5

He watched as Naruto attacked Madara. Seeing it all from an outside view, it seemed as if Naruto was aiming one lethal attack after another and Madara was just effortlessly flaunting the differences in strength in the blond's face.

Sasuke looked for openings to join in the fight but he could find none that would not distract Naruto and give Madara a chance to attack. Not that the masked Uchiha couldn't attack already. The man was using the least effort he could and was still easily dodging Naruto's clones' barrage of shuriken and kunai and even the Rasengans. Madara even seemed to be having fun with it while Naruto was getting more irritated by the moment. Finally, Sasuke saw a subtle shift in the way Madara was holding himself. Soon after that, Naruto went flying across the room and landed against the wall, hard.

Sasuke turned and glared at Konan as if saying:

You couldn't have softened his landing a little?

She shook her head and mouthed, 'Too fast. I can't see them.' at him. She was edging her way around to his side as Madara and Naruto moved further away from them and to the other side of Konan's constructed paper building.

Sasuke growled but turned back to the fight. He saw Naruto charge at Madara with a kunai in hand. Madara made a series hand signs that he recognized.

That's what Orochimaru used on Naruto during the Chuunin exams! Sasuke began to move towards the two, but it was too late. Naruto went flying against the wall again. He got up a little faster than last time, but when he tried to summon a clone, and nothing happened, Sasuke guessed that the seal had been successful.

Upon discovering this, Naruto once again charged at Madara. His target caught him mid-swing with a roundhouse kick and sent him, once again, flying into the paper wall.

Madara slowly walked towards where Naruto was struggling to stand and raised a fist.

Sasuke was already running. He pulled his Sword of Kusanagi from its sheath and ran some of his chakra through it to strengthen it. Relaxing his arm to reduce the shock of the blow, Sasuke prepared to block Madara's attack as he darted in front of Naruto.

Catching the blow on the flat of the blade to distribute to force more evenly, although he'd been tempted to let Madara punch the bladed edge, his arm numbed. He figured that Naruto would have been unconscious for a very long while had the hit connected. A few seconds of silence passed, during which Sasuke thought it was safe to assume that Madara was glaring at him from behind his mask.

"You were just going to let yourself get hit? That's not the dobe I know." He said quietly to Naruto as he kept his attention on Madara.

"…Sasuke?"

"Who else would I be?" he asked Naruto sarcastically.

Madara backed off a little bit, moving about fifteen feet away, and Sasuke figured he could afford to look back at Naruto. He moved his sword into a position where he could guard against an attack quickly if he needed to.

The blond's face was pale and he was staring at Sasuke with wide, surprised eyes.

"Geez, dobe, not that I expected a welcome back party or anything, but still… isn't that a little much?" The Uchiha asked dryly.

Naruto shook his head as if to clear it of his thoughts.

"I-I'm sorry. It's just that you were the last person I expected to see here…"

"Yeah…well… Itachi told me everything that actually happened. So now Madara is at the top of my 'To Kill' list." Sasuke turned back to the silent man in front of him, hoping that he'd heard the last part of their conversation. He hated repeating himself.

"You met Itachi? What happened?" Naruto asked somewhat nervously. Sasuke wondered if Naruto could possibly know what he'd done, or if the blond would ever forgive him for doing such a monumentally stupid thing. He wasn't even sure if he could forgive himself, and he knew it was something he'd regret for the rest of his life. But then, that would be a rather short period of time if they didn't start paying attention to the surroundings.

"We don't have the time to talk about this now, Naruto. I'll tell you later."

"That's if he has a later, Sasuke-kun. There is very little chance of either of you getting out of here. Alive that is." Madara interrupted.

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard that so many times it's not funny, and I'm still here aren't I?" Sasuke smirked outwardly, even if he wasn't completely sure that they could take this man on in a fight after watching Naruto fail so miserably. "As far as I'm concerned, you're no different from anyone who's said that before."

Sasuke turned slightly to direct his next words to the silent man behind him. "C'mon, Naruto. We can probably take him if we both work together."

"Ne, Sasuke… I can't use my chakra. It's the same thing Orochimaru used on me before." Naruto said quietly.

"I know. Keep an eye on Madara. Warn me if he comes close." He replied just as quietly, if not more so.

"Fine," Naruto nodded. "But what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to undo the seal he put on you." Foreseeing Naruto's question, Sasuke said, "It was one of the Jutsu Orochimaru taught me."

"At least he was useful for something." Naruto said bitterly. Sasuke didn't try to tell him otherwise.

"Hn."

Out of Madara's sightline, Sasuke performed the necessary hand seals he retrieved from his memory and the tips of his fingers glowed like Madara's had. Except the chakra surrounding Madara's fingers hadn't been blue.

