Story Summary: Madara, because he's not an idiot, takes about four seconds to realize he's been turned into a furry beast. Looking at his shaking legs, the black fur bristled up in agitation, he understands that he has no idea how he got himself into this mess. MadaTobi Fox!Madara, SEMI-GRAPHIC VIOLENCE.

Story Warnings: Graphic violence, cursing, blood, amorality, war, death, the consumption of human meat by animals.

third chapter! that last warning? applies heavily for this chapter!

shi-bi no kitsune

iii.

Madara ran, wind rushing past as he pushed forward, the feeling of flying making him stick his tongue out in delight. Tobirama has been kind enough to travel down on the ground and not in the trees, sticking close to Madara as they make their way to the Uzumaki lands. It takes a full day to run there and it's already midday, which means they still have hours of running to go. They should be exiting the forest in a few hours time, only to find a few mile of hilly lands before meeting the coast. The Uzumaki and their kin lived on an island off the coast. They would probably have to rest on the beach for a few hours before Tobirama and he made their way over the choppy waves of the pass between the two lands. In fact, now that Madara thinks about it, the Senju will probably have to carry him across.

Madara grimaces slightly at the thought, his fur spiking as he runs, but he shakes off the uncomfortable feeling. He's already been in Tobirama's arms once, what does it matter if he is again. Besides, he'll need help if he wants to go across the water. He has no idea if he might be able to manipulate chakra. Tobirama had sensed him, which lends to the idea that he has some, but it obviously doesn't feel like his own, otherwise Tobirama would've ever helped him the way he has. He still has no idea how to use chakra in this form, however. He assumes it would take time to form some sort of chakra control, time he doesn't have while he's sprinting across country with Tobirama.

He dodges a tree trunk absentmindedly, keeping pace with the sprinting Senju. Madara sniffs the air, breathing in the scents of the forest around them. It smells clean, the foliage bright and flourishing under their feet. It's a nice day, the cool night from earlier breaking through into a sunny morning and afternoon.

"Shi-san," Tobirama says, breaking their silent journey. The Senju is slowing down, so Madara follows suit, his racing limbs slowing down into a trot until they are both stood still under the shadowy canopy of the trees above. Tobirama crouches, a look of concentration on his face as he lightly skims his fingers over the ground. Madara tries his best to keep his harsh pants from echoing around them, his stomach grumbling slightly as his lungs expand and contrast. He's been starving since last night, desperate for some type of food to sate his hunger. They had stopped earlier in the morning for a light meal and small break, and Tobirama had given him some more blackberries. While still good, they once more did nothing to sate his empty stomach, which now felt like it was eating itself. He ignored both his stomach and his shaky limbs as Tobirama looked off into the distance, a frown finding it's way onto his face. "There seems to be three signatures up ahead that I don't recognize. They aren't Uzumaki, and this is unclaimed land, so there's no telling who could be lurking in the area."

Madara tilted his head and watched Tobirama at work, fascinated by the sight. Madara himself was a bit of a sensor, every Uchiha was. To be able to use the Sharingan meant that they had to be slightly more in tune with the chakra around them. It gave them an advantage when it came to predicting moves and dodging unseen opponents. Tobirama, it seems, far exceeds any sensor Madara has had the pleasure of meeting. Madara can't sense anything himself, and his range is nothing to scoff at, so for Tobirama to sense three distinct individuals, is incredibly impressive. He wonders that the sensory input that Tobirama has the deal with. Almost every living thing has some amount of chakra, though it is mostly so low that it is more of a background hum than any real noise to the senses. Regular animals have a bit more than plants, but never enough to really bother anyone. Madara wonders if not just Tobirama's range is larger, but if he's more sensitive to the subtitles of the chakra swirling around them.

"Let's proceed with caution," Tobirama finally tells him, standing from his crouched position. "Most of shinobi on this side of the forest are usually Senju allies or their kin. I don't recognize them, but they could simply be from one of the smaller unknown clans." Tobirama looks disbelieving of his own words, like there's something bothering him that he can't quite place. It sends a spark of worry up Madara's spine.

