Mist

Chapter 11- The dead crow.

"Good morning Madara! Lookie what I made for breakfast!"

Looks like Kasumi was just as excited as she had been the day before.

Madara tried to look comfortable as Kasumi gave him a plate of breakfast, but in truth he was as uncomfortable as a cat in water.

The cold had crept into his bones during the night and he still felt frozen half to death.

Well, that was before he looked down at his breakfast because the second he saw it, he twitched and the previous cold was completely forgotten.

"Kasumi, what is this?" he asked, he was trying to stay calm, but some annoyance leaked through his tone.

"Well... let's just call it... half bunny half something strange and slimy I found and decided to cook," she chattered as she began to dig into her meal.

Madara watched her for a couple of seconds to see if perhaps she would suddenly die of poisoning, but when she exclaimed it was delicious he reluctantly took a couple of bites.

It was... unique...

The Uchiha looked at Kasumi and wondered how on earth she could be eating this. It tasted like well, half bunny, but then half slimy dog shit.

"You like it?" she asked with a hopeful smile and he glanced down at the food before saying, "It is very special."

She seemed to accept that and when she turned away, he dumped 'it' into a crack in the cave wall.

Then he got up and made his way out of the cave.

"..."

"Madara? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Is this the slimy thing you found?"

"Why yes actually, how perceptive of you!"

"Kasumi, this is a dead crow."

"...and?"

"..."

Madara shook his head and in a more serious tone he said, "By this evening we should make it to the Mountain Clan base."

Kasumi burst out laughing. "Are you serious? Ha, you must be bad at reading maps! It'll take us two days to reach the base, we have to go around a huge mountain, we can't go straight."

He narrowed his eyes, but didn't argue because he knew it would be pointless.

"Then we head out right now, get your things," he ordered and Kasumi quickly got her things together before coming to stand beside him.

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask you how you slept. I slept great! It was the best sleep I've had in weeks!" she said and his eye twitched.

"How I slept is none of your business, just walk," he seethed quietly.

"That bad huh?"

...

"Oh my gosh, look Madara, I can't see my hand!"

Madara scowled at how Kasumi could still be cheerful even though they were stuck in a full out snow storm.

"Are you looking? Because I can't see your hand either... or your face... or you... Madara... are you there?"

He contemplated not saying anything and watching her freak out, but he just sighed and said, "I'm right beside you Kasumi."

She gasped and for some odd reason began trying to reach for him.

"No you're not! I don't see anyone or anything."

He sighed again. "Other side."

Chuckling, she poked him and said, "Just kidding. I saw you, but I was kinda hoping you wouldn't be able to see me. You and your stupid Sharingan."

He smirked; even here the Sharingan was an advantage.

They continued to trudge through the forest for a couple more hours, but finally the Uchiha said, "We will look for shelter now, this weather is too much."

She looked like she was going to argue, but she just nodded and stayed quiet.

About another hour passed by before they found a small cottage. They somewhat hesitantly approached it, but found there was no need to when they realized the cottage was empty.

Madara broke the door and they were pleasantly surprised to find that the cottage had one large bed, a fireplace, a table and a few chairs in it.

Kasumi instantly began working on starting a fire, but in doing so found signs that the cottage hadn't been used for a while now.

There was dust everywhere and everything looked completely untouched.

This was good news; they wouldn't have to deal with any confrontations.

Food was prepared and eaten quickly before the silence was broken by Kasumi, "Well, there's no rug here so... I guess I'll sleep on the chairs."

He shook his head. "No, the bed is large and I'm sure we can both fit."

Scoffing, she replied, "Thanks, but no thanks. For all I know you'll smack me in the face with your elbow in the middle of the night."

Madara looked somewhat offended as he said, "Why would I do that? As an Uchiha I am perfect."

A crooked grin formed on her lips, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she lined up the chairs, spread her sleeping bag on them and sat down with her arms crossed.

"If you insist you can sleep on those uncomfortable chairs, but don't come complaining to me when you fall off and break your neck," he muttered.

With that said, they went to sleep and not another word was said until somewhere around midnight a loud thud was heard.

"Oohh... owww... what... what happened?" the dazed Kasumi mumbled as she looked around.

She was on the floor.

Madara looked down at her and said, "I told you so."

Narrowing her eyes she was able to retort, "Thanks for the helpful commentary. You arrogant ass head."

He smirked and taunted, "Oh, and here I was going to let you sleep in my bed, but now you can forget that."

"As if I wanted to sleep in your bed. I am perfectly comfortable on the chairs," she said and went to lie down again.

Thud.

"Uh... I hate these chairs."

