Excuse me for this, It took up more space in my head! DX though I do like how it turned out, it wasn't like I original had it planned. I also hoped I actually fooled someone with the cut off last chapter XD
Thankies: Yuti-chan, QueenOffanFicWorldLoveGunner, DragonFire44 and Javiitthaxx(Unrelated fav)!
RDBA does not own Naruto! 3011 words!
"You seem happy about that,"
Madara's happy expression fell and his eyes widened at the sound of the familiar sound.
"That voice," he mumbled spin around, his shock turned to confusion when he saw the owner of said voice.
A coal haired man, with red eyes like the sharingan, pale skin and earrings that stretched his earlobes. He had uneven bangs parted -and thrown over a red headband- to frame his face and tied off at the ends with golden tape, he wore a tan scarf that wrapped around his body and down to his hips.
It made his body bulky and if he was hiding weapons under all that Madara wouldn't be able to tell.
The man smirked a very Uchiha like smirk as his arms slipped out from their heavy cover and crossed over his chest, "Surprised?," he asked smugly.
The Uchiha took an experimental step forward only to have this stranger mimic the action,"TaiTai?," he questioned.
He sounded like TaiTai.
He sounded a LOT like TaiTai.
The man threw his longer bang over his shoulder with a gloved hand as he sighed over dramatically, "I know it's strange seeing me with a body," he let his arm lock loose so he could pull on the scarf,"You can blame your over active imagination for my appearance,"
"How are you-," Madara trailed off as he glared. He didn't know what to ask, obviously a conscience can't be alive, it's like saying karma has a body! it isn't possible.
Not logically speaking anyway.
TaiTai hummed,"How am I alive?," his shoulders bounced when he chuckled lightly,"Simple, I'm not. Though I could be lying, if you wanted, I'm only as real as you want me to be,"
Madara sneered, "Like that helps,"
This was a trick, it was a hallucination or a dream or a jutsu.
It had to be.
"What do you want? Why are you here?,"
TaiTai grinned insanely,"I'm here to kill you," he leaped forward, a kunai appearing in his grasp in a flash.
Madara tried to use his evasive tact but his body only glitched in and out of existence for a second, leaving him wide open to his enemies attack, which was aimed strait for his neck. He narrowly dodged the sharp blade as he ducked out the way, a few hairs however were not so lucky.
It was like Tai knew what he was going to do, he brought his elbow down, it smashed into the back of the Uchiha's head sending it forward into his rising knee. At that moment Madara really wished he hadn't listened to Tai about his mask, blood wouldn't be pouring from his lip if he hadn't.
He would be falling back onto his ass, grasping the lower half of his face either.
That was the first time Madara had been hit since that little mishap with the fourth Hokage.
"You think just because I don't really exist, that I'm weaker than you! That I'm beneath you, but guess what?," TaiTai put a foot on Madara's chest,"You're the same as me, everyone is, that's how the whole world is. When it comes down to it, none of us can prove we exist, none of us can prove we ever walked the earth at all!,"
Madara wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand before grasping the brunette's ankle and twisting, bringing the boastful twerp down to the elders level.
A little lower if you wanted to get technical
Lengthy anecdote and knowledge of his opponents movements, It was TaiTai alright.
As if Tai could read his mind, he pushed himself up off the ground and laughed.
LINE
Deidara smirked as he tossed another handful of little clay birds at the inanimate wooden target, laughing like a joyful child at the loud sound they made, watching in wonder as the explosion toppled the tree and those that surrounded it.
He dipped his hand into reach for the final hunk of clay when the sound of the bushes behind him breaking apart made his instincts kick in.
The spider flew from the mouth on his hand, he grimaced as his flying hair settled out of his face, the bomb exploded the second it hit the poor man it had landed on.
Tobi didn't even stand a chance.
"Shit, hmm,"Deidara cursed, running over to his down partner. He carefully rolled him onto his back and patted his cheek in a meek attempt to wake him, "Out cold, yeah," The artist looked around then sighed.
He couldn't just leave the fucker out here.
Line
Tai lurched forward, tackling the Uchiha so he was sitting on top of him, the hand still firmly attached to the kunai raised in ready to strike.
This close Madara was forced to look directly into Tai's glowing eyes, the had black spirals growing out of the pupil.
The pattern looked familiar, now that he had a chance to fully take him in, Tai looked a lot like the portraits of the Rikudo sannin's eldest son, only the Uchiha founder didn't wear a headband, his younger brother did.
"Don't worry," TaiTai said, "I'm not him,"
Madara glared, insulted by the notion that he would be stupid enough to think that, that Uchiha was still alive and living inside his head.
So insulted he used the situation Tai had put him in to grasp the scarf around his neck and bring his forehead down onto his(Mada). There was a sickening -yet somehow gratifying- crunching sound as the side of Tai's face imploded, he scrambled off the elder, giving him his chance to jump away.
Tai pitifully hacked and coughed, blood spurting out between the fingers pressed over his mouth, suddenly he fell to the forest floor, completely still.
