Veil over Their Eyes

For MadaSaku Day 2019

"One of our squads spotted Uchiha Madara on the western border of Fire Country." Tsunade's fingernail landed between her teeth, as usual when her shishou was aggravated. But this time it was something more than usual, permanent show of displeasure. "And you'll go to keep an eye on him."

"Hai." Sakura steeled her face into a professional expression. Internally she was cheering and jumping from joy. Finally, a challenging mission after months of semi-curfew in Konoha. After the war the hospital suffered from severe shortages in personnel and Sakura had to dedicate all her time to her duties of the medic.

"Our top priority is that he doesn't notice you. Don't engage him under any circumstances. Don't let him realizes he's being tracked. Quench your chakra to nothing, don't use any, I repeat, any ninjutsu techniques."

Sakura held in a scowl. So, that was it for a fun mission.

"He is not a sensor - we went through all the papers Tobirama wrote about him - so, combined with your perfect chakra control, the cover should work," continued Tsunade.

"Nidaime wrote about Madara?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Three full tomes," deadpanned Tsunade rolling her eyes. "I really don't understand how could my great-uncle, being a Hokage, find time for the literary endeavors that he had committed for the sake of that man… Anyway, if you have an impression that he's starting to realize something - retreat immediately and don't let him see you, or, gods forbid, capture you. We don't want to provoke a new war."

"How should I retreat so quickly?" The mission sounded less and less fun. "He's known for his supreme speed…"

"If anything happens just summon the smallest Katsuyu's piece," offered Shizune from her corner of the room, "and the rest of Katsuyu will summon you back to Shikkotsu Forest. From there Tsunade-sama can call you to Konoha."

"That's what we will do, Sakura-san. You can rely on us…" Nodded a snail perched on Tsunade's shoulder.

"And under no circumstances let yourself be noticed!" berated her Tsunade.

It was already three days that she was on his trail. He was traversing a large forest, camping every evening in a different place. Sakura kept a very large distance between them, quenching her chakra to the barest minimum, tracking him mostly through traditional methods. She was all the time on the highest alert, living on soldier pills as she didn't dare to recover her food ratios from summoning scrolls not to alarm Madara with her chakra signature.

Now he was setting a camp again. Sakura, perched on a high branch of a tree two kilometers away, could see the warm glow of a freshly started fire.

She was tired, but didn't dare to relax just yet. Not that she could really relax at any point during the night. For three nights straight already, she wasn't sleeping but entering into a deep meditative state instead.

But the wear and tear of the mission was getting to Sakura. What kind of shitty assignment was this supposed to be? No action, only stealth. And the objective itself - chasing after an Uchiha. Again. The thought was leaving a bad taste in her mouth. "I should be used to it by now," thought Sakura bitterly and shifted more weight to the branch she was holding to. Sasuke had left the village once more, refusing to take her with him and not bothering to indicate when, if at all, he would be back. "It's just how my entire life looks like anyway..."

That was when she heard a strange, cracking noise right behind her. Sakura turned.

In front of her a Wood Clone just finished detaching himself from the tree trunk. Sakura raised her thumb to her mouth… and her hand fell limply down. The clone of Madara Uchiha possessed his original's genjutsu ability.

She screwed up. Holy shit, how she screwed up.

He yanked her by the arm. She was, surprisingly, still standing, she was just paralyzed. "Come," said the clone.

Adrenaline rose to the point of pain in Sakura's veins, but she couldn't move a muscle.

The clone dragged her down and had her approach Madara's campfire. The real Madara was cleaning the fish she saw him catch earlier during the day. He didn't even raise his head. The clone applied pressure to Sakura's arm. "Sit." He forced her down onto a tree log on the other side of the fire.

Sakura glanced up. In a hiss of strange sounds, the clone dissipated into wood and sank into the forest ground. The real Madara shifted his eyes towards her.

"Your hood," he said and Sakura's hand went up to the edge on her head cover against her will. The genjutsu might have been shallow but it was damn effective.

"Konoha…" there was a note of tiredness in Madara's voice. "What do you people keep wanting from me… State your mission."

Sakura clamped her lips.

"Do I need to torture you? Here I am, minding my own business, and Konoha sends people to track me down. How am I supposed to understand that? Are you trying to provoke me into aggressive moves?"

