When Madara gets out of this f*cking barrier seal, he’s going to set Tobirama’s office on fire. f*ck his stupid academy project, Madara seethes as he paces the circumference of his containment. f*ck Hashirama’s insistence that he should join their stupid jōnin sensei program, and f*ck Myōkō for supporting him. And for good measure, f*ck that vixen Mito for agreeing to Tobirama’s idiot scheme and putting together the seal that trapped him. How f*cking dare she, and after he’d agreed to share with her all the gossip coming out of the daimyō’s court! The social season is in full swing, and there’s drama everywhere if one knows who to ask, and Madara’s great-aunt Kurohime always knows who to ask.
He can’t believe he fell for it in the first place. When Tobirama asked to spar, Madara hadn’t thought twice about the request. He’s always ready for a dance after all, and Tobirama is a worthy partner. Hashirama is the only one who can match him in chakra reserves and pure power, but Tobirama has more chakra control and is a crafty sneak on top of that. There’s never a dull moment when Madara needs to be able to react to his convoluted ninjutsu in less than the blink of an eye.
But he hadn’t even gotten that satisfaction! Tobirama had taken the part of the training grounds closest to where they entered, so Madara had to cross the grounds to reach the other side where he could stretch without getting in his partner’s way. Except as soon as Madara passed through the bounds of the barrier, the sky-high walls snapped into place, dampening his chakra and holding him inside. Aside from the initial panic—his first thought had, somewhat irrationally, been that an enemy had set the trap—Madara had been quick to channel all of his ensuing rage into shouting various insults at Tobirama on the other side. It wasn’t his finest moment, filled with too much impersonal, generalized slander and not enough oddly specific, curated ones, and all he ended up succeeding at was sounding like an over-boiling pot.
Tobirama had only watched as Madara screamed his frustration out, the faintest hint of amusem*nt present in the relaxed set of his eyes. When he was finally calm enough to look at Tobirama without setting off another fit, the cretin had the audacity to throw a pair of bells at him and announce, “Your genin prospects will arrive in twenty minutes. I’m sure you know what to do from here.”
Then he walked away. Madara had been too stunned to protest, his mind caught in a loop on “your genin prospects”, and by the time he’d collected any of his thoughts to make a case for why he’s about to unequivocally ruin these twelve-year-olds’ lives, Tobirama is nowhere to be seen.
And those twelve-year-olds are going to show up in twenty-some minutes, expecting a proper evaluation, and he’s supposed to give it to them.
Madara groans and drops his face in his hands. He’s tempted to drop to the ground as well, going the extra distance for the drama of it all, but he thinks his dignity won’t be able to withstand it if someone stumbled upon him in such a state. There’s every chance the Academy students will show up early, after all, and he needs to at least attempt to portray a visage of strength and skill. All of his friends and family are obviously conspiring against him, so he’ll find no support out of this situation there.
But if they were to fail the evaluation, showing they hadn’t learned enough to continue… well, Tobirama had made the mistake of forcing Madara to be their evaluator. As any of the Uchiha children can attest to, Madara would never surpass his students’ limits, but he would push them as far as they could go. An unsettling smile curves across Madara’s face as he begins to gleefully plan all the many ways he can dash the hopes and dreams of these unsuspecting children. The voice of Hashirama that lives inside his head cries at the very thought of disappointing children, but he justifies it by arguing if they lose conviction after only one failure against an opponent that far outclasses them at present, how can they ever hope to become stronger? He refuses to be stuck with a bunch of sniveling prepubescents that won’t benefit from his teachings and some day give him a worthy challenge. Not even a proper dance or spar, just a semblance of a good fight.
He has to take into account that he only has this small circle to work with, about two-meters in diameter, and very few of his weapons. When Tobirama had initially suggested the dance should be taijutsu and kenjutsu only—in hindsight, an obvious ruse—Madara had readily agreed. Chakra techniques and genjutsu aren’t options so long as he’s contained by this barrier anyway, so he’ll have to get creative. There’s little he can plan for without knowing who the kids are, but that’s half the fun. All he has to do is relax, dangle those bells mockingly in front of their faces, and see what they’ll do about it.
Yeah, he’s starting to think he’ll enjoy this a lot more than anticipated.
