His eyes snapped open as the sunlight began to shine into the room. He could feel his heart rate spike for a brief moment before he remembered his current situation. He had hoped it was a dream. He was more than a little annoyed that it's not.

Of course he was trapped in some hellish future where his clan is all but extinct. That's what he gets for going along with Hashirama's requests. He didn't blame Tobirama, the boy was a genius, but he didn't have the same force of personality like Hashirama. If Tobirama had been the one asking Madara would have never agreed to test the seal, but of course Hashirama could convince him easier than his own parents.

Perhaps that was how they managed to put aside their clans hatred and form this village together. He didn't know. He finally rolled out of the bed (he found it odd that it wasn't a futon, but he wasn't stupid enough to not tell it was a bed) and looked out at the village. It looked like they had succeeded in their dream of peace. But something bothered him. Last night the Hokage had said the last living Senju lost her brother in a war. He didn't know if Hashirama had taken note of it or not, but Madara had. They had failed. If there was a war on the scale of multiple clans fighting together then surely it must be worse than the experiences he and Hashirama had. Were there ninja outside of clans here? The blonde girl, Naruko didn't appear to be from any clan, unless a new one cropped up in the time since his era.

The only blondes remotely similar in appearance to her was the Yamanaka clan, and clearly she wasn't a member of the clan. Thinking about the blonde brought another thought to his mind. How exactly did her village see her? The writings outside of her home certainly were less than friendly. The one that stuck out the most were the ones proclaiming to "Be Wary of Demon" did the girl perhaps have some kind of Bloodline limit?

It was a plausible reason, if she had a particularly rare or powerful one then it could make sense. Perhaps she had one she couldn't control and the village feared it? He didn't know. He needed to find out more about the future events, or he supposed the history of this future. The entire situation was bizarre and like any good Shinobi his first priority is collecting information.

He was drawn from his thoughts by a knock on the door to his. . . Apartment, the Hokage had called this kind of housing. How strange. Perhaps it rose as a result in population increasing. The village was certainly far bigger than any he had seen in his time, even the capital of Fire Country. Another set of knocks sound off the door and he moves to answer it. He hesitates for a moment, what if it's an enemy? He was in unfamiliar territory. He was making his plans to escape through the window when a voice called from the other side of the door.

"Dammit Madara, if you make me late I'm going to kick your teeth in!" Ah Naruko then. She was a crude one. Was this how women in this time period behaved now? Back in his day (he feels strangely old saying that) women were typically meek. While Kunoichi were fierce on the battlefield they typically filled a woman's role when in their off time. Perhaps that had changed. It was hard to say if it was just the blonde, or all women in this time period. "Madara get the fuck out here!"

He's tempted for a brief moment to make her keep waiting, her angry response was somewhat, amusing. He sighed, it would be cruel to make her late. So the very least he could do was open the door. He opens it quickly just as she's about to beat her fist against the door again.

"The hell took you so long?"

"I was enjoying the morning, and thinking."

"I find it hard to believe that a legendary ninja can miss my knocking because he was lost in thoughts."

"Well I'm not a legendary ninja yet am I?"

"You certainly don't seem like it."

"Your insults mean nothing to me. Now then I believe we were supposed to go the academy?" Wherever that may be.

That was another thing that annoyed him here in the future. He was to be a genin. Sure he can understand not giving an unknown such as himself a position of power, but a genin. He was already a chunin capable of killing adult Senju there was no way he should be starting there. In fact he was sure that Hashirama was in a similar position. He wouldn't be surprised if the other boy was annoyed. On the other hand he was likely eager to see the fruits of their labor. Of course it wouldn't be that bad, they would just likely be sent on low rank assassination missions and other such things, but he wished they would let him get straight into the thrill of combat.

Sure he wanted peace, but he was a warrior at heart. He loved fighting, he loved competition. He didn't want children like himself to kill and lose their loved ones, but he did enjoy the thrill of fighting with his life on the line for what he believes in.

"We need to get Hashirama too." Of course they did.

Hashirama was much less of a bastard about coming out of his apartment. He had promptly answered the door and they were able to set out. But of course nothing ever goes as planned as she hears the two boys stomach grumbling loudly.

"Neither of you have eaten anything since yesterday have you?" The two shook their heads and she sighed. "Come one, don't want to start the day on an empty stomach. I'm sure your apartments don't have any food." She practically drags the two boys into her apartment. "Don't expect anything great, we're short on time so you can enjoy some nice cereal."

"Cereal?" The two boys chorus.

