Tobirama & Mito friendship
Mito is the first to see the way Tobirama flinches from Butsuma.
Tobirama is only 15 while she is 18, just like Hashirama. Even though it's only a 3 year age gap he just seems so much younger. Vulnerable in a way no one else seems to see.
When she first tells Hashirama she thinks Butsuma is mistreating Tobirama he waves her off. Insists that Tobirama is the spitting image of their father and clearly Butsuma's favorite.
Mito is certain Hashirama is wrong, if anything it feels to her like Butsuma dislikes Tobirama entirely.
But there isn't much she can do about any of it, especially if Hashirama refuses to see it.
It only takes her a couple of months to realize the rest of the clan seems to dislike Tobirama as well.
Again she tells Hashirama and he insists that she is wrong, that everyone constantly praises Tobirama for his skills, for the ruthless way he dominates the battlefield. He says this with obvious irritation.
When she asks him why that upsets him he tells her that he thinks Tobirama is becoming a monster. That he will grow to be just as cruel as their father and never let peace happen.
Mito again feels that Hashirama is wrong, but what does she know? She has only been here a few months.
Though in those few months what she saw was a boy that tried his best to please everyone around him, avoided people as much as possible and flinched from his father, and sometimes even from Hashirama. As if just waiting for a cruel word or a physical blow.
Mito made it her mission to get to know her new little brother.
It took a while but Tobirama opened up and seemed to thrive under her attention.
He would smile when it was just the two of them. He made jokes, he loved to show her all his jutsu research and what little he had learned about sealing.
Mito happily taught him everything she knew.
Tobirama was a completely different person when it was just them.
It was something she had to show Hashirama.
So once she was a little more secure in the bond she had created with Tobirama she started telling Hashirama about something funny Tobirama said that day, or about how big he smiled when he figured something out.
At first Hashirama didn't believe her. But the more stories he heard the more he wanted to see this side of his little brother. Mito explained to him how wrong he was in his thinking. Now with proof that Tobirama wasn't unfeeling it made Hashirama look back and see the casual cruel comments he made. He started to see what Mito was talking about with Tobirama flinching from him and their father. He saw the way Tobirama isolated himself. And when he listened hard enough and paid attention to everything being said, he realized his clan didn't prefer Tobirama the way he had always thought.
The true turning point was when he witnessed Tobirama and their father ‘training’. Only it wasn't training, it was just Butsuma beating Tobirama down and calling him worthless, cursed, weak.
Hashirama wasn't about to let that stand and for the first time ever he truly stood up to their father. He physically got between them and actually punched his father.
Hashirama promised if he ever saw Butsuma harming Tobirama again he would grow a vine around his heart and stop it from taking another beat.
Butsuma was shocked, enraged, and a little fearful. He snarls a few words that Hashirama realized don't hold weight for him any more. Not now. Probably never again.
Hashirama turned to Tobirama and began healing his wounds. He apologized for overlooking Tobirama. For not being there for him. For every thoughtless and mean word that he ever directed to his little brother.
Tobirama nearly cries. He has dreamt about this moment. Of his brother loving him again.
Between Mito and Hashirama they put a stop to everyone mistreating Tobirama. They make it clear that an insult against him is an insult against them.
It doesn't get better overnight, but it does change things. Especially when it's seen even Butsuma won't say anything against Tobirama either.
It's been a year since Hashirama married Mito and Tobirama is living a completely different life. It's not perfect, they are still at war, but most of the things he spent years wishing for are his reality now.
Hashirama will always be his big brother, he will always have his loyalty.
But Mito is his big sister, his first confidant, the first person to look at him and only see good, she saw something to live about him when he no longer even liked anything about himself.
When Hashirama takes his place as the clan head Tobirama swears his loyalty to him, after he looks at Mito. Between the three of them, they all know Tobirama's first loyalty will lie with Mito.
Tobirama will serve as he always has, unless Mito gives him reason to do otherwise.
She changed his life and gave him a reason to live, a reason to keep trying and he will forever be thankful for that.