Hi everyone...

So I know this is late, but I got some really bad news Thursday, and it's kept me distracted.

The tumors that I thought had been dealt with and were no longer to be worried about have gotten bigger, the largest by over a centimeter since I was diagnosed. Approximately, it has grown 0.2cm per week so far. I'm not sure if that's fast or not, but the fact that it's growing at all is worrying.

Basically, for those of you who don't know, when I last saw the doctor he thought it was due to long-term use of birth control (apparently too much estrogen can cause this type of situation, or so we thought at the time). He did a colonoscopy/endoscopy to check for polyps and make sure it wasn't stomach or colon cancer, which it wasn't. So he recommended that I go on a birth control with lesser amounts of estrogen (because of a hormone imbalance, I can't go completely off birth control without risking serious mental side effects). So I went from 80mg of estrogen to 10mg of estrogen for the last month. Despite this, my tumors have continued to grow at what I'm worried is not a very slow rate. (If any of you know anything about the rate of benign tumors growing vs. malignant tumors growing, please leave a signed review so I can respond or PM me.) Overall, though, the tumors theoretically should not have been growing at all if the cause was, in fact, the birth control.

So yeah. I'm stressed and I'm worried, although I vacillate between pissed off and numb. I'm trying not to jump the gun, but it's kind of hard not to. Also, school started, and I have to keep up with that, so overall I'm just not in a great place right now. Also, I sprained my ankle, so I'm just basically a big bag of grump. :(

Anyways, here's your chapter. See you in two weeks! (I hope.)

6.

The next Monday after she had been hired, Sakura finally met the two other men who headed Senju & Uchiha: Senju Hashirama and his younger brother, Tobirama.

She had felt rather confident that morning, as this Monday heralded a first week completed working under Madara. She had already marked her calendar in monthly increments for the duration of her time at Senju & Uchiha, along with rewards for each month endured. However, she was feeling generous to herself today and had bought herself a nice hazelnut mocha from the coffee shop Madara had originally sent her to for his morning beverages. Of course, there was a coffee and tea stand just outside the office in the hall, but Madara had apparently deemed himself too good for it, even though the brands of coffees and teas that Hashirama supplied were still fairly upscale. Sakura made sure to pick up Madara's coffee on her way, and it was carried carefully in her left hand. For the first time, however, she had also bought a coffee of her own at the shop.

She had fallen into something of a routine with her boss. He had arranged for her to take a class to certify her as a notary, which had taken up the majority of her Saturday the previous weekend, and now she was as qualified as an upper high school student could be to do her job. Most of what she did was administrative work, which was more tedious than difficult. Although the job required lots of interaction with Madara, it never really allowed for idle chitchat or any drawn-out conversations that were not work-related, so she made sure to wield that weapon as skillfully and as frequently as possible.

He often tried to drag her into conversations, mostly about menial things, but also occasionally about politics or school. Once, he had even asked something personal—specifically, did she have a boyfriend? She was able to dodge the questions almost every time, citing work as her excuse. The only time it had failed was when he asked her about her relationship status; there had been a hard glint in his eyes when he looked at her and in an instinctual response, she had become truly frightened. Unfortunately, in her fear she had forgotten to lie and instead told him that no, she did not have a boyfriend. The satisfaction evident on his face at her answer had made her stomach twist and she had hastily excused herself, berating herself the whole way to her desk. If he thought she had a boyfriend, he was less likely to try and make an advance on her—or so she hoped. Nevertheless, it was a lost cause now.

She was learning about him, though, even despite their scant personal interaction. She had found that he was a very intense man, very hardheaded and stubborn when it came to achieving or getting what he wanted. The way he could refuse to take no for an answer sometimes frightened her, especially because he was certainly powerful enough to make others acquiesce to his wants. He was also detail-oriented and meticulous, and that alone made it clear why he was able to win as many cases as he did. Nothing went unnoticed by him.

