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The Heavenly Court was in turmoil and had been for some time. The games played by Ootsutsuki Hagoromo, called the Sage of Six Paths and his brother Ootsutsuki Homura, now the Warden of Yomi, against their mother Ootsutsuki Kaguya, the Guardian of the God Tree had been vastly entertaining.
At first.
It had started with small things. A few grumbles among the Wakari-Zarashi, a comment here and there from the shrine Kami, endless complaints from the mountain Tengu. The Humans prayed less, were less sincere in their offerings, no longer asked for favours or for intervention from the divine powers. The shinobi ways gained strength, and the only god the ninja had was Death.
(What do we say to the God of Death.
Not today.
Not today.)
A single heretic mortal thinking himself a god and suffering for his hubris before finally admitting to the truth was one thing. Having his legend grow until it eclipsed the tales of the true rulers of Heaven and Earth? That was not to be borne.
They did what they could to alleviate the damage, and it seemed to work for a brief time, but then…
The Uchiha, blessed by Sun and Moon and Storm fell to madness and betrayal, and the Three Sibling Gods of the Sky screamed.
The Uzumaki, favoured by Chance and the water eddies, were wiped out, and the Seven Gods of Fortune raged.
The Hyuuga, watched over by providence of the divine protector, turned on their own blood in paranoia, and the God of Defence was dismayed.
Nor were they the only children of the divine pairs to be so distraught. The White Wolf God stormed into the Palace of the Jade Emperor, howling in grief and ire that the Hatake Clan had been brought so low. Ugajin was quieter in their anger, but equally enraged by the destruction of the Yamato Clan, as evidenced by eloquently hissed threats uttered to all who would listen.
Seeking to calm the Heavenly Court, the Jade Emperor sent the Merciful Goddess away to her lotus pool and bid her gaze into the depths to see what she could see. She learned much of what afflicted the Elemental Countries. She learned of Kaguya’s madness. She learned the true extent Hagoromo and Homura’s actions. She learned of the curse laid on Indra and Asura, and the interference corrupting their cycle of transmigration. She learned of the Tailed Beasts, locked away and abused and exposed to the worst of humanity’s hubris and malice. She learned.
The Merciful Goddess came away from her viewing pool and spoke of what she had learned before the Court of Heaven.
Thus informed, the Gods decided to act.
/…/
They say that the gods laugh when men make plans.
What happens then, when the gods make plans?
Freed to act to the fullest extent of her powers, the Sun Goddess made the next move in the game she had been playing against her former Husband for centuries.
Amaterasu-no-Mikoto moved her Silver piece to Castle.
(On the mortal plane, her Phoenix King rose from his own ashes on wings of flame.)
/…/
Dawn called to him.
Not to say that it was the only phenomenon that did, nowadays. Moonrise and storms called to him as well, but… less insistently than the sunrise did.
Only one thunderstorm had covered the mountain since their rebirth, but while it had left Madara and his three youngest brothers too awake to sleep, Izuna had been quite literally climbing the walls with excess energy. Lightning had crawled over Izuna’s Kingfisher wings constantly, sparking in time to the beat of thunder overhead.
Tobirama had eventually resigned himself to the situation, taking Itama and Kawarama with him to bed down in another room. The Uchiha brothers had gotten very little sleep that night, but had been refreshed enough by the energy of the storm that the lost sleep did not affect them the next day.
Minowa had been impossible to put to bed during the recently passed New Moon. In comparison, Adatara had been much less energetic than his twin… but that was changing as the next Full Moon approached. Madara was fairly certain that the twins were going to be complete night owls. He would need to strictly enforce naps during the hours where neither the sun nor the moon was in the sky.
Naps for all of them, himself included.
As of yet, Asama did not appear to have any particular meteorological preferences, but the odds were good that they simply had not experienced the right conditions to set off their youngest brother’s specific instincts yet. Madara dreaded the day that discovery was made. The twins had been hard enough to handle before they realized that it was moonrise that was precipitating the energy rush. A literal demon toddler experiencing his first metaphysical adrenaline surge was going to be anevent.
