Author's Notes: Longest chapter here, folks. Quite by accident, though. (I even split some into the next chapter! And it's still longer than the rest.)
Guest Reviewer: Thanks for the positive review! Glad you like the plot, Isuzu, and that Kakashi is the uncle (I love Kakashi, so much that even if he isn't the main character, I want him at least in a supporting role!). I can't promise a happy ending, though. I'm sorry! I hope you still enjoy the story, regardless.
In case you didn't know: "Gunbai Uchiwa", Literally meaning: army arrangement fan) is a non-folding fan, carved from a unique spirit tree from which only ritualistic instruments are made. This Gunbai has been passed down between Uchiha clansmen for generations. Madara Uchiha was known for having great expertise in using it. In addition the symbol of the Uchiha Clan is a fan which is a reference to uchiwa (団扇, paper fan) which is another way of pronouncing the clan's name. (wikipedia)
It was another birthday for Sakura (twenty one this time), and another visit to the Hatake household, as it beaome a yearly tradition. Isuzu was nearing five now, almost ready to learn ninja basics. Of course, with Kakashi around, Madara assumed the boy had already been introduced to hide and seek, and tag, both favored games to learn ninja tricks.
Madara watched, again, as mother and son interacted; this time with more intricate toys and outdoors. The standard Uchiha gift of a richly woven kimono (this time lime green with sakura branches and a pink obi) would not stay pristine this year.
Five: that was how old Sakura had been when Madara first saw her, first captured her, and first used her for his sadistic plans. Originally, her capture had been to keep the White Fang, Sakura's grandfather, in check and to stop the uprisings. Following that event, Hatake Sakumo had been disgraced for choosing a mere granddaughter of only five over the welfare of many people. As Madara wanted, Sakumo had backed away, stopped leading the underground insurgents. As an added bonus, the White Fang eventually committed seppuku.
Madara only cruelly smiled as Sakura's childish wails could be heard in his dungeons. He had been prepared to kill the little blossom, too, and would not have minded it either had her grandfather or uncle chose to continue the rebellions rather than protect their relative. However, the new Hatake Clan Head chose to follow his father's example, to remain passive, and so Sakura still lived.
As with every week on a certain planned day, Madara endured the small crowd of worry warts who came and made sure their loved ones still lived under Emperor-Hokage Madara's "care", including Sakura's uncle. The little hostage situation would carry on for years to come, and a relatively uneasy peace existed.
In fact: this peace and contentment were only known to Madara in his first ten years of life, and remarkably, in the last ten as well…
He had not thought of life in terms of years in so long. For an immortal, such constraints or categorical thinking escaped him. But when Isuzu was born, the years suddenly came back. At first, subtly, in that he recalled his first born child, what year that was, and how long it lived.
But as Isuzu got older, and reached milestones that were the same as Sakura's while living with him, Madara started comparing mother and son more and more.
It started when Isuzu was five. Or had all started when Sakura was five? Had it really been fifteen years since that fateful kidnapping? Where did it all go? And how different it was then the previous five hundred or so years. What changes would Isuzu wreck in Madara's life? For surely Sakura had done the most damage of all since when Izuna, Madara's beloved brother, was still alive.
It was fascinating, in a way, how his mind automatically drew comparisons between mother and son. They were vastly different, but as Sakura watched over and cared for Isuzu, so Madara drew comparisons for Sakura...
Isuzu would be able to hold on to his innocence far longer than his mother. At five, after meeting her the first time at some festival or other, guided by her grandfather's hand, Uchiha Madara had his best ANBU man steal Sakura right from Sakumo's pathetic guard. To be fair, had it been anyone but Itachi or himself, Madara doubts the twenty guards, plus the Haruno parents, would have been defeated so easily.
Poor little Sakura, awoken by clashes of metal, thuds of bodies, and screams of the dying, running pell-mell towards what she believed would be able to protect her and explain things to her, was unfortunate enough to have seen her parents killed in front of her. With the last slash at Haruno Kizashi, Itachi's blade sprayed father's blood upon daughter's distraught visage.
And that brought up the second time Madara met Sakura, bloodied and crying in anguish just inside the gates of his castle. He merely chuckled at her, taunting her as she pitifully glared at him with eyes of watery green fire. He had praised Itachi, whom she turned her fury towards, even as the ANBU boy then forcefully escorted her to the prisons.
Her tears would only intensify a few short weeks later when Madara had Itachi inform their little hostage that her grandfather had, by his own hand, passed from this world on to the next. And yet, none of this had endeared Sakura to Madara, it was just like any other hostage situation in his mind; if the vision of her fury strayed into his thoughts from time to time, he gave it no thought other than how to use her against the rebels, specifically Kakashi, and awaiting the time when he could crush their disloyal spirits by killing her.
