~Madara x Sakura Week~
Day: 1
Prompt: The Curse of Hatred
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"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it; hatred confused life; love harmonizes it; hatred darkens life; love illuminates it"
Martín Luther King Jr., "A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches"
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Sakura woke with a start.
A myriad of distorted images flashing across her mind.
A war.
Not the one they were fighting now, a more ancient one but not less of a bloodshed.
A young man–whose striking resemblance to Sasuke made her shudder– dying before her eyes.
The Sharingan spinning endlessly.
She closed her eyes tightly willingly herself to calm down. She thought of her parents, her friends, her Village... everything that mattered to her, and clinged to it to return her mind to reality.
When she suceeded at last in pushing the nightmares that haunted her every night for almost a week now to the back of her head, she got up and headed towards the medical tent of the second division.
The previous night one of their squads fought against an army of black Zetsus and, even though they won, more than one was critically injured.
Once she arrived she lost sense of time, going back and forth between patients, her deft hands gliding across the broken flesh and bones before her, knitting and repairing with warm green chakra.
Working like this filled her with such a profound sense of acomplishment that she was able to forget about everything, even her night terrors.
Shizune had to drag her out of the tent so she could rest and let her chakra replenish. Outside a warm orange light bathed the camp site, for a moment she tought of looking for Naruto and Kakashi-sensei but she quickly discarded the idea, instead she climbed a boulder that flanked their camp and sat at the edge looking over the camp wishing the war would end soon so everyone would return to their homes.
She was such a coward. Avoiding Naruto just so she wouldn't bump into Sasuke, but they would surely be togheter, since Sasuke returned not even once she has saw them apart.
Of course she was happy to have him back, but it was so diferent from how she had expected it to happen; he was so diferent, colder than she remembered and sharper around the edges... and she was diferent too, long gone was the silly fangirl that dreamed of becoming Mrs. Sasuke Uchiha, she wanted nothing from him except perharps camaraderie.
"There you are"
She tensed and grabed a kunai from her pouch hand grinding strong around the handle. She turned around throwing the kunai only to find at the first Hokage standing behind her with her kunai in hand.
She jumped to a standing position and bowed deeply. She attacked the first Hokage!
"Shodaime-sama I'm sorry, I didn't know–"
"It's alright little blossom " he said smiling carelessly "You have very good instinct"
"Were you looking for me, Shodaime-sama? " she asked still feeling nervous in the precence of such a legendary ninja.
"Ah, gimmie a second" he extracted a scroll from his robes and when he opened it a bentō box appeared in his hand with a poof " Tsuna-chan asked me to give you this, she said her 'stupid, workaholic self-neglecting' aprentice would forget to eat if someone didn't reminded her to do so"
Sakura flushed, cursing Tsunade-shisou for exposing her in such an embarrasing way with the first Hokage of all people.
Hashirama chuckled, clearly amused at the girl's antics.
The young medic tried to compose herself, even when she was still angry and took the bentō that Hashirama was handing her. "Thank you Shodaime-sama"
He blinked in desbelif. The expression of the girl, it was just like Madara's: that lowered yet sturbborn gaze, the pout on her lips and furrowed brows.
"You– you remind me of someone"
Sakura was taken aback by the sudden change in the Hokage's voice, just a moment ago he sounded cheerful and warm but now he sounded so sad.
"Yes, everybody says I'm just like Shisou" she said scratching the back of her neck.
"No... I- I mean of course you are a lot like Tsuna-chan" he stammered, a girl like her had nothing in common with Madara his eyes were tricking him "Er, just forget it, must be the centuries watching up to me, I have to go see ya' around little one!" He waved his hand and disapeared in a whirl of leaves.
She frowned, the first Hokage was really wierd.
Giving one last glance at the camp she decided to return to her tent to work on her written reports. She did so, alternating between her food and the scrolls, by the time she finished it was already dark.
