.
.
"Grandmother. Will you tell us what it was like being a female ninja during your era?" Sakura says. The other kunoichi nod next to her.
Ino and Sakura are sitting in a circle with a few other Konoha kunoichi - Tenten had spotted Hashi sparring and ran over to watch. Hashi laughs, waving her hand.
"Please, call me 'nee-san'! 'Grandmother' makes me feel so old!"
The kunoichi gather. Hashi looks around, seeing a group of eager young faces. Some are weapons users. Others are skilled in the medical arts and still others yet have specialized in certain jutsus. Hashi's chest swells with pride as she looks at all of them.
"You know, back in my time, women weren't allowed to fight." Hashi doodles with a stick in the dirt, drawing a little stick figure woman. She adds long hair and long robes, showing them. "If you were born in a shinobi clan, you were schooled in honey traps. Seductive arts. Poisons. Men of my time used their bodies as a weapon, whereas female nin relied on what was between their legs."
She draws another stick figure, this time with curves like two mirrors of an "S", and she draws a male stick figure lying dead beneath her. "But even so, female nin were rare. Most of us were married off, or bartered for treaties or political unions."
"How did you keep from getting married, Hashi-san?"
Hashi laughs. "I was deemed unmarriageable!"
At the edge of the courtyard, Madara watches. He sees the circle of kunoichi gathering around Hashirama, talking and asking her questions excitedly.
"Who wants to spar?" Hashi says, and Madara sees how all the kunoichi jump up, raising their hands eagerly. Hashi laughs and motions for one of them to take a stance. She's always been like this - teaching the young ones, she is squarely in her element.
More laughter. Hashi claps her hands, and in a puff of smoke transforms into her male form, a towering, masculine Hashirama, whose head is thrown back in a laugh. The other kunoichi giggle, and Madara watches as one by one they clap their hands and try performing their own Sexy no Jutsus.
She doesn't need to transform to fill up the spaces of a room. Madara has seen first hand how Hashi flattens everything with her presence.
"You know, maybe you should get together with the other Uchiha survivors," Hashi says later, when they're left alone in the courtyard. "Maybe someday you can build back up your clan."
Madara frowns. "You make it sound like we're an endangered species that needs to breed."
"I mean no offense." Hashi tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "If only my jutsu could span a wider area. I regret that I wasn't able to resurrect everybody."
"That is something I've been meaning to ask." Madara's eyes slide upward. "I was under the impression that only someone wielding the Rinnegan could perform the Rinne Tensei, and even then only at the cost of their own life. And yet you managed to bring everyone back within your immediate vicinity. How were you able to do that?"
Hashi shrugs. "You don't need the Sharingan to cast genjutsu, nor do katons need an affinity for fire. The eye techniques make it easier, but it can still be done. I create life every time I use the Mokuton. Casting that jutsu felt the same to me as quickly growing a forest of trees."
Madara is quiet. Hashi lifts her face toward a patch of sun, and Madara is struck at how such raw power resides in such a small and unassuming woman.
"Did you learn seduction techniques?" Madara asks. Hashi turns her head. "I overheard your discussion earlier. Were you similarly trained?"
Hashi laughs. "Can you see me seducing anyone?" she says.
"I take that as a 'no,' then."
Hashi laughs again, and Madara watches as her fingertips graze against her skin as she brushes a lock of hair back behind her ear.