Out of all the people to be placed in a team with, it just had to be Uchiha Sasuke, her one-time crush, and Uzumaki Naruto, who she happens to be the current crush of. The universe must be out to get her, she bemoans privately, because there’s no way she’s managed to end up in the middle of a half-assed love triangle. Or would it be a love angle? Maybe it’s more of a love line, broken up by the third dimension time.
All of this is, naturally, only to distract her from the argument happening around her. Naruto insisted on being next to her, but neither he nor Sasuke wanted to walk next to each other after that embarrassing accidental kiss—come to think of it, would that actually turn it back into a love triangle?—and so she ended up stuck in the middle. Somehow, having a physical person acting as a buffer has done nothing to stop them from needling at each other.
“This is all your fault! If you hadn’t been standing so close—”
“—If I hadn’t been standing so close?” Sasuke snapped. “You were practically in my face, yelling about how you’d ‘never forgive me for this’! You didn’t even say what you were mad about!”
“You know exactly what I’m mad about!” Naruto puffs up, his cheeks reddening as his irritation grows. “You’re the only thing stopping me from—”
Sakura scowls, an eyebrow twitching with repressed rage, and decides she’s had enough. With grace, she plants a side kick right in Naruto’s gut and stands imperiously over him as he doubles over and falls to his knees, wheezing for breath. “Shut up already! All this about having a crush on me, and you aren’t even going to ask my opinion about it? You keep saying Sasuke is the only thing stopping you from asking me out, but I’m not even interested in Sasuke. There’s no competition to have. The only thing stopping me from going out with you is my utter lack of interest.”
Naruto deflates further, tipping his head back to look up at her. “Aw, but Sakura—”
“Give it up, already,” Sasuke grumbles. “Didn’t your mom ever tell you no means no?”
“Of course she did!” Naruto bristles, his shoulders rising defensively. “Kā-chan would sooner beat me into a pulp than let me harass a girl who doesn’t want attention!”
Sakura can’t help the way her eyebrows jump and her mouth drops in shock. Naruto’s tendency to entirely miss social cues has been known to get him into some baffling situations, but this has to take the cake. Beside her, she hears Sasuke groan and smack a hand against his forehead. “You idiot, what exactly do you think you’re doing now? She doesn’t want your attention!”
“Seriously?” Naruto shrieks, his gaze zipping back and forth between them.
“Yes, seriously!” Sakura finally manages to yell. She can feel her cheeks heating with embarrassment, and she hates to think about how she must look like an overripe tomato. “I’m not interested, and I don’t want your attention, and I don’t want to date you! Or Sasuke!” she adds for good measure to make sure Naruto doesn’t try to turn this into another competition.
Naruto flails wildly for a few moments, sputtering all kinds of apologies, before finally clapping his hands together and bowing his head. “I’m really sorry for all the trouble!” he shouts. “I shouldn’t have pushed so hard! Please forgive me for the insult!”
Sakura balks and steps back, stunned. “There’s no need to be so formal about it! It’s not like you’ve even hurt me or anything, you’ve just been annoyingly persistent!” It may have been her fault to a degree for thinking she could dissuade Naruto’s interest in her through subtlety. He always understood a straightforward explanation best. “Look, Naruto. I want us to be the best team we can possibly be, and that can’t happen if you keep trying to fight Sasuke for my attention. So for the sake of this team, you’re going to have to come to terms with the fact I’m not interested and get along with Sasuke. Do we have an understanding?”
He fidgets but nods decisively. “Yeah, I understand. I won’t bother you with this again, Sakura.”
Sakura sighs, relieved, and smiles brightly while offering Naruto her hand. “Great. Now let’s get going. Our evaluator must be annoyed we’re taking so long.”
They had been told their evaluator would be in the training grounds next to the Forest of Death and that they would receive further instructions about their evaluation from them. It had been a relief to hear, seeing as how their situation was a bit of a strange one. All the other teams had already met their evaluators, who would become their jōnin sensei if they pass, and introduced themselves. But they were still in the dark about who they would be evaluated by, let alone get to meet them. Senju Tobirama had even come to discuss with them personally the reason their evaluation was delayed, and had said they were still searching for an appropriate sensei who would be able to handle all the…quirks that came with Team 7.
Which, Sakura mused, is a fair enough assessment. Naruto is the son of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, incredibly skilled shinobi and seal masters on top of that, and Sasuke is a part of the infamous Uchiha clan. Sakura’s parents and heritage aren’t exactly on the same level, but her strength and taijutsu outclass both of them. Whoever they get trained by must be able to handle everything that could come of putting their set of skills together. No wonder it’s taking them so long to find a capable instructor.
