Characters / Unchained (Umei no Mai)

aka: Umei No Mais Unchained

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Uchiha Clan members

Uchiha Izuna

Uchiha Izuna, Head of the Amaterasu lineage

• Affectionate Nickname:
  • She's Izuna-bi to her clan — it means "beautiful Izuna", and not only she deserves it, she relishes in it.
  • Also Ii-nee - "sister Food"- due to her Big Eater tendencies.
• All Women Are Lustful: She relentlessly flirts with people and really enjoys her concubine servicing her when she visits him.
• Animal Motifs: Kitsune. Izuna casually plays hopscotch with the gender barrier, is rather sexually liberated, has quite the devious mind and is very much a Wild Card.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Izuna is a very skilled singer with a voice to match. Tobirama even notes she has a wider range than most women.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Izuna genuinely longs for peace, adores her family and would rather be a lover than a fighter. She also forces Tobirama to marry her by threatening his cousin and killed a priest by making him believe his bones were aflame.
• Big Eater: Because of her very active metabolism, she always consumes two servings at least for every meal and won't stop snacking between.
• Bifauxnen: She makes for a very convincing young man, just ask all these women sighing after Tajima's second-born son.
• Big Sister Instinct:
  • She activated her Mangekyou in order to save Saburou's life from the Senju assassins.
  • She's quite aggressively suing for peace because she refuses to let Madara burn out for his dream or feed Saburou to the neverending list of killed warriors.
• Compelling Voice: Courtesy of Ame-no-Uzume Mangekyou, which allows her to convince people of anything she says.
• Cool Big Sis: Saburou adores her for saving his life when she was barely nine years old and him a toddler.
• Cruel Mercy: When she truly, genuinely hates someone, Izuna doesn't kill them. She ensures they will have long and miserable lives to acutely regret their mistakes.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Ame-no-Uzume, the Great Persuader, is a Mangekyou form allowing her to retain attention and make people believe everything she's saying... as long as she's undressing. She feels thoroughly humiliated afterwards.
• Facial Markings: She tattooed a magatama necklace on her face in order to draw attention away from her feminine features. It also doubles as a fuuinjutsu that helps her enhance her genjutsu.
• Fantastic Religious Weirdness: Izuna privately keeps her Christian faith from her previous life. She contextualises her faith to the rest of her clan by saying she's serving a specific kami, socially practices Shinto tradition in public with the rest of her clan and merges the practices for her private prayers.
• Harmful to Minors:
  • Her younger brother Myôko was murdered right besides her, as he was sleeping in their shared futon. It triggered Izuna's Mangekyou as she found herself splattered in his blood and trying to stop the Senju assassins to kill her and her surviving brother Saburou.
  • Her father later killed her uncle with her and Madara as witnesses when she was barely a teenager.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Persuasion, what's this? Only a trick that allows her to kill someone merely because she told him his bones were aflame, and he believed her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She always intended to release Tobirama from her seal once peace would have been established between their clans, and falling in love with him didn't change that. It actually comforted her in her decision, because Izuna wants for Tobirama to choose to stay with her out of a genuine wish to do so instead of forcing him.
• Larynx Dissonance: Averted. Izuna's imitation of a male voice is convincing enough to fool people on a daily basis, including those trained to spot smallest details. Probably due to Voice Changeling abilities the Uchiha naturally have.
• Lima Syndrome: She first treats Tobirama well out of general decency, but she gradually falls for his intelligence and pragmatic kindness. The sex helps a lot, too. Though Hashirama and Touka speculate that she was attracted to Tobirama beforehand, and the whole concubine plot gave her the opportunity to act on it.
• Manipulative Bitch: Very much so, though she tries to at least be kind about it. Nevertheless, the Senju are very much trapped by her manipulations, with their moves being reduced to a handful of possibilities, all with good outcomes for her.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Contrasting with her concubine Tobirama, Izuna is a fearsome Action Girl who often dresses as male, is renowned for seducing women on her path and shows herself very proactive in taking control of her destiny. Note that she symbolically unmanned Tobirama by taking him as her concubine, and is the socially and financially dominant partner.
• Meaningful Name: Named after Mount Iizuna, which is a sacred mountain of various Shinto sects, especially Shugendo.
• Personality Powers: Both her Mangekyou manifestations, Ame-no-Uzume and Susano-o, showcase her flirty, protective behaviour.
• Power Incontinence: Her strong Fire Affinity seriously cranks up her metabolism. How much? Enough that she's facing starvation any time she uses more than bare minimum of jutsu — she would never have been part of the Outguard if not for the assassination attempt and Tajima's subsequent choices.
• Raised as the Opposite Gender: Since she was nine years old, Izuna had to learn male behaviour and dress in a masculine manner in order to fool Senju assassins who would potentially target a more vulnerable daughter of Tajima.
• Red Baron: The Cremator to the Senju forces, due to her habit of burning the bodies of her enemies so they don't become restless spirits.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: Non-superhero variant. Izuna speaks solely in a masculine-sounding voice while out on Outguard business to better conceal her gender.
• Serenade Your Lover: A rather unorthodox variant as she tends to favour ribald tunes that makes her concubine mortified and aroused instead of moved.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Outside the Uchiha compound, Izuna is exclusively dressed and referred as male, to the point that Tobirama is surprised to learn her actual gender.
• Tranquil Fury: When she's truly furious, she still speaks in perfectly even voice while planning particularly vicious counterstrike.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Their Imperial Highness Uchiha Izuna of the fourth-rank dōjō kuge, Inheritor of the Uchiha Clan, First General of the Imperial War Ministry and chosen successor to the Junior Assistant of the Imperial War Minister.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Tobirama is rather freaked when she unveils herself as a woman, since she just abducted him and declared her intention to force him to marry her.
• Uptown Girl: Tobirama is basically a peasant, while Izuna could legitimately call herself an Imperial Princess — and is the highest-ranking woman on the continent.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: A completely justified example. As Izuna points out, Tobirama has a lot of people who are not happy that he still lives and she's the only person he can turn to. Therefore, she makes sure to prioritise him and defend his rights to other clansmen.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: She refuses to outright lie to her spouse. Justified from a purely pragmatic standpoint, as she claims that "trust begets trust" and this way she doesn't have to worry about slipping and contradicting herself on some detail.
• Would Hurt a Child: A sad reality of the Senju custom to put preteens on the battlefield. Izuna muses some of her opponents probably were younger than fourteen years old, and derives no pleasure from it.

