Madara and Hashirama: Genesis

For a very long time in the history of the world, an endless war had been raging.  This war became known as the Warring States Era, more than just a war, but a time period itself.  The shinobi embroiled in the war all thought peace could come only from exterminating their enemies, but at heart, none of them truly believed it would ever end, fighting for a cause no living person could remember.  Amidst this war, two clans, by far the strongest of them all, stood at the center. They were the Uchiha, possessed of those legendary eyes, the Sharingan, the Mangekyou, and the Eternal Mangekyou, with the potential to awaken the greatest of them all: the Rinnegan, and a fearsome, terrifying fire nature that burned so hot nothing could stand in its path.  And they were the Senju, with a chakra suffused with healing energy so strong it increased their vitality and longevity, with a wind nature equally as strong as the Uchiha’s fire, tearing through any opposition, and the potential to unlock a fearsome battle avatar in the same form as the Kyuubi. The two were meant to fit together, the Senju’s wind fanning the Uchiha’s flames, the Uchiha’s Susano’o meant to wrap themselves around the Senju’s radiant battle constructs, bolstering and protecting them.  But the two had been split apart from the beginning by a terrible creature, the embodied will of a monstrous god, once hailed as the Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya, of the Ōtsutsuki clan. Her embodied will had soured the relationship between the founders of the clans before they had ever produced a single heir, splitting yin and yang into two pieces, throwing the world into chaos, as light and dark fought instead of working together.

Amongst all this war, two children were born, one to the Uchiha, and one to the Senju, who would defy clan boundaries and shake the world.

The older of the two was called Hashirama Senju, and he was born on the 23rd day of October, a seemingly unimportant day, though his birth would make it an important day.  When he was born, it was as joyful as a day could be for the always at war Senju clan. No battles were fought that day, and in a rare lull, there were no injured shinobi in need of medical care.  And, most importantly, the Uchiha clan had been dealt a serious blow in the last battle they’d fought. The young clan head Tajima’s parents had both been killed, and his heavily pregnant but still fighting, and still very dangerous, wife, Rei, had been severely wounded, almost killed.  That, surely, meant that her unborn child, who would have been heir to the clan, would certainly die, and that she likely would follow. All in all, the time of Hashirama’s birth was a prosperous time for the Senju, with their mortal enemies likely thrown into disorder, heir and matriarch almost certainly dead or dying, a healthy heir for their own clan born, and plenty of resources readily available.

The younger of the two was called Madara Uchiha, and he was born on the 24th day of December, another seemingly unimportant day, which again, his birth would make important.  He was also the child and heir the Senju clan had believed and hoped had been killed when his mother Rei had been injured. When he was born, it was a nightmarish day, even for a warlike, solitary clan always at war such as the Uchiha.  Their base of operations had been mercilessly attacked by the remnants of the Chinoike clan, a very large Hyuuga clan raiding party, and half the Uzumaki clan. Now, it wouldn’t have been a problem for a clan as strong as the Uchiha to fend them off or kill them if they weren’t already in dire straits.  This was, of course, the reason the weaker clans chose then to attack. Before the attack on their base of operations, the Uchiha clan had been in a highly unfavourable battle against their mortal enemies, the Senju. They had taken a crippling number of deaths and even more severe injuries. Additionally, Madara’s mother, who had been five months pregnant with him at the time, had been nearly killed by Butsuma Senju because she was not at her usual level due to her pregnancy.  She was not the only one who nearly died that day. Madara’s grandparents had been killed during that battle, and over half the clan sustained potentially fatal injuries, with less than a quarter left in fighting shape. It was a rare loss for the Uchiha clan, and one that certainly would not have occurred had Naori and Hikaku Uchiha not been out on a top secret mission. They were only sixteen, but already, they were among the clan’s strongest. All of this had far-reaching consequences, particularly given the Uchiha clan’s lack of medics, due to their nature as a battle-breed clan.  All in all, the time Madara was born was a dark time for Uchiha, with their clan thrown into chaos, heir and matriarch’s lives in danger, a healthy heir for their mortal enemies born, their base of operations attacked, so many of their clan dead or seriously wounded, and going through a famine. Even when Madara was born, two months early, the few medics the Uchiha clan did have told Tajima and Rei that Rei would likely die within a matter of days, and that Madara probably wouldn’t survive the night, and that, if he did, his chances of surviving a month were still less than five percent, and even then, if he did live long enough to grow up, that he would likely be a sickly, weak child, unfit to be the heir.