~~~~~~~~~~

Mi Ho pov:

I groaned, covering my head with the pillow as the happy warm sunlight shined through the window and piercing my eyes.

I was still so sleepy, I was almost instantly asleep. I groaned yet again not because of the sunlight but because of someone knocking my room door. It wasn't a hard knock but it still seemed like a hammer on my head today.

"Mio? Are you awake yet? Its almost noon...." Ryoshi's voice called from the other side. I had slept until noon? Really? I was the one who was usually the first one to wake up, even back at home and here so me sleeping till noon was hard to believe.

Wait a minute....Ryoshi?! What the?!

I sat up on the bed with a start and squealed as I lost balance and met the hard wood floor painfully. I curled up, holding my head. "Ow ow ow ow oww...."

When the throbbing subsided, I opened my eyes and sat up properly. I was still rubbing the bump on my head as I looked around my room. Hadn't I gone back to the past again? Seeing Madara, Hashirama and Tobirama as kids? Or was that all a dream?

No, there was no way that was a dream! I was there with Butsuma san in the Senju compound as a healer. I remember all the faces of the people I healed. In dreams we never saw the faces of people and even if we did, that would be the one thing about the dream that we wouldn't be able to remember. After all, they weren't people I had met more than once.

Then what had happened? I don't even know how long I had been missing this time. If time had passed at the same speed now and when I was in the past, then I would have been missing for a week.

"Mio?" Again I heard Ryoshi call me from the other side of the room. I took a deep breath, stood up and walked to the door. I opened it and Ryoshi was watching me confused. "Are you alright? Its not usual for you to sleep in this much." I scratched the back of my neck confused myself. "W-well, I had trouble sleeping last night...." That was the best reason I could come up with.

"I see....it must have been because of me telling you about the war yesterday. You did look pretty troubled when you left for a walk....and you came back pretty late too. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." "O-oh, no....its not your fault." He smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I've prepared lunch. I'm not as good as the ones that you prepare, but what I've cooked is edible. Why don't you wash up and then we'll eat." He joked and I gave a half hearted laugh before he left.

When he was gone, I closed the door behind me with a frown. Last night? He had told me about the war and Madara last night? What....what on earth was going on here?! This is really driving me insane!

I let out a breath in my irritation. That's right, I was tired and hungry and annoyed and I just couldn't think properly. After some food, I guess I could sit down and think things properly. I should probably sit down and list all the things that have happened to me on paper. Then I would have a list of things I could ask and yell at with Madara. All of this was his fault to begin with!!

Here I go again, blaming Madara for everything. I really have to find someone or something else to blame my misfortunes on.

Shaking my head, I headed into the shower to freshen up both my mood and mind. I took a quick shower though, not having the patience to stand under the running water for too long. I got into a loose white t-shirt with a black camisole underneath. The camisole was visible because of the translucent shirt material and the neck was so big that it fell off my shoulders slightly exposing the straps. I wore knee length blue jeans shorts and then headed down for some lunch.

Just as Ryoshi had said, the food he made was edible. Actually, he was pretty decent at cooking. The only thing was that he had forgotten to put in a certain important ingredients....salt. We had a short laugh over his cooling skills but the rest of lunch was pleasant.

He apologized again for making me uncomfortable about the war but I had told him that I was fine. It really wasn't his fault; I mean I needed to know what was going on too, right? After we were done with lunch, we just spent some time talking about random stuff. We didn't really have anything wale to do and when it was early evening, I got us some tea.

"Today was rather uneventful, wasn't it?" I asked as I poured the green tea into two cups. "Yeah....the whole village has been slightly put off because of the news...." I sat back on the couch with a sigh. I was just about to pick up my tea to drink, but I jumped when I heard a loud crash outside the front door. The whole apartment complex shook and Ryoshi and I rushed out to see what was happening.

Looks like it was too soon for me to say that today was uneventful.....or maybe I jinxed it?

We looked down to find a strange person attacking some of the villagers as he made his way to our complex. In fact, he had already reached our complex and destroyed part of the ground floor. The guy wasn't wearing a shirt and half his body was black.

When he turned his head up to look at us, I noticed something. "Obito?!" I asked baffled seeing him there. But the half of the real Obito that was still recognizable looked dazed. His eye looked unfocused. The other half of him that was black had the rinnegan and looked like it was smiling.

Wait, did I just call Obito 'it'? Where are my manners?!