"It's a food typically eaten at breakfast. God I can't believe there wasn't cereal in the warring states period. I don't have anything special, it's basically just rice in a different form." The two boys nods and she puts the bowls in front of them, then gets out the box. "You two are plenty smart, I'm sure you can figure this out right?"

They nod and after a bit of fiddling figure out how the cardboard works and pour themselves bowls. "I would offer you milk to go with it; but believe me, you don't want the milk I have in my fridge." She had figured out that it expired this morning the hard way.

"Naruko-san, do you have a clan?" It was Hashirama who asked.

"You can call me Naruko, and no I don't." Not that she was aware at least. The Hokage still hadn't told her who her parents are, so it's not impossible that she's from some small or extinct clan.

"So ninja don't need to be from clans in this era?" Madara this time. She shook her head.

"No the majority of our ninja force is actually comprised of clanless ninja or ninja from civilian backgrounds."

"Interesting, I didn't think clans would willingly divulge their techniques to civilians and other ninja."

"They mostly didn't. Really the clans only shared general information, that all the other clans already have. For example the Clone Technique or Transformation Technique."

"Surely one can't succeed as a ninja with just that much?"

"Most don't. It's enough to hit chunin rank, which is where most people end up. Typically only those of extraordinary talent or clan backgrounds manage to make jonin. Of course there are exceptions that go both ways." The two boys nod in understanding. Seeing they've finished eating she says. "Alright lets get going, you can leave the bowls, we're late enough as is, I can just clean it up later."

Hashirama couldn't help the discomfort he felt as he walked down the street. It wasn't because of anything he was doing, or anything Madara was doing, or even anything Naruko was doing. It was what the villagers weren't doing. Every time they would see the trio they would avert their eyes. Why did they refuse to look at them? He had a suspicion. He and Madara had both seen the literal writing on the wall and had figured out that Naruko wasn't very well liked. The averting the eyes had to be tied to that. The real question was why?

Why bother to leave insults on her wall, but then not even acknowledge her (or anyone with her) normally? He didn't understand. Not even the most hated person in his Clan would be treated like that. Of course maybe it was a result of peace. Perhaps they had more time to look deeper into their allies lives, and didn't like what they found? He didn't know. It didn't make much sense to him. He decided to break the silence by asking, "So is Konoha the only hidden village?" They had been at war with people, he knew that much, but it didn't necessarily mean another ninja village.

"No. I couldn't tell you the exact amount, but there are five big ones, Konoha being one of them."

Madara spoke up, "Do they match up with the five large nations?"

"We call them the great nations nowadays, but yeah." That made sense, if the nations clans united then the largest would simply have the most and be more powerful. Plus ninja in the large nations constantly fighting more opponents tended to hone their skills more than ninja in smaller nations.

"Naruko-san."

"You can call me Naruko, but yeah what's your question?"

"How do you know I have a question?"

"You prefaced it like you would." Madara nodded.

"You're correct, why do some people where the Uzumaki swirl?"

"Uzumaki swirl?" Hashirama had noticed it too. Some of the ninja found around the village had it on their strange looking jackets. But they didn't have the Uzumaki's signature red hair, and the Hokage hadn't mentioned the clan, and they were definitely large enough to be worth noting.

He decided to pitch in, "Yeah from the Uzumaki clan."

"I was unaware such a clan existed." If he was a lesser ninja he wouldn't have noticed the flash across her face, like she was sad. Why?

"They must have gone extinct then, like our clans."

"Yeah. . ."

"Oi my clan isn't extinct yet, there should still be that kid, the traitors brother."

"His name is Sasuke." Naruko said helpfully.

"The guy you called a bastard last night?"

"Yeah, I hate his guts."

"Why?"

"He is a belligerent dick head. And for some reason not being into him makes his followers hate me more." Hashirama laughed a bit, Naruko was crude for sure, but he couldn't help but see that the Uchiha are still jerks even now. His eyes slid over to Madara, he hadn't really confronted the fact that the other boy was an Uchiha. It's a hard pill to swallow, that his best friend, is his sworn enemy.

"Followers?"

"Fan girls, cronies, call 'em what you will. They basically are all over the fact that he's the last loyal Uchiha, and has an unfathomable inheritance." Madara's eye was twitching. Hashirama laughed for real this time. Of course it would piss his friend off.

"And he doesn't rid himself of these leeches?"

"He doesn't care, he never acknowledges them anyways."

"At least he has some sense then."

"Does no one do that with the Senju clan?" Hashirama asked curiously.

"The last living member is a 51 year old woman who is capable of literally punching someone into paste, no one dares to fuck with her."

"Who is she?"

