Chapter one – Green Flash

Green flash, also known as the Green Ray, occurs very briefly before total sunset and after sunrise. It appears as a flash above the sun that lasts very briefly, generally only a few moments.

"Kurama."

The girl spoke his name with sorrow latched to every letter. As if she knew anything of his pain. The demon froze, his eyes staring at her in denial, or maybe it was fury.

"How dare you speak that name in front of me you despicable monkey! How do you know that name?" He roared back, but refrained from attacking —there were still some things he wanted to know before he devoured her.

"That's a very long tale Kurama, but in short, I was first told your name by Son Gokū." She replied, and to rub salt into the kyūbi's already irritated mental wound, she had the indecency to sit down as if she didn't have a care in the world—like she wasn't seconds away from getting her blonde head separated from her body.

The demon growled as she repeated the name. "Son Gokū? Yonbi?"

He snarled as he took a giant step towards her. "What did that yelping gorilla go telling that sort of stuff to a worthless talking monkey?" Kurama asked while baring his teeth threateningly.

He wanted to know why his name had come up. How had the girl met his brother? Why on earth was she still alive? She seemed even weaker than most humans. Maybe it involved that presence he felt? Maybe Son Gokū had noticed it too, and the girl used it to get away? Yes, that had to be the case. Most likely.

A small smile appeared on her features; she seemed lost in thought, far away from her current plight.

"I might not look like much to you right now." She stated as her eyes focused on him again. She opened her cloak and lifted the haori underneath to reveal her stomach: a seal was inscribed upon her skin, pitch black and slightly glowing. As if something was on the inside was pushing out towards the seal.

"I'm older than I look! Just like you I've been alone for years already, most of them used in what until two days ago seemed like an endless search of you, dattebayo. I was so relieved to finally feel your chakra and find you again," Continued the girl, paying no attention to the rapidly growing killing intent from the enormous fox. "Also, you are underestimating me and my partner. You must have noticed it by now, right?"

The kyūbi stared darkly down at her. Just as he was about to curse her for stealing his chakra, the girl was suddenly aflame. The flames themselves were bright yellow and made of pure chakra. The flames surrounding her grew, becoming the transparent head of a fox, much larger than the girl herself. The chakra had a presence of its own—an extremely familiar will the Kyubi would have recognised in his sleep.

"I am not from this time, dattebayo! I've got no one else left. There's only you and me, Kurama. I came here to tell you what will happen if history is allowed to repeat itself. I want to help you too, and I also want to hear your advice."

Naruto stumbled through the forest; she was just too tired to walk a straight path. Coming to a stop, she sat down on a fallen tree that looked like it had been unfortunate enough to have gotten caught in the crossfire of a fire jutsu. Maybe it had been an Uchiha.

The burned bark left black sooth marks on her pants when she sat down, but Naruto couldn't muster up the energy to care; she was going to have to wash it at some point soon anyway. It was a long overdue task. Maybe if she could just find a river somewhere soon.

She thought of everything she'd done so far and how she'd gotten to this point. How desperate she was for some human contact. It felt like it had been years since she'd said anything other than technique titles.

When she talked to Kurama it was all internal, not an outwards reaction and she was tired of the lack of a kind face. Naruto had made a few friends here and there in the last few years, but they were all temporary companions. Friendly wanderers like herself who felt pity or compassion for such a young lost girl and chose to chat for a little while before going off again.

They all eventually went their own way, while Naruto kept searching. This was the mission she had set for herself—to not rest until she found black Zetsu and wrung his neck so his head and shoulders separated, hopefully painfully. Then she'd throw it sixty times to the infested moon and back, before she sealed the pest into hell. She just had to find him and figure out how to do that without Sasuke's yin abilities.

The thought of Sasuke got her sad again, and longing for her lost friends reemerged. Seven years ago she had come back to her senses, only to find herself alone in a forest. Most areas felt like a gigantic forest these days so that wasn't so strange; it would have been a miracle if she'd came through somewhere populated.

