Hashirama Senju

**Hashirama Senju** (千手柱間, *Senju Hashirama*) is a member of the famed Senju clan. He himself was hailed as the "God of Shinobi" for his unmatched ninja prowess. Hashirama sought peace for the shinobi world, and to that end founded Konohagakure with his clan, his childhood friend and rival: Madara Uchiha and the Uchiha clan. He would later become the **First Hokage** (初代火影, *Shodai Hokage*, *literally meaning:* First or Founding Fire Shadow) of Konohagakure. Although he was not able to achieve peace during his lifetime, his legacy and vision for the world would continue to shape the village and the entire shinobi world even after his death.

## Hashirama Senju

* Human
* Avatar

### Aliases

千手柱間 Senju HashiramaFirst Hokage (初代火影, Shodai Hokage)God of Shinobi (忍の神, Shinobi no Kami, English TV: The Supreme Shinobi)[5]

### Relatives

Tobirama Senju (Brother), Butsuma Senju (Father)

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Peter Lurie, Max Mittelman (Child)Takayuki Sugo, Yuki Tai (Child)

## Background

Hashirama was born during the Warring States Period, the eldest of Butsuma Senju's four sons. Hashirama and his brothers grew up on the battlefield waging constant war with the Senju's rivals: the Uchiha. During his infrequent downtime, Hashirama met a boy his own age named Madara. The two quickly developed a friendly rivalry, be it skipping stones or urinating in rivers, with Hashirama typically winning their contests. Hashirama did not approve of this practice of sending children to fight and die, believing it would only increase the bitterness between the Senju and Uchiha, thus causing more deaths.

After the deaths of their brothers, Kawarama and later Itama, Hashirama and his remaining brother, Tobirama, decided a new shinobi system would need to be implemented to end the cycle of child deaths, a system that would require an alliance between the Senju and Uchiha. Like Hashirama, Madara was also a shinobi who had lost brothers on the battlefield. Together they imagined a world where children like themselves wouldn't need to fight and where their brothers would be safe from harm. As a precaution, Hashirama and Madara did not divulge their family names, but nevertheless discovered each other's identities: Hashirama was a Senju, Madara was an Uchiha; it was their duty to kill each other. Hashirama set this duty aside, unwilling to take his friend's life. Madara, however, decided their dreams of a peaceful world were impossible, and therefore ended their friendship so that they could kill each other without reservation.

Over the following years Hashirama and Madara continued to meet in combat. Hashirama could never bring himself to kill someone he still considered a friend, and Madara could never defeat Hashirama's superior abilities. In time, both Madara and Hashirama became leaders of their respective clans. Under Hashirama's leadership and extraordinary ninja prowess, the Senju began to best the Uchiha Clan until at one point Hashirama had both Madara and Izuna at his mercy. However, unable to find the resolve to kill his childhood friend, Hashirama tried to convince Madara to unite their two clans to make their childhood dreams a reality. A mortally wounded Izuna convinced Madara otherwise and they retreated, prompting Hashirama to send a cease-fire request. Although some Uchiha found the offer increasingly tempting, Madara was unwilling to accept after Tobirama killed his last remaining brother, Izuna. This did not stop some Uchiha from defecting to the Senju out of self-preservation. Wracked with grief, Madara made one final stand against Hashirama and the Senju and was summarily defeated. Tobirama attempted to kill Madara to finally end the fighting, but Hashirama stopped him, knowing that would only renew hostilities between the Senju and Uchiha. At Madara's suggestion, Hashirama offered to kill himself in order to achieve a peaceful resolution. As he was about to end his own life, Madara stopped him, moved by the gesture, and assented to peace.

The Senju, the Uchiha, and all their affiliated clans came together to found a village of peace, where children would never need to die in battle. Hashirama and Madara, rekindling their childhood friendship, called that village Konohagakure. The other countries would soon follow Konohagakure's example and build their own hidden villages. It was his wish that Madara become Hokage, the village's leader and protector. At Tobirama's insistence, the Hokage position was democratically elected, and in the end it was Hashirama that was chosen for the office. Hashirama wanted Madara to work with him as a brother and as his right hand so that he could improve his standing among the villagers and someday succeed him as Second Hokage. Madara felt that position would inevitably go to Tobirama, which would in turn end badly for the Uchiha. With his position in Konoha rapidly diminishing and after being manipulated by the stone tablet Zetsu altered, Madara decided the village was a failed experiment and abandoned it, intent on someday returning to face Hashirama in battle yet again.

True to his promise, Madara eventually attacked Konohagakure on multiple occasions. After countless fights and with the Nine-Tails under his control, Madara challenged Hashirama to one final contest. The Nine-Tails' power, as well as Hashirama's efforts to capture and contain it, devastated the landscape, carving out what would later be called the Valley of the End. Hashirama spent the duration of their battle trying to reason with Madara, but Madara continued fighting until he was too tired to keep even his Sharingan active. This enabled Hashirama to distract him with a wood clone while the real Hashirama stabbed him in the back. Madara collapsed and, before dying, noted how much Hashirama had changed from when they were children.

