After seeing off the fourth patient whose limb had been regenerated, Uchiha Yoru finally had nothing else to do.
At the very least, no one would disturb him for the next seven days.
He could finally take care of a few matters of his own.
Two months later, Senju Tobirama opened his eyes once again.
After confirming that he had enough chakra, the first thing he did was form a hand seal and release himself from the control of the Impure World Reincarnation, obtaining complete freedom.
Only then did the Second Hokage begin moving around without restraint.
Before long, he began complaining in dissatisfaction.
"Uchiha brat, you damned brat, what's going on? Why is there so little chakra?"
"Did you use some random bandit as the sacrifice? This is far too shabby."
Uchiha Yoru looked at the Second Hokage, who had immediately made himself at home, and felt fortunate that Tobirama had never seen the White Zetsu sacrifice used for Hotaru.
Otherwise, this black-hearted old man would definitely have found some way to make Yoru use one on him.
Senju Tobirama eventually stopped complaining and asked, "Where is that Ice Release ninja from last time?"
Yoru answered, "He's still in Kirigakure."
"The Yuki clan seems to have encountered serious trouble, so I haven't been in a hurry to summon him back."
The Second Hokage nodded.
"You brat still have some conscience."
"Tell me. Why did you summon me this time?"
Uchiha Yoru took out a glowing green crystal.
"This time, I'd like you to help me analyze this—"
The instant Senju Tobirama saw the crystal, he exclaimed, "A Wood Release crystal!"
"And such a large one!"
Clearly, this was not the first time Senju Tobirama had seen one.
Yoru asked, "You've seen this kind of crystal before?"
At the same time, Tobirama asked, "Where did you get it?"
The two of them paused simultaneously.
Uchiha Yoru reacted slightly faster. He raised a hand and gestured.
"One question at a time."
Senju Tobirama nodded.
"Fine. I'll answer first."
"I have seen this kind of crystal before."
"It wasn't this large, nor was it shaped like a hexagonal prism."
"It was shaped like a teardrop."
Yoru said, "Let me make a bold guess."
"The teardrop-shaped crystal you saw condensed from the First Hokage's body, correct?"
Senju Tobirama was stunned by Uchiha Yoru's guess for quite a while before finally nodding.
"You guessed correctly."
"It condensed beneath my elder brother's skin."
He pointed at the area over his heart and added, "Right here."
"A huge lump swelled up."
"We were all terrified at the time and thought my brother had fallen seriously ill."
He then looked at Uchiha Yoru.
"That Wood Release crystal in your hand is enormous."
"Don't tell me it was also taken out of someone's body."
The crystal in Uchiha Yoru's hand was as thick as the arm of a five-year-old child and thirty-six centimeters long.
If something like that had actually grown inside a human body...
Forget growing inside them.
Even being stabbed through the body with it would kill someone.
Uchiha Yoru answered honestly, "Of course it didn't come from a person."
"I discovered an underground cavern in the Land of Hot Water."
"Deep inside the cavern was an enormous domed chamber supported by tree roots."
"This crystal was excavated from one of those roots."
Senju Tobirama frowned deeply and murmured, "Enormous tree roots and Wood Release crystals..."
"Interesting."
"This work interests me. I'll accept it."
"However, I also have a mission for you."
Uchiha Yoru had never expected the Second Hokage to assign him a mission.
He quickly asked, "What mission?"
Senju Tobirama replied, "It was actually my elder brother's request."
"He wants you to take me to see... Tsunade."
"You said she left Konoha many years ago and has never returned."
"My brother is very worried about her."
"Also, I want to know why she left the village."
Uchiha Yoru scratched his head.
"Finding Tsunade is a troublesome matter."
"She travels all over the world."
"Anywhere with a gambling house or tavern could be a place where she might appear."
"But only might."
"However, if you merely want to know why Tsunade left Konoha, I can tell you that directly."
"What was the reason?"
"What else could it have been?"
"She was heartbroken."
"Her younger brother died. Her lover died. All her relatives died."
"Worst of all, the deaths of the relatives closest to her were suspicious, yet she wasn't allowed to investigate them."
"Of course she was devastated."
The Second Hokage's expression did not change.
But his entire presence abruptly turned cold.
A fierce killing intent erupted from him like an icy gale.
The two-tailed Miwa Masayo shuddered and leaped down from Uchiha Yoru's shoulder.
She licked her lips without saying anything, then quietly padded away.
The Second Hokage's white hair fluttered slightly as he asked coldly, "Suspicious deaths?"
