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Chapter Text

Izuna frowned, following his aniki as he slipped from the walls of the Compound, ignoring the fact he was supposed to be grounded. ‘What is he doing?’ The younger boy followed him, slipping ghostlike through the shadows, ‘Hehe, ghostlike!’ Izuna snickered to himself as the thought occurred to him, only to stop in shock as his brother seemed to step into a tree’s thick trunk.

-

Madara raised his head from where he was kneeling before the water of the pool Tobirama had drawn he and Hashirama too before the meeting that led to them being caught, at the sound of swearing. A groan spilt past his lips as he saw Izuna tumble through the hole in the seals that kept the spot so tightly hidden, “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing!” Izuna glared back, looking ridiculous with the number of spiderwebs that had caught in his hair from the prank seals that were apparently in place for those not granted access, but trusted by those who were.

“Excuse me?” Madara demanded.

“You’re grounded!” Madara snarled and dove for his brother, flinging him into the still pool, laughing madly at the high-pitched shriek said action elicited. Izuna trudged out of the water, glowering at his brother, “Fine, but what are you doing here.”

“Um.” Madara hesitated, but surrendered at the sight of the glare he was receiving, one uncannily similar to their mother’s, “Tobirama brought us here.”
Izuna frowned, “Tobirama or the Spirit?”

“The spirit,” Madara sighed, and motioned for his katon-dried brother to sit next to him, “but I’m pretty sure it’s Tobirama.”

“Why?”

“It’s a bit obvious isn’t it?”

“Not why you think he’s the Spirit, Aniki. Why did he bring you here?”

“I think we were almost found. He appeared out of nowhere in fox form.”

“What?”
“And got us to chase us all the way here.” Madara glared at the water in front of them, “But why would he do that?”

“Do you think it was Uchiha or Senju that almost caught you?”

“Given Butsuma’s reaction to him, it could have been either one. I doubt he would have expected Tou-san to react well, but I could be wrong.”

Izuna frowned, “Doesn’t explain why you’re here.” Madara flushed, and guiltily pulled out a length of cloth wrapped around a pair of filched inari-zushi, and a length of incense. Izuna sighed, “Come on then.” And pulled himself upright, helping his older brother to group a  trio of the head-sized rocks scattered around the clearing to make a makeshift altar that would safely support the incense, without setting the clearing on fire.

Chapter Text

Tobirama stepped out of the Clan-head’s House, his hair in the  hundreds of small braids his Clan used to denote those of Kitsune-nature during official matters, and pulled back into a high-tail behind him, a collection of small seal-inscribed silver beads dotted amongst the white mass. Combined with the white kimono he was once again wearing, his grandfather thought it likely that the guests he was apparently expecting would think him an unusually pale-haired yūrei instead of the kitsune he was. “Tobirama.” Kai spoke softly as he moved to stand next to his physically thirteen-year-old nephew.

“Grandfather?” Void-like eyes met Kai’s own black, reminding him once again of the similarities and yet distance between himself and the family into which he had married.

“How long before your guests arrive?”

Tobirama frowned, cocking his head fox-like as his chakra spread outwards from him. His eyes bleeding violet, he smiled, “Now.”

-

Kakashi was enveloped in nothingness for moments and eternity. Time seemed out of reach, yet the fear he expected never came/was over in a moment. He stepped forward… and stumbled as he emerged into a bustling shinobi village, familiar black-webbed eyes staring at him from a much smaller frame than he’d seen before he stepped into the crack in Space. Naruto suddenly a much heavier weight in his arms, as he regathered himself and moved out the way to allow Tenzo to  follow, giving him a front-row seat to watch as the teenager he was used to seemed to blur, restabilising as boy of perhaps eight or so. “You de-aged us?” Kakashi demanded incredulously, Naruto squirming in his arms.
The pale boy, who could only be Senju Tobirama, sighed and moved closer to them, the silvering Uchiha close behind him, “Not intentionally.” He grimaced, his eyes bleeding back to the black Kakashi had grown used to, “My intention was to move you back to this time, safely and without harm. De-aging you is a side-effect, not an intention.” He paused, seeming to frown at Naruto where he still laid in Kakashi’s arms, “does his Chakra feel odd to anyone else?”

“What?”

The Uchiha frowned, eyes bleeding sharingan red as he focused on Naruto’s unconscious form, “It looks like there’s two Chakra sources within him, and they’re blending together.”

Tobirama froze, almost diving at Kakashi as he moved closer, Kakashi wincing as he felt the other’s Chakra rise in a flood of unyielding strength, Kakashi snapping at him even as he did so, “What does that mean for him?”

“As far as I can tell, Kurama is no longer present within him.” He winced, “Grandfather, if you could intercept him? He’s going to be pissed.”

“On my way.”

Tobirama continued on, barely pausing to hear the response, “Most of the Chakra he retained from Kurama seems to be fading with Kurama’s presence, but what little remains is incorporating itself into his Chakra stores.”

“And that means?” Kakashi almost growled.

Tobirama shot him an amused look, “He’ll be fine. He cannot be a Jinchūriki if the Kyuubi is outside of him, so his body is resolving the dilemma. Much like your system is incorporating that sharingan you carry into your genetic code.”

“What.”

“As far as I can tell, what I did to bring you three here, has resolved the internal paradoxes your systems were suffering from. You now feel half-Uchiha and half-Hatake. Tenzo’s mokuton seems to be stabilising within his system in a similar manner.”

Tenzo turned to stare at him from where he’d been cataloguing what he was able to see of the Village, “It wasn’t stable before?”

“Yes and no.” Tobirama stepped away from Kakashi, allowing him to lower the now squirming Naruto to his feet, a trio of pipe-foxes pouncing on him as he landed, “your mokuton before felt ill, like the difference between a healthy oak and one with a fungal infection. If I hadn’t had experience with Hashirama’s, then I doubt I’d have noticed. As it is, you don’t feel quite like Hashirama or how I remember Kawarama feeling… more like torikabuto to Hashirama’s oak, and Kawarama’s brambles.”

“I’m a poisonous plant?”

“Not precisely.” Tobirama grimaced, “it’s more that I feel like your Chakra would have the strongest inclination in that direction. You could likely learn to use it similarly to Hashirama if you wanted, but I would suspect healing and subtle uses are more your skillset than the flashiness he tends to use.”