The Man from the Picture
Chapter 4
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When one had a good enough grasp on their chakra, hiding it wasn't too difficult. Some people could even manage it without any prior training. Sarada had picked up the skill very quickly, taking to heart the lesson that a good ninja was the one who remained in the shadows until it was a time to strike.
No, hiding her chakra was not hard. Hiding it while running at the same time was.
Sarada wove her way through the woods, concentrated on lowering her chakra. She was taking a roundabout, scenic route across the hills since she couldn't take the road. It was slowing her down, but if her father and Uncle Naruto guessed that she was going to the Uchiha outpost, they would just wait for her there and she'd fail her mission. So the first order of business was to throw them off her real objective.
The ground under her feet was treacherous—uneven on the slopes, riddled with gnarled tree roots that threatened to trip her if she didn't watch out for them. The trees weren't as lush as those in Konoha and provided lesser coverage. Sarada climbed a sturdy maple tree and surveyed the skies above her for her father's scout hawk. To her relief there was no sign of it and the only birds she recognized were a couple of common thrushes.
The sun was getting lower on the horizon. Sarada jumped down from her branch and pressed on. She wanted to get there before dark.
The young girl backtracked to create a false lead for her pursuers and changed her direction, going downhill. She planned to cross the road and go for the outpost from the other side.
"SAAA-RAAA-DAAA!"
The loud yell boomed through the surrounding area, startling the birds off their perches and into the sky. Sarada jumped up in fright too. It was her uncle's voice! They were getting close!
The girl hid behind a wide tree trunk and suppressed her chakra to a small wisp similar to a candle light. How did they find her so fast? More importantly, how could she shake them off?
A memory came to her...
A six-year-old Sarada was alone on a playground. Her hair was wild and mussed and the nice blue shirt she'd put on in the morning was dirty and ripped. Her shorts didn't fare any better as they had grass stains.
The girl was sitting on a swing and staring at her feet. Her toes were digging through the sand.
"Sarada."
Her head shot up. "Papa!" In a blur, she jumped off the swing and darted to him. She hugged his knees hard. "You're back!" She was ecstatic. When her Papa was on a mission, she had to stay over at Uncle Naruto's house. Aunt Hinata was supposed to come pick her up from the playground, but instead Papa was there! "Are we going home?" Sarada asked hopefully.
"Aa," Papa replied with a small smile and put a hand on the top of her head. He picked a small leaf from between the wild locks and smoothed them out.
"Will we have dango?" she asked slyly. His return from the mission was a cause for celebration. Usually her Papa was very strict about sweets. He only allowed them on special occasions like birthdays or holidays.
"We'll see." To her this was as good as a 'yes'.
Sarada slipped her hand into his and pulled him along. "Come on, let's go home!"
"Wait, Sarada. Why are you all dirty?"
The girl looked at herself self-consciously. Her hands went to sweep off the dirt from her clothes. "I was playing hide and seek with others. There was this boy. Only he could find me when I was hiding. It was really annoying. No matter where I hid, he still found me!" she griped. "I can't think of anything to beat him. And I was the best at hide and seek before he came!"
"Did he have any facial markings?"
"Papa, how did you know?" She regarded him with wide eyes. Her Papa was so smart! "He had red markings under his eyes."
"So he is probably Inuzuka. Their clan specializes in tracking. He used his advanced sense of smell to find you."
"He smelled me?" Sarada scrunched her nose. Papa tweaked it and she pouted, swatting at his hand.
"Papa, how do I beat him?" she asked seriously. "I don't want to lose to him anymore."
"There are many ways. You can neutralize his sense of smell with spreading a strong scent. You can also...
"... hide my scent," Sarada whispered. She stood up and without caring about misleading her pursuers, she made a beeline for the river in the valley between the hills.
The clear water was bubbling, but she could see the riverbed. It wasn't very deep and Sarada knew how to swim. She took off her sandals and submerged her toes which she just as quickly pulled out because of the ice cold water.
"Saa-raa-daa! Cooome! Baaaack!" Uncle Naruto was still yelling in the distance.
Would going for a swim be enough? It only occurred to her now that all this time she, an Academy student, was playing hide and seek with two S-class ninjas who also knew her very well. She needed an ace in the hole to succeed in fooling them, something they wouldn't be prepared for.
She'd seen just the technique. Boruto performed it a few times in class. His boasting had made her almost try it out, just to wipe off that smug look off his face, but Shino-sensei had forbidden it. Well, he wasn't around now and she's become a lot stronger since that time. Sarada put her fingers in a cross seal and focused on forming her chakra.
