A second chance in a new world

1

          Madara knew what was about to happen. No matter what his friend said about drinking together as war buddies, they both knew that death was the end. Madara exhaled for a final time (again) and let the darkness consume him. His limbs felt heavy, and he heard a voice speaking, though he couldn't sense anything in the immediate area. It had no gender no body, it was completely blank, except for the tiniest bit of... not quite sympathy, but more... pity. Madara opened his mouth to speak but the voice interrupted. "Uchiha Madara, you have spent your life surrounded by  fear, malice, and manipulation," Madara flinched, whatever this voice was... he opened his mouth to speak once again, but was interrupted, "I know you name as I know all things, you lived your life seeking peace through violence, so now you will get a chance to do it over again, as well as a chance to once again find people who care about you." Madara didn't understand, there was no second chance, he had lived his life, that was it... he felt himself losing consciousness, and the voice faded. 

          It was bright. The grass formed a soft carpet beneath him, only slightly damp from the morning dew. Warm sunlight filtered through the treas, and the sound of a river bubbled in the background. Madara put his hand up to block the sunlight from his eyes. His mind went back to the voice, and he sighed. His chakra levels were stupidly low, and he had no idea where he was. Madara stood up and headed over to where he could hear water running. He first needed to understand his surroundings, he would need food and shelter, once he had a way to stay alive he would deal with the stupid situation he was in, and that started with food and shelter. Madara sighed again, and started to check the surrounding area for animals without chakra. No use wasting what was barely there. he noticed a deer not far from where he was and quickly crept up on it, the deer didn't have a chance. It didn't take long for Madara to prepare the meat and set up a fire. he ate most of the animal and then stood up. He didn't feel like sleeping while waiting for his chakra to regenerate, so he expended a small amount of chakra to find the nearest town. What he found couldn't have confused him more.

          While he could still sense the life energy of the people, it certainly wasn't chakra, no, this world had no such thing as chakra. Madara stood up abruptly, which left him rather light headed, he quickly stopped using his chakra for sensing and walked over to the stream, he put his lips to the water, years of drinking from streams had made him immune to any bacteria or unwanted guests that might try to hitch a ride in his body. As he lifted his head, he noticed something else that was new. Though his hair was the same length as it had been when he died (the second time) his body was that of a child. He couldn't have been much older than fifteen. Madara did a quick assessment of his abilities, though empty, his chakra reserves seemed just as large as they had been when he was an adult, and though his body was younger, he seemed to be at no lack of physical strength, though he was too tired to use it at the moment. Madara stood up, another difference was that Hashiramas face was no longer implanted in his chest. Thank goodness. Madara made a silent vow to kill that Kabuto person. regardless of whether or not he had already been killed. 

          Madara stood up, he was wearing the same thing he had died in, and was rather disappointed to know that he was still on the shorter side of the scale. He was by no means small, for an unnoticed fact, he was quite average for his height, but concidering Hashirama had always towered over him (Hashirama had by no means "towered" however the perspective of the shorter one is always slightly exaggerated.) Madara decided that he would need to buy whatever clothing was expected of the people in this universe, however he had no intention of stealing clothing, so he decided to just steal the money, and figure it out from there. 

          Upon arriving at the town Madara was greeted by a rather unexpected scene. Many of the people in the city had some form of physical mutation, there were, of course, those who looked normal, however, Madara could sense some form of disturbance in their life force, that varied slightly from person to person. Many people looked at him funny, but Madara didn't care, the slight confusion was miles better than the looks of terror and disgust that used to follow him. Madara looked around, carefully, he walked where the other people were walking, and stayed away from whatever the loud, big, colorful, metal things were. The buildings were different too, they were taller, there was a lot more glass and metal than he was used to in buildings, but he took a deep breath. no need too seem weirder than you already are. As he walked along he simply pick pocketed a few people, took the paper and coins that appeared to be currency, and slipped the rest back. It was painfully easy. Madara slipped into the store that had clothing on display in the windows, and bought a few simple t-shirt along with sweatpants, and a few pairs of leggings, to him, jeans appeared too stiff and a hindrance if he ever had to fight.

         The amount of pocket money that he had snagged on the way over turned out to be plenty, and he went to the store nearby labeled "Bath and Body Works" he bought what was labled as soap, conditioner, and shampoo, which seemed to be the equivalent to what he had used before to keep his hair clean, the fact that the people here seemed to constantly have enough soap to clean themselves daily was a luxury that he would use the its fullest extent. finally, with his bags, he slipped back to the clearing in the forest that he had woken up in. Madara walked over to where the river ended in a small pool and removed his clothing carefully. He stepped down into the pool and let a happy sigh escape his lips. Madara scrubbed the grit and sweat from his body and finally  put the shampoo and conditioner into his hair and gently rubbed at his scalp, moving down to running his hands through his hair to get all the tangles out. When his hair was smooth and his body was clean Madara sat down on the rocks in the pool, his head dipped slightly under, he closed his eyes, the darkness surrounded him. 

Thick. 

Endless. 

Suffocating. 

Madara shot up, gasping for air, his guard was up. he nearly put a random squirrel into the tsukuyomi with his activated mangekyou. He quickly shit off his sharingan and pulled himself out of the pool. Madara slipped into his new pair of sweatpants and t-shirt and sat down, breathing deeply in an attempt to slow his racing heart. 

What the hell was that?

Madara gently rinsed the pants that he had arrived in, cleaning them thoroughly, then he sat down in a spot of sunlight, the sun was on its way down, and Madara let the fading sunlight of the evening overtake him as his eyelids fluttered shut. 

The sun was high when Madara woke up screaming. He had relived his death in the night.

Madara took a breath, nothing was near, he was fine, and his chakra had replenished, no matter how fitful his sleep had been. Madara stood up and breathed deeply. Now that his chakra had replenished he could make a shelter with Hashirama's wood style. 

There was nothing special about the house, It had one room with no furniture, and one shelf for his gunbai and scythe. Madara grabbed the pants that he had hung on a tree to dry and took the kunai pouch down. The pouch was watertight, and the scroll within it was still safe. Madara smiled as he summoned his weapons. He hung them on the wall in an easily accessible place. 

Wartime habits die hard.

Madara stood up and decided that he would need to know more about this world, and probably get some socks and shoes.

As he walked out of the store sporting a pair of combat boots and socks that he had needed to pick pocket even more people to pay for (even easier now that he was no longer scraping by on a tiny amount of chakra) Madara walked down the street, no one payed him any mind as he walked into a book store. Madara flipped through a few books, using his sharingan to process everything in the book. It was an autobiography by some person who called themself a "hero" Madara walked over to a different part of the shop and picked up a magazine, all of its headlines were about heroes saving the day, there were descriptions of their "quirks" whatever those were. Madara walked around in the store until he found a book labeled "The Average Quirk User and how We've Changed" the book talked about how eighty percent of the population manifested a quirk around the age of five. Madara frowned.

So the physical mutations and disturbances in life forces are called quirks. huh.

Madara sighed. So instead of chakra, this universe had quirks, and instead of ninja they have heroes. They have no reason for war, yet they fight. Simply for the sake of people doing things that others don't agree with. Madara sighed, and so they live with this false sense of peace that can be destroyed at the snap of my fingers. How foolish.

Madara walked out as two boys walked in to the store, they were talking about the UA exams or something, Madara had read about it in the magazine, some famous hero school or whatever. Madara sighed, maybe he would become hero, It would give him a reason to go beat people up. No matter how pathetic those people were.

Madara checked his sharingan memory. The exams were in a few months. Madara smiled to himself, perhaps he would find something interesting.