21. Footsteps on the Moon
Rating: T
Verse: unspecified, Madara-lives post 4th war AU
Idea: me
Two precisely placed kunai and the both brats lie dead. Quick, clean deaths. They fought well, they deserved it.
He turns towards the girl. She kneels, eyes wide and unseeing, stares between corpses of her teammates, as if not being able to decide to which one to crawl. Tears stream down her face. He sees wet spots on the dust - the moonlight is so bright that he can see them.
She raises her face to him, and then something flashes on it, displaces the despair. A surprise, a hint of… What is it? Satisfaction? What can she be satisfied about? What is she looking at that is behind his back? Madara's brain short-circuits. He hasn't survived a hundred years for nothing. He's conditioned to take every possibility into account, even the most improbable one.
He spins. Arm of Black Zetsu grazes over his ribs. It tears on his flesh, and a part of his brain wonders how can a hand be so sharp.
Despite the pain Madara grabs creature's throat. The black slime tries to slip away but genjutsu is faster. He sets the black globe it reverted to on fire with Amaterasu and watches it burn until no ashes remain.
Having dealt with the last opponent he turns back to the girl. She still sits in the same place, only that now her head hangs low.
She presents exactly zero danger. She was neglectable during the fight and now she is rendered completely useless. The dead could hurt him more than her. More harmless than a corpse. Harmless like a newborn kitten. Tagged along her team on accident, nothing special, nothing remarkable, of civilian blood from the looks of it. She should be asleep, dreaming happily with the rest.
Instead, she kneels here.
And cries.
He cannot connect her to the tree anymore, the jutsu has already been cast.
He could kill her, of course.
Something in Madara protests against killing a helpless, harmless creature. Not responsible for being here.
Despite himself he walks up to her. Then he could still pretend that it's because he wants the killing blow to be painless. Even thought on some level he already knows that he cannot.
She doesn't react. Something must have gone wrong with her mind. He should kill her in such a case. Maybe it will be a mercy if she lost her mind.
He draws the kunai.
The girl reacts - edges away from him, falls on her bottom, crawls...
Frantically claws at the dirt trying to pull herself away from him. She wants to live, concludes Madara. Let it be then.
"Come girl," he sheathes the blade and extends his arm to her. When she reacts only with crawling further away, he bends lower and grabs her arm. "We're going." He pulls her up, and he feels that she complies only due to the pain in the twisted wrist.
On her feet she comes to her senses; tugs, kicks and tries to free herself. Attempts on some punches. But he holds her. Not to be further disturbed by her flailing, he quietly drains her chakra using Rinnegan ability. Finally, the girl sways and stops struggling.
"What do you want from me? Let me go!" she protests instead.
"Let you go? Really? Do you want to stay here among the dreamers and corpses?"
"What do you mean?"
"Cannot leave you here, can l? You are my responsibility. As all the others are. You wanted to live. You fought for it like an idiot, alongside other idiots. Then I'll grant you that."
He grabs her wrists harder and activates Shinra Tensei. One of the beauties of Rinnegan is that one doesn't need seals. Pure power of will is enough.
Earth disappears from under his feet. Forever.
The girl screams and resumes her struggles. Some hundred meters above the ground she stops, apparently having realized that if he lets her go now, she will fall to her death. Then she only keeps shifting her perplexed gaze between him and disappearing earth.
They fly up and up and up.
The night is beautiful, blue-white moon shining like a lantern just above their heads.
When they land on it, the finest dust rises from under their feet and dances in never-ending swirls. All is blue-white as if the ground itself was emitting the light. And all is quiet.
With a corner of his eye Madara sees the girl turning, looking around. She seems so lost. No wonder – there is nothing around them, nothing at all save vague geological formations here and there on the horizon.
He needs to stay here, pump his chakra into the moon, perpetuate the genjutsu at least until the last of the captured men lives to the end of his days. His own chakra, thanks to Jūbi is unlimited. What will the girl do?
Madara places his palm on the ground. Out of grey, faintly glowing dust a building emerges: walls, roof, yard.
"Go there," he tells the girl. "It's yours."
AN: I'm curious what you think about this drabble, it is so out there, but I like it! :)