Mist

Chapter 12- The beginning's end.

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?"

Turning around to stare at him, she gulped and said, "Why yes, Madara, that's right."

"But perhaps I changed my mind... the whole dead crow fiasco was a little too much," he sneered as he walked up to her and glared.

"Speaking of which, there's a piece of the foot stuck in your overly pampered fluffy ass hair," she challenged and his glare intensified.

He swiftly removed the rotting appendage and said, "I could just leave you here, cancel our deal and not help you at all."

Kasumi didn't seem threatened and she replied, "No you wouldn't do that because I know you wouldn't have walked all this way, just to give up. Unless... you're actually so pathetic you are making excuses to back out?"

Madara was about to sneer some sort of insult, but Aunt Sumi said, "Madara-sama, please forgive my niece, she never was the most polite child. We would be honoured if you would help us, please do help us."

His anger actually seemed to ebb away and he somewhat reluctantly agreed to go out for battle.

Just as he was about to leave, Kasumi grabbed his hand and said, "Wait! Don't kill them, just uh... immobilize them."

He nodded, but then she whispered, "And... be careful, I don't want you to get hurt."

Nodding again, he whispered back, "You know I'll be fine and you also know you're going to pay for the crow thing."

She paled slightly and then he was gone. When she turned back to face the women she was met by many cat-like grins.

"So that's Madara," Aunt Sumi said with a knowing smirk on her face. Kasumi raised an eyebrow at their expressions and said, "Why are you guys looking at me like that? It's kinda creepy..."

Their grins only widened and one of the women said, "You and Madara looked like a cute bickering couple."

She shook her heard and corrected, "You got the bickering part right, but that's it. We aren't a couple, just uh... two people that don't get along and constantly piss each other off."

None of them seemed to believe her and another one of the women said, "I just don't understand one thing, why did Madara-sama have a piece of... dead crow on him?"

Kasumi chuckled and after remembering the look on his face when it blew up on him she said, "He kicked me out of the little cottage we were staying in, so I found a dead crow, set it on fire, wired it up with explosives and threw it at Madara."

There was a long, collective silence.

"Wait a second, he kicked you out at night, or during the day?" yet another one of the women asked.

She nodded and replied, "The middle of the night, all because I refused to sleep in the same bed as him."

Instantly, Kasumi regretted mentioning anything about a bed when she saw all the women laughing in small perverted huffs.

"He wanted you to sleep in his bed?"

"And you said no?"

"What were you thinking!"

"You should have said yes!"

"Maybe he wouldn't be in such a bad mood, neither of you would be."

"Ladies! Ladies! Can't you see Kasu-chan is confused, stop with the questions," Aunt Sumi ordered when she saw her niece going googly eyed.

Once again there was silence and the poor female ninja was able to explain the full situation. When she was done the women no longer looked like strange perverted men about to have a major nosebleed.

"So uh... now that this is all resolved... I have some questions for you," Kasumi said with an exhausted sigh.

"First, why did the men want to get you back after you said you had been banished?"

One of the older women stepped forward to answer her question, "We were not banished... we chose to run away in hopes of being free, but we didn't know the men wanted us here this bad."

Kasumi nodded and asked her second question, "Are any of you injured or hurt? Back in your camp there was a lot of blood and I was worried they might have hurt you."

All the women shook their head and Aunt Sumi said, "They only took a little bit of blood from each of us, so we're fine."

Once again all was silent until someone threw the door to the town hall open. Everyone tensed up when they saw a large white thing saunter in.

"Stop right there! What are you?" Kasumi demanded and held a makeshift weapon in her hand.

The thing stopped and suddenly began to shake for all it was worth.

It looked like half a ton of snow fell away and in the middle was...

"Madara?"

"Do. Not. Say. A. Word."

"Are you kidding? You looked like a giant freaky snowball that some dog decided to pee on before throwing off a cliff," Kasumi mindlessly chattered, but stopped when she saw one long, red gash on his arm.

