Characters: Madara
Summary: Madara finds out just how fun plotting can be.
Pairings: None
Author's Note: This was a lot of fun to write.
Dedication: Dedicated to Madara's Crystal.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The only thing Madara doesn't really like about Amegakure is that it rains entirely too much. He hates the rain; he thought he had escaped it when he absconded from Konohagakure, and the rain makes his bones ache so. Time for the painkillers when his legs start to ache; sadly, Madara can lay his hands on nothing stronger than Tylenol.
And he doesn't need anything stronger than Tylenol. Anything stronger than that would impede his ability to spin spider webs and cast out the nets to ensnare helpless victims.
When he was trying to overthrow Hashirama so many years ago, Madara had been under the distinct impression that plotting was almost more trouble than it was worth. The trouble he had to go to in order to get a decent conspiracy going barely seemed to equal to the prospective ends, and Madara was even more inclined to take a dim view of plotting when he was found out and he had to beat a hasty retreat, after he and Hashirama finally had it out in the Valley of the End.
It's amazing. In those days, if I had been told that I would be leading another conspiracy for world domination, I would have laughed in the face of the one who chose to mock me.
Then, I would have killed him.
Even his quiet takeover of Kirigakure couldn't reconcile Madara fully to the idea of plotting.
But now, now amazingly, it is different.
Maybe that's because it's so ridiculously easy.
Madara has finally set on a plan that he is sure will bring all of the world under his thumb, and Amegakure, with its impersonal sense of hustle and bustle and the people who never stop to inspect too closely the affairs of others, is a perfect staging ground for conspiracies and plots of all scopes.
Yahiko, an impressionable boy, is easy enough to have his head filled with dreams of independence and of throwing off tyrants. Madara barely has to steer his thoughts at all, and watches in satisfaction as Yahiko takes his idea to the first stage of fruition.
He has to admit, he likes the name Yahiko chose for the organization. Akatsuki. Depending on how it's spelled, it could either be 'dawn' or 'red moon'. It's a good, solid name for the organization that will one day rule the world-with Madara as the power behind the scenes, of course.
Then, Yahiko dies. Madara resists a groan. Shimura Danzo, that woodland rat, as usual, is sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. Can't he keep his mind to his own affairs and stay away from mine? It's only a small comfort for Madara to learn that Danzo, in his ill-advised foray into Ame no Kuni, has been fairly badly mutilated, his forces decimated.
That's what you get, young ne'er-do-well, when you insert yourself into matter beyond your abilities. Now kindly butt out.
Madara sees the need to swoop back in again. He's going to have to take a more personal involvement in Akatsuki to keep it from falling apart at the seams.
Nagato is at first slightly suspicious at him, but he is emotionally fragile and terribly vulnerable after the death of his friend and he proves to be just as easily influenced as Yahiko was. He listens and nods as Madara drips poison into his ears. Nagato doesn't even try to question Madara's motives.
I must admit, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a wielder of the Rinnegan in my possession. This will speed up matters nicely, I suspect.
Konan, the lone kunoichi out of the original trio, is, Madara is somewhat irked to note, considerably more watchful and discerning than either of her fellows. She neither likes nor trusts him, and it goes well beyond the traditional xenophobia a nin displays towards the nin of another nation.
The girl could be a threat to my plans.
I suppose I'll have to have her killed sometime.
Konan's dislike of Madara grows exponentially when she begins to notice a pattern concerning the level of peril on the missions she's sent on.
"Do you think I am blind?" she demands, pale blue eyes blazing. "Do you think I can not see you for what you are, old man?"
Madara, he would like to note, does not appreciate being referred to so disrespectfully as by the title of "old man".
He's really going to have to get her killed some time soon.
But even with Konan trying her best to curb him at every opportunity (it's not like Nagato will listen to her anyway), Madara finds all of this is going so smoothly that he can't help but keep an eye cast over the shoulder for any sign of trouble. It's almost too easy.
And it's almost too much fun.
Maybe that's because it's all so easy. Like people just fall over themselves to be manipulated by him. Or maybe because of the way Konan clenches and un-clenches her hands every time she sees Madara and Nagato together.
All going according to plan.
If my luck keeps going the way it is, I should be king of the world before I hit senility.