"Whose death was suspicious?"
"How exactly was it suspicious?"
"Uchiha brat... tell me."
Faced with Senju Tobirama's razor-sharp killing intent, Uchiha Yoru remained completely unaffected.
He replied calmly, "Fine."
"However, I can't describe every detail with certainty."
"After all, I never had the chance to witness those events personally."
"It all happened during the previous war."
"At the time, Konoha was under simultaneous attack from all four major hidden villages."
"The situation was extremely unfavorable, and the fighting was exceptionally difficult."
"Because of that, even students from the Ninja Academy graduated early and were sent to the battlefield..."
Crack—
The floor beneath Senju Tobirama's feet suddenly shattered.
The crisp sound interrupted Uchiha Yoru's explanation.
Realizing that he had lost control of himself, Tobirama drew a deep breath and gestured for Yoru to continue.
Uchiha Yoru had already expected this reaction.
The moment the details of Konoha's current situation were explained, neither of the first two Hokage would be able to accept them easily.
He had deliberately paused to give the Second Hokage a moment to recover.
Once Senju Tobirama had calmed down, Yoru continued.
"At the time, Nawaki Senju was one of those sent to reinforce the front lines."
"He had already been a genin for two years."
"He had also been assigned to his teacher Orochimaru's squad."
"His circumstances were far better than those of the other students who hadn't even reached ten years old."
"Logically speaking, nothing should have happened to him."
"However, while under Orochimaru's protection, Nawaki accidentally entered an explosive-tag trap and was killed."
"It was truly unbelievable."
Senju Tobirama knew Orochimaru.
He knew that Orochimaru was a powerful and highly knowledgeable jōnin.
An explosive-tag trap capable of escaping Orochimaru's notice could not have relied solely on exceptional craftsmanship.
The ninja who created it must have understood Orochimaru extremely well.
They had to know his habits when surveying a battlefield and arrange the trap specifically to bypass his detection.
Even then, such a trap could only remain hidden from Orochimaru at a certain distance.
There was no possibility that it could threaten Orochimaru himself.
In other words, the trap had been designed specifically to evade Orochimaru—
But its true target had been Nawaki, the child under Orochimaru's protection.
Therefore, the ninja who constructed the trap was almost certainly from Konoha.
Senju Tobirama laughed from sheer fury.
"What else?"
"Continue."
"After Nawaki's death, Tsunade proposed assigning medical-nin to every squad."
"Despite widespread opposition, she pushed the proposal forward with all her strength."
"During that process, she met Jōnin Dan Katō."
"The two quickly became lovers."
"Unfortunately, during a later mission, the jōnin squad formed by Tsunade, Dan Katō, and Jōnin Kunugi Mokume was attacked."
"Dan Katō suffered catastrophic internal injuries and died."
"It is said that Tsunade had a fierce argument with her teacher, the Third Hokage."
"Afterward, she left Konoha and never returned."
When Yoru finished, he noticed Senju Tobirama muttering continuously under his breath.
After listening carefully, he realized Tobirama was repeating the same sentence.
"The dead must not interfere with the living."
"The dead must not interfere with the living."
"The dead must not interfere with the living..."
It seemed the Second Hokage truly wanted to kill someone.
He was merely using that principle as an excuse to restrain himself.
However, Senju Tobirama was not fundamentally a good person.
Nor was he someone who cared about rules.
He was probably holding back solely for Konoha's sake.
If the Third Hokage died unexpectedly during wartime, then even with Orochimaru present, Konoha would descend into chaos.
If that chaos spread to the front lines, the village's very survival might be threatened.
In the heart of the Second Hokage, a genuine politician, personal grievances were far less important than political interests.
And the political interest he valued above all else was the continued existence of Konoha.
One could only say that the Third Hokage was truly fortunate.
The Second Hokage was not the kind of person who endlessly argued with others.
He rarely used words to persuade people.
Senju Tobirama's greatest skill was using policies and interests to restrain others.
For example, he had used the benefits of the Military Police Force to control the Uchiha clan.
He was also skilled at using a blade to make others shut their mouths.
Uchiha Izuna, who had fallen beneath the Flying Raijin Slash, was the clearest example.
If this had been peacetime, Senju Tobirama would not have hesitated.
He would have immediately stood up and gone to find Hiruzen Sarutobi to demand an explanation.
The most likely outcome would have been the entire village holding a funeral the next day, followed by the inauguration of the Fourth Hokage the day after that.
After a long while, the Second Hokage finally said slowly, "Uchiha Yoru."
