Declaration: I do not own Naruto; I only want to play with him.

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Haven for lost souls

Reputation

I suffered the results of the battle with Madara for more than three weeks. The first one of them, in pure pain. Three of my bodies were so badly wounded I had to put them in a long healing hibernation, and I knew I would not be able to use them for at least one more month. Madara, on the other hand, was healing annoyingly fast. He asked me to accommodate him until springtime and I agreed. I was gladly taking the opportunity to get to know him better.

In those weeks after our little rumble, we had shared great amount of time together, talking, making plans and discussing our strategies. I was not optimistic about my goal, though; Madara remained an unsolved riddle to me. Some of the time, he was acting like an old sage, sharing his wisdom and insights with me. The rest of the time, he was nothing but a silly child, running around, making a fool out of both of us. Many times my talks with him convinced me that he had the clearest sight of reality, while in other times; I had a solid feeling that this man was insane.

"That was your twenty third dango," He said to me, as we shared lunch at the dining hall.

"I was not aware of you counting." I answered. "Besides, this body has a great appetite" I was in my fat body, the only one who was well enough for my needs right now. He yawned and stretched, becoming restless. If one thing I did learn about him was that, his patience was a short lived one.

"Did you see the scroll my spies sent here?" He asked.

"Yes, I did." I answered and took another rice ball into my mouth.

"So what do you think?"

The scroll had a list of missing ninjas, all S-ranked like us. Potential recruits. I finished the rice ball slowly, just to annoy him. "Well, most of them are plain scum. Few of them are pure monsters, and none of them can be trusted."

The sharingan user laughed "my, oh my, Pein-sama, you sure love to play on the safe side, don't you? Where is the fun in that?"

"Our goal is too important to let it fail because of poor choices." I said in a harsh tone "Don't you agree?"

"Look at you, making such a fuss about choosing our pawns"

"Very well, I was most interested in three names, and they are Hidan, Kakuzu and Orochimaru. I think that they have talents that could be useful to us."

Madara considered my words with a serious expression, and than he smiled, "Yes, I agree. You have an excellent taste, Pein-sama. Kakuzu can be easily persuaded, only wave at him the opportunity to make a fortune and he is yours. Hidan is the same, just offer him a chance for destruction and he will follow. Orochimaru, though, he is a true wild card. Should be interesting to meet him. Try not to kill him too fast."

"Will do my best."

"Thirty one..."

"Shut up."

Springtime came two weeks later. Most people love the spring, thinking about cherry blossom, squawking Birds and other sweet stupid things like that. They seem to forget that spring is also the beginning of the war-season. It is much more comfortable to start a war in the warms of spring that in the dead of winter. I prefer winters.

Madara was set to go, and so was I. we split all the tasks between us. He was in charge of building up the foundations for our new organization- Akatsuki. I was in charge of recruiting. A four months mission laid ahead of me, mostly on hostile grounds, seeking out S-ranked monsters, should be fun.

And so, I was in my room, preparing my three selfs to go. We were all wearing the same uniforms: black leather pants, a mesh black shirt with yet another black T-shirt on top of it, and the soon to be notorious, long black cloak, decorated with crimson red clouds. One of my selfs was brushing my long ponytail, the other painted my nails with purple nail polish. "Hey, you missed a spot there." I said to myself

"Where?" he asked and looked at my one hand, so I took the opportunity and slapped him with the other one. "Ha ha…"

"So funny…" the other two scolded me, and then I found Madara, standing at the door with a wicked smile on his face."Pein-sama, are you playing with yourself?" he teased me and I actually blushed "Guess I am."

"You are a strange one. I came to tell you that I am leaving. Thanks again for your hospitality; will you come to see me off?"

"Yes of course." I stood up and realized how much that coat was heavy. "Madara-san, can you explain to me again, why do we need such an outfit?"

He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. "I told you a hundred times, we are trying to build up a reputation, and we can only do that if we get noticed, can't we?"

I nodded in a halfway agreement. I gazed at the vision of Madara in black white and red; he looked like he was constantly dwelling in the illusion world of his.

We walked out side to the gate, where my servants already prepared Madara's black horse for him. Madara was heading south to the land of the wind; I was heading east, to the land of the fire. He checked his equipment for the last time, and was ready to mount his horse, but then he looked at me with a searing gaze.

"Well?" I asked as he came closer to me, concerned expression on his pale face. "What is it?"

"One last piece of advice for you, Pein-sama, you need to listen." his voice was serious and somewhat sad. "We are playing with fire, you know that. The people that you are going to recruit, they are wild, diseased animals, give them just one opening, make just one mistake and they will aim for your throat. Do not show them your face; do not give them your name. That is the only way to keep them under control. Do you understand me, Pein-sama? You are the leader, you must be strong."

"I am the leader? I thought we were…"

"Yes, you are the leader. I found out long ago, that I do my best work lurking in the shadows. I came to you with a reason, Pein-sama, you got what it takes." I just looked at him with no idea how to replay. "Well, I will be leaving now." he continued and mounted his horse "take care, jaa mata."

Few minutes later, Madara was gone, as if he was only a dream.

Uchiha Madara, a true Mastermind. To think that some one like him would ever acknowledge some one like me as his leader. His words were music to my ears"you have the mind that I need…. you are the leader… you got what it takes…" such sweet words, like honey. I was a fool, basking in the glory of his compliments. For a man who owned a dozen eyes, I was surely blind, and a leader is only as strong as his vision. At least that was what my old and wise Sensei used to say. Shame I had to kill her.

A/N- Warning- next chapter will be somewhat violent.