Madara ducked as Sakura threw her bar of soap at his head.
"What the fuck are you doing here Uchiha!" She screamed at him.
He had turned to see the bar of soap explode against the wall behind him, he was still amazed at the force she could muster behind those small little hands of hers, he was still looking behind him when she had jumped out of the tub and punched him in the chest sending him back against the wall to join the bar of soap. She hadn't used any chakra but it had still hurt.
He got to his feet and grabbed her wrists to stop her third attack on his person and tried to calm her down.
"Sakura, please listen to me I just..." He realized she was naked then, he couldn't think beyond that as he stared down at her wet naked skin, lost for any words that he couldn't for the life of him remember what he had been planning on saying, his sharingan activated on its own.
She gasped and tried to pull away from him but he held her firmly in his hands.
"Let me fucking go damn it Uchiha I'm going to kill you!" Sakura was glaring at him, fire in her green eyes to match his glowing red.
Madara just stood there holding her wrists in his hands...until she bit him on the arm, snapping his mind back into place where his eyes were. The red faded from his eyes, flooding to his face instead as he realized what he had done.
Sakura's face was just as red and spitting venom at him , yanked her wrists from his grasp and grabbed a towel wrapping it quickly around her naked body. Madara frowned, he had been enjoying the view.
"Is that a flying pig?" He pointed to the obnoxious pig on her towel.
"Is that the Flying Pig of Justice?" He asked her marveling at the bright colors and material of the towel, it was like nothing he had ever seen before.
Sakura was not letting him change the subject, "What the hell are you doing here?" She barked out at him, her hands on her hips, towel tied securely around her body.
"Izuna told me what happened before you left. You got upset because of something he said and overreacted. I came to tell you that you were wrong and that he didn't mean it however you took it." Madara said quickly.
"What?!" Sakura was growling at him...
Had he said it wrong? Madara wondered. "It was a misunderstanding." He continued.
"Misunderstanding." She continued to glare at him.
"Yes, you just didn't understand what he was saying." He tried again.
"I didn't understand what he was saying?" She repeated his words back to him again.
Why was she repeating his words like that? He didn't understand why she was still upset.
"Stop repeating everything I say , you sound ridiculous." He snapped at her in his own frustration of the situation, it wasn't going as well as he thought it would in his head. He had planned out what he would say to her when he got here but seeing her naked had...derailed him a bit.
"I sound ridiculous?" She threw her hands up in the air and stomped toward him.
He swallowed, was she going to try to hit him again? Should he let her?
Sakura placed both of her hands squarely on his chest and pushed him out of her bedroom and into the sitting room.
"Stay." She pointed to the floor and went back into her bedroom to change.
Madara stood there looking after her. 'Did she just...tell me to stay...like a dog?' Madara frowned at her closed door.
A moment later Sakura reappeared at her bedroom door, face red, hair a wet tangled mess around her face. She glared at him and stomped past him to sit on her couch. Madara paused, he wasn't sure what to do.
"Well come here..." She huffed at him.
He moved to sit beside her on the couch. They stared at each other. She rolled her eyes. She looked at him, he didn't move or say anything. She narrowed her eyes and tapped her fingers on her leg...waiting.
Madara knew she was waiting for him to say something but he had no clue what to say, what she wanted him to say, or why he had listened to Izuna in the first place and come after her! He groaned. She glared at him...that wasn't the noise she had been looking for. He sighed...she growled...not that noise either...
"Uchiha." She began.
"Call me Madara, like you were before." He quirked an eyebrow at her.
She glowered at him. "Madara." She sounded out each syllable purposefully making him grin.
"Sakura." He smiled at her pleasantly. Izuna had told him once women like it when you smile at them.
Sakura narrowed her eyes at him.
Apparently she didn't like it.
"Look I didn't mean to walk in on you while you were...in the laundry tub. Why are you using the laundry tub as a bath?" He asked her.
"It was what I had and I wanted to take a bath...to relax after my enlightening conversation with Izuna." She continued to glare at him.
"But, I gave you a bathtub, a nice one." He protested.
"Where?" She asked him.
"In one of the storage scrolls Izuna left behind in your bedroom." He said gladly that they were talking normal with one another again.
"He left more storage scrolls for me?" She got up off the couch and went into her room.
"You can come in, I'm not naked this time." She shook her head at him.