Uchiha Tobirama

Uchiha Tobirama of the Amaterasu lineage, formerly of the Senju clan

• Affectionate Nickname: Izuna enjoys calling him "treasure".
  • The Uchiha children bestow upon him the appellation "O-Neko-san", Honoured Mister Cat which rather amuses him.
• All Men Are Perverts: Since Izuna forced him to marry and bed her in order to conceive, his libido was awakened with a vengeance, to the point her absence for a few days cause him no lack of sexual frustration.
• Ambiguous Disorder: Apparently suffered from developmental oddities when he was a toddler, enough for the medic to believe he would never be able to care for himself. He managed to grow up into a functional adult, but manifests extremely focused obsessions, occasionally missteps when socializing, his body language and aversion to eye contact are slightly unsettling. Now, to untangle what came from the leopards raising him, what came from plain trauma and ostracizing, and what is his brain working on another wavelength, there's the difficulty.
• Becoming the Mask: He pretends to be docile and compliant in order to mellow Izuna enough so to make her vigilance slip and let him escape. As he comes to know her better, however, he starts to actually enjoy being her concubine.
  • It's better demonstrated by his attitude regarding sex: he first sleeps with Izuna out of sheer pragmatism, both to manipulate her and allow the conception of a child. Then he grows teasing, and their lovemaking more passionate and gratuitous — he's doing this because he likes it.
• Black Sheep: Among the Senju clan, Tobirama just looked and acted far too different for his more distant relatives to not be freaked.
• Break the Cutie: His father sending kinsmen to murder him in his bed made him burst into tears upon Izuna's shoulder and completely lose trust in Butsuma.
• Brought Down to Normal: Izuna made him unable to use chakra in order to keep Tobirama easy to contain.
• Celibate Hero: He saw no appeal whatsoever in sex in spite of his family's attempt to drag him to the brothel or find him a spouse — until Izuna abducted him. Hashirama is actually surprised to learn his baby brother enjoys servicing his wife.
• Chosen Conception Partner: As the younger brother to the future Senju clan's Head and possessed of potent chakra and brilliant tactical skills, Tobirama is quite desirable as breeding stock for Izuna.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Despite being a man, Tobirama fits this trope more than its male counterpart — he is more concerned with Izuna's reputation as a flirt and does not like the fact that she still spends her time with oiran and geisha, even if it's only for mission purposes. Also partially justified, as Izuna is his only ticked out of the Diplomatic Quarters and protects him from the rest of the Uchiha — if she loses interest, Tobirama might not be safe any longer.
• Cute Little Fangs: Played for Drama as it unsettled his kinsmen to the point he never truly laughed or smiled to not bare them too much.
• Distressed Dude: He gets abducted and forced to marry his kidnapper, you can't do more distressed than this.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Formerly had rather spiky, dandelion-like hair — indicating his rough origins and lack of care for himself. Izuna later makes it grow out to mid-back length and regularly combs and brushes it into a topknot — showcasing his assimilation into the more refined Uchiha clan.
• Friend to All Children:
  • His interactions with the Uchiha children are fondly indulgent, and learning he actually killed several of them is enough to drive him into a Heroic BSoD of almost suicidal proportions.
  • Later on, Tobirama speculates that the reason why thirteen year old Touma was put on the assassination team to kill him was because of this trope, as seeing such a young member of his kin would throw him off long enough to given an opening for the other, more experienced members of the team.
• Girl in the Tower: He's locked within the Uchiha compound's Diplomatic Quarters and unable to leave courtesy of extensive sealwork. He's given more freedom after the assassination attempt, moving into the Amaterasu Residence and given free rein over the compound and the general lands, though he can't leave Uchiha land without Izuna escorting him.
• He Is All Grown Up: Definitely this trope if Touka's reaction to seeing him in full court kimono is any indication. For bonus points, he apparently resembles his mother Kikuno very much in such clothes.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: Izuna enjoys dressing him up in costly silk kimonos and caring for his hair. When he gets to look at the results, he's startled to see himself looking the part of a noble.
• Heroic BSoD: Learning that he accidentally killed several children is enough to make him vomit and beg Izuna to explain why she didn't murder him on the spot, while he mentally calls himself a worse monster than his own father.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Ticks off four boxes, mainly because he has been forced to do so. Lack of Athleticism and Lack of Aggression are due to his chakra being sealed off so he's much more frail than your usual shinobi and needs to appease his wife and gaoler through other means, he indulges into Typically Feminine Interests such as cord-braiding and child-minding to avoid being bored out of his skull and develops a Non-Masculine Appearance by accepting a fashionable, gender-ambiguous wardrobe and letting his hair grow.
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: What makes his accidental murder of Uchiha Children even more difficult to him is that they were also distant kin to him, being descended from the Tiger-Summoning Branch of the Hatake Clan.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Izuna helps him grow his hair out to below his shoulders and he looks very pretty with them, indeed.
