A Thousand Years

The Threat

"Why is it that I always get stuck with you?" Madara asked aloud as they raced through the trees.

Nina was tempted to roll her eyes.

"Ask Hashirama."

The Uchiha's complaining was getting old. Ever since their first mission together, Hashirama had been pairing the two up more often. This time it was warding off a hostile group of bandits on the other side of a large forest. If there was a bright side to this increased workload, it would be that Madara had started to open up to her. With each mission, they learned a little more about each other.

Nina had an idea as to why Hashirama was putting the two on so many missions together. Just thinking of it made her head hurt.

"Hokage." A file dropped on the said man's desk. "The report."

Hashirama looked up from his paperwork, offering a tired smile.

"Thanks, Nina." He seemed ready to fall asleep.

"Doesn't Tobirama do all your paperwork?" She asked, glancing at the tall piles of documents on either side of him.

The Senju slumped in his chair.

"He says I need to start doing it myself." He sighed dramatically.

"Well, I'll be on my way."

The Senju nearly jumped out of his chair.

"Wait!"

She turned back to face him.

"How was the mission?"

She stared blankly at him for a moment before answering.

"It's all in the report." She gestured to the file on his desk.

He paused.

"I mean..." He struggled to find words, then sighed. "Never mind."

Nina turned to face the door, she knew what he was trying to ask.

"Madara was cooperative." She could almost feel him smile as she walked out the door.

"It's wooorking!" He sang to himself.

The days passed steadily, everything went as it should. Madara, however, had not been seen by Nina or any of the Senjus for nearly a week. Not having had a mission with him for the past week, she was curious about what was happening with him. Upon asking Izuna, she only got the answer of 'I'm not sure.'

The sun was high in the sky when Nina was walking home from a meeting, which the Uchiha leader had been absent from. The road she was taking was a less traveled one, precisely what she wanted. It went behind a few less important buildings had quite a number of twists and turns. The sudden sight of a figure walking towards her caught her attention, she hadn't come across another person on this path before.

"Uchiha-san." She greeted, nodding respectfully at the familiar elder.

He smiled at her.

"Nina, yes? How have you been?"

"Good, thank you." A question popped into her mind, she spoke carefully. "If you don't mind me asking, how has Madara been doing?"

The man sighed.

"Ah, yes. Lord Madara hasn't been to any conferences lately, has he?" Hideaki looked troubled. "He has been very preoccupied with his training. I've heard he's been doing that often ever since a meeting with the other elders a week ago, I was not able to attend because of personal matters. I was on my way to go gather them and ask about what happened."