Ch. 54 Heart to heart.

She wept.

Her cries of grief echoed through the compound and all turned a deaf ear to it. No one could say anything to ease her pain and so they kept their mouths shut, including me. Her black kimono and red hair laid on the ground as she wept over their coffins. I was surprised she had any more tears. She wept and wept and still could find no peace.

We lived in a world of war where anyone you knew could die suddenly. Someone as soft as her could never survive, and yet she would be the last to die. And she knew it. The weak died and the strong lived on to tell their tale. Or the weak can find sanctuary behind the strong and live to tell their tale.

"Tsk."

When the sun set I got up and walked over to her trembling form. She didn't put up much of a fight when I took her into my arms and walked out of the room with her. As soon as we left the servants came in and took out the coffin.

"I can't do this anymore," she muttered into my chest. I'd heard it again and again so much that I became numb to her plea. Her green eyes tooked pitifully up at me; her makeup ruined, again. Why does she even wear makeup when she knows she's just going to cry. "Won't you destroy them? You're strong, stronger than any of my children, so please. Won't you protect them?"

"Won't you die so they can live," is all I hear. She was never happy when I returned home, even though I too was her child, she never celebrated my return. She never cared.

I try not to look at her as I silently carry her to her room. I was never good at hiding my emotions and she was sensitive to my true feelings.

She was asleep by the time I laid her to rest. She pitifully curled into a ball. She would need to be bathed and groomed for bed but I could care less, we had servants for that. I turned to leave when I felt her grip my sleeve.

"Izuna," she muttered, tears staining her pillows. "Don't leave me too."

I cut the sleeves she held and made my escape, any longer and I might kill her. Never once had she called out my name, never once had she looked at me with warm eyes. It was always someone else, never me.

I stopped at the river bank that held so many memories. Dark eyes that held no malice flashed before my eyes. And I heard him call my name.

"Madara!"

Green eyes met mine as I awoke. I wasn't aware I could sleep.

Sakura pouted at me.

"Let go," she demanded, pushing against my chest. It was useless, our physique aside, she was the weaker of us. I held her tighter, as she struggled in my hold. Had I not seen her fading memory I would have sworn she did it on purpose. The form Ina took was too similar to my mother's to be a coincidence, and yet it was.

"Your mother is a bitch," Sakura muttered into his chest, having given up struggling.

"I'm not so weak that I need the love of a mother," I told her. "I was the strongest of all my brothers and the only true heir to the clan."

"Yeah and now you're just a ghost."

I chuckled.

"Touche."

"I didn't take you for the family issue type," said after a moment of silence. "I always saw you as a 'get rid of it if it's a problem,' kind of guy."

"It's a general misconception," I still don't know who was spreading such lies. "I'm actually a patient person with all the tolerance." I thought of Tobirama and his attitude toward his clan. Had I not been so forgiving, it would be the Senju clan that was massacred. "I even waited all those years to enact my plan of world dominance."

"World peace," she corrected. I sighed.

"Yes. World peace. Despite what Hashirama said, it was never achieved."

"We just need a common enemy to point our kunai at."

"And when you run out of enemies?"

"Well, your friend is just an enemy you get along with."

"That's a rival," I corrected.

"No," she stood firm. "In this world they are called 'Friends'."

"Are you saying Naruto is just an enemy waiting to happen?" She considered the blonde her friend. I was hard-pressed to see her defining him as anything remotely negative.

"Naruto isn't my friend,'' she said, giving me pause. "He's my son."

I am going to throw her off the hokage mountain.

"Tight tight tight!" she whined when I tried to crush her. "Where's your sense of humor?" she wheezed.

"It died a long time ago," I said flatly, not releasing her from my death grip.

"Keep this up and I will have my revenge!" she was gasping for air at this point.

"So you can no longer bind me, huh?" I released her once I confirmed my suspicion. Since we were joined, she could no longer chain me as she once did. Looking at her small form gasping for breath, I sighed. As we were now I could easily devour her and take over her body. It would cause an imbalance in the body but I need only find my body and pull Hashirama's chakra out of it. With that I could once again unlock the rinnegan and continue my plans for world peace.