• Love Revelation Epiphany: While he recognizes the signs, he doesn't fully process and accept the fact that he's in love with Izuna until Izuna finally confesses her own love to him at the end of Unchained.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Falls into this dynamic after Izuna metaphorically emasculated him by sealing his chakra and locking him up, as it forces him to be passive and use manipulation and sex to retain some measure of control and power over his life. He also lets his hair grow out and starts to dress fancily, along with learning cord-braiding. He even becomes the main child-minder between the two of them after they adopt Kiso.
• Meaningful Appearance:
  • Izuna often describes him as her "pretty grey-eyed concubine". Classical canons of beauty held that grey eyes were the most beautiful.
  • Wearing kimono and putting his hair into a topknot indicates he's starting to assimilate into the Uchiha clan.
  • Tobirama also mentions that kimono restrains his usual movements and forces him to carefully walk, a very thin metaphor of his current imprisonment.
• Meaningful Name: His names literally means "the space between doors" and taken poetically can indicate a transition and change. Of course, as pointed by an Uchiha child, said transition isn't guaranteed to be comfortable.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: A part of why he lets himself be draped in silks is to make the Uchiha forget he's actually a dangerous fighter by looking as ornamental as possible.
• Parental Substitute: He finds himself entrusted with an Uchiha toddler whom he unwittingly orphaned, both to make amends and to give the poor mite some stability. He also adopts said toddler's baby cousin, though as she's still being weaned, has only taken some of the responsibilities involved with her for now.
• Red Baron: Tobirama is called the Drowning Breath by the Uchiha for his habit of pulling the water out of the blood of his opponents and into their lungs.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Several Uchiha still are infuriated by the fact he murdered their close relatives, several of them young children. Tobirama is deeply ashamed of his deeds and sadly acknowledges these people probably won't ever forgive or forget his war crimes, even if he's now married to their beloved heiress.
• Stockholm Syndrome: As she's his main source of interaction and lavishes attention and gifts on him, Tobirama finds himself warming up to Izuna. Note that he's aware of this and not very happy about it.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With his hair long and dressed in rather feminine kimono, Touka tells him he startingly looks like his mother Kikuno.
• Took the Wife's Name: Since his Lord-Wife Izuna is significantly higher-ranked than him, Tobirama is now referred as Uchiha instead of Senju — which is usual in Japan for men marrying women from higher status.
• Trophy Husband: To the wider world, this is what the Senju warrior now married to Tajima's sheltered daughter actually is — she did pick a spouse far below her station and unable to curtain her personal freedom and authority, after all.
• The Un-Favourite: For the entire Senju Clan, but his father most of all since Butsuma believed his toddler son was mentally retarded and would bring bad luck to the clan.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Downplayed, but his new wardrobe is filled with rather ambiguous clothing and he's not adverse to experiment with make-up.
• Would Hurt a Child: A complete yet horrendously cruel accident. As Tobirama relied on his chakra sensitivity, he had no idea whatsoever four of the Uchiha he killed without seeing them were less than ten years old. And that one of them was carrying a baby who was left exposed one whole night.
• You Can't Go Home Again: It takes two months for him to realize that Izuna forcibly marrying him means that he probably won't ever be able to return to the Senju without her running after him to take him back, unless she consents to let him visit and it's extremely unlikely.

Uchiha Madara

Uchiha Madara of the Amaterasu lineage

• Chaste Hero: Izuna decided to abduct Tobirama and sire children by him as the Uchiha needs an heir and she's from the opinion that Madara is never going to marry.
• Cuddle Bug: He needs someone in his bed to cuddle or he will sleepwalk until he finds a victim.
• Innocently Insensitive: Using his Sharingan to pass some news to his brother-in-law, no big deal. Except that said brother-in-law still equates Sharingan with pain and is currently helpless and paranoid about an Uchiha hurting him. Izuna was not happy with him.
• Meaningful Name: Named after Mount Madarao, a sacred mountain of Shugendo sect of Shintoism.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Seeing Hashirama in the throes of a psychotic breakdown because of his assumption he was the Sole Survivor of Butsuma's children deeply disturbs Madara precisely because the Uchiha knows he wouldn't fare better if he ever came to lose his siblings.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Brotherly variant, as he's horrified each time he's reminded that his baby sister is now a married woman and thoroughly enjoying it.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Tobirama's conclusion is that losing his idiot brother only gained him an idiot brother-in-law.
• The Quiet One: When away from the battlefield, he's noted for not being very talkative.
• Red Baron: The Conflagration, because of his use of high-powered fire jutsu in battles. Doubles as Names to Run Away from Really Fast as he's named after one of Buddhist calamities.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: He's quiet, rather passive and sexually repressed to his younger sister's talkative, aggressive and flirty personality.