It didn't take a genius to figure out he was dead.
"Guess I win," Madara rubbed his bloody hand on his pants before cautiously made his way over to the body, he was kind of disappointed, all that talking and TaiTai had just dropped dead after a single blow.
He also felt a little sad, if this truly was Tai that he had killed then he had to admit he would miss his sarcastic remarks and disturbingly cheery attitude.
Madara's eyes narrowed as Tai's body faded away.
Black silhouettes cast over the ridged form of a young teenager moved and shrunk in motion with the path that lead them away, the boy put his head down to cover the falling tears of betrayal.
"It isn't fun is it?," he turned to Tai's echoing voice -up in the trees behind him- but he wasn't there.
"You put all your effort into fighting me," The Uchiha slowly backed up as his gaze jumped around him.
"It's back and forth. You are victorious,"
In a swirl of wind, on the tree branches above Madara, one Tai appeared. In the branch next to him another one quickly followed, and so on until the trees surrounding the raven were full of glowing red eyes.
"Everything has a price Mada," The first one said, crossing his arms.
"You're very existance proves it," they all chorused together.
At that moment Madara took back his last thought, he hated this bastard.
LINE
Deidara sat next to the bed Tobi lied in, his expression was hard and sweat rolled down his face. The blond draped the cold white cloth across his partners forehead.
LINE
Madara sliced through one of the Tai's that had circled around him, the face of an ANBU member glitched across his vision then another quickly took its place and the fight continued without an end in the Uchiha's sights.
"The cycle of violence is a never ending one," One of them spoke tossing a shuriken at Madara who grabbed his current opponent and used him as a shield, the weapon burrowed into his skull and it was another one down.
A black haired woman clutching a child, huddled in the corner of a room, the little boy shook in fear and clutched his mothers long Yukata tighter.
The Elder tossed the limp body aside to avoid another on coming attack.
"It doesn't matter if one chain is broken because somewhere, somehow by some strange twist of fate,"
He tossed another one over his shoulder.
A line of closed coffins, with the odd open one at the end, a paper skinned boy with bandages on his eyes and his hands interlocked on his chest. The saddened procession lined up at the foot bowed their heads.
"By a person with something or nothing to gain,"
It was like they were multiplying.
The laugh of a little girl, her big brown eyes gleaming up in pure joy and innocents at the man looking down at her with a rare happy smile.
"Another link is created, and another cycle begins,"
Suddenly the clones,other bodies whatever they were froze and stepped back, pushing through them was what Madara assumed was the real one.
"Maddie," The real Tai pointed at him,"You, like your less successful descendant, think that you can just become demons of revenge, go through life trying to end every person that gets in your way and does you wrong. You both think you can just cast away your emotions. Try to cast away your emotions and they just become something else," As he stepped forward one of the copies vanished, "They become something horrible," he smiled sadly, "They become the monsters people like you think you are, what you think I am,"
He tossed a kunai at Madara, it was half assed and Madara side stepped it easily.
This fight was never really a fight, it had been more like a wrestling match between two kids. The world the two were in vanished, Madara wasn't surprised, the forest was replaced with stone shadowed by the rising sun in the distance.
The distant roars of waterfalls turned into the crashing of a single one.
And standing in Tai's place was Hashirama, crouched on one knee, panting, streaks of blood ran down his face from a clean cut on his forehead.
"Lord Hokage!," the red headed woman standing on the sidelines shouted.
Madara clenched his hand around his old Kama and glared at the man in front of him.
"You did some snooping," he growled.
Hashirama used the blade that had stopped him from being flung over the falls during Madara's last attack as a crutch to help him stand, once he was up he clapped his hands together and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"IT ENDS HERE!,"
Trees sprouted from the ground and engulfed the Uchiha, who at this point no longer had control of his body. This wasn't a propaganda fantasy, he wasn't going to win, his own decisions and history had destined him to his fate.
His absolute defeat.
The blade of his kama, now buried to the hilt within the mass of a growing tree trunk, snapped off and with one final glimpse of Hashirama embracing his wife, the Uzumaki, Mito. The darkness he endured for twenty years started again.
Anger coursed through him.
Then determination.
He wouldn't, Madara Uchiha wasn't going to lose this time. Inching his hand through the web of limbs constricting him, he pulled the undershirt sticking from beneath his armor and out fell an explosive tag.
"Fire release,"
The two outside looked at the would be tomb of the mighty Uchiha.
"Grand fireball,"
Hashirama shielded Mito from the heat and flying splinters that erupted.
Madara pulled against the branches that stretched with him like tiny arms trying to drag him back into his prison, but he was strong and they gave out a second later, he flashed and the Senju was the ground beneath him, a hidden knife protruding from the spiky haired mans sandal pointed at his throat.
Madara's shoulders slacked when the scenery faded back to normal, but he didn't move his foot, even when TaiTai's wide eyed face took over Hashirama's.
He gave a little smirk of victory.
"I'm scared, You will be too once you kill me," it faltered.
