Sorry i didn't upload this last week! couldn't upload it on Wed and I don't like uploading on the weekend. Plus it was raining for like two days strait and it makes me sleepy. Many apologies for the length, it would have dragged if it was much longer.
0 0 0
A mixture of ash and cold rain fell from heavens and onto the world below, the ink like liquid sticking and painting everything in a thin coat of gray.
It ran down the open wounds and burns on the face and body of the Uchiha staggering drunkenly through it, a bloodied figure with his jaw clenched in a snarl in his arms, he was being held tightly enough for Madara to make sure he was still breathing but loose enough so it wouldn't hurt him.
Behind them a blackened battle zone and the corpse of the giant snake Manda, the youngest Uchiha who had summoned him in a last second attempt to save himself was no where in sight.
Madara concentrated his chakra to the center of the enormous blast that stretched and obliterated everything in its path with ease, keeping his visible eye keenly attached to the spot where the bomber would appear,"Seishin kyapucha no Jutsu!,"(1) in a flash of blinding light he teleported, unable to open his eyes he was wasn't sure if the Jutsu had worked until a soft body appeared in his arms, feathering out the void of his chipping eye hole the body vanished into his other dimension.
Now he was the one in trouble,"GRAAAH!,"
An inhumanly quick teleportation away from the blast zone was the only thing that saved the remaining half of his mask, it had a jagged split down the center, exactly like how it was back then...Hn.
His eyes -even his hidden one- were glazed over and his breaths were shallow. it was almost as if he was sleep walking or something.
And that's exactly how it felt, like he was backtracking through a dream he had already woken up from or a nightmare that picks up where it left off once you go back to sleep. Complete with hazy vision.
Pushing himself to walk up the slope of a hill without stumbling and dropping his bomber he was met with a pleasant and somewhat frightening warm glow. Two of them actually.
.
They looked like box shaped flames or perhaps burning picture frames.
Windows.
A house.
A Civilian house.
The old leader picked up his pace a bit not making it more than a few steps before he had to stop, his legs burned. He couldn't take standing anymore. He honestly didn't care if he looked like the most pathetic weakling on the face of the planet, right then all he cared about was finding someone to help Dei.
Although he couldn't hear very well past the sound of rushing water in his ears he did vaguely make out the sound of a squeaky door hinge followed by a gasp and the clanking of what was probably a wooden bucket.
The light illuminating from the house was blocked by a small figure, casting a shadow over him.
"Grandma!," a young high pitched voice called.
That small shadow was overtaken by one much larger, hiding the Uchiha and Deidara completely,"Hiro, Go get grandma some towels and bring them to the third room,"
it didn't make more than a couple of seconds for him to realize he had made it the front door of the house and that these were the owners.
In his line of vision what appeared a dainty wrinkled hand slowly crept, his eye flicked up to the owner of that hand, shooting a hostile glare at the white haired old woman sporting a topknot.
"You carried him all the way here, let me take over your work shinobi," she said in a strict mother like voice.
Madara's grip loosened a bit, letting Deidara's limp head fall away from the cold chest it had been buried in.
"My..." the old woman whispered. It was impossible for him to still be alive, he was covered in burns and had blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth, what she assumed to have once been long golden hair was singed short and black, some of it reaching his shoulders some even shorter.
"I got them grandma!," the little girl with a small chestnut colored pony tail and large green eyes cried, running down the stairs across from the door her grandmother was crouching in.
The woman nodded,"Good job, sweety,"she said, placing a hand on Madara's forearm,"Come inside, we'll take care of him,"
He struggled to his feet, he had enough strength left to make it inside. Hopefully.
The old woman led him into the house, up the stairs where the little girl was hanging on the outside handrail, peering through the wooden bars like they were a cage, she climbed back over and re-ascended the stairs to follow the two elders once they reached the top and threatened to leave her behind.
The woman pushed open the first door they came across, it was dark except for a lone candle by a metal table and there was a chill in the air that Madara hadn't felt in the rest of the warm house.