Uchiha Tajima

Uchiha Tajima of the Amaterasu lineage, Head of the Outguard

• Abusive Parents: A bit of this, as he disregards his daughter's opinion regarding peace, is constantly Moving the Goalposts by coming back on his promises to her and keeping her Locked Out of the Loop.
• Cain and Abel: Has executed his own younger brother for suspicion of treason right in front of the teenaged Madara and Izuna.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Surprisingly adept in tea ceremony, in which you have to make your guests comfortable and relaxed. He also knows how to make traditional Japanese sweets.
  • Tajima is surprisingly heartbroken that Izuna feels that she needs to constantly rationalize and justify her actions to him. He would let Izuna get away with anything if she wanted to but is subconsciously afraid of her father that she feels that she needs to appeal to his logic over his love for her.
  • To Tobirama's disbelief, he's actually fond of small children. According to one relative, it's when they get to the 'why' stage that he starts losing his patience with them.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: To Senju Butsuma. They're both Jerkass Control Freaks who can be abusive to their children and are driven by their hatred for the enemy clan. The difference is that Tajima can set aside that hatred if he sees that peace can be beneficial for his clan, and genuinely does love his children and wants them to be happy. Butsuma, meanwhile, is obsessed with their ancestral feud and is such a terrible father that his daughter disowned herself when she was eight years old.
• Love Is a Weakness:
  • Abducting a Senju to forcefully marry him is fine in his book, but spoiling and doting on said Senju makes him look at his daughter askew.
  • Eventually revealed to be due to him thinking that Tobirama will run away to Uzushio once the seal is removed — he doesn't want Izuna to suffer a broken heart.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Subverted, as Izuna tries to keep Tobirama away from him as much possible. That being said, Tobirama heavily dislikes him for what he puts Izuna through and can only be barely civil in his presence. Tajima, for his part, originally dismissed Tobirama as just another loyal drone for Butsuma (albeit, one more intelligent than most), and only took interest in him after the assassination attempt, when Tobirama decided to spite his father by becoming Izuna's fully-dedicated Trophy Husband.
• Not So Stoic: Madara can remember Tajima cradling his freshly-traumatized daughter and brokenly weeping in sheer horror from losing a son and almost losing her.
• Parental Favoritism: Unbeknown to Izuna herself, Izuna is his favourite child.
• Parental Sexuality Squick:
  • Averted. Not only he's completely cool with his daughter stealing a man for herself, he actually toasts her at the ensuing wedding feast.
  • However, it doesn't mean he's condoning exhibitionism, since he's rather irked with Izuna and Tobirama exchanging lurid words and planning to have sex in a public place. Tobirama even plans on one day having sex with Izuna in his earshot just to make him squirm.
• Parents as People:
  • He certainly loves his children enough to protect them from Senju assassins no matter what and is somehow accepting of his daughter's marriage, but he shows himself rather obstructive and stubborn on pursuing the war with the Senju unless given a sufficient reason to stop.
  • He frankly acknowledges he doesn't understand Izuna and has no idea how to raise a daughter — especially one who activated a Mangekyou so young. Still, he tried his best and does his best to accept her as she is.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Tajima scoffs at the idea of peace between the Uchiha and the Senju — unless this peace is expedient for his clan. Izuna made it her goal to do so.
• Regent for Life: Played with and Averted. While Izuna became Amaterasu Head at age nine, it doesn't make her the new Uchiha Head, either for Outguard or Homeguard. She did however eventually take over the political responsibilities of her position, at least within the clan internal politics, and was named Homeguard Heir.
• Slave to PR: He's waiting for the Daimyo to give his blessing to a potential Senju extermination as it would ensure he got hold of the moral high ground and as such can't be criticized.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The clan's well-being passes before everything else, even his own family.

Uchiha Saburou

Uchiha Saburou of the Amaterasu lineage

• Big Sister Worship: He completely adores Izuna for saving his life from Senju assassins.
• Identical Stranger: For Tobirama, courtesy of being Kabema's descendant. It caused him a lot of grief among his own clan.
• Meaningful Name: Saburou (三郎) is a name of the great tengu of Mount Iizuna — tengu being a type of spirit associated with forests and birds, generally considered protective but dangerous beings.
• Nephewism: Tajima gave his youngest surviving son to his sister to be raised, fearing another Senju assassination attempt if he stayed with his father.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Sibling variant, the poor boy is not happy to hear about his sister's marriage, thank you so much!
• Please Wake Up: Madara mentions toddler Saburou screamed and shook their five-year-old brother Myouko's corpse right after the Senju assault against Tajima's children.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Izuna canonically was Madara's only surviving sibling. Here he survives the assassination attempt thanks to his sister's intervention.

