Chapter 14

The Honesty Challenge

A/N: Thank you all who reviewed, and continue to leave comments, they really do inspire me and I am grateful. This chapter was difficult, and I was so glad when I found a way to go about it. Thanks again guys, can't wait for chapter 15!

By the look on Madara's face, Sakura could tell that he was not only upset, but there was even a little bit of panic in his eyes. She gulped visibly and took a seat in the chair in front of his desk.

"Look, well before anything serious really happened between us, I asked Obito for your gamertag. I wanted to get to know you a little better, and I didn't think you would act yourself if you knew it was me in the raid."

Madara's face didn't change, but he folded his hands in front of his mouth and remained silent. Taking this as a cue to continue, she sighed and spilled everything, when she finished she added a her reasoning. "Rin and Obito thought it was good idea, so…that was it, really. If anything, Obito doesn't know anything that has happened after that…"

Madara curled his lips into a very strange grin. Sakura jumped as he turned and shouted towards the door. "OBITO!" Two seconds later the hapless assistant manager came skidding into the room. "WHAT!?" He shouted in alarm, thinking there was an emergency.

Madara proceeded to relay everything to him with an emphasis on "you little weasel". Obito rolled his eyes as Madara finished his rant. He turned and shut the door quietly and sat down next to Sakura. "Hey! No harm done. Nothing happened and, you know what Madara? You need to lighten up." He remarked plainly. Madara stared at Obito, taken aback by the absolute casualness of his words. "Obito…you realize that Hashirama just lectured me about "toeing the line" because your girlfriend has a big mouth? Mito seemed to think there was an inappropriate relationship occurring from what she was told. I didn't even know this happened till he mentioned it! What am I supposed to say!"

Obito paused a second and looked at Sakura, "Has anything happened against company policy?" Sakura quickly shook her head, but Madara rolled his eyes when he saw her blush, and threw his hands up into the air in defeat. But Obito just laughed. "Hey, I know nothing. Its NONE of my business, say no more. As far as I'M concerned, Sakura's just someone that has joined in your weekly raids with other employees."

Madara said nothing in response. But his face was red, partly from being sick, part anger, part panic…and partly because he recalled the conversations that had occurred during the raid…

Obito got up from the chair, and walked smugly to the door. Madara called out behind him. "Obito…It's good to see you with both arms again…." He stated simply. Obito looked at him in surprise and then smiled. Using his new limb to give a thumbs up, "Thanks man! I'll be in on that raid this week! See you two there. I'm going on break, see ya."

When he had walked out of ear shot, Madara turned his gaze to Sakura, which immediately hardened to a cold stare down. "Okay…I'm just going to lay it out there plain and simple. You lied to me. "

Sakura nodded sheepishly in agreement. "I really wasn't trying to lie to you, I promise, the thing with Obito and Rin was before we talked about keeping it discreet…"

Madara gave her a look that practically shouted "I don't believe you." Sakura shifted uncomfortably. Madara saw it and let out a sigh. "Sakura…this is exactly what I was talking about. Now please, be honest with me…how many people know?"

"I told you, Obito and Rin only knew a little bit. They know nothing more. I haven't spoken to them at all about it since then. I promise, no one else in the store knows anything."

Madara's head was tilted down but his eyes shot up at her. "In the store? Is there someone outside the store?"

Sakura averted eye contact, but Madara persisted. "Is it that "Ino" I had asked you about?" Sakura nodded slowly. Madara furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. "So you lied to me about that too?".

That really stung. She hadn't intended to "lie". These conversations occurred well before her relationship with him had become more serious. "Madara, I promise nobody else will know, I'll be more carefu-" But Madara cut her off, softly, dejectedly. "This is already "not careful", Sakura…I have poured all my energy into protecting the jobs of people at this store. Many of them with kids, many of them have only this job separating them from having homes and being homeless, that's why my time is always here, that's why I never pursued relationships, why I never…well apparently you already knew…and I don't really know what to say to that, so I won't. But do you truly NOT understand my responsibilities?"

A pit formed in her stomach, sucking in all her happiness and a single tear threatened to run down her cheek as she braced herself for what was to come. How could this have happened in a single day?

