Two updates in one day! I'm actually pretty proud of myself. It usually takes me two weeks to finish 1 chapter. As always, feedback is very appreciated! I like it to hear opinions. Then I know what I have to work on more. I hope you enjoy!

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While Asami was still pulling at the collar, now with both hands, the two men tried to get her to let go, which was harder than they thought. Even when the guy who intended to go upstairs dug his nails into her arms, she didn't let go.

While Asami kept tugging at the shirt, she also tried to kick the man who was trying to pull her away from his comrade, but it was hard to get a solid and hard kick when he was standing so close to her.

''Kouta!'' She yelled, giving the collar another hard haul. ''Hide!''

She didn't receive a verbal response, but hearing his little footsteps relieved her. She wasn't sure if she could hold them off much longer. With no weapons and no opportunities to perform a jutsu because both her hands were already busy enough with just trying to hold the man back, she couldn't do more than this.

And she hated it.

She woman grunted in pain when she pulled the kunai out of her leg and held it tightly in her hand. Asami started to panic even more when she saw the woman stand up, using the wall as support. Knowing that she'd be headed her way, Asami began to struggle harder, desperately kicking the man's legs and violently pulling at the collar, but that wasn't enough to stop them.

Asami gritted her teeth and kicked the feet of the man that was standing behind her, holding her back. She hissed when she felt her heel throb. It wasn't only painful for the man who was wearing sandals, but also for Asami herself.

Angered by her action, the man balled his fist and punched Asami in the stomach. Due to shock, she accidentally let go of the man's collar and started having a coughing fit. The other man let her go and Asami fell to the ground. Her eyes widened when she noticed one of the men heading to the stairs, and she attempted to stand up but was kicked back to the ground. Alarmed, she looked up, only to see that the man was already out of her sight. ''Kouta! Watch ou-''

Asami cried when the sole of the man's sandal hit her face. She gasped for air and started coughing again. It hurt, and she felt a warm, thick liquid streaming down her chin. When she brought her hand to her face to wipe the blood, she noticed how much she was trembling.

She was terrified of what would happen now.

If they got Kouta, it'd mean defeat for her. These people knew very well they could threaten her, making her give up. They could make her do anything, as long as they had her child in their possession.

But as long as that wasn't the case, Asami still had a reason to fight.

She knew that the man wouldn't do anything as long as she kept lying on the ground. He had been hesitant and careful this whole time. It was obvious that they, at least this man and the one who went upstairs as well, didn't come here to fight.

They came here to capture

Asami waited until the woman had hobbled over to her comrade. While the man wasn't ready to fight or to kill, the woman sure was. ''We need to get rid of her.'' Asami heard her say.

''That isn't the plan.'' The man replied. ''We agreed to hold them hostage, not to kill them.''

''She killed Hiroto!'' The woman exclaimed. ''Why should we show her mercy while she'd kill us without thinking twice?''

''I don't care about Hiroto! He tried to kill her first.'' The man grunted, clearly annoyed by what Asami previously thought was his comrade. ''You better not forget the deal we made like he did. We came here for the Uchiha and his eyes. Even if this woman isn't one, we're taking her hostage as well.''

Asami frowned. She tried to figure out the relationship between these people, but nothing reasonable came to mind. She did notice that this Hiroto and the woman were wearing the same forehead protector, so that explained already a bit. But at the moment, that wasn't as important as making sure of Kouta's safety.

Kouta came first.

While the two of them were still bickering, Asami crawled a bit closer to them. She had to take down the woman first since she was more dangerous because of her lethal intentions.

Just when she was close enough, the man noticed that she had moved. ''Hey!''

Before they could do anything, Asami made a fist of her hand and slammed it against the woman's leg, exactly where she was stabbed earlier. A scream of pain filled the room and the owner of the voice dropped to the floor once again.

With a swift movement, Asami lunged for the kunai, that was now lying on the ground next to the woman, who was still in pain, and thus not aware of what her enemy was doing. When Asami got hold of the weapon, she dug the sharp point into the woman's abdomen multiple times, and finally, she stabbed her chest to put her out of her misery.

Without wasting time, Asami got up and turned around to face the man, who was once again in shock. Now that he wasn't able to respond to her actions properly because of disconcertment, Asami took her chance to take him out as well. She knocked the ring of the weapon against his head before he could react. It didn't kill him, but making him lose consciousness was her intention. Even though she already figured out the majority of their plan, she still had a few questions.

And you couldn't ask the dead, so one of them had to live.

After checking if the man was really out cold, Asami quickly headed upstairs. She hadn't heard anything after the man went up the stairs, which both worried and reassured her.

When she was on the same floor as Kouta and his pursuer, she slowly walked to check the first room in the hallway, which belonged to Kouta, but she already quickly saw that the man wasn't there.