“There’s the Forest!” Naruto cries, running ahead of them. “Wow, Hashirama-ji’s power is nothing to joke about, huh?”
“Idiot, of course it isn’t. Haven’t you heard the stories of him during the Warring States?”
Naruto gnashes his teeth and glares over his shoulder at Sasuke. “Course I’ve heard the stories. Doesn’t mean I can’t still be impressed!”
As he joins Naruto at the edge of the training ground, Sasuke returns the glare and clicks his tongue dismissively. “Madara-sama is cooler than Shodai-sama anyway. He’s the first in clan history to activate the Mangekyō Sharingan, and he and Izuna-sama are the only ones to have the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, which will never deteriorate. He’s the ultimate warrior.”
As soon he finishes boasting, a rumbling laugh rolls across the grounds, startling them and causing them to instinctively drop into a battle-ready stance. “I never knew you thought so highly of me, Sasuke-kun. How curious.”
Sasuke physically recoils at the voice, his expression falling into open disbelief as he catches sight of the figure standing on the other side of the grounds. “Madara-sama!”
'Ridiculous', is Sakura’s first thought. It’s such a ridiculous notion the Uchiha Madara, clan heir and Hokage’s left hand, would be their jōnin sensei that she needs to see it for herself, and she hurries to join the other two at the edge of the grounds. They’re pretty far away, so most of the man’s features are still indistinct. But the banner of black hair waving in the wind, long enough to rival the Shodai Hokage’s, is more than enough evidence.
“Are you serious?” Naruto says breathlessly, a starstruck expression on his face. “Uchiha Madara is our evaluator?”
“That’s right, brat,” Madara says, tilting his chin up imperiously and crossing his arms over his chest. “Getting cold feet already?”
“No way, dattebayo! This is just getting me fired up!” To emphasize his resolve, Naruto immediately drops into a series of stretches, expelling what Sakura knows to be his excess energy so he can focus on the task at hand. Sasuke, on the other hand, looks like he’s eaten a lemon with the way his expression has practically curdled.
“My life is a gods damned joke,” he mutters, casting his eyes heavenward as though to lodge a complaint with the gods themselves. “Why is this happening to me? I’ve done nothing to deserve it.”
“Let’s not go that far,” Sakura says mildly, thinking of all the many, many instances that proved Sasuke definitely deserved this. Just last week, he had challenged Hyūga Neji to a ninjutsu battle to uphold the honor of the Uchiha clan. He certainly meant for it to be an insult—Sasuke hadn’t even activated his Sharingan yet, insinuating that even without his clan’s signature dōjutsu, he was confident he could beat a Hyūga with a Byakugan. The only reason the challenge hadn’t actually been upheld was because Clan Heads Uchiha Myōkō and Hyūga Mitsusada refused to acknowledge its legitimacy when one of the participants wasn’t even a genin.
Sakura’s attention drifts back to Madara and chews on her lip nervously. Things have gotten a lot harder in light of this revelation. It was well-known throughout the village that the Shodai Hokage had only one equal on the battlefield. They won’t be able to pass this evaluation relying on pure strength, not that she thought it would be that easy regardless. They’ll have to be smart and go in with a plan and some incredible teamwork.
Which is a tall ask, considering who her teammates are. It’s a good thing she already had that talk with Naruto then, she muses with solemnity. This would’ve been an even bigger disaster all around if he had a bone to pick with Sasuke during their evaluation.
Remembering her manners now that the shock has passed, Sakura bows at the waist. “Uchiha Madara-sama, I hope your day has been pleasant.”
“It could’ve been better,” Madara replies diplomatically, his eyes passing over each of them assessingly. “It may not be a total waste yet. Alright you little hellions, here’s how your evaluation is going to run. I’ve got two bells here.” He raises one hand and the bells jingle brightly with the movement. “Your goal is to outmaneuver me and obtain one. At the end of the evaluation, the two who have a bell will become genin.”
Sakura exchanges a look of dread with her teammates. “But Uchiha-sama, there are three of us.”
Madara hums, a light sound that belies the smirk that creeps across his face. “So there are. The one who doesn’t get a bell won’t become a genin, then. That’s not to say two of you are guaranteed to be genin, only that you have the opportunity. Don’t forget that I’ll be doing my utmost to keep them from you.”