She rushed over to him, grabbed his arm and said, "What's this? You said you were going to be fine!"

Madara looked down at her and he knew behind the accusing tone was a tiny hint of worry.

"It's fine, it is nothing to be worried about. One of them caught me off guard, that's all," he said with as much dignity as he could muster.

Kasumi looked a little calmer as she asked, "But... that was fast wasn't it? Are you done or did you come to hide here?"

Scoffing, he replied, "I. Do not hide. I finished with them; they were much weaker than you described them to be."

She shrugged and retorted, "At least you didn't underestimate them, sir snowball pee face."

Had they been alone, he would have probably pinned her to the wall and started sneering at her, but no, they had company.

Speaking of which...

"Madara-sama, we thank you for helping us, but perhaps you should get that wound cleaned up," Aunt Sumi spoke up. She seemed to be acting as the representative of the group.

He ignored her advice and said, "It was of no consequence, but now we have to go."

The women exchanged confused glances and one of them said, "We? Isn't Kasumi staying with us?"

He looked down at Kasumi and nodded. It was her job to break the news to her clan.

"I'm sorry, but I am not staying with you. I... I made a deal with Madara. I would stay with him in exchange for him saving all of you," she said solemnly and everyone started to look worried.

Aunt Sumi looked to most worried as she said, "Kasu-chan! You gave yourself up for us? Why... you didn't have to do that."

Her eyes filled with determination and she responded, "I did. You are my clan and I had to get someone to save you. It's too late to argue now anyway, I am glad you are all safe. I'm going to miss you...Goodbye."

With that she turned around and walked out of the town hall, Madara close behind her.

The women yelled their 'goodbye's' and the couple walked out of the village. When they were deep in the forest, Kasumi's shoulders dropped and her previous determination disintegrated to dust.

Madara had told her she would be able to visit, but there was still that one tiny little twinge of regret deep in her soul.

Try as she might, she couldn't convince it to become something else, anything else.

She stiffened when she felt Madara's hand wind around her waist. "Kasumi, did you forget you have to pay for throwing that dead thing at me?"

Gulping, her previous thoughts disappeared and she said, "Oh... that... uh... it was a joke you know, you don't have to take it so... uhh... seriously..."

He just smirked and pulled her closer before whispering, "I shouldn't have kicked you out that night, what I should have done... well, you'll see tonight."

Her mind did not like the sound of that and she had to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out what he would do and how she would thwart it.

If he was going to tie her to the bed, she had to constantly keep her eye on him. If he was going to gag her and then pin her to the bed she had to keep an eye on him. If he was going to kick her out, tied up, she had to keep her eye on him.

Bottom line, Kasumi had to have Madara in her sights all the time.

They decided to spend the night in the cottage because it was much better than having to find a whole new shelter.

By the time they got there, it was late evening and they desperately needed to sleep and change Madara's bandages.

Along the way she had managed to convince him to take care of it, instead of letting it 'do its own thing'.

When they were standing at the door to the cottage, Kasumi said, "Men that look like tough ladies first."

He glared at her, but walked in. However, the second she stepped inside, he grabbed her, pinned her to the wall and threatened, "You will sleep in the bed tonight, I'm going to be sure of it."

She smiled and said, "Are you sure you're going to be 'sure of it'? Because well... how are you going to get me in the bed if I'm not even in the cottage?"

His eyes narrowed and just as he was going to command her to explain she blew up in a puff of smoke.

When had she...?

"Damn it, another clone," he muttered and walked outside to look for her. Truthfully, it wasn't a challenge to find her.

She was standing beside the tree she had slept in the night before with a large smirk on her face.

"Madara, I absolutely refuse to go inside that cottage, thus I will stay outside and camp. You have fun in there, alone," she stated and got in a defensive stance.

She highly doubted he would agree with her and she guessed he would probably try to drag her in by force.

"Alright, you can stay out here and camp, but if I see or smell one dead crow, you are dead," he warned and with that he slammed the door shut.

