From the Ashes
A Naruto Fanfiction
Author: ElderxChildx6
Co-Author/Editor: EDelta88
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All rights reserved.
From the Ashes (c) Me & EDelta88
Len (c) Me
Chapter 2: Hatake Len
Madara sat very still, decidedly looking anywhere but at the girl Hashirama had found.
Hashirama had been gone for three hours…
"What in the name of the gods is taking him so long?" Madara asked out loud. His voice a little on edge as he glared into the trees where his friend had disappeared..
Hashirama had left him, alone, with a very attractive, very naked, girl for three hours.
"I am going to kill him," Madara said with the sort of calm that can only be conjured by someone who fully intends to carry out their statement. Because, at this particular moment, Madara had every intention of killing his friend in the most prolonged and creative manner he could think of for putting him in this position.
Something shiny caught his eye.
Palming a kunai, Madara twisted to find whatever it was he had seen… and froze.
It had been the girl's silver hair, glinting in the sunlight as she turned over in her sleep giving Madara an excellent view of her developing body.
The young Uchiha promptly turned bright red as he spun around to face away from the girl, once again plotting his friend's painful demise.
"Unh..." the girl groaned, once more shifting in her sleep.
What is she doing? Madara wondered with a frown. She just kept moving. Was she uncomfortable or something? Perhaps she was…
Then Madara felt something soft and recognizably feminine press against the small of his back.
Not a second later, Madara was ten meters off the ground clinging to a tree branch as he stared back into the clearing as he attempted to slow his racing heartbeat.
The girl gave another groan, almost a whimper, and started to shiver.
Madara's eyes went wide for a second… then he smacked himself in the forehead, still holding onto the branch with one hand. "She's cold, idiot," he hissed to himself. Of course she would be cold. Hadn't Hashirama said he'd found her out here? She'd probably been here all night before his friend had stripped her and put her in the cold river before leaving her to dry in the shade. Fire country might be known for its warm weather all year, but it was the cooler season at the moment.
Now, how to fix this…
As he released his hold on the branch and fell back to his feet on the ground, his first thought was to start a fire; he was an Uchiha after all, a certain level of pyromania was to be expected. Unfortunately, starting a fire was probably the worst thing he could possibly do since it would draw attention to their position and, while skilled for his age, Madara did not feel he could protect himself and the girl if someone attacked. There was also the fact that the girl had been severely burned from whatever mess she had gotten into before she stumbled onto the clearing, and her waking up to see that a fire was close to her might cause her to go into a state of panic. Something that, though he would get some slight amusement out of, he really didn't want to deal with, at the moment.
The next choice would be to find a sunny patch to put her in but that left her, and Madara by extension, even more exposed. If he had a blanket this wouldn't be a problem but he hadn't anticipated…
Then Madara's eyes drifted down, looking at himself… and the light coat he was wearing.
"Well, I feel stupid," he muttered, rolling his eyes as he pulled the light garment off and removing his weapons from it before draping it over the girl. "There, all better!" Madara sighed, feeling exceptionally pleased with himself. And why shouldn't he? Not only did he solve the problem of their guest being cold, he solved his problem of being distracted by her impressive figure.
Except, ten minutes later, she was still shivering.
"She's hypothermic," Madara realized, his eyes fixed on the bluish tint to her lips and trying to ignore the way it accented her pale cheeks and hair color. Hypothermia. His mother had just explained several kinds of first-aid to him and Izuna not too long ago. What was the cure to hypothermia again? Something to do with heat. She had said he had to…
In the next second, as he remembered his mother's lesson, Uchiha Madara invented a completely new shade of red as blood pooled in his cheeks.
The cure for hypothermia… was body heat. He had to hold her close to him and let her absorb warmth from his body because hers wasn't producing enough anymore. Something Madara could understand, but something he was not at all comfortable with. Still, he didn't have any better options that were viable so he had to do it. It was either that, or let her stay the way she was now… and get his ear chewed off when Hashirama got back and found her that way.
