𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞
Madara had her head tucked between her arms as she took a quick nap before her new sensei came. It slowly became apparent that he or she wouldn't be showing up on time as the class slowly dwindled as their leaders picked them up.
She was tense, her shoulders were locked and her senses were on alert. There was a chakra signature that felt dry and prickly lingering around. It bothered her.
Sasuke sat next to her with a huff. She barely peeked at him before sighing at his expression, it was how it normally looked but his eyebrows had dipped lightly and his already thin lips had thinned even more and his chakra was pulsing violently.
"What's got you in such a crappy mood? That's normally my thing," she asked pausing slightly to yawn.
"Sakura is annoying and ignorant," he mumbled shooting a glare in the bubblegum haired girls direction.
"Like every other twelve year old," Madara quipped back.
"Hn," Sasuke rilled his eyes and rested his arms in the table.
Madara rolled her eyes as well, "Hn," and she dropped her hands back into her arms. Letting loose another long loud yawn.
"He's late!" Naruto snapped impatiently as he peaked out the door in hopes of spotting their sensei.
"Naruto! Just sit down!" Sakura snapped at the blonde.
Naruto grunted angrily, "I don't want to!" Be snapped at Sakura and Madara's eyebrows shot up.
That was like the first time Naruto snapped at Sakura.
"How come our teacher's the only one that's late? I'm ready to roll, believe it!" He turned his hands clenched to his side, Madara already stopped listening.
"The other group's already met their new teachers and took off on some adventure or something, and Iruka-Sensei is gone too!"
"We know Okay," Sakura sighed tiredly.
Naruto ignored and dragged a stool up to the door and grabbed the chalk board eraser.
"Hey what are you doing?" Sakura asked in confusion.
The boy let loose rounds of laughter as he climbed the stool and placed the eraser on top of the door. Mediocre prank thought out by a mediocre student.
"Naruto!"
"That's what he gets for coming late," he jumped off the stool. "Surprise!"
"You're asking for trouble, you know you shouldn't
do that," Sakura places her hands on her hips and levelled him with a glare.
That's when Sasuke finally spoke up, "Hn, our teacher's a Jounin an elite ninja," he looked up at Naruto cooly, "You think he'd fall for something like that?"
"Yeah! Sasuke's right. You're so clueless Naruto!"
Madara sat up slowly eyes bleary and uninterested as the chakra approached quickly. She blinked slowly, struggling to pry her eyelids apart.
She looked at the door just as a hand reached for the corner and slid it open. They all watched as the eraser fell down and landed atop his head.
Madara raised an eyebrow, he saw the prank but didn't bother to dodge it, because he didn't deem it as a threat.
Lazy.
I think him and I will get along well. Madara thought with a blank expression.
Naruto let loose a cackle, "I got him! He totally fell for it!"
"I'm sorry sensei! I told him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen," Sakura was quick in throwing the blonde under the bus with no regrets. "I'd never do anything like that."
Madara sighed, teamwork is going to be quite difficult with this team.
A clown.
A peacock.
A suck up.
And an empty shell.
This is going to be fun.
He looked at all of them with a single visible grey eye, bending down he picked up the eraser, "Hm, how can I put this?" He said smoothly, scratching at his gravity defying grey hair. He placed a hand in his chin, "My first impression of this group: You're a bunch of idiots."
Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura all sweat dropped and Madara snorted lightly, no indication of amusement on her face except her sparkling eyes. "Fair enough," she shrugged leaning back in her seat and kicking her legs up onto the desk.
His eye lingered on her and she rolled her eyes. Sighing the man said, "Meet me on the roof in two minutes." He then poofed away in a swirl of leaves.
~~~~~~
Madara walked up the side of the building to get to the roof.
Her new sensei looked up at her and blinked, holding up a peace sign she mumbled out a "Yo," before making her way and sitting cross from him against a pillar. The waited a minute before the other three arrived.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his sister questioningly and just burred her face into her scarf. Sighing he sat next her logs extended out in front of him.
