"The Susanoo came to me and told me he isn't pleased with Sasuke," grumbled Madara as soon as Obito returned.

"Well I sure as hell am not gonna marry her," said Obito, getting nervous. He accepted his fate as this old man's caretaker, but he wasn't going to stoop so low.

"Don't jump to conclusions!" said Madara, shaking his head. "Sasuke will be the one. He just... has to be groomed."

"What's wrong with him?" asked Obito, confused.

"First, the Susanoo doesn't like that red-head girl that's following him around. We'll have to get rid of her."

"Think of it as done."

"He also isn't impressed that Sasuke couldn't defeat the eight-tails. The Susanoo isn't sure the boy is strong enough."

Obito sighed. "Sasuke will be strong enough, he just needs time. I'll send him on another mission. He will be my opening show when I walk in on the five kage summit meeting. It will help him to get stronger. Don't worry, I have no doubt that he will eventually request Itachi's eyes, and once he does, I'm sure the Susanoo will be plenty impressed with him."

"And the red-head?"

"I told you, I'll take care of it."

They both nodded to each other as Obito disappeared from the room.

…

"Hold up your fists more," Madara commanded Zuri. He had been meeting with the girl for a couple of times now, and she was actually beginning to master taijutsu.

"Like this?" she asked before she took a swing at his face. It would have landed had Madara not flickered out of the way seconds before the shot landed. He appeared behind her.

"That was good, but don't leave your back open to an attack," he said to her before retiring. "You did well, lets call it a day."

"Ok," she sighed heavily.

Madara smiled as the young girl collapsed on the floor. Even though he had only promised her training sessions once a week, he was finding himself meeting with her much more than that. More and more lately, even, he had been coming up with excuses to go check up on her. He tried to tell himself it was because she was clumsy and he had to keep up with her for the Susanoo's peace of mind. But secretly it was because she was a lot more interesting to spend time with than Obito. But the boy had been nothing but a little shit to him since day one. Granted, some days he found his attitude to be amusing, but most of the time lately their frequent meetings have been less than pleasant. Madara understood. War brings darkness. And although Madara wasn't looking for a best friend either, it was nice to have a disciple who looked up to you.

And Madara's first impression of this girl had indeed been wrong. If there was one thing Madara admired in a shinobi more than power, it was potential, and this girl had it. Zuri was eager to learn, and had an easy time with anything Madara threw at her. Even outside of the zone of training her coordination and balance had improved greatly with her new taijutsu skills, and mentally she seemed even more competent. She asked him nonstop questions about everything, from his life to the the shinobi world, the wars, the clans, and anything else she could think of to ask. But over time, as she began to build up her general knowledge, she began to ask not so stupid questions, and she retained all of the information he gave her. Not only that, but she began to read his mood. She knew if he was getting annoyed and would back down from the questioning and switch to talking about her life. At that point Madara would zone out.

...

"Can I ask you a question?" Madara asked Zuri one day in the middle of one of her rants about something or other. It was in the evening and Madara had decided to eat his dinner with her in her chamber.

The girl looked taken aback. Generally her older brother didn't initiate conversations. "Umm, yeah, sure," she said, so excited that she had forgotten all about the next point she was going to say about the proper way of making apple juice.

"If you are living all by yourself in a little hut with no human interaction, than why were those shinobi trying to kill you the first day I met you in the woods?"

Zuri blinked. She was never very good at telling the passage of time, but she must have at least been in her big brother's hideout for a few weeks. And now was when he finally became curious enough to ask. But she wasn't complaining.

"I was out picking some berries just a few days before we met and I found some shinobi riffling through my things when I got back. I was so nervous, I didn't know what to do. I told them to stop, and when they turned on me, I blacked out." Madara knodded and understood this to mean the Susanoo took over. "When I woke up I couldn't find them anywhere, but Susanoo warned me that they would probably send reinforcements to investigate what happened. That's what I'm guessing those shinobi were."

For some reason he couldn't explain, Madara felt enraged by this story. What kind of shinobi would attack a girl on her own in the forest? He was glad the Susanoo killed them then. Scum like that wouldn't be resurrected in his perfect world. Calming down, he asked, "I was wondering for a while now, how did it come to pass that you activated your sharingan?"

The little long haired teen didn't know quite how to take all of the questions, but she decided to just roll with it for now. "When I was little, about a year before my dad died, we were in the forest trapping and a bear came out and attacked us. My dad was frail and couldn't do anything, I was so afraid! That was when my sharingan appeared. I didn't quite know what was going on, but I was able to get us both out of there safely. My dad never activated his sharingan, but he told me something about a curse, and that I should never use it again except for emergencies. When he died, my sharingan... changed. That was the first time I blacked out and the first time I met Susanoo."

Madara understood she was talking about the mangekyou sharingan. It surprised him enough that this girl was able to awaken her sharingan let alone the mangekyou in her state. But perhaps this was the Susanoo's doing.

"The reason I ask is because we are going to start ninjutsu training tomorrow and you'll need your sharingan for that."

"And the reason you asked about those shinobi?"

"I was just curious."

...

"When am I gonna get to do something exciting?" Zuri asked her big brother.

"Are you saying that learning secret Uchiha jutsu techniques isn't exciting?" asked Madara, wondering how she could be bored.

"No, this training and stuff is fine, but I want to test it all out... You should take me with you on one of your missions!"

Madara rolled his eyes. "Maybe one day when you are strong enough," he lied. "Now ready your sharingan again and watch my hand-signs."