A poof... and nothing happened. She gave it too little juice!
Sarada gritted her teeth and tried again. Without realizing, she activated her Sharingan to aid her in figuring out the chakra input. She tried again, pouring all she had into the technique.
A perfect copy of herself appeared in a cloud of smoke.
With a small triumphant grin, Sarada leaned down and put her hands on her knees, feeling the drain on her reserves. She made a waving gesture. "Go the other way."
The shadow clone nodded and took off.
Sarada put her sandals in the bag, which she tied on top of her head, then she waded into the river. When she was deep enough she swam the crawl. In the beginning she used chakra to keep her glasses in place, but the splashing water forced her to put them in a pocket so she could see where she was going.
When she reached the other side of the river, she crawled out of the water, ignoring the rocks digging into her unprotected hands and knees. She was panting with the effort and would gladly just lay down and rest, but she had no time to dawdle. Sarada rose on shaky legs, muscles trembling from the tiredness and cold. She wiped her glasses and put them on, then she donned her sandals with fumbling fingers.
The girl marched on, hoping that she'd warm up from moving, but with the shadows getting darker the temperature in the woods dropped. Chilly breeze blew at the wet clothes on her back and elicited a full-body shiver. Sarada leaned against a tree and briefly slipped into a daydream about a large, crackling bonfire that she could make with just a bit of her chakra. She'd just sit next to the fire and soak in the warmth...
Sarada shook her head and reminded herself to stay on the objective. First, she'd get to the outpost. There would be a time and place for a bonfire later, she promised herself.
She looked around and realized that in her haze she got lost. It was already too dark to see which direction she should take and she glanced up at the tree in despair. She was sure that if she tried climbing it, she would fall off and break her neck. Her chakra was so pathetically low that she didn't bother hiding it anymore.
A loud caw startled her. Sarada whipped around, hand going automatically for a kunai, then marginally relaxed as she spotted a black bird on a low branch. It stood out like a darker stain on the overwhelming greyness beneath the canopy. She eyed the crow curiously and it seemed to look back at her. She grew unnerved by its unnatural stillness.
"What do you want?" she snapped.
The bird didn't react. It just stared at her eerily without a blink.
"What are you looking at?! You've never seen a lost girl in a forest?! Stupid bird! Just go away!" Sarada shook her hand angrily to scare it away.
The crow flew off the branch, but instead of leaving, it circled over her head. Sarada put up her hands defensively. These claws and the beak looked sharp!
"I told you to go away!" she cried out.
With a flap of wings, the crow flew at her. Sarada closed her eyes, preparing for an attack, but the bird just passed by her shoulder. The ends of the soft feathers brushed her cheek.
Dumbfounded, Sarada watched after it, her arms relaxing and falling to her sides. The bird disappeared from sight in the forest's shadows, then unexpectedly returned. It circled her again and gave a short caw, before taking off in the same direction as before.
"Do you... want me to follow?" the girl asked.
The next caw sounded like an affirmative.
Sarada was wet, cold and tired and she had no clue where she was. Following a strange bird wasn't going to make things any worse for her and she ran out of any better ideas.
"Hey! Wait up!" she shouted and ran after the bird, desperate not to lose it from her sight.
She activated the Sharingan. It didn't give her night vision and put a steady drain on her chakra, but she wasn't about to underestimate potential threats in the forest. Her bloodline limit would alert her of foreign chakra and hostile presences ahead of time. It also helped her avoid tripping over some roots a few times. It was really amazing how it shortened her reaction time.
The girl burst into a clearing and came to a halt as she saw the crow sitting on a tall rock there.
"Why did you stop?" she asked, looking around. This place on the hillside was a good vantage point. She quickly found out that she was closer to the outpost than she thought. Just a final stretch of the forest and she'd reach it.
She turned to the bird, amazed that it actually helped her, but it was already gone. After hearing the fluttering of wings, she tilted her head up to see the crow flying away, towards the outpost where it joined its brethren. She lost sight of it in the flock of birds.
Sarada made a step to continue when a terrible pain burst under her skull. She grabbed her head with a scream and staggered. The pain faded as fast as it appeared and she was flooded with images and thoughts.
She was running away from the river. She tore off pieces of her shirt and tied them to small animals that she had ensnared with the aid of Sharingan. That would confuse her father's tracker. She was going back, towards the watchtower, watching out for Uncle Naruto's clones that were scouring the area. Uncle's clone jumped in front of her, scaring her half to death (how was he so noiseless all of a sudden?!) but she took it down with a kunai and bolted. The original got in her way, don't run, Sarada, your dad's worried, we will find your mom together, I swear on my hat!, she fended him off with her shurikenjutsu and made a break for it again.
