Disclaimber: I do not own rights, nor do I claim any rights to Naruto, I simply play around with it.

Canon Divergence: Time Travel, changing the timeline. It starts very close to the beginning of Naruto Shippuden.

Warning: Political Discussions, Homosexual love.

Please do not flame, unless it is creative, then I can at least laugh at how weird it is your commenting on something you 'dislike' so much.

Chapter 2: Imbalance

The unease Naruto felt around Hashirama was magnified by at least ten times with this newcomer in the room, whose Chakra was so cold and potent, there was a moment in which he was fearful for his bare feet and fingers. As it was the Hokage in front of him didn't seem all that affected by the cold Chakra, his whole posture actually seemed to loosen, immense relief seemingly untensed his shoulders.

"Hashirama! Has all sense left you?!" Booming loud, was the man's voice, yet it was clear that he wasn't yelling, a rather impressive feat considering the only being Naruto had ever witnessed performing such a feat would be Kyuubi.

Naturally his reaction was to edge away, even more so when the previously relieved man in front of him seemed to deflate with the insult, his head even going as far as to bow down in what the blond could only assume to be shame.

It was such an odd and unexpected reaction that Naruto found himself recoiling, an arm going up to cover his twitching eyebrow to ascertain some form of respect.

"It's no good, I can't do anything right." There was such an informality to the act that gave out a brief chortle and was rather embarrassed that he was far too late to stop it. Really, he must have been in a state of enervation without realizing it. For there was no foreseeable way he would have done that if he was of a clear mind. Or maybe he would have, he was known to play rather a fool on missions, even now even as he had matured.

The thought brought the somber verity of the situation to his mind's eye, and the smile promptly vanished from his face, his eyes staring at the accursed orange of his jumpsuit. He only wore it in order to aggravate the villagers, in the beginning, then it simply began to become his staple, like Kakashi's book, or Iruka's scar against his light brown and smooth skin.

Mindlessly identifying them among both friends and acquaintances. It represented him, yet no one in this timeline would know that they would simply think him strange. Would he have to leave it behind? Like his past? He didn't want to believe that it was even an option, and yet, the finality in the Kyuubi's voice had stated it for him. What should he do? How should he even go about thinking about such a situation?

His aura was darkening around him unknowingly. To think just mere moments ago he had been chuckling to himself, now he had been brought back to his own self-sustained state of disrepair, which he hadn't felt so strongly since his last few days in the academy. How pathetic.

An unexpected warm weight on his shoulder settled him, dragging his eyes to the source, in which a warm smile was settled upon the Shodai's face.

Iruka's warm smile settled behind his eyes for a moment at the look. It seemed his mind was a cruel master, to give him such an image. For at this very moment, he could use Iruka's warm aura, and smiles. This situation was perhaps the most challenging he had ever been dealt.

"For Kami's sake Hashirama, the child is worse than you." Clearing the unexpected blurring in his eyes, he raised his eyes to the man in the doorway. Now looking at the man, Naruto had been half expecting to see Sasuke there, although he knew that his friend's voice was not that deep, he was still troubled by the sight of a foreign man in front of him.

"That's insulting, to both me and the child Madara."

"I wasn't aiming for complementary."

"You're cruel."

"I am not." A bland look crossed the man's features, as he rested a hand on his hip, in what Naruto could easily recognize as a look of smug contentment. Hashirama for his part crossed his arms, in what seemed to be a petulant action of rebellion toward the other's words.

"Do you even listen to your own words before you speak them?"

"Of course, I do, I was raised properly after all."

"Are you insinuating I wasn't?"

"Take away what you will."

"Ugh! You are!-"

"You two are childhood friends aren't you?" The words had escaped his mouth before they were even fully formed thought, yet he couldn't bring himself to regret them, there was both a relaxed palpable, relaxed, air between them, yet an obvious history of hatred or distrust in their eyes. Something that was quickly leaving the clearly haunted eyes, something which Naruto could recognize easily.

"Actually yes, how can you tell?" The memory of his and Sasuke's banter filled his thoughts and ears. Nostalgia filling him easily.

"I had a friend, once, and him and I, well, we were a lot like you two."

"Did he die?" He looked up at the other man in the room at that, not in surprise but in rather in trepidation, while it was a fact that his old friend hadn't died, well it would be just as well that he did. Sasuke seemed far more than lost now. Orochimaru's poisonous words seeped into his mind, and Naruto wasn't sure his own family if they had been alive, would have been able to reach him at this point.

