Umekiyo glanced outside from her spot scrubbing the floors, her mind wandering, and not for the first time, to the Senju lord.
She knew he was more than capable of handling himself at full strength, but right now, at least last she saw him, she could still overpower him.
A week ago now.
"Umekiyo!"
She let out a breath and turned to see her aunt staring down at her with a frown as she sighed, "Since it was Madara-dono's suggestion, we shall see how well you are doing now. I am need of herbs from the forest and since I believe you know it far better than any other, I am willing to send you. But no more than two hours."
Umekiyo couldn't believe her luck as she nodded at the woman who gave her a small torn parchment with the list on it, "Go get yourself food before you depart."
She didn't need to be told twice as she sprang to her feet, thigh still stiff, and hurried herself to first grab her satchel and change her clothes and then to the kitchens where she stuffed as much food as she knew she could get away with into her bag.
Even raw meat in a wrapped parcel that she snuck.
She then hurried back to her aunt to let her know she was off and then jumped into a tree and was off in the blink of an eye.
Umekiyo knew someone was following her, though. And touched down to the ground with an amused smirk as she went to the river and filled her bamboo shoot with water. What to do with the hounds?
She jumped back into the trees as she pulled out the list and looked it over without stopping. She landed on the water as she continued her way and then let out a breath and picked up her pace.
The rain a blessing as she silently laughed and pushed herself faster.
Soon she ended up under a bowed tree, needing to take in deep breaths that almost hurt as water dripped down her soaked body. Two hours should be amended due to obvious circumstances. She thought and then stood and rushed to the left.
She knew exactly where she was going and not even ten minutes later, she ended up at the alcove and placed a small quickly scribbled out thin piece of paper on the outside and then infused her chakra to it.
She stepped through the barrier and quickly went into the cave.
She frowned at the fact that it was cold and quickly started the fire.
She then ran to the huddled up form in the furthest corner and got to her knees and placed her wet hand to his forehead.
She relaxed immediately at the fact that he wasn't running a fever and then stood again and pulled out the assorted foods she'd grabbed.
She so very quickly sat everything aside as she shamelessly stripped of all her clothes and hung them about the fire. Her hair, she tied up with the ribbon from her neck before she sat in to start him as much food as she could.
And it was when she could no longer stand the cold on her bare skin that she stole one of the kimono he'd commandeered since he was now warmed by the heat of the fire.
She tied it securely and judged that she had another hour, technically, in which her aunt wanted her home, but she hadn't been able to collect the herbs due to the rain and she wondered if they'd be more upset with her if she ventured back out in this weather.
Especially since she could hear thunder in the distance.
She glanced over to the sleeping Senju, noting that not for the first time, he seemed rather restless in his sleep.
I wonder if he's even aware. Perhaps he'd be less grumpy on a good night's sleep. She thought with some mirth since she found herself above him again with itching fingers.
And so she sat down and gently and so very carefully, she raised his head and maneuvered her knees before she laid him back down onto her legs and almost tenderly ran her fingers through his white hair.
And she noted, much to her calm humor, that he seemed to relax as a breath sighed out.
She smiled as she traced his red tattoos for the first time in months, not unaware of her strange obsession with his physical features.
Or constant, almost hypnotic need to just tou-
She stilled just slightly when her wrist was stopped by a much larger hand and her eyes caught sight of staring red.
She blinked at him and gave a small smile she knew would surely bother him to no end.
His eyes narrowed on her as his mouth formed a frown, "Uchiha…"
That is merely a portion of who I am, but yes.
He let out a deep breath and released her arm as he stiffly sat up.
She felt a frown tug at the corners of her lips and jabbed his side.
He may have hissed in pain, but his reaction was more than just that as he turned on instinct to attack.
She was already rummaging, though, through her bag that she had left by the fire and after stirring the food she'd put on, she knelt in front of him with a mortar and pestle as she crunched up something.
He suppressed the growl and kept the insults down, just barely, as he scowled at her as she sat back down.
And then she was mixing whatever she'd ground up into a mess of some sort of salve and then pointedly looked to him.
He grit his teeth and and motioned his hand to his side, giving her invitation to tend to his side. She produced a kunai and expertly sliced through the older bandages and shot a glare up at him at after she saw the wound.
Red and slightly infectious.
She let out a deep and bracing breath as she closed her eyes and went back to her bag before she went to one of her crates and pulled out something to help relieve the pain.
He watched her silently and then spoke, "It's merely still healing. I doubt there's need for that."
