.

.

Night fell over the wasteland of the valley, and the Uchiha huddled into themselves, a clan of fire-breathers unused to a cold that seemed to soak through the thick linen tents and heavy plates of armor. Morale was low, and thanks to the Senju, their numbers were all but decimated.

They were gathering the dead. Slowly they stacked the bodies into a makeshift funeral pyre, the survivors shivering as they tried to muster enough chakra to perform their fire jutsu.

Twenty breaths, and the pyre was alight. The survivors stood vigil watching, the orange fire reflecting in the red pools of their eyes.

They burned their dead so no one could steal their eyes. It was a grim practice - shinobi clans raided battlefields and targeted their women and children, harvesting their eyes in hopes of capturing their Sharingan. Even among the Uchiha themselves, transplanting eyes was a taboo practice. It was not to be done except in the most desperate of circumstances.

"Did you hear? Madara and Izuna both awakened the Mangekyou."

The shinobi sat around the fire, raising their heads. Only a handful of Uchiha were powerful enough to awaken the Mangekyou, and all of them lost the light in their eyes. There were legends of an Eternal Mangekyou, which could only be attained by stealing another Mangekyou user's eyes, but the whole thing of it just seemed ghoulish.

One of the Uchiha poked a stick in the fire. "Legend has it, you can only awaken the Mangekyou if you kill someone you love. Who did Madara and Izuna kill?"

"No one, dummy. They attained it after losing their brothers."

"Do you think they will fight each other to see who will become leader?"

"I doubt it. Izuna loves too much his older brother."

The current Uchiha leader had fallen ill, and several among the ranks jostled to prove themselves the strongest. None of them held a candle to Madara and Izuna, who were hostile and ambitious and in terms of raw power were leagues above the ninjutsu of the rest of the Uchiha clan.

It was a given that Uchiha Madara would be the one to assume the mantle.

xXx

.

They spoke in hushed whispers about the Senju leader.

"I heard him speak, once. His voice hasn't even broken," the Uchiha said.

"I heard he is younger than Senju Tobirama, his brother. I heard he's only leader because he awoke the Mokuton."

"I heard he was friends with Uchiha Madara," another Uchiha said, and everyone scoffed at that, because while few people saw Senju Hashirama themselves, the ones who engaged him and lived to tell the tale always described him as a ferocious but young boy, just barely on the cusp of manhood. Madara was already a man.

xXx

.

The sky was overcast, and the battleground was littered with dead or dying Uchiha shinobi. The survivors were surrounded by Senju warriors, certain they too would meet their deaths.

The Uchiha captain saw it before even Madara did: how Senju Tobirama distracted Izuna with his kunai, before flash-stepping forward and slicing him with his sword.

"Izuna!" Madara threw down his weapons and ran toward him.

There was a sound, and the captain whirled around to see Senju Hashirama had leapt toward them.

"Madara," Hashirama said, and the Uchiha captain was surprised at how young he sounded. "You cannot defeat me."

Madara gritted his teeth. The Uchiha captain's eyes widened. Their leader was just a boy, a child whose voice hadn't yet changed. Behind him, Madara's grip on Izuna tightened.

"Why don't we end this?" Hashirama said. "If the two strongest shinobi clans, the Uchiha and the Senju, form an alliance, nations will not be able to find other clans that could stand against us. The conflict will eventually start to lessen. Come on," he said, and he held out his hand. "Join me."

The captain could see it. The hesitation in Madara's eyes.

xXx

.

The night of Uchiha Izuna's death, Uchiha shinobi stood vigil outside his tent. It was eerily quiet, and other than the flickering torchlight, there was no movement.

"We will prepare the funeral pyre for his body," an Uchiha lieutenant said, and his foot soldiers nodded, grimly.

An Uchiha sentry peered into the tent. He saw the orange glow of candles and animal pelts, the small basin of water by Izuna's bed.

Uchiha Madara was kneeling with his back toward him. The Uchiha sentry could see him clasping his brother's hand.

"Madara-sama?" the sentry said, and Uchiha Madara turned.

Blood. It was the first thing the sentry saw; blood saturated the cloth covering Izuna's face, two dark splotches slowly spreading in the cloth. In the basin, there were two round globes of Izuna's Sharingan, translucent like jelly bobbing obscenely in the water, and it was then the sentry realized Uchiha Madara had desecrated his own brother's body.

Madara smiled slowly, his Mangekyou spinning. Blood trickled down his eyes like tears.

No one can describe the horror the Uchiha felt when Madara emerged, wearing his brother's eyes. They stared at him in disbelief as he told everyone he had attained the Eternal Mangekyou. "In this way, we will get revenge," Madara said. He gripped his battle fan. "In this way, we will avenge our fallen brothers and our clan."

The Uchiha glanced among each other, uneasily. Soon, people were whispering that Uchiha Madara had gone mad.

xXx

.

The Uchiha defected. One by one, they slipped away from the Uchiha camp, surrendering themselves to Hashirama and her men. Heads bowed, their sharingan deactivated, they prostrated themselves on the ground and begged for her to spare them.

