Naruto : Remnants of the Past

Uzushiogakure no Sato

"Sir…?"

"..."

"Uhm, excuse me, sir…?"

"..."

The messenger's stance faltered slightly when he didn't get so much as a twitch from the stone-faced visage of an Uchiha sitting in front of him. Fingers crossed in front of his mouth, Madara's legs dangled by the edge of the wall, his eyes closed to savor the wisps of air that blew his hair to the side.

"They're here." he said to no one in particular, voice as calm as the sea. It had been three hours since he'd called the messenger to tell him this. Meanwhile, said messenger had been standing behind him like a valet, or a mutt, Madara did not know which for sure, but his patience had finally run thin.

"W-What…?!"

"Sound the alarms, the enemy's upon us."

He may have very well told him that it wasn't going to rain today in the same exact tone and the redhead standing behind him would have been none the wiser. Though the dangerous glare that Madara shot him with when the redhead didn't move his feet as he was told made him scurry away almost instantly.

Jumping down from the ledge, which was at least fifty meters high, Madara raised up a small cloud of dust when his feet met with the ground. For a moment he tried to shake off the buzz his legs had felt from the jump, before he straightened his knees and flexed his back, silently awaiting the inevitable battle to ensue. Thankfully, they seemed to be no pushovers, and judging from the way the skill with which they had been trying to hide and create a perimeter around the walls - for no less than three hours for now - they seemed to be well prepared as well.

Madara hadn't bothered letting the enemy know that they had been sensed the moment they were within his range - which was fairly large - since it would have been a shame to put a cut in their preparations. Uchiha Madara may be many things - but one thing he wasn't was a sensor. His brother more or less made up for this little niggle most of the time, but after a lifetime worth of combat, his instincts had been sharpened enough to feel even an ant's worth of killing intent pointed at him; much less the stupid amounts these fools were leaking.

They may very well have waved up a red flag shouting "We're here, come kill us, Madara-sama!" but he had digressed, for he was a patient man, and giving them ample amounts of time to make their preparations was just what a patient man should do. It wouldn't do him any good if his enemy was struck when they were unguarded and unprepared; plus, there was no need to take away a good battle in favor of a small wait, right?

So, being the patient man that he was, Madara had sat idly on this wall for hours and generously let the enemy have their time; but after three hours of continuous waiting, even his patience were running thin.

"May as well get the ball rolling," Madara said, clearly annoyed by the lack of uptake his enemies were proceeding with. His fingers twitched impatiently, and those honed senses of combat took over for a moment as a mad grin flashed over his lips.

He made the horse hand sign and whispered, "Fire Style,"

His chest expanded as he sharply inhaled, and Madara held it in for a moment to see if the enemy would finally take the initiative and man up before he unleashed a fiery hell upon them. When no response came, he began kneading chakra into heat, and blended it with the air that he had been holding in. Madara nearly sighed and soiled his technique when he still didn't see the enemy ruffle so much as a leaf around them; probably thinking he was training or something with a stupid single hand-sign technique.

"Fools."

Just as the siren for the invasion went off behind his back, Madara unleashed a literal sea of flames from his lips upon them, which were doused not a moment later with a blood curdling roar of pain and agony to announce the beginning of this war. Oh, this was going to be good; no, better yet, this was going to be bloody, Madara thought.

"Great Fire Annihilation!" he said.

The narrow stream of flames that had escaped his lips expanded and began spreading and engulfing nearly a mile's worth of fauna in front of him. The intense heat coupled with the sweet melodies of horrified screams almost made the hair on Madara's neck rise. He wanted go giddy and engage his enemies in a joyful dance of blades. Some of them had the mind to shoot out a defensive mud wall or something, but his flames began tearing them apart as if they were mere paper.

"The hell was that?!"

"Call for reinforcements!"

"Tend to the wounded!"

Amidst the chaos and frenzied shouts of orders, seven people - singed from head to toe - came forward with an intimidating press to their step. Madara's eyebrow rose up in slight amusement hearing the middle one speak up, "I'm going to kill you for that, you bastard!" It seemed as if there were some men among these kids - kids who had the gall to taunt him of all people - even after seeing the display of raw power he'd just exhibited.

"Oh~" Madara hummed with an amused smile, a tauntingly insidious smile, "Is that so?" he asked

"Don't mock us, do you even know who we are?" the middle one shouted.

"Well, not really, and to be honest, I couldn't care less." Madara said with a scoff.

Madara didn't a memory good enough to boast that he had the keenest of skills in remembering faces, but he generally went by the rule that if he didn't recall them on first sight, then they probably weren't worth remembering - the seven of them fell into the later, sadly.

Tilting his head aside in slight curiosity he asked, "Can you still dance…?"

His words struck them off guard, but Madara gave them ample time to recollect themselves - he was a patient man, after all.

"You dare mock us, the seven ninja swordsman of the mist?" the middle one shouted once more.

