He remembered betrayal. Black Zetsu had speared him through his heart and something had completely overtaken his body. Whatever it was, it wrecked his body, his chakra, everything. Afterwards, he could barely retain consciousness. He remained in that black void until he was spit out. Summoned by the Sage of Six Paths, he had one final conversation with Hashirama before he finally lost consciousness.
Madara woke up once more. His body still ached, but no longer did he feel like he was on the brink of death; now he just felt incredibly sore. He felt for his chakra but he could barely mold any. His body still sore and shaky, he sat up on the bed he was lying on. Looking around, he noticed one of his eyes was blind, he saw that he was in a strange room with what looked like various medicines and medical equipment. The style was different from anything he had seen.
It was clear that he was not in the afterlife, not that he remembered what that was like anyway. The living are unable to comprehend the realm of the dead. The blind eye indicated the possibility of Izanagi having been used, though he didn't remember activating it himself. In the middle of his pondering, a pink-haired woman walked into the room and came to a halt, clearly surprised by his being awake.
Her surprise quickly turned to irritation. "Well, it looks like you're finally awake. What hell happened to damage your body so badly?"
"...What?" Unfortunately, Madara could not understand a single word of what she was saying. "You wouldn't happen to understand what I'm saying, would you?" He attempted to communicate with her in his own language, but she was not familiar with it either. Verbal communication was quickly replaced with written language, which was finally recognizable to Porlyusica. In her medical research, she had encountered the orient script several times. Over the years she had studied the text and become fluent in the written language.
Madara had managed to vaguely explain his situation to Porlyusica. She was told of his participation in a battle and of the damage done to his body in the process. Porlyusica knew that there was more to the story, but she did not really care to pry into it. Madara gave off no hostile vibes. Truthfully, Madara was just lost and saw no reason to confront the person who had clearly saved his life.
Porlyusica owned a couple of books that she had gathered when she learned the orient script. She gave these to Madara, who had requested any resources that would help him learn the local language. She had no need for them any longer and saw no harm in giving him these books.
It had been clear to Madara from the very beginning that Porlyusica was not a social person. Despite this, Porlyusica had Madara remain in her house while he was recovering. He acquiesced because he really had nowhere else to go. Instead, he spent his time learning the language of this land, then learning the history of the world that he had come to realize was not his own. The continents were misshapen and the governments were completely unknown to him. The chakra was substituted with what the locals called magic, which to be fair could be an applicable definition. Shinobi had had difficulty reconciling their studies of the world with what chakra could do. It seemed to be the only substance that could completely mess with their observations for unknown reasons. Magic seemed to do the same.
"Do you plan to go home after you're healed?" Porlyusica asked once, analyzing Madara for any sign of deceit. It was clear she already had an idea as to what his answer would be.
Nevertheless, Madara graced her with her answer. "I don't really have a home to go to. Even if I wanted to go back to where I came from, I'm not sure if I could."
Porlyusica seemed to accept this answer, deep in thought. Finally she came to a conclusion. "You know, I actually came to Earthland from a world called Edolas. We didn't really have innate magic over there and as a result life there was a bit dull. I eventually joined a guild called Fairy Tail. I always thought I would return to Edolas one day, but now I've had several opportunities to do so and yet I remain here."
At this point she had turned back to Madara and he could see some form of understanding in her eyes. Had something tipped her off that he was a stranger to this land? Although their backgrounds were likely different, it was clear that she had been through a similar situation as him. "Perhaps I won't feel like leaving either." He gave his response, confirming Porlyusica's implication that he was not from Earthland either.
Aside from talking to Porlyusica, Madara also worked on regaining his chakra and making a few modifications that he had not had time for in the middle of the war. His experience meddling with Hashirama's DNA and the use of his own DNA by others left him feeling sour about leaving his DNA open to experimentation. He also didn't want to take the chance of being summoned back to his home world to face the possibility of being sealed or killed. In his isolation after faking his death, he had been working on a seal that would serve this function. It was based off of secrecy seals. Now he had the time to complete the seal. Thus, he completed a seal that would obfuscate his DNA.