Kasumi stared at the door in awe, did that... did that just happen?

No, it had to be some sort of trap! She looked around for any signs he was still around and waiting for her to relax

She found none and had to begrudgingly admit Madara was actually being nice and letting her get what she wanted.

Shrugging, she found a tiny bit of greenery to munch on, made a decent shelter out of tree branches and quickly went to sleep.

Hopefully nothing would come and attack her in the middle of the night. Like perhaps the relatives of those two dead crows...

About three hours later, the female ninja's eyes flew open and she was met by the smirking face of Madara.

So he had come for her after all! She was about to get out of her shelter and prepare to run like hell, but she gasped when she found herself tied to the bed.

"Now, sleep," he ordered and lied down beside her. Clearly upset, Kasumi yelled, "You... you tricked me! When did you even get me in here?"

He motioned for her to be quiet and said, "About an hour ago, you slept like a baby as I tied heaved you over my shoulder and tied you to the bed. I was so sure you were going to wake up when I accidentally hit your head on the side of the door."

Her mouth hung open for a few seconds before she said, "An hour ago? Hit my head? I still didn't wake up?"

The Uchiha clan leader nodded and once again ordered, "Sleep. Now. But no talking or I will have to gag you."

She listened to him for a while and stayed quiet, but all the while she had an ulterior motive.

Her plan was to wait until Madara fell asleep and then scream as loud as she could. She couldn't want to see the look on his face.

Soon enough his breathing became steady and quiet and Kasumi smirked. Then she took a deep breath and...

"Trying to scream and wake me up?" a voice whispered into her ear and much to her dismay it as the fully awake form of Madara.

"But... but you... sleep and... how did you know?" she questioned with a mixture of awe and disappointment.

He smirked and said, "That doesn't matter, what matters is that you were going to scream. Looks like I have to gag you now."

Her eyes widened and she protested, "No! I didn't actually scre-"

She was cut short when she felt Madara's warm, urgent lips on hers.

At first she tried to push him off, but in the end she gave up and gingerly began kissing back. He seemed to like that because he grabbed the back of her head to force her into an even deeper kiss.

Ironically, Madara, who didn't often exercise his lung power, had an even larger lung capacity than Kasumi, who did indeed constantly exercised it.

She ran out of air and she was slowly suffocating, while still trying to get him off herself.

Finally he got the hint and broke the kiss. The female ninja took a deep breath before staring with wide eyes at the rather pleased looking form of Madara.

"What... what was that for?" she whispered with a blush evident on her face. "That was your gag, but since you're still talking I guess it didn't work," he replied with a devilish grin and kissed her again.

She was still very confused why the man was kissing her, but she guessed it had to do with the fact that he had multiple personalities.

When he broke off the kiss she remained quiet in fear of yet another mind blowing, suffocating, but yet somehow very nice kiss.

"There, now stay quiet and sleep or I will have to gag you again," he half threatened and let go of her to lie down again.

She still stayed quiet, but when she thought about trying to go on with her previous plan she realized it would be futile. If only ninja weren't able to hide it when they slept and when they were awake.

However, she had to do something. No matter what kind of situation she was in she had to show Madara he was not in complete charge.

First, she needed to get out of the ropes that were tying her to the bed. But... how?

Maybe she could somehow wiggle out of them? No, they were too tight.

What if she bit her way out with her teeth? No, that would just be silly.

Suddenly a light bulb went off in her head and she realized she could use chakra to break out of the ropes.

Concentrating, she gathered some chakra into her hands and feet and slowly, ever so slowly, began to twist.

After a few perilous moments the first rope broke, then the second and finally the last two.

She knew she would have no way of telling whether Madara was asleep or not, but she also knew she would have to risk it.

As quietly as she could manage, Kasumi slipped out from the bed and began heading toward the door.

She hesitantly opened the door, but suddenly the door was slammed and she heard someone say, "Where do you think you're going?"

To be continued...