The Uzumaki's work was exceptional.
Truth be told, Haruka too used to think that they were a bunch of uppity, haughty and snooty bastards and that in a way, they had it coming. But looking at all the work they had been doing maybe they had a reason to be.
They had a seal for almost everything. Transporting objects, keeping food unspoiled, scrolls that absorb jutsu and send them back, the list went on and on. But what Haruka was most intrigued about was the seals that related to chakra. The Uzumaki, like their cousins, were notorious for their huge chakra reserves. But, unlike the Senju, a lot of them struggled to contain it, and use it in a proper efficient way. They found a way around this problem by using seals they directly apposed on their own bodies. Most of them were either to stabilize the chakra or to help get rid of the excess if they couldn't manage it.
Haruka remembered that the red head she had saved had a green rhombus between her eyebrows. According to the scrolls they had, the green color signified that it was a seal to get rid of excess chakra. If the girl needed something like that, then maybe she wasn't as useless as Haruka initially thought. Maybe she survived.
But that wasn't what was most important to Haruka. She had spent a great amount of time and effort studying these types of seals hoping to be able to come up with one that suited her needs.
She was still struggling with her limited chakra reserves. It wasn't a big deal, because she had adapted most of her techniques to her capacities over the years. But you never know what can happen or what you might need, and so she decided to try and find a way around her problem.
It wasn't easy, but after a few weeks worth of research, she designed something that looked like it could work. At first, she tried it on rabbits. The process was simple: After a few hand signs, she started injecting one point with increasing quantities of chakra, and after a few days she came back to retrieve it and make sure that it was all still there. In theory, the seal could store infinite amounts of chakra, and give them back whenever she needed them. She thought about it when she realized that whenever her reserves were full her body just stopped making chakra, which was a huge waste of time. Now, whenever her cells weren't busy filling her reserves, they could be working on the seal.
The scrolls had made it clear that the best point to use these types of seals was between the eyebrows, as close as possible to the brain. All that was left was prepare the seal. Using a mirror and through three days of peaceful meditation and staring at a mark she had made between her eyebrows to make sure all the chakra went to the same point, she finally started getting some results.
Even with her great chakra control, concentrating all your body's worth of chakra in one small point for a long period of time was no easy task, and she almost fainted three times, out of exhaustion.
On the third day, a red rhombus started forming on her forehead. It was still faded, but it was all the foundation she needed. She was sure that now the unused chakra in her body knew where to go, like if it was sucked to a black hole on her forehead. She went back to her daily routine, meditating whenever she could, and in the beginning of summer the color of the rhombus was a gorgeous red that contrasted beautifully with her pale skin and black eyes and hair. People asked about her new fashion statement, but she never said anything. The seal was still experimental, and it required such a skill in chakra control that it might just as well be classified as a forbidden technique.
The results of the Uzumaki's downfall weren't limited to that.
All the clans, with their newly acquired knowledge, started working on ways to make their own seals. However not everybody was built for such a job, and so a lot of people started giving up halfway. The two clans who had managed to keep things going the most were the Senju, with the help of the Uzumaki refugees, and the Uchiha, with the help of their Sharingan and new scientific methods curtsy of Haruka's influence.
At first the Senju tried to keep the old practices going. Not out of greed, everybody knew that, but as a way of keeping some face for their cousins and giving them a way to earn their living. But the Uchiha had a fun time replicating the less complex and more useful seals and flooding the market with them at less than a quarter of their initial price. Obviously, the people, who preferred to buy instead of making their own, bought from the Uchiha. Especially when they didn't put their clan crest on anything and let some civilian outsiders handle the transactions for them, giving even the Senju allied clans an opportunity to buy from them without being busted. The Uzumaki finally came down of their self-built pedestal and decided to match the Uchiha prices, that weren't really that bad and left them a nice profit margin.
Madara then decided that there was no need to keep kicking them while they were down, and refused to lower the prices once again.
It may have had something to do with the fact that his former friend, Senju Hashirama, took the chance that one of their battles gave them, and angrily expressed his dissatisfaction. Everybody, especially his supposed enemies, knew that Hashirma was a cheerful and humble guy who seldom raised his voice for anything other than to naively speak about his hopes and dreams. So for him to actually get mad about something, it meant that maybe they had let Tajima go too far this time. Madara would never admit to it, and his squad who witnessed the whole thing never brought it up, but even if he said that Hashirama meant nothing to him, he was a bit scared of losing his partner in crime for real.
