And all she ever wanted was to live in peace... poor girl, she never had the chance..."

"You knew her?"

"Of course I did. I'm Madara's br-...yes, I knew her."

"You sound as if there's something wrong."

"...Yes, I suppose there is something wrong..."

Black eyes met blue, untold emotions being exchanged between the duo as they glanced at eachother. There was a tension in the air, something that had nothing to do with the misty fog or the seemingly unpleasent weather. It was all about emotions...recent events that had caused a definite change in their lives.

"I can't believe she did it. Sacrificing everything she had, and for what? Madara still died. Her honor is gone. And Hashirama is interregating Sheena, who might be thrown out of the village! And she didn't have anything to do with it!"

The blue eyes, belonging to a brunette kunoichi, were lit with sadness as they gazed at the newly-erected stone marker, the form of memorial Konoha had chosen for Uchiha Shiko.

"It is wrong, I know... but... she didn't choose Konoha. She chose Madara- he wants to plunge us back into war, and apparently she went along with it. It pains me to say this, Kenna-chan... but... perhaps your brother made the right decision."

The kunoichi looked up at the dark-haired Uchiha in disbelief.

"You..you go along with this too?!" it was easy to see she was angry.

Senta shook his head. "I disagree with this as much as you! I'm just saying..." he lowered his voice, gently caressing Kenna's cheek in his pale hand. "We need peace. These people, the clans, the very air... we have been saturated with blood. It's time to create a new place, free of war and all of this bloodshed. That's what Konoha is...and..." he glanced downwards, placing his other hand on Kenna's stomach.

For anyone observing, it would be hard to notice the slight swelling thats signified the presence of life within her. But they were linked- they had noticed the changes, day by day, the faint chakra presence that began to emanate from her womb...

"Our child shouldn't have to experience the horrors that we have," he finished softly, his eyes glistening. Senta placed a kiss on her forehead, before standing up straight and drawing her into his arms.

Kenna seemed to find solace in this, as she calmed down and breathed deeply, burying her head in his neck. His shirt began to grow wet with her tears, as she silently sobbed.

No one but Senta would see her cry.

Even the pair of red eyes, who had long been spying on them from afar, did not notice the Kunoichi's tears. He was... thinking, ever since he had picked up a third chakra. Faint as it was, it was still detectable to shinobi of his power.

An Uchiha-Senju baby...

An abomination.

A filthy, disgusting, abomination.

He had been right in disowning Senta as his brother...

Madara's eyes narrowed, focused on the duo before him. The baby wasn't the only thing bothering him.

Apparently, he had just learned, Hashirama came up with a cover story to say that Shiko was dead. That was... unacceptable. Untrue, and infuriating.

But the worst part was that there was nothing he could do. As much as he hated it... Hashirama's story provided him with time to act out on his own plan. He'd need much time to complete it, and if he had shinobi on his tail it would take even longer.

So being dead in the eyes of the public would actually be beneficial, in the long run. And...possibly, it would benefit Shiko. Perhaps, in time, he could free her.

Yes... his plans would work out.

He just needed time.

Madara opened his eyes, smiling grimly from behind his orange mask. Just as he'd predicted, he had found a way to free his... friend. Though it hadn't been what he expected...there was a man he needed to find, one with Hashirama's DNA. It was taking longer than he wanted... But that didn't matter. Soon, Shiko would be free once more. Everything was falling into place.

There was, however, another that had yet to be taken care of.

The Uchiha-Senju child, which he had at many-a-point regarded with disgust, had a rather crucial role in this. He didn't like to admit it, but the abomination from so long ago was crucial to his current success.

So the tainting of the Uchiha bloodline, it seemed, came with a silver lining.

It still needed to be taken care of.

Madara had tracked the descendants of Uchiha Senta and Senju Kenna (who later became Uchiha Kenna, after marriage), and he knew who he needed to find.

Currently, there were only four- and the Uchiha blood, sadly, had faded to the point where only one of them had awakened the Sharingan. The others, it seemed, didn't show any promise at all. But Sharingan was not what he needed from them. The children, as it so happened, were all... jinchuuriki. Special ones.

Madara already had one of them- working for him, in fact, as a member of the Akatsuki. The other three were in Konoha. Ninja.

"Madara?"

The masked man turned to face his underling, lips curled in a concealed grimace. He didn't enjoy having his thoughts interrupted...this had to be important. No one in the right mind would willingly irritate him unless they had a really good reason to, for they knew the consequences could be great.

"We've found him. The man with Hashirama's DNA."

The words of the red-head instantly caught Madara's attention.

"I'm listening, Pein..." Madara's tone was low, masking his excitement. If it could be called that. In his own mind, it was simply...anticipation. It would not do well for others to see Uchiha Madara's 'excitement'. He needed to keep up his image.

"He's in Konoha. Captain Yamato, former Anbu member and fill-in for Hatake Kakashi as head of squad seven...one of the kyuubi's squads."

A grim smiled formed on the masked man's face as he heard. It was good news- two of the more important pieces in his plan were in the same place, making them easier to obtain.

"Which vessel for the kyuubi has a connection to Yamato through this squad?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Madara took in the information, already beginning to feel a sense of victory.

"And what of the other jinchuuriki? Not just the kyuubi's vessels."

Pein almost seemed to hesitate, as if he was having a hard time remembering. This didn't bode well for him- Madara didn't take it kindly when his underlings failed to collect information.

"...The others are both female...Uzumaki Kazumi and Uzumaki Emiko..." there was a slight hint of fear in his voice, becoming more and more evident as it became clear he did not posess enough intel to satisfy Madara.

