"Ow…" Sumi whispered for about tenth time, while Mego was doing her hair. She knew all too well how uncomfortable all the pins and ornaments felt until one got used to them.

"Just a little bit longer, I have another braid to make." She reassured, smiling at her friend who was on the edge of her seat the whole time, her worried expression reflecting in the mirror on the table.

"You must be tired, lady?"

"No, not at all." Mego smiled. This was a big change, indeed. Usually, it was Sumi who did her hair and, well, everything else, but she wanted to help her friend get ready for the day. She'd get a handmaiden over at the Senju side – here, Mego would take care of her. They had maybe a couple of weeks left to spend together as they always had.

Since she was Senju Tobirama's fiancé, she was already expected to present and dress herself differently, and accept more noble duties. There was still a lot of work left to do until both clans would live together, and she foolishly hoped that would maybe mean Sumi would have to stay home, with her, for a while longer. Men had only started to build on the site that would be their village. During the past months there were some issues in obtaining the piece of land large enough for all of them.

"So… Are you going to be alright? When I leave, I mean." Sumi finally asked. The two of them had sort of avoided to talk about that. Mego wasn't sure of Sumi's reasons, but she didn't want to make the girl feel guilty for leaving. Her friend should get to enjoy this opportunity she was lucky to get.

"Of course." She laughed the question off. "I will miss you, but you're not going far."

That was, clearly, a big fat lie. She was panicking and loathed both the idea of being alone and taking in a new handmaiden. She wouldn't burden the bride-to-be with that, however.

"And you don't have to call me lady, now." Truth is, if it was up to her, Sumi would never have had to call her lady, but her mother insisted. "You are now, yourself, a lady."

"I know, I'm just…" Sumi sighed. "This is all so strange."

"It is, truly. But it's so romantic!" She beamed, accidentally tugging too hard while braiding, getting another sound of protest from her friend. "Sorry!" She was quick to continue. "He had only seen you once and he asked for your hand! That's so sweet. A fine tale to tell your children, about your encounter in the prison, and how you fed him, and he asked for your hand upon getting released—"

"They came here to arrange a marriage between his sister and Madara. It's pretty obvious he asked for me to get in the way of that." Sumi reasoned calmly.

"Well, you can embellish a little, you're not going to tell them such dull story!" Mego pouted. "Here, it's all done." She stepped away and let Sumi examine herself in the mirror. "You look beautiful."

….

"It will take a while to get used to having them as neighbors." Tajima said, as if he could read Madara's own thoughts. As they were seeing the Senju off, he only felt just how at ease he was now that they were finally leaving.

Not to say he was having any doubts about wanting to build a home with them, but it was all just too fresh. It's only been a few months since Tobirama killed Izuna, on that day they were all trying very, very hard to kill each other. And these past few days they sipped tea, chatted and slept under the same roof, as if they hadn't done all those horrible things to one another.

"We have a little less than one month from now to prepare that girl for her duties. Make sure she knows how important her place is." His father gestured, absently looking at the cloudy blue sky. Summer was slow, but it was coming.

Truly, they had to turn a handmaiden into an ambassador. Now that he started thinking about that, a whole new set of issues were raised. Oh, gods. To make matters worse, Sumi had no backbone. From Madara's experience, she'd start crying if you looked at her the wrong way.

I can try. He thought in response, not feeling very optimistic.

He didn't doubt that she'd behave, or even that she would perform as a wife, just that she might be too… meek, to put it nicely. And to put it less nicely, bland, dull, frightened and easy to take advantage of.

In these sorts of political arrangements, the woman had to stand her ground more than the man. She's the one being taken to live among strangers – even worse, recent enemies. If Tobirama was to mistreat Sumi, that meant his clan could piss all over the Uchiha. And gods know how much that bastard hated them.

….

"Brother in law?" Mego called out, when she answered the door of her bedroom.

"I need to speak to Sumi."

The handmaiden stood up from her comfy position on a cushion, evidently uneasy, fixing her dress that got wrinkled from lying down in it.

"Could you leave us, Mego?"

His sister in law exchanged a look with Sumi, but she nodded understandingly and left the room.

"My lord…" The girl spoke, wanting to know what he came for.

"I just wanted to make sure you understand what this marriage you'll join means. For all of us."

"I do. I will try my best to obey them a—"

"You see, that's exactly what we don't want, Sumi." Madara approached her. "I'm not saying be disobedient for no reason. But don't let anyone bully you."