They move forward once more, their pace slower than before as they headed through the forest. Tobirama was keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings, head tilted just slightly as he kept himself as aware as possible. Madara tried to do the same, muscled bunched tightly as he runs. They're running when Madara clocks onto the fact that everything around them is silent. Most would claim all forests are silent unless a human is in them, but it wasn't true. Birds sand above in the branches, small rodents skittered across the ground, making crunching noises as they scurried across the leaves strewn everywhere. Insects buzzed about, going about their short lives. It was never quiet in a forest that was alive and safe.

Now, there was no ambient noise from the creatures around them. An eerie silence had descended upon them and Madara let out a chirping noise, looking up to meet Tobirama's eyes as the albino nodded seriously in return, obviously having sensed the same thing that Madara had.

They were not alone.

Seconds passed as they once more came to a stop, Madara's panting the only thing breaking the unnerving silence that reigned. Madara glanced to the side, trying to find anything, and that was when the enemy struck. Kunai flew from the bushes behind them causing them to scatter, Tobirama to one side and Madara leaping to the other, turning to face the oncoming opponent. Madara's heart almost stopped when he saw the white battle armor and the demented grins attached to a figure with flowing brown hair decorated with two distinct buns.

Tobirama was already retaliating, throwing shuriken in response as he dodged another attack. Madara stayed frozen, a feeling of dread almost overtaking him as he watched two members of the Kaguya clan engage with Tobirama. Madara isn't surprised that Tobirama had never run into their opponents, as they tended to stay on the completely opposite side of the country. Madara had run into them when he was younger, just having reached adulthood out of his teens. He'd been in Taki no Kuni on a mission when he'd come across a couple of Kaguya clan members. The carnage Madara had seen them reap onto an unexpected village was brutal and disgusting. Madara hadn't felt comfortable interfering, especially not with the way the Kaguya seemed to love to play with their pray. Watching one of their members push his bones through his own skin immediately put him off confrontation, fascinated horror pushing him to simply watch as they massacred an entire small village. He had left, hours later, only to vomit a few miles away, guilt eating at the lining of his stomach. It was only through extensive search and occasionally asking around when on other missions, that he finally found a name for the clan that was more bloodthirsty than the demons of legend: Kaguya. He hadn't run into them since, not until this moment as he watched Tobirama flip to avoid a devastating elbow from one of his opponents. A second shinobi, this one more built than his companion, took advantage and successfully landed a punch to Tobirama's side, making the man grunt as he pulled away from them. The two grinning Kaguya pushed forward, not letting Tobirama take the chance to rest.

Two members, Madara thinks, mind racing. Hadn't Tobirama mentioned three chakra signatures?

Madara screamed, his flesh burning as something sharp was thrusted through his shoulder, his high pitched screech echoing around them. He struggled to scurry away, whipping his head around and tearing more at his shoulder. He stared at the bone protruding form his shoulder, a cackle being his only warning as another bone shard was thrown at him. He managed to dodge this time, drying out at the pain in his shoulder. As a human it seemed easy to ignore the pain that was inflicted during a fight, but he was a more fragile animal at the moment, his joints different than before. He didn't have hands to extract the bone, having to suffer as his own bone rubbed against the bone stuck in his socket, blood lazily running down his weak limb.

"Shi-san!" Tobirama shouted in alarm, his approach stopped when he once more had to defend himself against the team fighting him. He looked over at Madara, concern in his eyes. Madara wished he could reassure him, give him some kind of sign that Madara was okay, but a fog was starting to over come him, his heart beating quickly as his animal fight or flight response took hold of his slowing mind.

The fox in him, the creature with four tails and a dark hunger, told him to run, so he did. He turned tail and sprinted as fast as he could in the direction Tobirama and he had been traveling, his mind doing its best to ignore the waves of pain throbbing through him. He could hear the cackling Kaguya give chase, the man quickly catching up to him as his longer strides gave him an advantage. Madara was forced to skitter to a halt when they came to a rather large river with no visible way to cross. He might've chanced swimming if he was uninjured, but with his shoulder in the condition it was, even his animal brain put that in the too dangerous column.

He was cornered. He hunched down, staring wide-eyed at the malicious Kaguya in front of him.

"Hello, little buddy," the man grinned, drawing closer. A bone slowly grew its way through the flesh on his hand, the bone sharp and threatening as it became longer and longer. "I've never had the chance to kill such a unique beast. The others will surely be jealous," the man boasted, now wielding the bone in his hand like one would a sword.