Sakura managed to shake her head. It was a disaster already; she shouldn't make it worse. Maybe she should tell him the truth?

"We mean no outbreak of hostilities," she started in a careful tone.

"I would require some more information to back up your words. What's your mission?"

"You are my mission. Just you. Watching you."

"Am I so interesting?"

"How can the strongest man in the world not be? The mission is to keep tabs on your movements."

"I don't appreciate it. Report to your Hokage that it is to stop. I don't intend to start a war, but the next spy will be eliminated. But as sign of my good will, you can go as you stand. Unharmed."

He got up, went away from the campfire, and started to browse through undergrowth looking for something. His movements, the way he walked… When he turned, she could truly mistake him for Sasuke, as his hair was now cut much shorter now.

When he returned, he was holding a fistful of sticks and small branches. He examined them one by one until he chose three and proceeded to cut off the side branches and all the unevenness. He wasn't using a kunai but a normal, broad-bladed knife. His movements were exact and deliberate and precise. Funny, thought Sakura, how what was for sure a deadly weapon in his hands, didn't look threatening at that moment.

Meanwhile, Madara finished working on the sticks and brought two stones to the campfire side. Then he picked up the fish, from where they lied on assembled leaves, and pierced each one with a stick.

He placed the sticks on a bigger stone and secured their ends with the smaller one so that they were angled in a safe distance from the fire. He cleaned his knife and tucked it back into his pouch.

Then he turned his head to her. "Why are you still here? I released the genjutsu half an hour ago."

Sakura shuddered. Why didn't she realize? She shook her head to break the trance. Sure, she should go. She would gain a safe distance from him and set up her own camp. Finally, she will be allowed to make a fire and summon some actual food from the scrolls. And sleep entire night.

Sure. She will be going.

Her eyes landed on the fish – they were already sizzling in a very appealing manner.

But it wasn't the food she was hungry for. It was something else. He looked so calm and at ease going about this usual mundane business. Just a normal person, in a company of another.

Just… It will be just dark forest out there and when she comes back to Konoha just an empty, dark room. And then in the hospital, even among the crowd, so lonely that it could as well be empty.

"Can I stay a while longer?" the words spilled out of her mouth before she could think about them.

Madara didn't seem to have a bewildered look in his repertoire. But he held her eyes with no expression change on his face.

"Why would you do that?"

What a blunder, what did she even say? And now she was realizing that was exactly what she wanted. "I just…" She thought about how would it be sitting by the fire with Sasuke. Campfire in the forest – that was what she always imagined their travels would look like. Their travels… How stupid she was. There was never anything that could be called 'theirs'. "You said you have no hostile intentions, so you shouldn't have a problem!" she said defensively and a bit too aggressively.

"I never said I have a problem. I just asked about your reasons."

"What do you care, really?"

"Really? I don't. I can't imagine anything you could come up with would endanger me in any way. It just strikes me as odd. But if you don't want to talk about it, fine with me." He turned the fish around over the fire.

Sakura remained sitting, pondering on her reactions. She didn't make any sense to herself. What was she even doing?! But she didn't make a move to leave.

He gave her one fish, keeping the second one to himself. The third one they shared.

Then they sat some more. Madara was digging between the embers with a stick, guiding the fallen out, half-burnt pieces back to the fire. Sakura was peeling the scales from pinecones and throwing the cores to the fire. They cracked like small fireworks when catching fire.

Even without looking, Sakura could see him in her peripheral vision all the time. He didn't look anything like Sasuke. What was she thinking? Was she so far gone that she was seeing things?

His gestures. It seemed that he had a habit of folding one leg and propping his chin on his hand when sitting. Funny that she knew one of the phrases of his body language already. While she didn't know any of Sasuke's at this point. After the war she didn't even have an opportunity to spend enough time in his presence when he was unguarded.

And from their genin years… With painful clench in the chest Sakura realized she didn't remember.

She stole one more glimpse at Madara's face. No, it wasn't the looks. It was only her unquenched longing.

'Should I say it? Do I owe him an explanation? No, I don't owe him anything. I don't. But maybe I want to say that. Maybe for once in my life I want to say aloud what I really think.'

