Warring States Period

Torn by guilt over deceiving his friend, Hashirama is cornered by his father Butsuma into a grim ultimatum: spy on the young Uchiha and report back, or be branded a traitor. He reluctantly agrees while quietly resolving to protect Madara. When the two meet again at the river to trade stones and warn each other off, their fathers and surviving brothers arrive and clash. With the clans evenly matched, Butsuma and Tajima each strike at the other's youngest, Tobirama and Izuna, gambling that a parent's horror at losing a child will hand them the advantage. Hashirama and Madara both refuse to allow it, and Madara pronounces the standoff a dead end where their shared dream perishes.

Still spoiling for a fight, Tajima presses his son, but Madara concedes that Hashirama's strength makes victory unlikely and calls off the confrontation, vowing that they will next meet as enemies as his Sharingan awakens for the first time. The years bring relentless bloodshed, and in one savage engagement Tobirama deals Izuna a fatal wound. Hashirama again offers his hand, yet Izuna urges refusal, and the Uchiha withdraw.

At their next meeting, Madara reveals that Izuna has died, bequeathing his eyes so the clan might endure, and though he now wields the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan he is beaten all the same. Tobirama moves to finish him, but Hashirama, still craving peace, intervenes. Madara names his price for renewed trust: Hashirama must take his own life or that of his brother. As Tobirama questions his sanity, all are stunned when Hashirama moves to kill himself, first demanding everyone swear to end the feud forever. Madara stops the blade, the two forge a treaty, and from that accord Konohagakure is founded.

The fathers' plot to murder each other's youngest son fractures the boys' loyalty to their clans and awakens Madara's Sharingan. Tobirama's mortal blow to Izuna deepens the enmity and later grants Madara his brother's eyes. Hashirama's willingness to die for reconciliation finally halts the cycle, giving rise to the alliance that becomes the Hidden Leaf.

This 368th episode of Naruto: Shippuden is part of the Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax storyline and adapts chapters 623 through 625. It aired in Japan on July 10, 2014, and in English on January 17, 2017. In the animation, Madara's first Sharingan shows a single tomoe rather than two, and his early truce reaction is dramatised more strongly than the manga, where he merely mulls the offer before Izuna dissuades him. The title nods to the historical Sengoku era of roughly 1467 to 1603, when regional lords fought to expand their power against a weakened shogunate. The opening theme is Crimson Lotus and the ending theme is Never Change feat. Lyu:Lyu.