She had been injured and scared out of her mind about what had happened and where everyone had gone. When she'd finally composed herself, it was only to lose it again the next day when she saw her own reflection in the river. Naruto had been thirsty, and looking for water when she came across the still surface of a lake and drank from it. Naruto had screamed at her own reflection: she had been small, so very small.

The first day in this place, she'd thought her weakness was due to injuries, that the forest was just an abnormally tall one for the trees to seem so overwhelming. But staring at the childish face in the water, she'd been close to having a full out panic attack.

The girl looking back with a horrified expression couldn't be older than six. It was how she had looked when Naruto herself had been six. Her hair was long, reaching all the way to her knees—something Naruto had noticed already, but it now made more sense. She'd shrunken, but her hair for some reason had stayed the same length. The first thing she'd done was cut it with her kunai while she was still panicking. With the end result being her resembling a small troll. Short spiky hair that later would make people mistake her for a boy if they didn't look properly.

Naruto instantly regretted it.

After that she'd wandered aimlessly, at a loss as to what had happened to her and feeling very lost. After getting her mind straight again she tried to find someone who could tell her the direction to Konoha, or where she was. If she was even in fire country, and if not, ask for the direction there instead.

Having being reduced to the body of a pre-academy kid, she also got tired much faster. She had to train herself up again. The whole process had taken years to become somewhat decent, and only in the last three years had she gotten some proper chakra control back.

Kurama had tried the best he could to help, but the fox had never been known for his empathy. Most of the time he told her to get a grip and to make the best out of the situation. He was as clueless to what had happened as she was.

A couple of weeks later she had found a village named Itanika, and Naruto had actually cried in relief when she saw the houses. With renewed energy she'd asked entrance through the gates. The samurai stationed there had seemed reluctant but after a few questions, which she didn't understand at all, they seemed to think her harmless and let her enter.

She'd been taken aback by the people, they were all wearing odd clothes. Old fashioned.

Kurama had gone silent when she'd first spotted the village, and Naruto wondered if he'd heard of this place before. Few people took notice of her. There was plenty of street children, but her blond hair and tanned skin made her stick out like a sore thumb amongst the dark haired crowd. It seemed they didn't think much of her attire either. Which was still her oversized jumpsuit tied in the best she could manage. Her pants had been folded up five times so she wouldn't trip, and the same went for the sleeves of her jacket.

She had asked around for the direction to Konoha, but no one seemed to have heard of it. When she'd asked which country they were in, they had looked concernedly down at her. And with understanding and sympathetic smiles they told her that she was in fire country, but that she shouldn't go outside the village since there was many dangerous ninjas running through the forest right now. Especially the Uchiha clan who lived very close by.

Naruto had been speechless as the old kind man had told her this.

Uchiha clan? Wasn't there only Sasuke left of them now? Was one person enough to make a whole clan?

She had then heard the whispers going around the village. The Uchiha clan was at war with the Senju, and the Uchiha had been robbed a few months ago. They had lost all their provisions, plus a handful of their warriors and were becoming unfriendly to Itanika village who couldn't offer them more food. But Itanika was a civilian village that needed to keep warm and feed themselves through the winter as well.

This had been the time Kurama had started talking again, and he had sounded as shocked as Naruto felt.

'How the hell can this be? We've travelled back in time. This is the fire country during the clan warring era. I remember this village. It was destroyed early in the war.' He told her while Naruto tried to get a grasp of the situation she was now in.

Naruto had crumbled where she stood when the realization hit her. She was truly alone, and none of her friends would ever find her now. A young woman with a child on her hip had eventually taken pity on her, and kindly escorted her to the orphanage while Naruto still tried to get a grip of her situation. It had been on autopilot she'd followed at all, and not knowing where else she could go, the newly turned six year old stayed.

Konoha didn't exist, and none of the other hidden villages did either. Only clans could get work as ninjas in these times, and she got desperate at the thought of having to stay a civilian for the rest of her life.

Naruto didn't get to stay very long though. After only two nights at the orphanage, the village was attacked. The civilians fear that the Uchiha would attack Itanika had come true, but the village was not unprotected. They had hired samurai and a few members of the Hogorama clan to fight against the Uchiha.

