Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

A Living Secret	By : viridianglare Category: Naruto > General Views: 3159 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto anime/manga/franchise and do not make money from this work.

Chapter List
- 1-results
- 2-exchange
- 3-seed
- 4-public
- 5-foundations
- 6-resolve
- 7-trust
- 4
- 5
- 6
thirteen years ago
The bowed heads rose and fell, hands outstretched on the ground of the dark and cavernous room. There was a low, shared hum that reverberated between the dark-clad figures that were symmetrically aligned in a circle. Smoke oozed through the air above them in thin silver wisps, drawing the scents of hot candle wax through their lungs and their spirits. Together, the voices chanted the name, over and over, deep and worshipful.
As a slight breeze drew directionlessly through the room, curling and scattering the wisps, the worshippers sat back and beheld the very deity they called to appear in a shimmering visage before them. As their eyes widened with shock and reverent fear, they dashed themselves back to the ground in a deep bow.
The Sage of Six Paths, Hagaromo, regarded the worshippers with a benevolent expression, smiling slightly. His voice moved through their hearts as well as their ears as he spoke. “I entrust to you this burden that I have brought here. It seems,” he said, drawing back so they could see a slumped shadow near where Hagaromo stood, “that it is yet still not his time to rest eternally.” He bent, a hand resting lightly on the shadow’s side; there was a whisper of dark clothes as the curious eyes of all in the room looked to the figure. Hagaromo’s Rinnegan gaze was kindly as he stood back up to where he had appeared. His voice resounded in the cavernous room, and the figures bowed their heads once more. “One more life to live.” The candles flickered; the smoke rose, and the shadow at his feet twitched slightly as they heard a heart begin to beat somewhere within the darkness.
Then he closed his eyes, smiling. “Thank you all.”
The flames danced; with a sigh of the breeze and a spreading of warmth in the dark room, Hagaromo disappeared, and the shadow remained.
There was a cough, then, as the shadow hunched and then stretched; long arms extended out, and dark eyes opened wide as he drew in a sharp breath. Madara blinked up at the wisps of smoke that hung above, then at the staring huddled figures around him. He looked at his hands, then at himself; it was the same living body that he had had at the war’s end, but without the pale face that had been etched on the side of his chest. Sitting up, his dark mane falling around his shoulders, he felt his blood flowing beneath his skin and his heart beating, the unmistakable vigor of life returned to his body. His frown deepened, his hands flexing in front of him. “Why… am I alive?”

present
“It’s time.” Sakura was startled awake by his quiet voice beside her; Madara stood by the window, watching the darkness that stirred beyond the glass. “You’ve gotten as much sleep as you can; now they’ve come. It seems they have finished deliberating.”
She sat up with a start, mussed pink hair sticking out in every direction. “Who?”
“Hmm.” His dark eyes watched the street below. “I’m almost flattered. It looks like just about the entirety of the Leaf Anbu shinobi, as well as your jinchūriki Hokage and some others.” There was a telltale glint in his eye, and Sakura reached out, her fingers catching his sleeve as she pulled him away from the window. “Don’t fight them,” she said, tightening her grip.
“Do you think they’ll offer me that choice?” Madara settled his dark eye on her. “You may have seen that I’ve lived peacefully as of late, but that doesn’t mean that they will believe it is true or even possible.”
“But…” Sakura closed her eyes, sorrow etched beneath her eyes. She gave a great sigh; she knew he was right. It was going to be insurmountably difficult to convince anyone that Madara was not the ruthless, dangerous person he had always been. Is he not? Her worried thoughts echoed until she voiced it.
“I know what we talked about, Madara. I know the future that you spoke of appears peaceful, but I do have to ask before we go and face them all. Have you changed?”
“Does it matter if they attack me anyway?”
Sakura tried not to let her apprehension show as she tied up her hair. She wrangled the thick strands with a tie, nearly snapping the elastic as she forced it to sit half-tamed just above the back of her neck. “I won’t let it get to that point.”
Madara’s eye flashed as he turned to face her, dark mane shifting. “I do not need your protection.”
She glanced at him, unabashed by his sharp tone. “You do if you’re going to avoid killing everyone I love.”