"Set him down," she said heading of to the table on the other side of the room, which she proceeded to drag over, the wooden legs scraping the floor and crying out like nails on a chalk board while she did it.
Madara faltered for a second before hesitantly doing as he was told, gently laying the blond down on the table, he pressed his legs against the side to make sure he was actually on the center of the table and not on the raised edge.
He looked at his hands that coated in dark red frozen streams of dried blood.
"I'm sorry you need to leave the room," he registered the old woman's voice, she was tying a cloth around her mouth and nose and had pulled on a pair of medical gloves, so she was a medic talk about luck,"I don't care if you stand right outside the door but you can't be in here," The ancient Uchiha felt her nudge him in the side with her elbow, being careful not to touch him with her hands,"Hiro dear, go keep him company, grandma is going to be a while,"
The brown haired girl poked her head around the corner, blushing in surprise at being caught snooping.
"But what about tall man grandma?," (A/N: I purposely didn't add a 'The' to that sentence! It was not a typo ^^)
Madara looked at her, not realizing she was talking about him.
"I'll take a look at him when I'm finished here," The old woman looked at him, "Your wounds aren't as serious as his are."
Shrugging the girl bowed again, bouncing out of the room with her granny shoving Madara out of the room-too tired to fight back he just let it happen-, catching the door with her hand Hiro swung it shut.
Before it clicked Madara heard her whisper, "What a mess,"
He looked down at the child by his legs who smiled happily up at him, "Don't worry! Grandma Momo is the best herbologist in all of Kusa! she used to be a medic and everything," she sang.
The two stood outside the door for an hour and a half
"You look sleepy," Hiro suddenly stated randomly, "Come on," he grabbed his hand, he could feel her warmth press against the icy skin left open to the elements by a large hole in the palm of his glove.
She pulled and he hesitated, locking his feet in place. stopping her useless tugging Hiro turned her gaze from the floor to his face,"I know your worried about your friend mister shinobi," she said,"But beating yourself up isn't going to make him better. My grandma says that tomorrow will become today, and that today will become yesterday, so whatever happens today will become the past tomorrow! And feeling guilty about something that happened in the past is the same as trying to live in it,"
Madara took a minute to think that over, before he nodded wordlessly, signaling to Hiro that she could lead and he would follow her.
For the first time in his life he felt guilt over something and because of a child -a kid for Kami's sake- that guilt turned into something else.
Something that told him Momo would save Deidara, that Dei's will was strong enough to not give up and die.
That everything would be okay.
...
Kami ,Deidara had better make it through this or else Madara swore he will stick his head in a kiln, keeping these sappy emotions just weren't worth it otherwise.
"You can sleep in here!," Madara didn't notice Hiro had stopped and barely avoided running into her as she stood right in his path, not giving a thought to the potential danger she just put herself in. A one hundred and twenty three (55.9 kg) pound mass of muscle VS the tiny frame of a fifty to sixty pound (22.7 to 27.3 Kg for everyone smarter than me) child, things did not bode well for the child!
"This is my big brothers and mines room,"
she ran into the dimly lit room holding her arms out, she spun around and plopped down on a small stool next to the bed, bouncing and giggling,"He won't mind,"
The leader ignored the hyper blabbering's that spilled from her mouth after that, falling onto the bed his hissed at the feeling of the wool covers scrapping the light (second degree) burns on his back.
Breathing deeply to subconsciously numb the pain, he sealed off his sense of sight, and touch, hyper tuning the remaining. Listening to the sounds of the various clanks and bangs coming from the room Momo and Deidara were in that went on for a bit until the less than peaceful and less than silent silence was broken by a murmur, smelling the scent of some type of blossom perfume drifting through the vents from the bathroom down the hall, swallowing the metallic tasting saliva in his mouth.