So instead of responding more directly as he should have, he said; "No, not, not exactly." There was this poignant thought in his mind that seemed to touch him every time Sasuke came up in his thoughts, or in conversation that told him Sasuke's true despair was far too deep for anyone but himself to grant him clear mind, and while he didn't want to believe that, he knew it was true.

A strange glance crossed Hashirama's face at his statement, and though Naruto could never be sure with such a strange man, he could only see it as something akin to sympathy. Before he turned more directly to the other in the room.

"Oh yes, you were in the middle of calling me a madman, what did I do to gain such anger, this time, Madara?" Madara, that was his name, why did that ring alarms in his head? Madara for his part seemed rather irritated with the question, rubbing his forehead as he was.

"I have forgotten in light of this new knowledge. Why exactly, would you bring a foreign child into the Village without some sort of seal to bind his Chakra? Or at the very least contacting me, Hashirama? Such indiscretions will jeopardize the safety of the Village."

"Oh come now Madara, he is a child, he posess no dire threat to the Village. Not to mention you were not needed, his Chakra was nearly completely depleted when Tobirama brought him in here. The poor boy was near death."

"Your younger brother brought him into the Village? He is certainly the most paranoid person I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. Why would he do such an inparanoid thing?" Despite the very mild humor within the man's tone, there was what could be described as a gaze of suspicion on the man's eyebrow, and his movements described his state of unease at the information presented to him. As it was Hashirama seemed to be put off at the gaze now focused upon him.

"He was... Uncertain about the boy's movements."

"Hashirama!"

"The child seems to have some knowledge of some used in times of war. He was suspicious how someone so young could have acquired such information, so he brought him to me." Madara looked at Naruto then, it seemed to chill his blood at the look, it gave him this near feeling that Orochimaru had when they met, a sensation of foreboding, power, and knowledge.

"He seems old enough to have fought in a war, is it not possible he learned said techniques in battle?"

"Well, naturally that would be my assumption, had the Jutsu he used; were not forbidden Jutsu I and my brother developed in times of war, specifically for war. Besides, I'd like to imagine that he hadn't." The man looked so unsure of himself there, that despite his internal reflexes Naruto was compelled to reach out and comfort the Hokage. He held back on that impulse. "Have you?" A dark atmosphere seemed to seep from the Hokage, if Naruto hadn't been one who'd felt something far worse, he would have been intimidated.

"No, I haven't, I learned the techniques from my clan a long time ago." Well that was a truth did have a matter of fact, admittedly it wasn't quite as much as the other things he'd said to spin his tale. Apparently it worked well enough for the man gave a simple nod, and turned to his counterpart with a large smile.

"Before you ask Madara, as I know you undoubtedly will. This child is an Uzumaki, the Uzumaki clan is a branch family of the Senju, they even helped us during the wars on occasion. So it is entirely possible that some of the Jutsu I and Tobirama developed would have been learnt by our relatives during war times, and undoubtedly passed on to the next generation." Naruto was near sure Hashirama was gloating at his one-up on the other man, even without any sort of indication of tone or body language, it was quite the feat all things considered.

Congeniality, it seemed, was something the Shodai had in spades. The man was simply very well balanced around people. Even Madara, who, by Naruto's standards, had some of the coldest Chakra he'd ever encountered, and whose very presence was an intimidating force on its very own. To him, it was frankly a miracle the Hokage could stand anywhere near the man without shivering.

There was a sudden movement in front of him, and his eyes caught the eyes with a simplicity that he hadn't had as a young ninja. Madara was once more staring at him, with was could only be wary discomfort, he regarded the blond with the same look in his eyes as they drifted from his feet to his hair. The gaze, however, didn't seem to satisfy the man, for he began to walk to Naruto, long strides upon the floor boards which made them moan in protest, yet the falls of his feet were light, and just as Hashirama's movements were, measured.

Naruto was forced to look up, as the man was ridiculously tall even at two arm lengths away from his sitting form.

Abruptly, there was a movement at his abdomen, and almost just as quickly, a burning pain like none he had ever felt before tore through his nerves. His blood spilled, and boiled, his skin felt like each layer was being scrutinously pulled off. His eyes teared up at the feeling's tearing through his body, yet even as a simple glimpse of his hands gave him the knowledge that this pain was not real. Although at the same time he knew it wasn't a Genjutsu, it was Kyuubi.

Why the fox was doing this now and hadn't done it before, was the mystery that was ghosting over in his mind. Yet his ability to think was rather impaired as it was, so the question was rather unimportant to him.