He also worked on molding the zetsu cells in his body to better integrate them into his body. Kabuto had just slapped them onto his chest without any care to hide them or make them look presentable; this was good enough for an Edo Tensei body that could repair itself. However, as a living being he would benefit more from integrating the zetsu cells into his internal organs, which had no way to heal themselves, rather than his chest.
Madara was sick of staying in one room constantly. Despite still having a weak body, He felt he was good enough to leave. Porlyusica disagreed, though she didn't really force him to stay. Giving Madara enough medicine to survive, they parted ways. He had asked for the bill for his treatment but she had ignored him. Regardless, he would find some way to pay her back in the future.
Walking through the forest, he took in the nature of this new world for the very first time. He had been cooped up for his entire stay at Porlyusica's due to the work he was doing. Now that he was out, he felt free for the first time in his life. As a child, he was expected to fight on the battlefield and as he grew older he gained the responsibility of leading his clan and then protecting the best interests of the village. Even after deserting Konoha, he had been obsessed with his plans. With his lineage and power, he felt he had the responsibility to save the world from itself. Despite failing to succeed at his goals, he had somewhat contributed to the cooperation of the villages and hopefully less bloodshed in the future. Regardless, his talk with Hashirama allowed him to feel secure that the future was in the hands of the two brats who had clashed with him. His methods were too flawed. His faith in his methods unjustified.
Now that he was free, he didn't know what to do. He jumped to the trees, looking to leave the forest. Eventually he reached a town. The architecture was definitely much different than that of the Elemental Nations. Leaving the forest, he entered the town, observing the people around him. When he had woke up in this world, all he had were his pants. Porlyusica had given him a very basic set of clothes, consisting of a brown robe and and beige pants. He needed some more clothing, weaponry, food, money, and something to carry all of that. Not in the mood to go around stealing, he looked for some way to earn money.
There seemed to be many menial jobs available, but he didn't feel like they made good use of his skillset. Along the way, he had checked out a mage's guild called Twilight Ogre, but it seemed like joining a major guild like that would restrict him far too much. He wanted a small guild where he could earn a sizeable sum of money without people bothering him too much about it. There was only one other guild in the town, but it seemed to have a poor reputation. However, it was the same guild that Porlyusica had mentioned she had been a part of so it couldn't be too bad.
He made his way to Fairy Tail's guild hall. Looking around, he saw nothing as grand and flashy as Twilight Ogre's guild hall. Instead, he saw a tiny tavern with Fairy Tail's symbol on the front. Stepping inside, he could see few people mulling about. However, they quickly turned to look at him. They seemed apprehensive of him. Perhaps he gave off a threatening vibe?
He addressed the group in front of him. "Hi, I was told of this guild by Porlyusica. I'm looking for the master of the guild."
An elderly looking man responded. "The names Macao. What business do you have with the guild?" Truthfully, he wasn't too old, but he seemed far too tired.
"I'm looking for a guild to join. I need money and I believe my skills would be valuable to this guild considering the condition it's in." Madara stated his true intentions to the guild, having no need to lie about his purpose here. "You guys looks like you need more people earning money for the guild."
"Don't you know about our reputation? Why would you choose this guild over others?" Macao didn't understand why this stranger would choose this guild over another, more popular one. Even with his connection to Porlyusica he should realize that he would have an easier time in a bigger guild. From the looks of it, this new guy was fairly confident about his power.
"Does it really matter which guild I choose. I can choose whatever jobs I want, no?" Madara had done a little bit of information gathering about the structure of legal guilds in this world. He realized that as long as he himself had a good reputation he would attract good jobs. Bigger guilds would pass along their best requests to their veteran members, but in a guild like Fairy Tail the jobs would be his to pick.
Macao stared into his eyes for a few seconds, then seemed to come to a conclusion. "Alright then, what's your name and what kind of magic do you use?"
"I'm fairly good at a few different elemental magics such as fire, wood, earth, and water. Other than that I mainly specialize in physical combat. I know a few more tricks, but that should be enough to give you an idea of what I can do." Madara had long decided to pass off his ninjutsu as magic. He didn't feel like explaining the details of him coming from another world, even though there was a chance that they knew about Edolas. Hopefully, he could do some basic A-rank missions while regaining his strength. By then, he will have proven his abilities and have become invaluable to the guild.
