Hashirama wakes up early the next morning. He doesn’t want a repeat of what happened yesterday morning. After taking a brief shower, he heads straight to the dining area and eats breakfast with Tobirama. Over the meal, the younger goes over his schedule for the day.

The two Senju brothers are just in time as they reached the eastern gate of the village. The Uzumakis can already be seen from where they are standing. Hashirama assumes that the old man leading the party must be Ashina and the young woman beside him must be his daughter, Mito (he remembers Tobirama has told him over breakfast).

"Good day, Ashina-dono. Welcome to Konohagakure," Hashirama greets politely, offering a smile to the Uzumaki clan head and his envoy. He and Tobirama bow their heads and their guests do the same.

“You don’t have to be so polite, Hashirama-dono, Tobirama-san. Thank you for welcoming us in your village,” Ashina notes, a kind smile present on his face.

"This is my daughter, Mito," he refers to the lovely kunoichi beside him. She has long bright-red hair (an obvious common feature of the clan) neatly tied up in two buns with hair pins in them. There’s a rhombus mark on her forehead, symbolizing the Strength of a Hundred Seal which Hashirama has only heard about before. Elegantly hanging from each of her hair buns are chakra-infused tags with kanji writings on them. She wears a plain-colored kimono and her appearance is truly that of a graceful and refined young woman.

“It’s nice to meet you, Hashirama-sama, Tobirama-sama,” she says, bowing her head courteously. The Senju brothers smile at her.

Together with the father and daughter are four other Uzumaki shinobis. Hashirama and Tobirama led the group to their house in the Senju Compound, where they’ll be staying at. The Uzumakis have travelled for days from Uzushiogakure. The two brothers has already made arrangements to let them rest for the rest of the morning and schedule the meeting in the afternoon.

“You two have grown into such fine young men. You even built your own village. Your father would be very proud of you," Ashina muses as they’re walking to the compound.

“You flatter us, Ashina-dono." Hashirama answers with a slight chuckle. “We can’t take all the credit. This village was found because the Uchiha clan allied with our clan.”

The rest of the walk involves a few small talk. Hashirama is able to closely observe their guests, especially Ashina. The clan head really seems to be kind and humble.

They reach the compound sooner. As the clan head, Hashirama’s (and of course Tobirama’s) house is the largest one in the compound. Aside from their own rooms, it has spare rooms for guests. The house is spacious enough to host a maximum of ten guests. There are three private onsens in the house—one for Hashirama, one for Tobirama, and one for the guests. During daytime, servants would be present to cook food and do the chores, especially the cleaning. Both brothers have a full schedule almost all the time so they don’t have time for doing those on their own. At night, they have the house on their own.

There’s a huge garden in the backyard that Hashirama himself takes care of. For a person who doesn’t know Hashirama enough, it can’t be helped to wonder how he maintains it—all the bonsais, flowers, and the sakura trees in his garden are in full bloom, despite now being autumn. When they pass by the garden, the guests visibly marvel scenic view.

"We'll leave you to rest, Ashina-dono. We understand you’ve had a long journey,” Hashirama says before leading them to their respective rooms. “Lunch will be served at noon. We scheduled the meeting in the afternoon and Tobirama will accompany you to the Hokage Tower.”

The elder Uzumaki nods, noticeably pleased. “You have my thanks, Hashirama-dono, and also Tobirama-san."

“If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to tell the servants. We’ll be going now, Ashina-sama, Mito-san,” Tobirama informs the group. They bow their heads in a polite gesture and after making sure that the guests are completely settled, they exit the house.

“What do you think of Mito, Tobirama?" Hashirama asks. He’s noticed that the usually nonchalant younger brother of his couldn’t take his eyes off the attractive kunoichi earlier.

Tobirama, of course, shrugs. “She’s pretty, anija,” he simply says but there’s a hint of light red on his rather pale cheeks that Hashirama didn’t fail to notice.

“She is, isn’t she?” Hashirama teases him playfully, projecting him a sly smile.

On the other hand, Tobirama glares at him, clearly unimpressed. "What's that look supposed to mean?"

"…Nothing," Hashirama shrugs, trying to keep himself from laughing.

The two part ways eventually. Hashirama heads to the Hokage Tower while Tobirama goes to the grounds near the still-being-built Academy where they temporarily conduct classes for the children. Tobirama supervises the lessons but he has his own students to whom he teaches basic shinobi skills including ninjutsu and taijutsu.