He returned his frown to the window. “They are aware you’re awake. Better move quickly or you may need a new front door.” They could both feel the flaring chakra signatures outside the house, and Sakura felt sweat condensing in a sheen along her skin. But she kept her stare on him, knowing that he could feel it, and that he knew why she watched him with fierce eyes. “I don’t want to lie to you, Sakura.” Madara’s tired eyes closed. “And because of that, I won’t promise you that I’ve changed.”
Her heart twisted with his words. “So you’re telling me you might go out there and start another war?” With his level of power, he could just wipe them out. Her blood thundered as she tried not to imagine it.
Madara turned from the window. “It depends on what they do.”
“What do you mean?” Sakura put her hands on her hips, trying to hide the way her fear of the imminent standoff was making her tremble. His dark eyes were serious, almost wistful. “What do you think will happen once we go out there?”
Sakura’s resolve returned to her, then, when she saw the grim look in Madara’s gaze. She stepped toward him, her hands reaching out, and she gripped the fabric of his shirt; she pulled him down to lean over her. “You’re going to come with me and make a peaceful arrangement,” she said, green eyes fierce. “You’re going to use that wicked brain of yours and help me find a way to avoid violence. Avoid violence.”
“Hn.” His fingers tapped on her back. “You had better,” she murmured into the warm fabric, willing herself not to cry. She felt him sigh into her hair as his arms pulled around her slender back. “Or what?” he rumbled, and she smiled into the fabric. “Or I’ll make you pay for it later.”
“Oh?” His fingers seeped through her hair and back. She smiled at his lightened tone regardless of the wringing anxiety in her heart, and gave him a gentle shove as she stepped back; Madara made a mock-expression of offense. Sakura folded her arms. "I'm sure it won't turn to violence. Just... Let me talk them down from whatever they've imagined, okay?"
At his assenting shrug, she turned and began to tug on her boots; his gaze touched on her warmly before he returned his attention to the commotion outside the window. Something in him has changed since we were together all those years ago, some kind of decision he’s made. She slipped her foot into the boot, biting her lips as she focused.
“They’re going to ask the same question I asked you back then, by the way,” Sakura said as she leaned her boot on the bed, pulling on the laces so they constricted around her feet more tightly. Madara shrugged and she eyed him for a moment. “You know… you never did tell me how you are alive.” Just seduced me instead. She managed this time to prevent her cheeks from coloring at the thought.
“That’s hardly a conversation for right now.”
“I’d rather learn it from you now, in here, while we aren’t in a standoff out there.” She tugged the laces into bows, pulling a little too hard; the knot was a condensed little ball she knew she was going to have to fight to undo later.
Madara raised a quizzical brow. “Do you think they aren’t listening in where we are now? You don’t have sound seals on this room.”
Sakura frowned, dropping the tied boot and lifting the other; she kept her troubled focus on the laces as she answered. “Will you ever tell me?”
“Yes.”
She paused, and her fingers were less brutal on the knots this time as she finished tying up her boots.
Madara shifted forward and nodded toward the door; she let out a great sigh as she opened it and stepped into the hall. Though there was a glow in her chest from their conversations both from today and from the night before, she was not sure that such a peaceful idealist future was going to work out. Madara’s relaxed confidence gave her a shred of comfort, but she wasn’t completely soothed; she knew he was calm even when faced with imminent death. She began to tremble as he moved down the stairs past her; her fingers knocked on Sarada’s door, and she opened it quietly. Her daughter’s mussed head of black hair lifted from the blankets. “Sarada, you can stay home today. We have to go take care of things. Just chill, ok? Stay in the house.”
“Okay.” Sarada curled back into her pillow, and Sakura shut the door again.
She stepped gingerly down the stairs, running a hand over the sweat on the back of her neck. Her heart was beating harder, painfully, against her chest; she had to admit to herself that she was frightened. She had faced many terrible things in her life but never had she had to face such a mass confrontation with everyone she loved.
Madara awaited her by the door, fingers tapping on his arm, and she was pale in the face as she saw that he had donned the red armor again and was reminded of the conflict ahead.
