Madara Uchiha noticed Hashirama Senju was ashen white when he returned.

Madara had always loved Hashirama's milky skin, but now, it was as if someone had wrenched all colours out of it.

Madara stood up.

"Hashi, my love..."

He made to put his arms around his lover, but Hashirama grabbed his wrists, holding him at bay.

Cold dread grabbed at Madara's heart. Had something happened that had made Hashirama fall out of love with him? 

But then, as a heavy rain started pouring, he saw that Hashirama was crying, and he understood the prevention of touch was a form of self-punishment.

"My love..." He sat down on the beach with his lover next to him, putting an arm around his shoulder to try to comfort him. The sound of the rain against the water surface of the ocean where they sat soothed the situation. Madara tried focussing on it. "My love, what happened?"

"I thought it would make me feel better", he said. "Now that I saw in his eyes that he would go through with it. But I don't." He turned his tear-drenched face towards Madara. His hair hung in wet, brown loops, glued to his face and Madara thought he saw something not quite well with his lover then, as if some of the serenity that had embraced him since he allowed himself the surface world had been washed away by the rain. "I feel terrible. But it's too late."

Something grabbed hold of Madara then. Not the same ice-cold dread as he had felt when he thought Hashirama might leave him; something deeper, something more within.

Izuna is in danger.

Madara took a step back.

"What have you done?" he asked, panicked. 

Hashirama hid his face in his hands.

"I asked Tobirama to kill him", he whispered. 

"Kill who?!" Madara screamed but he already knew and it felt as if though he was crying blood.

Hashirama looked up.

"Izuna."

"Why?!" Madara screamed. 

"Because I wanted you to myself ", Hashirama whispered and sunk down on his knees. "Because half of your heart still belonged to Izuna, and I wanted the whole."

Madara wasn't angry, nor was he sad. Instead, he felt scared. Scared that something as painful as this could exist in this world.

"And you thought having my little brother killed could achieve that?!" he screamed. "Don't you understand?! I need someone who believes my heart is big enough to have room for two! And what do you think will happen after Izuna dies, that I don't have room for him anymore? It doesn't matter if he lives, he has half of me, just as you have half of me! At least you used to be! How could you believe I could ever even look at you after finding out what you've done?!"

"But you weren't supposed to find out", he whispered. 

"Take me to him!" Madara screamed and he understood himself that he was desperate, because there was no other reason why he would ask this man a favour. "Take me to him!"

And Hashirama did. To the other side of the world, where the rain also fell. 

Madara screamed as he saw his little brother, drowned in a puddle of blood, yellow still as there was nothing to dye his blood yet. He fell to his knees in that blood, pulling his body to him, holding him tight. He looked at his beautiful little face, unchanged despite the long time that had passed since they last saw each other, no, not unchanged, marked by the love shared between him and Tobirama.

And there was Tobirama, next to Izuna, and Hashirama went and fell to his knees beside him. Tobirama wasn't dead;  he was half-melted into the ground, and lay with his eyes half-closed.

"Brother..." he wheezed.

"I'm sorry", Hashirama said. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to..."

"It's not your fault", Tobirama said. "It's not... It's not..."

And then, he melted away completely, dead due to the sadness of having lost his lover.

And Hashirama believed, and would always believe, that Tobirama's final words were meant to comfort him, would never know that they were true, that despite his own request, Tobirama Senju's mission was to kill Izuna Uchiha, and he had been given the ability to see into the future to figure this out.

But just as Tobirama had his destiny, Hashirama had his own. To believe he had caused the death of Izuna Uchiha, and thus die due to the guilt of the pain he had caused his lover.

And Madara had his destiny as well, to suffer the death of his little brother, the betrayal of his lover, and thus having both halves of his heart ripped out.

The four of them died together that day.