In the aftermath of the battle, Tobirama hid away Madara's body and Hashirama's wife, Mito, sealed the Nine-Tails within herself in order to contain its great power to Konoha's benefit. For a time, things were peaceful: Hashirama helped train one of Tobirama's students, Hiruzen Sarutobi; he got to spoil his first grandchild, Tsunade; he locked away the Scroll of Seals, the kinjutsu it contained no longer necessary in the world he'd made. But the peace Hashirama had worked so hard for was starting to unravel; at some point Takigakure sent Kakuzu to assassinate him. Although he defeated Kakuzu, other wars began to break out.

In an unknown time, Hashirama convened a Kage Summit so that he could share the tailed beasts Konoha had acquired with them, thus balancing power amongst them. But cooperation would not be so simple as Hashirama intended it to be, first by Tobirama's demand that the other villages pay for the tailed beasts they received, then by the First Kazekage's counter-request of money and territory in lieu of a tailed beast. As unrest began to grow, Hashirama shared his fear that any agreement they made would only be temporary, but also that future generations could forge a lasting unity.

Ultimately, Hashirama's wish for peace would not come to fruition during his lifetime and he died while Konohagakure began to flourish. Before his death he passed the title of Hokage to Tobirama, and instructed him not to mistreat the Uchiha.

## Personality

Hashirama was an excitable man with a boisterous personality. He loved meeting new people, having friendly competitions, and gambling. Headstrong and often impulsive, it fell to others – such as his brother, Tobirama – to be more responsible or realistic about things that Hashirama had gotten carried away with. When taken down in this way, or even when simply presented with information that troubled him, Hashirama could do a near-immediate about-face, going from laughing to sulking. These moping periods were typically brief though, and he'd quickly go back to his usual high-spirited nature. Later generations upon meeting him, tended to remark that neither extremes of his personality were very fitting for a man called the "God of Shinobi".

Despite the first impression he may give, Hashirama was capable of being serious when it came to matters that were important to him. He spent years opposing the practice of sending children to war and dreamed of a shinobi system where a child could be around others their age, never needing to "grow up" prematurely on the battlefield. To that end he became very devoted to Konoha upon its foundation, as it was the realisation of his dream for peaceful childhoods. He wanted the rest of the village to cherish what Konoha represented just as much as he did, encouraging them to regard every villager as part of one large family that should always look out for each other. As Hokage, his job was to protect that family at all costs, even if that cost was his life. This philosophy, known as the "Will of Fire", would become a cornerstone of Konoha teachings for decades after his death.

The Will of Fire is demonstrative of Hashirama's general optimism when it came to other people; he believed a village-first loyalty would naturally break down the mentality that shinobi had to look out for their clans. Hashirama lived by this philosophy long before Konoha's founding, having no qualms about killing himself if it meant peace between the Uchiha and Senju clans. In fact, his entire goal of gaining more power was to have enough just to stop violence. One example of this was he believed if the two most powerful clans during the Warring States Period were to join forces, there would be no other shinobi clan to stand against them and would stop selling their services, effectively ending the Warring States Period. He always saw the best in others, either trusting that they acted in good faith or that they could, through non-violent means, be reasoned with. He was humble, not above lowering his head to his fellow village heads or claiming inferiority to those he'd never met but whose actions he approved of. If nothing else, Hashirama was kind, placing the needs of others before his own: he was even willing to take his own life if it would help create a world where his friends and family wouldn't need to die unnecessarily. It was on these points that Tobirama disagreed with Hashirama most ardently, as Tobirama felt that Hashirama should have a greater value of himself and a greater suspicion of others. It was, similarly, on these points that Hashirama was at his most forceful, asserting his views over Tobirama's; though Tobirama did not often agree, he knew better than to oppose his brother. Hashirama is also well-balanced on this regard as he didn't exert his force over Tobirama over past actions that cannot be changed such as when finding out Tobirama seemingly mistreated the Uchiha, he expressed anger, but didn't exert his force as it didn't do any good.

Hashirama had a lifelong friendship and rivalry with Madara Uchiha, eventually considering him a brother. As children, they would spend much of their free time together, talking, playing, and planning for a future that they weren't sure would ever come. Both were willing to oppose their own fathers by refusing to kill each other, but only Hashirama kept up this refusal into adulthood; even as enemies, Hashirama would go out of his way for Madara, restraining himself (and Tobirama) so as not to hurt him and indulging Madara's desires at his own consequence. When they were able to rekindle their friendship by making Konoha, Hashirama placed a great deal of trust in Madara by desiring him to be Hokage, believing it was the best way for Madara to recover from the loss of his brothers. When this ultimately failed, Hashirama respected Madara's opinions and dissatisfaction with the village, but would not permit him to move against Konoha, killing him in the end with sadness and reluctance in order to protect what they'd made together. Despite everything, Hashirama considered Madara his friend to the very end.

