Their rooms were divided by a rice paper door but were a part of the same unit, the same tatami mats decorating the floors. She really didn't need to pay much attention to notice when he entered his room. He walked with heavy steps. It must have been a complicated reunion.

She knocked on the wooden panes that held the paper door together, asking for access.

"You may enter."

She slid the door open revealing her actual room and part of the bed that last night was in his room, with a massive white dire wolf resting peacefully.

The animal stared at him at full attention, upright ears and wide yellow eyes. The big wolf cocked his head, sniffed the air and then went back to sleep.

"He knows your smell, it was in the bed."

He looked her with apprehension.

"He will not attack you, I promise. I have trained him since he was a pup."

"Unless you order him to do so?" It was more a statement than a question.

"In theory, yes."

He settled for a sigh, "I don't know how I accepted this." He rubbed between his eyes. He had heard rumors of the big wolf that came with the coast people, but never thought it would be THAT big. But then he remembered that big cat Kokuyo mounted. Maybe she smuggled exotic animals too?

"Do you wish for some tea?" She brought the tea set, like a good wife would. But honestly, she had never used one of those before.

He nodded and began displaying maps and operative reports over his desk and the floor.

"The explosions (there had been two more displayed events and four explosives detected before they were lighted up in two weeks) left evidence that we need more protection. We assigned the design and supervision of a new perimeter wall to the Nara Clan. The Sarutobi and the Senju Clans will build it, followed by the addition of a patrol and public safety system operated by the Uchihas."

"Just the Uchihas? Isn't too much responsibility? People will blame them if something else happens."

"They assumed the risk it takes and it will incidentally appease the unilateral ego war they have with everyone else."

She shrugged, it wasn't a good idea but she didn't have the last word. Uchihas were too isolated and it seemed they didn't want to change that, just like Hyugas.

"In the explosion department, do you have any whispers?"

She nodded and went back to her room. She brought back a slender parchment sealed with an intricate set of threads. She pulled a particular one and the parchment unfolded itself. She placed it over the maps for him to read. It contained a map of Konoha and the nearest settlements drawn freehand, marked with points all interconnected by red and purple tinted lines. Each point held a paper pasted aside (copies of the message's content). Each point was the interception place and had a name.

"This attack was conceived by two clans to deceive attention and hit another target. We have some notes but they are encrypted. We haven't had luck in the interrogations either even with "persuasion". I'll fetch the messages so you can read them tomorrow. Maybe you know something we don't."

He nodded. The amount of information in the parchment was so precise it scared him. He was conscious, Hashirama had been warned of at least three of the four blocked explosions but didn't think she was already working on intel before the wedding.

"The rest of the information is in the reports and maps but surely you are aware of it. The Council wasted all of our time arguing about clan integration, power, and influence balance."

"I see. I'll begin studying the maps."

An hour later he finished his analysis on the parchment but she was nose deep in the reports. He was too hungry to wait for her and decided not to interrupt, he just left to the kitchen.

He felt like an ass for having judged her the way he did. Before he looked at the scar he was convinced her father had exaggerated her dotes in order to get her a good marriage. That she was just one of Kokuyo's informants and in resume, that she wouldn't be as useful as Hashirama assured. She had changed that in an hour and he kind of saw why Hashirama was so annoyed with him.

He filled his plate with today's menu and accepted the exported tea from a young maid some lord had gifted them on their wedding. It was actually tasty so he ordered some for his wife in consideration for her efforts. He should have ordered food too, but that would be weird for him to do. They were sleeping separately after all.

-o-Tobirama's room

Tobirama had left thirty minutes ago and Shimo scratched at the door lightly asking to be with her. She had denied him at the beginning, but his whining ended up convincing her.

A maid knocked on the door offering some tea Tobirama had recommended and she took it inside to drink it at the desk. She took caution so as the maid didn't see Shimobashira, she knew his size made the staff nervous.

When she placed the tray on the desk Shimo began snarling at it. She knew the meaning and her blood ran cold. She brought her poisons antiquary and made Shimo recognize it.

She heard the first scream. She needed to hurry up.