Madara followed her into her bedroom looking around. Sakura went to her desk and opened a drawer. "Oh."
Madara recognized the scrolls and pulled the smallest one from the stack, "This one here I picked it out myself. I can have a few of my men come and install it for you. I saw you had a start to a bath but no tub or grate for it." He gestured to the storage space in her bedroom that she had thought was a closet.
"That is for a bath?" She looked into the small room, then looked back at Madara.
"Of Course it is, what did you think it was for." He smirked at her.
"How the hell should I know, we don't have baths like that in my time, we have something called indoor plumbing." She threw her hands up in the air in frustration.
"Indoor plumbing?" He said it like the foreign words they were to him.
It was so humorous , the look on his face as she described showers, sinks, baths and toilets to him, she couldn't hold in the laughter.
"Oh kami, you should see the look on your face!" Sakura laughed out loud and slapped him playfuly on his arm leaning toward him, tears popping out of the corner of her eyes.
Madara smiled at her, she looked so different, so expressive, so alive to him at that moment, he couldn't help but stare at her.
Sakura finally calmed down and wiped the remaining tears of laughter from her eyes, her hand still on Madara's arm. She looked down and drew her hand away from him as if he were on fire. Red bloomed across her cheeks, his eyes softened as he looked at her.
"I'm sorry for Izuna. I don't know what he said to you earlier. I want to be honest, I like you. I respect you. I want to court you." He said, taking her hand in his.
Sakura's cheeks bloomed a beautiful pink and he squeezed her hand. She looked up at him through her wet lashes and smiled a little ruefully.
"Madara, I...back in my time there was someone. We weren't together, but he...I loved him for a long time and he might be dead or..."Sakura wasn't sure what to say, how to explain Sasuke to him.
"I don't know if he's dead and I don't know if I can go back. There is a way that might be possible, but I won't know until I destroy the god tree." She ended lamely.
Madara listened to her words intently, he nodded, he understood. "I will wait then, I will do whatever I can to help you find and destroy your cursed tree, and then, when you know for sure if he is alive or not, if you can return or not, we will talk again."
Sakura opened her mouth to reply but Madara stood then, kissing her hand, "Until then, I'm here for you, for no other reason but because I want to be. I never wanted to marry, until I met you."
Izuna had told him to be honest, so he was, he meant what he said and he hoped she could see that.
"Why? Why me? I'm not special. I have nothing to offer you." She looked down at her lap.
Madara crouched down in front of her, taking both of her hands in his. "You challenge me, you're strong, I could never marry someone I don't respect. I've never respected a woman the way I respect you and I still have so much more to learn about you."
Sakura looked at him in surprise. No one had told her such things before. In Konoha she was just Sakura, a mini Tsunade but just Sakura, the pink haired girl everyone knew, everyone liked, but nothing special, nothing...that made Sasuke look at her the way Madara Uchiha was looking at her now.
She didn't know how long they had stayed that way, her hands in his, their eyes on one another until he leaned forward, his lips brushing over hers, she leaned into his kiss, responding to his touch. Madara let go of one of her hands and stroked her hair, pulling her closer to him, deepening their kiss. Sakura gasped into his mouth pulling away gently.
"Madara I..." She started but he shook his head to stop her.
"I'm sorry Sakura. I didn't mean to do that. I'll...go." He rose to his feet and walked to her door.
She stood up and turned toward him. He had his hand on the sliding door and watched her for a moment, "I didn't mean to kiss you, but I'm not sorry I did." He smiled at her and opened the door, leaving her standing in her living room looking after him.
Sakura could feel his chakra signature slipping away into the forest in the direction of the Uchiha compound. She touched her lips with her fingers. She had just kissed Madara Uchiha, the man who had tried to destroy her village, who was responsible for the death of many of her friends...who had helped her when she had first arrived here with nothing, who continued to help her by offering the support of his clan, his wealth, his influence and his protection.
This Madara was nothing like the other Madara, this Madara was...
The man who had asked to court her, because he respected her strength, he wanted her for her. She sat down on her couch, her fingers still pressed gently to her lips. His warmth was fading, the caress of his hand in her hair slipping away from her...she wanted more. Her head turned to the door, looking through the barrier to the Uchiha clan. Should she go see him? Would he kiss her again if she did? Sakura sat on her couch, not knowing what to do, so she did nothing.
