Prologue: The Beginnings

Since the beginning of time, there were two sides: the Uchihas and the Senjus. For as long as anyone could remember, those who weren't born into the Uchiha or Senju clan were forced to pick a side. Those who remained neutral drew the short end of the stick, often their lands were decimated in the aftermath of the two rival clans clashing head to head.

The Hyugas, Aburames, and Inuzukas allied themselves with the Uchihas. The Sarutobis, Akimichis, Naras, Yamanakas, and the Uzumakis allied themselves with the Senjus. The smaller clans quickly learned from the ancestor's mistakes. Staying neutral hadn't been an option, so they picked the lesser of the two evils: the Senjus, who was more open to accepting foreigners.

Though the Senjus had greater numbers, the Uchihas weren't a force to be trifled with, not when they possessed two of the most powerful dojutsus in existence.

And since the beginning of time, there was hardly a time when the Uchihas and Senjus weren't at odds with each other. Even during Hashirama's time, who longed for peace more than any of his predecessors, had been unable to achieve said peace as Madara, Hashirama's counterpart, was the complete opposite. He hated every notion and aspect of peace with every fiber of his being. Peace was for the weak.

Madara thrived off of the adrenaline from the battlefield. The Senjus had become mere annoyances to him at that point; the only one who could give him a challenge was Hashirama. Each and every time, he sought out Hashirama, for the sake of feeling the thrill of being on the battlefield, being engaged in battle, not because he actually hated Hashirama. Quite the contrary, as Madara lived his last moments, the memory to flicker through his mind had been one of him and Hashirama as kids, skipping stones across the river.

Things had been so much simpler back then.

Tobirama had taken the helm following Hashirama's death and unlike his brother, he shared no ounce of love for the Uchiha. If the Uchiha wanted to fight, then Tobirama would give them a fight. On the opposing side, Izuna Uchiha led the Uchihas with fury to extract revenge for his older brother, who had died by Hashirama's hand. Tobirama fervently pushed back against the Uchihas' efforts.

At that point in time, any thought of peace had been completely eradicated.

Hiruzen became the third leader for the Senju side, while the Uchihas rotated through several leaders after Izuna's death. At one point, Kagami Uchiha became the leader for the Uchiha side. A temporary peace was established for exactly seventy two hours.

That peace went straight to hell when the Uchiha dissented against Kagami's ideologies. It was against Madara's wishes, some argued, while others shared the same view that peace was for the weak. Many still harbored hatred in their hearts, determined to extract revenge for their clansmen.

Kagami was quickly replaced.

The war continued to rage on for generations, for most of Hiruzen's life. Through his generation, to his student's generation, then to his student's student's generation, and finally, to the current generation. The current generation was still young, most of them either in the Academy or freshly minted shinobis. Like their predecessors, they grew up in an era of war where most of them became orphans or only had a single parent, where most of them didn't bother asking when their parents would come home because everyone knew most never would, where most of them entered the Academy with the mindset of becoming a shinobi so they could take part in finally ending the damned war.

Minato had been one of those kids. And now watching the generation after him experience the same things ignited his desire for peace tenfold.

But Fugaku Uchiha was the current leader for the Uchihas and he had proven to be easily as stubborn as some of his predecessors, if not more so.

Hiruzen had his eyes set on Minato to become his successor, but first, he wanted to end the war before he handed it off to the next generation. After all, the war had been something that his sensei had left behind for him to deal with.

As Minato quickly made his name on the field, hailed as the Yellow Flash by comrades and enemies alike, Hiruzen took the opportunity to approach Fugaku, opening the discussion of peace. Fugaku shot him down everytime.

It was clear that Madara's ideology resonated heavily with Fugaku.

One day, Fugaku agreed. Hiruzen wasn't sure if his persistence had gotten through to Fugaku or some other reason, but he knew the decision wasn't unanimous. There were rumors of the dissent within the Uchihas and Hiruzen feared that it would be another Kagami all over again.

The peace held. They signed the treaty and Hiruzen passed the reins to Minato, trusting him to lead the village down a brighter future.

Except knowing the history of the Uchihas and Senjus, it was only a matter of time before another conflict broke out. It was evident that even time couldn't erase the hatred in their hearts. Even with the peace treaty intact, multiple conflicts occurred throughout the years. Skirmishes between the two parties happened too often for Minato's liking, but it was fortunate that it hadn't escalated into another war.

Until it did.


A/N: Hello! Welcome to this story. Super excited to share this story with you; I've been working on this idea since March and finally decided I had enough of a story to post. :)

Preliminary things:

-The prologue is short and boring but you need this foundation going into the story, so please read it! Basically, I created an AU where Konoha was never created and instead, two different villages exists - one built by Senjus and the other by the Uchihas.

-Characters: will be mostly Kakashi centric story but there is a healthy dose of Rin, Obito, and Itachi. For some reason, I'm super obsessed with writing about Team Minato characters lol. Hope you like them as much as I do. :P There's quite a few OCs for plot purposes but none of them actually play a huge role.

-There's going to be two plotlines running at the same time, I'll explain in the later chapters or you'll find out as you read along.

-Oh, the usual disclaimer that I don't own Naruto. Only the plot and OCs are mine. :)

Since the prologue is so short, click next to read the first chapter. Enjoy!

-MM