get a promotion to Admiral rank, who knows."

"Stop…"

"Yeah, now that our… no, your life-long enemy is gone, it's better for me to die too. Then you'll be free of any shackles, and you can save the day as a Marine Hero without any worries." He said. "Though I do feel a little bit hurt seeing how pushed to me your dreams, your goal of revenge, only to put me in this state when I went through it."

"H-hashira-"

"That's not what you call me."

"..."

"Haaah."

Hashirama let out a large breath of sigh. He wished he could say he was acting right now, but he did feel hurt. She was the only one from whom he expected good things, so naturally it was hurtful when he was left disappointed.

He could understand where she was coming from, why she was mad – but at the same time, why didn’t she understand him? He didn’t fight back despite being in a forest now, if he had fought back the result would have been much less one-sided than before, why didn’t she think of that?

Did she really think the gap between him and her was that large? Within a forest so deep, what could she even do if he went into a frenzy? Hashirama felt a complex mixture of anger and disappointment, frustrated that she truly didn’t understand him.

Hashirama sighed. "How about you punch me one last time? Use your favorite technique you've been yelling all day long. Galaxy Impact, was it? Dying faster will ease the pain at least. Or do you want me to suffer through this and die slowly?"

"I- I can't- S-shi…" She stuttered like a broken radio, her hands shook, as she gulped and looked at him with eyes that said 'How did things turn out like this?'

"Ah. Is this your price for taking care of me, I see? For 16 years you did everything for me. Mhm. I guess I can't say anything in that case, if you want to see me die like this, you can have it."

She didn't bother saying anything this time, she just looked down at him while looming over him like a broken shadow. Her body shook while his still gaze met her teary ones.

Her hand reached out to feel his pulse, it was weakening further. Rain grew stronger as if about to announce an eerie future.

"N-no," a look of severe panic came over her face. "No, no, no, no- I- I have to stop this." She began to move her shaky hands around his body, pressing over his chest and wrists. However, there was no change. “You! T-tell me how! I am sure you know something.”

“Of course I do,” Hashirama sighed. “I told you, I can’t throw away my life like this. But it is really a thing to wonder if I should save myself or not. Maybe dying is actually better when my only family doesn’t give a fuck about the pain I go through just because I will ‘heal’ anyway.”

"..." She gulped, putting her shaky hands around his face. “I am sorry. I am sorry. Come on, don’t be like this, baby. You can take your anger out on me later, but please just tell me how do I save you? Shira, please, I am begging you.”

Hashirama slowly curled his lips up, staring at her with a stubborn gaze. Minutes passed as she begged with her eyes, and he just smiled.

“You have… twenty seconds,” he said. “There is a clone of mine out there, he should be beside Marianne now. Go and take him here. Twenty seconds late and I am dead.”

With a nod, she leaped into the air and took off at a speed even faster than when she was fighting King. In just under five seconds, she returned with the fifteen-foot-tall clone that had defeated Marianne and was fighting earlier.

"Hey, sis, why are you- ah." The clone said something but paused when he saw the state his original was in. "Oh shit. Dude, what the hell?!"

As they didn't share emotions, and the clone had only seen Tsunade attack the main earlier, he didn't think it was that deep to want to die for. So he leaned down quickly and touched the main's chest.

"Take your time," Hashirama said, and the clone showed him a middle finger even as it went through the procedure.

"Why am I so edgy sometimes?" the clone questioned. "Anyway, I don't have much chakra left, but it should be enough to at least heal you out of your serious state." Then he merged into the main's body, the wood dissolving into the flesh.

Brilliant green chakra filled him, and in real-time, his body's instinctual desire to stay alive used up the chakra to heal his injuries. Just enough that his face wasn't deformed and, after staying in his position for a few seconds, he sighed and stood up.

Tsunade's expression eased. "Shira-" she said and leaped at him, but he raised a palm to stop her.

"Don't touch me."

"..."

"I'm very thankful to the Vice Admiral for not taking my life, but as we are pirates and marines, we shouldn't be seen so close. I'll be leaving now with my crew, I hope you won't be coming after us. At least, for this time. Ah, not that you are forbidden to, you can always arrest me and put me in Impel Down and see me rot there. If you want. I am just requesting that you don't do it this time…" Hashirama said and then turned around. "Goodbye."

