(RECONSTRUCTED)

Summary: There comes a time when you eventually stop looking under the bed for monsters, because you realize that the real monsters are from within. For Sakura, she had known it since the time she gained a small sense of satisfaction from destroying ant hills and bird nests. It wasn't until she met Madara that the monster within her began to stir. He was her Joker as she was his Harley Quinn.

Pairing: MadaSaku

Rating: Mature for violence and possibly future lemons

Word Count: 3,464

Harlequin

"One person's craziness is another person's reality."

Tim Burton

Chapter Two

For the past month in the prison-like asylum, Madara felt beyond the definition of bored. The food was plain, nothing special and the gossip and rumors around the vicinity were only mediocre from who slept with whom and that so-and-so had another break down. He was almost always confined in his one-man cell, which wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be. The room itself wasn't too tiny, it had a round table at one corner opposite from his twin-sized bed, a personal bathroom and even a barred up window that let in the sunlight in the late afternoon. He could often times catch a glimpse of the courtyard that had been transformed into a traditional Japanese tea garden where most of the more stable patients would roam around with dozens of nurses and psychiatrists around to keep them in check.

In fact, the asylum almost felt like a sterile hospital rather than a mental institution for the criminally insane—then again, he thought hospitals were the equivalent to prisons. One just held the physically sick while the other held the morally sick. Perhaps he was stuck in limbo, the in-between of the two extremes. However, there was only one thing that kept him from attempting to break out and that was a venomous flower. More often than not, he would catch sight of her lounging around the small stream and eating her lunch during her breaks.

She was one of the main reasons why he had not escaped yet. He wasn't entirely bored. What kept him on edge were his weekly therapy sessions with this pink haired sprite. The weekly sessions soon became almost daily upon his request. At the institution, the nurses, doctors and psychiatrists took requests extremely seriously if it meant the betterment for the patient. Of course, this in turn landed him in Sakura's office at this moment.

Madara would not deny the fact that he liked her office more than his room due to the soft pastel colors the walls and ceiling held that complimented her equally pastel pink hair. Everything in her office was neat, organized and clean—something he deeply appreciated in a person. The only striking contrast to all of the soft colors was her steely sea foam eyes. From the times he had made eye contact with hers, he knew that she was anything but soft and gentle. This was what interested him the most and what kept him on the edge. He wanted to break her and see her crumble under his hands, but he knew as soon as he did, she would have won this game they subconsciously played—so, he didn't even dare touch her. There was that familiar gleam in her eye every time she decided to provoke him with questions and even made him draw pictures describing his life for her. All he ever produced for her were poorly drawn sketches of light blue and red swirled lollipops and dango. The first time she mistook the dango drawing for something much more inappropriate and dismissed the idea of having him illustrate his life. Sakura would stick to questions.

There was the soothing familiar sound of her pen scribbling lightly against paper until her voice pierced through the otherwise silence, "Tell me, Madara, what was your childhood like?" She pushed up her invisible-framed reading glasses before glancing up occasionally to see him fiddling with origami pieces on the coffee table left by her previous patient.

Madara frowned slightly at her obvious disinterest and resisted a sigh. He dropped the intricately made origami giraffe back on the polished mahogany table and placed his knitted hands under his chin. He eventually said, "Boring."

She didn't know whether or not he was answering her question, or that he was announcing boldly that this session was boring, or that she was boring. It was possibly and most likely both. Sakura would be lying if she said that these sessions have become interesting like the first few ones. She lived off of productivity and these daily two-hour sessions have just been a waste of her time. However, she was a young woman brought up with patience and had learned that success can oftentimes be achieved with patience. She would take her time to break Madara.

She continued her notes and re-crossed her legs, her dark pencil skirt shifted slightly under. From what Sakura had heard and known about of the infamous Uchiha household name, was that they carried large pockets of money—they were filthy rich from their well-known technology company and lobbyist politicians. She remembered that Sasuke held a fairly high position in the company, right below his brother and his father's. She had been around the Uchiha family more than enough times to realize that they accepted nothing but of high quality. She had met a large majority of the snobby family, but had heard nothing of Madara. Perhaps he was distant on the family tree? However his status as an extraordinarily influential lobbyist didn't make him all too distant. Madara's body language and physical appearance said otherwise as well from his arrogant sneers to how level his head was when he walked.

"What was your childhood like?"

Sea foam eyes looked up from her clipboard in surprise at his abrupt question that interrupted her analysis. "My childhood?" she nearly laughed, "That is not any of your concern." She didn't like to remember her dull childhood.

…

The small tuft of pink hair stood up as a younger Sakura stared at the emptying swing sets. Children from the park were being ushered by their parents to head home and eat a hearty warm dinner, but Sakura didn't want to go home just yet. The sun was slowly beginning to touch the horizon and when a large majority of the children had dispersed, the park was nearly empty minus her parents that were huddled up at the park bench, reading or working. Time wasn't an issue for them. Nor was it for Sakura.

In fact, she liked to think that time froze just for her when she was having fun. Her workaholic parents didn't seem to care for how long she played just as long as she was safe and not bothering them. If time froze, then she could do anything with a blink of an eye and get away with it—and that was what she did.

