calm moments before the storm
Summary: If Izuna's death is the prelude to Madara's path to hatred and madness, perhaps, hers is the last string that finally made him snap. [madasaku]
When Senju Hashirama witnessed Haruno Sakura's feat of strength in the battlefield, he couldn't help but to remember a similar scene. For a fleeting moment, instead of a kunoichi with a short and uneven pink hair in the standard chūnin blues and konoha's flak jacket, the Shōdai Hokage is seeing a young woman with a flowing, waist-length pink hair wearing the plainest red kimono. And rather than a chakra-enchanced fist, she was wielding a battleaxe, shamelessly creating fissures on the ground.
He wasn't the only one, though.
His own brother had to do a brief double-take when he laid his Edo Tensei-ed eyes on the kunoichi when they arrived on the field. After all, it's certainly uncanny to see a face of someone you knew who grew up closely with your wife and lived under your roof in the newly established Konoha for almost a year before her untimely death.
Mito's handmaiden and the only woman in her branch of civilian family who utilized her chakra to serve the Uzumaki's heiress.
A passing thought came to Hashirama's mind after raising the crimson barrier to trap the ten-tails: "If Izuna's death is the prelude to Madara's path to hatred and madness, perhaps, hers is the last string that finally made him snap."
Hashirama created wood clones that he could manage to help the shinobi alliance and to open the barrier's entrance. He'd also sent one to keep an eye on Madara. He wouldn't want to put the kunoichi in a difficult situation just because she looked like Sakurako. They were already dealing with the ten-tails as it is.
She stuck out like a nail with her ridiculous pink hair, so he had noticed her when the mist hiding the shinobi alliance dissipated.
But Madara knew the truth; the one truth. So, when he saw her in Kamui dimension and was about to stab his rinnegan eyes in Obito, he had no qualms in killing her.
When he returned after reclaiming his eyes from Obito, Madara taunted their so-called "teamwork". She looked hesitant at first and then, she swiftly moved declaring her intention to be a diversion. Fool!
Madara stared at the girl he just stabbed, impassively. He's quite impressed she had the same healing abilities like Hashirama's granddaughter, but it's not enough. He will never show mercy to those who continued to stand in his way of saving their world.
He will fulfill his dream of peace with no more wars.
Fiery emerald green eyes met the rippling ringed-purple ones. She may have looked like his Sakura, but this girl is not her. Like how the last Uchiha is not Izuna.
Madara thought enough is enough. He will activate the jutsu for the Eye of the Moon plan.
He succeeded. He felt triumphant after a long journey (and the sacrifices he made) to get where he was. He didn't expect to be betrayed over and over again.
The last thing he felt was getting drowned by a vast quantity of chakra and then, it's nothing. For quite a while, Madara had no consciousness: he's alive, but nothing. He soon regained awareness... and it hurt.
It hurt so much, it's numbing. It felt painful and at the same time, nothing.
Madara laid on his back after the rabbit goddess was sealed and he was brought back to their dimension. He struggled to open his eyes. He could hear Izuna's far away voice. He hadn't heard it the first time and the second time he died.
Maybe the third time is truly a charm. He wanted to laugh.
"Do you believe in reincarnation?"
A memory. Madara didn't know why he was seeing this. He'd played thousands of memories recorded in his mind, in a short moment of longing in his cave, however he never touched hers.
"I want to believe in it," She whispered to him as her unfocused eyes tried to meet his. "So I could love you intensely... next time."
Next time. How foolish...
His eyes watered, but they didn't fall. The last time he truly cried was when Izuna died. Then, Madara felt rage, unbidden and violent rage.
He vowed revenge for his death.
Hashirama offered him salvation, so he gave Tobirama a reprieve. Then, he met her. She became home... but his home is crumbling. And Madara didn't know who to throw his hatred as he kneeled around the broken earth with her blood seeping between cracks. She already killed those who injured her beyond recovery and now, she was teetering at death's door.
His sharingan flickered to life, unstable.
Sakura raised her hand to touch his face, "I will never waver no matter what."
A slight smile curved in her blood-stained lips and chin. Madara's trembling hands gently cradled her head in his hands, her hair spilling between his fingers.
He didn't know what to feel. He's angry. He's in agony. He's breaking. He could hear the cracks in his head. In his soul.
"My feelings will stand and remain strong, you'll find it annoying." Her hand shook on his cheek and she laughed softly, her half-lidded eyes crinkled.
Her laughter should evoke him calmness and joy, but it sounded raspy and wet, and it's so soft he could barely hear her.
"Madara-sa..ma... until we..." meet again.
Her hand slipped from his face and she slackened in his hold. He could do nothing but to stare at her dulling emerald green eyes, stunned.
Fragile. He thought. Humans are so fragile and weak.
His sharingan flickered on and off while he breathed fast, in shallow pants. Madara brought her close to him as he stood on his feet, chuckling,
His brothers. His mother. His father. Izuna. His clan. Sakura. All of them. His peace. The people he gave his all. Gone.
Where could he possibly find peace in... in this... in this hell? This reality is hell. There is no peace. It's an illusion.
As long as there are winners who have it all and the losers who lost everything...
"Do you want to bring us back?"
A voice rang in his head. No. Voices. His little brothers. His parents. Izuna. Sakura. They're whispering. It's so thick, it may be something else.
"You could bring us back." Mother?
"We could never die." His little brothers.
"You could find a way." Father.
"Find a way to save us." Izuna!
"A world where there will be no winners or losers." Sa...kura...
"Peace is attainable. Madara. Madara-nii. Aniki. Madara-sama. Madara-sama."
Madara found his way back to Konoha, he began finding ways to make a dream into a reality. He will save what is left. He will start in his clan, in Konoha.
Madara called his rival. He did not know what compulsion made him to do so. Was it an assurance, perhaps? Or a truce that should have been the first time around? It does not matter anymore.
Maybe this time around, he will finally be able to see them... her again. With peace as his last breath left him.
"Welcome back, Madara-sama." Sakura greeted him like she used to do with that beautiful smile on her face.
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