Sarada! Dad sprang out of nowhere, blocked her way and she barreled straight into his outstretched arms. For a split second she felt his embrace, met his eyes, red and purple, as they widened in realization...
Sarada took in a shaky breath and straightened out as her mind quickly sorted through the double's memories. So her clone popped when it ran into her father. It was low on chakra, so the impact was enough to destroy it. Still, she was pleased that it managed to draw her father and Uncle Naruto this far away from her.
The girl hurried forward, burning out the dregs of her chakra to speed up. She didn't know how long she had until they found her again, so every second counted.
Out of breath, she almost collapsed at the outpost's entrance, but she caught herself against the door frame. Panting, she shuffled inside the pitch black room and groped the wall for a light switch. Her hand met only a smooth stone.
Sarada opened her bag and felt around inside it. She pulled out a flashlight, inwardly cheering for her good preparation, then flicked it on. Nothing happened. She tried again—with no result. She hit it a few times, but it didn't help either.
Her face fell. The battery was probably used up and she hadn't packed a spare. So much for good preparation.
Sarada returned outside to get a suitable stick. She wrapped the end of it with some bandages and lit the makeshift torch with a breath of flame. Basic fire manipulation. She could do it in her sleep.
With a source of light grasped in one hand and a kunai in the other, she inspected the room. It was empty, apart from some debris laying around. There were two exits at the back of the room, however the one on the left was blocked with rocks from a collapsed ceiling. Sarada went through the unobstructed exit and wandered through the abandoned corridors. She found nothing of interest in the rooms, just some rotting remains of what once had been furniture. Thankfully there were no human corpses, though she spotted a mouse's skeleton in a corner of one room.
Sarada noticed how creepily silent it was in the ruins. Her every step reverberated through the halls like a drum. Anyone would hear her making all that noise just by walking, but no one came. Her expression turned grim as she contemplated Madara's suspicious absence. Had he sent her here just to ditch her? Was he going back on his word?
The torch was on the verge of burning out, so she jogged back to the entrance room. She spared a look at the blocked exit and turned to walk by the wall away from it. Suddenly it struck her as strange. Why didn't she just go in a straight line to the doorway?
It was as if there was something subtly repelling about that other exit.
Sarada went back, purposely heading for the left portal. On the way, her legs took her to the right without a conscious decision on her part. This meant only one thing.
The girl activated the Sharingan and saw right through the illusion. There were no rocks blocking that exit, just a closed door, but it easily opened when she pushed it. This time, she crossed the threshold without a problem.
"Took you long enough."
Three small fireballs flew across the room and ignited the torches on the walls. Madara was sitting comfortably on a throne-like chair, with an elbow on the armrest and a palm supporting his cheek. Sarada was surprised to see that not only this room possessed an undecayed piece of furniture, but also was remarkably clean of the debris and filth she'd found everywhere else in the ruins. She glanced curiously at the empty bookshelves and weapon racks.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"It's a secret Uchiha vault. After the clan's massacre it fell into disuse, but now it's mine."
Sarada knew about the massacre, though only the bare bones. Her father didn't like talking about it just as much as about Mom.
"If it's a vault, why is there nothing here?" she inquired.
"That's because the eye thief was here."
"Shin? He robbed you?"
"Only someone in the possession of the Sharingan or a skilled genjutsu user could have gotten past the illusion guarding the entrance."
Sarada nodded. "So most probably it's Shin or his master that did this. Did you lose anything important?"
"Just some old knick-knacks." Madara didn't take the bait to spill what exactly he'd hidden here. She'd bet a year's allowance it was something valuable and potentially dangerous.
"Did you know about the break-in?"
Madara pointed at something behind her. Sarada turned around. Above the doorway she spotted a small sigil, but the Sharingan noticed the chakra coming out of it in threads, most of them concentrated around the door, some buried in the floor.
"A seal... Like a burglar alarm?" She turned back to Madara who nodded.
"I knew as soon as he stepped a foot in here."
"You didn't have any other traps to stop the thief?"
"I did. And they were all activated."
Sarada wrinkled her brow as her mind sluggishly worked through the implications. Then she shook her head. What did she care if Madara was robbed? She had a different business with him.
"Let's just get out of here. You promised to take me to my mother, remember?"
"And you promised me your help, too," Madara countered.
"I can help you outside," she said firmly. In reality all she wanted was to curl up in her bed and sleep for a year, which was impossible at the moment, but getting out of the ruins was the first step.