After that incident their battles went back to the usual. It always ended in a draw between all involved parties. First, the weak would be weeded out in a blood bath, and then the usual pairs always found each other. Somewhere along the line, the Senju had figured out that it was better to let Hikaku and Touka fight each other, while Haruka and Itama didn't even fight.
All the clans had started copying their model of having especially trained medics go around the battle field to help, and so both of them were always too busy to care about each other.
Izuna and Tobirama were always at it with the colorful language, Touka and Hikaku had both managed to simultaneously trap each other in genjustsu multiple times, and sometimes both just stood there unmoving with drool coming out of their mouths, until one of their medics made them snap out of it. And Hashirama and Madara were as fiercely competing as always but so far nobody died and they both just went home with broken ribs and blood everywhere.
They were all especially tense when in the middle of August the daimyo sent a ceasefire order to all shinobi clans.
The daimyo's authority in the shinobi world was a fickle matter. He was in name the ruler of the country, and for the most part all civilian related matters were under his jurisdiction. But the shinobi clans had a special system. They were the country's military power and thus enjoyed a certain status, with some of them like the Hyuga, Uchiha and Senju being even considered noble clans. But in reality they were like small sovereign nations with their own economy, rules and leaders, so they threatened his existence a little bit. They had reached a compromise where the shinobi clans would obey him in exchange for some privileges like tax exemptions and land ownership, and mainly because the leaders of the clans had no interest in overthrowing his power. Sometimes they even used him as a referee in their fights, like the Senju had tried to do.
The ceasefire order came this time because the daimyo finally had a male heir. They were planning on a month long celebration and because they believed in ill omens, they wanted to prevent any blood baths from occurring. So it was decided that all internal fighting had to be put on hold. The shinobi clan heads had all sighed in exasperation at the daimyo's antics, because they knew that it was only the beginning, but obeyed anyway. Aside from the shinobi guarding the borders and the ones in local missions, everybody was granted a small vacation and they were actually able to enjoy some of their summer days.
Sure enough the daimyo continued down his crazy path and actually sent invitations to the clan heads and their close families to attend the banquets and celebrations for two weeks. He was perfectly aware that Senju Butsuma and Uchiha Tajima would end up trying to use the chopsticks as weapons to gut each other, and thus he included his hopes for a peaceful visit along with a few expensive gifts to shut them both up.
The Senju being invited was a normal thing; after all, they were invited for the previous celebrations when the daimyo's two daughters were born because they had a good relationship with him. The Uchiha however were usually snubbed. But this year their recent economic boom had intrigued the daimyo and thus the invitation. Rumor had it that it was because all his concubines had fallen in love with the products of their high end shop in the capital, and that he was looking for a discount.
The people invited to the court events were Tajima and his two sons and one daughter, but they had also managed to drag along Hikaku and Natsuki, as well as Tajima's second in command and best friend. The three would visit the capital with them and wait for them in the special guest house they were given later. All the clans brought tag-alongs with them, so it wasn't weird.
The housing was provided by the daimyo along with some servants to help the ladies dress up and take care of the guest house. The food would be delivered at every meal from the palace's kitchen, and so all they had to bring with them were their clothes.
Haruka never failed to remind the males that if it wasn't for her insistence, they wouldn't have formal or casual clothes suited for a stay in the capital. She felt like dying, when they all said that their old patched up mantels could have been just as good.
But nonetheless their haoris and hakamas looked quite elegant and each one wore it with a different air about them. Tajima was dignified. After the twins wrestled him down, passed a comb through his hair and tied it in a high ponytail, Madara actually showed a handsome face that suited a great general. And if Natsuki's and some of the capital's girls's reactions after seeing him were a good tell, the ladies liked the haughty inaccessible expression on his now visible face. And of course, the playboy in making of their group didn't need any help in that department. Izuna never failed to turn a few heads, and he enjoyed giving attention as much as he enjoyed receiving it.
He was almost as vain as Haruka was. She had brought as many clothes as the three boys combined, and all through her stay she liked to change from gorgeous kimono to another, rarely wearing the same thing for two banquets or tea parties in a row, except for her Uchiha crest shaped obidome that never left her. The wives of the nobles of the capital ended up ordering some of the designs she wore and she had to send the seamstress of the clan an early get to work notice.
