Heart's Inferno - An Uchiha Madara Fanfic

23 - Konoha

Sara pov:

Standing in the balcony, I gazed at the stone sculptures with many thoughts going through my mind. Most of it was of the information that Yamato san had told me on my asking, while a little was on reminiscing about the past that was far more ago than what I could even imagine. It felt very strange to be in a time period where Hashirama san and Madara did not exist anymore, possibly several decades after they had finished living their lives, in fact.

"I miss you," I whispered into the silence, "and it's worse because I know I'll never see you again."

Sighing deeply, I closed my eyes a moment. I shifted to thinking about how the Shinobi World functioned now. Yamato san had enlightened me on the Five Great Nations, the ranking of shinobi, a few of the clans that lived in Konoha and a briefing of their bloodline limits, the existence of bijuu or tailed beasts that were enormous reserved of raw chakra, and jinchurki that housed and controlled the chakra, and the kind of missions that were usually taken up on a regular basis. While there still seemed to be quite a bit of gore and violent fighting, peace had been attained to quite an extent.

I was also told of the Akatsuki, an organization of powerful rogue shinobi that had been stirring trouble off late, attacking villages and innocent people to further whatever plans they had in mind. They even worked as mercenaries for hire, and had assassinated several important people of this world. They were not ones who could be dealt with easily because they were strong enough to even defeat a team of two to three ANBU without too much trouble. From the way he spoke of them, I imagined that they were perhaps as strong as Madara and Hashirama san, or close to that level anyway.

There were so many things that were different from the past.

However, these details didn't come to mind as much as what I had heard about Madara. What I had heard about him from Yamato san was not settling in the least. Apparently, Madara, though a founder of Konoha along with Hashirama san, deserted the village just over a year after its founding, only to return to attempt to destroy Konoha - not once but several times. In his final attempt to defeat Hashirama san, he even took control over the Kyuubi to have it attack the village. It was a frightening battle, or so it had been told from mouth to mouth, with destruction power so overwhelming, but with Madara losing in the end. In honor of their fight, huge sculptures of them had been sculpted next to a waterfall a little away from Konoha which they called the Valley of the End.

Having witnessed Madara fighting at his best, I could only imagine how much more intense their final battle could have been.

I couldn't come up with a reason as to why Madara had betrayed the village when he was one of the founders. It had been his wish to create a village upon ending the war so there would be peace, at least that's what it seemed when Izuna san was still alive and Hashirama san had touched the topic. There had also been the slightest hint in Madara's expression when it had been mentioned in passing.

"Madara," his name rolled off my tongue in a whisper. It brought along a wave of emotions and a dull ache in my heart as well.

Shaking my head, I stepped into the room and closed the balcony door. Though I was a bit sleepy, I had a sure feeling that I would not be able to sleep with the way I was feeling. Also, I had a strong desire to find out more about this time, more than what I had heard from Yamato san. Not only would I be better prepared to live here, but I would also get more details on certain topics that I wanted more information on.

Well, I was considering asking Tsunade san to send me back home since there wasn't a war in which Konoha or any other village would need my chakra. Tsunade san had indirectly mentioned that she wanted my chakra though, so perhaps I would have to make a deal with her as it had been with Hashirama san, with me going home every now and then.