The riverbed was beautiful. The birds were chirping and the river silently flowed downstream. The wind blew from the west and the sun shines down upon the riverbed as if a god itself was enjoying the beauty.
It was the first time he had ever seen the place, but it was already by far the most beautiful thing he had since. Then, there was that girl sitting by the riverside, playing the ocarina.
He found himself attracted to the tune, its melodic yet ethereal tone wafting through the forest. When he came back to reality, he was standing next to her. She was sitting on a wool blanket, it's red shining through like blood. She wore a light green dress that went to her knees, much like the foliage surrounding them. She wasn't much older than him, maybe about a year or so. Her purple hair was in a low ponytail, and a red bandana covered her eyes. On the bandana was an upside-down triangle with an owl on top.
"Did you like the tune?" The girl asked. The boy blushed because she said it in a teasing sort of way.
"N-no." The boy lied. The girl covered her mouth and giggled like girls would in high society.
By the way, she was dressed, it was obvious to see she was rich, but if so, the boy would
think she would have guards. Looking around, he didn't sense anybody but a single person, but they were too far away from this girl. That meant this girl was important and powerful to be trusted to be left alone.
Or she ran away, but Madara had a hard time believing a person with a blindfold could run this far.
She began playing again, a happy and jaunty tune that would be played in festivals. The water rippled as if it was dancing to the music itself.
The boy was watching the river as it spiraled around rocks, plants, and several different animals sitting in the water. He was thinking about his family's predicament.
He was Madara Uchiha, heir to the Uchiha Clan. His sworn enemies, the Senju Clan, had just killed his mother, and he needed to think about what this would mean.
His father would train him, but had no connection to him, merely a person to Madara now. With his mother dead, the only thing Madara cared for was his brother, Izuna, and the Clan, in that order.
"What has you so wound up?" The girl asked. Madara raised an eyebrow, making the girl stop for a second and giggle. "I'm a sensor type, and emotions are one of the things I can sense."
Madara was surprised. "So you're a shinobi?"
She hummed and made a so-so sign. "Shinobi are sculpted to kill. I may be able to use chakra, but I wasn't sculpted to kill, therefore, I am not a shinobi."
Madara hummed and nodded. "I see, that makes sense." He stopped. "Are you blind?"
The girl busted out laughing, causing Madara to blush red. "I'm sorry, shinobi-san, I didn't mean to annoy you, but I am blind. That, however, doesn't mean I am weak, for I use that weakness of mine as a strength."
Madara frowned again. "How so?"
The girl smiled and made two one-handed hand seals, causing a small part of river water to turn into a ball. "Let's take this water ball. If I use a Lightning Release Jutsu on this water, it can destabilize the Jutsu. However, the water could also absorb the Lightning Release Jutsu and use it against them. Same with Wind and Fire Release Jutsu."
"But what does that have to do with you being blind? I understand its importance, but-"
"If a person is blind, they only have four other senses. Therefore, those four other senses are upgraded, for they are used more." She sighed. "Sorry, tangent for another time. The thing is, peopl rely on their eyes to always be able to see things. If they only used their eyes, they would be blind to the whole battle."
Madara furrowed his brow. "So a Dojutsu user is blind?"
The girl looked surprised for a moment, but a foxy grin appeared on her face. "Maybe not
that, but certainly ignorant to a true fight." She sighed again. "I keep going off-topic. There are four transcendent taijutsu styles said to only be inherited by one in a generation, and also considered uncopyable. Those taijutsu styles are the blind fist, flowing step, drunken fist, and rage fist. From the description alone, I'm pretty sure you know where I'm going with this."
Madara furrowed his brows again. "Why do you say they are uncopyable?"
"Well, the user practically has the instincts to do these taijutsu styles built within their nervous system and reflexes, making them a technical master from birth. Plus, the taijutsu requires the user to be affected by those things. That means to be drunk, blind, raging, or in the flowing step's case, in pain." She stopped for a second. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I won't make this stuff up."
Madara averted his eyes. She was kinda cute in his opinion, but that wasn't the point. "So you have the blind fist?"
"Yeah, though it wasn't on purpose that I'm blind. I was attacked by Uchiha Clan members who burned my retinas. I would use medical ninjutsu, but that had failed when I tried, and the less fresh an injury, the more likely it won't heal. Anyways, after that, they tried to fight me but my instincts kicked in and I used the blind fist."
Madara nodded. He didn't like that his Clan would stoop as low as to attack random people, but his father had said that nothing is below a shinobi. How he hated that.
Madara sat still as the chakra he sensed earlier appeared to be close by. Madara wasn't happy that he failed to sense such a closeby signature, it would have been easy to kill him, and by extension, her. He needed to be more careful.
The person or boy Madara now saw, walked up to the river 10 feet away from him. Madara saw this and didn't pay him any mind, so he started throwing rocks. They would bounce once or twice before sinking. The girl started playing again, the tune slow yet full of suspense. In the back of Madara's mind, it was truly haunting how this girl made five notes sound so ominous.
The boy started throwing rocks with Madara. Madara slightly scowled when he saw the boy skipping more.
"Throw with your wrist," The boy said. The scowl deepened, but Madara did as said, and truth beholds, it skipped three times.
"Try and throw it parallel to the water," The boy said. Madara's right eye twitched. He hated being incorrect. Madara did as said, and the rock skipped four times, making his scowl deepen further.
"Use flatter ro-"
"Stop correcting me!" Madara yelled.
Madara was going to say something else when he saw that the boy was crouching down. "I'm sorry!" The boy said.
Madara sighed because he knew was the one at fault. The boy was merely trying to help him throw better, not looking down on him.
"No, I'm sorry," Madara said with a sigh. Yeah, he was completely at fault here.
They both noticed that it was quiet again. The music had stopped. Madara looked to where the girl was and saw she was smiling, though it wasn't the kind smile Madara had seen.
Madara finally noticed another presence. Madara cursed, for another person had snuck upon him. He needed to be more aware, damn it!
"Hey, little lady, you're cute," A man said. Her smile widened, and Madara started to sweat.
While other smiles were kind, this one had a sadistic streak running through it. Whoever this man was he hoped wasn't important, for Madara was pretty sure no one was going to see him again.
"How about you come with me?" The man said, grabbing her shoulder. "I don't think these boys are any good company."
The sadistic smile reached its peak, and the girl cracked her neck. She suddenly flipped and struck the man in the gut with her foot.
Her hand grabbed a rectangular kunai and struck the man's head up. Finally, she used her striking arm's elbow as Madara for sure turned his family jewels to dust.
Both Madara and the boy flinched at the pained scream coming from the man. Falling face-first into the dirt, the girl lifted his face to her own, and sweetly said, "You probably weren't any better company either."
She took out what Madara was pretty sure was ninja wire, and stung the man up to a tree.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, you two. By the way, my name's Kyoshi. No last name for right now."
Both boys looked at each other, and back at her. "My name is Mad-"
"Is your hair purple?" The boy asked excitedly.
Noth Madara and Kyoshi sweatdropped. This boy couldn't take a hint.
Madara cleared his throat, and said, "My name is Madara."
The boy blinked, and smiled, "My name's Hashirama! Nice to meet you both!"
And while Madara didn't know it then, this was the birth of one of the greatest friendships.