Sasuke hisses quietly in frustration. “That’s unfair, Madara-sama.”
“Tough, Sasuke-kun,” Madara says with obvious amusem*nt. “You three want to be proper shinobi, so you must learn early that life is rarely fair. One of you will fail, at minimum. These are the parameters of my evaluation. Are my terms clear?” When he receives hesitant nods from all of them, he subtly shifts his stance to stagger his feet and tucks the bells loosely into his fists. “Begin.”
Before Naruto and Sasuke can jump into action, Sakura quickly grabs onto their collars and uses Shunshin to drag them to the forest’s edge. She drops them unceremoniously in a heap, ignoring Madara’s indignant shouting about them refusing to dance, and glares at the two boys with as much severity as she can. “Were the two of you really going to jump in like that without a plan? Naruto, I expect as much from you, but Sasuke? That’s your clan heir! You should know better!”
“I do know him, and that’s how I know we won’t get anywhere if we cower at his feet and fear his strength!” Sasuke snaps. “He won’t give us a second glance unless we can show him we aren’t intimidated.”
“This is an evaluation for a team, Sasuke, regardless of what Madara-sama says,” Sakura retorts icily. “Unless you wanted to go at it alone?” At that, Sasuke falls silent. Sakura nods expectantly. “Then we have to come up with a strategy.”
“Hey, hang on!” Naruto waves his hands wildly to get their attention, a gleeful smile plastered on his face. “I’ve got something for that! This whole time, I’ve been trying to figure out what’s wrong with Madara-san’s chakra signature. Don’t you think it’s way too tame?”
Now that he mentions it, Madara’s chakra isn’t as overbearing as Sakura had expected it to be. She’s met the Shodai Hokage a few times when he came to observe the first generation of Academy students, and each time she’d been half-suffocated by his chakra presence. If Madara is his equal, his chakra should have a similar effect. But she’d barely felt anything at all the entire time they’d spoken.
“I didn’t even realize,” Sasuke admits. His face pinches in a frown and he unconsciously bites his thumb. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing’s wrong, exactly. Kā-chan and Mito-ba have been teaching me some seals though, and I finally recognized this one. It’s a chakra suppression seal!” They turn as one to look over at the Uchiha heir, noting how he seems to have calmed from impassioned yelling to mere brooding. “There’s also some kinda barrier around him keeping him there. I thought it was weird he didn’t try to get closer to us.”
“Chakra suppression? A barrier containment?” Sasuke's fretful expression takes a turn for the worse. “Who could have done that to him? How can we help him?”
“Oh, we can’t. The only person who can is the one who made the seal, or if we got another seal master to look at it. But this feels like Mito-ba’s work anyway, so I’m sure it’s fine.” Those reassurances seem to do nothing for Sasuke, who continues to gloomily stare at Madara as if anticipating him to keel over and die any second. Sakura would be the first to admit she doesn’t understand much about how clan loyalty works, but this seems a bit excessive.
But she brushes past those concerns easily enough. The Uchiha have always been weirder than most—even her limited interactions with the Senju and Uzumaki clans has taught her this much. “Good eye, Naruto. We can use this as leverage later. Right now, don’t let him know we’ve figured it out. Can we still get close to him while the seal is in place?”
“Yeah, it’s not going to affect us.”
Sakura doesn’t bother hiding her smirk. The perfect plan has practically fallen into their laps with no effort on their parts, and she’s going to ensure they take full advantage of it.
Madara kicks the ground sullenly as the kids continue to discuss among themselves at the far end of the training ground. It was too much to hope for that they would be reckless enough to face him head on, or that they would stay close enough for him to listen in. That pink-haired girl—Haruno Kizashi’s girl if he remembers right, although her own name eludes him—is definitely the mastermind on their group. No offense to Sasuke, who on his own is intelligent and a passable strategist, but the moment he gets put in Naruto’s vicinity, the Uzumaki’s energetic disposition slaughters any hope of rationality.
Of its own accord, the potential he sees in her morphs into a vision of what she could be given the proper training. He can feel the overwhelming presence of her earth affinity, and below that the potential for water. If he looks closer at the threads of her chakra, he might even spot some latent yang potential. Not everyone has the desire or dedication to cultivate it, but given her resolve to tackle this evaluation with strategy instead of brute force, he knows that wouldn’t be a problem for her if she ever did decide to specialize in yang techniques.
