36.

"Sayu, how have you been? It's been a long time…" Yuna whispered and plopped herself on the table, swinging her feet over the edge like a child. Sayu's black eyes were like tiny slits as she glared at Yuna, probably trying to melt her under the heat of her anger. It didn't seem to wipe away the amused look on Yuna's face.

Sayu sighed and leaned against the door lazily, "There seems to be no one around so I'll get straight to it. Why are you here?"

A sense of nostalgia washed over Yuna, the feeling of being scolded and constantly lectured by Sayu reminded her of the old days. Her head tilted slightly to the left and she hummed to herself quietly, "What about you? Last time I saw you, you were all high and mighty about quitting this lifestyle for your kid. By the way, how is he?"

Sayu sighed and rubbed her temples, "Yeah I guess this is a pot-kettle situation…" she halted for a second to collect her thoughts, "How did you know that it's a boy?"

Yuna giggled innocently and shrugged, "I didn't, honestly. It was just a hunch. Someone as stubborn as you is bound to give life to a healthy baby boy."

Silence fell between the two; Yuna used that time to take in Sayu's appearance. She was still pale and slim just as she was before. Her hair barely reached her chin now, but her eyes were still as stubborn and angry as before. It was kind of a trademark for Sayu; she didn't have to be angry to actually look angry.

"What are you staring at?" Sayu snapped quietly, a tiny blush covering her cheeks. Yuna flashed a cheeky grin, making Sayu even more self-conscious, "Anyway, I'm here because we have no money. Izaya needs to be fed and this winter has been rough, so I'm leaking information about Uematsu to the outside."

"His name is Izaya…? Pretty name, don't you think that it's a little to… feminine?" Yuna inquired, just barely dodging a knife that was hurled towards her face.

"If I name a boy Izaya then I name him that because it's god damn manly!" Sayu hissed quietly, the red on her cheeks constantly darkening.

Yuna waved her hand nonchalantly and threw the knife back to Sayu, "Anyway, do you want to escape from here with me? I'm here to," Yuna made a cutting motion on her neck, "this Uematsu guy and then I'm out of here."

Sayu snorted and crossed her hands on her chest, "It's not going to be so easy to waltz out of here you know? Despite being ninja…You're going to have to know exactly where and when are the guards going to be. I'll find us a window. Where from are you going to escape?"

"A sweet little boy showed me a sewer line that isn't used anymore. It'll take us straight to the forest. It's in the lower city though."

Sayu sighed and shook her head, "Annoying as hell, draws a lot of attention…We'll be lucky if the lower city's people don't give us out. They tend to…dislike ninjas. Getting over that wall will be easy, but doing so without drawing any attention will be tough."

"Can it be done?" inquired Yuna seriously. Sayu snorted, "What? You think that I want to die here? Try to delay his death until the end of the week, okay?"

Yuna nodded, "Will do. Shall you guide me to my humble bedroom now?"

The morning started early for Yuna. She was woken up by Sayu who, with much sarcasm, politely guided her through the elaborate maze to the dining room. Uematsu had no wife or children, he was much too paranoid for that and still young enough to delay.

Yuna was seated to his left hand. While the tasty and beautifully arranged dishes where served, Yuna took her time to observe her surroundings. There were at least ten armed men stationed around the room. As always there were no windows, instead the red walls were decorated by original paintings from famous artists. Yuna recognized almost all of them.

"Are all of those originals?" she asked, trying to strike up a conversation politely.

Uematsu, bulky and intimidating as always, nodded curtly while keeping his eyes on the servers. Each dish was then tasted by a chubby man, presumably for poison. That morning ritual took up nearly fifteen minutes. Yuna was quietly tapping her toes on the wooden floor.

The maids were all identically dressed into red yukata with black linings, all of them tried to avoid any eye contact with Uematsu.

The mansion itself always seemed to be well heated, but every now and then Yuna felt multiple chills running down her back.

Finally after Uematsu was sure that none of the food was contaminated he raised his arm and made a careless gesture to the guards.

To Yuna's horror, all the guards simultaneously began searching the maids. With blank faces, they searched all their sleeves, pockets, hair, shoes…any place where a vial or a knife could be hidden.

Uematsu calmly picked up his chopsticks, "We may dine," he stated simply. No fancy words, straight to the point.

Yuna tried to keep her hands from trembling while she ate her rice silently. The food had no taste in her mouth; she simply took it as an energy source. The guards had found nothing suspicious from the maids and the room had returned to its sombre silence.

"Uematsu-sama, after breakfast may I begin questioning you and draw some blood?" Yuna asked carefully. There was no need to be worried; she was simply a healer from far away with a deep academic interest in his case.

"Very well…I have two hours to spare, if you can fit everything into those two hours then I'll be very grateful."

