A/N: Thank you guys so much! I am really glad to know that Madara and Sakura are both coming across as in character. It's something I struggle with but take very seriously for my stories. Please, if they ever seem too OOC, let me know! I'm glad you guys liked the fight. :D I confess I spent a little too much time playing Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and some others, fighting Madara as Sakura and vice versa, in order to get a good idea of choreography and swoon over Madara's voice (for "research purposes." *cough* Great, now I sound like Jiraiya...). You might recognize some one-liners from there too. ^_^
Hana, that would have been hilarious! I can totally picture Madara's face too. :D I like his look in the manga where the smile was frozen on his face, and he was sweat-dropping. Ahh, his love for Hashirama knows no bounds.
And now, on with the story... :D
Mottled
-CHAPTER FOUR-
-/-
She was trapped!
Sakura couldn't move even if she wanted to. Sure, she could struggle a little, but any long-term attempts for autonomy would be futile. Madara would shut her down.
She was still wearing her ripped black shirt and pants. One sleeve was missing from the encounter she and Obito had with the acid, and the skin on her arm was badly burned. In spite of the burn, there was a chakra receiver stuck through her upper arm, another through the palm of her hand, and yet more through her legs, back, and the arm on her opposite side. She was dirty, bloodied, exhausted, lying on the ground, and completely at Uchiha Madara's mercy.
"I believe you have some more healing to do," he stared at her pointedly.
She was calm for exactly half a second. "LIKE HELL!"
Before she could sit up, his chakra receptors activated, and she felt herself restrained by his will. She struggled against his control, knowing full well she was utterly ineffective against him, but suddenly unable to control her own rage. "Let go of me! Like hell am I gonna heal you, so you can try to take over the world again! What, do I look stupid?! Nnnngh!"
She struggled for several long seconds, but she couldn't loosen let alone free herself from him. And to her annoyance and embarrassment, he looked painfully bored with her resistance. She heard him sigh, and then he lowered a hand to her shoulder, presumably to calm her, or maybe it was just to show her how powerless she was to stop him. At that thought, something in her snapped, and she buried her teeth into his arm and bit him again, hard.
She was not expecting him to bite her back.
"YEEEEEHHHHH!"
Madara pulled away, absently licking the blood from his mouth. Sakura, shoulder huge and red, was beside herself.
"What the hell?! Shannaro, you jerk! That hurt! Why did you bite me?!"
"Well, what do you expect? You bit me first," Madara stated calmly.
Sakura stopped, eye twitching.
"Let me make this clear." Madara was suddenly deadly serious. "You will do everything I say. Or you will die. Don't think I won't kill you like this! I might not have the medical ninjutsu that you do, but there is nothing to stop me from tearing every scrap of chakra from your body until I snuff your miserable life. So think carefully. What will it be?"
Sakura bit her lip. If she healed him now, he would surely go back and harm Team 7, or possibly try something again with the world. Even though he and Shodai-sama had seemed to make amends, how could she really know what his intentions were? They hadn't been good so far... But at the same time, if she did nothing, he'd probably steal her chakra, kill her, find a way to heal on his own, and then go after her friends anyway. If she healed him slowly, she could possibly stall him, and at best... Yes! If I examine him while I'm healing him, she thought, maybe I'll find a weakness of some kind. He can't be perfectly immortal, can he? At minimum, the longer he keeps me alive, the more of a chance I have of getting a warning to Naruto and Sasuke somehow... I'm no good to them dead. It was decided then. There were more advantages to going along with him, for now.
Sakura nodded quietly. "Alright, I'll heal you."
She expected more of a test, but instead Madara, after regarding her silently for a moment, knelt and began untying her wrists. He really hadn't needed to tie her up in the first place: his chakra implants had done a fine job of subduing her. But it was important to establish dominance from the start. Unlike the jinchuuriki, logic seemed to reach her; she knew now that she had no hope of going against him.
As Sakura sat up, she tried not to wince. Every inch her body moved, the receivers grated against nerves and chakra points, sending jolts of pain through her. She began to send out healing chakra for herself, anesthetizing the areas around some of the receivers. But her chakra control had slipped by a lot. It wouldn't be a problem for her to heal Madara, but she would have to do it slowly. Doing too much climbing or jumping with chakra would be risky. And heavy fighting would be out of the question.
Sakura rubbed her wrists gingerly as she reconsidered what she had just agreed to. It was so hard to keep the doubts at bay, especially with such a huge risk...