He was also undoubtedly a schemer. He always had a plan mapped out, whether in his head or otherwise, that would lead him to getting what he wanted. These were all traits that were certainly admirable in his profession, but they also left her faintly unsettled. When using his skills the way he was supposed to, she imagined it was very lucrative for the firm. However, if he were to use them for something less desirable, or even illegal, Sakura had a bad feeling that it could be disastrous. She could only be glad that he was on the right side of the law.

She was also trying to get a handle on what he was after when it came to her. Other than the question regarding her relationship status and the way he had trapped her in this job, he hadn't really shown much of the womanizer she had heard and read about. He hadn't attempted anything at all—he hadn't tried to grope her or manhandle her in any way, nor had he made any lascivious or inappropriate comments. Occasionally she would feel his gaze linger on her, but that in itself was harmless. By no means was she lowering her guard, but she found herself confused. His intentions didn't seem to be what she had initially thought they were, even if she couldn't think of any other reason he would have done what he had to trap her in this job.

Then again, she mused as she stepped into the empty elevator and pressed the button for the twelfth floor, it had only been a week. He could be trying to lure her into a false sense of security.

Just when as the doors were closing, a very harried man with long brown hair, tan skin, and sparkling brown eyes dove for them. Sakura gasped, almost spilling the coffees, as he managed to slip into the elevator before the doors closed on him.

Reigning in her shock, she asked politely, "What floor?"

The man glanced at the buttons and frowned speculatively. "Twelve…that's odd. Who're you, again?"

Sakura smiled at him, and it was probably the first genuine smile she had ever had in this building. "Haruno Sakura," she said with a bow, which was somewhat awkward due to the coffees in her hand. It wasn't hard to realize that she was in the presence of one of Madara's colleagues. "And you are…?"

"Senju Hashirama," the man replied, bowing in return. "Who are you working for? I wasn't aware that anybody had hired a personal assistant."

Sakura was surprised for a moment, then realized that the fact that she was carrying coffee and was obviously too young to have a law degree or be a paralegal made her position clear. She recovered quickly, but not so quickly as to forget to call Madara his formal title. "I work for Uchiha-sama," she said reservedly.

"Huh. I'm surprised he didn't tell me," Hashirama said, gazing at the ceiling thoughtfully. He then looked at her appraisingly. "How old are you?"

She couldn't help the flush of her cheeks. "I'm twenty," she replied, a little uncomfortable at his perceptiveness. "It's-it's an odd arrangement."

She would have gladly ranted to Hashirama about the injustice of her situation and how she didn't want to be there at all, but she was also aware that Madara would be upset with her if she revealed what he had done. While it would normally be in her best interests, she was stuck with Madara and she was certain that no amount of finagling by a disapproving colleague would be able to change her situation—and that was assuming that Hashirama would be bothered by what was going on at all.

"Shouldn't you be in school, though?" he asked, keeping up the perceptiveness she wanted to go away.

Sakura made sure to keep eye contact to hide her lie and said, "It's all been worked out. He was very…helpful."

'Helpful' wasn't exactly the term she would have used, but it wouldn't look good on her to badmouth her employer.

Hashirama suddenly shrugged and then grinned brightly at her. "Well, Haruno-san, it's very nice to meet you. I'm glad he's got someone looking out for him—I know he's a bit grouchy, but overall he's a good person. He wouldn't be my best friend if he wasn't."

Sakura highly doubted that Madara was a good person, but if Hashirama claimed Madara was his best friend, then he obviously knew him better than she did. Nonetheless, she was very glad now that she hadn't said anything against Madara—it would have been very bad form to insult him behind his back, and to his best friend no less.

"Yeah," she replied weakly, and thankfully they arrived at the twelfth floor just then.

Hashirama politely allowed her to exit the elevator first before following her. "Oh, you know what? You should meet my brother, Tobirama. He'll be interested to meet our floor's newest occupant."

"Oh, um…"

"Don't worry, it won't take more than a minute or two. Madara can't be that desperate for his coffee, now can he?"

