Sup yall! I got one small thing to note. Madara won't be a part of every single Arc, so the ones I will skip will proceed just as they did in Canon for Fairy Tail. And unless something directly changes, certain fights I might skip over or just slightly scratch through will also proceed accordingly.
Writing
"Speaking"
"Thinking"
TECHNIQUES/SPELLS
ACT 1: CHAPTER 3
PEACE AND WAR
"... and that was how Natsu ended up being bald for two months."
Some laughter broke out from the table where Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Happy and Madara had decided to sit down at in order to exchange some pleasantries with Madara at his own recommendation, and at this very moment, Erza had told one of the many childhood schenanigan-stories that came from either Natsu or Gray, this one, with its contents unknown, lead to Natsu having lost all his hair for a short time, which made him quite embarrassed.
Madara would lie if he said the story didn't amuse him a little, but he wasn't outright laughing like the others. "I have to say... I didn't remember socializing to be something so pleasant. Makes me almost regret how I left Konoha all over again." Madara thought to himself before crossing his arms. "You all sure are a very lively bunch. It is just as Mirajane said. I will admit that I am a bit intrigued by just what I am exposing myself to for the foreseeable future."
Lucy decided to be the person that itched for the next topic, and as they hadn't heard anything from Madara yet, she decided that they might as well probe him now for some questions. "Well, do you have any embarrassing stories?"
Madara just made his usual bored face at her. "You do know that if you just ask like that, everyone is inclined to answer with no, no matter how much of a lie it might be." However, seeing her somewhat defeated look, he let out a sigh and leaned into his right arm a little. "Well, not exactly an embarrassing story, but more of a childhood insecurity. I was never able to do anything if someone was standing right behind me. My old friend used to test it out frequently by sneaking up on me during practice, and one time even while I was urinating. I was irritated because it worked and I could no longer release it, which lead to a pretty bad mood for a lengthy time."
The group chuckled somewhat at hearing the story as it indeed was quite amusing, and it wasn't difficult to imagine a young Madara being batshit angry because he could no longer take a piss from being watched by someone standing behind him. It was understandable how this could become an insecurity.
Natsu smirked slightly while he munched on some delicious fire from a nearby fireplace lit up by Erza, then turned his attention to Madara. "And who was that old friend of yours?"
This question sent Madara down a whole spirale of nostalgia, making him recall the many different memories of his once best friend, causing him to smile somberly. "He was someone with whom I could reach a mutual understanding despite being of a rivaling Clan. We were Senju and Uchiha, yet we became friends. We managed to exchange our feelings, our desires and our dreams and quickly became close with each others. But, of course, nothing good lasts, so eventually both our families found out about our friendships and sought to ambush the respective other. Since then, we tried to maintain our friendship, but we met only in the field of battle. Because of our many losses from the respectively other family, that friendship suffered heavy and prolonged strains, some of which haunted us even beyond the grave, but we eventually managed to arrange peace within our families through our own efforts, making progress in realizing our dreams."
The way his expression dropped somewhat showed that it seemingly did not end as well as it had gone so far. Erza could tell, it was the same type of expression she sees in her mirror image whenever she thinks of how Jellal ended up.
"However..." Madara continued. "We had a falling out over a difference of our dream which caused us to become enemies for good. I separated myself from our path completely and became an antagonistic force. Our last clash was fierce and destructive enough that the maps of our land had to be redrawn."
Hearing the sheer destructive reach of their fight made them all look at him with an unbelievable amount of shock.
The Uchiha prodigy just hummed slightly, then continued. "But, ultimately, he defeated me, and gave me what we both believed to be the finishing blow." He concluded, looking up to the sky. "I remember the way his eyes looked at me as I fell to the ground. Sorrow, yet also dedication. The peace we established allowed us to construct a village that united many of the warring clans under a banner of peace, and he saw the entire village as his family. I remember his words as if it were just yesterday. 'I would protect my village from any threat, be it a friend, a brother, or even a child'."