## Abilities

Hashirama was famed as the strongest shinobi of his era and one of the strongest in history, reputed as a God of Shinobi. Madara, another legendary shinobi, openly admitted inferiority to Hashirama throughout their entire lifetime together, even with the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and the Nine-Tails at his disposal. Through his unique powers, Hashirama had been able to subdue and capture eight of the nine free-roaming tailed beasts on his own. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kabuto proclaimed that the man's might as a ninja was so vast that it was held in a fantasy light similar to the Sage of Six Paths, stating that no one, aside from Madara, had come close to matching him ever since his passing.

### Chakra and Physical Prowess

As a Senju, and a reincarnation of Asura Ōtsutsuki, Hashirama possessed a powerful life-force and physical energy. This made his chakra remarkably strong, and so dense that it could visibly affect his surroundings when released as powerful shockwaves. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, after seeing Naruto Uzumaki distribute his and the Nine-Tails' chakra to the entire Allied Shinobi Forces, Hashirama claimed that the distributed chakra amount was almost as large as his own. His chakra control is advanced enough to perform various complex and large-scale techniques with only a few to no hand seals at all. He was also able to produce ten wood clones while maintaining a Kage-level barrier.

Hashirama's life-force also grants him enough stamina to fight nonstop for a twenty-four hour period while still left prime to battle, and a will strong enough to resist the control of the perfected Impure World Reincarnation with ease, even after his cells were used to strengthen the technique's binding. His body was brimming with vitality, granting him considerable regenerative powers that could mend most injuries with no residual effects, an ability that only Tsunade's technique or Naruto's own healing when he accesses Kurama's chakra have both came close to emulating.

### Ninjutsu

As a Senju, Hashirama is trained in a variety of shinobi skills. He could summon multiple Rashōmon gates to protect himself from nearly any attack. He could use barrier ninjutsu advanced enough to subdue the Ten-Tails. He had unprecedented skill in medical ninjutsu, able to heal wounds without forming hand seals. His skill in fūinjutsu could store several different types of weapons for battle, with which he showed versatile skill in bukijutsu, able to fight on par with Madara. In the anime, he could also break Madara's control over the Nine-Tails.

#### Nature Transformation

Hashirama was proficient in all five basic nature transformations, along with Yin and Yang Release. He was most famous for his use of Wood Release, a combination of earth and water-natured chakra, creating wood and plants from the ground or his very being of various sizes and shapes that he manipulated to his purposes. This ability was apparently exclusive to him as no one else has naturally acquired this power; any replications are noticeably pale in comparison to Hashirama's capabilities.

Hashirama could completely change the landscape with his constructs. He also had more ingenious usages such as making wood clones that are nearly indistinguishable from himself. He could make flowering trees whose pollen rendered opponents unconscious, protective structures able to withstand Tailed Beast Balls, giant hands to apprehend large targets, as well as a giant humanoid creature able to clash with Madara's Complete Body — Susanoo. In the anime, his precision and dexterity with his Wood Release could wield and launch his various weapons from afar, allowing him to attack from multiple angles.

Hashirama's Wood Release also granted him a method of subduing and controlling the tailed beasts. By making direct hand contact or channelling it through his Wood Release, Hashirama could use the Hokage-Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique — Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands to put the beast to sleep. He acquired several tailed beasts in this way and was able to maintain control over all of them at the same time. Likewise, he could create wood dragons to wrap around any targets and absorb their chakra. It was by this power that he earned fame as one of few people who could completely control a tailed beast.

### Senjutsu

Because of his large chakra reserves, Hashirama could use senjutsu and enter Sage Mode — a feat he could perform instantaneously. In this mode, he gains red (black in the anime) markings around and under his eyes as well in the middle of his forehead. While it is not known where he learned it, Hashirama proved formidable in its usage, riding about on his wood techniques as a means to be mobile in battle while maintaining the stillness of one's self needed to continue building up natural energy to keep this mode activated. Hashirama could perform powerful seals to bind targets, even those as large as the Ten-Tails. The power of Sage Mode would also greatly augment his Wood Release, causing his constructs to become considerably larger and more dangerous, as seen with his largest creation, the Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands: by using it to deliver an enormous barrage of punches, it could strip Susanoo from the Nine-Tails plus was chiefly responsible for the formation of the Valley of the End.

### Other Skills

Hashirama was skilled enough in taijutsu to match experts like Madara and Hiruzen, and could cast genjutsu to lock a target in perpetual darkness for the technique's duration. Hashirama was shown to be fast enough to outrun the Nine-Tails during his battle with Madara, allowing him to lead the battle to the shoreline.