So, taking a deep, calming breath Madara removed his jacket from the girl. As he moved behind the girl, he removed his baggy wool shirt. Revealing his fairly toned midsection. Sitting against a nearby tree, he pulled her so that she was sitting against his chest with the jacket on top of both of them. The girl gave a breathy sigh, snuggling into his chest as Madara's blush deepened even further. "You better appreciate this," he muttered, keeping a kunai close at hand and molding a minute amount of chakra in case he needed to kawarimi on short notice.
And this is how Hashirama found his friend an hour later when he returned with the clothes. Seeing the blush and obvious discomfort written all over his friend's face, Hashirama couldn't help but smile.
"Not. One. Word," Madara growled through his teeth.
Hashirama clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.
"Hashirama, I swear if you utter so much as one syllable, I am going to-"
The poor young Senju just couldn't help himself. "Hahaha, comfortable?" he snickered.
"You're dead!" Madara hissed, performing the body switch with the clothes Hashirama was carrying before throwing a vicious kick at his friend's head.
Hashirama swiftly moved just in time to barely miss the young Uchiha's foot before he held up his hands. As if the simple act would stop him. "Hey, you walked into it the moment you decided to stay that way. It's not my fault."
"You left her here! What was I supposed to do?!" Madara shouted, moving flawlessly into a combination of punches.
Hashirama tried his best to dodge each of his punches. "Okay...you have a point there, but-" One of Madara's punches connected on the young Senju's face and sent him flying a short distance away from him. Hashirama sat there on the ground rubbing his face. "Owie…"
Taking advantage of his friend's distraction, Madara grabbed ahold of Hashirama's haori and pulled, twisting him over his shoulder and hurling him across the clearing at a tree.
Hashirama twisted in the air and planted his feet on the ground. Skidding to a stop just before he could hit the tree. "Honestly, Madara, what's gotten into you?" he demanded. "She's just a girl in need of help. I don't hold it against you for what you did… I just find it a little suspicious that you would take off your shirt before you actually would do it, that's all."
"Hashiramaaaa!" Madara roared, recklessly charging at his friend, all his devious plans forgotten in favor of attempting to pummel every inch of his friend that he could reach.
Unfortunately for Madara, this is exactly what Hashirama was hoping for. Cleanly sidestepping Madara's charge, the young Senju stuck out his leg and tripped his friend, sending him tumbling head over heels and into the river.
For a moment, Madara sat in the shallows, soaked to the bone and glaring bloody murder at his best friend. "I hate you," he stated.
"I know," Hashirama chirped, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
"With the fire of a thousand suns," Madara added.
"Is that all?" Hashirama asked, raising a brow in mock curiosity. "I was sure I merited at least a few thousand…oh well."
"...I hate you."
"Love you, too, buddy," Hashirama replied, waving his hand dismissively at his friend.
"KYAAAAAAAA!"
The boys blinked before turning in unison to stare at the girl… who was now very awake and clutching Madara's jacket to her very naked body.
"Um… I think she's awake," Hashirama muttered lamely.
"Gee, you think?" Madara replied, sarcasm all but dripping from his lips.
"Um… we brought you clothes?" Hashirama tried, pointing to the bundle that was laying behind her.
The girl glanced behind her to the clothes before she looked back at the two boys. "...Thanks...I think… BUT YOU TWO NEED TO VACATE THE PREMISES… OR TURN AWAY!"
Madara spun around so violently that he splashed water all over Hashirama.
For a moment, Hashirama did nothing but stare down at himself, then he turned to Madara. "Really?" he asked dully. Was his friend gynophobic or something?
"I SAID TURN AROUND, PERVERT!"
"Hey now! I'm not-"
WHAM!
"...Owie," Hashirama muttered, sullenly rubbing the spot where the girl's rock had hit him in the head as he turned away.
The girl watched them for a moment until she was convinced that they weren't looking. She then removed the jacket she was using to cover herself and began to sift through the clothes that Hashirama had brought for her. As she looked at the clothes, she decided that they would do, at least for the time being. She would be able to modify the clothes later on. When she had the time and equipment to do it. The girl began to swiftly put the clothes on. Unsure on when the two boys would suddenly turn back around.
Once she was dressed, the girl stood up and looked back at the two boys. Surprised that they had stayed turned away, though she did notice that the long haired one had armed himself in case she had tried anything. "Okay…" she trailed off. "You can look now."
