Hunted

This is my first entry for MadaSaku Week 2020.

Prompt: Hunted, Warring States AU

Madara staggered on his feet. He didn't know how close were his pursuers. He couldn't hear them yet, but that didn't mean much. He pressed harder at the wound in his side and dashed forward. A new gush of warm liquid seeped between his fingers, but there was no way for him to stop and tend to the injury. The Senju were much too close.

He directed chakra to his feet to make another jump. But mid-motion something gave away - he didn't know if it was his concentration or his strength - and instead of jumping, he slipped. He barely held his balance grasping at a smaller tree branch. Black spots danced joyfully in front of his eyes. Madara shook his head and jumped to the ground. Alright, he will run on the surface. He can still make it. The Senju must give up at some point, it was only the matter of endurance.

An hour later and he wasn't that sure of it anymore. Senju were persistent and every once in a while, he could hear their contact whistles - bird-like noises for an untrained ear, but for a boy who spend his entire, admittingly not very long life fighting the bastards - clearly recognizable as man-made.

Damn that forest. On the grassy plains of Uchiha lands he could have at least released his Katon, keep his pursuers at bay with long-distance techniques… But here, with visibility not larger than 30 meters…

Faster. He should go faster. The soil was kind of soggy. Or was it just his impression? It was so hard to move the legs.

Another whistle, more to the right. Maybe he lost them? Maybe they took the path along that ridge he had passed couple of minutes earlier?

A whistle directly behind him. No, they didn't. Madara bit his teeth and picked up the pace. Damn Senju. They must have a sensor with them, and a good one.

He started down the slope. He had to be descending down some valley. Madara was too exhausted to decide if it is tactically beneficial or not. Too exhausted to strategize, too exhausted to think.

'Away. I need to get away from them!'

A root appeared around his feet. How could he not have noticed it? Madara slipped and only through instinctively twisting his body he avoided spraining his ankle. Adrenaline shoot through him, thin needles igniting the nerves in his palms. He never felt that during a battle. During a fight he was the master of his destiny, he could act. Here he was reduced to reacting. Deprived of agency. Brought down to the role of a hunted animal.
His feet were running again. He wasn't sure what was his head doing.

Another stupid root. And a branch pointing into his eyes. He was going to die here, in this ravine - it dawned to him. Damn it. Gods damn it!

Another jump, another pit in his way. Another slippery stone. His lungs were burning, and his tongue tasted like copper. And only green, that damn green all around him.

And pink. And white.

His momentum still pushed him forward as he dashed through the last layers of undergrowth.

In front of him stood a girl. The pink was from her hair, and the white from the cloths spread around her, all over the grassy riverbank.

She stood, with her mouth open and her eyes wide and that white cloth clutched to her chest as if with it she wanted to protect herself from him. Madara laughed. And swayed. He was not the danger here. The danger was only coming. Some two kilometers behind him.

"What happened to you!?" exclaimed the girl, "Are you hurt?"

Madara followed her line of sight. His shirt was bloody-crimson, from his chest down to the very lower rim. 'So much blood…' he observed, concentrating on a droplet of red forming on the trimming of his jinbei. 'How could I not have noticed…'

The girl pounced towards him and propped him up. Right in time because his legs just gave away. "Lie down. I can patch you up. Just lie…"

"No!" Madara straightened up in her hold and shoved her away. "I need to go!"

"Go? In your state? You're going to die from blood-loss."

"I'm going to die from Senju's hands if I stay."

'I'm going to die from Senju's hands also if I run...' The world swirled a little, and narrowed to a patch of grass under his feet. Why did everything on the periphery look so black?

"Are you being pursued? By the ninja? Are you a ninja?" The girl was asking him questions and suddenly they were all so inconsequential. How long was he standing here? He tried moving his legs, but to no avail.

Izuna… He won't see Izuna ever again… Who is going to take care of him? Who is going to keep him safe? And wave of anguish rose in Madara chest. Dying here, he will fail Izuna. But his body was not to be spurned to action. It was like a deadweight to his spirit.

"Are they after you? How many? How far?" The girl was bombarding him with questions that didn't really matter anymore.

"Too many…"

His dreams… He never told anyone about the dream of a village that would protect the children. Once he dies so will his dream. Because surely Hashirama had long forgotten. Maybe he should have told Izuna? Maybe he should have swallowed his pride and sought out the elders? Now it was too late. What he wanted to achieve he will take to his grave. He will die not fulfilling his purpose. Is this how souls become angry ghosts? By leaving unfinished business in this life…? He will find no peace in the afterlife; he knew it already.