Earlier, Sakura had seen a group of young boys play with slingshots and had shot pebbles at branches of trees to prove something and had eventually shot down a bird from its nest with a sharp pebble. The impact had been strong enough to knock it out of the tree and shock the group of boys to run off, some with tears in their innocent eyes. Curiosity had sparked to life in her eyes when she ventured off towards the general area and saw the near dying bird flat on its spine with its feathers and wings sprawled out as it took labored breaths.

Looking around, Sakura saw that the sharp pebble had knocked down its nest as well. She took her expressionless eyes off the bird in order to find the nest and lifted it to find broken eggs but one. It was a pretty shade of pale blue and she knew from that moment on soft shades were what calmed her. Picking it up gently, she walked back towards the near dying bird and knelt down. "Poor dirty birdy," she cradled the egg close to her as she lifted the creature from the tips of one of its wings, giggling as it struggled to break free, the other wing flapping violently.

"You have pretty feathers," Sakura dropped the tortured animal and continued to stroke its feathered wings before plucking a few off. Seeing no response from the near dying bird, she frowned, "Are you hungry?" An idea sprout from her head as she giggled, looking at the egg settled in her hand and carefully cracked it open, pouring its liquid insides down into the bird's open beak. "Mother says that it's good to have a good meal. Did you not listen to your mother birdy?" she grinned and watched as the bird slowly struggled.

"Sakura-chan?" it was her mother's voice from a distance, "It's getting dark, and about time we head back home for dinner. Let's head back right now."

She got up quickly, brushing her hands off on her dirt covered dress as she pocketed the feathers she plucked and shouted back, "Okay!" Looking back, she grinned at the now dead bird, "I had fun playing with you birdy. Maybe next time we can have more fun!"

The next time she visited the same park, she discovered with expressionless eyes a decaying bloodied carcass of the bird she had left.

She realized that time was oftentimes not in her favor and did not willingly freeze.

…

The psychiatrist raised an eyebrow towards the dark haired man at his stillness. What intrigued her most were not his deep red eyes or his long mane of hair, but rather his attitude and behavior. It was child-like and almost innocently so. After she had disregarded his further questions of her childhood Madara had pouted like a child at this and chose to sulk, displeased that he had to answer her questions and yet she was free from restraint of his own questions. Something about legality and confidentiality issues that confused the madman.

"Did you go to parks as a child?" Sakura asked him, interrupting his train of thought once again. Despite the wholesomely boring topic, she had to persist and get some answers out of him. She noticed he was beginning to look bored again.

"What do you think Haruno-san?" Madara rolled his eyes to her direction, "I'm an Uchiha. You clearly have a friend that is one as well." He had implied that she of all people should know what their childhood was like. Rules and restrictions secured with more duties and responsibilities was the Uchiha way—and for Madara, it bored him, the routinely things. If she was seeking a boring discussion about his boring childhood with his boring family, then perhaps she was just as equally boring and not as interesting as he thought she was.

Sakura caught into the implication and huffed, "Well, if you were to answer my question, you would've elaborated as to why you broke away from your average Uchiha childhood." She removed her reading glasses and continued, "All Uchiha are treated as royalty from the day that they are born, to past the days that they have died. You obviously are not royalty—or at least you strayed from such a lifestyle. Was it the restraint, the rules or the duties? Or perhaps it was the people?" Despite his regal demeanor, she knew that he hated being treated with such high respect—he wanted to gain respect from others and he did so primarily by fear and manipulation.

Madara was unaware that he had been gritting his teeth and scowling until he finally exhaled, allowing himself to chuckle it off. She was provoking him. She knew exactly which words to use in order to poke and prod at his mentality and this lured him to her whether she knew or not. She was like a siren that provoked him to plunge into the sea foam.

He decided he would enter her realm of words and knowledge and play her dangerous mind games, "Let's strike a deal."

Sea foam eyes finally lit up at his proposition, "A deal?"

He nodded, "A deal. We'll have a Q&A sort of thing. You ask a question, and I'll answer; then I ask and you answer."

Sakura couldn't help but smirk at this, he was practically begging her that he be invited to play and be part of her game. "There needs to be rules established." She caught his frown at this statement. She was smarter than that and knew a game with no rules could elicit cheating; and she always played by the rules—her own rules. "There will be no repeated questions from either person. One cannot repeat the same answer over again. There is no 'passing' a question. All questions must be answered honestly."

"Is that it?" Madara raised an eyebrow. They were simple enough. She was practically telling him to be honest, but stating it that way so boldly and simply would allow him room to cheat. The way she had just elaborately stated it held no room for him to cheat. Realization began to set in that she was taking this game seriously, just as he would as well. He saw her give a confirmed nod at his question and he grinned, "Then, let the games begin."

"Then here's my first question," she smirked, her clipboard and pen resting on the table next to her, completely forgotten as she folded her hands together neatly, "Can ants swim?"