His dark eye touched on her expression, then the door. She let a small measure of her terror show on her face and he blinked at her quietly. “You’ve faced the end of the world with less fear, Sakura.”
She exhaled softly with a twist about her lips. “Do you regret it?”
Madara’s shoulders tensed slightly; the metal plates scraped quietly as he looked over at her. “Do I regret what?”
“Well… the war. The people who died, everything that happened… Everything after.”
His frown deepened; the shadow that crossed his eye showed her the conflict there. The presence of warring emotions gave Sakura the comfort she was looking for, and she reached up then, her hand aligning along his jaw; she drew closer, the ferocity in her eyes tempering. Madara watched her carefully as he answered without responding to her touch. “Some of it.”
Sakura’s curiosity drove her to allow herself one more question. “What don’t you regret?”
She squeaked as she was suddenly pressed up against him, his arms around her back, and Madara’s breath was on warm on her ear as his head lowered and his cheek skimmed across hers. “You know that already.” His lips brushed her ear, and she closed her eyes as heat scoured beneath her skin where he was close.
Then as quickly as he had pulled her to him, he let her go, turning with finality to the door and pulling it open; Sakura stared after him as he stepped through it, glancing back at her. She made no more hesitation as she caught up with him, tabling the rest for later.

Sakura and Madara stepped out into the twilight, the color washed from their forms as the dim half-moon gazed down coldly upon the clearing outside her house. There were many different figures in the darkness around them, some unmoving and some stepping back at the pair’s emergence from the door. Their eyes focused in tandem on the first to step out and face them; his blue eyes pierced Sakura as he lifted his head. “Why?” was all he said, and Sakura blinked back at Naruto, her brows drawing together in a frown.

She didn’t answer, choosing instead to step forward, her hand reaching out to her friend - but Naruto flinched away from her touch, white Hokage robe flickering around his sides. “What did he do to you?”
Madara’s red eyes were forebodingly watchful of every movement Naruto made as Sakura retracted her hand, her frown deepening into a grimace. “He didn’t do anything to me, you idiot.” She stepped back to stand by Madara once more as she folded her arms. “Why did you have to bring the entire elite force, Naruto?”
“Because of him.” Naruto nodded toward Madara. Sakura tried not to feel the countless pairs of eyes that were watching them from all directions, and she clenched her teeth in frustration. “What do you want from us, Naruto?”
“‘Us’?” Naruto stamped his foot and pointed at Madara. “Sakura, what could you possibly want from him? Is he manipulating you somehow?”
“No.” She folded her arms, her rising anger implicit in her tone. “Both his and my intentions are nothing but peaceful. Take your hordes of Anbu and let us be.”
“You keep saying us.” Naruto glared up at Madara. “Have you forgotten what he’s like? He must have used some sort of jutsu and purged your mind of the war, and then he forced you into… whatever this is. That’s the only explanation I can come up with here.”
Madara’s pale face tilted up in the gray light, his red iris glinting with a reflection of the waning moon. “Watch your tongue, jinchūriki.”
Naruto seethed, his aura beginning to burn, and as Sakura’s fingers gripped her arms where they were folded tightly against her chest, Madara raised a slim brow. “No one here wants a fifth war, but there will be one if you keep acting like a careless brat.”
There was a hushed murmur in the darkness around them at this blatant insult to the Hokage’s face. Naruto’s face twisted and he stepped forward with a fist in the air. “What did you just call me?”
Madara leaned in, looming, his dark hair shifting over his armor-plated shoulders. “You didn’t defeat me then; you won’t defeat me now.” His dark-gloved hand curled around Sakura’s shoulder as he pulled her closer against his side, a possessive gleam in his eye.
Naruto’s aura flamed in a glow around him. “Yeah? You think so? Whatever you did to Sakura, I’m gonna make you pay for it.” Naruto shifted his feet into a defensive stance, and Sakura stepped between them. She was icily calm, though her facade of coolness was cracking around the edges. “Stop. Both of you.”
