My oh my, a long chapter! However, this one takes a bit of a break from Sasuke and Itachi and will not have any bearing on the rest of this story. Naruto gives us filler episodes; I give you filler chapters. Still, I hope you enjoy!


A Village Born

Madara, aged twelve, stood at the edge of the crowd, watching as dirt was shoveled on top of a cheap coffin. He looked around his clan's cemetery and noticed there were several spots with fresh mounds of dirt. He'd been to so many funerals, he was starting to lose track and any time he tried to bring the issue up with anyone, especially his father and head of the Uchiha, his concerns were waved away.

Today after the funeral, as his family prepared themselves for yet another battle, he figured he'd try again. "Father…I honestly don't think this is a good idea. We've lost so many already; six funerals just this week! Don't you think that's enough?"

Tajima Uchiha looked at his eldest, shaking his head. Madara had seen him do it all too often with him and already knew his father was digging in his heels. "That's the way things are, Madara. We fight for others who cannot defend themselves and we fight to protect our own. Besides, I don't hear anyone else complaining," he gave a stern look to his son.

"That's because everyone else is dead!" Madara yelled. "Like mom!"

"Your mother wasn't killed, she left us," Tajima said bitterly.

"Oh, right…okay, what about my brothers? You had five sons. Five! Now you have two. I don't see how you don't see a problem with that," Madara huffed.

"About to be just one if you don't shut your mouth," his father muttered with just enough volume for Madara to hear.

"Father, I'm ready!" Izuna came into the room, smiling widely as he adjusted his weapons pouch. "Hi there, nii-san. You're coming too, right? Today's the day we kill the Senju, isn't that right, Father?"

Madara loved Izuna (and in truth, of his siblings, Izuna was his favorite) and would protect him with his dying breath but the way he sucked up to their father made him want to gag. "I'm sitting this one out, have fun without me," he grunted and shoved past his brother.

As they watched him go, Izuna turned back to Tajima. "What the heck's wrong with him? Anyway, let's hurry! I wanna get a good spot on the battlefield!"

~.~.~

Madara sat on the shallow bank of the river, skipping stones. He thought about the funeral earlier today and how his clan was heading right back into battle, only hours afterwards. In just his lifetime, their numbers had been cut down to nearly half. Was there something wrong with him to be the only one to care about that? Everyone else in the clan was happy for "an eye for an eye" and while he did enjoy fighting, he wasn't blind to how this back and forth was getting them nowhere.

He lay back, closing his eyes and enjoying the leaves as they waved above him. He'd started to drift off when he heard a loud plop from the river. Initially, he thought it might be a fish jumping up, but when the soft sounds continued, he immediately sat up, pulling a shuriken out.

From across the river, he saw a boy about his age with the absolute worst haircut he'd ever seen. The strands were cut in chunks that looked blocky and the ends seemed frayed and uneven. Madara felt relieved that he'd taken great lengths to protect his growing locks from falling into inexperienced hands, never allowing anyone to touch his hair but him. It was his pride and joy.

There was something about the other boy that looked relatively unassuming but he couldn't be sure. Enemies often hid in plain sight. "Hey you! This is my spot; scram!"

Madara knew he'd heard him, but the boy continued to skip rocks on the river. As he followed one with his eyes, he noticed in dismay that the kid was a much better skipper than him. His own rocks always sank after tapping the water once or twice. So, not only had he intruded on his precious spot, he was showing him up as well and was ignoring him! Three strikes in less than two minutes…this kid was asking for it.

Pushing up his pants legs to keep them from getting wet, he waded the shallow river to the other side. Upon reaching there, the other boy looked up and smiled brightly. "Hi! My name's Hashirama! It's really cool to meet—"

But the Uchiha didn't let him finish. He'd snatched the kid's shirt and shoved him to the ground, kneeling over him with a raised fist. "I said leave! This is my spot! I was here first and I'm not sharing!" And you're making me look bad, he didn't dare to add.

But if Hashirama was offended, he didn't show it. "I'm sorry, I never meant to offend you. But…this is a public river. It's not claimed by anyone so everyone can use it."

Madara felt his hand shake, getting more upset. "It borders my clan's territory so I say it's closer to being my river than anyone else's!"

"What clan are you from?" The other boy asked, very innocently.

"The—" But he stopped himself. Should he tell him? If he announced he was an Uchiha and this kid was from the Senju, he already had him in checkmate and could probably make short work of him. Then again…his clan had paid the price heavily for underestimating the Senju, mainly due to them not having a kekkei genkai like the Uchiha. Many thought this deficiency made them inferior to the Uchiha, but Madara knew better. The Senju were wily foes and shouldn't be taken lightly.