…

Recess was over at the Konoha Academy as the bell signaled the children to rush back into their classrooms. Their tables were set in groups of three in which consisted of Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura's small hands tugged at the ends of her shoulder length hair to get the knots and small wooden tanbark pieces out of her hair. Karin had pushed her off of the monkey bars earlier trying to chase after the young Uchiha. Emerald eyes glared over at the redhead as she sat down in her tiny desk, deciding she'll plan something to get back at Karin during lunch. It wasn't like she hated the young redhead; she didn't like anyone who pushed her around at least without apologies afterwards.

"Listen up class!" It was Iruka, the teacher and owner of the colorful classroom. With his announcement, everyone was intently listening to the new lecture he gave except Naruto, Shikamaru and Kiba who were asleep over their desks. Iruka didn't seem to care too much though, knowing he would just lecture the poor boys later and hold them back from lunch a few minutes. Sakura would have been apart of their tiny sleeping trio if it weren't for the fact that he expected better from her since she was the daughter of a prominent lawyer and well-known journalist.

Sakura, however, was taking notes in a small notebook, occasionally doodling in the margins here and there, and began drawing the tiny bird she played with a couple days ago at the park. She remembered how the bird drowned in its own unborn young, and looked up at the board to see Iruka's drawing of an ant hill, describing the functions of the ant colony. Working together as a unit is necessary in order to survive today's society—just like an ant colony. She raised an eyebrow and quickly shot her hand up. "Umino-sensei," she called out.

Iruka abruptly stopped the lesson and gave a small smile towards the pastel haired girl, "Question, Sakura-chan?" She was always ask questions, whether they were relevant to the topic or not and more than enough times to count, the teacher would always answer to the best of his abilities. If her parents were too busy to answer her trivial questions, then she knew her teacher would.

"Can ants swim, Umino-sensei?"

…

The question was definitely unexpected and it caused Madara to bellow out in laughter, knowing the room was soundproof. The baritone chuckle resonated in the room and he had to try hard not to clutch his stomach. Out of all the questions she could have asked, this certainly was not one of them. The maroon eyed man was prepared for any question she was going to ask him, but not something so trivial and what appeared to be irrelevant to the entire situation. Just what exactly was she trying to achieve? However, he knew better than to just underestimate her. She was, after all, a flower with thorns. He decided to amuse her and answer, "I'm not too sure myself Sakura-san."

"Haruno-san," she corrected him and flashed him an innocent smile, one that Madara wanted to so desperately wipe off. He resisted. She had not won this game and he was going to make sure she did not as well. "That isn't so much of an answer rather than a statement. If you don't know, take an educated guess." She began to ask again, "Can ants swim, Madara-san?"

…

Sakura stepped into the backyard of her home, hearing her mother's gentle typing at the keyboard through the opened window while her father was rustling through documents, copies of old laws and a bundle of refutations he kept on a pad of sticky notes. Her small sandals tacked against the cement steps as she stepped down silently onto the earthy mound and began walking towards the corner of the yard, a cup full of water she had grabbed from the kitchen in one hand and a plastic shovel in the other. Earlier she had found a small dirt hill and disregarded it as one of her mother's abandoned plants until she noticed ants crawling to and fro, up and down the hill. It wasn't until today that she decided to step in and disturb the working peace of the small creatures.

Bending down quickly, she grinned while placing the cup of water down at her side, plastic shovel already digging into the ant hill and tossed it aside as she saw black ants scurry in a panicked frenzy all over the place. Some had crawled up on her sandals, but she ignored it. Finally dropping the shovel after a few minutes of digging, she had found her target: the ant queen. It's significantly larger bulbous black body stood out.

It begun crawling lazily around as its workers crawled all over the place of their destroyed home. Sakura flashed an excited grin, "Hello Mrs. Queen Ant, I found you. So, how about we play?" She quickly took the cup of water and began pouring the liquid into the small pit of crawling black. Almost all of them had floated up to the top. "Do you know how to swim Mrs. Queen Ant?" Studying them closely her emerald eyes began to spark at the larger ant floating atop what seemed to be a pile of drowned ants.

…

Madara pursed at her curt question and sighed, "I'll assume that they drown and die." Of course, he had never heard of an ant that swims.

At this, Sakura chuckled, causing him to raise an eyebrow in amusement at her response, "You're only partially correct. You see, some survive and some don't. It's a matter of superiority and strength. If you're strong then you survive with the weight of the weak underneath you. If you're weak, however, then you drown with the weight of the strong atop your shoulders and back." He had caught into the implication and the theme of her previous question. Of course, even the weak such as ants have the small chance of survival. It only depended on whichever one was stronger or weaker.

She continued, "Everyone has a purpose in this colony we call a society. Some are just worth more dead than others."

"I couldn't agree more."

…

I ended this chapter a little differently. So far things haven't changed too drastically—but that should change around the third chapter after reconstruction. It's been kind of interesting and a little fun to go back and fiddle around with some of these words, sentences and paragraphs. I'm definitely having fun remodeling and adding more to each character. I'm trying to focus this more on Sakura and Madara and what they think of each other and themselves rather than other people around them.