Senju Hashirama stood in the middle of the square of what used to be the Uzumaki compound. He had been there multiple times before and the image of the glorious compound kept overlapping with the one his eyes kept sending him.
Instead of the small school, he had planned to base his dream village's school on one day, stood there and a half burnt walls, while the rest of the building laid on the ground in pieces. Where there was once a restaurant his great uncle would take him to whenever he visited, now there was only air. The worst were the houses. If they weren't missing walls or a roof, they were probably bathed in blood inside and out. He thought he was in some sort of nightmare that nothing could wake him up from.
The main family of the Senju clan was having breakfast, somewhere in the beginning of April when a middle ranked shinobi barged into their house, passed the servants and ran to his father's side.
Hashirama recognized him immediately because he made a point of knowing every single one of his clan members, even if it was just their names, faces and ranks. Tobirama was always impressed that his Anija's brick for a brain could actually remember so many details; when it always seemed to conveniently forget about the deadlines for handing out reports. His father however didn't seem to bother with such things because he had needed for the man to announce his name and function to stop him from blowing out at the disturbance. But he still glared though.
The man was the shinobi in charge of the aviary for the night. He had just retrieved a message from a falcon used by the Uzumaki clan, and it couldn't wait because it was stamped with the seal they only used for serious occasions.
Immediately, the father and sons knew that it was serious. The Uzumaki had been worried for a while now about their relationships with the other shinobi clans. They were aware that their monopoly in the field of seals was creating dissatisfaction, and so were preparing themselves to go to war with a lot of people in the next few years.
The Senju were a bit in tight spot. Because of their relationship with the Uzumaki, they had access to their knowledge almost for free, but they were also aware that all the other clans weren't as lucky and thus greatly dissatisfied. Even their closest allies had complained more than once, and Butsuma had tried getting them some better deals, but the Uzumaki were too proud and weren't willing to sell their art for cheap so it never was enough. Hashirma had asked his father about why they weren't willing to compromise more and even raised his concerns to the Uzumaki leader, his great uncle. But the Uzumaki only said that old habits die hard, and his father had just sighed loudly and told him that every family had that one idiotic cousin who worried everybody, but they still had to love him and respect his decisions.
Butsuma read the message quickly, and his children only got more worried when they saw the colors leave his face. He silently handed the piece of paper to his heir and cupped his face with his large hand. The kids knew that this was what he did when he was thinking about countermeasures fast. Tobirama and Itama went behind their elder brother to read the letter at the same time, and slowly all three siblings had a bad feeling in their gut.
The letter was brief and written somewhere around midnight the previous night, if you put the duration of the travel between the two compounds into account. It said that the Uzumaki were under attack from a large group of shinobi, probably an alliance of clans, but they still didn't know who exactly. They said that they would hold their ground, but required some assistance in case more back up kept coming.
Butsuma was angry. " I knew that something like this was bound to happen. I told them time and time again. Even had our elders talk to them, but to no avail. They even had the gall to tell me that it would take years before anything happened and that they would be ready by then. Well, why are they asking for my help now, if they wouldn't listen to me at first? Damn them and their pride!"
The sentence was followed by a few choice curse words that Tobirma was probably noting somewhere in the back of his mind for his future altercations with Uchiha Izuna. His kids didn't bother with answering him. They knew that he was just venting his frustration at the unexpected event, and that he would send help anyway. And sure enough, he called one of the servants and had him run to the house of his second in command to tell him to get his men ready. Even if the situation was alarming, they knew that the Uzumaki were capable of handling it and thus didn't need the presence of the clan head or his strongest general, Hashirama. They might send Tobirama if they received any other messages, but that should be enough.
Breakfast was forgotten, and everybody just went to get ready for their day. But not even thirty minutes later, when they were all at the door putting on their sandals, another shinobi rushed in with a message from their cousins. And this time it was really bad.
The Uzumaki were finally able to identify their attackers and it was worse than they could have possibly imagined. Enemies were coming from the four doors leaving no way to escape. All the clans of the Whirlpools were represented, some of the strongest shinobi clans of the Land of Lightning, and the Uchiha. Everybody was tense. Even if the Uzumaki could take down their compatriots and even the Lightning shinobi, they wouldn't be able to hold back the Uchiha. They weren't that good. Especially when the letter clearly stated that Uchiha Mdara and his siblings were also a part of the attack, under the leadership of Tajima.
Hashirama didn't miss the look his brothers gave him when his friend's name was mentioned, but he didn't say anything. He was too worried to talk. He knew that Tajima being there personally, with Madara's squad too, meant that things were more serious than expected. They needed to rush there fast. His father seemed to have reached the same conclusion as him because he was already barking orders at everyone they met on their way to the administrative building.