The movement in his abdomen grew, and so did the heat that seemed to radiate off it, as a dull sound seemed to fill his ears with the feeling of great pressure. He would think he was hundreds of miles under the water with the sensation it brought. Then the sound became this mess of pain and roaring heat, his eyes seemed to be affected too, as they started to feel extremely dry, and as he blinked warmth ran down in the form of blood. His hands became numb, and his toes lost sensation.

"MADARA!" Kyuubi's voice broke out through the noise in his ears, it was with a disjointed clarity, did he realize, this was Kyuubi's very hatred soaring through him and burning him.

Although, he didn't know why, or even how, he knew that this was pure anger, Kyuubi's anger taking punishment upon his body, yet, he didn't even remember this man. He'd heard the name, that he was sure of, yet with such an amount of hatred directed at him from the fox, that such pain filled him, did he really want to know?

His vision went arey around him.

The area around him was illuminated by a strange green light. Not like it was usually, as most commonly the light that filled this area could be described as a red-tinted green, it was filled with an aura of misdirected hatred. It was like a sleep gas had been implanted directly into the large hallway, nauseating, yet it would never have a profound impact upon him. Besides, the remembrance of a hospital that is.

On a physical level, he was well aware of the fact that he was stuck halfway between reality and the place of Kyuubi's prison. This was proven by the fact that he could not feel his left side, it wasn't even something as simple as numbness, it was just the acceptance that his body on that side of him didn't exist right now.

In fact, nothing seemed to be alive anywhere around him, the fox was silent, not even the occasional rush of water sounded within the hall. His mind troubled, he decided to look around, his right knee gave out, and he fell face first into the murky water. Faintly, he could understand why such a thing had happened, but his mind was sent so far astray he couldn't think in a clear manner.

It was as if his thoughts were being pulled away from his very consciousness, and nothing was replacing those thoughts. He would have called such a thing impossible, yet he was also acquainted with Yamanaka Ino, so such a title wouldn't be true. Ino could very well pull thoughts from his mind, as could her father. Yet Ino nor Inoichi were here, not to mention the simple fact that while they could pull thoughts and memories from a person, they could not render him unable to think for himself.

He had no idea what was going on, he couldn't even understand at the moment how he wasn't drowning, as his face had been submerged for a considerable length of time now.

Kyuubi was silent, as his mind drifted.

"Madara! What have you done?!" His friend's voice was really only a dull thudding in his ears, not quite an irritant, undoubtedly uncomfortable, however, as the accusation was one he'd heard several times. Although at this point, he wasn't actually sure if he'd done anything, he had merely stepped close, that was all he had done. Logic fought on his side, as no one should simply start burning for no clear reason.

He hadn't gathered any Chakra, and even then, he did not have the ability to simply burn people at close proximity, if he had the war would have ended far differently.

So why was it, that the blond haired child had simply begun to shed tears of blood, and his very skin began to burn itself? He was not clear on this, a first of many things for him, he was commonly sure of everything he did. Yet, at this point, he was in the bizarre situation of being in the room with a boy that could seemingly, burn his own skin off upon impulse. Not only that, but the skin was only burning on one side of his body, his left. His right was simply bleeding profusely. Both his eyes bleed, but on his right, his ears, his skelp, even his fingernails were dripping with blood.

Just mere moments ago the child had been holding his head fully conscious, now, however, he was breathing heavily, heartbeat erratic, and Hashirama was holding the child in his arms, attempting to aid him when violent flinches of pain made the boy gasp and spasm. If he were to activate his Sharingan he suspected that even the Chakra of the boy would be unstable.

It was an alarming sight, that even he, a man shaped and raised on the battlefield, was off-put by. It wasn't discomforting, but it was something of a likeness swirling in his gut. He was unsure of how to deal with this situation, and by part, Hashirama, who was acting like a mother with a sick child.

"Hashirama, will you stop coddling the child! He is not your heir, and I do believe you are in fact, making him worse!" There was a brief stalling in his friend's movements, then his heart rate accelerated to an extent Madara knew was not simple adrenaline. He'd seen it many times, although during said times he left well enough alone, and let his men handle it, they did not need coddling in times of war.

Hashirama on the other hand, while certainly not a fragile person, was a sensitive one, Madara knew that well enough. He did not know however that the man was prone to anxiety attacks, of all things!

Hyperventilation came next, and his friend's head ducked down as he tried to calm his breathing.

Madara knew then that this was not the first of these incidents the man had dealt with, and as a result of his own experience, he understood that the brunet could calm himself down. The information brought a slight calm to his mind, as he could now focus on the other heavily breathing child in the room.

The burning of his skin was the most significant part, yet it was a reaction to a stimulant. He needn't bother with the burning of the skin if he couldn't fix what was causing it, or at least determine the cause for a medical expert to fix, it would only happen again.

