Chapter: 10

"Are you paying attention?"

I held a scroll in my hand and looked over to Akio and shook my head. "Do you really expect me to remember all of this?" I asked with a frown.

"This poison can be very useful, Takeo. You might need it someday."

I rolled my eyes and placed the paper on the table. "I'm not the type who sits around all day and crushes pretty flowers into poison. It's kinda cruel, don't you think?" I asked. Akio set down the vial he was holding onto the table and looked at me with a steady gaze.

"What the hell did you just tell me?" He asked with a blank stare. I looked away awkwardly and scratched my arm. "I-I don't wanna crush up flowers because it makes me sad," I whispered.

"They're flowers."

"But-"

"Flowers."

Akio grabbed the scroll and placed it back in my hand and turned back to his vial. "Be grateful I'm taking time out of my day to teach you while Madara is off doing whatever he's doing along with that other guy," He whispered. I cringed a little inside and decided to play dumb.

"Don't know who the other guy is…" I whispered as I pretended to read the scroll.

"I'm not an idiot. I saw him."

"You need to get your eyes checked."

Akio raised an eyebrow. He looked to the door and saw that it was closed and locked. I pursed my lips, ready for whatever shit he was about to lay upon me.

"Are you really going to play that game? I know you've been meeting up with someone and staying out later than usual."

I rolled my eyes. "You're making me sound scandalous. Besides, Madara is telling me to stay out late," I shrugged.

"Yeah, so he can go sleep with that girl you've been friendly with lately," he replied with a sort of sharp tone in his voice.

I placed my hands on the table for balance. It made me feel weird to hear that. There was this sort of twisting and churning feeling in my stomach that made it feel like I was going to puke.

"It isn't like you to be mentioning things like this," I whispered. Akio seemed slightly out of character today. He was agitated and it worried me.

"Takeo, I suggest you learn all you can soon. Things have been getting tense here and I don't know how long we can keep up our stay here," Akio said, avoiding my previous statement. I took this as an answer though. Why wasn't I made aware of anything happening between us and the Uchiha though? What's happening?

"How… long has this been going on?" I asked.

Akio shrugged, "Since the beginning you could always feel the way the Uchiha felt towards us. You couldn't because you spent most of your time training outside of here… but…"

He trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

"It seems like Madara made the effort to keep us around, but lately it seems he's leaning more towards his people's side."

I felt my eyes water up.

"Izuna… he still makes the effort to train me, but I wonder how he must feel…"

I chuckled and brushed the hair out of my face. "Izuna was the one who wanted us in the first place. Of course he would be the last one to make any effort to keep us."

Akio nodded his head. "You know, no one is training my father and the other men. My father and everyone else just kinda go over previous lessons over and over by themselves and it's frustrating."

"The Uchiha look at us as if we are trash. You can just feel the judgment in their eyes and any minute I feel we're gonna be stabbed in the back," Akio continued. He paused for a moment, "Or they'll use us to extract chakra from our bodies for them to use. I already feel their dirty hands on me," he muttered quietly as he rubbed his arms.

"Madara promised that no one would do that to us. Besides that, why hasn't Mori said anything about the training? I'm surprised he's been quiet," I asked. Akio shook his head, "He still thinks we still have a chance to get something out of these people. This is so embarrassing, I can't believe we had a chance here," Akio hissed as he gripped the vial.

"Makes me wonder how Jiro is doing," he chuckled.

I stayed quiet.

"You can probably even ask the guy who's been training you."

I nodded my head, my entire being was telling me to lay down and cry.

"You do know he's a Senju, right? Tobirama Senju."

I noticed I was crushing the scroll in my hand. I unwrinkled it and placed it on the table.

"I was trying to avoid that idea. I guess I can't now" I sighed. Akio chuckled quietly, "I went to the place where you train and I saw you with him. Kinda weird how things like this happen."

I stared down at the scroll, refusing to give a response.

"Do you think he knows who you are? Or is he stupid and just decided to train some random girl?" Akio asked. I shrugged, "Maybe he fell in love with me and just couldn't stay away," I joked. As if that would ever happen. I looked like a monster when he found me sprawled out on the ground.

Akio laughed and wiped sweat at his brow. "I wonder if these two clans are in loop with what we are doing, or if they are just the two biggest fools we've ever come across."

"Why would they let us use them like this if they knew?" I asked.

"Because they feel sorry for us."

I left Akio to wither away in his room. The longer I stayed the more depressed he became. He was letting out all his emotions onto me and it felt uncomfortable.

I never seen him act like this.

He was always smiling, polite, never really showed any doubt in anything.

Maybe it was best we leave as soon as possible. Who cares what Mom would say about me, and Jiro would have certainly gotten something from the Senju. We wouldn't have left exactly empty handed.

It was surprising how calm I was about this. There was no violent wave of emotion inside me now, but the waves were slowly building up and up. I feel if I'm not careful I can send them crashing down and ruining everything. I could just imagine myself finally being pushed over the edge and bawling out my eyes just because I dropped some food on the floor or something stupid like that.

I was walking through the compound now, I never really spent a lot of time here, just like Akio said. I could feel the tense feeling he was talking about, but it wasn't any different to what I felt back home.

All those judging eyes on you, critiquing every move you make. Everyone, Mori and Akio were finally feeling what I felt back at home. They couldn't just pretend to understand what I felt, they knew it now.

It felt a little good.

I had no idea where I was going. I was just sort of walking around, taking in all this. I couldn't go see Tobirama because he is… away. Madara is busy as well, not that I would really want to see his face at the moment. I also didn't want to see Morina.

"Takeo."

I saw Izuna from the distance. He walked over to me and ignored all the gazes from the people he passed by.

I smiled awkwardly and waved. "Hey, how are you?" I asked slowly. Izuna isn't someone I saw very often, he spent a lot of his time with Akio inside the compound.

"I've been looking for you," he stated. I nodded my head, "You found me," I chuckled. Izuna smiled slightly and motioned for me to follow him.

"My brother has been busy with other things as of late. I'm taking it upon myself to train you until things clear up for him."

I wanted to roll my eyes but Izuna would see. Does he mean until Madara and Morina burnout or what? I don't see that happening very soon.

"I see the things you teach Akio and I don't know if I'm capable of doing that," I admitted. Izuna nodded, "I'm guessing you want physical training?" He asked with a smile. I shrugged, "I'm not exactly book smart…" I sighed.

"I'm not as strong as my brother, but I can teach you things."

"Oh, you're not some nerd who reads books?" I asked jokingly. Izuna blinked his eyes and paused for a moment. I started to sweat and wonder if he took me seriously.

"No."

"I-I was just joking…"