"Ne, Ma-Chan how did you get up here so fast, Dattebayo!" Naruto yelled the moment he saw her.
Madara winced picking at her ear, "Why are you so loud Naruto?"
"Yeah, How did you get up here so fast? You were the last to leave the classroom," Sakura asked just as curious but more calm.
She looked at them lazily, "There's something called a window," she then turned to look at her sensei.
"All right," their sensei clapped his hands, "Why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time?"
"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura asked in confusion.
Madara blinked, What in that sentence was confusing?
"Well What are we supposed to say?"
Your name?
Their sensei shrugged his shoulders, "Things you like. Things you hate. Dreams for the future. Hobbies. Things like that."
"Why don't you tell us stuff first?" Naruto asked and Madara nodded.
"We don't even know your name," she agreed the man blinked.
"Maa, I forgot I had to do that," Their sensei sweatdropped.
"Yeah, tell us about you so we can see how it works."
"Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi," he started and Madara blinked. Copy Cat Ninja.
"Things I like And things I hate," he tilted his head back and forth lazily. "I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...never really thought about it. As for my hobbies...I have a lot of hobbies."
Sakura glowered, "That was totally useless, all he really told us was his name."
Naruto nodded in agreement, while the two Uchiha's remained passive towards the whole thing.
"Okay your turn," he nodded in Naruto's direction, "You, yellow on the right."
Naruto grinned brightly, "Believe it! I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka sensei got me at the Ichiraku noodle shop," Madara nodded in agreement. That was good stuff.
"But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you poor the water into the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage. Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody-somebody important."
Madara watched as their sensei sweat dropped silently.
Sakura grinned blushing and Madara rolled her eyes, here we go.
"I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like-," she peaked over towards where the Uchiha were seated her eyes instantly landing on Sasuke, who tensed. "I-I mean the person I like is," she let loose and ear piercing schreech. Madara cursed flinching away from the sound. "My hobby is-." Another squeal. "My goals for the future," the pink haired girl seemed to convulse as she let loose an ear shattering cry.
Sasuke shifted away uncomfortably and Madara wrapped a protective arm around her brother giving the Haruno an evil side eye.
Naruto let loose a whimper covering his overly sensitive ears.
Kakashi-Sensei's sweat dropped even harder. "And? What do you hate?"
The girl glowered, "Naruto!"
Said boy let loose a wail of despair.
"Okay, next."
Sasuke sighed as if this whole thing was wasting his time, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything-." Sakura let loose a heart broken sound as a dark aura escaped her brother. "What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality," Madara shifted away from him, dropping her arm from around his shoulders, suddenly feeling heavy. "I'm going to restore my clan and kill a certain someone."
Madara scowled beneath her scarf and smack her brother hard upside the head. "Baka!"
"Tch!"
"Why are you so Emo, it's annoying," she smacked him again and he glared at her.
The other three were silent and stared at the older of the two wearily. Kakashi-sensei didn't seem surprised in the slightest.
Clearing his throat and clapping his hands together he turned his attention to the youngest of the group, "Next, You Hime-chan."
Madara scowled at the man for calling her that, before introducing herself. Holding up a peace sign, "Yo," she started, "The name's Uchiha Madara II. I like sleeping, coffee, dango and chocolate. I hate waking up, the emo duckbutt I call my brother, loud places and people. My goal for the future is-."
She stopped and blinked. What was my goal for the future? Father wanted me to become the next clan pride. My clan wanted me to put the Uchiha back on top. Sasuke wants me to help him avenge our clan. I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know. Stop looking at me like that. I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't-
She inhaled sharply meeting all their curious eyes, "I don't have one."
She looked away from them all, she could see the slight questioning look her new sensei was fixing her with.
"How can you not have a goal?" Sakura asked.
She didn't answer.
