Having just been thoroughly mocked by Hanzō...
The anger Hanzō had stirred up in Tobirama hadn't even faded before he was saddled with an even bigger accusation.
No matter how calm and rational he usually was, even he was starting to lose it.
"And how exactly does this resemble Senju Tobirama?" Tobirama asked irritably.
That clueless Hanzō had done nothing more than criticize his ninjutsu from back then for being somewhat morally questionable...
"Look, let me break it down for you..."
Izuna wasn't in any hurry. He understood why Seisui had reacted the way he did.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, that man was Seisui's grandfather—and the Second Hokage of Konohagakure.
At the end of the day, he was still family...
Tobirama let out a cold chuckle and gestured for Izuna to continue.
As long as this ridiculous deduction lacked a sound chain of logic, he was determined to mock it into oblivion!
He wasn't letting this grudge go.
"Based on everything we know, this mysterious powerhouse has the following traits. Let's go through them one by one."
Izuna spoke calmly and methodically.
"First, he's a shinobi from the Warring States Era."
"Second, he's obsessed with both my elder brother and Hashirama, and he's constantly slandering my elder brother."
"Third, he possesses a space-time movement technique that's extremely similar to the Flying Thunder God Technique."
"Fourth, he also commands powerful techniques resembling repulsive force, silent infiltration, chakra concealment, and more. Even my Mangekyō Sharingan couldn't see through them. They're absolutely Kinjutsu-level abilities."
"Fifth—and this is the most important point..."
Izuna spoke with complete seriousness.
"His feelings toward Konoha are extremely complicated. You can see that too, can't you, Seisui?"
"From what happened with Uchiha Yashiro to the attacks on Hanzō and Nagato, he never truly pushed anything to the point of no return. And in the end, he didn't gain anything for himself either..."
Izuna fell silent for a moment, searching for the right words to describe that awkward feeling.
"It's more like... a test."
"If Konoha can withstand it, then it earns a reward."
"If it can't..."
"Then it deserves to be punished."
Izuna smiled faintly.
"That mindset tells me with absolute certainty that he's a shinobi born into one of the great clans of the Warring States Era—and someone who held a position of authority. Back in our time, every clan patriarch acted that way..."
"They said Tobirama was only second-in-command, but in reality, he handled most of the Senju Clan's affairs."
The first person Izuna thought of was his own father, Uchiha Tajima.
But it certainly wasn't just Uchiha Tajima.
Pick any old clan head from the Warring States Era and you'd find they all operated in much the same way. The only differences were the degree and the details.
Meanwhile, Tobirama found himself thinking of his own father, Senju Butsuma.
Butsuma had indeed been exactly the kind of man Izuna was describing...
"I understand how he thinks."
"In his eyes, if Konoha's system can't even withstand a single high-pressure crisis, then it never deserved to survive in the first place."
"But if all he created were crises, he'd simply be nothing more than an agent of chaos. That's why every crisis he sets up contains a reward that can only be earned by overcoming it. Only then does the logic remain consistent."
Fearing Seisui might not fully understand, Izuna used Tobirama as an example.
"The Konoha Military Police Force is a textbook case."
"Senju Tobirama tied the Uchiha Clan to that institution. His intentions were indeed malicious..."
Izuna continued slowly.
"But can anyone honestly say he never gave the Uchiha a chance? Even I wouldn't make such an unfair judgment."
"The Military Police held tremendous authority, but breaking the deadlock required extremely careful management."
"If the Uchiha could restrain their intense emotions and keep their own flaws in check, then with the authority of the Military Police, they could gradually build ties with every major shinobi clan..."
"If they'd followed the path I just described, then over time the Uchiha would have become deeply intertwined with Konoha itself. Even if Senju Tobirama remained the Second Hokage, there would've been nothing he could do about it."
Izuna suddenly changed direction.
"But the Uchiha failed the test. They never figured it out."
"And so they ended up as they did before—hated by the entire village and isolated from everyone else."
"There's one point you absolutely need to understand."
"If the Uchiha had passed the Military Police test, there's an overwhelming chance Senju Tobirama would've stopped targeting them. He was the kind of man who'd accept the outcome of his own wager."
"That's the classic Warring States-style trial—a crisis that contains its own reward."
"So, Seisui, do you understand now?"
"The way Senju Tobirama thinks and the way that mysterious powerhouse thinks..."
"They're practically cast from the same mold."
Izuna laid out every step of his reasoning, piece by piece, presenting the entire chain of logic to Tobirama.
Tobirama took a deep breath.
He was already on the verge of completely losing his composure.
The pursuit of truth meant gathering evidence, reasoning from it, and gradually approaching the answer.
That was one of the most fundamental principles of scientific research.
Naturally, Tobirama understood that better than anyone.
The five pieces of evidence Izuna had presented formed an incredibly complete case from every conceivable angle.
If he hadn't been Senju Tobirama in his previous life...
He might actually have believed it.
But that was the problem.
He was Senju Tobirama!
