1 The village hidden in leaves - Konohagakure

During the Warring States Period, the countries of the world were uniformly small, constantly battling each other for land, power, and opportunity. To fight these battles, countries hired one or more clans of mercenary shinobi to represent their interests, the shinobi's loyalties ultimately going to the highest bidder. The constant warfare, in turn, led to constant death, creating an average lifespan of only thirty years. Children were the greatest victims of the era, forced to fight for their clan no differently than an adult would and, more often than not, being killed by older and more skilled opponents. In an attempt to avoid conflict caused by the ever-changing alliances and resulting vendettas, shinobi were in the habit of never divulging their family names to strangers.

Amidst all the vying for supremacy, two clans emerged as the strongest: the Senju clan, famed for their balanced skill in all the shinobi arts, and the Uchiha clan, famed for their Sharingan. Whenever one side in a conflict hired one of the clans, the opposing side would hire the other clan. This constant competition created a deep-seated animosity between its members, with all Senju having lost a loved one to an Uchiha and vice versa. Despite the clans' enmity, it would be the Senju and Uchiha that brought an end to the Warring States Period.

Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha met as children, unaware of each other's identity. They soon became friends, bonding over the deaths of their brothers, their desire to protect their remaining siblings, and their dreams of a peaceful world where children wouldn't need to fight.

Hashirama and Madara eventually learned whom the other was, a Senju and an Uchiha, preventing them from continuing to meet under friendly circumstances. Over the following years, the two regularly met and fought on the battlefield, with each in time becoming the leader of his respective clan. Hashirama attempted to use their new positions to broker peace between their clans at long last, finally achieving the dreams they'd had as children. Although Madara was tempted, the death of his last remaining brother, Izuna, committed him to continue the fight. Other Uchiha(s), however, found the prospect of peace tempting and started surrendering to the Senju in growing numbers. With his support running out, Madara made a last stand against Hashirama and the Senju and was summarily defeated. From his defeat and Hashirama's willingness to give his own life to stop the bloodshed, Madara was convinced to accept the peace proposal.

The allied Senju and Uchiha formed a pact with the Land of Fire to allow them to establish a shinobi village within its borders, what would be called Konohagakure-The village hidden in leaves. Other clans wishing to share in the new peace settled in Konoha as well, the Shimura and Sarutobi clans being amongst the first. Other clans in other countries, fearful of the combined might of the Senju and Uchiha, created their respective villages. Thus was the Warring States Period brought to an end, replaced by the Shinobi Organisational System of the Five Great Shinobi Countries.

Hashirama used his Wood Release abilities to produce much of the village's infrastructure.[4] This ability and his ideals were two of the reasons he was chosen to become the village's leader: the Hokage. Madara, however, feared that the Senju would oppress his clan and attempted to gather support to overthrow Hashirama. No Uchiha would help, forcing him to take on Hashirama by himself. Madara was ultimately defeated at what would be called the Valley of the End and he was believed to have died. As a result of the battle, Konoha came into possession of the Nine-Tails. To contain its enormous power, the village began its trend of sealing the beast within the Uzumaki, a clan that the Senju and thus the rest of Konoha had close ties with.

Thus, began the cruel fate of the Uzamakis', as the bearer of the Nine-Tails.

At some point, Hashirama came to bind some of the other tailed beasts and gave them to the other newly formed ninja villages to promote peace. However, this peace was short-lived.

Konoha took part in the first three Shinobi World Wars. Hashirama died shortly after the village began to flourish, and the mantle of Hokage was passed onto his brother Tobirama Senju, who became the Second Hokage. During his administration, making attempts so that no other Uchiha would end up like Madara, Tobirama created the Konoha Military Police Force and placed the Uchiha in charge of it. As the building also housed the jail and was located in the vicinity of the Uchiha's compound, this essentially ostracised them from the rest of the village. In giving them this task, Tobirama hoped to redirect the emotional Uchiha into a task which would benefit the village as well as save them from their Curse of Hatred. Tobirama died during the First Shinobi World War when he sacrificed himself to ensure the escape of his subordinates Hiruzen Sarutobi, Kagami Uchiha, Torifu Akimichi as well as Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane from Kumogakure's Kinkaku Force. Having inherited the mantle of Hokage, Hiruzen later led Konoha's forces during the Second Shinobi World War where his three students Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru became known as the Legendary Sannin. Other than fighting across Amegakure with numerous clashes with its leader Hanzō, little is known of Konoha's actions during the war. Konoha became involved in the Third Shinobi World War fighting the ninja of Iwagakure at Kusagakure. Konoha was almost defeated, but Minato Namikaze helped turn the war back in their favour with his apprentice Obito Uchiha among those who "died" during the war.

After the end of the Third Shinobi World War, Minato was chosen as the Fourth Hokage. However, Minato's administration was short-lived as Obito, having fallen into the Curse of Hatred and became an heir Madara's legacy, snuck into the village and removing Kurama, the Nine-tails from its current host, Minato's wife, Kushina Uzumaki, to have the tailed beast attack Konoha. Minato was able to defeat the masked ninja, unaware of his true identity, but he and Kushina later sacrificed their lives to seal the Nine-Tails into their son, Naruto Uzumaki. Many ninjas died defending the village that day and blame for the events were projected on both Naruto and the Uchiha clan, the former unaware that he became the Nine-Tails's Jinchūriki and latter secretly accused of orchestrating the attack.