The mood became quite tense at hearing such a rather ominous declaration, and Erza felt inclined to gulp before commenting. "He would protect the peace of his people even if it meant sacrificing what he held most dear to him..."
"Only if it had been a threat like I was" Madara added while remembering the conclusion he drew during what he believed to be his truly final moments. "He was someone who abhorred conflict and would seek to solve it peacefully whenever possible. If he declared combat against an opponent, it truly meant that he had exhausted all other options. To defend what you hold most dear did not necessetate destroying all that threatened it. I... did not see that back then."
"For me, that sounds like you two truly respected each others" Gray responded with a genuine smile of his own, arms crossed against his exposed chest.
The Uchiha just nodded slowly. "Yeah..." He answered and began to smile slightly. "He would forever be my best friend and my warbrother. His wisdom guides me even now. Whenever I feel stuck or unsure, I find myself asking what he would have done were he in my place." He further confessed, moving his upper body to sit upright. "I originally did not consider opening up to any of you. I admit, I would have prefered to just use the guild as a temporary stepping stone to get a stable life saving and then just... settle down. But I decided to try living my life the way he did, try his way this time. Maybe it will also help me understand where I went wrong before..." he finished, remembering how he asked himself at what point his path became flawed while Black Zetsu betrayed him. "heh... giving Hashirama a single moment of consideration and his ideals make me grow soft..." Madara meanwhile told himself, althought he did not lament this decision.
Erza smiled slightly at the choice of words the Uchiha had spoken out and placed her hands on her table. "Well, we are all glad you gave living in fulfillment a chance. I can only promise that you will grow to know all of the love and friendship your best friend tried to share with you. He is a truly kind soul from how you talk about him."
The Uchiha prodigy found himself smirking slightly before he suddenly glanced up with his head in a serious expression. "They are here."
The atmosphere immediately became tense and serious and everyone knew right away that this meant Phantom Lord had arrived.
Fairy Tail immediately gathered themselves and grouped up near the central cathedral of Magnolia, the city appearing like a ghost town as it had been completely evacuated in the meantime.
In the distance, they could see shadowy silhouettes approaching, increasing in count quickly before they became clearly visible. Jose, Gajeel, The Element 4 and most of their stronger, unnamed grunts.
Jose was the one who took word first, stepping forth with a clearly pissed expression. "FAIRY TAIL! FINALLY YOU SHOW YOURSELVES, YOU WEAK FILTH!" He roared at the top of his lungs. "WE'VE HAD TO ENDURE YOUR PATHETIC EXISTENCE FOR LONG ENOUGH! BUT NOW YOU DARE DESTROY OUR GUILDHALL!?" The damage their base had suffered was beyond immediate repair, and as such, the mobile fortress that it was could not be deployed. Much of Jose's fury came from the loss of their prized Jupiter Cannon.
Madara slowly stepped towards Makarov and lowered himself slightly to show he was talking to the Master of Fairy Tail. "This man... he is their leader, I assume?" When he received a silent nod from the short, elderly man, he slowly began stepping forward. "Considering I will be making the claim of being the strongest somewhat frequently as I do quite enjoy a display of power, I will make this the first. I will deal with this screaming baffoon."
The members of Fairy Tail had mixed reactions to this.
"Hold on, he wants to fight Jose?" Macao whispered
"I heard he's as strong as Makarov and a Wizard Saint" Wakaba responded
"He either really knows what he is doing or he is nuts..." Gray sweatdropped with a somewhat worried expression.
"Children, fret not" Makarov ensured them. "He may be our newest member, but I can sense power within him that dwarfs even my own."
"WHAT!?" Most of the members screamed in surprise. "STRONGER THAN THE MASTER!?"
Jose, being insulted like that, growled so much that his teeth were grit together to the point of fracturing. "You... YOU FAIRY SCUM!" He roared and lifted his hands up, dictating everyone to attack, thus beginning an all-out brawl between Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail.
