After that, Sen and Madara committed to being honest with one another, and confronting issues cohesively. They continued spending their spare time and nearly every night together. Things were going well for the couple, much to their pleasure.

Madara had found himself fully trusting Sen, just another thing he never expected to do. He noticed that had become a recurring theme with the girl. She made him act in ways he never had before and stirred emotions in him that had never surfaced before. Somewhere along the way, he had begun peeling away the cold, hard layers of himself, all thanks to Sen.

The Hyuga woman also found herself changing. She had become stronger and wiser through the ordeals of the past few months. She owed this newfound strength to Madara, who had proven to her time after time that she could rely on him. He had never let her down, so how could she insult him by not trusting his word when he said he believed in her.

As the weeks passed, Sen and Madara were more frequently graced by three more presences. Karasu, Yama, and Yuudai had taken to spending their time with the couple. They shared meals together, trained together, and half of the time Karasu (sometimes accompanied by the other two) would stay in Sen's guest bedroom. On those nights, Sen always went to sleep with a smile on her face as she heard the soft rumble of laughter from down the hallway.

Tonight was a night like that. After returning from a training session with the boys and Sora, she cooked dinner while they washed up. Madara appeared after he finished working and helped Sen finish up in the kitchen. As they sat the last dish on the table, Madara walked up behind Sen and wrapped his arms around her middle before asking with a laugh, "Did Yama ask you to cook all of this?"

She grinned brightly while tossing her head back to look up to Madara. She replied, "He may have suggested a thing or two..." She paused before wrinkling her nose up in a laugh. Madara's lip twitched upward involuntarily at her cute expression. She finished speaking in a tongue laced with good-natured sarcasm, "but then again, as he said, they're shinobi, they need protein."

Yama burst out of the guest room and exclaimed, "I heard that, Sen!"

"Good, now you guys get in here and eat," she called back with equal enthusiasm.

Madara watched her laugh and converse with the boys and enjoyed every moment of it. He was content with just spectating; however, he was soon pulled into the chatter as well. The five of them spent the evening together before the boys decided to go practice their shadow clone jutsu in the guest room.

They went into Sen's bedroom where Madara lounged on her bed with a book while she folded a bit of her laundry and then began slowly undressing herself in order to shower. As she stripped away pieces of her clothes, Madara's eyes peeked up to her more. He gulped, unable to keep his eyes off of her. With her long dark hair spilling across her back and down to the curve of her butt and soft pale skin casting a warm glow from the lamps, Madara thought she looked unbelievably beautiful.

Her white eyes caught him gaping at him. Instead of looking away from her, he raised his face to hers, taking in her form as his gaze traveled up. She smirked at him and began padding to the bathroom before dropping the bundled up kimono she had been haphazardly covering herself with.

Sen wished she could see Madara's face as she did this. She looked over her shoulder and asked in a purr, "Care to join me?"

A devilish smile worked its way onto the man's handsome face. He slowly closed the book and lay it down before sliding off the bed and working his hands against the knot of his kimono. She continued on into the shower with Madara helplessly following.

After a long and steamy shower that left them worn out, they crawled into bed and quietly talked to each other about their day. The conversation ended up on the boys and their training progress. Sen was proud to report that they were all three extremely talented and would soon be formidable opponents. Madara was happy to hear.

A couple quiet minutes passed before Madara spoke, "They love you dearly." Sen traced circles on his back while they lay in bed facing one another. His words pulled at the corners of her mouth while her eyes glimmered as she replied, "And I love them just as much."

Madara draped an arm over her and pulled her closer. She loved the warmth that the front of his body provided while pressed against her.

She was quiet for a few moments. Her thoughts were far off before she asked, "Madara?"

"Hn."

"It kinda feels like we're all a family nowadays. Wouldn't you say so?"

He smiled and replied, "It does, yeah." He felt warm all over while he thought about what she said. He liked the idea of them being a family. The boys had become special to him as well over the past few months.

Sen relaxed into her lover's form and closed her eyes. The man told her he loved her before whispering goodnight. She responded the same. A smile rested on her face as she felt herself slowly drifting to sleep while the soft echo of laughter rolled in the background.

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