With a pounding heart, she began to move to the other, and also the last room, which was her and Madara's room that had a bathroom attached to it. She didn't dare to make a sound, too afraid that she'd give away her presence and thus the advantage of a possible surprise attack.

When she got closer to the room, she heard the floor crack on the other side of the door. The sudden sound surprised her, but she kept her lips tightly pressed together. She couldn't let him know she was there.

He was in that room.

Her own heartbeat and her loud breathing were slowly blocking out all other sounds, including the footsteps of the remaining intruder.

She felt nauseous, anxious, and this made her feel as if she was suffocating. The nervousness and the fear were making her tremble once again. Asami clenched her jaw and looked down at her hands, clenching them as well, trying to stop the shaking.

She couldn't help Kouta like this. She needed to swallow her fears one more time. One more time,

for her family.

After taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she was already able to organize her thoughts better and her anxiety slowly ceased.

Only one more time.

Sudden footsteps and a loud voice startled her. ''Found you!''

After that, Asami heard a scream, that definitely came out of Kouta's mouth. Her eyes widened in shock. Almost automatically, she canceled the whole idea of taking him down without him noticing her and she stormed into the room. Her body seemed to move on its own, and there was only one thought running through her mind.

'You have to save Kouta.'

Asami gasped when he saw the man holding her son under his arm. Kouta was writhing and yelling, trying to break free, but to no avail. It was useless. Kouta was far too small and too weak to do anything.

When he saw Asami standing in the doorway, he broke down, which fueled not only her anger but also her sadness. Why did this have to happen to them?

Suddenly, the three of them heard footsteps rushing up the stairs. Asami's eyes widened and she looked at the door. Now already? Was the blow to his head not hard enough? How could he have already regained consciousness? It was way too soon.

She was startled by the sound of glass breaking and Kouta's shouting and quickly looked back at the man, which was now not in the room anymore. Panicking, Asami sprinted to the now broken window and looked down, seeing the man running away from the house.

She immediately began to climb through the window, making sure to avoid getting cut by the glass, but she already quickly came to a halt when the door was slammed open. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that it was indeed the man that she left unconscious downstairs. She grew anxious when she noticed the katana in his hand.

Asami felt stupid for forgetting about the weapons they were carrying with them. She should have taken them before going upstairs. It was because she kept thinking about Kouta that she forgot about other important things.

Asami clenched her jaw in frustration and looked back out of the window. o her disappointment, the man who took Kouta was already out of sight. And even if he was still there, it was too dark to see anything outside.

Asami quickly looked back when she heard the man approach and wanted to get back into the room, but the man was already too close. He had his katana already in the air, ready to cut her.  She wouldn't have enough time to react, let alone defend herself if she did that. So instead, she grabbed both sides of the frame of the window where there wasn't much glass left and leaned forward, hanging out of the window. Only her feet and hands were still inside the room.

The man noticed her reckless movements too late to adjust the trajectory of his sword and thus didn't do her as much harm as he hoped. The sharp tip of the katana did a little more than just graze her.

Asami gasp when she felt the sword cut the skin across her back. The shock and pain almost caused her to let go, but she kept hanging. Just barely. If she let go, her landing wouldn't go smoothly. It'd only worsen her injuries.

To prevent getting more cuts or other wounds, Asami looked over her shoulder and saw the man standing close behind her. Lifting one leg, she kicked the man's chin. While he was recovering from the sudden and painful kick, Asami climbed back into the room. She flinched when she felt her back sting. Moving around much wasn't really an option now. Even though the cut wasn't deep, it still hurt a lot.

''You're so persistent!" The man was still standing, holding his chin with one hand and the katana with the other. He seemed so hesitant downstairs, but now he was furious. With a quick motion, he threw the katana at her head. Since he was already standing uncomfortably close, Asami didn't have much time to react. Just barely, she was able to evade the blade and she looked back at the man, who stood now much closer than before.

Asami choked when he wrapped his lanky fingers around her throat, squeezing it. She grabbed his arm tightly and dug her fingernails into his skin, drawing blood. But now matter how much small wounds she inflicted or how much she struggled, the man wouldn't let go. While Asami was gasping for air, the man started to tighten his grip. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as everything started to seem hopeless. Once again, she wasn't able to protect Kouta.

She'd never forgive herself for that.

Asami tried to kick the man a few times, but those were just futile attempts to hurt him. She didn't want to give up, but she knew she couldn't do anything anymore.

The man quivered when a kunai flew through the air, just missing his ear. It also startled Asami when it barely missed her cheek. The weapon went out of the window and disappeared into the dark woods. Because of the shock, the man let go of Asami and she fell to her knees. She started to cough violently and rubbed her throat with her hand. It was as if his fingers were still there and she wanted to get rid of that feeling.