As Madara’s eyes flicked to Sakura, Naruto’s chakra flared ever larger; the trees groaned in the sky around them and the wind whipped through the leaves. Their onlookers were backing away, eyes affixed on the inevitable fight. Naruto stepped forward again, and Sakura shoved him back. “He didn’t do anything, Naruto, now back off.” Her chakra began to burn around her form, and then Naruto turned his rage-wrought expression toward Madara, who was smirking as he watched Sakura’s green energy begin to flare outward. This made something snap in Naruto, and with a roar, he threw his fist at Madara.
There was a blinding flash of surging chakra that thundered through the ground and turned the world white for a moment. The earth groaned and shuddered; chunks of earth and wood and rock flew through the air as the ground fell away into a deep crater.
Sakura lifted her steaming fist from the earth, getting to her feet and turning her deadly eyes to Naruto.
Behind her, Madara landed on his feet, black hair streaming down to settle around him; he looked up at Sakura with widened pupils before turning his attention back to Naruto ahead of her.
“Why won’t you listen to me?” Sakura’s fist flared again. “Why do you never listen?” She stepped toward Naruto, and several masked Anbu landed behind and in front of him, their blades and eyes glinting. Naruto winced at her fury but persisted, his aura still a flaring white-yellow as he moved with the Anbu toward her. “Because you’re obviously under some sort of jutsu or other manipulation of his. You’re not gonna like this, Sakura-chan,” he said as another squad of Anbu approached from the darkness, “but we have to make sure he didn’t implant a tag in you or something like he did to Obito, so we’re going to have to get you looked at.” Sakura’s eyes flicked between the approaching masked men and then gave Naruto a withering look of fury. “I will take them all down, Naruto, before I let anyone take me away - and I don’t want to hurt them. Call them off.”
Naruto’s lips tightened, but he said nothing as the Anbu inched closer. Sakura’s fist clenched and she bristled. “I said, call them off.”
His blue eyes were watering now as he stepped back. “I’m sorry, Sakura-chan, but this is how it has to be. I can’t trust that you aren’t being manipulated, and I know now that you won’t come voluntarily.”
“Oh dammit,” she hissed as she dodged an oncoming Anbu; she rolled to the side, her lighting-fast movements dodging every kick and grab of the oncoming attackers. She knew they were trying to subdue her without causing serious injury - she flipped backward and then dodged beneath as several more Anbu charged at her. She sent a kick upward that sent one masked attacker rolling backward, and she clenched her teeth with guilt. Sakura swerved and hissed in pain as one sliced a shallow gash across her side with their blade; she heard Naruto’s angry cry as her blood sprayed in the air and she stumbled, her hand gripping her side where she was wounded.
The ground thundered again as a different chakra flared in the crater. Its dark surge made the Anbu flit away from Sakura, and all eyes turned to Madara as he moved toward her. His face was yet still imperiously calm. The sinister surge of his power made all but her cringe backward as he held out a gloved hand to Sakura. Accepting his hand and grimacing as she got to her feet, she gripped her side as she used her glowing emerald chakra; it flowed through the wound, and it sealed after a moment. Madara’s dark eye touched on the scar marring her skin and then out at the Anbu who stood uncertainly around them. At the slow narrowing of his gaze, they synchronously took a step back.
A shimmer in the air, a cry; the gut-piercing sound of a slice through cloth and flesh. Darkness shrouding a limp figure beneath a sheet; Izuna’s dying breath an eternal echo as Madara bowed his head over his body.
Sakura reached out and clasped his arm with a hand. “Don’t,” she murmured. “I’m all right.”
Then the Anbu advanced again, their weapons drawn; from the lip of the crater, Naruto watched with troubled eyes. Madara pulled Sakura to his side, his Mangekyō Sharingans spinning dangerously as he watched their approach. “Stop this, Naruto!” Sakura called from his side, “Don’t bring this to more violence. Let’s work this out!”
A wolf-masked Anbu darted forward with his blade; several more followed, and then with a roaring of wind around their forms, Madara signed and pressed his palms together; with a thundering and raging of blue light, the ethereal gigantic figure of Susanoo erupted from the ground beneath them and tore into the sky. She held on tightly to Madara as he stared calmly out, his red eyes piercing; the Anbu retreated further and scattered into the trees, masked faces glancing upward. The onlookers in the darkness of the surrounding street began to run backward from the display of power that made the ground groan and the air itself shudder around them. The mighty multiple arms of the glaring giant above them gripped swords as long as houses, sparking with searing energy, and it raised up its arms with a roar.
