One View

Hashirama and Madara keep returning to the riverbank to spar, shore up each other's weak points, and picture the future, all while guarding their surnames. Madara nearly betrays himself, on the verge of boasting about the eyes his people carry, as Hashirama pours out his dream of a settlement where elders protect the young rather than march them off to die, and where duties match a shinobi's talents. Bonded by the shared grief of lost siblings, the two invent a greeting, skipping stones back and forth across the water until their next meeting.

Back at the Senju grounds, Tobirama passes on that their father Butsuma wants a word. Butsuma, who had a scout tail the boys, reveals that Hashirama's friend is an Uchiha responsible for cutting down several of the clan's finest on his own. He orders Hashirama to spy on Madara and report back, or be branded a traitor, the only other option being to kill him. At the river, Madara asks that they greet each other by skipping stones once more.

The instant the rocks land, both boys read the message hidden in them: each has been sent to trap the other, and they call out a farewell. Butsuma and Tajima Uchiha then step onto the field with Tobirama and Izuna at their sides, and as Hashirama and Madara try to flee, the two clans face off with open hostility. The chapter's title carries a double meaning, pointing both to the overlook the boys shared above the forest that becomes Konohagakure and to their common wish to reshape the shinobi world.