However, Sakura had the thought that Madara wouldn't be too pleased with a cold beverage, so she said, "Let me give it to him first."

Hashirama nodded. "Sure thing." She had apparently reminded him that he wanted one as well because he made his way over to the coffee stand.

Sakura made her way into Madara's office. He glanced up when she entered and his eyes honed in on his coffee.

"Good morning, Sakura-san," Madara said after he took his first sip.

"Good morning, sir," she replied, and before he could give her that day's assignments, she continued, "I met Senju-sama on the way up, and-"

"Which one?" Madara asked coldly. Sakura was a bit wary at his sudden frostiness, but continued anyway.

"Hashirama," she replied. "He wants me to meet his brother, so-"

"No."

Sakura's eyes widened at his odd reticence. "Um, it's just for a second. I'm not going to be missing any work…"

Madara's eyes were shuttered, but his entire expression was forbidding. "I said no. You should get to work imme-"

"Madara!" Hashirama said from the doorway, the mug of tea in his hand sloshing with his exuberance. With his early morning cheerfulness, Sakura wasn't surprised that he didn't need anything as strong as coffee. "Why didn't you tell me you had a personal assistant? You didn't think you could keep her a secret forever, did you?"

From the look on her boss's face, Sakura thought that that was exactly what he had intended to do.

Madara responded easily, "It's been a very busy week, Hashirama. Haruno-san and I have been working hard." He looked at her meaningfully.

She turned to Hashirama. "Yeah, it's been a bit rough adjusting," she admitted, which wasn't entirely untrue. However, she wasn't exactly sure why she was playing along with Madara. She was trying to keep him happy, but the fact that he was already controlling her interactions with the people he worked with made alarm bells go off her in head. She had never been in a workplace environment like this before, but she was still rather certain that this was abnormal behavior.

Then again, Madara didn't seem to be a very normal man.

Hashirama rolled his eyes. "You work too hard," he scolded playfully. "Anyways, Haruno-san should be meet Tobirama. It'll be good for her to know all the faces around here, don't you think?"

Upon seeing the dangerous look in Madara's eyes, Sakura was going to protest, but he said, "Very well. Don't be too long."

Madara sent her a chilling look, but Sakura didn't know what he was trying to convey. Instead, she nodded and followed Hashirama across the hall, to Tobirama's office.

"Little brother!" Hashirama called with the same tone of voice he had used on Madara. "Open up! There's someone you need to meet!"

There was some audible grumbling from behind the door before a tall man opened the door. "Hashirama, I told you not to bring women to the work-…"

And then his eyes landed on Sakura and he trailed off.

Sakura smiled at him tentatively, butterflies in her stomach. He was incredibly handsome, she thought. He had shaggy silver hair but a relatively youthful face that didn't match it. There were red markings on his face, similar to Rin's tattoos, although they weren't covered up with concealer. He was a large man with broad shoulders and sharply defined muscles, and Sakura could tell that he took excellent care of himself. He probably was no more than ten or twelve years her senior.

"Hi," she said with a bow, "my name is Haruno Sakura."

Tobirama gathered himself quickly and bowed in returned. "Senju Tobirama," he replied. "I apologize for my brother bringing you here, he's impossible to-"

Hashirama laughed. "No, no, Sakura is Madara's new personal assistant."

Immediately, Tobirama's eyes flashed with a hint of disappointment before freezing over like death itself. "I see." He looked at her with cool detachment now and Sakura found herself mildly hurt. However, she was able to make one clear connection: Madara and Tobirama did not like each other, if their countenances when the other's name was mentioned were anything to go by.

Whether it was willful or unintentional obliviousness, Hashirama did not seem to notice. "Well, now that we all know each other, don't hesitate to come to me or Tobirama for help, okay? Madara can be a bit much sometimes."

That was an understatement if she had ever heard one.

Tobirama seemed to think the same thing because he snorted sarcastically. "Good to meet you, Haruno-san," he said, still somewhat coldly. "Like my brother said, if you need anything, come to us." When he said it, he made it sound like "come to me."