"Found you." The voice wasn't Obito's though. It was deep, low and dark. The minute he said that, he literally crawled up the wall on all fours and we jumped back into the house as he jumped at our faces. He shot out at me as if I were some kind of prey. But I wasn't as weak as I looked. I dodged him in time, managing to jump in the air and give him a spinning kick on his face.

He grunted and cursed under his breath as he again tried to get to me. He took a hold of my arm painfully but I turned, bringing him behind me to flip him over my shoulder. He landed with a painful thud and grunted again. I looked at Ryoshi as he ran out now fully equipped like a ninja. "Sorry I took long! Were you able to hold him off?" I nodded, sweating and wiping off some that trickled down my chin.

Obito got up again but this time Ryoshi shot out at him. "Oh no you don't!" As Ryoshi fought, I still knew it was useless. First of all, Obito had the rinnegan and second, he was obviously holding back. As I watched the fight, Ryoshi fighting at his best while Obito was just dodging around aimlessly, something hit me hard. Something very crucial.

He was a decoy, wasn't he?

Even before I could look around to see who else was going to attack, I was caught by five white Zetsu standing all around me. They had suddenly appeared out from the ground and they all had right grips in my hands and legs preventing me from even the slightest movement. "Let go, you freaks!" I struggled despite knowing jt was all in vain.

Another white Zetsu appeared in front of me and smirked. "You're not getting away. Madara sama wants you brought to him." Thick ropes were tied tightly around me and one of the white Zetsu lifted me onto his shoulder. He flexed his shoulder jabbing me in the gut to atop me from squirming.

When Obito noticed that I had been caught, he stopped playing around with Ryoshi. He slashed him across the chest and the next moment, we were sprinting out of the village.

"No Ryoshi! Let me go! Obito! You jerk!!! What the heck do you think you're going?! Let me out of these ropes so I can kick your sorry ass!" I bent my knees up and down still on white Zetsu's shoulder. But he just laughed. "Obito doesn't exist anymore. I have taken over his body completely....and if you've forgotten, I'm black Zetsu." I gritted my teeth in annoyance. "Oh how could I ever have forgotten the creepy two faced, two minded plant dude?!?" I said sarcastically, glaring at the green head of the white Zetsu.

We were barely running for few minutes, rather they were running with me as luggage, and we reached the so called battlefield. "Madara sama! Catch!" My eyes went wide when black Zetsu yelled that from the cliff we were standing on. "Catch?! What does that mean?!" I didn't get an answer though.

I gave an ear piecing scream as I was easily lifted of white Zetsu's shoulder and literally thrown forward with such force. I shut my eyes tightly expecting a very painful impact with the rock hard ground below. Thankfully though, I was caught against someone who skidded to a halt to reduce the impact of me colliding with him. It didn't stop from knocking the wind out of my lungs though. When we finally stopped I was coughing violently and trying to get as much air as I could into my parched lungs.

"What a fancy way to meet you, Mio. I didn't expect you'd be so much trouble that Zetsu would have to tie you up like this." My eyebrow twitched at Madara's voice. Although, until he spoke, I was really worried about who had caught me because never before has I met anyone with long white hair.

"Ma....da.....ra...." I hissed out through my teeth, by brow still twitching as irk marks appeared all over my head. And then I finally snapped. "PABO!! BONGCHONGI!!!! IQ DUJARI MICHIN AJUSSI!!!!! [IDIOT!! MORON!!! TWO DIGIT IQ CRAZY OLD MAN!!!!!]"

Kakashi pov:

I was startled as this girl was suddenly thrown from the cliff and Madara caught her. She was tied up with ropes on her arms, legs and middle effectively making her motionless.

Madara had reached his epitome of power now. No, he was yet to reach his real power. He had just one of the rinnegan and he had absorbed all of the juubi. He was the closest possible to the rikkidou sennin right now. Obito who had fused with black Zetsu had the other rinnegan and his consciousness kept fluctuating during the fight. I don't know how black Zetsu had managed to keep control over him while he went to fetch this girl, because now he was clutching his head screaming in agony as he struggled to be the one in control.

I looked back at the girl who was breathing heavily on Madara's shoulder. Naruto and Sasuke had been defeated.....Sasuke pierced by a sword through his chest and Naruto, the kyuubi sucked clean out of him. Those two were our only hope and now, it looked like the world would really fall into Madara's hands. And with some girl with pretty strong chakra suddenly being brought here, it only made us think of the worst situations possible.