Then Sakura turned to Madara, pressing her face into his chest; she whispered something only the two of them could hear, and the gigantic Susanoo above them paused where it was about to bring down its shimmering blades into the crowd.
His brows drew together as he blinked down at her; his gloved hand lifted slowly to the side of her face. Beyond them, Naruto and the remaining onlookers and Anbu slowed as they watched the moment unfold; their hearts stopped as they stared at the frozen Susanoo that towered over them from where Madara and Sakura stood.
There was a great shudder as the towering ethereal giant above them slowly collapsed into a cloud of steam that covered the crater and all of the land around it. A hush filled the night air in its resounding absence.
There was a stricken look on Madara’s face as his Sharingans deactivated, returning his eyes to their ebony color; Sakura looked up at him with an unwavering intensity. The mass of black hair fell slowly around his shoulders as the final azure shimmers of the Susanoo faded away around them.
She tipped her head into Madara’s chest and he closed his eyes with a quiet exhale. The hush around them spread; for a long moment, they simply breathed as the dust and mist settled around them.
Quiet crunching on the earth caused them to turn their heads, their respective black and emerald eyes opening; Naruto stood before them. He waved away the Anbu who retreated back into the shadows and left them alone in the clearing of the crater.
“Sakura-chan.” His blue eyes were gentler now.
She looked back at Madara before she answered Naruto, her green gaze lingering on him a moment before she slipped from his arms and turned to approach her friend. When she opened her arms to him, Naruto crashed forward, squeezing her tightly in a hug. When she pulled back, her cheeks were glistening in the gray light of dawn. “Will you listen to me?”
With a blink, he stepped back as she rejoined Madara’s side. “Yes. I’m… I’m sorry they hurt you, are you all right?”
When Sakura nodded, he turned his attention to Madara with raised brows. “So. You have changed, old man.”
Sakura reached out toward Naruto with a slapping hand and a red face. “Naruto, I swear--”
“So I’ll listen to you guys about working something out.” He dodged her slaps as she heaved a sigh, glancing at the crater around them. “You might have just agreed sooner and avoided destruction, idiot.”
“I’ve never seen him back down from an attack. Not like that.” Naruto was eyeing Madara again, whose dark stare was shadowed and unreadable. Sakura leaned back into his shoulder, closing her eyes a moment; she then glared out at Naruto. “You should have called them off earlier. I didn’t want there to be any violence at all today.”
“Well, thankfully… It was mostly avoided anyway.” Naruto gave her a small smile. “But I think granny Tsunade is still going to insist on taking a look at you, to be certain still that there’s nothing like a curse or anything…” Sakura growled, and he insisted further, waving his hands placatingly. “But, but. You guys can work that out later.” Naruto glanced to the side, and Sakura winced at the thought of facing Tsunade again. He folded his arms, his short blonde hair drifting in the slow breeze as he spoke then, more solemnly. “So… I’m listening now. What’s going on?”
Sakura was startled by Madara’s rumble behind her. “I’m taking over as head of the Uchiha clan.”
Naruto’s blue eyes widened. “What?”
Sakura swallowed, feeling curious stares emerging again from the surrounding night. The twilight was lightening; they could feel dawn beginning to rise. As Sakura’s hand snuck back to grip Madara’s arm, her apprehension of this talk rising again, Naruto’s wide-eyed stare touched on her hand on his arm and back to her face. “And Sakura-chan…?”
Sakura’s blush was his answer as she ran a hand through her hair, looking away. “I’m joining him.”
“Woah.” Naruto looked almost dizzy with the information. “That’s… Well, what about Sasuke? Isn’t he technically the head of the clan?”
Sakura snorted. “Please. He’s never around. Not to mention that the Uchiha compound has been abandoned for years now. I’d hardly consider him the head of anything but wandering.”