Sakura didn't know what to make of anything that had just happened, so when Tobirama closed the door and Hashirama waved to her before heading down to his office at the end of the hall, she could only stand there for a moment, befuddled.

Then she gathered herself, quite admirably if she did say so herself, and went back to Madara's to be briefed for the day.

It should have been concerning, but it wasn't.

Madara knew he was hopelessly obsessed. It was Friday around noontime and he was already tired, having been there since the crack of dawn—much earlier than usual. He admitted to himself, and only himself, that since Sakura had started working at the firm, he had been waking up earlier and earlier so as to not miss one second of her presence.

He looked down at the paperwork in front of him with weary eyes. If it was possible, he had grown even more attentive to his work; Sakura had an equally maddening and calming presence all at once. He was quickly becoming convinced that she was gaining more and more importance in his life, more so than any other woman he had met, and it was strange and yet exhilarating at the same time.

He had learned much about her in their short time together; it had been three weeks since she started working for him and although she remained professional in every sense of the word, he had glimpsed parts of her personality in that period of time. He had attempted to get to know her in a less professional capacity, but her intelligence worked against him in this—she used the most valid excuses possible to dissuade him, and although he knew he could have wrangled it out of her with persistence and intolerance of her excuses, he had preferred to let her come to him on her own terms.

He was quickly losing patience, however.

She avoided him at all costs. Anything she said was always related to work, and while he admired her diligence and ability to rebuff him—although he wasn't sure why her rejections aroused him even more so than usual—it was starting to get irritating.

It was currently lunch time and Sakura had left to go downstairs to pick up the takeout he had ordered. She always brought her lunch—it seemed she was trying to stockpile as much of the money she was making as possible. It was another sign of her vast intelligence and that made it so very, very attractive.

The door to the office opened and Sakura entered, interrupting his thoughts. "Here you go, Madara-sama," she said politely, placing the bag on the corner of his desk where it wouldn't interfere with his files.

Madara nodded in acknowledgement and Sakura bowed slightly before turning to leave to have her own lunch. He'd given her the office next door to his, as only three offices were being used on the twelfth floor—his, Hashirama's, and Tobirama's. Sakura's office was adjoined to his by a door to his left, which made it easy to communicate since it could be left open.

"Sakura-san," he said calmly, "You will join me for lunch." He was tired of waiting for her to warm up to him.

It was so adorable the way she stiffened, her back to him. "Sorry, Madara-sama, but I'm behind on my paperwork. I planned to catch up during lunch."

It was a blatant lie; she'd just turned in her most recent assignment before he had asked her to get his takeout. He would have frowned, but it pleased him that she was standing up to him so calmly, so professionally, and with no intention of acquiescing without significant force. It was much more enticing than it should have been.

"Are you slacking, Sakura-san? I don't pay you to twiddle your thumbs all day," he said, smirking. He knew it would cause her to defend herself, even if only on a professional level.

She turned towards him, eyes hard and breaking her usual façade. "Of course not, Madara-sama."

"Then there should be no reason you would need to catch up. Eat here."

Her eyes glinted with anger, however slightly, and she said as smoothly as possible, "I'd really rather-"

"That's an order."

She visibly slumped before quickly straightening up, as she knew she couldn't stop him if he demanded something. She then nodded curtly and passed by him to go to her office next door.

Victory was a beautiful thing, wasn't it? He wasn't going to let her slip past him this time.

Once in the office, Sakura let down her façade and glared at the door behind her accusingly. She so wanted to hit something right now!

"That asshole," she ground out through gritted teeth. Glancing at the clock, she realized she was going to have to spend an entire hour with Madara in a completely unprofessional way. Anger no longer simmered beneath the surface; it was quickly being replaced by fear. Was he going to try something? What if he-

No, she assured herself. He wouldn't go that far, not with Hashirama and Tobirama on the same floor.