Uchiha Kiso

• Boys Like Creepy Critters: He happily brought Tobirama several beetles, and later admired a mantis devouring its prey.
• Children Are Innocent: Poor little mite doesn't really understand why his parents decided one day to leave and never come back home, and eagerly latches on the man responsible for orphaning him because he's nice.
• Happily Adopted: From his viewpoint, Tobirama taking up his custody (in order to atone for orphaning him) means that one grown-up wants to love and care for him.
• Orphan's Ordeal: No only did he believe he did something bad enough for his parents to abandon him, his foster family — without being abusive — just couldn't be bothered to truly care for him as they already had enough on their plate. It results in him being adopted by the man who killed his parents, and Tobirama genuinely is the most caring and involved adult for Kiso.
• The Quiet One: When he first appears, Kiso refuses to speak for a long time, indicating how insecure and distressed he feels. As he warms up to Tobirama, he becomes a bit more talkative.

Historical members

Uchiwa no Indra

Indra of the Fan

• Famous Ancestor: For the Uchiha clan.
• Founder of the Kingdom: The Amaterasu lineage are identified as his direct descendants and several other lineages also inherited his blood.
• Iconic Item: Apparently wielded a fan, for which the entire Uchiha clan was named.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Not him but his father and uncle. It's likely Indra knew or suspected it, which is one of the reasons he didn't try to challenge his cousin for the throne.
• Royal Blood: A grandson to the last Empress of the Outsutsuki Dynasty. However, his father and uncle were happy to renounce their claims on the throne, and he apparently was quite content to be "merely" kuge.
• Standard Hero Reward: Played With. He was married to an Imperial princess and the official story is that it was a reward for all the help he'd given to the then-Emperor. In reality, his royal cousin gave him his sister's hand in marriage (along with the control of an Imperial Ministry) to placate Indra so the man wouldn't try to press his claim to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Senju Kabema

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Gifting handmade reed hats to a Uchiha squad about to leave for the Water Country, how sweet... except that Kabema had woven a message into said hats in order to get the squad murdered. Considering his circumstances, it was rather forgivable and everyone got a laugh out of it later.
• Famous Ancestor: Izuna explicitly descends from him, and she's far from being the only one among her clan.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Uchiha Biei-Fuji kept him locked and chained to a wall in the Diplomatic Quarters, and no one from the Senju clan ever came to rescue him as he was her second concubine and as such she didn't need to warn anyone about him being there. It completely broke him.
• History Repeats: Tobirama is terrified to follow into Kabema's footsteps as a Senju concubine who ultimately became nothing but his lord-wife's devoted slave, and Izuna is noticeably taking measures to avert it.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: His later attempts to escape the Uchiha compound weren't that much fleeing than twisted foreplay, as it forced Biei-Fuji to pursue him and drag him back.

Senju Clan members

Senju Hashirama

• Animals Hate Him: To counterbalance his Green Thumb, apparently. Tobirama remembers him being mobbed by geese. Izuna speculates it's because he's always projecting with his chakra and animals are naturally sensitive to that.
• Best Friends-in-Law: In spite of his reservations regarding all the Questionable Consent involved, Hashirama is rather happy about Tobirama marrying Izuna since Madara is now his brother-in-law.
• Big Brother Instinct: He's very much not okay with the skeevy circumstances in which Tobirama got married and still feels wariness about Izuna manipulating him. It also make him even more determined to conclude peace with the Uchiha as he doesn't want for his brother's heart to be broken by more conflict.
• Dumbass Has a Point:
  • He refuses to kill his father for peace, arguing that patricide isn't a good foundation for anything. His uncle Tokonoma concedes he's correct but thinks there's no other way to save the clan from utter extermination.
  • He staunchly refuses to put Tobirama's personal possessions as part of his brother's dowry, arguing that Tobirama's things are his and only his. Tokonoma concedes it would send a bad message to imply that a Clan Head's second son isn't allowed to own something.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He's actually an amazing gambler, but only when he isn't playing for fun. It's because that is the only time he puts in the effort in making himself seem harmless, on top of asking kinsmen to help him.
  • While his excessive morals make him a poor choice for Clan Heir (and Clan Head), they do make him suitable to an advisory role, as he's the only one who looks at decisions from a moral and emotional perspective. Seeing as many of Izuna's political moves are dependent on maintaining the "moral high-ground", Touka recognizes that they'll have to consult him more often based on that alone.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Thinking he lost the last of his younger brothers leads him to do this a lot, in spite of Butsuma chastising him for showing weakness. Touka returning safe and alive opens the floodgates again, and she humourously complains about him being "soggy" in his feelings.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • He heartbrokenly realizes that Tobirama's mortal enemy makes him genuinely happy where all his relatives couldn't, and tearing his baby brother from the Uchiha would only destroy him.
  • He doesn't want for Mito to leave him, but he knows she had to put their unborn baby first and won't stop her from going back to Uzushio if she feels they would be safer here.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • After getting to spy on Tobirama in the Uchiha compound, he's forced to see that his younger brother is much more happy and healthy as a prisoner and Izuna's forcibly-wedded concubine than he ever was as a free Senju and Hashirama's brother. That's not an easy pill to swallow.
  • Learning why he was demoted from the Senju Heirship dismays him, as he feels terrible regarding his entitled behaviour.
• Meaningful Name: It means "space between pillars". Doubles as Unfortunate Name, since as one Uchiha points out, the beam between pillars is the one element most likely to break if you build the house wrong.
• Mirror Character: Of his father. Tobirama notes that once they are convinced that something is right, they will never be swayed from their decision and ignore any information that doesn't fit within this worldview.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Literally and figuratively. Hashirama does not understand that people can enjoy quietness and tends to barge on them for unwanted cheering up.
• Parents as People: A rare sibling example. Hashirama might have not been the best brother to Tobirama, but he genuinely loves his younger brother and appreciates everything his brother did for him, even if he never quite said it out loud. When he realizes how much he might've been (unintentionally) hurting his brother, it drives him to tears and he resolves to do better immediately. This is in deep contrast to his father, who, as it becomes gradually clear, never gave a real damn about Tobirama at all.
• Parting-Words Regret: He despairs over the realization that he never told his younger brother how much he loved him before Tobirama was officially declared KIA.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Spending his whole life on the battlefield and losing every one of his siblings left Hashirama a mentally broken mess. Meeting Madara again following the memorial for Touka and Tobirama actually triggers an almost psychotic breakdown.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: He stubbornly tries to make an old wisteria tree flower early in the spring, only for the tree to do it only when he throws the towel.
• Sole Survivor: Believes he's this of Butsuma's children after Tobirama was abducted by Izuna, as his younger brother wasn't released and a misleading conversation led the Senju to conclude he had been killed.
• Unfit for Greatness: He's ultimately too stubborn and disinclined to open his viewpoint by learning about others' opinions, so his uncle and cousin quietly demote him from his place as Senju Heir.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hashirama is noted to crave his father's approval and is scared of disappointing him — well, unless the peace with the Uchiha is discussed. Tokonoma at one point flatly notes that Butsuma doesn't deserve someone as virtuous and filial as Hashirama for a son.

