Hashirama Senju

Hashirama was the eldest of four sons. Hashirama and his brothers grew up on the battlefield waging constant war with the Senju's rivals: the Uchiha clan. During his infrequent downtime, Hashirama met a boy his age named Madara, and the two quickly developed a friendly rivalry. From skipping stones to peeing in the rivers, they had competitions every single day which Hashirama usually won.

Hashirama did not approve of this practice of sending children to fight and die as he believed it would only increase the bitterness between the Senju and Uchiha clans, thus causing more deaths. After the deaths of two of his brothers Kawarama and Itama, Hashirama and Tobirama decided a new shinobi system would need to be implemented to end the cycle of child deaths. Just like Hashirama, even Madara had lost his brothers on the battlefield. Collectively they thought that they needed to create a world where children would not need to fight on the battlefield.

As a form of precaution, Hashirama and Madara did not reveal their family names but soon enough they discovered their identities. As Hashirama was a Senju and Madara was an Uchiha, it was their sworn duty to kill each other. Hashirama put his duty aside and couldn't bring himself to kill his best friend. However, their ideologies would require an alliance between the Senju and Uchiha. When they met in battle, Madara put an end to their friends so that it would not cause any hindrance to their battle. 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. Soon enough both of them became the leaders of their respective clans. Under the leadership of Hashirama, the Senju clan began to achieve superiority and this came to the point where Madara and Izuna were both at the mercy of Hashirama. 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.

However, Madara was unwilling to accept after Tobirama killed his last brother, Izuna. Filled with grief, he fought again, but yet again, Madara lost. At Madara's suggestion, Hashirama offered to kill himself to achieve a peaceful resolution. As he was about to end his own life, Madara stopped him as he was moved by the gesture and accepted 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 rekindled their friendship and gave the village a name i.e. Konohagakure. The other countries soon followed Konoha's example and built their own hidden villages. It was Hashirama's wish that Madara should become the Hokage, a person who protects the village and leads them.

Tobirama suggests that the process of electing the Hokage should be democratic and when the election took place Hashirama was chosen to be the Hokage. Hashirama wanted Madara to work as his right-hand man and then succeed him as the second Hokage. Madara thought that this position would probably go to Tobirama and that would be bad for the Uchiha clan. Madara decided that the village was a failed experiment; he abandoned it and told Hashirama that he would return and meet him in battle.

Madara attacked Konohagakure as he promised on multiple occasions. After a lot of fights and having the Nine-Tails under his control, he challenged Hashirama to one last contest. Hashirama’s efforts to capture the Nine-Tails caused large-scale destruction which led to the formation of the Valley of the End.

Throughout the battle, Hashirama tried to reason with Madara till he got too tired to fight. Then Hashirama distracted him with a wood clone and stabbed him. Madara collapsed and died while Hashirama thought about the time when they were kids.

After the battle, Tobirama hid Madara's body and Hashirama's wife sealed the Nine-Tails inside herself. After a long time, Hashirama called a Kage summit so that they could share the tailed beasts that they had acquired to balance the powers between them. But the cooperation wasn't as easy as Hashirama thought, with Tobirama saying that the other villages should pay for the tailed beasts. Hashirama’s wish to attain peace couldn't be fulfilled during his lifetime and he died when Konohagakure had just begun to flourish. Before his death, he passed the title of Hokage to Tobirama and instructed him not to mistreat the Uchiha.

Years later, when Orochimaru attacks Konohagakure so that he can kill Hiruzen, to fight his master he reincarnates both Hashirama and Tobirama. When Hashirama saw how old Hiruzen had become he realized that he had been dead for a very long time. He then also realizes that he was brought back by the Impure World Reincarnation and has no other choice but to fight Hiruzen. Orochimaru suppressed their personalities and forced them to fight Hiruzen.

As Hiruzen struggles to attack Hashirama and Tobirama, they manage to land hits on Hiruzen due to the numerous openings that they were offered. The attacks that Hiruzen lands on them hurt them but they manage to regenerate instantly since they were reincarnations. Hiruzen uses the last option that he had, i.e., to create two Shadow clones that captured both of the Hokages and use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal on them. Once their personalities had been restored, they apologized for the trouble, and Hiruzen apologized for the fate that he had given him. Thus, their souls were then pulled from their reincarnated bodies and fed to the Shinigami.