The girl let go off his elbow and swirled around. He was grateful for this moment of repose, the moment of silence before his last stand. He took out a kunai and opened his shuriken pouch. He will go down fighting, at least that.

The girl fell on her knees, spreading a cloth right next to him. She looked up and slid her hand under his shirt. "Easy," she hummed when he jerked away. "I just need some blood to draw the seal."

She was painting – a complicating mandala-like design he had never seen before. She reached to gather more blood from his stomach but he didn't flinch this time. "Alright," she announced and stood up. "Now punch me. But don't knock me out – aim for my nose."

Madara was never fond of getting into discussions with people who made no sense. So, he didn't respond and chose to focus his attention on the edge of the ravine instead. He thought he saw a movement there.

Girl grabbed his elbow and turned him around. "Are you deaf?! I said punch me! So that I can pretend you knocked me out and ran away!"

Madara finally managed to focus his eyes on girl's face. Her eyes were green, speckled with gold. The last beautiful thing he will see…

"Snap out of it!" she hissed. "I'll seal you away."

Madara jerked and stepped back.

"Shh…" the girl must have noticed his alarm as she changed her tone. "I'll seal you and I'll hide you." She put both hands to his face. "When they're gone, I'll get you back…"

Madara narrowed his eyes. Was the girl a Senju? Or some other enemy? How did she know sealing techniques – she didn't even look a ninja! And could you even seal a living being?!

"You don't have much choice but to trust me!" She broke away the eye contact, as if considering the deal settled. Which it wasn't. She pulled his elbow so that he stood on that bloody pattern. Or maybe it was settled. Maybe it was indeed a way for him to survive? He wasn't good with trusting people, not at all. But for Izuna… If he could get to live and protect Izuna…?

"Punch me!"

It wasn't that he had that much to lose. Five minutes of his life, at the very best. He raised his fist and struck. The girl doubled over, blood gushing down her dress. She slowly raised her hand to her face. "I think you broke my nose… that would do." She shot him a smile which looked really strange through all the blood running from her nose. "Yosh! Hold tight! I hope it's not going to…" She folded her hands into a seal and he didn't hear the end of the sentence. Red light flashed and millions of tons pressed at him from all the sides.

.

Sakura swayed on her feet. Apparently, the energy necessary for sealing was proportional to the size of the object. Obviously. She should have known. Now she could only hope she will have enough chakra to get him back.

She dropped to her knees and tangled the bedsheet so that the seal was now longer visible. She tugged the cloth together and threw it to the side, where the rest of unwashed laundry lied on a pile. Then she smeared so dirt on her knees and waited.

She didn't have to wait long. A group of six men dashed out of the undergrowth. Sakura curled into herself – she didn't even have to pretend much – she was truly terrified. And very much outnumbered.

"Hey you," called out the man at the front of the group. "Where is that brat that was here a moment ago?"

Sakura raised her eyes and tried to appear small. Insignificant. Not worth their time and effort. "He… He is away. He stole our boat and…" Sakura sniffed and for a better effect bent her lips into a pitiful grimace. It was working – she could already feel tears welling in her eyes. She hoped that the act worked on her audience as well. "What will I tell my grandmother?!" She smeared the blood she knew was seeping from her nose around her face. There was no boat, not since last autumn when during a storm the ropes had broken, but the mooring posts were still there and these ninja didn't know shit.

And they bought it – two of them stepped onto the water already. Sakura didn't allow herself to make an audible exhale yet. Just a bit more… "If you find our boat…" she started.

One of the ninja snorted. "Do you imagine we will return it to you, or what?" he laughed. "We have better things to do!"

Sakura lowered her head holding back a smile. The ninja started down the river. In other circumstances she would have taken her time to admire their water-running skill.

"Wait." One of the ninja turned back to her. It was a boy, younger than her – she concluded with a mix of awe and disgust. A boy with completely white hair and spooky red eyes. "Why is there blood on your laundry."

Sakura held his gaze. "My grandmother is a healer. And wounded people bleed. Not that you wouldn't know that, you bunch of murderers."

It was a risky thing to say, she admitted to herself when the ninja were gone. Really risky. But Sakura was never too good at holding her tongue. But since all the adults were already out of the earshot, she assumed that the boy would just suck it up and follow them. She was right, he only shot her a glare and dashed downstream.

Sakura hastily gathered her laundry. Where to, now? Home? No, grandma will be furious. And if the boy was a fugitive, the house of healers will be an obvious location to look for him. She will need to hide him and patch him up on her own, Sakura decided.

