Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters
Summary: Hashirama and Madara realise the beauty of Light and Darkness at a young age.
"Hurry up!" Hashirama waved his hands around excitedly. He was standing outside the entrance of a cave. It was hidden deep in the forest and could barely be spotted with all the dense vegetation around. No one visited in a long time.
Madara's expression was still wary, "We shouldn't be going inside."
"Are you scared? Just because you heard some stupid ghost story!"
"We don't even have a candle. I can barely see, and my eyes are much better than yours!"
"You keep saying that, you know… Why don't you use one of your katon things?"
"I can't sustain it! You realise I don't breathe in when use that jutsu, right? Like your suiton thing."
"Oh, sorry, I forgot… Ah! Let's go this way!"
"We'll get lost if we don't plan this right."
"Pah! Can't you do anything without making elaborate plans first? Besides we just have to follow the light to know which way is out."
"I am sure it's not that simple, you idiot." Madara carved deep gashes in the cave wall as they walked along. The two boys had been roaming around for a while now. Soon, they found themselves in a rather large space; at least it felt like that, they couldn't really see in the inky darkness.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Madara spewed fire, illuminating their surroundings.
"Whoaa! Madara! LOOK!" Hashirama gasped. It was truly a wondrous sight, nearly translucent stalactites hung off the roof of the cavern, painted in shifting hues of yellow and orange thanks to Madara's jutsu. There were hundreds of shades, blinding whitish yellow near Madara's mouth, ember and bronze on the mineral columns and dark brown where the light could not reach.
It didn't last too long as Madara was soon out of breathe. Once again darkness enveloped the friends.
"That was amazing Madara. Could you see it?"
"Yes, I did, don't worry." Madara panted.
Hashirama sat down on the cool, but rather uncomfortable floor. "Sit here Madara."
"Where are you?" Madara's proximity to the bright flames made him a little disoriented. He stumbled over a budding stalagmite and fell right on top of the brown haired boy.
"Sorry- I couldn't see…" Madara sheepishly rolled over.
"So much for your awesome eyes." Hashirama taunted while gently dusting Madara's knees, "Are you ok?"
"Hn! Yea, yea… I'm fine. "
Hashirama slid his arm around Madara's waist and rested his head on the other's shoulder, Madara reciprocated. They sat like that for a while.
"You were right, Hashirama, this was fun."
"I'm always right. And I learnt something interesting too!"
"Learnt something in a cave?"
"You aren't imaginative enough! Anyway, I realised that light and darkness look reeeally good together."
Years later, they both realised, white and black were colours that could rarely be seen in reality, mostly one would just see different shades of grey. Light and Darkness were inseparable and neither could be associated with good or bad elements. All that was a matter of perspective.
However, there was a secret they hadn't cracked. Even though they were so close to succeeding. Light and Darkness did not compete with each other, no, they complemented each other beautifully.
