Fandom: Naruto
Title: Lessons of Survival
Author: hana-akira AKA rurichi
Character: Uchiha Madara, Kyuubi
Genre: General
Rating: 17+
Warning: OOC, doesn't-follow-Canon
Prompt: How Madara REALLY met the Kyuubi. Or not.
Summary: Madara learned long ago that it was not the strong who survived, but the swift.
A/N: Third person from Madara's point of view.
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1: You have to be faster than everyone else.
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If you were not fast enough, you were going to get caught. This is a fact that Madara knows well, a truth that has been ingrained into his very skin (Old scars telling of a whole another story altogether), and so he resolves to be faster than everyone else, everyone he knows because this was one of the lessons that could mean the be-all or end-all of his survival.
And so long as you were faster than everyone else, no one could ever catch you ('Faster, faster,' his mind screeches, the sound of a thousand thundering footsteps nipping at his heels, and Madara pushes himself still farther, still further than anyone can reach.)
If they can never touch you, they can never hurt you (Foreign hands barely touching, like ghosts or phantoms, but still close enough that they scare him.) This is a reality that Madara knows and he knows it very well.
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2: No strings attached.
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Relationships and bonds mean nothing in the survival of the fittest. This is a cold truth, a fact that no one wants to accept, but it is still the truth, nonetheless.
Emotional attachments held you back—sentimentality of old memories or feelings that one had for others whether they were human or beasts—they all held you back. It's not something that everyone gets to understand—what with the idea that having allies is having power in numbers or having rivals and enemies is similar to testing your mettle—but Madara knows that emotion brings down even the best of them. Mourning, grief, jealousy, pride, sacrifice—all of these threaten one's very survival. Connections mean nothing and so Madara resolves to treat it as nothing but a weakness.
(Soulless eyes look at Madara and murmur—)
It means nothing AT ALL ("Brother.")
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3: Power and ability are a necessity. Not a hobby.
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It's power incarnate—pure and unadulterated supremacy personified. This monster of orange and red is power and Madara knows that deep down, he's afraid beyond belief.
This is power. But power means nothing if you get yourself killed and Madara resolves that he will whatever is necessary to control the power before him.
Red tendrils lick at Madara's feet, crimson mist surrounding him in a loving embrace, and he gazes into the blood-colored eyes of the fox-like beast whose eyes promised power eternal, his hand reaching out as though to see if the image before him was real.
(Contact, and the blood-colored eyes are in slits and a blood-curdling scream rips through the air as a wide grin spreads across the demon's face in glee and like a wildfire.)
"I am yours to wield, however so you please," an animalistic voice whispers seductively in Madara's mind and Madara can't help but think that he has made a devil's deal in that moment.
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4: Run.
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There are numerous lessons of survival, so many of them that there's just too many to count, but there's only one that truly matters and that is the lesson of when to run. Genuine speed is everything and if no one can catch you, no one can harm you. This is the most important survival lesson because it's the swift who survived tidal waves and earthquakes, not the strong, and so Madara constantly moves, constantly runs in motion, and therefore never stops.
('Faster, faster. Don't stop moving, never stay still,' Madara's heart hammers like a continuous pendulum, beating, beating, beating like a song that is on repeat, the same notes and the same tune over and over again—)
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5: And for God's sake, don't look back.
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('Run, run, run—don't look back, never look back because there might only be ashes left,' the passing blurs of color and the fading scents of summer being the only reminders that there's something behind him—)
Madara runs and he doesn't look back.
"Summon me, call my name—" the creature says in an allure that Madara can't deny.
("I don't want to stand still," he says quietly to himself and an orange beast with nine tails and a scarlet-colored aura roars in Madara's dreams.)
Madara goes forward and never looks back (This is the spell of forward motion and Madara dives right in, the being of vermilion laughing in absolute delight and joy in its all-encompassing freedom of land, sea, and sky. He makes a deal with the devil and the devil laughs all the while in Hell.)