Warnings for this chapter: mild swearing

Arc One: Before the beginning

Chapter One: Riverside

"Are you ok, nee-chan?" Izuna's little voice rang next to Madara's ear tentatively. The two were currently seated in an empty training ground in the Uchiha compound, and Madara had just come back from Tajima's office after a rather irritating mission. Madara sighed and ruffled her little brother's hair, forcing down her previous annoyance at her father's latest lecture. It wouldn't do to have her little brother see her in such a state.

"I'm alright, otoutou," she finally answered, forcing a weak smile on her face, "I'm just a bit annoyed, that's all."

Observing the way her little brother's face set into a small frown, Madara sighed to herself again. Izuna, at the age of seven, was far too young for this war and carnage. But as much as Madara despised the idea of her last remaining brother becoming a ninja, she knew that he would need those skills very soon. There was no such thing as mercy in the Era of Warring States. If Izuna didn't learn the way of the shinobi well enough, quick enough, he would be killed. And Madara would be damned if she ever let that happen.

"Madara nee-chan, what did tou-sama say to you this time? You don't usually look so mad." Her little brother piped up again, and Madara's smile faltered as she recalled the details of her father's chastisement. He said I botched the mission singlehandedly, even though that isn't true at all. He told me to train like hell and neglect everything and everyone, including you. He called all girls weak and said that they don't belong on the battlefield. He told me to prove him wrong.

"…Nothing, Izuna. He didn't say anything too different at all. Only that I have another mission next week."

"I see." Izuna tipped his head to the side, as if he were thinking. Finally, he asked a rather surprising question: "Do you ever feel stressed, nee-chan?"

Madara was taken aback."…no." she eventually answered. She was hesitant sharing her troubles with her little brother. After all, it was her duty as the older sibling to make sure Izuna lived as carefree a childhood as he could in the war. However, Izuna saw through her hesitance.

"You're lying, Madara." He said simply, and there was something in the finality of his tone and the lack of an honorific that prompted Madara to reply.

"You know me too well sometimes." Madara finally answered, smiled tiredly, "Occasionally. It feels like there's a lot going on, too much to keep up with. I have to train, I have to be stronger than everyone, not only because I want to stay alive, but also because I'm tou-sama's daughter. It's the same for you, Izuna. It's a lot of pressure. But don't worry," she quickly added when she saw anxiety flit across Izuna's face, "I'm handling it just fine. I'm alright, aren't I always?"

Her brother sighed and said, "I think you need to take a rest, nee-chan. Go outside the compound for a while, take your mind off things. I know you're not technically the clan heir, but it's still stressful to be the daughter of the clan head. It's ok. I understand. Go to your favorite spot by the river, nee-chan. Tell them you're training outside the compound or something, the guards will buy it. That's one advantage to being the children of the clan head, huh?" Izuna finally smiled, and his smile was warm as the sun, full of understanding with a tad of mischevious joy that children his age should have all the time. Seeing her brother's smile, Madara couldn't help smiling too. She nodded.

The sun was over the treetops by the time Madara headed out to the river. Like her brother had predicted, the guards were no trouble at all, and had let her outside without a second glance. As she ambled along the sunlit forest trail, her heart soared with joy as she listened to the peaceful trilling of warblers and the animated chatter of squirrels. If only the world of humans could be this peaceful too, she mused to herself. Approaching the river's shore, however, she stopped short. There was someone there.

Her shinobi training kicking in, Madara instantly sprang into action. As stealthily as she could, she leaped onto the nearest tree, using chakra to soften her landing so that the tree branch would not shake as much. She silently leaped from tree to tree, getting closer and closer to the human presence she detected. When she was close enough, she began to cautiously observe the stranger.

He stood with his right side facing Madara, and he was dressed oddly in light colored, baggy clothes with a horrible bowl cut of brown hair that made Madara cringe. He had dark eyes that were fixed intently on the opposite shore, and seemed to be about two inches taller than Madara herself. In his tanned hand he held a flat stone, and Madara watched carefully as he expertly skipped the stone to the other side. I can't even do that! Madara thought indignantly as she watched the boy dust his hands, a satisfied smile on his face.