When Naruto peeked out the window of her shared dormitory the night of the attack, it was only to be met with explosions. Ninjas with the Uchiha crest sown into their garments were attacking and killing anyone who stood in their way.

As she watched frozen at the commotion, Naruto noticed the Uchiha ninjas' sunken pale faces and believed they truly were that badly off. That they had been starving, and attacking Itanika looked more like an act of desperation than an organized attack.

The village had gone up in flames within an hour. People had been burned alive and Uchiha and Samurai alike fell to their deaths. The samurai never truly stood a chance, but the Uchiha looked far from healthy, and some fell to the ninjas of the Hogorama clan. In the end the clear winner would be the sharingan wielders.

Naruto had done the only thing she could in her weak state and fled for her life. Knowing she stood as much chance against the Uchiha as a fresh academy student in her current state.

After two days of waiting in the surrounding area, Naruto went back to Itanika to look through the wreckage of the village. She snuck around the Uchiha soldiers and stole everything she could get her hands on. It was the only way she could think of to get clothes that fit her and things needed to survive in the wild without any money. In the rubble, she'd found a surprisingly decent blanket with only a small burn mark on the edge, a haori a little too big for her, a rope and a backpack to stuff all the things she'd fliched in. After that she'd almost gotten caught, and pelted away as soon as possible.

That was the first of many encounters Naruto would experience with the clan wars. She doubted she would have survived that first winter without Kurama there constantly to heal her when she got sick.

After a few days she'd calmed down enough to start thinking rationally again. Alone in the woods yet again, she started coming up with a plan of action—something to live for again.

'Okay Naruto,' she had thought to herself, 'you've gone back in time. No one knows you, no one misses you and you can do whatever you want. You can stay hidden and let the future go as it did before, or you can do something about it. You can find the past Kurama before he is captured by Madara, and maybe together you could hunt down black Zetsu and seal him away before he can screw up the world again.'

It was a very optimistic plan, but Naruto had never let the odds being stacked against her deteriorate her spirit.

Kurama had only been relieved she'd finally snapped out of her depression.

It had taken years of hard work to find Kurama; for a fifty metre tall fox, he sure knew how to hide when he wanted to. Most of her time outside of scouting had been spent on training and getting information about what happened around the world. She'd gone through all the five great nations three times before she caught his trail in Kumogakure. By then she almost didn't recognize herself. No longer was she the naive child in a child's body: she was now a grown woman in the body of a thirteen year old girl and finally starting to catch up to her old level of strength.

At the top of the mountain where she'd finally found the demon fox, she'd told the past Kurama everything—with the help of the future Kurama who made many appearances through her seal. For a week they had sat making plans, only interrupted by food searches. In the end, the past Kurama had agreed to receive the future Kurama's memories so he could make up his mind on whether to help her. After allowing this, he became much more cooperative; so much that in the end, he decided to come with her. Or more like forced her to become his jinchuriki, it wasn't like he asked nicely either.

She now in a way had two different versions of Kurama inside her. They could merge with one another, but the balance was off, so they would sometimes split up again within the seal, bickering at Naruto when they got bored. Kurama didn't like the overload of yin chakra that happened when they became one.

After a month of walking back to fire country, taking wide detours to avoid the many battles and stronger clans, they had arrived back to Itanika village. Except it was now called Itanika prison after the Uchiha had reused the old site for the habitation of their Senju prisoners.

Past Kurama and future Kurama also started becoming eerily similar. Her Kurama being infected by the other's hate, and the past Kurama being affected by the other's new-found compassion. In a way they had become something in the middle. Both were her partner, but a much more stubborn one than the Kurama she'd arrived to the past with.

It was in this way she'd gotten to the point she was now. Sitting on a burned tree trunk in the middle of the woods at night. Wondering what the hell she was supposed to do next, where to look or go to find the black devil named Zetsu. The location was a day's walk from Itanika village. As she sat in deep thought, Naruto suddenly felt something off—a disturbance not far away that made her uneasy. After a minute she decided to hide just in case whatever going on was something she would regret getting involved with later.