Madara caught her frown. "What is it?" he asked, exasperated.
"I just—it's unexpected, such a high-ranking shinobi, resorting to biting." She sounded like she was trying not to pout. Madara fixed her with a decidedly unimpressed look.
"How else do you suppose I was able to acquire Hashirama's cells?"
Sakura tried not to let her disgust show. 'Geez, he's just like Orochimaru or Kabuto, or, or something! What a freak!'
"I'm confused. If all you wanted was for me to heal you, then why did you try to kill me after bringing me here?"
"If I recall correctly, kunoichi, you attacked me first."
Sakura sweat-dropped as she realized he was right, but the realization only made her flare with embarrassment, and her Inner Sakura came out. "You can't blame me for that!" she screeched. "As far as I knew, you still wanted to kill us all! You know," she raised her hands, making an exaggerated face, " 'writhe, puny mortals! I am a God!' " Madara raised an eyebrow. She cleared her throat and hastily lowered her hands. "…B-but you couldn't just explain what you wanted instead of fighting?"
"I wanted to fight you. I never say no to a good battle, especially one with such a willing participant."
"…Oh."
"Plus, I was curious to check the extent of your power."
"What? Y-you were?"
They stared at each other. Sakura tried not to gawk. No one had been interested in her powers since, well, Akasuna no Sasori. She felt a little self-conscious, suddenly.
"…Ooh yeah, that's right. I'm supposed to heal you, aren't I?"
"You're eager all of a sudden."
"Just curious! I'm a doctor, I've never seen an implant like this one before, a-and it's not as if I have anything better to do right now, and besides, you'd kill me before I could kill you, so… Will you let me heal you now?" She sucked in a breath to stop her rambling.
Now both eyebrows were raised. "You sincerely need to brush up on your persuasiveness, kunoichi. How you've made it so far as a ninja is beyond me. Hmph. Weak."
Sakura twitched. "Healing…you…now."
"Start with my chest wound."
He was so close to her. Quite frankly, his chakra terrified her. To have to touch something so evil... "Um..." she squeaked out before she could stop herself. "Do you think you could suppress your chakra while I'm healing you? Please?"
He looked at her impassively. "No."
Shuddering, she brought her healing chakra to her hands and, bracing herself, let it flood Madara's system.
It was like getting punched in the gut. It was so potent, that deadly chakra of his, that she felt true terror pounding through her. He smiled at her eerily, the smile starting in his eyes, as he took true enjoyment in her fear. Even in the presence of the Nine Tails, she hadn't felt this way. She focused on her breathing and extended her chakra even more deeply into his.
The core in the center of his chest still smoldered. She could feel the last vestiges of Shodai-sama's chakra clinging to the edges, but even with her help, the implant wouldn't be able to regenerate. The best she would be able to do, would be to regenerate healthy tissues from Madara's own body. She dreaded telling him this, and instead she began to peruse the rest of his system. Now and then, in areas around his various scars and near his eyes, she sensed more of Shodai-sama's chakra. The loss of the implant would rob him of a major power source, but at least Shodai-sama's chakra wouldn't be totally gone. She breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately began wondering how she could subtly limit the powers he did have.
"Can you please take off your shirt again? It's easier for me to heal if I can see the wound…" For a moment, she feared that he would see through her request. Or else make fun of her. Sadly, she was proven right on the second one.
He rolled his eyes as he complied. "What a pathetic medic you are..."
Sakura gritted her teeth, willing herself into silence.
"There aren't going to be any more outbursts, are there?" he asked, casually flinging his shirt to the side, along with his gunbai.
She hadn't hidden it as well as she'd thought, if he was taunting her this way. Rather than anger, she decided to show embarrassment, scratching behind her head awkwardly. "Hah-hah… Sorry. I get that way when I haven't eaten breakfast… or lunch…" she grumbled the last part, "or dinner… or anything at all for days on end…"
"Use one of your soldier pills. I know you took one before, and I know you have more than one. Don't try to use any of your strength against me. It won't work."
"OK." She pulled the scroll from behind her ankle and re-summoned the pills. She popped one into her mouth and shuddered a little as the chakra surged through her. She almost offered Madara one out of habit, then remembered quickly who she was dealing with. "OK, I'm ready." She put the scroll away, resealing the items inside, and got to work. She began to pull the burn away from his chest, starting with the edges of the wound. The infection had returned and was spreading into healthier tissues. She would have to sanitize the burn, drain the fluids and chakra that had gathered beneath it in his chest cavity, clear away the burned tissues, regenerate healthier ones, and bind the wound. He would need to drink fluids soon, or else his body might go into shock. It was a miracle it hadn't already. Though she wondered if Uchihas were naturally resistant to burn injuries, given their penchant for playing with fire.
