Dreamt

Chapter 3

AN: For those who read already: there are three new scenes in this chapter.

As the next day came and they were still stuck in the Uchiha compound, Sakura started to get a bit of cabin fever. She wanted to walk around, but was anxious about how it would sit with Madara. In the end, it was his home she wanted to sneak around in…

"Can I go around a bit?" He gave her a heavy look from above the koi pond. "Or can we go together, maybe…?" Not that she wanted to, but if that was the only option… Plus, he knew the place.

"Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know, nowhere specific… I just need to get some orientation here."

So they walked through the yards and from time to time, Madara would explain the purpose of a building or point out certain rooms. When he mentioned the library, Sakura inadvertently turned in place as if dragged towards it.

There were shelves and shelves full of scrolls. Looking at the titles, she didn't even know where to start. It was all so interesting.

When she was strolling slowly along the books, Madara was deliberately looking in one corner of the room until he picked couple of scrolls for himself. She picked up so many that they kept falling on the floor when she tried to transport them. Madara took pity and relieved her from half of her burden. Having more capacity, Sakura immediately glimpsed towards the shelves, considering which scrolls to take in addition, only to be stopped by Madara's grim look.

They came back to koi-yard and Sakura was no longer bored. Scrolls kept her happy and occupied for the next couple of days. Since there seemed to be absolutely no chairs in the compound, she dragged several bamboo mats to the pond to lie down and read.

Madara would sometimes come and peek at what she was reading. Once or twice, it interested him enough to sit down and read from behind her shoulder. At first, she felt very uneasy, but quickly it became normal. It encouraged her to ask for explanations when she didn't understand something or wasn't able to read the old script. In the beginning he was surprised, but then he explained exhaustively and in a rather captivating way. It was mostly political context that Sakura failed to grasp in some older history scrolls, and then explanations would develop into stories. In some ways, it was more interesting than the scrolls themselves. Sakura started to ask for comments even when she didn't need explaining anymore. Slowly, these would become conversations.

Sakura was shuttling regularly between koi-yard and the library. From one visit, she came back with scrolls about some complex jutsu. When Madara saw what she brought, he right away started browsing through them himself and basically took them away from her.

"Could I have half of them, at least? I kind of brought them cause I wanted to read them…" Sakura was a bit taken aback.

"Sorry..." He pushed them back towards her. "These were our studying scrolls, back then when we were kids… I almost forgot how they looked like…"

Sakura had to laugh. It was so funny to imagine Madara as a child. And so cute how he wanted to see his old books.

"Did you have school here?"

"School? No… There were no schools."

Sakura laughed. "You were slacking around the whole day?"

"No. We went to war early. We were taught to read and write somewhere in the meantime and then, well, it was mostly fighting anyhow. Our father would go through different tactics and strategies with us. But it was more battle preparations than learning. These -" he gestured at the scrolls, "were for training new jutsus before a battle."

Sakura felt a pang in her chest. Right, back then things were very different. No cute pictures of Madara as a child, how naïve of her to think it. She couldn't even comprehend how a six-year-old felt on the battlefield. A six-year-old? Or seven? Or five? How early was early, exactly? She was twelve during their encounter with Zabuza, and even that was far too early for her.

"We had a Ninja Academy in Konoha, you know…? We would enrol at seven; these kids that wanted to become ninja. And then we had classes and trainings. We had the same teacher for five whole years, Iruka-sensei – we liked him so much. I always thought other classes didn't have that much luck as we had with our tutor. And then we would graduate and be divided into 3-man teams with our classmates…" She paused. This clutching feeling in her chest, it was still there. "You didn't have choice, did you?"

"I didn't need a choice."

They developed some form of a routine. They would spar once or twice a day (Madara could keep his eyes opened by then without influencing Sakura's performance too much) and then spent rest of the time reading, or in Madara's case, mostly watching koi. Sakura wondered how long one could possibly watch fish. But she suspected it weren't the fish that he was watching, but rather things in his head.

They ate together – Sakura even cooked couple of times when she grew fed up with plain rice.

The spars became fun indeed. For Madara it was a challenge as well: to deliver blows as quickly as he could while still keeping control over the strike, so that he could halt it in a case the hit would reach her. It needed lots of concentration and strength as well – to be ready to extinguish the momentum at any moment.

Sakura would go for Taijutsu as well combined with her chakra-enhanced strength. She abstained from her usual technique of punching the ground though. She didn't want to destroy their training ground. It wouldn't sit well with Madara – he clearly liked that mansion very much.

