Madara and Izuna stood on the wide grassy lawn wondering if they were in the right universe. While Izuna's great-great-grandson - or rather his counterpart from the insane universe where Madara went completely bonkers and tried to turn the moon into an eye's great-great-grandson - seemed to be insanely brilliant as Izuna had put it, the boy had a reputation in the village for being both stupid and somewhat crazy. As it was, they were stuck here for a year while the seal recharged. Once it did, it would (hopefully) return them to their own universe.

The reason for the brothers' doubt about their location was the fact that that their surroundings didn't resemble the hellishly cold world of ice and snow that had been described in the scroll that the Senju had stashed in the library in that other world's Konoha and Izuna had copied. Rather than there being snow piled to their waists and more coming down every second in the middle of a blizzard of epic proportions as the Sage of the Six Paths had described there having been on his arrival, there was a vast and sweeping hilly lawn of neatly tended green grass which majestically lined either side of a cobblestone road that led to a castle of a style they'd never seen before which held its own charm once one looked through the genjutsu that made it appear to be a burned down mouldering wreck.

To one side lay a dark and ominous looking forest, to the other lay the castle, a wide, deep, and dark lake, and in the distance behind them, a mountain range, behind them lay the castle grounds and wherever the cobblestone road led to. Above them was a cloudless blue sky from which a summer sun shone down, turning the heavy winter clothing they had piled on in preparation for their journey into something completely unbearable.

The Sage of the Six Paths had gotten to the world in the letter to his younger son through an accident with the Rinnegan, something Izuna and Madara couldn't quite copy with their Sharingans, Mangekyo or otherwise, ergo the depending on the great-great-grandson's seal which they probably wouldn't have trusted in the first place if the boy hadn't been Uzumaki and therefore from a clan of seal makers. Making seals was practically in the boy's blood. Well, at least seven sixteenths of it.

As the two men were stripping out of their winter wear, an elderly man in what was either a brightly colored dress or brightly colored ceremonial robes came tearing out of the castle, catching both men with their pants down. They could fight with their pants down if need be, but it was more difficult than usual.

Madara was hopping up and down on one leg, trying to get out of his snow pants when the elderly man, the incredibly ancient looking elderly man in the exceedingly garish robes, reached them and started spouting gibberish.

Izuna who had successfully shucked his own snow pants by laying down and pushing them down both legs turned to his brother.

"So, should we kill the crazy person before he attacks? Or...?" he asked.

"Ah, many apologies, I did not realize that you did not understand me." the insane old man who had incredibly long white hair running down his back and a wild beard going down to his waist said perfectly intelligibly. "Fortunately Japanese is one of the numerous languages I am fluent in."

"That's understandable." Izuna said. "I apologize for trespassing on your lands, but my brother and I were only very recently able to translate a text that an ancestor of ours left our family which gave only vague directions to an heirloom he had intended for his son to have, and we were rather eager to find it."

"I thank you for your apology, and must say that I too am very sorry." the old man said. "But, Hogwarts grounds are only open to students and professors. There is no way I can help you, and I must ask you to leave." the old man said.

After a quick exchange of glances between the brothers which confirmed that they were indeed thinking what the other was thinking, they turned to go, intending to return later under the cover of darkness if they determined that it was worth doing so. The world that the Sage had found could have suffered a drastic shift in climate over the centuries, stranger things had happened afterall. It really wasn't worth the fight at the moment however, and contrary to the popularly held misconception about Shinobi, they didn't go around killing people they didn't need to.

As they made their way down the cobblestone road, they were brought to a halt by an almost hesitant "Unless..."

They both whirled as one to face the old man. Izuna was struck with the feeling he and Madara should have kept walking. Something about the old man's expression reminded him of the guy who had sold him and Madara that old rowboat which sank when they were a hundred yards offshore.

&!&!&!&

Dumbledore felt a twinge of guilt rise in his stomach as he led the two young men up to his office. He knew the source of the feeling, and it was only tangentially related to the two men who trailed behind him, carefully studying their surroundings. Both men had what was colloquially known as the "Potter hair", which of course brought one Harry Potter to mind. He had much to apologize to the boy for, and if the killing curse didn't work the way he believed it did, he would spend his afterlife crawling on his belly if it made it up to the boy.

What were a few years in a cupboard and a few summers trapped in a house with people you didn't like when the alternative was being disemboweled and having your head on a pike somewhere public at the age of less than two years afterall?

If everything went well, the boy would have at least a century of happiness to make up for his early years when it was all over. Still, he felt the occasional twinge of guilt over what the boy was suffering through in the here and now.

&!&!&!&

"What are you staring at." Izuna asked as he noticed the odd looking old man's attention shift to him and his brother once more.

"Nothing really." the incredibly ancient man replied. "It's just that you have the Potter hair."

"Potter hair?" Madara asked.

"What's commonly referred to as the "Potter Hair" is a trait which has been passed down the male line of the Potter family since it got started when a foreign traveler who made pots was briefly married to one of the Peverell daughters before he vanished, leaving her with child. It was quite the scandal at the time since nobody knew what had happened to him. Most people think the Potter family is quite a bit older than it actually is because of the titles they have inherited through a number of rather shrewd marriages that have been made over the generations." the old man replied, completely unwinded by his journey up an exceedingly steep flight of stairs, quite the feat for someone his age.

"Please tell me that these "Potters" aren't the legacy that the Sage of the Six Paths meant to leave his son." Madara groaned.

"It's possible, considering the fact that the one who answered "Love" got the prize." Izuna replied.

"Oh, wouldn't that be a great joke on everybody, especially considering the fact that we're trapped here for an entire year rather than however short a time our ancestor had been here thanks to your counterpart's great-great-grandson's seal. Madara snapped.

"Well, if we're actually in the right place, which I'm still inclined to doubt despite the rather interesting coincidence, there's still something buried on the grounds according to the letter. If we find it, we can tell everyone that it was the thing that the Sage meant to leave his son." Izuna replied as he followed the old man up a moving staircase which had been hidden behind a rather ugly statue.

Wouldn't that have been a kick in the teeth, the whole Senju/Uchiha conflict getting started because the Sage didn't tell his kids that he was dumping his bastard on one of them rather than his blessing.