Senju Touka

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Well, Annoying Older Cousin, as she enjoys mocking Tobirama's sex life and pranking him.
• Aroused by Their Voice: She likes her men with pleasant voices. Unfortunately, they're already married, her gaoler or her baby cousin.
• Cool Big Sis: Mainly for her younger brother Tokyouma, but also for Hashirama and Tobirama.
• Damsel out of Distress: To heck with the broken legs and the Uchiha surrounding her prison, she still manages to escape and flee home to the Senju.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Zigzagged, as she practises her mastery over the kôkyu by playing some of Izuna's risqué songs.
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Her mother is mentioned as having tried to make her more ladylike, only for Touka to actively scorn her efforts and becoming as much of an Action Girl as she could.
• Forced into Their Sunday Best: The only time Tobirama saw her in a proper furisode was for her coming-of-age ceremony and she looked so utterly uncomfortable he never dared to talk about it.
• Girl in the Tower: Along with Tobirama, she's locked within the Uchiha compound's Diplomatic Quarters.
• Ignored Expert: Zigzagged as her uncle (who's the Senju Clan Head) completely refuses to listen her pleas to make peace with the Uchiha out of stubbornness and hatred, but the lower ranks are much more open to her warnings.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: As she was imprisoned alongside Tobirama, she saw firsthand how much happier and healthier he was as Izuna's concubine, and gradually comes to the realization that even if he could, her baby cousin probably won't ever come back to the Senju.
• The Lad-ette: Touka is very proud of her battle-prowess, relentlessly mocks Tobirama over his sex life and is dismayed by having to learn feminine arts.
• Red Baron: The Deadly Flower to the Uchiha shinobi before they learned her actual name.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Izuna completely destroyed her worldview by showing how truly precarious the Senju's situation was and by making Tobirama falling in love with her, and for that Touka is holding a grudge.
• Took a Level in Badass: Her forced exposition to both Izuna and Uchiha's various legal documents allowed her to improve her credentials as both Manipulative Bitch and Cultured Warrior. Still, she's painfully aware that she must improve a lot more if she ever hopes to match Izuna's capabilities.
• Unexpected Successor: Becomes the Senju Heir after her father ascends as the clan head.
• Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: She needs to prove her usefulness to the Uchiha in order to stay alive, only for the allowed activities to be traditionally feminine ones such as music and weaving. Touka is just as furious regarding having to do them as she's dismayed about her former refusal to learn them.

