The Red Flame (Part 1)

What's this?

A post after 7 months of inactivity on this blog?

Yeah, I'm easily distracted, but at least I'm back with a new AU which will be centered around the Uchiha.

Let me know what you think.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

In the dark night, a flame flickered inside the obsidian monument. 

A flame as red as blood.

It wasn't the reflection of the lantern that Harry had previously assumed. The red hue reassured Harry that there was something inside of the obsidian itself.

Because the red flame was moving, even when Sakura and the lantern in her hand were moving away from the obsidian sculpture.

The flickering red flame was an impossibility.

And a curiosity.

Harry brushed his fingers against the obsidian.

Instead of the cool stone surface he had expected, a hungry warmth raced up his fingers and engulfed his entire body.

Just as quickly as it came, the sensation vanished, leaving him confused as he snatched his hand away from the obsidian monument. Harry shook his hand to get rid of any lingering sensation and frowned at the monument.

There was no red flame in the obsidian.

“Who are you?” An unknown voice, low and filled with a threatening menace, asked from behind Harry.

Harry turned to find spinning red eyes surrounded by a wild mane of hair. “Who are you?” Harry asked.

“You're the one on Uchiha property without permission, identify yourself first,” the man said, his red eyes never wavering from Harry.

“I know I'm on the Uchiha property.” Harry glanced around. Other than him and the man, there was no one else around. Even a Homenum Revelio showed just the two of them in the area. “Where are the others?”

“Others?” the man repeated with an unhappy tone.

“Naruto and Sakura were right beside me a moment ago,” Harry said, his worry growing at their absence.

“You're the only one who appeared here, unannounced and unwilling to co-operate.” The man didn't look away from Harry, his voice taking on a sinister tone. “I'll only ask once more, identify yourself and explain your presence here.”

“I'm Harii. And I didn't appear anywhere, you're the one who appeared here.”

The Uchiha's frown deepened, the black marks on his red irises spun at a dizzying speed as he reached out and tapped the top of Harry's head. “You are not an illusion,” he said, surprised and even more unhappy.

Harry moved out of poking range. “And you're not a ghost, apparently. So what's going on? Are we in the obsidian or something?”

“How would we meet in the obsidian?” The man asked. “Are you the spirit of the obsidian?”

“There's no such thing!” Harry said, and then paused with a grimace. “Is there?”

“Where are you from?”

“Konoha,” Harry said, “And who are you? You haven't even introduced yourself.”

The man scoffed. “How can you be from Konoha and not know who I am?”

“With those eyes, I know you're an Uchiha. But, I've never seen you before.”

The man stared at Harry a long moment, before he blinked, his red eyes shifting back to black. “Madara.”

“Okay,” Harry said and turned back to the obsidian monument. “Everything was fine until I saw the red flame in the obsidian.”

Madara scoffed. “The only thing in that obsidian is the gold veins.”

Harry turned back, “There's gold in it?”

“Have you not seen it in daylight?”

“No,” Harry said and then frowned. “How much gold?”

“Does it matter?”

“No,” Harry admitted. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “But in such a big obsidian piece, there must be lot of gold in it.”

“Does the gold had something to do with you hallucinating a flame in the obsidian.”

“I wasn't hallucinating. It flickered inside the obsidian.” Harry turned back to the obsidian sculpture. “The red colour was too distinct to be a lantern reflection. So I came closer. Then I touched the stone, and now you're here instead of Naruto and Sakura.”

“Who are they?”

“Naruto is my cousin and Sakura is his team-mate,” Harry said. “We were here because of... some bad news.” Harry hoped he wouldn't be asked to elaborate on the bad news.

Madara frowned, his eyes glancing between Harry and the obsidian monument “And you touched the monument and showed up here?” Without waiting for an answer, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Of course you did. I can never get any peace. Outside the compound it's Hashirama and here it's everything else.”

“Wait,” Harry said with sudden dread. “When you say Hashirama, do you mean, Senju Hashirama?”

“You know him, but not me?” Madara asked with a sliver of irritation in his voice.

“He's the First Hokage?” Harry ventured.

“That fool certainly took the position,” Madara said. “Who knows if there will be any more Hokage after him.”

Harry sucked in a deep breath.

