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Twin Paths

Chapter2: Hashirama and Madara

April 1892
Hi no Kuni: Forest
River

Love and Hatred...Anger and Joy...Light and Dark...Good and Evil...to her they were just words. Something that was spoken about in passing yet didn't really mean anything, not to someone like her, a kunoichi. She had spent her admittedly short life training and today was the first time that she was allowed to venture outside of Uzu no Kuni. The era she lived in was brutal where only the strongest survived and lived to see the next sunrise.

Thankfully her clan lived on an island nation off the coast of Hi no Kuni which her people called Uzu no Kuni, a fitting name since their clan was called Uzumaki. Her name was Uzumaki Mito, daughter of Uzumaki Ashina and the heiress of the entire Uzumaki clan. Four hundred years ago a man named Senju Arashi broke away from the Senju clan after he had developed a seal he called Jigenwareme which took him outside the Shinobi World and returned several years later with his wife, a young witch named Uzumaki Yukari. Together they founded the Uzumaki clan in what would later become known as Uzu no Kuni and created the whirlpools that now surrounded it using powerful Fūinjutsu that they had developed.

Since then the Uzumaki clan had been trying to get the Senju and Uchiha clans to sit down and talk. It was their hope that if they could just get the two clans to talk with each other, then they might be able to come to some agreement, maybe even peace. But it never happened despite the best efforts of the Uzumaki clan over the last two hundred years, though that didn't stop them from trying to get the two clans to talk. Hell, there had been a couple of times where either the Senju or Uchiha had taken exception to the Uzumaki's interference and tried to dispose of them. Right now Mito's father was meeting with the current head of the Senju clan while she had wandered off into the woods and found herself at a river. A boy with black hair was standing at its edge and skipping stones across it, or trying to at least.

"Next time I'll definitely send it to the other side," the black-haired youth grumbled as he looked at the river.

A single stone bounced across it several times before hitting the other side of the river a second later…

"You should aim a little higher when you throw," a voice spoke up from behind him with his hand still outstretched. "That's how you get the knack of it."

Who was this guy?

"…I know that," the first boy finally said. "If I really want it, I'll throw all the way to the other side. Anyway, who are you?"

"…We could say I'm your rival at playing stone skipping," the newcomer shrugged with a grin. "Mine got to the other side, though."

"I asked you, who you are?" the first boy demanded with a glare.

"My name is Hashirama," the other boy answered.

"Hashirama eh? Watch this, this time I'll make it," the first boy smirked and threw the stone.

It skipped three times before falling into the water…

'That was pathetic,' Mito thought from above. 'Though judging by the way he threw the stone, he clearly has some experience in using shuriken.'

"Bastard! You stood behind me on purpose to distract me, didn't you?! I'm sensitive, I can't even pee if someone's standing behind me!" the first boy shouted over his shoulder shocking Hashirama.

"I'm sorry," Hashirama apologized as he fell to his knees looking like his life was over.

'What in the Sage's name did I just watch?' Mito blinked in confusion. 'These two are both idiots.'

"Er…do you have to get that depressed…s-sorry…it was just an excuse," the first boy said as he looked down at Hashirama unsure what else to say.

"I didn't know that you had just annoying subjective symptoms," Hashirama sighed seemingly at the end of his rope.

"I can't understand if you're a good or bad guy, you jerk!" the first boy snarled angrily at him.

"But you understand that I'm better than you at stone skipping," Hashirama laughed as he jumped back to his feet.

"Next time I'll use you instead of the stone!" the first boy yelled as he pointed at him.

She had enough of this nonsense…

"For the love of the Sage, both of you shut up!" Mito shouted from the tree above them. "You're giving me a headache, dattebane!"

The two boys looked up at the sound of her voice and took a step back in surprise, clearly not having sensed her at all. She sighed at that and dropped down in front of them, straightening out her clothes after she landed on her feet. Huffing slightly, she walked forward and picked up a small stone off of the ground before stepping up the edge of the river. With one single motion she threw the stone at the water, skipping it several times before it reached the other side and kept going until it hit a tree.

"And that's how you do it, dattebane," Mito said with a wide smile on her face.

"Who are you?" the first boy questioned with a softer look than he did with Hashirama.

"My name is Mito," the redhead bowed slightly. "What's yours?"

"…Madara," the first boy finally answered.