Senju Butsuma

Senju Butsuma, former Head of the Senju Clan

• Abusive Parents: Since this story is largely told from Tobirama's perspective, we actually see much more of his behaviour and none of it is actually good.
  • He reprimanded a mourning Hashirama for his weakness because his eldest son couldn't help but cry over Tobirama's supposed demise.
  • Tobirama notes that more than once he would take things from his sons if he decides they no longer need them and give them to other clansmen. Similarly, if he think that those thing could be better used elsewhere. Case in point, after Tobirama is presumed dead, Hashirama has to quietly steal his brother's things to have any kind of memento as they were quickly given away or sold for profit.
  • Really, the fact that Tobirama thinks that his father values him first as powerful sensor and warrior, and as a son a distant second says it all. As does his conviction that Butsuma would never ask the Uchiha for his release in the event of peace treaty.
  • It ultimately culminates in Butsuma disowning Tobirama as a "traitor" for not choosing death for himself and Touka when Izuna forced him to become her concubine. And if his son is a traitor, it means Butsuma can kill him without any remorse.
  • His only surviving daughter by his first wife disowned herself at eight years old to leave the house. If that doesn't mean there was a long-simmering problem with Butsuma...
  • After Tobirama learns the exact details of his parents' marriage contract, he starts to wonder if Butsuma sent his younger sons on battlefield specifically so they would die.
• Bad Boss: Very. He apparently regularly engages in Kick the Dog, seems to care more about clan's reputation than anything else, treats his family as tools and needs to control every aspect of clan life.
• Control Freak: Izuna accuses him of being even more of a controlling, cold-blooded bastard than Tajima himself, and Tajima is an utter jerkass.
• Determinator: Deconstructed as he's too mired in his hatred towards the Uchiha and his current behaviour to ever change, even if it means spelling doom for his clan.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Following his murder, his kinsmen still hold a wake for him in order to remember he also could be nice to them, even if it was too little, too late.
• Fatal Flaw: His hatred of the Uchiha is this as it pushes him to continue the feud at any cost. The two most obvious instances are breaking of the treaty with the Hatake just to have an opportunity to kill several Uchiha children and refusing to consider the multiple opportunities that were provided by Tobirama being married into the Uchiha. The second one directly results in his murder, so that the clan is spared the daimyo's wrath.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Firmly the Foolish one to his Responsible brother Tokonoma who puts the clan before the ancestral feud currently threatening to wipe them out.
• Happily Married: With his first wife, Senju Kaika. He apparently was his best self for her, but it didn't prevent him from alienating their children or remarrying barely a few months after her death.
• Hate Sink: He's flat-out the most despicable character in the story. He's abusive to both Tobirama and Hashirama, and is so driven by his hatred of the Uchiha that he's willing to do anything to continue perpetuating the feud, even if it means assassinating one of his sons and putting his clan at the risk of extinction.
• I Have No Son!: His reaction after learning that Tobirama was married to Tajima's daughter after being threatened with death for himself and Touka? Butsuma immediately condemns him as a traitor.
• Killed Off for Real: Murdered in his own house after he tried to assassinate Tobirama and refused to make reparations, thus setting up the clan to be wiped out by the daimyo.
• Massively Numbered Siblings: He was one of seven children, and had a total of nine children between his two marriages
• Not So Similar: His niece Touka understands that for all their commonalities as Abusive Parents and hardass Clan Heads, Tajima and Butsuma actually are this. In spite of his personal flaws, Tajima can be reasoned with and genuinely loves his children. Butsuma doesn't.
• The Oath-Breaker: What the Hatake and their summons call him, and with good reason. His reaction to his wife's death was to immediately break the marriage contract by ordering the assassination of Uchiha children. The contract specifically mentioned it would be held so long as Kikuno's descendants lived — so when Butsuma insisted that only his line remained, they naturally concluded he murdered all his children by her. When it comes to light that one still lives, one of the tigers bound to the Hatake notes that they really shouldn't trusted the word of a known oathbreaker.
• Obnoxious In-Laws:
  • Letting his son be wed to the Uchiha heiress, Butsuma's own rival Tajima's daughter, is so repellent to him that he would rather see Tobirama dead. As Izuna really enjoys her concubine, it puts him on her shitlist in short order.
  • Also repellent to his other daughter-in-law Mito who refuses to let his blind hatred and stupidity kill her unborn child, and rather dislikes how he constantly insults her husband. Apparently Mito hated him enough that she's considered one of the possible suspects in his murder.
  • The Hatake absolutely hate him and has been collectively avoiding the Senju for the past fifteen years — mostly, because he implied he murdered his younger children to get out of the marriage alliance with them.
• Offing the Offspring:
  • Butsuma's hatred for everything Uchiha is so unbending that he would order his second son's assassination rather than let him be married to their heiress.
  • And it wasn't the first time he thought about killing Tobirama — he actually wanted to murder his own toddler son for his unspecified mental condition, believing that the boy was some unnatural creature that would bring misfortune to the Senju. Hatake Kikuno and the Leopards managed to stop him, however.
  • Once the exact details of his marriage contract with Kikuno come to light, Tobirama begins to wonder if the real reason he sent his three younger children onto the battlefield so early is so they would die, preventing the Hatake from finding out that her line still lived and that Butsuma was still bound by the terms of the contract.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Several of his sons died on the battlefield, but it's subverted with Tobirama.
  • Out of his nine children, only a third of them are still alive at the time of the fic - Hashirama, Tobirama and Keika - and only Hashirama remained with him until the end
• Parental Favoritism: Even if he seemed to mistreat both his surviving sons, it quickly becomes apparent that Butsuma was harder on Tobirama for being too obviously different. His brother Tokonoma also reflects that for all of Hashirama's bleeding heart, Butsuma would have never disinherited his first wife's son.
• Revenge Before Reason: His second son being taken as a concubine for the Uchiha heiress would have been an opportunity for the Senju to leave their millenium-long feud behind them, especially after learning the other clan could ask for their extermination to the daimyo if sufficiently irked. Yet Butsuma tried to murder Tobirama because he couldn't see this as anything but treason, ignoring the fact that Uchiha tend to Disproportionate Retribution in the name of revenge for a loved one and assassination of a noble's concubine would piss the daimyo.
• Too Dumb to Live: His niece warned him about the Uchiha being powerful enough to ask the daimyo for the Senju's complete extermination as a small favour, and his knee-jerk reaction is trying to assassinate the son who got married to the Uchiha's heiress — who likely would ravage the compound for her concubine's death and is intent on going to the daimyo in spite of Tobirama's survival. No wonder his relatives decided they would be better off with him dead.
• Would Hurt a Child: Absolutely. He wanted to have Tobirama killed as a toddler because his son was "different", sends assassins after his enemies' children and specifically ordered Chirinma to take young Touma on the mission to assassinate Tobirama — implicitly to act as a meat shield. Tobirama even notes that killing young children is his preferred tactic. What a guy.

