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Once upon a time, there was a prince with long brown hair who grew up tall and strong, unafraid of anything.
Beloved by all who knew him, especially his family, Prince Hashirama wandered the kingdom, making friends everywhere he went.
However, there was always a mystery that surrounded him. Conversations would sometimes stop when he grew near, surreptitious glances were cast at him, and whispers began in his wake. He observed it, but, trusting in the wisdom of his father the king, Hashirama declined to investigate.
Not so his younger brothers.
And so, while Hashirama was away on one of his adventures, his twin younger brothers Kawarama and Itama found that the castle dungeons were full of broken spindles. Confronting their father, they were told that Prince Hashirama was under a magical spell, cursed to fall asleep on his sixteenth birthday at the touch of a spindle.
King Butsuma had done his best to remove such devices from the kingdom, and he tried to reassure his two youngest children that all would be well, though the worried lines on his face gave the lie to his words. However, the twins concerns were not eased for they knew something that King Butsuma did not.
For Prince Hashirama was courting.
Courting a royal from the neighbouring kingdom, another prince, by the name of Madara. And that kingdom was a notable nation of weavers.
The twins knew that Hashirama often visited his secret betrothed, and that a secret like this - kept in order to preserve their brother's ability to live a normal life - was not something that the Uchiha royalty would know of.
So, betraying their brother's confidence, they told their father of his secret.
Enraged, King Butsuma called out the guard and sent them forth, to seek the missing prince. But they were too late, for they found their prince in the arms of his beloved, weeping over his sleeping body.
The two princes were escorted into the presence of King Butsuma who decreed that, for causing the curse to take effect, Prince Madara was to be imprisoned in the dungeons with the spindles that might remind him of the terrible fate that he had brought upon his love.
In turn, Prince Hashirama was laid upon a bier of flowers, a living remembrance to all who loved him, and the kingdom grieved even as it prepared for war, for what else could be the consequence of imprisoning the member of another royal family?
King Butsuma readied the army for a march to the borders to defend his actions, and left the twin princes Itama and Kawarama kneeling at the side of their sleeping elder brother, praying for his return to them. The army had only left for less than a day when the doors to the castle opened to reveal an unexpected figure.
It was known only to a few, but the royal family of the Senju did not have three sons, but four.
Their second child, Tobirama, had long been apprenticed to a sorcerer who lived far away. Having shown a talent for magic as a young child, he'd left to complete his studies, but returned at the news of the ill fortune that had befallen his family.
Kawarama and Itama threw themselves into the arms of their brother, babbling explanations and pleas in turn, only for Tobirama to gently admonish them to be silent. Walking to Hashirama's resting body, he indicated that they should, each of them, bestow a kiss on him.
And, upon being kissed, Prince Hashirama did indeed awaken.
The nature of the curse was to be broken by love, Tobirama explained, love of a pure and forgiving kind, that knew all faults and yet still loved with all the heart. A kiss from Prince Madara would not have worked, for he did not truly know Hashirama yet, merely the best parts of him. However, as siblings, they knew all of Hashirama and yet loved him boundlessly, enough to break the curse.
So it was that all the princes, united once more, freed prince Madara and rode out to stop the war before it had even begun.
King Tajima and King Butsuma, upon seeing their children alive and well, embraced them with joy and blessed the marriage between the two heirs. Till this day, the two kingdoms have remained close and linked by more than one marriage, but that is a matter for history and not relevant here.
The end.