During the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Hashirama, Tobirama, Hiruzen, and Minato were reincarnated by Orochimaru on being requested by Sasuke Uchiha. Hashirama and Tobirama were very excited to meet Minato and took it as a sign that the village has flourished throughout the years. When Hashirama asks who the Fifth Hokage is and when he gets to know that it's his granddaughter Tsunade, he starts to worry about the village's fate. Sasuke requests to know about the past of the Uchiha clan from Hashirama. When he starts hearing Tobirama's story, Hashirama realizes that Tobirama did not follow what he had been told to do, like being understanding to the Uchiha. This made him angry. When Tobirama is about to attack Sasuke to protect the village, Hashirama uses just his force to stop him in his tracks.

Once updated on the current events of the Fourth Great Shinobi War and the reincarnation of Madara Uchiha, Tobirama leaves to aid in battle and help Konoha's forces. He asks for Hashirama's help. As Hashirama is very strong, he can break from the Impure World Reincarnation technique but instead of doing so, he tells Sasuke about his whole life since creating Konoha and about the Uchiha.

After hearing Hashirama's story and reflecting on his past decisions, Sasuke decides that he doesn't want to destroy Konoha. Orochimaru releases the Hokage from his control so that they could go and aid in the battle.

Hashirama is a very extroverted man. He loved meeting new people and engaging in friendly competitions and gambling. He is very headstrong and acts on his impulse, he also gets carried away with things sometimes. Whenever he receives information that troubled him, he would sulk about it, but that would be brief as he would instantly go back to being high-spirited in a matter of mere seconds. When the later generations met him, they concluded that he was not fit to be called the 'God of Shinobi' due to his personality.

Even though he has a goofy personality, Hashirama is very capable of being serious when the situation calls for it or if it's very important to him. He was opposed to the rule of sending kids to war at a young age and came up with a shinobi system in which the kids can be around others in their age group and don't need to grow up early on the battlefield.

He was very devoted to Konoha and its foundation as he wanted to create and establish peace. He wanted the villagers to cherish Konoha as much as he did and wanted them all to look out for each other. As the Hokage, his main motive was to protect his family at all costs even if he had to sacrifice his life. This came to be known as the 'Will of Fire" and became Konoha's motive and main teaching for the coming generations.

The Will of Fire showed Hashirama's optimism regarding other people. He believed that the village's loyalty came first and that the shinobis should look out for their clans. Hashirama had this philosophy even before Konoha was formed and he didn't even hesitate to sacrifice himself if it meant that there was peace between the Uchiha and Senju clans.

He always saw the best in people. He was humble and kind and didn't look down on anyone. He put others above himself. Due to this, there were times when Tobirama disagreed with Hashirama, who would have to be forceful to put his view across to Tobirama. He was well balanced too, avoiding exerting any force on Tobirama despite his past actions.

Hashirama had a long-lasting friendship and rivalry with Madara Uchiha and considered him a brother. They would spend time with each other and discuss the future that they thought they wouldn't have. Even though they were enemies, Hashirama would go out of his way for Madara’s sake.

After the war, they rekindled their friendship by founding Konoha and he placed a huge amount of trust in Madara, believing that he would become a Hokage. When that didn't happen, Hashirama accepted Madara's opinion and just told him not to go against Konoha, and this ultimately led to him killing Madara during their battle. Despite everything that happened, Hashirama always considered Madara his very dear friend till the very end.

Hashirama was a tall man who had tanned skin and dark eyes. He had long hair till his waist and had a center-parted fringe that gave shape to his face. He wore the standard shinobi clothes during his era, which was dark red armor worn over a black suit with sandals. His armor was made up of metal plates that helped to protect different parts of his body and shoulder blades that had the Senju clan symbol. Before the founding of Konoha, he used to wear white-colored clothing which had the Senju clan symbol.

When he became the Hokage, he started to wear the traditional Kage attire which was a customary maroon and white hat with a haori over the full-length maroon and white gown with a simple red headband. He also wore a light brown short-sleeve kimono shirt with mesh armor underneath.

