Reached

The riverside talk between the two boys breaks off when a corpse drifts to shore. As Madara steps over to inspect it, he clocks that Hashirama is a trained shinobi, having seen him stand on the water's surface. The dead man turns out to be tied to the Hagoromo clan, and the pair part ways at the bank. Back home, Hashirama learns his brother Kawarama has fallen in combat. Standing at the graves beside his openly sobbing youngest sibling Itama, he challenges their father Butsuma over sending small children off to die. Butsuma strikes him, calling the words an affront to Kawarama's honor as a fallen warrior. Hashirama refuses to back down, and only Tobirama's intervention, insisting his brother is merely mourning and begging forgiveness, stops a second blow.

Afterward the three brothers share a vision of a peaceful world. That hope is soon shattered when Itama is cornered and killed by five Uchiha on the battlefield. Wrecked by the loss, Hashirama returns to the river, where Madara finds him in tears. He hides the cause at first, then admits his little brother is gone. Asked about his own family, Madara says he is one of five brothers, then quietly corrects himself to was. Once he finally skips a stone across to the far bank, the two speak of the relatives they have buried, and Madara offers a few consoling words about the chance of a brighter future.

Madara recognizes Hashirama as a shinobi through the water-walking feat. Kawarama's death draws Hashirama into open conflict with Butsuma over child soldiers, defused by Tobirama. Itama is later slain by five Uchiha. A grieving Hashirama reunites with Madara at the river, and each reveals he has lost brothers, deepening their bond over a shared longing for peace.

Set during the Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax arc and collected in volume 65, the chapter deepens the origin of the Senju and Uchiha founders, laying groundwork for both their alliance and their eventual falling out.