HSU: Ch. 348

After speaking, Tobirama went right back to tinkering with his experiment. Watching him work so intently was still different from watching Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin approached experiments from a purely self-interested perspective. Every result served himself. Tobirama, on the other hand, conducted research to develop ninjutsu usable by the majority, or to study an enemy's weaknesses. He wasn't interested in experimentation itself.

A look of excitement would never appear on Tobirama's face. He didn't enjoy this kind of research.

The Wood Release experiment was the project he had poured the most time and effort into during his life, yet never completed. Not because Tobirama lacked ability, but because he set his goals extremely high. He wanted to create a technique that ordinary people could use, one capable of restraining tailed beasts.

Just like how he once developed the Shadow Clone Technique based on the Wood Clone Technique. Avoiding bloodline-restricted requirements was his bottom line. Even if special talent was needed, it had to be the kind of talent that could appear in the general population. Flying Thunder God was already the most talent-dependent technique he had ever created.

But Wood Release's suppressive effect on tailed beasts remained a wall he could never break through.

Wood Release itself wasn't difficult. Tobirama had long since mastered basic Wood Release and even left behind a complete set of usage manuals. But that version of Wood Release had zero suppressive power over tailed beasts, just an ordinary elemental style.

During Hiruzen's era, since they couldn't rely on the Uchiha, Hiruzen and Danzō attempted emergency living-body transplants to create a batch of usable Wood Release combatants. The failure was even more disastrous, and the Senju essentially declared their exit from the stage.

Later, Danzō secretly continued the experiments with Orochimaru's help. The one "successful" result was purely an accident.

By the time Minato came into power, tensions between the Uchiha and the Hokage's office had eased. Konoha finally abandoned that path and relied on Uzumaki and Uchiha techniques to manage tailed beast power instead. The Uchiha even procured a complete set of Kumo's perfect jinchūriki technology for the Hokage's office, further highlighting the value of the Uzumaki clan's abilities.

But for a perfectionist like Tobirama, the Wood Release experiment had long ceased to be simply a village-strengthening project. It had become tied to his pride as a technologist. The man who single-handedly raised the lower bound of Konoha's ninjutsu system could not tolerate an unsolved problem.

The primary reason he and Hashirama were still lingering here in their reanimated forms was precisely because Wood Release remained unfinished. He wanted to keep tackling it. Hashirama was only here to accompany his brother, and because he worried about Madara.

Today, however, Hashirama wasn't around. Instead, Masashi was keeping Tobirama company.

Tobirama tinkered all the way until afternoon, nearly dinner time, before finally pulling himself away from the experiment. His expression was foul. He turned his attention back to Masashi, who had been bored to death for hours.

"Masashi, you've worked hard."

"I'm not tired at all," Masashi answered honestly. "Speaking of which, Wood Release experiments have actually already succeeded, in a way."

Even if they couldn't suppress tailed beasts, Wood Release wasn't useless. It was just that Tobirama's perfectionism had been thoroughly inherited by Hiruzen's faction. They believed Wood Release without tailed-beast suppression was worthless. But in truth, Wood Release had strong suppression against Water and Earth Release. If a jinchūriki happened to possess both water and earth chakra natures, it would actually be very useful.

As for the supposedly successful Yamato, his ability to suppress tailed beasts was honestly nothing special. This really wasn't a matter of technique. It was a matter of whether you had a cheat or not.

"Another option is always good," Tobirama said.

In his heart, the Uchiha would never be fully trustworthy. As for the Uzumaki, they hadn't directly participated in founding the village. Tobirama, too, possessed a pride unique to the Senju. Even though the Senju no longer existed, he still hoped their renown would continue in some other form.

"Enough about that. Let's go."

He tidied up the laboratory, then invited Masashi to leave with him.

There was actually a major downside to conducting experiments in Edo Tensei bodies. Fundamentally, they were just clumps of dust. Their clothes and everything else were fake. If they picked up any odor, they could only wait for it to dissipate on its own. And Edo Tensei could not smell it themselves.

In his previous life, Masashi had only used freshly-created bodies for sneak attacks.

As soon as they stepped out of the laboratory, Tobirama began hopping along energetically. Masashi followed his pace. Even though the Second Hokage said nothing, Masashi knew that if he slipped away now, Tobirama would definitely come back demanding to know why he wasn't reading the air.

He was really hard to serve.

Soon, the two left Konoha's tall walls behind and ventured deep into the forest. Masashi felt he already knew where the First Hokage was. Before long, the sound of water reached them, along with the cool breeze that only came from a wide open surface of water.

The dense forest abruptly disappeared, as though erased. Before them lay a lake nearly twice its former size.