She stopped being afraid of getting hurt – Madara was always able to halt his strikes. She got the taste of his real strength only once. She went for a dirty trick, grasped a handful of sand to throw it into his eyes from a close distance. Dirty trick, but it worked. Worked in making him actually angry.

The kick that she received sent her flying long enough to diagnose herself already in the air with two broken ribs. And a third one fractured. Despite the pain, she managed to land crouched in defensive pose and immediately started healing. But truth being told if it was a real fight, she wouldn't be capable of efficient defence. One of the ribs was scratching the lung already and any violent move would cause a puncture. They called it a day.

Later, she received a stunning comment.

"Well, I have to admit, you are indeed a master of healing arts. If someone landed a blow like this on me, if someone managed to wound me like this… I would get incapacitated."

This was hugely unexpected. Uchiha Madara admitting - voluntarily pointing out her superiority in something. She wondered if Sasuke would ever be able to spit something like that out. Or maybe Madara was long past the urge to prove anything to anyone…

"I guess in your time the medical ninjutsu wasn't even discovered yet?"

"No… there were some clans with special regenerating abilities but otherwise, all we could treat were flesh wounds. The Uchiha could also deal with burns, but it comes with practice when using Katon techniques… The wounded were usually left where they had fallen. There was no time to collect them. And if you couldn't run, nothing could have been done for you anyhow…"

"And still there was so much fighting?! How didn't you just kill each other to the very last man?!"

"Hn… I guess we were replacing the fallen. Children went to war. And everyone had lots of children…"

"How many siblings did you have?" She knew only about Izuna.

"We were five. I was the second oldest, but not for long… My older brother was killed when I was eight. A bit later, the middle one and then the youngest. Until only Izuna and I were left."

She shouldn't have asked. It was not only insensitive, but brought the reason for Tsukuyomi to his mind as well. She wasn't mistaken.

"But such suffering doesn't have to happen anymore. I will end this."

"Much has changed already. Children are not sent to war anymore. They do C- and D-ranked missions."

"Just a matter of politics. It would take one major conflict with Iwa to have your Hokage sending them out again…"

"No, she wouldn't! She would find a different solution!"

"What can you even know about it?"

Sakura woke up. With each waking event she was quietly hoping for the reality, but still, she was in the compound. She wasn't even too surprised about it anymore. But this time though, it was middle of a night. The moon was shining straight into her face and she suspected that it was what woke her up on the first place. It was full and so bright that all the sleep had left her.

Then a thought came to her mind – why not use the situation to check some of her theories? Madara never answered her inquiries about his sleep patterns.

So, with her chakra quenched to zero, Sakura set towards the wing Madara usually slept in. She was sure that from a sensory point of view she was undetectable – she was too good of a medic to allow anything but total masking of chakra signature. The rest was basic shinobi skills – moving around without making a sound.

She didn't know exactly which room was Madara occupying. But there was one with the sliding door half-open so she decided to start from it. She leaned to peek inside, but she saw only darkness as her eyes needed some time to switch from the day-like brightness of the full moon. The first thing she realized was that the sliding screen to the other room had been moved. And that the futon was empty.

"What do you think you are doing?" Madara's voice sounded directly next to her ear.

Sakura spun and stumbled away. It turned out very undignified.

Madara was standing on the porch with his arms crossed over his chest and no expression on his face. "What are you doing here?"

Sakura took another small step back. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't such a great idea to come here. Now she had to wiggle out of the situation somehow. She decided that truth was the best way to go. "Ano… Remember, I've told you I had a theory? About falling asleep, or being asleep in the same time could get us out of here? I was trying to gather some data. Since I was awake and I thought you were asleep…"

"My opinion about you has just significantly dropped. You are more air-headed that I thought."

In other circumstances Sakura would have glared, but now she only let out a deep exhale. If he was offending her it meant he wasn't really angry, and it was already something. She managed to avert the worse. Because for a moment she felt back like during their initial encounters.

"Good that I detected you so early. If you succeeded in getting to me when I was asleep, and I would wake up only then, I could have killed you."

"No, you wouldn't."

"Why so sure?"

"You would recognize who I am in time."

"Certainly. But again: why are you so sure I wouldn't kill you?"

Sakura bit her lip. She should never forget who she was dealing with. She truly believed he would never hurt her at this point, but she'd better not push her luck.