Madara's gaze swept over her, the Rinnegan boring into her and she shifted uncomfortably under the weight of his gaze. He must have seen how exhausted she truly was. Sarada set her jaw, willing her body to stay upright. She was worried he might just leave her if she became too weak to move.
"Fifth shelf on your right," he told her and she looked there obediently. It was just as barren as all the other shelves. "Seventh stone to the left," he added.
Sarada squinted at the stone in the wall in puzzlement, then flickered her Sharingan on. No genjutsu or chakra traces. She walked up to it. It still looked the same, so she hesitantly touched it. The surface was cold and smooth. She lightly traced the edges, then pushed and felt it give in a bit. She put more force into it and the stone sank in the wall for two centimeters. At the same time, the wall behind the bookshelf swung open, revealing a secret passage.
She looked back at Madara with a raised brow. "Where does it go?"
"Outside," he replied and stood up.
Sarada felt a wave of annoyance at his very non-specific answer. She swiped a lit torch from the handle in the wall and headed for the opening.
"Are you coming?" she asked impatiently, looking back at him when he didn't move to follow.
"In a minute. Go ahead."
Sarada saw him flashing through the handseals. So he was casting some sort of a technique. Another genjutsu? No matter. She turned her back to him and descended into the passage.
It was going downward and winded regularly, similar to some staircases. On one hand she was grateful that it didn't go up, but on the other hand she had to watch her step so she wouldn't tumble down. The musty underground air was choking her and the fatigue was setting in and dragging her down. She just wanted to get out of there soon. Running was out of the question, but she lengthened her stride.
"You're too slow." Suddenly, Madara was beside her, finished with whatever he was doing up there.
Sarada scowled at him. "I'm just careful."
"Hurry it up then, I don't have all day." He pushed ahead, showing her his back.
She gritted her teeth and ran after him, soon achieving a break neck pace. It was almost like flying... and potentially deadly as at every turnaround of the passage she had to precisely push herself off the wall. It jarred her wrists, but at least she didn't splatter herself on the stone like some giant mosquito.
Sarada pumped more chakra into her legs when she saw the lighter outline of a door. Finally! She ran out and fell on her knees, panting harshly.
"So you decided to join me for the fireworks?" Madara was standing just a few steps away.
"What?" she gasped out.
He pointed up. Sarada saw the outpost through the trees and two familiar figures approaching it fast, visible thanks to the warm yellow glow of her Uncle's Kyuubi cloak. They went inside...
The large explosion shook the world around her. Sarada clutched at her ears, watching in utter horror as the rocketing flames consumed the outpost. She barely noticed the blue giant hand shielding her and Madara from the flying rubble.
Dad... Uncle Naruto...
They were inside.
They were inside.
"What have you done?!" she screamed at Madara through the tears.
"I got rid of your tail. Now they won't follow us," he replied without a care that he just... he just...
Sarada threw herself at him with a furious scream, Sharingan blazing. Madara dodged her punches with minimal effort, which only spurned her on.
"What's the matter? I thought you wanted to see your mother," he asked.
"You didn't have to do this! You monster!"
"Monster? You need to work on your insults," he advised, slapping away her next barrage of attacks. "Besides, Naruto and Sasuke were stupid enough to walk into a trap all by themselves. Blame them for their lack of caution. What a rookie mistake."
"You... you..." Sarada jumped back and formed the seals. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" The giant fireball, bigger than a standing man, flew right at the older Uchiha.
Madara calmly took the gunbai off his back and with one swift swipe dispersed the flames.
Her energy died out just as abruptly as her fire. Sarada swayed and fell on her side, succumbing to numbness in her overworked body. She'd used up all her reserves to pull off that final technique. Her eyes turned black again and she was still crying.
"Why?" she murmured, barely moving her lips.
Why, indeed? Why only now, after losing Dad, did she realize that only he could be her real father? Even if by some cruel twist of fate Madara was her father, she'd never accept him. He was truly a monster.
She watched Madara come for her, wondering how he'd kill her. A blade through the torso, like Shin? A fireball, just to return the favour?
She wanted to close her eyes at first, but that would be cowardly, so she kept them open, glaring at the man. But everything was getting blurry so fast. She couldn't fend off the encroaching darkness.
The last muted sensation she had was of being scooped up and carried away. Then she blacked out.
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AN: Sorry about any mistakes, I hope there aren't any too bad. There will be grammar revisions.
I honestly didn't plan to end the chapter like this, it just wrote itself that way.
Please tell me what you think about the chapter! :)