Hanuko Uchiha slowly approached her clan leaders' house: Uchiha Madara. She had been moved by Ayumi's conviction and faith towards the village and its prosperity. Hanuko decided that she would try to talk some sense into him.
Hanuko knocked on the door, and not a second passed by until Madara had answered by slowly creaking the door. The door revealed a tired Madara. The skin underneath his eyes had been darker more so than usual. Hanuko wasn't surprised, with all the push back the Uchiha were getting, alongside the familial losses Madara had been facing as of late.
"Will you let me in, Madara-yo?" Hanuko broke the brooding silence. His brooding set of eyes fixated onto hers, slightly darkening in annoyance.
"No." Madara stepped outside, "Let's speak outside."
Hanuko had bit her lip. "A perfect monster indeed."
Madara clearly looked like he had better places to be. "What do you want of me?"
Hanuko looked down. And then looked back up to him. "I know the pain you're going through. Just listen." Her hand reached out to grip his arm, and he stared at her hand.
He shook her off of him.
"Do not touch me." The Uchiha leader sternly warned.
Hanuko sighed, her eyebrows furrowing.
"Don't leave Konohagakure. You helped create it after all, with your own hands. You can't-"
Madara interrupted her with a scoff. "The Uchiha have no place here."
"And Ayumi?! She's carrying your child! Where do you think she'll be?! You expect her to drop everything here and just leave?!"
Hanuko could tell she hit a soft spot, because Madara's expression had quickly grown from annoyed to somber. Madara looked sad, no longer bearing that hard edge he was renowned for. She decided to soak up the sight for just a little.
Ayumi deserves better than this. Madara thought to himself.
His expression grew more melancholic as the second passed.
"Oi-oi..." Hanuko looked at her leader concerned.
"At first, I was adamant on letting her come with me. I could not perceive of a future of which she could be safe in Konoha. The very own settlement I built to keep everyone - no, especially her, safe. You are right about that," Madara looked downwards to the side, "I trust you to take care of her."
"And your child?" Hanuko sharply replied.
Madara's lips mulled into a thin line.
I won't make a good father. Madara thought. He looked down to his own hands and closed them shut. I couldn't protect my own brothers. My own family. Much less my own child...
"That is none of your concern. If I leave either way, I know Ayumi will follow me, because she is stubborn. Tenacious, that she is." He placed his hands on his hips and looked at the sky. "That's when you come into play. I need you to keep her here and keep her safe. I think she could pave the way for us going forward."
"But Madara-" Hanuko's lower lip quivered. She couldn't bear to see her childhood rival actually leave the village.
"Do not bother convincing me into staying. I'm sure Ayumi somehow swayed you into coming to talk to me. There is no conceivable future for me here." Madara spoke matter of factly. "Or you either for that matter. It is okay. That is fate. I have come to accept it."
That was a lie though. No way in hell Madara could fathom accepting fate. He was going to change it.
"How could you-" Hanuko was at a loss for words. She thought she could pick up her own weight, and try to pry his heart open up a little on behalf of Ayumi, but it was proving futile. Her anger was beginning to boil, her cheeks running flush.
Hanuko clenched her fingers into fists. "Boy I am tired of your bullshi-!"
"The growing dissent towards the Uchiha will only grow more burdensome towards the all of us. Eventually, we will be driven to the outskirts of this village." Madara raised his hand into the air and formed it into a fist, "The very own village I helped to create, now turning against us." Madara shook his head, and fixed his glowing red eyes on his clans-mate.
"Do you see now? We are not trusted. I am not trusted by the own village I want to protect."
Hanuko took a couple of steps back, and took a moment to rationalize what he was saying. Madara was right. But so what?
"I'll be damned." Hanuko spoke, she had nothing else to say.
Madara crossed his arms, which only seemed to make him grow bigger in size. He was a tall, brooding and demanding man. "Where is Ayumi?" He asked.
"I can tell her you're looking for her." Hanuko muttered sadly. Her shoulders slumped, defeated. A part of Madara felt guilty for imparting the absolute stone-cold hearted truth to a fellow clan member, but it was just plain facts. His sheer visual prowess was able to grant him this insight.
"Do bring her here." Madara looked away, down to the grass. "There is no more time for dilly dallying."
"Mm." Hanuko hummed, turning her back against the leader. Madara's eyes fixated on the Uchiha emblem adorned on the back of Hanuko's kimono. She disappeared with a teleportation jutsu she had learned from Kagami.
Madara looked at the moon. it was evening time now.
I will cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi one day. So that we could all live out our dreams. So that we may all live in peace. Madara thought to himself. Hashirama failed. But I will make it right.
Madara didn't know it wouldn't be a couple of days until he could see Ayumi.
-
"Where could she be?" Hanuko muttered under her breath, following Madara's orders to find his wife. "Damn it!" She kicked the dirt with her shoe. Ayumi wasn't in the Hyuga Hideout under the tatami mats where she had originally left Ayumi.
"I've been coming back here every single day, for five days now, and she is nowhere to be found." Hanuko spoke to herself outloud, rubbing her temples as she paced back and forth. "I need to let Madara know, though he's probably steps ahead of me..."
-
As each day passed by, it became painstakingly clear to Ayumi what Madara's plans had been down the road. She kept receiving premonitions, hallucinations, and dreams throughout the course of their marriage and in the days she had spent couped up in the books, but she finally had enough pieces to solve the puzzle.
It had struck nighttime now, and Ayumi had stayed in the Hyuga library manor, absolutely dissolved within the books of the Ancient Hyuga. Her palm had been glowing profusely ever since. That must mean I'm doing something right, Ayumi thought.
She hadn't told anybody that she was here. Her belly was still swollen and the pregnancy had been aching her tremendously. She was sure Madara was worrying but she was too busy scouring the books to possibly save him from his own demise.
There has to be something.
It wasn't until a couple of minutes later she came across a book with ancient cryptic writing, adorned with a drawing of an odd tree bearing a fruit. Above the tree stood a tall red bright moon, with tomoe that resembled the sharingan, too much to call it anything else. She had thought of Madara's blazing red eyes.
The pad of Ayumi's thumb travelled across the paper. it was written in ancient Hyuga literary style that only her clan would be able to recognize. Thankfully, she was able to decipher with her Byakugan what the title of the paper was.
"Infinite Tsukuyomi: Its True Purpose and the Power held within the Moon."
The Hyuga heiress took one deep gulp, bracing herself for what was to come. It would not be easy.
But as soon as she would delve into the book, she heard faint footsteps approaching the locked door.
Knock knock knock.
Ayumi gulped. Who could it be?
"Ayumi-sama... are you holding up okay? I left food outside for you." She heard a familiar muffled voice.
"I'm okay, Koniko. Thank you. I'll eat soon. I'd like to be alone for now." Ayumi promptly responded.
Ayumi took one deep breath, and proceeded to open the book.