He watched with mild amusement as Kasumi peeled herself off the floor, grabbed the sleeping bag off the chairs, put it on the ground and went to lie down.

"There, now I can't fall anymore!" she announced as she lied down.

Madara still didn't seem pleased with her idea so he warned, "You're going to get cold and tomorrow you're going to feel like hell."

She gave him a smug smile and before she closed her eyes she said, "That's alright, I'm still never going to lie in your bed."

With that, silence once again fell around the cottage and all seemed to be going well for Kasumi until exactly one hour later...

Ah- Ah- Ah-CHOOO

"Don't say it," she warned when Madara looked down at her smugly. "I told you so," he said anyway.

Then in a more serious tone he said, "Kasumi, will you just admit you're cold and lie down in the bed? Because if this continues, we won't be able to get any sleep."

She seemed to be contemplating it, but then she defiantly stated, "No, I may sneeze and get sick, but I absolutely refuse to do as you say."

He smirked and said, "Really? Are you sure about that?" She was about to say yes, but suddenly he was on top of her and she felt herself being pulled up onto the bed.

Then, as she realized what was going on, Madara flipped her onto her back and she was now pinned to the bed.

"Now sleep," he commanded and Kasumi huffed, "Like hell I'm going to sleep. The second you let go of me I will be back on the floor."

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Then I'm not going to let go of you and-" "-and you're not going to get any sleep at all," she interrupted.

They glared at each other until he smirked and caused her to shiver. Then Madara lied down on his stomach beside her, but he kept his right arm over her stomach, thus keeping her trapped.

"I am going to get all the sleep I need," he said as Kasumi grumbled random swear words at him.

She tried to get his arm off her, but it seemed to weigh a hundred pounds. Then she tried rolling out of his grasp, but that proved impossible as well.

Finally, as a last resort she started to talk. To herself.

"Why hello there Kasumi"

"Hello Kasumi"

"How are you doing this fine middle of the night?"

"Horrible! A large black haired thing is lying beside me and I can't sleep"

"Have you tried talking to yourself to maybe make him so tired he will force you off the bed?"

"That's a great idea! I'll start right away"

"Hello Kasumi"

"Hello to you too Kasumi"

"How are you?"

"Great, I hope this plan works"

"Yes I agre-"

"Would you stop talking and go to sleep?" Madara grumbled suddenly.

"Oh, Madara! You eavesdropper, this conversation has nothing to do with you."

"Yes Kasumi, you tell him! He has no right listening in on our talk."

The Uchiha suppressed a sigh as he said, "Kasumi, sleep. Now."

She giggled, but tried to sound offended as she said, "But I can't send myself away, we were having such a nice conversation. Plus, I can't sleep knowing your arm is on my stomach."

"Deal with it, if you say another word, I will have to silence you by force," he threatened and she guessed he wasn't kidding, but just as one last jab she said, "Word."

Faster than she could blink he was suddenly pinning her down to the bed again and he growled, "Sleep. Now."

Knowing she was probably digging her own grave she said, "Aww, you're right. I forgot that every Uchiha needs their beauty sleep."

He chuckled, but it sounded more cruel than happy as he activated his Sharingan and looked Kasumi straight in the eye.

She didn't have a chance to blink and suddenly the world around her melted away into a large grey room.

They were back in the Uchiha Clan base, in that prison cell.

"Since you refuse to sleep, perhaps I should help you," the room echoed and she gulped. She was in deep, deep trouble now.

"Uh... No... It's okay... I... uh... can sleep just fine... no need for you to help me..." she stuttered.

Another chuckle. "Oh, I insist."

All of a sudden, the walls around her grew huge spikes and began slowly closing in. Madara's deep voice could be heard saying, "If you can fall asleep right now, the walls will stop moving and I will let you go."

Confused and terrified, she yelled, "What? No, I can't sleep here! The walls are going to close in on me and I'm going to be dead!"

She got no response so she began pacing around the shrinking room and trying to think of a way to stop the walls.

Luckily, she got an idea and she got a tiny bit of chakra in her fingertips. Then she put her hands on the side of her head and used the chakra to knock herself out.

Her body fell to the ground with a thud and instantly she was back in the world of the living.

Madara glared down at her and said, "You're getting better at this, but I guess that means I will have to force you to sleep in the real world."

"You know you could just let go of me and I would probably instantly fall asleep," she offered with a half shrug.

He narrowed his eyes and rebuked the idea, "No, you have to learn to be able to sleep in the same bed as me."

"I will, just let go of me," she insisted. Finally, he sighed and said, "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice."

