What it takes to be Hokage

Chapter 4

Hashirama stared up at the rocky surface in front of them. He turned his gaze to the side and grinned at the two ninja standing with him.

"Bet you'll both be eating my dust." He challenged.

"You're totally on!" Naruto pumped a fist in the air and grinned broadly.

"Yeah and this time you're not cheating." Madara growled warningly with a narrowed gaze at the Senju.

"What? You mean playing dirty? Come on Madara, we're all ninja here." Naruto stared at the Uchiha incredulously before shouting "Hence GO!" and dashing up the side of the cliff with an evil cackle.

The three ran up the cliff, one laughing hysterically, one shaking his head in knowing appreciation and one yelling promises of retribution.

"For our next exercise we should try this without chakra." Naruto yelled down to the others happily while they both groaned at the thought before grinning manically at the thought of the challenge.

.0.0.0.

"No, no like this." Naruto shook his head with a silly smile on his face as he re-demonstrated a jutsu he'd learnt as a child. "I still don't believe you guys don't know this. Henge!"

Madara and Hashirama watched the blond carefully, taking in everything they were being shown before nodding to each other, determined to get this right.

Naruto was a little surprised when he learned that the two didn't even know the standardised Academy jutsu. Apparently, training was not something they often had the luxury of and that the two were only allowed so much of it because they were the promise of their clans; the ones most likely to become the next clan heads.

He came to realise just how lucky he'd been having had a sensei throughout his ninja career. Here, in this war torn era, he learned that jutsu were created through vast trial and error largely resulting in premature death. He learned that whole families died out in the hopes of creating and mastering a jutsu as simple as a replacement jutsu. There was nothing to teach, there was nothing to learn, because simply put, it was still being created.

Even the weapons he had so carelessly abused were things that he had come to realise were not easily and as freely available. Weapons in this world were crude, not as finely crafted, and Naruto remembered that Konoha had employed the help of a weapon's specialist and wondered if he'd be able to find that line of weapon developers once again. They truly made some amazing weapons.

Naruto realised that he'd been extremely lucky indeed.

Madara and Hashirama also realised that they would be meeting on the battlefield all too soon and they would have to kill each other's brethren just to maintain a fickle act of hatred for each other because they were not yet strong enough to protect their dream.

It was the most depressing thought they had come to the realisation of. It was something they didn't want to talk about and where trying very hard to find it within themselves to forgive the other for deeds not yet committed.

However all three sensed that there would be a point where they would no longer be able to progress further lest they sought out help. Madara and Hashirama were thinking of pursing the areas that Naruto had told them they were legendary in but had not known enough to actually help them in that area, such as the medical aspect of a ninja's arsenal. Hashirama also came to the humbling realisation that between the three of them, they were the ones that were going to have to pave the way for the future generations, to create the techniques others would learn, the same ones that Naruto had learned in his youth and so much more. They had no teachers, but would rather have to become the teachers themselves.