He’s getting ahead of himself. Hadn’t he already committed to failing them all? There’s no point getting attached, dreaming of a future that will never get the chance to play out. Even if his cousin is part of his potential team. Even if his best friend’s nephew is here. Even if some part of him is already scheming to not let Haruno’s potential go to waste.
The flash of a kunai edge breaks him out of his thoughts, but he slides out of its path easily enough. The children have finished their planning, it seems, and are going to begin their attack in earnest. They come at him quickly, Sasuke from his front and Naruto from above. He dances out of their reach, makes note of Haruno sweeping a leg out to catch him on the back of his knees, and jumps into a twisting somersault. He makes a concerted attempt to avoid hitting any of them in the process, and while that makes his landing more difficult in the small space he’s been afforded, it’s better than accidentally smashing one of them into the ground. None of them seem bothered by his easy dodges, and they fall back together to prepare for the next assault.
“It was too much to hope we’d catch you off-guard, Uchiha-sama.” Haruno grouses. “Next phase, you two.”
“On it.”
“You got it, Sakura!” Naruto says with far more enthusiasm, and both he and Sasuke shift further back, putting them beyond his range. Sakura remains close though, obviously playing as their distraction.
“Trying to overwhelm me is a lost cause,” Madara drawls, easily parrying the wobbly shuriken thrown at him with a kunai. Sakura follows it up by coming in close for a taijutsu sequence, interspersing her punches with a variety of kicks aimed his torso, knees, and wrists. He tanks some of them to get a sense of her strength and is surprised when he has to brace himself more than expected. It’s impressive for her size and build, but ultimately it’s little more than an inconvenience to him. “What are you trying to accomplish with this?”
“Showing you what we’re capable of,” Sakura declares, baring her teeth in a wild grin. “Don’t get too comfortable, Madara-sama!”
As she disengages, she runs through the signs for snake, rat, and bird, a basic doton jutsu to summon earthen spikes from the ground. So she wants to force him into the air, where presumably Naruto and Sasuke will be prepared to double team him with their long- and mid-range techniques. Sasuke shouldn’t know anything requiring extensive chakra control since Izuna has yet to complain about how boring their training is while he has to wait for his students to build the necessary stamina for it, and a brief brush against Naruto’s chakra practically screams his affinity for wind.
Wind to keep him in place, lightning or fire to deal damage. It’s not bad, as far as half-baked strategies go. And if he wants to tire them out, he’ll need to play along. With that in mind, he dodges the first spike and kicks off two adjacent ones to outrun the others converging on him. A little over five meters off the ground, he finally feels the tendrils of chakra-infused wind buoying him up. Briefly suspended in the air, he only has a few options for how to deal with the arc of lightning Sasuke directs toward him.
If he had any chakra, he would have simply deflected the attack with his own defensive counter, but this damn seal makes that impossible. Of course, he can always let it hit him. It wouldn’t hit as hard as Izuna’s, but lightning is lightning, and he’s not fond of that course of action.
There is one other option. He grins crookedly as he unspools the chain hanging off his tool belt, grateful he never leaves home without his kama. It’s more fun to use it in tandem with his gunbai, but he’ll make do. Redirecting the lightning would typically require some chakra use, but grounding it will work just as well. And Sakura had already done him a favor by creating those earthen spikes, because at this height his kama wouldn’t have been able to reach the ground. His gloves should impart enough resistance that the lightning will take the easiest path available to it and follow the chain instead. And if he drops the heavy blade instead of the chain, it’s less likely to shift in the wind and lose contact with the spikes.
The plan executes perfectly. When the lightning hits its mark, Madara only feels a mild shock while the rest funnels down the chain, and after a few seconds the whirlwind can’t sustain itself. He lands neatly on the tip of one of the spikes and looks down upon the children, still smiling mockingly.
“Not bad. But is it the best you’ve got?” He swings his kama by its chain in figure-eights, barely paying attention to it. “I thought you’d give me more of a show.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet, dattebayo!” Naruto yells, disappearing with Shunshin so he can reach Sasuke’s side faster. “Come on, Sasuke!”
“Oi, you idiot, we can’t do that yet!”
“But it would be so cool!” Naruto whines, looking like he’s two seconds from dropping to his knees in front of Sasuke, clinging to his pant legs, and wailing. “Don’t you want to show off?”
