Childhood
Chapter 1
Wind rustled the leaves of the mighty trees of Konohagakure, carrying the chirping of birds and the quiet sobs of a young pink haired girl. Deep in the many forests of the village, the girl sought refuge from the hateful eyes and bilious words of her peers. Her left cheek was swollen, and her eyes filled with tears as she tried to chase away the memories of what had just happened. Sniffling, she pressed her hand to her injured face and whimpered due to the painful throbs that radiated from it.
“Why?” Sakura whispered, her lips parting just enough to reveal her razor sharp teeth. “I’ve never even been to Kiri.” She forced the words out between ugly sobs, her whole body quaking with the force of her emotions. She couldn’t understand, she just wanted friends and when she’d approached the other children, a woman had slapped her so hard she’d seen stars. “I’m not Chigiri! I’m not bloody mist!”
Sakura broke down into violent sobs and curled into herself, hugging her knees to her chest as tears soaked her pants. She didn’t even know her own history, her own clans so how could be be of the bloody mist if she’d never even seen Mizu’s shores or walked under the silver mists that clung to the mountains that surrounded Kirigakure? She was a Haruno by adoption, her birth parents distant relatives of the current Haruno clan heads. She was a nobody, who had been taken in for convenience sake, her pedigree was good enough to make her an heir of a noble, civilian, clan.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Sakura felt them burn as tears continued to run down her face. She wanted her mother and father, the ones in her dreams, who she’d never met. She dreamed that they would be strong, powerful shinobi who would swoop in and rescue her from Konoha. They would reveal that she had been stolen, kidnapped perhaps and they’d been looking for her for years and now that they’d found her, she’d never part with them again. The dream dulled the pain somewhat, even if it shifted the constant screaming in her head to a dull, steady ache in her chest that slowly ate away at her sanity.
‘It’ll be alright.’ The voice in the back of her mind whispered. Sakura knew that voice, instinctively she knew that it was natural, her Inner. It wasn’t a shard or a delusion, but a part of her. She wasn’t a Haruno by blood, just a distant relation and her pink hair marked that fact out for all to see. True Haruno had beautiful golden hair, reflective to the point of being almost metallic in appearance and silky smooth while Sakura’s was a wild, vivid light pink that glistened in the sunlight as if wet and had the texture of soft velvet to the touch. ‘Mom and dad are just busy, they’ll find me.’ Sakura told herself as her sobs petered off into shuddering breaths and her eyes grew heavy.
Eventually, the rosette’s body relaxed, her mind swept away by exhaustion as the sun dipped below the horizon. The moment the burning sphere vanished from sight, a strange energy wrapped around the clearing within which the girl slept. Nature chakra gathered, causing plants to flourish and flowers to blossom around her. The leaves of the surrounding trees came to life, glowing gently in the twilight while the insects and birds sang.
Sakura felt the pull within her and her bleary eyes fluttered open, pink lashed still damp with tears and salt. Emerald eyes slowly focused on the clearing in full bloom and Sakura could feel the life around her, pulsing in time with her heart. It wasn’t her power, not her chakra causing this but she could feel the presence all around her. Something had taken notice of her, something beyond her understanding. It felt friendly, welcoming and Sakura reached out for it, her hand extending forward, towards what she didn’t know even as her chakra did the same.
“Please, I don’t want to be alone anymore.” Sakura whispered and felt her meaning sweep through her body and into the world around her. Her chakra was open and the world was flowing through her, listening to her pain. She was powerless, her tiny speck of light a candle in a storm yet she desperately wanted, with all the force of a child lost to be heard and seen.
A sudden surge of chakra brightened the clearing as the grass suddenly glowed emerald and fireflies blazed like torches. Flowers dazzled the rosette as they cast their colors upon the world in a brilliant display and she felt the ground fall away. She tumbled through the air, wind whistling past her ears and her eyes snapped shut in panic. Because of this, she didn’t see the ground coming up way too fast towards her, nor did she see the pair of wide onyx eyes that locked onto her and the young yet strong arms that caught her.
***
It was a brilliant day out, warm with a slight breeze that kept it from getting hot. The blue sky was spotted with clouds and the sun shone bright despite the rain within Madara’s heart. He couldn’t cry, he was a shinobi, a proud member of the Uchiha clan but even so he could feel tears stinging at the corners of his eyes as his father’s katon devoured what was left of his elder sister. Her face pale and still, her smile forever stolen by the war that raged between the clans of Hi no Kuni.