Madara placed his hands flat on the desk and looked at Sakura. His gaze was sad, upset, and so many other things mixed in. He paused before dropping the bomb on her, and essentially, himself. "I think…this was a mistake. I can't do this. If it only took one day for my superior to become suspicious, and lecture me on policies…than I can't. You lied to me, to my face. I was foolish to do this, especially when your maturity is apparently on a different level than mine…"

Sakura blanched at that statement, why would he say such a thing to her?

"Madara, that's not fair! How can you expect me to not at least have my best friend to confide in? That's just not fair!" Madara's eye twitched at her words, and he started feeling angry.

Sakura's voice choked a little, as she realized her defense was fruitless. She told him she could handle it, and he believed her, and it wasn't like he wasn't up front about what being with him meant. She knew this was essentially her own doing, biting off more than she could chew. Trying to fulfill her own wants and needs, and she put Madara in such a position to bear the weight of every potential repercussion. "Madara.." She repeated. But Madara held up his hand, silencing her., his mind made up even before he spoke,

"I'm sorry…Ms. Haruno. You will return to your duties as per usual. If you have work-related questions, I will answer them. From now on, that is the way it will be. I can't trust this, I can't trust you. I will NOT throw my entire career away and leave these employees to the corporate wolves, just to be…" He lowered his hand, and his expression returned to that of the same one she saw the day she first laid eyes on him.

"You may go."

She choked back tears, knowing full well no words we're going to change the outcome. She got up and walked out of the office, wiping her eyes with her sleeve, shutting the door behind her. She heard something slam as she walked away, but she didn't care. She wanted to get out of there, and go home.

—

Madara felt his heart clench in his chest. This feeling…anger? No…it was something else. There was anger in there, yes. But not towards Sakura, or Obito, or Rin. Anger with himself, and something else, like when a starfish gets slammed against the docks in a stormy ocean. He had let his guard down, compromised his own goals and principles, and wasted something precious to him. He paused that thought and bit his thumb between his teeth, "…no, it wasn't a waste."

When he ended it with Sakura, and watched her walk out, he had to keep himself firmly planted in his chair; the urge to go after her so strong, but his responsibilities, kept him rooted where he was. In a sudden rush of self-directed anger, he slammed his fist into the file cabinet next to him, the crash resounding through the room, and down the hall, but he didn't care. He sat alone in his office, the sound of the ticking clock the only noise, while he pondered his regrets, and what he, deep down, wished could have been.

—

Sakura rounded the corner down the stairs, walking by the time clock, she saw Obito, who was just finishing talking to a customer. He noticed her face and quickly directed the man down an isle before walking up to her. "Hey, what's wrong. Have you been crying?" He asked, his voice full of concern. Sakura didn't look at him. She knew if she did, she would burst into tears on the sales floor, in front of everyone. She yanked out her phone and checked the time. 6 more hours on her shift, and she knew she couldn't do it. She punched in her number on the time clock and motioned to Obito. "I'm leaving early, I don't feel well. Sorry." As she turned to go, Obito placed a hand on her shoulder, "Is it Madara, did he say something to you when I left?" She stiffened and a single tear fell down her cheek. She nodded and shrugged off his hand, "He said I'm untrustworthy, and immature…." her voice cracked and she hurried out the doors, into the pouring rain. She didn't even pull her hood up over her head.

Obito lips curled downward to an angry frown, and he looked up at the stairs. "Madara, you dumbass." with a vigor, he scaled the stairs to the top floor, and upon reaching Madara's office he swung the door open without knocking. Madara looked up from his desk in surprise, but Obito was not going to let him speak first. "Listen here, you sad bastard." Madara tilted his head in partial confusion and defensiveness. Obito continued while he had the momentum. "Sakura is a good woman, I don't know what you said to her but she left the store in tears, you're 32 years old. Get a grip, she didn't do anything wrong to you." He had continued to move forward as he talked until he was leaning over the desk about a foot from Madara's face. Madara narrowed his eyes at him, "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Its none of your business, Obito, now back out of my face."

Obito was aware he was treading dangerous ground, but he had to finish before he lost the nerve.