"You're so mean~" she puffed her cheeks as she glared at him with no malice. She kicked his shin repeatedly. "Just you wait, when your body is reanimated, I'll kick its ass, you'll know the meaning of pain!"

No. He couldn't do that.

Shikamaru watched as Sakura's summons tented to her. Her Springflys flew around her giving her chakra they stole and the Neko-nin formed a barrier around her. They were healing her, he was told, but he didn't know enough to draw a different conclusion. This was all he could do for her. He looked down at his hands clutching and unclenching them. There was no blood on them now but he still remembered the scene of death.

He flinched as her red eyes flashed in his mind, cold and cruel. That wasn't Sakura. Or maybe it was and he just didn't know her. That was it wasn't it? He didn't know her well enough to know if this was normal. He looked down at Naruto who hadn't left her side since he woke up. He wanted to ask, but it didn't seem like the right time. How did one ask "is your teammate a blood thirsty sociopath"?

"Come one Shikamaru, how long are you gonna lie there?" He remembered her taunting voice, so different from the one she had then. "Oh so you came out after all. I was starting to get worried,"

She had the sharingan, how was that possible? He wanted to ask Kakashi about it but didn't. He still remembered the last time someone thought her a rogue ninja. His father couldn't stop complaining about it.

"What a drag," Shikamaru muttered, falling back onto the ground.

"Sorry about that, Sakura can be a handful." Shikamaru didn't flinch as Kakashi suddenly stood over him. The shinobi was much like his father, in their inability to make sound as they walked. When was he supposed to learn that technique?

"Ah, sorry did I startle you?" Kakashi chuckled. "I'm so used to Sakura's awareness I overestimated you." Shikamaru didn't share the humor, who used Sakura as a standard?

"How is it going, Naruto?" Kakashi asked the unmoving blond.

"Color is coming back to her cheeks," Naruto replied, not taking his eyes off Sakura. Shikamaru was sure the boy was counting Sakura's every breath.

"That's something at least," Kakashi relaxed. "I still don't know where she got the chakra to move let alone fight…" he looked down at Shikamaru but the Nara showed his back. He already told them what he knew. He didn't mention the voice change or the Sharingan but everything else was fair game, even her knowing Orochimaru. Then again who didn't know that snake bastard. A rogue ninja of the leaf known for his experiments on living people.

Alright so he had to read through a bingo book or two to get the full details but now he knew.

"Ah!"

They all turned to the sound. Sakura groaned, looking uncomfortable before her body began to tremble. Naruto sprung to his feet.

"What's wrong!?" he demanded.

"It's fine, little fox~" a ginger cat purred. "She's just having a bad dream, is all."

"Bad dream?" Naruto echoed with a tilt of his head. "Does Sakura even have nightmares?"

"She does." Kakashi answered. "She's not that abnormal."

"I beg to differ," Shikamaru muttered but Kakashi heard him.

"She'll be fine, Naruto." Kakashi patted Naruto's shoulder. "She didn't die from impalement; she won't die from chakra exhaustion.

Silence.

"Too soon?"

Shikamaru facepalmed. When was that ever an appropriate joke?

"No you're right," Naruto said, surprising them. "Sakura is strong. Stronger than anyone I know."

Oof! Kakashi's ego took a hit.

"She'll be fine, I just can't help but worry," Naruto walked towards the door. "I need some air." with that Naruto left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Real smooth," Shikamaru couldn't help but comment.

Kakashi's shoulder sagged in defeat.

Naruto's legs took him out of Tazuna's house and into the forest. He kept walking aimlessly, his mind wondering.

"She's going to be fine Naruto," his mother's voice rang in his mind. "You've done all you can for her, now she has to do the rest." Naruto frowned. After waking up he summoned her Neko-nin as he was instructed, and they took over for Kakashi who was on the brink of chakra exhaustion himself. Everyone was tired, Ino and Sasuke were already unconscious, Choji and Shikamaru the only one relatively unharm.