But the look she gave him had him stiffening. He knew it'd been in more pain, but he'd chalked it up to her not being around to smear whatever concoctions she had into it and whatever she might have snuck into his food to dull the pain.
He'd cleaned it as best he could considering he couldn't see it all that well with where it was and chalked up the itching to it healing over better.
Apparently he was off base and cursed himself as he maneuvered the haori she'd bought him some time ago off.
For more than one reason, too, as he kept his eyes on the fire ahead as she she cleaned the wound and poured something on him that caused him to tense as searing burning pain shot from the wound area.
She gave what he could guess was an annoyed breath as she pulled her kunai up again and dipped some of that liquid onto it before she shot him another look.
Through gritted teeth, he could only nod at her and so she merely moved her eyes back to the wound and took in a steadying breath as she placed a small hand just above the wound while she slowly and very carefully reopened the fucking wound.
Senju Tobirama cursed everything in that moment, even after she pushed an empty bucket next to him to allow the blood to drain into it.
She then ripped the sleeve of the kimono she was in and then ripped it again, one for each hand, as she placed her hands back on either side of what he suspected was the incision and pushed just slightly.
He breathed deeply in through his nose as he reminded himself that this Uchiha was trying to help him. And that this was all necessary.
But it was when he felt her clothed finger inside that his sight went black and he knew for fact that if it weren't for all his training and endurance and being a damned Senju that he might very well have lost consciousness.
He breathed and just concentrated on that instead.
Especially after he caught sight of the glint of something that looked oddly thin and needle like and it felt like she'd brought fire closer somehow…
And felt it scraping.
Burning.
He re-focused on his breathing and pushed his chakra out and let nothing else in as he kept track of the two that were already back to the compound.
And the literally storming weather outside.
What seemed hours and she finally sat back from him and tossed the kunai and senbon into the water, immediately turning it red, and stood, ripping off another portion of the kimono sleeve as she walked to the entrance and disappeared from sight only to return seconds later with hands clean and another bucket of water.
She knelt back next to him and meticulously cleaned the wound before she slapped on the salve.
Immediately relief flooded his system after instant coldness.
He embraced the numbness that seemed to have occurred, too. And knew she placed it on now due to the fact that it no doubt needed to sit some time to properly settle, anyway.
And as he relished the numbing and relief, she had shoved a plate of food at him and so he took it gingerly, not daring to move too much.
Everything was overdone, but that hardly made it inedible. He was sure they'd both had worse.
He was about to say something when she moved to check her clothes and he finally realized she was wearing a kimono he pulled to keep warm with.
And then she pulled on the tie in one swift motion and he watched in some astonishment and disbelief as the cloth fluttered to the cavern floor, leaving her in completely bare and exposed.
But he recovered quickly enough when his mind focused on what his eyes were actually seeing.
Her entire back, once smooth and unblemished, looked now as if an artist took to a canvas with paint, but that paint was nothing but scars.
They adorned almost every centimeter of flesh from under her shoulders in smaller, more fine ones to what could only be lashings of horsehair whips to bamboo, among others, down to her backside where he could at least make out what was once burnt flesh in the form of a jagged slash.
There were far too many, though, for him to even take in on one look.
But what bothered him most was the freshest one still healing. He didn't bother averting his gaze as she dressed, slowing only when she pulled on her shorts over her thigh.
She tied off her sleeveless haori and picked up her bowl again only to pace and eat at the same time.
He followed suit and ate at a more controlled rate than she.
And not long, after she stuffed her mouth of the last bite, anyway, she was back at his wound, diligently inspecting it, even going so far as to use her Sharingan.
He refrained from pointing out that he doubted she could find something without a chakra signature, but she moved back and pulled out a needle and thread of some sort to start sewing him back up.
He'd almost forgot that she hadn't resealed the wound.
"How are you so knowledgeable in the medical field?" He decided to ask.
She paused a moment and looked up to him, eyes free of her kekkai genkai as she studied him and then her free hand traced a question of her own.
How are you always able to know when an Uchiha is nearby?
He looked to the wall nearest his left with a downturn of his mouth, refusing to answer now that he finally concluded and accepted that he could no longer underestimate her as easily as he had been due to her strange kindness and more gentle nature.
Not after he'd seen the scars that could only be from torture, her shameless willingness to strip so effortlessly in his presence which he could only conclude to her maidenhood being far from intact and perhaps not since her first bleed, her obvious intelligence and perceptiveness, and then her far from average medical knowledge.
