Day Two: [theme: home] Konoha / home / a place you can never go back to
A/N: AU where Tobi really is Madara who happens to be immortal.
("Why are you in the sacred vault?")
She ran like she'd never had before. Her lungs ached with each breath and her legs burned. She could hear her pursuers jumping from tree branch to tree branch; their feet rhythmically thudding against the wood. She tugged her cloak closer to her body, trying to fend off the encroaching cold of the night. A light drizzle started up, and she nearly groaned in relief. Her pursuers slowly tapered off as she crossed the border. She touched down about a half-hour later in a moderately hidden clearing, and dropped to her hands and knees, raking in panting, shuddering, breaths. Darkness creeped into her vision, her desperate attempts to shake it away failing miserably. She fell onto her side, wet, pink tresses sticking to her forehead and her green eyes slid shut, exhaustion claiming her.
("I-Is that a sealing scroll?")
She floated in and out of consciousness; her pulling herself to surface, open her eyes, and her mind pulling up dregs of thoughts, traitorous, to sink her back down. When she finally cracked open her eyes, catching sight of a stone ceiling, she registered the information that the rest of her senses were telling her. The soft futon beneath her; the bandages wrapped around her forehead; the ropes fastened around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides; the missing weight of her hitae-ate; the eerie glow of a few torches lining the walls; the presence standing a few paces from her. She shifted her head to look, but only saw darkness, as the torches on that side of the room were extinguished.
(Fist glowing with chakra clashed with another, chakra covered fist)
"You are awake," A deep, masculine voice came from the dark. "Haruno Sakura." Sakura made to respond, but her tongue was heavy, her throat parched, her thoughts sluggishly circling, looping, through the same few questions; who are you?, where am I?, what happened? The hidden man chuckled, the sound reverberating throughout the room. "Do not bother with speaking, you suffered a rather serious head wound."
(A shuriken sped past her as she ran, slicing deep into her forehead)
"Who..." She gasped out, voice hoarse. "Who are you?" She forced the words out painfully, throat tightening as she swallowed reflexively. She squinted into the darkness, just barely making out the silhouette of a man. A few moments passed, the silence stifling.
('Shishou must be pissed, with this many ninja following me')
"...I've had many names," He finally said, and a footstep echoed. "as well as many titles." another few footsteps, and an arm poked through out of the dark. "You, my dear," He stepped completely from the dark, flickering light reflecting off of orange, and a sharp red glow glinted like steel as he finished, "may call me Uchiha Madara."
("Why are you doing this?! Why are you betraying the village?!")
"I do hope we get along." A kunai gleamed in his hands. "We'll be together a while." An amused glint in his eye. "After all," The tomoe in his Sharingan spun, "we're very much alike," shifting into the circles of his Mangekyou. "we both betrayed our home," He crouched next to her. "we both fought a Hokage," He tucked the sharp edge of the kunai under the rope binding her. "we both lost," He began slicing. "and now," He stood and offered a hand. "we'll never be able to return." She raised her hand and hesitated.
("Why?!")
She grasped his hand in hers, and let him pull her to her feet. His visible eye crinkled as if he was smiling, and he let his gloved fingers trail up and down her cheek, lightly twining them into her pink locks. He purred, voice dripping with desire,
"How exquisite."
("SAKURA!")