"So many elements! I myself specialize in fire. You seem like you know what you are doing. I'm surprised a fella like you isn't already part of a guild." Macao was still a bit suspicious of this stranger.
"I'm actually not from this kingdom. I was injured and found by Porlyusica. I have no interest in returning and thought to make a new life for myself here."
"Well, that's good enough for me. Welcome to Fairy Tail! Kinana will get your guild tattoo." Madara got a purple tattoo on his forearm and signed a few papers qualifying him to take jobs as part of the guild. He then went on to start picking a job to do. However, since it was his first time, Macao asked Max to take a job with him. They eventually chose some simple bodyguard job for a group of merchants.
Madara found himself riding some vehicle alongside Max. He had learned that Max used sand magic, which reminded of the Kazekage he had fought. It looked like he actually controlled the element itself rather than controlling it by proxy. He wondered if that would change anything about the element. Unfortunately, they hadn't been attacked by anyone yet, so he was stuck on the carriage blowing off time until the mission was over. However, just as he was cursing the peacefulness of the world, the carriage shook. It seemed like something had attacked the group. Outside of the carriage, it looked like Max was fending off some bull-like beast. He seemed to be handling the situation fine, but there were more monsters coming from another angle. Madara leaped forward, deciding to engage these beasts with taijutsu.
He collapsed the skull of the first beast with a swift palm strike, pierced the brain of another with the horn of the first creature, and tossed the two beasts into the remaining beasts. As the group of beasts attempted to regain their bearings, he set them aflame with a wave of fire. In front of him, the forest burned and the corpses turned to ash. He looked over to Max and saw that sand wizard had easily buried the beasts in his sand. The merchants seemed to be safe and there were no new beasts. Madara turned back and put out his fire with a water release technique.
"Seems like you weren't kidding when you said you were proficient in multiple elements," said Max as he walked up to Madara. Madara simply nodded as they went back to the carriages. The rest of the trip went well, and Madara and Max returned to Fairy Tail with a nice lump of cash. Max told Macao the details of the mission and Macao cleared Madara for solo jobs. Before choosing another job however, Madara decided to setup a residence for himself. Since he didn't really own any land yet, he created a small, wooden house in the trees of the forest nearby. Then he went window shopping for weapons, want to get an idea of how much money he would need to get any decent equipment.
Madara spent his time doing jobs, earning cash, and setting up a home for himself in Magnolia. He had restored the guild hall and had created additions to it using his wood release techniques. Thankful for the help, Macao had granted Madara a rent-free abode in one of the rooms of the guild. Madara had declined, citing his need for some privacy. Madara used his savings to buy some plot close to the guild and set up an elaborate underground structure. Above ground, it looked like a small house, but a secret passageway would take him to a large complex underground. There, he set up training rooms, study rooms, etc.
Aside from his personal projects, he used his money to help bring the guild out of debt. He didn't need to, but it gave him something to spend his money. He realized that he didn't really need as money as he had gathered. However, helping the guild would mean they would get better jobs requests.
Madara found himself training some of the guild members in his free time. His trainees included Laki, Romeo, Jet, Droy, and Vijeeter. Max also sparred with him from time to time, but he didn't actually train him.
Currently, Madara was engaging the 6 i battle. He found that all of them except for Max used magics that could be found in his own fighting style. Droy used plant magic that had similar flexibility to his Wood release trees. Laki used actual wood magic, but it was far more stiff and less alive than his own nature, Jet had speed magic similar to his shunshin and Romeo used fire magic, though it was much stranger than his own. At times, he wondered why it was even called fire. His sticky fire was just glorified glue. Madara was very amused by Vijeeter's magic. He had always thought of taijutsu as a sort of dance and Vijeeter's magic embodied that perfectly.
He found himself weaving through various attacks. Jet and Vijeeter were tag-teaming him with a variety of taijutsu moves. He effortlessly deflected their attacks onto one another. They had not yet mastered the art of working in sync. Droy was controlling the terrain with his plants in order to hinder Madara's movement. It was clear that the overweight man was more accustomed to working with Jet than Vijeeter, as Vijeeter found himself tumbling through the vegetation every now and then. Laki and Romeo were simply blasting him with combo attacks, which created fiery wood, whenever he found himself detached from the taijutsu bout. Max was clearly preparing some attack, as he wasn't actively participating in the offense mounted against him.