He picked her up, got off the bed, walked to the door, opened it and then unceremoniously dumped her out in the snow before promptly slamming the door in her face.

From behind the door she heard him say, "Stay out there until you decided to wizen up."

She stared in shock at the door for a few minutes, until she realized he wasn't kidding. At least she was still wearing her travelling clothes.

Even though there was a fire place in the cottage, it was still too cold to change into actual sleeping gear.

Sighing, she found a large tree, climbed up into it and fell asleep in the branches. She was going to be so sick by tomorrow.

...

Madara rubbed his eyes and looked out the window. It was morning.

He leisurely got dressed and ate breakfast; he wanted to be at least somewhat satisfied when he went to go deal with Kasumi.

The Uchiha squared his shoulders and prepared to see Kasumi lying at the front porch, half frozen.

He opened the door and he was assaulted by the smell of burning dead crow. There was barely enough time for him to dodge as she chucked the disgusting thing at him. It landed right in front of him though.

Narrowing his eyes he was about to yell at her for doing something like that when suddenly it blew up.

Now, Uchiha Madara was always on guard for his safety, but he in no way would have ever expected that.

Kasumi climbed down from the tree she had been sleeping in with a large grin on her face. Somehow she had managed to find another dead crow, set it on fire and wire it up with explosives.

"So Madara, how did you sleep last night? I slept great, plus I was able to have a nice breakfast of frozen fish I found in a nearby river," she chattered on as if she had not just tried to blow him up.

Rage was painted on his face as he attempted to wipe the remains of the crow off himself. She gave him another brilliant smile before saying, "Well, you're going to try and kill me now right?"

A dark glare confirmed it and she continued, "Okay, then I guess I'll see you in the village, bye, bye!"

Then she disappeared into a puff of smoke. It had been a clone.

Had he not been an Uchiha he would have started screaming curse words at Kasumi right then and there, but no, he was an Uchiha and he had to act like it.

He quickly gathered his things, activated the Sharingan and began looking for any trace left behind by her.

There was almost nothing, but the tiniest imprints on the snow could be seen. He smirked and began to follow the trail.

He would catch up to her in no time and then there would be hell to pay.

...

Kasumi ran through the forest like a jack rabbit that got its little paws on some crystal meth before ingesting the whole bag along with a mega ton of candy.

Needless to say, she wanted to get away from Madara, fast.

As she continued to run toward her village she realized that perhaps she had not thought everything through.

For one, if she just ran into the village she would be caught and killed. Two, if she stayed out of the village Madara would get her and probably strange her to death. Three, if she managed to sneak into the village unnoticed, Madara would still run in there, kill her and then kill everyone else.

This... this was just not going according to plan.

Sighing, she realized the most sensible thing to do was stop, apologize to Madara and then get on with the plan.

However, Kasumi was not the most sensible person around and she preferred to do things 'specially'.

Thus, she decided to sneak into the village and somehow get Madara to direct his anger for her onto the men of the village.

About an hour or so of non-stop running later, she could see the village. It was just as beautiful as she last remembered it, but now it was abandoned looking.

She closed her eyes and tried to sense any chakra's around. Not very far in the distance she felt Madara's chakra and in the town's meeting hall she felt the presences of all the women and all of the men.

For some odd reason they were all gathered together and there wasn't even one look out.

Taking a deep breath, she began making her way down to the village. She took the long way around, but soon enough she was at the back to the meeting hall.

Kasumi doubted that her chakra would be felt because by now Madara's angry one was much more prominent.

She skilfully made a tiny hole in the side of the building and looked inside.

A gasp nearly escaped her lips when she saw all the women tied up and hanging from the ceiling like piñatas.

Their feet could barely touch the ground and they all looked very uncomfortable.

Finally, she heard one of the men say, "There is a huge chakra coming this way! I want all of the men to get their weapons. We head out now, and surround the village. We don't want this person to get inside."

She carefully climbed up the side of the all and onto the roof so no one would see her. She had already made it this far and she didn't want to be caught.

Her breathing was slow and even as she watched men run out of the building and spread out. Not a single person was left to guard the door.

When she was sure no one could see her, she jumped down to the ground and opened the door.

She was met by many pairs of frightened eyes, which turned into cheerful ones when they realized who she was.

Signalling for them to be quiet, Kasumi found something sharp and began cutting away the rope that tied them all.

Soon enough, they were all free and very happy to see her. They silently nodded at each other and Kasumi whispered, "I brought help, he can save all of us."

Aunt Sumi whispered back, "Is it that Madara gentleman?"

She didn't get a chance to respond because from behind someone said, "Yes it is me, isn't that right Kasumi?"

To be continued...