Soul-bound

13. Demon

I gained more power than I could ever have dreamed of. More power than I believed was possible.

I became so skilled, there was nobody more skilled than me. I became so strong, there was nobody stronger than me. I became so powerful, nobody more powerful than me.

For five years, I gained more and more power, driven by not hatred, as many thought, but a broken heart caused by my former best friend rejecting me, as well as the death of my little brother and his boyfriend.

I knew what I wanted and I got it. I wanted powerful weapons and so I stole them from their previous owners after killing them. I wanted to know secret techniques and so I broke into secret hiding places where texts about them were stored after overpowering entire villages. On and on it went.

I didn't know what I wanted to do with all this power, however. When the word spread across the world about my shenanigans, the theory was that I planned on taking over my old village. Then, they realised I had gathered far, far more power than I needed for that, so everyone believed I was planning on taking over the entirety of my old country. They were frightened, I heard, that I was gathering an army. I wasn't. I didn't need one. I had myself, and that was enough. But nobody knew what I was about to do, and it made everyone nervous.

I knew Hashirama was chasing me. It made me feel some sort of glee. I still loved him. After fifteen years, my passion hadn't died one bit. But I never let him catch me. Firstly, because I knew he didn't want to catch me for me, for the want of seeing me, of speaking to me, of being with me, but because he wanted to protect his fucking village and his fucking country. But secondly, I didn't want him to catch me because I was frightened I would be put in a situation where I was forced to kill him.

So I stayed out of the way of him, and gathered more and more power.

One part of me believed I was doing all of this to impress him. See? See what I can do? See what I'm capable of doing if you don't love me back? I knew it was toxic. I was hoping against hope that the fact that I knew it was toxic made it less so.

But of course. Of course Hashirama would find a way to get to me. And of course that would be by out-smarting me.

And after five years, we finally met again.

I received an important piece of information from a terrified man in a village I passed. He was trembling as I approached him. I smiled a sad smile inside of me, a sad smile that belonged to a younger Madara, not this man that I was now.

Look at what you have become. You used to be his little fox. Now, you're a demon.

The man told me about a huge battle between my old country and an enemy one.

And the army of my country was vastly, vastly outnumbered.

I frowned.

Then, realisation struck me, and I sunk down to my knees.

Hashirama, you clever fuck.

Hashirama had no interest in war against the enemy country. But Hashirama had realised it was fruitless to chase me.

So in a meeting with the village leaders, he'd made up a plan.

"We are to go to war against them."

The leaders had been taken aback, argued for the absurdity of the plan. Hashirama, however, had held up his hands.

"I know", he had said, and the leaders had become quiet. "I know. But we can't catch Madara. We need to make him come to us."

"Why would he come to us if we start a war?"

"We'll only send a small army. And be vastly outnumbered." The leaders had looked confused. Hashirama had sighed. "Madara will come. Madara will come to save me."

"But it's absurd to waste so many men for one rogue one!" one of the leaders had protested.

"Is it, though?" Hashirama had asked calmly. "Madara has killed thousands. He will kill a thousand more. He's dangerous. The rumour is he is planning on invading our country. We must make sacrifices to stop him."

The leaders had been quiet for a while, contemplating this.

"Are you sure it will work? That he will come to your aid? He's a demon. He has no heart."

Hashirama had hesitated for just a moment.

"Yes", he had said. "Yes, I'm sure."

He didn't believe I was a demon like everyone else did, including myself.

Hashirama knew I was no fool.

He knew I would figure out what he was doing.

What he was hoping for, was that I would come anyway when realising how much he wanted to meet him

And I played right into his hand because I knew that he would actually let himself be killed otherwise. He would let the army of the enemy country, consisting of thousands upon thousands of skilled warriors, kill off his entire army of a hundred, including himself.

I waited a way away, watching the battle unfold in the desert, concealing my presence so he wouldn't be able to sense me. They fought, the hundred men; they fought fiercely. Finally, Hashirama was the only man left.

You could have interfered, I thought. You could have interfered immediately, preventing the death of the hundred me .

I hadn't.

Hashirama was on his back the ground, grabbing onto the blade of an enemy sword pointed at his neck. Even his gloves didn't help; his hands were bleeding through them.

I approached, my presence still concealed, and I saw that all hope had died within the man.

He believes I'm not coming...

And just as the enemy was going to put his entire weight behind his sword to finish off my former best friend, I landed right behind the enemy, and killed him from behind.

I killed all thousands upon thousands of men within a few minutes without as much as a scratch. In that moment, I didn't care whether Hashirama was impressed with me or not; I just wanted to finish fast so I could get to him.

As the last man died, I stood panting.

Then, I slowly walked back to the Hashirama, who was still on his back, smiling a little.

"I thought you wouldn't come", he said softly.

The fact that he wasn't mad at me for not coming sooner to save the hundreds broke my heart.