It had all culminated in a place that would become known as the Valley of the End. Uchiha Madara had faced off against his dearest friend, Senju Hashirama, believing that both his friend and the village they had built together, had betrayed him. In the end, Hashirama had emerged victorious, but he had also succeeded in convincing Madara that he had never tried to deceive him and restored their friendship. It was a victory of the most significant kind. One that would change the course of destiny.
After Madara was brought back into the fold of the village and his clan, he eventually succeeded Hashirama and became the Second Hokage, vowing to protect the village that was the realization of their dreams. Hashirama's brother, Senju Tobirama, eventually got over his aminosity toward the Uchiha Clan and became Madara's trusted advisor, just as he had been toward his brother.
Years passed. Madara was succeeded by his student, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was then succeeded by the student of his student, Namikaze Minato. The village was relatively safe, but wars still happened, and that was where things went wrong.
Following the battle between Hashirama and Madara, Hashirama's wife, Uzumaki Mito, used her clan's secret sealing techniques to seal the nine-tailed fox inside her own body. Years later, as Mito neared the end of her life, a young girl named Uzumaki Kushina was brought to Konoha from Mito's homeland in the Land of Eddies and the Biju was transferred to her. Only certain members of the Uzumaki clan possessed the type of Chakra necessary to restrain the beast.
Uzumaki Kushina married Namikaze Minato and all was well, until Kushina learned that she was pregnant with their child. When Kushina's due date arrived, the Third Hokage revealed the uncomfortable truth to Kushina: the seal used to contain the Kyuubi within her had been weakening over the course of her pregnancy, and when she gave birth, there was a chance that he would break lose. Precautions were taken to prevent this. Kushina was to deliver in a place outside the village, within a barrier, with Minato, who had studied her family's techniques, there to maintain the seal, and with the Hiruzen's wife, Biwako, there as a midwife.
The moment when Uzumaki Naruto was born was when things went very, very wrong. A masked man attacked, killing Biwako and taking the newborn child hostage, forcing the Fourth Hokage to abandon his task of redoing Kushina's seal in order to save his child. Whilst Minato teleported himself and Naruto to safety, the assailant kidnapped Kushina, released the Kyuubi from her body, and took control of it. Then he set it loose upon the unsuspecting Konoha. In order to save the village and his family, the Fourth Hokage rescued Kushina and then sealed the Kyuubi once more. Half of the biju's chakra was sealed back inside of Kushina, in order to preserve her life. The other half was sealed within Naruto, for Minato believed that the child would some day need its power. He performed this task at the cost of his own life.
Following Minato's death, the Third Hokage came out of retirement in order to lead the village, while Kushina retired as a kunoichi in order to raise her son. Konoha rebuilt and was at peace, until the day it became clear that there still more dangers lurking in the shadows.
