Sakura branch hopped through the trees both physically and emotionally fatigued from the eventful day prior. No longer saddled with the burden of caring for the child, she could hasten her pace and reduce the number of breaks on route to Konoha. It wouldn't take too long to reach the village at this point.
She halted in her tracks having come across a group of male shinobi hampering her path. She heaved a mental sigh of relief recognizing the moss green flak jackets indicative of Konoha ninja. A familiar auburn haired man commanded the band of shinobi.
"Ah, it's you Reiji-san." Sakura smiled cordially dropping her hands to her sides as a display of camaraderie.
Reiji was a previous patient of hers during the Fourth Shinobi World War. She recalled he had suffered massive head trauma in the battle against the resurrected Seven Swordsman of the Mist.
"Capture her." Reiji ordered callously donning brass knuckles over his fingers.
His associates did not hesitate to surround the lone kunoichi.
"What?! There must be some kind of mistake?" Sakura's skin blanched completely floored by his treacherous words. She twisted left and right gauging a route of escape.
Upon further examination, she noticed the slash marks etched into each of their headbands. She deduced, despite their deceiving Konoha attire, that they were rogue-nin.
"Not only is she exotic looking but she is also the Hokage's apprentice. She will fetch a high price at auction." Reiji's eyes inspected her like a slab of meat, calculating her prospective value.
"Why Reiji…? We were once allies fighting alongside each other for the sake of the shinobi world!" Sakura protested avidly hoping to evoke a change of decision.
The man's cold eyes did not dither. Evidently, her words had not reached him.
"I lost everything…I lost my house, I lost my brother, and I lost my lover. I have nothing left to live for. The Hokage spoke of nothing but fanciful lies and we bought into her bullshit. But, you have to do what you can to survive. It's just simple business."
Was that all she was to him? She salvaged his life from the brink of death and he repaid her by degrading her to a measly object deemed to be auctioned and sold? She yearned to pump chakra into her fists and decimate the traitorous shinobi closing in on her. However, she could not simply discredit the memories of the very same men as comrades and vulnerable patients who had relied on her through Katsuyu's protection—clinging to her chakra—for their survival.
Instead of fighting back, she concentrated chakra to the soles of her feet in order to accentuate her speed and avoid their assault. If she could not muster the fortitude to harm these men then her only option was to flee. Her attackers were incredibly diligent in ensuring her chances of escape were close to nil.
She bolted through the forest deflecting the ceaseless array of kunai flying in her direction. She knew these men were very well capable of sending long ranged attacks her way rendering her flight futile. Long ranged combat was not her forte and she would need to stun the men with as much brute force as she could conjure in order to end their pursuit.
"What shall we do with the kid?" She heard one of the men speak up.
What kid?
She wheeled around facing opposite from her previous trajectory.
A man seized a young boy in a secure bear hug. The boy bucked vigorously in the man's hold.
"Mada-kun?!" Sakura gasped suspending her plan of escape and switching to the offensive.
Why was he here? What compelled that stubborn child to leave the security of Hinode's borders and follow her all the way out here?
"Kill him. He serves no value to us." She heard Reiji reply.
Madara drew a kunai from the holster strapped to the belt of his captor and thrust the blade behind himself stabbing the man in the abdomen. He slithered out of his captor's hold drawing his attention to the next round of shinobi lunging toward him. He wrenched the kunai out of the downed rogue preparing to combat the approaching shinobi head-on.
"Hold on, Mada-kun!" Sakura shouted sprinting in the boy's direction oblivious to the threat closing in behind her.
Reiji seized Sakura by the arm yanking her backward. His heavy brass clad knuckles rapped her in the back of the head immediately rendering her unconscious. Her knees buckled no longer capable of supporting her weight. He caught her as she plummeted forward and unceremoniously hoisted her over his shoulder like a bag of rice.
"Forget the auction let's have some fun with her." Reiji's associate grinned darkly.
Madara leapt backward weaving hand signs at breakneck speeds. He inhaled deeply inflating his cheeks and expelled a massive inferno engulfing the oncoming rogue-nin.
Reiji's head snapped to the direction of the agonized screams emanating from his comrades immersed in the wrathful blaze. He flipped two fingers in the child's direction cuing another barrage of shinobi to the offensive.
"That's quite a katon you've got there but child's play is reserved for the academy!" A swordsman plunged from the ledge of a tree branch preparing to deal an aerial blow.