She was a goddamned kunoichi and he needed to remember that.
As he didn't answer her, she didn't reply back to him, either, and he watched as she took his empty dishware and looked outside just as a loud thunderclap sounded.
She glanced to him and then sat his plate aside.
He shifted so that his back was against the cool stone behind him and leaned his head back as well and closed his eyes tiredly.
He cracked an eye open though, when he heard something clanking.
She had collected water, apparently, from the downpour, and was setting the pot in it's normal spot above the small pit.
And then she did a small Katon: Gakakyu no Jutsu underneath it and watched as flames immediately erupted on the gathered sticks.
She then pulled her bag to her person again and pulled out writing utensils and what he was assuming a blank scroll.
He closed his eyes again as he let out another deep breath.
There was a small touch to his shoulder and his eyes snapped open, ready to attack until first, his side practically screamed in agony at the slight movement and two, he realized it was just the woman calmly in front of him.
She shifted so that she was on her knees in front of him and held the steaming teacup towards his mouth, seeming to silently ask if he would rather she tilt the cup for him.
He gritted his teeth at that and carefully grabbed it and took a sip without assistance.
She watched him and then produced the scroll he'd seen her write in and motion at it with her other hand and he caught sight of his name in perfect penmanship.
He sipped the tea again as a loud boom sounded practically above them and asked, "Are you sleeping here tonight?"
She frowned slightly as her eyes looked upwards, expression thoughtful before she looked back to him and let her eyes rove down to his side before she met his narrowed eyes and nodded her confirmation.
He decided to speak again, "If I need make myself scarce again, Uchiha, then do not doubt I will."
She pursed her lips at that, but gave a tight nod of understanding regardless.
And so he sipped the tea in silence as she placed the scroll on his thigh and then, almost hesitantly, her finger to his exposed pectoral and traced out something.
He watched her eyes stay determinedly on his skin as she wrote.
For that night, I do thank you.
He looked from her face to the fire, "Would you still thank me if it was I who had killed him?"
She tensed and he felt her nails dig in suddenly and chanced a glance to see a tense and sad look on her features before she met his gaze and offered him a small smile before she looked to her hand still touching him.
Her response made him tense in turn. Even should it be my life you one day take, I will not regret saving you.
He grabbed at her retreating wrist, forcing their faces to be not centimeters apart as his red eyes searched her onyx with an almost feverish need to understand as he growled it out again.
"Why did you save me, Uchiha?"
She blinked at him, her small head tilted then to the side as she lifted her free hand to his cheek and then closed her eyes as she seemed to sigh in resignation.
Her forehead against his lips he didn't expect and only further caused him to tense as he felt her breathing reach just under his jawline, on his neck.
A moment later she moved her hand from his cheek and he realized as she traced against his flesh that she was ambidextrous.
I refuse to allow myself to be part of this constant, seemingly unending cycle of hatred. If I had let you die, or killed you, what good would have sprout from such an act? Your clan would only have another reason to continue fighting mine. And mine would only continue to let hatred and pride blind them. It can't end if you die now and it wouldn't have a chance if I had announced your presence to my clan and yours would never have believed me.
He could feel his heart pounding as his brain connected what she was saying to reality. Hashirama had more than made it known his wish and desire for peace, despite their father's obvious disagreement and disapproval and he still stood by his words from his youth that the adults involved should just make a pact if they ever hope to stop the fighting.
And now here was an Uchiha as peace-loving as his brother and as pragmatic as he.
He only regretted that it was a female Uchiha merely due to the simple fact that it would have made things far less complicated and far more easier to predict.
She moved finally and met his gaze with her own as if asking him, 'happy now?'.
So he let it be and so she seemed satisfied with whatever she saw in his eyes as she moved out of his bubble of space and left him to go back to the fire where she huddled closer.
He felt another question burning the tip of his tongue, but decided to let it simmer as he wasn't sure if he'd want to know the answer right now.
Author's Note:
Yes, a twofer. I felt bad for not uploading before now due to writer's block. I really do apologize for that. Either way, stay safe, hope you all at least enjoy something about this story so far. If you do, if you don't, don't be shy about comments. (As long as you're civil about it, of course)
I swear I only bring it up so often because I like feedback. It's not, by any means, an obligation.
And feel free to also ask questions, if you have them.
P.S. I forgot to make it more obvious, but the 'Obasan' in the last chapter was Mugetsu-san. And Obasan as in 'Aunt', not Obaasan for 'Grandmother'.