Also, he had backed off since her second week there. Sure, he still tried to engage her in conversation, but there were no more personal or invasive questions. For that she was thankful.

Sakura hadn't interacted with the floor's other occupants since Monday, but she saw them in the hallways occasionally. Hashirama always waved at her and sent her a bright smile, but Tobirama was much more reserved around her. Sometimes he would nod his head in her direction curtly, but other than that he made no effort to acknowledge her presence.

This hurt her, although there was no real reason for it to. He had seemed so eager to meet her for that one second before Hashirama said that she was Madara's personal assistant, and she wondered if she could possibly bring back that spark of interest. It was unorthodox for her to be attracted to her boss's colleague, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She had been harboring her crush ever since she laid eyes on him and it was very difficult not to try and talk to him when he was at the coffee stand in the hall. However, she maintained her professionalism and only did her best to smile at him warmly whenever she saw him.

She had learned from Madara that Hashirama was married to a woman named Mito, and they were living quite a satisfactory life. Mito couldn't bear children, so they were a quiet, happy, childless couple. However, she hadn't been able to learn anything about Tobirama, which wasn't surprising given how much Madara seemed to despise him. She hadn't dared bring the younger man up around her employer and he never made any effort to speak about him, either. All she could do was hope vaguely that he was single.

Sakura smoothed her beige shirt down to her black slacks and quickly tried to figure out how she was going to handle this impromptu lunch appointment with Madara. Somehow she doubted he was going to make this easy on her. She frowned, slowly making it to the bento situated in the mini-refrigerator in her office.

Then, inspiration hit her. She would just make it out to not be a big deal. That was the best course of action; if she showed that she was bothered, it would simply make things awkward and feed into her fear. However, if she played it off like there was nothing to it, there would be no tension and it was unlikely anything would come of the lunch.

Mentally patting herself on the back, Sakura took her bento, which was full of roasted salmon onigiri that she'd made herself and her cold bottled water out of the fridge. Steeling her resolve, she opened the door and walked back into Madara's office.

Madara glanced up at her in acknowledgment. He then started returning the files to their folders and set them aside, clearing room for her to set her lunch down. Sakura stood there and watched, swallowing heavily as he opened the takeout bag and pulled out his beef yakisoba.

The clock ticked, every passing second filling her with a fear she couldn't combat.

Finally, Madara turned to her and said, "Are you just going to stand there?" His tone was mocking, condescending.

This broke Sakura out of her paralyzed stance. Right. She would pretend this was no big deal. There was no reason she couldn't maintain her serious workplace façade throughout a lunch date. She'd have to find different ways to evade questions that she didn't want to answer, as she couldn't use work as an excuse right now, but there really was no way to avoid conversation altogether.

Swallowing heavily once more, Sakura nodded and pulled up one of the seats to his desk. She was tempted to try to gorge herself on her food so that after she was finished she could make a quick getaway, but something told her that Madara wouldn't allow that to happen.

She took a bite of her onigiri and Madara began to eat. The office fell into an awkward silence, at least on her part. Madara didn't look discomfited at all, which bothered her, but nonetheless she was grateful for the lack of conversation.

After a few moments, however, Madara asked her, "How is school going?"

Sakura contemplated telling him that it wasn't appropriate to bring that kind of thing up, but then she decided that she could save that for a potentially worse question. As far as she was concerned, talking about her school life wasn't all that damning.

"It's been going alright," she said noncommittally. "Although I have much less time for homework now, and practically no social life." She couldn't help but make that small jab, narrowing her eyes at him as she spoke.

He was completely unconcerned, however, and she felt she shouldn't have been surprised. He was selfish; she already knew that beyond a doubt.

"There is nothing wrong with a lesser social life if it will move you up the ladder in the long term," he replied easily. She could see his point even if she didn't appreciate it, but something told her that there was some double entendre in there. She just wasn't sure what it could be. It was impossible to miss the smug look on his face, though, and that bothered her.