Madara closed his eyes folding his arms snugly against his torso while the rogue-nin honed in on him from various angles. A skeletal construct formed around the boy suddenly buffeting the shinobi.
"Fuck! He's got the Sharingan!" The swordsman bellowed noting the blood red gleam radiating from the boy's eyes.
An ethereal blue creature sprung forth from boy like a guardian spirit that could only manifest through a demented child's imagination. The swordsman grunted unable to escape the monster's merciless grasp crushing his bones against his organs.
The boy would deal these shinobi the same way he had dealt with the all the others he had previously encountered—by disemboweling them with the immense power bestowed upon him by his eyes.
A gut wrenching scream followed the repulsive sound of snapping bone and splattering blood. The monstrous spirit released the swordsman's mangled body turning its focus to its next victim. The rogue Konoha shinobi remained immobilized taken aghast by the spray of blood coating the forest foliage red.
The humanoid being indiscriminately plucked a single nin from the crowd suspending him in the air like a doll. The man's comrades watched on in sheer horror as the monster nonchalantly ripped the man's arms from his torso as if tearing the wings off an insect. Casting the mutilated ninja aside, the ethereal monster formed a pair of curved blades constructed from chakra.
The band of shinobi attempted to flee the monster's limitless stock of curved blades pitched in their direction.
Reiji watched his comrades fall one by one skewered by the relentless bombardment of the monster's weapon until he was the last to remain. He longed desperately to cover his eyes to the grisly sight befallen him reminiscent of the despair borne on the battlefield. Visions of his brother and girlfriend impaled by the wooden stakes of the Juubi plagued his conscious alike an inescapable nightmare. All he had done—all he could do—was stand around screaming and cursing at the injustices of reality while his allies continued dropping before his eyes.
He ran clutching the girl's unconscious body as though she were the last lifeline remaining to release him from his miserable existence. A sharp pain jolted through his leg as he stepped on the instep of his foot crumbling to the ground. Sakura's body escaped his grip rolling ahead of him until inertia halted her body before the root a tree.
Reiji propped himself up into a crablike position sobbing hysterically as the child casually ambled toward him.
He had survived the battle against the resurrected famed swordsmen of the Mist, he had survived the wrath of the Juubi and its jinchuuriki Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Madara, he survived his friends, family, and comrades on the battlefield to experience the celebratory victory of the Shinobi Alliance.
But this time he cried and pleaded desperately only to determine his pleas fell on deaf ears.
This time his life was at the mercy of a mere child.
The boy hovered over him ominously subjecting the adult to his ruthless whim. His youthful voice resonated with the malice of a butcher.
"I'm done playing now."
Sakura lifted her eyelids slowly, pained by the sun's bright rays burning her retinas. Her skull throbbed tenderly and she was certain she had suffered yet another concussion. Concussions seemed to be a common occurrence for her and she swore if she suffered just one more she would end up forgetting her most basic life functions.
Madara knelt over her inquisitively. Dried streaks of blood caked his face.
"Mada-kun?!" Her upper body snapped upward.
A wave of nausea flushed over her. Succumbing to the powerful dizzy spell, she flopped back down to the ground with a noisy thud.
"Wha…what happened the rogue-nin?" She took a deep breath.
"I don't know…" Madara answered rather bluntly. His eyes shifted to the side avoiding her gaze. "They're probably…not ok."
"Huh?" She raised an eyebrow baffled by his abstruse answer.
Had he fended off all of those ninja by himself?
Despite her concussion, she was fortunate her injuries did not seem too severe. She suffered a few scrapes and bruises but she was more concerned for Madara's sake.
"Why? Why didn't you stay in Hinode?" She did not stifle the anger from bleeding into her worried tone of voice.
He crossed his arms still dodging her gaze. "I don't trust them…"
At first, his simplistic answer infuriated her until she recalled the probable source of his amnesia. She sighed relinquishing her frustration and mentally berated herself for her insensitivity. The boy had apparently experienced some traumatic episode causing him to feel isolated and distrustful. It was unfair of her to spring him upon a couple of strangers expecting him to trust them so easily. If he was a survivor of abuse, it was inevitable that he would become attached to someone he perceived as safe such as herself. If it had been any other child she could've depended on Hinode's leaders to care for the child. However, the margin of error with a damaged child was so thin it would require a skilled professional to properly rehabilitate the child lest they become a damaged adult.