The crackling snap of burning kindling filled the air and Madara’s eyes pressed closed as he forced himself to remain quiet. His teeth clenched against each other painfully, the muscles of his jaw taught and his fists balled into tight fists. Nearby his father, Uchiha Tajima stood with a stony face, shoulders trembling and fists tight. The man had inherited the war of their forefathers, a war none of them wanted, a war that had stolen his eldest, his beloved daughter and yet the war would not end.
Madara looked towards the flames as they reached his sister and saw them suddenly shift from orange to brilliant blue as they consumed the pyre in an instant. A flash of intense chakra washed over the clan, the last release of Kagami’s own strength as her sharingan turned to ash and her body was returned to the earth to fuel the cycle of life that gave rise to them all. Tears finally fell from Madara’s eyes, even as he strangled his sobs. He was four years old, only a year away from joining the war parties, even if he’d only ever be on the edges of the formation, away from the dangers of the front lines.
Still, children died all the time, Kagami was proof of that. She was all of ten years old, yet she had been feared like no other. Her eyes were keen and her chakra control second to none. Her fires had burned blue and she carried with her lightning that could penetrate even the strongest defenses, yet for all her strength she was a child and the Senju had ensured that was all she would ever be.
“Chounan,” Tajima said softly, his voice pulling Madara from his spiraling thoughts. The young Uchiha opened his eyes and met his father’s pained gaze. Tajima was holding a familiar scroll, one handmade by Kagami as she slowly tried to piece together the secrets of fuinjutsu and succeeded in creating the Uchiha’s first ever storage seal. There had been hope that one day, she would unravel the secrets of the Uzumaki or perhaps even earn an apprenticeship with the reclusive clan, hopes that had just gone up in smoke. “She wanted you to have this, so she could keep you safe, even after she was gone.”
A strangled sob broke free from Madara’s throat as he accepted the scroll and felt his sister’s chakra lingering within it. It was warm, humid and filled with static, like a campfire sheltered during a summer thunderstorm. It was so uniquely Kagami, to have three natures, to be so utterly exceptional and now he would never again feel that chakra accompanied by her carefree smiles.
“Her scythe is in there, along with her unfinished fuinjutsu projects. For when you’re older.” Tajima said softly, his voice thick with barely restrained emotion. The Uchiha knew emotional discipline like few other clans. They felt far too strongly, their emotions capable of ruling them if they gave even an inch. Their eyes were not true doujutsu like the byakugan of the Hyuga that were present since birth but rather the results of their emotion fueled chakra mutating their own nervous-system with its potency, giving rise to the crimson eyes of misery.
“Thank you Chichiue.” Madara whispered, unable to speak any louder as his throat constricted and breathing became difficult. He needed to be alone, away from everyone and everything. He needed his Aneue but she was gone, naught but ash and memories.
“Madara, I am sorry.” Tajima gripped his son’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “We have to win this war, the Senju will not stop until we are all gone. Your sister understood this, she fought for the clan, for you. She was the eldest and so the burden of defending her siblings fell on her shoulders.” Tajima looked at his son, misery forcing his eyes to spin into tomoe before they mutated further into pinwheels. Madara drew in a trembling breath, he knew those eyes, every child of the clan did. Tajima had seen Kagami die, he had been there, he had been forced to watch it happen.
“Why? Why didn’t you save her?!” Madara’s control snapped and he screamed, his voice cracking with emotion. “Why Chichiue?!”
“Because I wasn’t strong enough.” Tajima admitted, the words like a blow to the face. Madara staggered backwards, stricken and finally broke down unto sobs, ugly tears rolling down his cheeks. The boy’s cries were like the spark that lit a chain reaction, sharingan spinning to life around him as the older Uchiha present seethed with hatred, resolved to pay the Senju back tenfold for the death of their heiress and the misery of their heir.
Madara didn’t remember what happened after he’d broken down. The next few days he spent in a fog as he began training for the battlefield. He’d been learning how to meditate and sense out his chakra since he turned three along with throwing kunai and shuriken, though he had only just gotten old enough to learn how to punch and kick. Every day was the same, he woke up in a fog without his older sister’s cheer to chase away the misery that clung to the compound in her absence. He trained until he was exhausted, learning to punch and kick, to fall and get back up.
Madara was under no delusions, he wasn’t special like Kagami had been. He wasn’t a genius, nor was he a prodigy. His reserves were average for an Uchiha, larger then most other clans sure but nothing special among his own people. His mind was sharp, his memory photographic and yet the sharingan ensured that wasn’t even all that special when it remembered what it saw forevermore. Yet he now was the eldest, he had to be strong so his little brother would never have to experience this loss.
“Faster!” Tajima snapped as he swung his wooden training sword down towards Madara who did his best to block. The bokken clattered against each other and Madara’s arms strained even augmented by chakra. “Do not just block, that leaves you wide open to another attack! Parry and react or better yet interrupt!” Tajima barked the orders as he swung again and struck Madara’s wrist, causing the boy to drop his sword and cry out in pain.