"Mr. kitty has been born, 'nya, nya ' his momma cries, Mr. kitty found a fuzzy, nya, nya oh what fun, Mr. kitty wandered away, nya nya, what a sad day, Mr. kitty has itchy feet, nya nya, chew chew," the song repeated over and over again.
It was strangely calming once you got past how off key it was, the repetitiveness and the-
"Nya,nya," Madara's eye twitched.
Yes and the 'Nya's'.
The little girl kept singing and the relaxing Madara kept dozing in and out of consciousness for the next couple of hours, he was fighting himself. He could NOT go to sleep, he was in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar, untrustworthy people.
"Row, row, row your boat," He would gladly go without the help though!
Thankfully -or maybe not so thankfully- the door creaked open, cutting the girl off mid verse, "Grandma!,"
Momo shushed her,"Come with me sweety, let him rest, we have guests," it was a whole ten seconds full of the sound of the stool being pushed aside and the pattering of bare feet before the girl spoke again.
"Grandma why is that mans hair green?," The door closed once again.
Flashback!
"Madara-sensei," said man looked at his young pupil who sat beside him at the tea stand.
"Hn?," he swallowed the inarizushi he had just popped in his mouth so he could speak, though his hand still went for the plate that sat between the sensei and student, pulling it up onto his lap.
Itachi looked up at Madara,"i was wondering...Why did you teach me Seishin kyapucha?, I'll never get hurt ,at least not enough to use it," (A/N: PFT, that's what he thinks -.-)
"What do you mean?,"
The young prodigy perked up in confusion,"Well, that's what you told me wasn't it? That the technique user can travel back in time five minutes, did I misunderstand?,"
Madara shook his head,"Not at all. That's how the technique works, however if you find a way to concentrate the jutsu to the chakra source of another person or creature you can use the technique on them/it as well,"
"I thought it was impossible to control somebody else's chakra,"
"It is, I said concentrate the jutsu not concentrate their chakra,"
"How would you do something like that?,"
Madara froze, slowly shaking his head,"Rikudo you ask a lot of questions...Okay look at it this way. Say you were in trouble and I was going to save you-,"
Itachi scoffed,"That is a highly unlikely scenario sensei,"
"Fine, say Sasuke-,"
"I would never let something like that happen to him," The young Uchiha barked.
The elder glared,"Would you shut up and let me finish,"Realizing his mistake of out speaking his sensei Itachi pressed his lips, shutting himself up, "Say your mother and father are gone and Sasuke is on his way home from the academy when he's ambushed by enemy ninja trying to pick off an easy target. You come to his rescue but he was gravely injured during the fight, all you need is something with his chakra signature on it like a kunai," he stopped, eyeing Itachi with a serious expression, "He is learning how to thrown chakra kunai isn't he?,"
Itachi nodded. Not a total lie, not a whole truth. Sasuke couldn't maintain the chakra cloak long enough to change how much damage the weapon would do, though he was getting better.
"Then you would use that to copy his chakra signature with your sharingan, as long as he used it that same day it should still be fresh,"
"And I would be able to concentrate the jutsu to his chakra, reversing time to before he was inured,"
"Hn," The ancient shinobi nodded, "Just remember, there is a limit to how much you can do it with other people, use the signature once and it won't work again," he quickly added, going back in to lift his mask and take another soy dumpling off the stick.
"Sensei?," he drooled a little, so close yet so far.
"Ugh," he grunted, pulling both of his hands away from his face.
"What happens if I use this technique on you?,"
Madara shifted his eye away from Itachi's poking, curious ones, quickly pulling his mask up to nom on his dango, 'Smooth Madara, real smooth,'
TBC~(Sort of)
(1). From what I've gathered Seishin means 'Heart,Intention,Mind,soul or spirit' and Kyapucha means 'Capture'. If it doesn't then tough nuggets.
Wow, I didn't do as bad a job at explaining how Mada saved Dei as i thought I would! not the best by any means but not bad. Check back next time for the good ending then the bad ending :D