Mist

Chapter 3- The tree bed.

Thud!

"Owww, what the hell!"
Kasumi groaned and got up off the ground.

Wait a second, wasn't she sleeping in a tree?

The female looked up at her 'bed', but on it she saw Madara, who was climbing down.

Wiping some of the dirt off herself, she said, "Why did you push me off? It's not even morning yet!" She gestured at the black, star filled sky.

Madara ignored her question and said, "You are not sleeping in your designated place."

Still grumpy from being woken up Kasumi replied, "Oh, sorry Mr. I-like-designating-things-and-using-fancy-words I didn't know you didn't like it when people slept it trees, damn it!"

That's when her brain woke up and fearfully informed her she had said way too much.

However, it was too late because Madara dangerously narrowed his eyes at her and took two intimidating steps forward.

Responsively, Kasumi took two steps back. He took a step forward, she one back.

This cycle continued until her back hit the traitorous wall behind her, leaving only a couple of inches of space between her and Madara.

She felt rather claustrophobic so she put her hands in front of her in a vain attempt to protect those few inches.

Madara didn't seem to like this and he roughly grabbed her wrists, only to pin them against the wall.

Kasumi tried not to look too afraid, but she felt so horribly small with him looming over her. It was hard to breathe and she constantly had to remind herself to do so.

Everything was still for a while until Madara brought his face to her eye level and then brought it forward, thus making their noses almost touching and forcing Kasumi to look into Madara's cold, dark eyes.

Finally he spoke, "You're afraid of me aren't you?"

She tried to muster a glare, but instead she grit her teeth when he tightened his grip on her wrists.

It. Hurt.

He spoke again, "No escape, no where to go, do you see where this is going?"

The last part he whispered into her ear, causing her to shiver.

After what seemed like an eternity, Kasumi defiantly whispered, "If you're just going to try and break my wrists, why don't you hurry up and leave."

Madara practically growled at her and instinctively activated his Sharingan, no one dared to speak to him like that.

When she saw the raw murderous power glaring at her she went completely limp, except for her eyes, which closed shut as tightly as they could.

He sneered, "Look. At. Me."

No response. He spoke again, but this time the killer intent could easily be heard, "Look at me. Now."

Still no response, but with his Sharingan he could see her heart rate had increased tenfold and her breathing was now short and quick.

With a cruel smirk on his lips, Madara let go of one of her hands and slowly wrapped it around her neck. There was a small bruise left over from last time.

Kasumi's eyes flew open when she realized she couldn't breathe and she was met by the smirking face of Madara.

She still couldn't breathe, but with the last of the breath in her lungs she whispered, "Stop... let... me go."

"Only if you agree to never disobey me again," was the crystal clear response. It took her every last bit of effort her conscious brain had to say, "...No..."

Seething, Madara tightened his grip on her neck even more and he watched with some satisfaction as panic swam through her eyes, before it was replaced by pain and then dullness.

He dropped her body on the ground roughly and he heard her take in a much needed breath, followed by a fit of coughing.

Madara looked down at her with a glare and said, "You are my possession, don't forget that."

Then he disappeared and Kasumi was all alone on the ground, still coughing. She seriously thought she was going to die just now.

"Need some help?" a voice cheerfully said.

The poor female nearly choked to death from shock when she saw Izuna standing beside her with an outstretched hand.

She muttered a 'thank you' and stood up before walking over to her 'bed'.

Izuna gave her a quizzical eye brow raise and said, "What are you doing? You do know there is an easier way to get inside Madara's room."

Scoffing, she replied, "I'm not trying to get inside that idiot's room, I'm trying to get back on my bed. Don't ask."

The younger Uchiha nodded and also began climbing up the poor, clearly unprepared tree.

Before either of them could even gasp or jump to the side the tree made a horrible snapping noise and fell right on top of the unsuspecting couple.

"AHH I can't feel my leg!... oh wait.. yes I can... IT HURTS!"

Kasumi groaned and watched as Izuna untangled himself from a bunch of branches, unharmed.

"Did you get hurt?" he asked after he saw the large gash on her leg, which looked pretty funky because it was in the shape of a twisted-looking lightning bolt.

"Why no Izuna, I'm perfectly fine. I just like sitting on the ground and watching my leg bleed out!" she started out calmly, but to the end of the sentence she was screaming.

He chuckled as he helped her up and he heard her mutter some 'intelligent' words when she saw she would be unable to walk.

Kasumi's eyes went dark and she frowned deeply. Now that her leg was hurt, she would be unable to escape.

After Madara had clearly demeaned her to be an object she wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as possible.