"I don't understand what happened to you after Izuna died, after you were kicked from the police force, but you best believe that there are not a lot of women, much less people in general, willing to put up with your horse's ass of a personality." He drove home his words by pointing an accusing finger in Madara's face. "Nothing happened, she wasn't trying to LIE to you. You hitting the panic button and doing stupid shit, just remember it takes two to tango, and you can't blame her for everything! It seems to me you put HER in a situation that wasn't fair!".

Madara raised an eyebrow, "You've got two seconds to get your finger out of my face before I rip your fake arm off and beat you with it." His voice was low, measured, and he was not exaggerating.

Obito squinted at him, reading his face. Yep, that's my cue to leave…

"I stand by what I said."

He backed off and walked out of the office, at a slightly quicker pace than he came in with.

Madara just stared straight ahead. What the ever loving FUCK just happened?

—

The second Sakura got into her car, the dam broke. Tears streamed down her face as hard as the rain pounding the windshield as she peeled out of the parking lot. She didn't even remember driving home. She'd never felt this bad before in her life.

Reaching her apartment complex, she got out of the car, again not bothering to pull her hood up, and fumbled with her keys for the lock on her front door. It was hard to see through the tears, but she finally found her door key and opened it, slamming it behind her. Removing her coat and dropping her keys on the counter she made her way to her bedroom and threw herself on to her bed, grabbing a pillow to hug to herself and cried. Guilt, anger, disappointment, sadness, all meshed in her tears as she blamed herself for everything. She didn't know how long she lay there, but eventually, she drifted into a restless, sadness-filled sleep.

—-

Sakura did not show up for work the next day, or the day after that. She called out sick both days and aside from those calls to the store, no one had heard from her. Naruto had sent a few texts asking how she was doing, but there were no replies; just a symbol next to the message showing she had seen it. Obito called Shikamaru's office to log her absences in as sick days, so that she could get paid for them.

Madara was in a terrible mood. Even customers went out of their way to avoid him, but Naruto was the hapless fool who just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, all the time. He was standing in the baby isle, while Madara glared down at him. Oh how he wished he was taller…Madara's signature stare down was legend, and it didn't help if you were shorter than him.

"Are you and Kakashi sharing a brain, Mr. Uzamaki?" He snapped. His arms were folded and his stance was stiff. Naruto averted his eyes to the shelves to his left, which had contained baby formula. All the formula was in two carts, and the shelves were empty.

"You know this, you KNOW that these products have to be pulled three months before the expiration date. Half of these are PAST the date. This is about 2000 dollars in losses!" Madara was careful to keep his voice down while on the sales floor, but it was no less biting. Naruto winced a little.

"Mr. Uchiha, Kakashi and I are doing our best, but its only us two, and waiting for Hidan to come from the other store is making this more difficult…" His defense was shaky, and Madara wasn't buying it. "This is a write-up, Mr. Uzumaki. I can't justify this, this is fucking ridiculous. Its simple to check dates on products, and if you can't do that, then we're going to have a separate discussion!"

Madara had been a terror these past several days. Not even Shikamaru was safe, and Madara never seemed to have a problem with him. Without thinking, Naruto voiced his frustration, "I can do this! You know I can, but its been hell since you fired three people and never replaced them!" Madara narrowed his eyes at him and he shut his mouth with an, "Eep…"

"Do you want to be next?" The Uchiha manager asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"…No, sir…"

Madara pointed to the carts, "Take those to the back and log them in as shrink. Just get out of my face." Naruto nodded and grabbed the carts, heading to the stockroom. When he was sure he was out of ear shot of his boss, he started muttering to himself, "Damn, who pissed in your oatmealthis morning…"

Inventory week rolled around once a year. Actually it was two weeks, but employees came to call it "hell week". One, because the pressure from corporate was at an all time high at this time, and two, because Madara was a nightmare in his own right during this period. But it had come earlier this year, and stores were scrambling to catch up. Madara, however, was even worse than previous years, and everyone tried to avoid him the same way prey would sit still to avoid being seen by a t-rex. Whatever was on his mind, Madara was letting it affect his job, and he was taking it out on his people.

—

Madara sat down in his office chair with a huff. Rubbing his temples with his fingers, he let out a frustrated growl. So much to do, and at the worst possible time, he had to fire three of the night crew when they were caught snorting cocaine in the break room by Guy. That meant less manpower, and day shift had to pick up the slack. Kakashi and Naruto were hit with an overflow of more work, and even Madara knew they were not deserving of his tidal wave of reprimands.