Yuna flashed a tiny smile, "Of course, two hours is enough. As promised I have a week."

No more words were exchanged after that. When Uematsu had finished eating, Sayu appeared and escorted them to a nearby room. They were followed by a group of guards who kept a very close watch on Yuna.

This was the first room to have a window. Yuna had never felt so happy to see the sun before. She walked away from the company just to stand there, stare down to the city and enjoy the silence. Her tiny moment of peace was interrupted by someone slamming the door shut.

The guards took their posts around the room and Sayu remained near the door, head bowed down.

Yuna awkwardly coughed before sitting down onto her knees. Uematsu mimicked her movements and they took a few moments to simply look at each other.

"Could you simply talk about what's bothering you and I'll ask any questions if necessary."

Only one question rang through Yuna's mind: Does this guy ever change his facial expression?

"Very well. Once in every two weeks, I have…seizures you could call them. Out of nowhere, my entire body is consumed in large amounts of pain. It's like a quiet, constant throbbing pain all around. If I try to move then the pain doubles, so you could say that in a way I'm paralyzed. It lasts from thirty minutes to an hour…sometimes even longer. It all depends on the day. One of the side effects is that I cough large amounts of blood. There's no weakness or fever. Heart rate is normal, breathing is normal."

It sounded as if he had explained this situation thousands of times already. His pace was relaxed, his words were chosen wisely and stated clearly.

"What do you do prior to the seizures? You daily schedule."

"I wake up as usually; eat breakfast, meet any officials if necessary, deal with the city business like criminals, immigrants and banking. Then I eat lunch, after I do some physical exercise. Mostly muscle training and yoga. If necessary, I deal with city matters or spend time relaxing alone and later eat dinner. All of my meal plans are well balanced and planned out."

Yuna spared a soft smile, "It's good to hear that you take good care of your body. The mind is another question though. I understand that you don't have much human contact and are quite stressed?"

"I don't need human contact. I don't long for it. My focus is solely on the city, surely it builds up stress but I do physical exercise for that."

"Any childhood traumas?"

"None."

"Any family?"

"I am an only child. Both of my parents are living inside the city, still alive. They're old now, but no health problems."

Yuna took a moment to collect her thoughts, "Any actions that could cause guilt to build up?"

That jab got a reaction out of him. Visibly he seemed unfazed by Yuna's seemingly innocent question, but a look flashed by his eyes that suggested otherwise. It took him a second longer to answer, and that one second convinced Yuna that the rumours of something shady going on in this mansion might be true.

"None. I live an honest life if possible."

"How old are you?"

"Thirty eight."

"Oh…" she mused quietly, "You look quite young." Yuna noted, trying to prompt another reaction from him. None came this time; he was mentally prepared.

"Was that medically relevant?"

"Not that relevant, it was simply interesting. You see, people are either younger than they look or they look exactly their age. It's rare to find someone who looks many years younger than he should."

"Was this info sufficient for you?" he questioned, this time eyeing her warily.

Yuna smiled and nodded, "Quite enough. One of my first suggestions before even physically examining you is to get some human contact. Humans are created to be social creatures, cramming that out completely is unhealthy. Any type of mental imbalance could manifest physically as well. I'm not saying that this is the entire case with you, but it's just a tip."

"…Much appreciated…" he said sternly.

Yuna smiled and rose to her feet, "Now if I may then I'd examine you physically."

Uematsu raised his hand and two guards walked over.

Yuna sighed and stretched out her arms to the side, allowing the guards' hands to roam free, trying to find any weapons. Naturally, they found none.

The only weapon Yuna had were medical needles used for acupuncture. They were too fine to cause any serious damage, unless pressed to the correct point at a correct angle.

Despite her thin layer of clothing, the guards didn't cut her any slack. It took them a good five minutes to be completely sure, though for Yuna it was borderline harassment already.

She knelt down next to Uematsu and gently took his hand.

"Just keep breathing normally like you do." She instructed and placed two fingers onto his wrist, measuring his pulse. Everything seemed normal.

"I'm not going to test your joints. Please tell me if anything is causing discomfort or pain," she said politely. Carefully and gently, she started testing his fingers, moving on to the wrist and then the elbows. From there it went up to his shoulders and neck. Then down the spine.

There Yuna had him lie on his back and she continued with the hips. Bending his leg from the knee and bringing it up to his stomach, then straightening it out again. All of this was done in complete silence, counting out an occasional crack from Uematsu's limbs. He didn't complain or say anything, simply stared at the ceiling.

Yuna sighed, "Please, Uematsu-sama, relax your muscles. I can tell that you're tense."

She continued, her movements were almost like a massage. Yuna rattled her brains to remember everything the medics taught her. First, you check the bones for any sore spots, then stretch the muscles. After that comes the chakra therapy.