Senju Mito

Senju Mito, formerly of the Uzumaki clan

• Happily Married: She's nothing but understanding and supportive towards her grieving husband as he struggles to come to terms with his younger brother's upcoming funeral.
• Love Cannot Overcome: Yes, she loves her husband. No, she will not stay with him when Butsuma's actions are bound to result in deaths of the entire Senju Clan.
• Mama Bear: She's not going to let his father-in-law's abject stupidity kill her unborn child, even if it means leaving her husband behind.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tobirama muses she will probably jump off ships and hightail to Uzushio if the Senju clan ever finds itself in dire straits. This prediction is verified when the Uchiha threaten to inform the daimyo of Butsuma's failed murder attempt, as she immediately starts packing her things.
• Tranquil Fury: Tobirama notes she looks quietly furious when Izuna reveals Butsuma tried to have him murdered.

Senju Touma

• Chained to a Bed: A variant. When he's captured and locked into the Diplomatic Quarters, he's shackled to a wall by the wrists.
• Children Are Innocent: He's the youngest amongst the assassination team and not informed of the fine details. Izuna also spares him because of this.
• Child Soldiers: Barely thirteen years old and his uncle believe he's old enough to participate in an assassination.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: After spending two days alone and shackled into a stone room, Touma immediately folds and bursts into tears when Tobirama visits him.
• Shameful Strip: He's only left wearing a shirt after being captured. It's for making cleaning easier, but Touma is obviously humiliated by his situation.
• Sole Survivor: From the assassination team sent after Tobirama, both because of his age and because he threw his weapon away after Izuna's arrival.

Senju Tokonoma

Senju Tokonoma, Head of the Senju Clan

• Cain and Abel: A rare positive example of a Cain — Tokonoma is perfectly willing to murder Butsuma to protect the clan from daimyo's retaliation. Somebody got there first, though.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Obviously the Responsible one as he can admit when he's over his head and does Know When to Fold 'Em regarding the feud with the Uchiha.
• Happily Married: To Senju Sumi neé Kurama.
• Hidden Depths: It's mentioned that he carves and works with wood in his spare time.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Tokonoma is willing to listen to what other people are saying, considers alternative approaches to the feud with the Uchiha and is perfectly aware what will happen if they don't depose Butsuma.

Summons

Cats

• Animalistic Abomination: Implied by the fact that all cats are sentient, capable of moulding chakra and speech. Case in point, the one guarding Tobirama was able to kill a grown shinobi and ate his body afterwards.
• Bargain with Heaven: Possibly. It's definitely implied that whatever the deal between the Uchiha and the Cats is, it's much more complicated than the usual summoner-and-summons pact. This includes the Uchiha Compound being a Cat Territory and the stipulation that there always must be a Cat summoner living in Sora-ku, which is located near the entrance to the Cat Realm.
  (Uchiha lullaby) Oh watch the cradle, watch the door; watch my kinsmen march to war; guard their souls until their time, nine and nine and nine!
• Beneath Notice: Nobody really pays attention to a cat or try to keep one away from settlements, so they can go everywhere, serving as informants and discreet guards.
• Cats Are Magic: Cats are inherently able of speaking to humans and wielding chakra. No, not just these affiliated with shinobi. All of them.
• Cats Are Superior: Often described as smug in their behaviour and assumptions.

Tônari

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: A shade of this towards Tobirama, as she's constantly complaining about him not having cubs and why didn't he kill Butsuma already. Yup, she does that with an audience.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Being a leopard, she's not really bothered by the prospect of patricide and harasses Tobirama for not doing Butsuma in.
• Friend to All Children: A fantastic babysitter for toddler Kiso.
• I Want Grandkids: She just woudn't stop bemoaning Tobirama's refusal to settle and have cubs, so when he summons him after getting married, she's ecstatic.
• Parental Substitute: Tobirama affectionately calls her "Tônari-ba", which means Auntie, and she helped to raise him after his mother's demise.
• Unseen No More: Tobirama often thinks of his leopard summons, but the seal on his chakra prevents him to call on her before Chapter 27.

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