DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto
Characters: Yamato, Madara/tobi, Kisame, Hachibi, some mentions of Naruto, Kabuto, Sasuke.
Spoilers on the current manga arc.
warning for some violence gore and torture
inspired by a madatenz fanart, but took a darker turn :
He knows about him. Yes, it wasn't the first time he heard of his existence or seen him, from a distance. In fact, the first time he became aware was during one of his conversations with Orochimaru, on one of the many occasions the Konoha Sannin bragged of his works. The exiled shinobi said he conducted an experiment using the shodai hokage's DNA, but the attempt failed, or that was what the snake thought.
But Tobi, or rather Madara, knew better. Because he knows everything. And yet, despite his assumed omniscience, there was one thing he didn't put into perspective, one thing he didn't predict; It was what feelings would be elicited upon seeing him up close, that close in that samurai country.
It was unsettling, unnerving, even infuriating how they resembled each other. How much he reminded him of an old, bitter past.
No, they didn't look that much alike, there are only a few features that was similar, but it was in their eyes. Eyes that hold the same fire and the same passion.
It makes him want to tear them out and crush them under his own feet.
In good time, Madara told himself, laughing darkly from the depths of his caves as he thought of his plans on the Wood Style user.
All in good time.
-0-
There was a relaxed smile on Yamato's face as he gazed at the peaceful sleeping form of Naruto. It was a job well done and another mission accomplished to add to his list.
Finally, the kyuubi is under the control of the blond shinobi.
A good news it was, but despite that, it still saddened Yamato for this may mark the last mission he will have as the captain of team 7, or more accurately, the temporary captain. His abilities were no longer a necessity to suppress the tailed beast, and whatever control Naruto gained; it was considerable compared to the technique he inherited.
Too bad, he was only starting to really be at home with this team, feel like family, and Naruto was even too comfortable with him that he would pull that practical joke on him at the entrance to that holy place under the falls. He didn't like the joke one bit but it made him feel all the more welcome.
But it was the truth, he was no longer needed, that much he was sure. He may currently be the best anbu Konoha has to offer, but the title was only gained after Kakashi left, and the said man leads the original team 7. Whatever abilities and skills he has to offer, his sempai can deliver tenfold. Hell, he was certain that Naruto is stronger than him, and had been for a long time.
It was heartbreaking, but all good things have to end.
Right now, Yamato wished he smoked to give him a good excuse to head out and take breather while shaking off the depressing thoughts.
"Bee-san," Yamato started, feeling the need to get away from the confines of the four walls.
The elder Jinchuriiki lifted his head up and looked at him questioningly.
"I just need a few minutes stroll, I'll be right back."
"Sure, just take care not scare the wildlife." Be answered and stopped as if he remembered something. "Why don't you pick up some wild berries on your way back? To fill the need this awesome guy lacked?"
Yamato rolled his eyes, not again, with the rapping.
"Bee-sama." Motoi protested. "You shouldn't be too imposing on guests."
"I don't mind, really." Yamato immediately answered. "Anyway, it's on the way."
"Oh-hoh-hoh." Bee was amused, and gestured with his hands. "I didn't know rapping and rhyming was also in style in Konoha, yo!"
"Yamato sighed and shook his head. "I was not rapping."
"Yo, check this out. You're so good, I'll share you my food. Now what do you say, Bro?" The Jinchuriki pointed at him indicating it was his turn.
Yamato again rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his head. "I'll get that berry for you, Bee-san."
He motioned his hand to his chest and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
-0-
"Troublesome..." Yamato grunted to himself as he appeared on the opposite side of the wall. He can't be called an anbu captain if he hasn't mastered the art of escape. He was so happy to have left before he got pulled unto that rap contest, something that he'd be caught dead doing that he almost forgot why he went out the first place. He straightened and proceeded to walk aimlessly.
There was a small smile etched on his lips as he took in the calm of nature. It relaxed him, to hear the owls communicating with each other, the rustling of the leaves as they sway gently with the delicate wind, and the crickets joyfully sing their nightly chorus.
He always felt one with nature, being able to spontaneously and unnaturally grow trees aside. He loves the solace and tranquillity it offers. It feels that when he walks on grassy plains, or lands in tree branches, it seems to hug him, respond to him, telling him of the dangers up ahead.
He closed his eyes on his stroll, taking in what message nature was sending him.
His brows furrowed for a fraction of a second, as he was walking deep in the shadows of the forest. It was telling him to proceed with caution from here on out.
He immediately opened his eyes, as he felt that familiar tingle in his spine before encountering an enemy, and put his alert level on red. How long had he been walking?
He instinctively slid sideways, hands on the ground to maintain his balance, as he dodged three shurikens. At the same time, he raised a hand holding a kunai and blocked another shuriken making its way between his eyes.