And here I thought she'd be just like her brother. Interesting, Kakashi thought before moving on.
"Good. You're each unique and have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow.
Naruto brightened, "Uh, what kind of mission are we going to have?"
"It's a task the five of us will do together."
"What? What? What? What?" Naruto pestered causing Madara to pinch the bridge of her nose.
"A survival exercise."
"Huh? Survival exercise?" Naruto asked.
"I thought we were supposed to have a real mission. Not more practice. We already did this stuff at the academy. That's how we got here."
"This is not like your previous training," Kakashi said and Madara started to sense some sort of sadistic joy coming from her sensei.
"So, Uh—So, Uh, what kind of training is it then?"
The man let loose a giggle.
Madara nodded smacking a fist against her open palm, A sadist. Got it.
"What's so funny?"
"Heh, well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it," Kakashi-sensei let loose another giggle.
"Huh?"
"Of the twenty seven graduates who just came here, only nine will be excepted as genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent to the academy," the man grinned beneath his mask, "In other words, this a make it or break it, pass or fail test, and the chance that you'll fail is at least sixty six percent."
Naruto And Sakura's faces grew horrified, while Madara grumbled under her breath, "What a drag."
"See? Didn't I tell you you wouldn't like it?"
Naruto was the first to snap, "That's Crazy! We worked hard to get here! Believe it! What was the graduation test for anyway, Dattebayo!"
"Oh, that," Kakashi-sensei started, "That was just to select candidates who might become Genin—or not ."
"What?"
Kakashi-sensei shrugged, "That's how it is. I decide weather you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at five a.m., and bring your ninja gear."
Madara let out a yawn, This is more than I signed up for.
Kakashi-sensei turned his back to them, "That's it, You're dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast, or else you'll puke."
Madara narrowed her eyes, Like hell I am.
~~~~~~
Madara did not go home with Sasuke after they were dismissed, she asked her brother to begin training without her she had something to do.
The youngest Uchiha was walking through the woods in the western, part of the village. Her footsteps were light as she walked through, over fallen trees and u set hanging branches. The forest hadn't changed since the last time she had been there. Not a single stone had been overturned, not a single tree cut down.
Slowly she came across a clearing in the middle of that clearing was a simple Minka. She hesitated before it, out side the entrance a fire was going, on top was a kettle, next to it a Chabudai, two tea cups delicately placed on either side, two cushions. Laid stretched out by the fire was a black feline.
It looked at her with wide yellow eyes it's black tail swishing leisurely from side to side. It blinked at let loose a meow.
Madara hesitated and flinched when the kettle began to whistle as the water within came to a boil. She stared at as it spout steam violently into the open air.
"Are you going to just stand there girl? Or will you pour us some tea?" A stern voice clipped from inside the home.
Madara flinched again a grimace climbing onto her face as she made her way up the steps. She removed her sandals and weights when she reached the top, dropping her weapons pouch next to them. She unslung her katana from her back and carried it into the entry way, where she laid it by the chabudai. She crouched and ran a hand through the felines soft shiny coat and pulled the kettle off the fire.
She cleaned her hands by scooping water from a large bucket off to the side spilling it over the grass.
She came back around and brought the kettle back over to the chabudai, placing it delicately in between the cups on a stand, she unraveled her scarf, revealing her pale collar bones and laid it next to her on the cushion.
She then slowly began to pour the tea. The familiar smell of chamomile intruded her senses and she her coiled muscles began to relax.
"I see you haven't forgotten," the voice said and slow shuffling followed. Madara kept silent as she placed the kettle back on the stand and waited. Her head bowed her finger digging into the skin of her thighs.
"Why won't you look at me child? Hmm? Have I really gotten that ugly with old age?" The clipped as they took a seat in front of Madara who slowly rose her head to meet their eyes.
"There's beauty in age, Obaasan," Madara said quietly. The old woman with white hair and grey eyes huffed.