If possible, Madara leaned his head a little more to the side, "The seven what?" he asked.

As if struck by acid, "I'll make sure you remember us by the time we're done with you." another kid seethed, making Madara cross his arms and sigh, clearly bemused.

"Novices, " Madara sighed.

After a moment's deliberation, "Boy," Madara said to the one who had the gall to taunt him, "Tell you what, if you entertain me enough to make my eyes turn red, I may even let you live and go home." he offered kindly.

That certainly was a pleasant offer, was it not?

To fight him and stay alive to tell the tale; not many had the luck or the audacity to say the same. So, it clearly was a gratifying offer in his eyes; not in theirs, unfortunately.

The short tempered one in the middle finally lost it and charged at Madara with an outcry along the lines of, "I'll kill you!"

"No, don't do it jinin! He's no ordinary shinobi to charge at like that!" one of the more level headed comrades in his team tried to reason in vain. The one charging at Madara clearly was in a daze of adrenaline, and just as his weird origami-covered blade - yes, it was a blade covered in paper slips - made contact with Madara's war fan, a huge blast rocked the battlefield with an intensity that even surprised Madara to an extent - a minuscule extent - but it did surprise him nonetheless.

He would teach this boy how to go toe to toe with a veteran in due time. After all, as he had mentioned before, Uchiha Madara was a really kind and patient man. For the time being though, "Uchiha Reflection!" was the only thing he had to say to the child. Regrettably, yet another horrified scream mellowed in the screams from before; this one being from the child Madara had promised to let live. He hadn't expected a blast with a magnitude to kill someone from that funny looking blade else he's just have dodged it and let the child live.

That was unfortunate.

Oh well, onto the next one in need of a lesson, Madara thought.

"What kind of a monster is that?!"

No one had the answer to that question as almost an entire contingent of Uzumaki's lined up over the great wall of Uzushiogakure and watched Uchiha Madara wreak havoc on the battlefield below. Ashina Uzumaki himself was utterly speechless at the unrestrained freak of nature that was Uchiha Madara, tearing apart men and land alike as if he were a reaper of destruction.

Just what a hellish kind of a place had the mainlands become to birth a shinobi as hard boiled as, uh, him?

He was sure that at least one battalion of the enemy fighters were wiped out from that unprecedented declaration of war Madara had just announced after that violent stream of flames. Meanwhile, even now, Madara wasn't as serious in the battle as he should have been; that much, even Ashina could tell, if the joyful laughs he was hearing from the man below were any indication.

Had it not been for those dire screams erupting all around him, Ashina might have just jotted this down as a spar of sorts. If his memory served correctly, Madara had said that Naruto was supposed to be 'at least' on par with his elder brother's strength. But their fighting styles varied so distantly that almost everyone thought of Madara to be the one that was supposed to be feared.

Unlike his elder brother, who was a brute-force kind of a shinobi that destroyed almost anything in his path - be it living or otherwise - Naruto was a shinobi who tried as hard as possible to keep the damage to life and environment to a minimum as much as he possibly could.

Where Madara would tear, blow and chop his enemies up, Naruto's ways were supposed to be of a shinobi that kept himself discrete in the shadows; his ways were much more subtle if you will, much more precise. Suddenly, the thought of his daughter being engaged to such a dangerous man made this father's heart shake a little, if he were to be honest.

But as for the present situation, "Send in the Elite Squadron to lend Madara a hand. We're supposed to be shinobi, not spectators watching a battle!" Ashina's bark didn't even seem to make any of them move. Just as he was about to fire off some insults, "Sir, you see, Naruto-sama explicitly instructed us something before he left with Lady Mito."

As much as it pained him to ask, "What could that have been?" Ashina asked with a sigh, already having an inkling of a suspicion as to what he must have said.

Gulping thickly, "Well, he told us not to enter into a battle where his brother was, and I quote, enjoying himself. He said that Madara-sama wasn't one to differentiate a friend from foe during those moments…" Ryouta said nervously.

Ashina had to fidget a little from his right hand man's words. It wasn't right. This was supposed to be a fight for protecting their homeland, and the Uzumaki were the ones supposed to defend it. But seeing Madara's laughing form dancing around the battlefield like a crazed lunatic, slaughtering anything that came his way like cattle, he honestly didn't have the heart to go in and get in Madara's way himself; much less send one of his own men to see if Madara chopped his comrades up or not.

For the time being, "How long until this, well," Ashina faltered a little in his words when Madara slapped an exploding bomb over someone's chest and head, chopped them off, and sent them flying in opposite directions to kill a dozen more, before laughing as if he'd just made some sort of a joke on the enemy. "…trance, ends?" Ryouta supplied helpfully, cringing from the screams echoing in the distance.

"How long does this trance last?" Ashina repeated queasily.

"Naruto-sama told us that until his blood-lust was sated, Madara-sama won't stop."