Once they turned around, Hashirama glanced over and smirked at Madara. "Looks like I was right," he gloated.
"That remains to be seen," Madara countered, keeping a firm grip on his kunai as he eyed their guest.
The girl blinked as she looked at the two boys for a moment. Appearing to be genuinely surprised about something. After a few minutes, Hashirama and Madara glanced over to one another. Feeling a bit uneasy that the girl was just staring at them without saying anything before they looked back to the silver-haired visitor.
"So..." Hashirama began. "I'm Hashirama, I found you this morning and treated your wounds. This is my best friend, Madara, he watched over you while I went to get you those clothes, since yours were trashed."
The girl quirked a curious eyebrow, looking back and forth between them several times before replying. "I'm… Len, Hatake Len," she said, rather cautiously.
'Hatake?' Madara wondered, frowning as he tried to remember what he knew about the Hatake clan. They weren't a very… visible, clan. From what he could remember they specialized in subterfuge and information gathering, occasionally assassination.
And, if memory served, they had ties to the Senju clan; a loose business relationship, nothing more.
"Nice to meet ya!" Hashirama crowed.
Len blinked as she looked at the young Senju. "...Likewise," she said blankly.
"So, can I ask you a question," Hashirama asked.
"Um… yes," Len replied cautiously.
"How did you get so badly burned? From what I could tell it was really bad," he said before adding, "Hell, I'm not even sure how you're alive to be honest."
Len blinked and for a horrible second she wasn't in the clearing anymore. She was surrounded by fire, smoke choking her as the roar of the flames drowned out the screams of the dying all around her…
"I got caught in a house fire," she replied, her voice raw and small.
Hashirama and Madara shared a look. She wasn't telling them everything and whatever the rest of it was, it was bad. Silence overtook the clearing as the boys decided not to push her, waiting for her to make the next move.
"So, you two.. you're friends?" Len inquired, finally breaking the silence. Trying to redirect the subject to something else.
"Yeah, thick as thieves!" Hashirama laughed.
Ironic choice of words considering some of the missions I've been on, Madara thought as he remembered one of his more eventful "retrieval" missions.
"How curious," a mysterious voice began inside Len's head. "An Uchiha...and a Senju...best friends. A meeting of the ways after all this time."
Len frowned, her face screwed up thoughtfully as she stared at the two boys. "Huh… well, that's kinda weird."
Madara's eyes narrowed dangerously. What was weird? What was she talking about?
Hashirama, meanwhile, blinked in confusion. "Huh? What's weird?" he asked. Speaking Madara's question out loud.
"Well, a Senju," she began, pointing at Hashirama, "best friends with an Uchiha?"-she pointed to Madara, then-"Paint me crazy but haven't your family's been trying to kill each other since...well, forever? That doesn't strike you as a bit odd?"
Both boys sat completely still, staring at Len in shock as they wondered how she had known what clans they were from. Then, as if finally understanding what she had said, they rounded on each other.
"You're an Uchiha/Senju!?" they cried in unison, pointing accusing fingers at each other.
Len blinked, confused for a second before something dawned on her. "Wait, you two didn't know that you were from rival clans?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious.
The boys turned to her. "Of course we didn't-"
Whatever else the boys might have said was drowned out as Len collapsed, howling with laughter. "I c-can't believe it! Ha ha! You d-didn't- ha ha- You didn't know you were best friends with your mortal enemies! A-hahaha! That's hysterical!" she cried, struggling to speak as she clutched her now aching sides.
Both boys looked suitably abashed. Blushing and refusing to make eye contact as they muttered their lame excuses.
Calming down, Len stared at them for a few minutes before she sighed heavily. "Look, whether you two are best friends or mortal enemies really doesn't matter to me," she told them. "It's just surprising to see that you two are 'best friends' is all." A slight smile then appeared on her face. "It is nice to see, though. Knowing that there is some hope for your clans to stop fighting against each other."
Madara blinked… then blinked again… then palmed his face. "Oh damnit, not another one," he groaned. Another idealist? Why did this keep happening to him? And by the gods if she was as crazy as Hashirama he was going to kill himself… well, not really but there was only so much of his friend's particular brand of crazy that he could take in one sitting.