The man chuckled, still sounding a bit surprised. ''You miss-'' Asami gasped when the man suddenly fell to the side. A pool of blood started to form around his lifeless body. She couldn't look away from him, even when she heard someone approach her. Soon, a pair of legs blocked her sight. She looked up, seeing him holding out a hand.

''Stand up.''

''..Madara.'' She mumbled, letting her hands drop to the ground.

''Stand up.'' He repeated. ''Asami.''

She lifted one of her hands, but Madara thought she was too slow. Sighing, he crouched down in front of her and put an arm around her waist. He didn't hear her make a sound, until he started to bring her back onto her feet.

Asami flinched and whimpered, and he felt her trembling hands grip her shirt tightly as she panted softly. Madara was still holding Asami against him when he felt the glove of the hand he was holding against her back getting soaked. He frowned, lifting his hand.

A dark liquid had stained his glove.

He quickly looked over Asami's shoulder and saw the long cut that went from her shoulder down to her lower back.

''Kouta,'' Asami said, gently pushing herself away from Madara. ''We need to save him.''

Madara sighed. 'We', she said. Did she even know in what kind of condition she was? ''You stay here.'' He said. ''I'll be right back.''

''I'm not staying here.'' Asami objected. ''Kouta's m-''

''I didn't miss.'' Madara interrupted her. ''I'm going to pick him up. It's already over.''

Asami wanted to say more, but Madara was already gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It didn't take long for Madara to find Kouta and his kidnapper. He could hear the crying very clearly from where he was standing.

And he was near.

When Madara saw the two of them in the distance, it took him only a second to reach them. Kouta was still sobbing loudly as he was stuck under the man's body. Only his head and torso were visible.

Madara pulled the kunai he threw earlier out of his neck grabbed and lifted him from the ground with ease. To his surprise, the man started to man started to make choking sounds and blood streamed out of his mouth.

''Oh?'' Madara hummed, throwing him back onto the ground a few meters away from Kouta. ''It seems this wasn't enough to kill you.'' He muttered, putting the kunai away. He knelt down beside him and wrapped his hand around his throat. ''What was your objective?"

''T-The Sharingan.'' The man spluttered.

Madara looked at Kouta from the corners of his eyes. He may not have awakened his Sharingan yet, but how did they know he was an Uchiha?

Madara wanted to ask more, but the man had already stopped breathing. Gritting his teeth, he let go of him and stood up. He grunted. ''Worthless.''

''Kouta!''

Madara turned around upon hearing her voice and saw her approaching the both of them, slowly but surely. Kouta got up and started running at her, almost tripping a few times in the process. He still couldn't run properly, but he went faster than Asami.

''I'm sorry!'' Asami whimpered as she engulfed him in a hug, holding him tightly. ''I'm so sorry.

Kouta, who was still terrified, was more than happy to return the gesture. While the youngest one was still crying, Asami started to sob as well, burying her face into Kouta's shoulder. ''I'm so sorry,'' She kept apologizing. ''Kou.''

''Let's go back.'' Madara said. He didn't really want to interrupt the two of them, but staying out here in the snow wasn't really an option either.

Asami looked up to him and nodded, wiping her tears. After sniffing one more time, Asami stood up, still holding Kouta. Madara could see that it was painful for her to stand up, and that carrying Kouta only worsened the pain.

Without asking, he took their son from her arms and held him against his chest. ''Don't force yourself.'' He said. ''Aren't you in enough pain already?''

Asami didn't reply, looking away instead. She was incredibly grateful to him, but ashamed at the same time. Madara killed two of them with such ease, while she was struggling to defeat even one of them. She knew comparing herself to him was pointless. Madara was one of the strongest shinobi of the world. Even despite all that, it still bothered her that she was so weak and afraid. It was even worse than three years ago.

When they reached the house, the front door was standing wide open, but the view wasn't exactly welcoming.

''Don't let him see.'' Asami said, referring to Kouta.

Madara nodded, already knowing what she meant. While blocking his sight, Madara brought Kouta upstairs to his room while Asami stayed downstairs.

She couldn't help but keep staring at the corpses of the burglars. Hiroto and the girl. She killed both of them. Asami still didn't know how she did it. She had killed before, but never this gruesomely. It shocked her that she was able to do something like that; stabbing a person multiple times. She was just so desperate at that moment.

But still, she couldn't believe that she could be this ruthless.

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And I still couldn't write what I wanted to write >.<

Why do I get the urge to give this story a bad ending?? I don't want to but while I can't think of a good ending, I do get a lot of ideas for bad endings.

And 'trajectory of his sword', do you say it like that? I didn't know how else to say it. If you know, please tell me ^^