The Valley of the End of old had become a lake of the new era. The best activity here nowadays was diving, because at the bottom of the lake, one could see the massive broken statues buried deep below, giving the place a strong air of ancient ruins.

But Konoha's craftsmen would never carve statues here again. The newer generations weren't idiots. Why waste effort building something just to have someone destroy it one day? Besides, this time it wasn't the two founders fighting.

With a strong leap, Tobirama landed at the lake's edge.

The lake surface was smooth, the wind pushing the water in waves toward the muddy shore before pulling it back again. The breeze felt pleasant on the skin.

Of course, he felt none of it. He stopped here because of a person. Ahead, someone stood at the lakeside, gazing across the water.

Tobirama walked toward him.

The man turned around and spoke, "Where's Taka?"

"Behind us."

Just then, a figure whooshed out of nowhere.

"Oh! You're here!" Hashirama said happily.

Masashi, who had just landed, wore a helpless expression. He had gone around first to check the surroundings and only came over after making sure no one else was nearby.

"I want to thank you," Hashirama said, slipping smoothly into a Minato-style tone, "The Uchiha clan and the village have finally become one family. This has always been my and Tobirama's wish. Actually, there's something else. We both hope that you can become the Fifth Hokage. Whether the Uchiha clan can truly become one family with the village depends entirely on you."

Once Hashirama turned serious, Tobirama did as well.

He continued, "As he said, the power of the Uchiha is indispensable to the village. And during the ninja wars, although they were unwilling to cooperate with my commands due to their lack of trust in me, once the enemy entered the Land of Fire, they still fought bravely."

Thinking this far, he showed a measure of recognition toward the Uchiha clan.

"I don't trust the Uchiha clan because their mental state is unstable. But I also admit that they, too, regard the village as their home. If they are to truly stand together with everyone else, the only way is for an Uchiha to become Hokage."

He looked at Masashi.

"If that person is you, then there's no problem. Now is not the time for you to be willful. We're all gone. This responsibility, you must take it up."

Masashi fell silent for a moment.

"You can still be here," he finally said. "I can now use the Rinne Rebirth Technique as well. I just haven't found a way to transfer the cost yet."

"Rinne Rebirth..." Hashirama carefully savored the name. It sounded very high-end to him. "Judging by the name, it's probably some kind of resurrection technique. If that's the case, I refuse."

When he said this, he was extremely serious.

"In Konoha's story, the part that belongs to me has already ended. Those who have left returning to the story will only bring trouble to others. And besides, the current me isn't the real me."

"We have no memories after death," Tobirama added. "That means our souls are not here. This is merely chakra. The real us are probably still in the true Pure Land right now, worrying about the village and our families. But we also trust you all. That outcome is the best one. Even if you revived us, we wouldn't be happy."

"You two really let go easily..." Masashi sighed. "Isn't it good to live again?"

"It's just a difference in attitude," Tobirama smiled. "Fearing death isn't a bad thing. That you can live again as an Uchiha makes us very happy as well. After all, we share responsibility for failing to protect you back then."

"I don't need your protection," Masashi said with a sour expression. "You couldn't even protect yourselves."

"So are you taking the Hokage position or not?" Hashirama said, hands on his hips. "From my personal experience, being Hokage is very easy. You don't need to worry about being busy."

Tobirama couldn't pretend he hadn't heard that. He looked at Hashirama. But persuading Masashi was more important.

"Although the method of selecting the Hokage was proposed by me, it wasn't aimed at Madara. It was a method that had to be adopted. Back then, if we hadn't done it that way, whether it was Hashirama or anyone else, it would have been very awkward."

He paused, then said, "There are some people, if they don't become Hokage, no one else can. Now, that person is you."

Actually, there was no need for them to say anything. Masashi already knew that he would definitely become the Fifth Hokage.

Over the past half year or so, he hadn't been idle. At the very least, he had thoroughly sounded out the mood of the people in the village.

Starting with the former Sarutobi faction: the Ino-Shika-Chō clans went without saying. Within the old Sarutobi camp, they were relatively well-behaved in how they benefited from things. They had no other demands, only that their existing interests be preserved.

As for the Sarutobi clan itself, they were placing their hopes on the next generation. Until then, they simply wished not to be targeted. The Uzumaki, although dissatisfied that the Fourth Hokage wanted to retire after less than twenty years in office, still felt confident about their future thanks to the perfected jinchūriki technology. As for their expectations for the next Hokage, they hoped it would be someone who had a good relationship with the Fourth.