Izuna broke the tense silence by saying, "Don't look so down, the Uchiha medics can heal that completely. It won't even scar."

Instantly her eyes lit up and she began hopping down the side of the building on one leg in search of a door, all the while saying 'I'm off to heal my leg!'

The Uchiha chuckled and followed her, she was going the wrong way.

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"Miss, how did you get this injury?" asked an elderly Uchiha woman, who looked somewhat perplexed by the shape of the wound.

"Oh, a tree fell on me," Kasumi replied as if it was a regular occurrence. Knowing her, it probably was.

The woman shook her head slightly and put her hands over Kasumi's injury. Suddenly, her hands began to glow and the female was able to feel as her wound got smaller and smaller.

When all was done she reached over to roll her pant leg down and as a result the Uchiha woman was able to see her bruised wrists and neck.

"Miss! What are those from?" she asked urgently and Kasumi grimaced, she forgot about those.

"It's nothing, just another day around Madara when he's PMS'ing," she replied with a small, fake-looking smile.

The woman was about to say something else but Izuna interrupted, "Want to grab a bite to eat?"

Kasumi's eyes lit up happily and after she thanked the healer she was off with Izuna to the kitchen.

As they were walking Izuna said, "You do know Madara is a man, so he can't exactly have PMS."

She nodded and replied, "I know, but have you seen his eyelashes? They are so long and feminine I'm almost jealous. Almost. And not to mention his hair, no other Uchiha I've seen has such volumized hair! It screams 'I take care of my hair because I'm actually a girl'!"

Izuna chuckled and turned a corner, they were now at the kitchen. Of course it was dark because it was still the middle of the night.

"What would you like to eat?" he asked and she instantly responded with, "If you have anything that looks like Madara I would like to stab it multiple times before setting it on fire and eating the remains."

Silence.

"Dango it is," the Uchiha answered after trying to imagine Kasumi ripping apart a Madara shaped cookie.

They ate comfortably and she was very happy to get some food in her system after having nothing for nearly an entire day.

"Hey look! The sun is coming up!" Kasumi cheered when pure golden light shone in through a window.

"Yes it is, but I have some news to tell you," he said and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously when a large smirk formed on his lips.

"Oh no, don't tell me it has something to do with Madara," she muttered. Izuna nodded and continued, "Actually, he's the one that told me the news."

She was listening intently now, if it was bad news she would need to get all the information she could.

"Madara has decided the best thing you can do to occupy your time for the next two weeks while waiting for your clan to come pick you up is sit in his office and do his work."

This was not good news. No, this was horrible, horrible news.

"He wants me to sit in his office for... two weeks?" she asked cautiously while trying to wrap her head around the idea.

Izuna nodded and Kasumi said, "By the time this day is over, you will see I will have no hands because my wrists will break, turn blacker than they are now, and then fall off."

He didn't know if she meant that her arms would fall off because of all the writing or Madara's constantly grabbing them.

She sighed and shook her head. All jokes aside, this day would be hell.

"Wait... I have an idea!" she exclaimed happily. "Izuna, do you have any medieval armour lying around?"

"...ah...no," he said while resisting the urge to bury his face in his hands.

Kasumi laughed at Izuna's facial expression and said, "Ha, that's not my actual plan I just wanted to see what your reaction was. My actual plan is this: First, I need a shower and a comb, second I need those funny glasses that make it look like your eyes are open, but really they're not and third I need a cute little kitten so that every time he will try to attack me I'll whip out the kitten in defence."

The room went silence except for the sound of Kasumi catching her breath, that was a long thing to say in one breath.

Izuna sighed at the absurdity of the plan, but said, "Fine, I'll let you shower and clean yourself up but forget the glasses and the kitten."

Her face fell, but lit up again at the idea of scrapping the layer of dust and dirt off herself.

Kasumi jumped up from her seat and strode down the hallway in search of the bathroom.

The Uchiha grabbed one last piece of dango and went after her, once again she was going in the wrong direction.

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Madara sat in his office with a frown. Maybe this had been a bad idea.

He sighed for what seemed like the millionth time when he saw Kasumi drawing a picture of him on a blank piece of paper.

At first you would think that if someone was drawing a picture of you it would be nice, but not in this case.

She finished with a happy exclamation and showed her piece of work to him proudly.

It... it was special.

On that poor innocent piece of paper was a large drawing of a blob with long, spiky hair, a large frown, a pig nose, tiny eyes, and large eyelashes that reached over his forehead and off the page.

He ripped it to shreds.