Hashirama's wings were gone, and he didn't have enough chakra to make new ones. So he had to try to walk away. Sadly, while out of a serious state, he wasn't all healed. He limped over, almost falling to his face. But he was caught by two shaky hands — Tsunade gently lifted him straight and took his arm around her shoulder.

"Then," she said in a clogged voice. "Let me at least take you to your crew. You seem to be having trouble walking."

"I can manage somehow, Vice-"

"Don't call me that… please." As rain trickled down her face, Tsunade looked into his eyes as she pleaded with her eyes wet. When he gave her an indifferent look, she just bit her lip and began to walk. "Let me take you there."

He didn't say anything and let her walk by his side. They walked for a few minutes, and the sounds of sniffing began to come from Tsunade's nose. He didn't even turn to look even as tears fell to the ground from her cheeks.

"You shouldn't be crying," Only when they were almost outside the forest and into the open view of the beach, he spoke. "Your subordinates will lose their morale if they see you like this."

That was the final nail as her sniffs turned into a screech as she let go of his shoulder and took backsteps, falling to her butt.

Hashirama stopped to look at her once and turned to walk away, but she called for him with emotions filling her voice.

"D-don't go! Don't leave me, Shira! I can't live without you, c-come on! You are not dumb, you know I have nobody other than you. If you treat me like this, if you talk to me like a stranger, I- I can't… I can't live on if you sever ties with me, brother!"

Hashirama finally stopped, turning to her. Despite being enraged along with a bundle of other emotions, the desperation in her cry made him pause. Sadly, he replied being the stubborn lad he was. "I am not sure how much of that is true anymore, Tsunade. So I think it's better to go our separate ways. Maybe someday… we will catch up again. But it's not wise to do that today."

She leaped at him before he could turn back, hugging his legs and looking up. "Don't go. Please. Punish me in any other way, I've been blind, but-"

Blind, she said. Did she truly think he didn’t understand her? That he didn’t understand anything? That was quite arrogant of her. Perhaps his goofy outgoing gave her quite the wrong idea – because he felt insulted.

"You haven't been blind," Hashirama shook his head and put a hand on her head. "You thought it's the safest option for you and me to be marines. Being a marine, we would have the support of the entire government, and life would be relatively safe. Being a pirate, however, will not only make us have the government as our enemy but the four emperors and everyone else too. I get where your desire to protect comes from, I do, but I am just disappointed you never thought to explain to me all that.”

He added, “The World Government, this entire world, is ruled by a person who sits on the Empty Throne, there is a secret ruler of this entire world. The Marines and all the other government agencies serve that person. Why should you and I be the same? Why would we serve a person who hides behind a veil?”

“What are you…”

“I am not making these up, that would be stupid. I am disappointed you’re doubting me even right now. Sister, do you really think we are pawns, mindless fools who are destined to be worthless? Heh. I don’t know about you, but I am hurt, knowing that you thought I was a weakling who couldn't devour the world if he wished."

"..."

"Sister," Hashirama looked down on her as the sky suddenly shimmered. The world shook and flowers spouted everywhere. Even in the sky, a faint otherworldly working of will revealed itself a hexagon with a flower symbol in it. Only halfway as the symbol blinked in and out of existence. Hashirama's hair blew in the wind as circles of black lines appeared around his eyes; as did two black dots on his forehead. The forest behind the tsunade twisted, and bowed.  "Do you have any idea what I am capable of?"

Subtly, Hashirama felt all of the life energy on the island welcoming him. Nature itself resonated with his very soul, his existence, on a scale higher than this world was capable of. The small sprouts turned into full fledged trees, and dead trees came back to life. The multiple craters left by today's battle filled up with earth and flowers, blooming with life as nature healed over them.

The dead bodies of the hundreds of people who died today were touched by nature, flowers sprouted on them, giving nutrients to the ground and causing more trees and flowers to bloom. Flowers and trees from all over the world bloomed in Dressrosa, as the sky brightened, welcoming the birth of a sage.

All of creation in the near vicinity shook and reverberated, everything filled with flowers, as the Sage looked down at the broken human. Even the [Icon] in the sky was missed by the both of them as they were busy staring at each other's eyes.

"It's not that I'm weak," Hashirama didn’t know where this kind of arrogance was coming from; sure he was more than an average man in his last life thanks to his master, but this was too much. Except, none of his words felt awkward, they seemed to fit him at this moment. After all, who could dare to be arrogant if not the avatar of Nature itself? "In my mind, I was always just strong enough because I thought I was not alone. I thought I didn't have to be all-powerful. Because I have you. What I didn't think is that what if you didn't think the same way, and turned on me."