-o-

Hokage house: Dining room

Tobirama couldn't identify the kind of pepper they had used in the food but he was sweating after the fifth spoonful. It was delicious but the itching obliged him to drink some tea to placate it. When he heard the first scream he stood up quickly and the world flipped so brusquely he had to kneel. He heard a second and a third scream and then could no longer distinguish how many there were. His head throbbed and his stomach clenched furiously. He couldn't get enough air, and his vision blurred. The last thing he saw was a pair of white slippers and turquoise pools.

She had run into disaster when she entered the hall. She pushed through all who crossed her path, went through the kitchen and saw three dead maidens. Bloody pop-eyed, blood ran down from mouth to chest. She picked up a saucepan and filled it with fresh water, took a deep ladle and ran to the dining room across the kitchen.

He was so damned lucky. There, on his knees, one hand pressing against his stomach and the other on the floor for support. She threw chairs and tables aside and pushed him up onto her lap. He could barely breathe and his eyes were irritated for the effort. She threw his head back and forced a ladle full of water down his throat, then two, three until he was spitting it.

Then she squeezed his thick throat until he choked leaning him over so that he could empty his stomach on to the floor. She repeated it until all that came out of his mouth was water clean of bile.

Hashirama and Mito found her when she was trying to drag an unconscious Tobirama to his room. Fortunately they haven't had the tea yet. Hashirama was horrified and helped her with the dead weight so she could prepare a detoxifying brew, the sooner the better.

Hashirama already had disrobed and tugged Tobirama on the double sized bed when she arrived, Shimo patiently seated, waiting for her. She gave the vessel to Hashirama and he made his brother swallow the whole content with gentleness and affection rarely seen in a man.

Finally, she exhaled the air she was holding back, she had done everything she could, from now on it would depend on Tobirama's will to live.

-o-

It had been a tragedy, twenty three deaths, all staff members. The tea was identified as a rare flower very difficult to find and harvest for the toxicity it holds. It had been almost eradicated from the lands… almost.

She knew this was the real blow. That the explosion authors had planned this. They had targeted Tobirama under her nose. Little did she know that it was just the tip of something far too big for her alone.

High fever and malnourishment threatened to kill Tobirama. The poison had been poured almost entirely out, but what little he metabolized was tearing him inside. the fever testified of the controlled infection and each passing day he seemed paler, if it could be possible for him, indicative of internal bleeding.

At the second day she was thinking hard about what she would do. She felt offended because this happened on her watch, but on the other hand, if Tobirama died she would be free. As a widow she had the right to stay under his brother wing, allowing her to continue the intel labor in the shadows as Kokuyo without Tobirama's constant pressure and wife labor on the horizon.

Tobirama hadn't been so bad, but they had been married just two days before this, she didn't believe she knewn him truly… but he let her be. She had thought he would force himself on her but was wrong. Apparently he wanted the same peace she did.

She was a woman after all, and would have to live forever in a man's shadow. It was her father's before. Now, it was only logical to be Tobirama's.

At the end, she convinced herself to put more effort into Tobirama's safety. He was a brilliant man and one of the best warriors in the alliance. He didn't deserve this pathetic death. Besides, she had a reputation as a healer and had witnessed a great one, one time, when an old healer from the mountain region healed a man with a similar prognosis. She had watched him be completely dedicated to the patient for three weeks. She could do that for him, for her family's honor. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her father.

And so she began.

She cleaned him each day in the morning so his pores would be free of impurities and toxins. She made liquid protein concentrates instead just the chicken soup Sonja was giving him and supplied him progressively with water so that he could have strength to fight back the fever. She changed the wet wipes on his forehead and body, and talked to him while in his state of unconsciousness and made sure he had ocular reactions. She moved his body so he wouldn't develop bedsores, massaged his body and moved his limbs so his muscles and nerves didn't suffer too much from inactivity.

Hashirama kept giving him the brew every day and was pleasantly surprised with her changed attitude towards his brother. The first day she had only looked from afar as he and Sonja took care of him. Something had changed and she began to make all these things not even old Sonja knew about. And she stayed the rest of the month by his side until he opened his eyes and she was the first thing he saw.

-o-

When he woke up it was like a mountain had buried him. He felt dizzy and weak, his tongue thick, but he was alive. He remembered it all in a quick flashback. He heard a noise in the room and saw the same turquoise pools he burned into his mind when he thought he would die.