“You’re dead,” Tajima growled and Madara stifled a sniffle as he nodded and grabbed his sword without prompting. He knew that tears wouldn’t help, he needed to train, for Izuna who was motherless and only two years old, for Kagami who had died defending the clan. “You need to be faster, use your chakra to guide yourself. Reinforce your muscles, Kagami-” Tajima cut himself off because the memory was still too raw.
Kagami was a genius, a prodigy and Madara was just Madara. He tried his best but he would never live up to his sister. If they could trade places, if it had been Madara who died instead, nobody would ever say the words but the boy knew his clan wished it had been another child, a less impressive member of the main family who had been killed.
“Again,” Tajima ordered and Madara charged, the clatter of the training blades echoing off the surrounding trees as the two fought. Madara pushed chakra into his muscles, chased after his father and tried his best but with a flick of his sword, Tajima sent Madara’s blade spinning away. The man used no chakra and none of his hard won speed, just pure muscle and then jabbed his son painfully in the shoulder, sending the boy to the ground.
Madara tumbled backwards, landing hard as the air was knocked from him. He gasped as his bokken clattered along the ground nearby and Tajima let out a tired sigh. Misery welled up within him, the whispers of failure clawing at the back of his mind. ‘It should have been me.’ Madara thought as tears returned to his eyes. Tajima shook his head and turned, unable to face his son. As the clan head he had to be controlled at all times and his son had to learn that same talent. The Uchiha head took a deep breath to steady himself and then turned back to face his son.
“Do not cry, Madara. You are the heir to the Uchiha. It is your duty to control your emotions and guide our fire. One day the entire clan will look to you for leadership and you must tame your own heart lest the clan burn itself out with its own fury.” Tajima’s voice was stern, eyes hard and resolve set as he walked over to Madara. The boy’s onyx eyes glistened with tears and his lips trembled dangerously, yet he didn’t sob or make any noise even as his shoulders quivered with tension.
“Give me your hand.” Tajima ordered and Madara obeyed, holding his hand out even though he knew what was going to happen. Tajima gripped his son’s hand and pulled out a kunai. The blade easily parted the skin of Madara’s palm and a quick flare of fire sealed the wound, leaving a painful, aching scab and light burns. Madara grit his teeth against the pain, for if he made even a sound his other hand would follow. “We carry an immense burden as the head family. We must carry the pain and misery of our clansmen. When they succumb to their emotions, it is up to us to pull them back. We cannot be simply men, it is not good enough to just be ourselves. We must be cold as the gods, unmoved by the pain and rage within our own hearts.”
“I do not do this to hurt you but so you learn. So you can be as ready as possible when the burden falls upon your shoulders fully.” Tajima pressed the kunai into his son’s wounded palm and closed the boy’s fingers over the grip. Silence held for several seconds between them as Madara’s breathing slowly leveled out, the boy pulling back his raging emotions and forcing his chakra to settle. “I know you have it in you Madara. You are my son after all.”
“Of course chichiue,” Madara managed after a minute had past. His voice wasn’t quite level but it remained steady enough and Tajima gave him a nod.
“Practice your kata, I will be returning to the main house.” Tajima ordered, before vanishing with a shunshin, one of the Uchiha’s signature techniques.
Left alone on the Uchiha training grounds, Madara winced as the wounded skin on his palm stretched, the scab threatening to break as he pocketed the kunai his father had given him. He bent down to pick up his sword, fingers closing around the still warm bandages on the training blade when he noticed them shift slightly. Underneath the grip, his sharp eyes caught familiar kanji and Madara’s breath caught.
‘Kagami-onee-chan.’ Madara’s heart stuttered as he saw the name carved under the wrappings. This was his sister’s training blade, a blade that should still have been hers. He had been using his sister’s sword and making an utter fool of himself. The air suddenly seemed to sting his lungs with ever breath and his throat tightened painfully. A pit formed in his stomach as the tears that he had only just chased away returned and Madara felt his self control snap like a wire as he broke down into sobs.
“I want her back! I want Kagami back!” Madara wailed, alone and utterly exhausted. He was a failure, a disappointment, unable to even walk in his sister’s shadow. His feet moved on their own, chakra cycling through his muscles as he ran hard, his body carrying him away from the training ground and up the sharp slope of the mountains where few rarely ventured. It was still safe, well within the patrols of his clan, yet far away from prying eyes and others practicing their craft.
Madara’s feet pounded over the tan gravel of the mountains, until a sharp breeze propelled a cloud of dirt and stone fragments into his face, causing a peppering of pain across his skin. The world around him seemed to come alive as he fell to his knees and sobbed.