The most likely case he could think of was that the boy had corrosive Chakra, the second would be that the child had a Kekkei Genkei that was acting accordingly, and the third was an external influence. It was unlikely that this was a simple birth defect. Otherwise, there would be far more severe burn scars upon his person where there clearly was none, so this was also a first-time occurrence.

He activated his Sharingan.

What he saw did not surprise him to a vast extent. The child did indeed have a corrosive Chakra, in fact, the child had two types of Chakra that had seemingly become unbalanced. He'd seen nothing quite like it before, had he seen two differing Chakra's in one person, yes, he had.

Had he seen it to this extent in one person? No, no he had not, and that made him uncomfortable.

Still he had to focus on the task at hand, and that currently, was balancing the two Chakra's so they coincide with each other, as it was, one of the different Chakra's the less corrosive one, was blue and ran through the child's right side normally. The other Chakra was the problem, it ran through his left side as if he was summoning a Head Summon for no reason. Not only that, but there was simply no blue Chakra within the left side of his body. Presumably, each side flowed in and out of each other balancing out the Chakra pathways as they did so. The only reason he was bleeding so profusely from his right side was his body's own inability to process the blue Chakra without the Red.

A very complex Chakra system to be put bluntly.

Yet even as he processed this new information, he was unsure of just how such different Chakra systems were set up to run, nevermind how such an imbalance had occurred. There was doubt in his mind that he could even aid the child substantially, even if he used his own Chakra as an infusion point there was a slim chance of that working. His Chakra was frigid, Hashirama had even gone so far as to tell him it had a likeliness to dry ice, and the Chakra he was looking at, both signatures, were warm, or burning.

Which brought him to another key realization, Hashirama's Chakra was far different than his, and in his case, he could probably create an infusion point within the boy's Chakra network. It was far from a stabilized plan, most certainly, not well thought out, but it had the potential to work, and that was all the Uchiha needed to act.

"Hashirama, you know medical ninjutsu do you not?" The man in question looked up, his breathing now stabilized, but his eyes were clouded, and the lines under his eyes seemed more prominent with stress.

"Yes, minimally, certainly not enough to stop this degree of deterioration to the skin. The bleeding perhaps, but Madara what had caused this?" For now, he ignored the question, it was obvious the man had asked for medical reasons, but that would take far too long. Instead, he focused on explaining himself.

"Do you know enough for a Chakra infusion?" The face the brunet made at the question was one of great inner conflict, yet he nodded nonetheless, his expression marred by a look of confusion and pity. Though his friend's expression didn't change, Madara was well aware of the Chakra gathering at his palms.

They glowed an eery green.

"Torso; Chest, and abdomen." As he applied the Chakra, he glanced at Madara from the very corner of his eye, and the Uchiha was well aware that there were more questions circling around his mind then Madara could answer. He himself was also quite curious, and still frustrated at the brunet for not telling him everything he knew about the child in front of him. He saw the brow furrow on his friend and knew then that he had discovered the duel Chakra pathways within the boy.

Although the expression didn't last, there was a strange motion of Hashirama rolling on the shoulder, then he removed his hands.

"I've never before felt such cruel Chakra..." The brunet swept his feet from under himself, and stood, his body was rigid by tension, and Madara was well aware that the expression on his young face was one of empathy. Something of a dangerous game to play, empathy. Madara considered such a thing useless in his own mind, it was something of a child's emotion, and he was anything but a child. "How can someone so young have such damaging Chakra?" Looking over his right shoulder where Hashirama now stood staring at the sleeping form of the blond, he sighed. He wasn't quite sure of the answer to that himself.

It seemed that his friend was just as confused as him, for the sigh he let out was one Madara had heard many times from the man; such of burden and tired confusion. Yet there was something hidden even from Madara's understanding under the man's brow. He would question upon it at a latter date when it was sure to become a twitch.

They turned and left the room.

Walking side-by-side down the narrow hallway, the two of them headed towards the exit of the building, each in their mind wondering to national policy, and the strange child with such opposing Chakra's. Neither spoke, neither wanted to, content for once, in a long time now, with each others company. They had been far more tense around each other the past few days since Hashirama became Hokage, each for their own reasons, yet there was no doubt that the two of them were avoiding each other. Even the many astray villagers could see this plainly -even Naruto had seen it to a very minimal extent.-

However, now that the two had somewhat come to terms with the new way of things, and their confrontation with the blond boy, the previous tension had eased, and once more they walked side-by-side within the peaceful village.