"Senju Tsunade, one of the strongest ninja Konoha has ever produced. She is one of the third Hokage's students."

"Where is she now?" He wanted to meet his family.

"Don't know, she left the village years ago."

Madara spoke up now, "How many Hokage's have there been? Four right?"

"Yep, how'd you know?"

"You mean beside the four giant faces over looking the village? The Hokage said he had a successor and that he was the third." Hashirama had thought as much, it was a little weird seeing his face etched in stone, especially when it currently looks more like his own father than himself.

"So who else are they?" Hashirama asked.

"Besides you and the third, There is Senju Tobirama, and Namikaze Minato." His brother was the villages leader after him? He must have changed a lot then. He was always a genius, but the boy was a bit to willing to take risks (like using his brother as a guinea pig for an experimental teleportation seal). Well they both had whole life times to change. "We're here by the way."

"Naruko what are you doing here? only students who passed are supposed to be here."

"See the headband?" She was annoyed already, it was odd. After spending just a bit of time around to kids her age who were mostly nice she found she had a hard time enjoying the attitudes of her classmates.

"You could have stolen it." Why was Kiba such a pain today?

"If I managed to steal it from a ninja then I already earned my spot." The jerk didn't have an argument.

She noticed Shikamaru look at her and then the two boys behind her. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow but didn't say anything. Probably figured commenting would be a pain. That brings another thought to mind, should they hide their identities? It would probably cause a lot of chaos if people knew who they were. She decided to nip it in the bud. And turned to the two boys.

"I have no idea if we should keep you identities secret, so either just don't respond if someone asks, or make something up. We'll know what we need to do when they call for team assignments." The two nod. At least that was out of the way. She looked around for an open set of seats and led the trio there. She noted with amusement that Sasuke seemed almost disappointed that she didn't sit next to him.

Not because either of them enjoyed the other company, but because she typically didn't care where she sat and her presence redirected his own fans attention from him to her. Because apparently she couldn't be within five feet of him without trying to seduce him. Well he'd just get to deal with that.

"You two may want to cover your ears." She didn't wait for their reply, instead just following her own advice. She noted with amusement that Madara refused to do so. Well, he has no one to blame but himself.

His ears were ringing. How could two humans be that loud? How could two Kunoichi of all things be that loud? He was beginning to understand what Naruko meant when she said that the boy had fans. He had of course immediately recognized him as an Uchiha. He looked the part. In fact if Madara didn't know better he would have thought he was Izuna. The resemblance was uncanny to say the least.

The two girls briefly competed for the seat next to his clan member. Now that he thought about it he wasn't sure of his relationship to the boy. Was he a direct descendant? If he later left the clan he might not have had a child in which case maybe the boy is Izuna's descendant. He certainly looked the part. He'd have to look into that. He was drawn from his thoughts by the pink girl cheering. She must have won their little competition.

His eyes flicked the blonde girl, clearly a Yamanaka, and the two made eye contact. A blush spread across her face.

"Whoa, whose this hotty? He could give Sasuke-kun a run for his money." That seemed to open the flood gates as the class finally acknowledged his and Hashirama's presence. The girls eyes flicked to Naruko and then to Hashirama, clearly recognizing that she's connected to the two. "Why don't you two sit with me? You don't want to sit next to her."

"And why is that?" He asked with ice in his voice. He didn't particularly care for Naruko, but if this girl thought she was superior after acting like that then she had another thing coming.

"She' T."

"I can spell, Ino."

"Really? Your grades indicated otherwise. What are you even doing here you failed your test?"

"See the headband? Take a guess what it means. Or maybe that's to difficult for you."

"Oh wow, great burn, means a lot coming from the dumbest girl in class. So who did you have to sleep with to pass? Iruka-sensei? Or maybe you somehow seduced Hokage-sama." Naruko choked, understandably. The man was old enough to be her grandfather. The implication was certainly vile.

"As much as I'm dying to let you know how I passed, it's a secret that's above your pay grade. And if you're really curious you can ask your dad, he was there. Let me tell you he's extraordinary at getting deep inside of a person." The other girl, Ino, turned red with rage. Madara ignored her and leveled a curious eye at Naruko. Why did she mislead the girl? Sure it's convenient as a shinobi to practice the art of deception, but this was more about her personal life. Surely she must care that she's only fueling the flame about these rumors. Maybe that's what she wants. For even her own allies to know nothing of her.

Ino was about to say something but the door to the classroom opened and Iruka walked in, quieting the class as he did.