Just when they reached Butsuma's office, another message came and this time it was a disaster: The Uzumaki clan head had been killed by Uchiha Tajima. They were now without a leader and most of their shinobi had been slaughtered. The letter had been written hastily by the clan's second in command and he only asked them to rush to save the women and children. He already knew that the Uzumaki clan was gone.
Preparation only took an hour before they set off for the Uzumaki compound. But they were late. Even if they didn't take breaks, even if they had run at twice the normal speed and arrived in record time, they were still too late.
They were greeted by the sight of the slaughtered guards at the door, and the further they went the more bodies and blood they found. The usually lively compound was deserted, with not a living soul in sight. Some of the younger shinobi with them even barfed at the sight of murdered kids. They had come through the east gate and the further they went the more colors started leaving the faces of even their strongest shinobi. Once in the middle square, they found the body of the Uzumaki clan head hanging high for everybody to see.
Hashirama rushed first to get it down. He couldn't let his great uncle in such a humiliating position any longer. His brothers were behind him, and the three of them surrounded the corpse, with tears already running down Itama's face. The other two didn't cry. Maybe they had run out of tears, maybe they didn't have Itama's bravery, because a shinobi who let his emotions show whenever he felt like it was braver than the ones who kept everything bottled up to save face. Their father was a few feet away shaking with rage. The shinobi had gone to look for any survivors. If there was any, they were probably in the secret safe houses that nobody, not even their cousins, knew about so it would take time to locate them.
After covering the body of their great uncle, and leaving Butsuma alone with him to give him the opportunity to mourn in private, Hashirama, his brothers and Touka started walking around the streets. The safe houses weren't located yet, probably hidden underneath thousands of seals. They went to look for clues themselves. Their feet took them to the south side of the compound, and to their horror they started recognizing some of the traces left by the fights. This was probably the side that the Uchiha had taken care of. The burns left by the characteristic Katon jutsus, the scratches left by Madara's gunbai and Izuna's dual wielding style, and even a big hole in a wall that only the freakishly strong Haruka could make. Those were all things they were awfully familiar with and able to spot as clear as the sun in the sky.
Hashirama's heart was beating loudly. His friend had done this. The friend he used to sit and talk with about peace and keeping children safe had participated in this. Hashirama wasn't stupid or nearly as naïve as he liked to let on, he knew that it wasn't personal. He knew that Madara was just like him, a high ranking general but still under the orders of a ruthless clan head. But his heart was burning in his chest. The Uzumaki were a close family, and now the Uchiha had participated in their cold blooded murder. They had exchanged human lives for ink on paper. Did this mean that Madara had changed? Did this mean that Haruka had changed too?
When Madara had cut their friendship, he had despaired. He didn't know what to do with all their hopes and dreams. But after that talk with Haruka by the river, he had found a new resolve. He had decided to carry on, to work harder and become stronger because he knew that someone out there was working towards the same thing as him. He would do everything in his power to keep his promise.
And it was hard. It was really hard to smile again after a younger cousin died on the battlefield before he completed double digits. It was hard to keep hope when all those he had shared his dreams with called him naïve and even crazy. It was hard not to become paranoid and distrustful when almost every day he had to wake up knowing that it might be the last time he saw one of his brothers.
But he did it anyway. He smiled so much everybody called him a fool. He kept talking about his dreams until even the skeptical Tobirama had promised to help him in achieving them, and the rest of the younger members of the clan were following him and hoping with him. And he gained confidence again every time they faced Madara's squad and he noticed that, like their Senju counterparts, they were only half heartedly fighting. He knew that his friend had something to do with it, even if the Uchiha kept sending scorching fires at him one after the other. It was like an unspoken agreement between the eight of them, like if they just were putting on a show for the rest of their respective clans, until the day they could make all this masquerade stop.
But looking at the destruction surrounding them, he started having doubts. What if it was all his wishful thinking? What if Madara and Haruka had given up and were fighting them for real? What if he was putting his family in danger by trusting like this? How to know what was going on in their heads? If he was in their place, would he have given them a warning of some sort the last time they fought merely a week ago? He didn't know.
Suddenly, a door was flung open and a mass of red hair ran towards him and into his arms crying. "Hashirama nii-san! You're finally here! It was so horrible! Please, you have to help us, Nii-san! We are in a nightmare!".l He didn't panic because he knew that Tobirama would have warned him about any enemy chakra signature, and he had already recognized who it was: His young cousin Mito, a sweet fourteen years old girl with one hell of temper that he always liked to tease.
Her face was bathed in tears and the usually bright eyes with a green rhombus between them were looking at him with a despairing expression. He hugged her tighter, whispering the few comforting words he could think of again and again. Her mother had come out of their hiding place and was standing next to them too, eyes full of tears and expression desolation.