"You are straying too far away and too alone for your own safety, Konoha shinobi." Someone from the shadows answered his unuttered question.
The stranger emerged from the shadows. Yamato's eyes widened in recognition.
"Kisame!"
"So you know about me? I guess we won't need to go through the long dreary introductions, since you obviously know about me, and I definitely now about you, Anbu captain." There was a sadistic smirk on the Akatsuki's face.
Yamato ignored his statement assuming calm facade, a more pressing matter needs to be addressed, still keeping all his guard up. "At Kage meeting, they said the Hachibi already took care of you."
"A misinformation made by yours truly. All part of the plan." Kisame answered with smug smile.
The shark-faced man took a step forward, the anbu captain raised his hands on stance. Kisame smiled, conveying to his opponent that he wasn't threatened by the man in front of him, and Yamato understood.
Yamato frowned, still wanting some answers. "How did you get through the barrier?"
This earned him a hearty chuckle from the akatsuki. "The irony is, you, or should I say your group, brought me here."
"How?"
"You just have a lot questions don't you? But that is not important. What is important is the task at hand."
"Are you here for Naruto? I won't allow you to have him." Yamato scowled at him and launched an attack swinging his kunai towards Kisame, but it was blocked by his opponent's bare hand.
Kisame shifted his hold on the kunai that now he was gripping on Yamato's wrist. Yamato jerked his hand to free himself but to no avail.
Kisame just held onto him leisurely as he answered his question. "To tell you honestly, two Jinchuriki are too much to handle even for me. You on the other hand, I won't even break a sweat." He winked at the brunette to bring his attention again to his captured arm. "I hate to break it you Yamato, or Tenzo, or whatever your name is, the kyubi kid isn't the one I am after, not right now at least."
Realization dawn on the anbu captain, and suddenly, Kisame had another Kunai swinging at him from another Yamato. Then another went flying at him with an explosive tag.
Kisame ducked and evaded the explosion and looked at the person whose hand he captured and realized it was a wood clone transforming into a lifeless log. The real Yamato was flipping back distancing himself from the akatsuki, and with a swift motion, he planted his hand on the soil.
Sharp branches shot from the earth and aimed towards Kisame.
Using a suiton technique, Kisame blasted himself away from the branches that are rapidly catching up on him. He concentrated chakra on his feet and swiftly burst towards Yamato, a kunai poised on his hand to strike.
Yamato disconnected from the soil, used his one hand as a leverage and kicked the approaching Kisame. He hooked his other leg on Kisame's hand which was holding the kunai and managed to dislodge it. With the kunai still spinning on the air, Yamato used his momentum, caught the weapon and threw it at the akatsuki.
Kisame, who was still sliding back from the force of the kick shifted his head sharply to the right, and the flying kunai missed its target which was right in the middle of his neck, but it still managed to graze him.
There was a pause between the two fighters as they tried to recalculate each other. But there was a cruel smile on Kisame's face as he gave Yamato a once over.
"My my," Kisame said with a mocking laugh, "I'm having more fun than what I have expected. It seems that I have underestimated you, although it would be a different story if I have my katana with me, so don't be too proud of yourself."
He again launched an attack on Yamato, swinging is foot at him but only hitting air. He performed hand seals and chanted a suiton jutsu, a torrent of water rose in front of Kisame and threatened to swallow Yamato and everything within a mile of him.
Yamato doubled back and performed a series of hand seals to counter the Suiton attack by Kisame. He slapped his hands to the ground just in time, and thick wall of wood emerged, a mile in length and five stories high.
The wood wall creaked and cracks were forming from the pressure of the wave behind it. It was going to give way. Yamato infused more chakra on the soil and another wall popped in front of him. When he felt that the suiton was no longer assaulting his wall, he leaned back a little from his squatting position and panted.
Yamato felt a presence behind him and turned sharply around. Kisame was behind him and was aiming a kunai at his shoulder. This time, Yamato was not fast enough to evade. The knife plunged between his shoulder blades and he was pinned against the wall he created.
Another Kisame appeared beside him and made another series of seals, it enclosed Yamato in a water prison, paralyzed, unmoving.
The Kisame in front of him pulled the kunai and his blood rushed from his open wound. The Akatsuki stood back and admired his handiwork.
"You know," the Hidden Mist shinobi started, "The fight would have been longer if you did not invest all your chakra in that wall. Your mistake was, you wanted so much to protect what was behind you, as I predicted you would."
Yamato's eyeball moved and strained. He cannot breathe. He struggled to move within that water prison, and his enemy noticed it.
"What? There something you want to say?" Kisame mocked and shrugged. "Very well."
Yamato was released from the water prison but was immediately bound by a rope treated with some ninjustu. The water clone of the akatsuki disappeared.
"What do you want from me?" Yamato asked coughing and gasping for breath.
"Me? I don't want anything from you."
