On days where his father wasn't around and his brothers were busy, Hashirama liked to wander the woods. His father seeing the potential in him seemed to take a special interest in Hashirama's training. That being said, he was barely left with a moment to himself. Knowing the peace wouldn't last for very long he liked to sneak away in order to have time to himself. On this particular occasion, Hashirama decided to go to the river.

When he reached the river however, it was to find that someone was already there.

On the river bank sat a young girl skipping stones who looked to be around the same age as Hashirama. She had long black hair messy hair, and pale skin. Something about her seemed to stir in Hashirama's memory, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before. He didn't know any girls except the ones belonging to his clan.

When she began to hum, Hashirama felt his heart stop as a long forgotten memory rose to the surface of his mind. Here in front of him was the girl he had heard singing in the forest oh so many years ago he could no longer remember. She even seemed to be wearing a similar kimono to the one she had worn before. Since he had only seen her that one time, Hashirama remembers questioning if he had ever seen her at all.

As she threw a rock into the water she cursed when it sank half way there. Hashirama chuckled inwardly at how frustrated she seemed by her failure.

"I'll get it across for sure next time," she said with a determined look on her face.

While tossing another stone in the air mentally preparing for her next attempt, her expression turned into a deep frown as she saw another stone being skipped across the water. Unlike her's, this one made it to the other side.

Turing around she saw that she was no longer alone. Standing before her was a young boy around the same age as herself. He had tan skin and a bowl shaped hair cut with brown hair. She had never seen anyone dressed as eccentrically as him.

"You should aim a little higher when you throw. That's how you get the hang of it," he told her in a friendly voice smiling at her.

Though he did not believe it possible her frown actually grew more pronounced. What Hashirama didn't know was that this had less to do with him, but more from embarrassment with the fact that she was being corrected for her mistake.

"I know that," she told Hashirama in a snooty tone. "If I really want to, I'll get it across."

There was an awkward silence where Hashirama continued to stare at her with the same smile on his face. In order to keep from fidgeting under his gaze she asked him, "So anyway, who are you?"

Grinning he told her, "Currently we could say that I'm your rival in playing stone skipping, though mine got to the other side."

An annoyed expression crossed her face. "I asked you who you are! Meaning your name."

"My name is Hashirama, I can't tell you my surname." His smile slightly fell when he added the last part.

"Hashirama, huh? My name is Madara," she told him as she stood up. "I can't tell you my surname," she repeated back to him a little spitefully. Without looking as though she was following his advice Madara told Hashirama confidently, "Look, I'll get it this time."

When she threw the stone across the river Hashirama couldn't help but tense up. The way she had thrown it made it seem as though she had experience handling shurken. Hashirama dismissed the thought as soon as it presented itself. After all Madara was only a girl, and it was extremely rare to see a female shinobi in their day in age.

While making it farther than her last attempt, the stone plopped into the water with a loud splotch. Hashirama really could not believe how bad she was.

Suddenly she turned on him, and with fury he never thought possible, Madara started to scream at him. "JERK! You stood too close behind me on purpose to distract me didn't you? You were trying to make me nervous so I would mess up!" she berated a terrified Hashirama.

"I'm sorry," he told her with his head down. Madara was dumb struck, her anger completely evaporated. Never in her life had she seen someone's mood change so quickly, or look so depressed.

"Um, you don't have to get all depressed over it," Madara tried to comfort him now starting to feel bad for her sudden outburst. "I'm sorry, it was just an excuse…"

"I didn't realize…that you had such annoying subjective symptoms," Hashirama replied still hugging his legs with his head down.

And with that all of Madara's guilt over yelling at Hashirama had disappeared as fast as it had come. "I can't tell if I like you or not, jerk!" Madara told him angrily.

Hashirama only burst out laughing. "Yeah, but you can tell that I'm better than you at skipping stones!"

"Next time I'll use you instead of the stone!"

"I'm sorry." Once again Hashirama was back to his original depressed state. "I didn't mean to make you angry…I'm ready to be thrown into the river to repent for what I've done."

Madara didn't know what to make of Hashirama. She had grown up with four brothers, but never had she met anyone like Hashirama. "Do you realize that you're annoying too?"

A sly smile crossed his face, "I just hope…that I make it to the other side."

Madara was now beside herself with anger. "I can't stand you, go away!"

Offended Hashirama turned away from her. "Well then," he told her getting ready to leave.

Thinking she had really hurt his feeling this time Madara called after him, "No, wait!" She suddenly felt she didn't want him to leave.

Hashirama felt like he was getting whiplash from her constant mood swings. "Should I go or not?" he asked her. "Could you please make it clearer?"

Madara was about to answer when something caught both of their attention. The two turned to see a body floating in the river.

"What's that?" Madara asked, but Hashirama didn't answer her. Instead he took off running on the water towards.

Shocked she asked, "Are you a shinobi?" Though the answer was pretty obvious and did not really require an answered. Madara would not have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. This dorky boy was a shinobi.

Sighing he said, "Go home. The war will reach this place soon."

"You know not revealing your name to a stranger, is one of the shinobi rules." Madara's face held a secret kind of smile as she told him this.

Hashirama stopped and turned to stare at her, wondering if she just reveal herself to him without actually doing so.

He never got the chance to ask, as she choose then to walk away. "See you around then," she said to him as he stared after her.

Girls are weird, was all that Hashirama could think as he headed home.