She could sense his own chakra lapping against the wound, on its own resisting the damage.
Such huge reserves... Was he born with these? She hadn't realized she had spoken her thoughts aloud, until he responded with characteristic arrogance.
"Hmm, I suppose you're jealous?"
A massive ego too, apparently. She was careful not to say that thought out loud. But she couldn't quite stop herself from saying something anyway. "Unlike you, I wasn't born with high chakra reserves; I was born with a brain. I make do with what I've got!"
"…Your powers would be effective in the right circumstances." Her ears pricked up; was he complimenting her? "Against a far weaker opponent, yours is most definitely an armor-sleeved single hit. Of course, you should have known it wouldn't work against me." Nope, he wasn't.
"Only because you have more lives than the Shinigami!"
"That metaphor does not work, since the Shinigami isn't technically alive."
Does he have to be such an insufferable smart-ass?! "I meant the lives it reaps!" she snapped.
"I have kept the Death God rather busy..." he mused.
"That's not something to brag about, Madara. Especially when you're trying to be the savior of the world."
He was watching her again. When he narrowed his eyes, his prominent eye-bags made him look even more sinister. How much longer could she take this?
"Look, I don't know what your plan is, but isn't going to work!" she finally burst out. "If you try to recapture the tailed beasts or- or restart the Moon's Eye Plan, you're risking that Kaguya will come out of hiding. She'll hijack your body again!"
Kaguya had been sealed. She didn't know if he had seen that from inside of her or not. Naruto had thrown Zetsu into the Chibaku Tensei with Kaguya... But somehow, that did not reassure her. The Rabbit Goddess could jump dimensions, for goodness' sakes! And even if she couldn't return, what was to stop Madara from abusing the world the way Kaguya did before him?
"You didn't see what she can do! Do you know what she did after she took over your body?"
"...It is of no consequence to me whether I become the savior of this world again or not. Project Tsuki No Me is complete. The world is still in blissful peace even as we speak. You and I could go anywhere on this Earth, and there would be no war, no conflict, no pain nor loss!"
"So you're OK with sentencing everyone on Earth to death?!"
"...What?"
"Didn't you know...? No. You couldn't have. You had already become one with Kaguya by then, hadn't you? Black Zetsu told us the true purpose of the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Did you know that it was a way for Kaguya to reclaim her chakra? The people trapped inside the Divine Tree will be drained of their chakras and their dreams and personalities and eventually become the bodies of the White Zetsus, an army ruled by the Rabbit Goddess. But that's only if Kaguya is around to harvest them. Without her, stuck alone in the Divine Tree, they won't live forever, or even for long! The tree will eventually drain their chakra, until they're dead! Did you know that when you made your plan, Madara?"
Her harshness would have made him flinch, if he had been anyone else. Instead he looked at her, coldly, with his one eye.
...But if Sakura wasn't mistaken, if she looked back at him deeply enough, she could see that he was confused. For a moment, she glimpsed the same expression on his face that he'd had when Black Zetsu stabbed him in the back.
"Perhaps it is better..." he murmured. "A pleasant sleep followed by death... Isn't it better than dying on the battlefield, generation after generation, merely increasing the hatred and despair in the world?"
She would have been angry at him then, but she had caught the sincerity in his words. And then she realized with a new kind of horror... he had meant everything he said. He really, truly did believe that he had saved the world! To him, the world really was a dark, evil place without hope...
Her mouth fell open at that. She couldn't think of anything else to say right then.
She had been healing him steadily the whole time. She still had enough chakra to go, thanks to the soldier pill. But mentally, emotionally, the war was finally taking its toll. Despite the relative peace of the moment, the war wasn't really over. Not with her friends still stuck inside the Infinite Dream...
Sakura's head lolled forward. She caught herself and raised her hands again, steadying them, but Madara gave her a stern look.
"What is it, medic?"
"It's nothing." She sat up straighter.
"You're growing sloppy. You're not using your chakra as efficiently as you were before."
He was right. And even as he said it, she felt another wave of exhaustion hit her. "I'm sorry," she heard herself say. "I'm just so tired."
"You have enough chakra."
"But I haven't rested in almost three days. You were dead for who-knows-how-long, so you might lack perspective." She had spoken without any bite in her voice, just weary observation. And that was probably why he didn't admonish her.