That mysterious powerhouse wasn't him!
Before Izuna brought it up, Tobirama had never once felt they were alike.
How could they possibly resemble each other?
But after hearing Izuna's careful, well-reasoned analysis...
Even Tobirama was beginning to doubt himself.
...He hadn't secretly researched some forbidden technique to split his soul, had he?
And Izuna's understanding of the Military Police struck even closer to home.
Just as Izuna had said, if the Uchiha could swallow that poisoned fruit known as the Konoha Military Police Force, then it would prove their character had been tempered within Konoha itself and that they had become worthy of trust.
In that case...
They deserved to keep every benefit that came with it.
But when Tobirama projected that same line of thinking onto the mysterious powerhouse...
It became even harder to deny the resemblance.
Take the Uchiha Yashiro incident.
If Hiruzen had failed to handle it properly, it would've dealt a devastating blow to the Will of Fire and even undermined the very foundation of the shinobi code.
But because he had handled it well...
It instead became a perfect opportunity to unite the people's hearts and bring the nobility over to Konoha's side.
The same was true of Amegakure this time.
If Konoha failed to respond appropriately, the newly established alliance would immediately fall apart.
But Hiruzen responded just as quickly.
As a result, the integration between Amegakure and Konoha was advancing at a pace visible to the naked eye.
They had even begun setting up Flying Thunder God formations throughout Amegakure...
In Tobirama's eyes, although the two villages had only just begun cooperating on the surface, Amegakure had already become completely tied to Konoha's war chariot in every meaningful way. Separating the two was now nearly impossible...
It was an alliance unlike anything the shinobi world had ever seen.
"..."
Even someone as eloquent as Tobirama found himself at a loss for words.
He couldn't exactly burst into laughter, reveal his identity, and shout, You've been fooled, idiot!
I'm Tobirama!
This was downright bullying the dead because they couldn't speak!
"Actually, there's a much simpler way to verify it..."
Seeing that Seisui had fallen silent, Izuna cleared his throat.
"We just need to try using the Impure World Reincarnation on him. If we can successfully reanimate him, then Senju Tobirama is innocent."
"But if we can't..."
Izuna let out a knowing chuckle.
"Seisui, you wouldn't know this, but back in the Warring States Era, Senju Tobirama used this trick all the time."
"It worked exceptionally well on enemies who had faked their deaths or whose fates were uncertain. It almost never failed."
Tobirama had gone completely numb.
...Huh?
They're going to reanimate me too?
Wait, where did another piece of evidence come from?
What is this even supposed to accomplish?!
Tobirama could practically feel the blame piling higher and higher on his shoulders...
At this rate, everyone would soon have him convicted without a trial.
'...I think I'm finally starting to understand Danzō.'
'It's not that he couldn't keep his cool.'
For a brief moment, Tobirama found himself genuinely sympathizing with his second disciple.
Back during the Uchiha Yashiro incident, quite a few people in the village had assumed Danzō was behind it.
Later, after Tobirama became his "disciple" and joined the new Root, Danzō's attitude toward Seisui had been noticeably different. He often shared thoughts with him that he would normally only confide in Hiruzen.
Time and again, he'd angrily complain about how everyone in the village had misunderstood him and dumped the blame on his shoulders.
Back then, Tobirama had thought...
His second disciple simply lacked the proper temperament.
How could someone in that position avoid taking the blame?
Back when he had been the Senju Clan's second-in-command, he'd endured endless criticism himself, yet he'd always ignored it.
But now...
The only difference was that the accusations hadn't been serious enough before.
But if they were this serious...
Even he was starting to crack under the weight.
Who could possibly shoulder a charge like that?
Even if he really were the original Darkness of the Shinobi, they couldn't keep trashing his reputation like this!
"...You're really going to reanimate Senju Tobirama?"
Tobirama spoke with noticeably less confidence than before.
"He invented the Impure World Reincarnation himself. Logically speaking, he should've left some kind of backdoor for himself. So even if it doesn't work, that would be perfectly normal, wouldn't it?"
"I'm not trying to defend him or anything..."
Izuna looked at Tobirama with open admiration.
"You really are a man of loyalty and compassion, Seisui."
In Izuna's eyes, Senju Tobirama's actions had been one of the major reasons why "Seisui's" parents had left the village, and one of the root causes behind "Seisui" being kidnapped by Kusagakure.
Yet instead of clinging to hatred...
"Seisui" was actually speaking up in Tobirama's defense.
Such broad-mindedness and generosity were rare not only among the Uchiha, but throughout the entire shinobi world.
Of course, the real reason was simply that "Seisui" didn't have parents...
While Tobirama did.
But Izuna had no way of knowing that.
"As for that..."
Izuna pondered for a moment.
"I actually think Senju Tobirama can be reanimated."
"Think carefully about the kind of man he was."
"Without question, there would be plenty of people who wanted revenge against him."
