A/N: Thanks for the reviews: Anon guest, Amy, Of Healing Love, AMidnightSilhouette, Valedicktorian, The Imperfect Me, Musical cake, and MadaMada. Anon guest, everyone is a brat to Madara, lol. He's old. But yeah, I try to vary words if I can. Sometimes there's no getting around it though. Glad everyone enjoyed seeing Madara's perspective. Valedicktorian, I'm pushing them as fast as I think I can. They're sort of getting along now, even if there's still some bad feelings lingering. I've thrown a couple bones with the hair brushing, naked incident, and Madara tormenting her in front of Ino. I also need to deal with Sakura's feelings for Sasuke, which will be starting next chapter (Sasuke/Itachi arc).

I've dropped a couple hints in previous author notes about the war arc and EotM plan but I really don't want to spoil what I have planned. I will say that once Madara gets Edo Tensei'd things are going to be totally different than how it happened in the manga. I will be kicking the plot into gear here now. I feel like I've devoted enough chapters to build the foundations of their relationship, and the rest can be developed during canon events. Oh yeah, and I'll be taking minor liberties with canon details as needed until the war arc (nothing big, just things like which character approaches another for whatever reason, alterations to lines, how a fight involving Sakura proceeds, and whatnot).

Sakura speaking to Madara in her mind.

Madara speaking to Sakura in her mind.

-Deja Vu-

It was nearing noon and Sakura was only just eating breakfast. She had briefly woken up in the early morning and obliged Madara's request to split into a clone, then fallen asleep again afterwards. It was nice to have a day off sometimes. Her thoughts drifted from her recent, and still very weird in her opinion, interactions with Madara to the dream she had last night. She had seen the conversation the young Uchiha had with Hashirama about creating a village.

She had also learned that Madara had lost all but one of his brothers, leaving him with an intense desire to protect the remaining one. That had been a huge factor in his dream to create a place where he could watch over his sibling. Hashirama was probably in the same boat. She felt bad for them both. It must be terrible to lose a brother or sister. Hopefully she'd have another dream soon that would yield more information about Madara's brother. She had a feeling it was really important.

Sakura mindlessly pushed her half-eaten scrambled eggs around her plate. She couldn't figure out exactly where she stood with Madara right now. While she was still mad about him seeing her naked and not exactly happy about all the teasing and torment he put her through, it lacked the maliciousness that was there in the beginning and it had taken on a feeling of normality, though he was still a bastard for doing it. They definitely weren't friends and she was still committed to protecting her friends and Konoha from him, and did not trust him. She was always aware of the threat he posed. Yet...

"Don't play with your food," Madara snapped, and whacked her over the head with a rolled up newspaper.

Sakura snarled and jabbed her fork at him, "Don't hit me! I'll finish it when I damn well want to." She took another bite of food while glaring daggers at him.

"Make sure you do. Think of all the starving children in the world. You're the type to care about that, am I correct?" Madara smirked at her as he walked back into the kitchen.

"If your ego was food it'd be big enough to feed every hungry person in the world three times a day for ten years," Sakura yelled after him. There was no reply but the sound of amused laughter. She grumbled to herself and shoveled the rest of the eggs down before bringing her plate to the kitchen. Madara had moved to the living room and was sitting in his usual place on the couch, reading today's news.

She was debating about going to harass him about the many unanswered questions he still owed her explanations for, when the doorbell rang. Sakura answered it to find Naruto standing before her.

"Hi Sakura!" He greeted her with a smile, "Can I come in? We haven't seen each other lately so I want to catch up before we have to go."

She blinked, "Uh, go where? And we can just talk out here. No need to come in." She wanted to keep him away from Madara. Far, far away from Madara.

Naruto pouted, "Aw, you're so mean! How come you don't want to invite me in? I smell food. Have you been cooking? I'm kind of hungry so..."

"Don't worry about it, Naruto. The food's already gone. Now, what do you mean about going somewhere? We can chat on the way," Sakura said, feeling a little bit guilty. It was true that they hadn't hung out much recently, and he was a good friend.

"She doesn't want you to come in because she's trying to hide her secret boyfriend," the voice of Madara's younger form called from the other room. Sakura's eyes widened in horror and she stuttered incomprehensibly. That bastard! She absolutely did not want a repeat performance of what happened with Ino. No fucking thank you.