He added, “Sister. Is there truly anyone in this world who can stop me if I wish to devour everything?” As if proving his point, the nearby flowers- no, the entire forest, began to decay and rot, all of its life and vitality rushed back to Hashirama, healing him of every wound he had, and blessing him with more vitality. Even half of Tsunade’s chakra was sucked out of her and into him, which in particular shook her. “Nature is cruel, sis. I try not to be. I hope you’ll learn to have some faith in me from now on.”

Hashirama finished saying as the [Sage Mode] disappeared. He didn't bother focusing on the feeling of entering and exiting the Sage Mode, even though this was the first time he ever entered this state; he didn't bother noting the feeling for future activation because he was too busy meeting his sister's gaze.

Tsunade just met his gaze and then buried her face on his leg.

"...."

"Let go."

"No."

"Let go, I said."

"Kick me away if you want me to let go."

Hashirama frowned down at her as she continued staying in that position. His eyes narrowed and he decided to kick her but… he couldn't find the strength to kick this woman. This wasn't a fight, this wasn't a spar between them, he wasn't like her in that he'd kick her even when she was down.

"So you still care," She looked back up when enough time passed without him kicking her. "Then give me… one chance. Or punish me some other way. Just don't… let my stupidity ruin the adoration you still have for me."

"You have learned to talk."

"I am trying not to ruin what’s between us… because I don’t know about you, but it will leave me ruined in turn."

Hashirama stared down at her, and then he sighed. It was true that he loved her more than he loved anyone else. If Vivi and Tsunade were drowning in the sea and he could only save one of them, he'd dive in to save his sister. Even now, after this scene. She was the love he never found in his last life, a woman who did everything for his sake before she left. She was a guardian, a mother, a father, a sibling; everything he lacked, she was that for him. It would be unusual for him to not feel more than just sad if he severed ties with her.

So, if he could fix things with a different punishment, he would. Except… what kind of punishment could he give to a woman he loved so much yet was disappointed in so much at the same time?

"Get up," Hashirama yanked her, and she didn't resist. He stood face to face with her, she was an inch above him now. "What are you?"

“I am an idiot.”

“...”

She looked at him as tears continued falling down her cheeks. He sighed and she did the same, reaching out two shaky hands to touch his face. “Does it still hurt?”

“It doesn’t.”

“I am sorry.”

“Pain was never an issue for me,” he replied honestly. “The issue was who the pain was inflicted by.”

“Punish me in any way you see,” she said, about to continue before she paused. She took a second and then smiled. “I was about to suggest you can beat me like I beat you, but that’d mean I didn’t understand anything you said.”

“I am glad you understand now,” he said. “You are leaving the Marines right now and coming with me. That is your punishment. You can’t make any call, can’t leave any kind of explanation, you’re just coming with me. You are mine, you’re my only blood, you belong to me; you will remember that as long as we live.”

"...Yes. I understand." She took in a sniffling breath and then threw her arms around his neck, her body tightly pressing against his.

"There is another punishment," he said. "Don’t be too guilty over this fight– I just want you to understand and change, not be guilty and self-loathe. I also don’t want you to act differently and soft around me because of this. Know that it’s fine, mistakes happen, and be your usual self when you’re comfortable. Okay?"

There was a silence as her arms tightened around him. "...I didn't know you were this kind, Shira. I feel like a failure right now."

Slowly, Hashirama hugged her back. "I am a lot more than just kind to you, sister. You should pay more attention."

As her tears began to pour again signaled by a crack in her voice, Hashirama sighed to himself with a soft smile. He closed his eyes, his chin resting on her shoulders, as time seemed to slow down for just this moment.

Hashirama truly was planning to leave her just earlier, maybe meet up to fix things later; maybe a few months or years. But then, Sage Mode happened. He got a clearer picture of what she was feeling at that moment from taking her chakra, and though he didn’t know what she would have done if he actually left her, he could guess. He would have been a monster if he left knowing that, after feeling that concentration of guilt, regret, fear, desperation, and self-loathing.

Along with that, Hashirama had suddenly felt a lot kinder in general, as one with nature; as if someone, maybe mother nature itself, had meddled in this sibling quarrel.

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Master4thWall: More about the [Icon] in the future chapters. If you have read CG, you might recognise it.