Mito couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache after hearing this. Even though they hadn't seen each other in decades, how could blood ties be severed so easily?
"I'll send someone to the Land of Uzushio tomorrow to send a message and have them confirm my Big Brother's situation to see if he's still alive."
Hashirama shook his head. "That's all we can do. I hope he's alright." After so many years of friendship, Hashirama didn't want to see his old friend die so inexplicably.
"Sensei, it's very late now. You should calm down and get some rest." Torifu then looked at Tsunade and Nawaki. "You two, what are you doing still here? Go to sleep." The two who were called out looked at each other and then obediently went back to their rooms.
He then looked at Mito. "Mito-sama, the person who would be hurt the most by Senior Ashina being impersonated is Kushina. You should comfort her and not let that child get any psychological trauma."
Mito nodded with a smile. "Don't worry. I'll take good care of Kushina. You should go back and rest, too." Torifu acknowledged her words and then turned to leave.
Konoha was basically quiet now, but there were still some houses with lights on. They probably hadn't recovered yet, but Torifu couldn't care about that. He wasn't sleepy now, but he was very tired. All he wanted to do was lie in bed and rest.
When he got home, he found Minato sitting on the steps in front of the gate, nodding off and dozing. Torifu walked up and picked him up, which immediately woke Minato up.
"Big Brother! You're back! Are you hurt?" Minato asked Torifu with concern. After being woken up by the battle, he immediately ran to Torifu's room, but no one was there, so he waited at the door until now. Amado had also come out during that time and tried to tell Minato to go back, since this wasn't the first time he had seen something like this. But Minato was very stubborn. Amado had no choice but to go back to sleep.
"I'm fine. Thanks for waiting for me here."
Minato grinned. "It's no trouble. I'm just glad Big Brother isn't hurt."
Torifu carried Minato back to his room and put him on the bed. "Go to sleep. You have school tomorrow, and I'm going back, too."
"Okay, Big Brother. Get some rest." Torifu waved his hand and then went back to his own room. He simply washed off the dirt on his body, as a lot of mud and sand had splashed on him during the battle.
"Uchiha Madara getting the Rinnegan is a done deal. I can only blame myself for this. I didn't realize that Senior Ashina was a fake White Zetsu right away." Torifu had felt that something was strange on the island. Even though the Land of Uzushio had been liberated, Ashina didn't like to spend time with his sons and always stayed by himself.
At the time, Torifu didn't think much of it and just thought he was missing his eighth son who had passed away, but now it seemed that it was just to prevent being exposed.
"But it doesn't matter. All the Tailed Beasts are in Konoha, and with the Cloud Stone's seal, Uchiha Madara can't break it." He had the Rinnegan, but he couldn't gather all the Tailed Beasts, which meant that the Ten-Tails would not appear. Ōtsutsuki Kaguya would also naturally not break the seal, so Torifu would have one less enemy to worry about. But the Land of Uzushio had not been destroyed, so Nagato would naturally not become a person from the Land of Rain. The inheritor of the Rinnegan was now a mystery. This was something Torifu couldn't have predicted based on the plot he knew. He had one less major boss but one more hidden, minor boss. He didn't know if he was better off or worse off. But thinking about these things now was still a little too early. There were still over ten years before Uchiha Madara died of old age. There was no need to worry about it for now. It was useless to try to plan ahead, anyway. After a while, Torifu's thoughts became more and more jumbled, and he gradually fell asleep.
When he woke up again the next morning, it was around nine o'clock. The system woke him up, but he went back to sleep for another round. Now, Torifu felt very energetic. Minato had already gone to school at this time, so Torifu decided not to eat breakfast. He went straight to the Hokage Building. The events of yesterday were too big, so he didn't plan to use a puppet to slack off today and went to work himself. Along the way, the villagers all greeted Torifu, and Torifu returned the greeting. No one asked about last night's events. They all knew that an answer would be coming soon.
Last night's events didn't have any actual impact on Konoha, so the villagers were all in the mood to get the scoop and wanted to know what had happened. The final result would just be a topic of conversation after dinner, with the middle-aged military strategists at the end of the alley analyzing the battle from last night.
After arriving at the office and sitting in the chair, even though it was his own seat, it still felt a little foreign. This was only the second time he had sat in this seat since he became Hokage. It was also the first time he had officially worked. He took out a clean sheet of paper from the drawer and dipped the glass pen next to it in ink and began to write.
Not long after, his announcement was posted on the bulletin board. Many villagers gathered around, wanting to get the first-hand news to tell their neighbors.
"Last night, a mysterious foreign enemy attempted to infiltrate Konoha and assassinate the First Hokage, but he was discovered by Third Hokage, who immediately rushed to the scene, intercepted him outside of Konoha, and after a period of battle, finally killed the enemy!"
"Yes! I knew Hokage-sama was the strongest! Last night's intense battle seemed like an even match, but I didn't expect Hokage-sama to kill him."
The announcement was spread throughout Konoha in less than twenty minutes. Everyone knew about the Hokage killing the mysterious foreign enemy. However, these announcements were only for the villagers and regular ninjas to see.
Inside the office, Torifu was organizing his official duties and preparing to run away, but at this moment, a knock on the door sounded. Then Uchiha Kagami walked in and closed the door.
"Torifu, who was the enemy last night? Was it Uchiha Setsuna again? I saw the Susanoo."
For Kagami, the head of the Uchiha Clan, Torifu naturally didn't need to hide anything. "Since you saw the Susanoo, you know that it naturally couldn't have been Uchiha Setsuna."
"It was Uchiha Madara. He's not dead yet."
When Kagami heard this name, he immediately felt a chill. This name was an ominous cloud hanging over the entire Uchiha Clan. He was a ninja who was on par with Hashirama, but he ultimately betrayed the village and even wanted to destroy Konoha. But he was killed by Hashirama, that's what they were told!
"You should know about the forbidden jutsu of your Uchiha Clan."
"Izanagi."