Naruto looked incredibly surprised for a moment, and then much to Sakura's dread, a sly foxy grin spread across his face. "Ohhh, now I get it. I guess you're over Sasuke then? I know he's our friend but he was still a jerk to you."

"No no no, there's nothing to get, Naruto!" she panicked, in full damage control mode. The mention of Sasuke's name twisted her heart a bit. She still had feelings for him, even though she tried to not think about it. Naruto wasn't the type to tip-toe around more sensitive topics.

Footsteps strolled up from behind her and Madara appeared off to her side. Naruto blinked when he caught sight of the Uchiha. "He's uh... kind of young, Sakura." She facepalmed and sighed, frustrated that once again Madara was being a dick and making everything worse. Was it really that hard to just stay quiet and out of the way? Really?!

"I know, Naruto. It's fine. Let's just go," she made to push Naruto backwards so that she could shut the door.

"Hang on!" her friend protested, resisting the manhandling, "How come you've never told me about him? It's not nice to keep stuff like this from your friends, ya know? What's your name?" he directed the last part to Madara.

"Tajima," the Uchiha in disguise replied. He looked like he was greatly enjoying Sakura's obvious unhappiness with the situation. She glared at him over her shoulder, not that it actually did anything but make him smirk even more. She did not like the way he kept eyeing Naruto either.

"Nice to meet ya! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Has Sakura told you about me? How come she's kept your relationship a secret?" he dodged another attempt of pushing him out the door.

"Yes of course, she's told me all about you," Madara said as he leaned casually against the wall, "As for your other question, I'm sure you know how overprotective she is."

Naruto laughed and nodded, "I sure do! Hey, Sakura, have you guys kissed yet?"

"Naruto!" Sakura shrieked, and thumped him on his head. She'd had enough, damn it! Going through this bullshit with Ino once was enough for her.

Madara chuckled as Naruto whined and rubbed his head, "Interesting... that girl, the Yamanaka, asked the exact same question."

"Ehh?! Sakura, you told Ino but not me?" her blonde friend looked upset at the revelation. This did nothing to help her frustration.

"I didn't have much of a choice," she grumbled, barely keeping herself from lashing out, "And that's besides the point. Let's just go, Naruto." She grabbed him arm and towed him back out the door.

"Hang on, you didn't answer me!" he protested, struggling against her, "Have you guys kissed? Sakura! Stop! Come on, tell me! I want to know!"

"Why does everyone care so much about that?!" she shrieked, finally losing any sort of control on her temper. She was just about ready to beat them both into the ground.

"All the time," Madara said in response to Naruto. He had a shit-eating grin on his face now. She knew from how he initially reacted to finding out about his secret boyfriend status that the idea of that sort of thing disgusted him, and it was revolting to her too. Just picturing it made her want to vomit... only, that wasn't what she was feeling. She frowned as a strange sensation settled in her chest. Kissing Madara... his dark eyes... brush of hair on her face... what would...

No.

Stop.

Enough.

As her face flushed, Sakura snarled and slammed the door, barely missing hitting the Uchiha, who stepped back out of the way just in time. "It's not very nice to treat your boyfriend like that, Sakura," Naruto told her.

"Shut. Up. Let's go," she growled, still blushing from her stupid imagination. Stupid, stupid imagination. It took her a few minutes of dragging Naruto through the streets before she calmed down enough to take notice of his protests. Slowing her pace, she turned to him and asked, "Where are we going?"

"Tsunade-bachaan wants to see us both," he said, eyeing her warily. Naruto had experienced her temper enough times before to know not to push it about what had happened back at her apartment.

"Okay," Sakura said, "Hokage's office, then." With that, she and Naruto continued to head towards their destination. A moment later, Madara's presence appeared in her mind. He had released the clone.

'You're really immature for an old man,' she told him. 'Seriously, you act like you're five.'

Madara snorted, 'And you're far too uptight for someone so young. Learn to loosen up.'

"Uh, you okay, Sakura?" Naruto's voice interrupted her and she realized that her teeth were bared in a silent snarl.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she muttered, schooling her expression back to normal, though she was unable to fight back an annoyed twitch of her eye as she felt a wave of amusement from the Uchiha.

Next Chapter: Sakura and Naruto get some critical news and a mission from Tsunade. Madara is intrigued.