"Asuka-chan," said his grandmother, tears dripping down her face, "Do me a favor, won't you? Don't become a kunoichi. Do something serviceable instead. Like becoming a schoolteacher. Or a seamstress."

There had still been smoke heavy in the air when the first bodies had begun to be buried after the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Asuka merely looked up at his grandmother and squeezed her hand.

Asuka awoke with a tremor. His gut throbbed and he felt like vomiting. He leaned over to the side of the bed and emptied the contents of his stomach. Which appeared to be just bile. Asuka slowly blinked, awareness hitting him like a ton of rocks.

Firstly, apparently he was alive.

Because surely, there was no way this musty ass cave was the Pure Lands.

His head pounded and he was grateful that it was so dark because otherwise he wouldn't even be able to think right now. Definitely concussed.

He pushed himself up and grunted. His wounds had been cleaned, he realized. There were bandages wrapped around his midsection to his neck, and across his forehead. Someone rescued him.

"Rat-senpai?" He called. It echoed, echoed, echoed.

Definitely in a fucking cave.

"Senpai?" he tried again.

It wasn't a very big cave, or more likely, it was a smaller section of a bigger cave. He lay on a futon against the back of the wall. A stalactite hung over his head and acted as a perch for several sleeping brown bats. It smelled damp, like somewhere along the walls water flowed freely. There were several candles spread out on the floor, melting. They reflected the shadows of the stalagmites and of the cup of water and folded plain white yukata placed beside him.

Out from the darkness, a pair of yellow eyes stared at him.

He stared back, though it felt as if the temperature had dropped several degrees.

"You're awake."

He recognized the voice of the masked man from the woods, and opted to continue staring at the yellow eyes. It took every ounce of training he had to repress the fear that welled up. He didn't really sense any chakra– but maybe it was due to that strange disappearing jutsu he had used during that one-sided slaughter that could hardly be called a fight.

Asuka's throat felt pinched. He breathed in deeply then exhaled slowly.

The masked man materialized in front of him. He held a tray of soup.

"Madara," called out the creature, the thing with the glowing, pupiless yellow eyes.

The masked man ignored it.

Madara– like the first missing-nin Uchiha Madara?- continued to hold out the tray. Asuka really didn't want to take it.

Emotional Asuka argued that this– this man murdered his senpai- and had taken him captive for an unknown reason. Why the hell would he want to eat something an enemy had provided him? Logical Asuka retorted that he was starving. He needed to eat something to aid in his recovery from the fight, and to gain energy to escape. Plus, this Madara had saved him for some unknown reason. It wouldn't make any sense if he just up and poisoned him after going through all that trouble to prevent him from dying.

Fighting a sour expression, Asuka took the bowl of soup. His traitorous stomach rumbled. The masked man's posture shifted, sloped. He relaxed and plopped down at the edge of the futon, crossing his legs. He rested his head on his arm and activated his sharingan.

Asuka was severely uncomfortable. The shadows on the wall flickered up and down and around.

The ground rumbled and a venus fly trap-like creature emerged a few feet away from him. Half black, half white. Those soulless, yellow eyes that didn't blink. "Madara, what are you doing?" hissed the black half.

The creature was ignored. Asuka shot it a nervous look.

"Eat," Madara said.

Asuka glanced down at the soup. The broth was brown and he saw mushrooms, tofu, onions and carrots floating in it. Then the soup bowl seemed to blur and double. He squinted. His vision returned to normal.

"It's not poisoned," there was a hint of humor in the masked man's voice.

Asuka scowled. He wished that "Madara" had been stupid enough to give him cutlery. He picked the bowl up and drank. He gagged. His stomach felt like he'd just chugged a flask of acid. He clutched his stomach.

"I never thought I'd see you again," breathed the masked man. Out of the corner of his eye, Asuka noticed the plant man's irritated expression. The black half, especially, seemed to look at him with open hostility.

"She isn't that girl you lost," said the plant-thing. "The copy-nin killed her nine years ago. This one is alive, and a child at that."

"Shut up!" spat Madara. The tomoe in his sharingan eye twisted into a shape like a three-bladed shuriken. Knowing what was coming, the creature sunk into the ground. Asuka felt nauseous.

Somewhere in the cave, likely off of a limestone stalactite formation, water dripped.

"Drink the rest of it."

Asuka swallowed the rest of the bile rising to his throat, and avoided the man's glaring red eye. He drank the rest of the soup.

Madara sighed and pushed a gloved hand through his short, spiky black hair. Briefly, Asuka wondered how he looked so good for someone pushing like, a hundred and fifty. A breeze flitted through the cave, and he suddenly felt like he was freezing. He wasn't wearing his armor anymore, just the tattered black base uniform.

"Why didn't you heal yourself?"

Asuka was caught off guard by the sheer vulnerability in the man's voice. Another breeze rushed through the cave, and caused the flames of the candles to flutter wildly. Shadows danced across the wall, and across Madara's orange mask. The spiral of which seemed like it was almost moving.

"...I don't know medical ninjutsu." Asuka replied, dazed. He felt sudden warmth, then realized after a few seconds that Madara was cupping his cheek.

"But Rin," he said gently, softly, "you're a medical ninja."

"My name is Asuka," he replied immediately, jerking his head away and scooting back up against the cold rock wall. "How do you even know her anyway? Aren't you supposed to be dead, Uchiha Madara?"

Madara chuckled. He pulled his hand away. Then he seemed to hesitate for a second before ultimately pulling off the spiral mask… revealing a young man who appeared to be in his early twenties. And who looked like he got into a fight with gravity and lost.

"You're not Madara."

"No, I'm not."

Asuka narrowed his eyes. A sharp stab of pain exploded in his gut. He clenched his teeth and refused to flinch.

"You're shaking," the man said. His sole eye faded back to black.

"Why did you save me?" Asuka bit out.

"Ah." He smiled thinly, pulling at the scars on his face. "I wouldn't have ever forgiven myself if I hadn't."

"Despite the fact that your plant friend seems to," another wave of nausea hit him, "despise me?"

A dark expression crossed the man's face.

Asuka's face felt hot. He realized he was actually shaking, and he couldn't control it.

"Ah, fuck–"

Asuka vomited.

Those rainbow stairs came back. They swirled and twirled around his head until they were all he could see. He felt like he was a spirit detached from its own body, like his limbs weren't his own, and he could only helplessly watch in the edge of his consciousness as his body collapsed.

His ears rung in and out indistinctly. It was like everything was in a fishbowl. He felt himself being picked up, he heard Rin's name being screamed, he heard another name being screamed.

The darkness was so close. It beckoned him.

Maybe he'd see Rat-senpai again.

Besides, it wasn't really so dark. The glittering stars would keep him company.