"What's that?" Hashirama suddenly spoke up and dashed out onto the river.

Mito and Madara looked over at where he was going only to find him standing on the water. In front of him was a body flouting in the water, face down and unmoving. Looking him over, he saw a clan symbol on the man's armoured shoulder, the symbol of the Hagoromo clan. Mito saw it too and narrowed her eyes knowing that the Hagoromo clan was allied with the Uchiha clan, known rivals of the Senju clan.

"Are you a shinobi?" Madara asked the other boy dumbstruck.

"…The war is going to reach this place soon," Hashirama gritted out as he crouched over the man. "I have to go," he said as he jumped over to the other side of the river.

"Not revealing your surname to a stranger is one of the shinobi rules," Madara mused as he looked between the two of them.

"As I thought," Hashirama nodded back. "You're a shinobi too."

"And you?" Madara asked turning to the lone girl. "Judging by the way you threw that stone earlier, I take it you're a kunoichi."

"That's right," Mito smiled back as she turned away. "See you around, Hashirama, Madara."

With that she jumped back up into the trees and disappeared into the woods. So they were shinobi from other clans huh? The thought intrigued Mito whom had never met any before, especially outside of the battlefield. She'd been on missions before for her clan and had even killed before but those were brief skirmishes with wandering ninja that tried to attack the Uzumaki clan village in Uzu no Kuni. No clan had been willing to dedicate a force big enough to attack Uzu no Kuni outright and kill everyone so she hadn't actually faced one before either. Still, judging by the way things were on the mainland, the average life expectancy being thirty at the most, she was glad that she'd never had to live here like those two boys did.

She arrived at the Senju clan village and quickly made her way towards the central building where her father was just leaving. Though it was more like he was storming out judging by the damn near murderous look on his face and the utter rage in his eyes. She didn't know what had upset him but since she knew that he was meeting with the Senju clan leader Butsuma, something had evidently happened which greatly angered her father.

"That arrogant fool," Uzumaki Ashina hissed in barely contained anger. "I know that he lost his son today but if this keeps going on, nothing will change."

"Father?" Mito inquired confused. "I take it that the meeting didn't go well?"

"Indeed," Ashina nodded in reply. "Come, we're leaving."

"Leaving?" Mito asked further.

"We're going to go and see the Uchiha," Ashina answered simply. "I'm through trying to get Butsuma to listen and try for a peaceful solution. He doesn't want peace; he only wants revenge against the Uchiha clan. Hopefully we'll have better luck trying to get Tajima to agree to peace talks. Let's just go, we're done here."

"…Yes father."

After leaving the Senju clan the village, Ashina and Mito headed for the Uchiha clan's own village. When they arrived the Uchiha clansmen standing guard checked them over and Ashina went onto meet with Uchiha Tajima, the current head of the Uchiha clan. Meanwhile Mito had wandered off again and headed back to the river where she found a lone boy sitting at its edge. It was Hashirama, one of the boys from the day before, sitting cross-legged on the ground.

"Hashirama?" Mito asked as she walked up alongside him. "What are you doing, sitting on the ground like that?"

"Mito right?" Hashirama asked back before shaking his head. "It's nothing."

"You're lying," a voice spoke up from behind them both. They both turned to see Madara standing there, looking annoyed and a little worried. "Did something happen?"

"I told you it's nothing," Hashirama said with a sigh.

"Tell us or I'm going to throttle you," Mito told him.

"...Two of my younger brothers died," Hashirama answered finally. "The reason I came here is that by looking at the river I feel like these vague feelings are carried away by the water, you two are ninja so I think you might understand that."

"I have…four…brothers…" Madara trailed off as he picked up a stone off of the ground and threw it all the way to the other side of the river. "Well I had them, but we're shinobi, we might die anytime. The only way not to die is to show what you really think to your enemy, without hiding anything and become allies with them. But that's impossible because it's not possible to see what a person really thinks and feels deep inside. You don't even know if they seethe at all…"

"…You got to the other side this time," Mito commented. "I don't have any brother or sisters so I don't understand fully, but I do understand where you're coming from. Still, I'm sure there's a way for people to at least understand each other, even if they disagree on stuff, dattebane."

"Maybe," Madara conceded. "I guess we'll find out."

"…Hey," Hashirama spoke up as he rose to his feet. "Do you want to spar for a bit?"

"Yeah," Mito nodded with a grin. "But I think you two should spar with me rather than one on one or anything."

