Dreamt

Chapter 10

AN: No new content in this chapter.

They landed in some god-forsaken mountains. Madara grabbed her arm and practically dragged her through the gate into a large stone hall. Uchiha symbols were everywhere.

"Stay here," he ordered.

"What! Wait! If you think that I will sit here when you are going on with your plan.."

"Just stay here. Please."

Sakura dug her hands into her hair in despair.

"Don't you get it? I don't want to be put under the Mugen Tsukuyomi. I don't want my friends to die. I don't want to see my loved ones suffer because of this paranoid, artificial non-life you want to create!"

"Nobody will suffer. They will be happy. You will be happy…"

"No, I won't! I will be under a genjutsu, that's the difference! Happy, I can be in real life!"

"Do you really believe it? That you will get what you desire? Are you that naïve? Nothing will go as you imagine it. That pathetic attempt on an Uchiha is a damaged man. I would be sorry for him if he wasn't that much of a disgrace. Whatever the outcome, you will end up unhappy for the rest of your life…"

"What?!"

"In your Tsukuyomi he will love you…"

"I don't want.."

"Or you can have him as the arrogant prick that he is, save the traumas that broke him. If you prefer a challenge…"

"Where on earth did you get the idea that I want Sasuke from?"

"You told me yourself?" Madara was genuinely surprised. This must be his inexperience with human interactions showing.

"That was before." Sakura bit her lip.

Madara turned to leave.

"Didn't you notice? All this time you didn't notice?! I don't want Sasuke. I want YOU!"

Madara didn't turn back. She shouldn't see his face now. He didn't think he could cover it up, this pain that she caused him. The pain of seeing an opportunity that will be missed, entering within the grasping range only to be allowed to slip between his fingers. Never to come to pass.

"In this moment, through some hellish miracle, we are both alive. We can stay alive. You and me. We can have a life. Together." She was crying, he could hear it. "You don't have to do this. To sacrifice yourself for humanity. What will become of you afterwards? Will you stay awake among the sleepers? For eternity? Always alone? I don't want you to. It breaks my heart a thousand times to even imagine it. I don't want you to suffer like this… Because… I love you..."

Madara turned abruptly.

"You are playing your cards well, kunoichi. But you've played one too many."

"I'm not playing anything!"

"Then how will you explain this?" He gestured towards her belly.

"Explain what?"

"That."

"What?"

Seriously, she could spare him this word sparring. He kind of didn't have time.

"Your pregnancy."

"My what?" Sakura looked at her abdomen in utter incomprehension. Horror was rising in her. Madara had no reason to make something like this up. "I'm not pregnant…" Her voice was very weak.

Madara had enough. Enough of her babbling, enough of wasted precious minutes. With a decisive move, he grabbed her chin.

"Tsukuyomi."

Sakura drew a panicked breath. They were a red-and-black world, on a vast plain. This was the famed Uchiha genjutsu, the same one that kept Kakashi-sensei incapacitated for weeks.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but no torture. I don't have time for entertainment. Just look and see for yourself."

Sakura blinked. She could see Madara's chakra pathways. All of them! And a huge, central whirlpool, so powerful that it was overflowing and collapsing into its own endless depth. She looked down. Saw her own whirlpool spinning strong under her heart. And beneath it… Oh gods, what was it? Two tiny swirls on the both sides of her abdomen, pulsing steadily… inside her… She felt the contents of her stomach rising up.

When she opened her eyes, Sakura was back in the Uchiha hideout.

"Have you seen it? One heck of a medic you are, not recognizing your own condition." He mocked.

Sakura bit her lip. True, she was famously neglectful of her own well-being. And true, for a couple of days she sometimes felt sick and often weaker, as if her chakra was being depleted but of course didn't look more carefully into it, just choose to ignore it… It never came to her mind to examine herself, because…

"How could I have even considered such a possibility? How can I even BE pregnant!? I'm a virgin!"

A chuckle. That was definitely a chuckle, this sound that Madara just made.

"… what?"

"Nothing." His eyes escaped to the side.

"WHAT?"

"I just thought about all the ways I had you…"

And now she had to think about it as well. About all the ways… Sakura shook her head. This was not the time or place for such thoughts. Another shake.

"On everything that is dear to me in this world – I have never had a physical contact with a man. These things cannot be embryos! What are they then?!"

Madara gave her a very long look. He was deciding now, she knew.

And he decided to believe her. An uncanny suspicion was starting to grow in his mind. Much more uncanny than the picture of Sakura being screwed by someone else. He shifted his gaze to her belly.

"Their chakra somehow has a different shade than yours. And mine for that matter. Activate that seal of yours."

Sakura did as she was told.

"Enough." The look on his face told her that something was seriously wrong.

"What is it?!"

"This is Yin chakra. Yin only. Yang is missing, so is probably the flesh. They are not alive, only chakra whirlpools. Connected to your seal which is probably why you are still able to stand on your feet."

"Why…?"

"They are feeding on your chakra, currently drawing from the seal, as long as there is still something there. Don't you feel it?"

