| Chapter 2 |

The feast did not end even after gone midnight, when many of the Senju clan and the Uzumaki clan were drunk and unsuspecting of anything ill-natured occurring. They were not even finished celebrating the election of Hashirama as their new leader.

For Tobirama, though, the night's ending was long overdue. Fatigue pulled on his eyelids, making them droop. Once or twice he tripped over his own feet. He hadn't drank much during the feast; he had drank along with all his other kinsmen when they toasted Hashirama, and he sipped his saké as he ate his meal, but he did not drink excessively like some other members.

Satomi had retired to her chambers a little earlier, before the feast had ended, due to being on duty in the medical wards the next morning. So he went straight to his bedchamber.

Meanwhile, as Satomi stood in front of her mirror, combing her hair, a distant disturbance echoed down the hallway outside. She paused. Silence was all that could be heard. Somewhere inside her abdomen, Satomi felt uneasy. Something felt wrong.

Grabbing the closest object to her—which happened to be a small tanto—she began to make her way to her bedroom door. Opening it a crack, she peered out into the dim hallway.

Nothing was out there.

She opened the door a bit wider, straining her hearing to catch even the smallest of noises. There were none. Although nothing was seemingly happening, the uneasy feeling seemed unshakable. Opening her door entirely, letting the light from her bedchamber flood out into the hallway, Satomi stood with her tanto clutched tightly in her hand, looking around suspiciously. No one was outside.

Blinking, she soon turned around and began to step back inside her boudoir. Then it happened. That noise, a faint scuffling sound, from down the hall. It was coming from the room at the end of the hall.

Clutching her tanto even tighter, Satomi quickly shut her door, sealing away the light, and prowled down the dark hallway, using the walls as guidance. Her heart began pounding wildly. She had never been in this kind of situation; she was a medic, not a fighter. All she knew was taijutsu. Quicker than she would have liked, she reached the door. Behind the door was a room the clan used to store files of previous missions and clients; it held very sensitive information, and so it was protected by a strong seal only few knew how to break.

Yet, on the door, the seal was broken.

Satomi, had she been in her right mind at that point in time, would have sucked in a breath and re-thought her plan of action. But she was not in her right mind. Admittedly, she was a little bit tipsy and she was feeding off the adrenalin shooting around her body.

Tanto in hand, she crept inside, eyeing the room. The noise had ceased and there didn't seem to be a sign of anyone inside. But there must have been. The noises couldn't have been of her imagination, because the doorway behind her was open – and not by her doing. Someone had snuck into this room, where valuable information was kept, and was purposely hiding from her. That could only mean one thing ...

Satomi sucked in a deep breath. "TOB—"

A hand with a cloth clamped over her mouth, preventing her scream from escaping her throat. Satomi panicked and tried to kick her assailant, flailing her hands around behind in attempt to reach him. She failed.

More muffled screams were emitted, but none were loud enough to gain attention from any of her kinsmen. The hand pressed harder on her mouth, in turn making it harder for her to breathe. She tried to scream again, but to no avail. Slowly, ever so slowly, black spots started emerging in her vision. The black spots grew bigger. Before long, she had passed out.

Coming round was perhaps one of the most calming moments in Satomi's life. For some bizarre reason, her subconscious mind was nagging her becoming-conscious one that something was dreadfully wrong, but it refused to give the details as to why.

So, while she laid on the floor, her mind was divided as to what was right. She had returned to her bedchamber before the feast was finished, and she remembered it clearly. She had changed out of her celebration kimono and started her nightly routine. Nothing was out of the ordinary and so nothing could be wrong. She was obviously suffering after after-effects of a bad dream—

Wait, the floor?

Snapping her eyes open, Satomi detected the slight dust that had settled beside her head. She really was asleep on the floor. What had she been doing last night? She didn't drink that much.

Smaller details, like the scrolls sewn around the floor and torn parchment slowly began to come into focus as she sluggishly sat upright. The room was very dim, but the candle on the desk on the far-right of her cast enough light to illuminate the most prominent features of the room, like the towering shelves and the two men by the desk—

No wonder her father told her she would never make it as a Shinobi, with her appalling observational skills.