This wasn't the siblings first time in the capital, as they had come multiple times for missions and for the opening of their shop. And it wasn't even Madara's first time in court because he came every year with his father to receive the official mission order. But it was Natsuki's first, and after a round of teasing and a bit of rest, they decided to give her a proper visit.
After they got dresses in casual clothes that highlighted their clan's crest, to make who they were known, they first stopped by the guest house the Hyuga were staying in. Izuna felt like dragging his friend, the Hyuga heir, Jinshi with them.
Jinshi was their age and, like every member of his clan, had pale purple eyes, long black hair and an aura of dignity that Izuna liked to peel away whenever he could. He was a bit introverted and didn't seem very close to his other cousins, and so he seemed to enjoy Izuna's company even if the latter's every other sentence made him blush. He had almost fainted once when Izuna suggested he use his byakugan to spy on a ladies only bath. The rest of their group enjoyed his company too, and so after leaving Tajima and his second in command in Jinshi's father care, they made their way to the Uchiha shop. Hikaku, Natsuki and Jinshi had never seen it and were quite curious about what exactly was driving the noblewomen so crazy that they had started sending their servants to queue up from the early hours of the morning.
Lady Fate seemed to be a real bitch because, just as they were walking down the busy street where the shop was, they spotted a familiar group of people. Senju Hashirama was pointing excitedly at the direction they were headed towards, while Senju Tobirama looked like he had just swallowed a fly and was tightly gripping his older brother's arm trying to drag him in the opposite direction. Senju Itama was standing next to them, trying to pick a side, and a red head was next to him, glaring at Hashirama the same way Tobirama was, with her hands on her hips. They looked like they had finally managed to convince Hashirama to drop whatever he was excited about, when his shoulders slumped and he started reluctantly following his brother.
The Uchiha group hadn't decided whether or not to make a tactical retreat yet, when the Senju all seemed to feel their chakra and turn to look at them. While the other three scowled, Hashirama's face brightened after a moment of hesitation and he wildly waved in their direction while screaming. "Madara! So good to see you here! We were just going to see—" He couldn't finish his sentence because Tobirama's hand clamped on his mouth and he finished for him. "We were just heading back to the guest house. That's what you were going to say. Right, anija?" Tobirama's glare was enough to make him swallow the rest of his original sentence.
Haruka laughed internally. She had watched Hashirama grow from a naïve boisterous kid to an equally naïve and boisterous teenager, and she had to admit that she liked his personality a lot. He was like a ray of sunshine that warmed everybody's heart, and case and point he had wormed his way into Madara's.
In their early confrontations, he had continued to act like Madara was just his sparring partner, and even tried to start conversions with him when their fathers were out of reach. But the weight of the years, the scolding he had probably received from his father and brother, and Madara's act of not acknowledging him slowly dimed that cheerfulness. He still insisted on giving them a smile before every battle, and sometimes when she was helping a shinobi with no way to defend herself and he would pass her by, he just acted like he didn't see her and went to find his next opponent.
Sometimes when ceasefires where negotiated and they met on missions, he still kept his cheerfulness that despaired Tobirama and Touka and left Itama with a slightly worried expression. Madara either ignored him or scolded him for his naivete, depending on his mood, but the actions of the Senju heir had the benefit of softening Hikaku's and Izuna's skepticism a little bit.
Haruka had a feeling that his actions held another meaning, that he was looking for a particular response from them, but so far none of them were able to crack his code. And after the whole Uzumaki debacle, she clearly saw that his actions were forced and not as sincere. There was always a moment of hesitation before them.
She started to think that once again her prophecies were becoming true, and that Senju Hashirama was slowly losing fate in his dreams because he didn't have the mental support her adult-self provided Madara with. She couldn't really blame him though. He was just a dreamer, a kid with virtually no support. He held on as much as he could, but even if he was still fighting, it was clear that he was reaching the end of the rope. She hoped to able to help him before it was too late, but her loyalty laid with the Uchiha first, and in the current state of things, she had no way to reach out to him.
Still it was funny that he clearly wanted to go take a look at the shop they were going to visit, despite it being owned by his supposed rival. She was about to try and use this occasion to work on some diplomacy when she noticed something. The red head of the Senju group was glaring at her hatefully. Especially at the red rhombus that was clearly visible between her eyes. The girl had one of her own, but hers was green.
Before she could say anything, the red head pointed an accusing finger at her and shouted for the whole street to hear:
"You thieving bitch! How dare you wear something you clearly stole proudly like that, in the middle of your forehead?"