"You reminded me of someone. That's why I stayed."

He looked at her for what seemed to be many heartbeats. "You must miss him very much if you resort to something like that."

Sakura didn't comment.

"So, am I playing a substitute," he laughed. He genuinely laughed. "Something like this – only to an enemy you could say something like this…"

Sakura bit her lip. Indeed, not in a hundred years she would say something like that to a person she had a smudge of consideration to. But Madara didn't seem to care, he was rather amused. It probably took much more to push him out of balance. If that was possible at all.

"Why didn't you chase me away?"

"It happens very rarely nowadays that someone recognizes me and doesn't run away screaming…"

"Oh. I'm… I'm sorry about that." Sakura's empathy ran deep, she didn't need personal experience to be compassionate. But this sentiment she could really understand like no other. Sakura knew how it felt to be shunned. Most of the people in her life had at some point pushed her away. Her sensei - devoting his whole attention to his two prodigious troublemakers of students. Naruto – disappearing for entire three years, leaving her without the team. Her friends – that after the war got so preoccupied with pairing up. Sasuke…

Sasuke, always Sasuke… All her life defined by things he did or didn't do. Everything, wherever she looked, all was tinted by him.

They sat some more. Fire was crackling quietly, its glow dancing in the tree branches. More embers were pushed back towards the flames. More pine cones landed in the fire. Neither Sakura nor Madara moved or said anything.

Sometime later – Sakura didn't know how much later, she kind of lost the track of time - Madara got up and without a word started to unpack his bedroll. She rubbed her forehead still not quite believing what is she doing and recovered a summing scroll from her pouch. She placed her summoned bedroll on the other side of the fire, crawled into it and curled up. It was warm and cozy and the sleep found Sakura almost immediately. Maybe she was just exhausted from many nights of being on the watch-out.

Next morning, they packed their respective camps, quietly mirroring each other's movements.

"So, where are you heading to?" Sakura decided to break the silence.

"To the village north from here. The one with the ferry crossing."

"Oh, maybe I'll join you then. I could catch the boat downriver to Konoha… If you don't mind…"

Madara shrugged. "I don't."

They set off. Instead the usual ninja-style tree hopping they walked on the ground, like civilians. The forest floor was soft with moss. Gentle sunlight was filtering through the branches and creating peculiarly shaped splotches on the ground.

Despite the leisure pace they covered quite some kilometers before the midday pause, and probably even some more in the afternoon.

"So, are you enjoying yourself? In this little imaginary trip of yours?" ask Madara out of the blue when they were crossing a particularly beautiful part of the forest – with ancient trees growing far apart and high grass undulating like sea waves underneath.

Sakura considered. She was strangely comfortable throughout the entire day. But being reminded about her initial incentive stung. "Actually, I don't. Comparison is the thief of joy." Her good mood was just about to disappear.

Madara didn't change his pace. "Hn. If I were younger, that would be one heck of a blow to my ego. Yet another thing you could say to only an enemy, right?"

"Maybe I should talk to my enemies more often…" mused Sakura as an unwelcome smile found its way onto her lips. "But that's not how I meant it. I'm upset because I realized he would never be so amicably fine with me being around. Would never allow me to follow. He never did, each time I asked. And that I would never be so at ease. I would only always climb my toes and try to be perfect for him. I would strive and I would try to see to his every need, to make sure he's satisfied. I would double- and triple-guess my every word, every move of my hand. And he would probably be annoyed," finished Sakura almost inaudibly, as talking through clenched throat was getting increasingly difficult. Why was she even saying this? It's not that he cared. Not that anyone cared.

Madara shrugged. "You have quite some issues to work through, girl."

Sakura hung her head low.

"So, what's your destination?" asked Sakura next day around the noon, when they were traversing a clearing in the forest.

"Trying to get the intel you couldn't get through spying? Do you think I'll tell you if you ask nicely?"

"Yes, actually I do. You said you have no hostile intentions. So, there shouldn't be a problem with answering my question."

"I may not want to disclose my plans to a stranger, did ever occur to you?" scoffed Madara.

"Only that it's not true. You don't mind telling me this."

"I'll tell you if you tell me why do you want to know."