"Take a break, then. You need to remain at your most efficient."
Sakura nodded gratefully. "I can do more later. The worst of your infections have healed, but I'll need to do some deep tissue work around that chest wound. If it's alright with you, I'll take a rest so I can replenish my chakra more naturally. Soldier pills can only work so long before they take a toll, you know." Plus, she remembered, she had almost completely depleted her seal. It was going to take time to restore the chakra there as well.
"Hmm. Go forage."
"…What?"
"I am allowing you to replenish your chakra stores. Eat whatever you can find in the forest. But don't try to escape. I will know, and you will not live long enough to regret it."
"Y-yes. Thank you!" She started to leave, then turned back, the medic in her taking over. "Madara... You might want to drink fluids soon. Your body is still recovering, and if you don't, it might go into shock." Then she hurried off before she could think better of telling him that.
She thought better of it approximately three minutes later, when she discovered how much it utterly sucked trying to move around with the black receivers embedded in her. As suspected, she couldn't climb any trees. With every step, there was pain. She hadn't felt weak like this in a long time.
"Should have just let him go into shock..." she muttered. "See how he likes it..."
She half-expected to feel a jolt of some kind, perhaps a reprimand for her cheek. But nothing. She continued into the woods, lost in thought.
Summonings were out of the question, so there was no way she could contact Team 7 that way. Even if there were any civilizations nearby, all the residents would be asleep within the dream world. Naruto, Sasuke, even Kakashi-sensei... who knew what they were doing right now. She didn't want to entertain the possibility that they were looking for her for two reasons. For one, she didn't want to give herself false hope. For two, she didn't want to feel like she constantly needed rescuing.
If anything, by stalling Madara, perhaps this time she was rescuing them.
She stumbled a little over the rocks. Gritted her teeth.
Before long, she came to a thick stand of pine trees. Cones littered the ground beneath them. She immediately sat down and tore into the cones, digging the nuts out of them. She gathered them in her shirt, holding it out like an apron, and before long it was full. As neatly as possible, she laid the pile of nuts out on top of her reserve scroll and sealed them away inside. She would break them open and eat them later.
Flowers bloomed scantily in the forest, but there were small clearings where they were more plentiful. She ate dandelion greens, fiddleheads, and other sansai. But her mind was ever on water.
She followed her feet and her sense of smell downhill. It wasn't far from the clearing where she had been treating Madara, but it was so well-hidden by trees that she almost didn't see the small stream. When she finally came to the cool, rushing water, she dropped to her knees and drank gratefully.
There were many round stones on the edges of the banks and in the stream itself. Sakura spotted a particularly green rock and picked it up, rubbing it with her thumb. It was soft with very fine grains. She wondered if it would make a good sharpening stone. She had dropped her kunai in the place where she had first woken up after Madara had captured her. If she could go back, find it, and sharpen it...
Though she felt every inch of dirt on her body, she didn't want to foul the first water source she could find. Instead of bathing, she drank deeply, sparing a moment to rinse only her hands and face. Maybe later, if she found a deeper stream, she could bathe. If she lived that long.
That thought jolted her back into reality. How was she going to leave a message for her team? This far out in the woods, was it even worth it? They wouldn't find her if Madara didn't want them to. And note or not, she could still be dead long before they ever-
No. It was worth it to try. The only shame would be in doing nothing.
As she stared into the river, wondering what to do, she found herself contemplating the rocks. Some were big enough if she were to try to leave a message on one...
It would be easier if she had her kunai.
She wound her way back to the clearing where she had been treating Madara, but he was nowhere in sight. Perhaps he had taken her advice about finding hydration. With her "patient" gone, Sakura slumped to the ground, no longer feeling the need to keep up appearances. She knew she should look for her kunai, eat the pine nuts, and several other things. But she needed rest most of all.
Madara wasn't around, and for a moment, she couldn't find it in her to care where he was. She hoped fervently he wasn't off pursuing Team 7; something told her he wasn't. She knew he would be back eventually for her to continue healing him, and who knew what he would plan to do after that...
Before she could make heads or tails of her thoughts, she fell asleep, mouth open, face pointing towards the sky.
Tchk! Tchk!
Sakura awoke suddenly. Being a ninja meant that she never allowed herself to sleep for too long. But she had to admit, she had slept much more deeply than she had meant to.
An enemy could approach her if she slept too deeply. Someone like...
Tchk!
...Madara!