"By now, they would have noticed already. They'll come here and they'll find you."
Kisame laughed again. "Sure, they'll come here, but they won't be fast enough to be here before we take you."
Yamato glared at him. "You can never get me out of this barrier undetected. They will get you."
His threat fell into deaf ears, as the shark only smirked at his threat. The space beside Kisame warped and swivelled and another akatsuki appeared.
"You!" Yamato spat.
Madara leisurely walked towards the bound anbu captain, had his mask been off, they would have seen his infuriating smile. "By now, you should know, that the barrier was never a problem."
And Yamato understood from the moment the space beside Kisame churned, that he was as good as dead. The last thing he remembered before falling into darkness was staring into a blood red eye, and a hypnotizing pattern spinning like eternity.
-0-
Yamato thought it was all only a bad dream, until his senses slowly seeped through and he felt the cold metal cuffs around his wrist. He shifted and felt a sharp pain on his back from the strain from hanging with your arms for hours.
Now he knows it was all real.
He tried to open his eyes but they were too heavy and clouded. He groaned in frustration.
"Sleeping beauty finally wakes up."
He recognized the voice. Kisame...
His eyes were forcefully pried open, and there was a harsh assault of light from one eye to the next.
"He's conscious and his pupils are responsive." A voice he remembered from somewhere said.
Yamato painfully blinked his eyes, and took some time to readjust his vision to the surrounding. After slowly opening his eyes, he noticed that the room he was in was dark, the only light probably coming from candles judging from how the shadows flickered beneath him. He also noted the lack of clothing of his upper body, something most torturers do to create a feeling of vulnerability, and easy access to the victim's skin.
He followed the movement of the person who shone light to his eyes and he saw a familiar white hair. It took his still clouded mind some time to recall who that person was.
Kabuto.
He slowly lifted up his head to see his audience. Kisame was there leaning at the doorway with malevolence evident in his smirk. Kabuto's back was on him, saying he was disinterested. Sasuke was also there, expression unreadable.
But it was who was sitting in the middle that caught all of his attention. His face may be hidden but the aura that he was seeping out was nothing short of deathly, evil, sadistic.
"Leave us." Tobi uttered in a tone that demanded no objections.
One by one, they shuffled out. Kisame lingered a few seconds longer and then left as well, but the smile was still plastered on his face, as if telling Yamato he knows what his fate would be.
Yamato did not need to ask him or told, for he knows as well, as he had been a facilitator and observer of many tortures and interrogations.
His eyes swept to a metal table a few feet away from where he was hanging. There were various assortments of blades and scalpels laid on top of it. There were also items that he can only imagine what purpose they serve. Some were spirals with pointed tips, others, were really hard to describe.
Madara followed his line of sight and chuckled. "Does it scare you Tenzou?"
Yamato slowly looked at him and only narrowed his eyes. No trace of fear can be outwardly seen; He was trained to do this, trained to endure this, and trained to die without breaking.
"I won't tell you anything." Yamato spat.
"Oh? You really have the will of fire burning in you." Madara sounded amused. "But, I am not here to ask questions, nor are you here to answer them."
Confusion swept over the anbu. "Then what am I here for?"
"You will soon find out." The Uchiha walked closer, he gestured towards the metal table. "And don't worry about those items, I won't be needing them." He stopped and smiled at Yamato, "That doesn't mean that you don't have anything to fear."
Madara slowly removed his akatsuki coat and placed it on the protrusion on the wall. He ceremoniously removed his mask as well and turned to face the mokuton user.
Yamato widened his eyes. Apart from the bags under his eyes, the man looked as if he never aged. It made him think of all the forbidden jutsu that he must have performed and the amount of people he might have killed and experimented on to achieve this supposed immortality. His vague memories of Orochimaru and his experimentations came back to him.
It made his blood curl.
"I suppose I expected that reaction." Madara said, a smile etched on his lips. "I can see everything, know everything that you are thinking with this." He pointed at his sharingan. "I want you to see, how delighted I am, once I am done with you."
"What do you want from me?" Yamato asked.
Madara was only a foot away from him now, scrutinizing him inch by inch. "You really remind me of him. How sickening."
The Elder man ran a hand gently through his face and rested it on his neck. His face contorted into a hateful grimace and his grip tightened around Yamato's neck.
Yamato trashed after a few minutes of deprivation of breath, pulling on the chains that bound him. He bled in the place where his wrists were cuffed as the metal cut through his skin. His vision was already dimming, until he was convulsing.
Madara loosened his grip and Yamato took in a sharp breath. He coughed his lungs out.
Yamato panted. The blood from his wrists were slowly trickling down his arms.
"You didn't think I'd let you go out that easy, wouldn't you now Senju?" The Uchiha said.