"I'm asking once more, did any movement cause you any pain or discomfort? Anything abnormal at all?"

The man shook his head and Yuna nodded.

"I'm going to work on the muscles and pressure points on your back and torso, so I will need you to remove your shirt if possible," Yuna requested politely. Uematsu complied like an ideal patient, no questions asked.

"Lie on your stomach, please."

The overly-polite act was starting to annoy Yuna. Uematsu flipped his body over easily. He wasn't lying about the workouts, the man looked almost as bulky as Madara.

"This will possibly hurt a little," Yuna warned the man before starting to look for any strained muscles. Anything that was in a tense knot, she mercilessly massaged until it cleared out. To get to the chakra paths, the muscles around it had to be relaxed. Otherwise, Yuna might miss something or end up slicing his muscles.

She worked down from his shoulders to his lower back before massaging out all of the knots from his arms. Yuna found herself plotting his murder in her head. Together with Sayu, she could kill all the men in the room without making too much noise. Uematsu was right under her, defenceless. Snapping his neck wouldn't pose a problem for her. She could knock him out before if necessary.

Yuna forced those thoughts down and continued the painful muscle stretching, careful not to miss any. There was no time to screw up now.

Every now and then, a silent grunt escaped the man's lips when Yuna touched an especially sore spot.

It took her almost an hour to complete but finally Yuna could move on to checking his chakra pathways. If anything was blocked, she could find it. She felt like a real medic already!

Madara tried to hold back a snarl. Chinatsu, as beautiful as always, had decided to appear before him now when Yuna was away for a while.

"I'll move back to the Senju main house next week. Any objections?" She asked politely. Madara shook his head slowly, his arms crossed on his chest.

Chinatsu snorted and leaned back in her chair casually, "You're still as numb as you were before. Quite annoying to be honest. You don't have to worry about my brother harassing you. I told him already that the entire thing was my idea."

She still hadn't managed to draw a verbal response from the man.

Chinatsu frowned, but relaxed soon after, "You know that's kind of sad how you're juggling marriages like that. I wonder if they'll let Yuna marry you again…if you actually want to do so."

"Is there a real reason why you're here?" he demanded sharply. Chinatsu wasn't fazed by his tone. She was used to his mood swings already.

"Just making sure that you have no regrets. Because…you see, I actually started to like you over time. Quite pitiful that you didn't notice…or if you did than ignored it."

"Are you expecting me to drop on all four like an animal and beg for you to take me back? You must be out of your mind."

The corners of Chinatsu's mouth curled upwards and she sighed, "Yeah well not really actually. I'd be a long-term investment while Yuna's…temporary. The only reason you see anything in her is because her psychological state is so messed up that she'll cling to anyone who offers any type of kindness, also she has no family, no no-one so the odds of her betraying you are small. Yet…once all that mystery clears up and her mental state stabilises then… I wonder what you could see in her then."

Madara tried to bite back some very venomous insults that where on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he counts to ten in his head before continuing, "I appreciate your input on this situation, but you are sadly very mistaken and very off the mark about our private matters."

A pause.

"I don't have to marry her."

"You meant that you don't want to?"

"After two futile marriages I've realized that it's pointless to do so. I don't need some seal to prove our loyalty to each other. So please don't interfere with our affairs, it's not proper for a beautiful woman such as yourself."

Chinatsu snorted and rose sharply, "You're a fool, Uchiha Madara, and you're losing your grasp in this situation. The world is changing, the war is close to being over, meaning: you're out of a job. Your clan doesn't need some war hungry, narcissistic tyrant to lead them to their death."

Madara chuckled and shot her a blood-chilling glare, "Oh I wonder about that…What do you possibly know about loyalty? You, who tried to whore yourself into my clan just to crawl back again when things got tough."

Chinatsu's fist slammed to the table, "Enough!" she screamed.

This was the first time Madara had seen her political mask crack, but he didn't stop. Madara was never one to pull back, "What? Are you that annoyed because I completely nailed your personality?" he retorted mockingly. He caught her hand before she could land a proper slap on him.

She recovered instantly, twisting her hand from his grasp.

"For the sake of both of us, I'm going to leave now," Chinatsu said calmly, sweetly, as if nothing had happened.

"Did you honestly think that this talk was going to make me drop everything with Yuna and come back to you? Honestly, there's not that much to you."

He wanted to groan, that last remark was completely uncalled for.

She slammed the door and the office fell to a silence one more. Madara closed his eyes and sighed. Izuna either heard the entire argument, or he's going to hear the "spiced up" version of the argument. Either way Madara has to deal with his annoying jabs soon enough.

Thanks for all the reviews on the previous chapter!

I think that I'm a sadist for writing this last occurrence between Madara and Chinatsu, but I seriously wanted to crack her creepily perfect act for once.

See you soon~

Lilyholics