One of the two men saw that she was staring at them, noticing her mouth open wide enough to scream, and whipped over to her, hissing, "Scream and I'll slit your throat, Senju."

Satomi's entire body froze-up. The man smirked.

"You know," called the other man quietly, still sat at the desk, poring over a document, "you make yourself out to be the bad person, Izuna, threatening her like that. I think it is easy to see that she does not have many Shinobi qualities, therefore it is safe to say she is not one of the Senju's Shinobis."

Izuna shot the other man a look. "Just because she is not a Senju Shinobi does not make her entirely innocent. She had a tanto! Where did she get that, I wonder?"

"Perhaps from your rival as he is so besotted with her," the other man replied uncaringly. "I do not know. I do not know the ins and outs of this clan."

"But you have been friendly with them before," hissed Izuna challengingly, "A special one, in particular, if you—"

A shuriken went whizzing past Izuna's face, narrowing missing slicing his cheek. He glowered at the other man furiously. "Madara!"

"You deserved it."

Satomi clutched at her hand subconsciously, a childhood trait. Madara's eyes glanced over her hands thoughtfully, but then returned his attention to the scrolls. It seemed like the Senju would be assisting the daimyo of the Earth Country in their next battle, so the Uchiha would be up against them again.

"What should we do with her?" Izuna asked, as Madara got up from his seat, preparing to leave. "Should I kill her?"

"How badly do you want Tobirama to kill you, Izuna?" questioned Madara, genuinely concerned as to whether that was the motive for Izuna's insistence to harm the Senju woman. "By killing his lover, do you intend to anger him?"

"To show him, brother," Izuna started, "that Uchiha are stronger."

"If we are stronger," Madara started, looking Izuna in the eye, "then we needn't prove it by murder. We will be cunning. We have a valuable hostage, after all. We can bend the Senju's will however we wish, do you not think so?"

"I would rather—"

"It would hurt Tobirama's pride," Madara overruled him, "to think he could not protect someone he loved dearly. It would hurt any man's pride."

Satomi stilled. Izuna shifted away from her, moving closer to Madara. Quickly, her eyes briefly flowed over the door and the obstacles in the way. Despite the fact that she wasn't actually a Shinobi, as Madara had stated, she was trained in taijutsu, sensory skills, kenjutsu, healing and speed – and speed was her best ability. As she watched Izuna read through the scroll that his brother had been studying, Satomi inched up onto her feet. Neither of the men seemed to notice. Once she was on her feet, she steadied herself, paused to watch them and then—

Whoosh!

"Where exactly are you going, Senju?" It was the other male, the older one. His Sharingan pierced her, delving her into a genjutsu. Her body slumped to the floor.

Izuna looked over his shoulder to see Madara scoop down and throw the Senju woman over his shoulder. "So we are taking her with us, after all."

"I told you already," Madara said, "She is a valuable hostage. Her lover is the Senju clan's leader's brother. Most of the Senju would at least know of her, so we would not be kidnapping a member of the clan who was unpopular with the rest. Do you understand?"

"I trust your judgement, brother," Izuna told him sincerely, "But I did prefer to cause Tobirama the humiliation of providing inadequate protection of his beloved."

"It's the same thing, Izuna, do not worry." Madara muttered.

Sneakily, they prowled along the halls in the shadows, remaining undetected as they stalked out of the Senju stronghold. As soon as they were far enough from the main town, they broke into a brisk sprint. Madara mulled over the information which they had newly discovered, ignoring the glances Izuna kept throwing at the unconscious woman over his shoulder, while Izuna debated whether or not he should bring up the matter of where they were going to keep her. In the end, he decided not to bother. Madara had most likely planned something without telling him – again.

I just wanted to thank crazyuser for reviewing! I hope you liked Madara's appearance.

With that out of the way, I hope everyone else enjoyed this chapter. ;) Ciao. ~SL