Naruto found some closely growing trees to hide between. It by no means gave much shelter, but at least they might not see her if they crossed from the direction she thought they would.

At first Naruto started thinking she was becoming paranoid, maybe it had been Kurama grumbling about not having stretched his legs in three weeks. Then she heard fast footsteps, someone pelting through the forest. Metal clinking against each other in tempo with the speed of his or her feet. Like an armour.

Naruto peeked carefully out between the branches.

A little boy clad in a badly put together armour was fleeing. He looked absolutely terrified as he fought his way through the bushes and tall grass.

How old was he? Five? Six at most.

She half rose where she hid to call out to him, to tell him to come to her—that she would protect him, but slumped back into a crouch as the pursuing footsteps came into view. Eyes wide with horror, she saw five grown men come running after the boy—their intent horrifyingly clear. She watched as they ran out of sight between the trees, their shouts and taunts making her nauseous. Who could do that? What was this insanity?

'This is how you humans are, Naruto. Hate and revenge is all they are good at. Greed and glory all they want.' The voice came from Kurama, his bitterness seeping through again.

'I'll stop it, dattebayo!' She told him in defiance.

Getting to her feet she stormed after them, but instead of following on the ground, she took to the branches. For ten minutes she followed the distant sounds feet before she caught up to them. They luckily hadn't noticed her. The five men were surrounding the boy who had been backed up against a large boulder.

Their swords and kunai were drawn, pointing towards the sobbing child cowering in fear.

The sight broke her heart. A sudden wild hate burned inside her as she saw the symbol embroidered on their clothes. Uchiha. Why did it always have to be the fucking Uchiha.

One of the men took a firm hold of the boy's shoulder, trapping him in place as a second brown haired shinobi raised his sword, intent on striking him in the chest. The boy howled in panic.

Naruto was on the attacker in the blink of an eye. Striking him in the head as she jumped from the branch onto his shoulders, she landed very hard, knocking him unconscious. He fell like a sack of shuriken. She leapt towards the man holding down the boy, and struck him in the neck.

The other three however had realised someone had come to save the boy, and Naruto twitched in pain as a shuriken sank into her back. Turning towards the three shinobi, she stood as tall as her small body could manage, a shield between them and the boy who had turned mute.

"Lay a finger on him and you will regret it!" She snarled at them. As she spoke her clear blue eyes turned scarlet red, her pupils becoming slits, like those of a snake and the killing intent radiating from her made them all stagger.

"Wha-Who-You brat! I'll cut you up!" Shouted the man to the left. He came hurling towards her, his chokutō raised high to sink through her skull. Quicker than any of them could move, she had grabbed the boy and leapt sideways over the unconscious man on the ground. Dropping him unceremoniously on the ground, she put her hands into a cross formation.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" She shouted and thirty clones popped into existence in a long row. A shield of clones that separated the three remaining shinobi from themselves.

"Is that a genjutsu?" asked one of them bewildered, even though his sharingan was activated and should have seen through such a thing. The problem was that he had never seen a jutsu like that in his life.

"You'll find out." Naruto answered with a dark sneer.

Twenty of the clones ran at them, and the Uchiha realised that in fact, they were not a genjutsu at all.

As the first one reached the foremost Uchiha shinobi, it dodged his kick and sank a kunai into his outstretched thigh. He shouted in pain and stumbled to the ground.

Five of the remaining clones used the henge, and turned into the boy behind her. Five of the clones still looking like Naruto took a hold of the clone version of the boy, and ran off in different directions.

The real Naruto did the same with the wide eyed child behind her and took off into the trees while her remaining fourteen clones distracted the Uchiha shinobi.

The only reason she stopped after five minutes was to get the boy to climb up on her back. Afterwards she ran for two hours straight. The Uchiha had dispelled her clones in the matter of five minutes, but by then they had been completely lost as to which had been the real ones, and the Uchiha who had taken off in pursuit had realised it was clones he had caught up with when they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Coming to a halt, she sat the boy down on the ground and plopped down on her behind, panting heavily.