"Yeah, well, I'd rather not waste my youth at work. There's enough time for that later in life," she retorted a little too hotly.

Madara looked at her intently and she couldn't help but avert her eyes at his intense stare. She took a large bite of her onigiri to avoid speaking to him for a little bit.

He had no comment in the end and silence resumed. She had no reason to break the quiet and there was certainly no inclination to, so she sat and focused on eating.

Madara ate leisurely, not altogether too concerned about the time passing. He was content to watch her eat daintily, although it eventually started to become trying. The sight of her lips around the rim of the water bottle and her throat undulating when she drank, and the way her tongue would occasionally flit out from between her lips to remove little grains of rice from where they shouldn't be being more arousing than he would have originally imagined. Of course he loved being given head like any hot-blooded male, but the thought of Sakura doing it—he'd grip her hair and make sure she couldn't pull away, even if she wanted to, and he'd really make her work to keep up with the pace of his hips as he fucked her mouth—and then, when he tore himself away from his thoughts and felt the stiffness of his cock pressing against his thigh, he realized that he had never had such a violent fantasy about anyone before.

But there was something about it that made his blood pump ever faster through his veins down to his throbbing cock, and when coupled with an image of Sakura, he knew that he was lost. Nothing in his experience to date could compare with the surge of arousal that fleeting image of Sakura in his mind had given him.

His preoccupation with his fantasy made it difficult to focus on conversation. He couldn't get the image of her on her knees with his cock in her mouth out of his head, and this ended up wasting precious time he could spend learning about her. Finally, with a hard mental shove, the visual was pushed away.

"What do you think about the Akisawa case?" he asked. How better to get a feel for the workings of her mind than to challenge her intellectually?

Sakura paused and looked up, for a split second looking like a deer in the headlights. Then, swallowing the food in her mouth, she said hesitantly, "I don't think you should be defending him. He's obviously guilty."

He hummed contemplatively. "What makes you think that?"

"Other than the mountain of evidence clearly displaying that not only was he at the scene of the crime, the fact that his alibi is weak, and that his fingerprints are on the murder weapon? Oh, there's no reason to think he's guilty at all." Her voice was blatantly sarcastic, and he found himself smirking at her cheek.

"Then here's a question: why would I choose to mar my record by defending someone who, with any other lawyer, would clearly lose his trial?"

Sakura blinked, and then her jaw hung open ever so slightly. He could tell that he had thrown her for a loop; indeed, why was he defending Akisawa? He knew she was intelligent, and it would be amusing to see if she could come to the right conclusion.

She was silent for a long while, turning the question over in her head. At last, she frowned and said uncertainly, "If you know you're going to lose, then the only reason I can see that you would defend him is the chance to set a precedent."

Madara smirked widely at her deduction. "Exactly. Even if I lose the case—which, by the way, I won't—it sets a precedent. In the future, similar cases will be much easier to win. Public opinion will dictate that."

Sakura glared at him disapprovingly. "That's pretty much the opposite of ethical, you know."

"When have lawyers every claimed to be ethical?" he asked rhetorically. And whether or not she realized it was actually rhetorical, she couldn't come up with an answer, so she stayed silent.

"Well, I'm done with lunch," she announced, standing up and gathering her lunchbox and empty water bottle, which she promptly tossed the recycling bin. "I'll just get back to work then."

Madara considered whether he should make her stick around regardless of how much she'd eaten, but then decided that it didn't matter. He'd opened the doorway to discussing cases with her, and therefore it would be much easier to drag her into conversation.

Just like he was going to set a precedent with the Akisawa case, he had just set a precedent with Sakura. She would be subconsciously more willing to interact with him now that he had appealed to her rational brain.

The best part was that she didn't even realize it.

So finally, we have some all-new content! From here on out, pretty much everything is different besides abstract plot, and even that will be unrecognizable by the end of the story. I hope you enjoyed, and please review!

(I'd make a joke about every review reduces my tumors by 1%, but I think it's a little too soon for that and wayyyy inappropriate...)