The smaller raven laughed dryly,"So you really didn't figure it out? Not even with the speech about emotions?," he laughed louder when the cold blade met the skin of his neck,"Man are you dense,"
Madara took the following moment of silence as a chance to think over what he should do, obviously this had something to do with emotions and that Tai was somehow locked to his, or maybe he was them? either way it was quite the situation, if he killed Tai what would happen? Would he become Tobi?
Rikudo he hoped not.
"...It's okay to kill me. Guilt, fear, betrayal, anger, love, confidence, hope, happiness. All the things you've had me carry will be on your shoulders again," Madara pressed the blade harder, a thin line of blood bubbled from the small scratch created, "You're ready to accept the burden, It's pretty heavy though," he let out a bitter chuckle, "Been keeping me at the back of the pack for years,"
The Uchiha swallowed hard, he didn't know if he should,"What are you waiting for? Take it!," Tai ordered in a booming voice that reminded Madara of himself, "Take all of it, finally embrace what you are," he slide his arm across th eground to grab the elders foot,"Just don't forget why you're doing this,"
Madara pulled his foot away and pressed it up to Tai's windpipe. The blade was just big enough to cut all the way into his spine, it would be an instant kill.
Right now Madara didn't think he stomach it any other way.
"So long then, It's been a lot of fun hanging out with you," his vision went shaky but he felt his foot press down.
They always leave.
Madara's eye snapped open, making Deidara -who was leering over him- jump slightly. His vision was blurred for a moment but quickly cleared on the blonds smirking face.
"Finally awake, hmm," he said.
The elder groaned, ignoring the strange warm feeling he felt in his stomach, "What happened?,"
Deidara was grateful, it didn't seem like Tobi remembered the accidental bombing, "You passed out," And if he didn't remember there was no use bringing it up.
Don't poke the hornets nest if you're not prepared to get stung.
"Deidara, why does my face feel like it was spit roasted?,"
Buzz.
Deidara nervously shifted in his seat,"I'll explain later, yeah," he said scratching his cheek sheepishly.
"So, what were you doing before you passed out?," "I know you were looking for me but being in my presence never made you faint before, hmm,"
"I was...Taking care of something,"
"Revenge?,"
Madara shook his head, "No," No it definitely wasn't revenge,"How long was I out?," he asked.
"A couple of hours,"
"Did you carry me back here?,"
"In a way I guess, yeah, I used a bird to get you back here but I couldn't exactly bring it in the house," Deidara grinned in amusement, making Madara roll his eyes.
"I don't mind if you make them inside Deidara," The Uchiha rubbed his aching face,"Just make sure you don't blow up the house,"
Deidara scoffed,"Wouldn't dream of it, this place would be an insult to destroy with my art!,"
0 0 0
"What is that idiotic man thinking?~!," Pain's fist collided the salt stone pillar in his office with a brutal thud.
Two of the three -technically four- standing behind his shaking form glanced warily at each other, while the light hearted side of Zetsu shrugged,"How are we supposed to know, it's not like we're mind readers, Shut up idiot!,"The white half pouted making the black half roll his eye, "We're going to go to his last location and search for him,"
Konan nodded,"At least now you have a general location, the Smaller the hay stack, the easier it is to find the needle,"
Both halves of Zetsu grunted in response, that was just it, Madara wasn't a needle he was a thorn.
Itachi turned his attention back to Pain as Zetsu fazed into the ground -it seemed like every time he saw the plant man he was always seconds away from leaving on a mission-,"Sir I think you should calm yourself," he said, noticing the red heads white fists.
"Itachi's right, what if Madara was simply taking care of some kind of business all this time and suddenly returned? How do you think he would react, seeing you irritated?." The younger Uchiha could hear the worry in Konan's voice,"He would pull his rank and punish you,"
Pain cast a light hearted glare over his shoulder at her,"Why the sudden change of heart Konan? I thought you hated him?," he asked in an accusing tone, his eyes narrowing.
"I do, with every fiber of my being,"
"Then why does it seem like you two are trying to protect him from me,"
Konan croaked in disbelief at his accusation, he didn't seriously think she was protecting that madman?~!,"I'm sorry if that's how it seems, but we can assure you it isn't like that," Itachi said in her place.
"If he is doing something he needs to do then by all means he can do it. But he is always, ALWAYS making sure the other members check in if they ever need to take a detour," Pain walked over to his desk and sat down, placing his head into his hands,"Now that I know for sure he will return, I will see to it that, that rule he set in place for us is also a rule he must follow as well," he closed his eyes, drifting off into his own thoughts.
Itachi sighed lightly through his nose before whispering to the kunoichi,"If it makes you feel any better Konan, Madara has never been one for physical punishment," His reassurance only made the blue haired woman more worried.
TBC!
RIP TAITAI! T_T You were a good conscience. Just for fun here are what the memories were.
Uchiha clan- Betrayal
Child Madara during a raid on the compound - Fear
Madara's daughter - Happiness
Izuna's Death - Saddness and guilt.
Battle with Hashirama - Anger and Determination
Deidara - I'll let you figure that out :D