Starring:
Date: June 26, 2012
Summary:
None given.
"What If? Dead Rising - Unforgiven"
Unknown location
Uchiha Fuyu was a little girl who was taken in by, raised by, and taught
by the greatest of all Uchiha, the leader and savior of the Clan, Uchiha
Madara. Her parents were dead, but she never knew them so she never cared.
Her world was Madara-sensei. Her father, as far as she was concerned, was
Madara-sensei. Her only family, her only friend, her only reason to live
was Madara-sensei.
There was nothing else but his approval.
And she never received that approval. She watched him grow as a man, as a
ninja, as a POWER in the shinobi world. She was there when he obtained his
Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. She was THERE when he lead the Uchiha to one
victory after another, conquering Clan after Clan. She was THERE when he
reluctantly joined forces with Senju Hashiramako, not out of his own
desire but because he wanted what was best for those who he had fought so
hard to lead, to protect, to strengthen… She was there when the Hokage
was chosen and it wasn't Madara. She was there when he tried to rally his
Clan to reject this decision and show that they were the ones who had the
vision and the power to usher in a new, eternal age of peace. She was
there when the Clan betrayed him and broke his heart in the process. Just
as Madara-sensei was everything to her, the Uchiha were everything to
Madara-sensei.
She was there when he left the Village… And she stayed in the Village
when he was gone. She stayed because she wanted to destroy the Senju
betrayers from within. She wanted to make the Hidden Leaf Village a
suitable home to return to when she next encountered her teacher. She
stayed behind and she hated herself for letting Uchiha Madara think she
had betrayed him alongside the others by not leaving at his side.
She never received his forgiveness for that. But after experiencing her
own betrayal at Madara's hands, when he attempted to make her suffer so
much her own Mangekyou Sharingan would awaken so that he could TAKE it for
his OWN ends… She didn't forgive him either. Not even after she
recovered. A year later, she prepared to leave the hospital in
Konohagakure after letting go of her hatred at last. She was cut in half
by one of the Seven Swordsman, but with intensive care from the best
Medical-Ninja around, she was finally at least stable enough to resume her
duties. She didn't think that was possible, for awhile. But she stood on
her own two feet and prepared to walk.
She had a new mission already: something that could only be accomplished
by her own special brand of Genjutsu… The Genjutsu she could cast with
her Mangekyou Sharingan. She knew the Hokage knew about it now, and she
had been ordered out specifically because of this. But standing in her way
as she walked outside, was none other than the same man who had betrayed
her, who had been declared dead by so many others, and yet whom the Hokage
had said she had 'defeated' not truly 'killed'. Uchiha Madara stood in the
middle of the street and stared her down. Those eyes without acceptance,
without acknowledgement, without approval… She looked back into them,
and for the first time in her entire life, it didn't hurt her.
Uchiha Madara was a man that Uchiha Fuyu had suspected was still alive
for awhile. However, she had begun to doubt her own suspicion when that
masked man in the black and red mantle had appeared in her hospital room
and indicated he might have been manipulating her. She still wasn't
entirely sure who — or even WHAT that 8+ feet tall monster was. His
Chakra had been unreal for someone who was neither Madara nor Hashiramako.
Those were the only people Fuyu had ever seen with Chakra in such quantity
and intensity in such a concentrated place — at least that was human. She
had seen the Nine-Tails once, and that had been something else entirely.
She couldn't see anything through the monster's mask. It was made of a
strange material that blocked her Sharingan, just like that one spot in
the floor of the Hokage's office. She couldn't stop him, and he just put
his hand on her face and she blacked out. But now her suspicions about her
former sensei were confirmed, seemingly.
Madara-sensei stood before her.
"I'm not actually here," Madara said. Fuyu arched an eyebrow, her
pale-red 'low-power' Sharingan looking back impassively. "Oh?" she
replied. "This doesn't appear to be a Genjutsu. Not even Tsukuyomi."
Madara looked down his nose at her, seemingly put-off by her confidence
and dismissive tone after Fuyu spent so many years desperately seeking his
approval. "I'd be surprised if you could tell the difference were I to
cast something of THAT level on you… You may be gifted with Genjutsu,
but your eyes could never match mine." "You seem to have missed some
things while you were gone," Fuyu answered evenly.
Madara furrowed his brow slightly, peering at his former student as
though she had suddenly grown two or three more heads and had claimed she
could breathe fire from all of them. She smirked a bit and said, "My eyes
have already SURPASSED yours." Madara narrowed his eyes then, and a
dangerous feeling like maybe she was going to die if she made any sudden
movements filled her. Her own eyes began to glow bright red as she
channeled Chakra to them, but her teacher blurred forward and stood
face-to-face with her before she had time to do anything else.
"Watch your TONE, child. I may not be here right now, but my Chakra is
present-enough… I came to HELP you. But if you disrespect me any futher,
I will DESTROY you instead."
Fuyu waited, inches away from the man she had admired, striven to
protect, sought the approval of, and loved… And not always in the manner
of an adoptive father. Her breathing came erratically, her heart rate sped
up, and many emotions raced through her. She was a grown woman now. He was
many years her senior, but she realized the lack of hate in her life now
left so much room for love. He stared into her eyes with his black-on-red
Sharingan, and she looked back into his, and she wondered if he knew how
she really felt about him all this time.