He was sitting right next to her, and the strange noise was coming from him.
Tchk! Tchk!
He was whittling a log into what looked like a large bowl of sorts. Or perhaps a huge cup. Either way, he was sitting directly next to her, leaning back against a stump, in no apparent hurry to wake her.
Her skin crawled. Right now, he had no reason to kill her, but she hated knowing she had been vulnerable around him. Just like the two or three times she had already been unconscious in his presence today. She was slipping! Not good! If he'd been here for a while — and judging by how much whittling he'd done, he must have been — then why hadn't he woken her up?
Maybe he just really likes watching me sleep, she thought bitterly to herself.
She sat up abruptly and apologized before he could comment on anything. "Would you like me to wait for you to finish your work," she indicated his wood project, "or shall we continue with healing now?"
Madara easily set down what he was doing and faced her, taking off his shirt and armor once again. He must have put it back on while she had been foraging.
By now it was well past noon and the clearing they were in had grown very warm indeed. Madara's skin was almost hot to the touch.
"Were you able to find some water?" she asked. She wasn't sure she would volunteer where to look if he hadn't, but she did want to know.
"Yes. I am replenished."
"Good." She began to concentrate on removing the burned tissues from his chest, while gradually draining out the excess fluids and chakra pockets around the wound. This was the messiest part of the work. She wondered if Madara would react to the pain, considering she didn't have any anesthesia with her beyond what minimum her chakra could provide for such an invasive procedure. But he didn't. He kept his gaze on her the entire time while she healed him. Is he watching my chakra levels to make sure I don't have any killing intent? Or is he actually trying to see how this medical ninjutsu works? Or...? She wanted to ask him, but she figured she had been talkative enough for one day.
It was late in the afternoon when Sakura lowered her hands for the first time. Sweat blotted her forehead, but she still felt well enough to work. She had stabilized the wound, though it had taken much longer with her lessened chakra control. She was about to start on round two — replacing the burned tissues with healthy ones — but Madara held up a hand. She waited to hear what he had to say.
"I can feel that my chest wound is improving already. You can work on that more in a moment. For now, check on my eyes as well. But be brief about it..."
Sakura raised her eyebrows but didn't question him. She lifted her hands to his eye sockets, only one of which still had the light.
"Hmm, it seems like your left eye has a little retinal damage. Minute scratches... and acid damage-"
She stopped. Shivered. Of course. This eye was the one she had-!
Madara noticed her shivering and smiled maliciously. "Don't even think of trying to swallow this eye again. I won't let you."
She flinched as he raised her shirt slightly, suddenly too frozen with terror to stop him. He was looking at the spot where he had pierced her stomach with his arm, just over a day ago. Was he going to harm her again? Her heart thundered. "You healed the damage admirably. Not even a mark." Then, his fingers traced something. "What's this?"
Sakura jumped a little at the feeling of his fingers on her bare stomach. She quickly shoved her shirt back down, his touch bringing her out of her trance. "It's a sword wound."
"Why did you not heal it fully?"
"I did. But there was poison on the blade. That leaves a mark."
"Does it really?"
"...Well, to be honest," she scratched behind her head again, "I also sorta wanted to keep that one. I'm proud of it. It's the first time I ever fought an Akatsuki, and I won that fight."
"You won even after you were stabbed through with a poisoned sword?" He tilted his head back, his tone light. "That sounds like quite the story."
"Maybe I'll tell you sometime," she said absently, before remembering just who she was speaking to. As if he wanted to hear her pitiful stories. He'd probably only said it out of sarcasm! Sakura shook her head, angry at herself. Why was she letting her guard down around him so easily!? He was messing with her mind again! It was clear from the way he had fought the Shinobi Alliance that this was an actual tool in his arsenal.
And from what she had gathered, he had been able to manipulate Obito into becoming his tool...
His Rinnegan eye was crinkled in obvious amusement. She closed her eyes, hating the sight of it. This was not an ordinary individual. He was dangerous! And she would do well to remember that!
His chakra was building again. She could feel it pressing into her—
Wait.
His chakra... There was something about it...
Sakura didn't take the time to kick herself for not noticing sooner. Instead, she bent her head forward, towards the chakra that frightened her, and took a long, slow inhale. The sulfur sense was still there, but there was something else underneath it. Something in Madara's sweat...
She felt Madara's will calling her, sending a jolt through the receivers that prickled like lightning. Her eyes flew open, and her words rushed out:
"There's something wrong with your chakra."