"What?" Madara smirked back at her. "You think that you can take us both on?"

"A guy with hair long enough that people start wondering if he's really an ugly girl in disguise or a guy with the lamest set of robes I've ever seen?" Mito mocked as she jumped back. "Of course I think that I can take you both on."

"I don't care if you are a girl," Madara snarled as he settled into a fighting stance she didn't recognize. "I'm going to beat you black and blue."

"Me too," Hashirama smiled widely. "We'll try to go easy on you though."

"This'll be fun," Mito laughed and charge right at them.

In the end Mito won leaving the two boys lying on the ground in front of her out of breath and bruised all over. Neither of them were particularly bothered by that though, they just wanted to get stronger and try to defeat her. So they kept coming back to the river to meet each other and spar a little before heading back to where they came from. They never won against her but they tried anyway, always without any of them uttering their surnames. They even went as far as to show each other their jutsu and talked about the future.

"You can get a view of the whole forest from up here," Hashirama commented as they sat on the edge of the cliff overlooking the forest below.

"Yeah," Madara agreed. "I'm confident that I can beat you when it comes to seeing stuff at a distance, want to challenge me?"

"What are you, a Hyuga?" Mito chuckled. "Yeah right, I can see better than either of you since you're both blind as a bat."

"You seem to be really proud of your eyes," Hashirama commented.

"A Hyuga? Don't insult me," Madara sneered in disgust. "And of course I'm proud of my eyes, I have the Shar-" he paused when he realised what he was about to say and fell silent.

"Madara?" Mito asked confused.

"What is it?" Hashirama inquired worriedly.

"No, in the end I'm not that good," Madara sighed and shook his head. "If I were that good my brothers wouldn't have died…I wasn't even able to protect them…what is…what is…"

"Don't you have any brothers left?" Hashirama asked him.

"I still have one younger brother," Madara answered. "And I'll protect him no matter what happens."

"Okay then, let's build a settlement here, let's make it a place where children don't have to kill each other," Hashirama spoke clearly as he gestured towards the forest before them. "We'll build a school where children will be taught how to grow and get stronger. Missions will be chosen depending on personal skills and strength. Seniors will assign proper levels, in our village children won't be sent to the battlefields."

"You come up with strange ideas," Madara chuckled in amusement. "But when we do build it, I'll watch over my little brother from here."

"Yeah," Mito smiled at the two of them. "I can't wait to see it."

It wasn't long before the sun started to set and the three of them went their separate ways again. Mito left the area last and headed towards where her father had set up camp. His recent talks with the Uchiha clan hadn't worked out well and he'd left emptyhanded again. Mito arrived to see Ashina sitting at the campfire with a grave expression on his face and a hollow look in his eyes as he stared into the flames, seemingly obvious to the world around him.

"Mito," Ashina greeted as she approached. "Sit down."

"Is something wrong, father?" Mito asked as she sat down.

"Yes," Ashina replied as he looked up at her. "As you know, I am a sensor like the rest of our clan and I like to keep an eye on you, especially here. I know you've been leaving the villages while I'm negotiating and I know that you've been meeting someone, two someones."

"Father I-" Mito started.

"A Senju and an Uchiha," Ashina cut in. "Judging by the fact that they haven't killed each other yet, I assume that neither knows who the other really is though they will soon."

"What are you talking about?" Mito asked with dread.

"I sensed a pair of others watching you three," Ashina answered. "Another Senju and Uchiha."

"I've got to warn them," Mito said as she suddenly stood up.

"They are no doubt back in their home villages by now," Ashina told her. "You'll meet them again tomorrow and warn them then."

"But-" Mito began.

"There's nothing more you can do today," Ashina spoke clearly. "I will go with you in case anything happens."

It was in that moment that Mito knew it…

Tomorrow wasn't going to end well…

"First of all let's use stone skipping as our greeting," Madara suggested as he stood at one side of the river.

"Yes," Hashirama agreed as he stood at the other side.

They threw both stones across the river at the same time, skipping them across the surface of the water until they both reached the other side. The two boys caught the stones once they'd reached them and lifted them up to look at them. The moment they caught sight of them, they found words etched into them. They both froze in shock at the sight of the words before quickly pulling themselves back together enough to think about their next action.

"Hashirama…sorry…today I remembered that I have to do something," Madara waved as he turned to leave.

