Bad luck.

─∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗─

Yuki stared at the blade in front of her face.

"You all planned this ambush, didn't you?" asked a cold voice. His expression unreadable.

She slightly shivered before replying "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Stop lying. Uchiha."

She felt her entire body tense up, her muscles taut and her breathing completely stopped. The cool blade was pressed against her neck now. She felt the traces of the bit of blood dribble down onto her collar bone. "I'm not."

. 

.

"You want to die this bad?" His gaze piercing her. She felt a little bit of soul depart her.

Yuki remained silent. There was no way to convince a person so hell-bent on hating her clan. She had almost successfully escaped those ninjas. Almost.

But this guy ruined everything.

'Senju Tobirama.'

She could feel her blood turn cold, and her nerves freeze over. How did she not sense him?

It was a simple secret meeting and yet almost everything that could go bad, did happen.

She was separated from her brothers', no-one was with her and she couldn't use her chakra in fear that tracker shinobi's could find her position. She gritted her teeth and tried to calm herself, trying to think rationally and logically to get back to the Uchiha territory.

She'd taken several detours, even then she ended up getting attacked by three of them. Madara had sent his clone along, which helped her in defeating the first one. But soon his clone disappeared, maybe because of chakra exhaustion. Just when she resumed her running, she encountered two other shinobi's. The last one was a powerful water type but careless and overconfident. She managed to defeat him with her newly awakened Sharingan.

She decided to hide in a secluded area for some time to regain her chakra and also to scan the area before resuming her running. Her sword was broken and her supplies were limited, on top of that, fighting two powerful shinobi's rendered her exhausted. She ducked back further into the leaves. Erasing her presence. It was when she'd stayed hidden when she felt burning pain throughout her body. She hadn't even realized it before from all the adrenaline rush. Peering back at the dark forest she crouched down and searched through her supplies for the healing potion.

But it was rather foolish of her to let her guard down even for few seconds, because soon she found herself on the ground and a blade pointed to her face.

Turns out those ninjas attacked the Senjus too. And of course, like every other time in the past, these Senju's will blame this ambush on the Uchiha's only. If she would have known this Senju was nearby, she would've rather faced those shinobi than him.

'He's too good at hiding his Chakra.'

Now she was stuck here with him in the middle of the forest. Alone.

─∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗─

"Let me go, Senju."

Tobirama glared at her. He and Hashirama had planned on separating ways to mislead those shinobi's and make them lose track. It worked, but he ended up bumping into the Uchiha female from before. He doubted her clan might have had some hand in this.

'How annoying.'

"They attacked us too. My brothers are fighting them as we speak. I don't know their motive. I thought you Senju's ambushed us." She didn't dare move at all, but from her very fingertips she felt her chakra gather. 

He knew something wasn't fitting right, and there was some truth in her words. The way they attacked, their tactics, and even their chakra signatures were unfamiliar to him, making him assume those shinobi didn't belong to the land of fire. To plan an ambush so perfectly... That means they might follow someone's orders, someone who wanted to harm both the Uchiha's and the Senju's.

'Who could it be? What would they gain by harming both clans like this?'

Because no matter how he thought about it, the best way to harm both clans was to make them fight each other. Not attack both of them at once. It seemed like a really foolish move. The only reason for those shinobi's to make such a move equivalent to suicide would be if they wanted to capture someone.  

'Who are they trying to capture? And how did they know of our secret meeting?'

Tobirama realized that someone was spying and leaking information, either from their own clan or from the Uchiha's side.

"You. Come with me."

─∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗─

That's the last thing she wanted to hear. There was no way she would trust this Senju.

"Why should I?" Yuki asked, taking a defensive stance. There was still some time before nightfall. If she somehow escaped from him, then she could reach her estate in time and ask for reinforcement from Izanagi and Nanako. However, Yuki knew she stood no chance against this Senju, especially not now that she was so exhausted ... She had seen him fight before. In all honesty, she feared him. He could easily kill her.

'But I won't go down without a fight.'

Tobirama kept glaring at her, debating if he should leave her alone or take her with him. He knew those shinobis were following him, which is why he came to this secluded area which would take a while to be discovered. It wasn't hard to imagine what they would do to her if they caught her alive. But that wasn't what puzzled him.

'Why do I care what happens to her?'

He had no idea what or why he was doing what he was doing right now. But He knew the more time they wasted, the more likely it would be that they get discovered.

'I can't waste more time.'

He caught her wrist and yanked her upon which she flung her free arm towards his neck, at the same time moved her leg to kick him in the side. He caught her arm making the needle fall from her hand and released her wrist to grab her leg before it could land a blow. 

'He's too fast!'

She dashed a kunai towards his neck, which he quickly dodged by stepping back. 

He smirked. She reacts fast. 'But not fast enough.'

He would have used Ninjutsu, but that would make it easier for those shinobis to find them. He decided to take her down with just taijutsu.

His fist missed her face by inches- which she grabbed and pulled down to spin kick him. He ducked the first kick but stumbled back when the next kick land on his stomach real hard.

Without wasting any second, she pumped some chakra onto her leg to land a roundhouse kick on him. He quickly dodged the attacks.

Noticing that her entire weight rested on her lead leg, he swiped her leg to make her lose balance. She almost fell, but quickly shifted her weight mid-air to throw another needle at him. 

He quickly dodged to the side.

In one smooth movement, she twisted her torso and with a jolting yet fluid move her foot proceeded to land a chakra infused kick on him. A jarring noise floated in the air as blocked the attack, the force of it caused the ground to crumble beneath his feet, the surrounding air rippling out.

Tobirama smirked.

'Impressive. But she lacks experience.'

The moment she landed back on the ground she prepared to perform a hand seal of Fireball jutsu. Before she could even register what happened, her body froze.

'What?'

She fell to the ground, unable to move.

'I'm paralyzed... When did he?'

Tobirama had sneakily stabbed the needle that had fallen from her hand into the back of her neck.

Yuki laid numb on the ground. She had planned on injecting the needle into him-which would restrain his movements for few minutes then drain his chakra—causing him to faint, which was enough for her to escape.

But her plan backfired. Now she was paralyzed.

─∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗─