I dedicate this story to my friend, favourite artist and fellow Madasasu enthusiast Wynillustrates (on tumblr, Wnarya on Deviantart), whose art is a constant source of inspiration and whose headcanons and aesthetic are very, very similar to mine~
"Don't waste your touch, you won't feel anything
Or were you sent to save me?" (AFI, The Leaving Song)
History teaches that Madara Uchiha died at the hands of Hashirama Senju.
Their statues were erected in the Valley Of The End where their battle was fought, where the shinobi god ended his best friend's life in order to protect the village they founded together.
No one knows that Madara didn't die there.
No one knows that he used Izanagi to revert his fate and revive himself, replacing his corpse with a kage bunshin.
No one knows that he lived decades after that fight, alone, in a dark cave, occasionally wandering outside to see what the shinobi world was becoming.
No one knows that he activated Rinnegan and devised a plan to rewrite reality and achieve the peace he dreamed of as a child.
Never in his long life he would have imagined to use such power for the first time to trick his summoner.
The one supposed to revive him was Nagato with Rinne Tensei, not a ghastly person with a jutsu he doesn't know.
The man with snake-like features thought he could use him as a weapon, just like the others he brought back from the dead.
He was wrong.
It's exhilarating for Madara to feel the never-ending chakra flowing through his system.
It's amusing for him to pretend to be just a body in a casket until a paper seal in his head will give him a puppet-like life.
It would be even more amusing to see the look on the man's face if he transformed from the strong legendary warrior history remembered into the old man no one has ever seen.
The snake would be confused, thinking he robbed the wrong grave. Madara would scare him by shifting appearance again, then again, then again, reassuring him because he made no mistake.
Because he is in the presence of the most powerful man on Earth.
He dismisses that idea though. Whether that weird human knows or not, nothing will change the fact that Madara Uchiha defeated death. That he has limitless chakra. That he has Rinnegan and Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. That he is stronger than anyone. That he is finally stronger than Hashirama, his friend, his rival, the one who put his brother and his village before him. The one who discarded his opinion on the village both created, the one who let that village shun him and mistrust him. The one who killed him.
His body didn't die that time but his heart certainly had.
It's a bitter thought, to be alive when his counterpart is dead and gone.
But he is determined to avoid stupid sentimentalism: Hashirama is dead and gone. He is back, immortal.
Hashirama lost, he won.
He has been alone in a cave for so long, before passing away, that the air feels nice on his skin and the creepy snake's little plan is an interesting diversion to his own.
He is good at improvising anyway.
He only needs to touch a Zetsu to have all the information he needs.
The boy Obito -a man now- didn't betray him, but there have been complications.
Not all the tailed beasts are in his possession. Hachibi and Kyuubi are being strenuously defended
by an alliance of shinobi from all countries, against which his pupil has declared war.
In the past such alliance would have never happened.
The previous generations were narrow-minded.
Such minds are hard to change, but once convinced they will follow the new path just as blindly as the previous one.
The current generation is idealistic.
Too bad that their lack of backbone turns their ideals into childish dreams that can't last when facing reality.
He and Hashirama had the same problem, a long time ago.
Madara let Kabuto use him like the other Edo Tensei, from intimidating Obito to being sent to the battlefield.
What a nostalgic sensation, fighting multiple enemies at once, easily defeating them all.
There is definitely no need to rush. He missed a lot of things when he was alone and weak and old.
And dead.
Back in his days shinobi were strong enough to submit the Tailed Beasts. Now their vessels are the only notable ones, and other than a few exceptions everyone else is less than average for his standards.
This generation is better at talking than at fighting; Madara learns everything about the war and its protagonists through their words, not just through the constant flux of data he receives from Zetsu as he revels in the sensations of his once again -and forever- strong body deflecting, blocking and striking back, over and over.
He learns so much that he predicts exactly what will happen once he'll put his original plan in motion: he would easily defeat their leaders while Obito, as a part of this spineless generation, would eventually break under his former comrade or a smooth talker such as the Kyuubi host appealing to the person he once was. He would have to intervene while the Zetsu would overpower every other shinobi.
Then he would cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
It's a perfect plan. So perfect that it's too fast, too predictable.
Now that he is immortal time has no longer the same value. To be fast is no longer necessary.
Rushing towards a goal seems incomplete now, as the result isn't more important than the process of reaching it.
Being perfect too isn't as imperative as before, as he doesn't have only one chance anymore.
His plan was far-sighted and thorough, as expected from someone pushed by the urge to change the world, to give people the peace they weren't able to achieve for themselves.
He started conceiving it before the final fight, when he set up Izanagi to negate his death, using his rival's flesh to heal his wounds.
He thought about variants and outcomes as he waited for the lost eye to be restored and Rinnegan to activate, as he summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and created a non-sentient Hashirama's clone that would infuse him chakra and prolong his life, all while implanting his Rinnegan into an Uzumaki boy, whose clan was genetically closest to Senju.
He chose that boy because he sensed a similar chakra, even if he didn't resemble his friend at all.
He created a soulless clone of his friend.
He missed his friend.
He was still uncertain back then, struggling between purpose and despair, love and hate.
He wasn't ready to let go of the past yet.
Only when Obito was left for dead in his cave he devised the perfect course of action.
He manipulated the boy into becoming his replacement, isolating him for years then making it possible for him to escape, so that he would see his best friend kill the woman he loved.
So that he would see that reality was hell. So that he would accept Madara's alternative for the future. So that he would take Madara's memories and identity once he died.
Not knowing that his mentor orchestrated Rin's kidnapping to turn her into the Three Tails' jinchuuriki, so that she had no choice but to die by Kakashi's hands, Obito continued his work, manipulating events and people, founding Akatsuki to keep Nagato under control for when the time would come to revive him, extending his control to the Fourth Mizukage, unleashing the Nine Tailed Fox against Konoha.
Madara never said he would destroy the whole Uchiha clan: that was Obito's personal interpretation.
Konoha's former founder was proud that the memories he engraved in the boy's brain had inspired such initiative.
Hashirama used to say that no matter how well one was prepared, the unexpected was always behind, watching, waiting for the right moment to make its entrance. Sometimes it didn't deem it necessary; sometimes it wrecked every single thing that crossed its path.
He was right.
His return as Edo Tensei is unexpected.
Not that he complained. In fact, if being immortal in a world of weak and spineless warriors would have been horribly demeaning for his past self, for his present self it's interesting, to say the least.
It's ironic that someone strict as Tobirama created a jutsu that crossed the border between life and death, disregarding ethics and morality, Madara thinks, amused, facing the Kage and recognizing a Senju woman.
Sasuke Uchiha is unexpected.
Vaguely looking like his brother Izuna, they were actually very different.
Sasuke is rebellious to everything, only focused on one single person, according to Zetsu. Izuna was loyal to the clan, much more than he was.
Madara wanted the Uchiha to prosper but he also wanted them to coexist peacefully with other clans. He believed in Konoha, a village where everyone lived and worked together, where differences weren't a reason to fight but an occasion to discuss and learn.
Konoha didn't believe in him, instead. They didn't deem him worthy of ruling because he was an Uchiha, no matter how much he proved his loyalty.
Hashirama was Hokage while he was just one face in the Council.
Izuna was dead and Tobirama was alive.
What more did they want?
Eventually he understood that real peace and understanding were nothing but a dream.
The only way to achieve it was to put everyone under control.
To give them a new, different reality.
An Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Without even knowing his last descendant has been a setback on multiple occasions: chasing after his brother he prevented the kidnapping of the Kyuubi boy, once he joined Akatsuki he failed retrieving the Hachibi.
He was family though. Obito did the right thing, telling him the truth, keeping him close, fueling his hate.
Maybe he could have turned him into a pupil, a company, a pet.
Like he was for Madara.
If only Itachi Uchiha hadn't existed.
He is unexpected too.
Obito never succeeded in winning over the young shinobi who devoted his life to his brother, staining his hands with the blood of his clansmen so that the little one would survive, who defended Konoha from the shadows, granting Sasuke the revenge he needed; who, brought back as Edo Tensei, even without Rinnegan, managed to free himself from the snake man's control, locating and defeating him.
With his superior intellect, his impressive abilities and his strength of mind and soul, Itachi Uchiha would have shined during his times, Madara muses, as the battlefield is lit up by the peaceful brightness of the summoned shinobi returning to the other world.
Itachi Uchiha stopped the Edo Tensei.
It wasn't strange that his brother adored him, despite what he suffered because of him.
The Kage are too busy defending themselves against his multiple Susano'o to notice that they are fighting mere clones.
The real one has just found something more interesting to do.
"What is it that you want, boy?"
Sasuke doesn't hear him the first time.
His eyes are glistening. His lips are parted.
As if he has spoken, unheard, to the one who went away.
He looks fragile, so pale and gaunt in that dark cave.
Like a child who got lost.
He lost his most important person again, this time after having lived a glimpse of what their life could have been.
Madara is patient. He repeats the same question once, twice. Three times, until he is heard.
Then, he waits for an answer.
It's obvious that the boy is hesitating with a stranger.
He hardens his look.
No one must see his weakness. No one must see his loneliness.
"Are you lost or what? What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for you, boy."
The man replies with an ambiguous tone that is neither tentative nor arrogant.
"Who the hell are you?"
Sasuke presses.
"Madara Uchiha...nice to meet you."
The man who treated his wounds. The man who told him the truth.
Itachi's dark mentor. The man who helped him kill the clan.
The man who knows more than him about his brother.
"Did you forget your mask or what?"
Madara smirks at his comeback. He likes this boy already.
"I understand your confusion. That would be my underling. My temporary replacement if you will."
The man walks towards Kabuto's still body, opening one of his eyes to examine him.
"Izanami. Fascinating..."
"My brother did it."
Sasuke states proudly, even though that pride doesn't change the sadness in his eyes.
Izanagi rewrites reality in exchange of one eye.
For the same price, Izanami traps the opponent in a loop where they won't be able to escape until they'll realize their mistake.
Madara used Izanagi once. Many did. Even his father.
He never met anyone who used Izanami.
He never met anyone who wanted to redeem someone.
The boy didn't want to, either.
He wanted to kill the enemy and spend time with his brother, but Itachi insisted and their time together ended too soon.
"My replacement was supposed to prepare my comeback but someone preceded him..."
He adds, gesturing at Orochimaru's pupil.
Only then Sasuke notices the man's black sclerae and the cracks on his face.
"Impossible. My brother dispelled the Edo Tensei."
My brother is stronger than anyone.
"Yet here I am..."
The boy is stunned when the stranger turns his Edo Tensei appearance into a normal one. White sclerae, no more lines on his face, a healthy complexion. He looks alive.
"What do you want, Madara Uchiha?"
Now he sounds threatening.
Not because he is a dangerous enemy. He doesn't care about the war raging outside the cave anyway.
Not because he is afraid of him. He doesn't care about his life anyway.
Only because he dared invalidate his brother's efforts.
"What do you want, Sasuke Uchiha?"
Echoes the man. He doesn't wait for a reply.
"You want your brother, Itachi Uchiha."
"Don't mention him ever again."
Sasuke hisses.
"Now leave the hell out of here."
He doesn't want to speak to that man.
He is lost. Completely, utterly lost.
He can't understand why Itachi was still loyal to concepts like shinobi and village.
For him those words have a different meaning.
Shinobi means being strong and having control over one's own life.
It means being similar to his brother.
Village means the place where one is born by coincidence, that by the same coincidence becomes the symbol of where their loyalty is bound to.
It means rulers that decide who's allowed to exist and who isn't.
Furious and heartbroken for their imminent definite parting, he told Itachi that meeting him had turned his hate towards the village that made him suffer so much even stronger.
That no matter how many times Itachi, the older brother, would defend it, he, the younger brother, would tear it down.
Nevertheless, had Itachi asked him to defend Konoha together he would have accepted, not for Konoha but for him.
Only for him.
He would do anything for him.
"To have him back...Isn't that what you want?"
Itachi said that the Edo Tensei was a vile jutsu for both the dead and the living but to Sasuke it became the medium to see him again, to talk to him again, to touch him again -if only he dared to.
Out of respect, out of uncertainty, he never did, until his brother himself grabbed his head and bumped their foreheads, closing the distance between them for a moment, before he disappeared forever.
He would give anything to touch him again.
He would do anything to see him again.
Sasuke's bitter laugh signals Madara that it's time for showing what the most powerful man on Earth can do.
"Is she your friend?"
He asks, pointing at Anko's form, lying in the ground not far from them.
The boy shakes his head then barely suppresses a flinch. He hates pointless killing.
Especially when the killer is so fast to be able to steal his sword before reaching the woman.
Especially when the killer flings her in the air and cuts her head off, all while smiling like a magician doing his show.
Only it's not a trick. There is no genjutsu.
Then, Rinnegan flaring in both eyes he brings her back with Rinne Tensei, like Nagato should have done with him.
She isn't an impure reincarnation. She is alive, as feisty as she was her during the chuunin exam, until Madara's eye pattern changes into Mangekyou Sharingan and she becomes the silent dreamer of a Tsukuyomi dream.
He lifts his index up, as to say he isn't over yet.
Placing his hand on her Curse Mark he lets something out. Sasuke recognizes Orochimaru's familiar chakra peeking out. Before he comes out as well does the man traps him in a genjutsu and puts him back where he was.
"I can give you your brother back if you follow me."
He states again with a satisfied smirk, turning towards an astonished Sasuke.
"Where?"
Sasuke isn't threatening anymore.
He respects strength and this person is incredibly strong.
This man can give him Itachi back.
Nothing else matters.
"Far from this war."
"Isn't this war going on because of you?"
He inquired.
"Don't worry about that, boy. I will take care of it."
Madara replies nonchalantly as he puts his hands over the boy's shoulders.
It's not one of those familiar gestures that Sasuke hates. The man isn't even looking at him.
"Come out now," he commands. Five Zetsu come out from his body, just like they did during the Kage meeting.
The creatures' eyes change into reflections of the Uchiha elder's Rinnegan.
"As you command."
They say in unison.
"Someone is coming, hurry up."
The man points at the direction to take, while all Zetsu disappear in the ground but one, who shape-shifts into someone else.
Sasuke doesn't notice. He follows the stranger, leaping through the trees, just like he did with his brother not long before.
Only he's not screaming for attention and answers.
He's confused.
Meeting Itachi didn't just reopen the wound left by his loss. It didn't just sharpen his loneliness.
It also opened a hole that only knowledge could fill.
Sasuke feels he doesn't understand enough. That he doesn't know enough.
Orochimaru, who always sought knowledge, isn't really dead.
Despite being a traitor he should know what a village is.
Despite being a rogue with a bounty on his head he should be able to explain what a shinobi is.
Has he done the right thing, not questioning his former teacher and walking away?
"I'll answer your questions, boy..." Madara shakes him off his musings.
Did he just read his mind?
His voice is almost lost among the leaves, as he quickens his pace.
"...and if you'll still have some you'll ask your brother!"
He will understand Itachi's ideals talking to him again.
He will have him back again.
Nothing is more important.
It's not the first time that Sasuke ends up with a powerful stranger that he doesn't really trust yet he has no other choice but to follow, if he wants to achieve his goal.
This time his goal is having his brother back.
Nothing is more important.
He never trusted people anyway. Only his brother.
He knows better than to impatiently stalk them until they'll give him what he wants.
He also knows that they always ask for something in return.
At least Madara won't require his body as a vessel. He is immortal, unlike Orochimaru.
Besides, he is family.
Will it mean something?
To revive Itachi Madara needs the Demonic Statue and his corpse. The Zetsu are retrieving both, moving underground like ants.
A space bending jutsu to bring retrieve them is possible, but why hurrying?
They settle in an old Uchiha base.
Madara explains that it was the first Uchiha settlement, from the times there were no villages.
It was already there when he was born.
Even before he and Hashirama founded Konoha their clan had already moved to other areas, leaving that base empty and sealed invisible to non Uchiha eyes, so that no one would touch it.
So that no one would taint it.
The man transfers in a Zetsu Kabuto's useful medical abilities and acquired powers.
The snake was an interesting person, he says, albeit too needy of others' approval, too struggling with his sense of self.
Zetsu are much better: a by-product of the Senju cells cultivation in the Gedo Mazo, they don't have feelings or emotions. They don't understand ambition or revenge.
They aren't human. In spite of their humanoid appearance they are nothing more than carnivore plants, genetically designed to talk, move and obey him and no one else.
There are his eyes and ears. They have always been so.
Sasuke wants to learn everything that influenced his brother's ideals.
Madara knows everything.
He tells him their clan's history, their myths and legends. Their old gods, later replaced with Senju's cult of the Will of Fire.
For the boy it's fascinating to learn about beliefs and customs that changed over time so much that at a first glance they seem unrelated notions, but instead speak volumes about their world, from the clash of cultures in the beginning, to the imposition of one instead of the creation of a new syncretism with all the different elements, to include everyone.
This surely influenced Konoha's inclination to suffocate what doesn't conform to the Will of Fire and what doesn't blindly obey its rulers.
"Are you really sure that you want your brother back?"
Madara asks once.
"Are you going back to your word?"
Sasuke interrupts. His look becomes darker, his stance guarded.
He is ready to strike, no matter how strong the other man is.
Without Itachi his life is meaningless anyway.
Unimpressed, the older man keeps talking, with the ironic tone that his descendant knows well by now.
The tone of someone who never take anything too seriously.
He doesn't need to, now that he's immortal.
"Bringing a dead man back is a rather...controversial act, frowned upon by morality, religion and ethics..."
Itachi too had spoken harsh words against it.
For Sasuke though, the pain of losing him is stronger than anything.
Even stronger than the respect for his brother's morals.
Madara observes, smirking.
He knows that the boy doesn't care about ethics. He wouldn't care about such limitations either.
Itachi wouldn't have cared either if Sasuke died, had he the chance to bring him back.
Everything Madara learned through Zetsu proved that Itachi's morals were complicated, to say the least.
His pure ideals, his endless love for Sasuke and the darkness he went through to achieve his goal; the immortal was fascinated by his strength of will, regardless of his contradictions.
To save his brother from death he destroyed his life. He beat his body down. He destroyed his mind and soul, tearing down everything he had, turning his attention on him only.
Death would have been a more merciful fate, the man thinks, remembering Izuna.
Sasuke is strong and smart. His unrelenting willpower reminds Madara of himself.
Yet he is broken inside.
He hides his naivete with excessive training, his insecurity with arrogance.
He has an adult-like determination and analytic disposition but childlike emotions, raw and blindingly powerful. Even though they exist for just one.
Madara doesn't intend to go back on his word.
He is set on bringing Itachi back as he promised -he is curious, meeting such prodigy in person will be interesting indeed.
Nevertheless he is testing the boy's motivation. And his own ability to play this game.
First, instilling a desire Sasuke didn't even know he had.
Then, once its seed blooms into a real need, taking it back, showing him obstacles, with the only purpose to make the need grow stronger, and with it Sasuke's motivation to stay, until every uncertainty in following him is erased.
As if Sasuke has any.
He followed Orochimaru, he followed Obito with no uncertainty.
He left his old friends and comrades behind more than once, to follow a path leading to Itachi, no matter who he would end with.
"I don't give a damn about all that."
Sasuke replies, looking straight in his eyes.
"I just want my brother back."
Madara knows he made the right choice. That boy will provide him great entertainment.
He will give him what he wants but first he needs to be trained.
A/N:
I like crack pairings and coming up with a scenario where they make sense comes naturally to me. My first Itachi ship was Madaita, mostly because of Lily's art and because the masked man was believed to be Madara instead of Obito. Now I prefer like Obiita (the way Obito talked about Itachi to Sasuke...), in the meantime Madasasu became one of my favourite pairings, because of some fanart and the little interactions they had in canon.
In my opinion their personalities make room for a lot of dark, ambiguous, intriguing potential. And even more than that.
Surely it's a crack pairing, but one thing in their canon interaction intrigued me. When Madara stabbed Sasuke he was quoting Hashirama's words, and at the moment of stabbing him he said "In order to protect something one must sacrifice something else. Be it a friend, sibling or even my own child". It was fascinating, to me it was like an admission of a bond, somehow. Also when Sasuke is dying on the ground Madara acknowledges his eyes, and his suffering that brought them. I felt like these two might have a bond, in the right context.
This story has strong underlying Itasasu feelings but it's a Madasasu, keep that in mind.
Also, this story allows me to divert from canon, which I hate.
The Madara I'm writing is immortal, having defeated Edo Tensei like in canon. With this in mind I imagined seeing that the new generation is weaker and more spineless for his own, his ideal of using Infinite Tsukuyomi and creating peace without free will, for the sake of humanity, is less urgent. When he conceived it he wasn't immortal and he couldn't properly use Rinnegan because he was too old, now he doesn't have limitations and he concentrates on "less important" things, being less serious and more of a trickster, sort of, like that part where he feels the battle, the wounds on his body, enjoying everything very much. This is what I took inspiration from. I imagined that someone who's immortal, incredibly strong and has this new disposition, would also be very curious, but also picky. Not many characters would arouse his interest. Except for Edo Tensei Itachi, who stopped the Edo Tensei jutsu all by himself, almost, and Sasuke, who's not affiliated to anything and anyone (but his brother), and who has unknowingly been a problem for his plan.
Sasuke is lost, after losing Itachi again. I imagined that the perfect moment for Madara and Sasuke to get in touch was right after Itachi disappeared. After that he would meet his comrades who would give him the Edo Tensei scroll, he would summon Orochimaru then the Kage to understand Itachi's ideals, and join the battlefield to honor Itachi's ideals. Before all that he was lost, full of pain for Itachi and full of hate for Konoha. That is the perfect moment.
I wanted to give Madara a sort of tempting devil feel, the result made me also think of Sebastian and Ciel, from Kuroshitsuji. I don't dislike it.
I trailed off. If you hate Kaguya and the ending and you have an open mind about pairings, you might like this fic. Otherwise...not my problem.