Ah. That’ll do it, Madara thinks helplessly as he sees the scales tip in Naruto’s favor. He has enough self awareness to know that the one thing an Uchiha is always weak to is a chance to put on a show. He’s not entirely sure what he expected to happen when he taunted one of his own clan members like that.
“Fine,” is Sasuke’s clipped answer, and without fanfare he begins running through the hand signs of the Great Fireball Technique. He still needs to use the full form to activate his tenketsu points and knead the chakra due to his age, but Madara had already known Sasuke mastered the technique when he was a mere seven years old. The more concerning part is that Naruto is gearing up for another fūton jutsu, and he’s not in a position to easily divert an overpowered fireball.
A flash of pink out of the corner of his eye reminds him that just because her teammates are goofing off doesn’t mean Sakura is going to sit idle. Holding his kama in one hand forces him to make a back handspring one-handed, and the spike he’d been resting on shatters as Sakura’s chakra-enhanced punch hits it. The scale of the damage makes him whistle appreciatively. “Tsuna-chan taught you that one, didn’t she?”
“Impressed yet?”
“It’s good to see initiative, that’s all.” No need to give her an ego so young. His attention flicks back toward Sasuke and Naruto and makes note of their progress. The fireball looks almost ready, which means Sakura will back off soon to avoid getting caught in its path.
He’s little more than a bird with clipped wings, trapped in a cage to add salt to the wound. He has at least one ready option for dealing with that fireball that won’t leave him charred around the edges, but he’s never had to use it in a situation like this. His chakra reserves aren’t at their limit, but can they take the strain of absorbing the Great Fireball?
The decision is made for him when Sasuke releases the fireball. Like hell he’s gonna let his hair get burnt if he can help it. He catches sight of Sakura’s expression just before the fireball hits, and the wide-eyed shock almost makes him cackle. Any normal person would be diving for the measly amount of cover the earth spikes would offer, but Madara enjoys breaking expectations. This is an ability even most of his fellow clan members don’t know about.
He closes his eyes and opens his tenketsu, raising a hand to offer the incoming chakra a single point to filter through. The fireball breaks around him and billows away in streaks, lashing at his gear and sinking into his skin to be absorbed before it can cause damage. He has to fight back a grimace as his meridians burn and swell under the onslaught, the sear of the foreign fire-natured chakra a bone-deep discomfort. It would be easier if he could release some of it as it accumulated, but alas, he’s stuck feeling like a bloated volcano until he’s out of the containment seal.
“All power and no finesse,” Madara sighs, shaking his hand as the smoke clears away to ease the uncomfortable tension under his skin. “I’ll be letting Gōki know to add more chakra control to your training.”
“You don’t need to let Gōki-san know since you’ll be my new shishō, Madara-sama,” Sasuke grumbles.
“Presumptuous brat,” Madara hisses, but even he can hear the amused tinge to it. The rascal really is the spitting image of his mother. The Great Fireball isn’t something Sasuke can do more than twice without exhausting himself, so Madara’s confident he won’t be seeing another one of those so long as he intends to conserve his chakra for a drawn out spar. Sakura’s reserves feel about average, and while Naruto’s reserves are mostly full, his family’s focus on seals means he has fewer fūton jutsu in his repertoire. He can reasonably anticipate that the rest of their strategy will focus on tai- and kenjutsu, with few if any supporting chakra techniques.
He’ll continue to let them take the lead and demonstrate their skills. There’s no reason to end this yet when he can still have some fun, and at the very least he can send their actual teachers notes about their progress to help them improve. For the next ten or so minutes, he dodges, blocks, and parries all kinds of attacks. He rarely makes any effort to hit them first, but sometimes he’ll taunt them with a fake out, and it’s led to some interesting improvisations. Naruto had made an impromptu nunchaku out of ninja wire and kunai, not entirely true to form but certainly to technique. Sasuke and Sakura teamed up to stun him with explosive tags, littering the ground with them and forcing him to dance around to avoid them. He must look like a fool, trapped in place and laid low by mere paper seals. But there’s little he can do about them, so he continues to keep out of reach.