Thank god she had the kage bunshin.

She was nowhere near strong enough to go up against shinobi like that. Not yet. The boy had been silent the whole journey but now stood next to her with a worshipping expression.

"Are you okay?" he asked uncertainly looking at her bloodied clothes, "You still have that shuriken in your back."

"Oh! Right! Could you pull it out, please?" Naruto asked sheepishly, trying to calm down her breathing. She had actually completely forgotten about the pain during their flight.

"Eh… Sure!" He replied and walked behind her. Looking at her for permission to take it out, she nodded back with a weak smile. Taking a hold of the sharp metal edge sticking out of the fabric, he yanked it out with one quick pull. Groaning loudly she leaned forwards. It had gone in been deep, and it hadn't helped that the boy had been pressing it further in while he had been transported on her back.

He started fussing, asking if she needed anything. Reaching into his pocket, he took out some bandages. "I can wrap it! Here, I have some bandage that could stop the bleeding."

"Thank you. That won't be necessary though, I heal very fast you see. I'll be as good as new by the morning." She answered grinning back. It ached like a bitch, but she'd had far worse than a shuriken wound in her past.

"Really?" He asked surprised.

Smiling mysteriously at him, she pulled out a kunai from her pocket and cut a small wound in the palm of her hand so a drop of blood appeared. "Watch," she stated and held her hand up for him to see clearly. The boy's eyes grew wide as her wound visibly closed as he looked on.

"That. Is. So. Cool," he exclaimed with renewed awe latched into every syllable.

Naruto laughed and shook her head. "What's your name, kid?" She asked while putting away her kunai.

"My name is Itama! My dad says I shouldn't tell strangers my last name though," He muttered reluctantly. Naruto giggled and pointed to the symbol on his armour.

"I already know you're a Senju, kid. And I don't care. Since I know who you are I'll let you know who I am as well. My name is Namikaze Naruto, nice to meet you Itama." She stated and reached out her hand. He took her hand and shook it while looking curiously at her.

"I'm really glad I met you Naruto. Really! I owe you my life, Thank you for saving me." He proclaimed and bowed so low his nose almost touched the ground.

Naruto looked uncomfortably back at the boy. "Eh, no need Itama. I had to interfere, I couldn't live with myself if I watched a child getting killed right in front of me without doing something." She explained and raised her right arm behind her head, roughing up her hair in embarrassment.

"You're awesome!" he exclaimed, "Just like older brother! What was that technique? There was so many of you! I thought it was a genjutsu at first, but you stabbed Uchiha Hikaku in the leg, so it couldn't have been!"

Sitting down next to her he waited expectantly for her to answer. "Oh that is the kage bunshin technique, haven't you heard of it? It allows me to create solid clones identical to myself." Naruto explained getting nervous. Hoping desperately that the kage bunshin had already been invented. Kurama then made his presence known from inside of her.

'Idiot, the kage bunshin was created by Senju Tobirama, he told you himself remember? The brat is most likely still a kid right now. Of course it hasn't been invented yet. Congratulation, you just got the credit for the kage bunshin.' He said sarcastically.

'Oh shit…' Naruto thought and gulped audibly.

"No, I haven't heard of it before at all! Where did you learn it? Was it your clan? I've never heard of the Namikaze clan before. You must be from somewhere far away." He said, sounding more and more like a fan boy then the terrified kid she had witnessed a couple of hours ago.

Naruto was glad she could distract him. "Namikaze isn't a clan Itama, it was just my father's name. He was a shinobi but I've never met him. My parents are dead and I survive on my own. I learned the technique once when I stole a secret scroll from the village leader in my old village. I did it on a dare. Completely idiotic of me of course, but I have never been one for planning ahead. He found out of course, and I was caught only a few hours later. Luckily for us two I had already learned the kage bunshin by the time I was discovered." Naruto explained while reminiscing back to her past, or was it the future?