There weren't many resources she could list off the top of her head that specialized in mental therapy for children. However, there was an elderly woman in Konoha who rehabilitated orphaned and abused children deemed unsuitable for the shinobi lifestyle.
This time, she would choose his next caretaker more considerately.
Foremost, healing the boy's wounds was her highest priority. But she could not assess him until she could sit up comfortably.
"Mada-kun, do you mind grabbing the anti-nausea meds from my bag? They are small, white pills." Sakura instructed the boy.
He hauled the backpack by the strap beside her and rummaged through the zippers. He drew a packet of white pills from the top zipper and held it before her nose. "These?"
"No, those are for hypertension." Sakura waved her hand rejecting the pills. "They should be in the largest pouch."
"This one?" Madara contorted his face holding a large oblong pill.
"That's not it."
"Is this it?" He pulled out a packet containing a long array of individually packaged pills labeled with the days of the week over each pill slot.
"No, those are my…" A rosy hue washed over Sakura's face.
Madara curiously inspected the packet puzzled as to why she seemed so perturbed by it.
"I get painful cramps, alright!" She snapped at him.
He stuffed the packet back inside the bag and shouted back at Sakura with matched vigor. "Why are you yelling at me about it?!"
Now feeling as though she had been stripped naked, Sakura no longer wanted him rummaging through her backpack.
"Forget the meds. Just grab the food pills in the very bottom pouch."
At least it was fairly easy to locate and distinguish the food pills. He unraveled the crumpled foil handing Sakura a single pill. Tears streamed from her eyes as she struggled to obfuscate her revolted grimace.
She squeezed her eyes shut forcing a soured grin. "Very nutritious…"
"How do you expect me to eat those things when you can't stand them either!" Madara pointed his finger at her calling her out on her hypocrisy.
She grasped his finger and sat up, beaming at him deviously. "Careful or you might lose that finger."
She sat erect assessing his body for injury. Thankful he had been unscathed, she dampened a washcloth with saline and dabbed the dried blood from his face.
His cheeks tinged with heat as her face had drawn close to his own. He suddenly leaned back throwing her a huffy pout which she countered with a tender smile.
Overtaken with exhaustion, she yawned loudly stretching her stiff arms. Madara followed suit and began to rub his eyes. She snatched him by the wrists examining his inflamed conjunctiva.
"Your eye infection has gotten worse. Do you have the drops on you?"
Madara shook his head and muttered flatly. "No."
"What?! You left the eye drops in Hinode?!" She suddenly seized his shoulders.
"Well, you have more, right?"
Sakura jarred him forcefully by the shoulders. "I'm not a walking pharmacy, you know! Those drops were terribly expensive!"
She gazed listlessly into the small campfire Madara had set ablaze with a simple katon jutsu. He rested beside the campfire basking in the comforting warmth of the flames. He periodically stirred and muttered in his sleep piquing her curiosity.
What kinds of things did he dream of?
Where did he come from?
Where was his family?
Was there anyone out there searching for him?
She couldn't help but pity the poor child and vowed she would do her best to help him seek sanctuary from his plight.
For now, she would do all she could to protect him until they reached the village. On that thought, she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.
A hissing voice called out to him.
"Awaken, Madara."
His eyelids flipped open shooting a stream of tiny bubbles upwards.
Where was he?
He seemed to be immersed in some type of liquid chamber. Two unfamiliar men stood before his enclosure viewing him as if he were some kind of captive animal on display.
"Ah, you're finally awake, Madara." A pasty skinned man spoke softly.
Madara?
His bespectacled underling tapped the glass casing of his enclosure. "Do you suppose he remembers anything?"
"No." The serpentine man chuckled with a slight wheeze. "He should be as pure as an infant."
"I reckon he will be as powerful as he was before but we won't know for sure until we test him out and make the necessary modifications." The bespectacled man smirked, relishing the prospect of testing his new subject.
"I have no doubts the child harbors the same potential as his adult self. But this time he comes with the added benefit of lacking an identity. He shall serve as a fine vessel."
The bespectacled underling nodded agreeably. "He is a fine specimen, indeed, Orochimaru-sama."
The snake-like man tapped on the glass and flashed the boy a delighted grin. "Your body belongs to me."
Madara suddenly sat up gasping for air as if he had been submerged beneath water startling Sakura awake.
"Mada-kun, are you alright?"
A/N: Again, thanks for reading and reviewing! More to come!