"I-I see," Hashirama responded as he too turned away and waved back. "Then I'll go home too today."

The two broke into a mad dash away from each other and towards the trees where they could at least get into cover. 'Run Away' and 'It's a trap, leave' were the words written on the stones so both of them knew what was going on. Before either of them could reach the trees however, four blurs sprang out of the forest and onto the water. Two adults and two children. Senju Butsuma and Senju Tobirama stood beside each other while standing opposite them were Uchiha Tajima and Uchiha Izuna.

"So we had the same idea," Tajima chuckled.

"So it seems," Butsuma agreed with a glare.

Without another word Tobirama and Izuna rushed right at each other with their swords raised. Madara and Hashirama shouted for them to stop but their words fell on deaf ears as the two swung at each other. The two swords that they were wielding clashed with a resounding clang as Butsuma and Tajima jumped up over their heads. They both threw kunai at each other's sons knowing full well that the first child to die would demoralize the father and allow for one side to emerge victorious.

Such was the fate of those bearing the name ninja…

Both kunai were swatted away by a pair of shuriken from the side surprising everyone as Tobirama and Izuna broke away from each other. Two figures landed in the center of the river between the Senju and Uchiha clansmen, both of whom they already knew. Uzumaki Ashina was glaring between the two clan heads with no small amount of distain and Mito had never looked so saddened in her entire life, especially when she saw Hashirama and Madara land beside their brothers, standing apart from each other.

"What are you all doing?!" Ashina shouted at them all. "Do you hate each other so badly, that this is all you both can amount to?!"

"Enough Ashina-dono," Butsuma spoke clearly. "There is no room here for talks of peace."

"I don't know about that Butsuma," Tajima sneered at him. "We are always willing to accept your surrender."

"Never," Butsuma responded coldly.

"I don't care who you are," Madara declared with a glare. "I won't forgive anyone who tries to hurt my brother."

"It's the same for me," Hashirama proclaimed. "But we can still do this, Madara."

"It seems we won't be able to reach that idiotic pipedream of ours after all," Madara sighed knowingly.

"Madara…you…" Hashirama trailed off.

"It didn't last long but I had fun," Madara told him.

"Don't do this," Mito pleaded. "Please don't fight."

Sparring was one thing but actual fighting?

She couldn't let them do it…

"Three against three? Do you think you can handle it, Madara?" Tajima asked his son.

"No," Madara answered truthfully. "Hashirama is stronger than I am and if Mito gets herself involved, we'll definitely lose."

"There's someone our age that's stronger than you Oniichan?" Izuna asked in surprise.

"I see," Tajima nodded in understanding. "I didn't think he'd be that strong, and I'd rather Ashina didn't involve himself in our fight either."

"We're leaving," Madara said clearly as he turned away.

"Madara, you're not giving up, are you?" Hashirama asked him.

"You're a Senju, I wish it was different but my brothers were killed by Senju," Madara responded as he looked over his shoulder and his Sharingan appeared in his eyes. "That's why there's no need for us to be spilling our guts here, because the next time we'll meet is on the battlefield. Senju Hashirama, Uzumaki Mito, I am Uchiha Madara."

'That's…' Mito thought in no small amount of apprehension at the sight of those eyes.

"Look Father! Onii-chan's eyes!" Izuna shouted cheerfully.

"We didn't get any info on the Senju but it seems we got something good on our side after all," Tajima commented.

"Did his Sharingan just awaken?" Butsuma mused at the sight.

The Uchiha clan members left a second later leaving them alone in the river…

"…That's it then," Ashina sighed and turned away. "Come, we're leaving too."

"Father?" Mito inquired hesitantly.

"We're returning to Uzu no Kuni," Ashina told her. "I'm done trying to get them to talk; they can do whatever they want."

"Mito?" Hashirama asked sadly.

"…Goodbye Hashirama," Mito whispered as she turned away too.

A second later the two Uzumaki clan members disappeared into the trees in the direction of the coast where their ship was waiting for them to return home to Uzu no Kuni. There was nothing here for them now, maybe in time they could come back and try again but after today the road to peace seemed to be nothing but a far-off dream. As they made their way back home, Mito couldn't help but think back to the two boys she'd met at a river and the times they'd spent together.

It had been fun while it lasted…

Author's Notes:

Translation

Jigenwareme = Dimensional Rift

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