She said nothing, instead just looking at him straight in the eyes, with a gaze that made Madara think she may have some backbone, after all. As if she wanted to say "You're the one to talk". He cleared his throat. Sure, he wasn't nicest to her, but everything she did pissed him off, frankly. He didn't like weaklings.

"You're representing our clan, now. If anyone should even try to mistreat you, go to Hashirama immediately. He'll be your brother in law. Or… if you'd prefer… come talk to me." He had to scowl at himself upon saying that, and the girl laughed at his reaction.

"I think we both know I won't come to talk to you."

He had to return a smile.

"That's true. However…" He had to clear his throat again, to speak seriously. "In this case, we are on the same side. I wanted you to know that you'll have my protection, should you need it, of course."

She nodded, looking at the floor. "Thank you."

"Well…" He turned to leave. He still had some work to do for the day, train and later, in the evening, go meet with Hisa. Since his household had guests over, for several days they weren't able to see each other.

"My lord?" He stopped, and looked at Sumi when she called him.

"Yes?"

"Take care of Mego. Don't let her be lonely."

He had to smile again, and gave a nod in agreement. The mutual love for his sweet sister in law was another common ground Sumi and he shared.

"I will."

She was meek, but she wasn't so bad, that Sumi, he thought.

….

"So, tell me about Uchiha Sumi, brother." Hashirama casually said, as he and Tobirama walked down a dirt path that would take them home. Another few hours and they would arrive. Their father already left days ago, as they had been away from home for quite a while.

The younger of the two suppressed a sigh. He knew Hashirama would eventually have to ask. At least he didn't appear as angry anymore, although that still didn't mean Tobirama wouldn't get his butt kicked when they trained again.

"She came to the prison a few times…" He began with a lie, but it did have sprinkles of truth in it. "First time, accidentally, her dog ran away and started eating my food." A little unexpected gladness snuck into his voice once he started telling the honest part. "She was in the market, and shared some of her own food with me then, to compensate."

"Seems to me she shared more than that to compensate." Hashirama mocked, earning himself a gasp from Tobirama.

"Brother!"

"I'm just saying!" The older man laughed, putting his hands up in defense. "You did ask her to marry you, people don't usually do that just because someone shares a little food with them."

"When you're chained and starved, it's not little."

"Anyway… What I don't understand is why you never brought her up. It's been months since you met her."

Tobirama's own saliva felt uneasy in his throat when he swallowed. That was a question he really couldn't answer without the other calling bullshit. No lie was that good. And Hashirama wasn't stupid, to believe something mediocre. Even when he did act ignorant, it was very much intentional.

"She's an Uchiha. At the time, treaty wasn't even in the works." He said slowly. Alright, he thought, that made sense.

"What about when we established there would be a treaty? Or, when I revealed you my plans with Yuna? That was the perfect time to bring up the Uchiha girl."

"I…"

"And why didn't she react at all when she saw you in their house?" Hashirama's questions came like precisely thrown kunai, and he felt like a training dummy about to have its straw spilled everywhere.

"I was in a dark cell, dirty. She probably couldn't even tell it was me."

"Or was it that you completely forgot about her and in the last moment thought you could use her to ruin the arrangement I already made?" At that point, they had both stopped walking, facing each other. Tobirama's mind had been racing for long enough, desperately trying to come up with sensible lies, and at last… He gave up. He made blatant eye contact with Hashirama.

"Yes, that's exactly what it was! You knew I didn't agree with giving Yuna to them! And she, poor thing, had agreed only because you and father ganged up on her. Even your beloved Madara wasn't happy with your arrangement!"

Small flock of sparrows hastily flew away from a nearby tree because of his yelling. He inhaled a long breath of air upon finishing. "That's all I had to say." He added, and then continued walking.

"Why wouldn't Madara be happy?"

Sure, Tobirama thought, feeling as his anger came back all at once, that's what matters most here. He stopped to stand still, once again.

"Oh, I don't know! Perhaps he didn't plan to be forced into a marriage, perhaps he has a woman already, or maybe he just doesn't want to fuck little girls, for gods' sake!"

"I wasn't expecting them to breed immediately, Tobirama, I'm not a madman!"

"It doesn't matter what you were expecting! You were giving her to him, he could do anything!"

Hashirama sighed, combing his fingers through his long hair to calm down. "Alright, alright. I understand. You're right." He whispered, finally. A wave of relief came over Tobirama, and he nodded. "I was too eager with it, but… I never would have made any such arrangements if I thought Madara would be anything but good to Yuna. She's my sister too! I love her no less than you do."

"It doesn't matter now, does it? Let's just go home."

So, they did, in silence. Neither of them spoke 'till they reached their camp.