"Stay still." He told Naruto. The blond sucked in a breath as he brought his hand to Naruto's stomach, over the seal Madara had just used, admittedly much more gently. Naruto grunted slightly at the pain but did nothing else.

When Sasuke pulled his hand back, Naruto tested the counterseal as he summoned three clones.

"It worked! Thanks Sasuke!"

"Let's just get this fight over with." He turned back to Madara who hadn't moved an inch, even though he must have known what Sasuke had been doing.

Without any warning, Sasuke moved forward, sword held out to the side behind him, towards Madara. He could see Naruto on his other side along with the three clones that were moving to surround the orange-masked Uchiha in front of them.

With his left hand Sasuke signaled Naruto, hoping he hadn't forgotten their old attack formations. Naruto nodded his head slightly and quickly made another clone that he sent to cover his new comrade, while he himself went to join his clones in jumping Madara.

Meanwhile, Madara just stood in his same spot, seemingly bored. He let the four Narutos grab hold of him.

Sasuke ran his Chidori through his sword and stabbed through Madara's shoulder… and a Naruto clone disappeared with a cry of surprise in a puff of smoke.

Substitution Jutsu?! When? I didn't even see him move! Sasuke's eyes widened.

He saw an orange blur at his right side and turned to see Naruto blocking Madara's foot with crossed arms; the back of the blond's head was only a few inches away from his face, his whole body having been pushed back by the force of Madara's attack.

"Sasuke! He's quicker than you think he is!" Naruto grunted at him as Madara jumped back, using his arm as a type of springboard. Naruto stepped back to stand beside Sasuke. He made a significantly larger group of clones and had them attack Madara, although not all at once. It would hold the man back for half a minute at most.

"Sasuke, can you run some of your fire element through my Rasengan?"

"Yeah." Sasuke looked at Naruto with curiosity. "You're not planning to use an attack you just made up in the middle of battle on him are you?"

"Yep!" the blond grinned.

"Still living up to your title as most unpredictable ninja, I see." Sasuke shook his head and Naruto's grin just grew.

"I'm going to make a regular Rasengan then we can both mix our chakras into it. I should be able to keep it stabilized until I use it against Madara. When I do, don't get anywhere near us. I don't know how large the blast radius will be." Naruto told Sasuke as he summoned two clones. He let one make the basic Rasengan and then he told the raven to go ahead and put his fire into it.

"What about you?" he asked as he worked the red chakra into the rapidly spinning ball of chakra.

"Aww… are you worried for me, teme?" Naruto teased.

"Not really, it's just that Tsunade will kill me if I don't bring you back." Sasuke regretted the words even as they formed in his mind, but it had been such a long time since he fought with his friend…he couldn't stop them from leaving his mouth.

"Oh…" A hurt look surfaced for a second in Naruto's eyes. Sasuke almost winced, but the look was gone momentarily. "Well, I'm the one attacking, so most of the blast should be directed at Madara. Until I throw this at him I'll need you to help me distract him."

"Right." Sasuke replied, trying his best not to let anything else stupid slip from his lips.

"Can I be of any assistance?" A voice stated suddenly from behind them. Naruto jumped and turned quickly, almost losing his grip on the new Rasengan. Sasuke, who had sensed her, but not said anything, assuming that Naruto had as well, turned a little more slowly.

"And how would you help, exactly?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.

Konan pointed at Madara who was still fighting off the Naruto clones. There were only two left at this point, but there was an impatient edge to his slight movements. "He can't see you- well, he can- but he doesn't see you." She gestured at the two of them. "Nor does he see this strange little attack you've come up with. I've put up a little paper wall that shows him a false image. If he weren't as good at sensing chakra as he is I would've suggested that you use this moment to escape, however, the only reason this trick is working is because you have not moved from this spot."

"Well, that's a neat little trick." Naruto stated.

Sasuke sighed. He'd wondered at why Madara was just letting them have their sweet time with plotting to kill them. Now knowing why, it was something of a relief to have the paper master on their side.

"Well, either way, we know we can't escape. Soon Madara will attack us and find out that we've been tricking him and I can bet he'll not be happy." Naruto said. "Sasuke, Konan, can you two help me keep him distracted?"

"Of course." Konan answered while Sasuke nodded his head.

"Konan, would you be able to keep this wall up around me to hide this jutsu? I can internalize all the run-off chakra so that Madara won't be able to sense my Rasengan, but only so much." Naruto continued. Konan nodded. "Sasuke? Can you get his attention?"