Instead, he covered for his pause by saying, "My clan's not important. Why don't you leave here and we'll drop the whole thing, 'kay?" He pulled back, letting him up.

"How nice of you to not beat me up over using public land," Hashirama smiled and enjoyed the furious blush that formed on the others' face.

"I did mark my territory here," Madara mumbled. "I took a leak in the river." Maybe this would scare him off.

"Haha…that's gross, but when you gotta go, you gotta go," he smiled all the wider. "Say, what's your name? I don't think you ever said it."

"…Madara." He'd initially put his shuriken back so that it wouldn't be so obvious that he was from a fighting clan but now, he subtly reached behind him again.

Hashirama gave a nod. "Madara. I like it. But if you mark territory like a dog, maybe I should call you something like 'Inudara' or something. Your hair is pretty thick too, like fur. So, considering we're still young, maybe…Inudara-chan!"

Oh, that was it. Madara immediately flung himself at Hashirama. He'd like to say that he beat him well and sound, but the boy held his own and halfway through it, their fight dissolved into playful roughhousing. Madara missed this, having all but forgotten what it was like to just be a kid and to play with others his age.

Afterwards, the two lay panting and giggling beside each other, conceding a draw. The night sky was beginning to come out and Hashirama lifted his arm up, stretching it towards the starry sky. "I've not had fun like that in a long time," he confessed, not looking over. "My father…is really strict. Almost like a general." He bit his tongue and looked fearfully over to Madara. That was way too much information, but Madara made him feel rather relaxed and he almost couldn't help but let the words tumble out.

As for Madara, he'd caught the hint but was hesitant to press further. This boy could very well be from his family's sworn enemy's clan but if so…he seemed reluctant to attack. As Hashirama had, he decided to lay some bait and see if he bit. "Yeah, my father's the same way and likes to give a lot of orders. But my younger brother adores him. Little suck-up," he frowned, but waited.

Two different sides and fathers like generals. Hashirama was starting to feel his suspicions were correct. Pushing it a bit further he said, "I used to have four brothers. Now though…I only have two. Me, dad and Tobi are all that's left of the family," he said sadly, but still waited, holding his breath.

Madara took the bait, but laid another trap of his own. "I was the eldest of five brothers," he said, with almost a note of pride. "But mom left us. She couldn't stand all the fi—conflict. And then my youngest three brothers died…and so there's just Father, Izuna and I."

He hadn't meant for it to, but the words came out much sadder than he'd intended. This left his defenses down so that when Hashirama moved closer to him, he wasn't ready. As he lay there, he felt a hand grab his and squeeze tightly and then heard a sniffle. He looked over to Hashirama and was horrified to see a river of tears and snot running down his face.

"That's…*sniff*…so sad! Three brothers and your mom left you? It's so tragic!"

All of Madara's tension deflated out of him. He couldn't keep up with this kid. If he should kill him then and there, then so be it. At least he'd lived his final hours in happiness. He squeezed Hashirama's hand back and decided that from now on, they'd be friends.

~.~.~

Naturally, it wasn't to last, though. Each of their younger brothers followed them one day to see them meeting and relayed the information back to their respective clans. While a brawl was avoided when the two clans confronted each other at that time, Madara didn't talk to Izuna for a week afterwards, wholly upset that his brother would snitch. In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have been so surprised.

His anger at his brother finally ebbed when, as the years passed, more comrades died and their scarce numbers dwindled further. Then, his father died.

And at last, Izuna died.

Embroiled in rage, Madara took the helm of the Uchiha, swearing vengeance. There was only one small problem though: nobody wanted to fight anymore.

"They have slain our families! How can you not want retribution?" He tried to rile up some morale amongst the clan during a meeting. "My father is dead! My brother was slain by that…freak of nature's brother, Tobirama! Seriously, who wears fur in the middle of summer? What the hell is he, half polar bear?! Anyways! Do you want to know what my brother said to me with his dying breath?"

"Who cares?" Someone shouted out, rubbing a pinky in their ear with complete disinterest. "It's no secret that you stole his eyes. You're probably happy for his death."

Madara threw a shuriken, pleased when it scraped the man's cheek and a thin trail of blood spilled. "Izuna and I may have had our differences, but I loved my brother. He gave me these eyes and told me to not give in to the Senju. Now I ask again, who here stands with me? Who will once and for all rise to exterminate our greatest foe? Who amongst us will rip apart their bodies, dissect their entrails, crack their bones and feast upon the marrow!?"