His pursuers came from the north, so south she went – she climbed the slope of the valley, descended into a parallel one and followed it upstream. As far as she knew ninja couldn't sense chakra through the rock. The narrower the ravine, the better hidden would be the boy.

She found a recess in the stoneface, with some overhang to shield him from precipitation. There was nothing for him to lie on – he would have to manage on bare ground. Hopefully he won't get hypothermia overnight…

Sakura rubbed her temples. What was she even thinking about? She should worry to unpack him in one piece first, stop the bleeding on the second place and about his thermal comfort at the very last. She spread the cloth with the seal and weaved the handseals. The body popped into existence. Complete. With limbs in right places. Sakura let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

He appeared spread eagle but immediately he curled into himself, screaming and retching. He was trying to do it in the same time and it wasn't really working. Sakura grabbed him and rolled him to the side, trying to contain his trashing.

"Aaarhh! What have you done to me!?" he managed through unarticulated noises.

Sakura reinforced her hold. Well, it didn't work too smoothly, did it? "I unsealed you. Where does it hurt? And stop moving, it's bad for your wound!"

"Aaarhh! Easy to say!" he panted, but it seemed he was trying get himself under control. His entire body tensed, but he stayed put.

"Where does it hurt?" repeated Sakura.

"Everywhere? In my head… And I think something is wrong with my lungs… What have you done?!"

"Really? Is it that bad? My rabbits always seemed fine after unsealing… Maybe only a little mopish."

The boy sent her an ugly look. She probably shouldn't have mentioned the rabbits.

"Where am I?" he asked. "Where are the Senju? And how long have I been like that? I need to.." he propped himself trying to get up.

"They are gone, but we're now in a different valley, just in case. Lie down, I need to see to your wound."

He listened, and let her remove his shirt. The gash in his abdomen was nasty and went deep. Pretty sure he had internal damage. Sakura bit her lip – she could mend the tissue with chakra, but she was far from an expert. In fact, grandma only started to teach her last year… But she will have to do her best. Sakura concentrated her chakra into the tips of her fingers – she had to focus on fixing his organs. Or at least on superficially patching them up. The cavity wall, muscles, skin and all the rest will need to wait. Tissues weren't really coming together under her fingers, the cut wasn't as clean as the ones she had practiced on. Sweat beaded on Sakura's forehead – it was more difficult than she imagined… But millimeter by millimeter the perforation in a large blood vessel was starting to close. But there was so much to be done still!

"That's all I can do," she told the boy after excruciating and sobering fifteen minutes. Her first real patient and she couldn't truly heal him… "You need to stay very still, otherwise everything opens."

"I have to go! My brother.."

"You cannot go anywhere. If you start running now you will be dead before you get to wherever it is you want to get."

"But I need to! I cannot!" The boy wrung his hands into his hair. "You don't understand – I have to!"

Sakura untangled his fingers and pushed his hands down. "No, I don't understand. And I don't have to. I don't need to know about all the very important things you have to do, to understand that none of them matters right now. And the sooner you get it, the better." She bent so that her face was just above him. "That's called adjustment of priorities." She saw her grandma putting people in line like that. Everyone who was coming to seek out their help had their urgent matters, and wanted to be healed right there, immediately, the same day! It never worked this way. "Before you do anything else, your body has to get back in order. Otherwise you'll die. And if you die you won't attend to any of those very important business of yours!"

The boy glared at her as if she just offended him. Men were the worse, grandma Tsunade always said. They never acknowledged their limits. "I'll be back first thing tomorrow in the morning," she told him, wrapping his torso to protect the wound, "and I'll bring you some food. With my chakra regenerated, maybe I'll be able to repair the rest of internal damage."

"I suppose you don't have enough to heal me now?" The boy bent his lips in scornful grimace.

Sakura bristled. He should be grateful! "No," she said stiffly "I don't. I used quite some on sealing and unsealing you, you know?"

"What was that what you did, anyway?" he asked he asked after a small pause. He seemed genuinely curious. It was the first semi-friendly thing she had heard from him anyway.

"Fuinjutsu," murmured Sakura. Secretly she was flattered that someone noticed her skill. Someone that was apparently a ninja skilled enough to be pursuited by an entire group of enemies.

"Funjutsu?" repeated the boy mispronouncing the word.

"Fuinjutsu. The sealing arts."

"Are you even a ninja?" The boy narrowed his eyes skeptically.