In the meantime… Madara had to find a way to handle his own affairs.
Dawn called to him. Madara wanted nothing more than to run in circles before sprawling out and basking in the sunlight. The courtyard and garden were acceptable during certain parts of the day, the heat baking into his bones in the best of ways. The temple roof was even better. Closer to the sun. Closer to the sky.
It took all of Madara’s considerable willpower to stay grounded. If the roof felt nice because it was higher up, how nice would the sunlight be if Madara flew upwards? Tobirama had needed to stress the remainder that Madara did not know how to fly.
(Yet.)
In addition, there was no guarantee that his new wings would actually work to lift him. There had been distractions enough while arranging their new home to their liking that exploring the physical changes had been postponed. For the moment. Madara had taken to beating his wings when he was alone, just like he had encouraged his fledglings to exercise when training a new hunting hawk.
The muscles in his back that controlled the wings were just as strong as the rest of his body, despite being newly created. Even without jumping, Madara’s wings caught enough air that his heels lifted from the ground. It would only be a matter of time before Madara deemed himself read to try launching.
In the meantime, Madara had to put up with the sun calling to him.
It was irritating.
Awakened by the glimmer of sunrise peeking over the horizon, aware that there was no way he would be able to go back to sleep thanks to the energy rush, Madara grit his teeth and gathered up some of the fabric and thread Tobirama had squirreled away in the temple storage rooms. The children still needed clothes of their own.
As well planned and stocked as Tobirama’s escape house was, the man had obviously anticipated being alone in his hypothetical retreat. All the clothes that had been stored in the temple were in Tobirama’s sizes or near to it.
Madara and Izuna could manage after a bit of hemming and cinching. The smaller children had been stuck using the kosode and gi as awkward yukata for a while at the beginning. Madara had quickly altered the adult Senju sized tops into garments that fit better, but that still left them all with only one set of clothing each. Given how active they were in cleaning up the temple to turn it into their home, to say nothing of the wear-and-tear that came with a shonobi lifestyle, they needed more clothes.
It was slow going, making clothing for eight people from scratch. Especially since there were many other things that alsoneeded doing. Thankfully, Izuna and Madara had used their Sharingan to acquire a multitude of life skills and civilian trade skills in addition the expected theft of enemy jutsu.
Tobirama had been very interested to learn that skills acquired via the Sharingan could be taken a step further. Rather than, for example, only being able to copy garment patterns that they had seen with the Sharingan, Madara and Izuna had practiced the trade skills they copied until they had mastered the stolen ability. Once that mastery was achieved, the copied pattern was no longer needed, even though it was still remembered. The end result was being able to use the stolen skill as if they had learned it the traditional way, but with only minimal practice time required.
It was a cheat, and the two oldest Uchiha brothers had taken shameless advantage of the shortcut their eyes gave them for learning everything they took interest in. Anything and everything, from cooking to poetry. If it caught their eye, they had copied it with the Sharingan.
Lucky for them all that they had, given that the thought of leaving the mountain brought a surge of anxiety crawling up Madara’s throat. Leaving to steal or buy pre-made clothing was out of the question. So, Madara would put his weird, solar-powered energy rush to good use and make clothes.
As it was, making patterned that fit their new limbs was novel enough to be engaging. Madara had needed to rework a few things in the construction if he wanted backless shirts to stay up and in place without being scandalous or cold.
The Senju were easier to design clothes for. An extra tie on the waistband and a notch for the tails was all that was needed.
Humming tunelessly, Madara eyed his current project and was thankful for all the practice that he had manipulating ninja wire. This would take so much longer without the chakra thread control technique he had lifted from a puppeteer in Suna.