Madara was curious as to what Max was up to, but unfortunately he didn't want to help Max develop bad habits. An experienced enemy wouldn't let Max just execute his big attack that easily. Sending Jet and Vijeeter flying with two kicks, Madara rushed towards Max while deflecting the oncoming attacks with a wind jutsu.
Max saw Madara bull-rushing towards him and felt some apprehension. He was sure that this would hurt. Fortunately, Madara seemed to have fallen into their trap. Max took the hit with a shield of sand, though Madara's fist still made it's way through to hit his guard. Max immediately captured Madara's arm with the sand that was around his arm. Immediately after, vines sprouted out of the sand, rapidly trapping Madara's limbs in an effort to stall his movement. Madara generally used hand signs to execute his magic, but he couldn't do that if his limbs were trapped. Laki created a prison chamber surrounding Madara with her wood, and Romeo blasted the only opening with the strongest fire he could muster up. Droy used a second layer of plants to begin crushing the chamber after Romeo ran out of energy. Although it may seem like overkill, Madara had proven himself to be extremely difficult to put down. They didn't expect this attack to kill him, but they did expect it to injure him at least a little. Hopefully, the damage would be enough for Jet and Vijeeter to more easily match him in physical combat.
When their attack ended, they saw a wooden mannequin of Madara that had some damage to its body. "Was he using some sort of puppet the whole time?!" Max yelled towards his guild mates.
"It's a wood clone. I swapped places with it while rushing to hit Max." Madara's voice came from behind them, surprising them as they had completely failed to notice him. "Your teamwork has improved, but your attacks are too predictable. That wouldn't be as much of a problem if you were able to overpower me, but since you can't you need to be more clever with those abilities."
"You're as skilled as always, Madara. How about you all take a break now and come back to the guild now. We got some food cooked up." Wakaba had apparently been watching their fight and had chosen to make his appearance now that it was over.
Back at the guild, Macao was preparing to talk to Madara. The guild's reputation had increased recently and he had no doubts that it was because of Madara. Twilight Ogre was still as greedy as always, but they were far less confrontational than before. Madara had scared, despite never really laying a hand on them. The first time they had come to trash the guild while Madara was there, he made them reimburse the guild for the damage they had caused. This had decreased their debt a minor amount, but the psychological blow was far more impactful. Somehow, Madara had talked the Twilight Ogre guild master into agreeing with his terms, even getting the interest decreased a bit. Ever since then, they had been able to pay the debt back in relative peace.
Anyway, thanks to Fairy Tail's improving reliability, they had once again received an S-class job request. They didn't have any S-class members currently, but Macao knew Madara could do it.
The group that had been training walked into the guild. They were clearly roughed up a bit, but they seemed fine otherwise. Madara was untouched, not counting the dirt that clung to his clothing. As they began eating, Macao brought up the S-rank job request.
Madara showed some clear interest in his eyes when the topic came up. "I see. No one in this guild is qualified to take it though, unless something has changed."
"We both know you've been having an easy time with all of your jobs so far. In light of that, your combat prowess, and your experience, I want to offer you a promotion to the S-class." Macao gave his formal invitation.
"I accept. These jobs have been far too boring. The S-class has several ranks within itself, right?" Madara knew that S-rank jobs alone wouldn't be enough to challenge him. He had recovered a lot of his strength since he had arrived in this world. He was itching for some real battle. He had heard of certain S-class jobs that were considered too difficult for even most S-rank mages to complete. He wanted them.
"Yes, there are certain decade and century quests. These have an extremely high mortality rate compared to most jobs. Even back in our prime, we didn't have many mages that took on those kinds of jobs. I doubt that'll stop you though."
"You are correct. Judging from the jobs that I've taken so far and the missions I had back where I came from, Those jobs should be more in line with my capabilities."
The guild celebrated their newest S-class mage, drinking until they passed out.