"You are so cool." sighed the boy, seemingly finding nothing wrong with stealing scrolls from village leaders.

"Don't go doing that sort of thing though, Itama. I was very lucky I wasn't aware that the scroll was so dangerous, dattebayo. I could have been labelled a traitor if things had gone wrong, or they hadn't found me in time." She lectured, but ruining the effect by grinning since she finally took notice of his appearance.

He had the most peculiar hair she had ever seen in her life, and that included Sasuke's duck-butt hair. One side was dark, thick and flat. It was short and completely the opposite of the other half of his hair on the left side. It was still short, but spiky and light grey, similar to her old sensei's hair. The greenish armour seemed stitched together and battle worn. Itama was clearly not the only one who'd used it, or if not then he must have been in a lot of battles for it to get this tired.

"What happened back there Itama? Why did the Uchiha try to..." She trailed off, not sure how to ask what the boy had done to deserve being killed.

"You don't know about the war?" He asked surprised.

"You mean the one between Uchiha and Senju? Sure, but why were they chasing you? You're just a boy." She asked genuinely confused.

Naruto felt his spirit, it was energetic and kind. Of course she knew that appearance could deceive, but he felt nothing at all like the twisted minds of killers she had met in the past.

"I'm a shinobi of the Senju!" He answered proudly.

"Eh..?" She looked confused at his reply for a moment, but then Kurama was back in her mind again.

'He's telling you he's a warrior, brat. In this era children are used as soldiers just as much as the seasoned ones. The average lifespan these days are thirty years for these guys.'

"B-But you can't be more than five years old! Who would send out children so young to fight grown ninja? Or to fight in a war at all!?" She exclaimed in horror.

"I'll turn six in two days!" He replied, as if that made matters better.

"You wouldn't have seen your birthday at all if I hadn't shown up, Itama! This is madness. Why are your parents doing this to you? Why are you doing this? Why do you continue this circle of hatred?" She said getting more and more upset at the thought of children being forced to kill before they'd even learned the alphabet.

Itama was surprised at her reply, for a moment she reminded him so much of his oldest brother Hashirama.

He still remembered his words clearly after Kawarama's funeral, when he in sorrow had said that their brother had died a pointless death, as nothing more than a tool. That parents were sending their children to be slaughtered and that it was madness. Half-heartedly Itama stuck by his father's words. Who had told all of them that Kawarama had died a true shinobi with honour, and that the greatest love a parent could give his child was to make them strong enough to survive on the battle field.

Looking into Naruto's upset eyes however, he wasn't so sure any more. Maybe Hashirama had a point, and it also looked like he wasn't the only optimist around either.

"What can we do? I don't like it. None of us do. But if we don't fight they'll kill us." He said sadly and found himself feeling shamed at his own helplessness.

Naruto combed his hair with her fingers and Itama felt her warm and soothing chakra through her hand. She was the most comforting presence he'd ever met, and he had to fight the urge not to start crying. Naruto seemed to understand and changed topic.

"We need to find shelter. I had travelled for a long while before I ran into you. I really need to sleep, and if you have any idea where there is water I would be very grateful. I'm scared the Uchiha will pursue us." She said with furrowed brows, looking back in the direction they had come from.

"Oh! Here, I've got some water." He said and fished up a water container from the large bag tied to his belt. Naruto thanked him and drank greedily. Feeling great relief as her dry, sore throat finally got some moisture.

"You should have killed them though. Then we wouldn't have to be afraid." He explained as the girl drank up every drop of water in his container.

She choked a little, and sent him a nasty look. "I don't kill unless I absolutely have no other choice Itama. I'm not gonna' tell you how to live your life, but while you're with me you only fight to defend." She said without humour.

"A-alright Naruto-san," He whispered looking ashamed.

"Good, come on, Itama. If we don't find anywhere soon I'll fall asleep on my feet. We'll find somewhere out of the way alright?" She said more kindly.

Nodding while getting to his feet he followed after his curious blond saviour.

