Little White Lines

A Secret Outing

Lord Tobirama,

I apologize for sending this letter outside of our usual schedule of correspondence, but we have urgent news regarding the patient.

Just a few hours ago, my team was called in by Lord Imada who proposed we conduct an operation on the patient; a dangerous, crude operation that would certainly have done more harm than good. Though we were able to talk him out of it for now, he seems intent on doing everything possible to help cure the patient, even if it involves severe damage to her being. Lord Toru, though we see very little of him, seems to be growing more and more concerned about the patient and we suspect it will continue like this if her condition does not improve, in which case he may inadvertently harm her in some way.

The procedure he proposed would have likely made her very unstable and therefore very unpredictable, under these conditions her abilities would no longer be of any use to you.

We will keep a close eye on Imada-sama and try to prevent any poor decisions on his part.

Agari

Tobirama leaned back into his chair as the words registered. Agari, being the oldest medic in the war-stricken clan, had seen no shortage of medical operations in her time: from the morally gray to the thoroughly unethical, he had thought nothing would be able to phase the old bat anymore. What was this procedure that Toru had proposed? He would have to ask her about it next time he visited the Imada village, something that would unfortunately have to happen later than planned. Hashirama seemed to have caught something and was now sick enough that the day-long journey was no longer an option. Though he had been assured that it was only a mild cold, with Mito visiting her family in Uzushiogakure and Tobirama's general mistrust of other people, he had decided it was best to stay put until his brother recovered, meaning they wouldn't be able to leave for the Imada village tomorrow as planned.

He was just about to write a letter to seer explaining they wouldn't be able to make it before nearly smacking himself upon realizing how pointless that would be.

_______________________________________________

"Mila, I want to take a walk."

The brunette turned towards her friend who sat on the other side of the open door.

"What? Really?" she blinked in disbelief. "Do you... need something? I can get it for you."

"No, I don't need anything."

"Are you looking for someone?"

"No."

"Are you bored? I can-"

"Mila, I just want to take a walk." Aroka smiled. "Is it really so strange?"

"I can't remember the last time you asked to go outside... but if you want to then let's go."

Aroka smiled at her friend and stood up, stepping out of her room and leaving it void of its usual chakra cloak. She felt a hand softly grip her arm and the two made their way out of the compound in a comfortable silence.

"It's getting cold, isn't it?" the younger woman glanced up at the sky, unseeing.

"This year's first snow should be coming any day now. We always get far too much of it during the wintertime though, maybe it'll be lighter this year."

"Hopefully, last year the snow nearly made the roof collapse!"

"It almost did! You warned the housekeeper about it though, I remember you didn't want Toru to know about it since you had Detailed to find out."