"Noooo my ART!" she yelled before bursting into a fit of giggles.

Madara growled, "Stop wasting my time and paper! Do your work you stupid bitch!"

Instantly, her face went serious and from behind a large stack of papers she took one that was about half its size.

"I have been doing my work. All of what you gave me is done." Her voice was cool and even, had she been talking with someone not as powerful they would have felt it cutting into them like a knife.

Madara leaned back in his seat and glared at her steadily before grabbing the pile and checking to make sure what she had said was true.

It was.

"You got lucky," he said and he saw a satisfied smirk form on her lips.

"Does this mean I am done for today?" she asked and her voice was back to its former cheerfulness.

He contemplated her sudden mood swings for a second before saying, "Yes, you can spend the rest of the day with Izuna."

Kasumi gave him a smile and walked out the door, but not before saying, "Wow, I didn't even have to whip out my kitten."

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"Fear my little kitten of doom!" Kasumi yelled happily as she threw a piece of paper with a picture of a kitten on it at Izuna.

He caught it and after giving it a curious glance, threw it to the side and said, "How was your horrible day?"

A grin lit up her face and Izuna wondered if maybe those hours in Madara's office had made her insane.

"You should have seen the look on his face!" she began. "I drew a picture of him and then when he started yelling at me I did the whole 'I'm so serious' thing and showed him I finished all my work!"

Izuna sighed, only she could get excited about something like that.

Calming down she sat down in a chair and said, "I want to go back."

Now Izuna's facial expression changed to worry as he said, "You want to go back to Madara's office... because if you do it's one of the signs of insanity."

She frowned. "No! I want to go back to my little make-shift house in the middle of the forest."

After seeing his confused look she added, "Before Madara 'found' me I had a wonderful little dug out. It took me so much effort to get it though... there was this bear... and well... it didn't want me to take it's house and you can see where this is going..."

Izuna nodded and said, "Yes, you chased out some poor, innocent bear and took it's home."

"Why are you making me look like the bad guy?" she demanded, but then sighed and closed her eyes.

If she tried hard enough she would be able to see it and it gave her a warm fuzzy feeling.

"So in other words, you want to go home," Izuna paraphrased.

Kasumi nodded and he continued with, "Why did you escape in the first place?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him, he looked like he actually cared, but she knew it was just to get information.

Nonetheless, she was tired of holding everything in and since she was just as human as everyone else she wanted to share her burden with someone else. She knew it made her seem weak, but she was just so... tired.

"My village was never home, it was just... a place I had to stay. All the women of my village were forced to be the servants or wives of the men. They even made a law that women couldn't be ninja," she began and closed her eyes again.

Then she saw it, as if she was back in the village. It was surrounded by sky scraping, snow covered mountains and for most of the year there was snow on the ground.

The houses were simple and wooden, but their simplicity balanced the complicated lives of the villagers.

Kasumi continued, "One day, I decided to be the first female ninja in my clan and began to train secretly. I had seen the boys of the village training multiple times and if I kept trying I would eventually be able to do a few jutsus."

She saw herself standing in the middle of a small snow covered clearing and trying to do various seals to produce a jutsu.

It took a long and horrible process of trial and error before she figured out her first jutsu: The ice claw jutsu.

Kasumi took a shaky breath in. "It was working for a while, but then one of the women saw me training and reported it. I was devastated, I never thought a woman would betray me... but there was no helping it... I had to run away."

Now she saw herself hastily throwing her few meagre belongings into her backpack.

"I tried getting my things, but they trapped me in my room. I used the very first jutsu I had learned, the Ice claw jutsu, to tear my way through the wall and out into the forest."

Izuna looked at her intently, at least he now knew why she had nothing with her when she first came.

"For some reason they didn't follow me... maybe they thought I was going to die all by myself. But I didn't and I somehow made it here... the rest you know," she finished and let out a heavy sigh.

It felt so good to have that finally off her chest.

The younger Uchiha nodded and said, "Thank you for sharing, and it almost makes me want to be sympathetic, but this is the ninja world. It is cruel, without exception."

She chuckled and said, "Good, I'm glad you didn't sprout any fake, peachy crap."

He chuckled too, but then he sobered and said, "Oh, I almost forgot. Madara wanted me to tell you he wanted you to go back to his room and sleep on that little rug, no more climbing out of windows."

Kasumi frowned, crossed her arms and stated, "No. I may be weak, but I am proud and there is no way in hell I'm even going to touch that thing."

Izuna smirked and before she knew it, she was lying on the rug and Madara was looking down at her with mild surprise on his face.

"Oh crap."

To be continued!