"I'm gonna be brief here. You all already know I'm proud of all of you. You are the fine ninja of Konoha and will serve to protect her. It may not be easy, and it may not be fun, but I have no doubt that each and every one of you will succeed. Now then, without further ado, let's get into the teams." He proceeded to ramble off the teams. None of the names meant anything to Madara so he payed minimal attention. He only bothered to listen when he heard his descendant being called. "Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Sai." The pink haired girl cheered and Sasuke looked like he wanted to die.

"Who is Sai?" It was an Inuzuka boy who asked, the one Naruko had argued with briefly.

"Due to special circumstances we had two extra genin this year, Sai is a genin from the reserves who has been waiting to get a team, so we can make up the missing slot." The story seemed a little odd, but Madara didn't know enough about Konoha's military to say one way or the other. See no other questions the man continued on before finally finishing the list of genin. Madara noted that he never called himself, Hashirama, or Naruko.

"Sensei you never called me."

"You and the other two will be team 11, but due to your circumstances you're not being listed as a normal team. Just wait until your sensei comes to collect you, he'll explain more." He supposed that meant they weren't going to be revealing their identities. He did notice that Sasuke was looking at him oddly. Likely recognizing his features as that of an Uchiha, but given the history he probably doesn't think it's possible.

"Naruko-baka." She groaned, why did she have to be stuck waiting in this room with two of her least favorite people. "Naruko-baka." Seriously, they weren't even on the same team, why did she have to deal with this. "Naruko-baka!"

"What, Sakura."

"Who are the two boys?"

"Ask them yourself. They're literally on either side of me." She said crossing her arms as she pointed left and right.

"You don't have to be mean about it."

"You've been addressing me as an idiot for the past several years, sorry if I don't have patience for stupid questions." Sakura looked affronted but Naruko couldn't bring herself to care.

"Fine, who are you two?"

Naruko slid her eyes from Sakura to Madara and then to Hashirama, and then back to Sakura.

Madara answered first. "I have no reason to tell you."

"Hey be nice." Hashirama ever the kind one smiled gently at Sakura, "We're not supposed to disclose our identities, if you're curious I'm sure the Hokage would tell you."

Sakura looked annoyed, "Whatever, it's not like I wanted to know anyways." Naruko wanted to bang her head into the desk. The tsundere act was painful to watch and it's not like Sasuke would recognize Sakura for it. Hell the only thing he had looked at besides the wall today was Madara. Naruko was rescued from her boredom as the door slid open. A man of average height walked in. He had short brown hair and black eyes. He wore a happuri style forehead protector and was otherwise dressed in the standard Konoha flak vest. He looked around before pointing to Naruko's group.

"You three come with me." He stood waiting for a moment as they got up and walked over to him. None of them said anything as he quietly lead them out of the room. The continued to walk in silence for a while longer before they arrived in a training ground. "Greetings students. I will be your Jonin instructor. You can call me Yamato. I'm aware of who you are, but why don't you take this as a chance to formally introduce yourselves."

Madara decided to go first, "I'm Uchiha Madara." He stopped there, apparently deeming that a sufficient introduction.

"I'm Senju Hashirama."

"I think you two missed the point. I don't need to know your names, tell me about yourselves."

"Okay. I like my little brother, Tobirama, and I want to see a world where kids don't have to fight." Yamato nodded finding that acceptable.

Madara sighed, "I too like my little brother, Izuna. I don't like Tobirama. I want the Uchiha to succeed."

Naruko couldn't help but ask, "Why do you dislike Tobirama?"

"It was his seal that got Hashirama and I in this mess."

"Ah." She could understand that, if it was his fault that they were separated from friends and family in another time period then she would be pretty upset with him too. "Right well I'm Uzumaki Naruko, I want to be the Hokage and I dislike jerks." Madara and Hashirama both looked at her in surprise.

"You're an Uzumaki?" Madara asked.

"Maybe. I have the surname." She didn't know if her parents were members of the clan, she had no idea of their identities so it was hard to say.

"Well, Uzumaki are known for their sealing prowess, do you have any skill in the art?"

"I've never had a good chance to find out." The only real exposure to sealing she had was the one on her stomach and the one she activated that summoned these two. And other generic seals of course.

Yamato-sensei spoke up. "Right well then, now that you three are actually getting acquainted I'll go ahead and get to the point." The three turned their attention to the man. "You're not a normal genin cell. Considering every single one of you are a high priority target for assassination. I'm sure you can imagine what our enemies would do if they found out our founders were here currently as vulnerable kids." Madara looked annoyed at the dig at his skill but didn't argue the point.