Madara narrowed his eyes. “What is it? You've figured out something?”

“This isn't real,” Harry shook his head. “This can't be real. It isn't. This is just a very strange dream. You'll disappear and things will be normal when I open my eyes.”

Madara tilted his head. “Your eyes are open.”

Harry screwed his eyes shut. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

Madara stared at him. “Want to try again?”

“Maybe I do,” Harry bit back at the man.

“Don't be stupid,” Madara said. “Neither of us are sleeping. You're are real as I am.”

“That's the thing, I don't know how real you are. Though why my mind would make someone like yo...” Harry yelped mid-word and stepped back as he rubbed his forehead. “What the hell?”

“The only pain you feel in dreams is emotional not physical,” Madara said, sounding sure of his nonsensical words.

“This has to be a dream,” Harry shook his head. “It can't be real.”

“Why?”

“Because then that would mean I've travelled back decades in time!” Harry bit out in frustration.

Madara scoffed. “You travel back in time often?”

“The last time was only a few hours back,” Harry said as he prodded the obsidian , trying to make something happen. “Not years. Or decades in this case.”

“You were messing with space-time techniques?” Madara asked, disapproval rife in his voice.

Harry gaped at the man's abrupt shift in mood. “No, at least not on purpose. I just touched the monument.”

“When it had a red flame inside,” Madara said, more serious than before as he stepped closer to the monument. He tapped the obsidian with long pale fingers. “It feels like a normal stone.” He stepped back. Large black shapes rippled across his now red irises, moving too quickly for Harry to get a good look at.

The obsidian gleamed and something flickered in it's depths once more.

“There's something inside, do you see that?” Harry turned to the older man. His eyes widened and he reached out just in time to stop Madara from falling.

Though he had his hands pressed over his eyes, Madara couldn't hide the blood seeping through the fingers. “That didn't do anything,” Madara said through gritted teeth.

“It made your eyes bleed! They're still bleeding.” Harry bent his knees to remain steady with the taller man's weight.

Madara wobbled as he escaped Harry's grip and wiped a dark sleeve across his eyes. “It's nothing.”

“Say that after you stop bleeding from your eyes!”

“There's something on the monument, or in it.” With blood smeared across his eyelids, Madara blinked bloody eyes blearily but closed them in the next instant with a pained grimace. “Something I've ever seen before.”

“You look at the monument with your fancy eyes a lot?” Harry said.

“No,” Madara conceded, standing as still as a statue, blood still dripping down his face from his closed eyes. “This is a place of contemplation. Or was, until this moment.”

“You need a medic,” Harry said.

“It'll be fine in a few minutes.”

“Bleeding eyes won't just become fine on their own!” Harry said. “You can go blind.”

“There's little chance of that.” Madara wiped at his closed eyes once more with his sleeve. “Besides, no one in the clan knows about my eyes, they wouldn't know where to start.”

“Stopping the bleeding would be a good start,” Harry griped at the man.

“It's not that simple with our eyes,” Madara said with a weary voice.

Roused by a flicker of sympathy and annoyance at Madara's inaction, Harry's hand moved. Without a vocal incantation, his Episkey spell wouldn't be too strong. But at the very least, it would ease some of the discomfort around Madara's eyes.

Madara flinched back, his hands rising and falling in an aborted motion. “What did you do?”

Harry lowered his hand in a rush and said, “What are you talking about?”

Madara blinked his eyes open. Though not bleeding, the remnants of blood in and around his eyes, made him look much worse for wear.

“You were right,” Harry said. “They do look much better after only a few minutes.”

Madara stared at him. “How far in the future are you from?”

Harry hesitated for an instant, “In my time, the fifth Hokage is in charge.”

“So Konoha managed to have at least five generations,” Madara said. “Not bad.” He was silent for a moment, as though lost in thought. “We might have to search through some records to figure out what is going on with the obsidian.”

“We?” Harry asked in surprise.

“You just plan on standing here and poking the monument?” Without waiting for an answer, Madara turned and walked away, no sign of weakness in his sure steps.

Harry prodded the obsidian one last time before he followed after the older man.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 

Madara is probably speaking way too much (and also being way too sane), so I might change things when I edit this for upload on ffnet and ao3 later on, but it'll do for now.

What do you think so far?

Polar