He tapped his fingers on the desk, irritated and stressed beyond belief. Hashirama had sent him emails regarding the deadlines for shrink and inventory, and they were caving in on his head.

But deep down, he knew the driving reason behind his recent inability to keep composure. Guilt. Ugh…I hate that…

He started feeling his heart beating faster and his fingers were tapping harder on the desk. He started feeling a little dizzy, a buzzing in his head and chest. Too much all at once, he was starting to feel overwhelmed, the barriers he'd erected in his mind were starting to show weakness, cracks forming from the chisel of guilt wearing them down. I shouldn't have-

His thoughts were interrupted by the familiar voice of Obito. The short-haired assistant manager strolled in holding two coffees. Madara glanced up at him, with a feeling of near relief to have a brief distraction. Obito handed him one of the coffees and sat down. "You know, you may only be 32, but even people your age can have heart attacks, man." he took a sip from his coffee and scanned Madara's face. He can't keep this up…

Madara rested his chin in his palm and remained silent. Obito leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other. "People usually say "thank you" when someone bring's them coffee…" Madara looked up like he forgot Obito was there. "Oh…thank you. I'm just…distracted." He said, trailing off.

Obito smirked, "Yeah, clearly. You've been a bigger pain in the ass than you normally are." He took another sip of his coffee. "I mean, you snapped at Hinata of all people. She's like a baby bird, dude. I thought she was going to faint."

Madara started absentmindedly shuffling papers around his desk. "Yes, well. This hasn't been an easy week, next week will be worse." He picked up an email printout and gave it a once-over. "Hidan comes in tomorrow, but that's not much help, freaking nut job…"

Obito sat his coffee down on the desk, and laughed,"You go through this every year, and every year its "the end of the world". But that's not all this time around, I can tell."

Madara frowned at him and glanced at the date on the desk calendar. Obito followed his eyes and he was hit with a realization. Izuna's birthday fell on the same time period as hell week this year. Madara's eyes had a hint of sadness that he could tell he was trying to hide. Having known him for 15 years, he had learned to read Madara's face and mannerisms well. He also knew that Madara would not open up about it on his own. But there was something else in his eyes that Obito picked up on; it wasn't just his brother's birthday weighing down on him.

As Madara sat in melancholy silence, Obito decided to broach the subject himself. "Madara, look, you can't work like this. You need to take a day off. You always take Izuna's birthday off, but I think you need an extra day."

Madara sighed. "…No, I can't leave while inventory is being done," Obito rolled his eyes at him as he said that. Of course you're going to be difficult.

"You absolutely can, and you need to. You're either going to take two days off, handle your business, or you can stay and wait for everyone to start revolting against you, cause you're being a tyrant."

"I'm trying to make sure all of this is done correctly. There's too much to-"

Obito held up his hand, "You know I can handle it. You need to stop trying to control everything. Just give up a LITTLE bit of that, and let me do MY job. I know this shit isn't the only thing bothering you."

Madara raised an eyebrow at that last part. "Oh, do you now?" He remarked. Obito leaned forward in his chair and uncrossed his legs. "Come on. I know what's going on. Its not just hell week, its not just about your brother's birthday tomorrow…come on."

To Obito's surprise, he didn't receive the usual defensive backlash Madara would normally dish out when someone touched on subjects too close to home. Instead he sighed and stared at his desk. "I really fucked that one up, didn't I?" Obito threw his hands up in exasperation.

"Now? You realize that NOW? Dude, you're timing…SUCKS." He exclaimed. "I know that you aren't wired for dealing with other human beings, but damn dude, your self-awareness is trash."

Madara winced a little, somewhat because he had a headache, but mostly because he knew his assistant manager was absolutely right. "Well its too late now…"

Obito relaxed his shoulders and chuckled, "Never thought of you as a quitter. Since I'm sure we both know what I'm talking about, I'm going to be candid with you. I don't know everything going on, but I do know she's been out for several days, and she never calls out. I also know that its eating you alive along with everything else. If you take two days off, I promise I won't ever bring it up again." Obito folded his arms and waited for Madara's response.