She eyed her made up bed at the corner of the tent; it was nothing more than two raggedy mats piled up and a light scratchy blanket, but usually after a long day working it was like heaven on earth for Sakura, now though she dreaded the mere thought of sleeping. She knew she'll be having nightmares again, she felt it.
Still she had no option but to try, afterall she needed the rest if she wanted to work the next day. So she stood from her desk and stretched her sore muscles, took off her flak jacket and hitai-ate leaving them folded beside the bed.
She laid down with her boots on in case she needed to get up on the middle of the night and stared at the tent's celing, wishing to have a peaceful and dreamless sleep.
Her mind wondered back to her teammates and their reunion, wich was to say the least very anti climatic considering all they'd gone through to bring Sasuke back.
The renegade Uchiha just showed up at their camp one day demanding to join the Allied Forces, of course Naruto recieved him with open arms (he had such a big forgiving heart) but she just couldn't bring herself to do the same, she wasn't as eager nor even willing to forgive him yet, and even more important she didn't trusted him.
She, the girl who swore would always wait for him, couldn't trust him...
The thought was too painful to bear but she had to face the truth, Team 7 would never go back to the way it was when they were little hopeful genins fresh out of the Academy, still she didn't want to give up, they could start again, make a new and better Team.
She started to doze of holding onto that dream.
Her visión blurred and suddenly she found herself in a meadow standing before a beautiful lake that reflected the night sky above her.
"I wish we could go back to the way we were" she said only vaguely consicious she was in a dream.
"This world is full if things that don't go as you wish"
The deep voice took Sakura out of her reverie, she turned around out of curiosity.
A tall figure clad in a red armor (she distantly remembered seeing one like that at Konoha's Museum) was aproaching her.
Her mouth fell open. Those features: sharp onyxs eyes, elegant nose, raven unruly hair and that strong yet delicate looking jaw. He was an Uchiha.
The man's eyes turned red with the characteristic black tomoes spinning around the iris. The Sharingan. Those were the same eyes from her nightmares.
A chill run down her spine, she averted her eyes scared that those eyes would bring back the images of that war-thorn land that haunted her dreams.
"Don't be afraid" his voice was surprisingly gentle, not what she would expect from an Uchiha "This is merely a dream, nothing can hurt you."
Her eyes darted back to his face, moving slowly up, until their eyes locked.
Feeling brave she dared to ask "What do you mean? what you said before –"
"You are still very young" he said closing the distance between them, making it so that she could practically fell the heat radiating from him "but, the longer you live you realize life is just made of pain, suffering and emptiness "
The air around them shifted becoming heavy and dark, mirroring his words.
"That's not true" she said calmly. Life wasn't as simple as that, she refused to believe something so awful "It doesn't matter how much pain we have to endure as long as we never lose sight of the light, the hope that will help us love past the pain and emptiness in our hearts"
He smirked, shooking his head seemingly amused at her naivety.
"Listen girl, in this world whenever there's light there's also shadows. The selfish desire of maintain peace causes war" he paused for a moment, his eyes flashed dangerously "and hatred is born to protect love"
She felt a pang of compassion for the stranger, he seemed so wrapped up in hate he couldn't see anything else.
"Maybe you're right, but I think it's worth it"
Her words clearly struck a chord, for a moment he could just stare at her.
"Who are you?" he cupped her face in his gloved hands "Why do I dream of you?"
She gasped.
Wasn't he just a figment of her imagination? Then why did this felt so damn real?
She could smell the musky scent of the lether gloves, the hardness of the armor pressed against her body, his breath grazing her lips...
"Sakura" she breathed "and you?"
"Madara Uchiha"
Her eyes snapped open, she was in the tent once again. No valley. No lake.
She sat up gingerly and hugged her knees to her chest.
Madara Uchiha.
She knew that name, every ninja of Konoha did.
Afterall he was one of the Village's foundrers! not to mention the fact that he died almost a century ago.
Well, the crazy Madara dream was way better than the nightmares, but it was still disturbing (I mean she had almost kissed Sasuke's ancestor! Now that was creepy)
The war was really taking it's toll on her mental health.