"Yo!" Madara greeted as he walked up behind the boy from before, "Long time no see...Um..." He sat silently on his own, close to the river shore. He seemed uncharacteristically stiff and didn't react to his greeting. 'Was something wrong?' He thought and was about to address him again when the boy with the funny haircut answered.

"It's Hashirama."

Madara put his hands on his hips, looking down at Hashirama with one eyebrow raised curiously. "Man, sulking before I even show up. What's up?" He asked it because it was polite — not because he was actually curious.

Hashirama continued to not acknowledge him, he just kept looking over the water. His voice sounded raw as he spoke again. "Mind if I ask you some- Never mind..."

His interest peeked, Madara came closer and started insisting. "No need to be shy, I'm all ears."

"Don't worry about-"

"Come on… Just spit it out already."

"Really… It's nothing..."

"We'll be here all day if you keep refusing, you might as well-"

"Don't worry about it..."

Hashirama finally turned his head around, and Madara felt himself get a little pissed off at how the boy was lying, he was really bad at it. Barely composed and tears streaming down his face Hashirama continued. "It really is nothing..."

Pointing at Hashirama and feeling his anger rise he exclaimed. "Damn you! I'm trying to be considerate and understanding here! So hurry up and spill your guts!"

Hashirama only turned his head back towards the water and seemed hesitant to answer. Realising that whatever was coming was bad, Madara got a grip on himself.

"My little brother… disappeared, probably killed..." He muttered his voice breaking with a hick in the middle of the sentence. "I always come here when I feel like this… All these emotions bottled up inside me… I feel like the current can wash them all away." He whispered.

Madara felt his heart ache at his words. He knew all too well what it was like to lose your brother. He'd experienced it several times already.

"Madara, right?" Asked Hashirama to confirm that he had his name correct. It was months since their previous and first meeting here in the exact same place. "It's the same for you isn't it?"

Madara didn't answer, his eyes just followed the water; he understood what he meant by the water washing away his emotions. It was so calm here. So beautiful and untouched by battles, only the water to remind him of the surrounding time continuing. "Do you have… any siblings?" Asked Hashirama, breaking through his thoughts.

"There's five of us." Explained Madara and picked up a stone next to the crybaby.

"Or there used to be." He muttered, his face didn't give away any emotions, his father had always drilled that into him. Keep them at bay, always. Hashirama looked at him with compassion.

"That's what it means to be a shinobi. Death is always knocking on our door." Madara said while determination finally broke through the emotionless facade. "From what I can tell, the only way we can avoid that… Is to be upfront and honest with the other side… Perhaps even, I don't know, form an alliance with them."

He now had Hashirama's full attention as he continued looking up at him. Madara took position and kept talking, telling this stranger things he hadn't even told Izuna, the only brother left to him.

"But that's just wishful thinking. We're all too proud… To allow ourselves to be that vulnerable."

Measuring his throw without heeding Hashirama he skipped the stone towards the water. "I mean, who knows, maybe they don't hate you as much as you think..."

Hashirama followed the stone skipping across the water—once… "Do you really think… We'll never be able to be upfront and honest with the other side?" He asked.

Twice, thrice.

Madara smiled with one eyebrow raised as he mentally cheered the stone across the water skipping for the fourth time.

"Beats me… But every time I come here… I hope that someone will find a way..."

The stone hit the opposite shore.

"It looks like… This time I got one over." Said Madara as both boys looked towards the still and small rock. "Now you're not the only one… who got to the other side."

Author note: Thank you for reading! I truly appreciate it!

Reviews are really cool to resieve too. Both good and bad, if you don't like it I'm eager to hear what's wrong. I'm a rookie writer, so constructive criticism is gold.

I feel like this first chapter is too slow, but please remember it's part of a whole. Right now I'm trying to lay down the foundations. Hopefully it wont be too clumsily done...

This will be a long story, at least the longest I've ever written by far. I haven't finished the rough version yet, even though I've typed out 80 000 words so far, not sure how many chapter that is, since I have not divided them up properly yet. I decided to start posting before I finished it, just to get over the fright…

Edited 04.2016 Chapter has been beta'd.