Hashirama spends the rest of the morning doing paperworks. Things are going just as scheduled until the clan leaders of the Sarutobi and Hyuuga came to his office in the early afternoon.

Hashirama puts his pen beside the scroll he’s writing on. “What can I help you with, gentlemen?” Hashirama asks, propping his elbows on his desk and resting his chin on them.

The Sarutobi starts, “We’ve come to ask for your judgment, Hokage-sama.”

“What might be the problem, Shinji-san?” he addresses the Sarutobi.

However, instead of the Sarutobi, the other man in the room interjects, “You see, Hokage-sama, this man is stubborn enough to build some of his clansmen’s houses on my land! It’s not me who’s in the wrong if I chase them away, now would I?”

“I told you already, Yakiko-dono, I didn’t know that that piece of land was already claimed!” Shinji Sarutobi argues. “There were no houses or any buildings being constructed there at that time. I didn’t know it’s the Hyuuga’s, but they didn’t even informed us until the houses were nearly finished!”

Hashirama shakes his head but only in his mind. Despite the situation, he doesn’t want to show the two men that he’s starting to get annoyed. One of his duties as the Hokage is to settle the disputes between his people, this right here being a perfect example.

It’s only natural for conflicts like this to happen. These different clans were fighting in a war against each other only a couple of months ago. It will take time until they grow accustomed living together in one village. Each clan has their own beliefs and principles and may find it hard to befriend, even to live, with other clans. It’s only Hashirama's ideals of peace that binds them together, so far.

"Is that true, Yakiko-san?" he asks the Hyuuga.

Yakiko lowers his voice, "It might be," but then he almost shouts his next statement, "but it’s his responsibility to know just where he’s erecting his buildings!"

The Sarutobi yells back and for the next minutes, the two men bicker relentlessly, both shouting their own arguments along with some colorful profanities.

"Calm down, gentlemen. We should settle this in a diplomatic way," Hashirama mediates between the two but his voice is drowned out by the two men shouting at each other in front of him. He tries to convince them still. "Enough!" he roars, slamming his palms on the desk. Normally, he wouldn’t resort to such brute display of power, but this effectively silenced the two arguing men. Their eyes shifted to Hashirama, waiting for him to speak.

As if the timing couldn't be more perfect, a knock is suddenly heard on the door. Hashirama sighs heavily. “Who is it?” he asks in a relatively calmer tone.

The door opens, revealing Tobirama who is standing at the doorway together with Ashina and Mito. The female Uzumaki’s eyes are particularly wide open from shock. Hashirama has no doubt that they must have heard him yell.

“Sorry for the interruption, anija. It’s time for the meeting,” Tobirama explains rather uncomfortably. He wasn’t expecting this sudden outburst from Hashirama and who knows what their guests might think of his brother?

"I'll join you in a few minutes, Tobirama."

The younger Senju nods and closes the door, leading the Uzumakis to the meeting room.

Hashirama turns to the other clan heads. "All of us are allies, yes?"

The two slowly nod.

"Then I assume you understand that we must help each other. I know that the matter at hand is important, but how will we be able to come up with a solution if we’re not going to listen to each other’s sides?"

The two men fall completely silent. They know that what Hashirama has said is true. Continuing with the petty arguments is not going to solve anything.

"Now, let's hear what each other have to say, shall we?"

-----

Hashirama goes to the meeting room when the dispute is settled. Fortunately, the Sarutobi and the Hyuuga became cooperative during their talk after his 'outburst' so it really didn't take long until they came up with a solution.

He takes the seat next to Tobirama. The two Uzumakis are on the opposite side of the table.

"I deeply apologize for earlier, Ashina-dono, Mito-san. I hope you didn't misunderstand the situation.”

"It's alright, Hashirama-dono. Disputes like that couldn’t be avoided. As a fellow leader, I, myself, is not a stranger to that. It's troublesome enough for me and I’m the head of only a single clan. How much more would it be for you as the Hokage of a village composed of different clans?" Ashina says considerately. He chuckles and somehow, the mood lightened up.

They exchanged a few pleasantries, after which, Ashina starts the meeting proper.

"The reason why we came here, Hashirama-dono, is to offer you an arrangement."

Hashirama and Tobirama keenly wait for the man to continue, but they hasn’t anticipated Ashina’s next words.

"The Uzumaki clan will be your ally, in exchange for you marrying my daughter."

-End of Chapter 2-

Well, how's that? Has the story gotten more interesting? Yakiko and Shinji are also OCs of mine.

As for Madara, he is yet to make his appearance on the next chapters.

-Cee