Well that was unsettling to say the least. It seemed like the Uzumaki clan had a while to wait before they could enter the battle for themselves. All of them, Ashina included, had only one thought in mind for now.

It was a good thing that Uchiha Madara was on their side.

~~~Kirigakure no Sato~~~

The journey from her home to the Land of Water had been rather plain if Mito were to be honest. But I wasn't like she had a problem with that, opposite infact - she was glad there had been no problems on her first trip to a foreign land. For all the niceties she could note, thinking about her companion made her forget all of it while a small weight would settle in her stomach.

Naruto, for all his implied obliviousness, had been rather distant to her during the the whole journey. There were no sly winks, subtle touches or even so much as a smile shot her way. Mito rubbed her arm unconsciously when her eye turned over her shoulder to see Naruto walking steadfastly behind her like a shadow - a shadow she could see but not touch. For all the time she had known Naruto - which wasn't much, Mito knew - she hadn't seen him look this cold and indifferent to her presence.

Whenever he was around her, he was playful, a shameless tease who bothered her to death, and a pervert who's hands moved way too smoothly for her comfort. But now that she wasn't his center of attention, Mito noticed how attached she had grown to him and his silly quirks and she loathed it with all her being.

"We should stop for a few minutes to rest and re-hydrate." Naruto said.

Mito nodded mutely and threw one leg over the other as she sat on a boulder. She shot Naruto with an irritated look when he tossed a canteen at her without even looking and started checking the small pack she had been carrying for some supplies. He threw an energy bar her way which made her fumble the canteen in her palms and drop it.

"Tsk, clumsy girl." Naruto admonished her lightly.

He picked up the empty bottle she had dropped and started walking out the clearing to look for some more water after giving a soft tap to her nose to further add some humiliation over her already riled up state. Mito fumed silently and threw the energy bar in his direction with a huff, but it never made any contact since Naruto had flashed out of her view before she had even thrown it.

He hadn't so much as looked at her the whole time they'd been off the ship, the nerve of him! To think she had been excited that they'd have some quality time when they weren't under anyone's radar was an understatement, Mito had been elated beyond belief when she'd come to know that Naruto of all people had been chosen as her escort.

Mito blinked in surprise seeing a busyness of ferrets run out from the bushes to munch on the energy bar she had just thrown at Naruto's back, and watched in interest when they started sniffing around for some more food. Mito fetched a few raisins she always kept hidden in her sleeve pockets and lowered her palm to see if they'd trust her enough to let her feed them, and indeed they did, as soon as the scent of raisins reached their noses they were all over her palm in an instant.

When they were done nibbling the treats from her palm, the ferrets climbed all over her arms and back and one of them even made made himself home on her head. This was the scene Naruto walked into - with Mito covered head to toe with little balls of fur which he assumed were ferrets that were in abundance to this habitat. His lips quirked up seeing her laugh like a child when a couple of those ferrets started sniffing on her toes.

Mito mirrored his smile when she saw him looking at her fondly, having finally become interesting enough to garner his attention. Naruto walked closer and rubbed a ferret's chin, before smoothly moving his finger to her cheek and tracing her lips. Mito's ears heated up from his touch, and she instantly ducked her head down to avoid looking into his eyes.

"What's that, Naruto?" she asked.

Naruto followed her eyes and saw a small red blotch on his shirt. He frowned and soaked it in some water to prevent it from staining. "Must have caught it in the woods ," he said and Mito nodded, not thinking such a small stain wasn't enough to worry her about him. Naruto took the ferrets down from her body and shooed them into the bushes.

Before she could sound a word of protest for running away her furry little friends, Naruto shut her up by saying, "Let's go, the sun will set in a couple of hours." and so, Mito pursed her lips for the time being and they went back to the routine of Naruto being his oblivious and indifferent self while Mito kept pouting and sulking from the lack of attention she was being showered with.

It was the second day of them walking after the escorts from the Land of Water had split from them, and Mito still had another day of silent walking to look forward to. But she was very much looking forward to the night, where they'd share a sleeping back and she'd cuddle with him as if there was no tomorrow.

Mito was still left wondering as to why the forest was so silent when, from what she'd read in her village's library, Mist was supposed to be full of wildlife and all she'd seen were a few ferrets?

Were they scared of her or something?

A/N : Apologies for the delay in updates and the length of this chapter, but this chapter had been lying as a rough draft on my computer for nearly a month now and I never got around to finish editing it. It was always supposed to focus on Madara, a bit more than I ended up doing so I'm not even gonna lie, but I thought it was best to just polish up the three scenes I had written and get it published for an update rather than forcing myself to write a halfhearted full-length chapter that readers may have a problem with.

I hope you all like it enough to at least read it, if not, you're welcome to leave all your negative feedback in a review and send it my way - I won't mind it, honest. Well, I've rambled enough, until next time, keep reading and reviewing!

Ja Ne! ;D