This one features the appearance of Tobi… err, Madara… or whoever!
Disclaimer: I suppose since these are required, I must say, "I do not own anything of this fic but the idea!"
lxviii — thanatos
A quivering hand rose to cradle a head of raven locks. The teenage girl rocked back and forth in her kneeled position, crippled by her migraines. The scene before her was too much to bear. Sweltering flames lay in wake of her decimated village, and there were motionless, dead corpses sprawled everywhere. She couldn't bear to see their barren eyes again. There was a great terror they had seen during the last few instances of their lives. She didn't know what, but she should have seen it with them. She should have died fighting alongside her kin, and guilt ate away at her from the inside. While she had been off enjoying herself in the remote woods, everyone… everyone she knew…
"Another tragedy, isn't it," said a composed voice behind her.
The girl's long hair flew as she whipped her head back. Her puffy eyes narrowed in a glare as she took in the form of a man garbed in black and red. A bizarre swirly orange mask covered his face.
"Who are you?" she demanded gratingly, her throat hoarse from all her weeping. If he was the one who had destroyed her village, she would be sure to make him pay.
The man outstretched both arms sideways as if to show he was harmless. "Just a passing stranger."
If he didn't look so goofy she would have called him out on a lie. Her eyes darkened.
"I see… You thirst for revenge." The man sounded pleased.
In response the adolescent's shoulders sagged and she turned her head forward. It hung low in defeat and she was without words.
"I may be able to help you," he supplemented casually, "in finding the vanquisher of your village, and allowing you to kill him with your own hands."
The girl stared into the flames devouring her home, her red-cracked eyes throbbing all the way to her temples.
"What do you want in return…?" she said softly.
He clapped his hands together, delighted. "You're a smart child! That will certainly make things easier for us. I only wish for you to serve under me, and no other."
The girl covered her eyes with the palm of her soiled hand, sobbing once more.
"I am a reasonable man, so I'll permit you enough time to mourn over your brethren. You have three days. Be ready for me."
He was gone when she turned around, making her wonder for a brief moment whether the whole event had been a hallucination. But then she knew it wasn't, because of the item that lay in place where the mysterious man had stood. It was yellow-brown aged paper rolled up and kept tied with a red string.
A contract.
Does the world have nothing inside but sorrow?
—Andrei Platonov
Author's Note: Thanatos is the daemon personification of death in Greek mythology.