He didn't respond right away, but he sighed and downed the remainder of his coffee in a single gulp. He met Obito's eyes with an indecisive and guarded expression. "Okay. Fine. I'll leave today and take tomorrow off, but that's it. I don't ever want to have this discussion again. For obvious reasons."

Obito smiled and drew two fingers across his mouth like he was zipping it. "Gotcha, not a word. What are you going to do?"

Madara replied with an aggravated grunt, "Grr…I don't freaking know!"

The assistant manager held up his hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay, jeez. Don't blow a vein, I'm going. Just put that inventory itinerary on my desk before you leave." He got up and walked out of the office without another word. He didn't need to say anything more, he had accomplished what he came in there to do, by convincing Madara to take care of himself. At least their employees would get a break from constantly being swooped in on by Madara's mood swings. The corners of lips curled up into a satisfied and smug grin as he walked down the stairs to the sales floor.

—

Now by himself, Madara once again started tapping his fingers on the desk, but this time it was not because he was being overwhelmed. Now he was trying to make a decision. Everything in him that he had conditioned himself to be was railing against him, but it was being pushed back by something far more intense building in his chest. He went from tapping his fingers to rubbing his eyes with his palms in frustrated indecision. Freaking Obito…grrr, dammit!

As if by some unknown force, he turned toward his computer and pulled up the application for the Employee Access Portal. He clicked on a few icons and then clicked on the search, typing in a name and waited for the window to pop up. When it finally appeared he grabbed his phone and entered some information into Google Maps. The whole time, there was a part of his brain yelling "No, knock it off!" but that part of his brain was getting its ass kicked by the rest of his brain yelling back, "Fuck it".

He tapped the "start route" prompt on the phone screen and logged out of the EAP on the computer. Pocketing his phone he then grabbed his peacoat from the back of his chair and put it on. It's still freaking raining. How fitting.

He pulled out his keys and walked out of the office, heading towards the stairs. When he reached to bottom he saw Obito talking to Naruto and Kakashi. Naruto darted behind Kakashi as Madara approached. Kakashi blinked and sidestepped, exposing him. Madara stopped in front of the three and took a deep breath, exhaling sharply. "I'll be back the day after tomorrow." Kakashi and Naruto looked at him in surprise, but Obito shot him a knowing grin. "Great! I've got it covered here, we were actually in the middle of coming up with a plan to compensate for lack of manpower."

Madara nodded in acknowledgment, and reached into his pocket, pulling out his second cell phone, the one strictly for business matters. He held it out to Obito, hesitating slightly, before grabbing Obito's hand and placing the phone in it. "Here. Just take it, charger is in the office. Text me if you need passwords or anything."

Naruto and Kakashi looked on in shock. Obito saw their "what the fuck?" expressions and patted both on the shoulder. "Consider this your proving grounds, guys. Its just us three for two days, oh and Kiba…so three and a half…" Kakashi held up a finger incredulously. "Um, may I ask what's going on…?"

Madara folded his arms, "I've got business to take care of outside store matters, and that's all you need to know."

"Gotcha" Kakashi stated and then he went quiet. He looked next to him and realized Naruto was once again firmly planted behind him. "Dude, knock it off. " He moved and Madara's eyes met Naruto's. He rolled his eyes at him when Naruto wouldn't stop staring wide-eyed. "Calm down, dainty duck. I'm leaving the store for two days, you're Obito's problem for now." His eye twitched with irritation when Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. He looked back at Obito and held out his hand to shake his. Obito met the gesture with a firm grip from his new high tech prosthetic arm. Madara was impressed by the strength of the new tech. "Got a good grip there. Don't ruin it by messing around the baler." He stated with a smirk. Naruto raised his eyebrows, curiosity painted on his face. "Wait, what? Baler?" Obito waved his hand dismissively at him, "Its nothing, Naruto. We'll see you later, Madara." He turned away from him and prompted the other two to follow him down the tool isle, leaving Madara at the front doors by himself. He looked at his personal phone, feeling weird that he didn't have the other one too. Pulling up Google Maps again, the Uchiha stepped into the rain and walked briskly to his truck.

Buckling up he plugged his phone into the auxiliary cable and opened Google Music. Scrolling through a few artists, he found an album from Fuel. He selected a song called "Falls On Me", a much less hard-rock song than he normally listened to.