"Yes. What do I need to do?" Sasuke asked.

xXx

Naruto was surprised at Sasuke's question. For some reason the two of them were deferring to him. But then, maybe it was because he was the only one with a plan at this particular moment. Naruto almost snorted. Something big must have happened to make the great Sasuke Uchiha listen to Naruto Uzumaki for a change.

"Well, you could always start going on and on about your avenger issues. I remember you saying Madara's at the top of your kill list, so you could always rant about you killing him." He said with a small teasing smile.

Sasuke glared at him.

"What? You always managed to do that when you fought with me." Naruto pouted.

Sasuke huffed and turned away. "Isn't that stupid jutsu ready yet?" He asked in an irritated voice, bringing the topic back to the problem at hand. Naruto grinned at Konan and they shared a small smile at Sasuke's reaction to Naruto's teasing as if they were all old friends.

"It will be in a moment." Naruto said. "Move back."

Sasuke nodded and started away. Konan followed him shortly after.

As he watched them move away, Naruto's clone began to feed wind chakra into his new attack. The previously orangish-red color of the miniature spinning fireball turned a whitish-blue color as his wind fed the fire and made it hotter. He had to spare some of his concentration to mold some of the wind chakra around his arm to protect it from the heat, which made him struggle to keep the fire from breaking his hold on it and burning out of control.

It took a full minute to finally gain the control he needed over the jutsu and during that time he silently thanked Konan for the cover her wall provided. If Madara had been able to see what they were doing he would have stepped in immediately, he was sure. However, Naruto did wonder what the man was seeing.

"Are you done planning now, Uzumaki-kun? You can't just stand there forever. Planning will only do so much good." Well, that explained away some of his curiosity. His clones were all gone now, and he couldn't spare his attention at the moment, but he suddenly imagined Madara standing there tapping his foot and waiting for the three of them to declare war on him, or something. Yeah, definitely 'or something'.

Before he answered Madara he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. With a hand behind her back, Konan was motioning him to stay silent. He did. Konan stopped not too far away from him while Sasuke kept moving. He settled into a battle stance about ten feet away from Madara. The older Uchiha's eyes settled onto his relative.

"Ah, so you don't deign to answer me, Uzumaki-kun? That's fine. I will just deal with this child before I play with you. We will see just whose eyes work better. Perhaps I will take your eyes too, little Uchiha."

"Just try it." Sasuke said harshly. "At least mine weren't stolen."

"Really? And you think you can beat me because your brother gave you your Mangekyou willingly?" Madara reached up to his mask. "I haven't even been using my Sharingan. Do you truly think you can best me while I am using it?" he pulled the orange mask from his face and opened his eyes to reveal his kekkei genkai. Sasuke practically hissed as the red eyes opened and focused entirely on him.

Madara had skin just as pale as Sasuke's, if not paler, and just like the younger Uchiha, had raven black hair. He looked a quite a bit like Sasuke, actually. But unlike Sasuke, Madara had short-cropped hair that stuck up in spikes almost like Naruto's unruly hair. The man's eyes commanded attention. The irises were red while his pupil and the ring that surrounded it were black. There were three bars extending from the outer ring and there were small, black circles lying on the ring between each of the bars.

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment. He felt a sudden itching sensation then reopened his eyes to reveal his own Mangekyou, which spun lazily, like his original Sharingan.

Madara seemed unimpressed, at least until Sasuke activated his bloodline limit and began to attack the older man's mind, trying to plant a genjutsu within it. The expression of condescending amusement melted into that of concentration. Regardless of experience, Sasuke was an overwhelming opponent. Madara was not foolish enough to let his guard down even for a second. The two Uchihas faced off in the middle of the room as they tried to penetrate the others defenses with their respective Mangekyou Sharingans and place the other in a genjutsu.

"You can't trap me, Sasuke-kun."

"Then I'll just have to kill you!" Sasuke darted forward, katana in hand. He ran his Chidori through the length of the blade and jabbed it forward to meet…nothing but air. Surprised, Sasuke halted his forward motion for a moment. Without looking, he knew exactly where Madara had gone, even though he hadn't actually seen the man move. Madara landed behind him and threw an elbow at the back of the younger Uchiha's head. Sasuke dodged the blow by barely an inch and tried to knock Madara's feet from under him with a low kick.

As the man jumped over the kick, Madara aimed a kick of his own at Sasuke. This attack landed and the young raven flew back a few yards before righting himself and settling into a low crouch. He shook out his shoulder, which had numbed from the impact.

How strong is this man? He's not even adding chakra to his hits. Sasuke thought as he rushed the elder Uchiha once again.

Naruto watched the fight from behind Konan's paper wall (although he'd yet to figure out exactly where the wall was) with a mixed expression, waiting for an opening to attack. He didn't like not being able to join in the fray, but he knew he had to wait for the perfect moment.