"My emotions are unsettled right now."
"I cannot work for the time being."
"Take me to find Tsunade first."
"I can clear my head along the way."
Naturally, Uchiha Yoru agreed without hesitation.
He found Miwa Masayo and asked her to notify Yaeko, then pass a message to Uchiha Shisui that training would be suspended the next morning.
Afterward, Uchiha Yoru left Konoha together with Miwa Masayo and Senju Tobirama, slipping through one of the flaws in the village barrier.
As they passed through the barrier, Senju Tobirama became angry again.
He told Uchiha Yoru that, as long as the system had been properly maintained, a flaw like this should not have appeared even after twenty years.
Yoru asked curiously, "Second Hokage, as far as I know, Konoha has a dedicated Barrier Team."
"Did something go seriously wrong with their maintenance?"
After briefly inspecting the barrier, Senju Tobirama shook his head.
"This isn't a maintenance problem."
"Someone altered the barrier and deliberately opened this gap."
"This was intentional sabotage."
Uchiha Yoru immediately understood.
It was Root.
As the branch of the Third Hokage's faction responsible for handling matters in the darkness, Root could not guarantee that every mission outside the village would proceed according to plan.
When urgent missions appeared, there would be no time to request a disguised mission assignment.
They needed a secret passage like this.
Shimura Danzō was especially ambitious.
He required routes that allowed him to bypass the Third Hokage's surveillance.
Using the authority granted to him by the Third Hokage to open a few additional passages was hardly surprising.
The person who actually carried out the work was most likely Orochimaru, the most knowledgeable among them.
And out of habit, Orochimaru would have opened several additional routes for his own use.
After gaining practical experience, Shimura Danzō's Root also mastered the technique and created many more holes on its own.
The Third Hokage, Shimura Danzō, and Orochimaru all knew that the barrier contained openings.
But none of them knew exactly how many there were.
Without realizing it, Konoha's upper ranks had punctured the village barrier full of holes for their own convenience, reducing it to its current state.
The barrier had originally been designed to permit only a single opening at the village gate.
Now it had been damaged so badly that it was nearly on the verge of collapse.
That was why Konoha had been forced to establish a dedicated Barrier Team.
Only through increasingly intensive maintenance could they keep the barrier functioning at all.
Twenty years had passed.
Konoha had grown several times more prosperous.
Yet the number of accumulated problems was even more alarming.
Senju Tobirama was the Second Hokage.
Among the three Hokage, he understood politics best.
He also understood Konoha better than anyone.
Nearly every village institution and most of its functional departments had been personally designed by him.
From only a few scattered details, Senju Tobirama could already estimate Konoha's overall condition with considerable accuracy.
After thinking for more than ten minutes, he asked, "Uchiha brat."
"How many people are currently in the ANBU?"
Uchiha Yoru looked at him in surprise, then answered helplessly, "Lord Second Hokage, the number of ANBU personnel is classified information."
"As a member of the Uchiha clan—a clan specifically guarded against by the village—there is absolutely no possibility that I would know."
Senju Tobirama snorted coldly.
"Nonsense."
"If I asked you, it's because I'm certain you know."
"Of course I know the Uchiha clan is being targeted."
"But precisely because the ANBU watches you more closely than anyone else, your clan should also understand the ANBU better than anyone else."
Uchiha Yoru replied helplessly, "Second Hokage, you think too highly of the Uchiha clan."
"Our clan head and elders don't even know—"
Senju Tobirama interrupted impatiently, "Of course I know they don't know."
"But I also know that you definitely do."
Uchiha Yoru: "..."
Senju Tobirama's black eyes were as sharp as blades.
His stare made Uchiha Yoru uncomfortable all over.
In the end, Yoru could only lower his head and admit it.
"Fine."
"I do know."
"The ANBU currently has between five hundred and fifty and six hundred and fifty members."
"They are deployed across every battlefield and throughout the Land of Fire, carrying out dangerous intelligence-gathering and assassination missions."
"The exact number changes every day, but it generally remains within that range."
Senju Tobirama murmured, "A ninefold increase?"
"In other words, Hiruzen's prestige is less than one-tenth of mine."
"How did he manage to perform this poorly?"
Uchiha Yoru curled his lips.
"That isn't even all of it."
"There is another organization in the village called Root, established by Shimura Danzō."
"Nominally, it belongs to the ANBU."
"In reality, it was his private army."
Senju Tobirama asked in confusion, "Root?"
"Danzō's private army?"