In the end, the lack of fear in her expression seemed to make the mighty
Uchiha Madara confused. He pursed his lips and began to walk away and
around Fuyu, circling her like a jungle cat. He was studying her, trying
to figure out what had changed. Fuyu remained where she was, but
eventually, she decided to speak again as that Killing Intent faded to
nothing.
"Where is your hate?" Madara asked.
"I ate it. Cannibalized it for the power to do something worth doing.
Hating just to hate wasn't accomplishing anything. You were declared dead
and the one I had wanted to protect by using hatred to gain strength was
thus gone from my life," Fuyu answered.
"Then you no longer have any power. That is a shame. You will be unable
to defeat the one who put my Chakra inside of you then," Madara commented
with a tone of disgust. Fuyu shivered as she turned to face her teacher.
"The man in the mask?" "Yes, him. I didn't know he was going to do this
with my power. A partial copy of my mind and memories was transplanted
into you, to control you after he came here to do whatever he came to do."
Madara stopped his circling and crossed his arms. "You aren't the Fuyu I
knew. You are of no use to him, me, or anyone. I demand you break this
Seal. I will have other things to attend to in the future, and my spirit
will be incomplete until all of it is accounted for."
"I have no knowledge of Sealing Techniques," Fuyu replied. She allowed
the glow to fade from her eyes. "But you do. You proved that well enough
with that stone caricature of Uchiha Yau that you sealed a prepared
Tsukuyomi within. 'Transcription Seal: Tsukuyomi', right?" Madara frowned.
"You figured out a lot for one who has no knowledge of Sealing
Techniques…" "The basis of this Seal is a very powerful Genjutsu. That's
how it is working. That masked man may have re-activated it, but you
placed it originally. I'm going to let you go to wherever the rest of you
is, as you requested, but first…"
"First… You want to ask for my forgiveness, right?" Madara inquired
before Fuyu could finish speaking. Fuyu waited and looked into the
illusory Madara's eyes. A copy of his mind and memories, used to operate a
Sealing Technique that contained a Sharingan-specific Genjutsu that could
only be cast by the Mangekyou Sharingan? That many jutsu layered on top of
each other… "No," Fuyu answered. Madara raised an eyebrow fractionally.
Fuyu asked, "Who is he?" Madara rolled his eyes and said, "It's too late.
You can't face him. I was going to help you avoid his control, but you are
of no use to me. All I can do now is leave you to your own devices—"
"ANSWER ME!" Fuyu yelled suddenly, interrupting her sensei.
Madara glared, and then he said, "You'll have to find that out for
yourself. You might not have any hate left for me to use, but you have
SOME degree of strength… I can't identify it, but I'll tell you what I
would never tell anyone else, not even my own brother." Madara stepped
forward, lowering his arms to his sides and reaching out a hand as though
to grab Fuyu's throat. Instead, as Fuyu looked wide-eyed at the only man
she had ever loved, Madara clapped his hand on her shoulder and pulled her
forward loosely until their foreheads touched. Even in such an intimately
close position, his expression remained serious, fierce. But Fuyu knew
from so many years with him, that he just couldn't open up like others
could. Outwardly, he had to remain hard… Otherwise it would start to
hurt too much to keep moving.
"If you lack hatred, you can still be strong by having direction. Find a
goal and move towards it without the influence of others poisoning you.
That is what hatred is for. It's a shield against the 'vessels' of others
hampering the 'vessel' of 'you'. If you have something else that can blunt
such efforts, take it, grasp it, and HOLD ONTO IT. You might be able to
face him regardless of your lack of hatred. But you'll die if you fight
him alone." Madara then backed away, letting go of Fuyu. Her left hand
reached up to grab him, but he slipped between her fingers as he put
distance between them once more.
"I forgive you," Madara said as matter-of-factly and uncaringly as he
could. Fuyu could tell he was faking the lack of emotion. No one else
would have been able to, but SHE could. Her eyes transformed to their own
Mangekyou Sharingan, a series of black and red triangles within other
triangles. Madara's eyes widened in surprise, apparently not having been
aware of this development in power despite residing in her head for
who-knows-how-long. Fuyu said, "No, Madara, my love."
"-I- forgive YOU." Then she banished his existence with her own
Tsukuyomi, demonstrating her skill by overwriting a four-layer jutsu with
a fifth-layer, all cast on her OWN MIND. She woke up suddenly, only a
moment having passed as she stood on the street of Konohagakure. Sunlight
filtered down on her, and she wondered why it had been so dull and
colorless in her head.
A dead man returned for a final talk with his one and only REAL pupil…
A ghost encountered outside of that accursed Ankoku Cave? Fuyu wiped the
tears from her eyes before they could fall, adjusted the shoulder strap on
the War Fan tied to her back, that she had reconstructed based on the
destroyed one that Madara had given her, years prior. There was a masked
man out there who needed to be stopped. He indirectly gave her some
closure she'd needed, and she would thank him for that.
But then she was going to defeat him and show that she had the strength
to overcome him after all.
In his own cold, hard, distant, round-about way, Madara-sensei had just
made sure of that.