Madara meanwhile just slowly stepped towards Jose, dodging the attacks of oncoming grunts without even the slightest of issue and punching or kicking them away with so little effort that he gave away an entire aura of pure boredom. "Such weaklings..." He commented to himself until he stood face to face with Jose, who was barely 10 meters away. "You are the only one I see with some noteworthy power, so you will be dealing with me. Let me see how well you dance."
Jose just grit his teeth and began amassing his shadow magic in his hands, firing a barrage of shadow bolts at Madara. "TAKE THIS!"
Madara just boredly inhaled before he breathed out. "MAJESTIC DESTROYER FLAME!" he thought to himself as he breathed out a gigantic wave of fire that destroyed everything in its path, easily burning through the shadow bolts and completely engulfing Jose as well as the immediate area in fire.
"HOLY CRAP!" Natsu roared in surprise and some awe before he began to dig into the excess amount of flames, powering himself up a little in the process.
Jose however was unharmed, the fire being pushed aside as if it were a liquid by a powerful pulse of pure darkness. Phantom Lord's master concentrated a large amount of pure magic into his hands. "DEAD WAVE!" He roared as he released his attack, which Madara just countered by stepping onto the ground with his right foot while announcing his attack within his thoughts. "MUD WALL", causing several layers of earth to rise and protect him from the attack. As they began to crack one by one, Madara smirked to himself, letting the destroyed mud walls dust up the area and cover all sight.
Jose couldn't see far and was ready to dispel the dust wall with another powerful pulse, but suddenly saw a piece of the dust wall being pierced, anticipating his enemy to come from there. But what he found instead was a single kunai with Madara's shirt tied to it. Behind him, at the other end of the dust wall, a topless Madara emerged and swung his leg upwards for a rare type of attack he usually did never ever consider using due to how shameful it is for someone of his might, but a different life meant different measures and so he did not let his philosophy of strength stop him from delivering the most devastating of attacks possible against any male opponent. Yes, you read this right, THE MADARA UCHIHA delivered a chakra-empowered nutshot.
Jose's yelp was filled with so much pain that even the sadistic, hardassed Gajeel winced somewhat and all the males in the vicinity just instinctively knew that someone had his crown jewels soccer-shot, which caused pretty much all fights to pause for a few seconds before the brawl continued.
The Phantom Lord's Guild Master however did not stay down from the cheapshot, getting up with somewhat shaky legs while growling in pain and pure wrath. "GRRRR, FAIRY... SCUM!" He growled through his teeth before he started to concentrate his entire power into one, singular attack, creating an orb of pure darkness within his hands, ready to unleash his most powerful attack.
"MASTER!" One of the Phantom Lord grunts shouted. "IF YOU USE THIS ATTACK, WE WILL ALL BE HIT AS WELL!"
Madara narrowed his eyes slightly upon hearing this information. "He is filled with such resentment that he would sacrifice his own allies just for a sure way to harm Fairy Tail..." He concluded and slowly began to feel a rising anger within himself. His body slowly started being engulfed by a deep-blue aura and began to grow into an incomplete Stage 2 Susano'o, its limbs being formed with muscle and its inferior armored form donned onto it. It was only the upper body, however. As each incomplete Susano'o had a unique weapon design, Madara's too had a weapon that suited his combat style the best, which was weaved long-blades made out of pure energy. "You would harm your own men knowingly?"
Jose just kept growling in fury while readying the release of his attack. "IF THIS KILLS THEM, IT JUST MEANS THEY WERE AS WEAK AS YOU FAIRY SCUM!"
Madara clenched his fist and showed that he was not amused at all with this answer. "He is just like..." Madara thought back to how some of the more villainous Ninja used to fight and one in particular came into mind, that being Hanzo. Madara may have never met the man, but when he was old and waiting for Obito to develop himself so he could become his puppet, he had used the Zetsu to gather some information on the man so he knew what type of ninja Hanzo was. He saw himself as the hero of his story and justified any and every atrocity and betrayal as sacrifices for a greater good. He somewhat felt like he was also addressing himself, but even back then, there were lines Madara did not cross that Hanzo did. "Even back then when I wanted to bring about my sense of peace to the world did I not discard pawns until they actively turned against me, like I tried with Obito... he however has nothing other than pure hatred, pure envy. Even my old self would have recognized this man as a source of the suffering many have to endure."