As a child, he had a bowl haircut and he used to wear a dark kimono with a short green jacket with dark green linings and a white scarf around his neck. He also wore the traditional pinstriped kimono pants of his clan and a dark green sash which he wore around his waist.

Hashirama was one of the strongest Shinobi during his era, thus earning him the title ‘God of Shinobi.’ His powers were so strong and unique that he was able to subdue eight of the nine-tailed beasts.

As Hashirama was a reincarnation of Asura Otsutsuki, he possessed a powerful life force and physical energy. This made his chakra very strong, and it would sometimes affect his surroundings when released. Hashirama's chakra also allows him enough stamina to fight nonstop for a day. During the Fourth Great Shinobi War, as he saw Naruto distributing his Nine-Tails chakra to others, he said that the distributed chakra was as large as his. His chakra control is so advanced that he can perform various complex and large-scale techniques with few or no hand seals at all; for example, he was able to make 10 shadow clones while maintaining a Kage level barrier.

Hashirama's life force allows him to have enough stamina to fight nonstop for 24 hours while still having extra stamina left. He also has a strong will to resist the control of Impure World Reincarnation. He has good regenerative power and can fix his injuries with no side effects. He has a lot of experience and skill in medical ninjutsu and can heal wounds without forming hand seals.

As a Senju, Hashirama was skilled in various techniques like the ability to summon multiple Rashomon Gates to protect himself from attacks, and he could even use the barrier Ninjutsu to subdue the Ten-Tails. He was also very skilled in Fuinjutsu and could store several weapons for battle. He can also use Bukijutsu which can be seen in his fight against Madara.

Hashirama also learned the Yin and Yang Release. He was most famous and known for his use of Wood Release, a combination of earth and water chakra. Hashirama could completely change the landscape of his surroundings using these abilities. Only he had this ability and no one to date had acquired this ability naturally.

Hashirama could completely change the landscape with his powers. He could replicate his Wood clones so perfectly they couldn't be distinguished from him at all. He could make a flowering tree whose pollen made the enemies unconscious. He could build a huge wall to withstand the Tailed Beast Ball. He also created a humanoid to clash with Madara's complete Susanoo. As he could use Wood Release and use them as weapons, it also allowed him to have control over the weapons enabling him to attack from multiple angles.

He could also control and subdue Tailed Beasts with the help of his Wood Release. He could use the Hokage Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique by channeling his Wood Release and putting a Tailed Beast to sleep. With the help of this technique, he got a hand on a lot of Tailed Beasts and was able to control them at the same time. He would create Wood Dragons to wrap around the enemies and absorb any chakra they have. It was due to this technique that he was known by the people as the man who can control the Tailed Beasts.

Due to his large chakra reserves, Hashirama could use senjutsu and enter Sage Mode instantaneously. He tends to have red markings around his eyes and his forehead. The whereabouts of where Hashirama learned his Sage Mode are unknown. In his sage mode, he can use his Wood Release techniques as a mode of transportation and mobility in battle. Along with all this, he is still able to maintain the natural energy built up inside him to maintain Sage Mode.

When Hashirama enters Sage Mode, his Wood Release techniques become considerably larger. Some of his techniques are 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 be chiefly responsible for the formation of the Valley of the End.

He was also skilled enough in taijutsu and could match up to Madara and Hiruzen. He could even cast genjutsu and put a target into a void of darkness for the duration of the genjutsu. He can also run very fast and is seen outrunning the Ten-Tails in his battle with Madara.

Hashirama’s Sage Art: Gate of the Great God technique allows the user to bind and hold together targets, even those as large as the Ten-Tails. The user manifests a select number of massive red gates that fall from above, to pin an intended target between the gate and the ground.

Video Games

Hashirama Senju is a playable character in the following video games:

He is also featured as a support-only character in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm.

Q. Does Hashirama have infinite chakra?

A. Due to him having great chakra reserves he barely gets tired on the battlefield, thus, people think he has infinite chakra.

Q. What are Hashirama cells?

A. Hashirama cells are artificial cells that are created from the First Hokage’s DNA, which grants the user some of the traits and abilities of Hashirama.

Q. Who is Hashirama married to?

A. Hashirama Senju is married to Mito Uzumaki.