"No." Sakura shook her head. "But I know how to use chakra. We're healers – my grandma, my mum. And I'm learning. My father's mother came from a shinobi clan from the coast, and so he knew some of their techniques…"

"And he taught you?!" Boy's eyes sparkled with excitement. He wanted to prop himself up again but Sakura held his shoulder down.

"Not really. I was too small. He left soon after I was born. But my grandmother was veeery keen on learning those arts. I kind of suspect that that's why she even wanted him as a son-in-law in the first place…"

"And she taught you? Can you show me?"

"Maybe tomorrow? Just try to recover your strength."

.

When she came back the following day, he was lying how she left him. Not that bad of a patient, in the end, concluded Sakura. But when she approached, she saw how tense with pain his face was.

"Does it hurt? Are you feverish?"

"No. But it does hurt. And I think something's wrong with my lungs. That fuinjutsu of yours..."

"Alright," Sakura cracked her fingers, "I'm right on it. I'll fix you!" She directed chakra into the wound trying to close and stitch whatever was ripped there. The boy was staring at her hands, complete lack of trust obvious on his face.

"So," said Sakura trying to divert his attention. He was stressing her out. "What's your name?"

"Madara."

"And then? Madara what?"

"And then: 'I will need to kill you if I tell you'."

Sakura huffed in indignation. For him to say something like that, and when she was starting to warm up to him!

His lungs were indeed partially collapsed, as if they have been squeezed too hard. She wasn't sure what to do, but she pumped chakra into the vesicles and had impression they started to expand back. When she was finished, they were both equally done for, sweated and exhausted. And Sakura urgently needed some space. "I'll come back tomorrow," she told him swiftly replacing the bandages. She tugged him with the blankets she brought and left.

"Hey you!" he called out to her when she was descending towards the stream. "I suppose I didn't thank you yet. So," he hesitated, "thank you, I guess…"

.

The next day she found Madara sporting the same grimace of suffering. "Does it hurt you still?!"

"Much less."

"Then why do you look like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you could barely stand it."

"It's my head. My mind is tormenting me. I cannot stop thinking. Especially now, that I have to just lie flat." The last sentence sounded like a reproach. As if it was Sakura who slashed his stomach open. But she ignored his tone. The patients should be indulged a bit. So that they stay pacified.

"Is it bad? What's wrong with thinking? Sure, it can get boring at some point…" she mused instead.

"I cannot stop. My thoughts chase me, I try to run away from them and I can't. I keep trying to think out a way, a solution. And I'm failing, I'm always failing…"

"A solution? A solution to what?"

"Oh, just nothing. Forget it," he mumbled as if suddenly regretting opening up in front of her.

"Hey, not fair! If you started then finish!"

Madara bit his lip. "But if you laugh, I'll… Ok, I don't know what will I do, but it will be something really bad. Just don't laugh, ok?"

Sakura set her face very straight. "I won't," she promised.

"I need to find the way to… to fix the world."

Sakura blanched. "A… Aha… I see," she muttered and let out an uncertain chuckle.

"You're laughing!"

"No, I'm not! That's just… Very…" She searched a word that would not offend him. "Broad," she said in the end. "With wide scope. Uhm… ambitious. Now I feel very happy that I was taught how to fix a person – one bone at the time. That's perfectly enough for me."

Madara turned his head away from her. "Lucky you."

"Over and over and over again," he picked up after a short pause, when she was finalizing the closing of his wound. "I worry about my brother. I worry about the future. Hundreds of scenarios play inside my head, one worse than the other. And in each I cannot find the solution. When you sealed me," he fixed his eyes on her which made her stop the stitching, "I was awake, I was there, inside that seal. But all my thoughts were gone. As if they have been quenched. I was there, but my mind was empty…"

"You're saying it as if you enjoyed it…"

"I did! It was a bliss – not to think about anything."

Sakura looked at him carefully. "Your mind must be a nasty place if lack of thought is a bliss for you."

"Yeah… maybe it is…"

"And you must be really strong… I mean, mentally. Most people would go insane when deprived of all sensations and thoughts."

"Really? And I just had this idea that if everyone could enter such state, then the world would be such a happy place!"

Sakura shook her head. "People would never like it. They need distractions, they need something to constantly occupy their attention. They cannot just exist within themselves and be content!"

"Something to occupy them? Like… a dream?"

"Yeah, something like that... Assuming it would be a happy one."

"Of course," said Madara with tone of finality.

Sakura looked up and giggled. "You're saying it as if you had a plan to make it into reality!"

AN: Thanks for reading and please tell me your thoughts about it!