“I can’t do it.” Madara whispered, unable to bear the burden any longer. He was alone, the weight of his people upon his tiny shoulders. His father wasn’t young and his sister, the prodigy who should have, could have carried this burden was gone. “I’m too weak, I can’t do this. I can’t even control my own emotions, how can I support the clan when I’m just me?” Madara stuttered and stammered his way through the words, sobs shaking his body as he spoke. It was impossible, he knew it. The Uchiha were doomed because he was just too weak to lead them.
Power thrummed through the wind that rustled his hair and the sun seemed to pulsate with a steady beat of chakra, like a heart of light bathing the world with its blessings. The boy took a shuddering breath as his mind processed the fact that something was there, just out of reach, watching him. It was like the world itself held still, waiting for him to reach out for help.
“I can’t do this alone.” Madara whispered and felt a burst of brilliant, blinding chakra as grass spread over the rocky ground, hardy mountain flowers pushing up through the pebbles and out from cracks, blossoming in pale whites and yellows. Above him, Madara caught sight of a girl with vivid light pink hair that glistened like pearls in the morning sun and she was falling directly towards him.
‘She’s going to die!’ Madara realized as he pushed chakra into his body with a force he never had before and jumped. He caught the girl well before she would have hit the ground, grabbing onto her and pumping chakra into his legs and back as gravity reasserted itself and they fell towards the ground.
Warmth flowed through his left hand the moment he touched her, a strange sensation winding over the skin and through the chakra pathways in the limb, yet it didn’t hurt. If anything it felt steadying, like a connection or a bond. Madara discarded the sensation in favor of landing without breaking an ankle and felt the muscles and joints in his legs heat as they absorbed the impact of two bodies touching down. A pulse of chakra dissipated most of the momentum but he took the rest and it left his body heated and luckily without even a hint of pain.
Turning his attention to the girl, Madara’s breath stopped as his mouth fell open because she was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. The Uchiha were known for their pale skin, dark hair and beautiful faces yet this girl had to be a youkai or perhaps a tennyo. She had pale skin, but it was rosy unlike the Uchiha which had tan undertones and her hair was an impossible color, pink and glossy like liquid pearls. Her eyes opened slowly, glittering like emeralds and from her mouth, inhumanly sharp teeth were just barely visible.
Madara would have been scared holding such a being in his hands, if it wasn’t for the tears running down her cheeks and the cool, calming chakra that seemed to pour from her. She felt like life, her chakra like rich loam and cool rain, with hints of static around the edges, a Hi forest amid a summer storm. The girl in his arms watched him, her chakra calming and slowly becoming curious, her emotions free and unclouded in a way that Madara had not experienced from anyone in his clan since his sister’s passing and he found himself utterly mesmerized as the girl drew in a small breath and her lips parted so she could speak.
“Thank you for saving me, I’m Sakura, who are you?” Her voice was lined with unveiled curiosity and surprise while her eyes were guileless and fixed on him with the same wonder he was currently feeling.
“I’m Madara and you’re welcome.” Madara answered dumbly, unable to think of anything else he could possibly say. What did one say to a tennyo or perhaps a young youkai they had rescued from a dangerous fall? Was he supposed to ask her why she had fallen from the sky? Madara didn’t know and didn’t care because for once he wasn’t brooding over his burdens or sister. He was living in the present and fully focused on not driving away the fascinating creature in his arms.
Perhaps it was because of that need to escape the memories of his sister and the pressure of his clan that he spoke without thinking or perhaps it was simply to keep the fascinating creature in his presence that Madara blurted out the words that would change both of their fates forever and irrevocably tie them together.
“Would you like to train with me?” Madara asked and the girl’s eyes fluttered in surprise. Madara noticed even her lashes were the same stunning pink as her hair and he knew she wasn’t human. How could she be with hair like flowers and eyes like gems?
“Um, if that means we can be friends?” Sakura asked, her words catching him off guard. Madara didn’t have friends or even companions. He had his father who he loved and Izuna who he adored but everyone else was a member of his clan. They were his responsibility, people whose fates he had to shoulder and whose fires he had to contain. He could not afford friends within the Uchiha but this girl wasn’t an Uchiha, nor was she even human, at least to Madara’s eyes.
“Alright, I think I’d like that actually.” Madara grinned as he set the girl down and then moved to pick up his bokken, making sure to keep her in his line of sight so she didn’t disappear on him. Sakura remained in place, watching him with those large, innocent eyes and Madara silently thanked the kami that this girl hadn’t happened upon the Senju. Who knew what they would have done to her. “Well then, what do you know about Chakra?”