"Sit straight child, I thought I taught you better," Madara was quick to correct her posture. Her stomach clenching.
"Gomen'nasai," Madara apologized quickly bowing her head slightly.
The old woman studied her, "What's the matter with you? Hmm? Besides the fact your brother slaughtered your clan," She was always so achingly blunt, Madara was surprised she didn't flinch at the insensitivity of her last statement.
She expected it, Hatake Yui wasn't a kind woman. She was rude, blunt, rough around the edges. Edges so jagged they cut and ripped.
Madara was taught at a young age not to let Yui's words get beneath her skin. She learned to except the woman thoroughly and truly. It's the least a grand child could do for their grandparents.
But that didn't stop her from scathingly spitting, "I see burying your daughter did nothing for your attitude," for a moment her grandmother looked like she might strike her, but the woman instead grinned.
"That's my granddaughter alright."
Hatake Yui, was Madara's Grandmother on her mother's side. Never really got along with her father, she once called him, a frog legged miscreant not worth her daughter's time.
Itachi hated the woman who shattered his pride so mercilessly. Despite being well off into her seventies at the time, she beat the twelve year old boy into the ground for so much as thinking he was at her level expertise. "You may be the prodigy of your generation ,boy, but they don't make them like they use to. Come back when you're worth the plaque I scrape of my teeth."
Sasuke hated the woman for attacking his slight vanity and self obsessive behaviour, he denied it but even he deep down knew what she had said was true, "You think that just because these girls fawn over you that you are worth more than a dime? Boy you can barely launch a kunai without taking out someone's eye."
Madara on the other hand loved her. She adored the woman with everything in her and Yui reciprocated the affection, the only way the woman knew how, insults and sadistic training. "You're not as annoying as the other two snot nosed brats, I'll give you that. Now go do thirty laps around the village, fifteen on your feet, fifteen on your hands."
Madara hadn't seen her since the funeral, she couldn't bring herself to look at the woman who looked so much like her mother. Which was stupid because last she checked she looked like her mother with her father's colouring and by default meant she looked like Itachi. Sasuke was a weird Hybrid of both their parents though much like his siblings took more from their mother. They all had her soft angular features, but he had more of their father in him then the others.
Sasuke didn't bother checking to see their grandmother. She was sure he hoped the old woman had passed away in her little house away from him.
A part of her will forever be grateful for the fact, Itachi most likely forgot about the Hatake woman. Or didn't bother to waste his time fighting a woman he knew he would never beat.
Hatake Yui wasn't to be messed with.
"Who am I, Baba?" Madara asked quietly before reaching for her tea.
"What kind of question is that, brat? Do you not know who you are?" Yui threw back levelling her granddaughter with a sharp look.
Madara sighed rubbing her forehead with the but of her palm. "It's just-we we're put into our genin teams today," Madara said.
The woman hummed, "Who were you placed with?"
"Sasuke, Haruno Sakura a civilian girl and Uzumaki Naruto-,"
"The kyuubi."
Madara blinked at her grandmother. Opened her mouth, and closed it like a fish out of water. "Why doesn't it surprise me to know that you know?"
"Because I know everything," the woman hummed.
"You know everything? Or the Hokage tells you everything?"
"Sarutobi enjoys gossip just as much as the next person, and how else was I supposed to know how my grandchild was fairing when she refused to come and see me," Yui said with a roll of her grey eyes.
"Tell him to stop spying on me with that crystal ball of his. It's creepy," Madara stated.
"I'll pass on the message."
It was silent for a moment before Yui started, "Who's your sensei?"
"Hatake Kakashi," Madara whispered sipping her tea.
Her grandmother clicked her teeth. "Copy cat ninja."
"We were...introducing ourselves. Saying what we like what we don't like. What our goals were for the future."
Yui nodded along with her granddaughter's words, "Naruto wants to become Hokage, Sakura wants to become a broodmare for Sasuke, and Sasuke wants to kill Itachi and find a broodmare to restore the clan and I have ...nothing!"
