A few days later Hashirama returned to the river. He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt disappointed when he found that it was empty upon his arrival. Sitting down he watched the river flow as he thought about his argument with his father the previous day.

After his meeting with Madara, Hashirama returned to his home only to be met with bad news. His younger brother Kawarama had died in battle at the age of seven. He wasn't the only one though, it appeared that the Senju clan had suffered many casualties from their recent battle.

"You should be thankful that a part of the body was even retrieved! This time the enemy wasn't only the Hagoromo clan, but the Uchiha too. They're ruthless," his father scolded his younger brother Itama for crying. They were all standing together as they watched Kawarama being laid to rest.

Hashirama couldn't help but think how ironic and idiotic the logic of his father was. How he could believe that war could put an end to more warfare. Peace could never be obtained through the total annulation of others.

It angered Hashirama that men like his father would never think twice about sending a child out into the battlefield. That his father justified his actions by saying that Kawarama was a shinobi and not a child, and that by turning children into "worthy shinobi" was the same as loving them.

To Hashirama there was no sense in having to die to become a shinobi worthy of recognition. He was young, but even as a child Hashirama knew that killing only to be killed without knowing where all the fighting stemmed from was insane. The world that he lived in was wrong, and he wished more than anything that there could be a way to change that.

"Adults are stupid," Tobirama concluded after Hashirama had raised the subject with him. "If they really wanted the fights to stop they should make an agreement with their enemy."

The Warring States Period they all lived in, was an era of continuous warfare between various countries and shinobi clans. Counties would enlist clans to fight for them in the effort to obtain territory and wealth. Out of the chaos and blood shed through these wars, animosity between clans was born and suddenly it wasn't just a battle anymore but vengeance in the name of their lost clansmen.

"But what about all your relatives who got killed?" Itama asked him.

"You'll die too if you keep talking like that," Tobirama told his brother. "You and the adults get too fired up about it. Shinobi should just repress their feeling, create rules, abide by them and avoid useless fighting." Even though he was the second oldest, Tobirama was always the smartest out of all his brothers. Being the much calmer one, he was able to stop and analyze a situation clearly without hesitation.

"I wonder if it's possible to make a real agreement and an alliance," Hashirama thought out loud.

Both his brothers looked shocked. It was one thing to wish for such a thing, but neither one of the thought it ever possible to imagine coming true.

A few weeks later Hashirama once again found himself sitting alone by the river. His family had just finished burying Itama's body, and Hashirama felt like he needed time to morn by himself. He kept replying the conversation he had shared with Itama and Tobirama not long ago. Tobirama had warned him about what would get him killed, and had as usual been right.

After about an hour or so he felt a presence behind him. Somehow, he knew who it was before she had ever spoken aloud.

"Hey, I haven't seen you for a while…um," she trailed off.

"Hashirama," he finished for her. Hashirama didn't turn around to look at Madara, he just continued to watch the river flow.

Madara couldn't help but notice a change in the usual perky attitude of the young boy. "What? Don't tell me you're already depressed," she teased him good naturally.

When the silence continued she pressed him, "Did something happen?"

"I'd like to ask you… I'm fine!" Hashirama ended up insisting.

Madara looked at him skeptically. "Liar," she accused him. "You can talk about it if you want to."

Hashirama started to sniffle. "It's nothing," he insisted.

"Its ok, just say it."

"No, really…it's nothing." By now his sniffles were bordering sobs.

Madara could only roll her eyes. "You're dragging this out too much," she chided him much like a mother. "I told you that you can tell me what's wrong."

"But it's true, really. It's noth-" he began.

"Just spit it out already!" As soon as she saw his tears, Madara could no longer take any of his stalling. Why it was taking him so long to open up when he was obviously upset Madara couldn't understand.

"My younger brother died…"

Madara said nothing and only waited for him to continue speaking.

Wiping away his tears he confessed to her, "The reason I came here, is that by looking at the river I feel like these vague feeling are carried away by the water. Your name is Madara right? I thought it might be the same for you too. Do you have any siblings?"

"I have four brothers," she said walking closer to him. "At least, I had them. I only have one left, my younger brother." She picked up a stone and stood up towards the water. "As shinobi, we live with the understanding that we may die at any time."

"So it's true then?" he asked her. "You are a shinobi." It was extremely rare for females to be shinobi. While it had partly to do with sexism, the much bigger issue and the reality they lived in was the continuous low number of life expectancy. With the average life span of a shinobi being thirty, clans had to either keep reproducing or die out.

Nodding, she threw a stone across the water. While it made it more than halfway across, it sank before it almost got there. Hashirama could tell she had been practicing.

"The only way not to die," she told him picking up another stone, "Is to show what you really think to your enemy, without hiding anything and become allies with them."

Hashirama stared at her in shock.

"But that's impossible, because you can never really know what a person thinks and feels deep inside their hearts." She threw another rock across the water, and it finally made it to the other side. "You don't know if they're secretly seething inside, plotting against you."

"Is it really impossible to show each other what we think?" Hashirama didn't want to believe that his dream was unobtainable.

"I don't know," Madara admitted. "But I always come here in the hope that a way exists."

It was then by the river, that Hashirama knew it had not been an accident that they had met each other. That this girl, no matter how unorthodox, being a shinobi like him wasn't a coincidence. They shared a dream, and for the first time he hoped that maybe they could find an answer in each other.

Turning to him smiling she told Hashirama, "You know, I can understand you without even looking inside you."

"What?" Hashirama's mind went suddenly blank at the possibility of what she meant.

Teasingly Madara told him, "Look at your hairstyle and clothes, you're a dork."

Hashirama put his head down, depression overtaking him as he couldn't help but feel a little offended by that.