/…/
“Good morning, bright hawk.” The sultry voice was deep for a woman, and the sunlight reached an intensity that was impossible to ignore. The intruder grinned gleefully as Madara leapt to his feet with a curse. “It’s good to see you well.”
“Who…” Madara paused, blinking at the woman made of light and power that stood in the center of the courtyard. Her hair was black as the deep shadow of an eclipse, trailing streamers of light and ribbons of flame. Her eyes were red, pupils a pair of black sunbursts. Her white skin was pale enough to blind and was marked with curving red lines. Fine, richly embroidered robes of white, gold, red, and black billowed gently in a non-existent wind. Madara blinked again. “… you are?”
“Amaterasu-no-mikoto.” The Sun Goddess grinned, curving carmine lips and showing sharp white teeth, wicked and pleased. “You might have heard of me before.”
“… Good morning and be welcome, Amaterasu-sama.” Still rather overwhelmed by the rush of power that had accompanied her appearance, Madara defaulted to diplomatic manners. Hopefully the Sun Goddess would not take offense. “Is there something I could assist you with?”
“Mm, nah.” Waving one slender hand in easy dismissal, Amaterasu looked Madara over with a discerning eye before she nodded in evident satisfaction. “Excellent. Your inheritance has settled nicely, and you wear it well. As expected of my most notable descendant!”
“… My inheritance.” Wings lifting to mantle as his temper bristled, Madara forced his mind to focus. “Forgive me the question, Amaterasu-sama, but you do not have wings yourself. If I recall my lessons correctly, the popular tales claim you most commonly walk the world as a wolf.”
“Horkew Retara Kamuy is a sexy beast, and I will wife the hell out of him someday.” Amaterasu declared, as if what she said was anything like an explanation for her appearance. “As for you kids, the Rabbit Goddess fell pregnant with the children of a Human King before she ascended. Due to still being pregnant with said children when she ascended, her sons were born halfway to godhood themselves. I wed the eldest son, Hagoromo, known to you now as the ‘Sage of Six Paths’, and for him I bore a son named Indra. My son wed and kept his faith with a Crane Wife, called Aiko, and for him she bore four sons and a daughter. Aiko took her children when she fled after Indra was killed and created the Uchiha Clan. My daughter-in-law and I have been arranging meetings between our mutual descendants and potential partners ever since.”
Madara frowned and crossed his arms. “Uchiha don’t believe in arranged marriages.”
“Mm, no. The Uchiha prefer fated encounters, which Aiko and I were happy to encourage. All this loving grandmother has done is introduce my darling descendants to interesting people.” Amaterasu laughed, clear and bright at the disgruntled face Madara made. “The hanyou and other spirit-touched children I sent to take refuge with the Uchiha Clan all married in, eventually. Like calls to like after all. It kept my bloodline strong in you and your brothers even as all other mortals began to forget about the gods.”
“This… this change. This rebirth.” Madara’s voice rang with certainty as he spoke his thoughts. “You planned for this to happen. For what cause?”
“To set right a wrong left too long unaddressed.” With a sigh, Amaterasu gestured to the temple around them. “Look at this place, bright hawk. See how faith lies fallow and belief rots. Look at your mortal kin, locked in a cycle of endless slaughter. Kami do not share the same hardships as mortals, but we have our own concerns and cares. We have reasons to remain invested in the struggles of the lower world.”
“And yet you still left us to die.” Breath rasping in his throat, Madara struggled not to hiss at the Goddess. Struggled to remember his manners and why he should not piss off the kami claiming to be responsible for his resurrection. “Why now? Why this way? If all you wished was for me to survive, you could have allowed my Izanagi to be completed! Why leave me to rot for years on Tobirama’s lab table?”
“Because we could not act before. I could not act before. Look at the world, Uchiha Madara! Look at how the Names of the Jade Court have waned. People pray to the Sage or the Shinigami and naught else!” Throwing her arms out to call attention to the world beyond the walls of the old temple, Amaterasu’s eye blazed as she snarled. “Look at me! Reduced to a children’s fable to be read at bedtime! The world is out of balance, Uchiha Madara, poisoned and dying because of greed and arrogance and wanton blindness!”