At their disgusted looks, he realized he'd gone too far. Wiping his mouth from the froth that'd begun to form, he cleared his throat. "Fighting is all we have. If we're not fighting, what's left for us to do?" Considering not only their clan but the Senju were contract killers for feudal lords and other clans, it was all their family had ever known.

Someone raised a hand. "I want to be a sculptor."

"I can bake!" Another said.

"A novelist!" Someone from the back added.

"A porn star!" A voice shouted.

"HELL YEAH!" the others encouraged.

"We're only limited by our imagination!" The man that'd been cut said, standing up. "Our imagination…and this endless fight with the Senju. Hashirama Senju has long since extended the olive branch. I say it's way past due that we accept it!"

As his clan began to cheer, they rose up together and marched out of the meeting hall, leaving Madara to reluctantly follow after.

Within the month, the two clans had officially signed a treaty that listed the two as allies. Within three months, with much help from Hashirama's Wood Style jutsu, Konoha was built. Hashirama won the seat for Hokage, of course, even after Madara ran an aggressive campaign under the mantra "Make the Land of Fire Great Again." He lost out to Hashirama's "A Change Shinobi Can Believe In" platform, which promised to spare young children from combat.

Two years after its founding, Madara found that he'd grown restless. While their village received numerous assignment requests, they had to be shared with everyone else and he found he had way too much time to do…nothing.

"Maybe I should get married," he considered, lying shirtless on the wrap-around veranda of his new home. The high walls surrounding the house blocked him from any prying eyes. "Then again, the pickings are slim. Over my dead body will I ever marry a Senju. The women from the Inuzuka clan are too aggressive for my taste. The Hyuga would probably like nothing more than to have the Sharingan in their bloodline; everyone knows the Byakugan is just a Sharingan knock-off. And we Uchiha breed with each other so often, it's a wonder none of us have a child with two heads yet."

But he knew he wouldn't like marriage life. His image of the female species went no further than cooking, child rearing and nagging. Oh, and bailing when the going got tough but a small voice told him that was his "mommy issues" speaking. Not liking where his thoughts were going, he decided to take a walk to clear his head.

As he prowled the streets, he noticed a distant sound of tools, the sound of a pick on stone. He looked up, already knowing what it was. Since Hashirama's inauguration, one of his own clansmen, the sculptor, had been hard at work carving the Hokage's face into the cliff that enclosed Konoha. In time, they would surround the entire village, the faces of their protectors watching over them.

It made him sick.

However, it looked as though his luck was turning for the better when on a mission, he stumbled upon the Nine Tails sleeping in a cave. The moment he entered, it woke up, backing away towards the rear of the cave with its hackles raised. The Kyuubi knew it held a power many sought and had no desire to ever be tamed by the likes of humans.

Madara looked the demon in the eye directly, refusing to back down. He reached out a hand…and knelt. "D'aww, you're just the cutest!" he scratched the Kyuubi behind the ears. The feared demon was no bigger than a large cat and stared up at him with wide, frightened red eyes. "You're just a tiny wittle baby! Who's a cute Kyuubi? Who's an adorable wittle Kyuubi!"

Kurama would've loved to have bitten his hand, but dear Kami, scratches behind his ears were his weakness. When Madara moved his hand down to scratch his chest, he completely gave in and rolled on his back, all but purring when his stomach was rubbed.

With its submission, Madara activated the Sharingan and implanted a command for obedience. Scooping up the fox, he took it with him, smiling a malicious smile as he continued to pet it. Konoha was about to have a very big surprise…

However, while his plan had seemed foolproof at the time, leave it to Hashirama to bring him back to reality. The two faced off against each other, Hashirama surfing a wave of trees and earth, and Madara riding the Nine Tails. After all our battles, how does he still fail to not remember that fire burns wood? He shook his head in amusement. Out loud to his rival he said, "I have a new technique, one that will wipe you, at long last, into oblivion!"

Atop Kurama, he put his fingers together and called out deeply, "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Loud Singing Jutsu!"

The fight took place in what would later be called the Valley of the End. As the attack was shouted, Hashirama peered around him, an eyebrow raised as Madara's booming voice continued to echo "Jutsu!...Jutsu!...jutsu…" off the canyon walls. The attack itself was rather flashy, a trail of flames that swirled and slithered much like a dragon…but where his wood would've indeed been incinerated, his Earth style easily quenched the flames, leaving Madara staring at him, dumbfounded.

"I put my best dramatic voice behind that, that should've ended you!" He shouted, utterly stunned.

"…Never knew that was a requirement," Hashirama scratched his cheek sheepishly. "If so, then how about this…Sage Art Wood Style: True Several Thousand Hands Sealing Jutsu!"