"But his disciple was Hiruzen! The secrecy of the Impure World Reincarnation was exceptionally high. Back then, only the Uchiha—who fought him regularly—might have been able to see through a bit of it. But the Uchiha were part of Konoha as well."
"As for everyone else who could come into contact with it, they'd all be people trusted by the Hokage—people worthy of trust."
Three tomoe unconsciously appeared in Izuna's eyes as he placed himself in Tobirama's shoes.
"So if I were him..."
"I'd absolutely leave a backdoor in the Impure World Reincarnation."
"But not one that made myself impossible to reanimate."
"I'd make it so that, after being reanimated, I'd have a way to free myself."
"That way, if Konoha ever suffered a catastrophic blow and the next generation needed the strength of a former Hokage, I'd still be able to lend a hand instead of remaining completely unaware in the Pure Land."
"What do you think, Seisui?"
At that moment, a thin layer of cold sweat unconsciously formed across Tobirama's back.
This is bad...
He figured it out.
How is this guy still able to see through my way of thinking so accurately after all these years?
Why does my back feel wet?
Is that... sweat?
Impossible.
It was only Izuna.
There was no way he'd break into a sweat just because of Izuna.
"..."
"...That's only..."
Tobirama rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Isn't there any other possibility?"
"He was the Second Hokage. Why would he oppose Konoha?"
"And Senju Tobirama's death back then was so sudden that it shook the entire shinobi world. It was recorded by numerous independent sources."
"You make a valid point. It's not as though there are no other possibilities."
Izuna analyzed the matter rationally.
"Forbidden techniques weren't something Senju Tobirama invented alone."
"The shinobi world has never lacked heroes and geniuses."
"If we look at it from that perspective, then at least two other possibilities come to mind."
Apparently inspired by Tobirama's line of reasoning, Izuna's imagination began to run wild.
"First, this person could be an Uchiha with an exceptionally powerful Mangekyō ability."
"That space-time technique and the repulsive-force technique could both originate from his Mangekyō. Mangekyō abilities are endlessly varied—even my brother and I were never able to catalogue them all."
"And his behavior wouldn't be unusual among the Uchiha either."
"My father, Uchiha Tajima, along with many of the older clan elders, loved setting up situations that pushed clan members into extreme emotional states, creating artificial pressure to force them to awaken their Sharingan."
"If they survived the ordeal, they'd obtain power far beyond ordinary people."
"If they failed..."
"Then they simply weren't worthy of surviving."
As Izuna spoke, his expression gradually grew heavier.
Back then, he had gone to great lengths to stamp out that kind of practice.
But very few people had supported him.
Even his own brother had been the same...
He had never thought there was anything particularly excessive about it.
Most Uchiha valued power above all else, yet failed to realize that power without control wasn't true strength at all...
It was merely a disaster that invited internal strife and destruction.
"There was logic to that way of thinking, at least."
Back in the Warring States Era, weakness meant death. Compared to that, the risk of driving someone insane was considered an acceptable price to pay.
And besides, they didn't necessarily go insane.
The odds simply weren't very high.
"Second, there's also the possibility that he's an Uzumaki."
"Back then, the Uzumaki Clan was every bit as obsessed with forbidden techniques and Fūinjutsu. After watching you master the Flying Thunder God Technique, I eventually figured it out."
"At its core, it's simply a highly specialized application of Fūinjutsu. If someone had mastered Fūinjutsu to an exceptional degree and also possessed an aptitude for perceiving space-time, there'd be a fairly good chance they could either learn this technique or develop something similar."
"As for that repulsive-force technique, I haven't figured that one out yet."
"But Fūinjutsu and repulsion aren't exactly unrelated concepts either..."
Izuna sighed with emotion.
"The Warring States Era produced no shortage of madmen."
"The Uchiha were simply so flamboyant that they drew everyone's attention away from the rest."
"Take Mito's father, Uzumaki Ashina, for example. That old man was completely insane. He actually wanted to merge Fūinjutsu with the human body itself, refining countless seals into a single unified technique..."
"Wasn't that outright madness? Even he only managed to grasp a fraction of that technique himself. If you ask me, only someone with Hashirama's physique would've had any chance of mastering it—but Hashirama didn't even need it..."
Izuna continued grumbling under his breath.
Naturally, he held a grudge against the Senju.
Tobirama alone was reason enough.
But he wasn't exactly fond of the Uzumaki either.
After all, the Uzumaki and Senju Clans were practically branches of the same family. Going back a few generations, they were all relatives, and they had always been more than happy to intermarry.
"The Senju and the Uzumaki were each crazy in their own way."
It wasn't just because he still resented Mito for nearly scratching his face to pieces...
Back in his youth, Izuna had also crossed blades with Uzumaki Ashina.
The Fire Release techniques he had painstakingly refined became utterly powerless the moment they encountered the Fire Sealing Method. They fizzled out without stirring even the slightest ripple.
And his signature close-quarters fighting style became far less threatening under Uzumaki Ashina's almost prophetic sensory abilities.
The experience had left Izuna with no small amount of psychological trauma.
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