Title: Turning point

Author: Tuliharja

Summary: Madara's bad day turns one of most breath-taking ever. One-shot. Fantasy AU-elements.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I'm merely writing fan fiction about it. I don't either own the cover art of this.

Author's note: I actually wrote this fic to my one friend on AO3, but I decided to post this in here too.

Thank you IAmTheQueenOfMe for betaing this.

~Turning point~

Today wasn't Madara's day.

Being woken up too early in the morning by Izuna screeching 'enemies are attacking', only to realize his brother had simply been messing with him to get him out of bed. Apparently before that Izuna had tried everything to get him up, yet nothing had worked. It wasn't Madara's fault he had been on night patrol last night and why he had all but gone into a nearly impossible wake-less sleep when he finally got to bed. But the misery hadn't ended there as the reason why Izuna had been screeching like a banshee had been because his father had wanted patrol report right to way which meant no breakfast for Madara.

Well, he sort of had breakfast, if you could count something that had been burned and then seemed like someone had vomited it twice. Izuna really was bad cook. A really bad cook.

But the misery hadn't ended there as he had messed up his training. And after that he had been sent to patrol once again the outskirt of Uchiha territory just to step accidentally into a trap. How that had been possible Madara wasn't sure, but he had stepped into it. It had actually almost snapped his ankle in half. When Madara had investigated the trap little bit more he had understood the reason why he hadn't seen it. The trap had been hidden extremely skillfully and he was sure it wasn't Uchihas trap.

But his bad luck hadn't ended there when he had started to limp back to the Uchiha camp. He had come face-to-face with the Senju patrol.

And now, he was running for his life. Or half limping and half running, since his ankle was still a bloody mess despite the fact he had tried to stop the bleeding by tying some gauze around it. He really, really should had listened better when his mother had taught him medical ninjutsu instead day-dreaming. Lately he had done that lot of, thanks to his new and idiotic friend that he'd met a few weeks ago. But the sheer fact his new friend hadn't slaughtered him, despite being from other clan and being an adult, had made Madara think perhaps there was some hope for the brighter future.

Yet now wasn't time to think such things. Madara had to escape and do it quickly, or he wouldn't ever again dream. But he knew the Senjus would reach him before he could reach the compound.

"Stupid Father for sending me alone," Madara thought bitterly as Tajima had deemed Madara to be old enough to go alone patrol, if he could 'disappear' for hours to no end to forest. It wasn't like the place where Madara 'disappear' was as far as the outskirt of the Uchiha compound or as dangerous. Yet of course the karma had to came and bite him to his ankle.

The irony of everything made hysterical laughter fall from Madara's lips, just before he fell face down into the dirt. Spitting some grass and soil out he rolled onto his back, glaring the three Senjus. How he wished at the moment he had already achieved his sharingan. If he had one, he would have had already dealt these nuisances. Yet he had only few explosion tags and kunais. It was obvious which side would win this battle. No, not a battle, but slaughter.

Closing his eyes briefly, Madara weighted his options, then opened them again. If not anything else, he decided, he would at least die while standing.

Just as he was starting to get up and getting ready to put at least up some sort of a fight he felt a strong gust of wind hit the small of his back. Blinking his eyes several times he noticed how the Senjus' eyes widened from shock as they were gazing something behind Madara's back. A big, dark shadow then fell over Madara and the three Senjus, before the whole ground thumped. The tremors made Madara fall to the ground. He turned to see what had made the Senjus stop attacking him. Above him was huge dragon.

Never before in his life Madara had seen one or even dreamed such magnificent creatures were real.

But there it was in its all glory.

Madara quickly scrambled to his knees, staring the dragon that nearly blocked the sun from the view. His eyes jumped from detail to detail on the dragon, noticing the white fur that started from the top of its head and went all the way to its tail. The tail ended in a trident-shaped fan. The dragon's scales were a pale and icy blue, glimmering lightly in the sun. He noticed the wings that the dragon had folded behind its serpent-like body's back. His attention then went to the dragon's face. He could see that the dragon sported two white horns top of its head that were bent backwards. But what caught Madara's attention the most were the ruby red eyes. The eyes showed intelligence and wisdom that Madara could never dream of. Compared to their lives, a human's life was only a shooting star within their eyes. Fleeting and extremely fragile.