Apparently considering the conversation finished, Madara sat down on the porch, face propped on his hand, looking at the sky. The moonshadow on the floor behind him was as sharp as made by the sun.

"If you are going to stand there, I will for sure not go to sleep," he said, not looking back towards her.

Sakura shifted from one leg to the other. "I cannot sleep anyhow. Not after you scared me like that."

"Should not have been sneaking."

Sakura couldn't find a valid retort. "Anyway, how did you notice me?" she decided to change the topic. "Have you heard me breathing?" She was sure she didn't make any noise, so her breath was the only thing that could have betrayed her, even though she tried her best to keep it silent.

"No. Your heartbeat."

Next morning Sakura decided to press the topic again.

"So, I was thinking... How is it that whenever I come here, you're here already? How does it work for you – do you arrive here each time you fall asleep?"

Madara didn't answer. As far as he knew, Obito was operating under his alias, so the common knowledge was that Uchiha Madara was alive and kicking. Not that he was a resurrected soul forcefully bound to a body locked in a coffin. He had no idea about the passage of time, and he could already foresee the next steps Sakura would propose: desynchronizing sleep patterns, being woken up after a certain time-lapse. The girl was smart, there was no doubt about it, and she was probably able to identify any slips that he would make, so it was better not to step onto uncertain ground. So all he said was an uncommitting "Hn."

"Can you pay attention next time? When exactly will you go to sleep and which one of us will be here first?"

Madara laughed.

"What's so funny?!"

"Do you imagine I will be giving you any form of information?"

"I am trying to get us out of here! And you're implying an ulterior motive! You're just…"

"I'm just realistic. You are an enemy kunoichi. Even if you are not here voluntarily – which I am at this point inclined to believe – you sure can make a good use out of any intel you gain here..."

Sakura pouted. "Ok, I will take that as a compliment, but we must cooperate to get out of it."

Madara shrugged. "So let's agree that I'd rather keep complimenting you."

"Be honest - you don't consider me that much of a threat. Don't you want to get out?"

"Not particularly."

Sakura's mouth fell. "You're kidding me, right?"

"Not at all. I like it here. It's the best place I know." And what would be the alternative? Awoke awareness inside the claustrophobic darkness of a coffin? Truly an impure world resurrection.

"But don't you have things to do in real life?! Don't you want to do things? You're leading a war for kami's sake! Not that I should be reminding you about it…"

"And why does it interfere? It's not like we are losing any time here – when we wake up it will only be the next morning, even if we spend weeks here." Not that he ever woke up, but from Sakura's record, he figured out that much.

"Aren't you bothered by being out of control?"

"I value it as a reminder that even I am not omnipotent, and I should tread accordingly. I am not a god. Yet."

"How beautiful! She's gliding through the air!" A dark brown bird was circling above the yard, catching wind under its wings, as if really enjoying recovered freedom. Madara released it from a sealing scroll just a few minutes earlier.

"It's a black kite. They use the wind even more than other birds of prey do." After many futile searches in the library, Madara finally found his summoning scrolls stuck in a locker in his old room. And now he was showing his birds to Sakura. Showing off a bit as well…

"She likes it! It makes me envious… Ah, to be a bird in the blue, blue sky…"

"Yes, this one is a pleasure to look at. Most graceful of them all, I suppose. A real dancer, this one is." He opened the scroll and made a sealing sign. The kite disappeared.

"Why did you do it?"

"I don't want them to stay outside for too long. Summoned, they age as well, and I don't want to lose them."

"But then you never really have them, they are never really alive." Madara shrugged and pulled out another scroll.

"Kaifū no Jutsu!"

A huge bird jolted with a scream from the paper, sending dust from the ground into their eyes.

"An eagle?"

"Aha." Madara was pulling the wraps of the gauntlet around his arm "Now, let's see if we still remember how to do it…"

He whistled. The bird turned and glided towards him. With outstretched claws, he landed, looked Madara in the eye and shrieked. Madara pushed him into the air again. The eagle was circling them close, round and round. A differently pitched whistle and the bird plunged down like lighting, claws pointing into Sakura's eyes. And then it all happened at once: yet another whiz, a soft blow of feathers in her face and the eagle flying up again.

Madara stretched his arm and the bird landed.

"Are you crazy?! What do you think you were doing?"

"Checking if he follows the commands." Madara was unmoved by her outcry.

"But what if it didn't stop? It would have torn my eyes out!"

"But it stopped. I had it under control."

"Really? Weren't you checking by chance?"