"DIE YOU FILTH!" Jose roared out and fired his attack, the orb of darkness slowly firing its way towards Madara before it suddenly began to expand in abrupt intervalls, as if it was threatening to explode.
Madara immediately understood what type of attack it was. "He condensed his power and concentrated air with a closed space of darkness, creating a highly compressed mass out of it, and its decompression is what will serve as the main source of destruction. This is not an attack, this is a utility-type ability disguising a byproduct in the form of a bomb!" He analyzed before he swung with his Susano'o's arms towards the Orb, quickly burying it within its blue hands, grasping it as tightly as it could do. "The magical power itself wouldn't be a problem, but air pressure is something nobody should trifle with." Madara continued to comment to himself while the hands of the Susano'o kept grasping the orb of darkness as it blew up between its palms, visibly cracking said hands and some of the air pressing itself through the small crevices between the fingers and where the palms met, causinng strong airwaves to be blown into all directions. However, the Uchiha did succeed in containing most of the explosion.
"W-WHAT!?" Jose roared in surprise while taking a step back. "THIS WAS MY MOST POWERFUL ATTACK! HOW DID YOU DEFEND AGAINST IT SO EASILY!?"
Madara just dispelled his Susano'o and boredly observed the Shadow Magician before approaching him. "The answer is quite simple, really" he spoke with indifference in his tone before he reached his hand out and grasped Jose by the throat, lifting him up with ease by the chokehold. "You're just that much weaker than me."
Aria, who had so far avoided attacking anyone in order to sneak up on the strong ones and take their magic power away, slowly floated towards Madara, his eyes uncovered so his full magical power was accessable.
The Uchiha Prodigy knew of his would-be attacker from behind and just wordlessly cast another jutsu, one that he remembered Hashirama using with wood style rather than earth style. "HOWLING BUDDHA!" he thought while the earth rose up into the shape of several hands, seven in total, two of them grabbing Aria and the other 5 taking turns slapping his face until it was beet red and the Air Magician was knocked out as a result. Afterwards, he used his Sharingan to put Jose to sleep, who quickly went limp in his hands before being dropped to the ground.
"T...this can't be..." one of the Phantom Lord grunts whispered.
"Master Jose..." Gajeel mumbled while he lay defeated by Natsu, who was able to unleash his Dragon Slayer Secret Art right away thanks to the earlier meal, rather than suffer a beating first.
"We... lost..." Juvia whispered to herself before turning her head towards Gray again, who was watching over her for the moment.
Makarov just smirked knowingly and began to roar with full might. "RETREAT NOW, PHANTOM LORD! THIS IS YOUR COMPLETE AND UTTER DEFEAT!"
The remaining members did as told and immediately disappeared, leaving only the defeated and/or unconscious members behind, as would be required because The Council was for sure going to arrive soon and detain anyone involved.
Madara shrugged his hands somewhat and turned towards his new companions, the Fairy Tail members, having forgotten that he was topless. Considering he was also quite good looking, this meant that he received some envious and some blushing looks from the men and women respectively. He of course did not care one bit, as he considered these kind of interactions utterly nonsensical and just turned his attention towards Makarov again. "I suppose this should serve as proof of my power?"
"MADARA!" Natsu roared from the top of his lungs. "FIGHT ME!" He shouted afterwards, only to be once more slamdunked by the spectral force of a bony Susano'o's hand, leaving behind a visible crater on the ground where the Fire Dragon Slayer was slammed into.
"Bothersome..." He commented with a bored tone and crossed his arms. "Now then. This was a gesture of courtesy from me, but from now on, I won't fight your tough battles for you unless there is no way around it. These type of challenges are your own to master and I predict this would have gone quite a lot worse without my interference in it."