Sakura concentrated. Actually now, when she knew what to look for… There was a pull, a gentle drainage…

"I feel them…" She put her hand on her belly. "In the dream I was having twins. These are two as well…" She broke off, put both hands on her belly. Lifted her head, looked him in the eyes to see his Sharingan spinning madly. One heartbeat. Two. "You know it already as well, don't you? These are yours…"

Madara hadn't experienced such a shock since Izuna's death. It was incomprehensible and he didn't know how to react to it. This was not the part of the plan, it shouldn't be happening! And it won't be happening. Sakura will sleep in the Tsukuyomi and these things… These things will remain what they are – just chakra whirlpools. Until they grow and drain her dry… But it didn't matter, he will make her live out her dream faster; have a long, beautiful life inside the Tsukuyomi. Before they killed her. That's why Tsukuyomi must take place. Now he really could not fail. Because he couldn't fail her.

"Our children… I want to see them…" Sakura suddenly sounded very tired.

"You will." He smiled. "I'll give you the most beautiful dream…"

"Not in a dream." She was crying, choking on tears. But somehow each sentence was coming out louder than the previous one. "In reality. With you! In that compound that you love so much!"

"That house doesn't exist!" She got him to lose his composure finally. Painful memories were overflowing in him now. "It burnt a hundred years ago!"

"THEN BUILD IT BACK FOR ME!"

Madara hung his head low. The Uchiha compound, full of people; the yard he walked in with his brothers… All gone. So long gone. '… build it back.'

"Last night…" Sakura was crying for good now. "Last night I was back there. I was looking for you but I couldn't find you. You didn't sleep at all, did you?"

He didn't answer.

"I walked into the training yard and then I saw them. A boy and a girl. Sparring. Both black-haired. Nothing like me, and all like you… The boy…" Sakura sobbed uncontrollably. "The boy was left-handed…"

'A battle advantage.' Out of nowhere a thought appeared in Madara's mind. 'A left-hander has a battle advantage.'

"You will see them soon."

"Don't you want to as well? To get to know their faces? To see them grow? Become strong?"

And all Madara could think of was how does one train a left-hander to fully develop his potential.

"They can have wonderful lives. We will do everything we can for them, won't we? Exciting lives, interesting lives…"

He thought about the first left-hander he had ever fought. What a challenge it was, how proud he had felt when he had beaten him. About the thrill it had given him.

"They can be happy…"

How will he train the girl? If she spars constantly with her brother she will be at a disadvantage against all the other opponents. But of course they will always train together; he could imagine they would be inseparable. Which was good, as whatever happened they would always have each other. His son and his daughter…

The feelings. They were suddenly all there. Like foul stains on the waters of his mind. A selfish wish for happiness. Lust after a woman. Desire for offspring. Muddying the waters. 'I'm sinking…'

Why? He worked so hard to rid himself of desires, so that nothing would distract him from achieving his goal. And now, the crystal clearness of enlightenment was getting dimmed. 'I cannot stop it, it is taking over… I am sinking and the water is dark.'

They were around him, circling like vultures. Desire, love, anger, hatred, hope, ambition, jealousy, bitter disappointment. Pain, pain, pain. All of the emotions from his long life - demons raising their ugly heads. 'I don't want to feel. Not again…'

Bright pictures of life in front of his eyes. The days he hasn't lived yet. Sun, laughter, warm summer nights. 'Why? Why am I thinking about chances long gone now? About chances not yet gone? About futures?!'

"I'm drowning..." Did he say it aloud? He startled. And then again when a hand touched his cheek. He pushed it away. But the foreign hand took hold of his and held strong. Very strong. He lifted his head to a girl before him.

"I'll heal it. I'll take this pain away."

Madara didn't understand. He didn't know who this girl was nor what she was saying. But she kept holding his wrist. All he could see were visions, bright alternating with dark, heard laughter and screams and he felt and felt and felt. He felt all that he had ever felt.

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" He doubled over, screaming.

The girl was holding both of his wrists. He couldn't break her grasp.

He looked at her again. She had pink hair, what an idiotic color. She was saying something to him, he couldn't hear it, sounds were coming blurred to him as if she was behind a glass curtain. Or was he?

He blinked. Sakura. That was her name. And he loved her.

He looked around. Now... He could remember. Everything.

He turned to the exit.

"Stop! STOP!" It was the loudest Sakura had ever screamed in her entire life. Did he come back from whatever nightmare he got lost in? If so, then who came back? Even more of a madman than he already was?

"Madara!" A moment ago it was a man enduring torture and all she wanted was to ease his pain. But now? What was he doing? Going back to the battlefield? "Stop! If you leave, you won't find me alive!"

Sakura was standing there with her eyes firmly shut. "You won't manage to bind me. I will kill myself before you put me under any genjutsu. I will make my brain implode! I'll break down the DNA in each and every of my cells so that no resurrection will work! I can do it, you know I can!"

"You won't have to," he said very quietly.

Something in his tone made Sakura open her eyes.

"I will stop this war." He couldn't believe the words leaving his own mouth. "I promise not to hurt… Not to kill any of your friends."

AN: So, the big showdown is here! Thanks for reading and I'd love to know what you think!