Madara threw her hands up in frustration. Letting the black feline slip into her lap and curl up.
Yui let loose a chuckle, "Broodmare you say?"
"Baba! Focus!" Madara whined as her grandmother continued to cackle.
"Broodmare! Ha! You really are my grandchild, anyway," the woman sobered, "You think you don't know who you are because you don't know what you want to be?"
"Hai."
"Well...you're an idiot."
Madara groaned as she poured another cup of tea for herself, "That's not very helpful."
"Madara, you're a child. It's alright to not know who you are, we're not in war, you'll figure yourself out eventually," Yui told with a softness that surprised Madara.
"It's just that— when I was younger, I had everything figured out. I was going to be Kunoichi, I was going to be Genjutsu mistress, I'd marry my best friend, I'd live up to my namesake and bring pride to my clan," Madara sighed. "I was going to be better than him. I was going to be better than Sasuke, but now I'm stuck."
"Well if it makes you feel any better, you are leaps and bounds better than Sasuke and that Marrying you best friend is still on the table, that Nara is growing up to be quite handsome," Yui smirked and Madara rolled her eyes blushing.
"Baba!"
"I'm just saying!"
Yui laughed but noticed something that caused her to falter, "You haven't smiled once. Is my sense of humour not to your liking?"
Madara rolled her eyes, "Baba, you do know that you basically shaped my sense of humour."
"Then what's with the blankness brat?"
"I don't know," Madara shrugged her shoulders.
Yui leaned forward and caught the young girls chin in a bruising grasp. "Tell, me," the woman started looking Madara dead in the eye. "When was the last time you cried?"
The girl hesitated.B
"Answer truthfully girl, you know I don't like liars."
"Alone? Or with someone there?"
"With someone?"
Madara exhaled sharply, "When itachi was dragging me through our house by my hair. I cried like a baby as he stabbed me."
Yui's hand shook slightly, "Alone?"
"The day after I woke up."
"When was the last time you smiled?" Yui asked.
"The day before my brother murdered my clan."
"The last time you just felt angry?"
"Two weeks before the massacre and Shikamaru shoved me into a muddy puddle. He ruined my favourite Kimono."
"Annoyed?"
"Yesterday when Sasuke thought I was his maid."
To many, the words annoyed and angry would synonyms. Meaning nearly the same thing. The difference between them was that Annoyance was something one felt in passing due to an inconvenience. Anger was an emotion. A fundamental emotion that made a human...well...human. It bubbles out from you gut and bursts through your chest like molten lava.
Her granddaughter had lost touch with her emotions.
She didn't know what to feel about that. So she looked closer into her granddaughter's eyes and a small shimmer. Emotion. Sadness.
So she's not all gone. That's good. She can work with that. Sadness was more common and easier to feel then happiness.
They can start there. But not tonight.
There's too much to do tonight.
It was gonna storm.
Kami knows how Madara has been dealing with the storms on her own. Storms were important to some Hatake women. Her daughter didn't inherit the the storms eye, but Madara did. It was strong in her. Too strong. Too clear. It took too much energy from her. Sucked it out from her bones and left her walking corpse. Haunted by what she had seen.
"I'll pack you some tea, before you go" the woman finally said. Releasing her granddaughter from her grip. "It's gonna storm today. If it was any other day I would have you sleep here so can look after you, but you need to attend your test. So I need you to to write down what you saw, you've been doing that haven't you?"
"Yes, Baba."
"Good, after your exercise come here and we'll go over them together."
Madara nodded obediently, "Yes Baba."
The woman nodded in content. "Good. On bigger matters, Sasuke wants Broodmare you say?"
Madara sighed, "Yes."
"Isn't he gay?"
Madara choked on her tea, her abdomen clenching with her urge to laugh. "He doesn't know that."
"Well we'll give him a little longer to figure it out himself," Yui cackled.
~~~~~