He wasn't a healer, lacking the chakra control to be one, so he was useless to her. He stopped, looking up at the sun rays shining through the trees. The sky was starting to turn orange from the setting sun. He cou;dnt believe all this happened in a day.

Red hair flashed and he clenched his fist, he didn't expect to see her again. He still; l didn't know why she was there.

"Even using the fox I wasn't able to scratch her," he remembered the fight vaguely but he knew he wasn't winning. How can I become hokage if I can't protect one friend?" Sasuke was unconscious when Naruto woke so he didn't get to talk to him. Kakashi did tell him that Sasuke was not in his right mind when he saw the woman, Ina he learned her name was. Why was his only clan mate like this?

"We should just burn it all,"

Naruto looked about for the voice.

"And attract animals? Are you nuts?"

"You think the blood hasn't drawn them to it already."

Naruto followed the argument to a clearing.

"Just seal 'em, they might be worth something."

In a clearing, three cats argue among themselves, surrounded by blooded corpses. The clearing was painted red and reached death. Naruto covered his mouth and nose, backing away from the sight.

He stumbled back and fell onto the untamed grass, his heart racing. His necklace glowed and he was suddenly in his room.

"Naruto?" his mother called from the kitchen. He heard her footsteps until she walked into his room. "I wasn't expecting you." She smiled at him before her face shifted to worry. "What's wrong?"

"That scent." They looked over at the fox, curled up in a ball by his bed end. "I knew I recognized that scent."

Naruto was too scared to ask.

"What scent," his mother asked, not sharing his fear.

The fox opened his eyes and looked at them. "The scent coming from that pink hair brat." the fox smirked. "The scent of a deadman."

Fugaku wasn't pleased when they returned. Then again I was never good at reading his expressions.

"Ina," he said flatly, he never did like the name.

"Fugaku~" I greeted him with more enthusiasm. His eyes landed on our newcomers giving me a moment of peace. "We have guests. Won't you take them to the residential area?"

"Miroku!" he called. In a beam of light Miroku, former priestess of the land of demons appeared. It was a race against time to get to her before she died, we got there as it was happening and left with two priestesses, a super powerful demon and an army of foot soldiers. I'm still trying to understand how the leaf village hasn't come to investigate the disappearance, wasn't Moryo a big bad demon that can destroy the world? Well that power was ours now, so.

"Right this way," Miroku bowed and led Zabuza and Haku away.

"Well, I'll be in the labs," Orochimaru said, walking away. "Oh, here!" He threw me a scroll. "My mission report." I looked at the two men that limped after him. I recognized them but I don't remember where.

"Well that was fun," Kisame patted my shoulder as he passed by, "Don't call me when you go to fight monsters like that again."

"Huh? Don't you like to fight!?" I called after him.

"I like my pride where it is thanks."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Master Fugaku," Temujin, my only loyal companion. "Sasuke is well."

And just like that the deadly air around Fugaku evaporated. This guy.

"That's good to hear, I was worried he would go crazy after seeing Ina again," Fugaku confessed.

"He did!" Temujin said excitedly. "He even fired an Amatarasu or two!" His innocent words just sealed my faith.

"Amataratsu?"

"Everything turned out okay though, I was able to estish the flames with the power of Gelel," he said, raising his chest, his nose high. "He's no match for me even with his eyes, though he was strong, his hatred and killing intent was nothing compared to the pink haired girl though. She looked ready to murder us, again and again in an tsukuyomi."

I liked him better when he was the quiet type, the man of little words. .

The killing intent coming off Fugaku scorched the air.

"And Naruto?"

"Oh! He went berserk, he was coated with red chakra when he attacked Ina," he paused to think. "I believe it's called tail beast mode? Right mom?"

I made my escape.

"Sakura!" His roar echoed throughout my empire.

I was halfway across the world, I can't dictate how your children spend their time datteba!

Let's try this again

Next chapter

March 28.