''Is it okay to leave like that?'' Keiji carefully asked they moved away from the house. ''Madara-sama's going to be very vexed. He doesn't like being left out.''

Asami clenched her jaw. Wasn't it Keiji's fault in the first place? He should've just kept his mouth shut. He could also have made up a lie, but he told Madara that Asami told him not to say anything.

But Keiji's not the only one at fault here. Asami asked something impossible of Madara's loyal underling. She asked him to keep a secret.

And then there's Madara, the man who thinks he needs to know everything. No secrets. The only one who can have those is he himself. He's unfair. While Asami had to wait for three years, Madara doesn't have the patience to wait for three hours.

And Asami would be away longer than 3 hours.

"He'd have done the same if he were me." Asami said softly, burying her face in her scarf. ''He can't blame me for wanting to do this.''

Keiji sighed, not totally agreeing with her. ''But he can blame you for not saying anything.'' He argued. 

Asami gritted her teeth. Why was he siding with Madara now? He kept it a secret as well. It doesn't matter that she asked him to do that, he did it, and that's what matters. He could have betrayed her from the start, but he didn't. So why was he doing it now?

''It's not your problem so let's just stop talking about it. I'll figure something out when I get back.'' Asami snapped. ''More importantly, why does Mito want to meet me now? Wasn't I supposed to send back a response to her letter?''

"That was the intention." Keiji said. ''But she had to run an errand in a nearby village and she saw this as an opportunity to meet up with you.''

''You didn't bring her close to the house, right?''

Keiji didn't like the tone she used. Her voice was normally very soft and warm, not low and stern. He already figured that Asami was feeling a bit sick since she sounded quite hoarse, but he didn't know why she was acting so anxious and annoyed. Was it because of something he had said? Or because the small argument she had with Madara a few minutes ago? Did something happen before that?

No matter how many possible reasons Keiji came up with, he couldn't explain her sudden change in behavior and he also didn't dare to ask her when she was acting like this. He wanted to her calm down, not more upset.

Abrupt coughs interrupted Keiji's thoughts and he looked at Asami, who was covering her mouth. Even though she just seemed to have short fits of coughing, her face contorted in pain every time she coughed.

''Asami, are you alright? Let's stop for a second.'' Keiji said, placing his hand on her shoulder, hoping to comfort her that way. ''And to answer your question, she's about an hour away from here. She'll never find this place.''

Her throat still hurt from coughing, so she nodded instead of talking. Asami didn't show it, but she was relieved.

Her peaceful life was almost robbed from her last night. Never again would she let anyone get close to her family.

Not even her sister.

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

Madara sighed when he was finally done. The window was repaired at last. He figured that he should fix it because the cold air didn't only bother Asami, but him as well. And what else could he do now? He was in the middle of nowhere.

Madara looked over his shoulder when he heard a few noises and he saw Kouta opening the drawers of his nightstand. When Asami left the boy with him, he had no idea what to do with him. Madara wanted to go upstairs to fix the window, but should he take Kouta with him, or leave him downstairs? Would it be fine to leave him downstairs unsupervised? In the end, Madara took him with him.

When Kouta couldn't find anything in Madara's empty drawers, he crawled to the other side of the bed to look in the drawers of his mother. For a second, Madara doubted if he should let him do that. He didn't mind Kouta looking in his drawers, there wasn't anything in there anyway, but would Asami like it if people looked at her personal belongings? Even if it was her own family?

Madara decided not to say anything and let Kouta do what he wanted. He actually watched him as he opened the first drawer. First, Kouta took out two books; a thin one and a thicker one. He probably didn't find them interesting enough to look at them longer because he placed them next to him on the bed.

Next was a strip of white tablets. Kouta stared at it for a few seconds before he turned to look at Madara. ''Is mommy sick?''

Madara narrowed his eyes and walked over to the bed and leaned over it to take the strip out of Kouta's hands. After one glance, he could already tell that these tablets were just paracetamols. ''No, she isn't.'' He answered, throwing the strip back into the drawer. ''Those are just to treat pain and fever, nothing serious.''

Kouta nodded in understanding and Madara sat down. It felt a bit weird to be doing this; looking through Asami's stuff. It seemed as if he let Kouta do it out of distrust, while it was actually curiosity.

While Madara kept thinking about what was good and what was wrong, Kouta continued his search, hoping to find something interesting, something he could play with. His eyes fell on a folded piece of paper and he leaned forward to take it out of the drawer. He looked at it for a while, but soon found out that he had to open in it order to find out what it was since there was nothing to see on the outside. After unfolding the paper, he tried to read what was written on the sheet, but he could only recognize a few letters. He saw Asami's name in the beginning of the letter and he noticed another name at the end. It was a name he heard a lot when he listened to his mother and Keiji talking.

''Daddy?''

Madara looked at Kouta, who was still holding a sheet of paper in his hands.

''Who is Mito?''

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

''Can we take a short break?" Asami asked hoarsely, trying to catch her breath. Not only did it hurt when she talked, but breathing started to be a pain now as well.

''We're almost there.'' Keiji said, looking between the trees in front of him. ''She should be somewhere around here.''

Asami wanted to react, but her throat began to itch and instead of words, coughs escaped her lips. Keiji pursed his lips and rubbed her back until the coughing ceased. ''Are you sure your not sick?'' He asked a bit worried. ''We don't have to do this today.''

Asami shook her head and took a deep breath before she spoke. ''We're close now, right?'' He mumbled. ''I'm not turning back at this point.''

Keiji started to grin and opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a very familiar voice.

''Keiji?''

Asami looked up, eyes wide, looking for the owner of the voice. Her chest felt tight, almost painfully tight, and her eyes started to water. She had to admit that she missed Mito a lot, but she didn't think she'd get so emotional just from hearing this voice. ''Mito?'' She called out, looking around her.''

''Asami.''

Asami turned around after hearing her name, and she couldn't help but smile when she saw her standing there, still looking as beautiful as ever.

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

Madara folded the letter and put it back in the drawer. Clenching his teeth, he remembered one of the last lines.

I'd like to meet up with you.

That one sentence explained most of the current situation. It frustrated him a lot. He didn't mind Asami going to Mito for a talk, but it bothered him that Asami didn't tell him beforehand. Finding out like this sucked. Now, he wanted even more answers than before. The only thing he didn't know was the reason why Asami didn't say anything to him. Even Keiji didn't say much.

Why didn't they tell him?

Why was he being left out again?

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

When Asami left the village, she was prepared to sever all the bonds she had with the people from there. She was prepared to isolate herself, knowing that she'd never see a familiar face again. Only Kouta and Keiji, and sometimes Kaede. Madara joined those people a few days ago, but to think that another person would be added to this small group.

Since the moment she read the letter, she had imaged how it'd be to see Mito again. In her imagination, she had stayed calm, she didn't cry and she didn't feel bad.

But in reality, it was quite the opposite.

Mito had engulfed her younger sister in a tight hug and they were both crying their eyes out.