"What a fancy way to meet you, Mio. I didn't expect you'd be so much trouble that Zetsu would have to tie you up like this." Madara seemed amused, smiling as he spoke to the girl and that is when it hit me. Mio....she was the same girl who had appeared on Konoha a few months ago. The one who was known in history to be able to predict danger and he's other peoples thoughts. She had the Uchiha seal on the back of her neck and stomach but it wasn't there now....since her shirt was lifted up because of the way Madara was holding her.

She was trembling slightly. Well, who can blame her? Anyone would be afraid in such a situation.

"Ma...da...ra..." Her voice was low as I continued to watch her helplessly. If only I hadn't lost so much energy while using my kamui, I could have helped her. But the next thing that happened really startled me.

"PABO!! BONGCHONGI!!!! IQ DUJARI MICHIN AJUSSI!!!!!" She yelled loudly getting the attention of every single person within a hundred meters distance from Madara. My open eye went wide as Madara put her down and took off the ropes. After that, the girl punched him as hard as she could on his cheek.

She pulled her fist away after trembling for a moment and cursed a line of words in some unknown language as she held her red hand. Madara smirked and let out a laugh. I for one, sweatdropped at the almost unbelievable scene I was seeing now. Just imagine.....some random girl turns up and punches Madara on his face and the only reaction he has is a laugh. If I wasn't in so much pain, I would be sure I was dead and dreaming.

"I believe that's the second time you've bruised your hand." Madara said coolly and the girl glared. "Its your fault, you big jerk!" Madara narrowed his eyes but didn't lose his smirk. "Oh?" "And what's with your looks?! You look like an old man!" This time Madara frowned.

I couldn't stop from sweatdropping more. Wasn't she in the least bit scared of him? Saying such things to him so casually....but I had to say, watching her yelling at Madara like he was anyone else was really funny. Even Madara looked rather calm about it....unlike how he would have slaughtered anyone else who said the same thing to him.

Everyone had broken out into whispers and some were even laughing. I guess it was a nice pause in the war, some time for us to rethink our battle strategy and our best bet of beating someone with that level of power.

"Watch your words, Mio. Or else...." "Or else what? You'll cut off my tongue? Go ahead! Its not like your threats will work on me! You should know that better than anyone else!" Wow.....she was impressive in talking back to him, that's for sure.

She had a rather harsh glare at Madara. "You think its totally okay to carry me around like some luggage, like so battle item?! I'm not a thing, Madara! How many times am I supposed to tell you that for it to get embedded in that useless thick skull of yours?!" "Shut up, Mio! I've enough of your yelling!"

"So have I!" She shot back at him. "You think its funny, doing this to people?! What the hell is going on here? The white hair, the weird head band, the stick?! This whole place looks like a meteor crater and then there's this big random lotus plant growing in the middle of nowhere! I can tell you've become crazy strong but this is frikkin' insane! What do you take me for? Some kind of circus clown?!"

What was she saying? Honestly she was just describing what she saw here but to me it looked like she was just hysterical about the situation and saying things without actually thinking through her thoughts.

"Mio, don't test my temper." Madara had clenched his fists and he didn't look happy. His chakra was starting to get slightly turbulent and all of us were getting more and more nervous. "Literally being thrown around like a rag doll! You expect me to be in the right mind when I'm seeing crazy stuff like this? Look at you! You look....like, like some crazy....I don't.....ugh! I don't even know what I'm saying anymore...."

She was panting, watching Madara with a mixed expression. I couldn't tell what it was but there was a hint of pain in her eyes. She rubbed her face with both hands then through her hair. She held the back of her neck, her head bent so her chin was touching her collar bone. She stayed like that silently for a few moments until Madara broke her thoughts.

"What are you doing, Mio? Are you done with your useless yelling?" She looked up and took a deep breath before nodding slowly. "Yeah, I'm done getting the frustration out of my system....temporarily. But I have one question for you now." Madara narrowed his eyes again. "What?" His voice had obvious distaste.

I cant believe how calm she looked standing in front of him when he was looking at her like some predator sent from hell. She had not even the slight hint of fear on her face or in her body language. The question that she asked was something that made me stiffen. But that wasn't the only thing; it was the hurt that was clearly heard in her voice as she asked him this question.

"Madara....." She paused, looking away for a moment before looking back at him with her eyes glazed over. "What are you really doing here?"

~~~~~~~