“And what part do I play in the grand plan of the gods?” Scoffing, Madara tossed back his hair and glared back at the angry goddess. “All my past endeavors have failed, horribly. What could I possibly do now that my mortal life has ended?”
“It was not failure, my bright hawk. It was sabotage. It was a plan that was centuries in the making.” Like flipping a card, Amaterasu calmed again, her gaze on Madara gentle and remorseful and scorching to the bone. “Don’t you recall what truly led to your death? The curse took over you, and if the stars had not aligned perfectly to allow for me to arrange your rebirth… that creature would not have been shaken loose by your Izanagi alone. You needed to fully die to be free of it.”
“That… that thing.” Swallowing hard against the pair the memory brought with it, Madara did his best not to let the phantom touch of damp roots distract him from his search for answers. “Is that what’s wrong with the world?”
“It is a symptom. A parasite and a curse. It is rage and pain and hatred walking in a corpse.” Folding her hands, Amaterasu looked at where the sun was finally clearing the edge of the horizon as it rose, the sky cooling to blue as the pink and orange sunrise faded into morning. “Decay exists as an extant form of life. That creature is pitiful, trapped at the moment of death without being able to go backwards nor forwards. That creature is hateful, determined to make the world suffer without the chance of healing.”
“… You still have not told me what part I play in this grand design.” Tucking his hands in his sleeves, Madara watched the Goddess carefully. “Why go so far for me?”
“My son was killed by his younger brother’s hand, by his father’s orders. This is the root and cause of the Uchiha Clan’s blood feud with the Senju.” Ignoring the way Madara paled and nearly staggered, Amaterasu forged on. “Before that, Hagoromo and Homura split their mother’s Essence into nine pieces and bound the Powers of the World into keeping those pieces separated. Thus, the Rabbit Goddess Kaguya, who ascended as the Keeper of the Tree of Knowledge, was lost to us, and the World was twisted.”
A beat of silence passed, and Madara struggled to keep composed under the building pressure of the Goddess’ displeasure. Uchiha Ryukyu had weaponized her killing intent, and Madara had followed in his mother’s footsteps. It was… both odd and enlightening to realize that they had inherited that knack from Amaterasu herself.
“This is when the creature that cursed you came to be, when Kaguya was denied the cycle of reincarnation. I know not what Hagoromo or his brother intended, but it would have been far kinder to slay her outright. At least then she could return to the wheel. She could be born anew to walk her path again. As the moon waxes and wanes, she would have accumulated the karma needed to eventually ascend again. Such is the way of things.” Sighing regretfully, old sorrow dimmed the light haloed around the Goddess. “As a result, the creature targeted by son. Indra went mad, poisoned, and his brother killed him. Then… and then Hagoromo decided yet again that he knew best, and he trapped both of his sons into an endless cycle of transmigration. Life after life, a pair of Indra and Asura’s descendants would be forced to act out their parts. Indra’s child would be driven mad, and Asura’s child would slay him. Again, and again.”
“This tale is… familiar to me, Amaterasu-sama.” It was painful, comparing the state of his mind before and after his death. It hurt, to note how much clearer his mind was now. To acknowledge the new lightness of his emotions, how much easier it was to be happy now. It was also a relief, to learn that the madness he had suffered before his death had an outside cause. Amaterasu-no-Mikoto herself had said Madara was free of the curse that had afflicted him before, and so he need not worry about bringing harm to his little brothers. The madness would not take him again. “I take it that I was Indra’s scion for this round of their dance.”