She was still on her couch when the door to her home slid back open, she had thought she had imagined his chakra signature getting closer and closer again, but there he was standing in her doorway looking at her.
"Madara?" She asked, realizing her fingers were still on her lips, she blushed and her hand dropped to her lap.
He crossed the distance between them in three long steps and pulled her to her feet. His hands in her hair he pressed his lips to hers, his fingers twined in her hair pulling her closer, his body pressed up against hers, his tongue pushing its way into her mouth, she gasped, he swallowed it, she moaned, he made her moan again.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, her tongue pushed into his mouth and lightly felt it's way around, over his tongue, teeth and lips. He gripped her a little too hard by the hair and she squeaked. Madara let her go quickly but grabbed her body back to his in one fluid motion, his arm snaking around her middle, his other gathering her hair and pulling it off to the side exposing her neck to his mouth.
Sakura tilted her head when his lips dragged across her cheek to whisper into her ear, "You're so beautiful Sakura." He said to her.
"Madara." She whispered when his teeth met her shoulder, he had pulled her kimono shirt apart in the front just enough to expose one of her shoulders to his hungry mouth.
She moved up against him, they didn't seem to be close enough, she gasped when he latched his mouth to her collar bone and sucked hard. His hands were everywhere, her cheeks, her hair, her back pulling her into him.
Her front door slammed open then shut. They jumped away from one another, she in a low crouch, kunai in hand, Madara across the room, Kanta's throat in his grasp, a kunai to his throat.
"Kanta!" Sakura said surprised.
Kanta glared at her, "Him?! You reject me but you kiss him?! You let this Uchiha bastard touch and kiss you but me you tell me you're in love with someone else but him, you, you, whore!" Kanta yelled the last word at her.
Sakura stepped back as though he had physically hit her, she was shocked and hurt, he had surprised her so much with his words she hadn't even thought to be insulted yet.
Madara's eyes spun red and pressed the kunai into Kanta's neck, blood trickled down Kanta's throat from the shallow cut.
"Madara no! Wait please, he doesn't know what he is saying, please don't kill him." Sakura ran up beside the two men.
"He called you a whore." Madara said almost calmly, his eyes locked onto the Senju, blood trickled over his knuckles down his arm onto his shirt front, down Kanta's neck, down Kanta's shirt front.
"He didn't mean it, he was just angry, surprised to see you here, to see us...together. Right Kanta? You don't really think I'm a whore do you?" Sakura said calmly to the man.
Kanta looked at her with hurt and anger clouding his features. His once handsome face was twisted in pain and...betrayal. For a moment it looked like he was going to agree with her, for a moment it looked like he would apologize, but then his eyes flickered from Madara's face to hers then back again, and his eyes hardened and went cold. "An Uchiha whore, that's what you are." He sneered at her.
Sakura gasped then yelled quickly, "No Madara, it is my right, his blood belongs to me!"
She stopped the Uchiha clan lord with one hand on his shoulder, the other gripped the kunai he had started to cut into Kanta's throat with, the blade glowed green with her chakra, stopping it from cutting Kanta's throat.
"It is my right." Sakura said quietly, but loud enough for both men to hear.
Madara nodded once and released Kanta, who fell to the ground at his feet, gasping for breath, his hand clasp to his neck, eyes glaring at Sakura, ignoring Madara.
Sakura bit her thumb and slammed it to the ground calling forth Lady Katsuyu.
"Yes my Lady?" Lady Katsuyu greeted Sakura.
"Lady Katsuyu, please tell Lord Senju and his brother I request an audience with them at their first convenience, it is a matter of blood. Please tell them, I await their answer, do not leave without a satisfactory response." Sakura told the slug.
"Yes my lady." Lady Katsuyu disappeared with a pop and was gone.
Madara had seen the summons from the corner of his eye but hadn't taken his eyes off of Kanta. He drew in a small measure of his killing intent, he wanted the man conscious, to see whatever Sakura had in store for him.
Lady Katsuyu popped into existence by Sakura's feet once more, "The lord Senju, his brother and Sasuke Sarutobi come my Lady and will be with you soon."
"Thank you Lady Katsuyu." Sakura tried to smile at the slug.
Lady Katsuyu bowed and popped out of the room.