When Isuzu was seven, Sakura bought him a dog for her annual birthday visit. When Sakura had been seven, she wore hand-me-downs that were too large on her frame, and cleaned the Uchiha household. While Isuzu now chased the new shinobi-dog, Madara recalled seeing dirty pink locks tied up and bobbing and weaving as a little urchin danced with a broom in the courtyard. She had been so carefree in the dragon's den... He had thought perhaps her psyche was damaged due to a year being spent in the dungeons on top of losing everything she had known at so young an age; and yet, so long as she continued her duties as a maid no better than a slave, he cared not. As long as she still held sway in Hatake's eyes, that was all that mattered and kept her alive.
As both neared ten years old, new changes wrought havoc in both their lives. Isuzu was finally told the truth of his parentage and in shock activated the sharingan. He even ran away, just has his mother had done when he had the steward promote her to one of his personal maids. No doubt she had heard horror stories, how no maid who cleaned his room had survived such a job for very long. It was something he was morbidly proud of. However, he did not relish Isuzu's pain as much, if at all.
They found Isuzu much quicker than Sakura had been found. Madara smirked, waving away apologies, sharing stories (and sake) about how Sakura had surprisingly outwitted many of his own guards many years ago while hiding in the forest. A slightly drunk, and quite endearingly tipsy, Sakura had slurred that hiding had been a lesson from her grandfather. Apparently, and this caused great mirth in Madara, Sakumo had taken Sakura from her parents as soon as the little cherry blossom had been able to walk, and taught the girl to use chakra to great control, and then later how to use genjutsu. At two.
Madara roared in laughter at that anecdote, finally able to answer how it was his incompetent guards could not locate her all those years ago. He again assured a worried looking Hatake that he did not hold it against Sakura, Kakashi, or even the dead Sakumo, that his woman knew more than a civilian female should; or that she never told him till now. It was refreshing, he told them, that life was still able to surprise him.
"And did you cast a genjutsu on me, wicked woman?" He had asked, "Or how else could I let you get away with half the things you say and do?" He laughed, over shadowing Sakura's giggles.
"Of course!" She answered, though everyone knew genjutsu could not affect emotions like that, "It is my greatest trick!" And they laughed some more, helped along by the alcohol in their bloodstreams, the seriousness of Isuzu running away temporarily forgotten.
"To the great equalizer!" Madara toasted, "Death may have no sway, but love has surely brought me down!" He missed the stunned look of Kakashi, merely gazing into the flushed face of his giggling woman, "It does not matter age, or class, or... or how inconvenient you are to me!" Madara thumped the table, "Love does what it will, and has brought unlikely souls together, despite what I may will." He chugged the sake currently in his cup, quickly refilling his and Sakura's; "To the woman who would bring me to my knees, and willingly at that." He clinked cups with her, long ignoring the Copy-Nin by now, and kissed her lips before chugging sake once more. It was not a declaration of love, but it was as close as...
As he and his genjutsu wielding concubine walked home that day after the birthday festivities were over, he finally remembered, and frowned in sadness, that Isuzu had been so shocked to learn of his Uchiha heritage, so much that his eyes returned to an Uchiha black after releasing the sharingan. Instead of gaining pride, the whelp had lost some of his joyful innocence. Just as Sakura had once lost her enduring smile after he had beat her for the first time, when she finally had been caught and returned at ten years old.
No longer did she dance in the courtyard with the broom sweeping errant leaves or snow. The first time he had ever touched her, it had been in anger for daring to escape. She still bore whip scars on her back...
Eleven and twelve, years Isuzu learned what it meant to be a shinobi, as it was his greatest desire. Kakashi made no secret he taught his son taijutsu and shinobi tricks since he could walk, and yet though Madara lightly suspected an old enemy might be training a new rebel, he let it slide upon hearing Sakura merely mention how nice it was for father and son to bond as teacher and student. What harm could it do to Madara, anyway? As Hokage, he made sure to assign Itachi as a second sensei, and as Isuzu's team captain as well.
Eleven and twelve, years that Sakura was forced to learn how to please her master, in more ways than one. She was a pretty distraction from his normal depravities. He saw her budding beauty, how it would blossom, how it might please him later. While his bed was warmed by more mature and, at the time, more beautiful women at night, by day Sakura was taken by Madara's hand and "trained".
He may have had virgins before, and he may have gained inexperienced lovers, but never had he taken such... interest... such investment... like Sakura.