She rubbed her eyes and hopped out of bed feeling full of energy. She grabbed her vest and put it on along with her hitai-ate.
It was time to report back to her division.
Once she arrived at the Kazekage's tent she was greeted by the second Hokage. He informed her they were under attack, their división had stayed behind to make a syrategy.
"Uzumaki and Uchiha are holding on the front, but we don't know how much they'll last against Madara Uchiha" said Tobirama with a grim look on his face.
Sakura's eyes widened at the mention of the man she had dreamed of.
Apparently he wasn't as dead as she'd believe him to be, and of course that slimy bastard Kabuto was behind this 'miraculous resurrection'.
"Sakura-san, you and Shizune-san will lead the rear, we need our med-nin at their best if we want to win this fight " said Gaara with a burdened expression.
The young kunoichi nodded, of course she was more than capable of supporting Sasuke and Naruto at the front, but she was no fool, Gaara and the second Hokage clearly spent some time coming up with a strategy that would allow them to win and she had to play her part for it to be so.
They split up outside the tent and, as she was ordered Sakura headed at the rear along with nearly six squadrons of medic-nins.
Even at the distance the imposing figures of the tailed beasts could be seen as clear as day.
Sakura felt a throbbing in her chest and in a daze she began to walk forward as if something or someone was pulling her towards the battlefield.
"Sakura!" Shizune shouted at her back, watching the young girl disapear in the crowd.
However Sakura couldn't hear her, she was oblivious to everything, the only thing in her mind was to keep going forward.
When she reached the front at last her eyes trained on the armored figure standing among the Tailed Beasts, she kept walking towards him.
Naruto screamed her name at the top of his lungs still his voice was nothing but a distant whisper in her ears.
"You"
Madara was convinced the girl he saw in his dreams every night since he was resurrected was nothing but a side effect of the jutsu, but here she was, standing in front of him looking just as perplexed as he was.
The moment his voice reached her ears she regained her senses, her first impulse at facing such a dangerous and legendary Shinobi was to take a step back but he didn't allowed her to distance herself from him grabbing her arm and pulling her against him. Just like in their shared dream.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked with a shaky voice, afraid of the feelings blossoming in her chest at having his body so near.
"I'm doing this so no one suffers again" he replied firmly "With the power of the beasts I'll be able to plunge the world into the Infinite Tsukuyomi. No more war. No more hatred...everybody will live peacefully as it always should have been"
Madara's expression was that of a man absolutely convinced to be doing the right thing, but his eyes reflected a feeling that Sakura knew very well: loneliness.
And suddenly it hit her. Those nightmares she had, those were his memories. All that suffering was his and for some reason she could see them.
That was the only logical explanation she could find for them dreaming about each other.
"But it wouldn't be real" she said, her eyes locked into his once again hoping her words would get through him "that...happiness you speak about, it would be worthless. You said it yourself pain and happiness are directly related, how could anyone be happy without suffering?"
Madara's grip loosened, but this time it was Sakura the one to keep him in place intertwining their fingers tightly.
"And what do you know about suffering?" he snarled trying to hide the small hope that the girl's touch provided him. He was above such feelings.
"You're wrong, I know your suffering, I see it every night, and I won't ignore it. I won't leave you alone"
Something inside of Madara broke.
A voice inside his head insisted she was lying, that she would end up betraying him just like everyone else, but he ignored it. She was sincere; he could feel it.
He pressed a hand to her cheek, just like he had done in their dream, and bent down to kiss her, he barely caressed her lips with his, giving her the chance to refuse him.
At first she was too surprised to move, but the unexpected gentleness of his kiss disarmed her.
Eagerly she pressed her lips more firmly against his and looped her arms around the back of his neck bringing him closer.
He trembled under her touch, and somehow in that moment he knew the curse of hatred was broken.
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A/N: And so it begins!
Happy MadaSaku Week. I hope you liked this (it's my first time writing in English, so any critisism is welcome).