Yamato understood now why the infamous akatsuki targeted him. It made him all the more furious. "You can torture me all you want, you can cut me up into ribbons, but it does not change the fact that you will never win against Shodaime Hokage Hashirama Senju. You will never gain control of the world, nor will you extinguish the fire that burns inside people against tyrants like you."
Madara's face became unrecognizable in his anger, but suddenly he smiled wickedly. He even has Hashirama's sentiments."Interesting. I am going to thoroughly enjoy this, Tenzo."
He clutched the bare skin on Yamato's chest and dug his fingers on it, until it tore the skin. He pulled forcefully and was able to rip half a foot of skin.
Yamato screamed in agony. Blood was pooling fast underneath their feet.
"Are you still that brave, Tenzou?" Madara uttered his name in a singsong tune, clearly to aggravate him more.
Yamato vision was already swaying, the room seems to be shifting, but he conjured up enough strength to look Madara in the eye, and spit at his face.
Madara laughed darkly and wiped the saliva from his face. He held Yamato tightly by the jaw and locked him in a kiss. Yamato jerked his head away in disgust, but Madara held firmly.
Yamato felt a searing pain on his throat. There was a liquid substance that was being passed to him. He tried to spit it out, but his torturer held his mouth tightly and pinched his nose, to force him to swallow.
Yamato started to feel some tingling and burning pain on his fingertips, then it travelled down to his body, until it covered his entirety. The pain was unbearable.
Tears fell from his eyes, as the agony consumed him. He bit his lip to stop himself from screaming.
Madara took a step back to admire what he has done. He smiled as the venom he passed did it's work. "Impressive," he said after a while, "most shinobi would have died after ingesting that venom, but look at you," he gestured at Yamato's exhausted self, "still alive, and awake, after all that. There may be more to you than I thought."
Tenzou was just too tired to say anything anymore. His eyelids were too heavy now, all he wanted was to close them and submit to the darkness that was so eagerly calling him. But he refuses and tries to keep himself awake, his eyes barely open, just to defy Madara.
He will never bow to Madara, even if bowing meant dying.
"I told you I can tell what's in your mind. Go ahead. Sleep. Death is calling."
Yamato willed his eyes to open and with all the strength a dying man had, glared at him.
"Why are you so stubborn? You think your insolence would insult me? Have you forgotten who you are standing with? You are inconsequential, insignificant on the grander scheme of things."
Yamato coughed trying to get a word out.
Madara narrowed his eyes at his attempt.
"And... yet..." Yamato managed to rasp out, in between coughs, every word excruciating like a thousand needles to his throat, "here you are... wasting... time and energy... clearly upset by something... so inconsequential."
Madara cackled madly. "Ironic isn't it, but a very astute observation. Because right now, I have a need that only you satisfy. No one else."
"Only low life's... resort to what you do." Yamato whispered and closed his eyes. He was at his limit, and can no longer bear the strain.
Madara squinted at him, and held Yamato's face. It was slack, unmoving, but still alive. The Uchiha kicked his leg with so much force, you can hear the stomach churning crack.
Yamato could only groan in pain, not even having enough strength to properly protest. But there were tears flowing from his eyes, and his sweat constantly drenching his battered body.
"I guess this is your limit, and this is all you can offer. It was a pleasure."
Yamato managed to open his eyes one last time, just in time to see Madara's hand making its way to his chest. He heard the crunch if his ribcage and the wet splutter of blood as the akatuki's hand tore through his chest. He could only think that his heart was held by those cursed hands, as it was slowly beating away. He felt his fingertips go cold and numb, all the pain from his body dying out.
The sensation of dying was welcomed than what he previously went through, as it erased all evidence of pain.
He smiled as his vision tunnelled and shrink until there was only darkness and nothingness.
"Tough guy." Kisame said from behind Madara.
Madara turned his masked face on the fellow Akatsuki."He was more entertaining than I expected." He turned his gaze on the uninjured Anbu captain, hands hanging on the metal chains. He was unconscious.
The man was able to survive the genjutsu of his mangekyo sharingan. It was remarkable, even by Uchiha standards.
Behind his mask, Madara gave a lopsided grin. "He would not know what hit him when he wakes up. I'll be pushing him more." He explained.
Kisame just shrugged. "Poor guy, don't want to be in his place right now."
"Or anytime in the future." Madara added, for he has plans, lots of plans. Where Yamato will not be able to distinguish the line between illusion and reality, but all of them, even more torturous and severe than what he had before.
Comments? Reviews are highly appreciated. SO how did you find the fic? Too dark? still lacking blood?
It was weird, when I was writing the Kisame Yamato fight, it took me too long, (fights are really difficult to put into words), but when I was in the Madara Tenzo torture scene, words flew out of my head into my hands. It all felt too natural.
I tried to keep them as close to how I pictured their characters would be. Sorry for hurting Yamato that much, I still love him...