By the road side ( for tobi)

[Zetsu]

Zetsu was sitting on a cross legged on a log in the middle of the bamboo forest near his former home. The husk of the Venus flytrap sitting a few feet away. It was close to midnight. He or rather they could see the stars through a gap in the bamboo stalks.


If anyone had come upon him at that moment they would see an odd sight, only one side of zetsu’s face bore a smile and the other was frowning slightly. The two personalities were at odds with each other again. This happened with some regularity as they were as different as night and day. They also hate or at least resented each other. One could never tell by looking at them.

White, was smiling because he liked to look at the stars in the woods. it was his time to choose. During the day they did what Black wanted but at night, unless they were on a mission White held sway.

Black on the other hand was not happy and he grumbled his annoyance at having to cater to White. He would much rather be sleeping or cause havoc in some was, like stirring up the villagers. That would be fun.

“Why do we have to be out here, white? It’s a waste of time hunting here. Besides we don’t even have a purpose here. We should move on to our real goal.” Black said in a voice that sound leave autumn leaves, dry and crackly.

White turned his attention from the stars as answered coldly. “We are out here because I say we are, Black. And because I like it here. We had a home here once remember. I say Tonight’s a night to reminisce and that what we’re doing.” his voice was some how new than Black’s, more normal sounding.”So there.”

“We don’t have to do what you say white and if you going to act like that we’ll leave.” Black threatened preparing to fallow through with his threat. He was seething with anger at white. How dare he thing that he could dictate their actions.

[Uchiha Madara]

This quiet place by the roadside was a distance away from the actual spot of the meeting. It seemed against reason to idle away there, but… If they arrived, he would know it. Yes, even standing here inactive, with his back against a tree and arms folded across his chest, he had his ways of telling.

Everything was prepared with care. It hadn't even taken long – he was used to laying out such trivial means of detection. Even if the shinobi he expected were skilled enough to realize the setup around them, by then they would have already arrived at the spot, a point at which he would already be aware of them. They should be smart – he wasn't breaking their deal in any manner, by setting a simple chakra trap that would do nothing other than tell him his 'guests' were there. How many they were, as well. Basic intelligence for these 'neutral, mutual benefit' encounters.

Madara was more than a punctual man. He made sure that, wherever he went, he arrived first. There were privileges that he could reserve that way, often not as insignificant as the one he had chosen that night. And among all those advantages to knowing he had secured his ground before the other party would even consider that might be a good idea, the most important of all was that he could relax. People often thought it was more comfortable to not make plans. But in that they failed to think ahead, surrendering to that childish approach embedded in human nature since the oldest times: casting past and future in the shadow of the present.

A few feet away, Zetsu sat more in the open, a clear form draped by the spare moonlight filtered through the scanty extension of canopy above the road. Madara wasn't looking at him, having his only visible eye set on the orange mask held loosely in his left hand. No need for a fake face in only the company of one who didn't really care. The other eye was covered by hanging black hair, so well that it might not even exist at all. His eyebrows and lips were motionless in lines that indicated neither smile nor frown.

Not looking, however, never implies not paying attention. He knew Zetsu's position, and he could hear the words of both voices very well. Just like sitting out in plain sight, the way it was now, that conversation wasn't typical of Madara's two-faced aide. Given that condition, or even not, Zetsu's skills weren't truly needed in the present situation, or in this place. Madara had handled everything by himself. So after the area-related intelligence provided earlier, his companion could have been excused and sent to other tasks.

However, cradled somewhere a good expanse of forest away, but in the same general area, was Kusagakure no Sato. Madara's arms dropped to his sides in silence, with that thought. The shinobi village of Zetsu's origins. That factor changed everything. Even Zetsu's comportment, it seemed, and the part of Madara that had speculated-anticipated such a circumstance earlier was quite interested in observing this.

"…"

His head rose a little to grant its only exposed eye direct visual contact with the seated form, and he stepped forward. The tiny, protesting whisper of leaves marked his passage by the side of an outspread ground-loving plant, then another. He stopped without having closed too much of the distance between them, but the new context still made speaking more comfortable.

"Maybe you'd like to pay that village a visit," he said.

Perchance this meant Madara could relate – after all, he had put more than just one village behind him. But with the tone he used, that sentence might as well be whatever one may wish from it. As much of that connection was possible as irony, subtle warning, or a simple statement born from boredom.