"It's for this same reason that you won't be receiving the second test. There is no option to fail you three and send you back to the academy or stick you in the reserves." There was a second test? "So congratulations on officially becoming a team."

"You said we're a special squad, is there anything in particular we'll be doing?" Hashirama asked.

"Yes, my plan is to throw you three into some particularly rigorous training in the hopes of having all three of you at least high chunin level in skill by the time we're taking our first C-rank missions."

"Is that to help prevent assassinations?" Their sensei nodded.

"If all goes according to plan then you three will be strong enough to fend off most enemy ninja alone, and nearly all of them together. For full transparency Konoha has every intent of using your reputation to our advantage, and we need you strong enough to not get killed for that to work." Naruko saw the merit. Having two of the strongest ninja in history taking missions for Konoha would be a huge boon to mission requests.

"And your Hokage won't stop us once we find a way back home?" Madara questioned.

"No, it's important you two go back so you can actually found Konoha." Made sense. Train them into legendary ninja in the future, and then send them back ready to create history. Of course that begged the question, was Konoha a paradox? Her head hurt thinking about it.

Hiruzen took a drag of his pipe. He stared down Kakashi.

"You promised I would get Sensei's daughter."

"I had to break that promise. You know I had to give you Sasuke-kun."

"And you could have given me Naruko too! Why did you stick a root agent on my team?!"

"The simple answer is that those two boys are more likely to bond with Naruko. And they need Yamato." He was simply the only one who was capable of teaching the first. And unlike Madara he would have no prior training with his bloodline, even pre-awakening.

"So you want her to bond with people who have to disappear on her?" He sighed. He knew they would have to. The two would have to go back to their own time eventually. And if they did Naruko would be even lonelier than before.

"Is it better to have made friends that you can't see ever again, or to have never made them at all?" Kakashi flinched. He knew the man asked himself that question every day. "You can still choose to take a role in her life you know. Truthfully I think now more than ever she is going to need people to rely on."

Kakashi sighed, clearly convinced. "So why a root operative?"

"I think Sasuke is a flight risk, and he will at least keep tabs on him. And he serves as an added level of protection to the last Uchiha. Though I suppose, he's not the last anymore is he?"

"I suppose not. . . Are you going to make Naruko aware of her heritage?"

"Soon, if all goes according to plan with Yamato then I can safely tell her before the chunin exams."

"Are you planning on entering them?"

"Of course. You think I would miss a chance to announce Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Madara, and the Namikaze heir? When they're in our home turf?" The question was rhetorical and they both knew it.

"She's not gonna take it well you know."

"Of course, she's as fiery as Kushina and cunning as Minato, I suspect I will suffer for many months to come, but it's a small price to pay." He hated to use her like this, she was like a granddaughter to him, but Konoha was weaker than he would like to admit, and announcing three powerhouses at once would be too big a boon to the village to miss.

"Well I'd best be going, my team is waiting on me."

"Oh only two hours late today."

"Wrong team." Ah the stone then.

"Try not to keep your genin waiting to long."

"Is that an order?"

"No."

"No promises then." Kakashi said before poofing out of the office.

"Now then, we have bloodlines to awaken."

Hashirama looked up at him, "You know how to awaken my bloodline."

"Believe me I know more about your bloodline than anyone alive." Well that was a curious answer. Naruko couldn't help but wonder why he knew so much. Was he obsessed with the First Hokage?

"So how are we going to awaken our bloodlines?"

Yamato smiled at them. "That's simple." Naruko jumped in surprise as a spike of wood shot from the ground through where Hashirama was standing a moment prior, he had seemed to dodge merely by the grace of his instincts "You either awaken your bloodlines or you die trying." Yamato turned to her and Madara and taking the cue from Hashirama they both jumped away. Their decision was rewarded as two more spikes of wood shot from the ground. "Do try and survive."

A/N Well that was a fun chapter. Thanks for all the support in the first chapter! It means a lot. I hope you enjoyed this one. I think it will be fun having Yamato as the sensei and I feel like he's the best choice, considering Kakashi still needs to teach Sasuke for the Sharingan, and Madara at this point in time is chunin level already he won't need much tutoring for the Sharingan, despite not having unlocked it yet.

So far the kids aren't all friends yet, but they also don't really hate each other, it's mostly a large gathering of neutral parties. Hashirama and Madara will mostly be getting their abilities from canon, I think they're both already strong enough but Naruko will certainly be getting a few upgrades, she certainly won't be any weaker than the two boys.

I want to give a big thanks to all the people who followed, favorite, and reviewed. It's a huge motivator to see all the support so seriously thank you all so much!

CM 03/09/2020