[Boruto Uzumaki: "Uh… dumb question: were those two actually, like, close?"]
[Sarada Uchiha: "That comparison feels… a bit off."]
[Obito Uchiha: "Madara actually cooperated with Hashirama? That's not the history I heard!"]
Obito stared, baffled.
Weren't Madara and Hashirama sworn enemies?
So how did this end up as a partnership first… and a duel later?
[Ōnoki: "Hold on—then how did the First Hokage fall out with the 'Shura of the Shinobi World'?"]
[Hashirama Senju: "Sigh… that's where things get complicated."]
[Madara Uchiha: "Idiot."]
Konoha was born.
Common folk streamed through the new gates, the air finally tasting like peace.
Whenever Hashirama passed, smiles bloomed; people waved, bowed, called his name.
He waved back, gentle as sunshine.
Madara, by contrast, walked stiff-backed, jaw set.
People shrank back on instinct.
A little girl tripped by the roadside. Madara—awkwardly—helped her up.
She glanced at his stern face and nearly burst into tears.
Hashirama soothed her patiently, explaining his friend's prickly temperament.
The girl squeaked out a thanks and sprinted away.
The two men talked like they had as boys—no secrets, no fences.
"Remember what we said here when we were kids?" Hashirama asked on a wind-brushed slope.
A leaf spun past.
Madara caught it, peered through its veins at the village below.
The Land of Fire needed a leader.
Hashirama's first thought? Madara as the very first Hokage.
Across the viewing world, jaws dropped.
[Naruto Uzumaki: "Wait—Lord First wanted Madara to be Hokage?"]
[Sasuke Uchiha: "So the Uchiha were once that close to the center?"]
[Fugaku Uchiha: "Madara was the initial candidate… then why the reversal?"]
[Hashirama Senju: "It's… a long story."]
Hashirama even asked Madara to name the village.
Madara twirled the leaf between his fingers and murmured, "Konohagakure—the Village Hidden in the Leaves."
"Kinda simple, no subtext at all. Straight copy from the scenery," Hashirama grimaced.
"And 'Hokage' is just as on the nose! Also—your habit of getting gloomy at the drop of a hat hasn't improved."
Madara scowled. Some habits, apparently, never die.
Good times are short.
Tobirama eyed the pair from a distance, displeasure plain as day.
Madara again, cozying up to his brother—
"Why are you still loitering? The daimyō are about to arrive for council!"
Tobirama and Madara locked eyes.
Madara's expression said it all: no love lost.
Later, in a manor:
"Choosing the Hokage—you can't just decide that alone!" Tobirama snapped, palms on the table.
"Nominate Madara if you want, but the final choice needs the daimyō's input—and the villagers'. Everyone here knows who drove the founding. It was you, brother. Not Madara."
He didn't believe Madara could govern.
And the village didn't exactly love Madara, either.
Outside the window, Madara heard every word.
His face darkened, inch by inch.
[System: "Fun fact: If Uchiha Madara had become Hokage, there would be no other villages."]
[Fourth Raikage A: "A moment of gratitude for Tobirama's policies!!"]
[Mizukage Mei: "Whew… bless that 'overpowered' policy set."]
[Ōnoki: "Old man's thankful too!"]
Kage across the world offered Tobirama their retroactive thanks.
If Madara had taken the hat, would any of them exist?
[Tobirama Senju: "…"]
[Madara Uchiha: "Hashirama—you should've unified the ninja world with me from the start. None of this would've happened."]
[Hashirama Senju: "But that's too extreme."]
[Sasuke Uchiha: "If Madara had become Hokage… the shinobi world might've been 'Konoha-only.'"]
Coldsweat for every non-Leaf in the chat.
If Hashirama's way was bowing to everyone and begging them not to wage war,
Madara's way was making everyone else kneel—and ending whoever tried.
Under Madara, Konoha would've grown absurdly strong.
Hashirama was kind but naïve—powerful, yet underplaying a full house.
Madara was sharp, efficient, only a little… explosive.
With him as chief? If a Konoha villager was bullied elsewhere,
the other village's "chief" might wake up to a Susanoo knocking on his roof.
[Itachi Uchiha: "Madara-sama's temperament was simply too aggressive."]
[Mei Terumī: "If he'd worn the hat, the rest of us would've suffered."]
[Izuna Uchiha: "Tobirama's all mouth. If my brother had been Hokage, the shinobi world wouldn't be a mess."]
[Tobirama Senju: "Heh. And I wouldn't let him. What will you do about it, mutt?"]
Madara's mood curdled to pitch.
He'd also read the Tablet—
and he'd warned Hashirama: gentle policy curdles into rot.
Corruption, favoritism—inevitable.
Hashirama wouldn't budge.
Peace had cost too much; he believed people wouldn't break it so soon.
Their ideals split like a fault line.
Madara chose to leave.
From today on, he would stand against Hashirama's Konoha.
[Fourth Kazekage Rasa: "Honestly, Madara's not wrong… Hashirama's naïveté was dangerous."]
[Neji Hyūga: " 'Where the leaves dance, the fire's shadow endures'—did that originally mean… Konoha could casually suppress other nations?"]
[Madara Uchiha: "Correct. Somehow it got rebranded as the 'Will of Fire'."]
[Hashirama Senju: "It means: wherever Madara and I go together, peace follows."]
Silence spread.
Madara's predictions weren't baseless.
Time proved plenty of his fears right.
He urged Hashirama more than once: unify the world by force—prevent future wars.
Hashirama refused.
So Madara prepared to take the Uchiha and walk out.
If things continued, the clan would be pushed to the margins anyway.
But the clan had grown comfortable in peace.
Who would follow a "madman" into uncertainty?
Madara slung two treasured weapons over his back…
and left Konoha alone.
No footsteps behind him.
Not one voice calling, "Wait."
[Teshima Uchiha: "Lord Madara, we were waiting at the back gate…"]
[Setsuna Uchiha: "Yeah, we waited for hours!"]
[Madara Uchiha: "…"]
The wind swallowed the road.
The village didn't.
Neither did his clan.
(Next up: Nine-Tails-Armored Susanoo vs. the Thousand-Meter Buddha.)
(If you made it here, tap three little 'Powered by Love'—author needs that chakra (ó﹏ò｡) )
(And to the comments asking if I'm "armchairing" history—yeah, checklist-style tallies need a bit of cloud-gazing. Comes with the format.)
Hook:
Night fell like ink. A fox-shaped armor of chakra unfurled around a sky-blue titan; in answer, a mountain-sized Buddha raised a forest of fists.
Between them, Konoha's newborn rooftops glittered like scales.
One step forward—and history would split.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews.
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested:
patreon.com/MugiwaraTL