It doesn’t take much longer for him to notice how the flow of their chakra starts to strain and falter, growing thin when they try to use ninjutsu as simple as the substitution technique, Madara decides it’s time to end this spar. As they come in for a final attack, he unhooks his kyoketsu-shoge from his belt and unspools the length of it. A three-sided attack, one at his back and two coming in at slants in front of him. Hardly a challenge, but he’ll play it up for the drama. Naruto and Sasuke both choose to launch kunai and shuriken respectively, and he bats them away with ease with the blade and ring of the kyoketsu-shoge. He’s able to use the deflections to hide how he begins twining the rope around his arms and torso, letting the flow of it decide what the final release will be.
At his back, he feels the beginning of a chakra-enhanced punch forming. It would be amateurish to not expect Sakura to simply release her chakra the moment Madara escapes her path to make it less damaging for her teammates. He can’t rely on her slipping up and hitting Naruto and Sasuke, which would save him the trouble of subduing them. But she’s durable, more so than either of the boys, and with that in mind he makes his move. The bladed end of his weapon swings out so the rope catches on Sasuke’s arm, then swings in to catch Naruto in its arc. It wraps around them a few times, and after Madara twists the rope to ensure the curved piece attached to the hilt of the blade hooks onto it, he deftly tightens the slack to bring the two children together. He makes use of their momentum and steps out of the way to pull them into the space he’d just vacated, anticipating Sakura’s hesitation and taking advantage of it to throw her teammates right into her. They tumble to the ground right outside of his seal boundary in a tangle of limbs, with almost no injuries except to their pride.
“The evaluation is over,” Madara announces before they can scramble to their feet and attempt to go again. With a groan, they slump and try to catch their breath.
“Madara-san is really a monster,” Naruto complains, panting as he tries to lever both himself and Sasuke up from where they lay on their side. “You didn’t go easy on us at all!”
“He was going easy on us, idiot,” Sasuke snaps, joining Naruto’s efforts and eventually landing them both upright. “He didn’t use any chakra techniques.”
“Not by choice,” Sakura points out.
Madara looks on mildly as they engage each other in whatever trivial discussion this is, toying with the ringed end of his kyoketsu-shoge. He doesn’t get to bring it out very often, content to rely on his massive chakra reserves and his kama-gunbai, but he likes to keep his options open. It was good he brought it today and got some practice in. When he tires of their conversation, he effortlessly draws their attention back to him by ringing the bells still tucked in his fist.
“Well would you look at that,” Madara says, smirking at the crest-fallen expression overcoming Naruto and Sasuke’s faces. “Looks like I still have both bells.”
“And would you look at that,” Sakura retorts, an innocent smile plastered on her face, “you’re still stuck in the containment seal.”
Just like that, Madara abruptly finds himself on the back foot. Damn it, he’d forgotten Naruto would have started fūinjutsu training with Kushina and Mito by now, and while the specifications of his own may be stricter and more complex, the base theory of a containment seal is the same. As if he’s privy to Madara’s thoughts, a broad smile spreads across Naruto’s face.
“Mito-ba made it, didn’t she?”
Quietly, and with great feeling, Madara whispers, “What the f*ck.”
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Naruto says happily. “Which means only she can undo it.”
“Tobirama contributed,” Madara says, grasping at straws that even he recognizes will do nothing to save him.
“Do you really think Senju-san will side with you on this?” Sasuke asks derisively, raising a single eyebrow. He spends far too much time with Izuna, Madara realizes with a sinking heart. He’d recognize his brother’s handiwork anywhere. “He was bending over backward to try and find someone who wouldn’t run screaming for the hills the moment they saw us. There’s no way either of them are helping you until you pass us.”
“So as you can see Madara-sama, you have only one option before you. We look forward to our first training session.” Sakura climbs gracefully to her feet and bows at him, then turns to her teammates and begins unwinding the rope.
“I’m being blackmailed,” Madara mutters, astonishment warring with disbelief, “by a bunch of twelve-year-olds. Unbelievable.”
Sakura sniffs primly. “You’ll remember well not to underestimate us.”
At that, Madara’s hold on his composure breaks, and a sharp cackle escapes him. “Haruno, you haven’t the slightest clue what you’ve done. Fine, have it your way. I expect to see all three of you in this same training field by the time the sun sits on the horizon. Don’t be late, or you’ll be running conditioning drills the entire morning.” As they finally untie themselves and bow one more time, Madara tacks on, “And I expect you to find Tobirama or Mito as soon as you are dismissed. Every minute I’m stuck in here is another half a kilogram of weights each of you will wear for the entirety of training tomorrow.”
The three of them freeze. All Madara offers is a predatory grin.
“Your time starts now.”