Sakura considered for a moment. Not the intel, that's not what she wanted. There was something about him, that she couldn't quite put her finger on. There was something that she… envied him? "I want to know how can you walk so calm and unperturbed even when everything around had crumbled. As if all that happen did not touch you at all... How do you do it? How can you still be so… so yourself?"

"How? I don't define myself through my circumstances. I know who I am even if I've made most horrific mistake. Falling for Zetsu's deception was my failure, a grand one, and it changed the course of my life. Yet, it didn't change who I am."

"Where are you going?" whispered Sakura feeling a shiver going through her body. As if in his answer was hidden something of utmost importance to her.

"I'm tracing back my path in this world. I'm going backwards through my past and I look at the places I've seen before. This time without the film of Zetsu's deceit over my eyes."

"And? Does the world seem different to you?"

"It does. It still does." Madara paused and looked up, towards the sky. "But at some point, I will find a place that will look the same now as it did when I saw it for the first time. And then I will know when did he possess me. I'm looking for this place."

"You'll find it."

"Of course I will."

They passed the clearing and crossed a small stream. On the other side of the ravine, Sakura asked: "And people? What about people? Do you also see them differently?"

Madara didn't turn his head. Sakura wondered if he would get what was she talking about. She was following their last exchange in her head, but, in retrospect, it wouldn't be necessary clear to her interlocutor.

But it was clear to him. "I wouldn't know. People die. No one that I knew in my younger years is still alive."

"And me?" spurted Sakura without thinking. Some inexplicable part of her felt hurt. Not noticed again. Overlooked. She really did have issues, concluded Sakura with dejection.

"What about you?"

Sakura bit her lip. How embarrassing, she will have to explain and humiliate herself even further. That's just her rotten luck, but she had to admit – she wasn't helping her it either. "You've seen me before. During the war. Don't you remember?"

Madara finally turned his head and looked her straight into the eyes. "I do remember you. I just considered it uncivil to dwell upon it. As far as I remember I've almost killed you." He paused for a moment. "You do look different."

"How…?"

He turned completely so he was now facing her and Sakura wanted to squirm under his gaze. She suddenly remembered how overwhelming his full attention felt. He was taxing her up and down and, but instead of stiffening in alert, Sakura felt she was blushing.

"Very different," he said in the end.

On the next day they reached the ferry crossing. They didn't talk much along the way. They exchanged some remarks about practicalities around the camp and organizing the food, both otherwise they kept rather silent. It was quite a change from Sakura's usual demeanor, but she didn't mind. She noticed that until now, she needed that constant chatter of hers to drown those small, mean voices in her head - whispering all the nasty things about herself and her life. But now, it was silent in her head. Silent and peaceful. She was listening to the birds singing as she went.

She had no idea if Madara was also fine with the level of their interaction, but he never raised any objections.

"I will show up within Konoha's borders. In a year or two," said Madara out of the sudden, when they were walking downhill, the ferry village spread below them on the riverbank.

Sakura turned her head. "Ah. Yes, of course. The Uchiha old clan territory must be near Konoha, right?"

Madara nodded. "I would appreciate if your Hokage didn't send an entire army to fend me off. I have no interest in fighting you, and a profound interest in taking my time in the place where I was born and grew up."

"I'll do my best to convince Tsunade-sama not to send the troops out."

They were approaching the first houses.

"I suppose it would make sense if you'd come to Konoha as well…" said Sakura, somewhere in the back of her head counting down the meters to the ferry. There weren't many left.

"Hm... I suppose it would."

The ferry was just in front of them.

"Then I… I'll be there. When you come. I look forward to hear about your journey. About how will the word look like through your new eyes. What you'll discover…"

"Likewise," replied Madara handing coins to the boatman.

"Likewise what?"

"I look forward to hear if the world still seems the same to you," he said with a small smile and stepped onto the ferry.

Wait, what did he mean? Why should her world look any different? Sakura wanted to ask, but the boat carrying Madara left the shore already. He didn't turn even once.

Several hours later, when she was sitting on the board of the boat going downriver, Sakura thought she understood. Maybe, maybe waiting for someone and being so sure, so absolutely certain that this person will show up, will make the world look different.

AN: Thanks for reading and please tell me what you think!