The Senju accepted them. The Uchiha defectors were surprised - though some lower-ranked Senju eyed them with suspicion and thinly veiled contempt, their leader openly welcomed them. "We accept all refugees, civilian or shinobi, who seek the Senju's protection and want for peace." The Senju leader stood, standing with his back facing the cliffsides, and the Uchiha glanced at each other.

Senju Hashirama sounded young. He was short-statured and his voice hadn't yet broken.

The rumors were true: the Senju leader was barely on the cusp of manhood. It was no wonder why he was so hellbent on peace. He was filled with the boundless optimism of youth.

xXx

.

The former Uchiha captain was fixing his tent, speaking amiably with his men and stabling his horses, when a few Senju guards approached him.

"You were a captain of the Uchiha clan, correct?"

"I was," the captain said. The Senju nod at him.

"Senju Hashirama would like a word."

The captain dusted off his hands and followed them, walking through the line of tents and the scattered shinobi working next to them.

"Hashirama-sama." The Senju guard pushed open the flap of the tent. "The Uchiha captain is here to see you."

"Send him in," the young boy said, and as the captain stepped inside his eyes widened.

Long, black hair fell in loping tresses along the graceful curve of a woman's neck, while a cream-colored haori draped gracefully over a simple green kimono.

"You're a woman." The captain stared, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, as Senju Hashirama smiled at him, resting on her knees and offering him tea.

"I am indeed," she said. She poured him a cup, moving on her knees to pass it to him. "My brother was supposed to lead, but given my Mokuton, he decided I should lead instead." She spoke demurely, her eyes lowered, serving an Uchiha traitor tea as if she were a lower station. It was natural for her to - she was a woman.

"Lady Senju, I must apologize. All this time we thought you were a young boy."

"A common misconception," she said, smiling, and the captain could see how her eyes were fringed with dark lashes. He lowered his eyes and shifted on his knees.

"I can understand now why you've accepted us," the captain said. "You lead with a woman's grace. I doubt any man in your position of power would be half as kind."

"I have no desire to subjugate you. We are home to anyone who seeks shelter."

"Thank you, Lady Senju," the Uchiha captain said. She smiled. Bowing her head, she pushed back few strands of dark hair behind her ear, the tips of her small fingers brushing against her temple. Her features were small and birdlike, almost delicate, and her dark eyes were warm like the shadow of trees.

"There is a reason why I asked to meet with you." Her eyes flicked upward. "We've gotten word from our allies to the North that the nobles of the Wind Country have plans to invade. They hired the Uchiha to be their proxy army."

The Uchiha captain sucked in his breath. The Senju leader smiled.

"Please be assured, no one expects you to fight your kinsmen. All I ask is that you stay behind and protect the civilians."

"Of course," the Uchiha captain said. How odd - any other leader would force the defected to fight for them, a way of demoralizing their enemies and providing easy cannon fodder.

"Lady Senju," he said, as the Senju leader started to rise, "May I ask a question?"

"Of course," she said. The Uchiha captain hesitated.

"Why are you helping us?" he asked. She lowered her eyes.

"I too have people precious to me on the other side."

xXx

.

There was a brief but shaky alliance, Uchiha Madara and the Senju woman shaking hands while the men of both clans silently watched them.

The treaty didn't last. the Uchiha elders grew more and more alarmed as Madara ranted and stormed angrily through the compound, insisting the Uchiha were being mistreated.

"Come with me," he said to the elders. "They will only harm us. The Uchiha are in danger. We have no choice but to leave." The elders' eyes narrowed.

"The only one who needs to leave is you, Uchiha Madara."

He left. And then, one day, he attacked them.

xXx

.

Word got out that in order to ensure the safety of their village, the Hokage negotiated with Madara and reluctantly agreed to enter a political marriage.

"It is to be expected." The council spoke in hushed whispers, watching with worried eyes as their Hokage solemnly gave them her decision. She would not ally with the Uzumaki clan, as was promised. She would sacrifice herself to tame him.

"He promised to cease all hostilities if they engaged in a political marriage." The Uchiha whispered. Senju Hashirama bowed her head, then gravely intoned that she would no longer be Hokage, she would pass along the title to her brother.

xXx

.

They had always viewed Madara with increasing suspicion. He was arrogant and power-hungry, and he was a threat to the village. Rumors about him stealing his brother's eyes gave way to the hushed whispers that, "I was there at the morning of their wedding ceremony," how Madara looked on, his face a stony mask, while Hashirama bowed her head, moving stiffly and not speaking. The witnesses swore her face was ashen and pale.

xXx

.

The rumors grew when they found out she was pregnant.

Rumor had it that he raped her at the Valley of the End.

xXx

.

Silently, they admired how Senju Hashirama made the best of her situation.

She smiled. She walked beside him and tried to curry favor with him, which Madara ignored with stony indifference. The only thing she was good for was access to her leadership, but since she had abdicated, the marriage was wasted.

"Child," an Uchiha elder said, touching Senju Hashirama gently on her arm. "There is no need to pretend. We all know what you sacrificed in marrying him."

Hashirama's eyes widened. "What? No! It wasn't a sacrifice, elder. I love him," and the elders looked on at her sadly, at the lies she had to tell herself to stay with him.

"What will you do with her?" the elders demanded. Uchiha Madara arrogantly lifted his head.

"What I do with that woman is none of your concern."