And that was all he needed… A life debt to Kokuyo.

He had annoying mixed feeling about this woman and his head hurt too much to think about it. He needed a bath with urgency. And water, lots of water.

He let out a pained grunt when she moved his head in order to provide him with water and soon he was holding the pot himself, drinking in spurts.

"You shouldn't load your stomach too much, you have been eating liquid slurry for a month."

And she was right, he was already full. She at looked at him in the same way she did before this- with a blank stare. He wanted to know everything about what happened, but at the moment he could just articulate one word: "Bath."

She didn't need to hear it twice. She called a maid and rose up towards the room behind him. He could hear water falling and began to move towards that direction. He could barely sustain himself so he practically crawled to the door frame using the wall for support.

"What are you doing? You can't walk!" She admonished him, then threw the last bucket of water and dismissed the maiden on her way to him.

"Come, I will help you." She put one arm around his waist and with the other took his arm and pulled it over her shoulders securing it in place and began to walk to the bath.

He was completely taken aback with her sudden helpfulness and it wasn't like he could have denied her help or show resistance.

She entered the bath with him, sat him down and began to remove his robe. He felt incredibly stupid, he couldn't even match her hand's speed. It all moved too quick, he only managed to mumble a weak "no" because he couldn't even elaborate his thoughts into words just for her to take his arms and softly let them fall at his sides.

"It will be alright. I've been bathing you the whole month." – That eliminated the word dignity from his vocabulary, but he was so numb he almost didn't care and as she began the bathing drowsiness overtook his senses. He just looked at her like a zombie, enjoying the attention. When she reached his hair he actually fell asleep again, this time from relaxation, not illness. He woke up when she spoke again. "Tobirama, can you hear me? I need you to help me. You must try to get up." He had a small towel over his head and a bath towel was on her shoulder waiting for him to get out of the water. Slowly he summoned force, stumbled into her but reached the edge and climbed the small steps of the built-in tub, always with her support. She wrapped him in the bath towel and guided him to the double bed. She motioned for him to sit, and began to dry his hair like his mother did when he was a child, before she died in her fourth labor when he was six.

Then she dried his torso and arms patiently and asked him to lay back so she could dry his lower body. Initially he just watched the floor with a zombie expression waiting for his body to return to 'normality.' It bashed him that even as numbed and weakened as he was, his body reacted so vividly to her touch and ministrations. It had been a clinical touch and treatment. Maybe it was true he had been neglecting his "needs" like Hashirama told him…

Her monotonal voice interrupted his thoughts. "Tobirama, it's normal for your body to react like that. You have been prostrate for a month without sexual release and also, an erection is produced as a basic reflex when you are in vital danger and your mind faces the last chance of propagate your blood continuity."

Her explanation made it all worse in some wicked way, making him more conscious of his state and feeling the heat spread down his body, descending right to his crotch, making it twitch.

Well if she wasn't annoyed neither would he be. With that thought he leaned back and focused on the ceiling.

-o-

It was kind of sad to see him like that. This man was a proud creature and the poison had reduced him to a mumbling zombie.

At the beginning of the month when he first fell in bed, she allowed herself to admire his body while she bathed him. He was a beautiful specimen (anatomically speaking), she had to admit it (at least to herself). In part it had motivated her when she started massaging and moving his limbs, to reduce the muscle mass loss and it had worked in some degree, he could be a lot worse after a month of prostration. But to see his zombie gaze, numbness and now his complete submission to her was… shocking.

She had passed the last month looking at every detail of him since she was all day by his side and left only to bathe and do the nature calls.

She memorized his straight nose, his short white eyelashes and thin lips, the strong angular jaw that gave him a manly air in contrast with his light features which made him look more fragile than his brother. The way his Adam's apple looked, how light the skin in his nipples was. How she could count his serratus on sight and follow the fine path of equally white hairs that got a shadow darker at the point where the oblique wanted to meet each other, and then she found herself too interested in him…

She seethed her displeasure tucking him rudely into bed again, that way she could go away and grab some food. She was being dazed under the shadow of the unknown, she shouldn't be admiring him in that way.

She didn't care about being in her father's shadow but this man… He had done nothing for her except giving her a scar that still had a dull ache. He didn't deserve her care.

-o-