Her work hands taken in his larger and stronger hands, guided over his naked body. He forced her to pleasure him, to know what he liked and expected. She was afraid, and so damned shy, but would not disobey the demon king. But somewhere along the way, perhaps when she realized he would not violate her at so young, she became bolder, more exploratory. He allowed it, encouraged it even. He watched her rapt face as she took time to caress his bronzed and sculpted body entirely; he told her stories for every scar he had, and she kissed every last one of them. The young girl was starved for affection awed by this powerful and glorious looking man, wondering what it would be like for him to hold her and protect her, even as her rational mind no doubt told her he was not that kind of man...
Were those years what endeared him to her? He might never know, nor did he truly care for that, caring only that when he pushed her face from kissing a hip scar to kissing his hard on, she put up no fight. He threaded battle hardened hands into her straw-like hair and guided her actions, much like he guided her hands in the beginning. He whispered commands, and she listened, as a good servant should.
Fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen; Isuzu, during those years, had become a chunin ranked shinobi, making all those who knew him proud, even Emperor-Hokage Madara. Madara may even have forgiven the whelp for losing his emerald eyes, as entrancing as his mother's, and one of a kind in that none of Madara's direct sons and daughters had anything but black eyes... The boy had trained hard for the honor of not only wearing a Uchiha head guard (as all shinobi in Madara's empire wore), but also the red and white triangles of Hatake on his sleeve. Isuzu's pride in the Hatake name may have worried Madara, had he not, as Hokage, had assigned Itachi to stay on as Isuzu's captain. And since it seemed Isuzu had a healthy relationship with Itachi, Madara allowed the red triangles to remain.
The boy lived in peaceful times. Even though Madara had ruled uncontested for five centuries, there had always been a battle or uprising to deal with. Except recently, and Madara was a fool to have let a woman influence such, but it happened. Hatake's invaluable direct advice aside, the sly wolf also had... creative ways of dealing with new threats and backhanded citizens of Uchiha domains. Madara knew the song Kakashi was singing, and would have in days gone by beheaded the man for playing Madara as a fool. But he allowed it, because he no longer wanted to resort to war anymore. He wanted her; he wanted a life built up around her, and with her. And somehow, it happened, and he only feared its end.
Sakura did not have the carefree existence of her son, but she did not resent Isuzu for it. She smiled and laughed with Isuzu each and every of her birthdays, and more recently, whenever Madara suggested they visit his adviser's residence. She now got to visit her son on his birthdays. The latest one of which she gave Isuzu, with permission from Madara, a Gunbai Uchiwa embossed with the Uchiha crest.
It was perhaps the first gift of Sakura's to Isuzu that did not result in big smiles. Isuzu had looked at it, glanced at Madara, a man he never considered a father but rather a stoic uncle or something, and then gazed at his mother. Who knows what the boy was thinking, but he only bowed at his mother, and thanked her for the honor. The fan forever gathered dust in Isuzu's room, Madara later learned.
So used to disrespect, Madara had not scolded the boy for it, merely understood. He was no father, had given that talent up to better build his Clan, and his legacy.
Sakura, at sixteen, had by that time already given birth to Isuzu, Madara doubts Isuzu was so experienced at the same age. She had been all tears; tears of joy, and of sadness. It was a hard birth; she would never swell with his seed, or anyone's seed, again. But she loved the boy fiercely, even as she prepared to give him away.
However, her life had not built up to pregnancy and birth. No, he had her, at thirteen and fourteen, learn to please her master in the bedroom. As Isuzu had a second sensei, so did Sakura. He had her taken off maid duties; his room could be cleaned by others. One of his previous women, a captured and prized Senju woman who had nowhere to go, stayed and taught Sakura how to be beautiful, to walk the walk of a lady, to talk the talk of a politician, to sing the song of a courtesan.
And Sakura would watch, too, the lesson of bed warming; that, Tsunade had not wanted to teach Sakura, but Madara forced both of them. During the night, they would enter his bedroom along with his chosen concubine for the evening, and watch them fucking. He knew it scared the budding blossom, his brutal ways and the crying of the women, but he would not be swayed, and Sakura would not be unprepared.
Her hands, still caressing her master throughout these years, became cleaner, silkier, and more learned. But Sakura was still shy, and scared; he had yet to take her. But when she was fifteen, he could not longer refrain from doing so, and had been enjoying her for twenty years.
The years after Isuzu's birth, and before he turned twenty one, were the best years Madara has ever recalled, when Sakura was in her late teens , the entirety of her twenties, and early thirties. He could only grasp at the passing days, months, and years; both loving every minute and bemoaning their passing. When Sakura was twenty one, Madara knew nothing better. When Isuzu was twenty one, Madara knew nothing worse than the havoc that was wrought.
Next Time: A flashback look at when Sakura was 15, specifically. It will be a borderline "M" rated chapter, but I could not/would not(?) tone it down enough or delete it entirely.