Makarov nodded slightly. "Well, your help is indeed appreciated, my boy." Fairy Tail's Master commented before chuckling. "And your desire to watch these youngsters grow through their own efforts rather than offering the easy way out knowing you could is commendable. Most people with your kind of power would just rampage at any chance they got."
"Heh" Madara chuckled audibly. "My past self would have done just that, roaming the lands and challenge anyone who appeared worthy of my time. Every now and then, I could seek out conflict just for the sake of thrill, but it will only happen during times where no actual threats are to be expected."
"Thank you most kindly for the consideration, it means less paperwork for me" Makarov shamelessly confessed before raising his fists up. "NOW LET'S CELEBRATE THIS VICTORY WHILE WE CAN, THE COUNCIL IS SURE TO THROW ANOTHER FIT OVER THIS SO UNTIL THEN YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!"
Everyone errupted in loud cheers and they returned to the guildhouse as if none of this just happened, resuming the typical daily activities, which consisted of Natsu beginning a guild wide brawl which ended as soon as someone, also typically Natsu, destroyed Erza's strawberry cake, invoking her unholiest of wraths upon their poor souls.
Madara however couldn't have been less bothered by it and sat at the barcounter, exchanging some chatter with Makarov. "I assume you want to know more about me, yes?"
Fairy Tail's Master nodded his head while emptying a mug of beer. "As the Master of the guild, I have to be informed about all my members. You won't be pressed to answer it all, and whatever you reveal to me will be completely confidential to just us unless you explicitly permit me to share."
Madara just nodded before his eyes slowly formed the Sharingan, and then the Mangekyo Sharingan. "It would be much faster to show you instead."
"What do yo-" Makarov was about to ask, but suddenly went into silence, and as the seconds passed, his expression changed from horror to sorrow to anger and back to sorrow. "I... see..."
Madara shrugged and took the small cup of Sake before him, emptying it slowly but in one go. "I don't much care whom you tell or how much you do. My old life is behind me. May only the sins not yet atoned for haunt me."
Makarov let out a deep sigh. "Such a troubled life. Such pain and despair. And to think you have not just gone completely insane like that."
"One might argue I did, considering some of the things I have done and was ready to do." Madara retorted, looking at the empty cup and seeing a very weak reflection of his in the tiny leftover droplet of Sake at the bottom. "But at the end, I did find my way back. What I do from now on is all that matters."
Makarov nodded in agreement. "However, even if you have moved on, you must never forget. Our mistakes must humble us and be our teachers. Our losses must remind us that it means we have experienced precious love and companionship and make us not fear the experience of another such love. Our struggles must be testament of our strengths and remind us that whatever we face on our paths is worth the effort. It is fine if you live this new life to the fullest, but just because you are free of your sins does not mean you should just forget them. If you do, you could very well end up on that same dark path again."
Madara glanced at Makarov and, for a second, saw the face of Hashirama like a projected after-image over the elderly man's own visage, causing him to smile somewhat. "No wonder everyone here reminds me of him when this old fool embodies his ideals and spreads them like wildfire." "You know, you remind me a lot of my old friend. His name was Hashirama. He had a philosophy of love and dreams much like yours. He considered the children of the next generations to be the true kings on the chess board, as they are whom we entrust everything to. They are the ones to whom we cultivate ourselves for. He considered life to not be for the appeasement of predecessors, but for the creation of even better successors. What we do not achieve in our lives, we entrust to those who come after us, and they in turn entrust to the generation after them." He monologued before visualizing the image of a torch being passed from hand to hand. "Yes... a torch... no, a flame that is passed from generation to generation, only burning brighter with each new passing. He called it 'The Will of Fire'."
Makarov could only lift his empty mug to that. "A truly wise man with a heart beyond measure."
Madara agreed and lifted his empty cup of Sake and clashed it with Makarov's mug. "I suppose I can cheer to the attempt at living life like he did."
"To Hashirama!" Makarov cheered.
"To Fairy Tail" Madara responded with an much less vocal, yet still enthusiastic voice of his own.
R&R If you liked the chapter!