The sun was about half set over the trees lining the horizon, casting the village in a warm orange glow. Sitting upon the sculpture of his own face, recently carved into the face of the mountain, he pondered on how far they had come and how much had been sacrificed. Peace was around the corner and then the problems with "that" clan would become non-existent, his greatest rival's death would not be in vain.

"Brother?"

"Down here"

He tilted his head backward to look up at his younger sibling standing atop the mountain.

Izuna grinned, "I thought I might find you here".

"Look at our beautiful village brother," Madara replied "It's perfect".

Izuna leapt down and took a seat on the piece of stone depicting Madara's ear.

"It would be more beautiful with my beautiful face overlooking it," smirked Izuna.

Madara turned and glared at him. Izuna felt a swooping sensation in the pit of his gut and looking down realised his hands had become wrinkled and weathered. A weight suddenly pressed down on his lap where a mirror had just appeared, he looked down at it to see a gruesome, deformed old man smiling back at him.

"Kaihō!"

Izuna rolled his eyes at Madara, who was now looking out to the horizon again.

"Tsukiyomi? Really, brother? Uncalled for."

"I can't believe these words are coming from my mouth, but I miss him…" sighed Madara detachedly as he gazed into the distance.

The abrupt change of tone startled Izuna, and although he already knew the person his brother was referring to he asked gently "Who?"

"Hashirama" Muttered Madara.

Izuna knew that today marked one year since the death of Madara's greatest rival.

"He was a great man," whispered Izuna and the two lapsed into reminiscence. Izuna had always regretted the manner in which Senju Hashirama had met his end. However, a cold fear gripped him, that perhaps his brother regretted Hashirama's death for entirely different reasons. "Dara, it is a tragedy, but it was you who decided his death was necessary. Such a man deserved a better death."

"I care not of the circumstances." Spat Madara "I suffer only that there's no longer a vessel capable of testing my own capacity. I miss the bloodthirst and the thrill found only on the brink of death. I am now truly alone."

"I'm sorry you feel that way brother," muttered Izuna.

"Why have you come here?"

"We need to re-assess the situation with the remaining Senju. They grow tired of being treated like dogs and they're not idiots. They know exactly the meaning of the 'special police force'. Many fear a coup-de-tat."

Madara snorted with contempt, "Then they can voice their displeasure with me personally. That is the way of the leaf. You are our ally, or you are our enemy. And we will shed blood until only allies remain. The village of the leaf will attain true peace, through might, our might. You know this, foolish brother."

"But the Senju are our ally! And a powerful one at that! We have no reason to detain them with such condescension; they are the clan of Hashirama after all. Even my son, your nephew, a mere child, can see the error of our ways. Let the Senju stand with us, not beneath us and we can quell any force that rivals us! We-"

"SILENCE! None of those swine hold a candle to Hashirama's strength! They should be ashamed to use the name Senju. My decision is final brother. The Senju will maintain their prestigious position as Konoha's Special Police Force and if they cannot see this as their piece of the larger picture, then they are no allies of ours."

"But brother –"

"Enough. I'm leaving. Tomorrow is graduation day for the academy students, your son will be there, you should get some sleep."

And with a flurry of hand seals Madara disappeared, leaving Izuna in deep deliberation as the last remnants of the glowing sunset vanished behind the horizon.

Author notes:

Hope you enjoyed the quick intro to this series, the following chapters will be considerably longer. The tale of Uchiha Madara will be comprised of 5-10 chapters, then the tale of another existing Naruto character will be released, still following the same story line. This will almost certainly be my first and last author note, so I just wanted to say that in The tale of Uchiha Madara I'll be rehashing a few ideas for twists and turns from a few well known series, with my own take them. Please don't be discouraged, as I simply want to have fun and pay homage to some of the wonderful works that inspire me. In subsequent tales the story line takes a very original turn. And hey, now that you know the twists are coming, maybe you'll have more fun trying to pick them.

Thanks for reading!