“You were, and oh, my bright burning hawk, I’m sorry that you suffered so for Hagoromo’s foolish, selfish pride. Yet, I am so very glad that it was you. That it was you, with your skills, and ambitions, and your faith in my fire. Because it was you…” Amaterasu smiled, bright and joyful as she took Madara’s hands. “Because it was you, we were finally able to break the cycle. Your Izanagi held you in limbo for just long enough for us to use, for us to extend the moment of your death until Senju Tobirama fell in battle. Izanagi’s limbo threw you out of sync with Asura’s Scion, and so we could use the karma built between you and Senju Tobirama to shift your fated ties over to him, rather than Senju Hashirama. I was able to separate your soul from Indra’s chakra, thanks to your drive to make peace causing you to fight the curse for so much longer. It gave you and Senju Tobirama time to build up enough karma to combat Hagoromo’s curse. Before you… all of Indra’s previous incarnations never grew close enough to others for me to make use of. As long as we can loosen Asura from the cycle as well, then the curse on my son and his brother will finally be fully broken.”
“So that’s why you’ve come to me.” Relieved to understand, Madara felt the tense muscle in his jaw relax. “If the gods can only work obliquely on the mortal plane, then someone like me is required for more direct action.”
“You are blood of my blood, Uchiha Madara. If you do nothing more than live happily, here with your brother’s and your lover I will be content. However…” Amaterasu chuckled, and cast an innocent look to the sky before sliding her gaze to Madara again. “If you felt it needed to help your poor old grandmother with a few simple errands, I would not object to the kindness.”
“Will it mean being rid of that… thing once and for all?” Madara took back his hands when the Goddess inclined her head with a slight smile. Crossing his arms, Madara huffed and shook his head. “Fine then. If a mission comes up, let me know about it. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Excellent. You really are my favourite child.” Clapping her hands, Amaterasu started fading away into shimmers of sunlight. “Take care, Madara, and show grandmother how worthy you are of your phoenix feathers! Today is a lovely day for the Lord of All Birds to take to the sky…”
“… A phoenix, hm?” Spreading his wings, Madara looked from side to side. The feathers rippled, a twitch of new muscle arranging things to his will. The sunlight cast rainbows across the feathers, fire rippling from the trailing edges as he extended his wings as wide as he could.
For all his usual irreverence, Madara was unwilling to disrespect a Goddess who was also his Clan Elder and direct Ancestor. Beating his wings to feel them catch the air, Madara gathered his chakra in his legs and leapt. The sun blazed, bright and blinding, and a warm wind shoved him higher as Madara snapped his wings in powerful strokes.
Once he was high enough to feel assured that he would have time to correct any mistakes, Madara leveled out into an easy glide. Circling the temple as he slowly got used to adjusting his wings for controlled flight, Madara grinned, free and delighted.
For this gift, Madara would do his best to assist the Sun Kami in her quest.
/…/
Tobirama frowned, taking in the tipped over sewing basket. It was unlike Madara to make a mess like this.
Packing the materials away, Tobirama stood up to look over the sun-drenched courtyard more carefully. A faint worry stirred in his mind as Madara failed to appear and scold him for moving his project materials.
Casting his senses out, Tobirama scanned for Madara’s chakra. It was… here, but… up?
Tobirama raised his head just in time to see a flash of glittering wings and the bright crescent of a fanged grin backlit by the morning sun as Madara dropped straight down towards him. “Death from above!”
Madara slammed into Tobirama’s arms, cackling with glee as they rolled across the courtyard and dropped into one of the lotus pools with a massive splash. Tobirama spit water and glared at the madman draped over his chest. “I thought we agreed no flying on your own.”
“Bah, flying is easy!” Beating his wings in the air to dry them off flung water from one side of the courtyard to the other, but Tobirama noted with some exasperation that Madara made no move to actually get off him. Pausing, Madara pursed his lips thoughtfully. “I might need your help with figuring out landings though.”
Tobirama heaved them both back onto their feet and gave Madara a flat look even as he carried the other man out of the pond. “You don’t say.”
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