Natsume was always too nice. He always was too naive. He always was too innocent. That's how Madara viewed the kid as he walked down the neighborhood streets towards his house. It was Madara's job to keep him safe. At least, that's what he and Natsume had "agreed" on. Once Natsume died, Madara was promised the Book of Friends, a powerful book filled with the names of the youkai, written by none other than Natsume's grandmother, Reiko.
Of course, Madara hadn't always been interested in the book. If he was, what stopped him from eating the boy? Nothing did. Exactly nothing stopped him. It was simple nothing that froze Madara in his tracks every time he even considered killing Natsume.
As his encounter with Enkou had taught him a long time ago, Madara wasn't always interested in the Book of Friends. In fact, it was the reason why he was even involved with Natsume in the first place. Well, why he was involved with both of them.
A long time ago, which was the blink of an eye in youkai time, Madara had been lounging about in the forest before his sealing, basking in the warm sunlight. He recalled how it had heated his beautiful white pelt.
His tail had apparently been hanging out into a path through the forest that led to a shrine. Any regular human would have gone right through, but Madara eventually heard a female voice calling out.
"Move your fluffy ass!"
Startled by the scornful voice, Madara whipped around, his first instinct to capture whoever had said that.
As he lunged for the person standing on the path, he snapped to her left and upwards. The girl's mistake. His tail blocked her from moving forwards, and his face from going up or to the right, which forced her down to the left... Right into Madara's waiting paw!
He quickly pinned her to the ground. "Why you impudent little-!"
The girl was calm there, which froze him mid-sentence. She didn't struggle, or cry out, or even look at him. Her cheek rested on one hand as she remained in an indifferent mask. The youkai sighed and lifted his paw. She just remained there on the ground.
"So much for that idea." She commented casually.
Madara, his curiosity having been peaked, laid down on the ground beside her, resting his massive head alongside her. It was as long down his snout as she was tall.
"Idea?" He asked.
She sighed. "I'm collecting the names of the youkai. I was gonna challenge you, but you'd beat me easy. You know some good battle tricks." The girl rolled onto her back. "My name is Reiko, by the way. Natsume Reiko."