Len frowned, staring at Madara. "What's his problem?" she asked Hashirama.
Hashirama smiled smugly. "I want to bring peace to our clans. He agrees with me but thinks I'm crazy."
"That… makes sense?" Len began uncertainly as she looked over at Madara. "This isn't exactly a place where people are really going to listen...at least not to a kid."
"Thank you!" Madara sighed, gesturing to her as if to say 'See? I'm not the only one!' Maybe she thought more like him? That would be nice. A voice of reason for once.
Hashirama looked at them both like they were stupid. "We're not going to be kids forever you know," he pointed out.
Madara blinked.
Len blinked.
Madara looked at Len.
Len looked at Madara.
"That… is a very good point," Len admitted.
Madara sagged in defeat. "Yeah… yeah it is," he relented. Why hadn't he thought of that?
Len turned her attention back to Hashirama. "But do you realize how long it's going to take before someone will even consider listening to you? We'll still be dealing with this war for years before anyone will even entertain the idea of some kind of truce."
Hashirama shrugged nonchalantly. "I know, that's why we need to start now. Convince others our age so that when our parents' generation dies we've already laid the groundwork for some kind of peace talks."
Madara blinked.
Len blinked.
Madara turned to Len.
Len turned to Madara.
"Is he some kind of idiot savant with world domination or something?" she asked.
"That sounded more like cult tactics and indoctrination theory to me," Madara countered, refusing to admit total defeat.
Hashirama pouted. "Hey~" he whined. "I can be smart too you know!"
Len nodded as she looked to Hashirama. "Sure you can," she said sarcastically.
Madara blinked owlishly at their newly acquired third wheel. "You're kinda vicious, you know that? True, but vicious."
Len gave the Uchiha a deadpanned look. "Ninja~"
"...Right, forget I said anything." Madara replied as he looked away.
"You both suck," Hashirama muttered, suddenly crouched in a corner with a storm cloud of gloom hovering over his head… how he had found a corner in the middle of a forest his friends would never know.
Len blinked as she watched him before she closed her eyes and sighed heavily. "Is he always like this?" she inquired as she looked at Madara.
"Nope," Madara replied.
Hashirama looked up hopefully. Hurray! His friend was going to defend him!
"Most of the time he's worse," Madara finished, a knowing smirk tugging at his lips.
Rivers of tears started streaming down Hashirama's face as he sullenly drew patterns in the dirt. All the while Len and Madara laughed good naturedly, none of them knowing that they had just formed a friendship that would change the course of history.
A/N: So...I'm alive, It has been a very long time. A ton has happened. I am now a mom of a beautiful baby girl. Things are starting to look up financially. I moved out of my parent's house and moved into an apartment with my boyfriend (who is the father to my child).
I also started streaming on Twitch and became a Twitch Affiliate. My username on there is the same as it is here. So if you want to come by to check it out, you are more than welcome to do I am streaming Pokemon, currently. So if you're not a fan of Pokemon, I'm probably not the streamer for you.
I am also in the process of starting my own business so that way I can get away from Corporate and be a stay-at-home mom for my baby. Because as much as I do cherish the "me" time that I get through working, at the same time, I don't want my "me" time to be when I go to work. I want it to be when I can have a relative watch the baby for a few hours while my boyfriend and I go off to enjoy ourselves.
As for Team Tragedy, it is going through a revamp, currently. So if you are reading Team Tragedy...I don't know if I'm going to get that next chapter uploaded before the actual revamp takes place. So I figured I'd give you the warning here in this chapter so that you can keep the eye out for the revamp to that story. I know I had a ton of people reading that story and enjoying it severely. But there were several chapters where I felt I could have done better. And so because of that, I am going to just completely revamp it to make it better.
Thank you all for understanding not only my roller coaster ride through life and becoming a new mom, but for Team Tragedy, as well. Hopefully I won't be gone for so long, in the future. But I can't really make any promises on that, just yet. Life is still chaotic, until I state otherwise. But things are starting to get better for me, now.
EXCLUSIVE! NO OTHER WILL HAVE THIS STORY! FEEL PRIVILEGED!