The dragon tilted its head before letting out a cloud of smoke and steam, making the three Senjus run quickly away. Glancing over his shoulder Madara couldn't help but wonder if he should follow after them. Perhaps the Senjus were safer than the dragon.

But when he turned his look back to the dragon he noticed to his shock that the dragon's face was just inches away from his own face. A cry of shock escaped Madara's lips as he once again fell to his back, causing him to let out a curse.

This really wasn't his day, but if it had to end eventually Madara could think several other ways to die that were far worse than by a dragon.

Silently and slowly, Madara fixed his eyes on the dragon just to look in shock as the dragon lower its head and touched the tip of its muzzle to Madara's bloody ankle. He felt something cool and wet touch his ankle before it wrapped around his ankle. Lifting his upper body with his hands, Madara glances to his ankle, just to be rendered speachless. Around his ankle was water. The water was clear blue and sparkling, and it made the pain within Madara's ankle cease. He could also see that the bleeding stopped before the water exploded outward, sparkling as it flew through the air and the sunlight.

Quickly leaning forward, Madara checked his ankle just to see that it was completely healed. Puzzled, but mostly shocked Madara looked the dragon as it had pulled its head away from him.

"You…" Madara croaked, not sure if the dragon had only wanted to heal him before it ate him. Yet just looking at those red eyes, he was fairly sure that the dragon wouldn't eat him. He wasn't sure why, but he just knew this dragon had just saved his life from those Senjus and had then healed his ankle with no ill intent.

Letting out a shaky breath, Madara combined his spiky hair nervously. This all was just tad too much to take in. But he didn't get to mull this or other things over for too long before he felt something grab him from behind his collar.

His first instinct was to smack whoever had done it, yet the more he was lifted higher in the air, the less he felt like that. Unsurprisingly, the dragon had picked him up by his collar.

"What you're doing?!" Madara yelped, finally finding his voice. His voice came out more like a high-pitched scream than anything else, making Madara glad that no other humans where near to hear him.

'Silence,' Madara suddenly heard inside of his head. The voice was strong and smooth. It made Madara shut his mouth with a loud gulp. He knew for sure that it had just been the dragon that had 'talked' with him telepathically. It made the young Uchiha merely look how the dragon lifted its body, making him guess that the dragon would take a flight. The idea made him both excited yet terrified. After all, the dragon could take him into its nest and feed him to its babies.

But despite thinking these dark thoughts he couldn't help but admire the dragon's wings once it unfolded them. They sparkled beautifully like rare diamonds before powerfully pressing down.

The next thing Madara saw was the tiny forest far down below them. The sight of it made him want to scream in fear, but nothing came out. Despite him feeling more scared than ever before, he still couldn't help but admire the view of the land below as the dragon started to fly away.

Craning his neck, Madara looked around. He saw his compound in the distance becoming smaller and smaller the further away they flew. Where ever the dragon was taking him, it wasn't his home. But no matter what he knew if he tried to fight the dragon now he would surely die from the fall. It would be best to just stay quiet and watch things unfold. At least now.

The dragon flew at a slow pace, higher and higher until Madara was surrounded by white clouds. It had only felt like they had been in the clouds for a moment before they were already landing. Where they were landing looked like a compound, though it was clearly not the one that Madara called home.

This made Madara blink his eyes several times in confusion. He wondered why the dragon would take him here and where they even were. Once the dragon landed, it placed Madara down to the ground gently. He wobbled slightly as the flight and altitude had made his head spin a bit, but not too much that he fell over.

"Tobirama!" was suddenly shouted by familiar voice, making Madara turn quickly toward the voice. And as he had assumed, it was his new friend Hashirama. Hashirama was rushing toward him along with Senjus. Sure, Madara had known Hashirama was a Senju, that much had been obvious from the start. But it still confused Madara as to why the dragon had brought him here.

Turning toward the dragon he just managed to witness how the dragon's form shimmer like a billion stars before it took a form of human. The man was dressed in a light blue kimono and was sporting a long and white fur boa around his shoulders. Madara noticed the man's hair was also a snowy-white, and he had red marking on his cheeks and chin. But what caught Madara's attention once again fully were the red, ruby-like eyes the man was sporting. Those were just…

"…gorgeous," Madara whispered, yet the man, Tobirama, apparently heard him as he fixed his eyes to Madara briefly, before offering his hand for him.

Without any hesitation, Madara grabbed it.