Madara's heart pounded loudly in his ears, dread falling over him in an icy hold. He was going to die, he realized, meeting his attacker's crazed beige eyes. No one would know that Uchiha Madara was killed by a crazy Kaguya, stuck in the form of a four-tailed fox. Izuna would be left as clan head, never knowing that Madara had wanted to return. His and Hashirama's dream of have peace between the clans would never be realized, not with Izuna's hatred fro the Senju. The two clans will continue to war among themselves until one side is finally wiped off the face of the earth. Tobirama will be forced to face not two, but three of these deranged psychopaths, forced to look at the blood on one of them and know it was his foxy savior that was slayed.

No. I refuse. I will not submit, a niggling voice sounded in the back of his mind, a sudden build up of pressure leaving him dizzy.

The pressure increased, Madara's limbs feeling light as his tails suddenly started whipping around him, the debris in the area rising as chakra started building inside him, the unfamiliar feeling of an icy burn waking him up, his adrenaline causing him to feel more aware than he has in years. He meets his attacker's eyes, see them widen in surprise, and then flames burst from him, the chakra he had been manipulating coming to form a blue blaze around his body, the flames licking his fur and skin, leaving a chill behind as they danced. Madara knows that that blue fire is actually hotter than red, he is an Uchiha after all, but he somehow isn't surprised that this icy blue fire is burning cold and not hot.

Madara can feel the bone being forced out of his shoulder, his wound knitting back together in a stunning display of accelerated healing. He doesn't focus on it much, instead turning his rising fury to the nin in front of him. This shinobi had threatened his life, had wanted him dead, and his comrades were currently trying to take out Tobirama, the man who had helped him. The man who had seen a vulnerable animal and had nursed him and fed him instead of experimenting on the oddity in front of him. Rage flowed through him as he threw himself forward, a demonic snarl leaving him as he flew at his opponent, so fast that his surrounding blurred as he latched himself successfully to the surprised man's throat. Without a single second of hesitation, Madara flared his chakra cloak ice racing up the man's skin and encasing his chest. The man cried out, fear now making him shake as he tried to reach up hands to dislodge Madara, only to have to wince away when the fire left him close to frost bitten. With no impunity, Madara tore the man's throat out, blood gushing and covering him quickly.

He fell from his hanging, throat in his mouth as the man collapsed with a gurgle, unable to scream now that his throat was gone and his lungs were quickly filling with blood. Madara was in a haze, a dark essence in himself grinning cruelly at his ability to simply destroy, the flesh sliding down his throat as he swallows, bliss quickly filling him. For the first time since he was turned into a fox, his hunger is lessening instead of growing, the meat making his stomach purr in delight. Stuck in a haze, Madara went forward and tore, the dying man's body becoming Madara's first satisfying meal.

Madara woke from his haze covered in blood, standing before a skeleton that had been picked clean. He stared at it, uncomprehending as footsteps slowly approached him from behind.

"Shi-san?" Tobirama's voice quietly asked, wary concern coloring his tone.

Madara looked up at him with wide eyes, his small body starting to shake in shock. Tobirama had some blood on his clothes next to his right arm, the left one occupied with carrying an unconscious Kaguya nin over his shoulder. Madara saw the white clothes on the man and turned to look at the bloody scraps that were laying next to the bones, their pristine color forever dyed.

Foxes can't cry tears, they don't have that very human ability, but Madara feels like sobbing, like breaking down, as he once more looks up at Tobirama, completely lost.

Tobirama carefully puts down the hostage he was carrying, stepping closer to Madara until he was crouched in front of him, brow furrowed. "It's alright," he calmly tells him, a hand coming up to brush against his blood soaked fur. "'It's only in your nature. Fox demons consume humans; it's just what you do."

Madara's breathing picked up, the words giving him conflicting emotions. Of course he was a fox demon, the way he looked with his four tails and maroon eyes certainly gave him the described appearance. He had just been covered in icy flames not a thirty minutes ago, so he was obviously supernatural in nature. But, he couldn't help but think hysterically, my mind is human. Madara should've been strong enough to fight the instincts of the body he's been shoe-horned in. He should've resisted the urge, shouldn't have let himself succumb to committing a sin like cannibalism. His stomach is stuffed full, making a satisfied grumble only Madara can hear, and he can't stop himself from crying out in pain.

There's no physical injury that hurts him; only his burning guilt.

poor baby madara, eating bad guys and feeling bad about it