When the boy had skipped six rocks in exactly the same manner, Madara decided that he wasn't a threat. From his appearance, he was probably around the same age as her, or perhaps a little older. Besides, even if he wants to fight, I can take him on, he's a kid just like me, Madara thought, and with this in mind, she dropped from her branch, right in the boy's face as he turned around.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

There was a loud, deafening scream, and before Madara could even wince from the volume the boy had already back away a good five paces and had his hands held up in front of him as if to block an attack. Madara just closed her eyes and rubbed her temples for a moment to recover from the blast of noise delivered directly in her face. When her ears had finally stopped sending spasms of pain signals to her brain, she looked up, only to find the boy gaping at her in apparent shock.

"What, never seen a girl before?" she snapped sarcastically, now thoroughly irritated. Izuna had told her to come to the river to relax and take her mind off things. And this apparent idiot in front of her certainly was not helping at all. Did he just have to scream in her ear? Seriously, all she did was drop out of a tree in his face and he freaks out like that? …Ok ok, maybe I would have been freaked too. But only maybe. And it won't happen. Ever.

"Well?" she demanded, since the boy was apparently still in shock and had not responded to her previous remark. At this demand, though, the boy seemed to finally descend back to the real world. To Madara's astonishment and exasperation though, the way the boy responded was not what she had expected at all.

"Oh, right, yeah! You scared me, ya know! I mean here I was just minding my own business, and you come dropping outta nowhere and scaring me!"

Madara stared incredulously at the still unnamed boy, half tempted to wash her ears out in the river to see if she had actually heard what she thought she heard. "…I get that you were scared, as if you yelling as loud as you can in my ear didn't make that clear enough! And you're talking about me dropping out of trees?!"

To her utter bafflement, the boy suddenly dropped into a squatting position on the pebbly shore of the river, his arms curled around his legs and his face buried in his arms. She could practically see the aura of depression radiating off the boy, and she hasn't even activated her sharingan yet. She didn't know what to make of the situation.

"I'm sorry," the boy mumbled into his arms, still stuck in that strange curled up position as if he'd been that way his whole life, "I didn't think I'd scream that loud, I was just startled. I'm so sorry, and you're a girl too. Boys shouldn't scream at girls. You must think I'm a bad person now…"

Madara carefully eyed the curled up boy who was still wallowing in depression. Tentatively, she squatted next to the curled up boy and awkwardly patted his shoulder. "I don't think you're a bad person, I was just mad that you screamed in my face." she grudgingly explained. "And…" she grimaced and hesitated slightly over whether or not to offer an apology, but finally decided to get it over with. "I guess it was kind of my fault too for leaping off that tree and scaring you like that. Sorry. There! I said it!" She shouted, suddenly extremely annoyed at the fact that this boy had managed to maneuver her into a position where she needed to say sorry. However, she was not prepared for what happened next.

The boy who had been the very epitome of depression suddenly sprang up, a brilliant grin on his face. "Hooray!" he cheered loudly, "I'm not a bad person anymore! Thank you for forgiving me for my misconduct! And your apology is totally accepted by the way." He added, calming down. Madara, however, was completely shocked and infuriated by this 180 degree turn of events.

"WHAT THE HECK!" she screeched, "First you act up and scream in my face, and then you become depressed like a kicked puppy, and now you're all back to sunny again! Learn how to transition, idiot!" And immediately, the boy was back to the curl up position, a perfect replica of his situation about ten seconds ago, complete with his buried face and cloud of depression. Madara just face-plamed. "Why do I even bother…" she said to no one in particular. She grabbed the boy's arm and roughly attempted to pull him up. "Come on, get up! I don't have time to deal with your depression all day! Who are you anyways?! You just show up out of nowhere at my favorite section of the river, and-"

"Showed up outta nowhere?" the boy suddenly raised his head from his seat on the floor and looked at Madara oddly, his depression gone and replaced by a thoughtful frown. "This is my favorite section of the river too. I come here every once in a while to skip stones and stuff."

Madara frowned. This weird boy squatting in front of her did the same training activities that a shinobi did? She wouldn't believe it. As she carefully scrutinized the boy's appearance, trying to find some similarities between him and a shinobi, her mind was going a mile a minute. There's absolutely no way, she though in denial. Deciding to clarify, she asked bluntly, "Are you a shinobi?"

The boy nodded, apparently not at all disturbed by her blatant skepticism. He smiled and said, "Yeah, I'm a shinobi. Why? Is there a problem?"

Madara sighed and rubbed her forehead. "No, not a problem," she answered grumpily, "just a big surprise on my part. Now I'm actually gonna have to skip stones with someone watching nearby. This sucks."