The Hyūga, Aburame, and Inuzuka clans were particularly straightforward: they wanted an Uchiha to become Hokage so that the good days they were currently enjoying could continue. Setting aside the ninja clans, among the various military leaders within the village, those originally aligned with the Sarutobi faction did not want to face retaliatory purges from a successor. After all, they had not always behaved very gracefully in the past.

And so, all conditions ultimately pointed to Masashi. Kakashi had also been nominated, but he couldn't get past the military leaders' approval. Because most people believed he would seek to avenge his father.

That group included the Sarutobi clan. At the same time, his achievements were insufficient to command the respect of the village's military leaders. The only person capable of keeping those leaders in check was Masashi. In fact, the only ones willing to vote for Kakashi were relatively rear-line groups such as the Administration Department and the Sealing Corps.

Even the ANBU ninjas were unwilling to support Kakashi. His popularity within ANBU had not been good back then. The Administration Department was the same. They did not trust Kakashi's abilities in administrative management.

With such a weak "opponent," practically a declared placeholder, and with Tsunade and Jiraiya unwilling to take over the burden, Masashi had no way to avoid it.

"If the village truly needs me to become Hokage, then I will do it. Of course, I also hope the village can become even better."

"That's the best way to think about it," Hashirama said happily.

"Since you've agreed, we will also choose an appropriate time to leave," Tobirama said. "We believe you can properly handle the issue of Madara."

"That's right, Madara, he's a..." Hashirama had intended to give Madara a push, but swallowed the words halfway through.

Masashi understood Madara quite well, and unlike Tobirama, he did not harbor the same biases, so there was no need for concern.

"You're leaving?" Masashi asked, momentarily stunned.

From the end of the Chūnin Exams until now, he had grown very accustomed to the presence of the two of them, even though it was in the form of Edo Tensei. Most of the people in the village felt the same. He had even thought they would stay indefinitely, since the Wood Release experiments were a project destined to fail.

"We can't stay here forever. This isn't a normal situation, and it's not good for the village."

Tobirama had already done everything he could for Konoha at its current stage. If he stayed any longer, he didn't know what meaning it would have. The present Konoha lacked neither combat strength nor technology.

What's more, the Edo Tensei was an inhumane, sinful technique. Using this ninjutsu was, in essence, a form of meddling with time and space. The two of them, he and Hashirama, wandering around day after day as reanimated corpses, were hardly a good example to set. Now, all he wanted was to see Masashi become Hokage. If that happened, he would have no regrets at all.

"I understand," Masashi said, not continuing to persuade him.

Even for Tobirama's sake, he had to take on the role of Hokage. As for Hashirama's claim that being Hokage was easy, only an idiot would believe that. Still, Hashirama's successful experience was something that could be thoroughly learned from.

Thinking of this, Masashi revealed a gentle smile. A newly appointed Fifth Hokage should, of course, make good use of the Fourth Hokage. Back then, hadn't the Fourth Hokage relied quite a bit on the Third as well?

That, too, was the Will of Fire.

"Why are you smiling so strangely?"

"I'm just thinking about how to become an excellent Hokage like you."

"Oh my, don't say that. I'm really not that great," Hashirama said, feeling uncharacteristically embarrassed. "Actually, it was Tobirama who helped me a lot."

"However, that wasn't voluntary on my part," Tobirama said coldly.

Thinking back on those years, his expression darkened for quite some time before he finally recovered. Then he said to Masashi, "Don't learn from him. One Hokage like that is more than enough."

"No, I plan to learn from you," Masashi said readily.

Tobirama's mood instantly improved.

"Good. I believe in you," he said, his emotions slightly stirred as he couldn't help but pat Masashi on the shoulder.

---

After a while, Tobirama and Masashi finally finished their conversation.

"Alright, everything that needed to be said has been said. Once you become Hokage, we'll leave," Tobirama said, pointing at Hashirama beside him, then to Masashi. "It's getting late. Don't you still have an evening appointment with the Uchiha and Hyūga clan? Go take care of your business. Leave this thing to me. From now on, we'll still be careful to address you as Masashi."

That sentence made Masashi feel rather melancholic. But Tobirama was a man who kept his word. Once he said something, there would be no going back on it. This would be the last time he interacted with the two of them in such a familiar way.

From now on, even in their eyes, he would be Masashi, not Taka.

"I'm leaving."

"Mm. Go. Don't look back."

The last line was spoken by Hashirama.

Masashi took one final look at the two of them, then departed with the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Hashirama and Tobirama watched the spot where he vanished, then turned their gaze toward the direction of Konoha. They stood by the lakeside for a long time, until night completely descended upon the land and their figures were swallowed by the darkness.

The Konoha of the night was as noisy and bustling as ever.