Once Mito calmed down a bit, he put a hand on her shoulder trying to push her a little to check for injuries, but she winced and fell to the ground. Itama was by her side in the next second. His youngest brother was easily one of their best doctors, a profession he had chosen because he was too traumatized to come to the battlefield as a regular shinobi after his near death experience. Hashirama also suspected that it was because he greatly admired Uchiha Haruka who was hailed as the best medic-nin alive, and had saved his life once.
Itama did a fast checkup and paled a bit. "Her ribcage is all fractured, by some sort of miracle no bone was broken or out of place, but the damage is severe and will take a while to heal. I suggest you stop moving around too much or applying pressure, and I will prescribe some pain killers for you."
Mito nodded painfully, but then her eyes shone with hatred and she fixed the ground while spitting. " I swear I'm going to make her pay. I will make all of them pay. She should have made sure to kill me before leaving, because I will not rest until I get my revenge."
Hashirama felt his heart break when he heard his usually sweet cousin say such things. Revenge, again and again, this word kept coming, an endless cycle of pain and hatred. And deep in heart he knew that somehow he felt even worse because he knew who she was talking about. There was no calming the doubts in his mind, or trying to deny the identity of Mito's wanna be murderer, because Itama's next word said it all. "Yeah, I think I know who you are talking about. These types of wounds could have only been caused by Uchiha Haruka's technique. I have seen it on countless of our soldiers. But you shouldn't be that hateful you know, she went easy on you because these types of punches are not meant to ki—"
Before he could finish his assessment, Mito's mother angrily continued. " Shewent easy on her because she thought Mito was weak and wouldn't survive even that punch. But she was wrong, and Mito here will one day lead our revenge on the Uchiha." Itama seemed to want to add something but a glare from their distraught aunt shut him up. He wasn't really a confrontation kind of person. Hashirama made a mental note to ask him what he wanted to say later. He would never let his baby brother feel unheard.
In the meantime, Tobirama and Touka took charge of things, because they were great with logistics. Mito and her mother pointed them to the location of the safe houses and told them how to unseal them from the outside. Hashirama took some shinobi with him and headed there with Itama, because they will probably need a medic, and the two Uzumaki women were led to Butsuma to discuss what will happen next.
They only found around a dozen women and two dozen kids with an elder per safe house, with the biggest numbers in the south districts safe house. However most of the kids there were under genjutsu for hours and Itama had needed the help of two other medics before they woke them all up. Uchiha Hikaku's signature was all over it. Hashirama didn't know which was worse, the nightmares they were in on the ones they woke up to. Touka pointed out that at least Hikaku had some humanity in him because the illusions he had created weren't too strong or mind destructive. She knew what the man was capable of, and this was a far cry from it.
In the end most of the Uzumaki refugees choose to accept Butsuma's offer to just join them, but some had family in other clans and decided it would be better to stay with them. They all left the Land of the Whirlpools with heavy hearts, knowing fully that the prestigious Uzumaki Clan was gone for good.
Once they made sure that the small district Hashirama had built for the Uzumaki with his Mokuton was to their liking, they started working on their next move together. The Senju and the Uzumaki were out for blood.
They had made sure to stop by some of the shinobi clans of the Whirlpools who had participated to teach them a lesson. Hashirama had forbidden the killing of any woman, child or elderly, but the rest were gone pretty savagely. An eye for an eye. Butsuma decided that their revenge against the people of the Land of Lightning could wait until summer, when they would fight them anyway, because his primary target was the Uchiha clan. He had decided to use this as an excuse and assemble an alliance of the shinobi clans to do the same thing they did to them, with the daimyo's blessing.
But they were a step too late. Hashirama had to admit that his father's rival had outwitted them this time. He clearly had planned everything in advance. Tajima had distributed copies of the Uzumaki secrets to all the people he knew would be interested, therefore putting them either on his side or at least in a neutral place. No one was willing to join them, not even the usually righteous samurai. The daimyo had even offered "generously" to choose them for the campaign he was planning to take over the Land of the Whirlpools. The Uzumaki were distraught when they learned that they wouldn't even be able to sell their knowledge anymore, the Senju were disgusted by the happenings, and his father was so angry that Hashirama had to rebuild the whole west wing of their house by the time he was done venting.
Only Hashirama had secretly sighed in relief at the knowledge that there wouldn't be any more blood baths than the ones customary for the season. The doubts were eating at him and he was also angry at what had happened to his cousins, but some naïve part of him still hoped. It hoped that this didn't mean that his dreams were too foolish. He didn't miss the sorry looks his brothers and close confidents were throwing him. They clearly had no hope anymore. They thought that this was the final straw that would break the camel's back. That he would drop his one sided friendship with Madara now.
But he would still wait. Just for a small sign that it wasn't over.