He turned the key and the truck roared to life, the windshield wipers sliding over the glass like a metronome. He put it in drive and hit the gas, peeling out of the parking lot. Setting his phone on the mount attached to the dash, he followed the map prompts through the city.

"I don't know what I'm doing…"

—

Sakura sat on her couch, with a blanket wrapped around her snugly. Her laptop was out and she was watching the new Avenger's movie on Amazon Prime. She hadn't left her house in two days. She was too depressed to even accidentally bump into anyone she knew. The only person she talked to was Ino, and she remembered when she called Ino the night she left the store. Ino was definitely a protective friend.

"He said WHAT? I'm gonna take a bat to that fucking truck of his! Where does he live?"

Sakura smiled a little at the memory of Ino going rage mode on the phone. She knew she could always count on Ino to have her back. But that did little to assuage her sadness in this situation.

She'd had relationships, fun flings with cute guys, and even one serious relationship in the past. But this was different. Those didn't cause her heartbreak. She blanched at the thought of Madara sitting at his desk in front of her, and what he said to her. His face. Today was the first day she didn't cry, and she knew that she had to return to work at some point. Maybe tomorrow…

It was hard to think about returning to work. She was embarrassed, depressed, and she knew seeing Madara would just bring everything flooding back. She pulled the blanket closer and took a sip from her English Breakfast tea, and tried to concentrate on watcihing her movie.

There was a sudden knock at the door, and she jumped. She looked at the time on her computer, 8:30pm. Who'd be at my door at night?

She released her blanket from around her and got off the couch, stretching and yawning as she walked towards the door. She could hear the rain had started coming down harder and the pitter patter of raindrops could be heard louder as she got closer to the door. She wished there was a peephole on her door. She didn't even have a side panel window to check who it was. Answering the door was always a slight risk. She unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Her jaw dropped and her heart skipped a beat at the sight in front of her. A soaking wet Madara stood there, rain soaking his hair and his peacoat, water running down his face as he stared at her. His eyes went from dark to lighting up with strange emotion when she appeared in front of him at the door.

In shock she opened her mouth to speak, when two strong arms grabbed her and she found herself pulled into a firm and enveloping embrace. Madara held her close to his chest, rainwater dripping from his spiky black hair, and onto her face. She didn't know how to react. Her arms were pinned at her sides, and she could hear Madara's paced breathing over the sound of rainfall. He bent his head down and buried his face into Sakura's neck. When he spoke, he was so quiet she could barely hear him.

"…I'm sorry, Sakura…I'm so sorry…I'm…you deserved better than me…" he whispered into the crook of her neck and shoulder.

When those words reached her ears, tears began to form in her eyes. She inhaled sharply, as a lump formed in her throat. Her arms came up wrapped around his waist, as a teardrop fell down her cheek. Madara seemed to be able to tell without looking that she had started to cry. He brought his face close to hers and placed his hands on her cheeks. He gently wiped away teardrops with his thumbs and leaned in, kissing her tenderly on the cheek. Then he moved his lips to kiss her on the forehead, then her other cheek, her nose. His lips stopped at hers, just barely touching. Sakura could smell that familiar cologne, that smell of wintergreen. His breath was hot against her lips, a stark contrast against the cold rain running down his face. Sakura met his eyes with hers, his were hooded, draped in a myriad of emotions driven by the guilt he felt seeing her tears.

She felt a warmth in her heart spread across her chest like a warm blanket from the dryer had been placed on her in the cold. She pressed her lips against his, the softness of his lips was familiar, welcoming. She noticed a slight tremble from his body. Glancing up at him, she saw the rain pouring down his face, but what also seemed to be something else besides rainwater in his eyes. Something else had so subtly welled up in those dark and enigmatic pools of espresso color. Something that she knew, once again, only she would ever see. She wrapped her arms righter around his waist, not caring that the wetness of his drenched peacoat was soaking through her oversized hoodie.

They didn't have to speak, their bodies communicated through their embrace, like a bastion of warmth against the cold. The downpour continued, increasing till the water ran through the streets like a a little stream, finding its way to the storm drains. She peered at him with her bright green eyes, a silent exchange between them. Gently taking his hands in her she slowly pulled him through the door, and shut it behind him.