Naruto leaned in, his eyes somehow even wider. “So you’re gonna move in with Madara Uchiha there? Man, what happened, Sakura-chan? Where’d you even dig him up, he looks so alive.” Naruto’s gaze flicked back to Madara, who was narrowing his eyes at him as he spoke. “I guess I just don’t understand where this - or he - came from.”
“Look, I don’t expect you to,” Sakura said, running a hand through her hair. “I just want you to leave us be and let me figure out manners without Anbu squads following us everywhere.”
Naruto pinched his face with guilt and Sakura glowered at him. “He’s dangerous, Sakura. Like world-class criminal kind of dangerous. You can hardly blame me.”
“You all keep trying to tell me who Madara is when I already know - at least, better than you do.” Sakura’s hand curled into Madara’s arm, and he hmmed beside her, looking off toward the approaching dawn.
A playful smirk quirked Naruto’s mouth. “Oh, I mean, I don’t think anyone here wants to ‘know’ him the way you seem to, Sakura.” He jumped away from Sakura’s swatting hand and the negative tension in the air between them lightened a little. “You really have a thing for Sharingans,” he went on, and Sakura’s swatting increased in speed as her face flushed, “I mean, you’ve got this guy, and then there was Sasuke for a little while, and even that one time with ----”
“NARUTO!” She lashed out her fist and grazed the side of his head; he laughed at her physical attempts to shut him up, rubbing at the light bruise on his cheek. “All right, I’ll think about it,” he said then, “but I don’t think Sasuke will take very well to this.” He glanced up at the lip of the crater where watching onlookers stirred. “If you can convince him, then I guess I’ll… consider it. Though I don’t think I can convince the Anbu commander to fully swear off tailing him.” He cast narrowed blue eyes at Madara. “I’m basing my considerations on today, on Sakura tempering you like she seems to. Don’t think I’ve forgotten the past or all the terrible things you have done. Even if you do seek redemption in Konoha, it won’t be easy.”
Sakura felt Madara’s arm tense. “Don’t think I won’t crush you if something like that happens again.” His eyes flicked to the healed gash on Sakura’s side, and Naruto glowered back at him. “I could say the same to you. If she gets hurt, I’ll make sure you’re dead this time.”
“Okay, boys,” Sakura waved her arms between them as she tugged Madara with her, “That’s enough. We’ll talk out the details more later.”
“By the way Sakura-chan,” Naruto said then, glancing up at the other edge of the crater, “Moving may not be such a bad idea…”
She followed his gaze, and Sakura gasped at the sight of her little house. It was at the very lip of the crater’s edge as she had accounted for with her finely-tuned punch to the earth, but there were chunks of siding and shingles torn from it from the blasts of chakra from their fight; steam curled down its edges, and debris covered the roof. A downed tree was groaning across its front side and threatening to collapse through.
“Dammit!” Sakura ran toward the house, Sarada’s face burning in her mind. She gripped the leaning tree, pushing its trunk back until it stood unsteadily on its splintered trunk. Then she swerved on quick feet and skidded to a halt as she reached the open door. Sasuke stood at the step, Sarada in one arm as he glared at her. “Come,” he said, jerking his head out toward the street. “We have to talk.”

Like a warm shadow twice her size, Madara moved beside Sakura where she faced Sasuke. She instinctively stepped closer to him at the piercing cold of Sasuke’s responding glare. “So. What exactly was your plan here, Sakura? Was it you who brought this back?” He gestured dubiously at Madara. “Was it your plan to frighten the village and endanger all of us this way?”
“Sarada,” Sakura said, ignoring Sasuke and looking to her daughter, “Run along and find your friends. I’m sure they’re awake and training already.”
Sasuke’s arm around Sarada tightened. “No. She gets to hear this too.” Sarada squirmed uncomfortably at his side, her eyes dashed to her feet. She looked-half awake; her eyes glistened with traces of sleep and impending tears as she visibly held back her emotions.
Sakura turned a malice-filled eye to Sasuke. “Let her go.”
His white hand on her shoulder tightened, and Sarada winced; at this, Sasuke loosened his grip with a brief frown. She pulled away from him abruptly, moving back several paces; her conflicted eyes moved between Sakura, Madara, and Sasuke as she paused in her retreat. “What’s going on?” she asked timidly, and Sakura’s troubled frown turned to Sasuke. “We’ll talk later, Sarada.”
“But you always say that,” Sarada whispered, and she adjusted her red spectacles on her nose as a tear fell down her cheek, reflecting the light sepia color of the dawn. She backed away, both cheeks wet with her tears as she turned and ran toward Naruto where he walked with a small consort of Anbu down the street. With a grimace, Sakura settled her full attention on Sasuke. “Look, I know this is hard for everyone, and there’s a lot of questions, but we can deal with it later. I--”
Sasuke’s boot crunched in the dirt as he stepped forward, his lips curled in a snarl. “We’re dealing with this now.” Sakura turned to him as he continued, her face cast in shadow. “Don’t you remember? He ran me through with a sword during the war and I would have died if it weren’t for Kabuto saving my life. Have you forgotten that this demon tried to kill all of us?”
Sakura spat back at him with clenched fists. “If we’re holding everyone here accountable for their past actions, Sasuke, then might I remind you of when you tried to kill me, your teammate and friend? Or when you turned on us all after Kaguya’s defeat?” She stepped forward with one fist raised. “I haven’t forgotten the past. You may have changed for the better, but there’s a reason we haven’t been living in the same house for five years.”
Sasuke’s mouth twisted and he looked from her to Madara with a grimace. “So what, he is forgiven and I’m not? How does that work?”
“Because you were never supposed to be my enemy, Sasuke. You were supposed to be there for me then and all the years after that. You have no excuse.” She felt her chakra pulsing, her anger stirring her to fight again, and she fought back the urge at the pain in Sasuke’s eyes. Sakura lowered her fist. “Look, I… understand that this is hard. I do. But fighting will change nothing.”
Sasuke’s grimace turned to surprise etched with derision. “I don’t know what you’re playing at here or what sick plan he’s manipulated you into, but there’s no way I’m going to let him be the Uchiha clan head, and I’m going to make sure that you lose everything for this. Not just your status but Sarada too.”
Sakura’s rage flared, the deadliness returning to her vivid green eyes, and Sasuke tensed as she spat back at him. “Even if I let you try that, Sasuke, she’s not yours to take.”
He blinked, backing up a step. “She’s… what?”
Sakura’s rage simmered into pain as she turned toward Madara, looking away from Sasuke. Madara’s dark eye glittered under the shadows of the trees in the dim dawn light as he moved a gloved hand to rest around the back of her head, watching Sasuke’s face morph into an expression of horror as he spoke with his fingers curling into her long pink strands. “So he doesn’t know.”
Silence filled the clearing after Madara’s quiet statement. The trees shifted in a growing breeze around them, leaves whispering. Broken branches creaked; the dust from the shattered ground swirled around their feet as the house behind Sasuke groaned quietly on its damaged foundations.
“What don’t I know, Sakura?” Sasuke managed through clenched teeth, and she gripped Madara’s arm as she turned her face to look back at Sasuke. She was wincing, feeling the pain splitting her apart from within. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Sarada was… she was never your daughter.” Her eyes closed softly and she could not continue as her throat tightened.
“Is that why?” Sasuke stepped forward, hand on his sword beneath his cloak, and she flinched closer to Madara’s side. Sasuke’s eyes burned red now, the black patterns in his irises spinning. “I was always a little confused at your quick pregnancy, Sakura, though I never thought to question it after she was born… To think that you… you and Madara?” His voice cracked on the name, disbelief jarring with the pain in his expression as his scarlet eyes moved between them. Sasuke’s hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly enough that his knuckles were white. “You bastard. And Sakura… you used me to hide that she was his all along?”
“This is not a fight you’ll win, brat.” Madara’s dark timbre was edged. “I don’t intend to stand here and wait for you to figure it out. Learn to accept it and move on.” Madara stepped forward, and as he moved closely past Sasuke with Sakura on his arm, their crimson eyes met with clashing hatred. Black hair shifted in the breeze as Sasuke stood frozen where they had walked past him, and he was left staring unseeingly down at the DNA test results slip Madara had passed subtly into his palm as he and Sakura disappeared into the trees beyond the slowly crumbling house.
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A Living Secret