From the ground rose a monument that dwarfed even a transformed Nine Tails, a pillar of hardened wood carved out with a Buddha-like figure in the center which was encircled by several thousand hands. "Give it up, Madara!" he shouted, his voice now equally deep and theatric. "You don't stand a ghost of a chance!"

Madara stared at him from atop Kyuubi and groaned, even this noise resounding in the following quiet. "I hate you so much."

"What? I thought it was a good one!" Hashirama defended himself. "Either way, this is the end, old friend. Any last words?"

"Please kill me before I have to hear another cliché," Madara begged, not putting up any resistance. There was no way he could escape the range of the sealing jutsu.

Hashirama nodded in understanding. "I honestly looked up to you, you know. I'm going to miss you. Goodbye, and…I love you."

"Don't go there," Madara winced.

"Brotherly love, dumbass!" Hashirama swore for perhaps the first time. He brought his hands together, finishing the technique. Each face on the monument began to glow and a thousand rays of light lit up the night sky. Madara…was no more (or so he thought). However, a seal had been formed under the fox demon, allowing him to subdue it. The massive demon shrunk back down, giving a sad mewl at the loss of its powers.

Hashirama came forth and picked it up, stroking its ears much the same way Madara had done. "I'm sorry, little guy. This isn't your fault. You're just unfortunately caught in the middle. However, I think I have somewhere in mind for you where you'll be safe."

The next day, he gifted the Nine Tails to the Uzumaki clan.

~.~.~

"And that, Sasuke, is the story of the founding of our village," Minato said, beaming happily. There was something beautiful about passing on one's history and knowledge to the next generation.

Instead, Sasuke said, "For that last fight, nobody was there. How would you know the specifics of what happened?"

"Easy, I have one third of Kurama," he supplied, putting a hand on his stomach. "Isn't what I said correct, Kurama?"

Leave me out of this, human, Kurama responded.

"Kurama says yes," Minato relayed.

Sasuke rolled that around for a moment. "It's been split into thirds? Why?"

Minato sighed, looking out the window and down on the village. "The attack from sixteen years ago. We still don't know who did that. But the night Naruto was born, Kurama was again possessed. Kushina needed to retain part of the Nine Tails to continue living. I took a part so that she wouldn't have to bear so much alone. And we gave a part to Naruto because it would give him a challenge to overcome and if one of us were to have the demon stolen, it would only be a third as opposed to an entire half. This said, it makes it easier to protect each other with each of us being so close, instead of giving one part to a completely different village."

"So you're just going to hoard that power amongst yourselves, is that correct?" Sasuke asked, folding his arms and sitting back.

"The Nine Tails has been within the Land of Fire for years. Splitting a Tailed Beast into multiple parts is difficult as is, so very few other nations could even fathom doing it. Not to mention, no agreement was ever signed that said a split Tailed Beast has to be shared amongst other villages or nations. At the current time, Kurama is in our care; how we choose to divide up that power within Konoha is only our business. Sasuke…what you said sounds like something Madara would say," Minato peered over folded hands, looking worried.

The teen stood up, affronted. "So just asking a simple question automatically puts me on your watchlist? We already know the village is monitoring us. What's next, cameras in our house? Microphones in our stores? What will it take for you people to trust us?!"

"I didn't mean…" Minato faltered.

"It doesn't matter. I think it's best I leave before I do something that causes my clan to be ousted completely." He exited the office, slamming the door. The painting of the alliance of the Uchiha and the Senju trembled violently, but kept its hold, continuing to overlook the office as it had for years.

You really screwed the pooch on that one, didn't you? Kurama chortled.

"Meh, teenagers. Give it a week, he'll be fine." Minato stretched, giving a big yawn. "Let's go out for some fresh air! I'm tired of being cooped up in here."

You have a meeting at one, a conference call with the other Kage at three and over a hundred important notifications to read, sign and send back out. Oh, and…the half of me that's in Kushina told me to tell you that she wants you to bring home a loaf of garlic bread for dinner. And to pick up her dress from the dry cleaners.

"Yes, ma'am," Minato whimpered, slumping in his seat as his fun was quickly spoiled.


Madara's English voice actor from the Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 game made me fall in love with the character and I knew I had to have a chapter dedicated to him :)

I also wrote this chapter without internet access initially, though before posting, I was able to take a look at the Naruto Wikia (my savior for all my Naruto stories recently). Imagine my surprise that while I knew Hashirama gave Kurama to the Uzumaki, I didn't know his wife, from the same clan, became the jinchuriki! She then gave Kurama over to Naruto's mother. So…Naruto is distantly related to the Senju, and to a very small extent, Tsunade. I don't think I'll use that info for this story but maybe it'll prove useful sometime in the future.