Sakura returned Kanta's glare as they waited for the Senju and the Sarutobi clan head. What seemed like forever, was probably not very long, she felt their chakra signatures closing in on them fast.
Sakura walked to the door of her home to let them in and to explain what her request entailed.
Hashirama took in the scene inside Sakura's home with surprise. Madara was standing beside a bloodied Kanta, glaring ferociously at the man. There was blood on the front of both men's shirts, though Kanta was clearly the worse for wear.
Sarutobi looked around the house casually taking in the scene in his own serene sort of way.
Tobirama however glared openly at Madara and demanded to know what was going on.
Sakura, not Madara explained to them what had happened and what had led to Kanta and Madara's confrontation.
"You kissed the Uchiha?" Tobirama sputtered his eyes growing cold like Kantas had.
"Yes." Sakura said looking back at him daring him to say anything else.
"Interesting." Was all Hashirama said, looking from Madara to Sakura with an odd expression on his face.
"You mean, you hadn't kissed each other before?" Sarutobi seemed almost surprised that it had been their first kiss.
"Uh, no, it was...unexpected." Sakura said blushing wildly.
"Kanta." Hashirama addressed the man. "Why did you resort to such insults, calling Sakura a whore, is beneath you, I am disappointed in you Kanta."
"I told her I loved her and then...she told me she loved someone else, that she had left behind, then I came home to see that!" He pointed at Madara who took an aggressive step forward but was stopped by Sakura's arm on his. Madara glared at the man but stepped back beside Sakura.
Hashirama's eye lit up with interest, a small twitch of his lips. Madara saw it and avoided his eye. Hashirama smiled out right, but he forced his face into a stern more appropriate look when Sakura gaped at him.
"What do you wish to do Sakura, you summoned us here, you are the offeded." Hashirama asked her.
"I ask permission Senju clan head to settle this, through a spar." She paused and cast Kanta a look. "It is my right." She added.
Hashirama looked at Kanta without remorse, "So it is, and do you Madara agree with this request, it appears to me Kanta has also insulted you."
Madara looked at Sakura, he saw the determination and resolve in her eyes and nodded.
"Then we will meet in the morning, before the clan. The Uchiha are welcome to come and witness as one of the insulted parties. Kanta will come home with us, and be put under surveillance. You have my word." Hashirama said bowing to both Madara and Sakura, who both bowed back.
Tobirama stood stiffly by his brother's side, he had been watching Sakura the whole time, but now turned to look at Madara. "You, she chose you?"
Madara raised an eyebrow at the younger Senju, "Is that a problem?"
"Now now, come Tobi, let's not make a fuss, after all, Sakura is a grown woman, she can make her own choices surely." Hashirama effectively stepped in between the Uchiha and his brother.
"Of course, except that she is alone, has no men of her clan to help guide her in her decisions, left out in the open for anyone to take, to fall prey to." Tobirama spoke out loud to the room, but his eyes rested on Madara.
"You're no match for me, not yet, be careful Tobirama, you were even bested by my brother Izuna in our last battle weren't you?" Madara said almost conversationally.
Tobirama didn't say anything else but nodded shortly to Sakura before walking out the front door.
Hashirama and Sarutobi ushered Kanta from the house with promises to see Sakura and Madara in the morning. The Senju and the Sarutobi clan head left shortly after, thier signatures moving fast across the forest back to the Senju compound.
"Are you alright?" Madara asked Sakura once they were alone again.
"Of course I am," Sakura said, her eyes rising to meet him.
"I thought he was my friend." She said softly.
"He was jealous, he didn't mean it, he spoke out of anger." Madara said calmly pulling her by her hands back to the couch.
"I know but, it still hurts. All my friends, they're gone and...it was nice to have a friend, that's all." She sighed and he put his arm around her.
They sat side by side on her couch not speaking, just sitting enjoying one another's presence.
Sakura looked over at Madara, 'Thank You, for not killing him."
Madara nodded. "I wasn't going to kill him, just teach him a lesson for insulting a lady...my lady."
"Madara." Sakura started but he stopped her.
"I know. You aren't ready. I'll wait, but I meant it when I told you, my feelings won't change." He kissed her lightly, a chaste kiss on the mouth.
"Come back to the compound with me tonight, we will leave with Izuna in the morning and go to the Senju compound together." He rose and looked at her expectantly.
Sakura nodded, "Let me just grab a few things."