Madara wasn't in a mood to terrorize his poor underling- he was in a rather...playful mood, if that could be said. Which simply meant Pein wouldn't receive as harsh a punishment as he would have if the masked man had been in a bad mood.

"...Anything else to add?" his voice was low, sounding almost predatory. And it had the desired effect- Pein nearly seemed to cower, his fear now being the most evident of his features- which, considering his piercings and unusal hair color, really meant something.

"Come on now, anything?"

"Uzumaki Emiko...can be recognized for her bright red hair, which she received from her mother, Uzumaki Kushina. She is currently a genin..." Pein's voice slowly grew louder, until he was talking at a normal volume. If he presented what little information he had in the right way, it would seem like enough to deter Madara's wrath. Hopefully.

"And...Uzumaki Kazumi can be recognized for her blonde hair and lack of whisker tattoos...she is currently a chuunin, and may have had sexual relations with the current Kazekage, despite it being illegal for ninja of separate villages to do so."

Madara raised an eyebrow, feeling almost amused. Pitiful...

"I suggest that you leave my presence. You've made it painfully obvious that you have no information of real use, and my generosity of letting you live this long might just dry up if you continue to waste my time." His words were harsh, yes, but that could only be expected of one such as Uchiha Madara. His playful mood had deteriorated rather quickly. Although, having a bit of dirt on Kazumi might give him a little bit of leverage...but he couldn't let Pein know that.

The man in question wasted no time in getting himself out of the room and out of his sight.

"Just like a good underling should," Madara commented under his breath. Finally... he could think, again.

Although it had occured to him on more than one occasion that such cruel treatment of his servants might cause disobedience in the future, he had little to no care for it. They knew not to disobey...for if they did, there were more than enough options for punishments. Painful punishments. Very painful punishments.

Though... they didn't know how severe Madara could be. Years and Years ago, when he had still been respected within his clan, he had been put in charge of interragation and torture for a reason.

The things he had (and still could, but wouldn't) do were beyond the comphrehension of anyone still alive.

That, as macabre as it was, he was proud of. In a twisted way, yes, but that didn't matter. All that did were the possibilities...always the possibilities...

The sounds of yelling and explosions rang through the air, as Tobi was on yet another mission to make a certain Iwagakure terrorist as miserable as possible.

"Get your ass back here!"

Tobi didn't looked behind him as he ran, flailing his arms around and yelling wildly in a nearly impossibly high-pitched voice.

The terrorist, more commonly known as Deidara (though also known commonly as terrorist to the hidden villages) ran after him at a fast pace. Or...rather...it was fast for Deidara, but the man behind Tobi's mask could have easily outrun him.

In fact...it was almost irritating that he had to slow down for Deidara, giving him the impression of being faster. His persona, Tobi, was running as fast as he could... which, in fact, was irritatingly slow, as was said before.

Tobi had to jump slightly to the left as a piece of clay detonated, sending pieces of debris flying all over the hallway. It was now that he looked back briefly, seeing a huge hole in the wall that exposed one of the member's rooms.

That wouldn't make Kakuzu happy. He'd be pissed, as usual when it came to matters of destruction and reconstruction (which usually required money). But, then again...when was Kakuzu ever happy?

The obvious answer was no.

No one, as far as they knew, could remember a day in which something had not been destroyed, and then required money to fix.

But it wasn't that simple.

Kakuzu, after months of fixing everything with the Akatsuki's funds (and nearly going bankrupt, to his horror) had set some new... rules.

Nothing would be fixed that required money, unless it was of the utmost necessity.

Surprisingly, it had saved them an enormous amount.

However...they did still spend a lot on fixing things. Just...a lot less than before.

Tobi was getting tired of this game. Deidara, it seemed, would never give up on trying to murder him, so Tobi simply rounded a corner ahead of the bomber and used his teleportation jutsu.

Appearing in his room, he sighed, removing his mask. Irritating people wasn't fun any more, it seemed. He was growing bored with it.

Though, he had a good reason.

It had been five days since Pein relayed the info about Captain Yamato, and Madara was growing restless. According to one of their moles in the hokage's offices, Captain Yamato and his team of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and some other person that wasn't important enough to remember, would be attempting to capture the three-tails, at it's lake abode near Kiriagakure.

This was when he was planning to snatch Yamato and bring him to the Akatsuki.

Once Yamato was there, Madara would be able to use the sealing statue to extract the spirit of his old...friend. Someone who could help them greatly, and who, until then, would be unknown to even the container of the spirit.

It would cause quite a stir.. Madara was sure of it.

The problem with this (and why he was bored), was that the Konoha ninja wouldn't be there for at least a week.

He didn't want to wait.

Passing the time had become a difficult thing to do. With his anticipation growing more and more each day, the activities that he normally enjoyed seemed dull and didn't hold the regular amusment for him. It was...irritating.

And Uchiha Madara had never been a patient person.

But, within a week, his plans would be nearly complete.

For now, all he needed was to wait. He could do that.

End of chapter 1

(Author's Note: Hello everyone! In case you didn't hear, this is a rewrite of The Other Mask. It doesn't matter if you didn't read the other mask, but if you were curious to know where this comes from...uh...that's what this comes from. So...to readers of The Other Mask...This story, as you might be able to tell, starts off earlier than The Other Mask. But...you-know-who will be there soon! So...um...I hope this story will be better than the original, as that is what I am rewriting it for! Hugs to all that read this because of the other mask. You're awesome. And..uh...thanks everyone!

... Please review. Consructive critism is appreciated, but Flames are not. Flames will be... flamed upon.)