Zuri pouted, but did as she was told. "One day I'll be as strong as you big brother," she told him, which made him smile. There was less ambition in her tone, and more admiration. The girl definitely adored him for some reason, and Madara, although he would never admit it, liked her too. There was something about her that was different from all the other Uchiha, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Perhaps it's that she is a genuinely kind and happy person, he thought fleetingly. No, surely other Uchiha were kind. But not like her. Perhaps it was because she grew up without the pain of the shinobi world. Perhaps her father didn't actually do her a disservice by raising her away from it all. Ignorance is bliss, he supposed. But her bliss was contagious.

...

Preparations for the war were almost complete for the eye of the moon plan. The Zetsu clone's were done. Sasuke was back, recovering from his eye transplant. The red-head was taken care of. Now Kabuto was just waiting for Madara to come to him to be experimented on. All things were going as planned.

Madara appeared beside Obito in his cellar.

"Everything still running smoothly?" Madara asked.

"Of course!"

"Then explain the plan to me again."

Obito rolled his eyes. "You are going to leave for Kabuto's. The deal I struck with him was that he would reanimate you, and if we provided him with enough cells for his experiments, he promised to improve you. We kept our side of the bargain, now it is his turn to keep his. During the time I'm waiting before I go to fight, I'll be watching over Zuri and Sasuke. Then I'll rush out to the war zone at the specified time with the ten tail husk where you'll be reanimated with me. I'm not stupid, I can follow a simple plan ya know."

Madara ignored his sass and thought of something. "How exactly are you going to get Zuri and Sasuke to get together?"

Scratching his head, Obito said. "Hn, I guess I haven't thought of that... I think I was just gonna, you know, lock them in a cell together for the time being... or something..."

Madara face-palmed. "And you expect them to fall in love sometime during that?"

"Being in bad situations sometimes brings people together..." said Obito, trying to redeem himself.

"No, we have to think of a better plan."

"We could... send them on a mission together?"

"No Obito, that..." Madara trailed off, thinking more. "That actually might not be that bad of an idea. We could send Sasuke and Zuri off on separate, 'wild-goose chase' missions to the same location. They would meet each other on the way and the shock from meeting another Uchiha would definitely keep them together. They will wander around the forest together in search of their non-existent mission, and I'll have a Zetsu following after them to kindle romance and to report back to me while I'm away. The best part is Zuri won't even realize that I've been gone as she'll be too busy trying to prove herself on this mission.

Obito smiled to himself and said "Yeah, that's all what I thought too."

Madara rolled his eyes at him. "Is Sasuke almost recovered?"

"Yes he should be ready and itching to try out his new eyes by morning."

"Perfect. Make up some sort of mission for him, I don't care what it is, just make sure he ends up in the land of rice paddies. I'll do the same for Zuri and send her out in the morning."

"Sounds good," Obito said, smiling still under his mask.

…

Zuri was laying on her bed, starring at the dank ceiling, wondering what it was like outside. She didn't mind being with her over-protective brother, but it was nice being on her own too. She was so used to living outside, with the forest as her back yard, and she kind of missed it all. Flipping over on her side to face the far wall, she realized that Zetsu was standing there, watching her.

Ick, she thought. Her brother hadn't made an appearance in a few days now, but had sent Zetsu many times to check in on her. Sometimes he would pop out of the ground at the most inconvenient times.

Placing an apple on her bedside table, Zetsu said, "Here, you kept talking about these in your sleep, so I thought I'd go find you one."

Zuri smiled. As creepy as the guy was, he really was nice deep down inside. "Thanks," she mumbled. "Would you like some?" she asked, sitting up and holding the green fruit out to him.

"No," he said, laughing. "I'm not like you, I don't need to eat. Or poop for that matter."

There he goes again, talking about poop.

When he left, Zuri decided to do it. She stepped out into the middle of the floor. She had enough of being alone. Sitting down cross legged, she closed her eyes, and all went black.

"Zuri, what's wrong," asked the Susanoo, wide eyed and perplexed, from somewhere inside of her subconscious.

Immediately happiness flooded her and she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. "I've missed you so much," she whispered.

Susanoo's face lightened up as he realized that his human wasn't in danger. "I've missed you too Zuri, but what is going on?"

"Well, I just got lonely and I wanted someone to talk to..." she said, realizing how stupid she sounded, but not knowing how else to explain it.

"I'm a god, Zuri. You can't just summon me to hang out with you! Don't you know how busy I am?"

She tried hard to stop the tears from flowing. "But everyone's always busy! Nobody ever has time for me. I feel like a pet that you and Madara check-in on every once in a while to make sure I'm not dying, and then lock me back up again when you are done with me. I'm not an animal, you know! I'm a human and I can do things! Madara has been teaching me taijutsu and ninjutsu and I'm really good at it," she finished her rant panting, not able to hold her tears back. She wanted to show them all how useful she was. That she could take care of herself and didn't need to be trapped in a cellar for her own protection.

Susanoo came and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. "I know you aren't happy about this, but you know that Madara and I are only looking out for your best interest. I'm not too pleased about you being locked in here all by yourself either to tell you the truth. But if Madara says that this is best, then I'm going to have to take his side if he says it is for your safety," Susanoo said, trying to cheer her up without flat out saying that there was a war going to start soon. The god had known Zuri for longer than Madara and had developed a soft spot for her, to the point that even though he would catch hell for leaving the spirit world just to visit with the girl, he didn't mind so much.

"I have to leave now, but I promise you that things won't always be like this," he told her gently. Leaning forward to whisper something in her ear, he hugged her one last time before departing.

Immediately conciousness awakened within her and she gasped for breath. Even thought it used up so much of her chakra to summon him and the effects on her body were awful, she felt happier that she got to at least say a few words with the one she looked up to as a father.