"Why do you say that?"
Yoru answered, "Because of its organizational structure."
"Root members were not selected from among Konoha's active ninja."
"They were recruited as children from orphanages and shinobi clans, along with orphans brought in from outside."
"After undergoing strict brainwashing, they became perfect tools that obeyed only Danzō's commands."
Senju Tobirama flew into a rage.
"Shimura Danzō was establishing a village within the village!"
"What was he trying to do?"
"Was he planning a rebellion?"
Uchiha Yoru spread both hands.
"I wouldn't know."
"He's already dead."
"A Wood Release ninja killed him."
"Root also suffered a devastating blow."
Senju Tobirama froze.
Then he looked at Uchiha Yoru.
"A Wood Release ninja killed Danzō?"
Uchiha Yoru met Senju Tobirama's gaze without the slightest fear.
"Yes."
"Inside Root's secret Wood Release human experimentation laboratory, Danzō was killed by Wood Release ninjutsu."
"Dozens of researchers and more than two hundred Root ninja were killed at the same time."
After hearing this, Senju Tobirama silently withdrew his gaze.
He said bitterly, "Wood Release human experimentation..."
"They were probably live experiments as well."
"Danzō deserved to die."
The two men and one cat stopped speaking.
They continued traveling in silence.
A long time later, the Second Hokage suddenly muttered in a low voice, "Good riddance."
After that, he said nothing more.
Among all the people who had lived in the shinobi world during the past fifty years, Senju Tobirama undoubtedly stood at the peak of intelligence.
Even Orochimaru only surpassed him in scientific research.
In every other area, Orochimaru was clearly inferior by a considerable margin.
Today, Tobirama had seen the Wood Release crystal Uchiha Yoru produced.
He had also heard Yoru's account, which had made no deliberate effort to conceal the truth.
Naturally, he could determine who had truly killed Shimura Danzō.
After careful consideration, Senju Tobirama discovered that he had no reason to claim Uchiha Yoru had been wrong.
Although he could not understand why Hiruzen Sarutobi had indulged Shimura Danzō, there was no doubt that Danzō's actions had inflicted tremendous harm upon Konoha.
They amounted to a complete betrayal of the village.
In Tobirama's eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi's tolerance of Danzō was therefore incompetence.
He could not even rule out the possibility that the Third Hokage had used his position for personal gain.
Since Shimura Danzō's guilt was beyond doubt, Uchiha Yoru had been correct to eliminate him.
Senju Tobirama did not consider the issue of improper procedure.
Nor did he dwell on the fact that executing Danzō should have been the Hokage's authority.
After all, Hiruzen Sarutobi had indulged Danzō for nearly twenty years.
That was equivalent to abandoning his authority.
After thinking for a long time, Tobirama had no choice but to admit that Uchiha Yoru killing Danzō despite his lower position had been the best possible outcome for Konoha.
That was why Senju Tobirama quietly said, "Good riddance."
He was indicating that he knew Uchiha Yoru had done it—
And that he was willing to endorse Yoru's decision to eliminate Danzō.
Naturally, Uchiha Yoru smiled faintly when he heard those words.
In the future, the leading researcher of his Immortal Path Research Institute could only be Senju Tobirama, the master of forbidden techniques.
The Ice Release ninja Hotaru was also quite capable.
But no matter how one looked at it, he could not compare to the Second Hokage.
After all, Tobirama had developed an entire scroll filled with forbidden techniques.
Senju Tobirama's ability to develop techniques without being restrained by any rules was simply too important for Immortal Path research, which sought to explore the unknown.
Since Uchiha Yoru intended to use Senju Tobirama as the main force behind his research and development, he naturally needed to resolve Tobirama's emotional concerns.
He had to prevent the man from feeling dissatisfied and merely going through the motions without putting in real effort.
After all, when it came to research and development, there was no effective way to determine whether a researcher was truly working hard.
Everything depended on the researcher's own sense of responsibility.
Of course, according to Uchiha Yoru's plan, there were still several steps remaining before he could completely win over Senju Tobirama.
The most urgent task was to find Tsunade first.
He needed to complete the mission entrusted to him by the First Hokage and calm the Second Hokage's agitated heart.
After that, he would find an opportunity to recommend Uchiha Shisui to a calm and composed Senju Tobirama.
Shisui was the grandson of Uchiha Kagami, the disciple Tobirama regretted losing the most.
At the very least, Tobirama would not reject him outright.
As long as the two established a close relationship, everything that followed would proceed without any problems.
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