"If it didn't stop I would have vaporized it before it could reach you. There was enough time."

Sakura shook her head in incomprehension.

"Stretch out your arm."

Sakura looked at eagle's claws, uneasy. "I don't have a glove."

"It's only better – skin on skin. Don't worry, he won't hurt you." Reluctantly, she reached towards the bird. It skipped ungainly onto her arm. When it fastened the claws, Sakura held her breath, but its feet where so broad that the claws just went around her forearm like bracelets.

"He's quite heavy." Sakura laughed a bit nervously. "For a bird, I mean." The eagle skewed his head and looked at her with one eye. "Like liquid amber, so beautiful…"

"Now, throw him up!"

It gave her quite a kick when it took off. She was getting a bit dizzy from looking directly up where it circled… Suddenly she sucked her breath in. The air filled her lungs but still she felt like she was suffocating. The world looked so small… Below her… Until it was all gone a split second later. She looked at Madara in complete confusion. He smiled with approval.

"You got there, didn't you? How was it?'"

"What… was it?"

"You got inside him. It's a very special bird, an extremely rare one, a spirit-migration bird – one can enter his mind. Theoretically at least." The eagle landed back on his arm. "How was it?"

"… amazing…"

"That he accepted you so easily – he must have liked you at first sight. It took me months to break into him." He stroked its feathers. "He hates me, I know it. I tried breeding him, but always failed. As if he wouldn't let me get my hands on his offspring… He's my most precious one."

Sakura recovered from the elation of the flight. An ugly realization sprouted in her mind.

"And you were checking the compliance of this bird on using me as a target?! Are you really such a risky player or simply a sadist?"

"Are you implying I would fail to protect you from a bird?"

"I am not questioning your ability! I am questioning your priorities! Would you really sacrifice your super-important-soul-migrating bird for integrity of my face?! I don't think so…"

Madara grabbed her chin and held it firmly so she had to look directly at him.

"Whatever the stakes are, it would be the beauty of your face each and every time." His voice was dripping with mockery.

"Bastard," Sakura hissed pulling away. "It's so low, it's not even funny," she said louder.

"But I meant it…" Madara sounded all faked hurt innocence.

'Like hell you did…' But she held her tongue and only glared.

They talked a lot. Well, Sakura talked, but Madara was a good listener. She told him about Ninja Academy, her apprenticeship by Tsunade, some medical issues that were currently on her mind. With time also about Ino, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei. About Sasuke. At first only mentioning his name as a member of Team 7 and stopping short from deliberating further. She knew Madara could notice the change in her tone. Once she finally told, crying, the whole sad story, he was unsympathetic.

"Why does it bother you so much? Some ninjas go rogue. And some people get their heads messed up. There is probably nothing you can do for him at the moment, so why bother?"

"I love him. You recognized it correctly at the very beginning."

"And this is exactly what I don't understand. Now, with Tsukuyomi in progress it is pointless anyhow, but why didn't you have a prosperous marriage arranged? You have no clan to speak of, but as the Hokage's apprentice you could measure high. You're pretty enough as well. A son of a clan leader would not be out of your range."

"What? It's not like this… you have to love someone first and …"

"For what purpose, exactly? People join when they share a cause. You would have a common interest with your husband. He would provide you with protection, you would give him children…"

"One can really see you've been dead for a long time…"

"Look at yourself then. How does it serve you – miserably chasing after a boy who doesn't even … "

"STOP IT! Stop. I know that already…"

The silence was a long one.

"Why didn't you marry?" At least that wasn't known to her from history records. "Or did you?"

"When I assumed the leadership, it was an issue, but it was wiser to wait for the outcome of the Senju conflict. To make marriage alliances then. And then, when we formed Konoha and more things were going not according to my wishes, I didn't want to commit myself too much to the village. Later, when I realized the misery of all existence I was glad it never came to any children…"

"But was there a woman you liked?"

"No. We didn't see much of clan women anyhow. Marriages were arranged. In my case the first one would need to be a daughter of a head of some branch house or of leader of internal opposition. And then the next ones …"

"Next ones?!"

"Of course – with so many shinobis falling there were many more women than men. And clan women needed to keep giving birth…"

"This is awful."

"But why? The clan needed children. So it was common for a man to marry a wife of his dead brother, squad leaders married women of subordinates fallen under their command. As a clan head I was in a way responsible for all deaths, I could or should take responsibility for any of the women. So the next wives would just be to my liking…"

"But you never did… Does it mean that you never…" Sakura didn't manage to bite her tongue in time. Madara gave her an amused look. She so much shouldn't have asked this, but somehow it slipped. She was probably getting very red now.

