KEIKO UCHIHA : the uchiha sister.

65 | When Your Colleagues Want Your Head, Take Theirs

~| Not a swiftie but kudos to 'The Man' by Taylor Swift becoming a trending edit audio on tiktok bc it's motivated me to write lol. 

. . . 

Keiko couldn't stop sneezing. Her sickness had long gone away, but with each new breeze of wind there seemed to come with a twitch in her nose. 

"Looks like you're the subject of someone's conversation." Madara chuckled, eyes (or eye in this case) attached to the newspaper in front of him.

She sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her sleeve as she continued to walk alongside him. "Considering my bounty just got announced, I wouldn't doubt it."

"'Keiko Rotasu runs wild... 80 million ryo for her head... extremely dangerous target...' blah, blah, blah." he sighed, closing the paper and folding it into his pocket. "Quite surprised they didn't do that sooner."

"They probably would've if you didn't frame Aoki for my murders." she responded, "Council never liked me anyways. An outlander with close relations to Lord Fourth?"

He nodded- The cause sounded reasonable enough.

Keiko was offered one final day out before she became an official. It'd already been delayed twice, and Madara wasn't sure if he could convince Pain once again. The orange-haired man had grown sick and tired of the Uchiha barging into his office in his other persona.

The younger Uchiha scratched the horns on her head, which had been reduced to small, sharp nubs. She looked off into the cluster of trees, hand still on her head as she watched a squirrel scurry up a branch. She wore her Akatsuki cloak, which only draped over her shoulders — the sleeves were not to her liking- Like sibling, like sibling. 

"They make you out to be a real menance. 'Ruthless children killer'? Seems like an overstep."he continued flipping through the pages, reading out the titles given to Keiko that sounded like a bunch of taboo. 

She sighed, poking the top of her horn as she looked over at the other. "How long do you think it'll take for them to show up?"

"When you say 'them', you refer to the bounty hunters, yes?" 

"Duh."

"In that case, I'd say about.."

All of a sudden, the shadow of an object made its presence known, swiping through the gap between Madara and Keiko. Before Keiko could jump away from the attack, Madara grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards him. She ducked under the trail that followed the object, falling into his arm as he swiped them away into the trees. His arm wrapped around her almost protectively; but it felt strange. It didn't feel like he was shielding someone he cared for, but rather an object. 

Keiko immediately pushed out of his grasp, distancing herself a good chunk away from the man. Moments like these made her remember that Madara didn't really care for her - she was just another pawn in his game. But right now might not be the best time to ponder about it. 

Madara looked behind him as they continued to race into the trees. "Odd.. Only Akatsuki are able to pass through the forest." 

"I'm starting to doubt that whatever seal you put on this place isn't as great as you say it is." she pulled out senbon into each of the cracks on her hands, turning around and throwing it into the shadows. "Only Akatsuki my a-"

A wire type-thing wrapped around her ankle before she could finish off her sentence, pulling her down into the depths of the trees. She quickly cut it short with a kunai and landed on her feet with a swift flip, then positioning the kunai defensively in front of her towards the approaching figure. She squinted her eyes and tried to decide whether or not this posed a serious enough threat to her safety that she needed to retreat. The figure emerged from the shadows, and Keiko changed her stance to ensure that she was ready to run.