A Subject's Horror - Book Five

Chapter Four

Sasuke still seemed to be reeling over the fact that one of the founders of Konoha, and the strongest leader of his clan, was standing before him. That in fact ghosts were real and could be interacted with along with the fact this said ghost had been teaching me.

"How come only you can originally see him?" wondered Sasuke breaking the silence as we continued to make our way through the underground entrance.

"I haven't a clue," I answered honestly with a grimace. "One day when heading to my room I just happened to see him and he's been hanging around ever since."

Which was the honest truth even if I was thankful for the training.

That didn't mean I wasn't still creeped out and just done with being haunted by said man.

"Is this why you wanted to train together?" Sasuke asked next making me nod in agreement as that had been the reason why I'd reached out the other.

"Let me see your hand," ordered Madara as we finally stopped at what looked like a dead end making me step forward slowly to hold my hand out. "I'll be adding you to the fuinjutsu matrix so you can access the room even without me if need be."

Wait, no, I didn't want that at all!

Only I didn't have another chance to back out or refuse as he grabbed my hand and use chakra to cut the palm so blood would well up. A hiss escaped me from the pain even as he then slapped my palm on the wall making it light up and showcase said fuinjutsu matrix.

Just great, I now had to deal with this as well.

"You're really Uchiha Madara," whispered Sasuke as the wall split and opened allowing us to enter a large room filled with shelves that were packed with scrolls. "This isn't a dream..."

Ah, so he hadn't really fully accepted reality then.

"Here are all the jutsu I had copied and taken from my enemies," explained Madara as we walked into the room allowing the opening to close behind us, "there area also weapons from kunai, shuriken, to spears and swords. I even collected a number of summoning contracts."

Meaning anything and everything one could ever want to be a great shinobi or kunoichi was in this room. I also noticed a few scrolls, left open on a table, filled with fuinjutsu symbols.

It seemed that this had truly been his room and vault to hold his knowledge.

One he hadn't even shared with Obito I would bet.

"Train me," demanded Sasuke finally snapping out of it and turning his dark eyes towards the other. "I need to get stronger in order to kill Itachi for killing our clan."

"Ah, right you're not aware," mused Madara smile nothing but mean as he chuckled making me tense in place. "Uchiha Itachi was following orders and did so believing he was also keeping you safe, ironic isn't it that in return he seeks death by your hands?"

His words were like a slap as Sasuke stumbled back and paled.

"You're lying," snarled Sasuke as he jerked forward only to freeze in place as Madara sent him a look in return. "I saw, he made me watch repeatedly as he murdered our clan and our parents!"

"He placed you in a genjutsu to show you that, yes," agreed Madara lightly with a tilt of his head as he continued to watch the other. "But did you ever really question why he did so? Or did you really believe his nonsense of doing it to test his strength?"

I really wanted to make him shut up.

Not once had I assumed he'd tell Sasuke the truth of that night, which had happened only months ago. It was still fresh in his mind and he was still mourning the deaths of his parents.

This wasn't something he should have to hear right now.

But that wasn't something Madara cared about, Sasuke's mentality and feelings meant nothing to him, and instead it seems he was trying to accomplish something by doing this.

I just didn't know what that was.

"He also didn't kill all of those clans members by himself," continued Madara as he shifted and took a step closer to Sasuke. "In fact, he had helped from another thought to be dead member of the clan. Though he believed he was doing this on orders of his leader due to the Uchiha planning to rebel against Konoha and its current Hokage."

A scream filled with so many different emotions escaped Sasuke as he widely shot forward to attack Madara. Only to freeze in place as Madara's eyes met his trembling ones.

"Shit," I hissed out shooting forward to catch Sasuke's falling form while sending Madara a glare even if I also noticed he wasn't as solid as he had once been. "Why the hell did you do that?!"

Sasuke was only a child, nine-years-old, and had already barely woken up and started to face the day after having his family taken from him. Now he was once more under that genjutsu.

"I'm showing him the truth of it all," answered Madara before motioning to the shelves, "while he is under that genjutsu we shall focus on taking some scrolls back with us."

It seemed like he had set a certain amount of time for Sasuke to be under the genjutsu. I held back another sigh while shifting to pick up the other child and carry him back upstairs.

We were lucky that no one could spy or hear into the house thanks to the fuinjutsu placed all over the building. It was the only reason that none of the ANBU likely keeping an eye on Sasuke had shown up or broken in to take me into custody.

After that I headed back downstairs to select the scrolls Madara motioned to.

In truth, I just wanted to head home and pretend that none of this had happened. I also had to worry about how Sasuke learning the truth so early on would affect him and the future.

Truly, Madara was the worst thing that had happened to me in this life.

"Grab those two scrolls as well," added Madara right as I went to leave the room behind and head back upstairs. "One is for Sasuke and the other is for you. For now on, I'll be training you both into the ground and will make sure you can face anything."

Great, he planned to be the instructor from hell once again.

At least I wouldn't have to face it alone.