"I would summon for women from the women's quarter when I felt like it…"

"Who were they?"

"No idea. Clan women of course. All beautiful, all Uchiha women are. Probably freshly widowed, many early pregnant, I could see it with Mangekyō. It made sense – they wouldn't send me a woman that I could get with child. A clan's heir on a random mother just wouldn't do.

"I keep dreaming about him…" Sakura blurted out. They - she, together with Ino - were sewing up the patients, each one their own. Sewing because the use of chakra had been restricted for life-saving interventions only. In the relative privacy of the operation tent, Sakura finally decided to share her burden.

She was mulling over the issue the whole day, as she woke to reality at last. And it was pissing her off beyond comprehension that, even awake, all her thoughts were circling around what she dreamt.

"About whom?"

"About Uchiha Madara! I've told you…" Sakura felt a tiny bit hurt about Ino forgetting her predicament.

Ino spared her a more careful look from behind her surgical table. "Is it that awful?"

"No, it's just so weird. As if he was there as well. Inside that dream."

Ino furrowed her brows. "Didn't you just say you dream about him?"

"Yeah…"

"Then why are you surprised he is there? If he is the topic of your dreams?"

"No, you don't get it! As if he is there! In person! And he knows I'm an enemy ninja and he wouldn't disclose any intel to me, and…" Sakura gestured frantically as words alone seemed to convey too weak of a message.

"Watch out for that poor bugger!" Ino nodded towards sedated shinobi in front of Sakura. "You were supposed to treat him not injure him even further…" She chided with a chuckle.

"Ino!"

"Just saying!" Ino raised her hands defensively. "It only makes sense that you dream of him like that, doesn't it? You keep him in character." She added looking Sakura in the eyes.

"He tells me stuff. Stuff I didn't know before, about the Warring States Era and Konoha foundations. Go on, ask me something!"

"I have no idea about this shit. You know I hated history classes."

"But I liked them! And those things I learned from him are new to me!"

"How do you know? You've gone through the whole freaking Konoha Library for shits and giggles. And half of it sleep-deprived and tripping on coffee mixed with soldier pills! How do you know that you didn't just read it somewhere, forgot about it and now you're remembering?" Ino's fingers were moving swiftly, creating perfect, neat stitches even as she was tearing Sakura's argument apart. She was almost finished with her patient while Sakura was not at all.

Sakura stomped. "Ino! Take me seriously!"

"I AM taking you seriously! I am actually really concerned about you right now."

Sakura blinked the tears of helplessness away. Ino took a deep breath and cut the thread. "Ok, I know one shouldn't be dragged in discussions with the crazy, but for you Forehead I'll make an exception. How about this: if he were the enemy, then why would he disclose any information to you? Even only historical? Or rather the correct question would be: why wouldn't he simply kill you right away?"

"I don't know… He says he likes my company…" Sakura said quietly, suddenly aware of how unconvincingly it sounded.

"See, it doesn't make much sense, does it?" Ino wrapped her arms around Sakura's middle and pulled her into a hug. "It is just some strange reaction of your mind to this whole awfulness around. I don't know how to help you, I can wake you up in the middle of the night if you really want to, but we both need sleep to regenerate our chakra reserves, and you know it. Even if I enter your mind I cannot MAKE you dream or not dream. I cannot govern your thoughts. Actually, I cannot even see your dreams – only your memories. Imagine all the mess it would create during interrogations – if we would be taking dreams for real events?!"

"But I remember those dreams. They are in my memory!"

Ino bit her fingernail. "I don't know... We can ask my dad if you want… But maybe, like, when this war is over? Honestly, now I really don't want to mess you up even further by taking residence in your head. It would be an awful strain for you. And for me. And it's not something I would do to a friend. I still feel bad about that time during Chunin Exams, you know?"

Sakura managed a small smile. "Then what should I do?"

"From what you tell me, those dreams aren't that bad, you get your nerd-streak fed with new trivia… They are not nightmares… Just bear with them, they are really of least concern when you think about the big picture. It's gonna be over soon, and you will go to the Konoha Library and search and FIND all this info you dreamt. Ok?"

Sakura nodded.

"And look at the bright side – while you sleep like a baby, I lie wide awake for half of the night, as I cannot forget those people bleeding out under my hands…" Finished Ino, falling serious.