The boy suddenly seemed to realize something, for he turned to her with a baffled expression on his face. "You skip stones? I thought only shinobi did that for training!" he exclaimed, "You're a girl. Girls don't fight battles."

Madara was about to retort angrily that this girl sitting right in front of him does fight and is pretty damn good at it too, when she realized something very important. Only the Uchiha clan has put a girl in battle, namely her. If she told this stranger that she was an official shinobi, it would be the equivalent of giving away her identity and clan name. So instead, she said, "I don't fight battles, My clan leader just wants me to learn how to fight so that I'm not completely helpless if someone attacks the base where I live."

At the mention of attacks, the boy's expression became serious. "Yeah," he said, "It always feels better here at the river, because it's so peaceful. Unlike at home, that is." Hearing this, Madara turned her head to stare at the boy incredulously. She had not expected the boy to share such similar views with her. Shaking her head in disbelief, she sat down next to the boy on the river shore.

"It's nice out here. I can't come here very often though," she remarked casually, "there's always things to get in the way, like training and such."

The other boy observed her for a moment, as if he was seeing her for the first time. Then he nodded in understanding, and he seemed briefly contemplative. "Say," he began, "if you are a somewhat shinobi in training, we could have a stone skipping contest. It'd be interesting to compare our skills, whadaya say?"

Madara gave him a flat stare. This boy was just getting weirder and weirder. First he freaks out at her jumping out of a tree, then there's that thing with the random depressions, which by the way were totally unnatural, and now this. He was inviting her, a girl he didn't even know the name of yet, to a competition in a shinobi exercise. This boy, she decided, was simply bizarre.

"...contest?" she repeated dubiously.

"Yes, a contest. I think it'll be fun, and besides, no harm done, right? It's not like we're giving anything away." The boy replied, a hopeful smile on his face.

Madara heaved a dramatic sigh. This boy was seriously too persistent for his own good. On the other hand though, he's right in saying there's no harm. And his smile reminds me of Izuna... At last, running out of reasons to refuse and too tired to argue further, Madara accepted. It would be the first of many times that she was convinced by his words and by his smile.

"Alright then! We should have a stone-skipping contest! It'll be fun! Come on!" The boy sprang to his feet, pulling Madara up with him. "Come on! Let's go! It'll be fun!" he repeated, "Now I'll finally have someone to play with!"

Madara just shook her head in exasperation, slowly getting used to the strange antics of her new acquaintance. Suddenly, a very important question occurred to her. "Hey you, what's your name?"

The boy who had been frantically gathering stones stopped for a moment and stared at Madara. "…My name?" he repeated slowly, and Madara nodded her head sagely.

"Yes, your name. Every competitor must know the other competitor's name before they begin any sort of competition. It's only fair." she said, a hint of merry mischief slipping into her tone.

"Alright." The boy agreed, and then he grinned brilliantly and reached out his hand. "My name is Hashirama, and I'm eleven!"

And despite all the annoying quirks that Madara had needed to deal with, somehow his smile made it worth it. Despite herself, she reached out and shook the newly named Hashirama's hand firmly. "I'm Madara, and I'm ten."

"It's nice to meet you, Hashirama."

She delivered the sentence with utmost sincerity.

"It's nice to meet you too, Madara!"

Came the reply, in the same joyous warmth the other seemed to naturally extrude.

She was dragged off to gather stones with the odd but strangely likable boy with the Izuna-like smile. The sun was hurting her eyes and Hashirama's grip on her arm was far too tight, but for the first time in her life, Madara was sure that maybe, just maybe, she had found a friend. And that made the annoyances tolerable.

I've wanted to write a gender-bent HashiMada story for quite some time, seeing as there is far from enough, and the right idea has finally struck. This is going to be a long fic, with four arcs planned. This is a semi-AU story, and it WILL branch off from canon later. And although the plot mainly focuses on the pairing HashiFemMada, that is still some ways off and there will be a lot of development before the romance actually starts kicking in. The beginning is a bit slow though, so please bear with me. I promise it will get better.

It's going to be quite the challenge for me, but I believe I had planned the story well, and I swear it will be completed. If there are any questions or problems, please let me know either in a review or a pm. If there are no problems and you thought the story was amazing/awesome/interesting, please please please leave a review, as they are much loved by this new author.

And that ends the first chapter. In the next chapter, Hashirama and Madara will meet some more times and we'll get a view of what life is like for Hashirama.

Please leave a review!