The worthless breath stealers, a plague upon the world, his world. How dare they tell him who to marry, how dare they suggest he needs someone at his side for anything. A waste, that is what women were. He didn't hate women, he liked them very much, he just didn't have time for them right now. There were more important things to deal with, more important things he wanted.

Madara sighed as he looked out over the forest, his forest. He stood tall, as tall and straight as the tree he stood upon. Like the tree, he would bend, for a certain few, but would not break. They only saw the now, the near future. His dream, his vision, he saw so much farther. He wanted it all, the world, eternity. A very small voice in the back of his head conceded, it will be a very lonely eternity. He was okay with that though, he didn't need anyone.

Izuna was drawing near, one of his certain few, his little brother. Madara turned to greet him as he landed on a branch below the one he stood upon.

"The council awaits your choice of bride Madara, they grow ever impatient." Izuna says with a small smirk.

Izuna knows his brother, the council can hold their breath and choke on it. They will run out of patience long before Madara gives in to their demands.

"Let them wait. They are a relic of a bygone era. I do not need to marry, you can carry on the mainline of succession for the Uchiha." Madara has said it many times before.

"You say that brother but who am I to marry, why should I marry any more than you?" Izuna laughs.

"There are no women of interest, none so strong as to turn my head and certainly not yours. In or out of our clan, and you know, the elders will not allow us to marry outside of the clan even if there was a woman to pique our interest." Izuna continued to watch his brother.

"Allow. The concept is lost on me. I am the strongest in our generation, the strongest in our clan's history, the audacity of them, the idiocracy. I condemn them. I will wed when and who I wish. I doubt that time will ever come however, I look around me and all I see is fault, weakness, liabilities. Our clan is strong but we can be so much stronger. They choke us with such limitations." Madara is disgusted with the council, he despises the elders and their so called wisdom.

"I tried to tell them, they don't listen. Come, brother, the war council has called a meeting, you are needed." Izuna leaped to the next tree and then the next back to the Uchiha compound.

Madara smiles, war, that is one thing he is very good at, killing, one thing he really enjoys, blood, the smell, the taste, the rush. Madara grins, running his hand over the hilt of the Gun Bai on his back. They want him to find a woman to wed. He won't settle for just anyone, love, is the Uchiha's greatest strength and it's greatest curse. He will marry only for love. How does one find love in the midst of war, love in blood and death? No, love is not for him, so he will not wed.

The war council met, marriage was not mentioned and Izuna followed his brother out of the main Uchiha meeting building to the training field.

No words were spoken, they were not needed. The fire Jutsu left his mouth before he could spin the block Izuna's well placed kick. Slash to his abdomen had him stepping back, the pain, real, the blood, dripping down his side soaking into his pants. A wild grin split his face.

"Oh shit." Izuna jumped high into the air flipping back and over another fire jutsu that exploded around him.

"I've unleashed the beast." He laughed at his brother who stalked his every move, red eyes blaring.

"Come Izuna! You still have far to go before you can taunt me like that and back it up!" Madara went in for a crushing blow, fists held at the ready flying down over Izuna's head, fire encased him.

A shockwave rent the air, loud, piercing, it made their ears bleed and pain shot through their spines.

"What the hell...Izuna!" His brother lay on the ground, hunched over in upon himself, blood dripping off his chin, blood seeping out of his eyes.

A heap of something, pink, lay not far from his brother. A girl, she moaned and sat up, hand to her head.

Madara teleported to his brother positioning himself in between the unknown and Izuna.

The girl rose to her feet, fists clenched, long pink hair flying in the wind. "Damn you Kaguya! You fucking bitch! I'm going to fucking rip your head off and cut off every limb then beat your broken body with them! Do you hear me!" Her voice was loud, her voice was strong, she was the most stunningly beautiful thing Madara had ever seen.

She was also the cause of his brother's pain.

"Who are you?" Madara demanded.

The girl turned quickly and faced him, her stance defensive, her posture straight.

She is strong, this girl. Madara smiled.

"Who are you girl?" Madara asked more forcefully.

"No one that concerns you Uchiha! Mind your own business!" She started to stomp away from them but he flickered in front of her.

"Your feet rest on Uchiha land, my brother is on the ground and bleeding because of you, it is my business. Do not make me ask again. Who are you?" Madara's red eyes flared dangerously. Beautiful or not, she was a threat and he wasn't taking her lightly.

"Haruno Sakura." She said without bowing, without any other formal words of greeting…

"Are you always so rude to clan heads Haruno Sakura, when you are on their own land uninvited." Madara was grinning at her. Very few people had the audacity, the confidence, the utter gall to speak to him in such a way, or the foolishness.

"I owe you no respect, you who care only for war, only for death, you know nothing else. Why should I show you any respect, you have not earned it." She stood facing him head on, hands on her hips leaning forward slightly.

This slip of a girl!

Izuna rose to his feet beside his brother laughing.

"Looks like you found someone to marry brother." Izuna clapped him on the shoulder in congratulations.

"What?" Madara and Sakura said at the same time then glared at one another.

"I said." Izuna grinned and said very slowly so both of them could hear him clearly. "It looks like you found someone to marry brother."

Sakura scoffed, "As if I would marry someone as stupid looking as him, he is carrying a big fan, how dumb is that, and what's with his hair! Ever heard of a brush?"

"You have pink hair! Whoever heard of pink hair on a kunoichi. Those green eyes too! I mean you look like a decoration leftover from the Spring Festival!" Madara countered.

"Why you big. Fat. ugly. Spiky haired. Weirdo!" Sakura stalked up to him and poked him in the chest without chakra.

"Careful sweetheart, the last person who poked me got impaled on my fist." Madara both sneered at her and admired her for her gall at the same time.

"Don't call me sweetheart Uchiha!" She shoved him with chakra this time and he went flying backward into a tree.

Before she could turn around to walk away as she had planned he was back in front of her gripping her arms behind her back and shoved her to the ground.

"Learn some manners you foul mouthed little spit of a girl, you are talking to the clan head of the Uchiha!" He flipped her over and tied her hands behind her back and rose from her prostrate body.

She spit dirt and grass out of her mouth, "I'm going to fucking kill you , you , you." She stammered.

"Spikey haired weirdo?" Izuna provided.

…and that is how Sakura and Madara met when Kaguya sent her back in time...